A Confirmation
For anyone disinclined to believe Susan, a set of people I hope to be very small, I should like to confirm her post as being true, although perhaps she was a bit too kind in her description of me. I should also like to mention that she consulted me before posting it, so it's really more of a group effort. Enjoy!
In Christ.
posted by Adrian C. Keister @ 8:15 PM
20 Comments
20 Comments:
Suuure... take credit for someone else's work, and don't even admit you're really a three-headed green alien with a foul odor.
We'll be praying for the both of you.
Be nice to Adrian, Anna ;-). And he did contribute to my post, just to confirm Adrian's claim. I made a few changes at his suggestion. Thank you for the prayers, by the way. They are much appreciated :).
Awww... do I have to? Everyone else is being SO nice; just one misanthropic comment won't damage him that much, will it?
Of course he helped... he said he did. My experience of Adrian is that he tends to be a very truthful person. Not to mention a whole slew of other excellent, admirable traits. (Plus a few idiosyncrasies.) I really hope this works out for the two of you. From what I have read, you seem a good match, though I don't know you, and it's really hard to say.
Sorry I'm not so good at being all Jane Austen, but what better way is there to be nice than to pray, though, really?
Ah, I see that you see yourself as the other side of the see-saw here, Anna ;). Adrian has far too many Barnabases on his blog for your liking? Well, we all need exhorters(?) too, certainly :). And to answer your question, I suppose you don't have to be nice. I leave it up to your own conscience (obscure Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel quote).
And certainly we don't all have to be Jane Austen. Prayer is the best way to be nice, of course, though one can certainly diversify one's methods of nicety ;-).
Fortunately, it's not actually a see-saw. Really more of a merry-go-round. Works better when someone creates a little friction and momentum, but if you really WANT to sit about and have a tea-party on it, you can.
What do you mean by being nice, though? When my daughter says "Be a nice mommy" she means to let her have anything she asks for, and definitely don't punish her or scold her for doing something wrong. (She uses it preemptively, usually before I know what she is asking for, or what she did.) What if I was the "nice mommy" she requested? I guess I'm a bigger fan of being really substantively nice than giving everyone what they ask for.
Haha. I loved the merry-go-round image. That's great.
Well, the subject of what constitutes "nice" has fascinated me for sometime. You may get me on a soapbox, Anna :). Actually, nice was a poor choice of word on my part, although, come to think of it I was purposely repeating the exact terminology you were using :). But I didn't mean "nice" when I said "nice." I heard a rather interesting speaker this past summer, who *hated* the word nice. Here are my reflections on that lecture, and the beginning explains his aversion to the word. The problem is that our culture equates nice with being loving, but what our culture means by loving isn't often very loving. It's not loving to not spank a child at times, though our culture's definition would never think of spanking as loving. And we have this difficult responsibility as Christians to speak the truth, but in love. *sigh* So yes, deciding what is nice is far more complicated that it looks on the surface. And none of this really has to do with whether or not it's "nice" to be encouraging to Adrian, but I love tangents. Adrian, of all people, knows that very well :).
And then Susan's Mother Dear gently points out to her that the term "nice" did originate in her comment, not Anna's ;-). . . So my original thought (that nice was a poor choice of word on my part) stands :-D.
Yes well, my husband said I should have said that I don't feel obliged to follow the eleventh commandment "Thou Shalt Be Nice" in spite of the popularity of it.
Would you mind just moving over and letting me share your tangential soapbox? Basically, I'm not exactly a big fan of being "nice". Loving, yes. Kind, certainly. Good, absolutely. Pleasant and friendly, even most of the time. But "nice"? Gimme a break. It's just like people saying "I'm fine" when you ask how they are. It means absolutely nothing at all. They could be at death's door, and they would still say "I'm fine." What a nice state of affairs, eh?
My other thought was I really doubt Adrian was offended, upset or otherwise hurt by my accusing him of being a three-headed green alien. If he was, his skin has thinned to but a vague scrap of a remnant of where it was when I last saw him. Furthermore, if anyone else took that seriously, they need to have their heads examined. He can disillusion me if he likes, but I hope he knows me well enough to not mind me so much.
Wow! Not just one but two wise people having a fun discussion on my blog. Can I join? Please?
Reply to Anna.
Beware my tentacles. ;-)] Of course I wasn't offended. You're quite right. My skull is just as thick as you remember. Well, maybe I have learned a bit about making myself vulnerable to people. But I certainly haven't taken that thought to an extreme. If anything, I'm still a bit too thick-skulled for my own good.
Reply to Susan Dear.
Thank you for sticking up for me; it was very sweet of you. I'll avoid that apparently loaded term, "nice." I doubt, however, that you'll ever _really_ have to defend me against Anna. ;-)]
Ok, now to both of you: since I have so firmly straddled the fence, you can both get mad at me. *grins*
In Christ.
I suppose you can join, Adrian, but only because I'm nice. Oh wait, I mean kind, or friendly ;-).
Hehe. I knew Adrian wouldn't be offended, Anna. This whole conversation was in fun, as you likely guessed :). My specialty is debating things of no consequence. Anyone who would take such a ridiculously far-fetched insult seriously has bigger problems, that's for sure :). This all goes back to some recent conversation Adrian and I had, actually. I forget the context, but I was laughing at something, teasing him in some way, or good-naturedly correcting him, and he asked me, "What happened to standing by your man?" So I thought I'd stand by him in this very *ahem* important and serious matter. Hehe. Anyway, carry on. I know how much Adrian likes being teased ;-). Oh, and feel free to share my soapbox. The more the merrier.
@Adrian
What are we going to do, hack your password and delete your posts on your own blog? Yeah, that would work. Not.
Oooohhh tentacles. The mental image conjured by that is something like one of those Alien movies with tentacles sprouting out of the guy's stomach, eating someone, and then morphing back into a normal looking stomach. Scary.
You do seem to have... grown up a good bit since college, but then, so have I, and I'd be worried if we hadn't. But change happens slowly, if it happens at all. (Tell me where that quote comes from and you get a gold star.) If you thought you had changed drastically, it would probably worry me more. Heh.
@Susan
Considering Adrian said you had a sense of humor, I figured you might know a tease when you saw one. Hoped.
Soapboxes are fun. I keep a whole closet full of them. I was on one earlier today about what to do with tradition vs. trendy. It was fun, but kept me late enough to annoy an elder who wanted to turn out the lights after Sunday School. Heh.
Also, I definitely recommend standing by your man. And poking him repeatedly in the ribs, kicking his shins, or pulling individual beard hairs. Not really, of course. I also do not recommend super glue. Usually.
@both
I really hope Susan never has to defend Adrian from me, or we're probably all three in trouble. And Adrian, I never did get that sparring match you promised me, I think. And I can still beat you. ;-)
So, I was reading all the comments on here and figured I would ask Adrian some questions so Susan doesn't have to stand up for him anymore. =) Don't think anybody knows me, but I am from the True family (practically life-long friends of the Garrisons =)!!!!
Questions (since I don't know you at all and you are courting one of my good friends!!).....you think Susan's blog is blog is attractive and interesting, but not her? Or do you think she is in addition to her blog?
Why would you sicken us?!?! Wow!! That bad, huh?
And one of the most important for a suitor from the True's standing....can you change the oil in your car!?!? =D
Anyways...I am praying for both of you!
Peace out!!! =P
Grace True
Ah, but, Grace....you forget that Adrian passed the first question on the Garrison Suitor's List with flying colors: Can you do calculus? ;-)
I should also add that Adrian scored quite high overall. His worst score was on the chocolate question. Sigh. Such a disappointment. Ah well...
It's a VERY good thing he likes calculus!! =) But we are still your friends and we don't like it! ;) Too bad he doesn't like chocolate!!!
Grace
Well, it's not that he doesn't like chocolate...it just doesn't thrill him the way it thrills us. He can take it or leave it. And, yes, you're still our very good friends even though you strongly dislike math (shakes head), but that's not the #1 requirement for friendship....just for suitors. ;-)
Well, I am glad that is not one of your friends requirements!!! Don't even want to imagine life without the Garrisons!!! =D
Grace
Hey Adrian!
Just dropping a note to say I'll be praying for you and Susan!
From another one of her TRUE friends!=) (pun intended=)
Elizabeth True
P.S. could leave other comments... but for Susan sake I won't! =)
I appreciate your relative silence, Liz ;-). Truly I do.
Yourwelcome Susan! =) Didn't want to be mean to you by saying anything um.... incriminating.;)
I thought I would give you and Adrian a math problem to solve, but I relized that math that is hard for me is like 2+2 to you. So I gave up on that idea.
toodle loo!
Liz
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