A hot summer day, slow river, cooler of bevs, swimsuit, and a few good friends — ingredients for a lazy day of tubing. At least that’s what “tubing” brings to mind around here in Richmond. Drinking, chatting, napping your way through an afternoon on the James in July. In cold weather places, tubing is a winter thing, too. But qualitatively different. You take that great big inner tube like the ones that go inside semi-truck tires, hike it up an icy hill, climb inside, and with a push, commit yourself to fate. Bouncing, whooshing, and careening down the hill, tubing inevitably sends someone to the hospital. The responses I’ve received from posting my interview with Virginia Currents host May-Lily Lee to Youtube some time ago have been a little like winter tubing. Most were really fun responses and exchanges with people interested in the stuff of Bible Babel, but there was also a great krr-smash(!) — inevitable, I suppose, when dealing with the Bible. In the interview itself, I got a bit brain-and-tongue twisted at one point. Meaning to note how ancient the biblical texts are, but recognizing that they don’t all date to the same ancient period, I fumbled around for “…years ago.” I suspect that was where the trouble started, sort of like hitting a tree root that sent me barrelling against a guy who totally misunderstood me. The especially bonkers part of it is that he was furious with me for exactly the opposite of what I think or do. He thought that I was taking particular biblical texts and plopping them down in our time and place as immediately applicable, with no appreciation for their ancient historical or literary context… oh, and that I think I have all the answers. If only I did! But I know that I don’t. Besides, I love the questions, the conversation and multi-faceted interpretations. That’s where it’s at. And when it comes to talking about the Bible, there’s no clean slate. Everyone’s got a “take” of some sort on it, so we trudge our tubes back up the hill for another wild ride.
