One Last Set of Lampstand Quotes

This episode concludes Season 3 of The Office. We'll be back with Season 4 in January. :-)

“Hey Christy… what’s your plan?” – Marjorie
“My plan is to go to Heaven tired.” – Christy
“That’s…quite a plan.” – Marjorie
“It’s working so far!” – Christy, wryly

“We don’t have enough Italian love songs around here.” – Mom

“Mom is like the Office escapee who’s always trying to get out. If this were a M*A*S*H show, she would be Klinger” – David, gerbilling to the office in general

“This is the end! I don’t want to read about literary analysis, I don’t want to think about literary analysis, and I especially don’t want to write about literary analysis!” – Christy, being melodramatic
“Christy! Go analyze!” – Davy
“No! I’ll lock myself in the bathroom with a copy of Southern Living!” – Christy

The Mom and Davy Routine

“Aren’t you proud of me? How often can I edit myself?” – Mom to Davy

“No, we don’t want an arrow.” – Mom
“Mother, please. I wasn’t thinking anything about an arrow… I was thinking…” – Davy
“More like a curlicue…” – Mom
“…yeah, or a dotted line…” – Davy

“Mom, I love you. Are you an alien?” – Davy

"What's wrong with you?" - Mom to Davy
“You don’t even know. I don’t even know. Doctors have a theory, but it hasn’t been proven yet.” – Davy to Mom

“You are in a choppen-zee-doitch mood…” – Davy to Mom

“You and your things…” – Davy to Mom, with a certain fond tolerance
“You and your invisible charts! They’re driving me nuts!” – Mom to Davy
“Oh, but they keep things so organized…” – Davy

“Are you kidding me? Look! It is like ‘well’ and like ‘well’… what more can I tell you? It is broad and pleasant.” – Davy, making use of his atrocious Russian accent

“Well, but I want to add to it, so don’t get too happy…” – Mom

“You want to add? But you were doing so well!” – Davy, incredulously

Surprised by Kindness

I find this paradox at work within my life, that when I am most aware of a trial, I am at the same time most grateful for it. Pressure in my life so tends to reveal God at work, so evidences grace, and brings me to my knees in awe.

This morning, for example, I found myself in tears. The deadlines seem utterly impossible; my fall semester likewise, and my body (or perhaps more accurately, my mental power) is wearing out under the combined lack of sleep and recreation. It has been two and half weeks now since I have had any sort of break from this strain.

Yet, in the midst of it, I find such subtle and dear gifts. My quiet times have become unspeakably precious to me. I am in prayer more constantly than I think perhaps I have ever been. God is very near. And the people around me, oh, so kind! Mom took time out of her own incredible busyness to pray with me. Casey gave me a hug and a reminder of the Gospel. Jay left my favorite snacks on my chair while I was in the other room. Davy gave me that look of his which I can only describe as "I understand." Laura rubbed my back--everybody is praying for me. The girls in my caregroup sent me a card.

I am utterly astonished, though of course I shouldn't be (and yet, shouldn't I be?). How is it possible that there could be so much kindness in the world? "From the top down," as they say---beginning with God. As I told Casey through my tears, I would a thousand times rather have this trial and all the sweet awareness of God that it brings, than not. What a paradox is the Christian life! When I am most tested, then comes the deepest and most exquisite delights.

Oh God, what a wonder you are.

Salve, Luna Illuminata, Et Spiritu Illuminate

The moon is full tonight, with that pure luster which always moves me to worship. Driving home from caregroup tonight, I could hardly take my eyes from it. Hail, illuminated moon! Even so I hail the Spirit who illuminates my soul with radiance. Over these summer months God has drawn me to himself as the moon draws waves up on a shore, and floods their long ripples with a gentle beauty.

Somehow, I realized this evening, I have ceased to be afraid of three things that plagued me all through my childhood and adolescence. I did not lose the fear of them tonight, but gradually I have lost them, and tonight I knew it. These three, then, I renounce:

I renounce the fear of death, which so terrified me as a girl, and has lingered through all the years until this one. I found tonight that I am not afraid to die, and have not been for some time.
Having lost my fear of death, I renounce my fear of the night. When death has no terror, what evil can night hold? No more starting at shadows, no more trembling on a night walk--the night is dark but beautiful, and I have learned somehow, sometime, to love it.
I renounce the fear of people, of all my fears most prevalent, and most painful in its consequences. I no longer assume, I find, that people will dislike me or be unkind to me, or find it impossible to love me. I no longer find it impossible to like them. I find within myself no more shrinking from human contact, but rather a desire to touch with the fingertips of my mind and heart all those minds and hearts that God has made for me to serve, to love.

Hail, illuminating Spirit! Holy One, draw me higher up and further in. This I pray, sitting beneath the lovely moon.

Honest, It's Explicable

Here's the explanation: Weariness leads to silliness, and sometimes weirdness. Subject matter can increase these, especially the last.

“That was work-related! My work-related comments are just funnier than yours!” – Davy

“I will now whisper the national anthem in haiku to myself. That should help.” – Davy

“Thank you for patting my headphones. Somehow that makes everything so much better.” – Christy to Laura

“Laura! Help! I’m going to strangle my computer!” – Christy, fighting with Word formats.
“I’ll gladly lend you another pair of hands with which to do so…” – Laura, who has spent years fighting with Word formats.

“So, Alex, when you’re done helping Christy out with profanity…” – Mom to Alex, who was double-checking literature warnings for profanity in the Iliad and Odyssey.

“Right. So weeks thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen need to be profane and rude—no, wait, I didn’t mean it like that!” – Christy to Laura about the column in literature warnings which has been marked “profane” but is now “profane/rude.”

Hangin' On...

A sample of my work environment, since it also constitutes my life right now, seems appropriate. :-) Please pray for me--the work goes hard, but well.

“Marcia? Are you near Scott?” – Grace on IM, trying to get hold of Dad.
“In what sense? Spiritual? Ecumenical? Physical?” – Mom

“I’m not feeling like the fittest survivor right now…” – Christy

“This girl’s last name is Coffee. If that’s not a sign from God, I don’t know what is.” Grace, entering orders while coffee-deprived.

“As advertised, it died.” – Mom on her battery-dead cell phone.

“Last year you wanted to move to Tuscany, and now it’s Montana! What will it be next?” – Christy to Mom
“Hopefully something closer to home. This is a good trajectory so far.” – Laura

Scene: Christy, after Tuesday prayer, finds a small scented note on her seat. She picks it up, and immediately bursts out laughing.
“Where is Laura? I’m going to kill her!” – Christy, still laughing.
“What!?!” – Casey
“She left a random unsigned love note on my seat!” – Christy
::David immediately seizes the note and begins to read aloud::
“Most excellent Christina, I love you dearly and forever. The sparkle of your eyes is like the coruscations of light off a plashing brook. Your brilliance dazzles like amicable lightning. Your sense of care is as sweet as June roses to the tired nostril. And I thought it was important enough to write it down on paper. Yours sincerely, etc.”
::Laura cautiously reappears, having gone down to the other warehouse while the note was found and read::
“But why?” – Casey
“Well, yesterday when Jay said that she had a note in the curriculum for Christy, Christy was teasing her and asking if it was a love note and said that she always wanted one on paper. So I made her one and scented it.” - Laura
“You…. ::Christy sniffs the note:: … Ugh, you did! Wow.”
“I figured it would take her about twenty seconds to figure out who did it.” – Laura
“Oh, I recognized your handwriting.” – Christy
“You have just earned yourself the nickname of ‘the amorous bandit.’” – Davy to Laura in a pleased tone.
::Later::
“You know, Laura, I must say it was a nice progression of similes.” – Christy, thoughtfully
::Laura snorts with laughter:: “Thank you.”

“Why is there a comma there?” – Mom to Davy
“Because I like commas a lot.” – Davy
“Someone should teach you to write.” – Mom

“Good grief…” Christy to herself, finishing off an appallingly long list of epic traits.
“I agree. That indentation is terrible.” – Laura, from behind her
“Um, I wasn’t talking about that…” – Christy
“I know, but I wanted to remind you that your life could be much more petty and detailed. I, for example, have a whole box full of purple pens.” – Laura, clearly under the influence of editorship

“I’m going home for lunch now! It’s not because I don’t like the rest of you; it’s just that you aren’t edible.” – Davy

“I’m pretty sure that in the old English spelling it’s like that” – Christy, in answer to Laura’s question about “prophesy”
“Is it like that in the real… um, the current English spelling too?” – Laura
“I think so. Nice recovery.” – Christy
“I try not to show that I’m a reverse chronological snob.” – Laura

“You want to know how much more surreal your life could be, Christy?” – Laura
“Sure!” – Christy
“Choc and Pik play a powerful game of Pok-a-tok.” – Laura, reading aloud from her Tapestry editing.
::Pause::
“But you can’t guess from the names which one is a minor deity and which is a human boy.” – Laura