Thursday, December 9, 2010
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Wade Long, Older Man
One of the most favorite things in my world is working with the Social Justice team at my church, the Oasis. On Saturdays, we go out and volunteer with other organizations, doing a number of unspecified outreach tasks; all culminating in the simplicity of letting people know God cares, and so does His children.
Now, I must first off admit that due to some disappointing ministerial experiences in my past, Social Justice, for me, can be like taking medicine: At times I must nearly force myself to do it, but its healing properties far outlast the 3 hours we all commit ourselves to.
And if it’s true that these healing properties can be equated with penicillin, one of our most recent outings must have been an outpatient surgery, at the very least.
For the sake of time, I’ll spare the specifics of where we went and what it was that we did. But I will say it was genuine fun to find myself 1 of 3 men in the lot where we worked, with a sledgehammer in hand assigned to the destruction of large pieces of wood. The truth is it’s a stress reliever like none other. And I found myself thinking of situations I’ve never had the opportunity to amply express my frustrations with, and had at it!
I thought about the relationship I was in a few years ago with a woman who swore she KNEW I was the man God had sent to be her husband - even to the point of publicly referring to her own daughter as my stepdaughter - just to tell me a mere 2 weeks later that she did in fact love me, but was not “in love” with me… And I swung the sledgehammer!
I thought about the less than neighborly citizen here in L.A.
I began to think of my day job (referred to in an earlier entry). And as I carried away a few of the pieces I had chopped into the pile we stacked I noticed a young man about 1/3 my age, with my sledgehammer in his hand.
I wanted to make him give it back, and I had a plan. I would tell him it was too dangerous for him. That would do it!
… So after repenting from my selfishness I noticed I was truly concerned for his wellbeing. So I began to stop him, anyway.
Then - in him - I saw myself. I, too, was “younger” before. And with my father out of my life, coupled with being the youngest of four men-children all solely raised by our mother, I was usually sheltered from all things remotely dangerous. Loved, but sheltered. Cared for, but protected; too much, in many ways. And because of that - in part - until this day I am frankly often afraid to try new things. Now, I was an older man; still young, but somewhat empowered not to let the same thing happen to another young “me”.
I looked again at the young man, now wanting him to believe more than all, that nothing was too dangerous for him! Then, I nodded toward him… And he swung the sledgehammer!
# # #WCL
Monday, November 1, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
CITY OF HAMLETS Book One Update
The price of City of Hamlets Book One by Wade C. Long (me:) is beginning to rise by many of the retailers who now carry it. No official results as of yet, but my guess is it must be doing well. In light of that I decided a post a few of the links where those of you who still plan to purchase my ebook but haven't gotten around to it yet can still find it at a relatively low price. By the way, most of these prices are subject to change at any time, as well - so the sooner the better!
SMASHWORDS
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/23966
BARNES AND NOBLE
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/City-of-Hamlets-Book-One/Wade-C-Long/e/2940011102851/?itm=1&USRI=city+of+hamlets
SONY READER STORE
http://ebookstore.sony.com/search?keyword=city+of+hamlets
KOBO
http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/City-Of-Hamlets-Book-One/book-jEfJKHkQTEGoBFQP1Z0WJg/page1.html
For smart phone users, the Apple IBooks app still has it for $4.99, and the Borders mobile app is still listing it at $3.89, but Borders.com already lists it at $6.38, and one sight already has it above $7.00, just to show how fast things are changing. So go get it today. Tell a friend, or an enemy. And enjoy!
SMASHWORDS
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/23966
BARNES AND NOBLE
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/City-of-Hamlets-Book-One/Wade-C-Long/e/2940011102851/?itm=1&USRI=city+of+hamlets
SONY READER STORE
http://ebookstore.sony.com/search?keyword=city+of+hamlets
KOBO
http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/City-Of-Hamlets-Book-One/book-jEfJKHkQTEGoBFQP1Z0WJg/page1.html
For smart phone users, the Apple IBooks app still has it for $4.99, and the Borders mobile app is still listing it at $3.89, but Borders.com already lists it at $6.38, and one sight already has it above $7.00, just to show how fast things are changing. So go get it today. Tell a friend, or an enemy. And enjoy!
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Wade Long, Working Man
On any given weekend, the last thing someone who works at a place he hates should be thinking about is the place in which he hates to work. And yet, yesterday i found myself doing just that thing.
The job I speak of is one that has more then it's share of - let me put it nicely - "challenges". There are politics and favoritism found there, clearly obvious yet strongly denied. In this place there's a set-up for certain people to fail and others to succeed. Also, a horrid parking system that has kept me on a waiting list for well over a year now (when it was to take a couple of months, at best). Another example is the now dried throw-up on the steps of a stairwell (which, quite oddly, no one ever mentions). That was left there nearly two months ago.
And now, for this entry's disclaimer: My intent is not to underplay the blessing in having a job at this lean stage in our economy, rather to point out that there are several reasons to entirely shut that place out of my mind over the weekend - and perhaps, even while im there!
However, I have found myself as of late, strangely intrigued by the evil I face. And I'd be lying if I said there isn't an imaginary sports commentator with me daily to chronicle every moment of my statistical career as well as my valiant successes against all odds with my back up against the wall. Call it perseverance, pride, or all out maniacal but more and more -and in the midst of the agony found in having to spend more hours there than any other place - there's a rush growing deeper each day to prove the naysayers wrong, and to not allow them the opportunity to rid themselves of me on their own terms.
Perhaps this will all change soon. Maybe tomorrow I'll walk in and receive my last check along with some fictional concoction of a valid reason for extending to me my walking papers. But until then, if I have to put up with being set up for failure, I will at least remain an athletic superhero we all can be proud of - if only in my mind.
# # # WCL
The job I speak of is one that has more then it's share of - let me put it nicely - "challenges". There are politics and favoritism found there, clearly obvious yet strongly denied. In this place there's a set-up for certain people to fail and others to succeed. Also, a horrid parking system that has kept me on a waiting list for well over a year now (when it was to take a couple of months, at best). Another example is the now dried throw-up on the steps of a stairwell (which, quite oddly, no one ever mentions). That was left there nearly two months ago.
And now, for this entry's disclaimer: My intent is not to underplay the blessing in having a job at this lean stage in our economy, rather to point out that there are several reasons to entirely shut that place out of my mind over the weekend - and perhaps, even while im there!
However, I have found myself as of late, strangely intrigued by the evil I face. And I'd be lying if I said there isn't an imaginary sports commentator with me daily to chronicle every moment of my statistical career as well as my valiant successes against all odds with my back up against the wall. Call it perseverance, pride, or all out maniacal but more and more -and in the midst of the agony found in having to spend more hours there than any other place - there's a rush growing deeper each day to prove the naysayers wrong, and to not allow them the opportunity to rid themselves of me on their own terms.
Perhaps this will all change soon. Maybe tomorrow I'll walk in and receive my last check along with some fictional concoction of a valid reason for extending to me my walking papers. But until then, if I have to put up with being set up for failure, I will at least remain an athletic superhero we all can be proud of - if only in my mind.
# # # WCL
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Wade Long, Family Man
Yesterday was strange for me. It started off as many Saturdays do; unable to catch up on some much needed sleep due to a condition I've coined as EDI, or Euphoria-driven Insomnia. This disorder usually occurs during instances of indescribable bliss; and mine was found in realizing that for two days straight I wouldn't have to make that much dreaded journey to my day job.
Perhaps adding to the excitement was the fact that unlike most, this would be a Saturday where in lieu of my normal routine of Social Justice at the Oasis (which, by the way, I truly do adore) I would hang around all morning waiting on a utility person to come and perform some well needed maintenance on my apartment.
The good news is the utility person showed in the 3rd of the 10 hour time frame I was given for their expected arrival; which, in turn, left me to some long overdue "me time". Not "working on a new project time" or "calling to check up on an old friend" time, but straight up do nothing, defragment, and just be "me time".
As I sat there in my gray jogging pants, a white t-shirt, and a long neglected beard that would have made Grizzly Adams proud, my mind began to drift off, into the wonders of Never-never land.
Surprisingly, I found myself a family man. (Now before I continue I feel a need to break for a disclaimer: I'm not the guy who is afraid of commitment or who doesn't feel "ready" to settle down. That's not me at all. The truth is I would have loved to have married at a young age. Instead - an adulthood of chasing dreams and causes; ones which for me have remained paramount matters of precedence over the notion of any prospective love affair, coupled with a few social deficiencies and self-development issues I regrettably admit to - I have found myself 34 and somewhat comfortably single.)
And yesterday in my imaginative state, I saw myself; a future me, perhaps, desperately in love with the woman of my dreams. I saw picket fences, and a Labrador (I think I'll name him "Rusty" for the sake of this entry). My two kids - Melinda who was 7 and had her mother's sparkling eyes, along with her little brother Stephen who was no older than 6 and the spitting image of his father - were chasing Rusty around the yard.
The scene was so surreal it was like something from my own novel CITY OF HAMLETS Book One, the part in chapter one where I speak of Hamlet families "laughing carefree in the placidity of their nooks". For a moment, I was a hard working dad and a loving husband who toiled all week, inspired by visions of moments just like this one; the pot of gold at the end of a trying week's rainbow.
Lastly, I came back to myself. There I was again - single. Hard-working albeit; but unmarried and without children, all the same. I found myself once more, this time facing reality, and truthfully, somewhat relieved that I again, had the day to myself. But then I thought once more, if only for a moment; what if?
Perhaps adding to the excitement was the fact that unlike most, this would be a Saturday where in lieu of my normal routine of Social Justice at the Oasis (which, by the way, I truly do adore) I would hang around all morning waiting on a utility person to come and perform some well needed maintenance on my apartment.
The good news is the utility person showed in the 3rd of the 10 hour time frame I was given for their expected arrival; which, in turn, left me to some long overdue "me time". Not "working on a new project time" or "calling to check up on an old friend" time, but straight up do nothing, defragment, and just be "me time".
As I sat there in my gray jogging pants, a white t-shirt, and a long neglected beard that would have made Grizzly Adams proud, my mind began to drift off, into the wonders of Never-never land.
Surprisingly, I found myself a family man. (Now before I continue I feel a need to break for a disclaimer: I'm not the guy who is afraid of commitment or who doesn't feel "ready" to settle down. That's not me at all. The truth is I would have loved to have married at a young age. Instead - an adulthood of chasing dreams and causes; ones which for me have remained paramount matters of precedence over the notion of any prospective love affair, coupled with a few social deficiencies and self-development issues I regrettably admit to - I have found myself 34 and somewhat comfortably single.)
And yesterday in my imaginative state, I saw myself; a future me, perhaps, desperately in love with the woman of my dreams. I saw picket fences, and a Labrador (I think I'll name him "Rusty" for the sake of this entry). My two kids - Melinda who was 7 and had her mother's sparkling eyes, along with her little brother Stephen who was no older than 6 and the spitting image of his father - were chasing Rusty around the yard.
The scene was so surreal it was like something from my own novel CITY OF HAMLETS Book One, the part in chapter one where I speak of Hamlet families "laughing carefree in the placidity of their nooks". For a moment, I was a hard working dad and a loving husband who toiled all week, inspired by visions of moments just like this one; the pot of gold at the end of a trying week's rainbow.
Lastly, I came back to myself. There I was again - single. Hard-working albeit; but unmarried and without children, all the same. I found myself once more, this time facing reality, and truthfully, somewhat relieved that I again, had the day to myself. But then I thought once more, if only for a moment; what if?
# # # WCL
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