Axel enochlēmenes

 Axel enochlēmenes

Axel Sundstrøm called. He asked if I wanted to get coffee. I didn’t, so I said, “When?”

     “I was thinking now,” he said. 

Do you have those times, too, when you don’t want to do something but you do it anyway? Actually, it’s more like you don’t want to do anything, so you can’t even say "no" - because that would be doing something.

     I walked down to Corner Coffee. It isn’t far. Jesus walked everywhere.

Axel wanted to talk about Jesus. Or, worse, he wanted to talk about me-and-Jesus. About yesterday’s post, the excerpt from the Rantrage Press commentary on Jesus’ sayings, the one “When his guest was delayed, the host waited for him,” which is actually more than a saying - it’s a parable

     that for some reason wasn’t sitting right with the usually equable Axel: “This made-up stuff - what does it do for you?”

     “I hadn’t thought of it’s doing anything.”

     “Let me put it another way,” he said. “What do you get out of it?”

     “I don’t get anything I’m aware of.”

     “I can’t believe that.”

     “Your psychology hasn’t a category for behavior that isn’t self-serving in some way?” I said. “That may be Lutheran, but it doesn’t sound very Christian. Not to me anyway.”

     “Hmmm,” he said, taking a sip of coffee. “Let me start again. How would you preach this parable of yours?”

     “Thank God I’m not a preacher,” I said. “Not a bit of one.”
     “Hmmm,” he said again.

     “Do you mind if I get a cup of coffee?” I said. Axel shook his head he didn’t. I took off my fat wool coat and hung it on the back of the chair opposite him. My hat and gloves I’d already laid on the table. I was sweating a bit because, as usual, I'd dressed too warmly.

Ginger for diarrhea.

The barista was Kaylee. She’s a graduate student somewhere else, come here to poke around in Stonewall Jackson’s remains if she can get a court order to exhume what’s left. Or, that’s what she says. I don't think it’s a metaphor though it may be. She looks a little like Ginger Rogers; she smells like ginger and fennel. She’s very observant; still, she’s always cheery. 
     She says,“What’s the matter with Pastor Sundstrøm?”  cheerily.
     I say I don’t know, but it seems to be my fault.

     “Are you a member of his church?” she asks.

     “No,” I said. “No, it’s not that.

      “But,” I said, “I wouldn’t preach the parables at all. I’d just read them. Then pause. Let it sink it if anyone has any place for it to sink into. Then quote the philosopher Joseph of Vienna, ‘Well, there it is.’”

     Kaylee nodded, as if I were making sense. “He paid for your coffee already,” she said, looking toward Axel.

12.07.18