Interior

It is not a question

of making a deal and guessing

which door the prize lies behind;

it is a question of choosing

which door to open first, which path

to follow, which future to select,

the choice to be made in a split sliver

of time, and once decided, once the door

is opened and walked through,

the possibility of return is non-existent,

even if the door remains open, even if

backward steps can be taken.

Or it is a question of choosing

which room to clean first, which interior

to dust and sweep and mop and wash and

scour. Or it is a question of waiting until

a door is opened. Perhaps the questions are

the same.

Painting: Interior by Vilhelm Hammershoi (1899), National Gallery of Art, London.

Decisions, Decisions

Somebody must have said this sometime: “Life is always a curveball.”

Tony Dungy, head coach for the Super Bowl-winning Indianapolis Colts, wrote in his book “Uncommon” that you don’t let the bad things that happen to you define who you are as a person. I’d add to that a corollary – don’t let the good things that happen to you define who you are as a person, either. Rather, it’s your responses to both the bad and the good that defines who you are as a person.

I’ve reached that stage in life where I understand that the bad things that happen are actually and ultimately good things in disguise, even though they look bad at the outset. (Some bad things, of course, are always bad – family illness or tragedy, for example. But good can come even of those situations, too.)

So my current struggle is one I’ve experienced before. It’s odd how things in life can be circular, like you need to periodically relearn some lessons. I don’t think I have to relearn anything as much as apply what I learned before. That’s hard enough.

In the middle of all of this, a good friend sent me this, a 10-year-old sermon from the pastor at First Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia. It’s about making tough decisions, and it’s good. And more than good -- it was really helpful.

By the way, thanks to so many who read the poem I posted on Monday – I had all kinds of nice words in emails, in person and on Twitter and Facebook. It was a great encouragement to get them.