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The X-Men Effect -- Writer's Poke #439






The Chinese have a saying, “May you live in interesting times.” It’s supposed to be both a blessing and a curse. A blessing, I suppose, because at least you’ll never be bored. A curse, perhaps, because you will always need to be alert to both dangers as well as change – no matter how positive those changes might be.

I heard another saying on the radio yesterday, but I didn’t catch where it originated. Maybe Russia. Anyway, it goes something like this: “May you get the life you want.” Again, the idea behind the saying is that it can be both a blessing and a curse. If we are in charge of our lives, then we need to be careful, very careful about what we want. For as the world-famous philosophers The Pussycat Dolls remind us, “Be careful what you want ‘cause you just might get it.”

This reminds me of one final saying, which I’ve always assumed to be taken solely as a blessing: “My cup runs over.” That’s from Psalms 23:5, and yes, it’s about definitely about blessings. But on a literal level, who likes it when a cup overflows? The first thing you have to do is clean up the mess, right? In other words, you can even have too many blessings – or at the very least, you need to invest in a larger cup. 

Take stock of your life. Do you live in interesting times? Do you have the life that you want? Does your cup run over? For me personally, I would answer yes to all three questions. Even so, life remains challenging, stressful, and at times, a bit overwhelming. I’m glad for my blessings, but I’m also still trying to figure out how to handle the costs involved.

How do you deal with blessings?

“Why has God given me such magnificent talent? It is a curse as well as a great blessing.” – Albrecht Durer

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