[insert your life here]

The passage in James about Taming the Tongue again came alive to me tonight. After a brief conversation with someone, they left my presence in a hurry and I was at a complete loss as to why. When I stopped to reconsider the situation I realized that I had no clue what may have come out of this hideous pit of a mouth so as to incite this person to possibly take some form of offense. Dangerous.

Even in my everyday dealings with people, I enjoy railing a bit on people. All in fun, but I am considering it's necessity and if it is as fun for the person as it is for me. There could be a healthy balance if the person and I have come to some form of agreement in the railing process where we rail off eachother in a reciprocal fashion and acknowledge this is a simple expression of our love for eachother... but I have not come to this agreement with everyone. Some railings just seem to serve as a conversational tactic for me, but when I walk away from a person, I want them to leave me feeling encouraged, not belittled.

This reminds me of a friend from school. Everyone knows and respects Aidan. Though a conversation with him can be a slow process, it's always worthwhile. Aidan doesn't say anything without thoroughly thinking through his words. He looks you in the eye. He gives you his full attention. He collects graphing calculators. He never mocks someone else to lift himself up.

The only people I have a right to rail on are Carly, Erin, and, in actuality, only myself. (Carly and Erin, I like you both a lot!) Carly, Erin, and I have that agreement I discussed before. We rail on eachother but always walk away encouraged because we know the importance of lifting eachother up as well. I think next year I will also have a little more opportunity to rail on my future roomate because, well... I don't know. (Adrianne I miss you SO much!). I can rail on myself as much as I want and there is plenty for me to rail on (like where did I learn how to dress!? you should've seen the odd concoction I put together tonight! it was so bad!).........(but I really liked it...) and I would much rather rail on myself and smash my own ego (which really shouldn't exist) than someone else's.

So, I suppose the reason I write to you of this is so you can hold me accountable. Don't let me rail on you.

Next topic: does anyone know what I mean by rail? I do. But I realize I completely took the word, used it in the wrong context and added my own connotative meaning to it. What fun! Words are killer.

In other news, check out this picture!