Tonight I've been countin' railroad cars...
Reference to Amy Grant song..
Actually I was counting stars, thinking of Abraham. It's a shame that the semi-colon button doesn't work on this laptop, but hey- I can totally read every letter without glasses. Thank you Arnold Ehret and Dr. Chang and Jesus.
I was wandering around Boynton Beach tonight and it occurred to me how many places I've walked around or eaten at a cafe outside or just enjoyed being there- not in a certain place, but enjoying the climate. I remember sitting outside looking at two castles while eating. That was in Bavaria where the crazy king lived as a child and constructed his own unfinished fairy tale castle on a neighboring hill. I wonder what the Bavarian connection is to the Illiminati? I keep coming back to YouTube conspiracy theories and they are fascinating. And Bavaria is something that comes up but with no explanation.
I remember the ten sainted kings of Europe depiction there. Did he (the builder) think he was going to be the eleventh?
Tonight I walked along the boardwalk and saw the stars, and walked along a shopping center that is partly dedicated to a career college, and saw a lit carnival midway a little way away but separated by parking lots and probably canals. It's easy not to notice that this whole area is divided by canals. We go by them so often but since we're not fishing in them or standing alongside them watching the sun set or the light twinkle on the water, or boating through them, we just pass them by. Every once in awhile I notice one because it seems to be the border between one town and another, but South Florida is basically one connection of cities between beach and undevelopment, and it all flows together despite county, city, town and unincorporated lines. The lines are more neighborhood patchworks- by age, occupation and race- and there's a little of each kind in each political entity, and very little evidence of politics in my world. I'm sure it's here, but it's not like Orlando's interests- tourist and native, Disney and not, county and city. It is more of a patchwork.
There's a dividing line somewhere, of principalities I suppose- that happens at Northlake Blvd or PGA Blvd. I guess that's the frontier, and everything north of that is not what I mean when I say South Florida. It might start at the Thomas B. Manuel bridge but wherever it starts I totally feel it. It's not the familiarity to places I've grown up around, it's the geography into which my familiarity from childhood is placed. It's something I didn't notice until I moved away to another Florida nation- or region- or something- Tallahassee.
In Westgate, all the streets had Indian names, and that included Seminole. Then I became one and realized that Florida had different regions. I moved from South to North and then settled in Central, and now I can't decide which principality to submit too but I'm constantly reminded that all authority is God-given. Damn that is hard to believe but impossible to argue with.
Tonight I heard a Jewish expositor discussing the Golden Calf episode and it reminded me of when racism was part of God's plan- and that was something that ended with the Exodus- only to be revived again by the anti-Jewish Jewish philosophers of Askenazi/Khazar Europe in the 18th century through today. It's totally the dumbest philosophy I can think of at least from my perspective, because I see that it has no merit every single day, while other philosophies seem to have truth in them to me- at least in part.
Today in Juddy's sermon we heard a discussion of rationalism gone off the rails and it hit home. We're in a transition phase- a post-Christian phase in our society, in which skepticism is so agreed upon that people band together into little tribes just because they agree on something. "No, no... don't speak to me...." people seem to say, at the first sign of disagreement- because then they have to agree that there is nothing anyone knows for sure- yet, we agree on so many things but get lost in decrying whatever pre-supposition somebody else has, without acknoledging our own.
The one Mason I know said that Jesus was the greatest man who ever lived. We can agree on that, except for the capitalization. Jesus is the greatest Man who ever lived- and He said He was the only way. It's so hard to understand that, unless Jesus is everything- but He clearly also said He wasn't. So Jesus is either a liar or He's the One God. I don't think that enters into many people's thinking. There is still a respect for Jesus in popular society and until that fades, Christians are lulled into a belief that there can and was a Christian society. But like Liberalism, Christianity only works for the marginalized. When people realize that each one individually needs restoration, then there's a personal choice. A Christian is a person- and can't be a society. The only reason everyone isn't one is how badly we've behaved, accepting the sow's ear and eating the pearls instead of sitting at the banquet table with our neighbors.
I remember walking around each of the four Central Florida Disney parks- most recently exulting in the Star Wars music. Boy they did a great job combining music, sound- projection of movies on the buildings, a little fireworks and some heat effects. When Dark Vader breathed behind us, we didn't need to see anything- we just knew he was there, coming for me specifically- thought each one. It's probably a pretty cheap show- how expensive can it be to take a few clips and shine them on a building rather than a screen? but it is great fun- entertainment right how we need it here in the age of quick attention spans.
I remember Disney at night, nearly alone- especially when I went out to Frontierland to clean a popcorn machine with apple juice and forgot the paper towels- and seeing the trucks roll into the park another time. I remember evenings in Tallahassee looking at a hurricane from the fire escape and watching snow fall that would barely hit the ground from the second story walkway between the music buildings. I remember a night in Cairo with the natives sipping orange drink and seeing the Red Sea from the shower in Hurgada? I thought I'd never forget the name but I have.
I remember evening in Paris, and seeing the Dome of the Rock from the hotel room- during Ramadan- in Jerusalem. At night the light was the same, but during the day the City has a golden glow. There was the snow on the mountain on the way to Hitler's bunker, and the snow on Lookout Mountain in Tennessee and the snow on some mountain in Greece we saw from the tour bus- and those crazy two weeks in Jersey and Manhattan where I finally saw a real winter.
There were nights in Cambridge, slipping in to the college though it was closed, having found cucumber sandwiches to be the only thing in the whole town available- what was it nine of clock? and the city was asleep? And a particular neighborhood in New York where they seemed to go to sleep at nine as well. And then on another trip, the silly fake BBQ place and TGIFriday's near Time Square- and nights at the ballet in Vienna, London Les Miserable and Andrew Lloyd Webber's -two B's- not sure
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