&c

Bits of reading early this morning, this and that. In no order. Word-A-Day and I liked Anu Garg’s “Thought” 

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

A change in perspective is worth 80 IQ points. -Alan Kay, computer scientist (b. 17 May 1940)

From DelanceyPlace.com a surprising excerpt from a book about Audrey Hepburn: she was Dutch and, with her family, Audrey as a child in the resistance movement against the Germans during the WW2 occupation of Holland, extreme, admirable risk, bravery and consequences. Brought to mind my early business involvement and friendship with three Verschoor brothers who emigrated from Holland to Australia after the War and set up Static General Engineering, a company that manufactured among other things, an air-transportable automotive product for loading and unloading pallets onto C-130 Hercules military cargo planes. They’d established Static so as to have employment and finances for bringing their parents from Holland to Australia. Leo, the oldest brother and to whom I was close during my business years after Navy retirement, Leo was the only person I ever met who spoke Australian with a strong Dutch accent. Leo remembered and described to me the Germans summoning everyone from their neighborhood out onto the street, and being forced to watch as a German soldier or officer beat his father brutally. The RAAF bought and used their product, which they called a “K-Loader,” powered by a GM Holden V8 engine; and we got the RAAF to fly one from Australia to Warner Robbins AFB south of Atlanta to demonstrate to the USAF, but the American Air Force did not buy. I was last in business contact with them about 1982 or 1984, then tried to contact them about 2010, only to be told by their successor in Static that all three had died, Leo by then dead some fifteen years, and the other two brothers had died just a couple years earlier, oddly, within three weeks of each other. 

Also read, as most days, Father Richard Rohr’s meditation for today, which brought me down to something of contemplative melancholy, I didn’t stop to figure out why.

A friend forwards me Hagerty, news for people who love cars. This morning an article about finding an original 1954 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing, a car I lusted after during my college years. Also an article slamming but with discussion, several cars, one of which I owned, bought new while in seminary but still working my business full time, a 1982 Cadillac Cimarron. Mine was white with beautiful red leather seats, a decent car notwithstanding its being bullied by the aficionados all these years. I bought it from my friend who was the Cadillac Buick dealer in Carlisle, Pennsylvania - - bought several cars from him

In 1984 when we moved from Harrisburg to Apalachicola, I drove it down, Linda drove the minivan she wanted and that I bought for her, along with a beach house at Alligator Point, as part of a “deal” to get her to move from Pennsylvania that she had grown to love and had set down roots, a new light blue 1984 Plymouth Voyager. My memory of our drive down in two cars is of me alone in my Cimarron, Linda and Tass in the van with Tassy’s two cats in cages and Linda wouldn’t let Tass take the cats out of the cages. When we stopped for lunch, somewhere in Virginia as I recall, I told Tass that if she would ride with me, she could have the cats loose; and finally I was happy: my beloved with me where I didn’t have to worry about her. We don’t like to waste cars, and some years later I gave my Cimarron to Dianne and we gave the Plymouth van to Joe. 

Todays reading for TGBC seems mundane but is a key element in Luke’s story that irrevocably sends St. Paul to Rome. We like to think that, if treated justly, Paul could have lived and preached and even made his trip to Spain. But that was never to be.

Acts 25:1-22

Paul Appeals to Caesar

Three days after Festus had arrived in the province, he went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem where the chief priests and the leaders of the Jews gave him a report against Paul. They appealed to him and requested, as a favour to them against Paul, to have him transferred to Jerusalem. They were, in fact, planning an ambush to kill him along the way. Festus replied that Paul was being kept at Caesarea, and that he himself intended to go there shortly. ‘So’, he said, ‘let those of you who have the authority come down with me, and if there is anything wrong about the man, let them accuse him.’

 After he had stayed among them for not more than eight or ten days, he went down to Caesarea; the next day he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought. When he arrived, the Jews who had gone down from Jerusalem surrounded him, bringing many serious charges against him, which they could not prove. Paul said in his defence, ‘I have in no way committed an offence against the law of the Jews, or against the temple, or against the emperor.’ But Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favour, asked Paul, ‘Do you wish to go up to Jerusalem and be tried there before me on these charges?’ Paul said, ‘I am appealing to the emperor’s tribunal; this is where I should be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you very well know. Now if I am in the wrong and have committed something for which I deserve to die, I am not trying to escape death; but if there is nothing to their charges against me, no one can turn me over to them. I appeal to the emperor.’ Then Festus, after he had conferred with his council, replied, ‘You have appealed to the emperor; to the emperor you will go.’

Festus Consults King Agrippa

 After several days had passed, King Agrippa and Bernice arrived at Caesarea to welcome Festus. Since they were staying there for several days, Festus laid Paul’s case before the king, saying, ‘There is a man here who was left in prison by Felix. When I was in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me about him and asked for a sentence against him. I told them that it was not the custom of the Romans to hand over anyone before the accused had met the accusers face to face and had been given an opportunity to make a defence against the charge. So when they met here, I lost no time, but on the next day took my seat on the tribunal and ordered the man to be brought. When the accusers stood up, they did not charge him with any of the crimes that I was expecting. Instead they had certain points of disagreement with him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus, who had died, but whom Paul asserted to be alive. Since I was at a loss how to investigate these questions, I asked whether he wished to go to Jerusalem and be tried there on these charges. But when Paul had appealed to be kept in custody for the decision of Caesar, I ordered him to be held until I could send him to Caesar.’ Agrippa said to Festus, ‘I would like to hear the man myself.’ ‘Tomorrow’, he said, ‘you will hear him.’