Friday, August 07, 2009

 

The Valley of the Shadow of Death



--ER

Comments:
No more menudo for you.
 
Whut?

"Thou art with me"

"I will fear no evil"

It can't just apply to the obvious. Every time I turn around, somebody I know is dying or getting very ill or injured. I know it's a reality of midlife. But crap!

Life itself is the shadow of death. Earth is its valley.
 
Welcome to middle age. There's a lull of a few years after that first harsh wave of losses -- just time to make new friends who also will die or get very ill or injured.
 
When I view the picture, even when I view a dying body, fifully sleeping, I see an icon of God, a sacrament (a visible and outward sign) of life and goodness and love.

I see possibilities in the midst of death, love in the midst of life with its madnesses, the ever opening up of justice in the history of power, the victory in time that will sum up all temporal defeats.

I confess I would not have gotten to such a place if I had staid in my inherited theological legacy (which, for GKSs sake, I will not mention).

It's a wide world. It's a big faith. As DrLBJ rightly contends, we know so little of what we hold in our hands, bear on our knees, and confess with out tongues.

But that doesn't mean we have to continue to know as little as we do now.

2 Peter 1: 3 -5 is my mantra for some years now:

His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants in the divine nature. For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge...
 
This is an open book test:
Re the picture.
1. What month of the year is it?
2. What meal are they eating in Denver?
3. Traveling South from San Fransico, what is the first continent you encounter once you leave the coast of North America.
4. Describe the current weather in Boston.
 
You know, if I stare at that picture for very long, it scares the s--t out of me.
 
What's that above Cuba?
 
That's the Great Bahama Banks. A giant limestone shelf with an average depth of less than a hundred feet (thus the shallow blue color). It is actually several different banks but they all are connected. Check it out on Google Earth for the best view.

Lower the sea level a hundred feet and we could almost walk there.
 
1. What month of the year is it?
August or September--just guessing cuz of the hurricanes
2. What meal are they eating in Denver? looks like it gettin dark on the east coast, so I'll say supper, though they calls it dinner
3. Traveling South from San Fransico, what is the first continent you encounter once you leave the coast of North America.
Anarctica
4. Describe the current weather in Boston. I guesses kinda rainy

I figures this all dependin on how the earths a tiltin for figurin the season--course it not as flat as I thought it was:)
 
Thank you Dr. Bill for playing student for me.
Dr. Bill you get 50%. After one or two others condescend to answer the earth/sun relationship questions I'll explain the answers. I gave a similar open book test for a final exam in Physical Geography once. It was five questions. Most got three of them. A few got them all. several didn't get any. They were all mad as shit at me because I made use knowledge rather than regurgitate it.
 
1. What month of the year is it? July; the angle of the shadow indicates the sun is well above the equator.

2. What meal are they eating in Denver? Somewhat late Lunch

3. Traveling South from San Fransico, what is the first continent you encounter once you leave the coast of North America. Antarctica.

4. Describe the current weather in Boston. Scattered showers.
 
January, breakfast, North America, snow.
 
This comment has been removed by the author.
 
Okay, you got me.
 
OK, good answers.

Now look at the picture. it is almost a complete circle. It is squashed in a tiny bit from east to west but still in a circle. That means that everywhere on the visible globe is in daylight. In that you can see almost to the North Pole but can not see Antarctica puts it in early June or late July. June is more likely in that there are not many low pressure systems in the Caribbean.
Normally if bisect a circle of the globe in daylight half would be in morning and half would be in afternoon. when you bisect this globe because is squished together in the middle the line runs through Memphis. But because it is not a complete circle the noon meridian is closer to Denver. Thus lunch.
Traveling straight South of San Francisco it is open water until you reach Antarctica.
Technically the weather in Boston can only be call overcast based on this evidence. Rain maybe, snow no.
What you see in the mid-Atlantic/caribbean are not Huracanes but tropical lows and not so many of them.

So Feodor gets 75% plus 15% for the showers rather than overcast, for a 90.

Dr. Bill gets 50%

ER, see me after class.

Thanks for the fun.
 
Dr. Bill I needs to add 15% to your for the Boston rain. Total 65.
 
I think if you look closely, Boston may be in a temporary clearing. Thus, scattered showers, chance of rain 40%.
 
doc lobo said, "Dr. Bill I needs to add 15% to your for the Boston rain. Total 65."---I needs--Loneyonics-LOL
 
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