no deal

Some day they'll open up your world
Shake it down on a drawing board
Do their best to change you
They still can't erase you... "Hand Me Down" Matchbox 20

God must have incredible eyes.  To be able to see past all the numbers and probabilities like that.  To be able to see how we will fall so far and so hard, and yet still have the nearly insane capacity to get up again and again.

I saw "Billy Jack" when I was about ten years old.  I saw "The Hiding Place" before that.  I think my mom took me to it when I was five or maybe seven.  Today, something like that might be considered abuse.  Truth telling feels like that sometimes.  I am not sure which came first--the impression those two stories had on my identity or the identity that greeted them when they arrived.

The picture above has been on this site for a long time.  On the one hand, I feel a little bad about this because I used to work hard to match the picture with the blog entry.  But today it feels kind of right.  That strange looking bucket of bolts is the "Serenity."  It is the ship from the film of the same name, inspired by the brief TV series, "Firefly."  The ship carries a modest crew.  Seven (or eight if you count Inara) live on board the Serenity.  They live in-between.  They neither serve the empire nor are they overtly raging against it.  Being an outlier is not easy but it does have it's benefits.  Hence the name of the ship.

The ships captain is Mal Reynolds, a very human ex-soldier who has seen and suffered enough of the trappings of waging someone else's war.  He does his best to keep his ship and friends clear of the prying eyes of the empire and the trouble of such entanglements.

Romans 13 (by no means my favorite chapter of the Bible) states, "owe nothing to anyone except to love one another. for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law."  Wisdom, indeed, in a world where debt binds tightly,  and so undermines serenity.  

In the film, there comes a time when Mal has to make a hard decision.  It is Hollywood in that regard.  But the story doesn't end with the battle, but with its conclusion when Serenity takes to flight again.  And the handful of in-betweeners are allowed to be, and to go their way into the multiverses without the chains and prying eyes of someone else's defining.

Here's a blessing:  A live version of "Hand Me Down."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HZ3dS-GnuA

Advent Wisdom

I have a friend.  At least I think that I do.  She and I seem to flit in and out of one another's lives from time to time.  She has a deep wisdom that has been forged over time.  It has been forged in experience as well as knowledge--the kind that is gained through reading and handed on from generation to generation.

Wisdom is something that is hard to measure.  It's is a treasure.  But treasures can become diminished if they cannot be rightly (and lightly) carried.  On the one hand, it is good to be wise and wisdom is one of those things that carries you, especially in those more difficult stretches.  However, it can also feel like a burden.  Like a backpack that you take with you even when you are going on a short hike.  Like a reliable backpack, experience and knowledge are not easily set aside, even in moments of rest.  But that can be cumbersome at times, a bit like bringing an encyclopedia to book club.

Sometimes we need to just be.  Just sit and laugh and enjoy the moment.  This too is wisdom, though wisdom of a different kind, I think.

Advent is a season of preparation.  The wise (like the wise men) follow the star.  Yet, when they arrive, they find a very modest scene.  They set down their gifts and humble themselves before the mystery.  As far as we know, they do not feel the need to speak or expand on all the lessons that their wisdom has taught them.  It is apparently enough simply to be there.  And to offer their respective gifts.

Today I am thinking of my friend.  I am thinking of her journey and of mine.  I know that we carry our blessings and that they are sometimes burdens.  I know that we both want to carry wisdom rightly and lightly.  And I hope for both of us to find those moments where we are blessed to simply be there.

May we all be blessed as we once again prepare ourselves for the mystery of the ages.