"Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearance conly." - Samuel Butler

Things you can't teach:

• Musical pitch
• Athleticism
• Spatial awareness & relationships
• Empathy
• Curiosity

Others?

This sounds weird, but...

I've become aware recently how truly non-normal my feet look. Yeah, they've been funny looking my entire life. But all of us tend to view our normal as everyone's normal, so we're often not as aware of our weirdnesses as others.

I have webbed toes. So look at your toes and imagine a set being half as long because the skin & flesh between them goes much further toward the ends. Super stubby.

Then there's the part where I don't have any toenail on my left big toe. The podiatrist did a permanent removal (you don't want to know how) about two years ago when I got a bad infection under the nail. He said the Rx doesn't really work, is super expensive, and "if it was me...." He said it wasn't a good cosmetic solution but it was the best medical fix. OK, at that point I was already at the end of my mid-60s and any notion of good body cosmetics disappeared long ago. So, really stubby toes and a funky looking toe on my left foot are my reality. 

The good news: I get 10% off on a pedicure. (No, I've never had one and never will. But if I did...the person would probably either laugh out loud or recoil in horror.)

Why do I bother saying this?

Because someone mocked me (not seriously) for a Brazil pic that showed me at the beach in Recife sitting in the shade of an umbrella with my running shoes on. 

That was a pic of an old man who's had melanoma three times with really ugly feet. Trust me, nobody wants to see those things.

And somewhere in all of that is an illustration in search of a sermon. 

It also says something about what we consider normal. I think many (most?) of us assume others are like us. I just assumed everybody had stubby toes. For a long time I was surprised how many people had really bizarre LOOOONG toes. Ooops. 

At some point we begin to discover we're not all that normal. 

The question is not if a church has bad stuff happen, but how it deals with it when it does happen. Brett made an announcement this morning about an issue involving a senior staff member that demonstrates UFC's commitment to biblical standards and behavior, both for the individual leaders and the church body. 

It ain't always fun, but finding a way around transparent confrontation is to find a way around God's blessing. 

We've got good elders. 

This afternoon I wet sanded the left front fender and decided it wasn't as good as it could be or as I wanted it. So I broke out the paint and painting stuff and put another coat on it. I'm not sure it will dry to the level I want but I think another round of wet sanding will do the trick. I also used a foam brush to paint the door jambs and thresholds and they now look a ton better. 

I'm planning on driving Sally to church next Sunday. Yessir!