Story

Now that my internet is not freaking out I can update you guys on everything (that being a big assumption you care, but since you are reading this I will assume you do)

Let's roll back to Friday

Good day, consisting of wrapping up my first week at the Echo and I got to cover the mock car crash at JHS, some sweet photos came from that. Pool day for track, another win. Shake Day! yet another win. Got home and didn't work till 11, so I got to nap. In the mail came "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" by Donald Miller, major win. I had been waiting for that book for far too long.

The best thing about that timing. I had all night to read it.

I devoured that book, Donald Miller has such a wonderful voice and way of approaching things and his views on his own life are out of this world, but I will rave about the book more later.

On to Saturday. (I think a frowny face would be appropriate) =(

Read well over half of my newfound book and friend by 7 am when I was leaving work. At home I put the book down in hopes of sleeping before track at 9. Lo and behold 8:45 rolled around and so did I. The same tension in my head occurred between the lazy Connor and the "goody-goody" Connor (as quoted by lazy Connor).

"Go to track!"

"I can miss a Saturday, nobody will be there anyways"

"Go to track!"

"Eh, Ludwig and Sam aren't even going, why should I?"

"Go to track!"

"You are really getting annoying there you know."

"Go to track!"

As you can see, goody-goody Connor won that battle. To track I went. Meanwhile the heavens opened for a brief period of time with booms and tiny falling wet reminders that I should have brought a rain coat.

9 rolled around sometime when I rolled into the parking lot and proceeded into the school to wait. I wish I could tell you I was waiting a short time for practice to start. Scratch that I wish I could tell you I was waiting to win a car, or a full ride scholarship for the next 5 years.

But I wasn't.

I was waiting nearly forty-five minutes for the supposed "nine-o-clock sharp" practice to start. On an hour and forty-five minutes of sleep, that's a long time to wait for something depriving you of a prolonged experience of eye-shutting. Throughout practice lazy Connor was echoing in my head how wrong goody-goody Connor really was. I had to agree with him while I was running way too much, and while my legs were pounding I think they agreed too. To top it all off I managed to give myself a bloody nose. Brilliant. I only have a few silver linings in this day, and after running my workout came one of them.

Putting away the High Jump pits.

Yes, doing physical work and lifting heavy things came to be one of the better points in that day. Some time to talk to my coach/counselor/anything else you need her to be, it was enjoyable to say the least. We got to talk about my horrible attitude and how it is such a rarity. (I try to stay upbeat, but today it wasn't happening.) Along with that I got to talk more about Donald Miller, which led to C.S. Lewis, which ended up with "The Shack" which I think I need to pick up and read eventually. Just one more time through Donald Miller though. I am glad that happened, it made the practice somewhat worthwhile.

Home! Sleep! Being woken up by some kid at work that wanted me to pick him up an energy drink. Driving to do it (goody-goody won out again) I was thinking to myself "How did Jesus do it? How did he resist the urge to think badly about people and punch them in the face?" Some days I think God sets the bar way too high, and He knows it, He also pushes me through it all and tells me to look at the bar again. Whether I knocked it down or not. It ended up being way below where I was that morning.

After the energy drink delivery...(dramatic tension) SLEEP!

Another silver lining coming up.

It seems moms can read minds. Whether that be good or bad, it was good this time. Waking up at some point in time, numbers matter not. My Mom swept into my room with this heroic glow about her, as if she knew at the point in time she was going to make everything better.

"Hey, yeah we picked you up an Arbys melt, Jamocha Shake and Curly fries."

Best statement I had heard all day.

After that I slept more and went to work where I hung out with my main man Lenny, but that's all for another post.

Back to "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" because that book is all I can think about. In it Miller's previous memoir "Blue Like Jazz" is going to be made into a movie, and throughout the process he is learning about how his life was "boring" and things to improve it. The whole time he is with the people that write scripts and screenplays and a lot of emphasis is put on "story" and what makes a good one. Relating that to life he talks about the essentials of a good story and how those can make the "story" of our lives better. Granted I could tell every element he discusses but in short:

A good story must have a character that overcomes conflict to gain something they desire

A good story involves sacrifice of the character

A good story has good scenery

Those being just three of the main points he covers (don't worry I will post more of them later on) It is an inspiring book that invites you to improve the story of your life.

One of my favorite analogies (or speculations) he states is one where he thinks that once it's all said and done we will be in heaven with God talking about our lives and telling Him all the stories we had shared with Him and our loved ones, and Miller feared he wouldn't have anything to say to God.

Later on in the book he is talking about Ecclesiastes and the advice on living a meaningful life boils down to this.

Find a job you like, enjoy your marriage, and obey God

"It's as though God is saying, Write a good story, take somebody with you, and let me help"

I want to leave you all with that hoping that you will either pick this up or pay attention to further posts about this book by me. I hope you all with that brief knowledge of the book think about your story. Is it interesting? Is it an easy story where there is not challenge or conflict or growth?

One last quote from Donald and I will leave you.

"We live in a world where bad stories are told, stories that teach us life doesn't mean anything and that humanity has no great purpose. It's a good calling, then, to speak a better story. How brightly a better story shines. How easily the world looks to it in wonder. How grateful we are to hear these stories, and how happy it makes us to repeat them."

Much Love

ø Connor ø