Shem, Ham, & Japheth

In today's WT, there was a paragraph about parents realizing children developed at different paces, and the next paragraph was about Noah having to provide for his family to get them through what was, for them, the end of the world in a manner of speaking.
I've always just figured it was a united task for the eight of them.  I also like how the governing body said in the most recent dvd release that Jehovah is not interested in numbers especially - only eight people survived that worldwide destruction after all.
So I imagined, for the first time, Noah as a parent.  I feel kind of short-sighted not to have done that before.  I know his sons were grown, but still.  I can imagine him coming home to a hot soak in the mineral springs telling his wife, "Oh that Ham!  I am tired of being partnered with him on the cross saw.  He can't maintain a consistent rhythm."
And his wife says, "Now, now dear.  The work still has to be done."
Japheth's wife comes up to Noah's wife the next day and says, "Seriously though, what is rain going to be like?  Are you sure this is what God told your husband?"
Of course, later they are on the ark, and no one can stand the smell of the camels and elephants after a while, but it is Japheth's wife and Ham who have a way with the animals.
Noah looks at his wife and says under his breath, "Not much carpenter in that boy, but look.  He'd make a fine zooligist."
And Japheth's wife reports the next day over dinner that the rain had sounded much louder than she had ever imagined it.

A week ago this time we were stopping at a toll plaza to get Popeye's chicken.  We took it for granted in the south, but here it is hard to come by.  We also miss Sonic Drive-In and good sushi, especially good cheap sushi.  They have sushi here that is cheap and sushi that is good, but not at the same time.  In Reading, we found a wonderful restaurant so three out of four nights we had sushi.  One night it was Chick-Fil-A, also unavailable in Johnstown, and we even made it through the drive-through on the way to the convention on Saturday morning.  Yesterday we went to Sam's and bought rotisserie chicken and fake crab meat.

Of course, I read in the YB about Papua New Guinea and eating yams, coconut milk, and bananas and then walking eight miles to the territory.  Evidently the diet is healthy because they accomplish so much over there.  And in the Holocaust, there was considerably less food than the world's second largest island provides.

I read a book about six years ago on health, and the premise was that all disease is caused by one thing, the same thing.  It's very simple, but it is true:  Cellular Malfunction.  And cells malfunction over only one of two reasons.  They get something they don't need, or they don't get something they do need.  And every cause of death is cellular malfunction.  You suffocate, not getting something you need, and the cells do not circulate oxygen.  You eat too much sugar, more than you need, and you get diabetes because your pancreas and insulin are malfunctioning.

I hate to belabor a metaphor, and believe me, this is a particular skill I have.  I can flog a metaphor horse to death.  But that's also what causes our spiritual cells to malfunction.  We take in violent TV shows, rap videos, porn, society's empty diet of mental junk food, and you get sick.  You don't eat a balanced diet of spiritual meetings and prayer and family/personal study, and  you suffocate.

I'm guessing Noah served a good table of both kinds with the support of his wife.  I can't wait for those guys to come back in the resurrection and watch an RBC in action.  "Three days?!!!" Noah will question.  "You built this Kingdom Hall in three DAYS?"  And all that time Japheth will be admiring the brothers' tools and Ham, well you know Ham.
"Dad, come over here!" he'll call across the field.
Noah turns around, interrupted.  "What?" he calls back.
Ham is being licked in the face by my big Siberian tiger.  "I got a kitty cat!"  Ham will say, laughing.
Noah will turn back to the RBC.  "That figures.  Boy wasn't ever interested in carpentry much.  Only helped out because it had to be done."