In normal times 5

In normal times I would have gone to one of the three churches I serve and everyone would have seen me and heard me and we would have celebrated the Eucharist and had coffee hour and loved each other.

But today, in these anything BUT normal times, we did church on Zoom and Face Book and on phones and no one could see me, though they could hear me and listen to my sermon and Bryan's celebration of Eucharist. I saw myself through it all. Weird.


Zoom broke down on Sunday morning between 9 and noon in many parts of the country--especially it seems, New England. Covid-19 and Zoom don't seem to like New England.

Folks reading froze up. Folks doing prayers dropped out. It was weird, but not so surprising in such un-normal times. Internet technology is just like most every thing else. S*** happens.

It was fine in the end. I've talked to several folks who said 'listening' was better than 'nothing'.

Which is true always.

I could see one of my cousins who tuned in from WV, but not the other one.

I say 'cousins' because we are, somehow.It's just on my father's side of my family, relationships were vague and varying. I called lots of people 'aunt' and 'uncle' who weren't.

My mother's side of the family was strict to being ridiculous about 'relationships'.

My uncle Sid, my father's brother, happened to marry my mother's 1st cousin. Sid and Callie's two children told me that we were 'double first cousins' and since I was much younger, that made sense.

When I told my maternal grandmother that--Lina Manona Sadler Jones--she said 'humpf' and told me that we were first cousins on my father's side but third cousins on my mother's side.

Well, that wasn't the only distinctions between the sides of my family. The Bradley's liked a drink and the Jones' were non-drinkers. The Jones' were all Evangelical church-goers and the Bradley's (except for my father) avoided church whenever they could.

No wonder I have so many conflicting opinions....