Pic of the day: Sorry, it just had to be another spring photo. I'll stop soon.
Got a surprising phone call this morning. It was Dan, an old friend of mine, who called to tell me he was engaged to be married. That's quite a feat, I say you, for he belongs still to the extremely pious congregation known as Smith's Friends. (No relation to Joseph Smith and his desert dwellers.) These folks are rather literal on the thing about not even looking at a woman to desire her, and so the whole getting together of young people (and not so young people) can be quite a religious experience. I'll have to ask him about it some day. Anyway, they've already decided to marry on August 14, so consider that day reserved. :)
I remember this guy from he was just a kid (and quite a wild kid at that). I used to hang out with that family a lot, for years. Really until the revival/mutiny thing, when I slinked away and let the true believers fight it out among themselves. I don't bear Smith's Friends any malice. They're basically good people who want to serve God by denying their own lusts rather than by gunning down unbelievers. Sounds good to me, but sainthood is quite hard on the psyche of people who didn't want it in the first place.
If I live long enough, I may write a novel or two loosely based
on the pietist lifestyle. I have a couple of half finished
ones. "The Wedding of the Wolf" comes to mind, a story based on
my own youthful exercises in mentally crucifying my aggression
and my sexuality. It's rather sinister, as opposed to my actual
life. Several of my works from that time deal with the borderline
of insanity. I have some quite old ones that are really long,
about religious computer nerds who never dare to admit their love
and slowly go mad.
Yeah, I was younger then.
There's also a story in a much lighter mood which I wrote later,
based more on some young guys I had met in the congregation. It
features a young boy with an absolute phobia for all things sexual,
and his terrible ordeal in the modern world. ("I'm not going to
rape you - I'm unarmed, I'm only half your strength, and besides
I am the girl!") It's not very explicit really - perhaps I should
finish it.
Hah! As if I ever finish anything I do. I can't remember the
last time I did that.
Not just books. Work, studies ... you name it, I start it and
then leave it unfinished. I remember when I was a kid, I used
to play the organ (we're talking the music instrument here) and
how I made sure not to play the last few bars of the last song
before I finished for the evening. The idea was that if I finished,
my life might be finished and I might die. Hey, I said I was a
kid.
Back to the present ... actually, back to the future: The day trip to Oslo. I don't have to steal after all. The province level folks ordered the tickets for me. For the future, I'm supposed to get a credit card so I don't need to pay for these things until after I've got the refund. Sounds reasonable enough. Of course, having a credit card is the economic equivalent of moving slowly through the red light district. Temptation, disaster or any combination thereof lurks at every corner. Come to think of it, I could use a new computer. Or two...
Finally, on an even lighter note:
Spurred on by the irrepressible GabGab,
I checked out some anagrams for my name (other words made by
shuffling the letters). Varying from the descriptive ("adult man sing" and
"a glum stand-in") to the poetic ("sandman guilt" and "damn snug tail") to
the absurd ("aim stun gland" and "mud ant signal") to the patently
false ("lad in Mustang", "slim and gaunt"). Make your own anagram
today! I could have linked directly to one of the anagram engines,
but then you would lose out on the GabGab gab. Don't.