One of the greatest rock stars of all time, Opus, from Berkeley Breathed's Bloom County had a number one single for a few minutes once in the 1980's called, "You Stink! FWAH! FWAH! But I love you!" It was a rock ballad to, as I recall, a herring. The Fwah! Fwah! by the way, was supposed to be the sound of his honking tuba solo.
I am reminded of this because I spent the first two days of the new year helping a friend move his house. If you've been out of touch for the first two days of this year, you may not realize that this required a great deal of running in between the rain drops in order to stay dry here in California. I was not always succesful and, in fact, was quite drenched before about ten minutes.
We had a good sized crew though and the work took only about eight hours - finishing around 8 o'clock at night when we finally found how to turn the light on in the moving truck to see what it was that we were moving. As the last of the stuff was moved into the new house and we were all sort of basking in the glow of a job well done, my friends mother - who is also a good friend of mine - leaned in and gave me a big hug. It was such an outpouring of love and relief and thanks that I suddenly felt greatly energized and loved.
And then she said, "You stink." I'd just been moving for eight hours through the rain in a rain and sweat soaked hooded sweat top - so there was likely some truth in that. I probably smelled like a rancid yak. But I took the words not as an insult, but as a wonderful compliment - as a golden crown.
The next morning as I finally was able to wash away the sins of the previous day, I reflected on how much her words did not hurt, but actually made me feel better, wanted, loved. And I knew that this was surely the way God loves us - embracing us, making us feel warm and loved, and then, oh by the way, you stink.
Yes, Lord. I stink. I've done some awful things and the stench of it is all over me. Sometimes, in the course of things, that just happens. But I'm not going to make excuses for it. I'm going to go and wash it off. And I know that you'll still love me, because even when I stink, you hug me and love me.
Of course, God would be more hip if he did it with a tuba solo... but I'm not complaining. :)
Happy New Year all!
8 comments:
Leave it to you to conjure up the memory of a plastic 45 single in an old Bloom County book - I probably still have that somewhere in my garage.
Great sentiment to start of the 1st week of the year. We "stink", but God still loves us.
Fwah! Fwah! To all of you! ;)
All - I'd like to thank all of you who were looking for me over the holidays. I appreciate the thought that my presence was missed. My reasons for not posting on the weekends are many fold, but chief amongst them is that I have my blog set up on my work computer, and I forgot how to access it at home. See, I'm not such a genius after all! ;)
Elisa - Yes. I signed up. But I couldn't make the Friendster thing work. I'm going to assume that I'm an e-idiot as opposed to the fact that you invited me to join Friendster and then made it ILLEGAL to join (Friendster said something very computeresque that sounded like barking cyberdogs at the entrance gate and that prevented me from joining your little group). It was late, so I'll have to try it again later when I have more time.
Sue - Andy pointed out your comment. Thank you for admiring my writing. Its good to feel admired. However, as Andy well knows, I don't always write well. I tend to always keep the reminder in front of me that Garbage In equals Garbage Out. I just happen to be writing about something that is very wonderful and my writing, fortunately, seems to be up to the task. I will keep trying to keep it that way.
Fwah! Fwah! Will... out!
Will, I don't know if you noticed, but Peter did link you from his site this weekend.
I think that is a result of the "King Kong" of posts.
He also referenced you, without mentioning your name, about the God=Love and reading 1 Corinthians 13 in church on Sunday...
Okay, but when the T-Shirt rights come down, I want my kick back! ;)
Will,
You know what I like about your writing is that you grab the attention of the reader right away..
"You stink" ?! How can I not continue reading? I wish that I could remember the song by Opus...Perhaps if you hummed a few bars.
So I see you are still on the subject of "love". I agree very much with your depiction of God's love "the way God loves us - embracing us, making us feel warm and loved, and then, oh by the way, you stink". God's love does feel "warm" and he loves us in spite of our bad "stink". I tried to explain that to my Dad (the Atheist) once but he said he never felt loved and could not understand what I meant. You remind me that should pray especially hard for him today.
With Love,
S
with all that pee splatter on you it's no wonder you stink.
:)
Peter - Its probably only in ICON where a comment like that would make me laugh my head off and not offend me ;) Such is the crazy world I live in!
By the way, I deny everything about Andy's newest blog. It's grossly inaccurate.
Which part? The denial of extortion?
Post a Comment