{"id":2932,"date":"2015-05-05T18:58:41","date_gmt":"2015-05-05T22:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/?p=2932"},"modified":"2015-05-05T19:17:42","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T23:17:42","slug":"a-maddening-itch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/eidos\/2015\/05\/a-maddening-itch\/","title":{"rendered":"A Maddening Itch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Yesterday Houston was so like Los Angeles that I sat without shoes with Dad on his back porch and learned that \u201clike\u201d is not \u201csame as.\u201d The mosquitoes came and they feasted . . . twenty or more on each foot and somehow I noticed nothing until bedtime. And then the itching began, impossible to ignore, initially pleasurable to satisfy, but fundamentally insatiable. Cream helped some, but I itch. I itch now.<\/p>\n

\"We<\/a>
We named our Sugar Land Baseball Team the Skeeters for a reason.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And yet I should not keep scratching. My skin can stand no more scraping or I will be scratching away the skin each scratch. Some wise guys even claim that the more I scratch the itch, especially if I irritate my skin, the longer the itch will last. So I must endure not doing what I\u00a0wish to do<\/em> for what I should do.<\/p>\n

And I wish to scratch\u00a0now.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

At times today, during meetings or when talking to friends, the itch has seized control of my mind. \u201cScratch!\u201d my feet screamed, \u201cGet up and walk! Do something!\u201d I could not speak and so achieved the appearance of clarity when what I was thinking was about the burning, tormenting desire to scratch, but scratch I did not. Mostly.<\/p>\n

There is not much of a lesson here, but there is something to learn. I can be overwhelmed by a desire to do a thing and yet my will, using reason, can keep my body still. \u201cScratch!\u201d my body screams. \u201cNo.\u201d my minds says calmly and so I do not scratch, mostly. Perhaps, I began to realize there is virtue here. I need not be a slave to my feelings, even feelings that I cannot ignore.<\/p>\n

The part of me saying no<\/em>\u00a0to the itch just now is what Plato called the\u00a0mind.\u00a0<\/em>My passions and my body cry itch, but my mind can exercise control. Small as it is, I have learned that such training is useful. When I feel a desire, and it is not appropriate to act on that desire, do I practice restraint. . . even in small ways? If I learn to deny myself in the small itches, surely it will be (a bit?) easier to restrain myself from acting on the larger desires.<\/p>\n

I want more steak, but I shan\u2019t have it. Enough. Sufficient. This is easier than the itch in one way, but so quiet and subtle (unlike these bites) that I might miss the need for restraint. Surely though, a man who can stop his continuous scratching can keep from gluttony.<\/p>\n

Here is a discovery: my desire to scratch never ends, but it does wax and wane. Sometimes it is intense, but if I say \u201cno\u201d and focus on other things, I can almost forget the craving to scratch until I move and the wreckage left by the mosquitoes is roused into itchy fury. At some points the itchiness is so bad that I think that if it continues like this, I will just give up and scratch super hard . . . but when (and if) I do give in, the relief is not even short-lived. One scratch leads to four.<\/p>\n

So I have found it with all outsized desires that must be resisted. Just when I can\u2019t stand it, I can. Just when I think it is over, there is more. Desires are not bad in themselves, most itches are for scratching, but I must be in control. My mind, my renewed in Christ mind, must be in control. My mind says \u201cscratch\u201d and then \u201cdo not scratch\u201d and my mind can prevail.<\/p>\n

This is very good news. Those who endure mosquito bites to the end will be salved.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday Houston was so like Los Angeles that I sat without shoes with Dad on his back porch and learned that \u201clike\u201d is not \u201csame as.\u201d The mosquitoes came and they feasted . . . twenty or more on each foot and somehow I noticed nothing until bedtime. And then the itching began, impossible to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1007,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spiritual-reflections"],"yoast_head":"\nA Maddening Itch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Yesterday Houston was so like Los Angeles that I sat without shoes with Dad on his back porch and learned that "like" is not "same as." 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