Prejudice

A good meeting tonight, some good songs to sing too, and the part about Peter giving the four examples of Jehovah saying let the Gentiles in already and who am I to hinder Jehovah?  That sounds just like Peter.  I would have liked knowing Peter, only I would have died in first century childbirth and never known Peter had I been alive back then, so it's just as well.

There was a public talk once about this very subject back in Arkansas, and the brother was saying how we treat all our brothers the same no matter where they are from.  He said we love them and respect them, never saying jokes about their ethnicity, whether they are from Poland . . .

or Australia, or China . . .

Or Texas.  And I kind of felt funny over that.  Texas?  The people from Texas not being good enough to the people in Arkansas?  Who did those Arkies think they were, anyhow?

And I make a joke over and over that if when I lived in Oklahoma I was an Okie and in Arkansas was an Arkie why I now am not a Pennie, but the truth is, I'd be delighted to be in Texas or Arkansas right now and I will never be a real Pennie.  The zip code of your childhood influences you for the rest of your life.  I don't know if that will be true in the new world, but for now, I am a seven living with all these ones, if you go by the first zip code digit.

I am watching the job listings right now, and applying for next year.  The big lists aren't out yet, but there is a posting at Ole Miss that sounds perfect for me.  I've never been to Mississippi, but it has to be better than this for snow.

And I interviewed on-campus in Georgia, which means I was one of the top three candidates, but unfortunately, not #1.  #1 has now quit the job and they are hiring again.  Maybe I'll make the top three again.  I sure mean to try.  I loved that town, and a half hour to the beach.

I am trying to figure out, in the drive home from the meeting, if I am being progressive or this is just about my zip code or what.  I still think about Saipan and all that sunshine, so it's got a lot to do with weather.  Today it was 54 when I went to school and 44 when I left.  And I just had the AC on a week ago, and now I'm thinking where are the cords to the electric blanket.  Already.

The jobs in New Hampshire, even for the same thing, somehow don't sound as good, so maybe I'm wrong-headed.  My students all love to snowboard.  I said well, if you were from Oklahoma you'd probably like swimming more.

Maybe Jehovah will put that canopy back up like in Noah's day and it'll be paradise earth-wide.  I don't know what the polar bears will do or what they did before either.  It's like that other part on the meeting program from the Yearbook, about you never know what impact your service may have.  Of course we don't know.  We're not omnipotent or even perfect.  So I'm trying to stay humble because I know so little.

But I also want to stay warm when I leave here.  Don't mind me.  I always get whiny like this on the first day I wish I had a sweater with me.  I did it in the South too - but I just didn't do it there until November usually.