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? 

ShaLOm in 2017

Well, here it is the end of 2016 and I am posting my (planned... ya never know how that will go, ask Robbie Burns' mousie) one-word focus for 2017.

I am going with shalom. I like the way Cornelius Plantinga Jr presents that word in  Not the Way It's Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin. At one point he writes:  

In the Bible, shalom means universal flourishing, wholeness, and delight--a rich state of affairs in which natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts fruitfully employed, a state of affairs that inspires joyful wonder as its Creator and Savior opens doors and welcomes the creatures in whom he delights. Shalom, in other words, is the way things ought to be.

I want to focus on things becoming the way they are supposed to be, with wholeness and healing and all the deliciously dripping sweet fruits of the Spirit. 

And because I do not ever really get the whole one-word thing, I am mentally writing the word this way: shaLOm. I am using the L to remind me to Listen, a skill where I am very weak, and the O is not really the letter /O/ but a kind of sphere to remind me to Mind My Own Sphere of Dominion (and not everyone else's).

What about you? Have you got a one-word focus for the new year?  

 

One-word Quotes

Yesterday at a meal it came up that one of Miss Language's friends has just watched (sit down here) The Princess Bride for the first time. (fan yourself and recover a bit. I know. Poor deprived young adult.)

Anyhow.

We all started quoting the movie and of course came to "Inconceivable." And we began to wonder what other one-word quotes are famous. We came up with a few but I am curious about what you will come up with.

The follow-up question is this, Do one-word quotes exist in books, too? Or do they need the inflection etc of a song or movie? The only contender we came up with was So (or more accurately Hwaet), although I thought the So could be just as well Vonnegut as Beowulf. 

The final tunnel in this rabbit trail was one-word tags: Mr Music suggested for example that there is really only one place to go from "Ishmael."

Anyone here want to contribute to this discussion?  :)

Peanut Butter Balls

Mr Music decided to do some cooking for me on my birthday but was trying to do it on the sly. He kept coming to me with innocuous questions, like, "What does granulated mean?" "How do you measure butter?" and "Do we have any crunchy peanut butter?" But my favorite was "Exactly what would a recipe mean if it said 'Chill'? Does that mean, me chill, or does it mean the food?"

H2O

An online friend posted a question asked by her eight year old great nephew: If most of the time water don't taste like anything, then why does it taste so good?


It seems a brilliant question. I have come back to it over and again for several days. My answer seems to defy wording. It is something like: other things only have to taste good to trick us into drinking them. Water is the real thing. So it does not have to taste like anything, it IS water... water gives life in so many ways... and maybe it tastes like nothing because it is bigger than what we can taste, and our bodies are smart enough to know it (unless we have fooled them too long with lesser stuff).

~~~

John 4:14 - Jesus said, "Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."


Isaiah 55:1-2 - Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!... why do you spend your money for that which does not satisfy?" 

*Zing* Dinner's Ready!!

Mr Music has always been one of those manly men who can take anything. Except hypodermic needles or an insect landing on his food.


And Miss Language is recently returned from China, and soon to go back, with of course, some stories about eating things for which I have no idea of the calorie count.


And Devastatingly Handsome hung one of those Blue Light Special Bug Zappers on our porch.


Imagine my surprise when Mr Music asked at dinner, "Would it be safe to eat those bugs from the light? I mean, they are practically prepared already."


So. Any biologists out there who can answer? Do bug lights kill not just the bugs, but also any sort of nasty germs they may be carrying? I am envisioning a science fair project in this one. Just so I am not called on to taste test anything.