Religious post. May prove harmful to certain readers.

We want certainty.

This post will be of the religious variety, so if that is not your cup of tea I will not be offended if you decide to move on, in fact I will not know it. I just wanted to provide as much certainty as I could for you.

In my religion, Christianity, we talk a lot about faith. In fact, faith is everything in Christianity. And yet we spend a considerable amount of time and energy on reaching for the unreachable certainty. (like when the rapture will occur) That is kind of strange when we are called to simply have faith.

But faith is a scary thing. Far scarier than most of us will admit. That is why we are so tempted to pursue certainty.

The Biblical story that troubles me most is in the Hebrew Testament, in the book of Genesis. I cannot speak from the Jewish perspective, but it ought to trouble them too.

Abraham and Sarai were old, too old to have children, and yet God blessed them with a beloved son, Isaac. It was quite a shocking occurrence, but joyful.

Just a few short years later, and only a couple of pages over, God speaks to Abraham. He says, "Abraham, take Isaac up on that mountain over there, and sacrifice him as a burnt offering to me." And Abraham sets out with Isaac toward the mountain to do what God had said. They gathered firewood (which Isaac had to tote, a small matter, but still it seems very harsh), and went up to the mountain. Isaac was still apparently clueless, but he did notice there was no lamb around to be sacrificed. Abraham told him that God would provide. They stacked the wood just so, and then Abraham bound Isaac up and placed him on the firewood that was stacked on the altar. Abraham place his hand on the handle of the knife and was ready to apply it to the throat of his beloved son Isaac when an angel yelled for him to stop, to not hurt the child. God was satisfied that Abraham would obey, no matter what.

We read that story knowing that it ends okay. God spared the child.

But in that moment when Abraham placed his hand on the knife, he did not know the ending. Isaac surely did not know what would happen. There was no certainty, except Abraham's attempt at obedience. There was no guarantee that the knife, poised and ready to descend, would be stopped.

That's the part we ignore.

Faith is not about knowing that the knife will not fall.

It is about not knowing.

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World wide web . . .

I participated in a time/motion study when I was in junior high. I had to complete a simple task, making a sandwich in the kitchen, a process in which I had achieved a high degree of proficiency. The complicating factor was that I was required to take a roll of string along with me as I moved from counter to refrigerator to plate cabinet to silverware drawer, to floor and back, unrolling the string as I went. Each stop I made I had to tape the string down before I moved to the next stop. The result was a kite-string web filling the kitchen, attached to the counter, the refrigerator handle, the cabinet, the drawer, the floor and back and forth. Apparently my proficiency was not so efficient.

Life can be like that. In the living, we create connections and relationships as we move back and forth, person to person, place to place, task to task, creating a wonderful web. It certainly doesn't look so efficient.

Occasionally I need to step out of my web. As beautiful as it is, it can be tiring to negotiate through the web trying not to break any strings. One can almost get stuck. That's what vacations are supposed to be about. But there is no time for a vacation right now, so since I had to leave early yesterday morning anyway, I just stayed out of town for the day.

Anonymity can be a good thing. It is liberating to wander among crowds who don't know that one of the stops in your web was when you dropped the sandwich bread slice on the floor, peanut butter side down. . . and ate it anyway.

But it is impossible to escape the web, because it is much bigger than my little kitchen. We all create them as we move along, criss-crossing each other's path. As I try to step away from my web, I run smack dab into someone else's. Some strands run through many webs. Tornado experiences, financial problems, beautiful weather, Lady GaGa, there are common experiences that connect us. Hangover 2, for instance. I went to see it during my foray into anonymity. But there was community in that theater as much of the laughter was born of a common knowledge of the original Hangover, and a general perverted sense of humor. It is a good movie to see anonymously.

I guess I don't really want complete anonymity. Perhaps I want selective anonymity. I intentionally went to a church where I would see old friends. An old friend introduced me to his preacher whom I had never met. No strings attached. As she shook my hand she said, "I feel like I've met you before, we share a close friend . . ." So much for anonymity. But it made me feel good. Not anonymous at all.

So I don't really want anonymity. Because to get it I would have to drop my roll of string and never pick it back up.

And if I did that how would I find my way back?

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We can't all be Bob Dylan . . .

Saturday. Sofa. Coffee.

Bob Dylan turned seventy this week. I attended his birthday party Tuesday. He wasn't there in body, but no doubt his spirit showed up, pulled up a chair, and leaned against the wall in the back at Moonlight on the Mountain in Bluff Park as a stream of local musicians each took ten minutes more or less to give expression to one or two of their favorite Dylan tunes. The inimitable Courtney Hayden (check his writing out in Birmingham Weekly) a Birmingham treasure in his own right, moved the evening along nicely, segueing between acts by dipping into his seemingly endless store of record industry lore, a gift gained from working in broadcast radio back when men were men and computers had not yet taken over. Thinking and talking and cueing and eating pizza at the same time were a necessary skill back in those days. He makes it look easy. Proceeds from the event went to the Greater Birmingham Humane Society whose expenses have skyrocketed as a results of rescue and assistance needs after this spring's tornadoes. There is still time to contribute.

I love Bob Dylan's songs. He is probably first on my list of people who wrote lines that I wish I had written. Then he set his poetry into such addictably singable settings. As the various artists played their choices for the evening, the crowd would begin to sing along, or at least move their lips mouthing the words, as if it could not be helped, most often smiling, but a few with tears.

But Bob is an interesting character and I wonder what he would think about all this. I have no doubt he would like it, after all, he still courts the crowds and fans, doing concerts at the ripe old age of seventy.

But I do have doubt that he would admit it.

Before allowing us to leave he would slowly rise from his tilted back chair and admonish us to find our own songs and sing them for ourselves.

Because we can't all be Bob Dylan.

But we can be us.

And then he might sing:

May God bless and keep you always, may all your wishes come true,

May you always do for others, and let others do for you.

May you build a ladder to the stars and climb on every rung,

May you stay forever young.

May you grow up to be righteous, may you grow up to be true,

May you always know the truth, and see the lights surrounding you,

May you always be courageous, stand upright and be strong,

May you stay forever young.

May your hand always be busy, may your feet always be swift,

May you have a strong foundation, when the winds of changes shift,

May your heart always be joyful, may your song always be sung,

May you stay forever young.

"Forever Young", Bob Dylan, Copyright 1973, Ram's Horn Music.

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Thurvey, 5/26/2011

Time flies. It is once again Thurvey day. The questions for this week are:

1. What is the solution for the Israeli/Palestinian conflict?

2.What is one line from a song, book, poem, etc. that you most wish you had written?


To answer the survey click on comment below and follow the instructions. It's fun, and besides, you may be the one to bring peace to the mideast.