Little View, Big Thoughts

Word of the Post
Today's Word is: schadenfreude
/SHOD-n-froy-duh/
noun
A malicious satisfaction obtained from the misfortunes of others.
From German, from Schaden, "damage" + Freude, "joy." It is often capitalized, as it is in German.
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The historian Peter Gay -- who felt Schadenfreude as a Jewish child in Nazi-era Berlin, watching the Germans lose coveted gold medals in the 1936 Olympics -- has said that it "can be one of the great joys of life." ~~ Edward Rothstein, "Missing the Fun of a Minor Sin", New York Times, February 5, 2000
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Sometimes you have to stop and smell the flowers.



I don't so much like the smell of roses. The intoxication of honeysuckle is much preferred. Even stinky old dandelions are pretty, if you bother to look at them. I am not a fan of the iris, I think they are ugly. I don't really know why that opinion was formed, it just is. I wonder what these little purple things are in my yard. I know that the plant is a creeping vine. It surrounds my backyard, and has crawled to the front of the house, and up the bushes that I would love to chop down. The flowers are so pretty, I have delayed destroying their ladders.

April Showers bring May Flowers, May Flowers bring June Bugs. Ugh.

May brings Tornadoes. At least in Oklahoma. We had a small one yesterday, somewhere in the state, that the news called an F0. F Zero? How can it be a Tornado if it doesn't even qualify for a number? Aren't those called Dust Devils? These people crack me up. Apparently, the poor baby Tornado stirred the air enough to shake a few leaves off of a tree. No damage that a good gust of wind couldn't have managed. The next question is, logically, "Why is this news?" They must have had a slow day. Which is good, because that means there were no REAL Tornadoes, nothing in the range of F3 or F4.

This past Sunday, we were at my church building. My niece was visiting with Grandma and Grandpa for the weekend, and the three of them came to our Family Day. She had wandered into an empty classroom. I was letting her run, because she had ridden in the car for an hour and a half, and then sat through one church service, and was expected to sit through another one soon. She got to spinning while she played, and she started asking for "Ashes?" She wants to play Ring Around the Rosie. So I start singing for her. She turns in circles, and will say "rosie" and "posies" and "ashes", and then yell "Down!" with you, and sits on the floor. Then she lays down on her back, and puts her feet above her head and hollers "Whee!" while throwing her legs down the length of her body. She also does "I'm A Little Teapot" pretty well. She is enthusiastic, in a way I don't remember from my own childhood. She keeps me young.

I think now I understand better why Jesus said to become like Children to get to Heaven. Children approach things so honestly. They want to know all the great questions of research: Who, what, when, where, why and how? They don't have an agenda or any presuppositions, they simply wish to know more. They are happy to stand on their heads and observe the shoes and purses behind them on the church floor. They are concerned when another child cries. They are amazed at the way the pencils and cards fit into their own holes in the pew in front of them. They are happy to say Hi and give "fives" to anyone nearby. They know that hitting is wrong, and yet they still try it as a reaction to injustice.

Significance is harder to find as I grow older. The fact that I see Blue in the sky was significant to me as a child. Now, I find that political and religious debates show me significance. I have ignored the significance that observation can bring. I have forgotten to stop. I have forgotten to smell the flowers. I have simply forgotten to observe, to question, to consider. Proverbs 6:6 "Go to the ant, O sluggard, Consider her ways and be wise."

Is it bad to want to use my glasses to burn ants? I do remember that from my childhood; it was fun.