Hayter for October 22, 2023
From the Porch
It’s been a good while since I sat on the back porch of an evening. It’s the coolness of the outdoors that got me out here today. For a good while it’s been too miserable outdoors to consider a porch sit. Perhaps you noticed.
Things were so much more open during the times I conversed with you while sitting on the roof. It’s been at least six years since I last came to you from The Rooftop. I thought it a great idea, one that visited me back in… when? It had to be around 1982, The idea came due to a deadline that was biting me in the rear.
I eventually stood in the backyard and looked around. Still, no topic came to mind. Eventually, the roof hit me. Bonk! I immediately considered it a location for ideas. I went into the house to get a flashlight. When Kay asked what I was doing I said, “I’m going to sit on the roof.” Kay’s response was, “Well, be careful.”
I placed the lawn chair in a position where it straddled the roof. It just seemed so much safer that way. I decided to climb to the roof to see if the mental fog would lift. It did.
I’m telling you, the mind has a bunch of different personalities depending on your location. When you’re in school, you can keep up with only so many tiresome topics. Eventually, your mind introduces you to some happy thoughts or interesting possibilities that tend to push you over the walls of wherever you are.
I got lost in such thoughts as a student and also as a teacher. – “Mr. Hayter, what song is it you’re humming?” – “What? Oh, sorry, uh, ‘Night Moves’ by Bob Seeger’. So did y’all finish part three of the 14th Amendment? --Christopher, what did you get out of it?” -- “Let’s see, it said something about public officials who took an oath of allegiance to the U.S. Constitution but got involved in a rebellion against the Constitution. Because of that, they could no longer serve in public office.– Surely we won’t need Part 3 of the 14th again, Mr. Hayter.”
“Hopefully not, Chris, and don’t call me Shirley.”
Yes, it can be difficult to stay on task while in school. “Stay on task!” Those three words were uttered a bunch in school. As I teacher, I don’t remember ever using them. I preferred “Get busy!” It’s more down to earth.
I find it difficult, at times, to keep my mind from drifting during a sermon. It was much harder when I was young, but even today, I can experience mind drift during a sermon. The Apostle Paul claimed to be a horrible speaker, yet, he generally managed to gather a large group around him. Of course, a lot of the gatherers were hoping he’d say something that they could kill him over.
Yep, religious thought can be as messed up as you let it. For example, Genesis 1: 1, reads, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” That’s a bit vague. The beginning of what? The beginning of “now”? What was out there before the beginning? There apparently wasn’t any light, because God created light in the beginning.
Questions like that were taboo when I was young. Probably why few ever brought ‘em up. I’m assuming that church officials believed each questionable thought might cause you to lose your religion. I can only imagine how much pressure Einstein was under. You ask me, God does not fear Man’s thoughts.
I don’t have the answers to my strange thoughts about eternity, infinity, and how it relates to God. What I do have is faith. Faith is something I cannot prove. It’s got too many parts that I do not have answers for.
I choose not to trust my faith over my ignorance. As one’s ignorance begins to dissipate, even more questions will arise. Before all thoughts die, I much prefer getting rid of as much ignorance as I can. I don’t know if I’m doing all that well right now, but God seems to bless me with insight on a few things now and again.
Sitting on the back porch helps my thought process a little bit. But, on the rooftop, my brain went everywhere. But, almost six years ago, we purchased a house in a subdivision with some dangerously slanted rooftops. They’re only dangerous if you happen to be sitting on one of them.
If I recall, the topic of my one and only article from this rooftop had something to do with the horrors of the experience.
That was back then. Right now, I am comfortably and safely sitting in a lawn chair on the porch. While I was telling you all of that other stuff, I heard a tune being broadcast by a popsicle truck. It took me awhile, but I discovered the tune to be “la-cucaracha”. The ice cream guy was playing it much too slow.
The popsicle man of my childhood played “All around the mulberry bush, the monkey chased the weasel…” A fascinating tune. I do not recall ever getting to buy a popsicle from the popsicle man. Whoever he was, he drove an old Ford pickup with a big freezer compartment where the bed of the truck used to be. Inside the freezer, he had a truckload of popsicles, fudgesicles, and Eskimo pies. And other great things, that parents of one or two kids could afford.
I never knew any kid whose daddy was a popsicle man. That would’ve been the luckiest kid in town. He could’ve gotten a girlfriend at the snap of a finger. I would’ve even dated him.
Oh, well. Those were some of the days, my friend. None of them were more pleasant than the memories. Time can cause a person a lot of physical pain, but one’s memory can bring about a pleasant lapse. Such a blessing. – Next time.
end
hayter.mark@gmail.com
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