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At The Aramean King's Private Office
[after 2 Kings 5]
"And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet;
and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian."
---Luke 4:27
Naaman has been Commander of my Hosts,
and he accompanies me to the House
of Rimmon. He excels in strategy,
and brings to us glories of victory.
He was afflicted by dread leprosy,
and suffered pain that none could soothe or douse.
Elisha, now prophet in Israel,
sent Naaman to the Jordan River to
dip himself in it (not just once, but seven
times). Now his skin is like a new
baby's. (But, here, the country of his birth.
we have rivers that would have served as well
for this.) Naaman returned, elatedly,
bringing with him two mules laden with earth---
just ordinary dirt, some real estate
from Israel. Behind his garden's gate,
the soil is piled, and he kneels there to pray,
as if that mound offered access to Heaven.
In Rimmons' Temple---with me yesterday,
he stood, silent as one of those tall posts
that bear the roof. Something has had its way
with him. I wonder, now, what was I thinking
when I wrote to the King of Israel
to set these circumstances into motion.
Who would have known that visit would compel
Naaman's distraction from our nation's god.
Naaman's obsesses to this new devotion.
The whole affair is eeire, strange, and odd.
I am quite shaken up, and might start drinking.
Starward
[jlc]
