How often should you forgive? Seventy times seven. - Jesus
You can screw something up, you can screw something down. You can screw someone out of something, you can screw into something. You can screw around, screw over, screw into, screw above, screw beneath. You can be a screwball with a screwdriver or find a screwworm on a screw jack or be just plain screwy. But, what you - nor any of us - ever want is to be screwed over.
Being screwed over implies that there was intention on the part of the screwer. You were the target. You were the focus. You were the butt of the joke. Or if there were no intention - no plan to take you down - there was at least no attempt to keep the screwing over from happening. And when this occurs, as it does eventually to each and every one of us, we feel rejected. Preyed upon. Victimized. Even persecuted.
And sometimes, of course, we are ones who screw ourselves over. We are screwer and screwee. We sabotage, disrupt and sometimes incapacitate our highest goals and deepest dreams.
One good thing about screws, of course, is that they can hold things together or you can hang things on them. Following a screwing over, it's not a bad idea to consider what of your values are even more together and where you might hang a picture of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, Jesus or any other good folks who have been screwed over as well.
Howard hates to see summer go: the swimming, the picnics, the warm nights. But he loves what's coming. He loves bonfires, hikes through the autumn colors of the mountains, Blessing of the Animals on St. Francis Day, Day of the Dead parties, Thanksgiving and sipping whiskey with friends at autumn sunset - not to mention celebrating the birthdays of his daughters, sister, brother-in-law and LadyLove. Howard is riding high as the sun settles low.