Joe Bennett @joerbennett - Tumblr Blog

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This beauty is all mine. Happy 10th Anniversary ya weirdo! The traditional gift for 10 yrs is tin/aluminum. You want a can or tin foil? You choose!

Happy Birthday ya weirdo. #hegetsithonest

#hegetsithonest

Big thanks to Valley Creek BC for having us be ridiculous on stage.

The Best/Worst List: Friday, March 7

Each Friday (or when I feel like it) I will list the 3 Best and Worst Things from each week.

THE BEST LIST

1. Community The NBC show, not the concept. The concept is good, but it did not make this week's Best List. Maybe next week. 2. BBQ I love BBQ. I love BBQ sandwiches, chicken, potato chips, corn chips, sauce, beans. BBQ makes me happy. 3. The color blue Shoutout to the color blue doing work. A red sky just doesn't work. Also, blue matches my eyes.

THE WORST LIST

1. Pickles I hate 'em. 2. The texture of wooden popsicle sticks I gag every time one touches my tongue. 3. Wasting time You are probably doing it right now by reading this.

Indeed.

Again, Again and Again...

I have a toddler in my house, which means I hear the word "again" a lot.

"Do it again!"

"I want to watch that again!"

"Play that again!"

"Again! Again! Again!"

My son loves the song "Cruise" by Florida Georgia Line. I realize this is probably not the best song for a two year old to listen to, but I've learned to pick my battles.

Another song my son loves is "This Is My Commandment" from a VeggiesTales CD he listens to in the church nursery on Sunday mornings. If you don't know it, here is a terrible version.

Here are the lyrics:

"This is my commandment that you love one another That your joy may be full"

And that's pretty much it. And he sings it all...the...time. He sings it in the car, at home, before bed. He screams it. He whispers it. He hums it.

I've heard this song at least eleventy billion times. At least.

But last week he was singing it in the car (AGAIN) and it hit me: If you love one another your joy will be full. This simple song is true. Life is better when you love other people.

Commandment can seem like a negative word, but the Lord's commandments are burdensome. They give life.

And it is a joy to do them again and again and again...

Too Much

There is just too much.

Music to listen to.

TV shows to watch.

Books to read.

Podcasts to listen to.

People to meet with.

Blogs to keep up with.

News stories to know about.

New restaurants to choose from.

Appointments, meetings, interruptions, distractions.

There is just too much.

I get overwhelmed when deciding what to get at a KFC/Taco Bell.

I guess this is why vision and clarity are so important.

Do what matters and forget the rest.

I'm preaching to myself.

Owning It

Yesterday was a good day.

First, I had Popeye's for the fourth time in two weeks. That chicken and those biscuits would be enough to make for a good day, but something else happened while we were there that brought a lot of joy.

My family and I were eating with two other couples. Side note: one of our friends was having Popeye's for the first time. Who waits that long to eat delicious, spicy chicken at an affordable price?!?

My son was avoiding eating at all costs so after he exhausted his other options (waving at the cars in the drive thru, dipping his fingers in the ketchup and going to the potty) he decided to stand up in the booth and walk towards me. As he was making his way over, his foot slipped off the edge. His face changed instantly from happiness to panic as he tried to catch himself. Before I could grab him, he managed to move in such a way to save himself from falling in the floor. He did not save himself from looking silly. And as a good parent I laughed and so did everyone else at the table.

I thought he was going to be really embarrassed that we were all laughing, but he did something that surprised me and filled me with a lot of pride:

He owned it.

Instead of letting us have the upper hand, my two year old son stood up, re-enacted his fall and made us laugh again.

That is a big deal.

He did not let this moment own him. He took control and made fun of himself.

We cannot control what happens to us , but we can control how we react to what happens to us. That lesson took me a long time to learn (I'm still learning it).

Of course the lesson is this: next time you are dancing on a booth and you fall, just own it.

5 Movie Sequels That Should Be Made!

ATTENTION MOVIE PRODUCERS:

Movie sequels seem to be the easiest way for Hollywood to make money. I like making money so I thought I would pitch some sequel ideas. Hey, Hollywood Executives, just make the check out to Straight Cash Money.

1. Titanic II You thought Jack died?!? You were dead wrong! Jack was rescued by a colony of cold water mermaids and falls in love with the mermaid princess. It's basically The Little Mermaid, but switched around. Just get this script in Leo's hands and tell me he doesn't want to be a part of it. I smell an Oscar win!

2. Ferris Bueller's Day Off From Work Set 20 years from the original, Ferris finds himself working at a dead-end job with a boss that doesn't see his potential. So he attempts to relive his glory days in high school and plays hooky from work. His boss finds out and immediately fires him. That's all I've got for that one so far. 3. Cast Away! The exclamation point shows it's different from the original. After returning to civilization, Chuck (Tom Hanks) now works as a casting agent and is CASTING AWAY! Hollywood loves to make movies about itself so I think a "thank you" is in order for this idea. It's a buddy comedy about Chuck and Wilson looking to cast a movie about their life story.

4. Wolverine: The Musical Comic book nerds will clearly go see any movie based on superheroes (there was a sequel to Fantastic Four!) and Hugh Jackman will apparently only be in movies where he gets to play Wolverine or sing. You could have an emotional scene where Wolverine sings about the pain of having claws and those sideburns.

5. Police Academy 8 It has been 20 years since the last Police Academy. There's a whole generation that has never got to experience a Police Academy movie in the theater (the only proper way to watch these films). C'mon Hollywood! Wait...there's actually a Police Academy 8 in the works! You're the best Hollywood!

Balance

Life is full of really awful things. Wars. Cancer. Pickles.

Working at a church, I end up making hospital visits, attending funerals, and hearing terribly sad stories (for the record, there's lots of great stuff when you work at a church too). Sometimes it can be overwhelming. Sometimes I feel helpless. There have been times when I have let all this sadness consume me. Since I don't do drugs I can't numb the pain with cocaine so I choose to watch a lot of TV instead. Thanks Netflix!

With so much evil and sadness in the world I tend to go the other way by focusing on laughing, jokes and making fun of things people take way too seriously. Sometimes people perceive my attitude toward life to mean that I don't take anything serious or that I simply don't care. This could not be further from the truth. But I will freely admit that sometimes I do take this attitude too far. But if I'm going to err then I want to err on the side of silliness.

I'm not Jewish, but I'm fascinated by some of their traditions. A reoccurring theme throughout Judaism is the need to balance great moments of joy with reminders of the hardships of life. When your history is filled with great atrocities it is probably good to remember this principal. Typical Jewish weddings will have a series of blessings read aloud. What follows these seven blessings is the breaking of glass. Traditionally, the man will break a glass by stomping on it and then the crowd will shout "Mazel Tov," which means good luck and the party starts.

The breaking of glass does not seem to have an exact meaning, but one thing seems to be clear: this tradition is to serve as a reminder that our joy should be tempered and that there is sorrow in life.

Life is balancing act. You don't want to be Debbie (or Daryl) Downer all the time, but you also want to avoid being a person that lives in a bubble of sunshine and butterflies.

In the Bible there is a book called Ecclesiastes, which can be very depressing at first since the verse repeated throughout the earlier chapters is "everything is meaningless." You probably won't see that quote on a motivational poster. And no one is using that as their "life verse."

In chapter 3, the author writes this: "I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God."

Finding happiness in all this toil is a gift of God. Even in a world full of death, diseases and slow internet connections.

Today is my wife's birthday. She shares a b-day with Ice-T. Here is what their faces look like mashed up. Happy Birthday Andrea!

Fear of Pooping Part 2: Breaking Wind

"I just toot at every house. My house, Mamaw's house, church, school. I just toot everywhere." - my son

Obviously prompted by my writing about his fear of pooping, my son proceeded to actually use the toilet for number 2 the following day. There has been much rejoicing in the Bennett household. Consequently, he has become obsessed with talking about tooting and pooping. I consider this a fair trade seeing as I don't have to change stinky diapers.

I didn't beg and plead for him to do it. Seemingly out of nowhere, he just went to the bathroom by himself and did it.

Just go do it. Quit being scared and go do it. That's the lesson I'm taking away from all of this. And yes, I am taking a lesson from my son learning to poop on the potty.

Fear of Pooping

My almost-3-year-old son has a fear of pooping on the toilet.

We are in the bowels of potty training and while he has no fear of number 1 on the toilet, he is absolutely terrified of number 2. To his credit, 2 is a bigger number than 1.

"It gets stuck! I can't! It'll hurt!"

I try to use logic. But trying to use logic with a toddler is like trying to use logic with a toddler.

"I promise it will be better if you just use the potty. No more dirty diapers! This just makes sense. Why can't you see that?"

So we are at an impasse. His fears are irrational, but that's how fears are a lot of the times. Until you go through them or see the lie behind the fear you feel stuck.

His life will be better if he gets past this fear. My life will be better.

Instead of ridding himself of the crap, he chooses to walk around in it.

And I do the same exact thing all the time (not actual crap...I don't poop my pants anymore). I choose to walk around in fear instead of choosing a better way. The Lord tries to show me the truth, but I choose to believe the lies all too often.

Moral of the story: Quit walking around in crap. There's a better way.

Dump of Thoughts

I want to write something great.

But I am so easily distracted. My two year old has more focus than I do at times. Oh, what's on Facebook? Someone posted a new recap video? Great. I probably need to see that. Someone linked to another article giving me 25 reasons why Saved By the Bell changed a generation. Sure. I'll click on that. I might as well check Twitter as well. Then Instagram. Of course, I should probably see if there are any new blog posts. And by the time I do all of that, I should probably check Facebook again because someone I barely know could have posted something new regarding the weather.

Eventually I will get around to writing something meaningful. But then I wonder if I have anything meaningful to say. Is there too much information out there already? Am I just adding to all of the noise?

I wish I had a good end to this post. I don't. I'm just putting it out there.

I know what I should write. I should write 26 Reasons Saved By the Bell Changed a Generation!

New Year.

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