I didn't know I needed that

Have you noticed the items for sale that you never knew you needed? I have to admit that sometimes I'll see something that I never saw before, and suddenly I develop a need to try it out. (The Mr Clean magic eraser comes to mind -- it really does clean marks on the wall). But then there are the items that I don't need, I don't want, and I don't understand why anyone is buying them.

• Premade, frozen peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches. I do realize that one of my very best friends thinks these are wonderful, but I still don't get it. Maybe its because I like the version I make for myself: toasted multi-grain bread, macadamia and cashew nut butter, and raspberry jam. Yum!
  
• Premade jello. When you make it at home, the entire recipe consists of boiling water and stirring. So buying it already made baffles me.
  
• frozen yogurt and ice cream for DOGS! This is the item that gave me the idea for this blog. I don't know about you, but my freezer does not have any extra room for doggie ice cream. I've got regular ice cream, lime ice pops, and soy ice cream, as well as some leftover Italian ices from my last kinship, and that uses up my allocation of ice cream real estate.
  
• Candle warmers. These take a little explanation. The purpose is to warm up the candle so the aroma comes out, and you don't need to burn the candle. Considering the fact that I'm always seeking for pretty unscented candles to burn, the idea of doing the reverse puzzles me.
  

I bet you can think of some more contenders for this category -- I didn't know I needed that!...

Do you ever wonder?

A friend of mine recently went to London on a business trip, and enjoyed walking through all the wonderful historic churches. He encountered one I had never heard of: St Andrew-by-the-wardrobe. (The hyphens are apparently part of the name). Clearly, Andrew must have been a popular saint's name, in order to require such a distinctive qualification. So I wonder, WHY was he called that? How long was he by the wardrobe? Maybe he wanted to be a pole sitter but had a fear of heights, and tried to start a new discipline, but it never caught on. If you know the answer to this one, please tell me.

Well, after getting Andrew-by-the-wardrobe stuck in my brain, I was suddenly noticing saint's names all over the place. For some reason that I cannot explain, I was browsing through the yellow pages one day, and started reading all the church names. I was delighted to find that right here on Long Island we had our own distinctive name: Our lady of Peach. It reminded me of the legend that puts Mary in Ephesus in her later years, and about the fact that Turkey has wonderful aromatic peaches, and I was trying to recall whether any of the icons in Ephesus showed Mary holding a peach. Of course, a few hours later I realized that it was a typo, but I sure enjoyed it while it lasted.

Moving from the sacred to the secular, there's another thing I wonder about TV commercials. Who chooses the music that goes with them? There was one a little while ago that played Carmina Burana. I don't remember what the Ad was for, but I found the music an odd choice. If you are not familiar with it, here is an English translation of one of the verses in the first movement:

Fate is against me
in health
and virtue,
driven on
and weighted down,
always enslaved.
So at this hour
without delay
pluck the vibrating strings;
since Fate
strikes down the strong man,
everybody weep with me!

Why would anyone want to buy this product?

And a more recent commercial that bugs me is the Toyota ad that uses an arrangement of What Shall we do with the Drunken Sailor. Who thinks these things up? Should we really be singing about drunken sailors when buying cars?

More about 'J'

I got a call this evening from 'J'. She had been thinking about my invitation to church, and was calling to ask some questions. She was pretty motivated, because she didn't have my phone number, and also didn't remember my last name. So she had to do some detective work.

She was also worried about whether we have communion and whether she would be allowed to skip it, because she is Catholic, but isn't allowed to receive communion in the Catholic church (because she is in a non-Catholic marriage). She is clearly struggling with the issue that her own church wants her to get her marriage annulled, which she is not planning to do, yet she still feels she must abide by it's regulations in regards to communion.

Pray for 'J'. Pray that the Lord draws her heart. And while we're at it, lets pray for her husband, too.

A third conversation with 'J'.

I missed an opportunity today to pray for someone. I can think of lots of excuses, but the fact remains that I missed an opportunity.

'J' is a neighbor of mine. Other than saying 'Hi' when we pass each other in the parking lot, I've only had two actual conversations with her before today.

This afternoon, my doorbell rang. That's pretty unusual for me. I was surprised to find that it was 'J'. I didn't understand what she wanted. She invited herself in, and I was sort of taken aback, but said ok. She asked whether I was on vacation (since I'm not usually home in the afternoon), and I explained that I was recuperating from major surgery.

She immediately jumped in with her story -- a long list of vague physical complaints that have all subsided except for indigestion. She speaks in a verbalized stream of consciousness, like the world's longest run-on sentence. She asks questions but doesn't pause for a response.

And I didn't feel well and I went to the doctor and he said I was fine and he did tests and he said I was fine did that ever happen to you? and then I felt better except I still have a burning pain in my stomach, and he said it's stress, can stress cause that? and he said I need to see a therapist, do you think I should? and he said I can take tums, did you ever take tums, and I went to a health food store and asked them I guess they should know what they are talking about and they gave me some stuff and what if something is really wrong can stress cause this and I don't know what to do!

At that point she started crying, so I got up and gave her a hug, and had her sit down, and tried to find out what she wanted. I suggested that she try following her doctor's instructions. But I was still to confused at what she was doing there to realize that what I should have done was offer to pray for her.

As she was walking out the door, she suddenly asked me what church I went to, and I invited her to visit, and explained that after each service there is an opportunity to receive prayer. But I blew my own opportunity to pray with her right then. Oh well. I was taken aback by some of the odd things she had said (which I haven't even included here), and I just wasn't thinking.

So you guys can be praying that I'll get another chance to minister to her. And also pray that I have the grace to handle it well, because she kind of drives me crazy.