I awoke this morning with every intention of studying till my eyes fell out. I believe I have had that optimistic intention for a Saturday approximately 250 times in my life, and never once have I fulfilled it.
Instead, I bought a vacuum! This was exciting... and the old man who sold it to me insisted on carrying it out to my car. Even though I knew, and he admitted, that I was probably more able to do that than he was... chivalry lives, I tell you.
Then I came upon this gigantic flea market. It nearly swallowed me, it was so huge. Way back in one of the little rooms, I found a lovely little man who rented the room to sell lots of knick knacks and a huge assortment of old books. War books. History books. Lovely, smelly, dusty books. He sold me a book of lectures on the Reformation. We then had a forty-five minute conversation in which he showed me photos of his wedding (in 1948!), photos of his beloved wife in every stage of her life, photos of himself in the Navy during WWII,obituaries of some of his closest friends and relatives, photos of his brothers, photos of his brother's funeral at sea, even photos of a nun whom he sends birthday cards to (I'm still not quite clear how he was connected to her, but I do know that she is the spright ly age of 72)... and lots of other things that made me kind of teary eyed and choked up... he would show me a collection of photos, then say "I've got one more to show you, if you have time." Time, time... I have lots of time. And so, out would come another set of pictures, another story...
Here are some of the best things he said:
of his wife: "I was married to her for 42 years, 5 months and 3 days. Always a smile on her face, that woman."
of himself: "I am 87 years old. I think I'll have a drink on that." At which point, he pulled a flask out from behind some old books and had that well earned drink.
of the War: "That was in Japan... that was where I learned to take life one day at a time. I still do that."
We parted friends.
I came home, vacuumed, and opened my lovely book on the Reformation... 8 hours after I should have, I started studying.
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Matt preached from Ephesians this morning in honor of yesterday as "Reformation Day"... our Louisville church (not the Turners Station one), but "the full of seminary students" one has a children Reformation Party on the Wednesday before Halloween, so these little theologians grow-up knowing all about that and little about the world's ideas of Halloween!
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