A COLD CELEBRATION

It’s a celebration day—this June 7th. 

It’s a cold day, however. 

Oh, not weather cold but rather, my husband and I each have one—a cold, that is. One of those shared things. His arrived several days ago and only yesterday did it jump the barrier of resistance and land in my throat. 

 

A ZAMBAKARI EVENING

Arketa’s story is like no other. Hers was a privileged childhood, as privilege goes in a place without phones, power, plumbing, or peace. Her grandfathers were chiefs, her parents, London educated professionals, her training as a midwife was a coveted honor, and her husband, traditionally and admirably selected. But privilege gave way.          

~  ~ ~ 

It was not enough that five men swinging knives in God’s name decapitated her young husband. They raped Arketa—there, on the floor where Joseph’s headless body lay twitching. March 1984—the month of their first anniversary, her twentieth birthday, the third month of their son’s life, and the first of many proofs that her privileged life had ended. 

#14 TATWTD - AN EASTER HEARTBEAT

This v-e-r-y long blog entry is accompanied by a picture of an Easter egg, one of many mysteriously appearing in crannies and corridors of our apartment complex. Of Easter they are, of pagan origins they are, ancient symbols of rebirth, but few among us who enjoy Easter eggs, think about that. Yet some of us do. I do.

#13 TATWTD - The Universe

I’m convinced that the beginnings of Stuff, surely the beginning Big Bang, did not evolve. Consider the demands of exactitude required when, about 13.8 billion years ago Matter, at some infinitesimal point somewhere in—in what, space? What space?—began explosively, expansively, becoming Universe; began becoming all that we puny inhabitants of one of its innumerable objects seem to think it is: a center-less, bending, rule-abiding, complex Thing. Nothing located in Nowhere began Something about 13.8 billion years ago.

#12 TATWTD: WORDS & MEANINGS

Meanings matter. Word meanings matter most when attached to beliefs or when robbed of resilience. 

Take “Lent,” for instance. I recently meant to, but got sidetracked by wordplay that led me to seriously consider what significant words can do to those of us of strong beliefs. Unexpectedly, I thought of Christmas and my maternal grandmother.

#10 TATWTD. Reason & Beauty

Let me begin by saying, there’s little to criticize about the mind of C.S. Lewis.He was one brilliant rationalist. Still, he once warned his readers that in encountering a rose, we might get so caught up in the ‘science’ of smell and sight, of scent and color (or as he in his British English would write, “colour”) that we might lose the experience of “Rose” altogether.

Look, I found the little flower pictured alongside this posting while walking my dog.