You read about the magnetar on Wikipedia where Doug collected his information. It bothers you that you know so little about the world at large.
This is where the fiction makes experience and limited knowledge mixed with imagination easier. As it is impossible to learn and know so much in the world it is easier to make it into a story whether it be myself or Merlyn and his many cast of dreamt characters or the Dead in the books. It eases the mind to feel it has some sort of ‘control’ on its/my limited existence.
Post for now. You have the lawn to mow as well as other errands. Later, dude. – Amorella.
You did a couple of errands and plan to mow tonight. Carol has to get a new battery for the green car and AAA membership is being useful as the car won’t start. Left over Papa John’s pizza for lunch from last night. Now is not a good time to work on the story. Too many distractions. Relaxing for a few moments isn’t going to kill you. – Amorella.
Famous last words, Amorella.
You drove into Kenwood for a Potbelly’s lunch and a quick stop at ToysRus for Christmas, then Kroger’s on the way home. Lots of traffic and the parking lots are full.
Sitting at Kroger’s on Mason-Montgomery Road. You have copied four pages of notes from earlier this month for this chapter. The first section is on ‘spirits’ angelic-like Betweeners, the second section is on presumed presences/encounters and the third is on water and light as an analogy that the Betweener would be adapted to as a natural environment.
It came to you that the above could be used with a acquisition of a newly Dead who has the experience to have seen presences and the like in life. The name that popped into your head was Ezekiel as I had just used him. You are thinking of the Old Testament prophets as you had a semester course on them at Otterbein at what seems like several hundred years ago.
First, King David came to mind, but that appears too brazen. There needs to be some kind of tie in to the first book where the old fellow has a connection with one of the characters in the Pouch stories. I think he was a rabbi but I am not sure. > Rabbi Jabal Hevron and Karl and Justin.
There is a scene where Jabal sees the ‘lock of hair’ in the recently discovered enclosed vase of 2000 years ago. His thoughts respond to the loss of his wife in a terrorist’s attack. Here is a copy of part of the scene in book one where they are in the lab looking at disk images of the vase. The scene is in Chapter 11, Pouch Text. The characters looking at ‘images’ from within the enclosed vase:
“Photo Plate 50.” Jabal stood with a question, “I think we are looking at it upside down. Turn it over.”
“What do you see, Jabal?” asked Dmitri.
“The upper lines are Greek and the lower ones Hebrew.”
“What is the other line? This shadow that runs along the edge.”
“Yes,” said Dmitri for the first time, “I noticed that too,” and he quickly added, “Okay, super enhanced imagery, Photo Plate 53.”
“It’s a dark blob in the middle. The lines look like thin black marker surrounded by gray dots,” commented Karl.
“You can see the corner bent over, very clear,” said Dmitri.
“Is this a test plate, Dmitri?” asked Karl jokingly.
“No,” replied Dmitri bluntly, “See the next one, Plate 54.”
Scratching a slight crustiness on his right earlobe, Jabal exclaimed, “Yes! Hebrew on the top, Greek on the bottom, that’s what it is.”
“Can you read it, Jabal?” asked Karl as he wiped his reading glasses.
“Two words in Hebrew and three in Greek,” said Jabal and he added, “the dark shape could be another word. What do you think Dmitri?”
“Some of these lines might be in the marble not the parchment. You’re the expert Jabal.”
“True, you’re the expert,” confirmed Karl. “What does it read?”
“Gut reactions are usually wrong,” somewhat embarrassed by the words, Jabal smiled politely, “at least mine are.”
“Well,” said Karl in feigned surprise, “I think the second Greek word is tpixidos. The ‘t’ and ‘i’ and ‘x’ and ‘o’ and ‘s’ stand out. The word is tpixidos or ‘hair’ in English.”
Dmitri bent to take a closer look, “The dark line snaking around the letters appears to be inside rather than in the marble itself,”
Jabal slowly pronounced the word aloud, “tpixidos. The first Hebrew letter reminds me of a Greek X. The rabbi felt a terribly important thought fall into his head. “What?” he mumbled aloud. The thought sank quick and deep before bobbing up like a cork. He grew aware of that goose bumps were forming on his forearms. Jabal asked in doubt but loud enough to be heard, “The dark line along the edge may be a lock of someone’s hair.”
“Do you feel okay?”
“I don’t know,” answered Jabal slowly. “Suddenly I don’t feel well.” He closed his eyes. ‘A common Jew’s hair enclosed in a small marble urn? It seems unlikely.’
“Let’s call it a day,” said Karl. “You’re ashen, Jabal.” He turned, “Do you have copies of these plates, Dmitri?”
“No, but I can make some easily enough,” he held the old man’s arm, “I’ll do it now that is after we see Jabal home.”
“Or to a doctor,” said Karl with concern, “I’ll get you a bottled water.”
“It’s all right,” said Jabal Hevron, “I’ll be all right. Maybe I need a drink of water. I suddenly feel very old and dried out.” He paused and rubbed his forehead, “This translation may be something more important than first realized.”
Hair, thought Jabal, a lock of hair with a note. Perhaps it is an ancient love letter. A fast running association hit him wall hard. Sarah’s love letter. I found it in a marble nick-knack on the dresser. The old man felt his heart crumple. I miss my Sarah still, after all these years. She had a lock of her hair and mine in that vase, along with the love note. The love of my life destroyed by a mad bomber at a bus stop.
Jabal added somberly, “I’m afraid we need to study these plates more. I do not know what we have here.” I was thinking of my Sarah, God’s Sarah.
“I wish we had the original urn here for better imaging,” said Dmitri. “Are you sure you are okay, Jabal?”
“Here’s some water, Jabal,” said Karl who had already loosened the cap.
[From: “Pouch Text 11”, book one, Braided Dreams]
**
Also, later in the same section, P.T. 11, Jabal brings up Sarah and Abraham and the Promise which seems to me to be an underlying pivotal part of the plot of the whole six book series. Here is the scene:
"Rabbi Hevron sat his old body in the old chair in the office. He stared upward at the south corner. ‘Where did God go?’ he thought. ‘The world today is like God was never here.’
I miss my Sarah as old Abraham must have missed his. I never found a Rebecca to take her place. We never had children, it was I who was at fault this time not Jessie, I mean, Sarah. God made a promise to Abraham and ultimately to Sarah too. God made a Convenient with Abraham and Sarah that millions would be born, millions as in the stars in the heavens and the grains of sand on the beaches. He promised a good life one day when there were millions of us in the world. He promised everyone a good life once there were enough of us in the world. Humanity has certainly spread their seeds and eggs. The world is quite full of us, probably too much so. Where is the promise kept? I am old, why not now. Then, the Lord works in mysterious ways. People of the book all say that. We all can trace ourselves back to Abraham who was willing to sacrifice his only son because he thought God wished it so. An angel told him to stop before the sacrifice, then a promise afterwards.
We are all old, dear God. I am not alone. For the love of humanity, do us a favor for once. What do you want from us? From all of us? How can we all learn to sleep together under this same tent. Our world is as a desert. We are bones alone. Millions slaughtered in the last great world war. He rethought that statement. Millions slaughtered around the world, not just us Jews. They should be remembered. The good, the bad. It makes no difference. Death comes to us all. We seemed to have forgotten the promise to Abraham and Sarah was not to us alone, but to all the nations of the world."
[From: “Pouch Text 11”, book one, Braided Dreams]
**
I had forgotten about this material. I mean, it is in my head somewhere but this copy raises it up. Somehow in this could there be a connection with Ezekiel? Or, is this too outlandish? Oh my gosh, Amorella, no. I can’t bring this up. Not here in book four. The connection would be way back in book one. No one will remember this. The layers these books have is beyond reason. No one in the world could possibly see these things. I would never see them myself, and I have read the works somewhat carefully.
These books, all six, demand the interpretations of Merlyn’s dreams. That’s the fun, orndorff. You wake up after a fanciful dream and you wonder, what was that all about? Where did that come from? These books can’t get more authentic than this, orndorff, as far as dream stories are concerned. Post for now, Amorella.
Is Ezekiel going to be a character in this chapter? How is he going to relate to Merlyn?
Merlyn is in character as a Druid but he also has read the Old and New Testaments for his own best interest. Going to Canterbury shows this interest, this has already been set up. In the earlier books he has to deal with the Scottish court of Arthur, many new Christians who also want to preserve the best aspects of their old Druidic ways particularly concerning Nature, environmental concern, if not outright worship of wood and stone and cattle. The old gods were being absorbed into the new religious sense of the times. This has not changed and will not through these books. Religious ideas are always being reinterpreted and absorbed throughout history. Why would these books be any different?
What would Merlyn see in the O.T. prophets?
The same as some saw in Jesus, who was a carpenter, a wood-worker. The Druids understood the ‘magic’ of working wood, so they conjured him as someone like themselves, a Druid.
Do a quick update on Ezekiel and see what you can find.
I found plenty on several sources online. Some from the Jewish Encyclopedia and the Catholic Encyclopedia as well as Wikipedia and other sources. Twenty-two pages worth of single spaced material on a twelve point font, Ariel which also includes about eight small photos or sketches. I will have to study this material. Here is a quote from the Jewish Encyclopedia that I find most interesting.
[Ezekiel’s’] His Individualistic Tendency.
Herein lies that peculiar individualistic tendency of Ezekiel which distinguishes him from all his predecessors. He conceives it as his prophetic mission to strive to reach his brethren and compatriots individually, to follow them, and to win them back to God; and he considers himself personally responsible for every individual soul. Those redeemed were to form the congregation of the new Temple, and to exemplify by their lives the truth of the word that Israel was destined to become a "kingdom of priests" (Ex. xix. 6). Law and worship—these are the two focal points of Ezekiel's hope for the future. The people become a congregation; the nation, a religious fraternity. Political aims and tasks no longer exist; and monarchy and state have become absorbed in the pure dominion of God. Thus Ezekiel has stamped upon post-exilic Judaism its peculiar character; and herein lies his unique religio-historical importance.
Another feature of Ezekiel's personality is the pathological. With no other prophet are vision and ecstasy so prominent; and he repeatedly refers to symptoms of severe maladies, such as paralysis of the limbs and of the tongue (iii. 25 et seq.), from which infirmities he is relieved only upon the announcement of the downfall of Jerusalem (xxiv. 27, xxxiii. 22). These statements are to be taken not figuratively, but literally; for God had here purposely ordained that a man subject to physical infirmities should become the pliant instrument of His will. E. G. H. K. H. C.
From: The Jewish Encyclopedia.com
**
You do not agree with much of what you have resourced in those twenty-two pages. In fact, though you find the man interesting you do not really see his value in this chapter or even the books as a whole.
True. I don’t. I always liked Ezekiel and thought he was the best (or was brought out to the best of the Old Testament prophets). I do not take much of any of the words literally. I see the Bible figuratively for the most part, like spiritual, like poetry, and thus open to interpretation. Not everyone agrees. But that is how I see this. Usually someone has an agenda and some of it is political, religious, cultural and some personal. Who is to know for sure which is which when one writes? I certainly can’t tell. I doubt that Ezekiel could either. - rho
On the record. – Post. – Amorella.
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