Stories from the Curator

From the Collector – I have been asking lots of people:

“May I ask you a question?” … “Yes”

“If you could give up a single word for a week that would improve your life what would it be?”
If examples are requested I say, “Like have-to, should, can’t is the most popular to date.”

The taxi driver to the airport thought he should give up “What the F” which is what he usually starts his day with because of carpal tunnel in his arm that prevents him from playing his beloved guitar.

The woman on the plane sitting next me wrestled with whether she should give up “Hate” or “Vodka” and settled on “Hate.

On my return the young man at the car rental check out is giving up “Can’t” because he thinks that will help him be more motivated and ambitious.

The young engineer, self-described geek, in the security line behind me at the airport me is giving up “Yes.

The waitress at the airport restaurant said she would like to give up “Stop” because that is what she says to her young son all the time. But she worried if she gave up “Stop” she might slap her son instead and then said that she really needed a short vacation.

Let us know what words you have given up. Let us know how you have used giveupaWORD. Many thanks.

Hate

The phrase I chose to give up this week was “I hate.” In giving up “I hate,” I was disturbed by how liberally I use it—not so much to describe whole people, but more often people’s habits that irritate me. “I hate it when people are late… I hate it when people are disorganized… I hate it when people are competitive…” So often, if I’m honest with myself, I realize that my own frailties and shortcomings are the real object of my hatred towards others—frailties and shortcomings that are easier to point out as what “I hate” about someone else instead of reckoning with the unresolved hatred I still harbor toward these parts of myself. In the prayer that has accompanied my fasting from “I hate,” I’ve discovered that these shadow sides of myself are also the places where God is longing to show me mercy, and through which God is calling me into deeper relationship.

Edmund, RI

Hate

The phrase I chose to give up this week was “I hate.” In giving up “I hate,” I was disturbed by how liberally I use it—not so much to describe whole people, but more often people’s habits that irritate me. “I hate it when people are late… I hate it when people are disorganized… I hate it when people are competitive…” So often, if I’m honest with myself, I realize that my own frailties and shortcomings are the real object of my hatred towards others—frailties and shortcomings that are easier to point out as what “I hate” about someone else instead of reckoning with the unresolved hatred I still harbor toward these parts of myself. In the prayer that has accompanied my fasting from “I hate,” I’ve discovered that these shadow sides of myself are also the places where God is longing to show me mercy, and through which God is calling me into deeper relationship.

Edmund, RI