inessential by Brent Simmons

2001/07/27

Years ago I worked at Goodwill as a book pricer. I threw away books that were in bad shape, and priced the rest of them. (Most books were thrown away, unfortunately -- which was weird for a guy who never threw away a book before.)

Many books had little scraps of paper, photos, shopping lists, postcards, etc. in them. Sometimes I saved them.

I present a few now as found poetry. All the line breaks and spelling errors are original.

Christmas Card from South Africa


Dear Rod,

I hope this letter

finds you before Christmas.

Give our greeting

to Jon Klein.

Here in Swaziland,

we are in mid summer

with 104 degrees Fahrenheit

weather.

There has not been much raind

and are expecting

a lot of starvation

this year.

All is well with us.

We hope

all is well with you.

God bless you

and give you

a wonderful Christmas.

2/28/78


2/28/78

Eileen Hori was absent today through 5th period

because of a sore throat.

A List


Sue lunch Boss

friend parents

no encouraging

Jim

Stan guidance for purpose

Dag part time job

will quit full time

school

Dan evening every other weekend

teach class at work

brother lynwood Ed

doesn't know how to respond

Guy will be engaged

communication

Stan

Loose-leaf Page


Is it a matter of submitting to God,

   saying you will follow Him,

   even to the point of what seems

   to be a "good" source

   of action

 

Even you be saved and still

   be practicing

 

Will you submit to God,

   saying you will do whatever

   he asks even to the point

   of denying yourself

   the fulfillment of some basic needs.

   is this really what God wants.

 

Should a person put his full confidence

   on the Bible and trust it

   his life.

 

We must choose to obey

   submit to God --

   see God as one who

   who has a thought over us

   or can we reject God

   (do this by saying,

   I will follow my own wisdom first

   and do what seems right to me

   lawlessness)

   instead coming to God

   and asking what he thinks I should do

   become fools,

   following the world's wisdom--

   exchange a relationship

   under God which is life

   and freedom for earthly wisdom

 

they put the wisdom ahead

   of choosing to follow God

 

Ron Is H due to Judas' rejection of God--

   or the culture--

   prevent rejections

 

Cultural rejection--(original sin)--

   disordered human sexuality in general

   must choose

   whether to obey or glorify God

Memo to the Strikers


Be advised

that if you do not locate your picket line

to the area of Puget Sound Paving's exclusive entrance

you union(s) are subject to damages

ranging from 10,000 dollars to 50,000 dollars

per day.

5/19/89


5/19/89

my daughters locked me out of the house

and my dogs are killing me.

Are you lousy?

I need to talk to Dr. Murray --

it's an emergency.

It's in reference to a loan

for 87 thous dollars

for my mother

and an avis rental car.

And do they do melons?

Post-it


call

555-5780

Mark's guitar

555-4646

Longo

Jolene   lunch

Thrus 6:00

next week

(Yes, I changed the phone numbers on that last one.)