Rought Waters and Failed Bilge Pumps.

The Goodship Aldritch is taking on water. She's weathering the swells fairly well, and has a heading, but more often then not you're hearing the keel crack and snap just a bit more with each wave she hits.

My good friend Shaun is getting blasted by situation after situation. First he's hit by someone from behind while in his car, and now he's possibly getting the ticket for it. Add to that the next car he got just blew a hose, or the radiator, and is spewing hot liquids all over the engine when he drives it. And to add insult to injury, he is tight for finances as he has lent money to his sister, when she needed it, just a month or two back. Now she is getting a paid vacation from work, and is using her extra time and funds to go on a road trip. Not to repay her debts, especially in his time of need.

I'll be seeing to helping him manage his old vehicle while she's in drydock, but there's only so much the Sara Lisse can devote, having to watch her coffers carefully herself.

My friend is considering going active duty, and making his way across the big puddle to the distant and sandy deserts of Iraq, where his particular type of soldier is getting extra attention from the enemy. Actually, by considering, I mean to say he's in the process of. And why? Well, everytime he gets ahead financially, his family drains him. He's a good man, and is often spurred by guilt, whether it's well-earned or not. The bit of extra leeway his tax returns would have nabbed him paid of HIS debts, and helped out his sis.

I can only wish him luck, and that he finds a safe port soon.

~ Jera

Fugue in D Minor on Cathedral Pipe Organ

It is worth waking up too. The abrupt opening, and the chords playing across your earliest conscious thoughts. It almost fuels you to burst from underneath the comfortors with a hearty evil laugh, "Mhu-ahahahahah!" and then go about your day being productive... whether you are an evil mastermind or not.

~Jera

Crash

My good friend, Shaun Aldritch, was in car accident.

Someone struck him from behind, and gave him a moderate concussion.

He's okay, but I'm worried for him. Mostly his transportation. He was insured, but it was the PLPD, not full. And that means he has no transportation, and has no money to repair his vehicle. I'm gonna see what I can do to help him.

But I'm only in a better position in that I have transportation. His job is one in which he takes care of a fellow who is a ward of the state, and cannot take care of himself in some regards. Mainly, taking his medication and transporting himself around. Shaun needs a vehicle that he can utilize to help this fellow about, or he doesn't get paid.

If you know of any good, reliable, cheap cars. Please let me know. I'm suddenly interested in anything in the $500 or less range.

~Jera

On the Nature of God

I've recently been struggling with my understanding of the Bible.

I'm not going to say the Bible is the final authority on God, because, well, I can't.

I believe I hear from God. At least, I hear a voice in my head, and sometimes audibly, that gives me advice and explains the concepts that are basic to Christianity not only logically, but in ways I can put them into practice in my daily life.

But when I read the bible, the voice doesn't agree with everything in there?

So, I'm faced with a few questions.

Is the bible not completely accurate?
Or if it is, am I not hearing from God?

These questions have been burning in my lately, and I'm studying more and more of the history, from both secular and religious sources. Granted, I disregard the fundamentalists, because they are crazy and stupid. More destructive in their approach to their beliefs than they are helpful. I find them to usually be hateful and misguided people, more likely unwitting pawns of Satan if there is such a being.

However, I do qualify as a fanatic, which somewhat implies that my lot lies with them, or at least on their side of the fence.

My shepherd is leaving the path. The man whom I turned too for religious counsel has doubts. This isn't surprising. A lot of the most devout sometimes doubt. I don't. But then, I'm hardly devout. I'm practical. I'm a soldier of my God, prepared to fight ignorance, hate, prejudice, and selfishness while trying to promote open mindedness, love, and acceptance of each other in our differences. It's a long battle, and I doubt I'll do anything that really leaves a lasting mark. But wars are won by the small contributions of everyone who fights in them.

But it pains me I can't give my shepherd any concrete answers, even if he wouldn't accept them, in his time of questioning. As I'm locked into my own struggle of trying to find out where I stand.

My good friend suggested maybe it is time for a new bible. But I'm terribly concerned that such an act is a mistake born of terrible hubris. I'm not that arrogant, that I could have a better idea of who God is than everyone else.

But when I look at my brothers and sisters in Christ, I also think they are crazy and dangerous a lot of the time. It bothers me, but I've actually been considering my friend's suggestion. And I'm worried, because there is a selfish aspect of me that says, "Wouldn't it be cool if I could reshape the way man understands God, makes it better?"

THAT is Pride, and selfishness. I could never even attempt to transcribe words of divine origin while holding such a emotional or mental state. So at the moment, it's not a consideration. But seriously, the writings we have are... lacking. And the messages my current creed gives are contradictive, and counterintuitive.

Still, I serve the God that Christ did. Because I cannot abandon Christ, or his life and it's message. But I'm torn. I don't know what to do, and I'm struggling with my faith. Not in that I have faith, but in that I'm not certain how I should proceed.

Keep me in your prayers.

~Jera

Permission to come aboard; Granted

Welcome aboard!

This is the good ship Sara Lisse, which means bitter-sweet. I could not find a better name for life, which is what this log is about, the voyage of my life. Sometimes the tedious day to day maintenance that every life, like a ship, requires to keep on sailing. And sometimes the momentous storms or adventures and ports it lands in, or finds itself in.

I'm the skipper, Captain Wolfe, known as the Phantom Jew to some, and as Jera to most.

No, I'm not a jew, and no it has nothing to do with jews, it has to do with Iggy Pop, and his song passenger, and a bad phone connection, and... well, that's a story for another day.

I've been sailing the waters of life for a good three decades, and I've grown familiar with her moods, the rise and fall of her waves, and the tides of her fortunes. I don't claim to know everything, or anything much of worth, and some would say that makes me wise, and some would say that makes me a fool. I leave it to you to decide.

The one thing I can say is that the sea of life can be a lonely place, as often as it can be overcrowded. It can be dangerous, and the others who sail it can be friend or foe, and don't always fly their colors true, if they fly 'em at all.

But I've got my good ship, and a good crew to keep her headed in the right direction, and there's nary else more a man can seldom ask for without tempting the fates.

So again, welcome aboard. Smooth sailing and may the wind be at your back, me mates.

~Jera