Connection in a Field of Rye

Well maybe it wasn't exactly a field of rye that I was tromping through this afternoon as I stretched the kinks out of my restless legs, but my thought for the day came in a moment of epiphany as I contemplated hordes of small birds rising from perches hidden in the waving brown stalks. Connection. Something we all need to survive and yet, the older we grow, the more we seem to lose the capacity to connect easily. Little babies need to be touched and held, to know that someone cares about them, or they will die. Toddlers find it easy to connect with others as they beam missing-teeth-grins up at anyone who will stoop to their knee-high level. Pre-teens and soon teenagers, they continue connecting through best friends and puppy love. Young adults begin to learn, though, the harsh lessons of "letting go" and "moving on" as they search for the perfect job and the perfect spouse in the perfect environment. It is then that we need connection the most and yet when we find it the least.

Well, I've just spent the last 3 hours doing homework and trying to write deep philosophical essays based on deep philosophical books, so my brain is a little fried right now! Here are some bits and pieces from here and there.

"You can have more degrees than a thermometer, but yet not be very wise." Karl Haffner.

According to a study done by UNICEF, the country that has the happiest children is the Netherlands. The US is next to last, right before the UK, out of 21 countries. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6360517.stm

Campmeeting was not without its humorous moments. A three-man trio on guitars did special music on Sabbath. As they solemnly strummed away, they quivered in true country style, "Fur He saaaved the wurst amung u. . .and I know, yes I know, Jesus' bloooood kin make the viiiilest sinnur kleeen." Kinda reminded me of Andy Griffith.

The junior clinic orchestra attempted to play Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring for offertory. Everyone clapped at the end, more out of relief that the song was over than anything else! The instruments started out together, at least, but about halfway through, the trumpets decided to take the path-less-traveled-by, while the flute went meandering down by the stream, the strings were harmonizing to a "new song" and the piano continued to pound out the notes, albeit slightly faster than before. The director bravely carried for another five minutes of the painstakingly painful rendition until she turned the last page of the music and ended with a flourish, with the instruments straggling to a close in various keys.

I seem to have an admirer. He's about 55, short, balding, and slightly pudgy. At lunch on Friday I was reading "The Book of Romance," one of my textbooks, while quietly eating in the cafeteria and minding my own business. The aforementioned person (who I do not know by name yet, most thankfully!), leaned over from the adjacent table and with a too-bright smile, asked what I was reading. I told him, he had a couple of questions about the book, and the conversation ended. Unfortunately, I probably was a little too friendly (blame it on the fact that I'm a sanguine and I can't help being friendly, especially when I don't talk to people for hours on end!) as Sabbath lunch he came around for the second time. This time we were at least two tables apart and I hadn't even noticed him or made intentional eye contact. I was again calmly eating my lunch when I looked up to see him beaming away in my peripheral vision. He didn't stay there, of course, and in a split second he was about two feet away, asking if I wasn't the person who was reading a book in the caf on Friday. Stupid me, I should have replied, "A book? I have absolutely no idea what you are referring to, I am illiterate," but as wit and speed do not always come to my rescue, I acknowledged that it indeed was myself. He wanted to know who the author of the book was, this time, and I said it was Tommy Nelson and he thought he could find it on Amazon and I hastily agreed. Thankfully that brought the conversation to a close, though he did pass my table several more times on his way for refills, during which I looked most studiously at my dinner roll or appeared absorbed in my mac-and-cheese dish. I dearly hope he was only here for campmeeting and that I shan't see him again tomorrow at lunch, beaming expectantly and wanting to know how many pages are in that book!!! Hysterically, the book is about Song of Solomon (which of course I happily told him the first time he asked about what I was reading) and is a Biblical commentary of love and intimacy within marriage. Mooooooom, why did you bring me up to be so polite and friendly???

It's been lovely weather in the past 24 hours. Cooled down dramatically and I absolutely loved my walk this afternoon in the fresh air, after which I went and studied outside for another hour and a half. Oh how I long to knock out the entire wall next to my bedroom and replace it with a floor-to-ceiling window with full screen so I can breath in deeply nstead of relying on 5 inches to keep the air circulating. I shan't complain, though. It could be worse, and guess what? I can sit outside and pick up wireless anywhere. It's amazing! I still hate the water, my mattress is as unyielding as ever, I'm rather lonely (maybe I should get a dog, hahahah), and mealtimes are a little too stressful, but I'm gonna stick it out :) At least for another week. . . .tehehehe.