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!
Smile!
Keep on smilin’, ‘cause when you’re smilin’, baby
The whole world smiles with you.
So sang Frank Sinatra in the 1950s. In fact, Kate Perry devoted a whole album to the topic: Smile (released this month), with an eponymous song that goes:
I’m so thankful,
‘Cause I finally, ‘cause I finally
Smile (Oh)!
I’m so grateful,
‘Cause I finally, ‘cause I finally
Smile (Oh, oh)!
Is this all just smoke and mirrors with positive thinking and self-hypnosis, or is
Face?
We have a tendency to see human faces in things that are not faces, human, or even alive: the electrical socket, a “grimacing” apple, a bowling ball, and all kinds of other stuff. That phenomenon is called “face pareidolia.” (That’s from the Greek: para = alongside of/instead of; and eidōlon = image/form.)
Apparently we are programmed to see faces everywhere. Saith Colin Palmer, and Colin Clifford, from the School of Psychology, University of New South Wales,
Eat!
I had been scheduled to teach in Brazil in the summer, and in Singapore and Hong Kong in the fall. All canceled, alas! The COVID-19 pandemic has grounded hundreds of thousands of Americans who were set to jet off on international trips during the rest of 2020. They, like me, are rescheduling their travel plans, hoping for the best in 2021.
But a number of these wannabe travelers are taking another step. Unwilling to relinquish their canceled trips entirely, they are—literally!—making
Shared?
You thought social distancing began in March with COVID-19?
Nope. It began 40 years ago. When a new, electronic, manmade “virus” burst on the scene. From Japan. Called … The Walkman!
It arrived in the USA in June of 1980. Socialization would never the be same again.
In fact, Matt Alt, in a recent article in The New Yorker, called the Walkman “the gadget that taught the world to socially distance.”
Until 1980, music was a communal experience: concertgoers in silent
Hedonism!
They say that in the busy-ness of our advanced civilization, where the wheels never stop turning, there is no time to do absolutely nothing. You have stuff to do at work, at school, at home, at church, with family, with friends, with acquaintances. Things to do, places to go, people to see. Etc.
But then came COVID-19.
Well, maybe for some the wheels still haven’t stopped turning. Distances to keep, masks to wear, meals to cook, kids to entertain, body to be worked out,
Stuck!
You might remember the Spielberg movie, The Terminal (2004), starring Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones, about a guy from the fictional Eastern European country Krakozhia who arrives in New York only to find that his passport is now null and void because of a military coup back home. Stateless and homeless, Viktor (Hanks) is stuck in JFK for over 9 months.
Well, that was fiction. But another real life stuck-in-the-terminal story has recently emerged.
Roman Trofimov. In
Scream!
What a lot of stuff going on these days. And we’re only a bit more than halfway through the year. Another 23+ weeks left to go! Including a presidential election. Everything—everything!—is abnormal. And we are told that this might be the new normal. Lord, have mercy!
Did you feel like screaming?
Well, I have a bit of good news for you, if you did. Iceland to the rescue!
Not exactly, but close. First you need to make your way to this website.
Time to let go of all your
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. 