It occurs to me…

It is a two-quote day:

“The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it has nothing else in the universe to do.”  Galileo Galilei

The quote reminds me that it is easy to take things for granted, not just small things, like the gift of a smile, or a light that turns green as I approach it, but big things, like the sun.  (In my defense, the sun IS 93,000,000 miles away.)  I am also, sheepishly, reminded of how easy it is for me to confuse myself with the sun.  Note to self – I/we ain’t the sun.  That position is already filled, and the universe (at least in terms of planetary orbits) is functioning just fine.

Still, there are things for me to do, to be.  Which somehow connects to the second quote:

“There are no passengers on spaceship earth.  We are all crew.”  Marshall McLuhan.

So what are my assignments for today?

Merging a patchwork of some things read over the past few days, so hang with me on this:

In Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis notes: “Besides being complicated, reality, in my experience, is usually odd. It is not neat, nor obvious, not what you expect….  Reality, in fact, is usually something you could not have guessed.”  That rings true to me.

In that I was reminded of this line from Baz Luhrmann’s Sunscreen: “Don’t worry about the future, or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum.  The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind.  The kind what blindside you at 4:00 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.”

And then there’s 2 Cor. 5:16-18: “Therefore we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”

It occurs to me in all this that those odd twists in life, those things that come out of left field, are not exceptions to life, they ARE life.  As Lewis notes, reality is odd, and as Luhrmannn notes, we get blindsided.  Which takes us back to the seemingly enigmatic punchline in 2 Cor. 5:18 – “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.”

 

I don’t know, I can shake a stick at a lot.

You can beat a dead horse,

but I wouldn’t  bet on it.

You can ride a gravy train,

but don’t let it scald you,

and for God’s sakes, don’t add water.

It may not be your first rodeo,

but the bull you are on doesn’t care,

and odds are it ain’t his first.

Bear hunting with a branch is fine;

it is the bear finding with a branch that gets dicey.

It seems to me that hen’s teeth are about as plentiful as they need to be.

Granted, the latch on the outhouse door is handy,

but who opens an outhouse door without first knocking or calling out?

Is “y’all” the only amusing contraction?

Has anyone ever admitted to recently falling off a turnip truck;

or for that matter, has anyone ever seen a turnip truck?

That’s a lot of turnips.

But not more than I can shake a stick at.

“… continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling….”  Philippians 12:2.

This, in and of itself, can be a bit intimidating.  What often gets lost in the “fear and trembling” part is what follows: “for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”

God works in me.  That is, I am not in this alone – there is help!  This reflects the “partnership with God” that my friend Steve Kinney speaks of so often.  And that is the good news, really good news, ‘cause I can use that help, particularly when I start to thinking I don’t really need it and I got this covered on my own.

Lost and Found

Have you ever wandered around looking for a set of keys you had in your pocket,

a hat on your head, a phone in you hand?

I think my search for “enough” is like that –

I am spending an inordinate amount of time searching for something I already have.

“Be joyful though you have considered all the facts.”  Wendell Berry

I ran into this quote again from one of Berry’s poems and it made me laugh, again.  I mean, do I ever really have all the facts?  I cobble together a story based on my perception of almost always incomplete facts, tainted as it is by my predilections, then I layer that with an icing of supposition as to the future — all of which leaves me with, well, near fiction and an appreciation for Berry’s words.

I find the poetry of Charles Bukowski the right medicine for when I start to take life too seriously, … or not seriously enough.

the last song – Charles Bukowski

driving the freeway while

listening to the Country and Western boys

sing about a broken heart

and the honkytonk blues,

it seems that things just don’t work out

most of the time

and when they do it will be for a

short time

only.

well, that’s not news.

nothing’s news.

it’s the same old thing in

disguise.

only one thing comes without a

disguise and you only see it

once, or

maybe never.

like getting hit by a freight

train

makes us realize that all our

moaning about long lost girls

in gingham dresses

is not so important

after

all.

Photo taken of the Austin skyline a few years back — likely has some new buildings in it now.

“Having devoted the first half of my life to the dark, I feel obliged to revere any pinpoint of light now.”  Mary Karr

Indeed, those “pinpoints of light” are due reverence whenever or however they come.

It occurred to me today that life is like running a race when I don’t know the course, or for that matter, the distance.  But then, hell, we’re all in the same race.