Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Life with BunaB


Around 1985, we purchased a house in Houston. In the built-in desk drawer I found a small plastic case labeled BunaB. Inside was a set of instructions and a. . .well, the picture is better than a description. The instructions were rather detailed, but I could not figure out what a BunaB really was or what it was supposed to do. Even so, I moved the BunaB with me to Nacogdoches, through 3 houses there, then to McKinney and 2 residences. Yesterday I found the BunaB again in a desk drawer. Since 1985 a few things have changed - we now have internet and Google. So to Google I went for answers. Sure enough, there was an article on BunaB's. Come to find out, Al Crowder invented the BunaB in the 1950's. Apparently he didn't have enough to do, had a bunch of clarinet reed cases (he was a musician), and came up with a use for the plastic cases. You can read more about this on www.samueljohnson.com/bunab/index.html. Anyway, Crowder took the name Orville K. Snav and the BunaB was the flagship product of his company. Yes, he actually sold these. Bottom line: The BunaB does absolutely nothing. Yet the instructions are quite detailed, and again, really say nothing. It is kind of funny. And yet, maybe there is a lesson here. Are we carrying around something in our lives that doesn't do anything, complete with instructions that tell us nothing? Are we depending on the useless to bring meaning? I read these instructions many times before I figured out that it was all a joke. Now BunaB is my reminder about how critical it is that what we depend on for instruction is real. And the real, best instructions come from a book with a single title: Bible. My friend Christy would be much better at making the spiritual connection - she is so gifted that way. And perhaps I am making too much of this - nevertheless, I am hanging on to my BunaB!

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