"...all language about everything is analogical; we think in a series of metaphors. We can explain nothing in terms of itself, but only in terms of other things." (Dorothy Sayers, Mind of the Maker, 1941)
"Okey dokey.. free my mind. Right, no problem, free my mind, free my mind, no problem, right..."
"I imagine that right now you're feeling a bit like Alice, tumbling down the rabbit hole."
"Never send a human to do a machine's job."
"It's like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad..."
"Choice. The problem is choice."
"Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting for something? For more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace? Yes? No? Could it be for love? "
"I know Kung Fu."
"You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it."
"I still like candy."
"There is no spoon."
"You didn't come here to make a choice, you've already made it. You're here to try to understand why you made it."
"Buckle your seatbelt, Dorothy, cuz Kansas is going bye-bye."
"You take the blue pill, the story ends...you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland and I'll show you how deep the rabbit hole goes."
"Welcome to the desert of the real."
"Good! Adaptation, improvisation, but your weakness is not your technique."
"What is real? How do you define real? If you're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain."
"Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself."
Friday morning began with a leak in my kitchen ceiling. After investigation this weekend it turns out the toilet flange on the third floor broke, and water streamed down the outside of the pipe and into the space between my kitchen ceiling and my second floor. The plumber is coming tonight to fix it. Help me Jesus...
In happier news, I learned how to glaze windows on Saturday. I'm not ashamed to say I did a pretty good job - it was fun! I replaced the glass in the four lower sashes of my bedroom. The first one took me an hour and a half, but I got better at it and the fourth one only took me forty minutes. I owe it all to a great website I found on glazing old wood windows.
Then, it was on to the bedroom to finish texturing and by golly, I finished. I may have burned out the gears in my drill from mixing the joint compound - I smelled something hot while I was mixing that wasn't putty and wasn't me.
This morning I began sanding the hallway walls, and made quite a bit of progress in twenty minutes, which was very encouraging. So close to paint again - I love paint!
Last week I ordered art glass for the upper sashes of my bedroom windows. I'm hoping it will be in this week so I can get the windows glazed - now that I'm experienced - this weekend.
On October 1, I was blessed by a wonderful group of friends who helped me rip out the remaining carpeting and subfloor on the second floor. It was hard, dirty work, and they were great about it and so much fun. My cast of all stars included Headless, Captain Wow, Kevmo, and three other angelic blogless super heroes. In six hours the floor was free of everything, including nails and staples.
So now, I'm camping out in the attic, which is great.
Well the plumber is here now working on the upstairs bathroom, and I'm down here wondering if I can safely use the first floor toilet...dang!
Home Improvement, Rich Mullins, and Sanatana Dharma
Today I was texturing the walls of my bedroom while listening to Rich Mullins. I also listened to Steely Dan's Aja album, and the Dave Wilcox album Headless gave me. But oh yeah - back to Rich.
I love that Rich set the Nicene Creed to music. The ancient basics of my Christian faith set to song - wow. As I splattered my walls and myself with joint compound, I thought about those simple tenets, how old they are, how many Christians from all over the world in so many different languages have repeated those words over hundreds of years.
I believe in God the Father, the Almighty... I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord... I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life... I believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic church... I believe in the communion of saints... Forgiveness of sins... Resurrection of the body... Life everlasting... Amen.
I believe. With all the saints, living and dead, I believe - and that is the heart of our religion, the only thing we can contribute to the gift of grace given to us by God. I believe.
I'm studying world religions and the system du jour was Hinduism, or Sanatana Dharma. When I was a kid, I dabbled in it a little - read a few books, worked it into my view of God and the world. And that's totally fine with the Hindu way - it's a path to the divine that is tolerant of all ways, and thus over time has become diverse in its expression and disciplines.
At the end of the textbook chapter, I read that in recent years a movement has begun in India to restore Hindu culture, which has been affected by Christian missionaries, Muslims, British occupancy, and secularism. The irony of this move toward restoration of the old is that it is contrary to the Hindu concept of inclusion. It's quite possible that by attacking outside influences, India may suffocate the belief system it is trying to save.
Which brings me back to the creed.
When we as Christians forget that we are sojourners in this world, ambassadors of our Lord, we place ourselves in danger of extinction. Yes, God is Lord over all the earth, and we have alligned ourselves with Him through Christ. We have a rich heritage full of battles won and loves proclaimed. It seems right that we should wave our banner high and show the world that our God is the Lord, and if they disagree, then...yeah, then what? Boycott their products? Debate them? Take them to court? Beat them in politics so we can bring the kingdom of God to earth?
Wow. Where did Jesus go?
The correlation as I read the Hindu story was too close for comfort. The simplicity of our gospel can only be kept intact through our humble belief in it. We lose it when we lose our humility. By attacking our outside influences by our own pride, we may suffocate the very faith we seek to defend. Our Savior was rich, but for our sakes He became poor. All he asks is that we believe - the kind of belief that trusts completely, with no added muscle.
Muscle - which brings me back to texturing my walls. They're finished, with thoughts of Sanatana Dharma and the Nicene Creed rolled into them. Thinking again. You never know what a paint roller and a cd will drudge up in my beany noggin.
When I was a little girl, my father would sometimes sing to us on car trips. My favorite was an English song about a ship and crew. It was a funny song with great rhyme and meter and he would sing it very fast, which made it even more fun. I never could figure out all of the words, just a few and then hmm hmm hmm and then a few more. It was an extra special treat to hear it.
My dad was not an especially cuddly dad. He worked hard, and was gone a lot. Tenderness did not come easy for him. Although he was a salesman, as I look back through adult eyes I think he was a shy man who found it difficult to connect with people except over business or politics. But I know he loved us. The older I get, the more I know this.
My memory is peppered with joyful images of my dad. Swimming at the beach, we'd jump on his back like he was a whale. He would tell us to count while he held his breath under water. For years I thought he held the world record for holding his breath. I was in absolute awe of this - my dad's unique and wondrous talent. I remember one morning when I was ten or eleven, I was up early and decided to dust the livingroom. Dad came downstairs, stood behind me for a moment, then gave my pony tail a gentle tug before he continued into the kitchen. I still feel his tug.
When my dad sang this song, he was animated and joyful. I think it gave him a sincere and feisty kick that we loved it so much, that although we tried to keep up with him our attempts would collapse into giggles until we got to the chorus again. I was thinking about it this morning, googled it, and what do you know?
A CAPITAL SHIP
A capital ship for an ocean trip was the Walloping Window Blind. No wind that blew dismayed her crew or troubled the captain's mind. The man at the wheel was made to feel contempt for the waters below, Though it often appeared when the gale had cleared That he'd been in his bunk below.
Chorus Then blow, ye winds, heigh ho. A-roving I will go. I'll stay no more on England's shore, so let the music play-ay-ay. I'm off on the morning train. I'll cross the raging main. I'm off to my love with a boxing glove, ten thousand miles away.
The boswain's mate was very sedate, yet fond of amusement, too; He played hopscotch with the starboard watch while the captain tickled the crew, And the gunner we had was apparently mad, for he sat on the after rai-ai-ail, And fired salutes with the captain's boots in the teeth of the blooming gale.
The captain sat on the commodore's hat and dined in a royal way, Off toasted pigs and pickles and figs and gunnery bread each day, And the cook was Dutch & behaved as such, for the diet he gave the crew-ew-ew Was a number of tons of hot cross buns, served up with sugar and glue.
All nautical pride we laid aside, and we ran the vessel ashore On the Gulliby Isles where the Poo-poo smiles and the rub-bly Up-dugs roar. And we sat on the edge of a sandy ledge and shot at the whistling bee-ee-ee, And the cinnamon bats wore waterproof hats as they dipped in the shiny sea.
On Rugbug bark from morn till dark, we dined till we all had grown Uncommonly shrunk; when a Chinese junk came up from the Torribly Zone. She was chubby & square, but we didn't much care, so we cheerily put out to sea, And we left all the crew of the junk to chew on the bark of the Rugbug tree.
In happier news, I learned how to glaze windows on Saturday. I'm not ashamed to say I did a pretty good job - it was fun! I replaced the glass in the four lower sashes of my bedroom. The first one took me an hour and a half, but I got better at it and the fourth one only took me forty minutes. I owe it all to a great website I found on glazing old wood windows.
In happier news, I learned how to glaze windows on Saturday. I'm not ashamed to say I did a pretty good job - it was fun! I replaced the glass in the four lower sashes of my bedroom. The first one took me an hour and a half, but I got better at it and the fourth one only took me forty minutes. I owe it all to a great website I found on glazing old wood windows.
