Creative Sketch written for class

Livestock Auction

In the cool of the morning, low-hanging lights brighten the arena spread with fresh sawdust. Hours later our ears are ringing with the eternal tide of the auctioneer’s voice, and flies are slow in the heavy heat. Throats and eyes feel the sting of air acid and sweet, rising strong from darkened sawdust, scuffed and moist with the manure of hundreds of cows, horses and sheep, pigs and goats, and – this morning – an African zebu.
Most of the buyers sit near the ring in broken auditorium seats, buying fat calves and long-sided pigs and horses with skittery eyes with a nod of the head or flick of fingers, downing hot dogs, lukewarm fries from greasy little paper bags, and cheap coffee in flimsy foam cups.
Men big or thin, pot-bellied, hunched, in suspenders or overalls, or skinny jeans showing wallets and cans of chew wearing holes in their back pockets. Men in baseball caps, flat Australian hats, curved cowboy hats with brims and crowns bent into peculiar shapes. Men in dim plaid shirts, collars slick and gray with sweat, or old, stretched tee shirts advertising beer or beef (It’s What’s For Dinner).
And the man with one leg shorter than the other always leans on the gate to the arena, pointing out bids to the auctioneer among the red lights of cigarettes tips.

Quote from Mr. Appel

At Lordship class today, Mr. Appel was talking about how Christianity is often relegated to specific places- like our hearts or minds, one day of the week with church, etc. But our faith is not just something we affirm, something we believe. Christ's coming changed everything, overturned the tables, turned the world upside down. The church is a whole new world, encompassing everything around us. The message of the great commission is not a call to believe, but a command to pay homage to the new King.
We have also been going along with the idea that things earthly are bad, things spiritual are good. But our world was made by God. He said that the stars were good, the dirt and the earthworms and the starfish were good. He ordained work and sweat. "Love not the world" doesn't refer to earthly things in and of themselves, but loving a worldly (man-centered) view of things.
The Christian, Mr. Appel said, should "Love the world. Love God and love the world that He has made." We need to love it as He loved it, joyfully, and always in reference to Him.

Songs & Sunday Things

I am happy. Sunday is beautiful. Here are some of my happy reasons:

-I had a good weekend, going to a babyshower, spending time with family, visiting 2 of my aunts, seeing my dog, getting some new clothes, playing piano, watching a movie.
-I slept almost all the way to church, so I got a nice 2-hour nap while Ben drove. So in spite of going to bed around 11 and getting up about 5 this morning, I feel sort of rested.
-After church we had my family over and had lunch with them and the McDonalds. The homemade cheesecake was particularly good.
-This afternoon I started on a gift for a friend, and got about 1/2-way done with it- and it looks like it's going to be nice.
-Maria and I went to the psalm sing. I practiced my alto which is still pretty shaky in spite of having been in Mr. Reagan's choir for 8 months (!). We sang a beautiful song we've been learning, for the offertory time at church (you can see it at http://www.christkirk.com/weeklybulletin/II%20Cor%209_6-7.PDF And I met a few people afterwards. And gave 2 friends a ride home.
-And I just had a delicious piece of carrot cake. It has walnuts and pineapple in it, and a frosting made with cream and cream cheese and honey. Perfect.
-Upstairs, music is on. It's in another language (sounds african), but is amazing. I want to borrow the CD.

And now, I need to get back to the weekly schedule and get ready for school tomorrow.

A poem by Hopkins

Last term at school we each memorized 35+ lines of poetry for our rhetoric class, and I chose Hopkins. Gerard Manley Hopkins was born in 1844 and became a priest.

If he's a little hard to understand, his choice of wonderful words makes up for it!

God's Grandeur
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
it gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil,
crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
and all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
and wears man's smudge and shares man's smell; the soil
is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

Yet for all this nature is never spent;
there lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
and though the last lights off the black west went,
oh, morning at the brown brink eastward, springs,
because the Holy Ghost over the bent
world broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

For starters...

The only profound thing I can think of to begin with is the origin if my blog title. The book is The Supper of the Lamb by Robert Capon, the most inspiring "cookbook" I've ever read, and the most appetizing theology book! He says, after peeling and cutting an onion:

"You see, I hope, how hard it is to rush past even a single detail. The world is such an amiable place."