Suffer the Little Children

When I first started attending the Elsdon Methodist Church at the age of nine, they were using the King James Bible. One of the first passages I remember hearing in Sunday school is "Suffer the little children to come unto me, for of such is the Kingdom of God." I didn't know what to make of that. Did Jesus want the little children to suffer? Were they already suffering and Jesus wanted to comfort them? I must have asked someone about it because I remember somebody explaining to me that "suffer" was an old fashioned word for "allow". A few years later we got a new lady minister who was a fan of the Revised Standard Version, and she soon sold the rest of us on it. In that version the passage reads "Let the little children come to me", which I thought made a lot more sense. Some time later I learned about the  historical Women's Suffrage Movement, but I didn't immediately make the connection. I thought that those women were complaining because there was a lot of suffering in their lives. Ain't English a funny language? Be that as it may, my first impression of the RSV was that it was easier to read than the KJV, but it still sounded like the Bible, which is more than I would say about some of the other modern translations that I have read.

Speaking of little children coming to me, I had a strange, but not unpleasant, experience the other day in my dentist's waiting room. I was sitting there watching CNN, just because it was there, when this little boy came toddling up to me. I don't know how old he was, he was walking on two legs, but I'm not sure if he was talking yet because he didn't say anything. All I said to him was "hello", whereupon he reached his arms up to me like he wanted me to pick him up. I intuitively picked him up and sat him on my knee without thinking that some people might consider this inappropriate. After a minute or less, I thought he wanted to get back down, so I set him back down. He started to walk away, but then came back and wanted me to pick him up again, which I did. At this point I became aware of two women who seemed to know the boy standing nearby. I asked them what his name was, and they said "Tanner". I told them that I was surprised by Tanner's actions, and one of them said that they were too, since he had never done anything like this before. Then she said, "Come on Tanner, we have to go.", whereupon I set him back down. He started to walk towards the two women, and then turned around and wanted me to pick him up again. I said, "It was nice meeting you Tanner, but I think you should go back to your people now, which he did.

I don't remember a strange kid ever taking a shine like that to me before. I do remember my mother telling me that, when I was about that age, and my father was working in an office before he went into the meat business, I used to address any man I saw who was wearing a fedora and carrying a briefcase as "Daddy!" She said that most of them laughed it off, but that it made some of them uncomfortable.

I got tired of this Trump soap opera a long time ago. I am more interested in issues than I am in personalities, and the news lately seems to be nothing but a bunch of celebrity gossip.

Sorry, but I'm not all that interested in cooking or fonts either, but you guys go ahead.