pretty sure we’ve all met “those” people. being happy and upbeat is, of course, a good thing, however… being so to the extent that “real” people groan under their breath when you come around and have no idea how to relate to you, not so good. it’s actually ok to identify with and express other real emotions in life. really. in fact, it might even have the effect of giving you the opportunity to have real relationships with other real people.

don’t get me wrong, we all need the more naturally optimistic people in our lives (I think I tend to fall more in this category actually, not that you would guess it from the remainder of this post ) to encourage and uplift us. there’s probably nothing more draining than a pessimistic, cynical person with a bitter outlook on life. it’s just that there has to be a balance there. I mean, even Proverbs tells us to take it down a notch sometimes, lol.

falling along somewhat the same lines, in the respect of not being “real”, are the overly spiritual. we’ve all probably had the oddly unsettling experience of being in the presence of these people. I guess I can only really speak for myself and Mr. D, though we’ve certainly discussed it with others who have similar feelings. it’s just, if you are a spiritual person yourself, what are you supposed to do when someone fans out their spiritual peacock feathers? how do you interact when someone’s response to any exchange is an attempt to parade out their spiritual prowess and wax spiritually melodramatic about life. after all, unless they impart their vastly superior understanding of this or that spiritual concept, how will you possibly ever be enlightened? and heaven forbid you unknowingly bring up a spiritual topic of conversation with this type of person. good luck ever winning the one-upping war that shall certainly ensue. because, you know, you’re just not possibly on the same spiritual plane.

(not sure how to credit this. it says “courtesy of ‘Real Life for Real’ by Rob Raborn/asburyblog.net which I searched and came up dry. the URL goes to a Japenese-looking site, so your guess is as good as mine. unless of course you speak Japenese. in which case, your guess is probably right. but in any case, when I came across this cartoon many years ago, I really identified with it.)

please excuse my sarcasm, but it is highly unsettling when listening to this type of person pray makes your skin crawl and gives you an overwhelming desire to bolt from the room. you are torn between feeling guilty that you can’t seem to mentally jump on board the pious train to the heavenly realm, wondering if you should be praying against your bad attitude; or giving yourself and the other person grace that we’re all just human and feelings aren’t necessarily based in reality, on your part or theirs.

we’re still in the process of understanding how best to handle stuff like this when it comes up, kind of like all the other craziness that comes from relating with humans, which incidentally we’re trying to do more of… we love people and we love being with people, but somehow at this stage in our life it’s just often easier not to make the effort

regular Joe’s loved hanging out with Jesus. please go forth and be spiritually responsible and relate-able human beings.