“New year—a new chapter, new verse, or just the same old story? Ultimately we write it. The choice is ours.” —Alex Morritt

I have often said I hit the ground running or I'm off and running. However, these days the running part is definitely a misappropriated exaggeration. Therefore, it is best to say I am off, period, on this Thursday, January 2, 2020. I'll let you fill in your ideas about me being 'off' but keep them to yourself since I am trying to resolve my turning the page resolutions for the brand new year. (Not so much, just playing around with some wordplay regarding resolutions.) Most people write very few checks these days so writing the wrong date which used to plague us all is no longer an issue. In addition, they no longer even check the date, or, that's what I have been told. It seems the use of postdated checks has pretty much gone the way of the Dodo. (One exception may be when one is deposited via an ATM since date validation is still done.)  I was going to use the common metaphor buffalo but they estimate there are today at least a half-million of them grazing on the plains, and, the Dodo was on the top of the list of extinct animals. Now you know things you have little use for in your pursuit of this brand new year.

Just for grins, I will share with you some recognized useless facts. Reading these can be hazardous to having a productive day. You have been warned. ~ The King of Hearts is the only king in a deck of cards without a mustache. ~ The word 'dreamt' is the only word in the English language that ends in mt. ~ No number from 1 to 999 includes the letter "a" in its word form. ~ The average adult spends more time on the toilet than they do exercising. ~ Cats are unable to taste sweet because of a genetic defect. ~  Tesseradecades, aftercataracts, and sweaterdresses are the longest words you can type using only your left hand. ~ Montpelier, Vermont, is the only U.S. capital without a McDonald's. ~ Pound cake was named based on the weight of its ingredients. ~ Messages from your brain travel along your nerves at up to 200 miles per hour. ~ Apple seeds contain cyanide. ~ Mulan has the highest kill-count of any Disney character. ~ A Greek-Canadian man invented the "Hawaiian" pizza. ~ A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time—but you'll absolutely never use it. (Just so you know, it was tagged to represent the amount of time it takes light to travel one centimeter in a vacuum, which is about 33.4 picoseconds or one trillionth of a second. ) ~ Dr. Seuss invented the word 'nerd'. ~ There are dozens more I could share, but, I will leave you with just one more for the day: You are 13.8 percent more likely to die on your birthday. Happy Birthday?

A couple of things before I go. When we visited the special needs students at an intermediate school, one young man made an impression on me. He was constantly moving and he had sound suppression earphones on. When he came up to me, he stopped, and, then he put his hands on my face and felt of my cheeks and my beard. He did that more than once. I'm not sure but I think it was his way of communicating affection. Speaking of affection, we have never been showered with more love than when we did the photo event for the Houston Down Syndrome Association. Many of those dealing with this form of intellectual disability have varied functional issues, but, they do know how to love. Freely. Joyfully. With intensity and excitement. Sure, it was heartwarming to be the recipients of all this affection, however, it also was, for me, a point of conviction as I considered our challenge to love others in the same way Jesus loved. I don't know about you, but, I could take lessons from those down syndrome folks of all ages to help me in my response to others. Something for us all to think about. Amen. ....More later.