You may have noticed . . .

. . . that the place looks a little different.

I was all excited about my Voice of Reason 2.0 and spent hours and hours modifying a new template--changing colors, fonts, importing graphics, IMing Cicada to ask for her opinion on things, etc. It was going to be this gorgeous and daring yet tasteful expression of my personality. It was going to have welcoming fonts and pleasing color combinations with custom-made backgrounds.

In short, it was going to be perfect.

Only the more I worked on it the less I liked it. Suddenly it was too bright, too loud, to difficult to read. The little flaws that seemed unimportant when I was still in the "let's just see" phase became glaring and horrible as I approached the "let's take this out and show people" phase. Last night I stared at it, imagining my friends taking one look and going, "Ugh! And that's her personality?" But I felt like I had to make it work because I'd already put so much of myself and my time and energy into this thing!

But then the smarter half of my brain took over, reminding me of a certain Very Important Truth (get out your pencils, kids!):

Simply putting time and energy into something doesn't make it worthwhile.

I am not saying that worthwhile things don't require time and effort, because they do, or that I think everyone should be quitters, because they shouldn't. However, when we recognize that a pursuit isn't worthwhile, quitting becomes the smart choice.

But too often we find ourselves plugging doggedly ahead, wasting time and postponing the inevitable. You see this all the time--in dating relationships, in career paths, on drives through rural Idaho. We're tempted to say, "It's true that I'm miserable, but hey, I've come this far, and maybe it'll get better. Plus, I really owe it to (-----) to see this through."

Um, no. No you don't. It's that kind of thinking that almost got me married to the wrong guy a few years ago. Today I would be wearing twinsets and pearls in some New Jersey apartment with an investment banker husband I never saw and wasn't attracted to. Also I would probably be hooked on uppers. And it's not like I could just say,"Oh, I changed my mind" at that point. Is this what you really want for me? Is it??

Point is, you're not getting Voice of Reason 2.0. You're getting Blogger's TicTac (Blueberry) by Dan Cederholm. Thanks Dan, you're the best.

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