And Now to Write

                In high school, I took summer classes every year.   One summer, I took creative writing.   A week ago, I stumbled upon the journal I kept for that class.   I don’t remember what the majority of prompts were, so that makes some of the entries really interesting.   Here’s a line from one of them: “When you tiptoe through the Valley of Happiness, you might find panda bears playing ‘Streetcorner Symphony’ on banjos."                                                          Imagine being the teacher reading a series of 25 sentences like this one, multiplied by however many of us were taking that class at the time.   N ot all of the things I wrote were that strange, though.  My first entry was a reflection on the concept of time.  Time is something I find entertaining to think about.  It’s both concrete and abstract.  There are the seasons and the rising and setting of the sun, but also clocks and calendars.  Before I dive into it all right here and now

This is the shirt. And yes, I have troubles knowing how to pose for photos. Back in high school, I went on mission trips with a group of teens from my parish.  Every Workcamp, we got a t-shirt with the week's theme on it.  I have developed quite the collection: Undeserved, Connect, Made, and What Do You Stand For.  The last one has resulted in the most attention.  Walking around in public with "What Do You Stand For?" in big letters across my chest often prompts people to ask me that very question. Starting from when I was 17 years old, I have been working on an answer.  I knew responding with "oh, that was just the theme from a mission trip I went on" was not good enough.  It didn't actually answer the question.  Sometimes, people would respond with their own answers.  This happened if a little kid or someone with Downs Syndrome asked or were nearby.  They would say something to the tune of "puppies!" or "homeless kittens!"