A Precursor of Deep Musings to Come

 

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. ⁵ For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ. ⁶ Now if we are afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effective for enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or if we are comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.
- 2 Corinthians 1:3-6

If I suffer, I will be better equipped to minister to those who are also suffering any kind of affliction. It is this thought that sustains me of late, and allows me to embrace with joy the pain and trials this life brings so that I will be receptive to the lessons it teaches.

The topics of affliction and perseverance and comfort have been weighing heavily on me lately, so you might see a number of posts in the near future dealing with that.

On a lighter note, today or tomorrow, if I remember, I'll be posting my New Year's post, which has been delayed a couple weeks by feelingnotsowellness. Which is totally a word, by the way. Look it up--it's in the OOD*.

*Oxford Olivian Dictionary

Those Items which Occupy My Desk at Present

On a normal day, my desk area is neat and tidy, because I cannot work in chaos. However, my desk items are revolting, and now crowd its entire surface in protest, crying, "5% of the desktop occupies 93% of the office accessories!"

I thought I would seize this pivotal moment in history to describe my desk's contents to you, because never before has such equality in the distribution of office supplies been seen on the face of my desk.

• My Bible (most importantly!), neatly tucked in an Amish-made bookcover to protect its paperback...ness.
• Two notebooks, one containing ponderings on various theological and philosophical subjects, another some rather pitiful poetry, and the last some attempts at Venn diagrams.
• Four mugs used as penholders depicting paintings by Mary Cassatt and... some other person whose name escapes me. One contains pencils, mostly mechanical; one Sarasa gel pens; another Papermate gel pens; and the last, other brands of gel pens. (I like gel pens.)
• Several pens and pencils scattered about the desktop, protesting segregation of utensils.
• A hymnal open to Be Still My Soul. Yes, with music by Jean Sibelius!
• Two long rope-like erasers.
• The score to Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67.
• Some Post-It notes containing jottings of a story idea that seized my mind late one night.
• An iPod USB cord... thing.
• Another notebook with musical staves on the sheets in which I've learned composition is not my forte.
• A hair elastic.
• A Kindle.
• A copy of Macbeth.
• A calculator, for I am a calculator addict. But I usually use the app on my iPod, so the real one's rather dusty.
• The Oxford Latin Desk Dictionary.
• Quite an assortment of postcards to be sent to friends, as well as a letter or two to which replies need to be sent.
• A wooden icthys engraved with the words Rejoice in the Lord.
• A Lennox lamb.
• A miniature of Monet's Houses of Parliament in the Fog, the original of which was painted in 1903.
• A tag to something that fell off.
• The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci.
• And lastly, William Shakespeare.

Not to mention the other books and items in the hutch above my desk, which are numerous enough for another posting. Anticipate one in the near future. Or don't, considering my countless unfilled promises of posts to come. I'm prophetically challenged, it would seem.

The Gullibility of Olivia Longfellow

Note: Longfellow is not actually my last name, but such a title needed a last name, and not wanting to put my actual last name on the internet, I resolved to make one up.

Now on to your regularly scheduled post.

All over the internet, amid compilations of random facts or useless information, I had come across the statement that the commonly used word gullible is not in the dictionary.

When I first saw this, I scoffed, for of course the word gullible is in the dictionary, and I questioned the credibility of the other facts listed. The next time I saw it I wondered if perhaps the word was commonly misspelled, and the proper way was to omit one L, but I was busy and went about my tasks for the day without consulting the dictionary.

When I came across this piece of information again, I double checked to be sure I was, in fact, spelling gullible properly. There it was on dictionary.com: "gullible - adjective - easily deceived or cheated."

I was so perturbed by this, that such blatantly false information was circulating the internet, that I brought it to the attention of my mother.

"Mother," I said, "I don't understand. I keep seeing this thing that gullible is not in the dictionary. But it's on dictionary dot com!"

Here, she grinned.

I stared blankly, wondering what was so funny.

"Olivia," she began.

And then I got it.

We fell in heaps laughing.

Gullible! The dictionary! I looked up gullible in the dictionary! This was a trick and I fell for it!

Of course, all this was a trick meant purely for the amusement of my mother. Of course.

I would never actually fall for anything like that.

It was just a... blonder than usual... moment.

Postscript:

It's Monday!

The day of music!

A psaltery and guitar ensemble, it says*, of Waltz from Masquerade by Aram Khachaturian.

*Well, Google Translate says it says.