Taking Off and Landing

“Put all your love where it hurts the most/ And expect a little visit from the Holy Ghost/ When your shortwave dies and there’s no one to listen/ Stars going cold in your solar system…”–”Solar System, V.O.L.

**
Neil was at work this morning, so I brought him a hazelnut latte to brighten the morning and for a semi-regular update on the week. It’s a deadly and dreary day here in Waco; I woke up at 4 a.m. to the sound of hail pounding the crap out of my air conditioning unit attached to my window. Note to self: the next house I live in, go for the central air–much less contentious to outside elements, and it doesn’t shake the windows out when it comes on.

I had already been drowning myself in the old songs of Bill Mallonee, particularly Audible Sigh, and was feeling down already in combination with that and reading Budde for class, in which I read about the reduction of the church to media squawk. In short, I was ready to go for the full monty and talk about girls, relationships, holes in the head.

I’ll leave it to Neil’s discretion to talk about his end, and I won’t tip my hand except to say that rainy days really make me more melancholy than I have a disposition towards already. There’s something in the rain and grey that makes me crave a good woman to sit and talk about how good the minestrone soup we’re eating is. To be fair, I’m doing my part; I’m testing waters and working the contacts. If this sounds like I’m in marketing, maybe so, but when you got a good product, you gotta get it out in the open.
**

We have this analogy that aptly describes the whole process of “man find woman” that I won’t go into great detail, mostly because to delve into it too far really kills the mystery of it all. But the analogy is that of cereal:

In this life, you are left with the option to eat cereal or not, to let cereal, as it were, “become part of who you are.” There’s cereal that pours itself into the bowl; there’s cereal that is too pricey and exotic and has stuff like fiber bran; there’s cereal that makes you feel all warm inside, but has no nutritional value. And then, there’s the cereal that you always come back to: the good, hearty kind that you spice up with bananas and fruit or whatever, or is just fine as it comes. That’s the good stuff–the cereal you can eat and not feel guilty about buying in bulk.

I’ll confess that there are days when you, I, want to settle for the first available cereal, that you’re just starving to death and any frosted flake will do. It’s what Bonhoeffer and Jesus describe as “lust”, the satiating of the hungers with a lesser food. But it never satisfies. It never holds a sugar bowl to the finer boxes.

I’ll speak for Neil and myself, and all the other cereal connisuering males out there when I say: there’s always an allure for the cereal with the prize in the box, or the funny shaped marshmallows, but the best kind, the kind of cereal that doesn’t get discontinued or run out of business is the kind of cereal that fills you up to your toes, that takes care of your RDA of sweet loving. It’s not the flashiest or the most marketable, but it’s the one that you love with all the fiber-bran-consciousness you have.

Why? Because it’s good and true and warm. And it comes from the best stuff on earth.