fire???
The emergency alarm and speaker went off while I was in the shower, for no apparent reason as usual, and when we left 7H for church a few minutes later, the elevators were inoperative. At 90 years of age, we are not walking down seven levels and back up seven levels, so instead of church this morning I had pickled artichoke hearts and a martini.
First and only martini in months, have not forgotten my usual mix: ice cubes in my shaker, an ounce jigger of English gin and one of Polish vodka, a pour of dry vermouth from France, a couple of anchovy-stuffed olives from GKWhere, a pour of olive brine, and shake shake shake. This one on ice, so instead of a martini glass, which makes it classic and proper and somehow taste more right, pour into a glass mug.
Maybe a bit of pickled herring to go with, eh?
A blessing or stroke of good fortune this morning is that we did not go to eight o'clock church and return to Harbour Village only to be confronted by no elevator service to level seven.
Cannot think why the elevator generators are off: the fire department crews with vehicles have long departed the non-event.
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A martini often brings to mind Frannie and Lane on their pathetic football weekend date, having martinis in a Manhattan cafe, with Lane asking Frannie. "Do you want another martini?" She asks for the olive from his glass, which sort of sets off the absurd tension. I come out of it knowing that Lane is a stupid ass, and imagining having a martini when I was in college that age: at the KA house on University Avenue in Gainesville, we had beer that we walked a block or so west to the beer hall, bought in quart bottles and took back to the fraternity house, as I recall in a brown paper bag. Schlitz, BTW.
This is not an alcoholic beverage blog.
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Our tentative plan - - at this age all plans are tentative - - a plan devised so I could eat oysters, was to stop for lunch at Captain's Table on the way home from church this morning. But with no church, and elevators being out, we are sticking close here in 7H, where I'll cook us hamburgers, beef patties ready and waiting in the freezer.
Clear sky. This morning the Bay is flat, little to no water traffic, which seems surprising for a weekend day. Don't suggest that maybe people have gone to church: they haven't.
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Getting the jump on the calendar, here's our OT bible story for two weeks from today. We will have finished Genesis and delved into Exodus. One of our best, this is the story of Moses and the Burning Bush. It establishes several things, including that * in the OT, the angel of God turns out to be God's own self ** holy ground is not clearly defined, we think of it as where we have to take off our shoes but a rabbinical tradition understands it as God saying, "Welcome, Moses, this is holy ground: take off your shoes and make yourself comfortable *** we do not choose God, God chooses us whether we want to go or not **** God may say things that don't make sense to us (this shall be a sign to you ... ) ***** we do not name God, God chooses God's own name ("eh-yeh," which means "BE" or basically, "whatever I say in and as my Word") ****** Moses soon finds out that he should have walk a different route that day, any other route would have done. God was lying in wait for Moses, would God have drafted just anyone who passed that way that day, or would God have been in Moses way no matter which way he walked?
Years ago, it was in the late 1980s as I recall, but maybe the early 1990s, there was an international, interdenominational "reimagining God" seminar for women in Brazil. Defiant of Christianity established, defined, and ruled entirely by males, at the gathering they had milk and honey eucharists, they refrained from using "orthodox" Christian church titles and symbolisms, and they renamed God "Sophia," choosing a feminine biblical name. But onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war, the male Christian church hierarchies were aghast; on their return home to the USA, many of the women were disciplined by their denominational authorities. My own personal objection to what they did was renaming God.
In this milieu, a name signifies. Sophia means Wisdom, which is one quality and characteristic among many, including Love, Power. Wisdom is contrasted to Folly, which is foolishness but not necessarily evil. Wisdom is an early creation of Adonai Elohim, still and always a creature, not a divinity. And most importantly, God names God's self.
The women at the Reimagining conference, God bless their hearts, could have done much better. They needed Wisdom as well as Defiance. I've not heard of them in decades, have you?
Here's that marvelous bible story:
Exodus 3:1-15
Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”
But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.” But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’“ God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’:
This is my name forever,
and this my title for all generations.