sitting – Page 5

Women

When I was growing up I began to struggle with the difference between how the Bible says women should be treated and the way they were treated. I was happy we weren’t following the Bible’s teachings, I felt women should be the equals of men, but how can you claim the Bible is the word of God and then choose to ignore the words? Were people created in God’s image or the other way around? The teachers I talked to never gave a convincing answer, mostly just that it was a cultural difference, but that didn’t make sense to me as it was a cultural difference back then too.

I started reading the Bible cover to cover and struggled with some of the old heroes of the Bible, some of whom seemed to me to be monsters, and sometimes God too. And then I got to Judges Chapter 4.

Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time.
Judges 4:4

Wait. What?

According to Judges, Deborah was not just the person the people chose as judge, but also the person God chose as prophet. God tells Deborah he’s going to give Israel a great victory against their oppressors, so she tells her commander to gather his troops. Such is the commander’s faith in her and in God’s faith in her, and such is his fear of the fearsome chariots of the enemy, that he says he will go but only if she goes with him. She goes, and rout the enemy they do, not just in this battle but in others that follow. The book of Judges has many judges set as examples, some as good and some as bad, but Deborah is one of the greats.

So I began to wonder, why is her story forgotten, why did our religion choose sexism instead, to the harm of billions over thousands of years? And not just sexism, but racism, and homophobia, and on and on? I eventually decided the Bible was not the words of God but the words of men trying to understand the nature of God, and of themselves.

We need not be monsters. This is how Deborah’s story concludes:

Then the land had peace forty years.
Judges 5:31b

If you take the Bible at its word, two generations grow up in peace because of one woman, their judge and God’s prophet.

God took delight in her, pity we don’t.

The Morning Watch

Welcome morning, at long last. I am Ellie, defender in the darkness, champion of the light, she who watches. Let us walk now together into the waiting world.

Chaos at the Edge of Change

Back in March, shortly after the new Sony camera arrived, I looked up to see Boo standing amidst cameras and lenses stacked on my desk, some rather close to the edge. On the left was an old, well-used and well-loved Canon lens (the original 24-105mm) that I was trading in as part of a special to get the lens on the right, the Sony Zeiss 55mm 1.8 prime. Back behind him was the Canon mirrorless camera that was also being replaced with the Sony. I didn’t open the new lens until I was sure the old one had been received and evaluated, but I drew my breath in at the thought if Trixie jumped up and startled him the new lens might go tumbling before ever being used. Rather than risk startling him myself I did the next logical thing, took his picture with the new camera, and he soon hopped down without incident and I moved the lenses back from the edge.

I Don’t Put My Cats Up On a Pedestal …

… but I might put them on a stool. This picture of Boo is from March, I had just received my Sony A6500 camera and wanted to give it a quick test. Having only shot with Canon for a couple of decades I didn’t know how to do much other than press the shutter, but I put Boo and Sam up on the stool for some quick test shots. I tried Trixie too but she was not so willing to pose. Taken with the Sony Zeiss 24mm f/1.8 lens, which I thought would be a favorite, and it is. Lighting is a mix of late afternoon light coming from the big picture window behind me and room lighting from the room to my left.

Snow at a Distance

Boo and I have to enjoy this snow at a distance. Though inches apart Boo was separated from the snow by many degrees as he enjoyed the start of a rare heavy snowstorm from the warmth of one of our picture windows. For me I went out into the snow the next morning when Ellie and I took our walk, but am now separated by time. I can but look back and try to remember the cold and the quiet as we are in the midst of a long dry and hot spell in summer, surely as close to the sun as Boo was to the snow, the snowy night but a distant memory.

I Let the Cat Out of the Bag

How Much Loved Is That Trixie in the Window?

With all my heart, our little Squeaks McGee, with all my heart.

Visions of Boo

One of the downsides to getting older is seeing your vision get worse and worse. The latest example for me personally was believing I saw Boo on the kitchen counter, right next to the stove, but knowing this could not be the case. Boo is not allowed on the kitchen counters and knows he is not allowed on the kitchen counters. I’ve had such visions before, but they usually vanish as I approach, a form of far-sightedness I suppose. This time the vision stayed until I was so close I could have reached out and touched him.

My eyes betray me.

Boxless

You might not recognize him since he’s not sitting in a box, but this is our cat Boo.

Detective Samwise

I’m pleased to announce that we’ve begun production on a new TV series called Detective Samwise, a show in the long tradition of slightly silly murder mysteries. Detective Samwise is called in to investigate a string of cat burglaries, in which it turns out actual cats are being stolen. By coincidence our hero detective is himself a cat, so he goes undercover to catch the thief red-handed but finds more than he bargained for when he discovers a murder most foul! We are having some issues with the actress playing our murder victim, however, as while she’s quite good at laying still, she keeps swiveling her ears around so she can hear if craft services has started laying out snacks.