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In the world of today, throwing something away – other than in your basement – is a tricky thing.

We are in the midst of demolishing a house.  Abandoned with nothing removed for years.

All we wanted to do was take the house, and it’s remains, and put them somewhere else.

But first we must sort.  Then transport the sorted materials to various waste and transfer sites.  With the hope that our sorting has been sufficient so that the waste will be accepted.

Now, this is not unusual.  Go back a century or so ago.  The rusted tractors were set into the back forty to rust and deteriorate.  Burnable materials were burned.  The outhouse was moved when the pit became full.

I guess the real change over the decades is the amount of anxiety we have with garbage.  Science has shown that almost all materials have the possibility of morphing into some type of toxin.  Without regulation we could be polluting ourselves and our children.  Better safe than sorry!

And so, I’m not out of sorts, just sort of busy sorting!

Humans have innate curiosity.  For all sorts of things.  And I use the term, “things”, on purpose.

We set out our data drag lines with morning coffee times and news casts.  We close our days with evening videos and Facebook trolling.  The rest of the day is more of the same.

Data can be loosely defined in our internet culture as bits of information contained in words, video, expressions, impressions.  Of course, the net catches what we want to catch (we call that bias), and sometimes unexpectedly surprises us (we call that aha moments).

We like to think that we are susceptible to only the factoids and not the misinformation of society. 

Wishful thinking!

In this day and age of information, there is a great need to reposition our data drag lines.

What should we be thinking on?  What should we dismiss or purposely skirt around?

We can determine to look for things that are true, honorable, right, pure,  lovely and admirable.  Our society needs clean minds to create a healthy environment.

We can determine not to troll for things that are shady, half truths, polluting, distorted and, slightly or largely on the wild side.  Sensationalism is not the necessary first placement of our data drag lines.  Airbrushed and sculpted pornography is a half truth and distortion of reality.  Resource investment gossip is a path to being consumed that often leads to bankruptcy.  And the list goes on.

Maybe Google maps needs to generate a set of directions for collecting data – a guide of biblical direction. 

Oops!

We already have that!  

We have cleaned out a full floor of an abandoned house.

The occupant, deceased a few years ago, had been a hoarder.  By that I mean he piled each room full.  One or two of the rooms didn’t even have a path into them.

Our waste management site requires sorting.  The easier way would have been to just push the house over and demolish it. 

Instead we are sorting.

As an archivist, I would love to save all sorts of stuff.  But that will not happen, due to the time the house was sealed (three years ago) and the deterioration that has happened.

Nevertheless, there are some interesting factoids we have gleaned.  The occupant had a Bachelor of Arts degree, was a bit of an electronics freak (we have found 9 TV’s to date, at least 5 cell phones and other electronic miscellany), and once owned property in California. 

And that is just from the first floor contents.  More to come I’m sure!

Graveside service, dental appointment, visit to my daughter’s family, pastoral (retired!) visits, coffee and more.  What a week.

The most interesting part was finally getting into the abandoned house we had bought.  The boarded up edifice had sat there for three years with no one in or out.  As we prepared to enter, we were not sure what we were entering!

On went full face masks, boots and coveralls.  We borrowed a horse trailer to contain the household garbage.  Two full trailer loads headed to the dump, with a third ready to go.  And that was only 3/4 of the first floor – there is still a basement (which is even fuller) and an upstairs.  To say the previous occupant was a hoarder is to understate the situation.

As we finished the day, we removed our protective outwear.  We did not want to run across someone and contaminate them with whatever evil we had encountered in the house.  We washed and were ready to meet people – the next large gathering was a church service the following day.

I’ve been ready the Old Testament book of Ezekiel.  In the 44th chapter, verse 19, the priests, who have gone into God’s house, are told to wear protective gear.  When they leave at the end of their shift, they are told to leave that gear behind.  Just in case they brush up against someone and contaminate them with holiness.

The likeness of both situations is striking.  There is something deeply disturbing about bacteria and contaminates in our abandoned house.   There is something deeply disturbing about godliness and holiness in God’s house.

Take a stab at this one! 

Why were the priests told not to transmit holiness to the people?  What was to  be feared about this contamination?