Overheard at Table 4: Don't Wanna Get COVID

1: One guy at work is out with COVID. In the hospital.

2: That sucks.  Hope he'll be OK.

1: Hope so too.   You know, I sure do NOT wanna get COVID.  Because I just know if I do, I'll probably be one of those cases where they'll have to put me on a ventilator and on those blood machines that sucks your blood out, pumps oxygen into, and pumps it back into you, and then three weeks later they'll bring me out of the drug-induced coma and my wife will be standing over me and the first thing she'll say is "I FOUND YOUR PORN!"

2: ... sounds like if you go under, you just better not come back out.

1: Oh for certs.

Overheard at Table 3: The Way of a Man by Gene Getz, study notes on the section: Ser Justo y Recto

presentation on the study of one chapter of 

La medida de un hombre: Los Veinte Atributos de Un Hombre de Dios (Spanish Edition)

por Gene Getz

JUSTO

 

Un hombre de Dios debe ser JUSTO … como “Justo y recto”

La palabra usada por Pablo es el griego “dikaios” – significa RECTO, RELIGIOSO.

En el Antiguo Testamento, era un título daba a los hombres religiosos, pero en el sentido de cristianismo, somos JUSTIFICADOS cuando aceptemos Jesucristo como nuestro Salvador.

Romanos 3: 24-25 siendo justificados gratuitamente por su gracia, mediante la redención que es en Cristo Jesús, a quien Dios puso como propiciación por medio de la fe en su sangre, para manifestar su justicia, a causa de haber pasado por alto, en su paciencia, los pecados pasados,

Romanos 1:16-17 Porque no me avergüenzo del evangelio, porque es poder de Dios para salvación a todo aquel que cree; al judío primeramente, y también al griego.  Porque en el evangelio la justicia de Dios se revela por fe y para fe, como está escrito: Mas el justo por la fe vivirá.

…y después de la justificación (the position), we then GROW in righteousness – to be JUST.  We are to LIVE in this righteousness

Romanos 5:1 Justificados, pues, por la fe, tenemos paz para con Dios por medio de nuestro Señor Jesucristo.

Tito 3:7 para que justificados por su gracia, viniésemos a ser herederos conforme a la esperanza de la vida eterna.

El Señor quiere que vivimos una vida de Justicia e Imparcialidad.

Santiago 2:1 Hermanos míos, que vuestra fe en nuestro glorioso Señor Jesucristo sea sin acepción de personas.

Colosenses 4:1 Amos, haced lo que es justo y recto con vuestros siervos, sabiendo que también vosotros tenéis un Amo en los cielos.

… en tiempos actuales, “maestro” y “siervo” son como “empleador” y “empleado” … y Dios requiere que conformes justos y rectos.

PREGUNTA:  ejemplo…. Hay empleados que installan insulación, pero se pagan poco.  Casi $10/hora.   Roban el material para hacer trabajo en los fines de semana.   El dueño de la empreza sabe bien que los empleados roban el material, y el sabe que es porque no peuden vivir en este salario... porque tienen niños y familias.   Que es más justo?  Pagar los empleados mas, o simplemente despedirles?

Si el dueño sea un hombre de Cristo, creo que necesita piense muy duro en sus decisiones.

Ejemplo en la Biblio de los hombres justos – Noe y José – they were desribed as Just, but were they just before God spoke to them or were they just because God spoke to them?

Overheard at Booth 2: Julio Cortázar - We Love Glenda So Much and Other Tales

[found in an old notebook - hand written]

Julio Cortázar - We Love Glenda So Much and Other Tales

Alfred Knopf 1983

Poets should always write prose.  They always bring something lyrical to the prose art form - and Cortázar is fantastic at this - especially in these stories.   I put them almost on the same lever as Robert Coover.  Best Story "Orientation of Cats" - fantastic!  I wish I could describe it.

dated 2001-1210

Overheard at Table 2: She's a Mom, Not a MILF

Daughter: Here dad, I have some Ho-Hos I've been saving.  Want one?

Dad: Naw, I need to lose some weight.  Your mom says she's gonna leave me for a guy with a 30-inch waist.

Daughter: Mom's never gonna leave you, Dad.  Besides, she can't get anybody else.

Dad: Of course she can!  She's a hottie!

Daughter: I mean, yeah, she's pretty, but come on, Dad ... she's a MOM, not a MILF.

Dad: She is to me.

Daughter: Ew. Dad! Gross! No!

Overheard at Booth 1: Spilling Ink Into Rivers

She awoke each morning to the smell of the dew, heavy-laden across her lawn.  And each morning, she would rise and warm some bread, thick with singular grains, paste it with butter, slaver it with jam, and then, make coffee.

Piping hot, the coffee would accompany her to the back porch, where the dew continued to press deep the grass and slowly soften as the sun pulled itself into the morning sky.

Then, bellyful, she would rise and walk across the grass, through the thin line of trees that stretched themselves as canopies over the river.  And there, she would, with the fingernail of one hand, open the vein of her opposite wrist, and, holding her arm above the waters, she would boldly spill ink into the rich waters.

She would stand for long minutes, watching the ink float with the current downstream, long past where the river stretched out of sight, and she would imagine those in the village far below, and those on the coast far beyond, who would drink of these ink-rich waters, and so too be filled.

She was The Poet.   After giving what she had to give for that day, she closed up the flesh across the wrist by pressing it closed with the other hand, and she would then turn and walk back toward the house.

It was lunchtime, and she was famished!

MR

2021-0210

(Inspired by a tweet from Mad Queen Storm)

@MadQueenStorm

What is it that poets possess? The virtue of audacity. Boldly spilling ink in rich rivers, staining pages and spirits alike with words that sing, that speak, that shout. #vss365 #microprose #microstory

Overheard at Booth 1: Fragment

Show me where the water is hidden

Show me what hands are used for healing

Let me know where the shining glows

of the lamplight flows,

and all the love you dropped like breadcrumbs along the path forbidden.

MR

2021-0201

Overheard at Table 1: Tepid Anomaly

Chicago, February 1, 2021

He looks out the window of their condo on the fourth and top floor across the city.  The lake, barely visible on the other side of the four blocks of homes and buildings much like this one.  His daughter, 10 years old, so excited to be going back to school today.  He'll have to tell her that today is not the day.

The news, the teachers, refusing.  The mayor, imploring.  Threatening to cut off their internet access so they can't even teach remotely.  Another year lost of her learning.

His wife, purse across shoulder and work heels clicking across the hardwood, leaves through the front door, without looking in his direction, much less a word goodbye.  He watches her walk down the steps, where he knows in her small office she will find some sense of accomplishment on this day.

He takes a deep breath, then logs into his work.  The clouds will break later in the morning, and there will be some sunlight that will drift in through the window.