The Wave of the Future...(Part three)

  Just about everything in our world, mostly the stuff that you recognize as "normal", is formatted as "ahead". We are a future oriented folk (fixated, actually), upon what is coming. We spend altogether too much time (in my opinion) wondering about, worrying about, and guessing-at what is next on the plate.
  The wave of the future is good, it's progress! Just ask people. The wave of the future is bad, it's things falling apart...folks will tell you. Which is it then? And, the answer here, is clearly; "yes(!)...and amen" might I add? We are seeing two things, then three; then five and onto seventeen. To take then, the patterns of the real, so to harmonize, summarize, and then repackage it all into a "trend", trending either "upward or downward", is kinda what we do; it's who we are.
  Most of the talk that I participate in on this type of front is gadget/gizmo oriented. You've done this, let's discuss the next generation of cell phones, the ultra secret new weapons, and those devices of tomorrow, and this more or less formats the discussion. Do you agree so far? There is here, a common-man type of: "Gee-whiz, what will those rascals think of next?", type of tone to the chatter, and we all (I think); can identify here. Our discussions of the future never seem to look back though, and so we rarely notice that yesterday's predictions, those guesses of five and of seventeen years ago, have "arrived"! I mean here, that this guessing we are doing today, and most likely shall do tomorrow, we most certainly did in the past. Yet, whether that "future" (our present) was to have been "up-trending" or not, we almost never notice how accurate (or not) those previous guesses were. It would be like taking the predictions of psychics, and checking after the fact, to deduce their accuracy, so then to better adjust our estimate of the present day's prediction we are just now hearing...why do we just not do this? Normally, we do not "go there"...why?
  For several years now, I have been confusing people with talk about us correctly "predicting the past", and in my mind; most people just consider such noises as crazy talk and ignore it. But think of it with me for a moment.
  What if you could gather all the relevant "current day's news" from 1955-1963? Heck, add in the stock market reports, the price of sow bellies, and weather reports too. Scour every news report, magazine article, and editorial from the period. Write the "computer program you need" to correctly assess all the dope here, and when you can; using old news, predict 22 Nov. 1963 in Dallas, you have "predicted the past". Wouldn't the most logical wave-front of the future be to begin doing these types of analysis?
  We already possess plenty of conspiracy type thought, to the effect that we "should have seen 9-11 coming". So, if in the hunt for news stories in 1957, we cannot find the "necessary link" leading inevitably to JFK getting whacked, what if we looked instead at the known reports of F.B.I. interest in certain individuals of the mid-eastern extraction, prior to Sep., of 2001? Isn't it a zany little bit of reality, to note the "recorded-ness" of things nowadays? Jillions of e-mails, tweets, phone calls, memos, they are all recorded "somewhere", just waiting to be paid attention to, and we never do? If you work for the I.R.S., in which things of this kind vaporize unaccountably, I would "get" the disinterest, but I wonder about us.
  We have, in our era, in our lifetime, the single largest cultural records store, known to man...ever? And what do we do with the stinker? Zip. Zero. Nada. Zilch. Why not use the guck, and attempt first to "predict the past"? Next, we could see about (possibly) "predicting the present", from our out the wazoo store of data. Once you get good at those two (past and present), then our weird infatuation with the future could then be reasonably approached. And it's odd; of those I have spoken with about this idea over the past few years, not one; not a single one, of my friends appears to be even mildly interested in this version of the wave of the future. In my mind, it appears to be the "logical sure-thing", the winner in the guessing-derby, but we shall (no doubt) see about that.
  Our fascination with the wave of the future, and the never ending guessing at what is wrapped-up inside the packages under the tree; is a pretty good guess (it appears to me) at what shall be. Simply, we will keep doing this predicting..."then". It is "almost as-if" we were awaiting somebody? When will he show?,... said he'd be here by now,... I hope he's alright? If we "personalize" this fixation of ours, and so steer away from a "brute" predictive model of "history", we end up rather naturally, it seems; in His-story.
  The crux of these talky-talks is the issue of whether the future is "set", or (rather and instead) whether we indeed possess meaningful choice. Simply then, we affirm as humans that for our lives and decisions to be meaningful, we must have a thing within us called "free-will". Everything in western culture is hitching a ride on this train. The entire schema of thought, action and impulse (all that we propose life to be) hinges upon this door. Right. Here. In our minds then; the fear is that if the future were fixed, if it were a mathematical "set" of known quantity, then, in that case; we would be but "mere robots". Our dignity as men would be flushed down the sewer, and life itself would be but some sort of large-scale puppet show. Since we find this caricature to be personally revolting and so unacceptable (and such a display to be pointless), it therefore (?) "cannot be" true ? There is but one past, and there is but one present, but, for there also to be but one future?...is "scary". I mean here, that your personal discomfort at the the thought is not actually "evidence against" anything...(ever), much much-less so, evidence against all that shall be! Your indigestion does not qualify as "proof" of...anything, except possibly that pizza at mid-night may not be the best idea.
  The wave of the future then, is clearly clearly you "getting over" this phobic bias of yours' on this score. As Jesus of Nazareth, King of Jews works in your heart and mind in the future (another "known"!), He is bringing in some odd desperados. Pssst, this is where you enter the equation. We, since the fall, are defending the indefensible, and damned proud of it! But when it proves true, as it surely shall, that there is no good excuse for our treason against, and hatred of said King, when the indefensible becomes apparent even to us, we begin to "turn". He is turning us, and that (friend) is the wave of the future, it's the sure-thing. See? He has it clearly fixed in His mind, as to what He intends to do, and in Him using His free-will, His dignity is established beyond all reckoning, as He achieves it!
  Isn't it damned odd, that our sole lifeline of dignity, of meaning, and of reality itself; that mother-lode of will-that-is free; we normally "refuse to grant"...to Him? What about His free-will? What? No dignity for Him then? What about the meaning in His life? How come He's "not allowed" to have any of this great/good stuff, and we get it all? Are we such terrible cheapskates as all that? The wave of the future then, is clearly clearly that we begin to loosen up some, and "allow for" the dignity of His life mission, the meaning of His ambitions for us! This horse is the sure thing, bet there! His meaningful, dignified choice, yep that baby is on the wave front to come.
  It's a kind of partner-ship idea, a friendly inclusion of the ugly kid who can't dance. His aim, His desire is to have old "clumsy-foot" right out front, and the crowd going gonzo. It's an invitation "in", and a strong pull "into", it's a joining we discuss, a hand-clasp, an embrace! We imagine it to be an iron and meaningless "puppet show", so then to have the leisure to not-join-in and criticize? We wish then to "sit outside" and "looking in", find fault? We, sitting on our fat butt "find flaws" in those out on the floor? That door is closing, the wave of the future shows it as completely shut. We see then, something a little bit like a very complex reel, or perhaps a round dance? At first, it appears way too complex, how is it; that those in there aren't crashing into each other? The wave of the future is your finding out how, and becoming one of "them". So, the wave of the future includes this whole crank notion of ours about "us versus them", as closing down. All that blather is being repaired in "that then", and we are being freed to join...the "puppet show" which we have so despised and rejected. For no good reason, we hated. For one grand reason, He loved.
  So then, as an "undignified puppet" (and as a "meaningless cipher" I might add), I stand up today; doubtless "controlled" by unseen strings, and announce with all the saints before, those at the present, and those to come; "Behold the Lamb, who takes away the sin of the world!". I am saying to you: "Look over there!, Behold that direction will ya Bub?". Further, this "futile" exercise of "mere iron fate", was (apparently) determined from prior to things. He saw this little outburst of mine coming all-along! As "puppet" I shout to you "Look at the Puppeteer!". What else to expect from an "undignified cipher" eh? And except for one tiny thing, this malice aforethought of ours "makes sense". And as simply as I am able, my outburst just now (about finding Him), was what (in fact), manifested in space time. It was at one time the "coming thing", (at the beginning of this C.P.E. for instance), and sho' nuff, it came! This "finding" (being "found" really) of Him, was the "old wave of the future". At one point in time, it was (briefly) the present, and now it is "fixed" history. It moved from the "openly possible", to "closed fixed fact". And honestly, I have no recollection anywhere along the line about being "forced" by "unchangeable fate-destiny" (or any of them other girls for that matter) to write any of it. If I am but a "mere puppet", I have no memory of being one. If the future is "fixed and certain", and I thereby am a "mere puppet", I am an oddly forgetful one, I have no memory of being "forced" at all! But I have forgotten something for certain..."What was it we were afraid of, again? Can you please tell me?". One future is the doorway "in", not the wall keeping "out".
  Hostages of "fate" are being freed unto gladness then, it is the wave of the future. Bet on that horse, you cannot lose, for He cannot fail. Old clumsy-foot is coming out on the dance floor, and it's going to be a hoot! Count on it.
  He hobbled Himself, ...to become one of us? He freely willed it, so it's gotta be good!

Reforming the Mind, Breaking the Heart

  It's not too far a stretch to state plainly that much of the cultus of the west was, and to a large degree remains; a type of "reform". One guy that I am a little bit aware of, has made this kind of thing his calling card. His big question, as I understand it is; "Must the sun set on the west?". My unreserved, and "gut" answer is; "Absolutely!". There is, it seems a spectrum, and we are in it.
  On one end of things, socially and culturally you have the sheer weight of bureaucracy, the dunder-headed inefficiency of it all. We might complain of it, and plead for "commonsense solutions". The tales told of waste, overspending, redundancy and the wild levels of stupidity found in officially endorsed "programs", which due to unintended consequence yield perversely opposite results to those intended. You get a "War on Poverty", which turns out to be, over time; a war on the poor! Or consider the many overlapping "programs" officially intended to "help", which become an absolute weight and yet another hindrance to overcome. Reagan was saying these kinds of things in the 70s and 80s, such that; "Government is not the solution to our problems, it is the problem!". People ate that stuff up, as I recall. So, we then proceed to reinvent solutions, qua solving per se, and you only get worse results.
  There is a deep perversity here, a built-in kind of futility principle, which in our ever recurring "optimism for solving" we consistently and always "forget" to include in our planning. Maybe it cannot be otherwise? I don't know. But, in any case; the other end of the spectrum is a moving on from sheer blockheadery, into plainly evil institutional wickedness. I mean here, we must inquire as to the upside of Hitler!
  Perhaps no modern character in the "average mind" (supposing that critter exists?) is more evil than that bunghole with poor taste in facial hair. He "stands for" the mental constructs of malice, corruption, hate, and all that 21st century westerners cite as "ungodly". This guy is worse in the modern imagination than "Uncle Joe", Mao, and Pol Pot all rolled together. It makes a guy wonder; "What was the 'upside' to the goon anyhow?". He was swept into office in the 30s, and just how dumb are Germans anyhow? What did they ever see in the little freak in the first place? On the spectrum we discuss here, he holds (singlehandedly?) the title "chief of sinners". His tyranny resulted in the murder and mayhem of the camps, the destruction of much of Europe, and for bonus points, the very "image of malice". I can sort of close my eyes, and picture a "typical" German voter. Hey, mister elector of rulers, Mister voter dude, would you rather have as lord-governor Dolf, or...the devil of hell? And he says, "Let me think about it?". It could not have been that way! At some point, they saw "dignity returned", or "progress and jobs" or some darned thing we would approve of also, as the link back to Senor Crazy Pants. They don't begin as tyrants...they become.
  Somewhere along the slope on this nasty curve, is a point of no return, a kind of event horizon which when crossed, MUST yield "bad results". Consistently, we are blind to these rascals, and only in hindsight, do we have some grasp thereof. I am not trying in this C.P.E. to "fix or cure" this disease in us humans. What would the point of that be?
  Hitler was running upon the same speculative slope we do. The brainiacs of the 19th century had promulgated some really bad theory. Chance plus time equals reality, ergo there is no inherent dignity in man the creature. He is a pointless bit of flotsam cast up by a meaningless process. The logic runs (and ran then); "If from ape to man, then obviously, we are not an 'end point'; so then, we must inquire into 'over-man', the next step 'up'''. Chuck Darwin, and Fred Neitzsche came up with this disease, and sweaty Loony Boy simply put political legs on the stinker. They voted for the next step up. German voters were not ignorant, they were "progressive"! And as long as goo emergent, remains our working definition of "progressing", our spectral analysis is always going to come into play.
  At some point along the track (I'm clearly guessing here), even they; the "dour krauts" began to "have their doubts" about A.H.. Sure, cool skull logo you got there Pal, and you gotta love that trains on time gig, and who doesn't look awesome in black? But maybe we went too far somewhere along the line? Can we get back? Can we return to the limited good, the restoration of dignity, and lose the zany excess?
  We are the krauts! Who, over here isn't building consensus, to achieve commonsense solutions? Who around here is not involved in restoring the foundations of our "fathers"? So we are going to "get back to" 18th century gentlemen farmers? Is that it? Who is not awaiting a "grassroots" revival of decency and honesty? I (for one), do not buy it. I'm not even certain you can give the junk away! The basic ideas we carry around in our skulls are that "change comes from the bottom-up", and that "progress is inevitable". Both of these are unprovable axioms. They function much as religious dogma does. It is the beginning point of reference, not the result, and so remains "unquestionable", at least from within the given system.
  We end up hanging around like so many surfers, awaiting the next big wave, just ever so certain that it "must" come. The "folk"s will coalesce, and "rise up" demanding reform! Hogwash. You get all this weird lingo (body talk) about "standing up", and/or "taking a stand". It doesn't actually mean (do not misunderstand) that you, or anybody that you know, ever DOES anything. Heck, we are reform minded, not radicals! We are busy restoring greatness over here... As a general rule of thumb, I would assert that it is a deeply unwholesome fixation to dwell upon "health and fitness". You just get more rules, and next you get the exercise/fitness Nazis, the food Nazis, who first prescribe, then moving on into proscribing, so to then "find" the police powers to take children from their parents due to "health concerns". These people (us really) are the chiefs of sinners in our era, and their main symptom thereof is a glut of "righteousness"; thank you very much Billy-Bob. We must conclude that Adolph Hitler was "trying" (like us!) to be part of the cure, not part of the disease. The hipster word "sick" fits here I think. The sickness is "in" us. It; to a way of thinking, "is" us.
  We end up in a polarity trap. Liberal versus conservative, one choice is evil and "backward", one is the "forward looking". Pick one, you must choose! It's rather a bit like saying which would you rather, being shot or stabbed? Do you favor cancer or heart attack? Both options are bad, both are just varying kinds of poison. Ours; she is a dark world, cloaked is a sadness, and a madness incurable. Everything we do to "fix" things is but more evidence against us. General rules of polarity traps must include "N.O.T.A.", and if left to ourselves there are no good options. You, we, us; are truly damned if we do, and damned (worse!) if we don't. We require a third option within a two option field; and I say "none of the above" is the only sane answer. We must have help from outside the system, Godel was right.
  See? I'm running on the reality ticket over here. If forced to choose the political left or right, I cry out for the return of the King! If it is chicken or egg, I vote for the rooster. See? He has brought a new thing into earth, a thing not tainted with our stupid futility-unto violent destruction. He has brought hope, in that He brought Himself! We keep hoping for a fix, a program, a reform which will knit the world back into a meaningful, glad house. Traitors! Liars! Frauds!...that...is us. We keep wanting to push the "answers" onto an institution, a gubmint, and simply sit back to enjoy good results. There are no good results from high treason. Judas "got it".
  The way "out" is "down". Somebody has to do the dirty work. Somebody has to hold the center, with blood, sweat and tears. Some "Body" has GOT to go first, take the risk, enjoy the ridicule, and die alone. Life is kinda like that Bub, how's about we all wake up and smell the coffee already?
  None of us "righteous ones" are up to the task, and (frankly) we are unwilling to even try. Doubly damned, that is us; unwilling and unable, always waiting for "another" to take responsibility, and hunker down to move the load. We await AAA at the roadside, and expect them to change the tire. Even if we were able to choose right, we have not the power to hold the center. We are not able. We are not willing.
  "Change" (is that such a good thing in the first place?), is never effected by committee, all they do is make things worse. One Courageous Man, One Holy Champion, had the wherewithal (the "balls" frankly), to shove the only working solution through. Ignoring "good advice" to save Himself, He passed through the goal. Secretariat was coming into his burst of speed at the finish line! Jesus is Secretariat, writ large. The Trailblazer unto life, unto sanity, and meaning. He alone is able, and has demonstrated His willingness to stoop under the load.
  The short skinny here, is that it is "you who have ears" that He trusts, as agents down in this madhouse; to be the "junior stalwarts" the "small pillars" of order, of decency, of honor we ever so fruitlessly "demand" out those fools in D.C., imagine that! With all our endless chatter about placing trust in Him? He trusts you! How deeply weird, and good! Mother Teresa, didn't ask permission, she just went to those; her children. Martin Luther didn't busy himself "seeking consensus", and Rosa Parks, just sat down! You lead by leading. You die by dying, what ever was the other option anyhow? I have courage, He gives me His, for I have none. Yet I shall stand up again, this time clothed in light, gladness, and a fierce love; so to greet my Captain. Run to win! He the goal, He the pattern, so too the fuel, He the drink for our parched souls; and has been all along.
  It had to be this way. I have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous, and he fails not.

Learning the Gospel By Gut

  Note to the reader; this does not constitute a genuine C.P.E., but rather is a legible version of a "pass-me-out" offered to those attending the U.P.C. adult Sunday school class of 29 Jun 2014. My "rapid fire" verbal style is so overwhelming that some find it difficult to keep up. This is the written version of the content covered that day...

  We used to have a college type minister serving here at our church. He since; has moved on, and is (I think) a minister at some church in Oregon maybe? At any rate, I wish I could remember just how he said it; but it was to the effect, "We are to preach the gospel to all creatures, and so (I believe), we should begin that speaking to the creature called "me".
  Now as far as I know, the creature called "me" learns in several modes, and if I am reading things aright, there is also a bias within the "me", such that; I "favor and prefer" one mode over another. We presbyterians prefer (it seems) to think of ourselves as "mental". Our youth Pastor (of today) by way of demonstration, leans over and "opens" the top of his head with his hands, to imitate the top door of a dumpster. "Just fill 'er up!". This mind/think axis is who we prefer to be, at least in public that is.
  This bias results in a "think" gospel, a content filled, doctrinal and apologetics linked view. It's a brain thing. Now, do not misunderstand, it is not as-if, I've in the past seven minutes; become "opposed" to such, but rather am noting it as our (mine too) bias. But the text, the message we bear, is a "heart" message. It is "crucial" information, not "exhaustive" we discuss here.
  As such, we are at a disadvantage among our Christian brethren it appears to me. In our information glutted world, we (I do at least) think of "learning by heart" as memorization, or simply to learn by rote. The message we bring, is heart medicine, it is "gut", it is the "me of me" which we address the words to. Yet that "me" (the real one I mean), has been badly damaged in the fall.
  For example, this is how I "heard" with my heart (gut) the message as a boy. "Jesus loves you" said they. "So, am I to infer then, that Jesus just has really really bad taste in friends? And tell me, why is it that He is so very busy associating with losers and blockheads in the first place? Furthermore, where (exactly) do you get off Pal; going around insulting Him(!) in such a fashion? With bad hearts in us, we must always "miss" in the hearing, even when the message is given straight...and by the way; is it EVER, in this world, given straight?
  As an aside, just about all of the "culture wars" we see going on in America just now boil down to one thing. The message from on high, the Word of God; is hated, contested, and denied. Start there. From reefer to robots, from homosex to hate groups, the message He sent is being battled, distorted and finally forgotten.
  Now, as believers, we are often satisfied to note this social dystopia of ours, and simply do "advertisements" for the Word. They run, "Hey Pal, read it, study it, memorize it!" See? That group of powerful and lifesaving truths, those sound principles shall bless thy socks off, and encourage you to boot! Does it seem odd to you that for such a central and utterly life-saving "Word" as all-that, that we are (often) so weirdly silent as to what said message is! It would be like running up to your neighbor, all out of breath, and "forgetting" to mention that his house is on fire? Forget then for a moment memorization, lose the advertisements, can you please tell (the) "me" what that all-so-horrendously important message is?
  I seem to specialize in bad examples! Bad example one then (in my estimation), is the "It's a love letter from God" view. Since I just happen to love God, and simultaneously "buy into" the covenant; I would say, "If it is a love letter, it isn't addressed to you (of all people!). No Sir! In that case, it would be a case of "The Father loves the Son, and the Son does all the Father commands". That love (between "Them"), that relationship (over there!), that reality is the format. The covenant is private! True enough, you have been invited in, but face it the thing (in that case) is addressed to your "Head", not to your head!
  Bad example number two, of the basic drift, the big idea involved, really grinds my gears. In this case, we find a kind of "wishful" God, who (ala' Hallmark) sends "His very best"... See? He "wishes" that you and He could "develop relationship" (yuck), and supposing you ever had the good sense to opt  in, by golly; He'd be all for it! The hitch here is that He is so terribly busy respecting your "freewill", and moreover, that this feature of your person is so dreadfully crucial to Him, that the "best" the Guy is capable of; is to make the offer!? This drives me bonkers. I mean here we see it, how could such as "word" as that, ever (under any circumstance); change a heart from traitor to son? How could "best wishes" command resurrection? For it is certainly rez power in which we walk! My basic problem along these lines is that I need help controlling myself! Face it, if He is "afraid to meddle" there, then I have no hope. It's that "complex".
  Frankly speaking then, the "message" we carry with us is an eviction-with-prejudice notice. When the S.W.A.T. team takes out a shooter, when the SEALs whack a mullah gone south, they do so with "prejudice"! He then, the Sheriff from on high is coming. Coming to war, coming to judge, and to burn. Forget about hell for the moment, forget condemnation...He!!, (He Himself) is "the problem" we humans face. Learning the gospel by gut, we endorse, we agree with the apostle..."Flee!". Flee that wrath coming, ever so surely coming.
  So then, how we "get" the gospel is as a solution, the only solution, to our only real problem, this; His dreadful threat. He is coming, at the head of an army of hostile (and holy!) angels. He, their Supreme Commander is armed for war! Do you have a... a "strategy" perchance? Do you have...a hiding place? Because that is what this thing is about. The gospel is the only working answer to this, this the central threat we face as humanity. Learning the gospel by gut, is to wear the blood upon you, and agree! This sacrifice (of His) is the only solution.
  The "twin pillars" of Justice and mercy is the domain of the drama. In brief; somebody has GOT to go!
  If "pure justice" wins the day, then all of His foes are shattered, never to rise again. Every head rolls! We have no survivors, if justice wins, we go.
  On the contrary, if "pure mercy" triumphs, then (I hate to be the one to break it to you) we just replaced the Almighty with Santa Claus, dressed up as the Easter bunny! If mercy wins, He has got to go!
  Covenant, the real covenant between the Father and the Son, is the one "place" wherein He deals with these realities, those realities being that either man dies, or God is "sent away". Only He is actually serious about the problem here, and in the cross and resurrection He "finds" the only solution to the standoff. "Somebody"...has got to go! He...goes. It is our only hope. He "buys the deal".
  Those snippets and whispers, those hints and prefigures we have, we know them so well! Adam and his fig-leaf brainwave, we find that his "cover" is replaced by skins (of the living) placed "upon" him. Noah, and the catastrophe of old, it's judgement coming, as come! Here, we find the one (precisely) "safe place", the one (not two) refuge against that storm. Or consider Jacob, the scoundrel "defrauding" his "older brother" out of the blessing. The "unfairness", the switch at the heart of the gospel, sends "the rightful inheritor away"! Or think of Moses and the blood upon doorposts, as the death angel sweeps the land. Under cover, of innocent blood...we "find" (or rather, are found!) life. What of Rahab and her kin, "found alive" after the invasion and destruction at "Jesus's" hand...
  Far from a hamstrung, well-meaning nice Guy, wishing ever so hard that we'd (for once!) respond (well) to Him, we find the conquering King, laying down terms acceptable (to Him)...for unconditional surrender. We are agreeing (in the gut) that death sweeps all. Our "options" are either to die-with (Him)...or die alone, but everybody dies. We then, "die-with, and-in" Him. Now! Today! Gladly!...Consider the alternative.
  Much more like Dwight Eisenhower putting on civilian clothes and going to Berlin in 1941 to deliver in person, terms acceptable; for unconditional surrender, to the NAZIs, is Jesus of Nazareth, King of Jews. This surely rather than some wimpy well meaning nice Guy. If Ike had done such, it would have been terrible strategy, and a waste of a great man. Think of it. The Supreme Allied Commander of the free armies of heaven, arriving in the center of His enemy's camp, in order to accept surrender! They would have hung Ike with a piano wire from the nearest light-pole. How much less then, was the True five star General "well received"?
  He brings terms acceptable to Him, and to His (!) Commander. As in Noah's day, prior to the deluge, the ark (of life) is built. Likewise, prior to the overthrow (by fire) in Sodom, "messengers from above" Urge Lot and family to flee!
  The gospel by gut is Sampson, but instead of the "sign-Sampson", the real One! That Champion Judge of Israel we find Him chained between the "twin pillars" of Justice and Mercy, in His enemy's house. For Him to pull down that house, man dies and God is "sent away"... He agrees! The demolition, the destruction on that day is total...He too dies.
  And yet, standing up again out of that rubble, is the One Man, and Him un-condemned. Jesus Christ the Righteous is the sole survivor...except.
  Except under Him! Look! Under where He fell, He shielded a small cadre with His body. And look, hidden in  His side, where once "mother of the living" was found, is...His wife? That "small" congregation of the glad, can we get a count?
  Yes Sir! Get outdoors and get me a head count on the stars of heaven will ya? Then sprint down to the beach, have a sit, and number the grains of sand, okey dokey?
  Do you see? The "new age" is upon us! That kingdom wherein things work, and life makes sense...is begun. All that blasted noise in our heads about achievement-unto-acceptance is over! No Sir! We have been accepted for "Another's" sake, so then freed-unto-achievement! We've been looking at things upside down, we've been standing on our heads all along.
  That pathway back to Eden is now closed. There is no return to that home. That world is being closed and sealed, but a world "above" is now opened.
  It's a bit like a banquet you do not belong at, but attend under the care of "Another" in  any case. It is a kind of "making room" in the White House for refugees, who turn out to be sons? The Covenant was the ONLY way He could "find" to both honor Himself, and display His goodness.
  We are being sped...slowly; to a home...which we have never known, by He who knew us before we were conceived.
  The gospel by gut is a fire and a light, and a gladness unkillable. we flee wrath, by running to...our Lover!
  He "buys"..."the deal". Our hope now is unkillable, in that...He is!

Note to the reader: This version is more lengthy and "repaired" in junk syntax issues than the paper version. Bear with me, a work in progress!

The powers of the Age to Come

  In the past ten years or more, there has come a big ol' slug of "super-hero" movies. It seems that there is no practical end to these things. It has been (in my opinion) a mistake for the movie industry to "forget" themselves, and further, the super-hero motif has helped them to "remember". So, if that is true, then it is over-all a wholesome development I think.
  It's a bit like those cd's which took over the music universe 20 or 30 years ago. Just about zero "hiss" (remember cassettes?) in the background, no "popping" (like l.p. music) to interfere! Pure signal, nil noise...except that blasted noise of crip-crap! Gangsta-guck, wherein sociopaths maunder on about rape, pillage, and murder does not qualify as music. And worse, they don't even do us the dignity of singing their stupid misery, they cadence-talk it? In all the techno-advance, did somebody over in production land "forget" that music was intended to be, well; musical?
  Similarly, the movie "industry" seemed to have absolutely nailed "technique", with all the dumb c.g.i. effects, and pointless 3-D junk, it seemed for awhile like: "Heck, we don't need no stunt men, we don't even need actors!" Remember when Max Headroom was "inevitable"? We got flawless, seamless reality-like scenes,...except for one teensy factoid. These movie guys kept "forgetting" that they are in the business of telling stories! No amount of faked stunts, or "life-like" action can make up for the gross lack of a story-line! We end up with non-musical music, but professionally recorded, with zero background hiss? We get non-storied drama, yet; as such, seamlessly filmed? So, to sum up a bit, the super-hero genre has been very good for those blockheads in Hollywood, in that it allows them to begin to tell stories again, and if you are in the business of telling stories, it might be nice to have one to tell?
  The western civ idea of things, is to posit a "regular Joe" of whom great things are expected. He, (the Joe) by the rules of "story" must defeat, or must achieve. It is all done against opposition, and with the odds stacked against, he prevails. "Powers" can be just about anything in movie-land, but that is a type of license taken with story per se. I mean, who would want to be able to zip around and burst into flame anyhow? Who would want to shape-shift into an animal, or read minds? So there are officially recognized powers and bogus ones. Bogusosity of powers here is not really that serious of a crime in that they are used in the narratives to "expand" the theme. The theme survives, even if the scriptwriter is unable to detect real powers from fraud.
  The great thing about super-powers is that just about everybody would like one! So, storytellers have an automatic "in" with the audience. If you could secure a "power" what might it be? I am fairly sure, that flying would be fun (at least for awhile), and possessing super strength would be impressive to some, although it might be tough to figure out just what to do with it;...with such strength I mean. You could, we suppose; work at a tire store, and lift up the cars rather than having the employees there, wasting all their time playing with hydraulic lifts? Or take x-ray vision for example, what (precisely) are you searching for, if you are busy seeing-through everything? Seeing through, and looking at, where does said "x-ray-ian" viewing leave off I should like to know...
  The west, it appears to me, is rooted in a scriptural view of story, committed to the "Joe", his struggle, and it is also here, that we find the idea of "powers". No leaping of tall buildings in a single bound, no invisibility, nor mutations for us to see here. Rather, we are looking at worlds colliding, of powers of one age contrasting with those of the coming one.
  If we peer into scripture, we get a deeply weird grasp of such "powers". Tremendous strength, talking to food (such that it "multiplies"), long range sight, being a military genius (with no previous training), telling the future (with no crystal ball), dreaming and it's interpretation, and in the Bible, there are a whole bunch of "powers" we hardly recall. Jesus walks on water, Phillip walks through thin air, people are healed by touch, and/or by a word. Death is reversed, and the weirdest kind of powers are moral and ethical reversals, in mere listeners! Haters become lovers, cowards become lions, crooks become givers. The dead stand up, and the living fall dead.
  The Hero, the real One, is foretold from the borders of Eden. Right after the high treason of the garden, the Messiah is foretold. Through the pictures, through the warnings, examples and types in the O.T., we await the Coming One. Finally, the Guy shows up; and guess what? The One we've been anticipating for millennia has a message! And what, pray tell; is that oh-so-terribly important message? And it is deeply odd, entirely unsuspected. It runs along these lines, and although not quoting here, we get something like; "Go back, rethink everything! Re-prioritize your entire view! "Why?", you ask? Because (I tell you) that golden age you have been awaiting, that era wherein life is good, and things make sense, is come!". And we collectively say, "Huh? Where?". That "world-age", that era of peace and of plenty of which the whole earth has been long awaiting...arrived! Really? How come I don't see it? How can a golden age show up, and nobody notice?
  The Hero isn't busy "convincing" us so much of His message, as demonstrating it! He shouts at the weather? And it "listens"? He walks through walls? Busting up perfectly good funerals, ruining the wheelchair franchise, He is transforming lives, bringing honesty into corrupt hearts, He is feeding the hungry, refreshing the exhausted, and teaching the simple. But weirdest of all, He is making you into His "spittin' image"? The powers of the age to come are ... uhm beginning to "manifest"(?), and in the most unlikely spots! Children of this age have been "claimed" by the Lord of Ages (Himself!), and that coming-age (which is not-yet), is yet begun! The Kingdom is at-hand. Uhm, how could we tell that? The King (Himself!) has come, and so, by definition, His domain follows.
  We think of things backwards. We demand to know first, and so to believe. He says "Nix". The reality is that we believe-unto knowing. We demand a world rebuilt prior to trusting the King of the realm. He says "Nope". We trust the "low-king", and He rebuilds the world from the inside out! Pssst, this is where you come in. The first item on the agenda of rebooting reality was your sad-silly heart. Like a yeast, which grows from in-to-out, the basic premise is a living solution, a life-based, heart answer. We keep requiring Him to "fix" reality first, and then after that is done to our satisfaction, we might stoop to trust His craftsmanship? Maybe? We keep wanting the outside (world) fixed first, and that fresh world moving inward to our broken selves. He says "No dice gringo". He begins with massive heart surgery, and you (shockingly) become His agent of new life into the little world you inhabit. The powers of the age to come, are beginning to manifest! Purely? No. Completely? Not at all. But certain-enough they are; those shockingly fierce-loyal little lions of the age to come, have already begun to growl. Those eyes alight with an unkillable gladness, have lately started glowing somewhat...
  He is making us like them that have gone on ahead of us. So, like them; lose "the second thoughts"already; ditch the "fears and doubts", shed the gutless foot-dragging and finger pointing. Those ahead of us "prove" that we don't require such miserable baggage.  Them that have died, have died to this age, and all it's sad, pointless futility. They have died to bureaucracy, perished to "carefulness", already they are alight, even now they are roaring! He is making us (on earth), like them (in heaven), His "will" indeed, is being done! But mainly; but mostly, but certainty of certainty, He is making us...like Him!
  Eyes like fire, feet as burnished bronze, face like the sun shining in all her strength. He is breaking into our dumb little prisons, Furnishing our lives with clean air, deep clarity, and focused sanity. He, breaking-in; is busy. He "let's us out"!
  The ultimate super-power (in us), may well be, us having the new sense to walk out of our old prisons. Freedom was the gift, life was the means, forgiveness the method.
  He's so good, it's scary!

Sticky Music

   If you examine your brain sometime, you will likely find that some tunes "stick" in there. Perhaps (and clearly, I am guessing here) there might be a sort of wave function in "sticky" music which is just not present in the "regular" variety? Take a listen to "Happy" by Pharrell Williams, this is seriously sticky stuff. At some level of mentation then, we infer that "liking" a set of sounds may not be entirely "voluntary"? How weird is that? Admit it, you have spoken this way, when you find a thing you find to be clever or catchy, what do you say to your friends? "You have just got to love this!". Or consider Gnarls Barkley's song "Crazy". You would (unfortunately) be technically nuts to not find it "catchy". In brief, it is terribly sticky stuff. Take a listen to "Tubthumping" by Chumbawamba, if this stuff isn't in the class of song called "adhesive", what is? And it isn't just pop tunes, what about "Victory In Jesus"? If you don't like that song, you are at; or near, brain death...in my humble opinion.
  And yet, somehow; stickiness per se is not entirely predictable. We talk of "popular hits", and in my opinion, we are in that case, discussing this very thing, this feature I dub "sticky". But there are sticky sounds which have never (yet?) achieved a popular embrace. Witness "Tokins" by Steve Miller, or "Country Girl" by the Ozark Mountain Daredevils. Here, we find adhesion sure enough, but the sticky part never "stuck"? Are there brain receptors out there at large which do not consistently fire? What is that? Perhaps it is but a matter of timing, or of personality, and the package it all comes in? Or what about luck, maybe there? Consider for a moment, is it possible to record the utterly stickiest sound ever...and still have nothing for it to stick to? Do we thereby generate an "anti-hit", a brain-bonded unit, which nobody enjoys? I ask this by way of inferring that we discuss something here "larger than mere" human tastes. For there exists in this realm, the "opposite", and here I am not eager to tread.
  When was the last time you heard "I Shot the Sheriff"? And whenever it was, I say it was way way too recently! There ought to be a law against that stinker. Or consider the sheer toxicity of "Love Potion Number 9". The thing is downright scary. It's even worse than "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" from the Wizard of Oz (if that is even possible!)! These songs, like radioactive waste, ought be hidden in deep, hardened chambers, far from sunlight... So, there exists a bad-sticky, an evil-adhesive in the real world. When one of these dark entities, like say "Kung Fu Fighting"; rears it's head, it is (very) wise to defend your brain, so to prevent a hostile takeover by these...these whatever they are! How could a a song be that be that bad, and yet be a popular "hit"? What if it is actually an "anti-hit"? It would be a bit like eating something truly revolting (like liver for instance!) just because (?) it is revolting? Some seriously degraded thinking we have here, at the very minimum, don't you agree?
  Do you see where this is leading us? "Taste" is not the key! It cannot be. Everybody around us is saying here, that "It's all a matter of taste". But how could "desire" which functions as an attractant, be simultaneously a repellant? Taste "pulls", it doesn't "push". Or to rephrase, beauty has an "allure". If said beauty begins to drive off and repel, to that very degree then, it ceases to be "beautiful" and becomes something else....so say I. Such stuff would yield; "The reason I am so attracted to you is that I cannot stand being in your presence?", what sort of reasonings are these? This feature then, of that which pushes, as what pulls, cannot (in my estimation) be primarily, or purely perhaps a "subjective" thing. No, rather; we were design built for it! Sticky music is "attaching to pre-built receptors", as we "recognize" it! We have an on-board "stickiness estimator", and so being able to (correctly!) identify "sticky". Tens of thousands of persons identify the thing (correctly), and you get a "hit". How far from "adhesive" is "beauty"? Beauty then, is not (primarily) in the eye of the beholder... Rather, beholding then, is itself (as an action); "helping us remember" what we considered to be "beautiful", prior to the looking? I mean, we are "consulting a standard". Where did said standard come from? We did not devise the thing, we refer to it, infer from it, and agree upon it; but did never devise it! This is shocking. This can only mean that you came into the world, pre-wired to admire and "be drawn to"..."something"? More realistically, to "Some One"...
  Perhaps all this might be a bit like an amnesiac, hearing his own Mom call him by name, and him feeling uncomfortably aware of "something familiar" in it all? "I ought to know that name, why does it sound in my ear as it does? That tone of voice, from that person (whoever she is), seems like something I ought know". How weird that this "cognition" goes by-in-large, both used and ignored in us. You say "X" is beautiful...how do you know? How (ever?) could you?
  So then the doorway into the real, called "beauty" is ordinarily closed to us, in that we are the very ones who discount it! I am "drawn" by it, and yet, I find myself repelling, and so, "it couldn't amount to anything much"... That door; as a kind of access point, is now closed to us. But the problem is that the door of truth is also swinging shut! In our time, and in our world, this pathway, this "highway of holiness", this "road of the real", truth I mean; has been (historically) the open route. What if it too closes? What if your "truth" and mine never agree, and also, we both continue to claim that our version is "true"? In that case, truth itself becomes it's "unself", in that it "forgets to be true"! Good becomes evil, and hope dies on that day.
  "Flirtin' With Disaster" by Molly Hatchet, cannot both be a great rock'n roll tune...and not one, at the same time. Either I am wrong, in saying that it is, or you are, in saying it ain't. Possibly, we are both in error, but it is impossible (it cannot be), that we are both right! So then, where truth and beauty meet has been hijacked (for political purposes), by beauty, which is itself a damned ugly thing for it to do! For a woman to begin a discourse with "I am as good as you", may or may not be true, but it certainly ain't attractive! To attempt to make truth (like beauty) a matter of "personal taste", is both un-true and butt-ugly.
  The little factoid that Flirtin' is very likely the greatest rock tune of recent history, and that it is there-by an attractant, not a repellant, says that we are being directed here by heart, and not head. Our brain demands content, our heart decrees a cry for "home". Inside the swamp of logic, debate, and a mere "bare" truth, there remains no hope. The entire discussion of the "modern" is to, as an "adult", embrace hopelessness. Put down the childish desires for a kingdom and a name, and light... And I, for one; say "bullshit"! Hope lives. It lives in us, in that; He-alive again lives, in fact; and in truth. Hope is something crashing into our world from "above and outside". We do not build it, but we "recall" it. It is not, and cannot be a matter of "tastes" as to whether He busted out of the tomb. If you don't like it, feel free to hallucinate as you please, but neither you, nor me, nor the devil of hell cannot get Him back in there! If you do not buy the Covenant, that is your delusion, let me know how that craziness works for ya, but neither you nor I, nor any congregation of the faithless, can ever "hope" un-do it! There is no true "anti-hit".
  And that is a beautiful thing! It doesn't matter if you like it, or not, there is zero you can do to halt it. Our only real "choice" is whether to join in the dance or get crushed by those who do. That age to come, that world of beauty, that golden era, that world where things make sense, the one we have all been waiting for; is come! It arrived, that "Kingdom"...(with her King), done showed up!
  There is no "going-back", where are you going to go "back" to? The reason that you believe what you believe, is that you believe it to be "true". It is base treason, and fantastic idiocy to imagine that it is you-too who deem the true to be "itself". No Sir! At the best, and under "ideal circumstances" (which in fact, never occur), you "recognize", you "remember" the true. "It rings true" something within you, in that the "standard" is met. Your heart says "yes", when the key opens the lock. Your mind is forced to admit that the key and lock "matching", cannot be "chance or taste". The sucker was built for it! Deal with it.
  From prior to when things were, you who was yet to be, were loved by Him Who Is. He knew you, calling unto a future and a life we cannot yet imagine, and when we see it, we will say "It is as I hoped!". Called "back" to the One, we never met, and yet despised, into a time which is to come, by a Voice we hope to hear! It is not as-if logic were a "bad thing". Rather, that she too awaits her Maker!
  He is on the way, and with these eyes of flesh, I shall behold my Maker. So said Job, so say I.

The Very Last Snowflake

  Whichever side you come down on in the global warming debate, there is enough evidence to "prove" it! If we firmly adhere to a warming world, or to a cooling world, or to a "none of the above" type of world, you already are convinced that you are correct. It is a weird type of reality we live in. For instance, if you believe in UFO's or if you deny them, or if you take some type of third way on the discussion, you will find that you can and do find evidence to "prove" your view! Yesterday, I participated in a discussion in which all three options were present in a discussion about reefer. It is true the dope is more powerful today than it used to be. It is false that dope is stronger nowadays, it is actually weaker. It is neither false nor true, and in fact; some dope then was stronger than some dope now, and vice-versa! There were three of us present, and each emerged from the discussion, airing our comments, more fully confirmed in his own views! We appear (it seems) to be turning out to be more like ourselves, over time, uhm, than we used to be?

  If the world is actually getting warmer, we might one day find (sadly enough) the very last snow flake! Perhaps we could spray some kind of polymer on the rascal, and mount it handsomely in a wooden box, and place it in a museum? You see? Then future generations could send their young kiddos on future-fusion school bus type field trips to look at it! If on the other hand, if the world is not going that route in fact, then we need not fund the "Save the Snowflakes!" action committee. We can safely ignore their zany antics of raiding deep freezers to "liberate" ice cubes, and this whole "issue" of "disappearing snowflakes" just goes away all by itself! But that day is not yet come, where-in the wave front of reality has collapsed. It isn't decided until it is decided. But we are not wired to accept that sort of thing. We are guessing, we are anticipating the next big "coming thing". It is what we do; but until it actually manifests, we can only keep "rooting" for our version-expected of the next new thing. Until they lose...the Cubs could (theoretically at least) win!

  I used to read a good bit of science fiction. Don't bug me about which authors I read, that was never the point. No, the funny thing in sci-fi is that; as a hobby, as a job, as a fixation, that practice of predicting the future, is so uniformly and abysmally wrong! Go back and look at the 50's and 60's sci-fi. Which of them "got" the personal computing bomb? Which foresaw tablets, laptops, or which of them "got" phones as cameras, with more processing power than old main-frames? Heck, they were "worried" that robots were going to take over things. They were busy ignoring physics, and had super-luminal ships blazing across galaxy spanning empires, and the "problem" inherent was the governance of same? Shall it be Kings and Emperors, or will it be presidents and prime ministers? Gosh, how's about that interplanetary tyranny? So the "future" was to have been about which style of rulers we nowadays, and in coming days prefer? Uhm, when, or where exactly have we humans ever, ever, gotten governing ourselves correct? So, the "professional futurists" those sci-fi guys, predictors extraordinaire, never saw coming what we have now? How's that for a shocker? And at the same time, until it actually came to pass, until the event horizon of now collapsed, it used to be a "viable option" that (possibly) robots would be our "problem". Meanwhile, the shooters who gun down people because those poor misguided loons with guns, have poor "self-esteem"? Which author guessed, or saw that coming? Or consider the cultural reaction, to build (idiotically enough) "gun free zones" as a response (?) to shooters. Who saw, who favored that, as "our best guess" (this official helplessness), as the particular boneheadery emerging? Nobody! Not a body saw coming, what we have.

  So we find an odd phenomenon here. Either things are warming or they are not, but a third and completely unexpected thing unguessed, and unexpected, will very likely show up. These "unexpecteds" show up regularly, and consistently remain unexpected. Expect that! We are always looking for the "threat" of the future, and we consistently get it wrong, and always do this "looking" anyhow! It is who we are.

  Oddly, the actual threat of the future, that of the Landlord showing up to forcibly evict humanity (the great good God arriving in highly outraged mode), is the one thing we will not discuss, nor predict, nor mull over. And when I say "we" I mean not the unbelieving folk, but no, those who say (at minimum) that they accept the testimony of scripture! It is very much as if the actual threat did not even exist as a threat? So we are talking about a kind of delusional or paranoid re-parsing of reality itself? 

  The Sheriff from on-high with a lawful eviction notice to drive man and beast off His world, due to gross malfeasance, high treason, and poor taste in hats (possibly) IS coming. It doesn't matter whether you "like it" or agree with it. There is precisely zero you can do to halt it. That is the reality and that is the one topic for "future threat analysis" which we are incapable of dealing with! The lurid quotes in both testaments, and pointedly from lips of Christ Himself, to the effect that at that dreadful event, men will (losing their minds) call for the mountains to fall upon them, to cover them, rather than to face...Him! The prediction that the "Holy Terror Himself" will break men's minds and reason, goes "unnoticed"!

  The screamingly obvious, becomes the dark and mysterious. The certain-sure thing, becomes the one item we will never voluntarily discuss? And you want to talk about your "free will"? How's about you "freely will" to pull your head out? The answer to this, the proposed "fix" here; is deeply weird. As far as I can tell, without some serious assistance (meddling actually) nobody would ever believe. The short version is that you cannot be saved without trusting Him, and you cannot and will not trust Him on your own! That is "it".

  The answer to the actual threat, is a kind of "mistaken-identity, zombie, friend of the boss" kind of thing. You know the drill here, you have seen the crummy imitations all over the place. The whole world of zombie films has never appealed to me. I do not "get" what is attractive about the idea of the walking dead. It is an insult against Christians, and I (for one) resent the intent.

  See? Something terribly odd happens to corpses, and they get up (un-naturally!) and begin limping around scaring townspeople? This is where you believing folk come in. But the big intervention, by which corpses start doing that type of thing, is just not mentioned. So the other end of zombie-dom is the super hero gig. Huge market there! What was it this time, a radioactive brownie eaten? Was it a UFO granting psychic powers? Anyhow, an inner transformation, from a source "outside and above" us is required here. The fix required to face the Sheriff on that great and terrible day, is that we be "made alive" in a way we were not, at human gestation and birth. I told you it was weird. We are calling this; this zombie gig the answer? Well actually, He is the One doing so, and we are just agreeing with the Guy. It is not the full answer though, it is only part of it.

  We love stories about mistaken identity, about loss of memory, about confusion of persons, confusion of roles, reversal of fortune, based upon a "misunderstanding". The classic Bible riff here is that absurdity of Jacob and Mumsy ripping off his twin for "the birthright". Poor Esau! What did he do to deserve being sent off without the blessing, just because his criminal baby bro hoodwinked Pop? Jacob is "mistaken" for his twin. Actually, it wasn't a "mistake" but more a criminal endeavor, in order to get it, and importantly, he Jacob, is never hauled back to "return" what he stole!

  At the heart of the Bible solution there is a case of mistaken identity! The Father "thinks" you are His fiercely loyal True Son! And all of your tirades and rantings to the effect that He's got the wrong gringo!...go unheard. Your insistence that you (like Jake) are the swindling con-man, and He is "confused" about you, fall on deaf ears! Once the "switch" is in place, it's a done deal, and He refuses (!) to ever think of you otherwise. Wait a minute, this is the answer? Says who? Who even has ideas like this? Ah, but we are not yet done.

  The way "home" (oddly enough) is to a place you have never been. Eden is closed to us now. We will never return to that innocent paradise. We know too much, we have been wrecked in the fall, but more to our point here; there is no proper place left for us...except the King's palace! It is like political refugees taking up residence at the White House! Dorothy at Oz could not get in, she was rejected out of hand, until the whole shoe thing was brought up. We are at the mafia bosses' headquarters, doing the peephole, and secret knock thing, except we will never gain entrance, unless the Boss Himself acknowledges, "Yeah, he's mine, let him in". We are admitted into a place we do not "belong", (deal with it) based upon Another's doing, for Another's glory, due to the kindness of Another, standing in bodies called alive by Another, clothed with Another's reputation for honesty, and (frankly) we are admitted...for His sake! We breathe His air standing in bodies He built, responding to His call, we say "Yes Sir!".

  It isn't for your sake, that you were saved! What a weird answer, to an unsolvable, and unavoidable problem. Further, the church knows but refuses to say, that you will never accept His "fix" for the situation, you neither can nor will agree with Him without some serious assistance! We are junkies, and despair is our drug. We alone, we of ourselves, will never call. Weirdest of all, you can call and many have, and many shall, at any time, for that help! We in truth, were never really "of ourselves"!

  Our testimony is; "I called, and He heard!". And that is "true enough"!

Of Tank Treads and Will-O'-The-Wisps

  When you think of it, the infantry warfare, especially in Europe (during WWII) contained fodder for a lot of stories. I grew up in the early 60's, and so, our Dads, the "our", being boys on our street that is, our Dads, many of which had been involved in the war, had stories to tell. Of all the stories I can recall swapping with the other guys on the street, of those guys who had stories to tell I mean; the one that really grabbed my attention, was the bazooka theory of tank tread removal. Attested to, by the highest block authorities themselves, Eglington and Dodge!
  Do we even know this bazooka thing to be an historical fact? Have we done our research? Can I prove it? And the answers are; "no, hell no, and prove what?", and in that sequence! The very idea of tank warfare is difficult to grasp. We see images of it in movies, but the 30 or 60 ton monsters out there with cannon mounted upon them, would be best viewed from a safe distance! I think that the reality is that some chance might exist for one group of tanks, versus another group, but armor against infantry? Please; just stop the madness. How are a group of soldiers with rifles, mortars, and grenades going to take on armored cavalry? Enter the bazooka man! Out of the little plastic toy soldiers we played with, the bazooka man was highly coveted indeed. And that's gotta count for something!
  As I recall, both Gary Dodge and Steve Eglington both agreed that such had occurred, that is; that the bazooka man had indeed overcome tanks in actual battle. Well, if both Steve and Gary say so, then their Dads must have told them, and therefore, we can only conclude...
  The Eglington-Dodge theorm then, was that a clever bazooka shot; aimed just right...could (and historically did!) break the tank tread. And since one need only remove one tread to effectively hobble the mobility of a tank...well, you can just imagine! In the mind of a nine year old, this was David and Goliath all over the place...but real! Did you get that? I mean the "real" part?
  Don't ask me what a will-o'-the-wisp really is, because I don't know. But where "magic" links with reality, you get the stuff of legend, you get excited boys repeating stories which "must be" true! The magic of spirit, the wispy-ness of soul, seems to reside mainly in a world not populated by mean people, in a reality where things are not boring, sad, or stupidly, and pointlessly repetitive. Think for a moment of the Disney empire. People want to go visit a clean, happy, and magical place; where good things happen. To escape for a day (or an hour), the stories of neglect, the morons, perverts and chowderheads in the news, this "escape", this breath of air is the "product" Disney sells! And people buy it...big time! Magic and reality don't normally appear to cohabit in the same universe, and to find them together is deeply memorable. The choice is beauty or truth, and it turns out that the truth is normally butt-ugly, and beauty in actuality, helps nobody...choose one!
  This is why we love the Bible. Luke Skywalker's got nothing on Gideon. Peter Pan is a piker compared to Daniel. The marvel of meaningful beauty, crashing in to this sad, crazy world, this is what sells! A will-o'-the-wisp is a little light which has no good explanation, (pssst, this is where you come in...) it is a phenomenon which is curious, and pretty, but will it blow the treads off a tank? I mean, what's the stinker good for? That's what we would like to know. Magic has to become "useful" in our book, and be more than just "pretty".
  The music and art world knows this all too well, and is perpetually in the business of making music which is "important". And if you don't believe it's "important" just ask them! The magic of life isn't normally visible to us. We have come to take for granted the deeply weird fact that we are animated piles of dirt. We fail to marvel that the little figurine is become a real boy! So good King Jesus comes bopping along, busting up perfectly good funerals? He walks right up to the bier, halts the procession, tells the professional mourners to pipe down...addressing the stiff, He says "Yo Stiff, get up!". The resultant chaos and panic, as the corpse in question, perks up remarkably, sits up and says, "Howdy!" can only be imagined. The magic meets reality, and for thousands of years, the boys on the block replay the glory of it! It worked! The amazing one-in-a-million shot takes out the Death Star, the highly improbable army of hundreds routs that one of tens of thousands!
  Soul power, spirit power intersects with hard, sad, dumb reality, but it never (really) was a matter of "magic". Magic implies a competence, an ability, a knowledge. The reality is the covenant. If we borrow the WWII theme for a moment, the covenantal story (which here, is imaginary) might be Dwight D. Eisenhower, five star general, supreme commander of the allied forces of the West, on orders, takes off the uniform. Other generals, colonels, and all those lower ranks below are ordered NOT to salute him. Not even buck privates are "allowed" to acknowledge their true commander! He puts on civvies, loses his dogtags, and is parachuted into Berlin. It is 1941, and the Nazis have sworn a 1000 year reign of ugly terror, and at this point, it looks like they just might pull it off! "Dwight" (no general here!) starts going through the Berlin neighborhoods. He is saying; "My boys will be coming in over that hill in a few years. We are going to pound your city to pieces on that day. Swear peace! Surrender unconditionally now, to me personally, and I give oath that you and yours will live on that day. Fail me here, and I will break you there!". Uh, gee. For some odd reason, our out-of-uniform leader is not being well received? In fact, he is hung by the neck until dead, with a piano wire; from the nearest streetlamp? How's the magic workin' for ya pard?
  Mere magic could never overcome such a deficit, but the covenant? That, my friend is another story! If after days in a shallow unmarked grave, our "Dwight" kicked death (personally) in the butt, and stood up again, and walked to freedom, against all opposition, this would fall under the Eglington-Dodge theorm. The absurdly low probable, coming through, just when it was needed. Why, after all, do we have a metaphor of the cavalry riding to the rescue at the very last moment? I say it is because such coheres with our understanding of things. We "buy" this type of Personal meddling. We love stories like this, it reminds us of "Someone"!
  In a raw and undiluted world, in which only justice and mercy lived, the problem is that a world of justice precludes survivors, whereas a world of mercy precludes a lawful governor! If pure and true justice were to fall upon the humans, there would be no survivors! A total wipe-out, for not one among us is just! On the contrary, if only mercy survives, you get this squishy muddle-headed nice-guy of a "god", who is plainly not up to the task, of doing his stinking job! Either we go, or He goes, and only, I say ONLY in the covenant between Father and Son, is there a solution wherein He is honored, justice is done, and mercy survives. I said "and"! That place where tank treads meet will-o'the-wisps is at Calvary! The unmovable mountain, that of fierce and implacable justice...is moved! The true Sampson pulls out the load bearing piers of "Is", and the wreckage is total! Not one survivor, justice is done! Well, actually, there is one, or should we say, "One"? The first Adam was put to sleep, and a wife appeared! The True Adam falls "asleep" and His "wife", hidden back in His side, appears!
  The One Survivor stands up out of that mighty wreckage, and hidden there, "below", "under the blood", is His "wife"! She survived too? And what a horde, what a congregation of the gladly "unruly", which is that throng of the wildly triumphant "she" is! Beauty survived! Mankind survived, because One Man paid. Deal with it, truth loves his sister, and beauty cares deeply for that hillbilly brother of hers!
  Now, now let us reconvene that discussion of the "importance" of art...