behind the bookcase

11.12.14

Who looks for conflict when it isn’t welcome. What good comes from despair and fear, can’t we all just get along.  No, human nature is too complex and sparring with the unknown is not where you want to be.  Pull yourself out of the web and time will repair but it won’t change clanging swords and barrages of nature’s darker twin.  Be ye separate if you got nothing good to say.

A severe storm flooded roads along the Batinah coast and classes were cancelled on Sunday.  Festival lights and flags come up throughout the border town, next week is Oman’s 44^th anniversary in the modern age, two days later I will evoke my father’s passing ten years ago.  While they celebrate I lament. 

I lost the desire to exercise and now after every lunch this week terrible pangs of indigestion remind me all is not good.  There are a lot of ‘I should’ plans to consider and I won’t waste my time noting them here.  Plans to obtain a car from a colleague held up in Cochin have run aground. That’s alright, I guess, look at the money I save from being cooped up.  And that’s good if it is the creator’s magnanimous blueprint to return me to the halls of higher learning with enough money for a year.  By golly, look, three letters of recommendation, ha, the hurdle was low, be praised o God.  What’s next, sigh, I have to lay down.

11.13.14

By afternoon I am whooped, if there was a lounge with a sofa around here a 20 minute nap would energize. This office is far too busy with teachers and students humming and buzzing. Last night I hit the sack before ten and was up by six, and what a beautiful sky there was in the east; tangerine orange and soft blues giving way to wispy red clouds.  I’d take photos but the composition blows and the angle from the tv room is not inspiring.

So tomorrow it’s mass at 9am and a possible foray into Dubai for a movie, Interstellar, and then a meal and a pop into a bookstore.  There’s always a right time to buy a book.  I am halfway through Vasco Da Gama’s epic voyages and it is riveting.  Upon landing in Calicut the Portuguese believed the natives were some crazy Christian off-shoot.  They had never heard of Hinduism and the author doesn’t say when they figured this out. 

Inspired, I’d like to return to Goa and pay my respects to St. Francis.  There are always a few questions to ask the venerable saint and that old world still resonates with mystery and intrigue.  I wait and hope soon the Indian government will permit an American to obtain a visa upon arrival.  And rumors flit about we may have a week off for national day and ten days would be enough.  Until then, what to do.

I sent the application off to the school in Leuven.  If all is aligned with the universe the next step is sending a fee and then its sending the diplomas and transcripts and somewhere in there I have to write a ‘motivation’ letter. Why do I want to do this.  Every time I read Paul I find issues.  Surely the God who inspired Paul wouldn’t inspire me to refute the most inspirational writings in human history, no?  No, of course not.  I just think the time is ripe for an ecclesiastical shuffling and with God’s blessing I’ll do just that. 

11.14.14

The spirit world talks to us all the time but we don’t hear because we’re too busy.  I didn’t go to Dubai after mass today but I did see ‘Interstellar’ at the mall and yikes!  The mind buzzes.  Departed souls in other dimensions separated by nothing more than thin strands of hair which tickle our noses.  The Bible gave exacting instructions to not mettle with the spirit world and rightly so, how can you trust one you’ve never known, but if there is love, and you’re talking to those you DO know and did love and you’re praying your cotton picking heart out and you’re lighting candles to remember them and talking to them, believe me, they’re behind the bookcase, and if you listen with all your heart, you’ll know.

Those who are dead are not dead they’re living inside my head. 

The first reading was from Proverbs and I was discouraged.  Good wives and so on, oh no, a homily about marriage.  How do I get out of here, but I was wrong.  The second reading was another of Paul’s end time gems and the visiting priest, Father Hugh, pronounced Hoog by the Deccan deacon, preached the parable of the talents and wham bam I’m glad I didn’t leave.  How many talents were you born with, John?  Well, I didn’t learn I had a talent for taking a photo until I was 38 years old.  I have an off and on talent for writing, more off it feels these days.  Have you been a good steward of the talents you’ve been given?  I don’t know.  Sometimes I sound like the dude with the one talent.  Where does that insecurity which robs me of being great for God come from? 

Fear not, take risks that are for good and believe. 

40,000 denominations.  Did their doctrines emanate from Paul?  This is what I have to prove.  Did the church fathers divide themselves because of Paul’s views of end times?  Augustine had a different take and called it Amillenialism and a church in Goa was razed to ground because of it.  Calvinism, Arminianism, five views of sanctification, baptism, the interpretations came from the times in which they lived. 

And rather than reinterpret Paul’s difficult yet inspiring commentary, let’s move his letters and let people read what remains.  They might see the Gospels a little differently.  Church leaders might see the Gospels a little differently. 

Interstellar is the kind of movie where the story is far greater than the actors who were in it.  What other movies are like this?  I can’t think of one off the top of my head.