Pocketses

I woke from a dream. :) I'm guessing this one was spawned by a discussion I had with Mr Music about carrying his house key at all times. 

I was doing some sort of research -- actually, I think, a doctorate -- into what people carry in their pockets and how it varies across occupations and how it has varied throughout history. And the research was expanded to include things like the cloth pockets women wore in the colonial period, and purses (pocketbags) and even small backpacks. 

The apparent focus of this research was how it seems to have changed in my life. My Dad carried a wallet, some change, his keys, matches, a fountain pen, and always a cloth handkerchief. I remember my Grandads also carrying off-white pipe cleaners that came in packs of about 30 with a paper band around them (Dutch something?) even though I don't have any memory of them smoking pipes. I will have to ask my Mum about that one. 

I don't generally have much in my pockets -- just a fidget toy and a lip balm --but rely on a purse or coat pockets for the rest. And here's a fun link if you want to see into other people's pockets.

So I am curious. What do you carry with you wherever you go? 

Drops

Yesterday I woke at the end of a drizzle. I looked out my window and saw the pretty raindrops on the rhododendron. And here are the places my head went:

first, my head was quoting a poem from a poster I had in junior high. I have never been able to track it down so maybe it was just poster fodder but it said Dylan:

In the early pearly morning when the sun begins to rise
and the flowers lift their faces
In a world that's less than kind
Tell me, tell me, tell me
There are still some quiet places


which leads to what is quite possibly my favorite verse:

"in returning and rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in trust shall be your strength."
But you were unwilling. ~ Isaiah 30:15
(I quote this to myself and always add, "may I be willing.")


then come the verses a couple chapters later: 


And the effect of righteousness will be peace, 
and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.
My people will abide in a peaceful habitation
in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places. ~ Isaiah 32:17-18


and the whole cycle concluded with me reciting a song from camp growing up - I don't remember the tune but just the words - before breakfast: 

I saw raindrops on my window, Joy is like the rain.
Laughter runs across my pain, slips away and comes again. Joy is like the rain. 

I saw clouds upon a mountain, Joy is like a cloud. 
Sometimes silver, sometimes gray, always sun not far away. Joy is like a cloud. 

I saw Christ in wind and thunder, Joy is tried by storm. 
Christ asleep within my boat, whipped by wind, yet still afloat. Joy is tried by storm. 

I saw raindrops on the river, Joy is like the rain. 
Bit by bit the river grows, till all at once it overflows. Joy is like the rain. 
~ Miriam Therese Winter

Ramblings about Red

Color is always interesting to me. And now it is time to think about red.

Back at Christmas time I found gel pens on clearance for a dime and bought them out for stocking stuffers. There was only one red one, and I kept it for myself. I had it stuffed in a back pocket where apparently it clicked open without my knowledge and ALL the ink in it soaked through my pocket and on to the upholstery in our relatively new and here-to-fore unstained car. It was not a fine moment. 

DH did all he could to get it out, but, it was still very much there, so every time I saw it I felt back in the doghouse. 

But now, the sun has faded the red right away... see? Hardly there, just a little pinkish. Maybe by the end of summer no mark of this mishap will remain.

Now that surprises me. It seems like red is the most stainerific color and there it is, nearly gone. So natch I start thinking about Isaiah:

though your sins are like scarlet,
    they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
    they shall become like wool.

How can this be? We know it's through the blood... red again. A very staining red. How on earth does covering something with blood lead to it being white? I don't know. Red blood is full of oxygen, giving life. 

I also think about the character Red from Shawshank Redemption and the hope he found. There is even greater hope to be found in Christ. Thank God that sin can be atoned for by Jesus's red blood.

Thoughts on Thanos

Something about certain movies gets my mind going in lots of directions at once. Last night we saw Avengers: Infinity War. Not sure what you saw in the film and thought about but here are some of the things that were going through my head as I watched it and have thought about it since. 

(spoiler alert, if that matters)

First. If you give a villain a name that obviously means Death (thanks, high school poetry teacher, for having us analyze "Thanatopsis") that gives fair warning to pay attention to what's going on in his view of life. 

Probably my overriding concern: Thanos's belief that he is acting in mercy by killing half the people for the benefit of the other half. That is not mercy. Mercy is being delivered from some sort of punishment or unpleasant consequence which is due. I keep thinking about the similarities between Thanos's plan for improving life on the planets he rules and our own country's abortion for the sake of convenience. Abortion is all too often viewed as some sort of mercy, too.   :(   I also keep thinking of Shakespeare's "the quality of mercy is not strained" - well, Thanos was certainly not making what he was calling mercy voluntary. 

The way Thanos destroys people - causing them to crumble and turn back to dust and be blown away - is a reversal of man being created from the dust of the earth. I found this a powerful image and like the reminder of death (momento mori). If we saw the dust of aborted children floating around, cars and helicopters crashing because they are not there, would that get us to notice the horror and death? Those scenes remind me of the part in It's a Wonderful Life where George Bailey sees what the world would have been had he never existed. 

I keep thinking about the characters who were willing to lay down their lives to stop Thanos, especially Vision and Gamora. They saw the need and were willing to do it, but those who loved them stood in their way -- and led to Thanos's apparent triumph. Jesus tells us to come and die with Him, but how common it is for loved ones try to stop us from laying down our lives for others and for the kingdom. How does this fit in with the film's talk about not trading one life for others? I think the difference comes in when someone chooses to lay down someone ELSE'S life for others, as Thanos did with Gamora -- and seems to feel he is noble to do with all the life he is extinguishing. 

I'm curious, what were you thinking as you watched and reflected on Infinity War?

verses jumbling around in my head:

It was Caiaphas who had advised the Jews that it would be expedient that one man should die for the people. ~ John 18:13

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. ~ John 15:13

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. ~ John 10:17-18

then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground ~ Genesis 2:7

he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust... the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more ~ Psalm 103:14-16