Friday eclectic

by chuckofish

Last weekend our son James came home to celebrate Father’s Day and catch up with friends who were in town. The DH and I hosted coffee hour at church, for which I made a lemon blueberry Bundt cake and oatmeal cookies. Along with the sugary bits we served the DH’s special homemade hummus, veggies, fruit, cheese and crackers. I include all this to assure you that we do sometimes socialize – at least little bit. We all had a grand time, so naturally I only remembered to take a photo when James bid us adieu; here he and his dad squint happily into the sun.  

The next few days were normal, which is to say that not much happened.  I read and puttered as usual and came across a few interesting tidbits. For instance, I discovered that Davy Crockett was born on the Nolichucky River in eastern Tennessee. Apparently, Nolichucky is an anglicized version of a Cherokee phrase that either means “spruce tree place”, “dangerous waters”, “rushing waters” or “black, swirling water” (Wikipedia). Take your pick.

It’s easy to imagine a young Davy Crockett tracking game along the banks of the beautiful Nolichucky, isn’t it? I think the DH and I might have to explore the area, though perhaps not at the height of summer. 

When not stumbling on interesting factoids, I read a Sumerian epic called “Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta,” and discovered this wonderful passage:

The messenger gave heed to the words of his king. He journeyed by the starry night, and by day he travelled with Utu of heaven. Where and to whom will he carry the important message of Inanna with its stinging tone? He brought it up into the Zubi Mountains, he descended with it from the Zubi Mountains. Susin and the land of Ancan humbly saluted Inanna like tiny mice.

(Sumerian Text Corpus)

It’s the phrase involving ‘tiny mice’ that gets me. Think about it. Way back in the 3rd millennium BC, the epic’s author realized that to a powerful deity like Inanna (aka Ishtar) human worshipers would seem like nothing more than a bunch of tiny, swarming rodents. Those ancients did not have an inflated sense of their own worth – quite the opposite. Life was hard and gods were unpredictable, so humans never really knew where they stood. 

Well, things have certainly changed since Inanna’s time. Recently, I was disturbed to read that teenage vandals damaged the Dailey Ridge Presbyterian Church in Norwood (about half an hour from here) to the tune of about $10,000. This simple church (my favorite kind), which was built in 1853 and is included on the National Register of Historic Places, has no electricity and heats with wood.

Although the perpetrators were apprehended and the church is insured, the small but devoted congregation cannot pay the $1000 deductible. They are working hard to keep the church going, and I suspect the community will rally in support, but such senseless vandalism does no one any good. Meanwhile, maybe the guilty parties will learn a little humility and to respect other people’s property. Maybe they’ll even start going to church– let’s hope so.

Have a great weekend but be humble!