The Odyssey of Theodicy

A delusional man, driven by evil impulses, shot a bunch of innocent people this past week and everyone wants to know “why?”

Here’s why: He was delusional and driven by evil impulses. He is simply an extreme, out of control, version of a broken human being. There is no math of experiences that can explain it away.

Why was he delusional and driven by evil impulses? Why?

Maybe a better question is: Why not?

What do you think keeps this from happening every five minutes?



Peace to you.



© LW Publishing 2010

Liking Lime and the Cole Slaw Incident

Suddenly I liked lime.

For years I would not have even thought about eating something flavored with limes. I might drink some lime soda/pop something or other. Lemon lime whatsit. But Key Lime Pie seemed gross somehow. And lime ice cream? Yecchhhh.

But then one day, suddenly, for no apparent reason, I thought, I’d like some lime juice in the house. So I bought some. I tried it in some marinade for chicken. It was incredible. I tried a piece of Key Lime Pie. It was great.

Suddenly I liked lime.

This was different than the Coleslaw Incident, as we think of it around here. The Coleslaw Incident went down like this:

The wife and I were in a town called Frankenmuth. It’s referred to as “Michigan’s Little Bavaria,” a little town full of shops and some restaurants that people like to go to for the weekend. We were eating at this big restaurant called Zehnder’s, where they serve a great meal with all these courses of breads and sides and chicken and whatnot. Well, one of the sides is this very creamy looking, large cut coleslaw. They would bring it to the table and my wife would eat it and keep talking about how good it was, but I didn’t eat any because I hated coleslaw.

Hated it. Seriously.

Yes, I had tried it. I had tasted it. And it was nasty, at least to me. But as I watched my wife enjoy that coleslaw, it started me thinking that maybe I was missing out on something. So I spooned a little onto my plate, which caused her to stare in disbelief because she knew how I felt about the slaw. But I just looked at it for a second or two and I said to her, “I’m going to teach myself to like this stuff.”

She laughed at me. That happens a lot.

“Seriously,” I said. “I’m going to train myself to like it.” So I ate that little bit on my plate. It was bitter. Slimy and yet rough. But I ate it. A few weeks later, at my mom’s house, I ate a little more. I didn’t give up. And it took about a year. A little here. A little there. But now, I like it. I DO like cole slaw Sam I Am.

And limes.

Some things are a gift. Some things take work.



Peace to you.



© LW Publishing 2010

My Dreams Have Gone To Sleep

My dreams have gone to sleep.
The television, off,
sitting expectantly,
and the iron,
and the lights,
so sure of another day.
The kitchen sighs,
refrigerator hum,
and the furnace,
urging me to be still.
Go to sleep.
But I feel my way
in the dark.
I know this house.
Eyes closed,
I could dance in this
absence of light and
who would know?
The feel of the carpet
under my feet.
In the beautiful
silence.



© LW Publishing 2010

An Ideal Place

Due diligence dances
down at the meat market.
Coffee in the morning or
whatever way is customary.

Say, “talk to me.”

Yes.

Tell me how you really feel,
if you know,
you know what that is?

That is your life.

Take any normal set
of old playing cards.
Take any old
phonograph record.

I didn’t know that
you were afraid.
It’s just the water,
and the sound of the fan
in the freezer,
and the spot
on the Formica
that has defeated me.

It takes so little,
so little time,
so little money,
but I shouldn’t
have any trouble.

There is always
that book of matches
in the drawer,
right next to
the steak knives.

There is, of course,
always an ideal place.



© LW Publishing 2010

Clutter

“We can do no great things; only small things with great love.”
Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Does your house get cluttered? How about your mind? How about life in general?

The Dictionary describes “clutter” as disorder that impedes movement or reduces effectiveness.

Oh yeah. I have a clutter problem.

Not that I don’t work on it all the time. I am always putting things away, trying to find a good place to store things, trying to organize stuff. And my thoughts. Organizing my thoughts is one of the most challenging things I do on a daily basis.

It’s hard, because I’m in a place in life where I’m forced to multi-task, and I am NOT a Multi Tasker. Not by nature. Definitely not by talent.

And here’s where I don’t tell you how I’m going to fix this. Because I’ve learned the hard way that there’s no easy fix for the clutter. There is no three step process that’s going to make it go away in short order. At least not for me. Like most things in life, it is a battle. A long term battle. It takes resolve. It takes strategy. It takes perseverance and courage.

And a whole lot of coffee.

I have learned to try and take it one hill at a time. If I try to clean up the whole battle field at once, I go down in flames every time. I know, I know, I’ve heard the speeches: people of faith are supposed to do “great things” for God. We’re supposed to “live victoriously.” And I realize I can do nothing without Christ. I really do. But you amazing and impressive human beings need to shut up for a minute and realize this: for some people, getting that one hill cleared is a great thing. It is a victory.

And to celebrate, we’re going to have some more coffee.


1 Corinthians 14:33
Peace to you.



© LW Publishing 2010

Knives In My Future

Right now, typing this, my hands are falling asleep.

Because of this phenomenon, at the end of the month, I have to get my left hand sliced open, my muscles spliced apart, my nerves moved around, then have it all sewn back together. And a few weeks later, I get to go through it all over again with my other hand.

I will have Frankenstein hands. Which is the only part of the whole thing I have any excitement about.

Here’s the problem with medical problems: Most of the time you don’t really know what to expect. How long will it take to heal? Will I be able to get my work done? Will the doctor secretly implant remote control devices in my body so that I can be manipulated into some evil scheme?

The doctor laughed at me at the consult. He said I had not asked “the question.” I had no idea what he was talking about. Finally, he told me. The question I had not asked was this:

“Will it hurt?”

Never crossed my mind. Until he brought it up.

Health problems force you into troubling questions and situations. You have to take advice, you’re kind of forced into making quick decisions about crazy things. “Yes sir. Please slice open my hands and move things around in there.” Who in their right mind would say such things? And it’s kind of like having a baby. Everyone has an opinion on it. Pros and cons. Dos and don’ts. Which is kind of fun as long as people don’t get all righteous about their opinions.

I have this pair of great friends (the marvelous C&J) who have been trying to help. I have to admit I love being loved. They bought me some cod liver oil, which I think really works to reduce symptoms, and the wife of the pair made special tea out of some scary stuff in a jar (it sort of looks like a placenta from an off world creature to me) that I am now drinking. You have a little of it each day and see what happens. It may be implanting off world creatures within my body, but it tastes kind of like apple cider, so what the hey.

I still have to go under the knife.

And I don’t want to.

But I’m going to.



Peace to you.


© LW Publishing 2011

Feeling Prudish

So this is what 2011 looks like.

I thought it would look, you know, different somehow.

Well, maybe we should just give it a little time.

Last night we were watching the Dick Clark countdown thing. We like watching to see how Dick Clark is doing each year. But we've become wary. Dick Clark is a class act, but ABC doesn't have a clue. This is the one night when young kids are trying to stay up until midnight with their folks to watch the countdown. And ABC treats the time slot with the reckless abandon they have come to be known for. Trying to keep up with FOX on the cool meter, I guess. So we're down to watching the last ten or fifteen minutes before midnight, because it's so out of hand. It makes you wish fervently that John Lasseter would be put in charge of the entire empire, top to bottom, simply to inject a little common sense into the enterprise.

And last night was the same deal as always. A few people on there are trying to do it right, trying to show a little class, like Dick Clark and even Ryan Seacrest. But they are surrounded by "celebrities" and singers and whatnot who don't have a clue. They are only on there because they are popular at the moment, or because their agent thought it would be good for their image. But they can't manage to get through a three minute segment of live television without saying something completely stupid and inappropriate.

Seconds before midnight, someone who is clearly completely self absorbed and immature was on the show, and they said something that demonstrated very clearly how self absorbed and immature they are. Stupid stuff, which left us with a seven year old asking us to explain things to them that they are not ready to even begin thinking about.

I don't blame the people on the show. The self absorbed ones. At least not completely. They are what they are. You wish better from them, and for them, but the people at ABC know what they are getting when they put them on the show. Most Americans, as well as people all over the world, don't really know much about these celebrities. We don't really know who they are. Most of us aren't interested in their exploits. So they are trotted out on these broadcast shows to expose them to a wider audience, which they don't deserve. They are not wider audience material. And one wonders why the programmers at ABC don't know this? Or maybe they do, and they just don't care?

I'm thinking that's it.

But don't worry, it won't happen again. Not in our house anyway. We'll check up on Dick Clark some other way.



Peace to you.



© LW Publishing 2011