Sep 01, 2007 22:46
There is a blackberry bush growing over our fence and into our backyard. I’m not complaining, though-free blackberries! And the fruit is growing heavy on the vine. I’ve already picked two bowls full of berries, and tomorrow I’ll pick a third. The laziness of my neighbor is not always to be abhorred. At least not in the cases where free blackberries are involved…
***
It was a warm day today. Jason and Holly loaded all of their worldly belongings into a U-Haul, drove them here to Eugene, and with my help, and the help of others, unloaded them into a storage center which boasted an absurd castle-style, concrete frontage.
***
After our work was done we parted ways and went home.
***
A few hours later we met up again at Taco Loco and Jason and Holly bought us dinner for helping them move. They brought along friends. Brandon (who helped us unload Jason and Holly’s things) and his girlfriend, who was named, I believe, Alex. But I’ll correct myself later if I’m wrong.
The meal was enjoyable and Brandon and his girlfriend were easy to get along with. They were even fun to be around. Jason and Brandon regaled us with humorous stories from their past together, and it was a joy to listen quietly to the conversation of a small group of very lovely people.
Brandonhad somewhat the look of the modern hipster, though his attitude did not at all reflect any of the annoying qualities of an actual hipster. His girlfriend was quietish, but very funny when she spoke, and she was pretty. Not elaborately pretty, which is the vain prettiness of the women who paint their faces and adorn themselves to be looked upon by men and women with lust and jealously, but rather the simple prettiness that is the natural beauty of a girl who is pretty for no other reason than that God made her pretty. Needless to say, I liked them both and hope to make friends of the both them. (Which some might find surprising, because I’ve become known as someone who is bitter towards the human race, because I have given up parties and other social events.) But I think I’m somewhat misunderstood. I’ve never stopped loving mankind, even if I've said several times, "I hate mankind!" I’ve stopped loving the evil things that man does. However, I shouldn’t speak too boldly, because I am still guilty of a number of sins which, when I see them being done by other men I am infuriated, but when I do them myself, I am delighted.
Though I am foolish, I am at least wise enough to know that the answer (as we vaguely call Truth) does not lie in ourselves. At least-the answer does not lie in me. I have looked there time and time again I have not found it. I have found only wickedness and worthlessness. No, the answer was never in the self, but outside of the self. If, even for a moment, the whole race of man believed that the answer to Truth was in our own selves, and if we began only to look into ourselves, we would quickly lose even the little bits of the truth that we do have. For man is like a circle. He runs around and around himself never finding anything of lasting value. And his circular running wears him out. It kills him. But the man in God, the man clothed in Christ, is like a cross. He reaches north and south, east and west, and he reaches on forever, he reaches on eternally, outward into all the four directions. And, like the four winds, he is always blowing over some place new.