A personal essay by Katey Workman
Discovery of my own selfish Christianity
Mom sent a picture of a sign in a park that issued the following warning: "DO NOT LET YOUR DOG ON HOT ASPHALT. IF IT'S TOO HOT FOR YOU IT'S TOO HOT FOR THEM". It detailed the severity in temperature difference between air and asphalt: 77° F outside equals 125° F on the asphalt, 87°F equals 143°F, and so on. The warning was intended, of course, for dog owners who care about the well-being of their pets, and was posted, no doubt, by those selfless pet-o-philes who care as much (if not more) about your Fido than you do. While I am neither dog-owner nor dog-lover, I wish I'd seen the sign myself before embarking on a mid-afternoon walk.
Do you think you could come?
I had laid my plans for today already. Mounds of class assignments had reached an eyebrow-raising height and it had taken all my freshly won self-restraint to refuse fun things before first getting my work done. After all, how could I dependably spout my new favorite motto (that I had learned just the day before) "work first, then play," if I was to crack only on day 2? No, I needed to focus.
