Swinging Between Heaven and Earth

Before I got too old to climb, I would climb a tree to gain a new perspective. I loved being up high and looking at nature from aloft. Trees with lots of limbs were my favorite although it was fun climbing on without them.

In discussion the other night I mentioned about “swinging out trees” and the thrill of slowly drifting back to the ground. Someone said that was called skinning a cat. I have said and heard the phrase “there is more than one way to skin a cat.” I always thought it referred to skinning a catfish, not a real cat. I thought it too grotesque to skin a cat. I have had fun with cats but never cruel to them.

It seems that “more ways than one to skin a cat” has origins back to the early 17^th century. In John Florio’s 1611 work Second Fruits, he writes "there is more than one way to kill a cat. I thought that it was a good Chiltonian (Chilton County slang) term.

I found out that the expression was popularized in the 19th century. Seba Smith’s 1840 short story The Money Diggers uses the phrase to illustrate multiple ways of achieving a goal using adaptability and problem-solving. And I thought I was just figuring out how to swing a tree to the ground or skinning a catfish. Well, I guess that was solving a problem.

I did find that Robert Frost wrote this in his poem Birches.

 

When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker  trees,
I like to think some boy's been swinging them.
But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay.

 

When I was in high school working for Hiwassee Land Company, I had plenty of opportunities to swing out hickory trees. Hickories were my favorite swinging tree because they are tough. Weighing about 150 pounds I would find a hickory tree about six inches at the bottom, climb it to the top, then swing it softly to the ground. Most of my friends at Hiwassee could not climb as did I. It is one of the great thrills of life that I miss as an old man.

One time I attempted one that was stronger than I was. I shimmied to the top, bent it out, and started my ascent back to earth only to be caught between sky and earth. I could not ride the tree down nor could I get it to stand back up. After several attempts I used adaptability and problem-solving considering all my options and finally dropping about fifteen feet to the ground. As I hung there I thought of Absalom hanging in a tree by his hair.

My cousins and I were swinging out trees and one of them climbed a pine tree. None of us saw him climb it but we did hear his descent as he plummeted to earth skinning off pine limbs as he fell. The limbs softened his fall. We reminded him that pines were not good trees to swing to the ground.

“More than one way to skin a cat” may be an idiom for options or climbing trees. My fellow Alabamians the musical group ALABAMA wrote “Climb a long tall hick'ry
Bend it over, skinnin' cats” in their song Mountain Music in 1982. All I can say is, “Well done Randy. Ain’t nothing like it.”

My Savior hung on a tree for the sins of the world. The only way for Salvation is Jesus.

 And Absalom met the servants of David. And Absalom rode upon a mule, and the mule went under the thick boughs of a great oak, and his head caught hold of the oak, and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth; and the mule that was under him went away. II Samuel 18:9 KJV 

And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree. Acts 10:39 KJV

 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness. 1 Peter 2:24 KJV

 

The Power of A Seed

One day in the Cement Plant cantina I planted a seed in a co-worker’s mind. Grunt was his nickname and he is a very good friend. He resembled Chuck Norris and was a daredevil that would try most anything that was dangerous and exciting. In fact during the days when streaking was popular, Grunt ran through the streets of Montevallo wearing sneakers and a smile.

My friend Keilan Gore and I tried an experiment on Grunt. Looking at him in a sincere and concerning look I told Grunt that he was a Homosapien. His look was one of unbelief and said, “I can’t believe what you called me.”

I told him that he was covered with epidermis and that he had phalanges. By this time, he wanted to know why.

Everyone in the cantina was interested in our conversation. Keilan and I could barely keep from laughing. I said, “Grunt, a Homosapien is another word for man.” Keilan told him that epidermis was the skin that covers your body. I told Grunt that phalanges were his fingers.

Grunt laughed and said, “I thought I must have caught some terrible disease.” The look on his face was priceless. Keilan and I planted a seed creating doubt and confusion on our good-natured friend.

A seed has the potential to produce depending on the soil. Grunt was fertile soil since he did not understand the terms that Keilan and I used in our charade. The law of the harvest is you reap what you sow, you reap more than you sowed, and you reap in due time.

One Spring dad bought some cantaloupe seeds from Murry Glass feed and seed in Jemison, Alabama. Dad prepared the ground in anticipation of a half-acre of delicious cantaloupe. The vines were beautiful and full of blooms. Dad’s bag of cantaloupe seeds produced all the pickles that momma could can. All dad could deduce was that cucumber and cantaloupe seeds look alike and someone placed cucumber seeds in the cantaloupe bind. Dad reaped what he planted.

Life is a process of sowing and reaping. In today’s technologically savvy climate seeds of discord produce an abundance of conflict, division, and mistrust. Seeds planted decades ago are growing chaos and confusion to the extent that evil is the new good and good the new evil. Proverbs 6:16–19 lists “one who sows discord among brothers” as one of the seven things God hates.

The seed of dishonesty can be planted in a person’s life and, over time, grow into more serious issues such as loss of trust, damaged relationships, or personal downfall. In Psychology 101 at the University of Montevallo were studied about “self-fulfilling prophecy.” That what social media does. The principle is that if you tell someone something negative long enough that will believe the lie.

Some of us tried with an experiment. We picked an unsuspecting soul, and we individually asked if the poor soul felt okay. It wasn’t long before she went to a mirror to check if she were okay. There wasn’t anything wrong, but the power of suggestion won out.

I think it ironic that a beautiful lady or handsome man that are news anchors will tell bad and disturbing news for thirty minutes and we wonder why the world is going to hades in a hand basket.

Someone once asked me why they have such violent movies. My answer surprised the person. I said that the movie depicted a real crime. The script was from an official police report. When planting seeds of violence you reap iniquity. Proverbs 22:8 says, “He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity: and the rod of his anger shall fail.”

It is important to plant seeds that produce good fruit. Planting seeds of hope leads to harvest of encouragement, peace, and joy.

Years ago, my children do not want to attend a Christmas gathering saying, “They are just a bunch of sticks in the mud griping and complaining.” I told them that we could go and make a difference by having a good time and not allowing the negative to control.

One of my favorite stories is of Johnny Chapman September 26, 1774 – March 18, 1845. Known as Johnny Appleseed he planted apple seeds wherever he traveled. He created apple nurseries and promoted the importance of the apple.

 

Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you. Hosea 10:12 KJV

Well water

I bought a piece of property adjacent to my front yard. The property had county water. One day while working I turned the water vale on to get some water. There is nothing you miss more that when out of water or as we say in Alabama, “the well ran dry.” I checked to see if the water line had burst. Finding no leaks I walked down to the water meter. When I opened the lid, the water had been cut off and a lock placed on the valve.

Growing up it was not unusual for the well to run dry. Our well on the home place was forty-five feet deep and had a rock bottom with five feet of water. If mama did a lot of clothes washing, she lowered the water below the foot valve pump. We did not have inside plumbing for a long time, and I was a senior in high school before dad and I installed a commode and bathtub.

We did not have hot water. Mom had to heat the water on a stove. We had to carry water to the back porch until we did indoor plumbing. It was a “way of life” for most of the residents of the Mars Hill community west of Jemison, Alabama.

Our granny Hopper in Lawley, Alabama had an outside well utilizing a rope and pulley to draw water from her well. I have vivid mental pictures of drawing her water and drinking water from a bucket, using a dipper cup to drink the water. When she washed she carried buckets of water filling a wash pot.

When I realized there was a lock on the valve, I went to the water authority in Thorsby, Alabama. I thought I was entering Fort Knox Gold Reserve. I found inside glass windows separating customers from the snobbish ladies. I thought I must have grown another head by the looks I received. When I asked why there was a lock on my water meter valve, I had to produce documents to prove my identity and that I purchased the property.

I had never experienced such scrutiny. After no satisfaction from the monster enclosed behind the plate glass window a former classmate recognized my frustration and took my case. I told her that I did not sign as many documents when I bought my house and then asked why the security in rural Alabama. She said people can get violent and vicious over water.

After a few minutes of details on the violent and the vicious I understood their dilemma and understood the immediate hostility by walking into the office. After paying a hefty hookup fee they unlocked my meter. With the rapid growth of rural areas and the insufficient planning of new construction, water is vital.

Our world is mostly water. Flesh and pure water is depleted faster. As I draft this article there is a water battle and lawsuit between Alabama, Florida, and Georgia because the city of Atlanta is sucking most of the water and lowering reservoirs and rivers to the Gulf of Mexico.

Called the Tri-State Water War it refer to a decades‑long conflict among Georgia, Alabama, and Florida over water rights in two major river basins, the Apalachicola‑Chattahoochee‑Flint (ACF) and the Alabama‑Coosa‑Tallapoosa (ACT). It is a long‑standing, multi‑state legal and political fight over shared water resources by competing needs for drinking water, industry, agriculture, and environmental protection.

Nothing is more important in the desert than water. Society depends on water. Recent years of drought in Alabama has lowered creeks, ponds, rivers, and underground water levels. If folks had to draw and tote water like in the “good old days” there would be a decrease in water usage. Like the saying goes, “You don’t miss the water until the well runs dry.”

The Bible has many verses on wells and water. Again, there is nothing more important in the desert than water.

 

Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4:10-14 KJV