Oncology

My urologist, Dr. Wong, who looks so much like my daughter-in-law, Cathy Ch
en, that having her touch me there is weird, sent me to an oncologist.

Another woman doctor who has a name with 11 letters in it but is an Episcopalian and goes to Trinity on the Green in New Haven.

The problem is this: I have no prostrate gland, it was removed by surgery because it was cancerous over 15 years ago. But in the last couple of years my PSA in my blood samples have risen as high as 5.2. It should be zero since the prostrate produces PSA.

I now understand that neither urologists or oncologists understand why someone without a prostrate has a PSA count.

They just don't know.

As much as they know, and they know multitudes more than me, they just don't know.

I've had a couple of scans from Dr. Wong and there was nothing there.

Friday next I'll have a pet scan with the oncologist that should say definitely if little pieces of my cancerous prostrate traveled elsewhere.

Hopefully that scan will mean Dr. Wong won't do the test where she sticks a camera down my penis into my bladder which is scheduled in mid-February.

If you've never had a camera put into your bladder, be thankful and I envy you.

But if you have, I hope it wasn't done by someone who looks like your daughter-in-law.

Weird beyond imagining.

"Show" and "Whoa" trial

It's all there in the Senate chamber--the chief justice, the house prosecutors, the president's defense team and 100 silent, supposedly listening senators.

But it's just "show" and "whoa".

The first amendment to the cooked up rules by Senator McConnell was defeated 53-47--straight party lines. And all that was being asked was for witnesses and evidence to be subpoenaed before the trial begins, not at the end.

In no other impeachment trial in the history of the United States--presidential or judicial or other--has the Senate not subpoenaed witnesses and documents.

But they probably won't in this one.

53-47 all the way.

Alas and Alack.

I think the President should be removed. But I would want to hear from everyone involved and see all the evidence available before voting.

Not here.

This is just a 'show'.

This is 'whoa let's stop."

My prayer

It's the prayer I say before every Eucharist with the participants before we go in.

I used it to end my sermon today at St. Andrews.

And I say it to myself several times a day.

It goes like this:

GOD, OPEN MY HEART TO RECEIVE YOUR LOVE.

OPEN MY MIND TO RECEIVE YOUR TRUTH.

OPEN MY LIFE TO DO YOUR WORK IN THE WORLD.

I'm not sure what else I would pray for.

So, I'm sticking with it.

I seldom suggest that you 'do something', but I do urge you to ponder using this as your prayer.

"God, open my heart to receive your love. Open my mind to receive your truth. Open my life to do your work in the world."

Give it a try. It works or me.

Winter is back

After a week of Autumn like (almost Spring like a couple of days) weather in Connecticut, Winter is back. It's 20 degrees at 8:30 with winds driving the wind chill into the single digits.

And Winter has come for our President. His trial in the Senate has begun and though I don't think there are enough Senate Republicans of Conscience (SRC from now on) to remove him from office the trove of documents just released to the House Intelligence Committee and from them to the media has significantly raised the wind chill.

The lawyers for Les Parnas (Giuliani associate with many photos with the President) reveal how Trump (and perhaps Pence) knew fair well what was going on in the Ukraine.

In a long interview with Rachel Maddow (Conservatives gasp in repulsion at her name) he said over and over that the President 'lied' and that Pence knew too.

Today a federal government watchdog organization (the Government Accountability Office) said, definitively, that withholding the military aid from Ukraine, that had been voted by Congress, 'broke the law'.

Hopefully there are enough SRC to have witnesses in the trial and hopefully, Chief Justice Roberts--who I respect but don't agree with--will make sure that happens if the vote is 50-50. Under impeachment rules, he can break ties.

So bundle up and stay tuned.

Things are getting interesting and tricky.

SRC, stand up and be counted.

For your country and the Constitution you took an oath to uphold.

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.