Dominoes & a Half Aborigine

Rest in Two Acts

Act One

We're on vacation in Mechanicsville, Virginia and in a couple of days we'll head with family to Myrtle Beach, SC. One of our pastimes with Phyllis' folks is to play dominos. It is a rather inane game requiring few skills and whose value lies more in the mindless banter that goes on while connecting numbers than it does in pursuing a well thought out strategy. The inanity of the game is only increased by the fact that you can only play what you draw, an action requiring but simple motor skills to pull 14 dominoes mindlessly into a pile in front of yourself. 

OK, so it doesn't take an Einstein. It's not chess! But we have fun! Fun, by the way, depends on your expectations. We expect little. For Phyllis and me, it is also rest from ministry--blessed work indeed. Still, it's rest, switching gears, changing scenery. Another great advantage to this game is that it is not technology-bound; it's as computer free as the old "stick & hoop" days! I love it for that. 

Act Two

We watched the movie "Australia" before we left--as the Brits say-- "on holiday." This recent flick presents an epic sort of story involving a British aristocrat flying to Australia during WW2 trying to make the most of her husband's ranch in the midst of "Death Valley" heat and intense competition "down the road." Vital to the story was the cutest little half-Aborigine, Nullah, disparagingly labeled by racists, a "creamie." This adorable boy from the outback seemed to represent the movie's wise man. Referring to his "witch doctor" grandfather, King George, Nullah said something like, "he hears the song and dreams." For Nullah, hearing songs out in the wild and seeing dream-like visions qualified one as authentically human. I may not have the wording correct, but the message came across loudly to me that it wasn't riches, race, or even genteel civilization that constitutes superiority, but the being able to hear--really hear and truly see. 

POINT? Nullah's medicine-man grandfather lived very simply away from (and aloof to) all the crazy womanizing, money-grabbing of modern civilization. And because of it, he seemed to have a far better handle on how to live life to the fullest. No argument is made here for the Aborigine religion. I am only interested in the seeming freedom of living away from the constant technological, Hollywood-induced ephemera called the "good life." So, let us at least take away from this the all-encompassing biblical truth to "meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still" (Psalm 4:4). Every now and then it is important to step away from the cacophony of schedules and phones and emails and simply look . . . and listen, push a few dominoes around the table . . . and breathe. There is music if one listens hard enough, and a place for dreaming . . . maybe "somewhere over the rainbow?" Ah-h-h . . .  

(Notice I say this while typing away on my MacBook Pro!? Oh, and did I remember to plug in my BlackBerry and iPod to charge them up? What if someone can't get in touch with me? What if I don't return someone's email? How can I live? Someone make it stop!!)