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Welcome to Varied Expressions of Worship

Welcome to Varied Expressions of Worship

This blog will be written from an orthodox Christian point of view. There may be some topic that is out of bounds, but at present I don't know what it will be. Politics is a part of life. Theology and philosophy are disciplines that we all participate in even if we don't think so. The Bible has a lot to say about economics. How about self defense? Is war ethical? Think of all the things that someone tells you we should not touch and let's give it a try. Everything that is a part of life should be an expression of worship.

Keep it courteous and be kind to those less blessed than you, but by all means don't worry about agreeing. We learn more when we get backed into a corner.

Sunday, June 30, 2019

Opus 2019-114: Racist Squirrel!

Why do the social justice warriors of the left call “racist” so often?

Because it works.  It has been popularized by the movie “Up” with the expression, “Squirrel”.  In the movie a pack of dogs are about ready to bestow mortal harm and the victim yells, “Squirrel” and points the other way.  The dogs heads all whip around and they start searching.  It works time and time again.  The dogs never learn.  They are a lot like conservatives.  We used to use the technique when the kids were small and say things like, “Look, a horsie”. 

It is what is called a “knee-jerk reaction”.  You can’t help yourself.  Back in the days before I had insurance by Medicare the doctor used to check my reflexes.  He would tap my knee and my leg would jerk.  It didn’t require thought.  I am not sure I could keep it from happening.  That meant I was healthy.  When the hammer is “racist” it is not healthy.

Do racists exist?  Of course they do.  Almost everyone has a tendency to prefer people like themselves.  Of course that might be a preference for football over basketball or being into NASCAR more than tennis.  It is the way we are built.  I would say that the least “racist” group in the world are American, middle class, Christian white people.  We are also the ones most called racist.  It is just manipulation.

It is a form of cultural bullying and since we are against bullying, maybe it is time to grow up and move on.  Lets have a rational discussion instead of yelling “squirrel”. 

homo unius libri

Saturday, June 29, 2019

Opus 2019-113: Election 2020: Loan Solution

The Democratic presidential debates seem to be a good place to declare the 2020 campaign season open.  I didn’t pay much attention since I don’t see any of them that has enough common sense and love for America to get a second glance.  One of the recurrent themes is “free stuff”.  It takes slightly different forms from reparations to forgiving student loans but all of it is based on the socialist idea that you take from the productive part of society and give to the non-productive.  I have a suggestion on how to deal with the load of student debt that the millennial snowflakes have accumulated.

Lawsuits.

I don’t know what the technical legal terms are.  Perhaps breach of contract would work.  Maybe something about false advertising.  Fraud comes to mind.

Instead of cancelling student loan debt maybe we should sue the universities that issued worthless degrees in things like gender studies the same way we would sue any other business.  A university would be exempted if they made it clear to the potential students that there would be no jobs for them when they got out of school.  I don’t think any will get that exemption.

We also want to make sure that they pay out of their endowments and not by increased government grants.  What people fail to understand is that universities are worth billions in tax sheltered money.  We can’t seem to get up the nerve to tax their wealth but we might be able to get juries to dip into it.

It is worth a try.  Sounds like a potential campaign platform to me.  Everyone wins except the deep pocket universities.  The snowflakes get money to buy their latte and the tax payers don’t get skinned.

homo unius libri

Thursday, June 27, 2019

Opus 2019-112: Baby Talk: Guardian Angels on Overtime

I don’t know if you ever read the comic strip “Rose Is Rose”.  One of my favorite support characters is Pasquale’s guardian angel.  At times he is a cute little cherub that looks just like Pasquale.  Every once in awhile he is revealed in his fearsome splendor as the warrior that he is.  Angels are not cute, they are scary.  And powerful.  And faithful.

So as a grandparent I want to put in a good word for what we call guardian angels.   I am not sure the term is Biblical.  I did a quick search for the two words in the same verse in both the KJV and NASB and came up empty.  The concept is there,
(Psa 91:11 KJV) For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
but not the exact phrase.  Good enough for me.  I am thanking the guardian angel, or angels, that have an eye on my granddaughter.

I think of the limited chances for harm I have been able to witness.  I have seen drawers and little fingers in situations that made me cringe.  I noticed a music stand that refused to fall over on her head.  I think of the times I have been around to remove things from little fingers.

At the same time I am grateful it was my wife that got stung by the scorpion and me that found the centipede.  My wife didn’t enjoy it.  Neither did the centipede. 

So thanks GA.  I owe you much more than one.  And thank the Father who sent you.

homo unius libri

Wednesday, June 26, 2019

Opus 2019-111: New Terms: So-Called

Hypocrisy is alive and well.  Liars are everywhere.  Wolves are in the market for sheep’s clothing.  Not only is it irritating, it is dangerous.  When I say “dangerous” I don’t mean walking through a dark house dangerous.  I mean drinking the bleach you had in the water bottle dangerous. 

We have people calling for tolerance and crying that we need to accept people as fellow humans on the road to the future.  I think we need to learn the phrase “so-called” when we hear claims like this.  As a Christian I find my thinking started by a verse I keep coming across.
(1Co 5:11 NAS77) But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler--not even to eat with such a one.
Paul is talking to the church here.  If you look it up and read the context he is not calling on the church to judge the world or reject non-believers.  He is focusing on the real church.  He is telling them that just because someone shows up on Sunday and may even bring their Bible, that does not make them part of the brethren.  He is saying that we need to draw a line between people who talk one way and live another and the ones who are interested in walking with Jesus.

It is simple bit of advice that should be applied to other areas of life.

In politics we already have a term RINO.  In case you have been out to a long lunch, that stands for Republican in Name Only.  It refers to the liberals and moderates who have run as genuine conservatives and then turn around and reject everything the party stands for.  They are, in Biblical language, so-called Republicans.  They need to be identified and voted out of office.  If we don’t do that then we will see the nation go the way the churches have been going: Down the drain.

I guess you could apply that same thing to things we eat.  Do you use so-called butter?  How about turkey bacon?  Unsalted potato chips, anyone?

We also have so-called love that our Hollywood culture has redefined from lust.

The applications are everywhere.  Open your eyes and start called spades as spades.

homo unius libri

Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Opus 2019-110: Critical Mass: Inner Rot

Society has many bumps and potholes.  What happens when those potholes become sinkholes?  What happens when a small blip reaches Critical Mass.  Today I want to talk about treason.

We have a new group of Democrats in the House of Representatives.  They seem to hate America and everything we have stood for yet they were elected, sworn in and are getting paid.  They have not been locked up or deported.  The question is, “Is this a sign of our strength and resilience as a country or a measure of our stupidity?”

We have always had wacko politicians.  It goes with the territory of liberty.  People are free to elect whomever they want to represent them.  This is part of our strength.  We have the cultural equity that allows us to put up with a certain amount of dead weight.  We can deal with a few treasonous pieces of trash.  The First Amendment allows people to speak their mind or lack of one.  That is the real test of liberty, can we allow freedom of speech when we don’t like it?  The left has said “no”.  Actually they have said, “NO!!!!”

The problem we are facing is that these traitors are teaming up with the long term politicians who have been working hard to buy or coerce enough votes to keep getting reelected.  When it comes to the repeated reelection of people like Pelosi and Schumer you only need to pay attention to the second half of the question.  What will happen when the people who hate your liberty team up with the ones that are literally out to destroy the country?  When will we reach the point of critical mass?

Since I am getting old, I may not live to see it.  Then again, maybe I will.

homo unius libri

Monday, June 24, 2019

Opus 2019-109: Election 2020: Trump Isn’t Being Nice

I was skimming through various sites looking for things of interest.  I looked down the list of articles in Real Clear Politics and one caught my eye, “The Biggest Obstacle to Trump’s Re-Election”.  I didn’t know there were any obstacles but it got my interest. 

My first clue that I was wasting my time was that it was from The Atlantic.  I think Atlantic is Latin for “fake news”, but I could be wrong on that since I never took Latin.  I do know that they do not, nor have they ever, had a good word to say about Donald Trump.

Not much is changed.  I didn’t read every word but I scanned through to get the idea.  They felt like a lot of people who admit the economy is doing well still don’t like Trump because he isn’t nice.  They criticized his speech at the Orlando rally because it wasn’t nice and say his only hope of winning is by being nice.

Not much has changed.  The Fake News networks will keep hammering away about all the things they don’t like about Trump.  One of the biggest things they don’t like about Trump is the number of people that do like him.  All the voices that forecast he was going to lose in 2016 are trying to convince us that he will lose in 2020. 

2020 is coming.  I give you a choice:  Vote for Trump or buy a subscription to the Atlantic.

homo unius libri

Opus 2019-108: Kicking the Can, part 2 of 2

We still have a lot of problems in our country today.  Many will admit them but few are willing to take the steps to make it happen.

Think of the federal deficit.  It is out of control.  It keeps getting bigger.  Logic and common sense tells us that we need to do something about it.  There is a limit to how high you can raise taxes without destroying the economy.  The big missing piece of the puzzle is cutting spending.  The question that no one wants to answer is “Where?”

Most people will admit we need to cut spending but they always want it to be on someone else’s dime.  The reason they are not willing to do anything is because it might hurt them.  Think about all the ways that many of us are on the public dole.  I was a public school teacher.  Because I worked for the government in a government controlled system I made about twice what teachers in private schools made and had an awesome health care package.  How many teachers do you know who are willing to cut back on education?  After all, it is for the kids, right?  And don’t look at the man behind the curtain making a lot of money.  And have you seen the obscene amounts of money university people make? 

How about all the tax loopholes we have.  I bought a home and had a mortgage.  I was allowed to write off the interest.  I accept the fact that some tax deductions make sense.  The cost of new equipment is an expense that should be deducted but board of directors meetings in resort areas?  You can get the same business done at the local school cafeteria. 

For me and millions of other elderly it would have to do with Medicare.  We want the cost of our drugs reduced.  There are a lot of crony capitalism things that could be changed but in reality we just want the cost to go down.  It doesn’t matter if those still working pay more or the government has to borrow the money, I want relief.  See the way it works?  And this at a time when the elderly are the ones who have most of the disposable income.  I still can’t figure out why I get a discount when the working stiff with three kids pays full price.

We need to start voting for people who will pledge to cut spending even if it means I have to give up going out to eat.  Eventually when someone goes to kick the can down the road they will find it has a giant rock behind it.

homo unius libri

Sunday, June 23, 2019

Opus 2019-107: Kicking the Can, part 1 of 2

From time to time I come across different writers criticizing politicians as refusing to deal with an issue and instead “kicking the can down the road.”  It refers to our so-called leaders refusing to take the bull by the horns and instead letting the problem go by assuming that future generations will deal with it.

We can look at such things as budget proposals that are going to balance the budget, at least until you look at the fine print.  Usually the balancing will happen four to eight years down the road when there has been another election.  What that means is never.

This is not a new problem.  I am reading Vindicating the Founders by Thomas G. West.  I am still in the early chapters and his first concern is over the issue of slavery.  I notice that he keeps referring to leaders of the day being against slavery but not willing to do anything about it.  Thomas Jefferson comes up frequently.  He is the one who penned the “all men are created equal” phrase that is so important.  At the same time he owned slaves and never made any attempt to free them even after his death.  His excuse seemed to be that he could not afford to set them free.

The thing that hit me was that the Founders kicked the can down the road.  They may have been forced to do so because there were three Southern states who would not have joined the new nation if slavery had been banned.  That was a political reality.  Northern states moved to do away with slavery but for the most part few who owned slaves and admitted it was wrong were willing to take the financial loss to do what was right.  In their defense they did outlaw the slave trade as soon as they could in 1808.

This curse still haunts us today.

To be continued...

homo unius libri

Friday, June 21, 2019

Opus 2019-106: The Last Word

I was recently led to reread Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken”.  It was a pleasant journey into my educational preparation.  There is a reason it is one of the most popular poems in America, if not the English speaking world.

Then I noticed a site with the title “The Most Misread Poem in America”.  Obviously the author felt like everyone else misunderstood what Frost was saying.  I went to the sight and began to read.  I did not read very long before I realized that this was an essay paid for by the word so I started to skim.  Many down pages later I finally got to where I began to find out how everyone misread about the road.

At that point I stopped reading.  You may choose to go on but I am used to scholars sharing their own opinions as if it was the final word.  I do a bit of Bible study and at times I make the mistake of reading commentary instead of the Bible itself.  One of the things I have come to learn is that most of the great insights in such books are the opinion of the author rather than the actual meaning of the text.

I guess scholars can’t help themselves.  I am just sorry that they have never bothered to consult me about the true meaning and significance of the text.  I could give them some guidance that is truly the last word.

homo unius libri

Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Opus 2019-105: Election 2020: Unintended Consequences

One of the principles we observe on a regular basis is the law of unintended consequences.  This is where a program is implemented that has a goal and even if the stated goal is reached there are a lot of results that no one factored in.  One example is the solar power array on the highway leading from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.  You see it for miles and don’t dare look directly at it.  It is that bright.  All in all it is a very impressive achievement and I am sure it produces a lot of electricity.  What no one told us about and still attempt to censor is the number of birds that are killed by the intense heat generated above the mirrors.  That was an unintended consequence.  Although they are sometimes pleasant surprises we usually find that the unexpected is negative. 
This is to be expected in human planning.  In a perfect world the negative would be compared to the positive and adjustments might be made.  We just keep on barreling down the road. 

God has no such limitations.  That is why I am often considering following the kosher laws laid down by the Old Testament although I am not Jewish and don’t have any obligation to follow them.  It seems to me that God had a reason for each of them and as science advances we often stumble across what was behind them.  With God there are no unintended consequences.

How does God bring about the results He wants?  He actually does not need to do a lot of spectacular miracles.  He can change the weather with a million little tweaks that no one else would notice.  When you add them up you see a hurricane dissipate or a plague die out.  Just because you don’t see Him working doesn’t mean that the drunk that was going to wipe out your family doesn’t have a flat tire or sneeze and run into a tree.

Meanwhile be looking at electing people who are willing to consider the facts and change their mind if things are not working out the way they were intended.  I can think of lots of laws that need to be repealed and programs that need to be canceled.  We need to get the message to the government.

Elections matter.  For many of us the Election of Donald Trump was a massive unintended consequence.  Then came 2018 and too many people read the news and ignored the truth.  We will get another chance at the House in two years.  2020 is coming.

homo unius libri

Sunday, June 16, 2019

Opus 2019-104: Headlines: The End Is Over

Another deadline has passed.  Maybe you count “the middle of June” different than I do but it looks to me we are there and so far the economy has not collapsed with a major reset which makes all the $100 bills you have under the mattress worthless.

My wife told me that things were so bad that there was going to be a total redoing of the way our finances are handled.  It think it involved shutting down the Federal Reserve, going to a gold standard and stacking our paper money by the toilet.  I may have missed a few details but it sounded scary.  In preparation I went to Costco and bought a six-pack of canned chicken.  Okay, maybe I would have done that anyway but I am ready for at least six days of suffering.

I have thoughts about how false prophets were to be treated in the Old Testament.
(Jer 14:15 KJV) Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land; By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.
I thought it was stoning but this works too.

Of course the day is not over yet.  Check with me tomorrow.

homo unius libri

Saturday, June 15, 2019

Opus 2019-103: Well Done...

At the moment I am into proof texting.  Proof texting is where you take a quote, usually from the Bible, and offer it out of context to give irrefutable proof to back up your position.  One reason to use it is because you have a valid point, know the context supports you and the person you are talking to is too lazy to look it up.  Sadly that is a minuscule portion of the proof texting that goes on.  Most of it is done to deceive while gaining the support of someone much more reliable than you are.

It is the spirit of the second, deceitful style that I offer this.

How are we supposed to eat our meat?  Let me quote Jesus,
(Mat 25:23 KJV) His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant;...
Now obviously I am proof texting but my point is still my point.

We are supposed to eat our meat well done, not rare.  There should be no evidence of blood when we cut into the steak.  Not only does the Old Testament tell us not to eat the blood but even in the New Testament, when the question is “What standards should we expect of the Gentiles?” we see the same restriction.
(Act 15:20 KJV) But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.
Although they were not talking about the local grill the point here is that blood is not to be a food.

So if you see me sending my steak back don’t sneer at me.  I am just trying to be a righteous diner.

homo unius libri

Friday, June 14, 2019

Opus 2019-102: The Phoenix Needs to Trump Gravity, Part 3 of 3

Some manage to go against the flow.  I think of Ronald Reagan.  I think of Thomas Sowell.  I think of Donald Trump.  How did they end up more conservative as they grew older?  One indicator might be that they were liberals when they were young but smart enough to grow out of it.  You may have heard the saying that if you are under 30 and not a liberal, you have no heart and if you are over 30 and still a liberal, you have no brain. 

I think that it might also be a matter of inner integrity.  Integrity demands that you confront truth and respond to it.  If you are ignorant then that explains some of your confusion but if you keep seeking truth then sooner or later you have to acknowledge if a change must be made.  Integrity also has an element of being your own man (sorry ladies, just a figure of speech).  Real integrity demands the courage to stand with truth instead of going with the flow.  Donald Trump comes to mind.  I only voted for him because he was not Hillary.  I admit it.  I was wrong in my analysis even if I was right in my goals.  He has surprised all of us.  On the integrity issue I think that you need to keep in mind that he has endured a two year witch hunt financed by unlimited resources taken from our tax dollars and they have come up with nothing.  I mean absolutely nothing.  Nothing on him.  Nothing on his children.  This is a man who worked in the building trade in New York.  And they found nothing. 

Are there any organizations that are resisting the rot?  The one that comes to mind is the Salvation Army.  I still feel that they are fulfilling their original calling of taking the Gospel of Jesus to the poor.  I don’t think they have any executives that make seven figure salaries.  They are still on track. 

What about you?  What about me?  Ultimately that is the only point we will have any power to change or monitor.  If enough of us stay on the high road and keep on track them maybe we can pull the culture back.  Each of us has to do our part even if it doesn’t work.  That means a series of daily choices.  It might mean finding a way to pass on any family wealth in a way that does not destroy the next generation.  It definitely means how we treat our neighbors. 

homo unius libri

Thursday, June 13, 2019

Opus 2019-101: The Phoenix Needs to Trump Gravity, Part 2 of 3

People and organizations need a Phoenix Moment.  In mythology the Phoenix was a creature that would be consumed by fire and then be resurrected from the ashes.  This should become a law of nature.  We have many colleges that need to sell all their assets and start over again at the struggle level.  I don’t know what they would do with the assets but they need to go away.  There was a day when today’s major universities were struggling little colleges.  The professors were living hand to mouth.  The students were dressed in hand me downs and were not sure where the next meal would come from.  They accumulated massive endowments, became powerful forces, drifted down hill and moral gravity took its toll.

The same could be said of mega-churches.  This is why I am convinced that church splits are not necessarily a bad thing.  Sure there is a bit of pain and a lot of unchristian behavior but at least one of the parties will see the light and have a Phoenix moment.  Revival will follow.

This is why old political parties need to fade away and be replaced.  The Whigs were once the opposition to the Democrats.  Then came the convention when they refused to take a stand against slavery.  The Republicans were in the wings waiting and they came to life out of the ashes of the Whig party.  It may be time for the Republican party to go the same way.

This is why computers need to be rebooted.  My son tells me that you can leave your computer on too long.  Over time it accumulates so many obstructions to its clean operation that it slows down and starts crashing.  When it gets the wrong virus the only answer is to Phoenix the hard drive and start over.

Many organizations are like a patient who has lost both kidneys.  They need to go on dialysis regularly to clean up their blood.  If they don’t, they die.  It would be better to go Phoenix. 

Maybe we need a law that requires all organizations to liquidate after a certain number of years.

To be concluded...

homo unius libri

Wednesday, June 12, 2019

Opus 2019-100: The Phoenix Needs to Trump Gravity, Part 1 of 3

Water runs downhill.  Always.  Why?  Gravity.  There seems to be the same tendency in public life.

We have seen the pattern.  People start middle of the road or lightly to the right of center.  They are put in a position of responsibility.  They begin to drift left and the movement becomes perpetual.  We have seen it with judges and members of congress.  We are now seeing it with Fox News.  The network still has voices of reason and balance, but the rot is setting in and the drift is becoming obvious.

Consider Jessie Jackson.  He was once a man I could support.  He started out really trying to help poor people and lift them up.  Along the way he had to make a decision and he decided to get back on the plantation and accept the largess of the left.  Which came first, the drifting or the selling out?

We see it in laws.  Take the various Civil Rights Acts.  They are passed for the best of reasons.  In the debates and explanations there are certain things such as racial preferences that are labeled as anathema.  Then they introduce Affirmative Action.  I have read even that was supposed to be balanced when it was introduced.  We have a concern for the environment that has morphed to a tyranny of petty, bored bureaucrats who love to throw around their power.  Concern for safety shuts down businesses and keeps innovative ideas from being developed. 

How can you resist the drift?

To be continued...

homo unius libri

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Opus 2019-099: New Terms: Do a Thomas Jefferson

As I was deep in discussion of the Bible with a friend I found him picking and choosing parts of the Bible to accept and parts to reject.  At least that is what it seemed like to me.  He didn’t see it that way.  I accused him of pulling a Thomas Jefferson.

Thomas Jefferson did what modern cafeteria Christians are doing but he was a bit more clear in how he did it.  He took a Bible and literally cut out the parts that he did not agree with.  What was left is called the Jefferson Bible.  I think we have a lot of people doing that kind of thing.

A good example might be the mayor whose name we can’t pronounce calling Mike Pence non-Christian.  That is a Thomas Jefferson.  You see, the Bible makes a very clear statement about homosexuality and the mayor was very vocal about his homosexual union.  Mike Pence would say it was wrong because the Bible says so.  The mayor says Pence, and the Bible, are wrong.

We could come up with variations of the expression such as “Doing a Jefferson”, or “Don’t Jeff me”. 

homo unius libri

Thursday, June 6, 2019

Opus 2019-098: Headlines: In the Marrow

I have been on the road for over a week as I begin to write this.  I am visiting with good friends on my final stop, staying at their house and letting them feed me.  One of the focal points of the visit is an ongoing dialogue, i.e. discussion, i.e. argument, about just about anything but focused on certain theological issues.  My friend is a King James Only guy and very serious about it but he still has not cried, “Heretic!”  He may mumble it in his sleep but not when his free will is operating.

On one of our tangents he brought up an article he had come across having to do with paleontology.  It was an interview with a researcher called Marry Schweitzer.  In her research she believes she has come across what appears to be soft tissue in the marrow area of some fossils and she thinks it is something that deserves study.  If that wiggles your antennae then go to the site and read the article. 

That isn’t what I wanted to comment on.

There were a couple of quotes that she offered in passing that I thought we important.  She is offering a theory that is in conflict with the Established Wisdom.  She says that if she is correct then scientists will either need to reevaluate the accepted age of the fossils or the theories about how fossils are formed.  Either one threatens some people and is resisted.

She is good with that.  She says she expects good science to challenge her theory.  She gets a little up tight when they reject her data.  She kind of says, “Bring it on!”  because that is good science.  If you know anything about the genuine scientific theory you will agree with her.  Then she said,
“I learned the role of science is to disprove, not prove.”  (emphasis in original)
When researchers offer an hypothesis they are supposed to set up experiments that will show a true/false answer.  In most cases is it impossible to prove a theory because you might have missed the one thing that would throw it out.  After enough people have failed in trying to debunk it, it is promoted to an established theory which is often accepted as fact.

Something else she said resonated with me because it echoed something I read somewhere else and liked.
“If you step back a little bit and let God be God I don’t think there’s any contradiction at all between the Bible and what we see in nature. He is under no obligation to meet our expectations. He is bigger than that.”
My basic belief when it comes to where life came from is found in Genesis 1:1.
(Gen 1:1 KJV) In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
The how and when I am willing to debate and listen to good science as they try to figure it out.  The why is where I run into problems.  I have no fear of good honest science.  The problem we run into is that much of the science that is being made popular is not good science.  It is based on models that were set up to show the desired results or it is edited to cut out anything that goes against the accepted truth.

An interesting article worth reading.


homo unius libri

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Opus 2019-097: On the Street: Next Stop

I was waiting in line to board the aircraft.  I had one stop over where I would need to change planes in Phoenix.  I was forced to listen to a couple of women talking behind me and began to fear that I might be stuck sitting next to one of them.  Their mouths were on automatic.  Together they were a wonder of nature.  Alone they were looking for a target.

Suddenly my ears were on alert.  One of the women asked the other, “Are you going all the way to Phoenix?”  For a brief moment I wondered if there was a stop in between that I had missed.  I want you to be proud of me though because of my self control.  I didn’t even turn around to look at them.  I assumed they were democrats.

No, they did not sit by me.

homo unius libri

Saturday, June 1, 2019

Opus 2019-096: Baby Talk: Musical Fantasy

There is a Gaither song in the Christian repertoire that has a line, “How sweet to hold a new born baby...”  It gathers deeper meaning and magnifies your feelings when you have a child or grandchild.  Suddenly you own it.

That is true but momentary.  Life has a way of being unsentimental.  Sooner or later that bundle of joy becomes a drooling, burping, squirming, screaming bucket of “I want my real mommy.”  It has been fun watching my son try to fulfill the uncle role without getting a drop of slobber on him.  He is one of those people who always washes his hands after he holds a baby.  Germs, you know.

While in Japan we had a moment when my granddaughter returned her last two meals to us while strapped in a car seat between me and my daughter.  It just kept coming.  What was fascinating was the calm look on the child’s face.  She never cried or got upset, she just kept barfing.  I wondered where she had stored it all.  For breakfast she had enjoyed oatmeal spiced with cinnamon.  That was the main smell of the moment.  I am not sure I will ever be able to enjoy oatmeal with cinnamon again.

We pulled over and three adults tried to clean it all up.  I have to hand it to the kid, she kept it all in the car seat.  Not once in the entire event did she get upset except when we tried to change her clothes.

The joys of being a grandparent.  Fortunately my son was in the front seat or he might never hold a baby again. 

homo unius libri