#classic blunders

How to Stop the Villain From Going Crazy

Lol! Sorry author, unmarried women didn't just disappear from the world after the age of 20 😂😂😂

I'm not in any way an expert at the marriage statistics in... Late 1800s New Orleans? But I am 100% certain that there were unmarried women above the age of 20 who would still move in society. In Jane Austen's England you weren't a spinster until around 30, I can't think New Orleans was completely different... okay no I'm looking this up:

Although studies are few and subject to possible biases, most scholars agree that the ready availability of inexpensive land in colonial America made marriage feasible at an early age. As a result, marriages occurred several years earlier, on average, in colonial America than in Europe, and much higher proportions of the population eventually married. Community-based studies suggest an average age at marriage of about 20 years for women in the early colonial period and about 26 for men. As population densities increased and land prices rose in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, American couples delayed marriage, and a higher proportion remained permanently unmarried. The published census figures for 1890, which are the earliest that permit estimates of age at marriage, reveal that the mean age at marriage was 23.8 for white women and 27.8 for white men—little different from those ages in England. (source)

Sorry author, you've fallen for one of the classic blunders. Most women didn't marry as teenagers in the past, at least in Europe and later North America.

1. Feel a little tired but decide to wait until you’re more tired to get ready for bed.

2. Accidentally wait until you’re so tired that getting ready for bed feels like an insurmountable task.

In the movie “The Princess Bride,” one of the villains mocks the hero, saying “You fell victim to one of the classic blunders!” And then launches into his personal list of classic blunders.

I bring this up not because “The Princess Bride” is one of my favorite movies (although it is). But because the back half of the Beatitudes (today’s Gospel) is all about one of the real-life classic blunders.

It’s a warning that we often miss. But it’s one we need to hear. Because the danger to us is so subtle.

After all of the “blessed are you’s” in the Beatitudes comes a warning from Jesus. About trusting in riches. Instead of God.

But how does that apply to you and me? Since no one would mistake us for being rich.

Being rich depends on your perspective. You and I don’t have much compared to the wealthiest people in the world. But in the eyes of the homeless people that we serve at the shelter and with our street ministry? We’ve got it made.

And there’s the danger. As soon as we get comfortable. As soon as we feel like we have what we need. That’s when we’re at risk.

Of falling for one of the classic blunders.

Of thinking that we can handle things on our own. Of drifting away from God (often without meaning to). Because we think we’ve got this.

If we could see ourselves falling for this one, it would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. Because we’ve tried to go it alone so many times before.

And it always ends badly.

Instead of that closeness with the One who loves us best. Instead of letting God lead and being open to God’s best in our lives. We let things come between us and God.

We settle for things we think we can control. For good enough. And, without really meaning to, end up trusting in ourselves. Or what we have. Instead of God.

Which works. Until it doesn’t.

Of course, drifting away from God because we think we have what we need, that we’ve got this, isn’t the only way we set ourselves up for a fall.

It’s just one of the classic blunders.

gay miscommunication.

Alright let's set the scene:

- hanging out with a friend, haven't been out together in a while.

- go around a couple of shops, mostly book places but we also get one matching thing together, it's nice being out after so long.

- we start out linking arms but move to holding hands because convenient and comfier and I would most likely get lost otherwise.

- we go to a place we both like for lunch and have a nice chat, we get to the topic of the people I'm hanging out with while away at uni.

- they ask if I prefer anyone up there, I say nah, she says something along the lines of "haha yeah, (something important but it's been a few hours and my memory is bad, I think she dropped the word jealousy but I could be auto filling it in my brain idk) we have a great relationship..."

What??

We've never had a conversation about this??!?!? I care about her a lot but where did this come from???!?!?!!!?!!!????? Did she mean in a friendship way or is this all in my head??