Thursday, June 30, 2005

From the Palace

"There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise: The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer; The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks; The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands; The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces." Proverbs 30:24-28

I've been reading a chapter from the book of Proverbs every morning for several years now. I don't remember when or why I started doing it; it's another of those routines I fell into: a chapter of Proverbs, a Psalm or two, a few passages from the Old Testament, and an epistle or at least a portion of one. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs, which means I read two chapters on the last day of months that have only thirty days. The above verses are the words of Agur the son of Jakeh, according to my Bible, and it seems fairly obvious that Agur was an observer of nature (including human nature, judging from some of the other things he wrote). There is much to be learned from observation, discussion, reflection, and the recording of all of those. The noise and the ridiculously fast pace of our culture draw us away from the best. Someone should write a book about this. But who'd take the time to read it?

Last night we took the girls to see Herbie Fully Loaded, stopping first at the dollar store for movie snacks. I hadn't eaten a Chunky in years; it was as good as I remembered. Lizzie enjoyed the show, but had a harder time staying focused than when we saw The Polar Express. It was her first time in a movie theater, and she was so filled with wonder the whole time, her little face beaming with pleasure, that I told Tim when we left just to drop me off at the police station so I could turn myself in for neglect.

My IQ score was a liitle better today; if it weren't for visual perception I'd be a genius. If I wanted to, I could probably buy a book of visual perception exercises and get in a little practice. If I wanted to.