AgainstTheWind

And Now headed home--Evacuation Reflections

As I sit in the hotel room desk, gazing at this mirror, I recall that the dressing table in my Aunt Ina May's room in my grandparent's house was referred to as the "vanity." I know why now. Marianne sitting with Barry's laptop was admiring her reflection yesterday in the adjacent room! Now I'm enjoying the nearly 60 y. o. face smiling back at me as I look up from my typing on Tara's graduation present laptop.

Yes it was an unnecessary evacuation, and comes at some cost to all involved. So it's an economic issue. Barry charged his room to a corporate credit card. He's a Haliburton employee doing contract work for Shell. He booked my room at the same time and there's been undue hassle changing the booking through expedia or hotels.com... changing it to my personal card. I do not recommend saving the $3 per night for the third party booking! Too much hassle to do something which should not require an act of congress. For now I'll repay Barry and hope that he repays Haliburton for the one night that should not have been on that account. That was the worst of the unpleasantness, but everyone has endured discomfort of some sort. Those who evacuated to shelters were quoted on the news as saying, next time they will not endure this ordeal. Evacuation even with the amenities of imposing on relative's hospitality is stessfull.

This morning I was reflecting on the Mother of all evacuations... the evacuation in the face of famine in Genesis. Then there was the 40 year return to the land of milk and honey that endures through time in the Jewish people's psyche. The return was no piece of cake... returning to a land now peopled by the Caananites. Are our homes looted? Was our absence noted by those who stayed behind, with aquisitive hearts?

In the ample time in hotel room to read and reflect, I grabbed the dusty Giddeon's bible while not falling easily to sleep last night and read Proverbs 5, which will be featured in my blogging for the next month or so. Proverbs 4 in a nutshell says, seek wisdom always. Proverbs 5 reads on many levels. The change of culture and the changes of language have not rendered it useless, but instead, it seems layered with meaning. Wisdom in Hebrew is a feminine noun, so is personified as a woman throughout the Proverbs. In Proverbs 5 there is the echo of the admonition to the son to stay clear of the strange woman, she of sweet words and lips. It's a clear echo of the Exodus admonition (on those heavy tablets) not to engage in adultery, but also not to adulterize the wise words, the gifts of Solomon, lovingly imparted to his son, and sons through the ages. Anyway, I have no access here to scholarly references, so I'm just reading and letting it filter through the night in my own head, so I may be finding things that are more in my experience, and my head than in the words of Proverbs.

So while enjoying the words of wisdom from the past, from a people whose relationship with God was forged in many flights and evacuations, I've also enjoyed some of the pleasures afforded by NW Arkansas.

It's moving toward 10 am and if I hope to be home by 11, I have to get out of here by check out time. 11 am. I'll smile at the lovely old gal in this mirror, and continue sorting my treasure preparing for a long day on cloudy roads. Tara and Marianne will come home tomorrow. Safe journeys to us all. ds

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