A blogger without internet... Isn't that an oxymoron? I mean having internet is vital to writing a blog, right? Well the answer is yes and no. You need an internet connection to upload a blog, but you really don’t need much time on the internet to do so. I write my blogs in MS Word. Later, when I have an internet connection, I paste the blog into my website. Why am I giving you all this detail? Well, I am planning on discontinuing my internet service next month. To many people this seems crazy, but to me it makes logical sense. Here’s the deal. I am at work 9.5-10 hours a day. My commute to work is around 35 minutes each way. This means that I spend around 11 hours a day away from home. That leaves a total of 13 possible hours at home on any given day. I sleep 8 of those hours.  That leaves 5 hours per day at home. When you figure time spent with the kids, eating supper, doing chores, I have about 30 minutes that I can spend on the internet. My wife has a very similar schedule. My children are too young to use the internet and are also very busy. Mathematically it doesn’t make sense. If I need to use the internet, it is readily accessible all over the place –I just need to find a hotspot.  Anyway, I still plan on writing my blog. It may not be uploaded every day, but I doubt that will happen anyway. I still plan to write books. I only need the internet when sending a copy to my publisher. I know that some time will be freed up by cancelling the internet. I plan to use this free time to read, play games with my family, and enjoy recreation. Honestly, I think we have all become to dependant on technology and I for one am going to change that aspect of my life. I want to see the world around me more regularly and spend less time in cyberspace. I’m tired of virtual reality, I want the real thing.

For those who say, well you still have T.V. – we haven’t had cable or satellite in almost 4 years and to be honest, we have never missed it.

How about you, could you give up internet?

I'm not easily excited. Sometimes I wish I was, but I'm not. For those who know me, you know I like to get silly and act goofy. You probably think I can easily get all pumped up for something because I seem to exert so much energy, but I don't. For example, a newspaper editor recently called me. He said the newspaper sometimes selects different people to feature as important people in the community. He went on to say that I had been selected as that person. I was honored, but I wasn't excited. I tried to sound excited and said something like, "that's great. Wow." Inside I was thinking, 'that's cool, I guess he will want to interview me.' He did and I think the article comes out sometime this week. With that said, I am sure if the caller said I won $1,000,000 I would have some higher level of response.  I don't know if I would jump up and down like a monkey on a pogo stick but I am sure I would be excited. There are events which brought be great excitement. I was VERY excited on my wedding day. I was nervous and sweating and the moment Julie walked through the door I was filled with great enthusiasm. The birth of my children was exciting. I was nervous and in awe. I closely watched the monitors, supported Julie the best I could and watched each movement the doctor and nurses made. I vividly remember the moment I saw my children; I was drawn to tears and was completely awestruck. I was excited, but few events in my life have ever warranted anything close to the same response as those.

One of the times this seems most evident in my life is when people are really excited and I am not. A common area this happens for me is at church. I can and do get emotional at times, but I rarely get excited. (Now let me preface the rest of my comments by saying that I attend a church where expression is not only permitted, but encouraged. We lift our hands, we sing loudly and we exhibit emotion.) Sometimes I will see someone overflowing with love for God and jumping with excitement. I must confess I respond with mixed emotion. Honestly, I don't know how to react. I am always glad that they are filled with excitement, but I don't seem able to exhibit the same level of enthusiasm. Sometimes a person will speak and say something about praising God like you are at a ball game and your team just scored the winning goal, basket, etc. I never know what to do because I really don't get excited at sporting events. I often get involved in conversation and have to ask who won. I just don't really pay attention to the game.  I don't think that is the response the speaker is looking for... Sometimes I just feel weird and guilty for feeling weird. I wonder if there is something wrong with me. I have come to realize, however, that not everyone is alike. Some people wake up in the morning and are full of energy. Others, like me, wake up and say 'it can't be morning yet!' Some people love cauliflower (ok maybe that's going too far). Anyway, we are different and we have different responses. Even though I may not jump up and down, scream or run in circles, that doesn't mean I am not moved. I am grateful, even happy, I am sometimes completely awestruck by the love God has for me and instead of jumping, I kneel and cry.  I just show emotions differently.

I guess my point is this. If you are excited about something and you share it someone like me, don't expect the same response. They may not jump up and down. Don't misjudge them. They may be moved just as much as you are, even if their outward expression is completely different.

What type of person are you?

Contrary to what you may think, this is not a blog about baseball. As a matter of fact, this is the last time the word “baseball” will be used in the entire blog. So, if you are here just to read about sports, stop reading, you will be disappointed.  I wanted to write about these two personalities because I think I have a pretty good perspective on both. You see, I was raised in a culture of hoarding but have been spending my life transitioning to a pitcher.  Let me begin by defining the two terms. A ‘Hoarder’ is a person who likes to hold on to everything. He or She lives by the motto, “I may not need this today, but I may need it in the future.” This is not to be confused with extreme hoarding as seen on T.V. – just you average ‘save it for a rainy day’ hoarder. A ‘Pitcher,’ on the other hand, gets rid of everything as quickly as he or she can. A pitcher lives by the motto, “If I don’t use it, I don’t need it.” Both hoarders and pitchers view each other as wasteful. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true. The hoarder thinks the pitcher is wasting valuable things by discarding them while the pitcher thinks the hoarder is wasting valuable space and time by holding on to stuff they will never use. I empathize with both sides because during my transition I have become somewhat of a hybrid. Don’t look in my shoe closet, but enjoy yourself as you gaze upon the amount of open space in my shed. There are still things I have much trouble letting go of, but more and more of the time I find myself discarding things I would have once held on to tightly.

I bring this up because it is so much fun to watch a hoarder and a pitcher have a conversation, especially when they are married. “Have you seen the old desk I put in the shed a decade ago? I think I have found a use for it.” “Oh, do you remember the big bonfire we had last fall? You know the one we roasted marshmallows on?” “Yeah. Why?” “Let’s just say I already found a use for that old desk.”

As much fun as this is to watch, it doesn’t rival churches. You may think that churches segregate based on age, social status, dress code or a variety of other things, but you’re wrong.  What really splits up a church is the hoarders versus the pitchers. Think about your church. I am sure you have a junk closet, room, shed or outbuilding.  You know the room, it’s where all the stuff from VBS, Christmas and Easter dramas, yard sales and ‘donations’ are stored. In some churches, this is also known as the ‘Youth Room.’  Regardless of where it is, every church has one. It is inevitable that one day that room will become so full that you cannot open the door without stuff collapsing on you. When that day comes, churches schedule a cleaning day. You thought all fireworks displays were for the 4th of July or New Year’s Eve. Well the largest ‘fireworks’ display is always on church clean up day. On this day hoarders and pitchers converge in one place. The pitchers are armed with garbage bags, lighters and torches. The hoarders are armed with maps of the church detailing rooms that still have space available. The pitchers grab any and everything and set them in a pile to be discarded while the hoarders go to the pile, grab the items and return them to the storage room. After an entire day of ‘cleaning,’ all that is discarded are a couple of torn table cloths and a broken chair. Both sides will complain for months about how the other side wasted the day.  I have a couple suggestions that help overcome this disaster.

1.       Invite the hoarders to take anything home they want.  Hoarders want the church to keep everything just in case it could be used again, but they can’t resist the opportunity to keep the items for themselves.

2.       Some people may not like the idea because they feel it is enabling the hoarders. A second idea is to identify all the pitchers in the church and have them secretly organize a church clean up day. The next week when the hoarders go to the storage room to store another item, they will be surprised to find it clean. They will grumble and complain about who discarded the computer that was stored there in 1992, but they won’t be able to do anything about it… except add new stuff.

So, what are you? A hoarder, a pitcher or somewhere in between?