Chamblee54

PG has been the recipient of two messages this week. Both had good intentions. Neither was recieved well. His behavior was not influenced in either case.
Thursday night, PG went to dinner at a chain restaurant … lets call it TeeTee’s. This facility serves a pizza buffet. The quality is acceptable, considering PG’s low standards. The portions are generous, and dessert is provided. This particular location usually involves a wait in line to pay, with someone taking their sweet time explaining an order. It is part of the experience.
On this thursday night, there was a sign on the front door. The logo of TeeTee’s Pizza was at the top. The text said : “We are open Everyday of the year except Thanksgiving and Christmas These we celebrate with Our Lord and our families. Thank you.” PG felt like someone had slapped him in the face, and said you are not welcome here. Go to McDonald’s, heathen!
After driving through rush hour traffic with a growling stomach, PG resisted his first impulse to go somewhere else. He went inside, and waited for the man, ahead of him in line, to explain his carry out order. PG told the very nice cashier that he wanted a buffet and water, and by the way, that yellow sign makes me feel unwanted. The lady said she had not seen the sign.
PG read somewhere that the word LORD was a term for english gentry, and was not a proper translation of the hebrew original. Four hundred years ago, some chauvinistic limey inserted that term into King Jimmy’s translation, and now we are stuck with it. Be that as it may, the third commandment says not to use sacred names in an improper manner. To tell a hungry pizza enthusiast to take his appetite elsewhere would seem to disregard this suggestion.
One of the holidays mentioned was Thanksgiving. The first Turkey day involved Native Americans, many of whom have regrets about welcoming the European invasion. Do these original Americans feel Yahweh is “Our Lord”? Or does TeeTee’s not care about anyone who is not a Jesus worshiper?
There was another paving stone, on the road to hell, coated with good intentions. PG participates in the activities of a group of “outdoor enthusiasts”. This group is becoming more popular, and wonders how to deal with all the enthusiasm. An out of town enthusiast weighed in on the proceedings, and felt it was essential that the Atlanta enthusiasts use a process called consensus. (In spanish, the opposite of con is sin. Perhaps someone needs to take a sin census.)
PG made the mistake of reading the facebook discussion, and compounded his error by making a comment. : “Maybe we have a consensus not to use consensus. If radical individuality is the model for the individuals here, then maybe our group can be exception. Maybe as we move forward we should adopt some of your ideas. However, I think we should have confidence in ourselves enough to know that a process that works for other tribes might not be right for us. “
“you all can do whatever you want. You can call yourself a radical faerie tribe that is not consensus based. You can also call a rose a daisy all day long. Your right to do it does not change the fact that it is a blatant misnomer and efforts to dissolve these essential principles from the greater social movement only serve to undermine the entire movement itself.” These we celebrate with our lord and our families. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.