So today I re-discovered the obvious: the Jews were looking for a savior relative to their biggest perceived threat: Rome. However, God thought differently, as he provided a savior from themselves. And that’s precisely why I sometimes wonder how valid our Biblical interpretations even are. ? Just from my layman’s perspective, our theological interpretations have shifted quite a bit over decades and centuries past—and I fully expect that my own is largely invalidated by the sand in my eyes, caulk in my ears, and holistic misguided understanding of the real issues… But I digress...

Secondly, having a kid has really mellowed me out in a few ways. Before having one, I was always very careful to personally and pubically recognize that I was going to make a whole bunch of parenting mistakes in which my offspring would spite me. And I still believe that; perhaps even more so now. But what has changed is my view (or judgment) of other people’s parenting. Parenting is all theoretical, and seemingly untestable. For too many situations, I’ve got no real idea what to do. I just kind of make an executive decision, go with it, and hope that the result doesn’t suck. The lack of a good parenting 101 text is somewhat annoying. Example: You see a kid picking on yours. At what stage (of picking) do you intervene, if at all? You then see your kid picking on another. At what stage (if any) do you intervene? You walk into a restaurant with a bit of personal anxiety, hoping that you don’t become “that family” with “that child”. The thing about having a child that surprised me is how little one knows; suddenly, there’s a whole lot more acceptance of differing parental tracts. When I look at other parents struggling with their kid that's having a bad day, I no longer look at them with some type of inner-judgment, but rather a certain amount of empathy. (All within reason though; values are still values.)

But yesterday at the playground, I observed something that I *really* didn’t expect to see. This one liberal-academic-elite looking father and his two sons. One son repeatedly came up to the father on claiming abuse or beatings from other playground kids; the father’s response, to my surprise, was actually something to the effect of—“Well, you incited it. Kids just don’t go around beating up other kids, so you must have done something to deserve it.” And I mean—whatever works for them, even though growing up as I did lends support to the belief that thugs do exist. But another part of me saw white guilt and appeasement-based international politics in its incipient state. Anyway—just something that I saw and thought about a little…