Bishop weary

Last Sunday I hosted a bishop at St. James. Very pleasant, but a bishop, none the less.

Today I spent 3 hours with a bishop and will again tomorrow hosting one at St. Andrew's.

Bishops are all well and good and a vital part of Episcopal polity.

And they are exhausting.

They remind me, in spite of my day to day experience as a priest, that I do have a 'boss'.

I told my cousin on the phone the other night that, "I've never had a boss."

Most of the time that's true. But being around bishops reminds me it's not true, really.

I try to stay out of their way. I like it when I have the illusion that there's no bishop around.

But being with them--whew! Really hard work.

I've served under nine bishops, all told. And I've liked them all--more or less. But I prefer the illusion that they're in some office somewhere and I'm on my own.

I'll be really bishop weary after tomorrow.

Bishops are like vacation spots--a nice place to visit but you wouldn't want to live there.

More pondering

I got some more quotes from my Mastery Foundation quote box for you to 'be with'.

That's what pondering is about--just being present to something in a quiet, absorbing way.

Here goes:

"The soul of one who loves God always swims in joy, always keeps holiday, and is always in the mood for living."    --St. John of the Cross

"Everyday people are straying away from the church and going back to God."
                       --Lenny Bruce

"Between living and dreaming there is a third thing. Guess what it is."
                       --Antonio Machado

"We never become spiritual by sitting down and wishing to become so. You must undertake something so great that you cannot accomplish it unaided."
                        --Phillps Brooks

"May he Blessing of Light be on you
Light without and Light within
May the blessed sunlight shone upon you
and warm your heart
till it glows like a great peat fire,
so that the stranger may come
and warm himself at it.
And may the Light shine out of the eyes of you
like a candle set in a window of a house
bidding the wanderer come in out of the storm."
                        --And old Irish blessing



Go deep. Go deep.

Declare it!

The President is apparently ready to declare a 'national emergency' to enable him to take money from other places to fund his boarder wall.

Declare it, I say!

Not only will it be tied up in court for the rest of his first and only term, it will let future Democratic presidents to use it as an opening to declare a national emergency regarding

*immigration reform

*environmental crises

*gun violence

*health care

*taxing the rich

and all other things that are much more a national emergency than a silly, ineffective, unneeded boarder wall.

Today is the first anniversary of the Parkland School shooting.

In the year since then almost 1200--100 a month, more than 3 a day--young people and children have died from gun violence.

That's a real 'national emergency', that's something that needs extraordinary action to correct.

Guns, health care, the Dreamers, the environment---we have 'national emergencies' a plenty. But our President of the United Base is only interested in a wall.

Build bridges, not walls.

That's my advice.

Take it or not.

Something is seriously out of whack

I realized today that when I flush one of our three toilets (three toilets for two people, not right) which I do more times than I'm comfortable telling you, I send more clean water into the sewer than many, many people around the world have to live on each day.

We even have toilets that flush less for #1 than #2, but even that seems unfair.

I waste more water waiting for the faucet or shower to get hot than millions and millions around the world have.

Something is wrong here.

In Cheshire, CT, water is no problem. I've driven by the several lakes that are part of our water supply many times. Lots of water, lots and lots of water.

How can this be fixed?

I have no idea.

But I know this--I have more water than I need or deserve.

And millions of people don't.

Out of whack, I'd say.

Bless George Conway

George Conway is a conservative and a  major critic of the current president (HWWNBN-ed) and is, by the way, married to Kelly Ann Conway, one of the president's top advisors.

(Love to be a fly on the wall at dinner in the Conway household!!!)

Anyway, George has given the president a nick-name (something the president loves to do--make up nick-names) that is all time classic.

He called him, "The President of the United Base".

Wow! Nailed it, George.

This whole wall nonsense (nobody is against adequate 'border security'--but a wall is simply not 'adequate' to provide that security) is to the base support the president has. That support, somewhere in the low 30's of the total population, have gotten nothing from this president. But a small part of his base is folks like the Koch brothers, who have gotten millions from this president's attitude toward not taxing the rich and doing away with regulations.

"The Wall" is all the president has left to bring together his 'base'.

(By the way, at his rally in El Paso, he said 67,000 wanted in but only 10,000 could be in the auditorium. Later he said 35,000 were at the rally. Police estimated the crowd at 6,700--not even filling the seats and that Beto O'Roark's rally brought more people.

Just fact checking, ok?

Sugar Ice

It snowed today and was very cold. I went to Waterbury Hospital to get my Zolair shots, which keep me healthy.

But I slipped and slid several times on the road. Especially up hill.

Then, this afternoon late, sugar ice began to fall.

That's my limit of describing it. Ice lie sugar.

I swept the deck three times and Bern did too.

Ice like sugar.

Easily swept away, but remarkable.

We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Profession

(I wrote this poem for Mimi and Tim on their marriage. I don't think I ever gave it to them. I just write things about people for myself, I suppose. But I'd share it here.)

PROFESSION

Not just an occupation,

though that is the usual definition.

Oh, no, more than that, much more.

“Profession” as a verb, not a noun,

is wondrous indeed.

To avow, to declare, to promise--

“profession” leads into all sorts

of nonsense and wonderment and joy.

To actually 'say so' about

what your lives will be and consist of

and contain.

To 'profess' opens up the possibility

of a future you speak into being.

A future that wouldn't have happened

otherwise, until you spoke it.

Few people in the world

make such a 'profession'--

speak a future and a life

into being like that.

And today you two do.

Astonishing, memorable, inspiring,

full of being and hope and wonderment.

Like that.

Thank you for going to the edge

of what you can know and see

and then stepping off.

And I know, as you step off into what

is not known, not knowable,

you will be caught by loving arms

or learn how to fly.