"A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled." - Sir Barnett Cocks

Ah, Mondays. Potato chip bag dropped in the sink, Sun City drivers, frozen bolts....

On Mondays I want one of these:
40mm machine gun
It might come in handy some Tuesdays, too.

Tens of thousands of Spaniards are demonstrating in the streets just days after throwing out the ruling party. The motivation is a combination of a youth unemployment rate of 43% and the govt.'s newly instituted austerity measures. I don't know anything about Spanish politics or their economy but I find it interesting that high unemployment and whatever is the opposite of "austerity measures" coincided. And it's telling that even with that unemployment rate they resist a reduction in government services. (It was the leftists who were just drummed out of office.)

If the government gives a man a fish he'll eat for a day and then riot if you even consider not giving him another fish tomorrow.

I'm OK with dying. If a dr. told me tomorrow that I had a type of cancer with a very short life expectancy and an inevitable outcome I'd worry about "getting things in order" but not at all about what comes after that. I'm more than ready whenever He says, "It's time," but only because I have absolute certainty about what comes next for me. And that based on Christ's work on the cross on my behalf, not at all because of anything I've done or am.

Today I talked to a man who is 89 years old and going to his cardiologist tomorrow. If I understand correctly he has a bad valve and stents that have failed. The dr. is ready to do the surgery but told him the anesthesiologist may not agree to it. "If I die on the table he doesn't want that on his record."
(It made me think about a pitcher who worries about his stats.)

He said he'd rather die on the table because he'd never know what happened as opposed to dying slowly in pain because his heart gradually failed. But he's totally OK with dying. He has prepaid for his cremation, he's had a good life, and doesn't have anything else he needs or wants to accomplish. (Apparently he's never taken on the restoration of a '62 Beetle.) Given the choice he'd go quickly and easily but he seemed to have no reservations about dying.

I don't think his apparent lack of anxiety comes from any spiritual commitments, at least if his language is any indication. Which made me wonder why he's that unconcerned with his eternal destiny. In the context of our discussion (a busy shop with regular interruptions) I couldn't ask him about it but how could someone at that age and in that condition not be anxious?

Depending on what his dr. tells him tomorrow I may see him again on Wed. or Thurs. If it works I'm going to ask. Hey, maybe he's been told that because he did X or Y or Z he's got nothing to worry about. He mentioned he'd been in the SeaBees for years, so maybe he has placed his faith in Christ and just learned to talk like a sailor.

After our conversation I ran some errands and thought how thankful I am for the assurance of my salvation in this life and in the life to come.