Dispelling the Darkness

When I walked in the Assisted Living Home, Comer and Evelyn were sitting side by side under the entry way chandelier. They were holding hands, looking straight ahead, dressed in Sunday clothes. Evelyn wore a beautiful necklace, and pink leather shoes. Comer wore a sports coat, and pinstriped shirt.Their expressions and posture were poised in expectant waiting.And I was 5 minutes early. I wondered how long they had been sitting there, leaning forward in their seats, dressed in all their finery, waiting.

I smiled when I caught sight of them, so eager for their outing, and waved. Comer, the 93 year old new author of a book of poetry, stood to greet me with a bag in his hand. Evelyn's face broke into a beaming smile of recognition, always surprising me in her struggles with Alzheimers, and threw her arms around me.
"Ready for lunch?" I said. She hugged me tightly.
Comer handed me the bag, "Six of my books, one for each neighbor."
"Oh, they will be thrilled! Did you sign them?"
"I did."
"Well then let's celebrate. How about Kentucky Fried Chicken?"
"Yes," smiled Evelyn.
"Extra crispy," said Comer.
"You got it!"

Our outing was our typical peaceful drive, while balancing fast food on our laps, and meandering through rich people's neighborhoods. Asherel was in charge of the music, and switched CDs from Engelbert Humperdinck to Romantic Melodies from the 50's. Even Comer sang along on a few of them today.

"I got a short story I want you to read," he said.
"Oh I would love to! Are we printing a book of short stories next?"
"Oh no, I don't have but three of them. But this one is particularly poignant. I wrote it years ago."
"What's it about?"
"I'm not going to tell you. You will have to read it."
"Haha! Well ok. Bring it next week."
"I sure will. It is about a Canada Goose."
"Oh, I love Canada Geese!" I said, "You know they mate for life."
"I know," he said, "That's in the story."
"I thought so," I said, glancing in the rear view mirror. He sat next to Evelyn, clutching her hand.
"Did you know Evelyn when you wrote it?"
"Oh yes," he said.
"I thought so."

I remembered my walks to the swan pond this week. I have been going twice a day, hoping against hope that I am not seeing what I am seeing. All week there has only been one swan. One lone swan, where for a year there have been two. I keep hoping I will see the second, hidden behind the brush. The lone swan has not moved from a little feeder island in the middle of the pond. A huge flock of Canada Geese float on the other end of the pond. The swan is all alone. His mate appears to be gone. My heart breaks every time I see him. Swans mate for life too, and his mate is gone.

"I've been editing my second book," I told Comer.
"What's it about?"
"Angels."
"Oh dear, I'm afraid I just spilled my entire drink on your floor. I am making a real mess."
"Don't worry, it needs cleaning anyway. Hey, have you been working on your new poems?"
"I have written 2 or 3."
"Well soon we will be publishing book #2 for you too!"
"Oh no, I'll die before then."
"You just never know what God might be preserving you for," I said.

Sometimes things seem so unbearably sad- old people with terrible afflictions, swans just reaching the age of producing cygnets, and the mate dies...full drinks spilling before we have a chance to sip them. But it is life. It is all part of life. Like Asherel's writing prompt yesterday said, do we truly value what we have not had to struggle to obtain?

Brother John texted me from his flood zone house last night. He'd been looting again, when the sun set.
"Scored a stakmore table!"
"Good for you! This flood is really turning out to be worth it after all!"
"I think tomorrow I'll just go to the Stakmore factory and ask them politely for the things they don't want."
"Haha, with your shotgun in hand?"
"Of course not. Way too noisy. I'll bring the Derringer."
"Got power yet?"
"No, but we ditched the generator and hooked into the neighbor's deck."
"The neighbor's have power?"
"Yep."
Oh good. Then John is not all alone in the flood. The neighbors are there, and they have power and warm showers, and light to cast away the darkness.

2 Samuel 22:29
²⁹ You, LORD, are my lamp;
   the LORD turns my darkness into light.

Following

As I sat in church listening to the sermon on following Jesus, I was gazing out the enormous window at the vast green field. At that very moment, a whole line of Canadian geese were following the head goose, all in step, all in synch, all following the Master bird. They marched right past the window, all in a line, as the pastor spoke on what it means to follow the Master.

I love the images and symbols that God sends to remind me that He is there and that He has a sense of humor. It would be hard to follow a God that didn't tolerate laughter. I also love his choice of disciples. As the pastor pointed out, their character traits included: impulsivity, uneducated, stubborn, nobodies, doubters, shady businessmen, betrayers....
If they can be disciples of the living, breathing Messiah....surely I can!

I watched the geese till they had marched out of my line of vision. A solid wall now blocked my sight of them for about a hundred feet.  I wondered where they were all off to in their neat, orderly procession. I knew geese flew in formation, but had not known they walked that way as well.

The pastor spoke on about how what we are when we choose to follow Jesus is not the important part. It is what we can become when we are in step with Him.  The pastor concluded that when we follow the Master, we are no longer on our own...whatever He asks us to do, He will equip and empower us to accomplish.

At that moment, the geese emerged on the other side of the solid wall, and I saw them through the adjacent huge window. They were all flying now, their wings stretched and soaring to the sky.

2 Samuel 22:
¹¹ He mounted the cherubim and flew;
   he soared on the wings of the wind.

Psalm 139:8-10

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
   if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
⁹ If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
   if I settle on the far side of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand will guide me,
   your right hand will hold me fast.

Goose Busters

As I pulled into the Alzheimers parking lot, I was behind a large van labeled, "Goose Busters". There was a big black circle with a slash painted through it over the photo of a Canada Goose. While I laughed, and found it a clever slogan, it bothered me too. Geese are considered a menace. I can understand this concern around airports where a single goose sucked into a giant jet engine can cripple an airplane. But the main reason people don't want geese in their parks or streets? Goose poop. Geese are messy and inconvenient, so who ya gonna call? Goose Busters!

I wonder how they bust the goose?

A half century ago, geese were almost extinct due to overhunting. Now, there are too many geese, and each goose produces as much as a pound a day of goose poop. While my dog Lucky considers goose poop a delicacy, most of us cringe at the sight of those greenish blobs scattered on our park walkways. So, surprisingly, there are many internet sites about "goose busting".

Some goose busters use trained border collies. The collies don't kill the geese. They herd them. That is what border collies love to do. But geese, it turns out, do not love to be herded. After a little border collie treatment, the geese fly off to someone else's yard or park to lay down their pound of poop. Or for just $900, you can invest in your own device, also called a Goosebuster. This utilizes sonic warfare. An audio device blasts rap music 24 hours a day which drives geese and old people away. This is a particularly popular item with the under 25 crowd. Actually, it uses "sound waves and audio signals" to disorient and confuse the geese. They don't specify the nature of these sound waves, thus I hypothesized rap music, but it is possible they are broadcasting "Ode to Joy". At any rate, the geese become so disoriented and bewildered that some have been known to immediately vacate the property in droves....flying in a wobbly line straight to the nearest Alzheimer unit.  None of them know why they are there, but even confused geese still poop a pound a day. That is why, I suspect, the Goose Buster truck was pulling into the parking lot as I was that day. I cannot help but wonder why the Goose Busters believe "disoriented and confused" geese to be less of a menace than geese with their full mental faculties intact.

I thought of all the things in the world I would love to see busted, and geese are not on the list. For starters, I would like to bust Alzheimers. Then, after clearing up that scourge I would move on to war, disease, natural disaster, and the coup de grace, plastic flowers planted outdoors around mailboxes.

But the dirty little secret, the part of goose busting that is implied but never explicitly mentioned....all these humane goose busters do indeed have impressive success rates driving the geese away. But the geese are not gone; just relocated and someone else's problem! This is the basis of nearly all the world's woes, in my opinion. As long as it doesn't hurt me, it is not a problem. If I am not the one sidestepping the goose poop, case closed!

I took a deep breath, stepped around the goose poop, and steeled myself for the walk through the Alzheimers unit to visit my old friend.

Exodus 4: 12-13
¹² Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
 ¹³ But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”