I’m actually taking the week off from the ANR, but I would not want to disappoint you by remaining completely silent. (No matter how much you might have wished it.)
Cold Weather Reading Entertainment
This is the end of November, and I have once again finished reading the Bible cover to cover. I think this is the 20th year in a row I have managed that bit of hermeneutical asceticism.
(Although I should admit that for parts of it, I cheated and used an audio app during drive-time. Plus, the first nine chapters of 1 Chronicles lend themselves to a great deal of skimming.)
Such a task is not without unexpected rewards. Following are a few surprisingly entertaining nuggets you might have missed if you have not been quite as focused as all that.
Here are a few delightful cherry-picked passages you might find useful:
Judges 5.23 To every man a damsel or two! A cry of exuberance, rejoicing in the spoils of victory after the battle.
Matthew 24.28 Where the carcass is, there the vultures will gather. An applicable metaphor when one is picked over for money. There was a time when we had both teenagers in private school, running 4 cars every day. One month, my gasoline bill was a thousand dollars.
Mark 5.11 A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. Our pastor admitted to using this verse (just the reference, not the text) as a signature line on his personal stationery when he was in seminary. By his account, it was evident that very few correspondents ever looked up the verse to see what it actually said.
Zechariah 5:1 Then I raised my eyes again and looked, and behold, there was a flying scroll. And [the angel] said to me, “What do you see?” And I said, “I see a flying scroll.” Mrs. Alligator has always been partial to this one for the depth of keen spiritual insight into the obvious.
And probably the best:
Psalm 38.7 My loins are filled with a loathsome disease. We were reminded of this one by our good friend J.S., who adds, “It’s always been a family favorite.” I will let you determine an appropriate time and place to use this one.
Black Friday Sale
We have distributed some 2,000 copies of Alligator Wrestling in the Cancer Ward, thanks to the gracious generosity of our readers. Your purchases and other gifts have made these available; copies have been placed in clinic waiting rooms and hospital family rooms free of charge to those who have found themselves facing The Big C.
I know many of you have purchased a copy to give away to someone you know who faces cancer. I hope it brings a measure of hope to their struggle. To make this type of gift easier for you, I am making these signed copies available for Black Friday with free shipping.
Click the Alligator below to order.
Cancer and the Garden of Eden
I have just finished reading (rather, listening to) The Emperor of All Maladies, by Siddhartha Mukherjee. (That name will be on the test.) It describes the history of cancer and its treatment. What I gather is that each of us is susceptible to a form of cancer because of the body’s genetic capability to produce new cells.
The problem is that certain of our cells can be triggered by some external stimulus, which makes the cell production process go into overdrive. Lung cancer, for example, can be triggered by nicotine (or something) which sparks a particular cell into sudden mass production, wreaking havoc inside the body.
Each of us carries the risk. Cancer specialists call that mutation an oncogene.
Since 1980, researchers have found some treatments that counteract some triggers. But there are probably thousands of triggers and thousands of potential manifestations of cancer. Most remain unknown.
Oncogenes are waiting for triggers. Sooner or later, says Dr. Mukherjee, if you live long enough, one of them will catch up to you and will try to kill you.
Having said that, many of us (many of you) will live to a rich old age and never experience cancer. But the nature of the oncogene is that when triggered, it will inexorably bring an end to a human life.
This sounds like a mechanism that is entirely consistent with the curse God pronounced on Adam and Eve. When in the second chapter of Genesis God said, “Thou shalt surely die,” one might ask: By what means would their death be accomplished?
A mutated cell in the bone marrow might be just the ticket. There it could wait patiently, invisibly, biding its time.
All of which adds relevance and urgency to the claim: “I am the resurrection and the life.” THE END is not necessarily THE END.
And with those somewhat morbid thoughts, thanks for following The Alligator News Roundup. Enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend.
