
Saturday, April 26
Missy and Malc

Friday, April 25
Tip of the Day
Also, your spoon might roll out of the bowl and disappear into the inner workings of your automobile.
The rogue spoon might lodge itself behind your car's gearshift in such a way that the gearshift will continue to move, but your ignition will get the message that the car is not in park. If this happens, your car will start only sporadically, according to how the errant spoon is shifted.
It could happen.
Endo, Exo

What struck me is the way the ladybug is designed, with a brittle exoskeleton covering its fragile wings. What a good idea, I thought, to protect what is probably the most important part of the bug's body.
I suppose the rib cage performs a similar task in human anatomy by protecting the heart, but I'd like more than a few thin bones over that most vital of organs. Watching the ladybug, I wished I had an exoskeleton.
Why do we have bones covered by mushy skin, anyway? I know, there are lots of reasons. The human body is a system designed to work a certain way. But wouldn't it be better not to have to worry about and care for this skin? Wrinkling, burning, washing, bleeding, bandaging. Skin is permeable. Skin is vulnerable.
Vulnerability, there's the rub. The idea of an exoskeleton appealed to me not as much physically as emotionally. The heart is so easily damaged, I'd like to shield mine under a hard shell. I could uncover it when I wanted to, and then draw it in to keep it safe.
It didn't take me long to realize it's a good thing I don't have elytra or an exoskeleton. Given the option, I'd never expose my heart.
I'm pretty sure one reason we have this permeable skin covering is we are supposed to let others in. We were designed to want and need people, and if this makes us vulnerable to pain, God must have intended pain to draw us to Himself.
A ladybug's protection is on the outside of its body. Skin is a poor defense against the onslaught of love, loneliness, wonder and disappointment that life wages; but my strength, like my bones, is inside. The Designer of insects, humans, and both varieties of skeletons lives in me.
Blue Feather
My feather has a speck, a tiny white thing. I suspect mites are invisible to the naked eye but I squint at it warily.
The feather is shaped like an oar, dyed from continually dipping in waves of blue. The bird it belonged to sailed the sky. Maybe that's why I see an oar and a mast, its sails partly furled.
If I were a mite--no, if I were as small as a mite I'd cling to this feather and let the wind carry my vessel away. If it blew west I would ride over plains, over new wheat billowing wave after wave; if east, straight to the sea.
I'd find a shell with a hole in which to place the feather, and with a bit of sea glass for a rudder, I'd push off for the blue unknown, that distant indigo line, the boundary of the world.
I'm not mite-sized, the feather can't transport me anywhere; I can't even wear it in my hair. I should wash my hands, but instead I stand rolling the feather between my forefinger and thumb, watching it flash electrically blue as light collects on its razor fine edge.
This feather doesn't belong to the brown and green earth. It is a piece of sky, a knife used to cut the air.
I hold the feather high then sweep it in a downward arc. Space whistles over and around its perfect symmetry. It cuts through the haze, that blur obscuring my sight and I see a clean line curling down like paper, exposing a sliver of brilliant light behind the sky.
I ease through the opening and step onto a plateau where I stand with my toes touching the edge of the world, my head thrown back toward the sun's Sun. The softest wind that ever blew rifles the feather in my hand.
Monday, April 21
Catherine, Cyclists, and the Sanctity of Life

I'd never risk it, though. Going over the yellow line to pass them is a precaution I always take, just to be on the safe side. Compared to my car, a person on a bike is small and fragile. One tap from a vehicle, even if it's moving relatively slowly, could take a cyclists life. The danger is too great, the consequences too severe to risk anything less than great caution. I'm concerned not only for the cyclist's safety, but also with the guilt and punishment I'd be subject to for causing injury or taking the life of another person.
The care people exercise in passing cyclists stands in stark contrast to our society's disregard for unborn children. Both are fragile and vulnerable, yet I wonder how many cautious drivers I've observed support "a woman's right to choose"?
What merits this juxtaposition between caution and disregard for life? Independence versus dependence on another life? Some special status incurred in passing the birth canal? Past life experience as opposed to future life experience? Is it simply the absence of law protecting the unborn versus the impending gavel, the possibility of manslaughter?
I heard a terrible, wonderful story this weekend. I occasionally run into the mother of an old friend who gives me updates on how her daughter is doing. Some of you might remember meeting Catherine and hanging out with her at the Brown's. She's married now and is expecting a baby girl. The baby was diagnosed with a disease that makes bones brittle. Ultrasounds showed that the baby broke 3 bones in 5 months, just moving inutero.
Five doctors who were advising Catherine and her husband met with them and told them they ought to abort the baby. They didn't gently suggest abortion, they pressed the couple to do it, saying there was no sensible alternative. The baby would not have a normal life, Catherine and her husband would not have a normal life. One of the doctors said his son has special needs and his wife has not had a life in twelve years.
Catherine and Jason determined to have their child. They asked people to pray. God heard. Tests show that the disease is gone and the latest ultrasound shows no broken bones. The medical professionals say it was a misdiagnosis. The gavel will probably never fall on those doctors' actions, but I believe in the end they will have to answer to the Judge. Personally, I'd rather face a charge of manslaughter.
Thursday, April 17
Primavera
Tuesday, April 15
Day Made

Monday, April 14
Meals on Wheels and the Potter's Wheel
Here's why:
1. He calls Mr. S Charlie, Chuck, bother, bro, buddy, dude and anything else that pops into his aging hippie head. Those names are OK for the stoners you hung out with in college, DUDE, but this in an 88 year old gentleman. Show some respect.
2. Every day he knocks "shave and a haircut, two bits" on the door. For some reason I hate it. I cringe as he ascends the stairs, waiting like Damocles for the blow to fall. Sometimes when I see his vehicle coming I lunge for the door, wrenching it open before he has time to lay an offending knuckle on it. However, this surprises him and may elicit a word-we-don't say-here, which brings me to the next point.
3. He uses my Savior's name in a bad way. I don't like that.
4. Every day he says "How are you?" twice. Every day I answer, "Good. How are you?" Twice. Is that necessary? Couldn't we dispense with that? I should throw in "I stashed my grandmother's body in the stairwell" just to see if he notices. One of the presidents said something similar in a receiving line. It's a good story, too bad I forgot the details.
5. He calls me "kiddo" and "hon". Grrrrrr!
6. I like peace, calm and quiet and have an antipathy for anything that disrupts the aforementioned. A more pleasant intrusion is less subject to resentment, but no intrusion is immune. We used to have a different MOW driver, a woman who I liked a lot. At one time she lived in the Alaskan wilderness and grew her own food. She wore great shoes. Even so, her arrival was a little ripple on an otherwise smooth pond.
I hope this doesn't mean I'm a bad person; which is to say, I hope people don't think less of me. But hey, while I'm on the Potter's wheel I might as well exploit my imperfections for literary inspiration. Oh, and if you're in the neighborhood feel free to drop in :)
Don't Panic!

Friday, April 11
Men, Women, and Fire from Heaven
Luke 9: 51 - 56 As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?" But Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they went to another village.
Zowie, James and John were vengeful little weasels! I don't know what's funnier: them thinking they could actually call fire from Heaven or that they were all ready to destroy the village they set out to save. My first thought was that they were just like 4th graders. I was also reminded of watching a little boy build a structure out of Legos or something. He'll be all exact, get it just right, then shazaam! he destroys it in one fell swoop. He enjoys it so much that destruction itself might be the purpose of construction.
What makes it interesting is the contrast between boys and girls. If the kid has a sister, she'll be eyeing the establishment as a new home for Miss Bunny, planning where to put the dish set and how many of Miss Bunny's friends will fit inside.
This is not to say females are nicer than males. Had Jesus' disciples been women I'll bet they would've asked Him if they could inflict the Samaritans with boils, or send moths to eat their clothing. But they wouldn't have wanted to destroy the town kit and kaboodle. Women know vengeance. It's called, "Make 'em suffer!"
I wonder why men want to destroy things. Is it just nature? Do all of them have this penchant? Our culture discourages destructive tendencies, but maybe deep down every guy would like to get his hands on a missile or two, a wrecking ball or at least a good, solid sledgehammer.
Thursday, April 10
Laughter, Cucumber

Me: That's depressing.
Saturday, April 5
Squirrel Hybrids
Squirrel & hamster = squamster
Squirrel & ferret = squerret
Squirrel & weasel = squeasel
Squirrel & guinea pig = squinea pig
Squirrel & chinchilla = squinchilla
Squirrel & gerbil = squerbil
Squirrel & kinkajou = squinkajou
Squirrel & wallaby = squallaby
Monday, February 18
The Madman and the King
I hurried into the house, shaking rain off my coat.
"I'm home", I yelled.
"Good! We were worried", my father answered from the second floor. I regretted giving my parents cause to worry and wondered what had possessed me to stay out until 1 AM on a night like this.
I paused, my hand on the doorknob. A half formed concern entered my mind. The door was not locked when I entered the house. Perhaps I should check the basement for--suddenly, I knew he was there. My hand tightened and froze on the doorknob. As he stepped out of the shadows I was paralyzed by fear.
The mad man's eyes were pits of darkness, a black so deep they fairly shone with the antithesis of light. He clutched a hammer.
I hoped the dog would do something to protect me, but it was too friendly. It wagged its tail and bounded between the crazed man and myself. The dog's movement had a frantic energy. Perhaps it sensed something was wrong, but the golden retriever would never attack a person.
As the man advanced I tried to scream. Once, twice, three times, but my throat was frozen, the breath locked in my lungs. A voice in my head said: If you do not scream, you will die. No one will know.
With all my strength I forced air upwards, straining against the anvil weight on my chest. It squeezed through my vocal chords, out of my wooden jaws.
"Aaa-iii--eeee!"
Screaming out loud jolted me out of sleep, but in the split second of waking, terror gripped my entire being. I did not know what was real and what was not. In that fraction of time, the mad man was outside my bedroom door.
I expected to hear my parents rushing up the stairs to see what was wrong, and was crushed to realize that they hadn't heard me.
You're twenty-eight, said a derisive voice.
I'm still afraid, I answered.
Though I was fully awake, shadows of fear still lingered. My feet were on solid ground but fear doesn't always submit to reality. It's a lie, it comes from our Enemy.
"Jesus, King of angels..."
Some people say religion is a crutch, a prop for our human frailty. I agree with them. Swinging the censer, lighting candles, chanting to exorcise fear of the unknown is a crutch.
Jehovah is not a crutch. He is a Heavenly Father who never sleeps and is always ready to banish His children's nightmares with His presence.
I'm His daughter, it's a relationship. That's what I'd like to say to the religion-is-a-crutch people who equate Christianity with religion. And I'd ask them if they ever woke from a bad dream, terrified, heart laboring, wanting their mom or dad.
"Yeah?" I'd say. "At your age?"