Blessed Insurance

I test drove a new car this morning.  I'm not entirely serious about buying a new car, but it's a car I wanted to drive. The salesman was happy to let me drive it.  I'm always concerned about wrecking a dealership's car. I know it's insured, but the thought of crashing one of their new cars is not a pleasant thought.

I have good reason to be concerned.  Although I am a careful driver, I have had quite a few car accidents over the years.  Most of them were not my fault, but a few of them were. One of my official accident reports in the state of Alabama reads "Not paying attention."  Actually, I was paying attention. But I was paying attention to the accident in progress in front of me instead of the one I was about to have.

My last accident nearly three years ago could have easily been my last accident.  This one was not my fault, but it could have been the end of me.  I walked away with a serious whiplash injury, but I was otherwise unhurt.

The accident I recall most often was totally my fault. It was the accident after the "not paying attention" wreck about six months earlier.  I ran a red light in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. I
t-boned the car coming across the intersection and then pushed it into a car in the opposing traffic.  I don't know what was going on with that third car, but the driver immediately sped away.  I totaled both my own three month old car and the car I crashed into.  Since I didn't recall even seeing a traffic light, I drove back to the scene the next day.  One very large limb had been cut from the very large tree.  But it was a day too late for me and the accident was still  my fault.  When I bought my car I was not quite 21 years old and had a friend sign for the car. It was a formality as I was going to pay for the car.  I don't recall ever making sure the car was covered under my father's umbrella policy for his fleet.  Surely I made that call.  But at any rate I  thought the car was covered.   After the accident I called my father's insurance agent to tell him about the wreck.  He checked the records on my car and asked me, "Who is Charlie?"  I told him that Charlie was my friend who signed for the car.  Then he said some of the most awful words I have ever heard spoken, "David, Charlie has no interest in your dad's company. Your car is not covered."

My heart stopped beating.  Before I could recover enough to speak, he spoke some of the most wonderful words I have ever heard, "Let me see what I can do."  To this day I don't know why he did what he did.  He certainly didn't have to. I'm sure there were risks involved. The accident was my fault and my significant oversight was my fault as well. After a very long few minutes, the agent called me back and said, "I tell you what we're going to do.  Charlie is going to sell you that car yesterday and we're going to cover it yesterday."  Did you know you can buy a car for a dollar?  That bill of sale read "For Good and  Valuable Consideration of One Dollar the seller does hereby grant the personal property" etc..  Since I have no recollection of actually finding Charlie, I think my father's agent let me sign for him as well.

I would give you more details if I remembered those details, but I don't.  But I do remember this. The insurance agent did something that in 2015 dollars probably cost his company around $90,000. The only reason I can come up with is the goodwill my father had garnered over years by doing business with him. And he must have garnered a significant amount of goodwill with his own company.

I worked with a minister once who had spent some time selling term life insurance.  He told me that when his prospects said, "But if I don't die, we wasted all that money", my friend told them, "You didn't waste anything. All that time you had the insurance."  If I had wrecked that car this morning, insurance wouldn't have fixed everything, but it would have fixed a lot.  If I end up buying the car, the insurance is the first thing I'll take care of. And it's money I'm always more than glad to waste.

The Vortex of Grace

I Think It's Going to Rain Today by Randy Newman


grace-- goodwill, mercy, blessing,  free and unmerited favor

mercy- compassion,  forgiveness, clemency, forgiveness, forbearance

forgiveness--pardon, absolution, exoneration, mercy, compassion

compassion--sympathy, empathy, tenderness,  warmth, love, kindness

sympathy-- compassion, caring, concern, understanding, support, encouragement, empathy

empathy  --affinity, appreciation, sympathy, insight

affinity-- kinship , kindness, relationship

kindness--warmheartedness, affection, warmth,gentleness, goodness,understanding, grace 

The Great Commandments

The Bible holds the world record for world-wide sales.  The Guinness Book of World Records estimates that over 5 billion copies of the Bible have been sold. There are many reasons for this phenomenon.  The main reason I would guess is because the words of the Bible have touched so many people in so many ways over the globe for generations. Broken lives have been completely turned around by reading the Bible.

However, I would guess that the Bible is one of the least read of books as well.  By that I mean relatively few people have  read the Bible like a book from cover to cover. For that matter relatively few have read the entire Bible in any order of chapters and books. Most people read the Bible devotionally a few verses at a time, and at most a few chapters at a time.  Most people also have their favorite books, their favorite chapters and their favorite verses. They return again and again for help and for inspiration.

But there are passages that are universally known and loved. The 23rd Psalm is perhaps the most beloved.  This beautiful poetry, a Psalm of David, is read and quoted, especially at funerals, to provide help and comfort. It is also read in quiet corners during times of deep distress.  After this psalm, the Lord's Prayer is most quoted and most universally recognized.  Then I Corinthians Chapter 13 has been used for millions of Christian weddings world-wide to compare Divine love with the love of the couple being married before God, family and friends.

Next in recognition and personal usefulness are The Ten Commandments, as written in Exodus Chapter 20.  Besides the fact that The Ten Commandments are considered to be a cornerstone of Judeo-Christian doctrine, these verses have become very political.  It's not the 23rd Psalm or The Lord's Prayer or I Corinthians 13 that are chiseled in stone and placed in public places, it's The Ten Commandments. Many evangelical Christian politicians consider these commandments to be not only a cornerstone of faith, but also a cornerstone of America.  This argument is currently being played out in courthouses around the country. Although many politicians and  their constituents believe these verses to be a part of the fabric of America's greatest documents, others quote the first amendment of the Constitution as reason enough not to post these verses in public places.

I've never quite understood how these ten commandments, of the hundreds of commandments, extracted from these seventeen verses in Exodus have grown to be so important above all others. In comparison to the soothing verses of the other popular passages, these words from God seem to be rather threatening.  But I have a hunch why these verses hold the place that they do in the hearts and minds of millions.

I think it's because so many people are inspired and comforted by the autocratic and authoritarian parenting  style of Jehovah God.  He matches and enforces so many parents' own parenting techniques.  I firmly believe that if these commandments had been written in the positive tense, then these verses would be no more or less important than any of the other commandments in  the Bible.  Consider this, only two commandments are "Thou shall"; the other eight begin with "Thou shalt not!"  Many other of God's commands in the Old Testament begin with "Thou shalt not" but these are rapid-fire specific prohibitions. What if God had said, "Thou shalt respect all living things" instead of  "Thou shalt not kill!"  It just does't have the same emphasis. Or what if He had said, "Thou shalt be faithful to your spouse." It just doesn't snap like "Thou shalt not commit adultery." You now have Jehovah God pointing his formidable finger in the world's face about several important issues.  Except for the subtle suggestion that you won't live very long if you don't respect your parents, God doesn't line out specific consequences for disobedience. But you get the feeling you don't want to find out.

Without delving into specific parenting styles, I have observed in public places how many parents speak to their children with angry pointed words,yanking them around by their arms to get their attention. And many even flail their children in public, If they do this in Walmart, what happens behind closed doors?  It is then my opinion that since so many people are personally familiar with this type of parenting and grew up this way,  they are very comfortable with Jehovah God lowering the boom on the world.  For that matter, like Jonah in Ninevah, many actually want God to lower the boom on the world. "Our Father who art in heaven" then takes on a whole different meaning from that in the Lord's Prayer.

I am personally much more fond of Psalm 23, the Lord's Prayer and I Corinthians 13 than I am of any commandment. Well except for two.   When someone asked Jesus, "What is the greatest commandment?" instead of saying  in a booming voice," Thou shalt have no other gods before me", He  said, "Love your God with all your heart."  Instead of  pointing his finger at the crowd and saying "Thou shalt not commit adultery",  He said, "Love one another."  So of all the commandments that he could have quoted -- including "The Ten",  Jesus simply said, "love God" and "love each other."  If Jesus had considered one of "the ten" to be the most important, don't you think He would have said so?

Before yelling at and hitting their children, it might be a good idea for parents to look at Ephesians 6:4. "Fathers do not provoke your children to anger."  If there is a generation of children raised not being slapped and provoked by their parents, then maybe all those "Thou shalt nots" won't even be necessary.

Quarks, Quasars and Quantum Leaps

According to the internet, which knows everything, depending on a number of variables, the Boeing 747 has a cruising speed of about 550 mph. At 30,000 feet you don't feel this speed. There is no frame of reference but the sky and the clouds. The jet has a takeoff speed of around 200 mph. You do feel this. This acceleration generates a g-force of about 1.5. The force of gravity on a body at the Earth's surface is 1g. You don't notice this force either since it's constant.

When the jet banks, you notice this. Although the jet doesn't change speeds, there is acceleration involved. If the jet was flying at its cruising speed of 550 mph 100 feet off the ground, you would definitely notice  the speed relative to the ground. Nothing changed but your point of reference.

That's why you don't notice that while sitting in your chair you are traveling over 2 million miles per hour relative to some unfathomable distant point. According to some very smart people you are rotating with the Earth on its axis at about 1000 miles per hour. The Earth is traveling around the sun at about 20 miles per second. The sun in turn is rotating around the center of the Milky Way at about 140 miles per second. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is falling toward Andromeda at about 55 miles per second. The Local Group of galaxies that contain our Milky Way and Andromeda is falling toward the Virgo cluster toward an even larger cluster of galaxies at about 375 miles per second. Obviously the subsequent rotations continue, but lets stop there. Not counting the motion that continues past Virgo, that is a combined motion of nearly 600 miles per second. And you don't feel a thing.

We don't feel it because that's how fast we were traveling the day we were born and the combined speeds have remained constant since then. And also because these simultaneous motions are on such an incredibly large scale. These motions involve the macrocosm, the cosmos.  When you include the invisible world of quantum physics, the rate of constant change around and in our bodies is beyond comprehension. "I just want to keep things the way they are" has never been and will never be an option.

There is a term used in science and in Zen thinking called "impermanence". The definition of impermanence is "not permanent."  "Permanent" then means "to remain unchanged indefinitely". According to science and Buddhism nothing is permanent; nothing stays the same. Nothing. Not now or ever. So don't fear change; you have no choice about it. Go with the flow.

So the next time a state trooper pulls you over and asks, "Do you know how fast you were going?"  Tell him the truth, "I really have no idea."