Vacation soon

Lordy, lordy, I'm tired of writing about the President.....

Vacation is only three weeks away. I'm going to think about that instead of He Who Will Not Be Named.

We went to Oak Island, North Carolina--over the Inter coastal waterway from Southport, 30 miles from Wilmington, when Josh was a fetus. We went every year for 2 or 3 or 4 weeks until he was 17 and a couple of years after that. We even owned a house on Long Beach when we were living in the Rectory of St. Paul's, New Haven. It was on the canal, not the ocean front and we only stayed there a time or two, choosing to rent it out long-term to people who came to work at the Nuclear Power Plant 20 miles away.

Then we started going to Block Island because I found this deal with St. Anne's church there--you did the Sunday service and could stay in the house for free for a week. Once, on a sabbatical I spent 5 weeks on 'the Block'. The kids would come for a few days whenever we were there as would our friends John and Jack and Sherry.

Then, 7 or 8 years ago, Mimi called and asked where we used to go when she was a friend and she and her boyfriend--now husband--Tim went. When they came back she called to say they were going every year and we were going with them. John and Sherry and then John and Jack and Sherry tagged along. We rent a huge house on the beach in September because Oak Island is a 'family beach' and kids are back in school and we have yards and yards of private beach.

Two years ago Mimi and Tim didn't go since Eleanor was a newborn and Bern and I didn't go because I tore the ligaments from my knee by missing a step on the back stairs as we were about to go and get the limo with John and Sherry to New York for the flight. John and Sherry rattled around in a 5 bedroom house without any company!

Last year Jack retired and Eleanor was a year old and the 8 of us went and it was magic.

I love Oak Island so much and found out from my Cousin Mejol that my second cousin (Mejol's brother's girl) Kim lives there now with her Veterinarian husband. So I'll get to see Kimmy, who I was once walking when she was three or so and she broke away and went to stomp an ant hill. She came back, took my hand and said, 'they were going to bite Kimmy'. It sort of made sense though I reject the senseless slaughter of ants.

I'll go see her during Vet hours since Mejol tells me Kim's husband is a fan of the president.

(Just when I thought I could write a post without mentioning him.....)

Alas and alack....

Amy Kremer

I was watching Elin Burnett on "Up Front" on CNN. OK, I watch CNN and MSNBC for my news--I've told you before I'm so left-wing I scare myself. (And there is this--those two cable networks always have voices from the right, unlike Fox and left-wing voices.)

There was a story on a Neo-Nazi who told a reporter he has 'felt safe' since November of 2016, an obvious reference to the election of the current president.

Elin asked Amy Kremer, co-founder and chair of Women for Trump, to explain how that didn't imply that folks like Neo-Nazis and other extreme white nationalists didn't take solace in The President's positions of them. Like saying after the Charlottesville riots (today or tomorrow is the one year anniversary of that madness) that there were 'good people' on both sides.

Amy said that the President wasn't responsible for the rise of white nationalism in any way and that he wasn't a racist.

A man who did not refuse David Duke's support. A man who has denigrated Hispanics over and again and said Muslims 'hate us'. As Rector of St. John's in Waterbury for 21 years we had a thriving Hispanic congregation and a mosque that used our buildings for their home. The Hispanics were good, moral people and the Muslims appreciated our including them in our family.

A President who wanted to push back on White Nationalism would encourage immigration and welcome hard working Hispanics and Muslims to this 'nation of immigrants'. He would loudly condemn racism and neo-Nazis. He would reject all talk of returning to 'white America'.

But he doesn't.

And Amy Kremer, who may be a fine human being, can't see the cracks in the president's image and can't see racism for what it is.

As the president would tweet: SAD.

Just tell me this...

Just a few questions for you to ponder.

1) Do you sometimes lie on purpose?

2) Do you sometimes lie when you don't realize you are lying? (This is obviously the hardest one to answer....)

3) Do you strike out at your friends and embrace those who really don't like you?

4) Do you make up cruel nick-names for anyone you think is against you?

5) Do you incite friends to hate a group because of what they do for a living? or how they look? or where they come from?

6) Do you distrust and reject scientific facts?

7) Do you refuse to interact with people and ideas that you don't like or agree with?

8) Do you undermine and embarrass those who work closely with you?

9) Do you harass people in public who don't agree with you?

10) Do you talk about women (or any group) as if they were objects and not people?

If you answered 'yes' to more than two or more of those questions, I have some names of psychiatrists I'd be glad to share with you.

And you realize, don't you, that our President would have to answer 'yes' to all of them (except maybe #2, which is tough).

Looking at it that way, is there some psychological reasons He Who Will Not Be Named shouldn't have the job he has and shouldn't be sitting in a circular office and shouldn't be in charge of our lives and futures?

Just ponder it.

And then, do something....

Birds--not songs, just birds

I don't know why--perhaps because of the heat--our yard was full of birds today. I sat on the deck and saw a dozen at a time--cardinals, robins, a yellow wren, sparrows, all over our back yard along with a squirrel or two, a couple of chipmunks and our beloved ground hog.

Bern cut the grass this morning before the worst of the heat and they all seemed intent in seeing what they could find.

Plus, we have a bird bath under the grape vine draped across it's archway support, and many of them were drinking a bit or splashing around.

When I went out to get in the car, two mourning doves that live somewhere near our front porch were there. And there when I came back.

Today has been filled with birds and creatures--our hummingbird came back along with a Monarch and a Black butterfly--not too many butterflies this year.

When I go out later to smoke, there will be a few fireflies in the yard as well.

Creatures is what I've been focusing on today. A good way to not focus on He Who Will Not Be Named, our president and his madness of the day in August.

Creatures--birds, butterflies, groundhogs--are as good as he is dangerous.

Focus on the creatures from time to time--for your blood pressure if nothing else.

One more time...

It's been three years since I posted this. I thought of it tonight as I was looking at the plaque on the wall in front of me. It says, "VOCATUS ATQUE NON VOCATUS DEUS ADERIT".

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Sermon last

(OK, I'm sure I posted this before but after over 1300 posts I don't want to go looking to make sure. This is the last sermon I preached at St. John's, Waterbury, CT after 21 years as Rector. For me, it is one of the best sermons I ever preached. Hope you like it.)

THE LAST DANCE/DEEP IN THE OLD MAN’S PUZZLE

In one of Robertson Davies’ novels, someone asks an aging priest how, professing to be a holy man, he could devour a whole chicken and a bottle of wine at dinner. The priest answers:

“I am quite a wise old bird, but I am no desert hermit who can only prophesy when his guts are knotted in hunger. I am deep in the Old Man’s Puzzle, trying to link the wisdom of the body with the wisdom of the spirit until the two are one.

In my two decades in your midst, I have feasted on Joy and Sorrow, on the Wondrous and the Mundane, trying always to link the wisdom of the body to the wisdom of the Spirit…Deep in the Old Man’s Puzzle….

****

A few years ago, for our anniversary I gave Bern a drawing by an artist named Heather Handler. It has a weird looking tree on it and these words:

“Sit with me on hilltops, under trees and beneath the skies.

Then speak softly and tell me the story, once again,

About why we met, and how someday we’ll fly….”

That sentiment was about our relationship—Bern’s and mine—and it also speaks to me and you and our shared ministry and our relationship in this place for over twenty years.

Today—this day—is our ‘last dance’. Friday we will part. I will go my way and you will go your way. And both ways are full of hope and joy and not a little anxiety and unknown wonders. Both ways lead to this: they lead us deeper into the Old Man’s Puzzle and they lead us to flying….

There is no doubt in my mind that “why we met” was because of the will and the heart of God. But when I came here, I could not have ever imagined staying so long. And now that I am leaving, I cannot imagine leaving so soon.

Yet I know this—we, you and I, will soon learn how to fly.

Today we sit on the hilltop, beneath the sky and speak softly.

And then we part, you and I. The last dance always ends. And the future lies ahead, beckoning, inviting, always to be created….

I cannot thank you enough. I cannot thank you completely. There are not enough words—though I am a man of many words—to give that thanks in a way that matters.

Instead, I will bless you.

And these are my words of blessing: VOCATUS ATQUE NON VOCATUS, DEUS ADERIT….That means this: “Bidden or unbidden, God is present….”

Whether we call upon God or not—God is always there…profoundly there…totally there…here…and now….

I leave you, as I found you, with God in your midst and deep in the Old Man’s Puzzle.

You have let me be a part of that for these years. God was here when I arrived and God guided us—you and me—on our journey together…and God waits, ready and glorious, to lead you on as I leave and to lead me on as you stay here.

And there is this: God will teach us how to fly….And puzzle us more and more.

I love you. I adore you. I will miss you more than you imagine…more than you CAN imagine. And I bless you and thank you.

Keep trying, in every way possible, to link the wisdom of the body—WHAT YOU DO—to the wisdom of the Spirit—WHO YOU ARE.

And start trying out your wings……

April 25, 2010

God must love green

Driving down I-81 with the Blue Ridge Mountains on one side, Mejol said, "God must really love green."

I am so glad she pointed it out because today on our deck, looking out at our backyard that Bern has been crafting for 30 years, I started counting different shades of green.

I got to 18 when I realized I'd only looked at one side of the yard and suddenly saw five different shades of green in the grass!

Connecticut is ablaze with greens, as the drive in Virginia was.

I need to pay more attention to Nature. I tend to have my nose in a book--well, not literally! Just my eyes on it--when I'm outside, while Nature is screaming at me in too many shades of green and too many colors: LOOK AT ME, YOU IDIOT!!!!!

Ponder the wonder of creation at least once a day for 10 minutes. It will fill you up until you can feel tears of joy near.

And pray, pray hard for those people in the West where fire is transforming nature into ash and all those people around the world where Nature is a threat and not a joy.

And, if you're anywhere like here, you must admit without argument that God must really love Green...

My childhood--II

Was I spoiled as a child, the youngest of 18 cousins, 8 aunts and 8 uncles, Grandma Jones and step-grandma Bradley? Sure, absolutely, joyfully.

But I was also sheltered--both in a way that protects and a way that hinders.

When I was 12 or so, I asked my mother why I had to go visit relatives with them every time. I was old enough to stay home by myself, after all, and all the relative visits didn't interest me.

Here's what she told me--I swear to God, cross my heart--"what if we had a car wreck and died," she told me, "we wouldn't want you to be left alone."

Which meant, as I pondered it, it would be somehow better if we all died together.

That is 'too sheltered' in my mind and heart.

Soon after that I exerted myself for what may have been the first major time and only went to visit the people I wanted to see. I stayed home other times and played video games.

Well, of course I didn't do that. I stayed home and played with my toy soldiers or watched TV or, mostly, read.

Being an only child of older parents isn't always a cup of tea.

When I was a small child another cousin (which I realize I didn't count before since he was the son of my long dead aunt--my father's older sister) lived with my parents and me. His name was Pat LaFon and he was so much older than me I never thought of him as a cousin. He became a Nazarene minister, but was in his 20's when I was a child and he lived with us.

When he moved out I got his room. It was always called "Pat's room", even after I'd lived in it for years.

As safe and wondrous and loved as I was, I slept in "Pat's room" until I went to college.

That strikes me as weird in a way I can't explain.