Ah, the (NYSE) stock market. Biggest single drop in a single day in history. The Toronto Stock Exchange also was hit. That'a gotta hurt the ol' portfolio (ouch).
I've lived a while and seen crises come and go, with people predicting gloom and doom, but somehow this time it seems different--like it really could go on and on, from bad to worse, etc. So it takes me back to the basics, which I thought through while washing dishes this evening (quite a pile, actually).
(Dish washing, a common contribution I make in domestic life, while something I generally resist, can also be quite pleasant and meditative. The dishwasher does work, but I found that if I wasn't really really careful--practically washing every single item before placing it in the machine anyway--stuff would come out dirty. So finally out of frustration I began hand washing again, and lo and behold found it again--as I remember it being in times past--to be a rather pleasant, low key, throwback-to-another-era activity...)
Now here's another parenthesis, and this time it's about my having just included an entire paragraph in parenthesis. I was reading recently about good writing style by contemporary standards, and including a parenthesized paragraph nowadays is just not done. Well, maybe it is in certain novels by certain so-retro-that-they're-cool writers (I wouldn't know if such writers exist or not since just about the only contemporary novelist I've been reading lately has been P. D. James).
Okay, I'm rambling--not a good sign in a, ahem, mature gentleman. So my original point was...that while I stood by the sink, lifting each plate, each bowl, from the suds, I was reminded again of where our only stability lies. Of course, I knew this mentally, but we're all, all of us, like those pesky Israelites in the desert, whining and sniveling over every little thing. They had to have signs and wonders going on non-stop--some kind of on-site House of Wonders arcade they could enter to get their faith up and running every five minutes. But wait! They did have such on-site evidence--the Pillar of Fire and the Pillar of Cloud. But still they whined and sniveled like two-year-olds. I think I remember thinking, as a kid listening to Bible stories, that those Israelites were, to say the least thick: disbelieving God even when He provided visible, tangible evidence of His presence 24/7.
But ain't that how it is? I mean, we too have 24/7 evidence if we just once opened our eyes and paid attention. God's not gone anywhere. He's still makin' the sun rise, and keepin' you alive, and seeing to it you still have toast in the morning. Faith is what happens when you carry on and do what you have to do and act like a grown up and live as if there really is an alternate, unseen reality as depicted in the Bible.
Okay, so now I'm finally getting sleepy again, a little. Yeah, sleep troubles. Haven't had that for a while, but the last couple weeks it's been like this. It's (the result of) change, people...
I've lived a while and seen crises come and go, with people predicting gloom and doom, but somehow this time it seems different--like it really could go on and on, from bad to worse, etc. So it takes me back to the basics, which I thought through while washing dishes this evening (quite a pile, actually).
(Dish washing, a common contribution I make in domestic life, while something I generally resist, can also be quite pleasant and meditative. The dishwasher does work, but I found that if I wasn't really really careful--practically washing every single item before placing it in the machine anyway--stuff would come out dirty. So finally out of frustration I began hand washing again, and lo and behold found it again--as I remember it being in times past--to be a rather pleasant, low key, throwback-to-another-era activity...)
Now here's another parenthesis, and this time it's about my having just included an entire paragraph in parenthesis. I was reading recently about good writing style by contemporary standards, and including a parenthesized paragraph nowadays is just not done. Well, maybe it is in certain novels by certain so-retro-that-they're-cool writers (I wouldn't know if such writers exist or not since just about the only contemporary novelist I've been reading lately has been P. D. James).
Okay, I'm rambling--not a good sign in a, ahem, mature gentleman. So my original point was...that while I stood by the sink, lifting each plate, each bowl, from the suds, I was reminded again of where our only stability lies. Of course, I knew this mentally, but we're all, all of us, like those pesky Israelites in the desert, whining and sniveling over every little thing. They had to have signs and wonders going on non-stop--some kind of on-site House of Wonders arcade they could enter to get their faith up and running every five minutes. But wait! They did have such on-site evidence--the Pillar of Fire and the Pillar of Cloud. But still they whined and sniveled like two-year-olds. I think I remember thinking, as a kid listening to Bible stories, that those Israelites were, to say the least thick: disbelieving God even when He provided visible, tangible evidence of His presence 24/7.
But ain't that how it is? I mean, we too have 24/7 evidence if we just once opened our eyes and paid attention. God's not gone anywhere. He's still makin' the sun rise, and keepin' you alive, and seeing to it you still have toast in the morning. Faith is what happens when you carry on and do what you have to do and act like a grown up and live as if there really is an alternate, unseen reality as depicted in the Bible.
Okay, so now I'm finally getting sleepy again, a little. Yeah, sleep troubles. Haven't had that for a while, but the last couple weeks it's been like this. It's (the result of) change, people...
posted by Ted | 11:01 PM
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