Ruth Was a Whore

so i got a bunch of handmade pottery for less than $40 yesterday. anderson college student art sale. you have to love that. one of the bowls and the mug were a house-warming present from burdette and the chick. great friends = great presents.

speaking of great presents… i am the man because i just gave myself a mac laptop.

had dinner with LB and karl (not a boy) last night. there is something so wonderful about eating dinner with friends outside. i wish more restaurants around here had patios. i feel so much more cosmopolitan. dinner was followed by ice cream at the 31 flavors. karl got hit on by some guy who either 1.) had a nervous twitch or 2.) thinks winking is still cool like it was in 1983. (hint: no, footloose-era-kevin-bacon, it is not.) 

then, of course, there was much hanging out and conversation on the Non-Motiovational Couch™. the highlight? i think that ruth is probably a whore. yep… that’s right. i said it. i suppose i need to explain. there has been a lot of spring-time chatting about “relationships” lately. the topics of initiation and response come up frequently… and so LB deftly pointed out, “what about ruth?” 

the following thoughts may not reflect the viewpoints of one LB. 

ruth was a whore…. that’s what. ok, harsh… i have no mercy, remember? basically, i reject the idea that simply because a story occurs in scripture that it should be taken as instruction for how to live a Godly life. people in the Bible are messed-up… they’re human after all. 

the whole ruth/boaz situation has some elements of initiation and response, but it isn’t the template by any means. besides, how romantic does this sound? didn’t think so. bottom-line? i see boaz do some initiating and setting ruth apart from all the other women around him (i want to know the cultural context of what it would mean for a man of his standing to let a girl, who didn’t even have the standing of one of his servant girls, come eat from his plate) but i mainly see ruth get all prettied-up, go to boaz’s bedroom, uncover his “feet” (cultural euphemism, people) and scheme her way into a marriage. that sounds like initiating to me. come to think of it… that’s not all too different from the way a lot of women act these days. i know that sounds harsh, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.