Three Things on Thursday

My current internal state.

The First Thing
This video is amazing. Of all the things going viral on the internet, this is a deserving one. Of course, the shares are not uniformly positive. Some are very unhappy about her light sentence, pointing out that if the table was turned, it wouldn’t be ten years behind bars and nobody would be giving hugs. That is undeniably true. A lot of young black men go to prison every day and nobody cries and there’s no forgiveness. Where I live, that goes for every kind of ethnic background. It’s very easy to go to prison for a long time on a minor charge around here, and then to go back again, over and over. Add in racial prejudice and the result is intractable bitterness and ruin.

Just finished Great Expectations and that’s Dickens’ whole point. Young men, in particular, get swept up in unjust systems and nobody cares about them. Fear is the motivating principle on all sides. And yet, the kindness of one unexpected person in one small way can lead to ultimate redemption. Indeed, the ending scene in the prison infirmary reminds me rather of this scene in the courtroom. Does it solve everything? No. Do you still feel sort of bleak? Yes, but it nevertheless shines hope into the darkness, it lets those standing around outside in the shadows get a glimpse of the bright, healing light of the gospel, which is, truly, the only solution for human sin and despair. It gives strength to go out and face another thing, and so on, slowly, painfully.

The Second Thing
Here is a lovely book that came out this week. The first one you might have already seen, about church history. This one goes through the Bible. I’m sure you will want to run out and buy it. (Sorry about the grainy picture, it was well nigh impossible to pry it out of the fingers of my children even for thirty seconds.)

The Third Thing
I had a long bad day yesterday in which I first went to the walk-in and was made to feel morally wrong for feeling bad with no “symptoms.” And so then went to the dentist and was affirmed (yea, even by the weirdo dentist) that the very bad pain in my jaw is associated with a tooth and so came away with a hefty antibiotic. So that’s fun. This morning I am drinking hot liquid again without dying, and feeling like maybe I shall live and not die.

Oh, and here I am being mean to my dogs. Look at them, aren’t they adorable?

https://www.facebook.com/mattkennedy71/videos/10157556467497888/