The Adventures of Ogden: Man of the Suburb
Episode 3 – November – Giving Thanks
Ogden woke up, and it took a few seconds to gain his bearings. He was in a car, in the back seat, and his younger sister, Terry, was looking at him, trying to stifle a grin. Why was he waking up in a car? And then he felt the pain in his hand and he looked at it, very clumsily bandaged.
“You fainted,” said Terry, obviously trying not to giggle.
“I fainted?” Ogden asked
“Yep!”
It came to him quickly. Whole family together for Thanksgiving, a little touch football outside, listening to the uncles doing dueling jokes, chatting with Terry’s new boyfriend Chad. Dad had offered to let him carve the turkey and . . . . that’s all he could remember.
“You cut yourself on the carving knife”
“I did?”
Ogden was now experiencing a faint memory of seeing a good amount of blood, but he didn’t want to think about it.
A voice came from the front seat “That’s right. A pretty impressive cut. Your aunt Janice ran screaming from the room” Ogden looked up. Chad was driving them to the hospital.
“Well,” said Ogden, sitting up a little, “It looks like my reaction wasn’t that impressive either.”
There was a pause in the conversation.
“So I assume we’re going to the hospital”
“That’s correct,” giggled Terry, “Mom said she’d hold off on serving the food until we get back.”
“So I’m screwing up the big meal for everyone.”
“Believe me, Ogden” said Chad, “No one’s blaming you. They were all feeling so sorry for you, and your Grandma called you a hero.”
“Ah.” That sounded like Grandma. So kind. More so since Grandpa had died.
So now, thought Ogden, this is what was going to happen. They would soon be getting to the hospital, the nurse would hear about his hand, they would wait three hours, the doctor would finally see him and sew him up, which would take twenty minutes, during every single minute of which Ogden would be liable to faint again. It would hurt. And they wouldn’t get home until 7:00, by which time everyone would be irritable and trying somewhat unsuccessfully to hide it.
==
“So, what happened?” asked Anna Joy, Ogden’s ten year old daughter fifteen years later, “Was it as bad as you expected?”
Anna was sitting between Mom and Dad on the couch, happy to be allowed to stay up and talk to them when her brother and sister were already in bed.
“No, actually. The wait was only about an hour, I was able to handle the work on my hand without losing consciousness and we were sitting down to eat before 4:30. And I think the visible happiness was authentic.”
“What about your hand?”
“Well, it healed pretty quickly, but you can still see the scar, see?” Ogden showed it to his daughter. The scar was faint but evident.
“And that was an interesting meal. I couldn’t use this hand, so Grandma offered to cut everything for me.”
“I imagine that was a humbling experience for you as a twenty five year old,” said Gretta.
“It was indeed,” replied Ogden. “But Grandma loved helping out. She still does.”
“Why didn’t you help him,” Anna asked her mom.
Ogden chuckled, “Oh, we hadn’t met yet.”
“Oh yeah,” said Anna. It was always sobering to consider your parents before they’d met. What if they never had?
“But here’s the interesting thing,” said Ogden, “I had taken a dim opinion of uncle Chad from the first day I met him. My immediate opinion of him was that he was someone who only liked to talk to people and was too interested in making himself look good. But my accident caused me to see him in a different light. He made a real sacrifice when he offered to drive me to the hospital. He really was quite helpful. I had been too quick to judge. I thank God for that lesson.”
“I like Uncle Chad!” said Anna Joy.
“So do I, now. And I am actually glad that I cut my hand, because it gave me an opportunity to rethink my opinion of him.”
“So that’s why they never let you carve the turkey!”
Happy Thanksgiving from the Responsible Puppet.
5 comments
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November 23, 2007 at 2:01 pm
Jimmy Crank
Fair warning, bro. Forty or so men and a few women might not appreciate being connected to your friend because of you.
The connection: Bethelem Baptist Church and the Cuckold
November 23, 2007 at 2:05 pm
The connection: Bethlehem Baptist Church and the Cuckold « Bob Dudesky
[...] Here’s a token link to Jamsco’s most recent post, Third Thursday Ogden: Giving Thanks. [...]
November 24, 2007 at 8:15 am
fundyreformed
Wow, Crank can certainly be “cranky”.
I find it humorous he fills posts with vitriol and anger, expressing sharp opinions, all the while preventing anyone from dialogging on his posts. He serves criticism but can’t take it apparently.
The anonymous Crank (do we call you Jimmy or Bob?) sure dishes out the disdain. I’ve never seen so many motives read into a situation. Did he ever think to contact jamsco personally and warn him of Vox Day’s link to a blog promoting porn? What if–perish the thought, but, we are going to entertain the possiblity of giving Jamsco the benefit of the doubt–Jamsco didn’t know that Vox linked to a site which has/links to porn.
How very nice to call Jamsco’s wife a slut in another post, too. That and you don’t even know Jamsco. I do, he’s a personal (non-anonymous to me) friend.
Anyone reading Jamsco’s blog will find nothing but wholesome stuff here. The link to Vox is under the “read at your own risk” category. And there is no firsthand porn at Vox’s site that I’ve ever encountered.
What is really in a link? Have you checked out all your links? To see who they are linking to? And in this case I’m probably deserving of censure since I link to Jamsco, who links to Vox who links to Bane. So have you gone three or four generations into your links and then checked each and every post for the possible slippant link to Vox or something like that? Maybe I should call your wife a slut, before I’m done with my research, since you obviously are aware of Vox and Bane! That makes her an accomplice of course…..
You suspect that Jamsco really is out to correct Vox. He is. Check out Vox’s Thanksgiving post and you’ll see that for a long time now, Vox has promised to debate the Open Theism debate with Jamsco. That’s actually the whole point behind the name of Jamsco’s blog (& its subtitle) and one of the big reasons that he started his blog. With that in mind, and knowing Vox is a proponent of Open Theism, and wanting to interact with Vox, since he likes some of Vox’s arguments against atheism and yet cringes when Vox uses Open Theism in that debate, he links to Vox and tries to get Vox to interact in the hopes of gaining a wider audience.
If you haven’t got this by now, get it straight. Virtually every blogger wants a larger audience. And for Christian bloggers disseminating Christian content, there are other reasons besides vanity and pride for wanting a larger audience. Of course part of blogging is the fun of seeing how wide your reach can become.
Further comments on this issue seem pointless. I highly doubt that my pastor, John Piper, and the elders at my church will feel threatened if someone affirms their teaching and yet links to a blog that is somewhat questionable. After all, Jamsco provides warnings and has good intentions for interacting with Vox. Plus we are to be light and salt to the world, and interacting with culture is part of that.
You won’t find Jamsco promoting lewdness. He won’t agree with crazy things like no-marriage-for-non-Christian-men. He may blog against these things. Every time he mentions Vox, he may not exactly warn against the questionable views there, but hopefully everyone knows that we must interact carefully and read everything through a filter.
Now as for you, I don’t even see claims to being a Christian on your site. Why are you so concerned about this one issue. You haven’t even heard Jamsco’s side and you react very harshly and with no Christian love to him.
I’m commenting here because I have no other way to get my comment before your eyes. And I don’t want to drag this to my blog’s front page.
I must admit this whole thing leaves me dumbfounded. Me thinks you are overreacting, and I wonder why.
I hope you take this response well. But you have wounded and harmed a brother in Christ (if you are a Christian), needlessly and wrongfully.
Respectfully,
Bob Hayton
November 28, 2007 at 2:09 am
John Piper says men who endorse women in combat aren’t pro-women; neither are Piper’s church members « Society with Jimmy Crankn
[...] a comment on Jamsco’s blog concerning one of my posts about Jamsco, Bob Hayton says: Now as for you, I don’t even see claims to being a Christian on your site. Why are you so [...]
November 28, 2007 at 12:23 pm
fundyreformed
Jimmy Crank is back at it. He doesn’t miss a beat.
In response to his latest jabs, let me reitirate that I am concerned with Vox’s treatment of women, use of the term “bitch”, and his link to Bane. I don’t like it. There is more that concerns me to, I’d warrant.
That doesn’t mean that the only properly Christian response is to abandon all links, and to stop reading Vox. It doesn’t forbid genuine, woman-affirming, careful, aim-to-be-obedient-to-Scripture, Christians from taking Vox to task by means of blog debates.
Abandoning Vox altogether and removing all links to him would be one way of standing against his errors. But it is not the only way. Scripture tells us both to:
“Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself.” (Prov. 26:4)
and
“Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.” (Prov. 26:5)
Similarly, Scripture tells us to
“Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness” (Eph. 5:11a)
but yet we are to
“but instead expose them [the unfruitful works of darkness, that is].” (Eph. 5:11b)
In other words, we are to separate from and avoid evil doers. But we are also called to answer them, and expose them.
In the world of blogging, you cannot expose and answer without linking.
I suppose also that the above verses apply to how we should react to you, Jimmy Crank. Eventually, you will have proven yourself a fool by refusing to listen to our own defense and common sense. And it will then be pointless to continue to respond to your bizarre actions and claims.
I very much do want to show how Vox Day is wrong in his theology on open theism. I hope my friend Jamsco succeeds in swaying many to his and my position. I am confident that Jamsco has not irreverently and flippantly linked to Vox, but only carefully and with plenty of caution. Those reading The Responsible Puppet have fair warning to be on their guard when they follow a link to Vox.
Therefore it is highly irresponsible and unChristian of you, to make the bizarre conclusions you do. You fit the bill of many of the “fool” passages in Proverbs. You have incurred folly and shame in giving an answer before you hear the whole of the matter. And after hearing you have refused, to modify your claims.
“If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.”
(Pro 18:13)
Hoping that you will admit wrong,
Bob Hayton