Yes! Yes!

One reason I think people love March Madness is how close the games are. With a quarter of the first round games yet to be played, 9 have already been decided by 3 points or less. Exciting.

Which makes WVU's 6 point win over Buffalo a blow out.

WVU plays Maryland for the dubious opportunity to play Kentucky.

I think West Virginia's odd full court pressure all the time might weird out Kentucky, the overwhelming favorite to win it all.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for Sunday's game.

Where's Calvin's grave? I bet you could hear him spinning....

The Presbyterian Church USA (God bless them!) changed their Constitution to define 'marriage' as a lifetime union between 'two committed people'.

The church of Calvin has endorsed gay marriage!

The Roman Catholics embracing birth control would have been less shocking.

Now here is something to ponder: why have the rights of GLBTQ folks (they insist on "Queer", a way of making something insulting honorific--a brilliant strategy in 'branding') so quickly taken hold when Blacks and Hispanics and Women are still fighting for full equality?

Examples of rampant racism and sexism still abound and gay folks are becoming, every day, more mainstream. Presbyterians, for goodness sake!

What is up with that?

Why are women, more than half the population, still struggling while gays (10% at most--probably less) are earning rights left and right?

And our racial minorities--soon to be the 'majority' in this country...by 2020 or so...--are still seeking total inclusion.

I'm not sure what it's all about. Something about how we all 'know' or are 'related to' someone who is GLBTQ while we're not related to racial minorities.

But what about women? We all know and are intimately related to women. So why do they still get paid less and have to endure sexual harassment and feel 'second class'?

Because Men are still in charge?

Something there to ponder long and deep.

Men.

March Madness gone mad

OK, they're not even through the first day of play and my bracket is null and void!

I had Baylor, not only going to the final 4 but winning the Championship....

And they lost today on a last second half-court shot to Georgia State.

Georgia State????

I don't even know where Georgia State is located.

All I know is I saw Baylor beat WVU three times this year--something that never happens when you have 2 good teams (WVU is a 5th seed in the tournament; Baylor was a 3rd seed--which means both of them are in the top 20 seeds) but Baylor did it and I didn't think they could possibly be beaten, even by Kentucky.

Shows how much I know!

I'll just tear up my bracket now and enjoy the games....

What Isis really wants

In March's edition of The Atlantic Monthly, Graeme Wood has a long article about what Isis really wants.

I would urge you to find it and read it. It altered my thinking about the Islamic State.

Wood makes the argument that Isis is not "not Islamic" but that they are radically Islamic, only 'Islamic' in the 6th century term of the word. The Islamic State is equivalent to Christian Biblical literalists only more so.There interpretation of the Koran and Sharia law is like a Christian believing in what was believed at the Council of Nicaea in the 4th Century. It is that ancient, what they believe to be true Islam.

He writes that when President Obama said that Isis was not truly Muslim it was a great boon to their enlisting more fighters. Isis, according to this article, is theologically, not politically, based. And part of that theology is that the movement is a player in the drama of the end days.

There is a city in Syria, which Isis holds, that is, in Islamic lore, the site of the battle between the last Caliphate and 'the armies of Rome'. We're talking about apocalyptic thinking here. So Isis has not moved to take more territory beyond that city (I'd tell you what it was but I loaned my copy of The Atlantic to a friend and can't look it up) because they're waiting for the 'army of Rome' to come for the final battle--the Muslim version of Armageddon.

They continue to advance, if they can, everywhere else, but not there. They're waiting for the last battle there.

Wood's argument is that we must understand that, unlike Bin Laden, Isis is driven by theology, not politics. They really mean to bring about the end of days.

I don't do the article justice, so find it and read it and see if it doesn't alter your understanding of what is going on in the Middle East. It will scare the bejesus out of you, but you will 'understand' more clearing why you're so frightened.

Really, this is something we all should read, mark and inwardly digest....

my hands

I've never been 'handy'. I can't fix or build things. My father couldn't either so I never had a way to learn. One of my uncles made wonderful furniture and another built his house from the ground (or basement, actually) up. But not me. I can't do that stuff. I wish I could, but I can't. Bern is the 'handy-woman' in our house. She fixes lots of things. And she can do art. Every Christmas she gives me a piece of art she made for me (one even building me a table in the shape of West Virginia--quite an accomplishment if you know what West Virginia looks like!!) I give her something written--a long poem or short story.

When I think of it, the only thing my hands are good for is to type....

Last week in Plymouth, I began to think about my hands in a new way.

We were playing cards, three of us, with a set of cards made totally out of plastic, instead of paper cards coated in plastic. So, they were very stiff and I found myself struggling with shuffling them.

One of my friends, playing with us, said, "my hands are shot...." She went on to demonstrate that arthritis kept her from making a fist and made her hands not very adroit at small motor skill things.

I've had two bad (9 and 7 stitches 'bad') on two different fingers. I also have some very obvious arthritis in my fingers that is sometimes numbing and sometimes painful and always awkward.

I had thought of myself as simply clumsy--dropping things, not being able to open things, not having a strong grip, (cutting my fingers!) and, in general, having 'all thumbs' in lots of ways.

But when Sherry said that about her hands, I suddenly realized I'm been blaming myself for ineptitude when using my hands (like a moral failure) rather than simply a physical reality.

I can touch five of my finger tips to my palm--but neither index finger or my right hand's second finger--but it would be dreaming to say I can 'make a fist'. Eight of my fingers have little knots on them--which Sherry told me was proof of having arthritis.

You might think realizing my hands 'are shot' would depress me. But you don't know my ability to see empty glasses 'half-full'.

I really feel relieved that my hands are failing me rather than that I am failing my hands.

Knowing there is a physical reason for my clumsiness is much better than thinking (as I have until now) that I was somehow failing to pay attention or work hard enough.

I'm saddened about how my hands are shot. But it's a relief to know why finally. I don't know why I didn't realize it before trying to shuffle to deal for 500 rummy....

"Christianists"

So, I was reading an article on the Huffington Post about Ben Carson, the Black retired surgeon who may be running for President.

The article was about how Dr. Carson had said on TV that homosexuality was 'absolutely a choice' and how he later backed away from what he said.

Well, the article was what it was. Then I made the mistake of scrolling down to the comments about the article. I got hooked. Hundreds and hundreds of comments from every point of view from "Dr. Carson didn't go far enough...homosexuality is a Sin!" to "what a load of b.s. this Carson guy is!"

Somewhere in the 30 or so comments I read was one that really got me thinking. I wish I remember what commenter wrote it but I'm not willing to go back and sift through them to be able to tell you....

Anyway, that comment was about, not Dr. Carson, but one of the several comments that said gay folk will burn in hell.

The writer said, "I don't call those folks 'Christians', I call them 'Christianists'."

That really resonated with me. Being painted with the same brush with "Christians" who deny climate change, hate homosexuals, want to cut off food stamps to teach people the 'value of work', support the Keystone pipeline because Jesus wants us to have enough oil, support Israel without reservation--not because they love Jews but because they want Armageddon to come,  want to deny all abortions, believe Obama was born in Kenya, on and on and on...because they say Jesus would believe all that just drives me crazy.

From now on I'm referring to those folks as "Christianists", pure and simple.

As far as I can tell (and this is just me talkin') the length and breath of  'being a Christian' could be summed up like this:
      *love your neighbor as yourself
      *treat everyone as you wish to be treated
      *realize God loves every one of us
      *reach out to those less fortunate than you
      *seek the face of God in everyone you meet

I'm sure I left something out--but not much.

Stop there and you'll be in the company of angels.

"Christianists" want to make God in their own image and use God/Jesus to champion all their causes. I'm through with them. Really and forever. Being a Christian, it seems to me, involves the 5 things above...few enough things to count on the fingers of one hand. Simple enough.

And I think (just me talkin') 'being a Christian' is that simple.

By the water

We were unpacking the car in Plymouth when I realized I forgot my laptop and wouldn't be able to write from there. (Two people had computers but I don't know how to get to this page anywhere but from my laptop and this computer. On those are icons that I click and come in the back door of the blog....)

It was Jack and Sherry, John Anderson, Bern and I in a house we figured was about 4000 square feet with a 180 degree view of Plymouth Harbor. When it was clear you could see the lighthouse in Provincetown!

It was a wonderful house and we had a great time, reading and eating. No beach walking because we were settling in on Wednesday and the rest of the week was too cold. But we lacked for nothing else. Those 3 are like family to us--for the last few years John and Sherry have gone to the beach in North Carolina with Mimi and Tim and us.

We took a shit load of food to Plymouth and really didn't need to buy anything but some ice cream while we were there. Bourbon, Scotch and white wine made the trip with us too...other good friends....

John and Sherry and Bern and I usually drive together in John's Landrover to North Carolina. But this year we're going to fly to Myrtle Beach to save two travel days and rent a car or two. It will be much nicer, I think, because the drive is tedious and two day and we get back worn out. Hardly the way to end vacation....Plus, there's a Food Lion on Oak Island and we won't be tempted to bring a shit load of food! All the food we took before made even a Land Rover uncomfortable!

I'm not wishing away the Spring and Summer, but I do look forward so much to that time with  Mimi and Tim and our little adopted family.

We came back today so I can do church and because Mimi took her car to Wallingford for some recall work and is spending the night.

What's odd about this little group (including Tim and Mimi) is that we're all avid readers (and eaters and drinkers) and get along seamlessly. Long period of being comfortable without having to talk are the norm. That only makes the conversation better....

There's a word for what we do well--we can simply 'abide' with each other. Where I come from if you were walking down the road and saw a neighbor up on their porch they might just call out, "come up and 'bide a spell."

'Bide-ing had no particular content or expectation. You might talk or you might not. You might have some ice tea or you might not. What it was was the ability to be comfortable in each others' presence without any agenda at all.

I like to 'bide a spell as often as I can.

That's what I've been up to since my last post--'bide-ing a spell with Bern and dear, dear friends....