Years ago there was a little religious shop on the main
street of Thursday Island called Sower. Sower was hand painted in a cursive script on the outside wall. The shop is long gone, but I always thought it had an odd name, even for a religious shop. A sign at the door also proclaimed it was the
agency for Uzu Airlines.
Inside was
packed with bibles and other Christian literature. Considering the musty smell and the film of
grey dust on the shelving edges, I figured there wasn’t much demand for
religious literature on TI. However, it
did sell dust-free, divine nick-knacks like crucifixes and Jesus statues along
with posters, cups and placemats bearing the Lord’s prayer and the ten
commandments, biblical quotes like, Ask
and you shall receive and catchy adages like, The family that prays together, stays together. These Godly accoutrements were displayed in the front window, enticing passersby inside.
My
absolute favourite sale item was the wrist band that bore the letters, WWJD. The wearer was constantly reminded to ask,
What Would Jesus Do?
There’s one problem with asking Jesus questions and that’s to
do with his tendency not to answer directly and then not without many Our
Fathers and Hail Marys.
The image of the WWJD bracelet has stayed with me. When I have a problem I often find myself asking, WWJD, but
I’m lucky. I have a mortal to ask; my good
friend Julia. I can text and call. If she doesn’t pick up the first time, she’ll
always ring back or text. Somehow Julia either knows the answer to my question, has had
a similar experience or we start brainstorming solutions and, voila! I come up
with the answer I need.
The kids know I value Julia’s advice because I often say, “Julia’s
suggested …” or “Julia reckons …”
Now I have a couple of issues I need to address and I have
regularly discussed these with Julia, but I’ve not settled on a solution that
doesn’t involve going cold turkey. One
issue is yelling and the other swearing and they are inextricably linked. For example, if I have asked the children to
do something twice, they know I will yell on the third request. If that goes unheeded, I may drop the odd
expletive and more on the third, fourth, fifth and sixth request. Please note I never swear at people, only at
the situation. I just, somehow,
unintentionally, through a frustration that even Jesus and Julia could not
tolerate, utter sinful words.
Not long ago, I said to Seffie and Kibby that I needed to stop
swearing and yelling, that I needed their help, that is, they needed to do what
I asked, when I asked, the first time. I
reminded them that I only yelled and swore because they refused to do what I
asked or they fought to the point of violence.
“You’re not Julia, Mum,” said Seffie in a condescending tone.
“Julia swears.”
Seffie raised her eyebrows as if I’d blasphemed. “She does so swear.” Seffie did not believe me.
“Well, Julia doesn’t yell.”
“She doesn’t have to yell because
her daughters don’t fight like you two and they are at boarding school in
America.”
“But they come home for holidays
and Julia still doesn’t yell.”
“THEY COME HOME TWICE A YEAR. JULIA DOESN’T HAVE TIME TO YELL.” How could Seffie not see the connection between not yelling and not having children around? I was trying to stay calm.
“That's because she just doesn’t yell.” Seffie was very calm.
“THE LONGEST THEY ARE AT HOME FOR IS EIGHT WEEKS. NOT LONG ENOUGH FOR THE GIRLS TO GET BORED
AND START FIGHTING AND NOT LONG ENOUGH FOR JULIA TO GET FED UP WITH THEM AND START
YELLING!”
“See, you’re yelling,” said Seffie
with an evil grin.
“SHIT! THAT’S NOT FAIR.”
WWJD, I wondered.
WWTD I yell and then swear (as I do ) I guess Jesus may pray and Julia may laugh Me I'd swear :)
ReplyDeleteWWTD sounds great to me!
Delete:) thats me
DeleteI remember the shop well - see http://riverbendnelligen.com/dearall39.html . Years later, Stan moved back to Victoria and wrote his memoirs. I offered to put them on the web but needed some editing done which he refused to do. Lost opportunity as there was a yarn or two in all of that.
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