DahRev Discusses

Remind them of this, & warn them before God that they are to avoid

wrangling over words, which does no good but only ruins those who are listening.

So says whoever wrote the instructions to new pastors in 2^nd Timothy—

Avoid wrangling over words… Hmmmm… Isn’t that what writers & other thinkers do best? As both an avid reader & a compulsive writer I find that words are far & away our best means of communication. God’s first act of creation was to speak & the world burst into being. What were God’s thoughts in that eternal silence before all that we see about us came into being? There’s a concept in Chan Buddhism called huatou. Quoting from “Attaining the Way: A Guide to the Practice of Chan Buddhism,” Chan Master Sheng Yen says this: “The term huatou literally means ‘source of spoken words before they are uttered,’ or, ‘before the spoken word.’ This is an indirect way to point out that which is beyond language & concepts. This source is variously referred to in Buddhism as buddha-nature, self-nature, no-self, no-mind, & intrinsic wisdom,” --but you get the idea.

i was just thinking of the term "party line." when i was a boy, & yes i can remember that far back!, we had a 4-digit phone number & a party line we shared with a neighbor down the street-- luckily for us she was an elderly woman who didn't use the phone much, but i can remember times when my mother would want to call someone & hear her say, "well, i guess we'll need to wait until she's finished-- won't be long now..." when the woman died we didn't get another party. now party line is something one must hew to, adhere to. we need someone who will not want a party-line in the house, someone who is a maverick, but i'm afraid we'll get another party-liner-- probably hilary-- we need a dennis or a barak-- but they just don't hew--