"There are 350 varieties of shark, not counting loan and pool." - L.M. Boyd

Errata: Last night's post included the suffix praxis. In that context it should have been praxy.

And Steve's comment to that post pointed out that a lot of people file a 1040EZ and don't itemize, so for them a $25k blanket deduction (or whatever it turned out to be) could be a significant increase over the standard deduction. It's been so long since I filed an EZ that I have no idea what that standard deduction is, but point taken.

My personal favorite:

Our culture is increasingly focused on numbers, on quantifying things. The presidential race gives us poll numbers daily, we get economic data and sports statistics, today's high temp will be....
We then use those numbers to evaluate present or future value.
Quantity determines quality.

The problem: not all things can or should be evaluated based on their numbers. A really good movie might not do well at the box office while an inane flick with a vapid actress turns into a blockbuster.  The team's most valuable player might not have the best stats, but he keeps the locker room motivated and unified, and is recognized by the whole team as their valued leader. The student with the highest GPA turns out to be a self-absorbed and arrogant snot, while the middling classmate models compassion, humility, and a strong work ethic.

I wish I could wash this quantity = quality formula out of my head. I watch my bike's computer to see if I'm keeping my speed up, and when I get home I decide if it was a good or weak ride based on my average speed. How many tasks did I get done today? I just finished ____ pages in my current read.

I have a site I can access that gives stats for Pathway's web site - how many total hits, hits per page, bandwidth, time on each page, etc. I went to that site as part of my prep for tonight's elder meeting and immediately found myself thinking in terms of good/bad, success/failure, based on those stats.

Since when is God's work effective based on higher numbers?!
If quantity determines quality the OT prophets were miserable failures.

After just a few minutes on that stat site I was reminded why I don't graph, or even record attendance numbers at Pathway. Impact is not quantifiable. If we're making a difference in lives we're doing his work, and numbers, up or down, are all but irrelevant.

So I left that stat site, gave myself a dope slap, had a third cup of coffee and got to work on the day's to-do list.