In Search of the Beautiful

I went to Old Time Pottery for the second time in my life today. It was packed packed packed with people. You would think that this weekend was the infamous weekend after Thanksgiving when all the retailers are overrun with people Christmas shopping. Oddly, I went to Home Depot right after and it was deader than a door knob.

Anyway, large unfamiliar places with humongous inventories of everything shoved everywhere annoy me. Then if they are packed full of people trying to get the last of the best deal … I better just score a great deal myself or only be in there for a little while.

So I am standing there studying a lamp. Seriously… you don’t want to go shopping with me if I am “in the shopping mode.” I take forever. I am studying this lamp, studying and running through all the possibilities in my head. If the phrase “it’s perfect” doesn’t pop in there somewhere… I move on.

The problem is I struggle with home decor-dependency and want to *make* something work that just wasn’t meant to be. I am getting better but … it, this decor-dependency, slows down the hunt for the “it’s perfect.”

That’ll preach…I’m sure of it.

So I am studying this lamp and then I decide to break up with the unworkable situation. Dejected and a little sad, it was such a great lamp, I turn around and am immediately startled to the point of literally letting out a little “oh goodness!” in the general direction of a towering figure in black. It was a woman who had to be at least 6′4″ … not kidding, in a head to toe black burka. She was staring straight at me (downward angle cause … again … the woman was huge.) And her eyes were like, “Don’t you even think about taking that lamp!”

I told you, it was just like the day after Thanksgiving … the mayhem of *MINE!*

Then I noticed the lady had gloves on…non-descript sneakers and the only thing you could see were these piercing eyes that had no make up on. Anyway, I was embarrassed a little at being startled but I got to thinking how horrible this brand of Islam is to treat women in that manner. It just is. I hate seeing the Image of God born in the female soul/sense of being, hidden behind a cloak of unrestrained institutionalized misogyny. On the other hand, I hate seeing His image in her objectified, sexualized and prostituted for “entertainment” of the institutionalized secularized masses as well.

yeah … I said it.

I did end up with some art for the kitchen and entryway (very good deals.) And while my art is beautiful I can’t help but think of all the miraculous beauty hidden behind burkas. I pray the Lord would move in a miraculous way to free women from this oppression all throughout the darkened world that seeks control and oppress them.

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