Impossible

Our property adjoins the sixteenth fairway of a nice, private golf course.  I have a bucket in my shop filling with golf balls that land in our yard.  The course makes for a beautiful, manicured view from the bay window of our living room.  But it’s the players that are most interesting.  

It’s true.  People lose their tempers out there, at least the men.  Even though it probably happens, I’ve never seen or heard a woman golfer do any of the following: 

      Give a descriptive name to a golf ball,

-         Speak to the golf ball like it was a person,

-         Coach the golf ball along in its flight or rolling progress,

-         Comment extensively on the golf ball’s performance.  

More and more, I’m coming to believe that women in general are more rational creatures than men.  Granted, it takes passion to win a war but wars get started in the first place quite often from the most irrational motives.  And dare I say, as a rule it’s males who love to start this stuff.  Women as a group aren’t perfect  either but right now I see the human race drowning in a sea of testosterone.    

In all of this, we still cannot ignore the gospel.  Here and there in the Hebrew tribal writings are glimmers of total right-ness.  Isaiah’s lion lying with the lamb, and the suffering servant-king perhaps were formative of Jesus’ demand to love one’s enemies.  All this is so radically right and at the same time so radically impossible in a world where we have to kill just to eat.   It’s impossible, so it can only be a hope.  

People of faith know that hope can become reality in God’s World, so perhaps it’s the women and the little children who will lead us there.  I’m convinced I’ll never see it in this world, but in the distant future perhaps a person bearing some of my genetic material, will.  

And what’s wrong with getting started now? 

The Squirrel

All this happened, I’m pretty sure, in less than two seconds.  

The speed limit on Ashland Avenue is 30mph.  That translates to 44 feet per second I think.  There was a minivan ahead of me and I was far enough back that I could see clearly underneath it.  

A squirrel ran off a lawn and underneath the minivan.  Once underneath, the squirrel reversed course to go back, and then reversed course a second time and shot out from underneath the minivan on the opposite side.  

In order to accomplish these maneuvers and still stay underneath the vehicle he had to run an additional 80-or-so feet in the direction of travel.  

Is there a spiritual lesson here?  Nah.  But I have to admire the speed and agility of the little guy -- either that or incredible luck.  I just wanted to give him a standing ovation, and it makes me wonder if I shouldn’t start believing in luck again. 

(Let’s be fair.  It could have been a girl squirrel too.) 

Stupid!

She was almost frantic.  She had to get to work and couldn’t find her car key.  I was hoping that she was referring to the circumstances and not to herself.  She’s not a stupid person.  I helped in the search.  

No luck.  No place clever, like left in the ignition or near the frig since she had brought in groceries last night.  No time.  I took the key off of my ring and handed it to her.  “Thanks.”  Relief.  

Then she found it.  

How many times has a childless couple adopted…  then came the pregnancy?  

How many times has an anxious family situation finally, maybe after years, been just “given up on.”  Then came the solution.  The troubled child, the lost friend, the puzzling question, a war, a game of chess, anything unresolved can be food for stress.  

Karma, I’m told, means “action.”  It’s the things we do, and it’s also the consequences of any action for the universe.  I like the idea of God’s one-ness with the universe.  I like the idea of God’s interaction with all things, and some people believe that a kind of universal connectedness is true to a degree for everyone.  Maybe our attitudes move things.  Maybe there’s even physical change.  

Anxiety, fear, anger, negativity, just “lock things up.”  And although there is a clear time to strive and work toward a goal, there are also times to “go with the flow,” wait, calm down and find “God’s will” in my circumstances.  In my life a “coming-together event” happens too often to be coincidence.  So even though I can explain some of these results up to a point, I can’t explain them away. 

It's not stupid.  It's awesome.