Blog 2232 – 11.28.2021

Laundry Day

Today is a special day for many religious folks. Christians mistakenly call it the Sabbath Day or day of rest. It is not, but rather the first day of the week, the Lord’s Day, the day that Jesus, they believe, rose from the grave. For the ten some odd years that I have been working on the road many of which I worked six days a week, Sunday has come to be known to me as Laundry Day.

Wherever I stay, there are several things I try to find right away: a Walmart, a diner, a bank, and a laundromat. While many Christians who say they believe cleanliness is next to godliness are sitting in churches around the world mostly comparing clothes or throwing dirt on their “lessers” I am living to a line that I recently added to my daily mantra creed:

“Whatsoever my hands find to do today, I will do with my whole heart, finding purpose in the most mundane of tasks.” Doing laundry in a coin operated laundromat is a time consuming and tedious task, especially folding towels, wash cloths, shirts, pants, and rolling socks together by color, so all will fit back into the laundry hamper for the ride back to my little one room house on wheels. I have learned to make the most of my time between washing and drying cycles to either read the news on my phone or read a book if no one else in the laundromat seems to be in a talkative mood.

I am currently working on, I think, my sixth Jack Reacher novel. The Jack Reacher character appeals to me. He lives a simple life, travels a lot, and always seems to find some problem to solve or work to do wherever he lands. He knows as all wise people do that there is both good and bad in all of us and that keeping our hands busy and minds occupied with honest work helps us to stay out of trouble. His god and he claims to be an atheist is his highest best self and relying on that internal compass helps him to steer a pretty true course.

To me most religious people spend way too much time comparing their righteous robes to the shabbier clothes of others and believing that they can be dirty in their business dealings because they are “the chosen.” Bull spit. Do bulls even spit? Maybe not, but they do shit a lot, as do the rest of us even “the chosen” but we should not shit on ourselves or others. As I recall Jesus was pretty specific on that second point: In that you did or did it not to others, you did or did it not to me, said he, in so many words.

I wonder if Sunday was Jesus’ laundry day. He had a robe and I am sure it got pretty dusty from all that traveling about on the roads between the many towns he visited. I think Jesus would have like Jack Reacher. There is no pretense with Jack, he is pretty real, for a made up fictional character, but then probably what most people believe about Jesus is probably made up by men for their own ends. The highest and best Jesus had little patience with hypocrites, pretenders, or with dirty business dealers, cheaters. He ran them out of the temple courtyard once with a whip he made of cords, the story goes. The whip was for the poor animals that the crooked businessmen were overcharging people for. They were forced to pay the unreasonable prices because they needed the animals to sacrifice to their blood thirsty god. The bankers, money changers, Jesus also ran out for short changing the worshippers in converting their Roman coin to shekels which were required to buy the sacrificial animals. Temple worship was ripe with corruption.

Jesus believed and taught the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Today, on Laundry Day. I think we should not just wash our clothes, but that we should all come clean in our business and personal dealings as well. Whether one believes in God or not, there is no excuse for fakery, cheating, or dirty business.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

Down To The River To Pray