House...Crown

Our architects are finishing up the contract for our house. It should be signed very soon and construction will begin. We had six contractors bid for the job. It still came out much higher than we expected. Oh well.

**

Norah celebrated her third birthday last Saturday. That evening she brought some framed photos to Glory and asked, "Was I in your tummy in this picture?" "Why, yes," said Glory, "you were." Norah pointed to another picture. "Was I in your tummy in this picture?" Glory said, "No, not in that one." "Where was I?" asked Norah. Glory paused then said, "Well, you weren't anywhere." Norah said, "But where was I?" Glory said, "You were not anywhere; you didn't exist then." Norah persisted. "But where was I?" Glory repeats: "Before you were in my tummy you were not you...You didn't exist. That's all I can say." Norah, without missing a beat, said, "I guess it's a mystery."

**

I read a short piece in The Christian Science Monitor recently about the effect of prayer on international politics. Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, gave an interpretation of Psalm 23 in which she identified the Shepherd (in 'the Lord is my shepherd') as Divine Love. She said that Divine Love erases fear, criticism, jealousy, and judgmentalism. Prayer, according to Eddy, can break down the barriers that these characteristics cause in political life. Whether or theory of prayer is correct or not, I was helped by thinking of the Shepherd as Divine Love. I just have trouble relating to the God-image of shepherd. I don't know any shepherd; never have. But being shepherded by Divine Love has meaning for me. Many metaphors or images of God don't register with me anymore. But Divine Love and Divine Intelligence resonates.

**

My book of family stories is about finished. I'm reading the proof copy and making corrections.

**

I joined the gym at our local Community Center. I've not yet used the weight room or any of the zillion exercise machine (though I intend to acquaint myself with some of them). I'm using the indoor track for walking. One day I was going around the track in the usual counter clockwise direction when a man met me coming the other way. "Hey," he said, "didn't you read the sign? This is Tuesday; you're supposed to be going clockwise." "Oh," thanks," I said. Sure enough there is a sign that says we run or walk counter clockwise on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday -- and the opposite direction on the other days. Boy, life is complicated, isn't it?

**

I'm still going to the Dental School at UAB for dental work. Yesterday I got my new crown. Gold! I guess if I get mugged I should keep my mouth shut lest the mugger yank out my shiny crown. It took three hours as usual. The students are thorough and slow. The student didn't numb me before he started. But when I jumped a couple of times he realized I needed an injection. This was the first crown he had put on someone who had not already had a root canal. Thus, my pain helped him learn to numb those who have not been rooted. I try to do my little part in educating the next generation of dentists. I started singing the hymn "Crown Him with Many Crowns," but he didn't get it--he hadn't grown up in a Protestant church.

8

The Plug

photo by wayne mclaughlin


I thought this fenced-in fire plug was unique. Make sure it doesn't get away--or run away with some hairy dog.

8

The Path

(photo by wayne mclaughlin)

We don't all walk the same path. We have different callings; different temperaments; different interests; different orientations.
There are a variety of professional paths; and a variety of social paths.
Some people walk on one path to success; other folk walk down another path to success.
There are different religious paths.
In the (mystical) Gospel of John, Jesus says, I am the Path, the Truth, and the Life.
Since Jesus is the embodiment of the Love of God, we could say that anyone who walks the path of Love
is traveling by the power and direction of Jesus.
Sometimes different paths lead to the same place.
Different people can call the same Path by different names.
In divine geography, Jesus is omnipresent; therefore, all paths of love are the Path of Jesus.
What path are you traveling right now?

A leaf

Sometimes just meditating on a leaf
can bring calmness.

The green of life...
The order and symmetry...
The surging life force...
The spreading out...
The connections...
The flexibility...

What is the Spirit saying to you
through the leaf?

(photo by wayne mclaughlin)                 

more cupcakes

  photo by wayne mclaughlin

More cupcakes from N's b-day party last year.

This & That

I was watching TV the other day with Norah. We were watching The Dinosaur Train. (Grandparents learn about all kinds of TV shows and cartoons they never heard of before.) I was shocked! The whole program was about dinosaur poop! That's right--dinosaur poop. It had a scientific orientation--a didactic cartoon. But poop? Of course pooping is a big part of a toddler's life experience.

May you heard about our new governor in Alabama. He shot off his mouth the other day about his faith, saying that anyone who was a Christian was his brother or sister, but if you weren't a Christian you were not his sister or brother. Well, not a politic thing to say. He was swiftly reprimanded by the media and had to meet the next day with several rabbis and ministers to apologize. In politics you can't alienate a whole group of people. But the dirty little secret of Evangelical Christianity is that 'born again' Christians do not see non-Christians as brothers and sisters in the family of God. Most people in Alabama belief just that. But to say it out in the open like our Governor did was shocking to non-born-again folk. One of my seminary professors told us that in the Bible the Fatherhood of God is proclaimed on two levels: All people are children of God according to creation; but only those who trust in Jesus are children of God according to redemption. Our Governor forgot about (or didn't understand) the relatedness of all people by the fact of creation. The Evangelical Christian stance is logically exclusive--it fences people out who don't believe the same way. It speaks out of both sides of its mouth. Yes, we are equal in the sight of God, they say. But we are more equal than you. That is, we have a closer relationship with God than non-Christians. In the end (the Evangelicals say), we will end up in eternal bliss and you will be water-boarded with fire forever. When the Governor apologized he said he didn't mean to disenfranchise anyone. But Evangelical theology is a theology of disenfranchisement. 

Something else on my mind: This guy that shot the Representative. He is a white, heterosexual, citizen, non-alien, non-immigrant. Don't you see the problem? Why hasn't Fox News demanded that we get rid of all those white, heterosexual, legal citizens? 

That's all.

cup cakes

photo by wayne mclaughlin

Yummy cup cakes at N's B-day last year.