second from left, my older brother

little me

This very old pic was with my mother's things.  She probably took this picture, she enjoyed photography and frequently had her kodak brownie swinging from her shoulder.
The look on my face cracks me up ... and to me the somewhat quizzical expression, the sweet simplicity of the outfit, the wide open eyes and the stillness, the composure, precisely captures little me.  It's funny to see the way I held my hand ... my lines are the same as I sit here tapping out thoughts.  I remember some of those kids.  I wouldn't have like it there, bunched up together with "not my brother".  That looks like a how much longer... look .


We are back in Texas for a couple of weeks.
Hanging around with my mother-in-law today.  She is the sole occupant of an excruciatingly nice memory care facility.  We walked in this morning and made ourselves at home in two different salon areas ... husband has the tv on ... V and I are around a corner near an outlet for her charger.  No one is in the building to greet/screen visitors.  The yardman is the only person we have seen.  I guess she is in therapy somewhere.  We had dinner with her here yesterday and stayed past nine.  She remembers her son and is gracious towards us, she knows we are her guests, but not the connection.  I'm burning hotspot time because no one here (so far we've seen only the chef, a care giver, and a guy who seems to be an investor who just "happened by" last night) knows the password for the WiFi.  We plan to take G'mere out for a little shopping trip.  She says she needs something to keep her hair from blowing around when she is outside.  It's interesting to see what tiny comforts she holds to.  I may have to get on eBay to find one of those fifties chiffon hair scarves ... that's what she wants, though she calls it a hair net.
I don't like it here ... the place is "styled" for sales, but I am uncertain about what is actually being bought.  It "looks" good (and for now it is the best we can do).

My life, I realize suddenly, is July. Childhood is June, and old age is August, but here it is, July, and my life, this year, is July inside of July. ~ Rick Bass

In looking for papers or books on that stuff I'm trying to think about I have concluded a few things ... people are interested in what submission "means" but/and ... there are a lot of very unhappy people out there writing about their take on it.  Unhappy, as bitter, unhappy as dictatorial, unhappy.  I wasn't really looking for the unhappy slant.  I just want to come to an understanding of what is being communicated.

Today the idea was presented that to properly understand what the Bible "intends" by "submit/submission" one might start with looking at the verses (sprinkled about the Scriptures) of how the word(s) are used with in the Godhead context.  How The Three in One interacted as this trait became manifest or was manifested.  Plus I did want to begin to understand the different words and see if I can discover something of the subtleties conveyed by their use.

 hupotasso, hupakouo, hupeiko, peitho, peitharcheo and dogmatizo

The linked site  (above) provides a list of scriptures under each explanation of the Greek word  (following) which translates to "submit".  These explanations are just copy and paste for easy reference for me ... I will check to see as best I can if the information given is most accurate.  In other words, these are the best working definitions I've come across so far, but I haven't personally verified the accuracy.  This is a beginning,  I will become more able.

studylight.org  for a Greek Lexicon resource

Hupotasso, as it relates to members of the church interacting with each other is "a voluntary attitude of giving in, cooperating, assuming responsibility, and carrying a burden."  When Paul instructs the Ephesians to "submit to one another out of reverence for Christ" it is clear that he is speaking the sense of "arranging under" or "yield to admonition or advice" He isn’t telling people to obey each other. In 1Cor 16:16 when Paul calls on the Corinthians to submit to "everyone who cooperates in the work" it is clear there is no sense of hierarchy.

hupakouo

Definition: to listen, attend to:—answer(1), became obedient(1), becoming obedient(1), heed(1), obedient(2), obey(12), obeyed(3). (Thomas)

peitharcheo

Definition: “to obey authority” (Thomas)

hupeiko

Defintion: to retire, withdraw, submit:—submit(1). (Thomas)

Thomas, R. L. (1998). New American Standard Hebrew-Aramaic and Greek dictionaries : Updated edition. Anaheim: Foundation Publications, Inc.

peitho

Definition: “to persuade, to have confidence” (Thomas)

It can be translated obey if spoken in the active or middle/passive.  Most of us have no clue about active or passive tenses in Greek translation.  What it means is that the word can be translated obey depending on how it used.  In Heb 13:17 the word is used in such away that leads most translations to translated it as “obey.”

peitharcheo

Definition: “to obey authority” (Thomas) 

dogmatizo

Defintion: to decree, to subject oneself to an ordinance:—submit … to decrees(1). (Thomas)

this note is a draft from late in 2014

23 July 2014

Rise and shine is coming pretty early around here.  I like that I already have half of my 10,000 steps done for the day and a second cup of coffee is getting cold in front of me.  I like that I can spend a few minutes looking at what my buddy girl has "pinned" to our shared board ... and I like the idea, the very fact, that one can share boards.  It makes her feel nearer and that helps me with (among other comforting things) the idea of "abiding" with what or who I hold most dear, even when "near" is more difficult to realize.  There is a lyric which says, "...and bless the moments that we feel You nearer."  I am learning to amend that to find You nearer, because it seems that one has not to do but look, look as Turrell encourages us to do, look for the light one can "see" with the eyes shut.  Gosh, I hope I can visit his crater.  Isn't it fun that one goes to a hole to see ... what's up?  We seek "wholeness".

So ... today.  Time to notice that the screens on the front of the house want to be cleaned.  Mine are dusty looking, and there is a silvery little spider web tucked in behind one.  The screens are making the windows look neglected (because they are).  So ... ha, I will think about that today, but I will do nothing about it.  Today I'm supposed to start getting things ready for a little road trip back to Texas.  A visit.  Cleaning the vehicle is my top priority today.

Lately I've been researching stuff on "Sarah".  God's Sarah.  She seems pretty epic.  Surely someone has already done a really thorough project on that.  I am finding that I need help with the words.  I'm not so sure that some of the connotations weren't skewed, biased.  And ... there is all that cultural stuff which I am trying to grapple with.  For example ... some references say things like ... she and Abraham had same father different mothers ... others say he was her cousin, or just a blood relative.  Some one said she is the prototypical "second-Eve", mother to us all ... that idea along with feminine perfection.  Her name may have always had connotations of "princess", ruler ... queen, or it may have inferred "contentiousness" when it was Sarai.  I'm laughing to myself (which she also seemed to do a bit of) ... a "bossy" woman is most often seen as contentious even today (and those who come readily to mind do pop up wagging their fingers along with their tongues.  L was telling me that Pelosi said "we" should be thinking of this recent "immigration" as baby Jesus individuals ... maybe she really said Jesús ... the Jesus thing would just be manipulative, wouldn't it?)  So ... Sarah ... submissive Sarah.  In fact, she doesn't read as submissive.  In fact, Abraham is looking different then how I pictured him.  It's going to be a while before I know what I think there ... it's worth spending the time (even as I look for credible short cuts ... I'm no Hebrew scholar but it's looking like the women had more significant roles then I have accepted from the little Sunday school snippets.  My education is lacking. 

Yeah ... looking at "submission" naturally brings one to looking at slavery.  Enslaved.  Slave.  I like that the Bible actually says stuff like ... Joseph  sold into slavery, his brothers thought that would be better for them then having his blood on their hands.  It's a complex story, I'm certainly not trying to make light of it.  It plays out well for all involved.
I didn't know of Frederick Douglas.  Another gap in my education.  He was quite eloquent on the topic of slavery and the "lessening" of those involved on either side of the master/slave equation.  Slavery ... in whatever form it likes to manifest ... is corrosive.  The seminal idea of the Holy Bible is of redemption from bondage.
So ... all that is wrapped together in what I am reflecting on.  The story of redemption is told large and small, it's told continuously throughout God's word to us.

re·demp·tion

riˈdempSHən/

noun

noun: redemption; plural noun: redemptions

1. 1.

   the action of saving or being saved from sin, error, or evil.

   "God's plans for the redemption of his world"

   synonyms:

   saving, freeing from sin, absolution More

   • a thing that saves someone from error or evil.

     "his marginalization from the Hollywood jungle proved to be his redemption"
2. 2.

   the action of regaining or gaining possession of something in exchange for payment, or clearing a debt.

   synonyms:

   retrieval, recovery, reclamation, repossession, return More

   • archaic

     the action of buying one's freedom.

notes on a few loaded words

5:21 and submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. 

What is biblical submission?   

6 different Greek words ... hupotasso, hupakouo, hupeiko, peitho, peitharcheo and dogmatizo.

sub·mis·sion

səbˈmiSHən/

noun

noun: submission

1. 1.

   the action or fact of accepting or yielding to a superior force or to the will or authority of another person.

   "they were forced into submission"

   synonyms:

   yielding, capitulation, acceptance, consent, compliance More

   antonyms:

   defiance

   • WRESTLING

     an act of surrendering to a hold by one's opponent.

     plural noun: submissions

     synonyms:

     surrender, capitulation, resignation, defeat More

   • archaic

     humility; meekness.

     "servile flattery and submission"

     synonyms:

     compliance, submissiveness, acquiescence, passivity, obedience,docility, deference, subservience, servility, subjection More

     antonyms:

     defiance, resistance

bond·age

ˈbändij/

noun

noun: bondage

1. 1.

   the state of being a slave.

   "the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt's bondage"

   synonyms:

   slavery, enslavement, servitude, subjugation, subjection, oppression,domination, exploitation, persecution; More

   antonyms:

   liberty

2. 2.

   sexual practice that involves the tying up or restraining of one partner.

Origin

Middle English: from Anglo-Latin bondagium, from Middle English bond ‘serf’ (earlier ‘peasant, householder’), from Old Norse bóndi ‘tiller of the soil,’ based on búa ‘dwell’; influenced in sense by bond.

slav·er·y

ˈslāvərē/

noun

noun: slavery

1. the state of being a slave.

   "thousands had been sold into slavery"

   synonyms:

   bondage, enslavement, servitude, thralldom, thrall, serfdom, vassalageMore

   antonyms:

   freedom

   • the practice or system of owning slaves.

     synonyms:

     bondage, enslavement, servitude, thralldom, thrall, serfdom, vassalageMore

     antonyms:

     freedom

   • a condition compared to that of a slave in respect of exhausting labor or restricted freedom.

     "female domestic slavery"

     synonyms:

     drudgery, toil, hard labor, grind; More

   • excessive dependence on or devotion to something.

     "slavery to tradition"

slave

slāv/

noun

historical

noun: slave; plural noun: slaves

1. 1.

   a person who is the legal property of another and is forced to obey them.

   synonyms:

   historicalserf, vassal, thrall; More

   antonyms:

   freeman, master

   • a person who works very hard without proper remuneration or appreciation.

     "by the time I was ten, I had become her slave, doing all the housework"

     synonyms:

     drudge, servant, lackey, minion; More

   • a person who is excessively dependent upon or controlled by something.

     "the poorest people of the world are slaves to the banks"

     synonyms:

     devotee, worshiper, adherent; More

   • a device, or part of one, directly controlled by another.

     "a slave cassette deck"
   • an ant captured in its pupal state by an ant of another species, for which it becomes a worker.

verb

verb: slave; 3rd person present: slaves; past tense: slaved; past participle: slaved; gerund or present participle: slaving

1. 1.

   work excessively hard.

   "after slaving away for fourteen years, all he gets is two thousand"

   synonyms:

   toil, labor, grind away, sweat, work one's fingers to the bone, work like a Trojan/dog; More

   • subject (a device) to control by another.

     "should the need arise, the two channels can be slaved together"

Origin

Middle English: shortening of Old French esclave, equivalent of medieval Latin sclava(feminine) ‘Slavic (captive)’: some South Slavic peoples had been reduced to a servile state by conquest in the 9th cent.


notes from July'14

"Baghdad Blues"

Jay Johnson, one of the most decent guys you could hope to spend time with.  I didn't know he played so well!



Happy Birthday D. Love you!

my Cadillac Ranch pictures from July 2014

Cadillac Ranch is not a ranch but a public art installation and sculpture in Amarillo, Texas, USA. It was created in 1974 by Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michels, who were a part of the art group Ant Farm. It consists of what were (when originally installed during 1974) either older running used or junk Cadillac automobiles, representing a number of evolutions of the car line (most notably the birth and death of the defining feature of mid twentieth century Cadillacs: the tailfins) from 1949 to 1963, half-buried nose-first in the ground, at an angle corresponding to that of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.^{[1]~Wikipedia}

Chip Lord and Doug Michels were architects; Marquez was an art student at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. According to Chip Lord, “Ant Farm was founded as an alternative architectural practice, kind of an experiment in an attempt to subvert normal corporate ways of doing architecture.”^[2]

According to Marquez, “Chip and I were living in the mountains north of San Francisco, and there was a book meant for kids left in a bar near where we lived. It was called ‘The Look of Cars,’^[3]and there was something on the rise and fall of the tail fin. I didn’t have a lot to do, so I just sorta drew it up. I’ve always loved the Cadillacs.”^[2]

The group claims to have been given a list of eccentric millionaires in 1972 in San Francisco, identifying Stanley Marsh 3 of Amarillo amongst those who might be able to fund one of their projects and submitted it to him. Marsh's response began "It's going to take me awhile to get used to the idea of the Cadillac Ranch. I'll answer you by April Fool's Day. It's such an irrelevant and silly proposition that I want to give it all my time and attention so I can make a casual judgement of it. ~Wikipedia

Osprey flying over - super cool