Stream of consciousness

I'm sitting in a bar. 15 minutes to tennis courts. 65 minutes to get there. Some techno music on the sound system. Sports news on the abundant TVs.+

I'm sitting in my USA Quidditch t-shirt for reasons outside this particular consciousness steam. Talked to my sister about how to solve a particular little relationship puzzle involving her son, the registration papers on a car given him by his distant father and the need to preserve a fragile detente in support of having everyone who said son loves at his upcoming graduation and to have them civil and likable to one another. I think we nailed it.

Wondering why there's a Cowboys bandana hanging above the bar when it's April and 2 other Dallas teams are currently in the playoffs. (Hockey and Basketball)

Also wondering why the interim between work and tennis compels me to want to write and yet leaves me feeling rushed and unable to organize my thoughts.

Waiting for tennis, thinking about connecting the dots

I was reading back over my post yesterday. It was hurried and it fails to make the point I was trying to make. But it made a couple of other good points, so I'm not going to mess with it.

Going back to the subject of context, I'll repeat that I don't expect to find a profound meaning by connecting the dots between the random things that happen to me. (I'm not ruling that out either, though!) Instead, my point is that by seeing patterns and themes in the random things that happen to us, we can learn things. We can learn things about ourselves. We can learn things about our world. We can learn things about each other.

That's what I meant when I said, "finding meaning where there is none."

And in the words of Forest Gump, "that's all I have to say about that."

Finding context where none exists

I was driving to tennis tonight and had a hankering for donuts. I recalled a Krispy Kreme just a few blocks out of my way. So I detoured, ordered 2 traditional glazed and wondered.

I wondered because, like you probably do, I travel through life on most days in a very disconnected, disjointed pattern that makes sense only to myself.

But most days themes pop up. And I've decided to start trying to find those themes every day.

It's not so much that I'm looking for meaning. Honestly. I don't believe the world is trying to speak to me or any such nonsense. (Although I do believe in God and that He is speaking to me) Instead, the plan is to insert meaning where there is none.

For example, donuts made me think about context. (BTW context means "the parts of something written or spoken that immediately precede and follow a word or passage and clarify its meaning"). So, maybe the next time I crave a donut, I can stop to think of the context. What happened before? What happened after?

Another thought about context. I saw a meme today about the # 24. (Kobe Bryant, Jeff Gordon, some other sports figures I didn't know). This put my dear ShyAnn in context. She was a young light taken from this world too soon. She wore #24 in her too brief basketball career. It's not as though those other figures' fame gives context to her life. It's that her life gives me a rich context to appreciate those other people.

Context. Themes. The texture and flavor that we can enjoy living in a fast-paced, multi-media world when we take the time to connect the dots!