Was Not Arrayed Like a Banana Flower

Here is intesting Bible stuff.

Lately, from time to time, I have thought about the fact that Jews pray toward Jerusalem. I figured it was one of those things that don’t apply to Gentiles. Maybe it was hyper-religious super-observance rooted in the Talmud, or maybe it was one of the many commandments which only apply to Jews. That was my guess.

Today I read from the books of Chronicles and Kings. Look what Solomon said as he prayed to dedicate the temple:

41 “As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your name- 42 for men will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm—when he comes and prays toward this temple, 43 then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears your Name.

That is from 1 Kings 8.

Incidentally, earlier on, he said this about his own people:

33 “When your people Israel have been defeated by an enemy because they have sinned against you, and when they turn back to you and confess your name, praying and making supplication to you in this temple, 34 then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them back to the land you gave to their fathers.

I guess I’ll catch a lot of flak for recommending praying toward the temple, but come on. This isn’t Elmer Gantry’s prayer. This is SOLOMON. How can you not take him seriously?

When I was on the kibbutz, I had something like a vision. I won’t call it a vision, because I wasn’t completely awake. It happened in the funny state between sleep and waking. I found my bed turned sideways, and at the foot, I saw an angel in a white robe. It was a female angel (some believe all angels are male), and she had grey hair, and there was a wide silver belt around her waist. She had her hands raised in worship, and she was praying and looking up. The bed had a quilt I did not recognize (I didn’t have a quilt over there), and there were arms and legs attached to the edges of the quilt, and they were flopping frantically as she prayed.

Now, here is something I can only tell you because Google Earth now exists and permits me to view the building where I lived, from the air. My bed was parallel to a wall, but in the vision, my feet were pointing at Jerusalem, and I was facing it. The angel, on the other hand, faced the other way. She was facing me.

I think it probably means something; I think it was about something stupid I did years later. But I won’t go into that. Of course, it may have been the tail end of a dream. But I’ve had a few of these things in my life, and they don’t feel like dreams. There is a kind of turbulence to them, as if I were being thrown around. Makes me think of Jacob and his dream of wrestling the angel.

In other news, I have some plant photos. A commenter was asking for them.

First of all, you have to see my prik ki nu bush. This is the pepper the Thais call “bird’s eye,” among other things. This is one bush, I swear. A tiny bit of the lime tree behind it is visible at the top, but there is only one pepper bush in the frame. To establish scale, let me point out that it is against the fence behind it, which is standard chain link.

I know it’s incredible.

Here are some of the peppers.

Now some other stuff. Here is the key lime tree I planted the other day, with the little wire string-trimmer shield I made:

The older tree is behind it. I am now getting limes. It’s yellow. I’m not sure why. Many things can cause this, and only one of them is fatal.

Here is one of my banana trees, with smaller “pups” around it. The big tree is around fourteen feet tall, which is about twice what I expected.

Now take a look at the bananas. the flowers haven’t dropped off yet.

When you say “banana flower,” it can refer to one of at least two things. One is the giant purple blossom which gives rise to all the fruit and blossoms. Another is an individual blossom, which turns into a banana.

Here are the “petals” which have already fallen off. I’m going to use these as mulch for the new trees. These things are actually called bracts. They are not real petals.

The flower or bunch or whatever you call the entire fruit/flower thing drips with sweet fluid all day. It’s always full of bees. It turns out you can eat the last bit of the main flower (bracts) which remains on the plant after it quits producing hands of bananas. Eventually you end up with several hands plus a knob at the end of the bunch, and the knob, made up of bracts, is the part you eat. You soak it in something or other and then chop it up. Asians dip it in sauce.

I won’t show you my smaller pepper bushes, which look awful. They’re in the same bed as the prik ki nu, and I expect them to grow very well once they get used to the dirt. They used to be in pots, which they outgrew.