Resolved: I Will Not Create Any "My Favorite _______'s of the Decade" Lists.

It is nearly impossible to avoid the myriad lists generated at the end of any year. Magazines, radio shows, and "news" programs spend much of late December tricking us into consuming more advertising by summarizing the year between 30 second pleas to add gold to our portfolio.

Is there a better way to catalog the events of a year than with a Top 10 List? Not in the modern age, apparently. When, for an entire decade, world events are distilled and fed to us in sound bites and bottom-screen tickers, a Top 10 list does seem an appropriate way to "reflect" on things of significance. Things like the adultery of a man who plays golf well and the invention of a fancy music box...

While I will resist the urge to list and rank the few dozen books and albums that I have consumed in the last decade of my life, I believe that it befits a believer to frequently recall and meditate on what the Lord has done for him/her.

In retracing the days ordained for me since we learned that Y2K wasn't ordained to usher in the apocalypse, methinks that there will probably not be a decade of my life that will contain as many significant life events (especially of the "first" variety) as did this one.

The Scott Pearce Greatest Hits 2000-2009:
(in roughly chronological order)

I graduated from Hackettstown High School.

I began life as a college student.

I served as a counselor at Camp Susque (fulfilling a simple but significant boyhood dream).

I met the girl that I would marry.

I received a B.S. in Engineering from Geneva College.

I took on almost $20,000 in debt to accomplish the preceding, my first foray into the world of indebted servitude.

I became certified as an Engineering In Training (E.I.T.).

I began a career as a civil engineer.

I bought my first (and to date only) truck, my second foray into the world of indebted servitude (although this knife was only over my head for two years).

I proposed to the girl that I would marry. She said yes.

I married the girl who said yes.

We rented our first apartment.

I saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time.

We bought our first house, by far my farthest foray into indebted servitude.

I became certified as a Grade I Field Technician Concrete Inspector, a Structural Masonry Special Inspector, and a Reinforced Concrete Special Inspector.

We became parents for the first time.

I put 200,000 miles on my truck.



Psalm 90
1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
2 Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God...

4 ...For a thousand years in your sight
are but as yesterday when it is past,
or as a watch in the night...

12 ...So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom...

Listen, My Son (Installment II)

William, one of the most important things you can learn is how to work. Through the work of our hands, we men fulfill one of the first commands that God gave Adam at Creation. The fruit of a man's labor is the ordinary means by which God has ordained that his family will eat, be sheltered, and meet physical needs of others.

While I hope that the majority of what I teach you is through example, I thought it worthwhile to record a set of axoims which would behove you to observe.

- Work the same way / produce the same work product whether or not you are being supervised or observed. There is One who always sees how you are working and you are to do all things to His glory (I Corinthians 10.31).

- Let your reputation speak highly of you. Let your body or work build your reputation. Don't produce anything, even a minor project, that isn't your best work.

- Be suspicious of a man who boasts about his work ethic. Remember that the son who obeyed was the son who did his father's will (Matthew 21.28-32). Remember that a tree is known by its fruit (Luke 6.43, 44).

- God does not command you to always make a profit. He does command you to always be righteous.

- The most efficient way is not always the easiest way. Be wary of those who would suggest that the fastest way to complete a list of tasks is to skip items on the list.

- Memorize the following and put them to practice: Measure twice, cut once. Fifteen minutes early is on time. Don't ever sit down on a job. Take care of your tools. Pay the extra money for steel toe boots.