Friday, August 25, 2006

 

Friday: Duke's Mixture

1. Halito, Chim achukma?

That's "hello, how are you?" in Choctaw. Last year about this time, I decided to take a Choctaw language class, to augment my research of Indian, specifically Choctaw, newspapers from the 19th century. Less than 10 percent of the columns were in Choctaw, but I need to know how to read them, obviously.

Then Katrina came -- and it so freaked me out that I just forgot about the class. The hurricane changed my life, coming as it did when my life was changing anyway, about the time of my infamous "Jesus is a Liberal" post. The images from New Orleans so shocked me, and so reminded me that people hurt, and people need help, and people deserve to have their dignity, and etc., etc., that it literally drove me to my face before God -- not just my knees -- and I was "convicted," to use a good ol' country term, of my previous lack of concern, and I returned to church, fully, after a 20-year absence. It's a good ol' mainline LIBERAL church. And I'm taking some other steps to be Jesus's feet and hands on this ol' earth, since He has not others than those of His followers.

Now, barring another act of God in the world, and in my ol' redneck bleedin' heart, I'll take another stab at that Choctaw language class, Tuesday nights starting Sept. 19 -- Trixie and-or Drlobojo, y'all should jine me.


2. Crummy church sign:

“What we weave in this life we wear for eternity.”

Commentary: "If this sign was true, everyone would go to hell. Heaven is based on the work of Christ, not the work of man. I will wear what Christ wove in His life in my eternity, if I may borrow a crappy metaphor."

See more Crummy Church Signs and thoughtful commentary.


3. Godawful pajamas.

Armor of God PJs, "inspired by Ephesians 6: 10-18."

Give. Me. A. Break. They look like Junior Klan outfits.


4. Love them wild hogs.

Texas Cooperative Extension will present a multi-county "Feral Hog Appreciation Day" on Sept. 28 at the Mason County Community Center located in Fort Mason Park.

It's been several years, but I went wild hog huntin' a time or five in Texas. Never got a shot.

Read all about it.


5. On God and horses.

"I can talk about my experience. Having only a human means of communication I cannot really talk about God. Horses can experience a human being entering their horse consciousness, but a horse could never tell another horse what it means to be human. Somehow human beings have never quite embraced that fact that this is also true about the human being's knowledge of God."

-- John Shelby Spong.

Read more of a very profound Q&A on theism and its implications here.

--ER

Comments:
I love the horrible Armor of God (TM) pjs.

Yikes!

From their website:
"The armor of God pjs were inspired by a mother reading Eph. 6 every night to her daughter to give her a safe and secure feeling in the dark."

Yeah, nothing as comforting to put your children to sleep each night with:

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

"MOM! There's some non-corporeal principalities under my bed!"
 
ER -- you brought my lovely mother rushing back in memory today. She's the only one I know who used to say "Duke's mixture" all the time -- often when cooking. She's throw something in a pan and call it a duke's mixture. I'd forgotten all about that turn of phrase and it all came rushing back today. Thanks for a little bit of home.
 
Choctaw? Lord have mercy son, that's about as useful as the Urdu I took for 47 weeks by accident back in the 60's while in the Army. Naw, I don't think I'll join you. I have already flunked out of 3 different Spanish courses, one Hebrew, and one Swahili. I don't need to add Choctaw to my list of linguistic failures.

Not so sure that I don't totally disagree about the church sign. Perhaps in a sense you will only experience heaven to the degree that you will be capable of experiencing it. It may take Grace to get in the door, but as to the reward that awaits us in heaven there are conflicting parables describing it and how it works. My personal short hand theology is that you will have as much of heaven as you can tolerate.

"Duke's Mixture"; the way I heard it was always a "Duce Mixture", but then my mother thought Taiwan was Tia Wan and we ate Vieenie Weenies so .....

On Spong's thought..... My cat brought a dead mouse to the front door the other day. So I bent down and petted her and said, "What a thoughtful kitty you are. What a good hunter you have become." Trying to encourage the destruction of the local mouse population.
Then my son said something along the lines that I was like God blessing his chosen people for their animal sacrifices to him, epiphany.
 
I KNOW I responded to this earlier but it is gone, gone, gone now.

I would like to take a Choctaw class sometime, as well as some of the other native languages, but I'm already committed, leading a workshop on Tuesday nights for 10 weeks. Where are you taking the class?

And the PJs remind me of something from a few years back -- Satan-Proof Shoes. I was bound and determined to find a pair but never did.
 
My dear Trixie, Satan Proof Shoes you say! Seek no more my lady, they are but an order away: Behold:

John Fluevog Shoes 1611 1st Ave.
Pike's Market
Seattle, WA 98101
(206) 441-1065
Imelda Marcos' closet meets "Alice in Wonderland" in this shoebox-sized footwear boutique near Pike Place Market.
This is as much an art gallery as a shoe-fetishist's wildest dream. Doorways lean at improbable angles. Gilt mirrors slant in asymmetrical frames. Sandals with flame-shaped straps, snakeskin boots with Lucite heels and hip-but-sensible work shoes vie for shoppers' attention in front of the plate glass windows.
For 30 years, Canadian shoe sculptor John Fluevog has plied his distinctive craft in leather uppers and man-made soles. These shoes are the antithesis of cookie-cutter fashion: needle-toed slip-on flats, thigh-high platform boots with side laces and of course, classic oxfords updated with Fluevog's signature Angel soles.
Fluevog's sturdy Angel soles read, "Resists alkali, water, acid, fatigue, AND SATAN." But if the indestructible lugs show their age, take them back to Fluevog's for resoling--no corner cobbler can do them justice.
Sign up for the mailing list and get advance notice of upcoming sales--you'll snag the bargains before your size sells out.

Ain't hardly nothin that ain't on the Web someplace.
 
Yes! That's the guy! Several years ago when I was still working in the office one of my co-workers found the reference to the "Satan-Proof Shoes" and dared me to order some to wear to choir practice. We had a good laugh about it, but given my typical state of poverty nothing actually came of it. Someday, though. Some-day!
 
Satan-proof? Meanin' the devil won't tempt yer sole? :-)

The class is at the Choctaw Alliance Center, 50-something S Youngs Blvd.
 
ER: "Satan-proof? Meanin' the devil won't tempt yer sole?"

You are quick aren't you.:)

Yes Trixie, but judging the office you used to work in, you needed to have been wearing them there and not at church.
 
Yes. Yes, indeedy-do!
 
I agree, Drlobo: Grace just gets you in the door. Some will be working in the kitchen, some serving, some cleaning up afterward and others sitting at the kids' table at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

The honored guests will be the poor, the blind, the used and abused, the offal of every society this world has ever known, addicts, the downcast, the cast out and some of the worst sinners Creation has ever known. With Jesus His Self PERSONALLY refilling sweet tea glasseas and getting peoople seconds. Those of us who managed to get anywhere close to what He intended will be helping him, I think.
 
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