And the timing really couldnt be much better. I mean, Lent DID begin yesterday, and i'm always in need of harsh lessons in spiritual reality. But let me start at the beginning:
I kept all my college notes.
Notebook after immaculate notebook full of the most pristine notes you've ever seen. I've always prided myself on my excellent note-taking ability. Thurough, integral, tri-colored script is what filled every last one of my college notebooks that i kept neatly in a cardboard box and tucked away in the basement with all of my other important-but-not-refered-to-daily documents.
Epistemology, metaphysics, ecclessiology, american history, embryology, medical bioethics, Christology - you name it, it was kept. I justified the space they took up in our already overflowing basement by saying that those notebooks WERE my college educuation... that i paid multiple 10s of thousands of dollars FOR THE INFORMATION THAT FILLED THOSE VERY NOTEBOOKS.
That's what i got away with thinking until yesterday.
Imagine my surprise when, coming home from Mass, i descended the basement stairs and found it to be a watery wasteland. (Not that i should have been entirely shocked - we've been under a flood warning for days and we get soaked out at least once every 6 months.) Toys afloat, area rugs awash in rainwater, electronics miraculously spared, and maternal fuses growing exponentially shorter by the millisecond.
The details of the rest of my very penitential day aside*, be it known that my heart was nearly rent from my chest when i found my cardboard treasure chest ON THE FLOOR (!) and in the last-to-be-investigated shadows of our overstocked basement.
My perfect notebooks, worthy of preservation for generations to come, able to impart knowledge theological to anyone willing to read and at less then 1/2000th the cost of a Bachelors Degree, were utterly waterlogged. Smeared. Soggy. Disgusting. Unsalvageble.
Fortunately for me (and - let's be honest - for everyone else in our house), i took this most wretched of discoveries and allowed the grace of God to impart to me the wisdom that theology is best learnt on one's knees.
No notebooks necessary.
And I thank Him for that.
*penitential day details - 1.) flaggrantly disobedient son who's disobedience could have been used to sanctify me had i let it 2.) I was starving - it was Ash Wednesday 3.) The brand new furnace of the downstairs unit of our rental mysteriously stopped functioning 4.) The upstairs unit of our rental barely missed going down in history by warranting an eviction hearing 5.) Said upstairs unit was left utterly destoryed (8 giant fist-punch holes in wall, filthy, full of an overused and unemptied cat litter box, whiskey bottles a-plenty strewn about, etc etc etc) by ungrateful and pitiable tenants whom i should really be praying for instead of complaining about. 6.) I was still starving. 7.) Did i mention that this is the 3rd time in 14 months that our basement has taken in massive amounts of water?
2 comments:
Erica- I am really sorry about those notebooks.My heart hurts because I know how I would feel.I've got all kinds of things around this house that I treasure because they remind me of good times/ treasured moments/God's goodness. And, I feel like I need them because I need to be reminded. I was telling Joe that Grandma R went to the emergency room Ash Wednesday two years ago. My plan was that everything would be worked out by Easter of that year, so I just tried to "offer up" for Lent, but here we are- still working on the situation. I can look back and see how God did give me special graces, though.
May the Lord have mercy on us all!
that beats any day I've heard about in a while! If there's ANYTHING Jon paul and I can do to help wring you guys out, let me know! Goodness! We could have helped you somehow!
I hope you didn't give up the Hebert's for Lent! We'd like to see you soon!
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