Proverbs Experiment: Day Twenty-Two

Proverbs Chapter Twenty-Two:

Choose a good reputation over great riches, for being held in high esteem is better than having silver or gold. (vs. 1)

Or you can have it both - right Bill Gates? Well, I don't really respect his products, but I do respect the fact that he and his wife are now the biggest philanthropists to ever grace this planet.

I think I could do a good job of balancing both as well, so umm...God? What do you think?

The deceitful walk a thorny, treacherous road; whoever values life will stay away. (vs. 5)

I've noticed in my own life, that deceit is exactly as described above. Your life becomes wayyy too complicated. For example: you lie to someone about something. It may start out as something small. But then, you have to lie to cover up that lie. And then lie again about something else that's related to that lie. Pretty soon, you have to almost have this huge diagram or chart system of all the lies you've told so that you know what you've said to whom and what you haven't said to whom, and it's a lot of hard work.

Or you can just be honest. And there's a lot less to remember. Which means a lot more brain power towards good things.

A youngster's heart is filled with foolishness, but discipline will drive it away. (vs. 15)

The other day, one of my "facebook friends" - a woman who I vaguely remember from high school who remembers me way more - posted some pictures of some guys and girls who graduated with me from high school getting back together for a fun night in downtown Denver. I was looking at these pictures, and there were a couple of people I vaguely remembered by name only. And then there were a couple of people who kind of looked similar to what they looked like in high school. And then there were a bunch whose names I didn't recognize and whose faces didn't look familiar. So then I started wondering if maybe I was actually plugged into a Matrix, where I vaguely had these memories but really I was in some nasty goo with a weird contraption plugged into the back of my head. Or maybe I was really a replicant robot who was pursued by Harrison Ford and I had all these memories of my childhood, but they were really just fake memories.

And then I realized that I'm a lot older than when I graduated from high school - twenty years next year older - and that the reason I don't remember some of the people in the pictures is because a lot of stuff has happened since then. And the reason I don't recognize some of the people in the pictures is that they've gained some weight or lost some hair or gained some wrinkles. Because it's been almost twenty years. And then I started thinking about myself and I wondered if I looked twenty years older. My wife told me that we all think we look younger than we really are. But I've been told pretty much ever since I got out of high school that I look a lot younger than my age.

When I see this verse, how it talks about a youngster's heart, I wonder "When is that age officially over?" I mean, I do a lot of adult things: I pay a mortgage and I have a child and if something breaks down I fix it (okay, not really) and most of the time I have a job and make money, but not right now. But then I do some non-adult things: I still read Terry Brooks books and I play my X-Box and I dream big dreams and I say silly things to my cat and I let little things bother me and I struggle with self-esteem and basically sometimes I act like a seventh grader.

When are you no longer young? When are you supposed to stop being foolish? At what point should you stop dreaming dreams and stop thinking of lofty goals and just accept the fact that you're old and past all of that and maybe if you would have been more responsible earlier on those dreams would be realized?

Weird thoughts.