Monthly Archives: November 2013
Ichabod
Ichabod
It’s one of those odd, old names from the Bible. The only place I think I have ever seen it used is in Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” The awkward, unlucky school teacher newly arrived in Sleepy Hollow is named Ichabod Crane.
Outside of Irving’s story, I’ve never met or heard of anyone named Ichabod.
It’s as unlikely a name to hear as Judas.
The story, and the reason for the name, is found in The Old Testament, in the book of 1 Samuel; chap 4;
The Philistines had attacked Israel and the two foolish sons of the High Priest, Eli, thought that by carrying the Ark of the Covenant into battle they could force Gods hand. He would not risk the Ark falling into the hands of the heathen Philistines, the reasoning went. God would not allow Israel to lose.
They were wrong.
The Ark was captured and the two sons of Eli killed by the Philistines. When he heard of it, Eli fell backwards and died.
The news reached the wife of one of the sons and she went into labour and delivered a boy .
She named him Ichabod; “For the Glory of God has departed from Israel.”
A lot of people believe that’s where We are, The United States.
The Glory of God has departed from us.
If that’s so, the solution to our troubles won’t be found in the assembly lines at Lockheed or Boeing.
It isn’t being built on the slipways at General Dynamics.
It isn’t being trained at Camp Pendleton or Fort Benning.
No piece of legislature will solve it.
No Executive Order will cure it.
No politician ever born, no representative, senator, or president can end this trouble.
The Glory of God has departed from us.
How do we persuade it to return?
‘Racking’
It’s a ‘Backyard Engineering’ term, or principle I guess you’d say. It applies to many areas of human endeavor.
A good example is a fence post you want to get out of the ground; you grab the post and push it as far as you can in one direction, then yank it back as fast and hard in the opposite direction. You are loosening the grounds grip on it with every back and forth.
Or, take a wooden crate, drop it on one corner. The fasteners that hold all the pieces together will stretch in that direction. Turn the crate around, drop it on the opposite corner, they will stretch even farther. Keep this up and without a hammer or crowbar or any tool at all, you can ‘Rack’ something apart with your bare hands; crates, furniture, doors, sheds, barns, houses, boats, ships, airplanes, buildings or people.
Get anything moving in one direction, then slam it into another direction, keep repeating this process, and eventually it will come apart.
Today, Nov. 18th, 2013, the Health Care Insurance industry is being ‘Racked’ one way then the other.
I don’t know if this is by design or from incompetence.
I do know that it will come apart if this keeps up.
There are people who think they are clever enough to rebuild something they didn’t make in the first place.
I don’t know about that.
I do know that it takes skill, training and experience to build anything of value, and that any fool will do to take it apart.
thelastminstrel 