You’ve got a name

The room was black as night and the only light was the dim yellow glow being emitted from the tiny night light on the kitchen counter wall. Filly had gotten up out of bed and had padded into the kitchen. She had been looking at her phone all night, in an effort to pick out a topic for her next painting and had fallen asleep looking.

Originally she had wanted to paint the stormy sea. She had painted this once before and the deep ocean depths tinged with yellow and green topped with spatters of white foam, supporting a wooden boat perched on the top of a wave had been incredibly fun to paint. She had never painted the ocean sea before and after looking for an hour on her phone, could not find the instructional video she had found before. So instead of continuing to look, she started scrolling through google, looking for impressionistic art that was well known, so she could try to pick a painting in order to do her own reproduction. She took many screenshots of many beautiful paintings and then thought perhaps she should look in google photos of her own family as inspiration as well. There were many photos that she loved and could choose from.

Filly could not believe she was still awake, but then she thought about the meal she had after church and figured that it had everything to do with being awake. She had ordered a salad with beef tenderloin on top for brunch. Or at least that was what she THOUGHT she had ordered. The menu was in Italian so she did not really know exactly what she had ordered. Now she knew why scrooge thought that his bad dreams in “A Christmas Carol” were from a “bit of undigested food” because undigested food could indeed seem to have unpleasant repercussions.

It turned out that when her salad arrived, instead of pieces of tasty cooked steak on top of lettuce with ranch dressing, it was instead was a plate of thinly sliced, practically shaved raw tenderloin, topped with capers and lemon juice that supposedly “cooked” the beef, accompanied by arugula and grated Parmesan. The salad was pretty but it did not agree with Filly’s stomach. She had eaten it anyway, because she did not want to waste food. Her husband tried to get her to send it back to the kitchen, but she had decided to try to enjoy the meal. And now she was wide awake, still regretting eating that salad. Dear me. Filly looked at her photos some more.

She had also not painted anything. But she had captured a lot of beautiful digital pictures that brought back some wonderful memories. When she turned to her google “feed” after looking at all the photos from her storage, there was an article on there that said “4 reasons why good things happen when you least expect them to, according to psychology”.

Filly got side tracked from looking at art and wondered if the article was a direct, digital response to her own writing about “Joy to the world” where she talked about being asleep when the election happened and how the result was a very good thing indeed that happened when she was not thinking about it. Did the digital world have such ability?

As she read the article, Filly realized that there was one big assumption being made in the article that was completely wrong…a mistake. The article was paying attention to things on the surface or human actions, without seeming to understand the impetus for such actions.

The article was telling its readers to “DO” specific things, in order to “cause” good things to happen. If a person “took a break to see the bigger picture” and “stopped worrying about settling” and if they “gave up control” and if they “lived in the moment” …then according to psychology, “good things would happen”.

Filly had done all these things, in her own story about Joy to the world, but her own behaviors were not checked off from a psychology list…they were the result of trusting in an all good and all present and all powerful God. THAT was the impetus. She could not have, of her own power, just taken a break from life, or give up control, from a perspective of mere human will. God had a hand in it.

Understanding God as spiritual and not material, gave her comfort, and gave her a powerful resource. God was as close as thought itself, and could be any place instantly, and was in every place constantly especially Filly’s thought, guiding her and protecting her.

Filly thought of science of things, and how people were trying to believe humanly in time travel across time which seemed like an “out of body” experience, trying to “duplicate” God, and how many were caught up in the world of virtual reality, a place where one traveled in thought based on electronic images, while sitting in the same room alone…also an “alternate” reality.

There were in fact many people who had bridged the digital “ blank space” that separated people and their private lives from others virtually, the same way that Elon Musk physically had bridged the blank space between planets of the universe to accomplish space travel. The latter happened by building things, and the former happened by believing things…and maybe both happened first in thought.

When people realized that they could have the access humanly to “experience” digitally someone life, traveling through the “blank space” of the internet, did they feel like a “rocket man” Powerful? But isolated? Alone? Filly wondered? Was that their idea of “space travel”? Space acronym in information technology means “Semantics, program analysis and computing environments”.

Burning up his fuse up here alone? Did that phrase in the song mean the person knew they were wasting their real life on “unreality” because the alternate “digital” universe “seemed” more attractive? More compelling? Many songs were sung about an alternate reality, arguing with a virtual but not so virtuous self, in plain sight.

Filly understood that some games and some songs were a distraction, and provided entertainment. But there were people who she suspected, started to believe the false narrative of both, and begin to prefer alternate digital realities over real life, not realizing that “mars is cold as hell” and possibly IS hell.

In writing, the blank space between words, actually connects the words. In life, The blank space digitally similarly, also provides way to connect…but it connects people, some willingly and some unwillingly, some openly and some deceptively.

Filly thought that Rocket Man was like an explorer who knew how to bridge that blank space, and yet as a response, the song Blank Space seemed to be about someone who was not happy “to be explored” digitally and planned on being retaliatory? “Twenty three and me” was another way that the blank spaces got filled in with names…and virtue or vice was also not hid there either.

So, in spite of all the scientific advances, Filly knew that digital reproductions, seemed important but were not the real power, and that God in control, would cause such self destructive behavior, like being secluded, yet powerful, and manipulative falsely of others, in a digitalized world, to become extinct..without help from vindictive people. Thought that produced good fruit, would put people more in touch with real life, over alternate realities and would help them grow and refine their skills and talents and cause them to want to expand their gifts; not retract, or abuse or manipulate others.
Filly decided to rewrite a rocket man verse of the song.

Well I think it cannot be a long long time
That touchdown brings me round I get to find
the human race is not a water fall oh no no no,
Its a family man
family man!
Find your girl and give her a wedding band.

And regarding the song blank spaces…another rewrite…

Baby laughs, birds that fly
God can show you amazing things
Never misses, apple pies
God is king, baby its no dream
Find out how, in the church
Fly right now, off your perch
pray for blessings yet to come, oh yes

singing dancing, perfect form
far from evil you will turn
watching babies being born
stay alive with good saying
Oh My God, who is He
God finds captives, sets them free
You’ll stay close and never leave
Cuz God is each new day, dressed like its gonna be.

God is gonna live forever
while you keep playing games
Will you know when its over
Or just go down in flames
Blank space …oxymoron?
Or from the words refrain?
We have the good news baby
And you’ve got a name.