The God

[Naga_Fireball]

He is a god of watchfulness, I think,
A god of byways and highways,
Finder of forgotten roads and lost people.
He is a god of last hopes.



He is a god of dreams, I think,
As playful and daring as the raven,
Sensuous and giving as the dolphin,
A rescuer of happiness.

I am certain that he knows
The world is not fair.

It is a good thing, then,
That he is a trickster god,
A master of shortcuts and humorous constructs.
It is a good thing that he is a god of swiftness and cunning.

At night I keep vigil, when I think of this god;
It is not a prayer to him, but for him, that I write.

So fast, he is, that I fear he will find death too quickly.
What will he do on that day, when he reaches into that bottomless bag of tricks, and finds it empty?
To this moment, he has eluded fate, stayed ahead of his bullet --

But because he is also a god of bravery and heroism,
I understand the price on his head.
I pray that the good he has done is enough to buy him a few more years of peace.

When the sun sets on the hillsides, and I look to the high trails on the mountain's feet, it is not the sun that I am chasing.

I am looking for my god.

[Naga_Fireball]

Wikipedia:

A liminal deity is a god or goddess in mythology who presides over thresholds, gates, or doorways; "a crosser of boundaries".[1]

The word "liminal", first attested to in English in 1884, comes from the Latin word "limen", meaning "threshold".[2] "Liminality" is a term given currency in twentieth century anthropology by Victor Turner of the University of Chicago.

Greek mythology

Hecate, goddess of magic, witchcraft, the night, moon, ghosts, crossroads and necromancy

Hermes, god of messengers, omens, roads, travellers, border crossings, trade, protection of the home, thievery, cunning wiles, and animal husbandry; messenger of the gods and guide of the dead[3]

Roman mythology
Cardea, goddess of health, thresholds and door hinges and handles

Forculus, Lima, and Limentinus, minor deities of thresholds or doorways; see indigitamenta

Janus, dual-faced god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings and endings, for whom January is named

Mercury, messenger of the gods and guide of the dead; equivalent to the Greek god Hermes

Portunes, god of keys, doors and livestock

Terminus, god who protected boundary markers

Trivia, goddess of witchcraft, the three-way crossroads, and the harvest moon; equivalent to the Greek goddess Hecate

Baltic mythology
Užsparinė, Lithuanian goddess of land borders

Chinese mythology
Chen Huang Shen, the God of Walls and Moats
Men Shen, the Gods of Doors
Chen Wenlong, God of City Walls in Fuzhou
Fan Zeng, God of City Walls in Hezhou and He county
Guan Ying, God of City Walls in Longxing, Gan, Yuan, Jiang, Ji, Jianchang, Linjiang, Nanchang and Nankang
Huang Xie, God of City Walls in Suzhou
Huo Guang, Yu Bo and Chen Huacheng, Gods of City Walls in Shanghai
Ji Shun, God of City Walls in Zhengzhou, Zhenjiang, Qingyuan, Ningguo, Taiping, Xiangyang, Xingyuan, Fuzhou, Nanan and Huating
Jian Yi, God of City Walls in Tanghongzhou
Jiao Ming, God of City Walls in Ezhou
Liu Zhongyuan, God of City Walls in Liuzhou
Pang Yu, God of City Walls in Xiaoxing
Qu Tan, God of City Walls in Taizhou
Shen Sheng, God of City Walls in Wuzhou
Su Jian, God of City Walls in Yongzhou
Te Xuan, God of City Walls in Jinan
Wen Tianxiang, God of City Walls in Huangzhou
Xiao He, God of City Walls in Gu
Yang Jianshan, God of City Walls in Beijing
Yao Yichung, God of City Walls in Xingguojun
Ying Bu, God of City Walls in Zhenzhou and Liuhe
Ying Zhixu, God of City Walls in Yunzhou
Zhou Ke, God of City Walls in Jiangyin
Zhu Yigui, God of City Walls in Xiaonanmen

Korean mythology
Jangseung, a totem pole traditionally placed at the edges of villages to mark for village boundaries and frighten away demons; also worshipped as tutelary deities
Munshin, Korean deity of the door. He was considered one of the most powerful of the house gods (Gashin), especially in Jeju Island.

Hinduism
Ganesha, a messenger of the gods and goddesses who must be propitiated before any of the other deities[4]
Pushan, solar deity and psychopomp responsible for marriages, journeys, roads, the feeding of cattle, and overseeing the journey of the dead to the afterlife

African religion
Legba, phallic crossroad spirit and trickster in West African Vodun, he is the bringer of magic, master diviner and speaker of every language who facilitates communication between man and the gods. Legba is also the remover of obstacles and the guardian of the home and crossroads.

Afro-American religion
Ellegua, the messenger god and psychopomp in Santería, Louisiana Voodoo, Haitian Voodoo, and Candomblé

[Naga_Fireball]

Waking up, I was deceived;
My eyes were open, but I was still sleeping.

Unknowingly, I walked through Death's Door.
You stood there waiting. Like a silent ghost, you haunted my wake and lit my return to your shore.

The wind howled, but your light was warm and bright enough to save me.
Hope was scarce, but your kindness was nourishing enough to sustain me through the voyage home.

You held my hand through Death's door,
and I didn't even know you were watching, had no idea that you cared.

You were the rope that pulls the shipwrecked survivors from the lightless waves.

You saved me and I never even thanked you.
When I opened my eyes and realized what I had done, you had vanished like a dream.

[Naga_Fireball]

Spooky dooky @@

Masons honor local law enforcement officers
Annie Charnley Eveland Feb 20, 2017 Updated 12 hrs ago

Blue Mountain Masonic Lodge 13 awarded Law Enforcement Officer of the Year plaques to Walla Walla Sheriff’s Deputy Kristen Daschofsky, College Place Police Officer Bill Kelly, Walla Walla Police K-9 Officer Travis Goodwin and Washington State Patrol Trooper Cody Mueller.

Walla Walla Police K-9 Officer Travis Goodwin works in tandem with partner Farel, a dog trained in tracking and apprehension. The pair, in addition to daily patrol duties, also are members of the regional SWAT team.

For their contributions to making the Walla Walla Valley a safer place, Travis was honored at a Feb. 15 ceremony at the Masonic Temple, reported WWPD Officer Tim Bennett in a release.


Other officers also honored for their service with Law Enforcement Officer of the Year plaques at the Blue Mountain Masonic Lodge 13 ceremony were Walla Walla Sheriff’s Deputy Kristen Daschofsky; College Place Police Officer Bill Kelly; and Washington State Patrol Trooper Cody Mueller.

In 2016, Travis and Farel tracked and located a firearm thrown in Pioneer Park by a suspect. Locating the weapon kept it from getting back into the hands of the suspect, or from being potentially found by a child playing in the park.


In another case, the pair tracked and apprehended a burglary suspect who had been stealing large quantities of narcotics from pharmacies around the Northwest.

The suspect burglarized the Walla Walla Walgreens and fled the store on foot. Travis deployed Farel and found the suspect hiding under water in a stream several hundred yards from the store, Tim reported.


Etcetera appears in daily and Sunday editions. Annie Charnley Eveland can be reached at annieeveland@wwub.com or afternoons at 526-8313.

Annie Charnley Eveland
Annie joined the U-B news staff in 1979, began writing Etcetera, a daily community column, in 1990, and was promoted to a copy editing post in 2007. She edits copy, designs and lays out pages and has written occasional feature stories as time allows.


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