Overheard at Booth3: Going to the Credit Union During the Time of Corona

I needed to get into my safe deposit box last Saturday.  Usually I am just able to walk in, go straight to the box, get into it.

This time, the door was locked.   There was a sign that said, "Appointment Required."

The Branch Manger opened the door and said, "Do you have an appointment?"

"No," I said, "but I only need into my safe deposit box.  You guys set me up on the hand pad, so I don't need to see anybody.  I just go into the box."

"You still need an appointment."

"But why?  I'm not here to see anybody."

"New rules in COVID.  Appointment only. So there won't be too many people in the lobby."

That's when I noticed the lobby.  It was empty.

"But there's nobody here."

"Because they have appointments."

"But ... there's nobody HERE!"

"They will be here when they have appointments."

I said, "Why do I feel like Franz Kafka is hanging around here somewhere?"

"I dunno," said the Branch Manager.  "Does he have an appointment?"

Overread at the Counter: Colossians 1:16

Colossians 1: 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.


So how indeed do I delve into that verse?  So how indeed would I explain that to those who do not know Christ?

Reading this verse in the time of Corona, I am led to understand that "all things invisible" must include the Coronavirus.  And that the Coronavirus, being a part of "all things" are thus created "by Him and through Him and for Him."

So, exactly how is the Coronavirus "FOR" God?

Many American Nationalist Evangelical Pastors will pump two ideas:  1) that it is divine punishment for our collective national sin, which includes abortion and homosexuality, or 2) that it doesn't exist at all and that the Coronavirus has been overplayed by the Leftists, who support abortion and homosexuality.

Now, I dismiss these Fascists, for two obvious facts: 1) their constant drumbeat about the "national sins of abortion and homosexuality" never includes other national sins such as persistent social injustice, cruel mistreatment of asylum seekers, and corporate greed - all of which are spoken of clearly in the Bible and are an abomination to GOD, and 2) that their alliance to political power has cemented them as modern-day Pharisees ... and we all know what Jesus thought of Pharisees (HINT: they were not even worthy to teach about Himself, since he knew they were irredeemable and would never accept Him and that their only destination is eternal separation from GOD.

Most other non-evangelical Trumpistas will not even worry about this verse, because they don't read the Bible.  When they do hear something about the Bible, it will be no more than the verse that states "If a nations turns from wicked ways... (see point 1)

So, that leaves people who take every opportunity to say "SEE!  WHERE IS YOUR 'LOVING' GOD NOW?"  and they will admit that the Coronavirus is "for" God only insofar as to say that Christians preach a loving God who causes people to die horribly, sucking for air.   Also take note that this is along the same vein as a "loving" God allowing babies to be raped and old women to be raped and children to be murdered by drone missiles and cancer and tornadoes and earthquakes and all sorts of death.

So ... I will admit, I have no good answer.  No specific, definitive answer to this conundrum.

All I know is this: that during this pandemic and the stay-at-home orders, I have seen more families taking time to play together in the park in my neighbourhood.  I have seen our Bible study group grow (we are online, using ZOOM).  I have heard stories of couples growing stronger and praying together, and playing more family games with their children.  I have heard of my brethren in their church taking calls from their co-workers who tell them, "Listen I'm not a Christian but I know that you are and that you pray and that you have a wonderful heart, so please pray for me!"  I have heard stories of people telling their CEOs that the way to get through the crisis is to show compassion, and their CEOs have said, "Well, we know you are a Christian.  Tell us how to show compassion."

All of these stories and more are true.  I've known people beginning to write novels, write songs, write poems, pick up cross-stitching or knitting or sewing.  More people are making their own hand sanitizers, making their own soaps, finding out that they don't need consumerism.   I've heard stories of people getting to know their neighbours ... people they have lived next to for decades and never even knew their names.

So, no... while I can never tell you how the deaths of people dying painfully is "for" God, I can tell you that this virus, in the middle of the death and anxiety and uncertainty, has given us opportunity to grow as individuals, to grow as families, as communities ... to grow as a people.

That is what I believe, that is what my faith has shown me, that is what the Spirit has revealed to me in Colossians 1:16

Overheard at Table 1: Olive Garden to go...

While I was waiting to pick up my order from Olive Garden today, I heard two guys having an argument in the cars next to me.  I rolled down my window, thinking, 'Geez is this another fight I'm going to have to try to stop?' and one guy was out of his car talking to another guy still in his, and he was saying, "I wanna be able to go into a restaurant and sit down and eat my fuckin meal and I can't believe all these liberals want to keep everyone from working and I've worked all my life and I've lived in California and I've lived in Texas and I never asked for no goddam handout and I don't want nothin from those Democrat ... SOCIALISTS!"

And it never ceases to amaze me how ignorant Americans are.  If Americans knew anything - ANYTHING - about the world, culture, politics, economics, and the like, they would know that Democrats are NOT SOCIALISTS!!!!

But the fact that so many think that Democrats ARE Socialists is further proof - concrete undeniable proof  - that Right Wing propaganda is not only effective, but is ubiquitous.

Overheard at the Counter: Black Shoes with Buckles

Verble says, "I try to be a good husband, I really do, but there are some subtleties that I will never understand.  For example, once, my wife and I were at the mall and she'd been looking at shoes, and when we got home she told me that she really wanted to get a pair that she'd seen.  Some black shoes with buckles.  I said I remembered what she was looking at.  I'd go back and get them.  So I go and get the shoes and I bring them home and she said, 'Those aren't the ones,' and I said, 'Yes, they are.  They are black.  And they have buckles.'  And she said, 'No, these have square buckles with the sharp corners.  I wanted the ones that have the square buckles with the slightly rounded corners.'  I mean, you couldn't even SEE the difference unless you were up close.  I was like, 'What exactly is the difference?!' and my wife told me, 'You will never understand.  You are a straight male.'"

Overread at Booth 3: Poems of the Day - Carl Sandburg's "Monotone" and After

After Carl Sandburg’s “Monotone”

Carl told me that a face I know is beautiful

with fire of gold and sea and sky and rain,

But what if the face is detached from my brain?

That is to say, what if the circuits break?

With age, that old demon, crawling through the grey

matter with a pickaxe to separate the synapse …

and cause my recognition of my beloved’s face to lapse,

and what if I see her one bright morning,

with love her her eyes, in that new day dawning,

and the sun has set already on my knowing,

and she is just another stranger in my room,

what then?  Will the sun and sea be naught but bleak and gloom?

MR

2020-0417

Overread at Booth 3: Two for the Day

Sky Blue

All you

sky blue

dead things.

There will

be no

In Memoriams,

just a beer

lifted in

honor

of your passing.

MR
2020-0416

On a Beach in Yucatán

The sea bleeds green

algae on the white sand blooms.

The afternoon is pungent

with her seaweed scent.

My children

play volleyball

behind me,

as I watch

my wife,

in the blue kayak,

slowly paddle

toward the far horizon.

MR

2020-0416

Overheard at Table 4: The Silent War (2018) (2020)

Wow.  Amazing.  A spañol movie on Netflix that can totally be missed.  Up until this turkey, my wife and I have loved every movie made by the Spaniards that Netflix has brought out (except I must admit we have mixed feelings about the second installment of La Cada de Papel, but more on that later).

This movie is bad and just gets worse.  It's like some guy wants so bad to be considered the love child of Sergio Leone and Quinton Tarantino that he studied all their shots and camera angles and never once learned how to write a coherent story with decent dialogue.

And geez!  Don't even get me started on the rape scene.  That was just grotesque and pointless.   The uber-killer Russian sniper/torturer/assassin/badass/killer who committed the rape of the witless woman who is the wife of the one rebel in custody and the lover of his best friend (the guy who the Spanish Fascists are trying to locate and kill) just comes across as flat and robotic.  No reason for her complete obsession with destroying all life except some silly backstory about the Russian army putting a gun into her hand at 14 years old and then suddenly she "walked into and out of Hell on the battlefield daily!"

Please!  Spare us!

However, when she raped the heroine (for lack of a better term) it did lead my wife and I to argue about whether or not she was a lesbian.  I thought I won by saying rape is not sexual, it's about power, and the Russian psycho killer had power over the woman by raping her and power over men by killing them.    Then my wife said, "See!  She sees women with more value than men.  She lets women live.  Because she loves the women!"

OK, honey, sure ...  still, raping her with a Mauser ... sight and all.  ICK!  and then smearing the woman's own blood on her cheek with the barrel of the gun?  

And then the woman is sleeping with our hiding guy within two weeks, I'm wondering if she'd really be healed by that time ... just gives me the heebie jeebies

Well, I've just given you all the gross parts ... except for the shotgun blast blowing off half a head.  No real point in that, but that just about sums up the movie ... no real point.

Here's a better review than what I could have written, saying about the same thing, but more eloquently:


https://decider.com/2020/02/03/the-silent-war-on-netflix-stream-it-or-skip-it/