Soup
I know... It has been a while since I have been active in this form of my writing. I have two excuses! On the one hand, I have been doing "other" writing: a coupla articles and a book proposal with my co-author in AZ. On the other hand, maybe it is as a "Pearls Before Swine" opined recently, that blogs "provide their frustrated creator with the delusional outlet of being a published author." (!)
Anyway, I've built up a backlog of a number of topics... Let me at least give each of them a chance to contribute to what is likely to seem more "stew" or "soup" than anything else...
* * *
First, back on Nov 21, my "astrological forecast" said: "People change-- even you. And lately, especially you! Others approach you wanting to know your secret. How you got from A to Z isn't going to work for everyone, but some will benefit from your story."
I read it and thought: Man, I hope so! It sure would be nice to have a story that some others might benefit from hearing!
* * *
I got my car washed recently, and got a discount from coupons I'm sure we all get in the mail. Along with the usual coupons was one for a $2 Lotto purchase! HA!, I thought. I never play the Lotto-- and suddenly I had a two dollar stake in the estimated $25 million jackpot of that week.
I faced an odd dilemma. I thought of giving my ticket to one of the guys who was doing such a good job on my car, you know, as a tip. How would he regard it? As a gift? As a chance at something "more"? Or would he prefer the cash, straight up? Would I be giving him something real, or something of an illusion? And which would be the greater Good?
HA! I decided to give him the cash, and keep the lottery ticket for myself to see what would happen. I figured he'd rather the "bird in the hand" instead of the "flock" in the bush.
Days later, I'd completely forgotten about the ticket and then had to scrounge through old papers to find the winning numbers... It won't surprise you that none of my numbers matched. I wasn't surprised either!
But what might surprise you is that, when trying to decide whether to keep the lottery ticket or give it away, one question I did NOT ask myself was: What would Jesus do? I had good reason: In a classic sense, a lottery, like all gambling, is a secular form of prayer, only not to God but to the god of Chance. Therefore gambling is a form of idolatry!
Does it surprise us that idolatry is increasingly popular? Or does it surprise us that, per capital, Las Vegas has more churches than any other city in the US?
Anyway, that hard working man who made my car shine is probably never troubled by such questions!
* * *
I was surprised to read in the paper the other day that someone had the intestinal fortitude and good sense to stand up to Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuala who is making such a name for himself in South America. The story goes that, at a conference of leaders of the Spanish-speaking world in Santiago, Chile, the King of Spain, Juan Carlos, had had enough of Chavez' interrupting Spain's Prime Minister. Suddenly, the King said to the president, "Por que no te callas?"-- or "Why don't you shut up?"
That the King spoke for more than just himself can perhaps be measured by the burgeoning popularity throughout the Spanish-speaking world of T-shirts and (of all things) cell phone ring tones using this phrase! A nerve has been touched...
Recently I received as a gift from my son, Daniel, a T-shirt emblazoned with the four letters, "STFU," and the Latin, Subsiste Sermonen Statim. Essentially, this is our college-age peoples' way of saying what the King of Spain did!
Maybe these folks are onto something. I mean, at movies there are repeated pleas from the screen to turn off cell phones and pagers. And how often have you been shopping or in some other public place and heard half of a conversation as someone using a cell phone speaks out loud as if they were alone? These common experiences leave out those occasions when we have to listen to politicians mouth well-rehearsed responses instead of actually communicating something of interest. Haven't you often felt as I do, that in the information age there is increasing less truly useful information, and in a an age of proliferation of personal communication devices, we are experiencing an increase in noise and a decrease in actual communication?
Maybe we need to be able to say to those who are texting during movies or talking in line at the bank or grocery store or whose ringtones disrupt concerts: WHY DON'T YOU SHUT UP?!
There ought to evolve a new sense of etiquette that would permit this! It would be very useful-- and perhaps help all of us who, out of a misplaced sense of what it is to be polite, end up having our lives disrupted by the insensitive and the truly impolite!
* * *
Last week, I was given a book to read, The River of Doubt:Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey. Giving me a book is a bit of risky business. I mean, in recent years my list of books unread exceeds my list of books read! The best part of being given a book is the affirmation of the giver that I am a reader... I am... And a writer... Both in an age when books themselves are somewhat an endangered species... See Newsweek of a coupla weeks ago...
But when I was given this book, I had another feeling, too. These months, this time in my life between what was my employment and what will be, has been one of the most difficult periods in my life. Maybe you could tell from what I've written in this space? The best way I have of summing it up is that I've never before lived with so little sense of what God's ultimate Vision is for me... So how then can I have one for myself?
Well, into this space often flows a "river of doubt"... It is a sobering place, to camp beside this river... And doubt is, as Thomas knew, a faith-challenging experience... So perhaps there is a kind of mythic meaning to be gained from reading Teddy's true story?
Of course, the other thought I had about books in general? That maybe the future of publishing is not on paper, but through some sort of internet format...
Perhaps even blogging!
HA! Blessings, everyone! I hope not to be so long between these communications again.
Anyway, I've built up a backlog of a number of topics... Let me at least give each of them a chance to contribute to what is likely to seem more "stew" or "soup" than anything else...
* * *
First, back on Nov 21, my "astrological forecast" said: "People change-- even you. And lately, especially you! Others approach you wanting to know your secret. How you got from A to Z isn't going to work for everyone, but some will benefit from your story."
I read it and thought: Man, I hope so! It sure would be nice to have a story that some others might benefit from hearing!
* * *
I got my car washed recently, and got a discount from coupons I'm sure we all get in the mail. Along with the usual coupons was one for a $2 Lotto purchase! HA!, I thought. I never play the Lotto-- and suddenly I had a two dollar stake in the estimated $25 million jackpot of that week.
I faced an odd dilemma. I thought of giving my ticket to one of the guys who was doing such a good job on my car, you know, as a tip. How would he regard it? As a gift? As a chance at something "more"? Or would he prefer the cash, straight up? Would I be giving him something real, or something of an illusion? And which would be the greater Good?
HA! I decided to give him the cash, and keep the lottery ticket for myself to see what would happen. I figured he'd rather the "bird in the hand" instead of the "flock" in the bush.
Days later, I'd completely forgotten about the ticket and then had to scrounge through old papers to find the winning numbers... It won't surprise you that none of my numbers matched. I wasn't surprised either!
But what might surprise you is that, when trying to decide whether to keep the lottery ticket or give it away, one question I did NOT ask myself was: What would Jesus do? I had good reason: In a classic sense, a lottery, like all gambling, is a secular form of prayer, only not to God but to the god of Chance. Therefore gambling is a form of idolatry!
Does it surprise us that idolatry is increasingly popular? Or does it surprise us that, per capital, Las Vegas has more churches than any other city in the US?
Anyway, that hard working man who made my car shine is probably never troubled by such questions!
* * *
I was surprised to read in the paper the other day that someone had the intestinal fortitude and good sense to stand up to Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuala who is making such a name for himself in South America. The story goes that, at a conference of leaders of the Spanish-speaking world in Santiago, Chile, the King of Spain, Juan Carlos, had had enough of Chavez' interrupting Spain's Prime Minister. Suddenly, the King said to the president, "Por que no te callas?"-- or "Why don't you shut up?"
That the King spoke for more than just himself can perhaps be measured by the burgeoning popularity throughout the Spanish-speaking world of T-shirts and (of all things) cell phone ring tones using this phrase! A nerve has been touched...
Recently I received as a gift from my son, Daniel, a T-shirt emblazoned with the four letters, "STFU," and the Latin, Subsiste Sermonen Statim. Essentially, this is our college-age peoples' way of saying what the King of Spain did!
Maybe these folks are onto something. I mean, at movies there are repeated pleas from the screen to turn off cell phones and pagers. And how often have you been shopping or in some other public place and heard half of a conversation as someone using a cell phone speaks out loud as if they were alone? These common experiences leave out those occasions when we have to listen to politicians mouth well-rehearsed responses instead of actually communicating something of interest. Haven't you often felt as I do, that in the information age there is increasing less truly useful information, and in a an age of proliferation of personal communication devices, we are experiencing an increase in noise and a decrease in actual communication?
Maybe we need to be able to say to those who are texting during movies or talking in line at the bank or grocery store or whose ringtones disrupt concerts: WHY DON'T YOU SHUT UP?!
There ought to evolve a new sense of etiquette that would permit this! It would be very useful-- and perhaps help all of us who, out of a misplaced sense of what it is to be polite, end up having our lives disrupted by the insensitive and the truly impolite!
* * *
Last week, I was given a book to read, The River of Doubt:Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey. Giving me a book is a bit of risky business. I mean, in recent years my list of books unread exceeds my list of books read! The best part of being given a book is the affirmation of the giver that I am a reader... I am... And a writer... Both in an age when books themselves are somewhat an endangered species... See Newsweek of a coupla weeks ago...
But when I was given this book, I had another feeling, too. These months, this time in my life between what was my employment and what will be, has been one of the most difficult periods in my life. Maybe you could tell from what I've written in this space? The best way I have of summing it up is that I've never before lived with so little sense of what God's ultimate Vision is for me... So how then can I have one for myself?
Well, into this space often flows a "river of doubt"... It is a sobering place, to camp beside this river... And doubt is, as Thomas knew, a faith-challenging experience... So perhaps there is a kind of mythic meaning to be gained from reading Teddy's true story?
Of course, the other thought I had about books in general? That maybe the future of publishing is not on paper, but through some sort of internet format...
Perhaps even blogging!
HA! Blessings, everyone! I hope not to be so long between these communications again.
posted by TRXTR | 3:33 PM
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