One of my favorite aspects of Wikipedia when it comes to looking up famous people is viewing the respective person’s signature. In the box that contains their education, nickname, family members, etc., you will also find a row for their signature. You can even tap it to view in full screen and see all the loops, crosses, and dots up close.

There is just something humanizing and revealing about seeing the signature of someone like Dwight Eisenhower or Charlie Chaplin. Not only do you get a sense that they share a commonality with us in that they have to sign their name too, but you also get a unique look into their personalities by how they express their name with pen and paper.

I wonder what my own signature conveys to others. To be honest, it is not pretty. I perfected it probably in fifth grade when we had our checkbook unit and it has not changed since then. My inspiration was from my dad’s signature. I liked how he used the last “r” on Reser to cross the “t” on his first name (Thomas) so I did something similar. For a quarter century, I have used the last “r” on Reser to cross the “t” on the end of my first name. Same idea as my dad but much less elegant and much more sloppy in terms of execution on my end.

This is my signature.

Did you know there are handwriting experts who will work with you to create/modify your signature? I heard it is like $600 per session. Good for those people who can make a living off what must be a niche customer base but I don’t think I will be contracting those services anytime soon. Although I know my signature is lacking in style, I don’t have the urge to change it at this point.

And that leads me to my overall point. Even though my signature isn’t aesthetically pleasing, at least it is distinctive. After using it for 25 years, I am pretty much protected against fraudsters who might try to sign something on my behalf. Voting officials flag my ballot if my signature doesn’t look like the one they have on file. My wife, parents, and other close friends could replicate it themselves because they have seen it so many times. In many ways, it is an extension of my personal brand.

Whether it will be immortalized on Wikipedia forever or whether it will just be used primarily to sign your checks, take pride in your signature. Just like your fingerprints, it is unique entirely to you. Don’t Blink.

This morning I heard a wise man say something profound…

Sometimes what hurts the most about suffering is knowing that it is coming.

Knowing that suffering is coming is an agonizing ordeal.

Wow. Think about that for a second. It can be true, right? When thinking of a lighter example to share, I kept going back to an uncomfortable rite of passage that many of us face in our late teens…wisdom teeth extraction. I shudder just thinking about it. Showing up at the oral surgeon’s office, going under for the operation, waking up with a bloody mouth, and then the 1-2 week rehabilitation process of soreness and soft foods. Man, it really sucks.

But the lead up to the extraction day isn’t a picnic either. At least from my personal experience, the couple weeks prior to my procedure became defined by nervousness, angst, and dread. The combination of generally knowing the discomfort that awaited but not knowing its full extent messed with me immensely.

Of course, in life, pre-suffering can be much more intense and scary than just getting your teeth pulled. A cancer diagnosis, incarceration sentence, or upcoming deployment can drown even the strongest person in anxiety and fear. Awaiting the initial round of chemo or the first day in prison can be terrifying, lonely, and depressing. It can be a very dark road.

Let’s take time to pray for those people who we know are in a pre-suffering stage right now. May they look to Jesus Christ who knew the unfathomable suffering he would eventually endure. Don’t Blink.

I don’t think anyone is more low maintenance when it comes to bedding stuff than me. You might remember the meme I shared a couple years ago about how Sid and I contrast when it comes to pillows…

This is 100% true for Sid and I.

It is true. Although our bed has six pillows, I need just one—Sid gladly takes the other five. And, just like the meme says, I take the oldest and flattest one…and sleep just fine.

So, you could probably imagine that I would be just fine sleeping in the same queen-sized bed, on the same mattress, with the same pillow for the rest of my life. However, I do recognize that not everyone shares my lax attitude when it comes to the requirements needed to enjoy a good night’s rest—my wife included.

For some time, Sidney has expressed her desire to purchase a king size mattress. She wanted more space to spread out and get lost within the sheets. Having kids who sometimes find their way into our bed only intensified her desire to make the upgrade. Oh yeah, maximizing comfort also had something to do with it. Who knew mattresses lose their “pep” over the years?

We had a date with the Spokane Valley Mattress Firm this past weekend.

This past weekend, Sid’s dream came true. We found ourselves in Mattress Firm with the intent to replace our current mattress. Sid walked me around the inventory arranged throughout the store. We laid down on the various mattresses to get a good feel for each one. Thankfully, my wife had a better gauge on which one packed the most comfort because they all kind of felt the same to me 😊

A look inside the Mattress Firm store we visited.

The only other people having more fun in Mattress Firm than Sidney were our children. Sloan and Beau ran wild through the store jumping on mattresses and using the remote controls to make the mattresses go up and down. Thankfully they didn’t break anything.

Sloan and Beau hang out on a mattress. This is the queen version of the mattress that we actually got.

When it was all said and done, we made a decision. Sid got her “king” and when it is delivered next Monday, we will be sleeping on a Sleepys by Sealy mattress. Although I wasn’t dancing out of the store like Sid was, I am sure it is one of those things that I will appreciate once I actually start sleeping on it. However, I am sticking with the single flat pillow. Don’t Blink.

Just two very quick notes before a very brief message…

– Happy birthday to all those shafted people who would be celebrating their birthdays tomorrow if it was a leap year. To be born on February 29 is kind of a cruel joke but I guess these folks have the benefit of learning very early that sometimes life brings disappointment.

– I couldn’t let today pass without recognizing that it is National Pancake Day. I have loved pancakes my whole life and this manifests itself in the fact that we make them for dinner a lot in our household. Some people might be turned off when I say that I prefer my hot cakes half cooked with the batter oozing out but you like what you like, right? Most of you probably aren’t surprised that I wrote a blog post solely about pancakes in 2015.

After looking at this photo, does anyone question my love of pancakes anymore?!

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With that housekeeping out of the way, I want to make note that today is the end of a precarious two-month stretch. I always say that January and February aren’t particularly my favorite months. The holiday hangover, short/dark days, and pressure to live up to resolutions can throw me for a loop. If it weren’t for the birthdays of Sidney (Jan. 28) and Beau (Feb. 5), I think I would be obsessively counting down the days until March.

But advancing age will teach you never to count away any of your days.

My family will “march” into the new month tomorrow. This is welcome because last year we kind of limped. COVID had impacted us, we lost a loved one, and Sidney battled other health issues. To advance into March with momentum instead of licking our wounds is a great feeling!

For everyone out there who opened 2023 on a less-than-stellar note, stick in there—things are looking up! Longer days and springtime are just around the corner. For what’s it worth, after our slow start in 2022, we went on to have a fabulous rest of the year. You got this! Don’t Blink.

I love a routine. I make no qualms that I feel comfortable with a set-way of doing things. However, I am not enslaved to routine. If a situation calls for me to be flexible, I will.

However, I feel something related to routine has a firmer grasp on me. I don’t even know if this concept/condition has an official term so let me coin it for my Don’t Blink audience with my own word—streakism.

Streakism is routine’s cousin and I feel like it has become much more prominent in society over the past several years. I define streakism as the compulsive need to complete a task on a daily, weekly, or other timed interval basis. There isn’t a prescribed way—or routine—to do it, you just got to get it done somehow within the certain allotted time period.

But definitions are one thing, examples are another. Let me give you a couple. This morning I completed my 2,047th straight day of looking at my Timehop app. For those who don’t know, Timehop pulls your camera roll and social media posts to give you a curated snapshot of what you did on a particular day in past years. To keep you checking, the app keeps a tally of your “streak.”

Another example is the 1 Second Everyday video challenge I am doing this year. You literally get a notification telling you to record a video at the end of the day if you have not uploaded one to the app yet. After two months I have really enjoyed doing this, but the low-key pressure is definitely there.

Keep in mind, streakism isn’t always expressed so blatantly. Whether it be listening to my Catechism in a Year podcast, making sure I get that blog post written, or getting my five workouts in for the week, these are all examples of streakism that gnaw at me until I get them done. Lent adds even more to my streakism mindset.

Just like with routine, I think streakism can be great. However, in the same way that being so routine-based can produce rigidity and stress, leading a streak-based life can produce similar feelings.

For me, I need to do better at not equating a “good day” to whether I checked all the boxes and extended all of my streaks. Shedding some pressure, especially when it comes to silly social media streaks, wouldn’t be a bad thing. Because when it all comes down to it, even Cal Ripken Jr.’s consecutive games played streak came to an end, right? Don’t Blink.