Tomorrow's gospel lesson has two of my favorite Jesus 'sayings': "You are the salt of the earth....You are the light of the world."
Salt and light are what we are called to be.
How cool is that? Salt and Light....
They are remarkable things to emulate. Challenging things to lean into being in this world.
I know dietitians give salt a bad name--but it is a truly remarkable substance.
Salt heals. Who hasn't gargled salt water or sniffed it up their nose? And when I'm at the beach, in the ocean, my feet become soft again and my skin becomes moist.
Salt preserves. Fish and meat can be kept for long periods without refrigeration if treated with salt. And a brine can keep vegetables and eggs and other things eatable for much longer than normal.
Salt flavors and seasons. It adds a tang and brings out and enhances the flavor of things. I eat a little salt on cantaloupe. Try it sometimes...or on green apples.
Salt melts ice. Very important here in New England. What good salt does in our winters.
Salt is in ocean water, tears and blood.
To be salt is to heal, preserve, flavor and melt the frozen-ness of our world.
And light--what can't be said of light?
Light lets us see, illuminates the darkness, warms the chill, drives out fear, brings the new day and travels faster than anything else in the universe!
Big requests from Jesus, for us to be Salt and Light.
And we must seek to be in this frightened, damaged, dark-ling, cold world.
Heal, preserve, flavor, illuminate, warm, drive out fear.
It's our call--our purpose...who we are meant to be.....
Saturday, February 4, 2017
Friday, February 3, 2017
Some things are as bad as you imagine they will be....
Like driving to Brooklyn.
Going down was mostly fine. I left at 10:30 am and should have been at Mimi's by 12:30 p..m. if I hadn't missed a turn and ended up driving around LaGuarda Airport for 10 minutes. But when I came out there was the entrance to the Brooklyn-Queen's Expressway and I was home free.
But then there was no where to park in a four block radius so I put the car in a garage that cost $22 for less than two hours....
Coming home, on the other hand, took almost 4 1/2 hours even though Bern's phone kept changing the route to save us time! We ended up on I-95 for almost 50 miles. I hate I'95 with a passion.
So the dog got fed 2 hours late.
Some things are as bad as you imagine they will be.
Take the Trump presidency...please...
Going down was mostly fine. I left at 10:30 am and should have been at Mimi's by 12:30 p..m. if I hadn't missed a turn and ended up driving around LaGuarda Airport for 10 minutes. But when I came out there was the entrance to the Brooklyn-Queen's Expressway and I was home free.
But then there was no where to park in a four block radius so I put the car in a garage that cost $22 for less than two hours....
Coming home, on the other hand, took almost 4 1/2 hours even though Bern's phone kept changing the route to save us time! We ended up on I-95 for almost 50 miles. I hate I'95 with a passion.
So the dog got fed 2 hours late.
Some things are as bad as you imagine they will be.
Take the Trump presidency...please...
Thursday, February 2, 2017
Going to Brooklyn
Bern is in Brooklyn tonight with Tim and Mimi and Ellie. I'm going tomorrow to pick her up.
I hate driving in NYC. Makes me crazy. But I'll do it for four of the nine people who matter most to me in the world.
The other five are in Baltimore. Josh and Cathy and the three Bradley girls.
My family..
What matters most to us human beings? Blood.
Family.
So tomorrow I'll drive to Brooklyn, see Ellie and bring Bern home--though I hate the thought.
It's what you do for family.
I hate driving in NYC. Makes me crazy. But I'll do it for four of the nine people who matter most to me in the world.
The other five are in Baltimore. Josh and Cathy and the three Bradley girls.
My family..
What matters most to us human beings? Blood.
Family.
So tomorrow I'll drive to Brooklyn, see Ellie and bring Bern home--though I hate the thought.
It's what you do for family.
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
Lean toward the Light
In the liturgical Christian world, this is the season of Epiphany--the celebration of the Magi finding the Christ Child and going home 'by another way'. Epiphany is the season of the Star and of the Light.
The sun today was blessed. I lean toward the light. I notice what it's like outside at 5 p.m. religiously and it is a little lighter every day. I long for the Light in this first day of February. The only reason I can think of for living further south than Connecticut is the light. It's darker here, I noticed, than in even Baltimore when we visited my son and their family. Baltimore doesn't seem that far away, but the light is different.
Someone who reads this blog asked me today why I've posted things from past posts recently. It was an inquiry, not a criticism, I think.
And the truth is, if I can tell it without 'alternative facts' coming up: I just don't want to write about the Trump nightmare every day. And every day there is something new to write about.
I didn't agree with Reagan, but I wasn't afraid of him in any way. I would have liked to have coffee or wine with him and talked companionably about our differences. And I think we would have been able to do that, with a laugh or two thrown in.
I didn't agree with either Bush, though I know and love their brother/uncle, Jon Bush, who is a member of one of the churches I serve. But they in no way frightened or threatened me.
Trump doesn't fit in that category any more.
He terrifies me. Firing the acting Attorney General for her questioning his travel ban is the latest example. The Attorney General has been, for most presidents, the one cabinet officer who was designated to be 'non-partisan'. Remember Nixon's debacle with firing Justice Department folks called the Saturday Night Massacre?
Attorneys General answer to the Law and the Constitution, not to the President. You get to 'choose' them, but you don't get to tell them what to do.
I lean toward the light.
The New Yorker cover this week has a black woman in a 'pussy hat' (you know about those, right? the knit hats so many woman wore in the march on Washington....) flexing her muscle like the WWII 'Rosie the Rivitor' posters.The cover was simply called "The March".
The light I lean toward is the light of those who will put themselves in the street and in harm's way to protect our Democracy.
"We're still here", Mr. President. And we're watching you.....
I just don't have the energy to write about you every single day. Though I might have to so I am leaning toward the Light myself....
The sun today was blessed. I lean toward the light. I notice what it's like outside at 5 p.m. religiously and it is a little lighter every day. I long for the Light in this first day of February. The only reason I can think of for living further south than Connecticut is the light. It's darker here, I noticed, than in even Baltimore when we visited my son and their family. Baltimore doesn't seem that far away, but the light is different.
Someone who reads this blog asked me today why I've posted things from past posts recently. It was an inquiry, not a criticism, I think.
And the truth is, if I can tell it without 'alternative facts' coming up: I just don't want to write about the Trump nightmare every day. And every day there is something new to write about.
I didn't agree with Reagan, but I wasn't afraid of him in any way. I would have liked to have coffee or wine with him and talked companionably about our differences. And I think we would have been able to do that, with a laugh or two thrown in.
I didn't agree with either Bush, though I know and love their brother/uncle, Jon Bush, who is a member of one of the churches I serve. But they in no way frightened or threatened me.
Trump doesn't fit in that category any more.
He terrifies me. Firing the acting Attorney General for her questioning his travel ban is the latest example. The Attorney General has been, for most presidents, the one cabinet officer who was designated to be 'non-partisan'. Remember Nixon's debacle with firing Justice Department folks called the Saturday Night Massacre?
Attorneys General answer to the Law and the Constitution, not to the President. You get to 'choose' them, but you don't get to tell them what to do.
I lean toward the light.
The New Yorker cover this week has a black woman in a 'pussy hat' (you know about those, right? the knit hats so many woman wore in the march on Washington....) flexing her muscle like the WWII 'Rosie the Rivitor' posters.The cover was simply called "The March".
The light I lean toward is the light of those who will put themselves in the street and in harm's way to protect our Democracy.
"We're still here", Mr. President. And we're watching you.....
I just don't have the energy to write about you every single day. Though I might have to so I am leaning toward the Light myself....
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
snow...from the past
It snowed most of the day--but soft and not too much. Just a little slippery.
So, I searched my blog for 'snow' posts. And since Sunday is the Super Bowl and I hate the Patriots so much, here's the one I chose.....
My snowy Sunday was made just a little while ago.
The Broncos beat the New England Patriots!
What could be better?
I have a remarkable hatred of the Patriots and Bill Belechek, their coach (who deserves his name misspelled, if indeed, as I believe, I did) and most, most of all, Tom Brady.
I don't know where my hatred of all things Patriots comes from exactly. But it is, like the Jordon River, 'deep and wide'....
It all started when Bill bailed out on the Jets, where he was supposed to coach.
And it has something to do with how many people in CT just 'love' the Patriots. (Always liked to be an outsider, you know.)
And it has something to do with how 'perfect' Tom Brady seems (whining and cheating notwithstanding). I don't get 'being perfect' since Lord knows I'm not.
So watching them lose made my day!
I should probably go into therapy about my hatred of the Pats and Tom. But until I do, I'm just going to glory in their loss today....
So, I searched my blog for 'snow' posts. And since Sunday is the Super Bowl and I hate the Patriots so much, here's the one I chose.....
Sunday, January 24, 2016
Snowy Sunday II
The Broncos beat the New England Patriots!
What could be better?
I have a remarkable hatred of the Patriots and Bill Belechek, their coach (who deserves his name misspelled, if indeed, as I believe, I did) and most, most of all, Tom Brady.
I don't know where my hatred of all things Patriots comes from exactly. But it is, like the Jordon River, 'deep and wide'....
It all started when Bill bailed out on the Jets, where he was supposed to coach.
And it has something to do with how many people in CT just 'love' the Patriots. (Always liked to be an outsider, you know.)
And it has something to do with how 'perfect' Tom Brady seems (whining and cheating notwithstanding). I don't get 'being perfect' since Lord knows I'm not.
So watching them lose made my day!
I should probably go into therapy about my hatred of the Pats and Tom. But until I do, I'm just going to glory in their loss today....
Monday, January 30, 2017
a nation of immigrants???
No more, maybe.
The outrage and fear unleashed by President Chump...I mean Trump...over immigration should make the statue of liberty throw herself in the harbor.
My paternal family has been here for at least seven generation--but we came here from somewhere else.
My great-grandfather Jones came over from Ireland. (His name was O'Connor but he and his two brothers got in a fight on the boat and all gave false names at Ellis Island. Not much 'extreme vetting' in those days.
Bern's father immigrated from Italy as a teen and her mother was the child of Hungarian immigrants.
The irrationality of thinking prohibiting immigration is in the name of national defense is so lame it doesn't even deserve refuting.
Ten days into Trump's 'reign', which seems to be how he thinks of it, rather than 'administration'--not much of which is going on--reminds me of some Third World Strong Man, not a president.
But people are reacting and the media isn't taking Steve Bannon's advice to 'keep their mouths shut'. And I've found myself praying more than in the past.
Prayer is good, right?
The outrage and fear unleashed by President Chump...I mean Trump...over immigration should make the statue of liberty throw herself in the harbor.
My paternal family has been here for at least seven generation--but we came here from somewhere else.
My great-grandfather Jones came over from Ireland. (His name was O'Connor but he and his two brothers got in a fight on the boat and all gave false names at Ellis Island. Not much 'extreme vetting' in those days.
Bern's father immigrated from Italy as a teen and her mother was the child of Hungarian immigrants.
The irrationality of thinking prohibiting immigration is in the name of national defense is so lame it doesn't even deserve refuting.
Ten days into Trump's 'reign', which seems to be how he thinks of it, rather than 'administration'--not much of which is going on--reminds me of some Third World Strong Man, not a president.
But people are reacting and the media isn't taking Steve Bannon's advice to 'keep their mouths shut'. And I've found myself praying more than in the past.
Prayer is good, right?
Saturday, January 28, 2017
Blessed and Bless-ed
Tomorrow's lesson from the Gospels is the Beatitudes. The 'bless-ed' or 'blessed of all the counter cultural folks like the meek, the pure in heart, the peacemakers. And in Trump World such 'soft' virtues are really out of style.
What struck me and what I'll say tomorrow at Emmanuel Church is that you can pronounce b-l-e-s-s-e-d two ways: one syllable or two.
Bless-ed, it seems to me is about holiness. The Bless-ed Virgin Mary, for example. But 'blessed' implies that the person is smiled upon in some way--that being meek brings blessings to the meek.
Just strikes me as something to notice and ponder.
Of course I'll use the lines from Monty Python's Life of Bryan when someone at the back of the crowd says, 'did he say blessed are the cheese-makers?' And someone else replies, "I'm sure he meant all those who work in 'dairy'."
Of course I'll mention that.
What struck me and what I'll say tomorrow at Emmanuel Church is that you can pronounce b-l-e-s-s-e-d two ways: one syllable or two.
Bless-ed, it seems to me is about holiness. The Bless-ed Virgin Mary, for example. But 'blessed' implies that the person is smiled upon in some way--that being meek brings blessings to the meek.
Just strikes me as something to notice and ponder.
Of course I'll use the lines from Monty Python's Life of Bryan when someone at the back of the crowd says, 'did he say blessed are the cheese-makers?' And someone else replies, "I'm sure he meant all those who work in 'dairy'."
Of course I'll mention that.
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