Jane of Arcadia

y_llib's sawhorse
I'm continually wowed by the excellence of this show, 'Joan of Arcadia.' This season's picked up where it left off at the end of last season, with Joan having returned from a lengthy stay at "Gentle Acres (Joan terms it "Mental Acres"...heh), convinced by her family, shrink and apparently God Himself that she's been delusional about the whole God business.

There's just so much going on. The best scenes are usually between Joan and the various figures God uses to show Himself and communicate with her. Tonight's angry hair flip at God's character in the school hallway and her dismissive "I choose a life without You!" declaration were just spot on. If people could see what they look like in their relationships with God, I think this comes close. At least as close as TV will ever come.

One scene though, not between Joan and God late in the show, I almost got worried. She's talking with Adam, and she proposes, "maybe it's not important who WE are, but it's what we DO for one another that's important...??" Adam then addresses her as "Joan" (uncharacteristic for him by now, but he's apparently trying to appease her for her angry statement she made in a heated exchange the night before that she's not "Jane."). She immediately corrects him and says to him, "Jane." While it seems just a bit to demonstrate all is forgiven, it also creates tension with the idea she's just proposed to Adam.

She's said maybe it doesn't matter who WE are, then immediately upon being "mis-addressed" by Adam (as 'Joan'...I know, it gets confusing if you haven't watched the show), she corrects him. She recognizes (and misses) Adam's term of endearment for her...for the real Joan: "Jane." If who WE are isn't important, why make that move?

I contend that, if we are created in God's image, it definitely is important who WE are, if for no other reason than that WE are who we are in direct relation to our creator. Besides, if personality doesn't matter, why make individuals in the first place?

It seems obvious (to me, anyway), that we're discrete persons. That's the way we're made. Thank God for it. All this is not to say that what we DO is unimportant. But the fact of our individuality actually lends more importance to our interactions with one another. Because I am not you, and vice versa, it matters how I treat you.

My head hurts now...

God Help Us!

Found this snippet of interest, sure to appear in The Door's next "Truth is Stranger Than Fiction" section on the BBC (linked from Christianity Today's Weblog):

"By Allyn Fisher-Ilan
JERUSALEM, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Fistfights broke out on Monday at Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre between Christian sects that jealously guard their hold on sections of the shrine built on the traditional site of Jesus's crucifixion.
"There was lots of hitting going on. Police were hit, monks were hit ... there were people with bloodied faces," said Aviad Sar Shalom, an Israeli tour guide who witnessed the fight.
The tussle between Franciscans and Greek and Russian Orthodox clerics erupted during a procession through the church on Holy Cross Day marking the fourth century discovery of the cross which some faithful believe was used in the Crucifixion...

To prevent squabbling, two Muslim families have had guardianship of the key to the only entrance to the church since 1178 when they were entrusted with it by the Muslim ruler Salah el-Din (Saladin). "

Bill Withers put it best: "Makes me wanna holler, throw up both my hands!"

-Bill

trying to get the time settings right on this thing....here goes nothing again.

quiet time

y_llib's sawhorse
Part of me doesn't even want to hear the sound of typing on my keyboard this early in the morning. I'd almost rather write in my journal, the silent pen gliding over the page. But that'd mean I have to get up, go tromping (more noise!) up the stairs & rifle through my papers to find the journal, then out to the garage (setting off the alarm-bot that tells me 'garage door OPEN!' and, then rifle through my bag in the car for a pen...ugh! You see? Already I'm off on a tangent!

Read Jonah this morning in The Message. Whatever Petersen's weaknesses in this version of the bible, it really works for this book, especially the part in chapter 4 when Jonah gets angry at God for sparing the Ninevites [sic]. God asks Jonah,

"How is it that you can change your feelings from pleasure to anger overnight about a mere shade tree that you did nothing to get?...Why can't I likewise change what I feel about Nineveh from anger to pleasure...?"

I've never seen this passage so well related. It may still pose philosophical problems for some, but I think it hits a home run for clarity. And that's a good thing. I hope God can change His mind about things. Or at least one thing: me.

That's kinda the whole 'good news' thing, isn't it?

How do you say, "y_llib"?

y_llib's sawhorse

It's pronounced, "EE-lib"

Learning How to Blog

y_llib's sawhorse

Here goes nothin'... Checking in to see if this is what I need to do to put up a new post.

Sawhorse

Well, I just created this thing, or would it be re-created this thing called 'Sawhorse.' I was just trying to post to a friend's blog, but it wouldn't let me post anonymously, so I figured, 'why not?' Sawhorse used to be a channel I helped create and run on IRC called '#Sawhorse,' but since I've fallen away from IRC for the most part, it makes sense to recreate it here, if for no other reason than to get a profile I can use to post to others' blogs.

I'm going to have to get out of here this morning, as work and helping Beck with the kids beckons, so...

Grace n' peace for now!
Bill