I jinxed WVU's men's basketball team!
A few days ago I wrote about them being ranked #2 and what happened? Texas Tech beat them 72-71 down in the Lone Star State.
My grandmother, wise old Lina Manona Sadler Jones, used to tell me and my 16 first cousins, "don't get above your raisin'". She meant upbringing not a dried grape.
Once my cousin Bradley Perkins (named after my father but not using Virgil!) was in grandmaw's kitchen, looking at his reflection in the toaster and talking about how good looking he was.
Lina Manona said, "Bradley, don't toot your own horn."
Bradley answered back, "Mammaw, he who toots not his own horn that same horn will not be toothed!"
A fine response, if I might say so.
We were always taught that to brag was about as bad a sin as murder.
That was the Jones family way--bragging brings about heartbreak.
The Bradley side of the family didn't hesitate to brag, except my father.
I guess Mammaw was right. Sorry WVU, I should have kept quiet.
Sunday, January 14, 2018
Friday, January 12, 2018
The luckiest thing
The luckiest thing that ever happened to me (besides marrying Bern and having two remarkable children and 4 equally remarkable granddaughters) was to begin my career as an Episcopal priest as the Vicar of an African-American church.
St, James in Charleston, West Virginia was only a few miles from Institute, West Virginia, the home of West Virginia State College, a historically Black school. So many of the members of St. James were faculty and staff at WVSC. The rest were from the Black neighborhood in Charleston.
I had grown up in a county that was roughly 50/50 Black and White. However, the schools were segregated until I was a senior in High School. Then Gary District High School sent over 6 Black students (three really smart girls and three really good boy athletes) to begin the process that would happen the next year when the schools were merged.
I heard a nephew of Martin Luther King say today, trying to save his president from being a racist, "the President is not a racist, he's racially ignorant."
That's what I was when I went to St. James: 'racially ignorant', which, where I come from, makes you a 'racist'.
Until St. James I didn't really know any Black people as friends. A friend I made in college who went to Gary District would introduce me as 'the guy I went to different schools together with.'
I did boycott my Senior Prom because the 6 Black students in my class of 99 couldn't come to the segregated country club. But that was liberal guilt, not any commitment on my part.
What I learned from my 5 years at St. James made me a different person--one with commitment, not guilt. And my teachers were so patient and kind and understanding and compassionate with me that I still am in wonder at them.
The two churches I served after St. James had large Black membership. St. James had made me worthy to serve them and minister with them.
A president who is 'racially ignorant' needs some teachers like I had. Until he gets them, I believe 'racially ignorant' = 'racist'.
St, James in Charleston, West Virginia was only a few miles from Institute, West Virginia, the home of West Virginia State College, a historically Black school. So many of the members of St. James were faculty and staff at WVSC. The rest were from the Black neighborhood in Charleston.
I had grown up in a county that was roughly 50/50 Black and White. However, the schools were segregated until I was a senior in High School. Then Gary District High School sent over 6 Black students (three really smart girls and three really good boy athletes) to begin the process that would happen the next year when the schools were merged.
I heard a nephew of Martin Luther King say today, trying to save his president from being a racist, "the President is not a racist, he's racially ignorant."
That's what I was when I went to St. James: 'racially ignorant', which, where I come from, makes you a 'racist'.
Until St. James I didn't really know any Black people as friends. A friend I made in college who went to Gary District would introduce me as 'the guy I went to different schools together with.'
I did boycott my Senior Prom because the 6 Black students in my class of 99 couldn't come to the segregated country club. But that was liberal guilt, not any commitment on my part.
What I learned from my 5 years at St. James made me a different person--one with commitment, not guilt. And my teachers were so patient and kind and understanding and compassionate with me that I still am in wonder at them.
The two churches I served after St. James had large Black membership. St. James had made me worthy to serve them and minister with them.
A president who is 'racially ignorant' needs some teachers like I had. Until he gets them, I believe 'racially ignorant' = 'racist'.
Thursday, January 11, 2018
"house" or "hole", no difference
I heard a man on CNN tonight (ok, I watch CNN and MSNBC, so you know my left wing leanings) who was trying to defend the President (whose name I don't type!) by saying he called Haiti, El Salvador and Africa nations "S*** House" countries instead of "S*** hole" countries.
It was disconcerting to the other people on the show, to say the least.
It's OK to call black and brown countries "S*** House" countries or that is somehow better than calling them "S*** Hole" countries?
Where I grew up, lots of people had outdoor toilets, including my grandma Jones, which I used many, many times. We sometimes called them "Shit houses" (I'm tired of hitting *!) but there was nothing pleasant, believe you me, about that. Grandma Jones' was a two-seater and the holes were called, honest to God, "shit holes".
So, when I heard someone who's never even seen an outhouse, much less use one, try to say "House" is somehow less damning than "Hole", I just have to laugh.
So which ever term our President (who I will not name) used, the only thing more amazing than how insulting either term was to those black and brown nations, is that he ever had any idea what either term meant.
I don't think he ever used an outhouse or a shit-hole.
How painful it all is.
But we must take deep breaths, meditate daily and stay able to speak up and push back.
We must do that, for the sake of this country which he is trying to dismember.
Please ponder that and do that.
Please.
It was disconcerting to the other people on the show, to say the least.
It's OK to call black and brown countries "S*** House" countries or that is somehow better than calling them "S*** Hole" countries?
Where I grew up, lots of people had outdoor toilets, including my grandma Jones, which I used many, many times. We sometimes called them "Shit houses" (I'm tired of hitting *!) but there was nothing pleasant, believe you me, about that. Grandma Jones' was a two-seater and the holes were called, honest to God, "shit holes".
So, when I heard someone who's never even seen an outhouse, much less use one, try to say "House" is somehow less damning than "Hole", I just have to laugh.
So which ever term our President (who I will not name) used, the only thing more amazing than how insulting either term was to those black and brown nations, is that he ever had any idea what either term meant.
I don't think he ever used an outhouse or a shit-hole.
How painful it all is.
But we must take deep breaths, meditate daily and stay able to speak up and push back.
We must do that, for the sake of this country which he is trying to dismember.
Please ponder that and do that.
Please.
Monday, January 8, 2018
#2m, by God!
The newest rankings of men's Division One basketball are out.
And West (by God!) Virginia is #2!!!
People from the Mountain State usually say "West (by God!) Virginia" when asked by folks outside Appalachia where they are from. I remember several people during my time at Harvard asking, "near Richmond or on the coast?" when I told them where I born and raised. No doubt they were all smart people (being at Harvard and all...) but had some strange geography deficit.
I didn't see the ocean until I was 12 since West (bG!) Virginia doesn't have any coast line.
Incidentally, that was the last time WVU was ranked as high as #2! It was Jerry West's senior year and WVU lost in the NCAA final game by one point to California (71-70).
That's a long time between being #2. But they are now.
In fact they are undefeated in the US (lost their first game to Texas A&M in Germany for goodness sake) but have come back to win 14 in a row. Saturday night they beat Oklahoma who was #7 and WVU was #6. Enough upsets above them and up they jumped this week.
Let's Go, Mountaineers!
And West (by God!) Virginia is #2!!!
People from the Mountain State usually say "West (by God!) Virginia" when asked by folks outside Appalachia where they are from. I remember several people during my time at Harvard asking, "near Richmond or on the coast?" when I told them where I born and raised. No doubt they were all smart people (being at Harvard and all...) but had some strange geography deficit.
I didn't see the ocean until I was 12 since West (bG!) Virginia doesn't have any coast line.
Incidentally, that was the last time WVU was ranked as high as #2! It was Jerry West's senior year and WVU lost in the NCAA final game by one point to California (71-70).
That's a long time between being #2. But they are now.
In fact they are undefeated in the US (lost their first game to Texas A&M in Germany for goodness sake) but have come back to win 14 in a row. Saturday night they beat Oklahoma who was #7 and WVU was #6. Enough upsets above them and up they jumped this week.
Let's Go, Mountaineers!
Saturday, January 6, 2018
Epiphany
Today is the Feast of the Epiphany. It commemorates, in Christian lore, the arrival of the Magi from Persia at Jesus' home in or near Bethlehem. He is usually thought to be two years old since, after the Wise men depart, a worried Herod orders the execution of all the male children in that area two years old or younger. (Which event is observed on the Feast of the Holy Innocents--December 28.)
So, just to be clear to all you creche owners and directors of Church School Christmas pageants, those three world traveler's shouldn't be there. They left Persia when they saw the star--it was a long way on camel back! But, never mind me, take center stage from the shepherds and throw Wise Men into the mix if you must....
But what fascinates me and causes me to ponder is the meaning of the word 'epiphany'--which comes from the Greek epi-phainein, which means 'to show'.
A definition I memorized years ago is this: "a sudden, intuitive insight into the deep-down meaning of things, usually caused by something simple, ordinary and day to day".
I don't know which part of the definition gives me more wonder and joy--the sudden and intuitive insight part, the deep-down mean of things part, or the simple, ordinary part.
Perhaps the best known 'epiphany' was when Archimedies (281-212 BC) watched the water rise in his bath when he got in and realized he could determine an object's density by putting it in water and see how much water it displaced. Legendarily, Archimedies ran through the streets naked, shouting, "Eureka, I have found it!"
That meets the test for sudden/intuitive and deep-down meaning and simple and ordinary.
Taking a bath might not have been a daily thing in 200 BC, but it was simple and ordinary.
My urging is for us all to keep our eyes open and our hearts and minds open and 'be with' what is ordinary and commonplace and simple. Be available for some insight you didn't expect or ask for. Long for 'the deep-down meaning of things'.
Epiphany for Christians is a season--from today until Ash Wednesday (which is Valentine's day this year--and, get this, Easter is April fools day). But I wish you epiphanies, not just for a season, but always.
Look around: the simple and ordinary have much to teach us and inspire us with....
"Insightful Epiphany!" to you....
So, just to be clear to all you creche owners and directors of Church School Christmas pageants, those three world traveler's shouldn't be there. They left Persia when they saw the star--it was a long way on camel back! But, never mind me, take center stage from the shepherds and throw Wise Men into the mix if you must....
But what fascinates me and causes me to ponder is the meaning of the word 'epiphany'--which comes from the Greek epi-phainein, which means 'to show'.
A definition I memorized years ago is this: "a sudden, intuitive insight into the deep-down meaning of things, usually caused by something simple, ordinary and day to day".
I don't know which part of the definition gives me more wonder and joy--the sudden and intuitive insight part, the deep-down mean of things part, or the simple, ordinary part.
Perhaps the best known 'epiphany' was when Archimedies (281-212 BC) watched the water rise in his bath when he got in and realized he could determine an object's density by putting it in water and see how much water it displaced. Legendarily, Archimedies ran through the streets naked, shouting, "Eureka, I have found it!"
That meets the test for sudden/intuitive and deep-down meaning and simple and ordinary.
Taking a bath might not have been a daily thing in 200 BC, but it was simple and ordinary.
My urging is for us all to keep our eyes open and our hearts and minds open and 'be with' what is ordinary and commonplace and simple. Be available for some insight you didn't expect or ask for. Long for 'the deep-down meaning of things'.
Epiphany for Christians is a season--from today until Ash Wednesday (which is Valentine's day this year--and, get this, Easter is April fools day). But I wish you epiphanies, not just for a season, but always.
Look around: the simple and ordinary have much to teach us and inspire us with....
"Insightful Epiphany!" to you....
Thursday, January 4, 2018
Snow Daze
Much of the time I think weather forecasters are like an half-wit old man somewhere in the mountains of Appalachia flipping the dollar coin he's had since his 12th birthday in 1948. Sometimes heads, sometimes tails--one or the other about half the time.
But they got today right, by all that is sacred.
The dog got up quite early but Bern has already swept the porch and deck and dug out some space in the back yard for him. Still, after doing his business, his black hair was practically all white and Bern was covered as well.
The thing about this snow is that it is easy to sweep or shovel away. But I think between us we have swept the back porch and deck 10 times and it is always back in a matter of minutes.
Don't even mention the front porch or the walkway to the parking area or the parking area or the car and truck. Even Mark, our next door neighbor who is usually a snow shoveling fool hasn't touche the parking area or their two trucks.
It's going to keep snowing and blowing until 11 or so tonight. I have no idea how many inches it's been but sweeping an inch or more 10 times gives you some ball park idea.
Cornwall Avenue has been plowed several times but it looks like three inches of new snow right now at just past 5 p.m.
They did pick up the trash and Bern retrieved our trash can before it blew down to Route 10 (a.k.a. South Main Street) but the top to it is under a snow drift somewhere in our front yard.
Bela dog has slept most of the day, hoping to sleep until May, I think.
Which wouldn't be a bad idea.
The President, He-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named, tweeted that this gives the lie to 'global warming'--not near the dumbest thing he's tweeted today. "It's climate change," Mr. fake leader of the Free World. This is simply 'weather', though the conditions for the weather have changed. 14 inches in parts of North Carolina. Almost freezing in Tampa. Hardly normal.
Yet, this is New England and this is New England weather.
Lord, help us!
But they got today right, by all that is sacred.
The dog got up quite early but Bern has already swept the porch and deck and dug out some space in the back yard for him. Still, after doing his business, his black hair was practically all white and Bern was covered as well.
The thing about this snow is that it is easy to sweep or shovel away. But I think between us we have swept the back porch and deck 10 times and it is always back in a matter of minutes.
Don't even mention the front porch or the walkway to the parking area or the parking area or the car and truck. Even Mark, our next door neighbor who is usually a snow shoveling fool hasn't touche the parking area or their two trucks.
It's going to keep snowing and blowing until 11 or so tonight. I have no idea how many inches it's been but sweeping an inch or more 10 times gives you some ball park idea.
Cornwall Avenue has been plowed several times but it looks like three inches of new snow right now at just past 5 p.m.
They did pick up the trash and Bern retrieved our trash can before it blew down to Route 10 (a.k.a. South Main Street) but the top to it is under a snow drift somewhere in our front yard.
Bela dog has slept most of the day, hoping to sleep until May, I think.
Which wouldn't be a bad idea.
The President, He-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named, tweeted that this gives the lie to 'global warming'--not near the dumbest thing he's tweeted today. "It's climate change," Mr. fake leader of the Free World. This is simply 'weather', though the conditions for the weather have changed. 14 inches in parts of North Carolina. Almost freezing in Tampa. Hardly normal.
Yet, this is New England and this is New England weather.
Lord, help us!
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
New Year's hopes
For people like me--far-Left Democrats-almost-Socialist-globalists--2017 hasn't been much fun.
Well, that tepid statement doesn't give 2017 the credit it deserves. It was a vivid nightmare of epic proportions!
And it's hard to feel hopeful for this New Year when so much I've believed in--open boarders, tight regulations, environmental measures, reducing the military, being 'one' with Western Europe, NAFTA, progress in racial relations, welcoming the stranger into our midst, Gender equality, full inclusion of GLBT folks, Green Energy, taxing the rich to pay for social programs and social programs themselves--have been threatened if not eroded.
I could say, I suppose, that I hope the Mueller investigation would lead to President He-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named's impeachment.
But what would that get me? Mike Pence, for God's sake!!!
I could hope the Democrats make incredible gains in 2018--but gerrymandering and voter suppression weigh against that, at least in a way the changes things.
I suppose I hope that people will continue to organize and be moved to push back against the current waves of un-doing, not just Obama's legacy but the American Ethic and Dream.
For me, ethics and dreams are attached at the hip, con-joined twins. Any 'dream' that doesn't put both ethics and compassion front and center isn't, for me, worth having. And any 'ethical' thought that doesn't include a 'dream' of it being made true isn't worth thinking.
That's been the disconnect for me in the past year. "The American Dream" has been reduced to "Make America Great Again"--which seems to move to the past, not the future, to an "America" that, truth be known, either never existed or, if it did, shouldn't have.
Dreams and Hopes are for what should be true. They are not a retreat into a 'simpler, more basic time' where the lines were clear and what 'was' was more important that 'what needs to be'.
I know, I know, I'm just raving my left-wing, let's all be equal and free and fulfilled jingoism now.
I know that.
And, I know that is my hope for this new year--a possibility that we could all be equal and free and fulfilled. My motto would be "LET'S MAKE AMERICA GREAT AT LAST" since we've never, ever had a time when all of us were equal and free and fulfilled.
It's gotten better over decades of struggle, but there was no point in the past when equality and freedom and fulfillment included us ALL. So, there is no "again" to America's greatness. There's nothing to go back to that was better than the present.
But there is a place to go forward to that would be better: more inclusive, more equal, more free, more compassionate, more ethical, more hopeful, more just, more "more" for all.
That's my hope for 2018, that we as a nation, somehow and against all odds, come to realize that we must form a more perfect future for our grandchildren and those yet unborn, not seek some sentimental reliving of a past that never was.
We must create the Present out of the Future...not the Past.
That 'creation' should be our hope and dream and longing....
Well, that tepid statement doesn't give 2017 the credit it deserves. It was a vivid nightmare of epic proportions!
And it's hard to feel hopeful for this New Year when so much I've believed in--open boarders, tight regulations, environmental measures, reducing the military, being 'one' with Western Europe, NAFTA, progress in racial relations, welcoming the stranger into our midst, Gender equality, full inclusion of GLBT folks, Green Energy, taxing the rich to pay for social programs and social programs themselves--have been threatened if not eroded.
I could say, I suppose, that I hope the Mueller investigation would lead to President He-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named's impeachment.
But what would that get me? Mike Pence, for God's sake!!!
I could hope the Democrats make incredible gains in 2018--but gerrymandering and voter suppression weigh against that, at least in a way the changes things.
I suppose I hope that people will continue to organize and be moved to push back against the current waves of un-doing, not just Obama's legacy but the American Ethic and Dream.
For me, ethics and dreams are attached at the hip, con-joined twins. Any 'dream' that doesn't put both ethics and compassion front and center isn't, for me, worth having. And any 'ethical' thought that doesn't include a 'dream' of it being made true isn't worth thinking.
That's been the disconnect for me in the past year. "The American Dream" has been reduced to "Make America Great Again"--which seems to move to the past, not the future, to an "America" that, truth be known, either never existed or, if it did, shouldn't have.
Dreams and Hopes are for what should be true. They are not a retreat into a 'simpler, more basic time' where the lines were clear and what 'was' was more important that 'what needs to be'.
I know, I know, I'm just raving my left-wing, let's all be equal and free and fulfilled jingoism now.
I know that.
And, I know that is my hope for this new year--a possibility that we could all be equal and free and fulfilled. My motto would be "LET'S MAKE AMERICA GREAT AT LAST" since we've never, ever had a time when all of us were equal and free and fulfilled.
It's gotten better over decades of struggle, but there was no point in the past when equality and freedom and fulfillment included us ALL. So, there is no "again" to America's greatness. There's nothing to go back to that was better than the present.
But there is a place to go forward to that would be better: more inclusive, more equal, more free, more compassionate, more ethical, more hopeful, more just, more "more" for all.
That's my hope for 2018, that we as a nation, somehow and against all odds, come to realize that we must form a more perfect future for our grandchildren and those yet unborn, not seek some sentimental reliving of a past that never was.
We must create the Present out of the Future...not the Past.
That 'creation' should be our hope and dream and longing....
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