Adversity
It seems now that a great many of my friends on my flist are having some extreme difficulties in life...physical attacks against family members, verbal attacks on their LJ, lost love, depression, adversity. (Additionally, there is the shocking news from Atlanta of the death of professional wrestler Chris Benoit and his family, which fans are struggling to make sense of.) I have prayed for all of you, and I wish I could fix everything with my hands, but I know that things really don't work like that.
The recent win for the United States in the Gold Cup* was shocking in a completely different and much more joyful way, thanks to the timely and amazing strike of Benny Feilhaber, a brand new player for the U.S. Feilhaber is an Austrian Jew who was born in Rio de Janeiro, and came to the U.S. (of course, with a background like that) at the age of six; the tattoo on his arm says "Per ardua ad astra" - "Through adversity to the stars". I can only hope that everyone will reach the stars through their current bouts of adversity as well.
I have a much less serious bout of adversity of my own - perhaps that would be a scuffle of adversity? The job is fairly annoying; it's a govvie office in the sense that those in charge do not seem to be interested in actually solving problems, but rather keeping up appearances of doing so. (And appearances are reality, right? Anyone want to guess why I grind my teeth to powder at that misbegotten phrase? What idiocy.) I'm trying to hold things together for the short term, since that's really all I have to do.
I'm still - still! - waffling about LJ and re-upping with them. I don't like them much, but all of my friends are here, and not being a paying customer means that unfortunately I can't post a poll. However, muzikmaker21 and I got into a "oh, yeah?" argument on the premise that men can't play roller derby. (He'd brought up that apparently fiveseconddelay is very graceful on roller skates, and as he's also a fairly athletic guy, I suggested he might wish to look into the sport, particularly as the Harm City Homicides were recruiting at the recent women's bout - that's what they call them - we attended. And muzikmaker21 squawked like he was stuck with a fork!) If someone wants to put up the poll, that's cool; I'll point to it and show everyone exactly how very wrong muzikmaker21 is.
* As well, I understand this might have been the last international match ever for Jared Borghetti, the Mexican striker. He was unfortunately subbed out early after coming down very wrong on his right foot, and I hope he doesn't carry any lasting injuries into his retirement. Any time you beat a team with Borghetti on it, you've made a great accomplishment; he's one of the best and I hope all American fans will remember him that way.
The recent win for the United States in the Gold Cup* was shocking in a completely different and much more joyful way, thanks to the timely and amazing strike of Benny Feilhaber, a brand new player for the U.S. Feilhaber is an Austrian Jew who was born in Rio de Janeiro, and came to the U.S. (of course, with a background like that) at the age of six; the tattoo on his arm says "Per ardua ad astra" - "Through adversity to the stars". I can only hope that everyone will reach the stars through their current bouts of adversity as well.
I have a much less serious bout of adversity of my own - perhaps that would be a scuffle of adversity? The job is fairly annoying; it's a govvie office in the sense that those in charge do not seem to be interested in actually solving problems, but rather keeping up appearances of doing so. (And appearances are reality, right? Anyone want to guess why I grind my teeth to powder at that misbegotten phrase? What idiocy.) I'm trying to hold things together for the short term, since that's really all I have to do.
I'm still - still! - waffling about LJ and re-upping with them. I don't like them much, but all of my friends are here, and not being a paying customer means that unfortunately I can't post a poll. However, muzikmaker21 and I got into a "oh, yeah?" argument on the premise that men can't play roller derby. (He'd brought up that apparently fiveseconddelay is very graceful on roller skates, and as he's also a fairly athletic guy, I suggested he might wish to look into the sport, particularly as the Harm City Homicides were recruiting at the recent women's bout - that's what they call them - we attended. And muzikmaker21 squawked like he was stuck with a fork!) If someone wants to put up the poll, that's cool; I'll point to it and show everyone exactly how very wrong muzikmaker21 is.
* As well, I understand this might have been the last international match ever for Jared Borghetti, the Mexican striker. He was unfortunately subbed out early after coming down very wrong on his right foot, and I hope he doesn't carry any lasting injuries into his retirement. Any time you beat a team with Borghetti on it, you've made a great accomplishment; he's one of the best and I hope all American fans will remember him that way.