What I really want

I really want to live in a nation without guns.

I really want everyone--no matter what gender, race or ethnic background--to have an equal chance.

I really want to live where police don't see a person's color, but their humanity.

I want to live where everyone has equal health care.

I want to live where noone is homeless.

I want to live where there is no "one percent".

I want to live where drugs are not 'outlawed' but not 'present'.

I want to live where the minimum wage is a living wage.

I want to live where 'strangers' are welcome.

I want to live in a nation of true equality.

I want to live...it seems to me...in a dream, a place that doesn't exist.

But couldn't it? Really, couldn't we do that stuff? Really?

And then all live there, together, equal, with 'enough', at peace....?

Is that too much to ask?

Just when you thought it couldn't get crazier...

So, Donald Trump's campaign released it's first TV ad today. He hasn't needed ads since he's covered 24/7 on cable news--all of it.

In the ad he has pre-recorded rants about Muslims and immigrants. When he's talking about immigrants, a video clip shows lots of people running across what is supposedly a boarder--Mexico to US, right?

Wrong!!! It was a clip of people going from Morroco to Melilla, which is a Spanish city in North Africa--who knew?

What did the Trump campaign say: "It was intentional. We wanted to show what it could be like on the Mexican boarder."

So--we knew it was a lie but we meant it anyway? Even when illegals crossing our southern boarder is at a decade low?

Just when you thought...well, you know the rest or that....

With Friends like that....

Saudi Arabia, one of our few allies in the Mid-East (Interesting, isn't it how we think we're the center of the universe and label the other parts of the world from our perspective--'mid-east', 'far east', 'western Europe'--from their point of view, they're just were they are) beheaded 47 people yesterday around the country at the same time.

That an 'ally' of ours beheads people is awful enough, but that they do it in such a dramatic way is beyond comprehension.

Some of the people beheaded were not, as the Saudis claimed, 'terrorists'. They were just Shiites in a  Suni country--in fact, one of the more extreme forms of Sunis.

The whole Suni/Shiite thing is still a mystery to me. But, I suppose, 500 years ago Catholics and Protestants were killing each other over minor disagreements.

But we have to reconsider who our 'friends' are. Really.

Epiphany is coming!!!

I love the Feast of the Epiphany--those strange Magi from Persia, the Star they followed for two years, the confusion and conflict with Herod, their going home 'by a different way' to avoid Herod.

There is a dictionary definition of "epiphany" that I committed to memory decades ago. It goes like this: 'an epiphany is a sudden, intuitive understanding of the deep down meaning of things, usually caused by what is ordinary, simple and commonplace.'

Isn't that remarkable?

To have a sudden, intuitive understanding of anything would be good enough. But that that knowledge is 'of the deep down meaning of things' raises the bar a great deal. And that what provokes and epiphany is what is 'ordinary, simple and commonplace' seals the deal.

Keep your eyes wide open all the time--your ears and touch and smell as well. And your mind and imagination as well.

I believe there are 'epiphanies' all around us--in all the ordinary and simple and commonplace events and moments of life.

Don't miss the chance of sudden and intuitive knowledge of the deep down, deep down, deep down meaning of anything.

Epiphany isn't just a Christian Feast--it is the opportunity of every moment of life.

Epiphanies are all around us, if we are simply open to discovering them.

May this new year bring you a dozen epiphanies every day...and lots of ordinary, simple, commonplace moments.

Happy Epiphany Year!

The Feast of the Holy Innocents

It was on Dec 29 and acknowledges the passage in Matthew when Herod killed all the male children under 2 in Bethlehem to try to rid himself of the King the Magi came to find.

Tomorrow's gospel lesson leaves out all mention of the slaughter of the Holy Innocents! I hate it when the lectionary folks leave out verses, so that's what I'll talk about in my homily tomorrow. The lesson as read sends Mary and Joseph and Jesus to Egypt and back for no good reason!!!

And the slaughter of innocent folks could never be more appropriate than in today's world. The planet is awash in the blood of the innocent, perhaps larger in scope than at any time. And we don't have clean hands--our bombs dropped on Isis have killed many innocent folks.

Is it too much to wish the world would come to it's senses and realize we are 'all in it together' on this fragile earth, our island home?

Probably that is too much to wish.

But that won't stop me for longing for it....

Hoppin'John

Cheshire should be in Alabama. There were no dried bBern lack-eyed peas in any of the three grocery stores in town. And black eyed peas are a key ingredient of Hoppin'John.

You don't know about Hoppin'John? Must be be a Yankee.

On New Year's Day you eat greens--kale or something else sauted--for 'money', blackeyed peas for luck and pork for happiness. We had our Hoppin'John but the Kale, marked "Kale" in the containers, was Arugula...no doubt. I'm going to tell Stop and Shop  tomorrow.

Canned black eyed peas aren't the same as dried, but Bern dressed them up with onions and bacon. And we had ham and black rice.

Rice is for health, I think.

Happy New Year. Hope you had your Hoppin'John.....

Waking up in a new year

We stayed home and watched football instead of going to New Year's Eve party. Both of us are homebodies, but Bern is much moreso that me.

Time, as you know, is a human invention. The rhythms of darkness and light are natural, but we invented 'time'. The earliest humans simply regulated their lives to the natural rhythms. Then somewhere along the way, we decided to divide the day into 24 arbitrary and equal periods and the year into 365 (366 every three years) days.

So, 'waking up in a new year' is a thoroughly human creation.

Only humans care about 'time'. All other creatures are in tune to the rhythms of nature--both light and dark and the changing seasons. But only we are 'timing things'.

My friend Ann sometimes says, "your dog is waiting for you to come home--but she isn't waiting for 5 o'clock."

I often tell people, truthfully, I might add, that I'm 'unstuck in linear time'. I have a good memory about things, I just couldn't tell you for money what year the events happened. Best I can do is vague stuff like "before we got married" and "after Josh was born but before Mimi was born". I can tell you when both were born but I have to sit and think about it for a minute....And we were married on September 5, 1970. I've gotten good with that because we always (for the past 6 or 7 or 8 years, pick one) celebrate our anniversary on the beach in North Carolina because we go on vacation around Labor Day each year, for however many  years.

Like this: I've gone to Ireland most every year for quite a few years to help lead a workshop and to train Irish leaders. But I have no idea how many years or when it started. I'll get on a plane in April (I'm glad we invented April to give Bern and I birth dates) and go to Ireland. And I have not a clue if it is the 10th time or the 6th time.

Unstuck, that's what I am. In the time we humans invented.

But I know this and know this fair well--this morning I woke up in a new year.

Happy New Year--may 2016 be full of blessings and joy and wonder and awe and peace...and realizing there are things you 'don't know you don't know'.