PLUNGE47

One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn’t belong… Following a legendary four square battle at Soak, I had to lock up the Admin building before going home. So I headed up the covered walk only to find a man sitting on one of the benches. He was disheveled, but sat reading his bible. Certainly he was homeless and I assumed he sat there to ask for money, so I quickly said “hello” and walked on. But after locking the doors and reaching the car, I stopped. In my hands was all kinds of things from the night. Including left over pizza…

   So I went back to the man and offered the pizza. He asked for a glass of water, so I drove to the gas station for a bottle (I did not want to mess with the church alarm or search for a cup). As I came back he was still reading the bible and offered me money for the water I had just bought…

  The sludge that lives inside. He sat on a bench reading the bible and I assumed he was playing me for money. I thought the bible was just to make an appearance of holiness **, so I join the Pharisees and pass by on the other side.

“Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?” … The King will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one the least of these brothers and sisters, you did for me.”     ~ Matthew 25:37, 40

** Of course CERTAIN appearances do not trouble me at all! Today, this Sunday morning, we will all gather together wearing a dress or slacks with a button up shirt—we may not have even brought a Bible. But this man, with a chaotic hair and beard.  Looking quite literally like the Jesus (who was a homeless man). This man, reading his Bible, was out place in my mind. Like the Sesame Street song, he did not belong…  When did clothes, did money, become the definition of a Christian? I imagine me, with my silly definitions, will be one who feels out of place in God’s coming Kingdom.

   I always go home for lunch to see the family and yesterday we had one of my favorite lunch meals, frozen pizza! Of course lunch is typically a sandwich or leftovers, but frozen pizza is a luxury (ok, maybe not a luxury, but I have always loved frozen pizzas. Certainly DiGiorno is good, but even a properly cooked Totinos is excellent—Rachel Ray has nothing on me!).

  Unfortunately Ivy does not feel the same way. Often rather than eating pizza, she will eat her vegetable medley and then pull the toppings off the pizza, leaving the crust. And this is exactly what she did yesterday, only after eating she began playing with the leftover saucy crust. Taking a finger of red sauce she would rub it on her new booboo. “What are you doing?!” I called out. But she calmly replied, “Pretend sporin.”

  ‘Sporin’ is how she says the antibiotic Neosporin, which we always put on her cuts. Of course we have to worry about infection, because she will not stop playing with her booboo. She is literally fascinated by injury.

  Strangely, to help her stop playing with her wounds, we threaten ‘bubbles’ (Ivy’s word for hydrogen peroxide). Which she hates because the “bubbles hurt”!

  When she first gets a cut I will use peroxide to clean the wound, but afterward I avoid it. Not because of Ivy’s tears, but the bubbles do not distinguish between good and bad cells. So while it kills bacteria, it also kills the healthy cells repairing the wound!

 ^28b” “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

 ²⁹” ‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. ³⁰Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’ ” (Matthew 13:28b-29)

During a CNBC interview a fly keep buzzing around President Obama’s head. After the perfunctory shoos of the hand, the President stopped the interview to go nuclear. With his bare hand he swatted the fly dead. “Now, where were we?” (Check out the mock youtube ninja video below.)

  While most rejoiced, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) responded by calling it an execution. “We support compassion even for the most curious, smallest and least sympathetic animals.” And then mailed the president the Katcha, a humane bug catcher… (click here for the news story)

“Are you the kind of person who wouldn’t hurt a fly? Is your motto “live and let live,” even when it comes to tiny, six-legged, uninvited house guests? Then the Katcha Bug Humane Bug Catcher is for you! Simply place Katcha Bug over the bug and slowly slide its plastic trapdoor shut. The bug will step onto the trapdoor as it closes, and you can carry Katcha Bug outside, where all you need to do is slide the trap door open, allowing the bug to walk away. You’ll have no problem catching even large spiders with this handy gadget. Katcha Bug measures 9 inches in length, so you won’t have to get too close for comfort.” [From PETA’s website, for only $8!, click on the pic to go to PETA's website]

Certainly God made bugs, like flies, even cockroaches. But seriously… I think we should send the president a fly swatter!

Randomly, is the plural of fly, “flys” or “flies” or maybe just “fly” (the singular is the plural)???