Hook, Line and Sinker. To Pander or To Ponder. The Abyss of the Great Wide Gulf and Golf of Divide.

Gullible, Galable, Guyable or Buyable?

Let’s just say it and then “Ka-Ching”? Or better to politely just ask for it? “Kerplunk”?

What is your price? What is your price range?What is your cost? Or perhaps the better question is what is your worth? What do you think you are worth?

Ouch.

In the Abyss of Egoism, do you, can you bend in compassion before the wounds that suffer. (PF) Or is it just too painful to “watch”, see and easier to dis-believe. To just accept the indifference of Inequalties and Marginalization. To not believe.

Can you be bought?

What price would you pay for a seat at the table? Any ‘ole table? Or, gosh, just a seat. Or what would you pay for a seat at a long table, a round table or a square table.

At the rate things are going a table won’t even be available and we will go straight to digging our own pits after digging in our heels, destined to join with those heading to accepting The Abyss of Marginalization.

Well. Not me. And as not much of a baker(although if you can hang on to this end of this piece I will share the five ingredients of a family recipe of delicious chocolate chip cookies- really only 5 ingredients-and they are delicious.)

But. First. Let’s talk a bit about: Firsts. Bread. Breaking bread. And really what this means to a believer….

Of God. The Father. The Holy Spirit….Hey before you run away kicking and screaming, please remember there is a delicious recipe waiting for you at end😋.

Seriously though. While we still have the option of choices…which is rapidly changing at a most rapid pace and being played out in various ways in the public domain.

Let’s talk about Bread. Not the bread, the green paper kind, but the edible, sustenance kind of meaning. The making. The breaking. The why of the “First.”

To sight one visual displayed at a local public museum, the poster described Communion/Belief Systems. Here, (with a few parentheses of opinion):

Communion as used here (note as used here) does not refer to the specific Christian practice, but to the broader concept of people sharing (sounds a little hedgey to me) an emotional or spiritual bond with deities or with their own deceased. Religious and political (…????…) belief systems, which frequently overlapped (according to who-where is the attribution of this thought), were central to early civilizations. Most ancient religions featured large pantheons of gods (cool!), both male and female, and in some instances the dead were elevated to divine status (opinion, I assume). Early monotheism, the worship of a single deity, which thrives today in the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, originated among the pagan cultures of the Near East. (The price of gas at the local Chevron, not a consideration, a blip at this point in time).

Ok. Interesting. Not necessarily entirely fact based or checked. But a good story nonetheless.

Ok. I indulge you in another story from another perspective of. Belief System(s). It is about being a “First”. Not at the end of the line, not marginalized, not indifferent. Just a first.

Specifically. A first. The first time to receive a sacrament. At the time, a choice made for me by my parents. Whether or not I to this day follow is still considered a personal choice. A personal responsibility. Most important, the moment, the ceremony stuck with as well as the importance of the point in my mind’s eye—and I took it very

Seriously.

A First Communion. Placed in a position I can see, where I can see it daily and keep and kept as a reminder—near a mirror, an image of myself, my childhood best friend, in line and immediately behind me (as my friend was a smidge taller than me at the time) and other girls-in my immediate vicinity. The girls wore white lacey dresses, white ankle socks, white shoes and veils-not covering their faces. Some even had embroidered handkerchiefs in beautiful little purses if their families were “rich”. There are boys “in the picture” in their own lines, (all under the same roof mind you)—with dark pants, white shirts, ties and shined shoes. All children with their hands folded in front of us, standing in a very orchestrated line heading up to the altar in the House of God for our First Communion.

Before you run for the hills just yet, I kinda get your reaction already—what is with the white dresses and veils and shoes and all that?? What in the world is happening? Whaddya standing in line to get your “meal” ticket.

Well. Kinda. And you would not be entirely off base with this way of thinking. Especially with the price of meat and flour and butter and all. And given that the size of families back then was not so “designer”—as it is nowadays.

I remember admiring another young’s girl’s purse as being so beautiful and sparkly and thinking—how did she afford that? An heirloom, a communion day “gift”, her sister’s…..

Indeed.

Bags. Bags. And more Bags.

Seriously though. The experience of the ceremony stuck with me. The significance of the moment, the community, the vows. What were they? To love, honor and obey—what with the get up and all? Come on……

Yes. And No. Vows mean something. To ponder?Absolutely.To pander? Not on my watch. If we choose not to take anything we promise seriously, than what is the point?

Of a promise.

A promise does not guarantee anything. It has to be practiced and practiced. And to some practice may make perfect. To others, it just may improve or help. But a wise person who studies this “stuff” speaks that if we turn the tables and notice as Abraham practice(d) than the Abyss of Egoism can actually shift the:

Indifference to Compassion

Wants to Sharing

Selfishness to Love

Individualism to Fraternity (PF)

Worth a ponder—instead of driving the gulf of indifference further into the ground—before we have yet made amends, made or make our peace with understanding.

The reason for the significance of a First Communion to me is it solidifies to me that as a child, and a Child of God I am and always have been worthy of dignity—not guaranteed to live in opulence—(although that sparkly purse was “spiffy”) but to never feel hungry as long as I follow His Ways. Not live a life of being exhausted at His door, but to energetically-even when I don’t feel like it—remember that all that I have He has given me.

The rest is up to Me.

So. Now for the recipe I promised:

Chocolate Chip Cookies:

1/2 stick of butter

1 egg

3/4 cups of brown sugar

1 1/3 cups of Bisquick

1/2 cup chocolate morsals

Will let you figure out to to mix it up best. How to drop it on the sheets.

And. How long to bake.

The rest will be up to You.

Enjoy!