Blog 2628 – 01.08.2023

Reading Between The Lines

As children most of us learned to read but we soon learned that often there are messages and meaning hidden between the lines. Most people believe that Jesus told parables or stories to make his message easier for simple folk to understand but he plainly said the opposite was true, that he spoke in riddles to hide or obscure the truth so that we would have to seek to find the answers to life’s questions.

The best kept secrets are those hidden in plain sight. Before many of us became even elementary readers we were taught to play a game called, “I spy with my little eye.” In the game participants take turns finding an object in plain sight of a certain color and others in turn try to guest the exact object. The little game teaches us to look more closely at things for it is so easy to see the big picture and yet miss small but important details.

Netflix offered a new movie this weekend called The Pale Blue Eye. It is a period piece set at the West Point United States Military Academy when famed poet Edgar Allen Poe was a cadet there in the academy’s early days in the early eighteen-hundreds. It is a murder mystery with macabre elements reminiscent of Poe’s poetry and short stories. I find detective stories with twists interesting and intriguing. I recommend this movie to you if you enjoy unraveling mysteries and solving puzzles.

I believe as the simple children’s song tells us that life is but a dream and yet it is also a mystery and a puzzle much of the time requiring us read between the lines. Some years ago everywhere you went there were artistic renderings with hidden images that one had only to shift their vision slightly to see. A slightly skewed view or thinking outside the box is a necessary skill for good detectives. One of the phrases in my daily mantra goes: I am healthy, I am happy, I am whole, I am patient, I am persistent, but above all I am kind.” Jesus also said, ASK: “Ask and you will be answered, Seek and you will find, Knock and it shall be opened unto you.”

The answers, the clues to solving all the mysteries and puzzles of life, are there for us, we have only to ask and read between the lines. “I so love a good mystery” is a phrase that I taught myself to say rather than getting frustrated or impatient when looking for lost items or trying to make sense of the confusing and convoluted issues of life. Being patiently persistent helps one to solve all mysteries and puzzles eventually and being kind helps us to be a lot more fun to be around while we are figuring it all out.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fy0VBQd73hyIgkRo_l9vJPONsLFJRnrl/view?usp=drivesdk

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