I Will Need Some Time to Compose Myself...

I keep coming back to Walker Percy's still inimitable article, "Questions No One Asked Me So I Asked Them Myself,"  a mock interview that makes many of his views crystal clear, in a self-deprecating and very clever way. Turns out that we have much in common besides being, technically speaking, primarily scientists. What is really pitiful is to hear the majority of commentators who have no idea what he means and do their best to quash the Spirit, as in all their other public output, for the masses who consider themselves a cut above the "wrong sort of" masses.

In a way this blog is a bit like that.  It is quite certain, at least, that no one in my family or among my acquaintances and  a few friends would dare to or even think to ask me about the material I choose to cover,.  That's why this will never go viral in any way shape or form.  It doesn't qualify as publishable; varies too much from post to post (when folks say, "Surprise me," guess a percentage on how much they mean that...then imagine them really surprised,...) and often tries to achieve a balance of views that isn't even possible on this heated-up planet, and our white-hot culture.

I have come to see this blog, and more especially my journals, as Manna."  That is to say, bread from heaven.  To clarify:

Many if not most blogs are written for the writers own entertainment or as a habitual way of thinking things through. In fact, it would be hard to understand most blogs being read if it not for the social ties that they already have.  It's like all those business cards they give you when you start a new job: "Here, Mom, take one for Dad too."  I even made up business cards for my last blog!  Guess how many people started reading as a result of those cards, eh? I use them as bookmarks and small to-do lists.

But what manna does is one thing, and when it was around, it did this one thing perfectly: it nourished a person for one day only.  And conditioned dependence on God i.e. the only possible Source of Being, Matter, Energizo, and all the rest.  If you tried to save it overnight, it got permeated with maggots (reminiscent of some plagues we have also heard about.)

Thus is it that when I look back at yesterday's journal entries, what seemed to me brilliant then becomes to seen embarrassing very quickly--on the other hand, I can look back on some blog articles and be glad I wrote or shared them. But if I go a day without Scripture reading and them verbally reflecting on it--the only way I can sustain my attention--then I feel off kilter for the rest of the day.  I don't feel that way about blogging, partly because I am a lot more careful with any given blog and often go over it several times and have my wife check it too. And there are many things that are just too personal to share; God understands me perfectly well, and the Check of the Spirit is Holy Adequate to keep it where it belongs. My harshest critics are people, not Christ, who is way more patient and forgiving than even my wife.  Maybe because He's heard it all before.  "Surprise me," is only applicable to the majority.

And as far as surprising anyone here, it has appeared to me, via not only Percy's critics but more especially through his "friends"  that friends always have some kind of naturalistic or psychological explanation for what the person is saying.  We also categorize people within less than 30 seconds of first meeting them.   Oh,well--let God be your Big Surprise then--I'll be over here munching on manna flakes--please pass the milk of human kindness--"No sugar added."