RaMbLeS
Welcome to RaMbLeS, a collection of weekly musings on life and Scripture. It all began in 2005 on Google’s blogspot as the aBeLOG (a name now recycled), a semi-autobiographical devotional that attempted to keep well-wishers abreast of my activities as I relocated to Scotland for a few years. Since my return, I’ve continued my RaMbLeS, and here’s its most recent incarnation on Homiletix, as random reflections usually based on current news articles and travel experiences and whatever else takes my fancy!
Longevity?
Most of us probably want to live long. What are the factors contributing to longevity? We already know that unhealthy lifestyles can reduce our lifespans: inadequate exercise, imprudent diet, and inadvisable smoking, potentially resulting in heart disease, diabetes, and stroke. What else? How about genes?
Researchers from Israel, Sweden, China, and the Netherlands, decided to take another look at this and published their results in the prestigious journal, Science,
Wonder!
Writes The Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank:
I just had a most eventful week. I watched in horror as a terrible storm in the Mediterranean dashed a ship against a rocky coast, forcing its crew and passengers into a desperate attempt to save themselves and rescue their cargo. I soared with the birds among snow-covered peaks in the Rockies, marveling at the many shades of white and blue. And I joined picnickers on a serene hillside along the Hudson River, where I watched
Drink?
An Airline Water Study was released recently by the Center for Food as Medicine and Longevity (CFM&L). The news ain’t good.
The study ranked 10 major and 11 regional airlines for their water quality on flights, as gauged during the last three years. Each airline was given a Water Safety Score (from 0, lowest, to 5, highest). Five criteria were assessed: violations per aircraft, violations for E. coli bacteria, public notices per 100 aircraft, indicator-positive
Gray?
Those gray hairs we don’t like? That we like to dye and color black (or something else)? Well, they may be doing us good.
You (and I) have hair follicles—hair factories. And stem cells in those hair follicles are the factory workers responsible for initiating and maintaining hair growth. They keep on dividing and multiplying, almost permanently, unlike mature cells that are doomed to die. Among these stem cells are the melanocyte stem cells—painters!—that can, in
Living!
Your last words. Very important.
But perhaps even more important are the last words others say about you. Your obituary. Its words give a glimpse of how we will be remembered by others.
The average person lives about 4,000 weeks. When they die, that entire existence is usually compressed an obituary. Chosen by loved ones, those words become the final public record of a life, capturing what mattered most and what made that life worth living.
So researchers decided to take
Theft!
Calvin Johnson, 36, stole a BMW a few weeks ago. The 2018 convertible was filched while the car’s owner was walking his dog at Ormond Beach’s Centennial Park (in Florida). Johnson, cops say, rummaged through the unlocked BMW and found the keys in a cupholder.
The burglar then, driving over 100 mph, crashed the car in what was, thankfully, a single-vehicle accident, not involving other modes of transportation or other humans. It was totaled. Passing motorists extricated
Abe Kuruvilla is the Carl E. Bates Professor of Christian Preaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY), and a dermatologist in private practice. His passion is to explore, explain, and exemplify preaching. 