Lessons From a Handsome Philosopher

It’s Sunday night and I can’t sleep. I’m mad about it. But I should have known this would happen; I took a nap at 3:30 this afternoon.

As I’ve lain here, my brain keeps going over a surprising situation I’ve found myself in (that I won’t be chronicling in detail here… yet?). It’s something I’m completely surprised by, something I wasn’t planning, yet something I’ve speculated on for a number of years. It also happens to be something I have prayed about but haven’t really found any answers. For many elements of my life I love to use trial and error and know that the Big Guy is waiting in the wings in case things go sideways. Then He and I work to find a better route. However, this is something I was hoping He’d give me the nod for. All I’ve gotten is radio silence.

In replaying the last two weeks and forecasting the one ahead, I somehow had a memory pop up from 2015. It was the last summer I lived in Tucson, and we befriended two guys who had moved into our ward for the season. I thought they were there to sell pest control. Turns out there were in town for engineering internships. One was a real goofy dude with a knack for accents and just being over-the-top generally. The other looked a little bit like a classic meathead, but he turned out to be a quiet and thoughtful guy who is really smart (and classically handsome and very fit). It’s this second guy, Seth, that came to mind tonight.

Once when we were out and about as a group, we were given a free appetizer or something else innocuous but fortuitous. Truly something that does not tip the scales of eternity. But as we joked about this unearned fortune (maybe it was some surprise guac at Chipotle?), Seth told us his guiding credo: “Don’t question good things.”

It’s a line I’ve used since, sometimes with real sincerity, but also always as a little inside joke with myself about this surprising philosopher friend of mine. But I haven’t had a Seth around to say those precise words to me in regard to this specific situation. I’m glad it came to mind tonight.

This isn’t to say I’m going to run headlong at this situation and commit to it wholly. I think my brain is getting a little carried away at the nature of it all because of its newness and novelty. I’m trying to account for that to make sure I don’t blow the whole thing out of proportion. But in the uncertainty of newness, and the quietness of radio silence, I’m also going to try to embody Seth and not question good things. This whole situation happened incredibly quickly and with next to zero thought on my part—two things I’m not exactly known for. But maybe that’s exactly what needed to happen to ever get me to this place of seeing something new without agonizing over it.

There might well be some agonizing later. That’s the human condition, afterall (and I'm great at agonizing). But for now, I’ll ride this out and let it all the potential good enter my life and see what happens and who it helps me become.

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