So. How to combine what was a happy Sunday morning with reminder of these decidedly unhappy events? I think I shall do it in the following way: by continuing with my Ten Reasons to Love Sundays, thereby declaring one obvious thing: Bad things are a part of life, but that doesn’t mean we give up the good. Does not celebrating the small stuff help us to find that right combination of grace and courage to fight the bad?

TEN REASONS TO LOVE SUNDAYS

Breakfast, no rush.

Random reading. A little Statecraft (Margaret Thatcher), a couple of pages of How then shall we live? (Chuck Colson) combined with Facebook status updates.

Cleaning my winter boots (with polish).

Skipping church. A decidedly non-rebellious form of rebellion. (If I had gone to church, I would have included going to church as a reason to love Sundays. I am pro-church, but whimsical, for those of you concerned about my spiritual frame of mind.)

Getting ready for next weekend (forward thinking!).

Second breakfast, likewise, no rush.

The fine art of puttering. Here, sorry to show off, I excel.

Making additional tasty salad dressing for vast quantities of leftover salad from party the night before. You’ll want to keep this recipe on hand. Never before has a mere salad solicited so much praise. Why the leftovers then? Because I made enough for 1000 men, marching strong, that’s why. (As everyone knows, strong men marching want nothing more than a Napa Cabbage Salad afterwards.)

Reminding myself of what my guitar sounds like. Must. Learn. F.

Thinking about skiing. Considering skiing. And eventually, though not quite yet, skiing.

(File under “Nothing in particular.”)

All women with faulty breast implants should have them removed given the ‘uncertainty and lack of knowledge’ about the extent of the problems, a leading surgeon warned today.

Tim Goodacre, a member of the Government-commissioned panel investigating the scandal, said the latest estimate of rupture rates was “very much higher” than he would consider acceptable.

About 50,000 British women are thought to have received the silicone implants made by Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) filled with gel meant for mattresses.

What am I talking about? Click here.

So. Today, I link to this amazing accomplishment of Hawaiian surfer Garret McNamara–who recently beat a world record by surfing the largest wave in the world! Pretty wild. I watch it and can’t believe he wasn’t crushed by the sheer force of the water–but there at the end, out he comes, still standing. There’s an allegory in there somewhere, for someone. Enjoy.

The moral? This whole endeavor took a lot of time and effort on the part of management, there were phone calls and follow-ups. I’m the only person that had questioned the posters in a building with about sixty employees. I’m incredibly grateful to my co-workers for their support but also recognize that this is perhaps not an isolated event. I don’t work in a vacuum, it’s just a gym. So don’t be afraid to bring these things up, who knows what kind of change you might effect.

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Andrea adds: Funny. And who says men and women are the same? I’m not clear what the ad is for, though. “We’ll write your Valentine’s messages for you?” That strikes me as (another) way to lose points with your wife/girlfriend. (“You couldn’t think of anything nice to say all on your own?”)

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Update: Had to watch again. Why? Because today I got mail from Bell Canada. They’d like it very much if I’d return to be their customer again. As I told them on the phone when they called me about this same matter, I already am a customer. Then I asked them not to contact me again. Guess they didn’t jot down those parts–either about me being a customer or not contacting me again. Therapy. This clip is therapy.