Things got off to a flying start today when there was a major wreck on I-twelve west bound that is still making traffic horrible after 10am and you can bet that the excessive heat warning that we got today is being matched in all the cars stuck in the traffic jam caused by two big trucks. The temp today is to be 102 and the heat index is to be 117. How's that for the dog days of summer? Our Scotties are staying inside where it is cool and they only go out the Scottie door to just give a minimum barking performance. I think they have the right idea; best be careful in this heat.
There is another country song in which the lyrics have been helpful in maintaining my mental gyroscope.
The chorus goes like this:
Let it rain Let it snow
Let the cold north winds blow
Just as long as you love me.
This chorus makes a fundamental statement about life; regardless of the good time, we are all going to have times when it rains and snows and the cold winds blow. And that kind of weather change can knock us down and spin us around. It can turn out to be downright unpleasant; hard to take even. But it can go a lot better for us if we have someone to just as long as you love me. Love really helps and it can often make a big positive difference. Life will find a way to use us and abuse us, but we can take it and make it just as long as you love me.
The second part of the chorus is this:
North or south,
East or west,
You help me stand the test,
Just as long as you love me.
What happens to us in life is hard to control. We can make the best choices we can and still have fate fall all over us and take us to a place we did not wish to go. But we get there and there can be a real test. And there are the yous in our lives that can really help us stand the test that the winds of outrageous fortune send our way. There is magic in that line; you help me stand the test. I attempt to be that for those I love and they make that same effort for me. And when the double twins of depression and despair are pounding on you, that you who helps you stand the test makes all the difference. And the love given in that standing of the test is what gives us our passing test. The test can be endured and passes if we are fortunate enough to have those some ones; those yous who help us stand the test. I daily give thanks for those yous who help with the test I am attempting to stand. Here's to standing the test, and thanks to all of those who attempt to be the you who help someone stand their test.
There is another song that has something to say about all this and it comes from the Muppets. In fact, it comes from a song sung by Kermit the frog. I bet you know the one I'm thinking about.
Kermit sings about what it is like to be a frog and a green one at that:
It isn’t easy being green; Having to spend each day the color of leaves, when I think it could be nicer being red, yellow or gold. Something much more colorful like that. It’s not easy being green; it seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things. And people tend to pass you over because you are not standing out like flashy sparkles in the water or stars in the sky. But green is the color of spring; green can be cool and friendly like and green can be big like an ocean or important like a mountain or tall like a tree. When green is all there is to be it can make you wonder why. But why wonder. Why wonder. I'm green and it will do fine; And I think it is what I want to be.
Kermit is struggling with what all of us struggle with sometimes. Kermit is saying that sometimes it isn’t easy being me; it isn’t easy being a green frog when there are many other flashy things to be. It is so ordinary being green and everyone knows that frogs simply can't pass as pretty; in fact, they can often seem droopy and ugly. Kermit is saying that it is simply hard, at times, to be Kermit. It just isn’t easy being me.
It isn’t easy being divorced after you’ve been married for what seems a lifetime; it isn’t easy being the parents who discover their son in his backyard after taking his life; it isn’t easy being parents who watch and worry as a child gives his life and energy to drugs; it isn’t easy being blind; it isn’t easy being a caretaker; it isn’t easy having cancer and worrying about it. For all of us there are simply those times when we say it isn’t easy being me. We would like to be golden, flashy, confident, chosen, and tranquil. Yet we know, like Kermit that being green is sometimes necessary. Kermit is engaged in a real struggle; there is no Pollyanna answer here; he has to work at it. And he says being green can be cool; it can be important like an ocean or tall like a tree.
So why wonder if you are green; why wonder. I am green; and I think that is what I want to be. Kermit finds a way to accept being green; it is not an easy acceptance but he wants to stop wondering why. Why wonder; I'm green and I think that is what I want to be. We can get trapped in our own version of greenness, just like Kermit. And like Kermit we must find a way to be who we are, to accept our version of being green.
WE too have to say, why wonder; why wonder. I'm green and I think that is what I want to be. How do we pass the green test? When the cold north winds blow, how do we make it. Just as long as you love me, that is how. North or south, east or west, you help me stand the test, just as long as you love me.
I have found a trinity that helps me stand the test. I call it the trinity of the faith, family and friends. The love that is possible in this trinity helps all of us stand the test that life will throw at us. The first f is the love found in faith. All of us need moments of illumination, some highlights in our Christian life. We can get a reminder of the church that sustains us in our pilgrimage through life. We are a branch springing from the vine upon which we depend, from which we derive our power to be open to the nourishment of faith and the love in that faith. When Jesus tells us that he is the vine and we are the branches, he is telling us that we are not isolated beings adrift in a stormy world, each of us trying to find some passing gust of grace, some spiritual jet stream, as we try to keep our faith alive. We are not like the leaves of autumn being snatched from the tree to be blown in all kinds of directions. We are members of the great family of Christ, in that great company of his church in heaven and in earth deriving our strength of body, mind and spirit from his grace right to the end of time. Why wonder; why wonder.
Family is the second f in the trinity. The love that is given in caretaking an old blind man is truly wonderful. When things get a little rough then a call comes from Eleanor or Kathryn, just checking in to see what condition our condition is in. A touch on the shoulder, an encouraging word, a shared moment of foolishness or tenderness helps to keep the demons away. I give thanks for a family that shares love with me so generously. That helps me stand the test of this blindness.
Friends are the third f of the trinity. I have friends that call, send "hang on snoopy" cards in the mail; come by and visit; call or write and seemingly just at the time when there is a low point. That friend, that gift of love from a friend helps me stand the test. I hope this kind of trinity is active in your life; I highly recommend it. Thanks to the you all group for being friends that listen and contact me. It helps me stand the test. Thank you for helping me stand.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
July 31, 2010 - Hello to August
Today is the last day of July and it will end with a flame. The temp today is to be above one hundred and the heat index even higher; nothing like starting August with all the burners lit. I guess the advice for today is to stay calm. Hope we can do it. I have heard from a number of friends this week and it seems that most of them and myself have been dealing with the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune that goes along with simply being alive and making our attempts to live meaningfully in this process called life. I have found that for me a few lines from two country songs can help me get a grip when I feel that I am losing my grip. Here is the first that I enjoy. It is about trains and railroad crossings; we have much difficulty with them in this state.
When the gates are all down
And the lights are all flashing
And the whistle is blowing in vain;
If you stay on the tracks Ignoring the facts, then don’t blame the wreck on the train.
I have found that I am in a continuous process of moving from blind grief to blind faith; I have also noticed that I have needed to assign meanings to the individual letters in order to help myself through the bad or down days. I started with grief and the g stand for my making sure to grasp the reality of my situation. I am now blind and it seems that will be my lot until I reach the check out counter for this life. Grasp the reality of the situation is identified in the song lyrics above. If I ignore the facts of my situation by disregarding the gates being down, the lights all flashing and the whistle blowing in vain; then if I continue to not do what is necessary to live in my new reality, then I can’t blame what happens to my faith and attitude if I don’t get off the tracks.
I must live and cope with the world as a blind person and I must do that with all the ability that this seventy one year old man has left. To grieve for the past will only leave me embittered and being a pain to be around. I will simply not do that; I will get off the tracks and out of the way of the emotional train wreck that would be if I don’t grasp and live by the new reality of my life. I repeat those lyrics when I am feeling down and blue and admonish myself to get off the tracks and out of the way. It really helps me to do that.
I even have installed a three trumpet Union Pacific diesel road horn on the east side of my house and have the air compressor and indoor button so that I can blow the horn in order to remind me to get off the tracks and to get on with living. It is really a nice, loud horn and it works wonders for me. So here’s to all of us grasping the reality of our life situations and living them as best we can on a day-by-day basis. I also have another set of lyrics that I use and I will send them along in a later email. Hope that you all have a great weekend.
When the gates are all down
And the lights are all flashing
And the whistle is blowing in vain;
If you stay on the tracks Ignoring the facts, then don’t blame the wreck on the train.
I have found that I am in a continuous process of moving from blind grief to blind faith; I have also noticed that I have needed to assign meanings to the individual letters in order to help myself through the bad or down days. I started with grief and the g stand for my making sure to grasp the reality of my situation. I am now blind and it seems that will be my lot until I reach the check out counter for this life. Grasp the reality of the situation is identified in the song lyrics above. If I ignore the facts of my situation by disregarding the gates being down, the lights all flashing and the whistle blowing in vain; then if I continue to not do what is necessary to live in my new reality, then I can’t blame what happens to my faith and attitude if I don’t get off the tracks.
I must live and cope with the world as a blind person and I must do that with all the ability that this seventy one year old man has left. To grieve for the past will only leave me embittered and being a pain to be around. I will simply not do that; I will get off the tracks and out of the way of the emotional train wreck that would be if I don’t grasp and live by the new reality of my life. I repeat those lyrics when I am feeling down and blue and admonish myself to get off the tracks and out of the way. It really helps me to do that.
I even have installed a three trumpet Union Pacific diesel road horn on the east side of my house and have the air compressor and indoor button so that I can blow the horn in order to remind me to get off the tracks and to get on with living. It is really a nice, loud horn and it works wonders for me. So here’s to all of us grasping the reality of our life situations and living them as best we can on a day-by-day basis. I also have another set of lyrics that I use and I will send them along in a later email. Hope that you all have a great weekend.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Tuesday
I guess that we are all having a hot time in the ole town today. We have been setting some real heat and humidity records, lately. I have had my joy juice IV today and am now getting ready to send out some email smoke signals. I am making good progress on kicking free from this infection. It improves each day and I can tell by just feeling my right calf that great improvement is occurring.
I got a sad surprise late last week. A Springhill friend and neighbor and classmate died suddenly. He and I started in first grade together, in Mrs. Upchurch's class. (Isn’t that a great name?) We went all the way to high school graduation together. Jimmy and I both lived on Hickory Street, just four houses apart. We spent much time together and he and I were roommates on Banks Street in New Orleans when we were both freshmen at LSU Medical School. He went ahead and finished and I decided to acknowledge that medicine really wasn’t where I needed to be; so I began the process of being a Presbyterian minister. I think it turned out to be the right decision for me.
I talked with him while I was sick and that is the last time we talked. We did homework together; he was in the band and I played sports; his mom made great lemon icebox pies and served us generous pieces with good cold milk; we put rear speakers in our cars and did all the small town things that mean so much to us now. We would talk about those days and how great a time we had growing up in the 1950’s in a great small industrial town. It a was an idyllic time and was probably one of the golden ages in the life of the US. It is quite something to be over seventy now and reach back for those memories; it is great to have them and great to be able to remember Jimmy and smile about it. He and his wife lived in DC and were together over forty years. I wish him and her well and appreciate the good memories of the good times that we shared.
I got a sad surprise late last week. A Springhill friend and neighbor and classmate died suddenly. He and I started in first grade together, in Mrs. Upchurch's class. (Isn’t that a great name?) We went all the way to high school graduation together. Jimmy and I both lived on Hickory Street, just four houses apart. We spent much time together and he and I were roommates on Banks Street in New Orleans when we were both freshmen at LSU Medical School. He went ahead and finished and I decided to acknowledge that medicine really wasn’t where I needed to be; so I began the process of being a Presbyterian minister. I think it turned out to be the right decision for me.
I talked with him while I was sick and that is the last time we talked. We did homework together; he was in the band and I played sports; his mom made great lemon icebox pies and served us generous pieces with good cold milk; we put rear speakers in our cars and did all the small town things that mean so much to us now. We would talk about those days and how great a time we had growing up in the 1950’s in a great small industrial town. It a was an idyllic time and was probably one of the golden ages in the life of the US. It is quite something to be over seventy now and reach back for those memories; it is great to have them and great to be able to remember Jimmy and smile about it. He and his wife lived in DC and were together over forty years. I wish him and her well and appreciate the good memories of the good times that we shared.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Hello to the You All Gang
I have been home one week from the hospital and it has been a good week. I get an IV each day but Anita handles it easily since the medical technology has made it easy to do at home. I am getting better each day and the bugs are being stamped out. It will be slow but it is happening.
I do church tomorrow and that will be fine with me. It has been so hot, humid, muggy and oily that I have heard that Satan has left the state. I sometimes wonder what else can happen to Louisiana. Once again, the government turns out to be a problem even bigger than the oil spill since they do so many senseless things to hurt. Like shutting down all off shore drilling and further choking the state. Big layoffs are occurring in a spreading ring of financial shutdowns. The companies that supply the industry are now being shut down because of the six-month penalty. Just like an uninformed leader to do even more damage to the state and other gulf states while they bicker and further strangle the state.
I heard an atheist say that God must be after us because even the government is wounding the area. It gives real meaning to the claim that we are from the government and government is here to help you. Down here that is like telling us that they are rounding up a firing squad to put us out of our misery. The president made a hasty not well thought out decision and still won’t reconsider even when shown what it is doing to the oil states and punishing those doing a good job. I feel for those hearty Cajuns who are now getting clobbered by oil and by government. To hear them interviewed on the radio is really sad. Their lives are coming apart right in front of them and they are powerless to stop it from happening. They have to ask the president to help them and so far that has been not listened to; it is really sad what is happening.
It is now almost summer here in Louisiana. We now are the state of heat, humidity hurricanes, oil spills, and dumb presidential oil decisions. The heat has really been tough with very high heat index and people are staying in to avoid the unpleasant temperatures. Hope you are doing well where you are. I have to finish off this little email and get cracking on some other things to do before I declare myself ready for tomorrow.
Keep Louisiana in our prayers because it looks like God would even have a hard time helping with all the crazy decisions floating around down here. But the state government has done much better this time. And Ray Nagging is in Dallas, so that is very helpful. Stay cool and out of the heat. Hope to hear from you soon.
I do church tomorrow and that will be fine with me. It has been so hot, humid, muggy and oily that I have heard that Satan has left the state. I sometimes wonder what else can happen to Louisiana. Once again, the government turns out to be a problem even bigger than the oil spill since they do so many senseless things to hurt. Like shutting down all off shore drilling and further choking the state. Big layoffs are occurring in a spreading ring of financial shutdowns. The companies that supply the industry are now being shut down because of the six-month penalty. Just like an uninformed leader to do even more damage to the state and other gulf states while they bicker and further strangle the state.
I heard an atheist say that God must be after us because even the government is wounding the area. It gives real meaning to the claim that we are from the government and government is here to help you. Down here that is like telling us that they are rounding up a firing squad to put us out of our misery. The president made a hasty not well thought out decision and still won’t reconsider even when shown what it is doing to the oil states and punishing those doing a good job. I feel for those hearty Cajuns who are now getting clobbered by oil and by government. To hear them interviewed on the radio is really sad. Their lives are coming apart right in front of them and they are powerless to stop it from happening. They have to ask the president to help them and so far that has been not listened to; it is really sad what is happening.
It is now almost summer here in Louisiana. We now are the state of heat, humidity hurricanes, oil spills, and dumb presidential oil decisions. The heat has really been tough with very high heat index and people are staying in to avoid the unpleasant temperatures. Hope you are doing well where you are. I have to finish off this little email and get cracking on some other things to do before I declare myself ready for tomorrow.
Keep Louisiana in our prayers because it looks like God would even have a hard time helping with all the crazy decisions floating around down here. But the state government has done much better this time. And Ray Nagging is in Dallas, so that is very helpful. Stay cool and out of the heat. Hope to hear from you soon.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Last Saturday in March
Two Saturdays ago I did the wedding ceremony for a family; they are our friends and I was glad to do the wedding. It was held outdoors, in a place that I had never been and I had to do it with most of the people not knowing that I had a sight problem. Anita walked me to my place and I sat on a stool or leaned on it to do the ceremony. I told them that I was blind and that the service may have some unplanned and original vows in it. That took care of them wondering about me and allowed them to focus on that young and gorgeous couple; all of youth is mostly gorgeous and that is one of the pleasures of a wedding ceremony. I managed to conduct my part without making any major or embarrassing mistakes so that was a plus for me; and I enjoyed doing it and had a sense of accomplishment about it.
Last Saturday, Anita and I went to the memorial service for Linda Sciple, our next-door neighbor and friend of many years. I was determined to be there and I am glad that I made the effort. The service began with a duet between piano and pipe organ and it was simply magnificent. It took me to a level that I could not reach without that grand music to help get us there. It set the mood for the entire service. The pipe organ is one thing. But the soaring elegance of a pipe organ played by someone who really knows how to play it can add all kinds of positives to a service. I used to go to choir practice just to hear that pipe organ we had played in practice. But it did add much majesty to a very nice service in memory of a very nice person and I was most glad to be there to honor her memory and friendship.
On Easter Sunday, I will get to baptize an infant. I saw this mother grow up in the church I served; I saw her honored as a high school and college graduate; I conducted her marriage ceremony; and I will get to baptize her daughter next Sunday. That kind of connectedness means a lot to me and I have had and still have a number of families that I enjoy that kind of relationship over the span of years. I just wish that I could see this young baby girl; but I will be able to touch her and hear her if this sacrament goes like many do. Often the infant isn’t really glad to be there and have water dribbled on her head; she just might complain about it. Still it will be a very nice Sunday and give a real positive push to the day. I might even get a haircut and take a shower in honor of what will be happening. Shows to go, you just never can tell.
This Saturday, Casey is changing some fascia boards on the front of the house. Anita is going to roll my chair out under the big oak tree and I will walk around the sidewalk, find the chair and stay out there under the tree giving him advice. The AC people are coming Monday to replace our over twenty-year-old AC system. It is just time to do it and we thought we might as well get it done and over with. That will set us up to have replaced all major systems in the house and we will coast on out of here with a house as reliable as we can make it. Casey sure does spend some time keeping us going and we are glad to have such a do-it-all-well guy available at a reasonable cost.
Later today we will take a lunch break of fried chicken and biscuits. Tim, Steve, Casey, Anita and me will get grub for the crew and have a good excuse to have fried chicken. Then later on we will go to our book study. We are going to study a book titled Jesus Interrupted. A PhD scholar in biblical history wrote it. The work crew has arrived so I will take a break and get on with my supervising duties and get back to writing more of this later. Hope you can wait till I get going again.
The book study is written by an author who began on the far right as a biblical literalist. Every word in the Bible was dictated by God and therefore there could be absolutely nothing out of phase or order in it. No mistakes, no scientific error, no inconsistencies, no contradictions, no nothing. He went on to get a PhD in biblical studies, history and interpretation; that got him in trouble. He found out more about the Bible than he wanted to find and it confounded him, as it will most biblical literalists, and he felt his whole fabric of faith beginning to tear. His inflexible and rigid interpretation of Bible, biblical literature, perfection, scientific accuracy became harder and harder to support. I think that he defined God and the Bible as one and interchangeable; he worshipped God and he also worshipped the Bible. I think that it is clearer to say for me that I worship the God revealed in the Bible, not God and the Bible. I think the Bible reveals God and it does that through the inspiration given to the writers to write the story of faith as they lived it.
The God revealed in the Bible is still the God of Christmas and Easter; he is still the God who loves us and gives us the miracle of his grace. To ask the Bible to be God is simply asking too much of the Bible and too little of God. Finding out the faith through knowing how faith moved down through the centuries is inspiring. To know that the faith is not confined to only the pages of a book that is written by humans, living in a world that they experienced, and having that become a channel of God’s grace today is simply stunning. The Bible doesn’t have to be God in order for God to be God. But the author couldn’t make that distinction so he slowly moved to believer, agnostic, and now atheist. I am glad that God is not limited to the pages of a book, but is a God that uses that Bible to reveal himself today. I keep reminding myself of that whenever life today gets a little too confusing.
This is Holy Week. It is a nice Tuesday morning and is very quiet in our subdivision. The Scotties are resting right now and are waiting for an opportunity to alert me to an alien presence. Belle started doing that at 2 a.m. and I wondered what was setting her off. Ralph got up and looked around but went back to bed. I guess he couldn’t define what the threat was, so back to bed. Eventually Belle settled down but it was after 3 a.m. before she did so. We had a new AC system installed yesterday with plenty of noise and confusion and strangers. That probably upset her because Anita said she was barking at the pull down stairs leading to the attic. That was where those guys spent much time making noise; I guess she wanted to make sure that they still weren’t up there. Anita is off to her drawing group today and I am here with the Scotties. So far all is well.
Last Saturday, Anita and I went to the memorial service for Linda Sciple, our next-door neighbor and friend of many years. I was determined to be there and I am glad that I made the effort. The service began with a duet between piano and pipe organ and it was simply magnificent. It took me to a level that I could not reach without that grand music to help get us there. It set the mood for the entire service. The pipe organ is one thing. But the soaring elegance of a pipe organ played by someone who really knows how to play it can add all kinds of positives to a service. I used to go to choir practice just to hear that pipe organ we had played in practice. But it did add much majesty to a very nice service in memory of a very nice person and I was most glad to be there to honor her memory and friendship.
On Easter Sunday, I will get to baptize an infant. I saw this mother grow up in the church I served; I saw her honored as a high school and college graduate; I conducted her marriage ceremony; and I will get to baptize her daughter next Sunday. That kind of connectedness means a lot to me and I have had and still have a number of families that I enjoy that kind of relationship over the span of years. I just wish that I could see this young baby girl; but I will be able to touch her and hear her if this sacrament goes like many do. Often the infant isn’t really glad to be there and have water dribbled on her head; she just might complain about it. Still it will be a very nice Sunday and give a real positive push to the day. I might even get a haircut and take a shower in honor of what will be happening. Shows to go, you just never can tell.
This Saturday, Casey is changing some fascia boards on the front of the house. Anita is going to roll my chair out under the big oak tree and I will walk around the sidewalk, find the chair and stay out there under the tree giving him advice. The AC people are coming Monday to replace our over twenty-year-old AC system. It is just time to do it and we thought we might as well get it done and over with. That will set us up to have replaced all major systems in the house and we will coast on out of here with a house as reliable as we can make it. Casey sure does spend some time keeping us going and we are glad to have such a do-it-all-well guy available at a reasonable cost.
Later today we will take a lunch break of fried chicken and biscuits. Tim, Steve, Casey, Anita and me will get grub for the crew and have a good excuse to have fried chicken. Then later on we will go to our book study. We are going to study a book titled Jesus Interrupted. A PhD scholar in biblical history wrote it. The work crew has arrived so I will take a break and get on with my supervising duties and get back to writing more of this later. Hope you can wait till I get going again.
The book study is written by an author who began on the far right as a biblical literalist. Every word in the Bible was dictated by God and therefore there could be absolutely nothing out of phase or order in it. No mistakes, no scientific error, no inconsistencies, no contradictions, no nothing. He went on to get a PhD in biblical studies, history and interpretation; that got him in trouble. He found out more about the Bible than he wanted to find and it confounded him, as it will most biblical literalists, and he felt his whole fabric of faith beginning to tear. His inflexible and rigid interpretation of Bible, biblical literature, perfection, scientific accuracy became harder and harder to support. I think that he defined God and the Bible as one and interchangeable; he worshipped God and he also worshipped the Bible. I think that it is clearer to say for me that I worship the God revealed in the Bible, not God and the Bible. I think the Bible reveals God and it does that through the inspiration given to the writers to write the story of faith as they lived it.
The God revealed in the Bible is still the God of Christmas and Easter; he is still the God who loves us and gives us the miracle of his grace. To ask the Bible to be God is simply asking too much of the Bible and too little of God. Finding out the faith through knowing how faith moved down through the centuries is inspiring. To know that the faith is not confined to only the pages of a book that is written by humans, living in a world that they experienced, and having that become a channel of God’s grace today is simply stunning. The Bible doesn’t have to be God in order for God to be God. But the author couldn’t make that distinction so he slowly moved to believer, agnostic, and now atheist. I am glad that God is not limited to the pages of a book, but is a God that uses that Bible to reveal himself today. I keep reminding myself of that whenever life today gets a little too confusing.
This is Holy Week. It is a nice Tuesday morning and is very quiet in our subdivision. The Scotties are resting right now and are waiting for an opportunity to alert me to an alien presence. Belle started doing that at 2 a.m. and I wondered what was setting her off. Ralph got up and looked around but went back to bed. I guess he couldn’t define what the threat was, so back to bed. Eventually Belle settled down but it was after 3 a.m. before she did so. We had a new AC system installed yesterday with plenty of noise and confusion and strangers. That probably upset her because Anita said she was barking at the pull down stairs leading to the attic. That was where those guys spent much time making noise; I guess she wanted to make sure that they still weren’t up there. Anita is off to her drawing group today and I am here with the Scotties. So far all is well.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
March Mayhem
Here we are in the middle of March. It is surprising to me how rapidly the days go by; sunrise, sunset, quickly flow the day, from the words of Fiddler on the Roof. And that movement even includes those times when we find ourselves singing the blues in the night. Anita has gone to help Dorian bathe and clip the two watch Scotties and I am here manning the ramparts by myself. Things can be rather quiet when I am here by myself. I had to have a short fight with my memory and the computer to get this blog started but I did it and I did it by myself in the dark; so there is some sense of accomplishment that I am now doing what I started out to do.
I have studied my meditation for tomorrow and am now doing this blog entry and will wander around the house in a few more moments just to get myself moving. I can hear some typing mistakes but that ought to make your interpretation interesting. I will edit in a few hours and try to make this entry more readable.
Last Saturday, I had a wedding in a setting that I had not been before. It worked out fine and I did the job without making the service memorable by my mistakes. Weddings and funerals are always tense and me doing them blind makes my tension even higher; I want to respond when I am asked but I surely want to be able to conduct their service with dignity. So far I have been able to do that but I feel pretty tired when the service is over and I am always glad to finish and be on my way home. I simply refuse to give in; you don’t give in, you just keep getting up. I keep telling myself to never give up and so far I haven’t given up.
The wedding used that marvelous Pauline description of love as a part of the service (First Corinthians, chapters 12-13). I imagine that it is used at almost every wedding because it is so appropriate. It is so popular and appealing that we can miss the muscular message that it contains. Right from the beginning of the poem Paul makes it clear that if love is not present, heroic deeds will not rescue our relationship or us. Love is neither pale nor weak.
Even moving mountains and making great sacrifices won’t get the job done. Muscular love is required to make the deed, however dazzling, really mean anything. The muscle of the love in the poem says that. Love is not about heroic acts or moving mountains or stringing banners across the sky. Love is about common courtesy and mutual respect; that is what muscular love gives to life and to relationships. The grand gestures and noble deeds are nothing without courtesy grace and respect.
And those three ingredients are sadly missing in many, if not most, of the relationships we encounter in everyday living. Our politics seems to run on hate for the opposite viewpoint rather than finding a common love and concern for country. And the fact that we citizens allow this to continue day after day without a significant confrontation to our government stuns and surprises me. Muscular love is about how we treat each other every day, in every situation we encounter that day, about every person we encounter that day.
Love is not about being heroic and winning every situation we encounter. Muscular love is seeing to it that we all win because when your partner wins, we all win. Whether person, family, job, or church, love is about approaching life and others with courtesy and respect. I hope that I can remember that and I also hope that our culture remembers it. Enduring, believing, and hoping for all good things are living with a muscular love that can make a big difference.
I have studied my meditation for tomorrow and am now doing this blog entry and will wander around the house in a few more moments just to get myself moving. I can hear some typing mistakes but that ought to make your interpretation interesting. I will edit in a few hours and try to make this entry more readable.
Last Saturday, I had a wedding in a setting that I had not been before. It worked out fine and I did the job without making the service memorable by my mistakes. Weddings and funerals are always tense and me doing them blind makes my tension even higher; I want to respond when I am asked but I surely want to be able to conduct their service with dignity. So far I have been able to do that but I feel pretty tired when the service is over and I am always glad to finish and be on my way home. I simply refuse to give in; you don’t give in, you just keep getting up. I keep telling myself to never give up and so far I haven’t given up.
The wedding used that marvelous Pauline description of love as a part of the service (First Corinthians, chapters 12-13). I imagine that it is used at almost every wedding because it is so appropriate. It is so popular and appealing that we can miss the muscular message that it contains. Right from the beginning of the poem Paul makes it clear that if love is not present, heroic deeds will not rescue our relationship or us. Love is neither pale nor weak.
Even moving mountains and making great sacrifices won’t get the job done. Muscular love is required to make the deed, however dazzling, really mean anything. The muscle of the love in the poem says that. Love is not about heroic acts or moving mountains or stringing banners across the sky. Love is about common courtesy and mutual respect; that is what muscular love gives to life and to relationships. The grand gestures and noble deeds are nothing without courtesy grace and respect.
And those three ingredients are sadly missing in many, if not most, of the relationships we encounter in everyday living. Our politics seems to run on hate for the opposite viewpoint rather than finding a common love and concern for country. And the fact that we citizens allow this to continue day after day without a significant confrontation to our government stuns and surprises me. Muscular love is about how we treat each other every day, in every situation we encounter that day, about every person we encounter that day.
Love is not about being heroic and winning every situation we encounter. Muscular love is seeing to it that we all win because when your partner wins, we all win. Whether person, family, job, or church, love is about approaching life and others with courtesy and respect. I hope that I can remember that and I also hope that our culture remembers it. Enduring, believing, and hoping for all good things are living with a muscular love that can make a big difference.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Mardi Gras #2 - February
When the magic Sunday came, it seems that all of us were nervously waiting for the five o'clock witching hour to get here. The church service was well attended but you could tell that all were wondering what would be done about half past nine on that same night. I could only listen on the radio, but I think all of Louisiana went silent around that PM time. I had a window partially open and I was not surprised to hear next to no sound from the street or subdivision when the game started.
The first quarter kept things quiet but things got better by halftime. When it became obvious that the Saints might go marching in this time, you could hear saved up fireworks from January first going off. Monday was a confused bedlam because the miracle had happened. The Saints had come in from marching forty three years in the NFL wilderness. Then the weather closed in again and we had snow. Can you imagine that? Snow in Louisiana and in the outskirts of New Orleans.
Then we had a weekend that contained Valentine's Day. A Mardi Gras parade, a church Mardi Gras cook out before the parade, then Mardi Gras Tuesday and now Lent beginning with ash Wednesday. What a turbulent ten days or so that was. I guess that for most of LA, that was the week that was. Now we must settle down and get on with the daily living that is before us. I don’t know what the sports shows will find to talk about but I imagine that they will come up with something.
And then we have the bubbling political pot of the nation to keep us interested. From what I have been hearing, we won't lack important topics to think about and try to assimilate into something that passes for responsible thinking and acting.
The Scotties have been very proud today because the big dog show in NY was won and wowed by a Scottie. Now how about that. They are out of the room now enjoying their new status so I will have to get Anita to feed them a fancy supper. I don’t think an all meat frank will get the job done today. Let us hear it for the Scotties!
In their new found glory, they did not find any sheriff cars to turn over and torch; they also didn’t run off to the nearest shopping center to break out windows, and they didn’t steal any gourmet dog food or HD TVs. I though they handled themselves rather well for their new found canine position. They have stepped back into some of their unrepentant ways by really throwing a barking fit at the guy who rides his skate board down our street, the UPS truck whether it stops by or merely passes by on the street, snarls at FED Express, ignores the beagle next door and still are quite reluctant to go potty outside when it is raining. Oh well. Maybe they are feeling some entitlement and there is enough of that attitude going around in the country that we should expect some dogs to apply for it. I am going to attempt to sign up for additional entitlement next Friday.
The first quarter kept things quiet but things got better by halftime. When it became obvious that the Saints might go marching in this time, you could hear saved up fireworks from January first going off. Monday was a confused bedlam because the miracle had happened. The Saints had come in from marching forty three years in the NFL wilderness. Then the weather closed in again and we had snow. Can you imagine that? Snow in Louisiana and in the outskirts of New Orleans.
Then we had a weekend that contained Valentine's Day. A Mardi Gras parade, a church Mardi Gras cook out before the parade, then Mardi Gras Tuesday and now Lent beginning with ash Wednesday. What a turbulent ten days or so that was. I guess that for most of LA, that was the week that was. Now we must settle down and get on with the daily living that is before us. I don’t know what the sports shows will find to talk about but I imagine that they will come up with something.
And then we have the bubbling political pot of the nation to keep us interested. From what I have been hearing, we won't lack important topics to think about and try to assimilate into something that passes for responsible thinking and acting.
The Scotties have been very proud today because the big dog show in NY was won and wowed by a Scottie. Now how about that. They are out of the room now enjoying their new status so I will have to get Anita to feed them a fancy supper. I don’t think an all meat frank will get the job done today. Let us hear it for the Scotties!
In their new found glory, they did not find any sheriff cars to turn over and torch; they also didn’t run off to the nearest shopping center to break out windows, and they didn’t steal any gourmet dog food or HD TVs. I though they handled themselves rather well for their new found canine position. They have stepped back into some of their unrepentant ways by really throwing a barking fit at the guy who rides his skate board down our street, the UPS truck whether it stops by or merely passes by on the street, snarls at FED Express, ignores the beagle next door and still are quite reluctant to go potty outside when it is raining. Oh well. Maybe they are feeling some entitlement and there is enough of that attitude going around in the country that we should expect some dogs to apply for it. I am going to attempt to sign up for additional entitlement next Friday.
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