Two Things

The beautiful city where I am often lost

First, I finally bought a GPS.  This was something I did after getting lost for the 3rd time this week in Minneapolis.  Yesterday I once again got to know both sides of the East and West Bank (and people in pre-game festivities by the TCF Stadium) before finding my way through construction to my destination. 


I was an hour late for a meeting at Augsburg College, (don't worry, it was 3 hours long) and had to have lots of winding conversations about construction with people I only sort of know.   Lots of people are very kind about this.  Everyone thinks that if they explain things to me in great detail, these things will stick with me.  Unfortunately, this is not so.  People also talk very passionately about the one ways in Minneapolis, but the truth is that I get how to manage the one ways, and they don't stress me out.  I am always lost long before that. 


When I admit this, some people truly do look uncomfortable, which becomes funny to me.  I tell myself not to laugh outloud.  They look bewildered...what do you with someone THAT directionally challenged?  (We usually stick to the talk about the one ways.)


I can never remember if the streets are east and west and the avenues are north and south, or vice versa.  Two different people I know who live in Minneapolis explained this to me again this week.  That's what it is.



I suppose this whole time some part of me wanted to stand on my own skill set.  Is that why it's taken me so long??  Let's be honest.  I've never really HAD that skill set, but I tried really hard.  In general, while driving, I have talked with God out loud about what went missing in my brain that made directions so impossible.  I wasted a lot of gas.  Sometimes I swore.  Sometimes I would analyze people in other cars at stoplights, and wonder how they could look so casual next to me, and probably had it figured out.  Once, on University Avenue, I even cried.  But just once.  Then I felt dumb and even more angry.  Crying about traffic is ridiculous. 


It was clearly time.


Yesterday all of this came into a perfect storm situation, and I calmly went to Target and bought one for myself.  I thought they were $400.00.  They're not.  On top of this, the woman at Target who helped me was really interesting and fun.  We had a great conversation.  For some reason we parted ways in the store talking like old friends.  It was kind of strange, and I am only just seeing that now.

The second thing is that I love G.K. Chesterton.  What an interesting soul!  He was a British author who lived in the late 1800s and said a lot of true things in an original way.  I spent time reading some of his best quotes and found again that I believe people who blend intellect and humor and simplicity are my favorite for good conversation. 


This morning I found his explanation of women (in #5) very striking.  He uses the very language that irks people to suggest appreciation for what they are.  I also find his views of questioning and wonder and writing and God to be a breath of fresh air. 


Best of all, I think this person looked at life happening right in front of him.  There is so much in this world to uncover and wonder about and see.  He lived in a very G.K. Chesterton way which is why I like him.  Here are 11 quotes that make me think today, remind me that God has a sense of humor, and highlight the beautiful things that can come from using good words.  

1.  “It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again”to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical ENCORE.”

2.  “The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.”

3.  “I like the Cyclostyle ink; it is so inky. I do not think there is anyone who takes quite such a fierce pleasure in things being themselves as I do. The startling wetness of water excites and intoxicates me: the fieriness of fire, the steeliness of steel, the unutterable muddiness of mud. It is just the same with people.... When we call a man "manly" or a woman "womanly" we touch the deepest philosophy”

4.  “The simplification of anything is always sensational.”

5.  "Individually, men may present a more or less rational appearance, eating, sleeping, and scheming. But humanity a a whole is changeful, mystical, fickle, delightful. Men are men, but Man is a woman.”

6. “One of the great disadvantages of hurry is that it takes such a long time.”

7.  “The wise man will follow a star, low and large and fierce in the heavens, but the nearer he comes to it the smaller and smaller it will grow,
till he finds it the humble lantern over some little inn or stable. Not till we know the high things shall we know how lovely they are.”

8. “Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair.”

9.  “As long as you have mystery you have health; when you destroy mystery you create morbidity. Indigenous humans have always been sane because they have always been mystic. They permit the twilight.”

10. “My best friends are all either bottomless skeptics or quite uncontrollable believers . . . .”

11.  “Somewhere embedded in every ordinary book are the five or six words for which really all the rest will be written.”