Indian Summer in the Tropics

Indian Summer in the Tropics

By David Roth

© 23^rd October, 2010

Thick.

Palpable.

Air.

Heavy with the fragrant potpourri

of coconut palm, southern pine,

gardenia, and jasmine;

a margarita of soggy gulf breeze

draped in mangrove root

and dusted with salt flavored sand.

Dank moisture laden wind

 brings no relief from the heat

of sub-tropical noon.

Long after Luna has followed

old Sol into Poseidon’s depths

and the wish filled  twinkle

of the milky way has lulled

the tiny things that bite

to somnambulant respite,

the sticky sweet veil of mist remains

in air.

Palpable.

Thick.

In the Beginning, God…!

“In the beginning, God…”

These words, the first four words of Genesis chapter 1, verse 1, may be the four most profound words in the whole of the Bible. And the single four word phrase, perhaps the singularly most important statement in all of Scripture – any scripture recorded in the sacred writings any faith. It is this statement alone that establishes the mood for everything else in the Bible.

Wait, you say, I know this one. It’s about the Christian myth of Creation. While I agree that it establishes the foundation for the creation story, I reject the concept of it being a myth. Everything is the entire Bible is predicated upon the understanding that this is a true and literal statement, and by implication, therefore everything which follows must also be true and literal unless context and the test of comparing Scripture to Scripture show it to be otherwise.

That means when you read that all of creation was spoken into being in seven days, it was seven literal days. That means when it says Noah built the ark, Noah built the ark. That means when Moses says the Red Sea parted and the Israelites crossed on dry land, it means Red Sean and not Reed Sea, and a whole bunch of Egyptians, their horses, and their chariots were flooded over when the sea came back together. It means the walls of Jericho did fall down, Daniel and friends did survive the fiery furnace, Jonah was puked up by a large fish, Jesus was God made flesh as a baby born of a virgin girl, and not a young maiden, did raise the dead, turn water into wine, calm raging sea, feed five thousand, die on the cross at Calvary, return from the dead, ascend into Heaven, and will come again.

All this in four words:

“In” wrapped within the very origin and participating in, participation inseparable from the subject.

“The” a specific identifier, exclusively identifying something unique, individual, and specific.

“Beginning” (Hebrew) rê'shı̂yth - the first, in place, time, order or rank (specifically a firstfruit): - beginning, chief (-est), first (-fruits, part, time), principal thing; in the eternity before ‘time’ was time.

“God” (Hebrew) 'ĕlôhı̂ym – a unique Hebrew plural form which means three, the first reference to a triune Deity.

Four words, but containing in them, the whole of the essence of Scripture. They establish four things:

· God is Triune

· God, in his triune form existed in the eternity before anything else that is, was.

· God was, Is, and will be. When nothing was, He is. When nothing is left, He is.

· Everything that happens form this point forward, even unto the eternity of an unknown future, will be because God in His triune form is and will be when this present universe no longer exists.

And because of these four words, there is the implicit understanding that everything else God says, either directly to his servants, or through his servants as they penned the original manuscripts of Scripture, is equally true, because He is true, and because He is God. The whole of the truth of Scripture is contained in those words, “In the beginning, God!”

The rest of Scripture simply confirms this. In the Beginning, God. It the Middle, God. In the end, God. Philosopher Francis Schaeffer said “He (God) is there and He is not Silent. From this, the only hope for mankind is in the promise of God who said “I am the way , the truth, and the life. No one can get to Heaven except through me. (John 14:6)

Hudson Holiday Writer's Fair

It’s really not too early to begin thinking about Christmas gifts for your loved ones, and if you want to combine early shopping, casual atmosphere, and an opportunity to meet the individuals who are the creative minds behind your purchases, The Holiday Writer’s Fair at Brentwood Estates Clubhouse, Brentwood Estates, 15025 Savannah Avenue, Hudson, FL  34667 on Saturday, December 11^th , 2010 from 1:00 – 3:00 PM is just the place for you.  Brentwood Estates is an upscale mobile home park located on New York Avenue and Hicks Road (about 1/2 mile east of Little Road.)

In addition to paintings by local artist Richard Brehm of Brentwood, the following authors will be participating in this event, giving you the opportunity to meet them, and purchase signed copies of their work.

•          Jerry Ravino, retired U.S. Marine, resident of Beacon Woods, author of ELITE (a chronicle of the activities of the First Marine Recon Company during the Korean War) and FLAME DRAGONS (a chronicle of the activities of the only flame thrower tank unit to serve in Korea during that was. Jerry was a member of that unit.)
•          David Roth, of New Port Richey and author of SOMETIMES I HEAR VOICES, ALICE'S GOLDFINCH and ADVENTURES OF THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN. David has also published poetry and is a recognized and oft published book reviewer. David will also be giving a fifteen minute presentation of the subject of Writers and their Craft.
•          Lisa Grace, author of ANGEL IN THE SHADOWS, A Christian alternative for Young Adult readers to the recent Vampire and Demon phenomenon Ms. Grace will be speaking on the subject of The Evidence of Real Angels.
•          Jeff Cannon is president of the Pasco County Historical Society and has written several books covering the history of some of the towns (by the standards of a "big city boy" there are no cities in Pasco County) in Pasco County including one on the community of Hudson. Jeff will be speaking about writing about local history. Mr. Cannon is a recognized expert on that little cemetery located on Hudson Avenue and US 19.
•          Elissa Malcohn is a published author of a number of science fiction/fantasy books and poems. Her "science fiction" is not about rocket ships and zap guns. The science(s) she fictionalizes are psychology and sociology, using humanoid (but not necessarily human) characters and earth-like settings to make her points. In addition to those books she has published herself, she has appeared in other publications such as the October/November issue of Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine. Ms. Malcohn will also be making a brief presentation.
•          Alfred J. (Joe) D'Amario, author of HANGAR FLYING and his current work in progress, TWO ON THE RAMP AND ONE IN THE HANGAR.

Each of these artists/writers/speakers is from the local area, but their work, while undiscovered by the big publishing houses, is well worth your attention.  Reviews of several of them have already appeared in this column.

Mark your calendars and make a date for this event.  Admission is free.

In Other Words

In Holland and other international circles, today would be notated as 20.10.2010.  I wonder what numerologists would make of that?  Should we be demanding a recount for the Mayan calendar?

I had a dream.  I was gonna buy the old fire station in Dormont, PA, and convert it into a three floor artist’s dream.  First level would be a gallery for local amateur artists to display their work.  Second level would be a gourmet coffee house with an in-house bean roaster and professional sound and light stage for local, amateur musicians to have a venue to polish their acts, and poets once a week.  The third level would be, well, ya gotta live somewhere.  I’d tear down the three stall garage that used to hold fire trucks and turn it into parking for gallery and coffee house customers.

That was the dream.  Life intervened, and I’m helping my wife care for her mother in Florida.  As far as I know, the once and future Dormont Sound, Soul and Bean Shoppe is still just a big empty building with a 3-BATruck garage.

I’ve spent the last few days trying to put together a 48 page chapbook of stories and poetry all having a December/Christmas theme.  This is comprised of pieces I’ve already written over the last five or so years.  No writing in this project, just compiling things I’ve already written, and I even had some great feedback on how to produce/publish it in time for a gig I’m doing in just a little over 6 weeks.  I’ll be setting up a table with everything, but especially the new bit, and doing a 15-minute presentation on writing.

To paraphrase Bill Cosby (who I’m certain was quoting idioms from my mother), if you think writing isn’t work – you’ve got another think coming.  Even just polishing this little publication – little more than a pamphlet – is a lot of work!  Think about it – twelve sheets of 8 ½ x 11 paper, folded in half to make 48 pages and one more sheet for the cover.  And I’ve been wrestling with it for two days and parts of two nights.  Coming up with a cover idea, placing the text, formatting it.  I used a template for Microsoft Office 2007 Publisher designed expressly for chapbooks, but even with that,  I had to manually place every sheet of text because Auto Flow has a mind of its own.

Now, that part of it is done, but it still has to be printed, copied, collated, folded, covered and stitched, and if possible, have the end trimmed to it looks even on the opening edge.  The only actual writing I did for this was the acknowledgements page, TOC and Author’s Bio.

And to tell you the truth?  Writing is the easy part.  Then you have to edit it so it makes some sort of sense to the reader.

This is my job now.  I write and hope it sells or gets noticed.  I polish, buff, wax, shine, and perform delicate cosmetic surgery on the faces of the characters, and sometimes have to cut their hearts out.  As a writer I do it whether I get paid or not.  But it isn’t easy.  Fun, yes, but easy?  No way.  A writer friend says of potential authors, if you’re waiting for your grant to write, you’re not a writer.  A writer writes.  Period.  Sometimes if we work hard enough at it, and get just a little bit of luck, maybe we get paid.  But a writer makes his own luck more often than not.  It’s not a thing for the faint of heart.

I’ll have a double shot ‘Irish’ espresso, please.

Fork in the Road

I find on this cool, crisp -  well, cool and crisp for Florida anyway day (it’s noon:26 and already 82°) that I’m at a fork in the road.

I’m already smiling because even the words ‘fork in the road’ bring an old Animaniacs cartoon moment to mind, and you’ll either get that, or you won’t.

In the years I’ve had a BLOG, first on Yahoo 360°, then on Xanga, and now on Blogger, I’ve been somewhat vociferous in my observation of various political personalities, ranging from President George W. ‘Dubya’ Bush and his ‘Finish Daddy’s War’ presidency to Barack Obama’s “Apologize for America World Tour” to his campaign slogan “We live in the greatest nation in the world – help me change that.” (I pause to acknowledge that he is succeeding in keeping that promise anyway).  I have tried to be an equal opportunity pundit – pretty much railing on them all.

Then a few weeks ago I heard a preacher say something that got my attention.  I have the audio file, so I could look it up and quote him verbatim, but instead I’ll save us all time by giving you the Readers Digest version.   Paraphrasing Pastor Eric Flint from his message on Jonah,  Pastor Eric is the Music Director for Faith Community Church-Lakeside, in McMurray, PA, a community in southwest Pennsylvania about 18 miles south of Pittsburgh, just east of the same US-19 that continues its southerly trek about eight blocks west of my Florida home.  He is a gifted guitarist among other things.  On this particular Saturday night, he too came to a fork in the road and did a brief bit of Rabbit Chasing.  Here’s the synopsis.

“It really doesn’t matter who we elect and send to Washington.  It’s not going to change this nation.  The only thing that will make any difference in this nation is for every American to experience personal repentance and individual personal revival.”

There was more to the statement than that, but that’s the gist of it.  Our nation is in need of spiritual revival, and it’s not going to start in Washington DC or our individual state houses.  It’s only going to happen in each of our individual hearts, souls and lives.

Consider the words spoken by the Lord to Solomon as recorded by Ezra the priest in 2 Chronicles, 7:14 “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Or those of Daniel in the 21^st verse of the second chapter of the book bearing his name: “He (God) changes times and seasons; he sets up kings and deposes them.  He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.”

The conclusion I draw is that while I should vote, and exercise wisdom in so doing, the real issue here is that in the end, this is all in God’s hands, and as Pastor Eric that Saturday night in September concluded, “God always has a plan.”  The next morning, Pastor Curt Carpenter concluded “God is in control.”  The conclusion of Senior pastor Tom Lemmon, echoed by Pastor David Miles Sunday here in our Florida church agrees.  God is in control, and the thing that will restore America is not a change of elected officials – that’s in God’s hand, but rather, a change in the hearts, minds and souls of individual people.  Revival begins with repentance – turning from sin and to God.  Of Trusting Jesus Christ as Savior, and committing our lives and trust to Him and His eternal glory.  Of repentance and change.  One person at a time.

I may make the occasional political observation in this forum, but for now, there are priorities of more eternal value, and other things to talk about.

November On Deck

November On Deck

By David Roth

© 18^th October, 2010

It paces nervously

at the intersection

of the eves of All Hallows

and All Saints

and fidgets with impatience

as the fading blaze

of October drips red and green

in cider orchards

and the mottled orange

of wannabe jack-o-lanterns.

Wrapped in a full length coat

of maple, beech and oak

it blows a frosty kiss

to the boys of summer

and the last mad dash of

hunter-gatherer children

storing up bits of chocolate

in their rosy pink cheeks

like chipmunks before the snow flies.

November waits on deck

peering anxiously over

bundles of cut, baled hay

and stalks of earless corn

that cannot hear the hunters horn

or the wild turkey’s final gobble

or the thrashing throes of death

of the hare or twelve point buck

that meets the shotgun shell.

A cold wind blows

through hill and vale

and whisks away the final glow

of autumn in an icy glaze

when the light at the corner

of witches masks and long dead saints

changes its symbol to ‘walk’

and November steps up to the plate.

Monday, Monday

It’s Monday, so I’m not out of the woods yet.  I’m trying to type this with all three sets of fingers and thumbs, and was tempted to cut my writing time by about 75% by just typing and not bothering to make it ready for prime time.  Sadly, in just those two sentences, I had seven typos, pretty much all of which were left hand fat-finger typos, so I’m taking the time to fix stuff.  It will quadruple the time it takes to write this, but at least it won’t look like I’m as clumsy as I am.

The problem is that while the left hand started out working OK, just typing that single paragraph has tightened everything up from the shoulder on down.  I’m now officially typing with the full capacity of my right hand, but only about one and a half fingers on the left.  The left pinky and ring finger have taken the rest of the day off, and about all the middle finger is good for now is to flip someone off, which neither contributes anything to the creation of this document,  nor do I feel even the slightest inclination to so employ the aforementioned set of phalanges.

Monday is my busiest day if everything falls into place.  Generally speaking, I try to write a BLOG, and if they weren’t ready Sunday night, I download a couple of 45-60 minute long audio files to edit them so they can be uploaded back to the home server and then broken up into two or three radio broadcasts back in Pittsburgh.  I spend the meat of Monday editing so both are complete before I go to bed.

How long this process takes depends on who is speaking.  There are three or four people who preach back at our home church in Pittsburgh in addition to the Senior Pastor.  He is usually the easiest and quickest to edit.  The other guys take a little more work mostly because their preaching style is different than the Senior Pastor’s, and since I edit his more often than anyone else, I am more familiar with his style of speaking.

This particular Monday morning began a little differently.  On Mondays and Thursdays, MIL has a personal aide who comes to help her bathe.  About a month ago, the aide mentioned that she had never had Eggs Benedict (poached egg on ham or Canadian Bacon on a toasted English muffin, lathered in Hollandaise sauce) so while she was bathing MIL, I prepared her special breakfast.

The bad news is that her granddaughter took her out to breakfast yesterday morning, and she ordered it at a local restaurant.  The good news is that she said my sauce tasted better.

The best news?  While she was eating the breakfast I prepared for her, the discussion turned to things political, and I was able to share Christ with her by mentioning something I’d heard one of the Saturday night preachers say in his message a couple of weeks ago.  (Pastor Tom, challenge met – and it’s not even lunch time!)  What was said?  I’m glad you asked.

While editing the September 25^th (I think) message, I heard the speaker say something along the lines of  “It really doesn’t matter who you send to Washington.  Republican, Democrat or something else – they’re not going to change this nation.  The only thing that will change America is personal repentance, personal revival, personal return to God.  2 Chronicles 7:14 says ‘if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.’  Individual personal revival spreading across the land is the only thing that will change America.”

Now, 45 minutes later (Yes, it took that long to type just over 650 words), if you will excuse me, it’s Monday, and I have some editing to do.