My hail-damaged car was declared totaled by the insurance adjuster, so off I went in my rental to find and buy a different car.** When speaking to my insurance agent over the phone, I was told to bring in the title of my surrendered car along with a photo ID in order to collect my coverage check. I drove home from work feeling sure that I knew where the title was, but when I opened the envelope I was expecting to find it in, it was not there. I pressed down a wave of panic, searching diligently until I found it.

This experience made me think about the importance of paper documents – and why we keep some and throw others away. Though our world has become increasingly filled with digital replacements (and some say eventually everything will be digital), many of the most important documents in our lives are written or printed on paper or some form of paper/plastic.

Car titles. Passports and drivers licenses. Leases and contracts. Wills and power of attorney papers. Birth, marriage, and death certificates. Insurance cards. Diplomas. Letters of recommendation. Hand-written notes from those we love or respect.

The above are not necessarily valuable because of what they are written or printed on. They are valuable because of what’s represented in that writing.

Ownership. Identity. Promises. Trust. Final wishes. Life, love, and leaving. Protection. Achievement. Good faith. Relationships.

The same holds true for a printed book. I could go and buy any new Bible or a copy of Great Expectations from the bookstore. But the feeling I’d have in picking up those new copies is not the same as the one I have while holding my grandfather’s worn Bible or my friend’s favorite copy of Dickens. The feel of holding the paper copies in my hands is comforting, both for the texture and smell of old leather and cloth covers – but even more so because of the people or memories they represent to me, and the solid writing found in these books.

This is what key written documents do: help us to hold the value of all life, and of our own life, in our hands.

And this is what well-written words do: help us to consider lives and thoughts of the past and present and think of how we will live in the present and the future.

The next time you look at or hold something hand-written or printed that is valuable to you, consider these words. Take a moment to be grateful for what you own, what you have been entrusted with, the people you love, and the blessings you have been given. Let the tangible remind you of the intangible and the unseen.

**Special thanks to Marc Alvarado and the staff of Dingman’s Collision Center, Aaron Stockton and State Farm, Andy Larson and his colleague Jean of Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and Quincy Hunt and the team at Beardmore Subaru for helping me through the maze of my car replacement process. God bless you all.

 

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A dear friend named Allie encouraged me to do something I very rarely do: go on a road trip. We set our sites on Winterset, Iowa – the little town where John Wayne was born. He is one of the most beloved American actors of all time and arguably the quintessential cowboy of cinema. Allie and I thoroughly enjoyed the drive and our time at the John Wayne museum, the nearby birthplace (a quaint four-room house), and the delightful square/downtown area of Winterset.

I knew a little about the life of John Wayne prior to this trip, and I had enjoyed watching parts or all of several of his movies. But there were a number of things about his roots and his life that struck me as I toured the museum, browsed books in the gift shop, and peered into the room where he was born.

He was a hard worker and an extremely considerate person. He went for the practical over the expensive and showy. He was quick to express his gratitude to others. And he was honest through and through.

But what struck me most profoundly was how he was a real “man of his word.” Even when it meant having to do things that might not seem the best for his career or when it was not easy, if the Duke (as so many called him) signed a contract or told someone he would do something, he followed through. He didn’t go back on an agreement or break his promise. That seemed to be one of his core personal principles.

I thought that deserved to be applauded. Presently, I hear a lot of people say they will do things or make big plans – only to pull out or otherwise let the other person/people down. True, there are things we cannot control, and we would all understand if, say, a father had to postpone an event or job because his child was being rushed to the hospital. But how often are we tempted to drop out of something or walk away from an agreement just because we don’t “feel” like it or it’s not convenient for us? Or because we pack our schedules too full/tight and over commit?

It’s good to ponder the rewards – if only in character-building – we receive when we do what we say we will do, even when we don’t feel like it or it’s not convenient.

The day before our planned road trip, Allie heard my car had been heavily damaged in a hailstorm. She asked if I still wanted to go or if I needed to back out. (She had already planned to drive, but wasn’t sure if I’d feel able to get away for the day.) As I have long been a person who hates to go back on my word once it’s given, I was determined to accompany her no matter what.

A lovely day with a gem of a friend. I’m so glad I followed through and didn’t miss the opportunity.

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There is power in repetition. How many times have we used it to remember facts for an exam or temporarily recall some important piece of information when we can’t find a pen to write it down? How often have we been uplifted by hearing a compliment more than once on the same day or been torn down by hearing another’s criticisms several times in a row?

It’s amazing how often our thoughts can circle around to the same thing or follow similar patterns. At the risk of overly simplifying things, I suggest that our brains often get stuck in negative repetitive ways of thinking – patterns we must actively work to break or derail. And the best way to do that is to replace the negative with the positive. For we will think – and we will often think repetitively. So let’s repeat the good stuff.

Several years ago, I was plagued by a great deal of worry. At best, it was distracting. At worst, on some days, it was almost debilitating. I wanted to bring an end to the cycle. So I started a worry notebook. I carried around a small notebook with me, and every time I found myself worrying about something, I wrote it down in my notebook and said, “God, I give it to You. It is no longer inside of me, no longer has a place in my mind.” Then I would look back over the list from time to time and see all the things I used to worry about that had slowly become unimportant or less troublesome in my thought life.

But to paraphrase a famous teaching of Jesus, it’s not enough to clean out the house and leave it empty; after cleaning out the bad, we must infuse the good.

A couple of years ago, my dad introduced our family to the idea of a “blessing box”. He gave each of us a small wooden box and slips of brightly colored paper. Then he encouraged us to develop a new habit of gratitude. Every time we encountered a blessing in daily life, he suggested we write the date and a summary of the blessing on a slip of paper before adding it to the box.

I’ve given up keeping a worry notebook – though there are days when I think taking up that habit would be useful again. But the blessing boxes at home and at work: those have been filling up steadily. I need to keep using them until they are full and I have to start new boxes or buy bigger boxes. In this way, I will use repetitive thoughts focused on the positive in a way that gives life.

Let this be a motto for each of us day by day: May the input I give myself and others repeat what’s good and true, what’s blessed.

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While I was building this blog, I had to come up with a tag line, a subtitle-snapshot to show what I’m about. So I chose “apt words to light the world.” But what does apt mean? It is more than the abbreviation for apartment, and it is not some typo for every smartphone owner’s favorite collectible.

Webster’s dictionary defines it several ways: 1) likely to do something, 2) very well qualified, 3) quick to learn, and 4) appropriate or suitable. Let’s focus for a moment on the last meaning.

King Solomon of Israel lived in the 900’s B.C. History describes him as an extremely wise man and just ruler. He once wrote that a judge’s correct ruling is like golden apples in a silver holder. Another of his pithy sayings has been translated into English as, “A person finds joy in giving an apt reply, and how good is a timely word!”

In 2017, the word apt sounds quaint, remote. But the fact that it means timely is proof that we should reintroduce it into our vocabulary – conceptually if not literally. In a world overrun with a cacophony of words – many of them butchered, empty, false, or degrading – there is a desperate place (and hunger) for apt words. That’s what I’m about: in writing and in speaking, offering words that are appropriate, suitable, timely. Words that bring life and build up.

Serious writers are charged to say things in a fresh way that will attract the attention of readers and publishers alike. I suggest that aptness and freshness are not always the same–and that aptness is ultimately far more important.

No matter how you use written communication in your daily life – whether professionally, academically, or personally – consider this. We don’t need more new words to cloud the waters of meaning, and we don’t need more fresh words that will drift away with the tide of fads. We need well-written and spoken words that are meaningful and useful. Apt words are rarely new – they are often reminders of truth we should know, the direction we should go, and the love in which we should grow. The new will fade, and the fresh will become stale. But the well-written word is a thing of beauty. And the apt word – that is golden.

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