I have no problem telling my age - it's 59 - and I have no problem being the age I am - no thanks, L'oreal.

What I AM having problems with today is losing Harold Ramis.  If you need to Google him, shame on you.  Do any of these movies ring a bell?  National Lampoon's Animal House or Vacation? Caddyshack? Stripes? Groundhog Day? Ghostbusters? Analyze This?  Analyze That? Do the initials SCTV mean anything to you?

I'm not sure a week has gone by in our household without someone quoting the words of Mr. Ramis.  

And of course, along with missing Mr. Ramis, I am reminded that I am not as young as I once was.  It's one thing to hear about Shirley Temple passing, or Sid Caesar; both talented and missed as well, but they were my PARENT'S age.  Losing a man just a few years older than my husband is a wake up call for remembering several things:

* to re-watch movies from my younger days and enjoy them.

* to pass along said movies to another generation.  For every Jack Black or Zach Galinfianakis or Mindy Kaling or Tina Fey, there's been a Bill Murray, a Gilda Radner, a John Belushi, an Eddie Murphy, and a Harold Ramis.

* to spend a little more time laughing in general; things can get pretty sour without humour in the day.

Oh - and always remember: "Don't cross the streams"

Thanks, Mr. Ramis
     

You've figured out by now that social media concerns me.  There are many wonderful things about it - but just like poor old Paul said over two thousand years ago, "hitting SEND can be dangerous". 
Okay, maybe he didn't say that exactly, but he DID talk about Christians as needing to be grown up in thought, word and deed.  
Have you noticed folks on Facebook or Twitter who throw out the phrase praying for you, Jesus is lord,or I am a child of the king?  And then within a few posts you read on the same page from the same person: my life stinks, I'm about to open up a can of  (fill in your euphemism here), I've lost faith in humanity, or I'm so angry that people better get out of the way.
 Yeah - that's gotta make Jesus proud. 
And for those who say this is America and I have a right to say what I want: um, no.  When you deliberately claim your position as a follower, you don't get to say what you want.  And I know that stinks, and I know I fail at that more times than not. But, I try each day to count to 10 before whinging about small things, stop and breathe before I tell someone off, and pause - sometimes for days- before I hit SEND. 
Like I did with this.
Jesus deserves our best.  

It was a brief but wonderful courtship.  He was my fiance for several lovely months - then he married Linda Eastman, and I was left to nurse a broken heart AND finish 4th grade alone........That only lasted until "Rubber Soul".  Then I realized that my heart belonged to John Lennon.  I was fickle in those days.
And now Tom Hanks and the good people of the popular media have banded together to make me feel old.  Old, I tell you.  
When we are 7, 8, or 9 years old, things get put into our brains that never go away.  I can still tell you the order of the songs on Side B of "Meet the Beatles" (Don't Bother Me, Little Child, Till There Was You, Hold Me Tight, I Wanna Be Your Man, Not a Second Time) and remember John's birthday (October 9, 1940).  I remember the 23rd Psalm, the names of the Apostles, what I was wearing when I watched Lee Oswald get shot, hearing my minister sing as he swept the floor after a fellowship dinner, eating butter cookies that were shaped like flowers when I was in VBS. All those and so many other things from the 3rd -5th grades.And today,  I still have to look up my children's social security numbers and couldn't tell you their cell phone numbers if I had to.
Obviously, my kids are important to me.  But when I was younger, things were crisp and clear in my mind and are still with me.
Tell me again about how you're not going to cloud your child's mind with church until they are old enough to decide for themselves? And if you tell me you don't like the church you grew up in - find one that will teach them things you want them to remember when they are old.  Like me.