Clear as Black and White

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

—Micah 6:8 ESV

“It’s hot out there, huh?” the young clerk chatted with me while checking out my groceries at Chaptico Market, the local “Mom & Pop” I’ve frequented since childhood.

“How hot is it supposed to be today?” I asked the clerk whose name, I later learned, is Brittney.

“Well, 87 when I wrote the board,” Brittney’s brown eyes bounced toward the blackboard near the door, which listed a week’s worth of forecasted temperatures, tidal information, and an inspirational quote, “but...”

“You write the board?” I interrupted, surprised that the new owner didn’t do that, for it wasn’t long after the store changed hands, from one generation to the next, that the chalkboard showed up.

Proud as a Peacock

“For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”—Luke 14:11

There he was staring at his reflection in the glass door of the stripping house, a barn attachment once used for stripping tobacco.  But the irony in the picture was that the peacock had been stripped of his tail feathers…well, he had shed them. 

I had seen him in early summer admiring his reflection in the shine of the car door and had to admit he was stunning, his train of brilliant tail feathers extending four feet or more.  On a different occasion I had watched him shake his tail feathers and then fan them out in a beautiful array of blues and greens, turning around like a supermodel at the end of a runway.  Scientists say this is the peacock’s mating strut, designed to attract the peahen.  But I say he was just showing off for me, for there was not a peahen in sight. Hence, the origin of the saying proud as a peacock?