So far, I have one entry on my newly made bucket list. Hiking up Cucamonga peak. Or maybe it could be more aptly called a list of seemingly impossible dreams. After all, I can’t hike. I can walk for one and a half miles, as long as it is dead level. But 12 miles and 4000’ of elevation change–well it seems impossible. So maybe it isn’t actually a bucket list. Maybe it is just a list of impossible dreams. Plus, it isn’t even a list, to have a list is to have more than one thing. So, I’m adding one more, so the list is legitimate. I am adding this: writing a commentary on the bible. I am not sure if I am adding to it a bucket list or a list of impossible dreams? You decide.
I have thought about writing a book, but never seriously. And some of my friends have told me I should write a book. So, there is that. But a commentary on the bible, wow, that is pretty hardcore. Anyways, now it’s on paper. It is on a list.
This is how it happened, a couple days ago this idea just jumped into my head out of nowhere: I want to write a commentary of the bible. It showed up out of the blue, and there it remained. I couldn’t shake it loose. That is why it ended up on the list.
Your mind is an amazing thing. For example, where do ideas come from? Here’s my take, sometimes they are from God, that is one way that God speaks. So, when ideas show up out of the blue, I pay attention to them. Of course, a lot of ideas are not from God as well. But that the idea showed up unannounced is something to think about.
So, is this an impossible dream? The last post I did, 1000 words about growing up around motorcycles, was something I worked really hard on. Trying to convey a feeling in the readers, at least the ones who liked motorcycles. I don’t know if it worked. But boy did I work on that, a couple of hours a day for two weeks. Two weeks for two pages of writing. Seeing, I guess, if I can still write well. But to do that for a book, man, I don’t know. Writing one page is not the same thing as writing a book, just like walking one mile is not the same as hiking up a mountain. Seems impossible. But it is on the list.
I am reading an interesting book by Dr. Amen. Brain health is his thing. It is a book about happiness, how our brains can hinder or help us live happy lives. The chapter I was reading was “anchoring happiness into your nervous system”, I know, it sounds pretty dry. But he presented some practical and profound ideas about ways we can change how we think about our lives.
One thing he mentioned intrigued me, it was something I have never thought of. “Give your mind a name: psychological self-distancing”. He was talking about something called psychological distance. A way to distance ourselves from the clutter in our minds. I am more than just my brain. I can pick and choose which thoughts that I want to keep or discard. Often people are trapped by their thoughts, things like, you’re a victim, no one likes you, you aren’t good at anything. All of that resides in our brains. And he suggested that we call our brains a name as a way to distance ourselves from our negative thoughts that live there.
I want to introduce someone to you. His name is Armsley. And he is my brain.
I am not sure how far I want to pursue that thought. We will see. I don’t feel trapped by my thoughts, I’m not a victim, my self-esteem is intact. In general, I like my brain. But on the other hand, where do these thoughts come from? Things like, it is just a list of impossible dreams, the rest of my life is going to be like this, I am disabled. Thoughts like that. I don’t want to be trapped by my thoughts. So Armsley and I are going to talk.
There is the certainty of rational thought, but there is also hope. I don’t want my brain to trample out hope. Because Armsley can do that, if I let him.
It occurs to me that commenting about the Bible is what I do. Back in the days when I could write well, talking about politics, construction, life in general. I would usually end up commenting about the Bible. Relating it to what is going down in our world, in our country, in my life. It is what I did back then, it’s what I still do today, I guess it is who I am. I may not be a writer, but I am a bible commentator. So, it is going on the list, yeah that one.
The bucket list.
