How I Spent the Morning of My Birthday? Getting an Oil Change

I am spending my birthday this year getting an oil change. I do not need a TV in the waiting room at the Chrysler dealership while I am waiting for my car to be serviced. I would prefer silence with all of us just sitting here looking at each other every now and then, imagining what the other person's life is like. For example, a woman is sitting across from me who looks like a young Woody Allen and I'm just thinking to myself, “What are the chances on my birthday of seeing a woman who looks like Woody Allen?” Just when I was having doubts about getting an oil change and tire rotation on my birthday, this unexpected gift comes to me.

I also do not need the psycho reality TV shows yelling and screaming in the background. I can sit and read a book or write a few paragraphs on my steno pad while I wait. Same thing for the airport. I don't need a TV or laptop or iPad to babysit for me while my flight is delayed. I can use the time to think, to ponder the meaning of life, and be thankful for the moments when I must wait and not be the one in control. I am a twentieth-century man who has been dragged into the twenty-first century kicking and screaming, or at least with my hands folded across my chest shaking my head “no.” I watch our collective attention span reduced to milliseconds and wonder where all of this is going.

I look up and find another gift directly in front of me: a tall, husky man who looks to be in his early fifties with fingers the size of Polish sausages trying to text on a tiny cell phone. This poor man with a nineteenth-century, industrial-age manufacturing body has been thrust into a twenty-first century smart phone world, hunting and pecking with fat fingers on a little phone. I'm seeing this on my birthday and I'm wondering what I did to get to watch this real-life reality show in the waiting room of a Chrysler dealership?

I've been here now for an hour. I've sneezed three times and received a rousing round of “God bless yous” coming from every direction. But the first problem of the day has surfaced: My left leg is asleep and tingling all of the way down my foot. I am in no shape to be called on by the service adviser to get up and follow him because my car is finished. I've noticed that at this dealership, the service adviser pokes his head in the door, calls the customer's name, and the customer pops up and follows the service adviser either to the service counter to authorize more work or to the payment counter to pay for the work and get the car keys. But with my leg asleep and tingling, I would be unable to get up right now. Five minutes later. Okay, the feeling has returned to my foot and I am ready to rise when he calls my name, a phrase that reminds me of a Christian worship song I really like.

This is what I'm doing on my birthday at 9:45 a.m. So far, so good, even for an oil change.

My Reflections on My UPS Career on Founders Day

We were given a choice whether or not those of us who were having a milestone service year wanted to speak on Founders Day in our department meeting. Since the one consistent feedback I have gotten during my entire 25-year career at UPS was that I don’t speak up enough in meetings, I thought I would make up for the whole thing here today. No one intends to have a long career at UPS. You come to work at UPS as a temporary thing while you are planning your life. Those plans do not include UPS. We come for the benefits, the tuition assistance, the non-standard hours that don’t interfere with classes or our other real jobs. Parents don’t envision their kids growing up and working for UPS. I think these are just the basic realities of life. I worked the majority of my career in Information Services Learning & Development or Corp HR Learning & Development. I would have never lasted 25 years had I been in Operations. I know exactly how long I would have lasted in Operations had I wo...

My Prayer Life Is Like, "Whack" (-a-Mole)

I’ve been a practicing Christian my entire adult life, and one would think that would result in a certain level of proficiency in certain practices such as what often occurs when one plays golf, tennis, or does various other activities on a regular basis. Prayer is not like this for me though. Prayer is like whack-a-mole. As soon as I knock down a mole that pops up--some sort of obstacle to my praying--another mole rises in its place. "Whack-a-mole" is exactly how I would describe my prayer life, a daily whacking away at things that prevent prayer.

The Power of Public Prayers

“Jewish law prefers that Jews pray communally rather than privately.” Joseph Telushkin, “Minyan,” in Jewish Literacy , 719. I’ve been thinking about this notion for a few days after I read it because I get the impression that most of the Christians I know pray individually and about their own self interests more than anything else. I know this is true of me. But Telushkin, reiterating the teachings of the rabbis in connecting Jewish prayer to the concept of minyan , where the minimum number of males required to conduct a worship service or say certain prayers is ten, says that public prayer prevents such personal expressions of self-interest. He says: " . . . the rabbis apparently felt that public prayers are more apt to be offered for that which benefits the entire community, whereas individuals often pray for that which benefits only themselves, even if it be at the expense of someone else" (719). In Evangelical or Pentecostal services that I've attended, at some...

Rainey Blogs on Some Days

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