an inheritance
undefiled and unfading
imperishable

Reading my Bible last night I ran across a wonderful rhythm of words in 1 Peter 1:3-4.

I was especially stuck by the line, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.

Imperishable.

Undefiled.

Unfading.

The simple majesty of that line of words, like a string of Battleships in a column smacked me in the head and said, use these words in tomorrow’s Haiku.

This morning I went looking for the Verse in the Bible Gateway because I wanted to copy and paste the text.

Why type when you can copy and paste.

I am a web guy after all.

But I couldn’t find the passage.

I read through 1 Peter (ONE PETER would say the some folks).

Then read through 2 Peter (TWO PETER would say some folks).

Searched for a 3 Peter even though I knew there wasn’t one but that might be a surprise to some folks.

And read them over again.

Non of the words seemed to echo what I had read the night before.

I grabbed my nightside Bible.

Its a small New Testament I got from the Gideon’s at a street fair in Suwanee, Georgia a couple of summers ago.

I like it as I can hold it right in front of my nose and read without my glasses.

Flipped through the pages to find those words and there they were.

Imperishable, undefiled, and unfading!

Then I remembered.

My wife and I chatted with the Gideons for a bit and told them that we had both worked at Zondervan in Grand Rapids.

I told them that as Zondervan Webmaster, I had helped put the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible online.

And there was the mystery.

I had expressly asked the Gideons if they had an English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible.

The Gideons looked at each other and then said to wait and one feller dug through some boxes and came up with one.

And in the ESV the verse reads: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.

In the NIV, the verse reads: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you

Not to be left out, the King James Version reads: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you

What one do I like best?

Well I am thinking that a MASTER TRANSLATION might be interesting.

I mean.

Use all the words.

An inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, can never perish, spoil or fade, incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away.

Interesting that it works.

Majesty of the words.

Majesty in the words.

The truth about toilets
certain level of pretence
all have to use them

A part of the book Forrest Gump that didn’t make it into the movie was the repetition of the phrase, “I got to pee.”

From Forrest’s first High School Football awards banquet to his campaign for United States Senator (more scenes from the book that didn’t make it to the movie) Forrest finds himself in front of a crowd and blurting out, “I got to pee!”

The missing campaign for Senate always bothered me.

Especially as the silly running back and forth across the county WAS NOT in the book.

The phrase, “I GOT TO PEE” became the meme of his campaign.

It took over the election dialogue to the point that Forrest’s opponent for Senate had to make a speech where he proclaimed, “I GOT TO PEE TOO!”

My life has been a life lived having to pee, waiting to pee, worrying about where I would be able to pee and NEVER EVER talking about it.

And I cannot understand why?

Everyone has too pee.

So what is the big deal about not admitting it?

One summer on a family trip across the upper peninsula of Michigan, I had to pee.

I was maybe 9 or 10 years old.

I was sitting in the front seat of the station wagon where my Dad had the air conditioning one full blast.

Boy did I have to pee.

My Dad pulls into this little UP gas station with a RESTROOM sign on the corner with an arrow pointing around back.

I was out of the car and around the corner in about 2 seconds.

Ran so fast everything was a blur.

I was thrilled that there were RESTOOMS, not the roadside latrines I was expecting.

I hit that door, pushed it open, slammed it shut behind me, locked the door and relieved myself as they say.

Then I heard my brothers voices.

I could hear them through the wall.

I couldn’t understand where they were.

They had to be in the other restroom.

Then I distinctly heard my brother Tim say, “where do you think Mike is?”

I figured out where I was.

And I wasn’t in the Men’s Room.

But enough about that.

I was struck by this story in today’s Gaurdian.

Tokyo’s public toilets may be transparent – but at least they’re building some.

If the headline doesn’t get you, the photo should.

And they next time you got to pee, remember this.

So does everybody else.

As the article states, “What’s more interesting about those Tokyo toilets is that they were commissioned in the first place. A city authority that spends money on public toilets? To anyone in the UK or US, this is an extraordinary concept.”

problems forgiving
others or ourselves, because
life herself has not

From Jim Harrison in his book, The Road Home.

The primary focus of the book, I would say hero but once you read the book you don’t look at him that way, John Wesley Northridge II, reviews some of the things he has done in his life and says, “We may have problems forgiving others or ourselves because life herself has never forgiven anyone a single minute’s time.”

No muiligans.

No do overs.

You don’t get that second chance.

Maybe that is why movies like ‘A Wonderful Life‘ or ‘Christmas Carol‘ have such an appeal because those hero’s get a 2nd chance.

They get to find their way home all over again.

In life though, life herself has never forgiven anyone a single minute’s time.

So we can bitch and moan and woe is us.

Or look, no one has ever got a 2nd chance or do over minutes.

Get it right the first time and if you don’t, fix it best you can.

But don’t make it worse for beating yourself up over it.

Forgive yourself.

Forgive others.

And go on.

There is no 2nd chance.

Never has been.

Never will.

I also encourage you to read The Road Home and its 2nd volume, Dalva.

Though Dalva came out first, I don’t think you need to read it first.

There is a lot of Harrison to like in these two novels.

One scene where the long lost grandson who was adopted out, finds his Grand Mother.

The Grand Son cannot bring himself to tell her who he is.

When the Grandmother looks at him and says, “Young man, don’t you have something to tell me?”

Another one of my favorite passages is when Mr. John Wesley Northridge II comes across his journals written 50 years earlier.

As Mr. John Wesley Northridge II reads through the journals, he mutters again and again to himself, ‘My God, what will the fool do next?”

I read back over my Haiku’s.

Some, well most, I have no clear memory writing.

Sometime, to be truthful, I say to myself, “My God, what will the fool write next?”