Get Ready! Look Up!

By G. E. Shuman

Am I the only person who feels like things are getting just a little creepy, crazy, and out of hand in our world, lately? I mean, it’s not enough that no one in our country’s capital seems to know how to add or subtract anymore, at least, not when it comes to dollars. (Note on this subject: I would suggest that each member of Congress and the Senate, and especially all White House employees from the oval office occupier on down be required to demonstrate proficiency at operating a pocket calculator, although I’m not sure that would help. The dollars they are burning through wouldn’t fit on the screen of a pocket calculator. Still, it bothers me that my great grandkids will have to pay for those people’s poor decisions.)

Add to that those pesky, three, count ‘em, three wars we seem to be fighting right now. You know, it has long been said that war is hell. If this is the case we are now faced with at least three hells, when in the past, one has always been sufficient. Strange.

I wish our government would also consider an obvious shift in the way people choose to get into our country. Aliens were once willing to die to get here. Now they are willing to kill to do the same thing. In either case, someone might die. The shift is in just who that is. Like I said, things are getting crazy.

Next, and since I’m writing in Vermont, you may not agree with me, there are those evidently sleepy Wisconsin state senators who ran away to a hotel someplace, to either catch up on their sleep, or to avoid the chance to do exactly what they were elected to do: vote. I’m not sure how much they believe in their side of a cause, if they are so tired that they turn tail and head to an out-of-state hotel. Ho-hum. Nightie-night. It just seems that casting a simple vote could not be all that strenuous a thing to do.

Another strange thing: right now, right here, right along the Barre-Montpelier Road, and just last week, gas prices jumped forty cents. In my view the gas companies think too highly of their product, but take heart. As my wife’s grandmother used to say, “Don’t get all excited and tear your shirt.“ Here’s one thing you can do, that will help, if only a little. Gas at Cumby’s seems to be the most expensive on Friday’s lately. I know it is probably quite by accident and coincidence, because those good people would never abuse the fact that some folks have to wait until their Friday pay check to buy their week’s worth of gas. (Sarcasm.) My advice is to go to their pumps on The Lord’s day. For whatever reason, they must seek forgiveness on that day, as their gas seems to be cheapest on Sunday. Plus, gas prices should come tumbling down soon, anyway. Although we’re not allowed to drill for oil and buy it from Louisiana, our president just arranged to pay Brazil billions of dollars to drill for oil off it’s shores. We can buy it from them. (He forgot his pocket calculator, I think.)

Now, add to all of this, the biggest, creepiest, craziest event of all: the strongest earthquake that Japan has experienced in our lifetimes… (strong enough that our entire massive planet was shaken off it’s axis by ten centimeters…) and the resulting huge tsunami… followed by out of control nuclear reactors, and you get a very pregnant set of disasters. One news columnist that I read recently actually termed all of these as ‘end-time’ events. Humm. I wonder why he called them that?

The answer to that question might just be found in the Bible. In fact, the answer to most big questions can be found in the Bible, although that’s not too popular a place to look for solutions to problems, in our ‘modern’ world. None the less, the following are the words of Jesus, in Luke, chapter 21, when he had been asked about the end times. Vs. 11: “And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.” Vs. 22: “For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.” Vs. 25-28: “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; 26: Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. 27: And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28: And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.”

But that’s all from the Bible. We’re much too sophisticated, these days, to believe two thousand year old words, even if they are those of Jesus. Aren’t we? We need to consult the stars, mother nature, our spirit guide, Al Gore, or the bumps on someone’s head to learn the real truths of things. Maybe it would be best to just consult the bumps on Al Gore’s head. (Sorry. Sarcasm, again.)

Seriously, think of those words, just for a moment. Open a Bible and read them for yourself. “Look up”; “for your redemption draweth nigh.” We might want to get ready. We might want to start looking up.

Tree Shadows

By G. E. Shuman

Our daughter, Emily, is a photographer. She’s not a professional photographer, (at least, not yet,) but she is, truly, on her way to becoming one. Emily just seems to live for pictures and pixels, images and designs, graphics, ‘gig’s’ and anything else that relates to transferring her own optical creations from a camera, disk or stick-drive to a computer, and then onto face book, email, or photo paper. I don’t pretend to understand all of that.

I really love how interested Emily is in our natural, and sometimes unnoticed world. We will be driving along on some snowy day, (Not that those are uncommon lately.) and she will just remark to me about some sight, some scene, some spot along the road that intrigues her. I like scenery as much as anyone, but when I’m on the way to work, or to church, or to the store, I am on a mission, and it isn’t a mission of world-exploration. To Emily, it truly is.

I can’t tell you the number of times this sharp-eyed, sharp-minded photographer-type person has asked me to stop the car so that she could snap an image of some amazing scene that just happens to be glaring right at us, from right beside a road we have traveled a thousand times before. I guess that’s what makes a good nature photographer. I do know that it is helpful, if, at that particular time, such a photographer-person has a good ‘natured’ driver.

With all of our recent winter weather, Emily has just become acutely aware of snow scenes, wind-created sculptures, and other ‘accidental’ examples of beauty all around us, and always wants to capture it on, (no, not film) but on some infinitesimally small area of the digital memory chip inside the postage stamp-sized plastic chip-holder inside her camera. (Today’s technology scares me a little, just as yesterday’s technology scared my dad a little.)

As I said, Emi is all about scenes and images. She can take something that I would chalk up to a random winter snow storm effect, and turn it into a visual feast; a masterpiece of sun, shadow, sparkle and sculpture. I have no idea how she sees a scene and deems it worthy of ‘capture’ in her camera, but she does. Some of her work is truly amazing. Just last week she insisted that I stop the car so that she could snap a picture of the ‘shadow’ of a tree on the snow. I don’t even remember precisely where we were. I do remember that Emily spotted this ‘spot’, and that I needed to stop to let her capture the moment, which, on that particular day, I was happy to do.

Tree shadows on the snow are fleeting things, you know, and are fully dependent on timing, illumination, and our ability to observe, and to appreciate them, before they are gone. In this, they remind me of the as-fleeting moments with our children, as they express themselves to us in their own, brilliant ways. Tree shadows are things that kids notice, as adults speed past on their way to more important things. But tree shadows, like the thoughts and vividly-expressed feeling of our children, are important. I know this because Emily observed one of those shadows, one of those moments, and decided to keep it. It could be that I need to pay more attention to important things like tree shadows… and the fact that my daughter likes to share them with me.