MANY PEOPLE with a pronounced right-leaning political persuasion have had the experience of meeting me and, perish forbid, engaging me in animated discourse. Many come away thinking me a librull arsehole. So, does that make me a left behind?
I found the lovely photo of the teddy bear in the woods at the top of this page on the Reigning Life site accompanying the article “Who Gets Left Behind” by Jordan Hardgrave. As its caption, there is a line from the Bible:
Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. (Matthew 24:40-41
Mr Hardgrave has a very different take on Matthew’s words, which form the basis for the contemporary belief among certain (very conservative, very Protestant) Christians in the rapture:
“We have been taught for so long that being left [behind] is a negative thing, and the destiny of the unrighteous, that we miss the clear Scripture that shows without question the righteous get left [behind], and the wicked aken [during the rapture].”
Needless to say, you will have to read Jordan’s essay to see how he arrived at that interpretation . . .
Mystically liberal Virgo enjoys long walks alone in the city at night in the rain with an umbrella and a flask of 10-year-old Laphroaig who strives to live by the maxim, “It ain’t what you know that gets you into trouble; it’s what you know that just ain’t so.
I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn, and a college dropout (twice!). Occupationally, I have been a bartender, jewelry engraver, bouncer, landscape artist, and FEMA crew chief following the Great Flood of ’72 (and that was a job that I should never, ever have left).
I am also the final author of the original O’Sullivan Woodside price guides for record collectors and the original author of the Goldmine price guides for record collectors. As such, I was often referred to as the Price Guide Guru, and—as everyone should know—it behooves one to heed the words of a guru. (Unless, of course, you’re the Beatles.)
Neal, I haven’t paid much attention to your left or right behinds, but now that you have brought them to my attention, I will certainly look next time we have coffee.
M
It’s been a long time since anyone noticed. (Sigh . . .)
N