I woke up naturally at 7, took Elsa for our long Sunday walk to compensate for not doing Bikram. I was going to do some work on cutting back the plumbago before church but never got around to it.
Paulette was alone this morning when she came to pick me up for church. Judy stayed home with plans of going to the 4 pm mass because she hadn't slept well. My first reaction was to be worried about her condition when I saw it was Paulette alone. But when I found she wasn't coming because of a bad night's sleep, I felt reassured. Unfortunately, this is something that plagues Judy. I consider myself fortunate to be a good sleeper. I'm a great sleeper. I love to sleep. And that's what I did when I came home from church. All plans to do something functional went out the window.
I woke up around 2:30 pm. I had to be out of the house to make the special yin yoga class. I got a free one because I did at least four Bikram classes a week for August. Crista had run a contest. The prize was a month free pass for one lucky winner. I had no idea what yin yoga was but decided to give it a try. I can do it because it moves slowly and encourages mindful body awareness, right up my alley. The teacher, Rochelle, a visitor from Chattanooga, Tennessee, has her studio there. She and her husband come to visit twice a year. The class was full with more than just students who participated in the contest to get a free month of yoga. Besides the prize of the free month, two students had contributed other gifts. I won second place and got a huge jar of honey.
Ned, whose honey this is, came up to me and told me he doesn't smoke or feed his bees. His honey is as close to what the bees make as it is possible. I'm interested in trying it. The jar is huge. I have a lifetime supply. That's probably no joke.
Mike and I used to joke about having lifetime supplies of this or that. In fact, our supply of Dove soap, which we brought with us from Ohio, has outlasted Mike. It is a lifetime supply and then some.
The phrase "Who gave you permission to die?" has been coming to mind. Mike and I used to joke, "Who gave you permission to be sick?" In this case, the question is, "Who gave you permission to die?" The irony is that, of course, I gave permission for him to die. I think there is a good chance he would have died anyway, but it would have to have been on the surgical table as they tried a last-ditch effort to save him. Every doctor said the likelihood of him surviving a surgical procedure was nil. I'm glad I could save him that agony added to all that he had already suffered. Thinking of his suffering makes me sad.
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Musings:
The reading and sermon today were on humility (and generosity). I want to address humility. It talks about humility in the sense of not assuming you're due a position of honor at the table. The reading says that you're better off selecting a lowly position and let the host invite you to a higher place at the table. The alternative is that you place yourself at the high table, and your host has to ask you to move.
As a child, I learned that humility is the opposite of hubris. The concept of hubris, which comes from the ancient Greeks, was to see yourself at the gods' level and above other humans. Humility is then seeing oneself on the same plane as all humans, regardless of their life circumstances.
As defined by the passage in the bible, it is having an inappropriate view as to your ranking among other humans. It has nothing to do with seeing yourself as comparable to the gods.
I suppose by either definition, anyone who inappropriately sees themselves as above another is somewhat out of touch with reality. However, I find the two criteria quite different. By the biblical standard, your problem is seeing yourself as among the most elevated in the social group. There are always some who are higher than others for one reason or another. No matter how socially elevated, no one rises above all humans to be compared with the gods, no one. I prefer that definition of humility. As illuminated in this story, the biblical one is just sound advice, so you're not put in an embarrassing position.
