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Day’s Verse:

“Let the king appoint overseers in all the provinces of his kingdom that they may gather every beautiful young virgin to the citadel of Susa, to the harem… Then let the young lady who pleases the king be queen in place of Vashti.” And the matter pleased the king, and he did accordingly.

Esther 2:3 – 8

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Big changes brewing in the apartment! It won’t look the same when I’m done with it, believe you me. Compared to previous tenants, which might be considered light breezes, I’m a gale-force wind blowing through here. Too bad the carpets are tacked down; they’re practically the only thing I can’t – and therefore won’t – change. Amazing how exciting it is to try and make a place you live more liveable: I didn’t understand Mom’s motivation with our house remodel, but now I do.

On a different subject, I think we have too many choices now-a-days. That’s why I picked the verse for today: how many women in his kingdom do you suppose were a) beautiful; b) young; and most of all c) a virgin? The king can’t have had too many to choose from! For this day and age, however, who needs to pick between ten different brands of paper towel? Or deodorant? Who cares if toothbrushes have special blue bristles that indicate when they’re worn out—and if you have one, will you even pay attention to them wearing out? Or Non-fat, low-fat, 1%, 2%, or whole milk. Or Ziplock baggies compared to Price Chopper baggies compared to Glad compared to Dixie baggies. I just want a baggie, people! Try buying shampoo some time—they have enough hair-care products to sink a battleship, when all you need is to get the grease out of your hair (My feeling is, if you dye your hair, you’re already damaging it so why are you putting in extra money to now try and rescue it with fancy expensive shampoo?). CARS! Toyota, Ford, Honda, Mitsubishi, BMW, Lexus, Chevrolet, Daewoo, Buick, GM, Dodge, Volvo, VW, Subaru, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Cadillac, Mini… I could keep going on forever without even touching the repetition within car brands. Cars need to move different numbers of people, period. There are so many items we hardly need more than one choice for: buy paper towels or not? Men’s deodorant or women’s? Blue or red toothbrush? Buy nonfat or whole milk? Big baggie or small baggie? Dandruff shampoo or regular shampoo? Car for five, seven, or cargo? These are reasonable choices. Americans love their choices, but honestly sometimes I think we go overboard. How bout going back to the days when you chose between chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry? We would waste fewer resources and ease consumers’ minds significantly. I could keep listing examples of excess, but my brain has fried itself. Now I’ll just go choose a Star Trek episode to watch from our collection of four seasons.

– KF –