Stained

Sometimes life brings us something that we can't seem to get rid of. It's a lot like having a stain on a shirt that we really like to wear. The stain won't come out. So we relegate the shirt to the "only on weekends" or "only after hours" category. But, we still wear the shirt, and every time we do, the we are reminded of the incident that caused us not to wear the shirt as a first run shirt any longer.

I hope I am not alone in remembering the one blot in life that doesn't go away and causes great regret and constant thought. Just like no amount of spot remover will completely take out the stain from the shirt, so life seems to embed the regret so that no amount of goodwill can remove, undo, or even come close to combating the events that would explode upon any attempt at removing the regret.

If you want to say that forgiveness helps, you would be right. But, I am talking about the regret that comes after the forgiveness has been obtained. It's that lingering stain on the shirt. All the time. Especially when I wear it after hours and on weekends. But, I like the shirt. Perhaps, there will be a time to move beyond the stain, get another weekend shirt.

In the meantime, all I ever hear myself saying is, "I'm sorry."

Short termer

Two successive weeks someone has spoken about the direction and future direction that my business is or should take. It's refreshing to hear people speak of something other than the obvious or of a direction that is short term. I do see, however, that life won't hold the future for very much longer for me, that it is short term. My life, after I'm gone, will be lived through my posterity. It will live only through my usefulness to humanity. That's comforting in a way because it makes my moments now a little more purposeful.

Better with age

I have a supervisor that likes to compare what is happening in the modern world to what happened in the Old Testament. It is a good exercise in that it shows that humans act the same no matter in what era one lives. One sees power grabbers, adulterers, ruthless people, murderers, benefactors, entrepreneurs, powerful leaders, etc. I can see that side of things. On the other hand, society has moved on, way beyond what one can see in the Old Testament. One sees scientists on a space station, pilots flying missions in stealth planes, people driving vehicles at deadly speeds. Do the scientists, pilots, and general population act the same really? Although power grabbers could exist on a space station, teamwork is the rule. Although pilots could be ruthless, the whole world would know if they acted less than responsibly. And people in general? I don't know. I guess one could make the case for civilization to have progressed to a point that the population is proportionately better than in days of old, a kinder, gentler place to live. One would hope so. Otherwise people are just plain stupid if they act exactly the same as in days gone by. Surely, over successive generations, people get better.

A prepared house

I had an interesting conversation today with someone who has cancer. He said if he had to live life again, he would still want to have cancer again. It has allowed him to know more about what's important than he would have otherwise known. He didn't elaborate. He's not clear of cancer although most of it has gone away. I will have to talk to him more; we didn't have much time to talk in the first place. But, I can agree with him that when we have to see the Maker through the lens of death there is not much on earth that counts as important. Views of what earth has to offer and views of what the next life has to offer are not even comparable. When dealing from the view of staring death in the face, importance boils down to these words by the Son of Man, "You trust God. Trust me too. In my Father's compound are many individual houses. If it were not true, I would not have told you it is. I am going there to prepare yours for you." As I walk away from the lens of death, then, what is important is filtered through the idea of going to my house prepared by the Son of Man. The pathway home gets a whole lot clearer.

Formulas 3

Formulas exist in all literature in various forms. One of the ways language can show formulas is to establish a system of reference that is the same over time. This happened in ancient times with using numbers to represent something other than numerical value. In the oldest story known to humanity, The Epic of Gilgamesh, the number 10 is used to show something like intensity or difficulty level. The number 7 is used as well to show completion. These numbers took on symbolic value. Other ancient literature echoed the same system. The Trojan War of the Odyssey also lasted 10 years. Whether the war lasted 10 years or not is debatable and many scholars do not think the war was that long or even close. But, the war would have been long, arduous, difficult, and intense, just what the number stands for.

So when a reader reads about famine in the Joseph story of the Old Testament, the number of years in the cycles of plenty and famine follow the well established system of numbers having something other than numerical value. They tell us more about the big picture, the perfection of the timing on the part of the One who brought about the seasons of plenty and famine. When one reads about 7 seals, 7 trumpets, 7 bowls of wrath in the New Testament, one knows that the seals, trumpets, and bowls represent an idea other than mere numbers, the correctness of a judgment scene between creator and creation, for example.

Formulas are meant to enhance a story or narrative rather than to confuse a story. What a pity that so many people want words to only have one meaning, a literal meaning, when formulas lead us into thinking along the lines of a more fanciful meaning.

Formulas 2

Formulas are just everywhere. Today, someone started an utterance to me with the word "Well." I knew what was coming next because "well" only has 4 functions–all of them adeverse to the listener. At best, the speaker is trying to sort for common ground. At worst, the speaker is outright disagreeing with me. So I knew that what would follow would be negative.

In the New Testament, some translators render the word "but" for the little Greek word "de." Really it is a formula word and not translatable most of the time. Occasionally, the word does mean "but." But, nearly always it is a signal that what follows is not contrastive. It is simply more information, an extension of the original thought. Sometimes in English it should be represented by a period or semicolon, sometimes by the word "and," and sometimes by the word "but."

Formulas are the glue in language we depend on. It gives our brains a split second to relax because the formulaic word used has no meaning. It is a 0 placeholder if a math analogy is needed. Sometimes, this information is helpful to know, especially if a person is thinking that the word in thier version rendered "but" doesn't really fit the context or the contrastive idea destroys the sense of the sentence.

Formulas

Once upon a time is a formulaic phrase that identifies all the fairy tales we learned as a child. To adults this statement is a no-brainer. I think if we took this principle of clear identification based on formulaic language, we would understand more than we do about life around us, even life before us, even life a really long time ago.

When someone starts a sentence with "You know,..." it's a sign that they are about to impart their version of wisdom, truth, emphatic statement, or smug, prior knowledge. It's a language sign that something important to an individual is being said.

In ancient texts, the same formulaic language is used in various places. In 1st Thessalonians, for example, the sections of thought are partitioned by the phrase brothers and sisters. When this is used, the topic changes and he is trying to get the audience to realize that he is commenting on a different matter. It's really that simple. Paying attention to the formulas built in to language is not rocket science and it enhances understanding of people's messages to us.

Cruelty

Cyberspace is cruel sometimes. It took me 20 minutes to comment on someone's blog. The right publish buttons were clicked on. The next day the comment doesn't show up. That just seems like real life so much. A lot of hard work goes on. The race is called a rat race because your hard work seems to count for nothing. So it is.

Vacation moments

Living in the moment is a blessing sometimes. It's hard to do. When it's done, it seems like you are not being responsible anymore. What about the 3 year plans or goals? What about planning for the future? What about the purchase of something of importance for yourself and paying for it? No, it's just the moment in time, sometimes several moments stacked back to back. We, humans were given the ability to look backward and forward. Why does living in the moment have such appeal? It's enjoyable, and we know that it only lasts for a few moments. Being responsible is not enjoyable. It lasts a lifetime. So, my vacations happen in the moments these days. But, I can at least have a vacation every day.

Katrina people

I am really, honestly taken back by all the pictures of the people's worlds that ended as Katrina moved through. People's worlds utterly shaken. I have actually been on that path, just not in that way. Words only approximate the decimation felt. Nights are blacker. Days have little purpose other than to make it through with the hopeful trust that at some point life will not betray you again in such a devastating way. The trust in the one who made storm systems is reduced to a single question. I do hope that the Katrina people will allow time to pass before acting rashly or dumping their faith. The one who made the storm still looks on them with compassion and their faith will blossom yet again. May the Maker of storm systems come and comfort every one of the Katrina people whose world has been utterly shaken.