Sometimes squeamish, sometimes not,,,

Sometimes I wonder what was going on in the minds of the scholars and divines who put together The Revised Common Lectionary--the Sunday and Holy Day readings used by the Episcopal Church and most Main Line denominations.

Today for example.

In the Gospel from Mark, we hear Jesus telling the crowds to 'cut off your hand', 'cut off your foot' and 'pluck out you eye' if your hard or foot or eye causes you to sin. (This is from Mark 9.) "It is better," Jesus tells them, to enter God's kingdom short a hand or foot or eye than to be whole and go to hell. Some rather detailed descriptions of the horrors of hell are added just for good measure.

I remember preaching at a church as a supply priest when this gospel was read. (It shows up every three years on the Sunday nearest September 28th, in case you care--and why should you?) When I finished reading it, all the kids left for Sunday School. "Boy," I said after they were gone, "I'm glad I'm not to one to have to explain that to them!" The congregation laughed nervously. They were glad they weren't too....

But on this same Sunday, the lectionary gives us a reading from the Hebrew scriptures, from the Book of Numbers.

In it, the children of Israel are complaining that they have no meat to eat--or fish or onions or garlic or anything good--just the sticky manna that shows up in the dew every morning. Manna, as it is explained in Numbers, is sort of like communion wafers--hardly something to stick to your stomach. So Moses complains to Yahweh about making him in charge of this whiny people out in the Wilderness, wandering for 40 years. So God promises 'meat' to them and makes 70 other Israelites share the leadership responsibilities with Moses.

Thing is, the Numbers reading is chapter 11, verses 4-6, 10-16, 24-29. So 7-10 and 17-23 are left out. Now it is a long lesson, so I guess the lectionary folks didn't want to make it longer.

However, what is left out is what Yahweh/God says to Moses about the pigeons that will fly in every evening and die so the Children of Israel can have 'meat' to eat. God is angry with the whiny band as much as Moses is, so he says: "They will eat meat....until it comes out their nostrils...."

That seems to be, to me, a real insight into how God can get really pissed off!

So maybe the lectionary icons wanted to spare us a view of God that unfavorable.

If so, why do they let us hear Jesus tell us to maim and lame and blind ourselves to avoid hell?

Sometimes squeamish, sometimes not, it seems to me....

Surprise, Surprise!

Thanks to Jeff Flake and others, there will be an FBI inquiry into Judge Kavenough.

Surprise,  surprise.

There is some small reason to continue to believe in the system of government--but not a big one, by any means.

At least, for the first time in recent history, some Democrats and some Republicans actually sat together and talked about 'what's best for the nation' instead of what's best for one side or the other.

Lord, I never thought I'd say this but I miss when Ted Kennedy and Republican senators would get drunk together.

Now the country is so polarized that Democrats and Republicans don't even talk with each other, much less get drunk.

When people who disagreed felt comfortable drinking together was a much better time.

Have some scotch, talk about families, baseball, food you love--get to know each other. Get to even like each other.

Then it will be much harder to be so bitter and mean to each other.

The Senate and House need to hoist a few glasses and narrow the Divide we're now in.

Really. Alcohol is the great equalizer.

Have a drink Judiciary Committee.

We need you to. We really do. This whole country you all claim to love.

Bottoms up!!!

Are you suprised?

Are you surprised that a man with a whole baseball sized team of accusers of his sexual misconduct--two of which he paid hush money about--is suggesting the three women from Judge Kavenaugh's past are making it all up?

And I think the Democrats are using these women's pain, humiliation (and actual danger!) in too political a way.

These women must be listened to. It is an act of great bravery for them to go public with their accusations. (One of them, who gave a sworn declaration, is a federal employee risking her career.)

The Republicans, by scheduling the  committee vote before even hearing out the three women, are burying their heads in the sand and pretending it's just going away. That's an insult to any woman who has been sexually assaulted.

And the explanation some of the Judge's supporters are using: essentially 'boys will be boys'--is an insult to the vast majority of men who have never made unwanted sexual advances.

And to imagine that Kavanaugh won't have the same "*" hanging over him that Clarence Thomas has for all these years. They can start a 'sexual abuser' club on the highest court in the land, that, by the way, should be made up of men and women beyond reproach.

It's a mess. Those on both sides should drop the politics and deal with this situation calmly, decently and with deep respect.

And if they don't....?

Will you be surprised???

Luddite that I am

For weeks, months, I have sent unwanted email (Bulgarian women, Latin women, all kinds of women, fixes for ailments I do not have, job offers I never asked for, missives from people in Africa wanting to give me money, 'great deals' from places I've never heard of, loan opportunities, on and on, Asian women, women in my zip code looking to hook up, investment deals, on and on and on) to Spam.

Next day they'd all be back. And I'd send them to Spam.

Then one day this week I get a notice from my computer that I'd never turned on my Spam and offering to do it.

I took the offer and now instead of 70 unwanted emails a day for 4 days I've had none.

How did I know I needed to turn Spam on?

Would I have known how to do it?

I'm hopeless but my computer noticed I was sending 70 emails a day to Spam with no relief and is surely smarter than me.

Thank goodness....

Day three

Her name is now Brigit.

She didn't respond to 'annie' so Bern decided she was Brigit, Brigit hasn't complained.

This is a dog unused to human interaction. She is suspicious and fearful, but so very sweet and has still not made a sound.

She walks well but, unlike other dogs, doesn't stay near us. Left on her own she goes up the the sofa in the TV room. We're there with her a lot--I've started reading up there with the TV on mute and Bern watches more TV than I do. So we're with her. When one of us is out of the room and Brigit hears steps on the stairs her tail starts to wag.

She's not overly affectionate yet, but loves affection.

She's a dog who has lived a lot of her life alone. She comes downstairs if neither of us is there for a while and makes sure we're there and then goes back to her nest on the sofa.

A friend told me she had a rescue dog that hid for the first two weeks.

So, we'll be patient.

But she is so sweet and quiet.

Her name is Annie

She's a pointer mix, weighs 46 pounds and is between 3 and 5 years old. Georgia, where she comes from, says 3. Connecticut says 3.

She is totally freaked out being with us. She spends most of the time today either on the couch in the living room or in the dog bed Bern got her in the kitchen. We did take a long walk today but she hasn't pooped yet and only peed once.

Lord knows what she's going through?

She has a black head and a white and brown body. The brown spots on her body, in two cases, look like hearts.

I fell hard for her. We almost got another dog as well--but Bella was named like Bela and only 6 months old and in need of more training than we're up to.

But Annie is home--though she doesn't know it yet--and we will love her greatly. She is very shy and quiet and sweet, rolling over to let you rub her belly. And, 10 hours into our new family, we've yet to hear her make a noise.

There's no way to know what she's been through in life, but I''m betting it wasn't good.

And she's home now.

A dog, a dog....

This weekend we will most likely adopt a dog.

There are two events to go to so we can meet dogs.

All that matters is if she is good with kids (because of our granddaughters) and if we love her.

We've almost always had a dog. Finney, a Puli born in Budapest was our first. He was hit by a car when we were away on our pre-separation trip to the beach.

Then there was little Annie, Bern rescued from the streets of New Haven.

Then Sadie, another rescue who was half-lab and half-cockier spaniel. A wondrous dog who lived with us as our kids grew up,

Then, of course, Bela, another Puli who was our empty nest dog for 13 years.

He was put down in March and we think--at least we think--our mourning for him will let us have another dog in our family.

We shall see, this weekend, The dog has to be a girl and can't be a puppy. And must love kids.

We shall see.

I'll let you know.