DavidGervino.com

Merry Christmas

Sorry for not updating the site in a while --  My new job is wearing me out and has me working all kinds of hours....  I thought this picture on the left was cool 'cause the cat looks kind of like my cat, Luke (A.K.A. "el Gato").

Every year at this time, it cracks me up to see the lengths people go to to take Christ out of Christmas.  If someone doesn't want to believe, that's their choice, but why try to ruin everyone else's holiday??? Speaking of "holiday," there has lately been a big push for retailers to say "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas." But when it comes down to it, "Holiday" comes from "Holy" + "Day," so you really can't even use that as a secular greeting.  And Santa??? That hat and suit he wears is actually patterned after the old garb that bishops would wear, so no matter what part of Christmas you try to secularize, it really is all about Christ.

With the New Year rapidly approaching, I pause and reflect on the events that have occurred in 2005.  I've had some ups and downs over the past year.  I experienced going from a job where I made the most money I've ever made in my life to another job where I made less than I did at my "insignificant" part-time jobs in college.  Stuff like that really helps me to keep things in perspective and realize what is important. And when it comes down to it, nothing is more important than God, family and true friends.  I'm so grateful for all the blessings in my life.  I'm even grateful for the speed-bumps that jostled me around and helped me to keep my perspective over this past year. 

All signs point toward 2006 being a great year for me.   I hope and pray that it is a great year for you, as well!

Mere Christianity

I just picked up Mere Christianity, by C.S. Lewis last night.  I was actually looking for some other items (See next post) when I came across it.  I've heard people mention it for years but I never really felt drawn toward reading it.  When I would flip through it at the bookstores, the material seemed kind of dry to me.  Maybe it is one of those "When the student is ready, the teacher will arrive" kind of things.

As I was at the bookstore last night, I saw this book and "knew" that I should get it, despite the fact that I was already familiar with it and had dismissed the idea of reading it several times before.  So I got it and began reading it earlier this morning.  What an incredible book! I will probably pick this book back up after lunch and read it straight-through to the end.  I can't recommend this book highly enough.  I think anyone, whether he is strong in his faith, weak in his faith or he has no faith at all, can benefit from reading this.

Funny Experience

So I was over at Wheaton Religious Book & Gift yesterday, intending to pick up next year's guides for the Book of Christian Prayer, as well as next year's guide for the Daily Missal.  They had the first guide I wanted but not the second.  It kind of reminded me of when I had my seasonal job at Franklin Covey.

Franklin Covey's main business is concerned with selling training & tools (Planners, etc.) to help people be organized.  I worked there during the Christmas season in 2000.  So at Christmas, the busiest shipping time of the year, this company, which was committed to organization and planning in advance, thought it would be a good time to change shipping companies.  Hundreds of people would come in our store each day and ask for the 2006 calendar pages and we had to tell them to check back in another month or so because we didn't have any.  Even worse then telling the customers that our company didn't have the foresight to plan ahead was that we had to listen to their smart alec remarks, such as, "How does your company think it can teach others to plan ahead if it can't even get it's own stuff together?"

I must share another quick story this brings to mind.  In college, I had an unhealthy "addiction" to fried chicken.  In fact, I even wound up working at a fast-food chicken place as a part-time job.  The only thing I can compare this to would be the "addiction" some, more sophisticated people, have to sushi.  You just get a craving for it and you know you have to drop everything you're doing and go get it. 

So it was late one night and I was in my dorm when I had a "chicken attack" and I knew the only thing to do was to get out of bed, get dressed and go to KFC. This was back in the day, when they weren't ashamed of the poison they peddled, and they were proud to be known as Kentucky FRIED Chicken, rather than just their innocuous initials.  So I put on my sweats and flip-flops, step over countless bodies of passed-out inebriated people in the hallways of the athletic dorm in which I lived, and made my way to KFC.  Now to truly appreciate this story, you've got to realize that my college town only had one chicken place that was open past 10 p.m.  And I went to school in a remote location that was far from any other towns with late-night drive thru's.  So I'm sure you can appreciate the importance of me getting my chicken fix at this one particular KFC.  'Cause if I couldn't get it there, I was out of luck until 11 a.m. the following morning.

I drive to KFC and pull up to the drive-thru. "Welcome to KFC.  May I take your order?" This guy lets me get through my entire order before he says, "I'm sorry.  We're out of chicken." Out of chicken? Surely he must have meant that they were out of Original and only had Extra Crispy.  Or maybe he meant they were cooking more chicken and he didn't have any at that precise moment, meaning I'd have to wait 5 minutes.  So, utilizing the interview & interrogation skills I was learning from my Police Procedures class, I asked some follow-up questions and learned that they were, in fact, totally out of chicken! But even more ironic than a chicken place being out of chicken is that they stayed open, telling customers, "We're out of chicken but you can order mashed potatoes and cole slaw if you like." How ridiculous is that!?