Crosshatching

I don't know what they call it, but have you ever seen ice skaters do this odd figure-eight thing with their feet where it looks like their feet go through each other before moving away again? My brain does that a lot.

I was sitting here thinking about the presidential race and the dismal prospects ahead of us and I realized something. Most presidents are just standing in until a great one comes on the scene. Sure they may do some good, but that's what they're supposed to do. Some, like Carter, you have to be grateful they didn't completely destroy the world. Most, you have to hope they manage to keep the damage down to a minimum. I think we're due a great president soon. Certainly not in this race, probably not in the next two, but we're due soon. Washington was a great president. Then there were some good ones just standing in until Lincoln showed up (interestingly, he was an okay president his first time, then a phenomenal one his second term). After that we had some boozers and losers until Franklin Roosevelt hit the scene (a Democrat!). Then we had some primpers and sour fellows until Reagan came up. Since then we've had major disappointments... to be fair, GW Bush was a miraculous right man at the right time in his first term; kind of sad in his second...

Then my brain did the crosshatch thing.

I realized that that's descriptive of a man's life, too (and maybe a woman's, but I don't have first hand knowledge of that). Most of the time we're just standing in for ourselves, then there are moments or seasons in our life where we are great (invested unduly with the grace of God, no doubt). It's more obvious in some people's lives. A prolific writer, for example, where many of his books are just okay, but then suddenly the great one comes out. The one he was born to write and the others were just practice. Or perhaps a composer and his one or four songs out of two dozen. Or an athlete who puts it all together for a star performance just once.

There are some people who are great all the time (Spurgeon, Shakespeare, Di Vince) but for most of us there are golden moments but briefly... but, oh, those times are like lightening in a bottle. They may not be loud, or all that golden for others, but we know our own moments.

It's been awhile for me. I'm hoping I have a few left...