FEB 17, 2002

STRANGE MELANGE

Today was one of those days which defies logic. I dreamed that my wife had brought my coffee to me and so when I opened my eyes to take the cup to my lips, there was no cup and there she was sleeping quite soundly by my side.

Later I looked through the ‘Houston Chronicle’ and there were two stories of interest.

The first was about John Worldpeace who is running for Governor of Texas. 

I had spoken to Worldpeace when he was running against Lee Brown for Mayor of Houston and he struck me as an intelligent and sincere person who cleverly changed his name to ‘Worldpeace’ thinking that it would be difficult for any sane person to be opposed to world peace.

Little did he know that there is a group of men and women in Washington who seem hell-bent on world war and not world peace. I think that the concept of world peace is out of fashion at this moment. Perhaps he should change his name again; this time to John Worldwar. He night have a better chance at winning an election.

Well anyway, that is not the point of this story. It turns out that Worldpeace was stationed in the army in Italy at the same time that I had been. Keep in mind that that makes three of us now, if you include Deacon Ringler.

The other story was about the controversy surrounding the Canonization of Juan Diego as a Catholic Saint. If you recall from earlier Cathedral Tales, Juan Diego was Canonized by THE UNIVERSAL ETHICIAN CHURCH on December 12, 2001, just five days before the Pope announced that he would make him a Saint after more than 400 years!!!

But the plot thickens a little. I thought back about the day that I had been visited by the Virgin of Guadalupe and wondered if there was anything significant about the date of her appearance, which had been on September 23, 2001. I looked up September 23 on Google and guess what? That is the date of the equinox, a fact that I probably had forgotten about 40 years ago. Since many of the Native American ceremonial centers on the HOLY TRINITY WILDERNESS CATHEDRAL appear to be associated with seasonal and astronomical events I feel that this discovery is extremely interesting.

I had made an appointment to meet Deacon Lerner and his family and friends at the gates of the Wilderness Cathedral at 11 a.m and so was rushing from Huntsville to Waterwood. As I neared the entrance to Waterwood Parkway I wondered if God was going to show me something unusual as He does quite frequently as this location. As I turned in, I looked to the left and there in the sky was a Cross made from the contrails of two jets passing at right angles!!! This time my camera was ready and I took a photo.

I met Deacon Lerner et al at the gate at 11 and we loaded the older children into the ‘jeep’ and took them to the trail head which leads to some rare rock formations so that they could climb down to the ‘kissing rocks’ for photos. The kids and their dads seemed to be having a great time. When we arrived at a spot which my anthropological background and intuition tell me was sacred to the Native Americans, all five children lined up to be anointed as Ethician Deacons, and were tasked with helping to protect and preserve Planet Eden. Next the adults were anointed and Deacon Lerner was re-anointed for good measure.

At that moment I realized that our interfaith church now had more Jewish Deacons than Christian Deacons so I resolved to add a Star of David to the spiritual symbols we display at the Cathedral. Since we have a few Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim Deacons, we will have to include the symbols representative of their faiths as well. (I sometimes wonder why I keep seeing Crosses. I guess jets would have a hard time making Stars of David with their contrails. Crosses are much easier.)

When our guests had left for home I decided to drive down to the new Zwickey Creek Wildlife Sanctuary which my beloved parents had just purchased. When I arrived at the water’s edge I looked up and there was another contrail Cross in the sky. I was happy to have not run out of film this time. I walked through parts of the forest I had not been to before and discovered the largest hickory tree I have ever seen and was happy that several noisy little birds came when I called them.

Much of the rest of the afternoon was extremely depressing as I drove through mile after mile of clear-cut woodlands, third world looking subdivisions, trash littered byways, and just downright ugliness where once I could have sung “America the Beautiful” with pride. This drive took place mostly in Walker County, which calls itself “Walker County Proud” and quite frankly, there is very little about environmental degradation, ugliness and poverty to be proud of.

On the way back to the house I drove to Pretty Princess Point at the tip of the Great Spirit Wilderness to see if the water had gone down to expose the beach. It had, and as I walked along I said to myself, “I need to conjure up an arrowhead”. I don’t know why that thought crossed my mind but I guess that the silly movie about a ‘sorcerer’s stone’ had been on the news lately. “Harry Potter” is the name, I think. Well anyway, about 30 seconds later I looked down and there at the edge of the water was a perfect arrowhead!!!

I don’t claim to be able to ‘conjure’ up anything but the timing was certainly a ‘strange convergence’.

I rushed back home to be there when my wife and parents arrived to be taken to church in the ‘jeep’. When they came in we selected a good bottle of wine for ‘communion’ and piled into the ‘jeep’. I picked up my cell phone and much to my shock all of the numbers and letters had changed to Hebrew!!! I could not get English to come back and I do not know how to dial in Hebrew.

Perhaps the phone was telling me something, in that on Friday evening I had anointed a new Jewish Deacon. On Sunday, I anointed my neighbor Colonel Zimmerman, who is also Jewish and today I anointed at least half a dozen Jewish children and their parents. Since Noah, one of our Patron Saints was Jewish, I guess that the phone changing its language to Hebrew was to be expected. I just wish that I could read and speak the language.

We had a great church service. The sunset was beautiful and the cormorants and cardinals sang to us as we enjoyed our usual minute of silent meditation and prayer.

This evening’s ‘Sermonette’, incidentally, was “Celebrate Creation” which is exactly what we did, except in Walker County where there is little to celebrate since Creation has largely been desecrated.



ETHICIUS I


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