This “life” thing

As a student of the Old Testament I am continually immersing myself with more and more Hebrew and Akkadian (a lesser extent with the latter) words. I love names. You’d be surprised how many names are Hebrew in origin. One name, for example, is the name Caleb. Caleb is Hebrew for “dog” – an animal that we love in our North American culture, but nonetheless was despised in the ancient Near East. I get really excited when I am able to connect Akkadian and Hebrew words. The word kalbum means dog in Akkadian. See how similar that is to the Hebrew, caleb? I think most people have heard the old adage: life is a “female dog” (you’ll have to use your imagination to a certain extent)! Well, my little brother gave me some unfortunate news about a dear old friend of ours: Kevin has cancer. Our friend, Kevin (only twenty-three), was recently diagnosed with malignant melanoma. The saddest part about his condition is the lateness of the detection: it was about a year too late. Life… this life thing… there’s nothing fair about it. To bust out some Hebrew: life’s such a caleb! And some Akkadian: life’s a real kalbum! Bah!

Well, regardless – I sincerely wish you the best of weekends and a wonderful start to the next week. I will likely be quite busy, but will take time to blog whenever I get the chance. Take care.

-Dan