I knew it! There are still decent people in the world!

I had an interesting thing happen today. Some people reading this already know that the place I work is being remodeled into another company that appears to have no further need for me. Today at work I had a little elderly woman ask me, "Are you switching over to the other company?" I said, "Probably not. I don't think they will be keeping a lot of the full time people." She seemed genuinely bothered by this. "Well," she said, "I wish you good luck." I replied, "Don't worry about me. I'll figure something out. God is good!" This is where the exchange got interesting. She tells me, "Well, I'm an atheist. I don't think He's bad, I just don't think He's there!" We both had a little laugh over that. It would have been fine to leave it there, but then she really surprised me. She looked me in the eye and said, "But I hope He has a good thought for you."

The point here is this. I will never make any apology for believing the way I do. I wear my faith like a badge. The world is full of people who choose to be "offended" by it and go so far as to try to eliminate it from every place imaginable. There are numerous people who look for reasons to hate someone else. "You're Pro-Life? I hate you!" You're Pro-Choice? You're a murderer!" "You voted R instead of D? You're an idiot!" It's madness!! This woman could have chosen to be one of those people. Heck, for that matter I could have chosen to be one of those people. But the amazing part is that neither of us did. We couldn't have been any more different spiritually. But in that moment, two people chose to accept each other, and even more than that, to support each others' respective beliefs. That's the America I remember. Where the heck has it been?

A little slice of self discovery

All of my life I have been fascinated with superheroes. I'm still a bit of a comic nerd, but when I was a kid my thoughts were always consumed by heroic adventures of superhuman paragons of justice. I always wanted to emulate some of the same personality traits of my favorite heroes. Courage, it seemed, I had in spades, especially when it came to acrobatics and athleticism. I was doing free running and Parkour moves before they had a name. I was constantly putting myself in foolish situations just to prove to myself I could get out of them. (As a side note, it is possible for a human to outrun a dog. Don't ask.) Stealth I had. Even now I can get the drop on just about anyone, sometimes without even meaning to. Martial arts have been a mainstay with me in one form or another for many years. But I was always haunted by one thing in particular; my lack of overt aggression.

This is where I most envied Wolverine. One of his most famous quotes is this; "I'm the best there is at what I do. And what I do isn't very nice." Numerous times in my childhood I found myself in situations where it would have been so gratifying just to ball up my fist and break a jaw or two. There were times when it would have made so much sense. Times when I was ridiculed for not doing so. Nothing could be done about it. I simply did not have the killer instinct that many of my animated role models seemed to possess. I counted it as a character flaw.

But recently I had a realization after a trip to the local shooting range. While I was firing, trying to hit my target, I was visualizing an enemy. I always do. It helps my focus. But this time I paid close attention to my attitude about what I was firing at. I realized that I wasn't thinking about killing my target. Oh, I wanted to be precise with my shots. Indeed my clustering was tight and quite accurate. Many rounds actually landed in roughly the same spot, if not exactly the same, tearing a hole in the paper target about the size of a newborn's fist. But I was visualizing, not the heart, but the shoulder. The elbow. The knee. More of the same character flaw?

I realize now, no. It's not. This realization helped me define myself a little more clearly. I don't have the killer instinct because, simply put, I'm not a killer. How could that possibly be a weakness? I have proven many times in my life that I have the ability to make quick decisions. But those decisions lead to an outcome where everyone goes home, and no one to the morgue. I have the ability to be lethal if it becomes necessary. I know that without question. However, that is not who I am. I follow the path of knighthood, not the path of the mercenary.

I am a Crusader for peace. A Protector of life. Got a problem with that?