A Thousand Thoughts

Ha! Maybe more like two:

I haven't been blogging much. I blame my work blog handyandrew.ca. However, occasionally during my frantic race to make and fix things, I have the Odd Thought.

1. Money:
At one time I used to compartmentalize money in my head by Quarters. I think when I was five I might have got a quarter for my allowance? And I would save up my quarters to buy things. Later it moved to dollars, and by high school I would think in terms of tens (6 tens to pay for internet for 3 months, I think it was...mowing lawns was 1.5 tens for two hours of hard labour). Once entrenched in the working world I graduated to hundreds: about a hundred dollars for a day's work, or $500 for a month of part-time youth pastoring...$300 to fix my car... And now...I think in Thousands. A thousand for rent...a thousand to pay the month's Visa bill...2000 to 4000 income per month depending on how I bill...

I suppose the next move is Ten Thousands! Maybe one day!

2. People:
Something happens when you get to know someone a little bit. They are no longer an other, a stranger. As a handyman I get to know quite a few people a little bit (usually not too well, though--it's the nature of the job). At first all the billions of the world are strangers to you. They are different, even the ones that are similar. You have a few friends like you, a few family like you, but (at least for me) you may not have much interest in getting to know a lot more people. "The more I meet new people, the more I like my dog" With work, sometimes I'm "in and out" of a stranger's house, and there is some mutual trust and respect around the exchange of labour and money, but that's the extent of it. Other times, though, I settle in for more of a long haul job, maybe 3 or 4 days worth, or a few different mornings, or whatever. And I come to realize that People are Cool. Sure, I may not want to live in their house, but I definitely come to appreciate other people and the things they are doing. One family I met adopted some kids from Liberia. Another family had an extra room that they opened to a man who was going through a separation of some sort, and his two-year-old son. Another family grows organic vegetables in their backyard as part of a neighbourhood program. I thank God for the variety of people I've been able to meet, and the ways they love others.