Carving A Wax Penny

You recall my sacred sword substitute, a steak knife, was one that was used to shave candle wax, trying to get the candle down to a manageable height in relation to the depths the wick had eaten itself.

Today I was with a couple of my sacred candles. I have this one, poured for me by some lady, that acts up all the time. It can't manage the ratio between wax and wick/flame height. Somehow it gets more wax than it manages to eat, the wax overloads the entire system, the flame is just a tiny flicker, and it's buggy. So I have to tip it up, waste the wax by spilling it like Onan, then the flame gets back its life and we're on the right track.

While involved in this activity, I had my sacred knife. I scraped away some wax from the place I poured it the last few days. With the passage of many days the wax had hardened; it really doesn't take long till it solidifies. Now, this involves a penny, and I think was a fairly good move on my part. It gave me a real sense of things being reversed, and that's a lesson I can stand to learn (or be reminded of) occasionally.

I poured the wax out. It looked about the size of a big button. Then I went on with my activities, reading and fiddling with my knife. After a few minutes I suddenly had the thought, why not put this penny on top of the wax button? So without further ado, that's what I did. It settled in snugly. Next I pressed down on top of it gently. Finally I picked off the penny -- another task for the knife -- and I managed to have a perfect reversal in wax of the penny's face.

That was weird to see. Lincoln looking the other way. The date reversed. Liberty spelled backwards. It was a mirror image of itself. Blew my mind. And taught an important lesson, which I could summarize as this: Whatever is happening in your life has an opposite. Does that make any sense?

UPDATE (12:24 p.m.) - Oh, I think I just made a major boo boo. I was sitting here after lunch and reached over and used my sacred knife to pick my teeth. More than once. Once should have been enough, since it seriously smells and tastes like candle wax, whatever the fragrance is. Uck. There needs to be a separation between the sacred and the profane, and now I've transgressed. What might become of me? I haven't felt this bad since that time I used holy water to clean dirt off my shoes.