The Sting

 

“It sometimes seems that every living thing can bite or poke or sting or shoot you.”-Lawrence Wright, from his book “God Save Texas”.

The other day I was taking an assortment of stuff from the garage over to the barn, part of the seasonal ritual of putting up some things and pulling out others.  I was in and out of the barn at least half a dozen times.  When I finally closed the side door and locked up, my left hand caught fire or so it seemed.  I looked down and just above the knuckle on my ring finger a huge red wasp was lodging a violent protest against my invasion of his space.  I knocked him off my hand and stepped back to see the nest of red wasps at the top of the door.  After getting stung by yellow jackets a few years ago that were nesting at the top of a garage door, I am usually more diligent in watching for wasps as well as most anything that flies, crawls, hops or has a tail.  

Rather than take them on empty-handed, I retreated over to the garage and armed myself with a can of wasp and hornet spray.  I returned and wiped out most of them.  Those who escaped buzzed me but were clearly unable to hit a fast-moving target.

I got back to the house and rubbed Benadryl cream on the red and swelling skin that ran from the middle of my finger, over the knuckle and the top of my hand.  Later on my wife cut a piece of aloe vera and told me to rub it on my hand and finger.  Eventually the pain went away and by bedtime it just itched. 

The interesting thing is that the next morning my hand not only felt better, it felt better than before the sting.  You see I have some arthritis in my hands as well as a condition called Dupuytren’s Contracture. Dupuytren’s is a genetic disorder that causes the tendons and ligaments in your hands and fingers to thicken and get stiff.  It can lead to locking “trigger” finger and when it’s bad enough it requires surgical release.  It’s also known as Viking’s Disease since it is so prominent in people with Scandinavian DNA (of which I have 20%).  Mine got bad enough in one finger a few years ago that I had to have the surgery.  It was for my left ring finger.  

The surgery fixed the trigger finger but it’s never felt quite right and there is arthritis to boot.  But after the wasp sting it feels great.  There has been considerable research done regarding the efficacy of bee and wasp venom for the treatment of arthritis.  The results have been promising, but so far as I can tell it’s not being prescribed yet.  Put me down as a yes for test trials.  Based on this one random sting, it seems to work.  Now if I could just figure out how to train the bees and wasps to sting me in the right places.

The Celestial City

 

As one whose “journey of faith” had been anything but clean and simple, now with the passing of time I can honestly proclaim there are evil forces at work here on planet earth and beyond.  These forces are powerful, well-organized and committed to their purpose.  They have a hierarchy and there is one at the top.  They exist to create chaos and confusion, to transform what was created as good in the beginning into something they can claim as their own.  Some say they know they will ultimately be defeated but in the time that is left are doing everything they can to make life worse and take as many souls with them as possible.

As a Christian I believe what the Bible says about this.  I have also noticed that many other religions and traditions acknowledge the existence of evil forces; spirits to be more precise.  And they have names.  Some of those named in the Bible are likely the same spiritual beings in other religions but with different names. 

But for now, sticking with the Bible there are over 300 passages of scripture referring to evil spirits, the devil, Satan, Lucifer, etc. If one professes to be a Christian, they would be hard-pressed to deny the reality of evil spirits and their leader.  And if one should consider what the Bible says about these evil spirits and their leader, they would know that these spirits do not come wearing a red jump suit with horns, a tail and a pitchfork. Most often they come as a thought or an idea.  Sometimes they are delivered intentionally or otherwise by someone who looks a lot like us. But most often they simply arrive at the door of our soul like a package we weren’t expecting and dare not to open.  Yet sometimes we do open the package and are seldom ever the same.

We are now in a time when the those who deliver evil are lined up at the door.  Content that would have been banned 50 years ago is now mainstream.  Words, images, music and what has come to represent news, opinion, influence and entertainment conspire to tempt us, teach us and lead us astray. We are told what is good and what is bad, what is permissible and that truth is our own, as long as we are tolerant, inclusive and kind.

In John Bunyan’s classic Pilgrim's Progress, Christian and Faithful are on a treacherous journey to the Celestial City but must first pass through Vanity.  Here there is a Fair that goes on throughout the year.  Satanic personages identified as Beelzebub, Apollyon and Legion control Vanity and the Fair.  All the temptations of the world are in the marketplace.  Few of those who attempt to reach the Celestial City successfully pass through Vanity Fair without being drawn away.  

I’ll say no more lest I spoil the story.  It is enough to say that we are living in a modern day Vanity Fair where the marketplace of temptations has become omnipresent and inescapable.  And the question remains how does one reach the Celestial City?

“For to speak the truth, there are but few that care thus to spend their time, but choose rather to spend their time to be speaking of things to no profit.”- John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress

Notes and Quotes...Knowing When to Duck

 

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, will make violent revolution inevitable.”- John F. Kennedy

I did the last “Notes and Quotes” back in January.  Much has transpired since then.

_In January I asked the question: “Who would dare stir up the Shiite hornet’s nests which are buzzing throughout the Middle East and around the world?” As it turns out Trump and Netanyahu took that dare.  Perhaps it was necessary.  We’ll never know, but who would dare to wait and find out? 

_I also commented about ICE; the ICE Enforcers vs the ICE Watchers. Turns out that the ICE Watchers may have influenced the ICE Enforcers to tone it down just a notch.  But the conflict continues and will likely go on until the Democrats are back in charge.

Now on to new topics.

_Those darn Supreme Court Justices just keep issuing rulings based on The United States Constitution. Clearly they must have slept through those law school classes on Judicial Activision. They just don’t understand that the laws of the land must be interpreted based on forward-thinking progressive ideas, not some worn out document written by a bunch of privileged old white guys in the 18^th Century.

_Chameleon Trucker Karma (SWIDT) is resulting in the removal of thousands of truck drivers from the nation’s highways.  The lesson here is that when you license unqualified people and then allow them to be hired for jobs that require qualified, well-trained, certification bad things happen.

_While the economy seems to be doing ok for now, I can’t imagine it can go on much longer if we continue to have $100+ a barrel oil prices. With mid-terms on the horizon Republicans are in trouble. At this point, the only thing that will save them is the Democrats’ race further to the radical left.

_Another day, another attempted assassination.  When a person or group has been repeatedly called Nazi, Fascist, (____)-Phobic, An Existential Threat to Democracy, etc. etc., who must be stopped “by any means necessary”; is it any wonder that violence is the ending result?

“The important thing to know about an assassination or attempted assassination is not who fired the shot, but who paid for the bullet.” – Eric Ambler