Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit. See how your brothers are and bring back some assurance from them.

• 1 Samuel 17:18

When David came to Mahanaim, Shobi son of Nahash from Rabbah of the Ammonites, and Makir son of Ammiel from Lo Debar, and Barzillai the Gileadite from Rogelim brought bedding and bowls and articles of pottery. They also brought wheat and barley, flour and roasted grain, beans and lentils, honey and curds, sheep, and cheese from cows’ milk for David and his people to eat. For they said, “The people have become exhausted and hungry and thirsty in the wilderness.”

• 2 Samuel 17:27-29

Did you not pour me out like milk
    and curdle me like cheese,
clothe me with skin and flesh
    and knit me together with bones and sinews?

• Job 10:10-11

The New Boilerplate

My wife filled a small book with “Angel” on the cover.  It was hidden with a box of crafting things.  On 18 July 2025, I thought I had posted the last of these.  But this little angel book held a prayer, followed by 71 quotes.  So, the “with a little help” series is back in business for a while.  And it will be fun for me.  She did not attribute any of the quotes.  The first quote was from James A. Garfield, the 20^th president of the USA.  The next one was disputed, with some thinking it originated with Teddy Roosevelt and others saying Fred Astaire.  After the prayer, these might be on the lighter side.

Her quote

“Age doesn’t matter unless you are cheese.”

• J. Paul Getty

The Discussion

Before we get started, let’s look at the Scriptures, the only references to cheese in the NIV.  David’s parents gave him cheese to take to his older brothers who were serving Israel’s army.  And among all the things that were brought to David and the others who evacuated Jerusalem when Absalom led his rebellion, they brought cheese.  But Job likening curdled cheese to the creation of a man seems … weird.  But then again, you have something that seems to be a liquid, and you can get cheese from it.  But only after you separate it from the whey.

Okay, this quote attribution falls upon whether it is “cheese” or “a cheese.”  If you add the “a” it is widely acclaimed as a quote of filmmaker Luis Buñuel.  Yet, Helen Hayes and Billie Burke have been attributed to the quote.  It seems J. Paul Getty was the only one who claimed it to be true about cheese in general.

But as brie and cheddar can get better with age, more flavorful, those same cheeses can become ruined with too much aging.  This adage only goes so far.

I love cheese and I love aged cheese, but I have had to throw out cheese that became moldy.  A little mold can be sliced off, but too much and the whole thing tastes … off.

I guess I could say something about these nuances with the quote.

As we get older, some of us get wiser.  But I have seen some people who hold onto stupidity like it was a prize worth keeping.  But then again, the adage says that age does not matter.  Thus, the more gray hair you have, or lack of hair, means nothing when it comes to wisdom unless we learn from our mistakes or we learn from God.

I do not want to even start drawing lines between this adage and dementia or simple forgetfulness.  Dementia is a serious problem, and not always due to getting old.  But if anyone can tell me where I put the car keys, that would be a big help.  And don’t tell me that the car keys are where I last held them, that is not helping.  Besides, I already checked there.

Editor’s Note: The author was being silly.  The car keys are where he almost always leaves them.  It’s that “almost always” that gets troublesome.

But I told the Sunday school class one time that I had a headache and a crick in my neck when I woke up that Sunday morning.  And I was praising God.  When you have more serious pains, pains that might be telling you that something is really wrong, you don’t notice the mild headache or the crick in your neck.  Strangely, the old joke about your friend complaining about a headache.  You stomp on his foot, and he yells, “Hey! What did you do that for?!”  And your reply is, “You’re not thinking about the headache, are you?”  When it comes to minor pains, that kind of thing works.

As it seems to me, that heavy pain that I was having was cured by a lot of rest.  I can get caught up with my writing, but only when I am feeling better.

I bring this up because one thing that seems inescapable is aging and pain.  But every pain reminds me that there will be no more pain in Heaven.  Now that is a heavenly thought.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory