Day of 9's

Today is 9-9-9... it's currently 9am, so I thought I'd read some wisdom from the 9th chapter of Proverbs. The 9th verse smacked my face, and really was unsettling in many ways.

Save your breath for the wise—they'll be wiser for it;
tell good people what you know—they'll profit from it.

That seems to make no sense at first glance. You can read that this way. Don't waste your time with fools, just talk to people who are wise. Shouldn't someone who is wise talk to someone who is struggling? How would the fool ever find help if all the wise people shunned him like, well... a fool?

After I took a breath... I got it.

My dad used to say "Son, there are two types of people. Some listen and learn, others live and learn. Which will you be?"

Meaning that some people can talk to someone and learn something and stay away from a bunch of guilt and regret in life. Other people say "yeah, whatever" and have to live, build up guilt and regret and then they'll look back and know what they "should" have done. That person is a fool.

So, it's not about not saying anything to someone who acts like a fool, and not trying to help. But, it is realizing that some people some times... just need to live and learn, and at the end of that road they will look back and say "OHHHH, that's what they meant." "Stupid"

My Love Affair...

I love words... a single well placed word can say so much. I honestly feel sorry for people that feel like they need to fill every open hole in their sentences with an expletive. It's as if the language part of their brain never developed past that of an infant.

I digress...

This started with me as a child... loving to read, loving to be read to. From there it developed more and more into my late childhood to early teens. I can remember a specific instance where I realized I liked words more than most. I was 11 years old and I had just purchased a new bike with money I had saved from my paper route. It was a bright blue Dyno D-Tour with white tires.


I had picked it special from the bike shop and saved for about a year. I can remember riding it the first time in my neighborhood over to my friends house. As I was doing a brake stall at his front door while talking I was explaining to my friend how fast my new bike was. I said "It's as fast as the proverbial wind." My friend looked at me with a face that said "WHAAAA?"

Granted I didn't use that word exactly right. I guess the wind is infamous in it's own way, but the love affair began there. I actually began reading the dictionary. Words were fascinating to me. I even started trying to use a new word a day in a conversation. I'm a freak I realize, but I was in love.

So, if I ever use a big word... I'm not trying to look smarter than I really am. I'm just a kid in love.