Is it wrong to only invest in relationships you personally get something out of?

After all, we have certain time constraints on our lives. It is physically impossible for me to pursue genuinely deep relationships with all those around me.

So, if I'm being honest, I'm looking for your permission to bail out of those relationships with people I dread but guiltily maintain, and instead, focus on building the ones where I inherently enjoy the other person?

Fully aware you probably won't let me off the hook...

My wife and I never fight.

And it has nothing to do with us being really good at being married.

It has to do with the fact that we're so similar. Now, this has surely been a progression. Over the past 10 years, we have undoubtedly shaped each other. But, in general, we have always been extraordinarily similar in the way we view the world.

We don't fight, because we consense so quickly.

Our marriage is great. And we haven't had to work very hard at it.

So, here's my marriage counseling advice.

Marry better.

You're welcome.

We don't all share the same dreams for our lives.

In fact, some of the things people so passionately pursue would be my greatest nightmare if they were to come true.

"Oh, you got into Med School? I'm so terribly sorry! What an awful next 8 years of your life."

But of course, they wouldn't share my disappointment.

These are their dreams. Their passions.

When someone tells you they bought a puppy, they don't see it as a dirty little burden.

They're not making foolish decisions. We're just different. Be happy that they're happy.

When I first heard of colleges starting Social Media Marketing majors, I thought it was pretty cool.

After all, social media has become a significant part of my marketing career, and likely, my future.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that majoring in Social Media Marketing would be like a design-minded individual majoring in Billboard Design.

It's just marketing.

We don't need to create a social media marketing major. The marketing major itself should change based on the ever increasing importance of social persuasion.

Trust me, I have 9 months experience talking here.

Buy your baby miniature versions of clothes you would wear yourself as an adult.

It's not weird. It actually looks really great.

You know what's weird? Bonnets. You know why? Because no one besides babies wears them.

The tragedy of Trayvon Martin's death has captured me.

We were introduced to this story as a hate crime. George Zimmerman, a Latino man who heads up his neighborhood's volunteer watch program called the police to report a suspicious individual in his neighborhood, Trayvon Martin.

The neighborhood had recently suffered a rash of burglaries, and Zimmerman was hot on the trigger. He called the police to report, started following the individual on foot despite the 911 operator's insistence he shouldn't, and the story ends with an unarmed 17-year old Trayvon Martin lying dead from a fatal gunshot wound.

The moral we were told to take from this tragedy was to stop being prejudicially suspicious of black youth.

The mere idea that Trayvon "appeared" suspicious was troubling to us all. That the mere presence of a young black man in a hoodie would warrant a police call. That, if we were being honest with ourselves, we might also pause unsettled and take another look at Trayvon Martin if we noticed him walking through our neighborhood.

It was a convicting story.

And then, the story kept unfolding.

It still is.

It turns out Travyon Martin may not be altogether innocent. He may have escalated the incident, attacked Zimmerman and beaten his head repeatedly against the curb before being shot,  as a lone eyewitness seems to corroborate.

And whether or not you deem it relevant, it appears Travyon may have a troubling past. School suspensions for drug (residue) possession, vandalism and possession of theft implements.

Does his short rap sheet make his death any less tragic? No.

But, the issue here is stereotype.

The moral we were told was that television and the media have corrupted us all into prejudicing young black youth into the same scary bucket. We were told this prejudice was without merit, and to magically stop being suspicious of fictitious fears our culture has wrongly ingrained within us.

And now what do we do with this new information? This unfortunate example that builds up the very stereotype this story initially led us to fight against?

Perhaps our society/media/culture has indeed wrongly influenced us into our expectations of a young black man wearing a hoodie.

But, is Trayvon Martin immune to that cultural rub-off? Or is there a part of him who willingly chose to embrace that identity? Who found strength in it. Power in it.

That's the issue I'm stuck on.

And I think we need a Cosby episode about it.

You can either find an incredibly demanding job you're passionate about...

Or you can find an incredibly boring job that gives you time to spend on your passions.

I never understood the idea of the Sabbath.

Taking Sunday off.

I think I thought something about the day itself was holy. That since Sunday was church day, we were supposed to honor the rest of the day, too.

Now, I'm starting to think God just wants us to take a break.

And it wasn't until this new period of my life when I'm busier than I've ever been that I realize I need this.

I need a day of rest.

So, the last few weeks, I've been making my Saturdays a little worse. Staying up late and making sure all my freelance work gets done in order to make sure my Sundays can be free - with only church and spending time with my wife and Daylia on the schedule.

And it's been pretty awesome. Refreshing. Recharging.

It doesn't always work. Stuff gets in the way sometimes. But, it's become a priority we're shooting for at our house.

I get the Sabbath now. Just like other "God rules", they're not weird legalistic things. They're just awesome advice designed by the one who intimately understands how we work and what we need.

Thought I'd better post this screen grab now in case Ohio State loses next weekend...



And yes, I'm "Sabai". For those of you who only know this blog as "All Opinions Are Not Equal", it started off as sabaisays.blogspot.com, a less Socratic, more dictatorial blog approach with daily spouts of why everyone are morons.

I think it's better this way...or at least now my dictatorial rants are better disguised as group think...

But back to the point. Seriously, Moneyball works for everything!

Today, you have to go to work for 8 hours whether you care to or not.

So, you might as well figure out a way to care passionately.