A Roll in the Universe

Some time in high school: A friend: "Let Jesus be in the driver's seat." Me: "Naw, I'll drive. Jesus can be the navigator." Jesus never did get to ride shotgun with me, but finally God did get to chauffeur. This past weekend. My department of nine people is made of six men with outdoors interests and three women without. The annual social in our department therefore usually consists of hiking or fishing. This year's trip was no different. We were headed for Aurlandsdalen , a canyon carved by the Aurland river, starting at a mountain lodge called Østerbø Fjellstove and ending at the bottom in the village of Vassbygdi. I'm not used to hiking and so was nervous about the trip. However, one of my female co-workers, G, is deaf, and she was determined to go. She bought herself new hiking boots, walking poles (her sense of balance is destroyed by her hearing loss), rucksack, Thermos and I guess some other gear. We discussed back and forth how to do...

"May you live in interesting times" say the Chinese – and mean it as a curse. If things are constantly changing around you, there is no peace. As usual, my own little life is not interesting. (More about that farther down.) But the news is currently full of all kinds reports about lives elsewhere being far too interesting. Terrorists killing school children in Chechnya, one hurricane after another pummeling the Caribbean, Florida and soon the Mexican Gulf, odd-ball accidents (traffic and otherwise) and tragic murders (like the report in Sweden of a 16 year old stabbing a 14 year old). And of all things, a mosquito problem in Arizona (arid Arizona!), spreading the West Nile virus (the mosquitos breed in neglected swimming pools). I'm sure I've missed something, but that'll do. It's enough interesting times. Why did I say "as usual" about my "uninteresting" life? Well, when I was a kid, I was in the Brownies and my grandma was driving s...