Monday, October 29, 2007

Drei Fragen: part drei, part two

tomorrow, tomorrow, i love ya, tomorrow, you're only a couple of days baaaaack.

Time moves in jerks and spurts here at the Fricken Coop. Some days last a week, some weeks last a couple of minutes, you learn to work with it without ever really getting used to it.

This is a continuation of Drei Fragen, part drei or part "why" as i over dubbed it. i'm gonna see how confusing and cumbersome i can make the titles. Cuz that's fun to me.

Why, why, why did God, holy and infinite make people? Cuz He wanted kids and He loved us. This was never a mistake, He knew exactly what Adam and Eve were gonna do the moment he "turned His back," so to speak. He knew exactly what kind of life i or you would lead long before He said, "Let there be Light." My own kids aren't always angels, in fact they can be insufferable twits but i would never choose to have not made them in the first place. He wasn't making a zoo or a terrarium to scientifically experiment with little pink, yellow, black, brown and red lab mice. He was making a nursery where he could raise His kids.

Yeah right. So explain Noah. We're not even out of the first book of the Bible and Dad is slaughtering nearly the whole brood. Some dad, huh?

Okay, here we go... first thing you gotta know bout Dad is that He is perfectly fair. That's a difficult concept for those of us who have only ever dealt with really, horrendously, imperfectly fair people for our short durations. Dad knows that all things, all choices have consequences. Dad knows that there are only, really, when it all boils down to the salt and minerals at the bottom of the pan, two choices. Black and White. No gray. Either you accept that He is Holy, another difficult word, either you accept that He is Good, Clean, Pure, Unalterable, Unchangeable, Without an Evil Notion or Intent, Perfectly Fair, Perfectly Correct, Really, Really Cool...you accept that He is Holy and the only source of mercy to you...(believe me, when you finally confront a Holy being you will not have to wonder about your own condition anymore. Imagine crawling out of the Great Dismal Swamp after seventy years without a shower, deoderant or a dentist visit and stumbling into the penthouse suite of the Waldorf-Astoria. Trust me, you'll know the difference between Holy and blameless and your own condition, noooo problem.) Sloppy, drippy, dirty meets Holy and either accepts His Mercy as He offers it or doesn't. That's it. Your choice. He holds out Mercy and you can either accept it or walk away. All those folk that didn't get on the Ark with Noah, they said, "no thanks," and God the Father loved them enough to honor their choice. Knowing God, it wasn't just the one time he asked either. He tends to give us lots of chances to choose. If my kids ever got so bad, that i seriously thought they were a danger to other kids, i would take drastic steps too. There are parents who have had to turn their children over to the powers that be for justice and punishment. God IS the power that be, so He has to do it Himself. i'd be willing to bet that rain that fell was mingled with His own tears. i'd also bet that you wouldn't want to be living with those folk or a few thousand years of their progeny.

i have no proof for this outside of Him telling us so through the Bible and my own observations. Obviously that means it's just taken on faith and you may have a problem believing it. That's fine too. But if you don't want to believe that God is a loving father that knows you and loves you anyway and pursues you and your love i'd kind of wonder why? Whatcha got that's better than that? i'm curious.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Drei Fragen: part why?

Somehow, some way, some why God the Father saw and knew us and loved and likes us anyway and so he made us. So here we are, ta-da! So why did he create us in separate genders?

This question seem especially poignant as i sit and hear the gentle strains of Seether coming from Happ's radio singing, "[have sexual intercourse] me like you hate me..." With all the problems inherent in relations between the genders, why did an omniscient Father create two genders in the first place?

Dismissive, cynical response: to let us feel His pain.

Hoping for a more hopeful answer we shall forge ahead past all common sense and flippant inner voices. According to Genesis, God made man and then made woman as a helper to him. Important to note, this was not a subservient position. She was his equal until the fall when God said, "your desire will be for the man and he will rule over you." Men trying to lord it over women is part of the curse, not the blessing.

Another part of the curse is painful toil in order to eat. Which i must attend to now.
Until tomorrow...

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Drei Fragen: part zwei

So yesterday's homework was to find out why people have kids. So what did we learn? i myself work with a confirmed bachelor and in the evening accosted my thirteen year old son, Happ. i learned exactly squat. You see, this is why i philosophize. There's a blight on hard evidence around the coop.

In his defense, Happ did try to answer. Happ likes babies, thinks their cute and fun. Happ is obviously suffering from dementia but since he's the only witness we have we shall continue. Happ's guess was that folk have kids so that they can have someone they like around. Or at least that's my best attempt at summarizing what he mumbled. It's been a while since i translated teenish. To which i asked him, "well, how do you know you're going to like them before their born?"

(shrug)

i couldn't tell you why people decide to have kids and i have two. Humans being inherently selfish, i would guess that most of our reasons for having them are as noble and romantic as shoplifting. But somewhere in us there must be the kernal of the right reason to procreate. i think i've felt it when i'm having a pretty good discussion with the Ballyhoo gang, my own progeny or when i see them do something amazing or cool or when they make me laugh or when Rascal comes down stairs in the morning and wants to snuggle or when i watch Happ draw. In those moments, i can see how God the Father might have wanted to make us, selfish ingrates that we are. Particularly since He did know us before we were born!

Yeah, yeah, i hear the naysayers with their, "Why did He make Hitler then?" Once again, stating the obvious disclaimer: 'that i don't actually know' but i'd have to guess that Hitler made the rest of us what we were too. The greatest generation couldn't have been the greatest without something to test themselves against. Sometimes i think you gotta take a big picture view.

So, a human or in most cases, a pair of humans decides to have a child in the hope that said red, wrinkly poop machine will be someone they can like and love and might just like and love them in return. Acceptable? Which brings us to the original question, "Why did God make us?" While i'm sure there are myriad and vague answers i think the simplest is that He already knew and loved us. Too bad we so rarely return those feelings.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Drei Fragen

Alright. Standby for some heavy-duty scruffilosophizing. Got some major league questions to pondificate today. Before you may pass by me, you must answer my questions three...

*Why did God make us? ("us" being used here to encompass all humanatees)

*Why did He make us two distinct and different genders?

*What is the capitol of Assyria? No, wait, aaaaaaaaaaaaargh! Why did He create sex?

Now, if you don't believe in God then i guess you could still play along but i'm not sure it'll have the same ring to it to say, "Why did an indifferent and uncaring universe evolve a species of satient beings? Why did those satient beings evolve into two separate and distinct genders? And why did they evolve a method of procreating that could also be used recreationally?" Kind of different questions but you have fun with those. i'm not making fun of you for believing that, i just wonder why you would want to?

Today maybe we could just delve into the first one. ("Today" being used here to denote the thirty minutes before daylight and merciless whip of the world coming down on the scruffy puppy.) Why did the Lord God, the Autonomous and perfectly complete King of the Universe decide to make peops? i haven't done a scrap of actual research, this is philosophy after all, but i'd venture to say that we'll never have the answer to that until we can ask the Man his own righteous self. But! We may have many of the clues we need already.

Why do people have kids? Go ahead, ask some parents why they decided to have wee bairns. i'll wait. i guess you'd have to find folk who made the conscious decision to have the tricycle motors in the first place, unlike the Mynk and i who sort of got a surprise a couple of months into the grand adventure. Once again, i haven't done a shred of research here but i'm guessing the answers are all myriad and vague. In fact, that can be our assignment for the day. ("Day" being used here to refer to a period of time marked from now to whenever i can get my lazy butt in gear and write the next post in this series.)

Go forth and ask why we multiply!

Monday, October 22, 2007

Filth and excrement

Seasons and cycles.

Such is life. And as you may have noticed, "you" being the one reader i have, i have been going through a season of drought. The muse has not struck with anything heavier than a tack hammer in some time. And i can take a few whacks with a tack hammer before i take to the digital thermometer of my soul. But when the wee little beastie starts digging through the tool shed for larger mallets then i know it's time to 'boy up, drop your drawers and grab your ankles. Time to plunge the depths and see what's down in the deep, dark recessess of my abscessed soul...other than disgusting metaphors.

My season of contentment, my drought of distraction is coming to a close and i heard it's death knell clearly yesterday. The pastor pointed out that Jesus when approaching an invalid who had been so for thirty-eight years actually asked the guy if he wanted to be well before healing him. Now, this seems a bit overly polite for a pre-litigation crazy society, "excuse me, i couldn't help but notice you there lying in what appears to be thirty-eight years of your own filth and excrement and apparently unable to move by your own volition and was wondering if you'd perhaps, like to be healed?" I mean really. How long did the guy have to deliberate? "Yeah, lemme think about that one. Are you coming by tomorrow? Could I sleep on it?" Duh!

But wait. Let's give this a bit more thought that in merits. Thirty-eight years. Being a beggar was all this guy knew by this point. He had no friends, the text says so. We can assume he was homeless. If he was suddenly whole and healthy, where was he supposed to go? What was he going to eat? He was going to have to get a job. He was going to have to reenter society. Infinitely better choices than he had yesterday but how often do we wallow in our own filth even when offered a way out because we're too afraid to make the changes, accept the help, do the things that will alter our conditions because we're afraid? Afraid of the unknown, afraid of being "on our own?" Afraid of what new responsabilities we will have to face? If i quit being a hired hammer for someone else and strike out for real on a writing career, how will i make money? How will i support my wife and children? That would require research and stuff and what if i can't sell anything? What if nobody likes the crap i write, i mean, have you read it? i make rectal thermometer metaphors for cryin' out loud! Whoa! What if i have to spend my sunday's writing instead of watching football?

It's actually not that hard to see why we might tell Jesus, "nah, you know, just lying here hoping someone will drop a quarter or a crust of bread ain't that bad a gig. i think i'd rather stay down here on the bottom rung, folk don't expect that much from me here." It's a heck of a lot easier to just get up and go to the mill where all the decisions are made for me, or at least i've gotten used to the ones they expect me to make.

"Do you want to be well?"

i dunno. I think i want to want to be well.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Dr. Agitation will see you now.

Contentment, while restful and perhaps a healthier state of mind than the alternative, is not good for producing art. At least not in this puppy. When all is well or as well as can be imagined, i tend to adopt a certain mode that can best be described as Reading-a-halfway-decent-magazine-on-a-reasonably-comfortable- couch-in-the-waiting-room mode. i'm not sure what i'm waiting for... probably the same thing i'm always waiting for, divine intervention, but that's how it comes across. Days fly by and the only thing that marks them is the week of the football season or the next month showing up on our schedule board at work. This is the time of year when i want everything to slow down, my favorite stretch from the Archer's moon to Christmas and instead it's whizzing on past with nary a look up from my National Geographic. i gotta go camping and knock this thing on it's ear. Course, there's a lot to do, maybe in a couple of weeks.

Hmm, think i got that contentment thing licked.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

a sad truth

The main problem i see with having nothing remotely interesting to say is the vast amount of time it takes to reach this conclusion. The mind just rejects it. It keeps poring over the last few day's events combing for some shred of insight gleaned or humorous moment enjoyed to share. And the fact is that while stuff has happened, i can't in the ten minutes i have compose it in such a way that it will be remotely interesting stuff. So...

heck with it, i'm gonna go iron some cuffs.
be well.