{"id":6585,"date":"2016-08-28T08:18:30","date_gmt":"2016-08-28T12:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=6585"},"modified":"2016-08-28T08:24:28","modified_gmt":"2016-08-28T12:24:28","slug":"two-quotes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=6585","title":{"rendered":"two quotes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"photo-1453728013993-6d66e9c9123a\"<\/a><\/p>\n

My recent time away allowed for some increased observation. It\u2019s a fun exercise\u2026 you sit back, relax, take a little bit of extra time, maybe where never intended\u2026<\/p>\n

Breathe, say very little, refrain from comment\u2026<\/p>\n

You watch what everyone else is doing. You watch it. Consider it. No judgment.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not talking about the quirkish, cultural sport of people watching; you know the one\u2026 you select a solid location\u2026 stay unobtrusive\u2026 watch with good intent\u2026 etc., etc., etc. (note: part of that was borrowed from \u201cWiki\u2019s How to Do Anything\u201d\u2026 can you believe it? We actually have an available guide as to \u201cHow to Begin People Watching.\u201d).<\/em><\/p>\n

What I more observed was what people are talking about \u2014 what we\u2019re focused on.<\/p>\n

Put away for a moment all Trump and Clinton conversation. Sorry, but this has become a little too much for me. We\u2019re electing a president \u2014 not deciding who is king or God (\u2026 who, by the way, never runs against any noteworthy suitor).<\/em><\/p>\n

Over the past three weeks, people have focused on much\u2026<\/p>\n

On Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte \u2014 and was he or was he not, robbed in Rio at gunpoint\u2026<\/p>\n

On the release of \u201cSuicide Squad,\u201d DC Comic\u2019s latest, greatest theatrical release, where a team of dangerous criminals are utilized as supposedly disposable assets in high-risk missions for the United States government\u2026 (\u2026 am I the only one who isn\u2019t that comfortable doing anything under the potential promotion of \u201csuicide\u201d?)\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

And then there was this past weekend\u2026 on the NFL quarterback who refused to stand during the National Anthem, suggesting that he\u2019s intentionally protesting an oppressive country\u2026 (\u2026 never mind that his past behavior has been questionable)\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s amazing to me what we focus on.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll grant you this: sometimes the media drives \u2014 or attempts<\/em> to drive \u2014 our focus. I really dislike that. There\u2019s too much bias in our media.<\/p>\n

All that said, I don\u2019t think as a culture, we\u2019re all that wise on what we focus on. Two reasons why\u2026 and finally\u2026 today\u2019s two quotes\u2026 from two wonderfully wise ones\u2026<\/p>\n

First\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cSumming it all up, friends, I\u2019d say you\u2019ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious \u2014 the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

And second\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever we pay attention to, grows.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Put those together. I have a feeling \u2014 granted, just a feeling \u2014 that we are paying attention to a whole lot of things that are growing, but are not that noble, reputable, best, beautiful, or wise\u2026<\/p>\n

I wonder why… I wonder how life would be different if our focus was, too…<\/p>\n

Respectfully\u2026
\nAR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My recent time away allowed for some increased observation. It\u2019s a fun exercise\u2026 you sit back, relax, take a little bit of extra time, maybe where never intended\u2026 Breathe, say very little, refrain from comment\u2026 You watch what everyone else is doing. You watch it. Consider it. No judgment. I\u2019m not talking about the quirkish, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “two quotes”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event","category-daily-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6585"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6585\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6593,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6585\/revisions\/6593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}