I read your posts here and it gives me heart to see people walking the walk and not just talking the talk. And it makes me happy to see you speak up about it.

Yes! Agreed.

Life's too short for jackassery, smonster. Onwards and upwards. Or just be you for a while.

I respect Liese's opinions so much, I had to repeat that one (and agree with all the rest of her eloquent thoughts)

smonster, I think date-guy missed the point entirely when he said 'can't bring my friends' and actually spoke volumes by doing so.

You mentioned a completely legitimate and understandable fear/dislike of having explosives in your personal space.

What his response said to me is he doesn't get how that could be uncomfortable and isn't likely to discontinue that behavior, he'll just not do it around you.

Plus, he equated that legitimate concern with his friends...THEY were responsible and that kind of behavior is likely a regular part of their schtick.

Say what you will about holidays and drink, in my experience, it is seldom only the Witching Hour [/random Star Trek reference] that causes people to act jackassedy.

And, I agree with everyone else about the 'thank god you weren't ugly' sentiment. I can't fault the thought, but I'd hope for a better filter.

longwindedly trying to say is, don't give up on all of us yet. I'm sorry for the way Christians and the church have hurt you and it's wrong. It's not what the Christ I know would have wanted.

Liese, thank you for your post. And you are one of the people I think about when I remind myself that there are GOOD Christians.

smonster, I don't like the sound of the guy. I say don't bother with a 2nd date.

Liese, thank you for your post. And you are one of the people I think about when I remind myself that there are GOOD Christians.

Yes, very much this. All you Christians on this board, you're in a special place in my mind. I think of you to counter the crazy evil "Christians" out there who have nothing in common with Christ.

smonster, please, gurl. If "please don't set off explosives near me" means "can't bring my bros around this chick, okay whatever, sweetie, u r cute!"? Toss that fish back.

On the other hand, I am also strangely pro-military for a pacifist. I believe that war is absolutely wrong and that it irreparably harms valuable people on both sides of any conflict. I acknowledge that this leaves me with no solution for a Hitler, so I preemptively-Godwin's law you. But I also have a deep respect for the men and woman who choose to put themselves in harm's way for my sake, regardless of how I feel about its necessity, so I am grateful to them on this holiday for fighting for my freedom.

Liese, that post was amazing! And thank you for breaking your rules. The quoted piece fits my sentiments on war rather well. I can't help but think of the Shakespeare quote "Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them", and on a larger scale, we as a country were better when we were humble, and had greatness thrust upon us (WWI & WWII). And since then, we have slowly lost our humbleness, and developed a swagger. A conceit. And that is contributing to our fall from grace. Of course, our collective conceit is what is keeping us from realizing that we are falling from grace. Because we are perfect. We are Americans. The greatest country on Earth. Of course, if everyone thinks they are the greatest, and as the greatest, I can do no wrong, well, on a large scale like a country, there will be plenty of divergent thoughts. And it seems that is where we are.

That is only a theory from an undersleeped night person awake far too early in the morning. I hope it all made sense.

(BTW, totally marked your post Liese! It was beautiful!)

Liese, I hope you know that I know that there are wonderful Christians out there walking the walk, just as there are wonderful people of every religion and none at all. Do you ever feel attacked or belittled? Is there something we could do or a term we could use to delineate the faux Christians from awesome peeps like you?

Yeah, Firecracker Boy isn't getting a second date. He just texted me and called his friends 12 yo with no concern for his eardrum or flammability. To which I replied;

Pretty sure you chose to jump through the flying fish like a sprinkler all on your own, dude. And shoot off Roman candles from your hand. I don't know, I need all ten fingers.

Which point he conceded. The failure to own his choices combined with his failure to do anything in the moment to make me more comfortable (asking his friends to stop, stopping himself, or making an excuse for us to leave) all adds up to a marching band's worth of red flags.

Omnis, check out these colors: [link] a little green, but reads more gray on a wall. Or [link] Grey with some brown in it. It adds warmth. Worth trying a swatch or two.

Thanks Scrappy! If the two samples from last night fail, will give those a whirl.

Smonster... when it comes to the scuffing. Do I have to sandpaper every inch of the old walls? (I forsee a Karate Kid feeling of dead arms pending).

Did you tell him you were uncomfortable? While he's pretty clearly not your dream man, what you've said so far is pretty average goofing off, but enh--there's no need for you to be attracted to pretty average.

Liese, I'm grateful you made your post. I nodded right along as I was reading, I'm not far off your points myself, most of them. The thing that impresses me, over and over again, is how the Christians I knew growing up embraced other ideas and welcomed and worked with most people to accomplish things, no matter that those people had a different approach to life. Everyone accepted that people needed to be cared for, everybody had work to do, a right to succeed, to eat, to have clean clothes, shoes that fit, a way to school, the teacher's attention, and to see a doctor when they needed to. I'm sure there was some exclusivity, some prejudice, that as a child I was unaware of. But I grew up believing that every person had the same worth, had something to contribute, some thought to consider, some idea to welcome to make things better for everybody.

I don't believe that's the definition and description that comes to mind today for people calling themselves Christian. But you know, it should be.