Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Ninety Nine


A desolate drive,
Not desert,
Farm after farm,
Occasional tree,
Two hours in,
Choking smell of cow.

Sister studied there,
Rural school,
Miles from home,
Chasing art and wine,
Five years in,
Fleeing parents’ grasp.

Truck stops and fast food,
Each off-ramp,
Bathrooms aplenty,
Billboards boast lawyers,
Eight eight eight,
Marring the landscape.

Dinuba Reedley,
Nuts, raisins,
Short stretch to sis,
Where’s the Kings river?
One short hop,
Sweet time with sibling.

A regal river,
Citified,
Time changes all,
Images remain,
Fifty years in,
Cherished moments still.




Thursday, October 18, 2018

Luck Has No Face



Photo by Quinten de Graaf on Unsplash


You can’t bargain with luck or argue with luck. Can’t go eye-to-eye or toe-to-toe with it. I throw on a favorite jersey, short and that comfortable pair of socks. There are a variety of socks I wear cycling and certain ones I wear most of the time.  Part comfort, part tradition. Here’s an embarrassing confession. Some socks feel luckier than others.

I’m rational. Intellectual. There’s no luck. So why, when my wife says, “Don’t get killed out there,” do I think I’m more likely to die today? How is it that a mug, a shirt, pair of socks, a pen go from utilitarian to idol? And idol it is.

“Who even comes close to being like God? To whom or what can you compare him? Some no-god idol? Ridiculous! It’s made in a workshop, cast in bronze, given a thin veneer of gold, and draped with silver filigree…” Giving luck a hat-tip belittles God and dehumanizes me. When I have a good day on the bike it’s because I’ve trained well. The muscle that turns the pedals, the blood carrying oxygen to muscle, the tires that hold air, the driver seeing me…all God.

Luck doesn’t have a face. Or heart.  I give to it a face like a little plastic tchotchke or imbue it with ‘energy’. How silly. We are impacted, and impact, the living. God has a face; bloodied and scarred. Friends and neighbors; faces all. If it feels like bad luck came calling; deal with the circumstances. When ‘good luck’ happens in bolt or streak; identify the reality of the event. Then celebrate with those individuals involved—face-to-face. Through it all give thanks to the God that blesses and makes His face shine upon us.