A Whole Lot of Rigmarole

This one's dedicated to Berry Girl because I know she will get a good kick out of it.  I told her that in recent weeks I have been meditating on the concept of speech.  How easily things roll off my tongue.  I don't think I monopolize conversations, but let's just say I don't have any problem contributing (*ahem*)... generously.  

After exchanging a few words back and forth on this (okay, more than a few in my case) I went off for story time with my kids.  I am reading The Emerald City of Oz to my first grader.  I have never read this far into the series and while I think we will stop at this 6th volume, I have to admit that I find the satire of L. Frank Baum very endearing.  I will never be able to hear a pun or a philosopher without thinking of the H.M. Wogglebug T.E.  (for those of you who don't know, the H.M. stands for Highly Magnified, and the T.E. for Thoroughly Educated.  You get the idea...)

In today's chapter Dorothy and her cohorts find themselves in a new location.  The wizard asks a boy if they are indeed in the town of the Rigmaroles.  The boy's response?

"Sir," replied the boy, "if you have traveled very much you will have noticed that every town differs from every other town in one way or another and so by observing the methods of the people and the way they live as well as the style of their dwelling places it ought not to be a difficult thing to make up your mind without the trouble of asking questions whether the town bears the appearane of the one you intended to visit orwhether perhaps having taken a different road from the one you should have taken you have made an error in your way and arrived at some point where..."

"Land sakes!" cried Aunt Em, impatiently; "what is all this rigmarole about?"

"That's it!" said the Wizard laughing merrily.  "It's a rigmarole because the boy is a Rigmarole and we have come to Rigmarole Town.

"He might have said 'yes' or 'no' and settled the question."  observed Uncle Henry. 

"Not here," said Omby Amby.  "I don't believe the Rigmaroles know what 'yes' or 'no' means."

 (me: "ha ha ha... LOL!" )  

more;

"One of the women, who had no one else to talk to, began an address to them saying;

'It is the easiest thing in the world for a person to say 'yes' or 'no' when a question that is asked for the purpose of gaining information or satisfying the curiosity of the one who has given expression to the inquiry has attracted the attention of an individual who may be competent either from personal experience or the experience of others to answer it with more or less correctness (got that Berry Girl?  the "more or less correctness" part? I think I snorted at that point) or at least an attempt to satisfy the desire for information on the part of the one who has made the inquiry by..."

"Dear me!" exclaimed Dorothy, intterupting the speech.  "I've lost all track of what you are saying." 

"Don't let her begin over again, for goodness sake!" cried Aunt Em.

But the woman did not begin again.  She did not even stop talking, but went right on as she had begun, the words flowing from her mouth in a stream.

"I'm quite sure that if we waited long enough and listened carefully, some of these people might be able to tell us something in time,"  said the Wizard.

"Well, don't let's wait,"  returned Dorothy.  

oh mercy.  I have to admit, I had a hearty, hearty laugh while reading that and the picture it paints is  going to go far and long in assisting me in my quest to speak a little less and engage others a little more.

"it does not always pay to have a golden tongue, unless one has the ability to hold it."  

Paul Johnson.

but I have to admit, I like this one....

"When the heart is full, the tongue will speak."  

Scottish Proverb

Sigh.  No excuse, but my heart is usually full to overflowing.  

All Things New

"Welcome wild harbinger of spring!

to this small nook of earth;

feeling and fancy fondly cling

round thoughts which owe their birth

to thee; and to the humble spot

where chance has fixed thy lowly lot."

To a Crocus~ Bernard Barton

"For behold the winter is past

the rain is over and gone

flowers appear on the earth

and the time of singing has come."

Song of Solomon 2:11-12

Everything in me rejoices today.  Worshiping a risen Savior.  Savoring the good gifts He gives.  Welcoming Spring with open arms.  He lives!  He makes all things new!

Yours, Without Wax.

photo credit

I love words.  I adore Latin and Greek and I thoroughly enjoy learning the modern languages that are rooted in Latin.  I especially appreciate what they teach me about the English language.  Still today, when the light bulb goes on and I "get" the hidden meaning behind the roots of a word I get a silly warm fuzzy.

This week the word that warmed the cockles of my heart was "sincere".  I could have told you the Latin roots behind the word, they are almost identical to the Italian words today.  Sine means without, and cere means wax.  So, sincere is literally "without wax".  What I didn't know, keeping the meaning of the word obscure, was the origins of this concept of "without wax".  It happens to be a very enlightening origin that shows why it's so great to know the meanings behind the words we use.

The phrase originated in the world of the craftsman.  Sculptors and potters would sometimes seek to hide or "cover up" cracks and flaws in their workmanship by coating the imperfections with wax.  A quality product would be stamped with a seal reading "sine cere" to guarantee that it had not been doctored in such a way and that what you saw was what you got.  A genuine article.

Things got even more interesting when I looked up the word sincere in the Greek.  It is translated Anupokritos.  "An", again, means "without".  Can you guess what "upokritos" means?  Maybe you got it, it's the word we get our "hypocrite" from.  "Hypocrite" in Greek referred to someone who wore a mask in a play.  Once again, a "cover up".  Just like "sine cere" referred to presenting a genuine article, to be "without hypocrisy" meant to be presenting your genuine self.

I *love* this.  A dear, dear friend of mine brought me to a turning point in my life at a young (enough) age that I will be forever grateful to him (yes, that was you Rene....).  He told me, "Just be sincere.  If you are not sincere you will never feel genuinely loved because even if people love you, you will always harbor the secret fear that if they really knew you they might not love you.  And that will eat away at you like poison, contaminating all your relationships."  Okay, maybe he didn't say that in quite as many words, but that is the message I took from him and I decided then and there that I was going to throw out all of the masks in my proverbial closet, pursue sincerity and throw insecurity and hypocrisy to the winds.  How thankful I am to have learned that lesson early.

I look around and I see that wax and masks are a hot commodity.  No one likes to feel cracked and flawed, much less have those cracks and flaws on display for the world to see.  So what do we do?  We shrink back, cover up, put on false fronts that we think look acceptable and will receive approval from the outsider looking on.  But all the time we are quaking beneath the wax.  Worried that if and when someone does discover our flaws they will look on us with disdain.

When we are sincere we have nothing to hide.  We face the world head on, without wax or masks that seek to cover up who we really are.  The cracks and nicks that we have acquired through the hard knocks of life are a part of our genuine beauty.  They are not ugly scars to be covered up in darkness behind a thick wad of protective sealing, rather they are apertures into our soul, the very soul where God's spirit indwells us.  Those cracks allow His beauty and grace to spill out, shine right through us from the inside out.

"God once said, 'Let the light shine out of the darkness!'  This is the same God who made His light shine in our hearts by letting us know the glory of God that is in the face of Christ.  We have this treasure from God, but we are like clay jars that hold the treasure.  This shows the great power is from God, not from us."  2 Corinthians 4:6,7

Sincerely yours, or.... yours, without wax,

Prairie Chick.

If Graves Could Talk

Winter is long on the prairies.  Really, reeeeeeeeeeally long.  When the snow finally starts to melt we all go a little bit crazy.   We watch the ditches like hawks, wagering on the day that the ice will finally melt in the culverts and the waters will rush on their merry way.  This is our curtain call to pull on our rubber boots, pack up our gear and head on over to the.... ummmm... 

country cemetery...

where we let our kids play in really big puddles

and some of us get really innovative on the waterproofing

(yes, that would be duct tape)

 while others of us don't even attempt to delay the inevitable

even the "big" boys put in their oar 

and even the brides to be come out in all their glowing glory

We stand around and eat piping hot chicken wings out of a crock pot

  while our kids, both big

 and little

  

chase innovative boats made by uber creative (redneck) moms and dads

It's the time of year when eager beavers can't wait to wear flip flops

even when the temperature still demands hoodies and woolen mittens

We line up rows of "bones"

for a rousing game of Bunnok

and as you can see our children are very "comfortable"

in graveyards.

 We've all heard the old adage "waking the dead"

 or making poor departed souls "roll over in their graves"

but if these old graves could talk, I don't think heads would roll.  

I think they would smile to see the young fry kicking up their heels

and be reminded of the crazy things that only a teen would ever attempt to do

  and get a kick out of kicking off spring

just as much as the rest of us.