They said, "He cut her head clean off", mostly in whispers intentionally out of our tender ear-shots. It was late Summer, 1950. We were small children - 6, 7 years old. Back then, something so graphic in its horror, sent shrill across, up and down - all through Somerset County. Like a fisherman gutting a fat trout with a sharp knife.
I can still remember how scared all the old people were. (Everybody else seemed like, 'old people', to us kids back then).
Thumbing through my bible the other day (more than three score later) Deuteronomy seemed as good a place as any to stop for a read. Chapter 21; Verses 5 thru 7, struck me.
'Deuteronomy', sounds like rocket science - yet it's pretty clear.
A life was taken. There will be a judgement. The innocent will have nothing to fear, though. "They will walk away; and soon, too, their fears will leave the scene". Living by the Bay could be very matter- of-fact. Much of living, though, is binary, isn't it? Right and wrong. Love and hate. Live and die.
Living by the Bay forced linear clarity. Sometime, though, even on a clear Bay, a head would roll. The best in people, the worst in and of some of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment