Season of Miracles

"The whole building was up in flames but the word of God wouldn't burn," remarked the elderly Southern man to the enthralled patrons of the All-American Hero sandwich shop. After one accidental yet fortuitous fire, the shop underwent a complete renovation from a dingy little grease joint to a cinderblock monstrosity with garish bright white marquees, red and blue lettering and a hard to miss patriotic theme. A sandwich shop straight out of Sarah Palin's "real America". The singed New Testament (King James version of course) caught in the blaze, now sits in a glass display case, undoubtedly opened to an appropriate passage referencing fire, brimstone and the immortal word of God. A bona fide miracle on Roxboro Rd. in Durham, North Carolina.  

From the moment the bible was discovered intact and enduring among the ash and rubble of a burned sandwich shop, the miracle was declared.  Of course miracles point to the greater truth.  God, must have spared this bible as a portent or a sign of his omnipotence.   This "truth" is born out of a surviving bible. 

A professor of pulp and paper can explain until blue in the face that the reason the bible didn't burn had more to do with the amount of clay in the paper significantly reducing the burn rate.  As a matter of fact, burn rate is determined and controlled by this factor and bibles have lots of clay to ensure a strong survival rate in a variety of disasters.  

Does explaining this fact to the elderly devout owners of All-American Hero Sandwich shop lessen the potency of a bona fide miracle?  It is much easier to call into question the heretical rantings of the professor than determine this miracle to be a result of Science and circumstance.  The miracle of the bible would then be based on a subjective interpretation over the "truth" of an omnipotent intervention.  To question this miracle may lead one to question the very miracles of Jesus.  Could his miracles be explained by Science and/or subjective interpretations of events? Well, we are certainly in the handbasket now, full steam ahead on to hell!  

So, how can we believe in the transcendent mystery, the great watchmaker or the flying spaghetti monster for that matter.  Ralph Waldo Emerson speaks to transcendence: "Let us learn the revelation of all nature and thought, that the Highest dwells within us, that the sources of nature are in our own mind...There is deep power in which we exist and whose beatitude is accessible to us...Within us is the soul of the whole, the wise silence, the universal beauty, to which every part and particle is equally related, the eternal One.  When it breaks through our intellect, it is genius, when it breaks through our will, it is virtue, when it flows through our affection, it is love."  Do I truly know whether the divine actually does exist or the Soul  for that matter? I don't know.  I would like to believe that genius, virtue, and love is really the soul connecting with the divine.  I think Ralph Waldo Emerson is asking us to turn our search for the divine inward, and to look for the divine in the simple beauty in and around us.  He found the divine in nature, I find it in many places, nature, music, art, and in simple kindnesses hinting at greater virtues.  Non-burning bibles aren't as important when one searches inward for miracles and the divine.  The search continues in this season of miracles.   

Just Be Nice!

Moving back to California after an eleven year absence, one would expect a few cultural clashes.  Let me state for the record, I do not believe on the whole southerners are nicer than people in California.  But I do believe most southerners are raised with a stricter sense of manners than most Californians.  (Yes, this is an over generalization, because I have known rude southerners and polite Californians, added to this of course is the influx of New Yorkers to the research triangle park and their effect on the Raleigh Durham area decidedly raising the asshole quota in the area, but on average...Southerners are more polite). 

Case in point, Rusty was singing at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco a few weeks back  (The Passion of Joan of Arc, an excellent silent movie with a score written in the mid 80's, fascinating story, check it out on wikipedia).   I've had the remnants of a cough for quite sometime.  In the first part of the movie I had a tickle I couldn't dislodge and coughed five or six times.  The person in front of me stage whispered as loud as possible without being heard by the conductor "Enough!"  Well, embarrassed but realizing that I must have been real annoying for him to react so emphatically, I leaned forward, and said, "I'm sorry, but I can't control this cough."  In my job, it is clear when someone is irritated or angry the best thing to do is to avoid a power struggle and actually talk to the person.  He remarked back with a high degree of acidity, "Then you should take yourself to the lobby."  Of course this just got my blood boiling.  

I seethed through the movie, consequently reducing my cough considerably.  I was waiting for the chance to inform the man that many others in the theatre were unaware of his rule of coughing or clearing throats only in the lobby.  As we all know, I have a tendency to be somewhat aggressive in this type of situation, but was actually trying to take the high road.  The man making the remarks quickly shuffled his wife out before the standing ovation had finished in order to avoid a confrontation with sweet gentle moi.   If there is something I hate worse than rudeness, it is certainly the cowardice exhibited by this man.   Instead I had to just glare at the back of his head as he hurriedly left, as he conspicuously avoided eye contact.  Had we been in a theatre in Raleigh, I'm pretty sure the same scenario would have been much more civil and considerate.  The desired effect would have been the same, as a matter of fact, I would have probably excused myself to the lobby based on a mere suggestion rather than a commandment from the theatre police.  

Do manners matter?  Manners are different based on regions, situations and class.  Manners are a matter of custom (i.e. a hand shake), consideration (i.e. giving up a seat to an elderly person), or common sense (all manners have an element of common sense).  Although somewhat subjective, still important.  Truly, the most important of these is consideration, because we are talking about preserving people's feelings.  We are meant to live in a civil society, truly being mannerly is the grease to ease the cogs of our often difficult and complex life.   

If manners are important, why don't more people endeavor to exhibit manners and/or teach manners to their children?  Sometimes, I think manners have given way to our rights.  A sense of entitlement means never having to say sorry, or please, or thank you.  

Sometimes manners require  us to be patient and to delay our wants.  In the instant gratification, Burger King, Have it Your Way world we live in, there isn't much time for manners.   I'm amazed at the insistence of many  Californians for accepting others, yet don't take the time to show consideration for individuals.  

We've lived here eighteen months and as of yet, not a single person has brought over a bowl of chili or a plate of cookies (two things that happened to us in the RDU area).  I like many things about California, but I truly miss the hospitality and manners so easily evident in North Carolina.