Three Beautiful Things 07/09/13: Sweet Basil, Wishful Thinking, Fear and Trembling

1.  The heat of the day was still to come when I strolled to the Farmer's Market and to the Kiva to buy produce and couple other items.  At the market, I bought a big bunch of the sweetest smelling basil ever and later in the evening sliced some tomatoes, cucumbers, and Walla Walla onions, poured oil and vinegar over them and then added basil leaves from this sweet bunch.  Heavenly.

2.  Russell and I had an excellent lunch at Pure and I enjoyed hearing about his and his family's trip to Hawaii.  Right now, I wish for teleporting technology primarily for Russell to be able to make quick trips to Hawaii for family visits and food at Bob's barbeque, for the Deke to make a quick trip or two to Eugene so we can shoot the breeze at Billy Mac's, and then she can return to her daughters and grandchildren, and for me to make quick trips to Kellogg to check in on Mom and to see friends, especially in a few weeks when I'll be missing a couple of big get togethers I wish I could attend.  But, there is no teleporting. So I make the best of life as it is and don't indulge too much in wishes things to be otherwise.

3.  I wrote a remembrance, here,  this evening of retired, and now deceased, Whitworth professor, Lew Archer.  Lew's death has had me sorting out the way being a student and faculty member at Whitworth has moved me to "work out my salvation with fear and trembling" in very specific ways over the last nearly forty years since I first enrolled at Whitworth in 1974.  For me, that word "salvation" is synonyous with "meaning of life" and, more to the point, "meaning of one's own life".  The words "fear and trembling" express, to my way of thinking, the fact that undertaking such examination is so huge we tremble at undertaking it.  It's always bigger than any one of us is.  As my remembrance points out, Lew Archer, without ever saying so to me directly, assured me that living a Christian life and understanding the world existentially do not have to be incompatible, even though plenty of others at Whitworth, including good friends, tried to persuade me otherwise.  I was told it was illogical, and, to some, heretical to experience my life as a Christian this way.  I've never been able to argue otherwise.  When it comes to being Christian, I'm not big on logic or doctrinal arguments and if I'm told I'm practicing a heresy, I'm stunned into silence by the arrogance of the accuser.  I'll just leave it at that for now.