Been a Long Time

It's been a half year or more since I sat down to write to this Blog ... to this Toast to Life in the Last Quarter of Life. It's been a stormy time. Saying goodbye to my wife's Mother ... my Mother -- for better or for worse -- for 47 years. Watching my wife say good-bye .... Saying good-bye is a long process, one that requires great expenditures of work .... There have also been threats of illness in the family ... some have passed ... some continue. As I've said to myself and whoever was listening here ... the Last Quarter isn't for the feint of heart ... no Sissies, as we'd say in the 50's.

A man woke me up. He visited me and told me of his wife ... I'd never met her but she was one of those folk who like to say "no" before they say "yes." He was one of those people who likes sense ... likes things to make sense. They would fight a great deal. Someone once said: 'A Man and a Woman? The Soft Spirit of God (the Sh'chinah) hovers between them.' I suspect that was an aspirational goal!

It occurred to me -- maybe because he was a religious man -- that one may differentiate two types of laws in Scriptures ... those that make sense, that can be reasoned out ... like laws about the common good ... prohibitions against murder and stealing that make grouped living possible. On the other hand, there are laws that make no sense, such as a prohibition against wearing mixed-fabric woven clothing. If one follows such a law, one is doing it as a sort of gift to one's God ... or god, if you prefer. God asks that I follow ... like a young lover would follow their lover ... never asking why.

Poor Jeremiah who was never permitted to marry by his God describes the early relationship between his people and his God ... "I remember," he says in the name of God, "the kindness from your youth, the love (I received from you) when you were a young bride. You followed me through an arid land in a land that had not yet been planted."

In loving relationships -- and maybe it's easiest when we're young -- we do for the other to satisfy what they want ... what do kids say in their regal playgames: You're wish is my command.

Poor Jeremiah ... no one to satisfy his wishes.