Monthly Archives: October 2008

My family likes to camp.  My wonderful husband and I have outgrown tents and the need to pack our belongings in to areas inaccessible.  Maybe another time, when I have the time, and I don’t require constant internet access for my livelihood. Certainly not while I have a cranky diabetic cat. We try to slip away on weekends.  We pretend it’s the Sierras, but it’s only the wooded parking lot near a lake.  For now, I’ll take it. The problem is Hayward, the diabetic cat.  In the old days, we’d just load up the cat chow, leave out multiple bowls …

I’ve had a few non-encounters recently that I feel compelled to confess. While out shopping, I’ve seen acquaintances that I have avoided. I’m sorry, Lord. Please forgive me. Two of the people I met and prayed with in bible study. The third I knew from high school. I don’t know what held me back from greeting them. Fear of awkwardness, maybe. I stink at small talk. Each of the non-encounters left me with a streak of anxiety. I hadn’t seen these people in years. Maybe I wanted to avoid the catching-up or the interruption in my shopping-eating-talking with someone else. …

I love humor.  It ranks up there with truth, justice, and good dental hygiene.  It breaks monotony, It kindles the imagination.  It protects wounds. I skimmed Steve Martin’s memoir at the store the other day. I wasn’t a fan, but I had some time to burn.  He viewed his public brand of humor as strictly a job, to the point of resenting the expectation that he entertain others on his “off hours”.  Makes sense to me, and I doubt his personal humor required the artifice of an arrow through the brain. Humor, too, is in the eye of the beholder.   …

The first time I read the bible in its entirety, I started in the book of John, at my wonderful sister’s suggestion, and kept going until I came around the horn again to John. My background held little bible reading, so the book contained many surprises for me. People got mad at God. Subsequently I’ve learned that many people are mad at God, for various reasons, but at the time, it was a singular shock for me. I’ve been known to have a temper, so that wasn’t the salient point. But mad at God? The maker of the universe? What …