Monday, June 28, 2010

Three Beautiful Things 06/27/10: Ordinary Tears, Krakauer and Homer, Dickel Not Daniels -- But Not Today

1. Pentecost is the Season of the Ordinary. Fittingly, today's was an ordinary Eucharist: collect, readings, hymns, sermon, prayers, passing of the peace, offering, communion. . . Bishop Thornton preached a learned and inspiring sermon....about Jesus casting the demons from Legion into a herd of swine who ran into a lake...but nothing out of the ordinary occurred. It moved me to tears. I sat silent, wiping my eyes, staring, as Marla played the postlude and the church emptied out.

2. Jon Krakauer's book Where Men Win Glory has me in its grip. It's not the Pat Tillman story, per se, that absorbs me. The book's title comes from Homer's The Iliad, and Krakauer does what Homer does:examines the courage and frailty of human life when men and women are in perilious situations beyond their understanding and way beyond their control.

3. I enjoy Trader Joe's lemonade and black tea. As a Trader Joe's guy checked out my groceries, he suggested I drink the lemonade and black tea with Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey. Lord. That sounded so good. Then I thought, "Actually, if I were going to drink booze today, and if I were to put booze in this lemonade and black tea, I would go to George, not Jack. To Mister Dickel." I didn't bring Mister George Dickel into the house. I didn't mix Mister Dickel with my lemonade and black tea. I wanted to read and water and keep my blood pressure down and go easy on my kidneys. I thought about George Dickel, though, and some of my favorite memories sprang smilingly to mind.

1 comment:

Christy Woolum said...

I have been thinking quite a bit about Afghanistan recently with current events unfolding and you reading this book. This morning I got a FB message from Tim O'Reilly. Guess where he is? Afghanistan. Weird.