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| Looking East |
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| Looking West |
While up there I noticed my patient old friend Charlie Horse on customary standby in the street below. This is an undemanding beast if ever there was.
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| Good Ole Reliable Charlie |
We're now down to our last week here and although our refrigerator is looking a touch baren we postponed our planned visit to the grocery store today because it was just too sunny and warm. The amazing thing is we actually have a 'Super C' just a two minute walk from here but it is not the one we prefer to patronize. However we went there today to get milk.
Speaking of food items, we often have eggs for breakfast and we've been struck by the vibrant yellow color of the egg yolks here. They're the kind of yellow that tries to be orange if you know what I mean. They make the egg yolks at home look like lemon drops. I'm sure the eggs do not come from cooped up chickens that never see the light of day. The chickens here are probably half tiger. Which reminds me, I heard distant roosters crowing while on the roof this morning.
While walking, every so often one encounters a bounty of flowers enlivening the street, possibly even a vacant lot, with their bursts of color. They appear to be doing well despite the absence of one drop of rain in the five weeks we've been here.
This is not to say it never rains. Here and there a torrent channel offers a reminder that things can get mighty wet mighty fast.
In other news I've started a biography, a very slim one, of John Newton, a man who wrote his life story 250 years ago. He worked for some time as a slave trader and was a nasty fellow until he suffered shipwreck at sea with a clear prospect of drowning. He turned to prayer, managed to survive despite incredible odds, and he afterward became a serious student of the Bible, doing his best to practice Christianity accordingly. He is best known as the composer of the song, "Amazing Grace."
I'm in the early stages of the book and of course he lacked the benefit of Bible research that has been accomplished since his time. In his day the book had relatively recently been rescued from near obscurity by the invention of the printing press. Just as investigation has vastly expanded our knowledge of astronomy over the centuries, in the same way scrutiny of the Bible has led to huge strides in understanding its message. Still, Mr. Newton was apparently an honest and humble man who loved his Maker and made interesting observations about the wisdom he found in the inspired word of God.
It is sad to read of his belief in a fiery hell which belief was fostered by the King James Version Bible by inconsistently translating words such as grave and 'Gehenna', the name of Jerusalem's first century city dump where a fire was kept burning as a rubbish disposal site. If only he knew. Some day he will.
In the meantime it is an interesting story of one man's search for God at a time when individual Bible study was experiencing a new beginning.
Ciao.
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