I'm off to babysit in about 15 minutes, so we'll see how far this post gets.

Ah, childhood memory ... it's crazy what you'll remember after a long period of forgetting it.

"Janitor of the Known Universe"

    This was a self-appointed title that I had back in the day.  It came out of my constant battle to lead the troops (fellow kids) in cleaning the house and my father's musings on metaphysics.

    For instance, what is really KNOWN about the universe?  And for that matter, who knows it?  Do I know you?  If we truthfully answer these questions based on our own experience* then the answer is really not much.  And of that not much, I am a janitor - a lowly steward appointed to keep things clean, neat, orderly, and well maintained.  Am I responsible for things beyond my ken**?  Not really - or at least not on a consistent basis.

    Anyways, the fun part of this title is that it sounds pretentious, but in reality it's not.

It all happened so fast ...

     There I was at the intersection, waiting to go straight.  The green light had come on for the left hand turn lane, and the line of cars was beginning to roll out.  Then a car came up behind me, got into the left turn lane and was forced to slow down because the cars ahead of him had just started to move.  The driver gave a brief honk of the horn - the sort that you use to get someone's attention to the fact that the light is green and you (at least) would like to go now.

     Observing this, I remarked into thin air, "That was polite."  And instantly conviction came!  I had just lied, because in my head I had said, "You're a jerk."

     So I offer this question for your consideration: Is sarcasm lying?

For myself, I find that it is all too often the first indicator (or at least the first that I notice) that I'm being self-righteous.  Intertwined with that self-righteousness is the sin of judging others - for example, I would never be so rude as to honk at an already moving line of cars because I was impatient.

Do I wish to be believed when I speak?  As I pondered this conviction and chewed on various Scriptures [let your yes be yes James 5:12; a soft answer turns away wrath Prov 15:1; let no corrupting talks come out of your mouths Eph 4:29; etc.] I was reminded of my experiences with other people's sarcasm.  There have been a number of occasions where I was genuinely confused as to whether someone was speaking in jest or in truth.  If the one, then it was a serious matter to joke about; and if the other then it needed sincere attention and humility to examine if the person was discerning some pattern/area of sin that I wasn't aware of.  Either way, I had to figure out whether I would believe what they said or not ...

      And if not - I have found that I am less likely to listen carefully to them when they do speak seriously.  Their habit of speaking sarcastically has dulled my ears to them.  In practice, they become like the boy who cried "Wolf!"

Well .. it's been 15 minutes and then some.  I've got to book*** on out of here!

Thor

* Experience is a technical philosophical term that I'm sure Dad would love to explain in detail if you'll ask him about it.  Suffice it to say that there are some who would say that I can only be sure of that which I've personally experienced.  Which reminds me to tell you about some of my dreams sometime ....

** Ken is a Scottish word for know or knowing

*** Book comes from my wallpaper hanging apprenticeship with mi madre.  We'd wet the glue on the back of the paper and stick it to itself for a while to let all the little enzymes and such do their jobs.  About 5-10 minutes later we'd peel it back from itself and stick it to the wall.  For some mysterious reason, "book it" has come to mean "get going".

Further etimological (either has to do with the history of words or insides of bugs****) tidbits as time permits.

**** the bug half of things to be safe: my employee/boss (I know, it's a weird relationship) REALLY does not like spiders.  This is very tempting, especially with the upcoming holiday and all the goodies on sale at the store .....