straight from the Good Book

aceldama

PRONUNCIATION:

(uh-SEL-duh-muh)

MEANING:

noun: A place of bloodshed.

Yep - there's a word for that and it's in the Bible! Supposedly this place was bought by Judas with the money he took for betraying Jesus. It's the place he died, it would appear, after he fell over and, I quote,' his intestines burst out.' Or, alternatively, the field the dudes at the Temple bought after he turned the money over to them and then hanged himself.

Either way, that pretty-looking word has some fairly unfortunate overtones associated with it.

In case you're wondering, this is one of the words a day I get from AWAD, to which I've subscribed for years and from which I have learned a great deal. I don't always remember what I've learned from day to day, but at least by reading about new words I've wedged in one nugget of new information a day. Never stop learning, I say, even if you can't recall tomorrow what you learned today!

Interestingly, Aceldama is part of the Valley of Hinnom, which I also just learned about and sounds utterly dreadful, as it was at times a place of ritual slaughter of children, a city dump, a burial spot for the indigent and enemies, and a place the locals associated with Hell. Nice, eh? Of course today you'd never know that a perpetual stanking fire upon which dead people and trash was thrown ever burned there, as it's pretty nicely cleaned up now and there's even a road running through it you can drive on and not even get shot like you would have when one of the many wars that have been waged there was being....waged. Who knew a big ol' ditch could have been the site of so much terribleness? Just proves that history, while invisible, can still knock you for a loop.

So, there you go. A fabulous lesson about blood money, including human sacrifice, gore, war, and other unpleasantries. All there, right in the Bible. The Good Book! Gracious!

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Oh, it's not all biblical research and such around here, heavens no! We proceed with life, keeping apace of school and travel and the endless vacuuming up of animal hair. The trip to Michigan was great, the final school concert of the year was enjoyable, the end-of-the-year report card was alphabetical, and we're anticipating vacation in a couple of weeks. OK, I'm anticipating vacation in a couple of weeks; I can't speak for everyone else. Biff has been flying a lot and studying for his written exam while practicing for his check ride and getting excited about being let off the leash and being a real pilot soon. Thing 1 is a couple of weeks into summer vacation and is very very busy doing nothing all day long (read: sleeping until noon then playing video games all day which I made worse the other day by buying a family pack of Xbox online gold something or other) except when I give him jobs to do. Thing 2 is finishing up school and looking forward to bothering his brother all day long during the summer and then gearing up for HIGH SCHOOL next year. I'm just praying I make it through July without my head exploding, as it's super busy at work with no relief only on October's horizon. Like, I'm not sure where June went, and it's already the 24th and what I thought would be done by now isn't, so where can I buy a few more days?

And like that.

Speaking of, it's time for me to git. Meeting at 11 and I'm not even at work yet! Y'all have some good times for me, OK? Tiff out.