I’ve been working on Real Joe for a couple of years, but only the last twelve months in earnest. Here’s an article about a guy who’s been working to solve a huge problem for thirty years and just now is seeing it come to fruition. It helps put what I’m doing in perspective. In Africa, irrigating with saltwater
Here’s an eye-catching headline: ‘Puffy’ Combs says trial changed him
It’s easy to be cynical when I read that Puffy said after being aquitted, “I’ve changed, I’ve matured. This whole thing has made me deeper. It’s not what it was about before … I want to sit down and think about it and try and understand it on an intellectual level. I’m going to be taking some time off to make sure I evaluate everything and get my priorities straight. I have to see what’s important: my family, my children, my faith in God.”
Combs evidently credited God for his victory, along with the jury and his lawyers. I suspect that God declined to get involved once He found out Johnnie Cochran was on duty. (There. Cynicism out of my system.)
God has surely been knocking at Puffy’s door all along, however, and it sounds like Puffy just might be ready to listen. If you look at Puffy’s words, though, they could easily be any of ours after any one of our potentially life-changing events that invited us to open our eyes to our mistaken thinking and goofball behavior.
Have any of us had an affair, or come close? Lost our temper and hurt someone? Performed poorly or unethically on a job? Neglected our families or friends to the point of harming the relationships? Done something illegal for which we could have gotten into big trouble?
So I’m rooting for Puffy. He could become a much better dad now. He could become a role model. Hey, I wonder if Nelson Mandella could find something useful for him to do?
Three St. Olaf students killed on Illinois highway
Another wrong-way drunk driver on the freeway. This tragedy triggered more than a few chills since my son was in a similar accident five years ago. He IM’d me yesterday, saying he felt pretty lucky to be alive after reading what happened. He had a seatbelt on but so did the St. Olaf students. I’m just grateful that he’s not bitter, despite his multiple spine surgeries and ongoing pain.
I winced, though, when I read that St. Olaf’s dean of students said, “These are great kids and they were great friends. You don’t expect to lose people this good.”
Huh? Normally, one expects jerks to die?