ODDS & ENDS VIII: PANTHERS, SUPPLY CHAINS, ET AL [W, 10-13-21]

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter

As you know, Helen has a “different” outlook on sports, which earned her the title, with our then-teen daughters, not of “the color commentator,” but “the off-color commentator.” In today’s newspaper this was the title on a sports page article: “Panthers Pummel Penguins.” She said, “Well, they’d be pretty poor panthers if they couldn’t pummel penguins.”

It reminds me of when my school chum, Mike Dickey, RIP, was coaching a grade school football team called the Panthers. He got mad at them and told them, “I’m taking away your name. You are not worthy of it. You cannot call yourselves Panthers anymore.”

After he sent them away, one of the fathers came up to him. Mike was tough and muscular--back in high school days, forty years before--but not a big man—about 5’9, 160 lbs. He said, “This guy was huge. Like a truck driver or construction guy. He was glowering. Then he teared up and said, ‘Does that mean I can’t call myself a Panther, either?’”

“A woman is like a tea bag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.” Eleanor Roosevelt

Facebook “suggested” a post for me that was headed “Only women will understand.” I think I’m complimented…

“The Kingdom of God is not for the well-meaning but for the desperate.”  James Denney

We hear quite a bit these days about the economic recovery--following the pandemic, as though it’s over, which it is not—being “K shaped,” meaning simply that parts of the economy are recovering at different rates from other parts. That sounds “N shaped” to me, meaning Normal, but I guess it’s isn’t. I once had a Plymouth “K car,” and it rarely recovered at all, so maybe the economy is named for it.

A title popped into my head, prompted by recent events. Stuck in the Suez Again. It might be a novel, or short story, but I usually think of titles as belonging to sermons. The good thing about a sermon title like Stuck in the Suez Again is that it’s intriguing, catches attention, because it’s timely, but any aspect of the Gospel can fit into it. I’d probably go with Jesus’ story about putting your trust in stuff, about the man who amassed so much stuff that he had to build bigger warehouses but died anyway. If you can’t get along without the stuff that is stuck in the Suez, you need to redo your life. “Do not put your trust in the supply chain, where moth and rust corrupt.”

When our granddaughter was a student at MI State U, just a few years ago, “supply train management” had more students than any other major. They must have some pretty bad teachers.

“The sweet poison of the false infinite…” CS Lewis

“Nobody wants to read about a soldier who’s just a little brave.” F. Scott Fitzgerald on writing. I suppose in writing, that makes sense, but in my experience, it’s the little bits of bravery that get us by.

“If God exists, he isn’t just butter and good luck.” Mary Oliver

John Robert McFarland