Absalom Absalom

I was thinking today about the WT and King David's response to Absalom's death.  Of course, Faulkner used that idea of son rising against father as the title for his book "Absalom Absalom" about the Sutpen family in what is considered his greatest southern gothic work.

I have not read that or much else by Faulkner.  It just didn't come up in my coursework, and big surprise, I did nearly all my coursework on women writers when I could.

Women just interest me more from a literary standpoint.

So, I was thinking about David losing the child he made with Bathsheba and his grief over that (but that was his fault) compared to Absalom (who plotted rebellion against the anointed of Jehovah).  Big difference, that, but here is another:  David didn't know the baby he lost; he did know the man.

Two weeks ago the WT was about Jehovah being the most important person in our lives.  For David, that is all that got him through losing Absalom.  Trusting in Jehovah.  Psychologists say that losing a child is the #1 most stressful experience a human can go through. 

I do have to say that hanging from tree branches by your hair sounds pretty undignified.  Absalom got to see his death come to meet him.  Another lesson:  don't plot rebellions against parents or Jehovah's chosen ones.

Here's the best thing I learned today.  Our WT conductor was talking about the paragraph on meeting attendance and one of the anointed told his brother, at Bethel, that there were only three good reasons to ever miss a meeting.

1.  You are as sick as Job.
2.  You are as old as Methuselah.
3.  You are as wise as Solomon.

Thank Jehovah I got my sleepy butt out of the bed this morning and was even on time!

Time to get back in it.  Long day grading, but there is daylight coming at the end of this tunnel.