I've been not writing for a while

Mary Ann's funeral and all the news has kept me from my keyboard for a few days.

Plus, as I've said before, so few people are reading "Under the Castor Oil Tree" these days that I feel rather alone, sitting here typing.

At the funeral, Bishop Ian, at the family's request, had a period of personal sharing before my homily. Many people spoke. At least 4 of them spoke for more time than my sermon took. It went on for an hour. When I finally got up to preach, I began by saying, "I don't know what I can add to all that, but I spent time on this and you're going to listen."

Good laughs for that line.

And the Impeachment has reached the Senate after the president almost started a war with Iran. He's the guy who wanted American troops out of the Mid-East and now he's sending more.

Crazier and crazier this administration become.

Plus, Lev Parnas' bombshell release of documents that makes the whole Ukraine issue even murkier and more damning to the president.

Lots going on.

But I will be posting more this week.

Promise.

Sad and Thankful

Tomorrow I preach at the funeral of Mary Ann Logue--a friend for over 30 years and a priest who worked with me at St. John's in Waterbury from 1990-1994. I'll let the sermon tell you our story.

Mary Ann Logue—January 11, 2020

          Mary Ann and I clicked at first meeting. It may have been that we were both only children. I can spot another ‘only child’ from across the room. We know much about each other—how to be alone, how to entertain ourselves, how to keep quiet when keeping quiet is good.

          She came from a remarkable Congregational background and lay ministry to join St. Paul’s while I was Rector here, many years ago. I presented her for confirmation and for ordination as a deacon and a priest.

          We spent many hours together discussing theology and our lives.

          Bern and I went to several of Frank and Mary Ann’s fabled Christmas parties and met many people who came to mean a lot to me at them.

          At the lowest point in my life, when I resigned from St. Paul’s and was separated from my wife, with whom I’ll celebrate our fiftieth wedding anniversary in September, it was Mary Ann who sought me out and found me a job through a friend of hers and supported me greatly as I put my life back together and rejoined my family and eventually found my priesthood all new.

          She also served with me as the assistant Rector at St. John’s in Waterbury for several years.

          Every Monday morning, she would come into my office with a list and tell me what I needed to do that week. I would take the list and carry out her orders. I am not the most focused and purpose driven person you’ll ever meet—so her gift to me was to bring a list to focus on and realize my purpose.

          We were dear friends. After Frank died and she was without him, I would visit her in Hamden, just to talk and keep in touch and share our lives.

          She always shared about Frank and her children and grandchildren. They were all the love of her life. As active and involved as she was in the community and the church, her family was the love of her life. God bless her for that.

          I won’t go on and on about Mary Ann and her accomplishments—you all know about them.

          All I want to say is that I loved her and will miss her greatly. She shared compassion and wisdom and great good spirit with me over the years.

          I thank God for her contributions to my life. And I’m sure all of you thank God for the gifts she gave to you. I’m sure of that.

          I chose today’s gospel—it’s what I want for my funeral—and it’s all about love. Love IS ALL WE NEED. Love of our families, love of our communities, love of our church family, love of our country, love of our environment, love of our world. Love of one another. That’s all we need. And Mary Ann had that love. Believe you me—and I know you do—she had that love.

          Here’s something I shouldn’t tell you. And I certainly shouldn’t say it in front of my bishop…

          But, here it is: I’m not sure what happens when we die.

          I would pray it was like one of Mary Ann and Frank’s Christmas parties. But I don’t know.

          I’m not sold on streets of gold and angel wings. I just don’t know.

          What I do know is love is what matters and we do that on this earth, while we’re alive. Like Mary Ann did, every day of her life.

          But, as a priest, I wear white at a funeral—not the color of mourning, but the color of Easter, the color of Hope, the color of new life.

          And I rely on the words of St. Francis of Assisi, everyone’s first or second favorite saint, once wrote: “Death is not a door that closes; it is a door that opens and we walk in, all new, into the presence of the One who loves us best of all.”

          For those of us still on our earthy pilgrimage, Death is a closed door.

          We are not with those who we love but see no more.

          But I believe and believe fair well, that for Mary Ann, Death was a door that opened and she entered in all new—“all new”—into the presence of the One who loves her best of all.

          That I believe—whatever it means—that I believe.

          “All new…all new…all new….”

Amen

If you are still alive to read this....

So the President (Who Will Not Be Named Here) killed a national hero of Iran and then tonight Iran launched dozens of missiles at American bases in Iraq. No count on casualties yet.

So the President is meeting with his meat-head advisors about how to respond.

(I've watched dozens of video of the President back in 2011, saying Obama (Who Will Be Named Here With Pride!) would start a war with Iran to win re-election.)

Is that what's going on?

Who knows?

I'd no more want to be in the President's head than I'd want to be in our dog, Brigit's head.

I'd probably be more lost in the President's brain than in Brigit's.

All the General's and Cournel's and pundits I've heard tonight have said, "do nothing" and try to cool things off.

That makes sense.

Will the President do that?

When has he ever 'made sense'.

Hope you're still alive to read this.

You know, don't you, that two of Iran's chief allies are Russia and China.

And the President has angered all our allies with his nonsense.

Doesn't sound like a fair fight to me.

Keep your head down.

Interesting

I married a woman I met in Latin class when she was 14 and I was 17.

Mimi married a man she knew in college.

Josh married a woman he met in law school.

Education is wondrous.

Shimer College and my life

As a junior in high school, I became enamored of Shimer College in Chicago. It was a 'great books' school, like St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, which was Mimi's second choice to the school she chose, Bennington College in Vermont. Shimer is now a part of North Central College in Naperville, IL.

Here was the problem--Shimer required at least one year of a foreign  language for admission. Gary High School was very small--99 people in my graduating class--and only offered two foreign language classes. My senior year it was French 2, which I obviously couldn't do, and Latin 1.

Latin 1 was mostly 9th and 10th grade students, except for me. Miss Sargent, a stern woman, was the teacher.

But here's the thing--if I hadn't had that class I would have never met 9th grader Bernadine Pisano, who became my girlfriend and then my wife when we were 23 and 20 and first lived together in Cambridge for my second year at Harvard Divinity School.

I didn't go to Shimer College, I went to WVU instead and Bern came for my senior year as a freshman. But without Shimer I wouldn't have taken Latin 1 and wouldn't have met her.

And our two children and four grand-daughters would have never been born.

Ponder, if you want to, the decisions that have shaped your lives.

If you hadn't done 'a', the 'b' and 'c' and 'd' and all through the alphabet wouldn't have happened.

Amazing how one decision can completely change and enhance your life.

Amazing how undoing 'a' would have made your life a totally different journey.

Amazing.

Truly amazing.

Thank God for Shimer College and Latin 1 all those years ago.

Really, thank God. My whole life rolled out from taking that Latin class for a college I never attended!

New Impeachment news

Stuff is coming out about e-mails about Ukraine's funds (approved by Congress) being withheld by the President and about the infamous Trump Tower meeting with Russians.

The President has been tweeting and talking about a 'Kangaroo Court' and if the Republican leadership doesn't allow witnesses and documents on the 'trial' in the Senate, then the whole definition of a 'Kangaroo Court will be fulfilled.

The s*** gets deeper and deeper.

Who has a shovel?

I know a lot of people support the President, but it becomes clearer and clearer that crimes were committed and must be addressed.

This horribly and deeply divided country is held hostage by a man who is, at best, a sociopath and narcissist.

Something has to happen.

My biggest fear is how to get him out of the White House if he is convicted and removed from office.

There are people who would take up arms to prevent that.

This  is as scared as I've ever been--and I'm one of those kids who were taught to hide under desks in the classroom (as if that would help!) in case of a nuclear attack.

That's how scared I am for our democracy and this country I so love.

Hoppin' John

As always, we had Hoppin' John for dinner tonight on New Year's Day. It's for good luck and propriety in the year to come.

Hoppin' John is black eyed peas, rice, pork and cooked greens of some kind.

The tradition began in the South in the 1800's.

Black eyed peas were brought to this country from Africa with the slaves. They symbolize coins and prosperity.

Pork symbolizes good luck and the greens also point to money.

Rice is just to hold everything together.

So, whether you had Hoppin' John or not, may you're new year bring you good luck and prosperity.

(One legend around the dish is that an ex-slave nicknamed Hoppin' John, sold peas and rice in the streets of Charleston, South Carolina. No proof of that.)

Happy New Year!

May 2020 bring us a new President!!!!