What Can I Say? The Woman Drives Me Nutz!!!

I'd say it was a pretty nice today.  

I got Pearl's album all done and will take it up to her tomorrow morning.  

Dar was over for a visit (?).  You know how it is to visit with her.  She talks, I listen and if I make a comment, before she wants me too, she puts her hand up, palm facing me as if to say, "Shut up--I'm not done talking."

She comes in, puffing away on her cigarette, sits down in the rocking chair, looks up at the ceiling and says, "You need to prime and paint your ceiling.  I notice, in the bright light, that it is dingy looking."

Especially on the ceiling over where you sit and blow smoke up at it, I am thinking. 

"Yes...I know," I said.  "It needs painting...all the walls need it to, but I couldn't do it anymore.  I would have to hire someone to come in and spray paint it...probably."

Then she starts telling me this yarn about how she wants to buy a car, but her brother, who used to sell cars, told her she couldn't afford the gas.  She would like to be able, once a month, to drive up north a ways to visit her son and his wife who has cancer.  

"My brother told me it would cost me one hundred-fifty dollars to make the round trip."

"Gosh--where to they live?"

"Alma.  It's about ninety-miles."

I thought for a moment and said, "Well, I hate to say this, but your brother is incorrect in his calculations."

"Oh.  No.  He knows all about cars."

So--because she drives me nuts with her no-it-all attitude, I say, "Let's do an experiment.  It will be fun."  I handed her a piece of paper and a pen.

"Let's say your car gets twenty miles per a gallon of gas.  Write that down.  Now, if a gallon of gas costs--oh, let's go high--five dollars a gallon.  You can drive twenty miles and it will cost you five dollars.  Right?  Put a five over to the right of the twenty."

"Okay--got it," she says.

"Now, here we go on our road trip.  You drive another twenty miles--that's forty miles you have driven and it has cost you ten dollars.  Now keep doing that--another twenty, which is a total of sixty miles and another five dollars.  Do that until you get to one hundred miles.  Now add up your fives."

"I got twenty-five."

"Okay--that's how much it will cost you to drive to Alma--fifty dollars for the round trip."

"Well, I would have to get an older car--like five years old or something and he said they don't get very good gas mileage.  Like ten miles a gallon."

GOOD GRIEF!!

"I don't know what car he is thinking of--I have a fifteen year old car and it gets--or the last I checked, it got twenty-five miles per gallon of gas."

"Well...why would he tell me it would cost me a hundred and fifty dollars?"

"Hm-mm.  He doesn't want you to buy a car?"

"So...once again some MAN is telling me what I can and can't do?"

"A yep."

She keeps bragging that her Daddy, who now lives here, is a multi-millionaire--I wonder why Daddy doesn't buy her a car---but I would not voice that.  I just get so frustrated when women can't figure these kinds of things out for themselves--especially women who live alone and brag about how independent they are.

Anyway--then she says, "I have to work tomorrow, so that means getting up at five o'clock."

"Why so early?  You don't have to be at work until nine do you?"

"That's right, but I have to do my Bible study and prayers in the morning.  I have four Bibles--different ones, and three study guides.  If one Bible doesn't seem to explain it so I understand, I get my other ones and look at the same verse.  Then I check the study guides to see if they agree.  Then I write it down so I can remember it later..in case someone might ask me and I can tell them the truth."

"That's a good thing to do...I guess."

So then--because I am such a rabble rouser, I say, "Which Bible do you study from?  The Douay Bible, the Jehovah Witness Bible--the NIV, the Amplified?"

"Oh--I don't use the Douay or Jehovah Witness ones--they aren't the true Bible!"

"Who says?"

"Because, they've either added books or taken books out..."

"Well, the King James Version has books that are left out too.  How do you know that version is the real Bible?"

"What books?"

"The Books of The Aprocryphal. The books from the Dead Sea Scrolls that were never included."

(I am such a brat!)

"You realize that what is in the King James Version is based on what the writers of that Bible--the interpreters wanted in it." says I.  "Other books were added or deleted depending on what the writers of those Bibles thought were important to their faith.  There are a lot of really good books in the Douay Bible--they even have the book of Judith, which I think is pretty cool!"

"Did I tell you Connie (her estranged daughter) called my sister-in-law and wanted to know how I was doing?"

"That's great.  Do you think she wants reconciliation?"

"I don't know what she wants...if it is...I would have a plain directive from God, telling me that she was sincere, before I would reconcile with her!"

I say nothing.

"What if Jennifer called you and wanted to get together...acted like she wanted you in her life again...what would you do?"

"I'd jump for joy!"

"You mean you would trust her again?"

"Yes."

"You'd expect an apology...right?"

"No."

"You would just pretend the last few months hadn't happened?  That she hadn't hurt you?"

"Yes."

"Well...how could you do that?  She's been cruel to you."

"Darlene...it's called...unconditional love.  It's called acceptance.  It's called forgiveness.  All the things the Bible teaches us."

"I can't forgive Connie...I never will!"

"Then you are willing to forego ever seeing your daughter and your grandchildren--ever again in your life.  Like when you cut your mother out of your life?" 

"I had a reason."

"Connie thinks she has a reason too."

I was getting a bit miffed at her pretentious attitude.  She claims to be such a great Christian.  She loves to show off in church.  She loves to pray out loud, in front of people.  She always says, "God's blessing on you" when she leaves.  She reminds me of the Pharisees--showing off. She brags to everyone about what a great Bible scholar she is--makes Pearl roll her eyes.  

So I say to her,"You keep telling me that God doesn't seem to be sending you things that you need.  You keep telling me Jesus isn't sitting in your bedside chair anymore and doesn't talk to you.  You expect God to forgive you of your wrong doings, and yet, you are unwilling to forgive others.  I think, you get back exactly the amount of forgiveness from God, that you give to others."

"What are you saying?  That God won't bless me if I don't forgive Connie?"

"Kind of,"  I said.  "Look  I just feel...you can read your Bible everyday, you can talk to Jesus and pray to God, you can go to church every Sunday, but if you don't put the principles of kindness, love, forgiveness IN your own life, you aren't going to get any of the promises spoken of in the Bible FOR your life. Go home and read Mark eleven or Matthew six or eighteen. See if what I am saying makes any sense."

So--she looked at her watch and said, "I've got to get going--it's past supper time."

She may not be back.