Wandering Elder

Sometimes you have to wonder about why you are the way you are.  There are great arguments out there about nature vs. nurture.  But they only get you so far.  Because people are always evolving, always learning.  Sometimes we are finding out things about ourselves that we have had all along but we never really understood. For example, I have a tendency to think the worst whenever my body has an ache or pain for which I cannot pinpoint a cause.  Especially at 3 a.m. when all I can do is travel down unproductive fearful rabbit holes in my mind.  So why is that? I think I have an answer.  It may not be the answer a clinician would come up with, but it is one that I came up with and, therefore, think it makes the most sense.  Why do I jump to the negative possibilities? It goes back to second grade. When I was in second grade, there was a girl (who I will call Carol) in our class whose older sister died from a brain tumor.  The sister was...

A few years ago, I heard a podcast that talked about the study of the Bible as being like a science fiction story in which an astronaut landed on Mercury. Granted, that kind of a mission is unlikely, but when the story was written, the planets weren't that well understood and a mission to Mercury was as likely as landing a ship on Jupiter (and there are some great sci-fi movies from the early 50s that propose just such a thing).  The point of this story was predicated on the belief that one side of the planet Mercury always faced the sun and, therefore, the other side did not.  As such, according to this story, there was a fine band around the middle of the planet where the hot wasn't too hot and the cold wasn't deadly.  In the words of Goldilocks, "It was just right." The equation to Bible study was this: there are plenty of people who are completely cold to the idea of Bible study and cannot fathom why anyone would waste their time.  There are others who are...

When we read the Gospels in the New Testament, we find rather quickly, that there are some great similarities as well as some obvious and stunning differences.  Why is that?  It has to do with the fact that the gospels are not written to be read as straight biographies.  They are, instead, to be understood as faith -histories or faith -biographies.  They were written by those who already believed in Jesus as the Christ and therefore reflect that belief. They are also better understood as paintings rather than photographs.  Here's why. Imagine a room with three painters all looking at the same subject - say a bowl of apples.  When they start painting, there is already an inherent difference in what they paint because they are all looking at the subject from different angles.  Even if the painters are side by side, the angles will be different. But let us suppose that they are separated by more than just a few inches.  They are several feet ap...

I feel old. Disconnected. Sometimes the disconnection is by choice.  I don't keep up with all the trends.  Mostly because I don't always seem to feel that I need  to keep up with the trends.  Yet there is a cost. Sometimes I feel old because everything seems to be moving so very quickly.  It is as if the world stepped on the accelerator a few years back and I am still struggling to get the seat belt on. I suppose some of this feeling is inevitable.  It doesn't make it easier or better or worse.  It just sometimes is.