the moans of an uninvited guest

It was a serenely beautiful setting. The sun sparkling through the trees near sunset, a flowing breeze, a warm September afternoon, grilling out my favorite health food (hamburgers!), Brenda and I decided to eat outside on the patio . . . it was perfect . . . and a bit romantic too (couples that have been married 20 years still like romantic).

Well the romantic atmosphere soon evaporated. Not because I said something buttheaded or because I burned the food (both which are perfectly possible reasons), no, none of those things ruined the atmosphere . . . it was the moans of an uninvited guest that poisoned the air. It was one of our neighborhood cats, moaning this deep and soulful and highly irritating moan. I mean on one hand I took it as a compliment - my grilling smelled good! On the other hand it was ruining our dinner on the patio.

Now I am no poster child for PETA, as their headline statement reads, “Violent acts toward animals have long been recognized as indicators of a dangerous psychopathy . . . ” maybe I am a psychopath. But I am not a violent person, heck I don’t even hunt any longer. But this cat was tempting me to take up guns, bullets and hunting once again. My parents were poultry farmers, and shooting cats is a highly refined skill that I have (perhaps I will write about that another time), but I generally leave that information for the back page of my CV.

It was one of the little big irritations in life. The kind that seem so huge at that very moment, but in the big scheme of things don’t even rate. And while I don’t hate cats or any other animal, I don’t care about them very much either. But I find that I can sound caring when in the company of these PETA people! That really scares me. This is not very biblical at all! It seems that I should be what I appear to be. I think I need to be much more concrete in my understanding of God, e.g. when God says feed the poor that means I should REALLY feed the poor people in this world, and not just with some big fat impersonal missions group with my monthly offerings, but at my table!

You see the bottom line is this, what I really believe is not the words coming out of my mouth, though many they may be. What I really believe is what I do . . . not matter what I say, this is what I really believe. Now I am certain that I am not a PETA poster boy, but I need to find a way to discouraged uninvited guests from moaning through my romantic dinners.