Our granddaughter, Eleanor, 3 1/2, has been cast as Rosa Parks in her pre-school play about the civil rights movement.
So little blond haired, white girl is going to play a late middle aged Black woman who wouldn't move to the back of the bus!
Mimi and Tim were supposed to move from Brooklyn to Manhattan on February 18, but the play is February 21. That move will put Eleanor in a different pre-school.
The teacher took Mimi's arm when she told her about the move.
"You can't do that," she said urgently, "Eleanor is the only one who can do it!"
So, Mimi and Tim may put the move off for a few days.
Eleanor--so smart and outgoing--is going to get that a lot, I fear, in years to come.
Being 'the only one who can do it' can be a burden.
I hope and pray she'll come to a place where she can say 'no' if she doesn't want to do it.
Monday, February 3, 2020
I don't have cancer
I posted a while ago about my PSA being high when it should be non-existent.
I have an Oncologist now and had a Cat and Pet Scan last week.
I went in today to find the results--and it was very good news!
No cancer anywhere in me!!!
The doctor told me that she had many patients like me who have no prostrate gland and still has PSA. They just don't know what's up with that.
So, she's going to monitor my PSA.
There are shots to bring it down, but they have side affects, so she's going to hold off on that unless the PSA doubles.
I love women doctors. Somehow, I trust them more than men. I don't know why, but I do.
I have an Oncologist now and had a Cat and Pet Scan last week.
I went in today to find the results--and it was very good news!
No cancer anywhere in me!!!
The doctor told me that she had many patients like me who have no prostrate gland and still has PSA. They just don't know what's up with that.
So, she's going to monitor my PSA.
There are shots to bring it down, but they have side affects, so she's going to hold off on that unless the PSA doubles.
I love women doctors. Somehow, I trust them more than men. I don't know why, but I do.
Saturday, February 1, 2020
All over but the shouting
The impeachment of the president is over.
By a party vote, he will be declared fit to stay in office.
No witnesses or further evidence.
All over but the shouting.
And shouting there will be!
By the president claiming 'total exoneration'.
And by the Democrats shouting about how unfair the process in the Senate was.
Shouting aplenty! I promise you that.
75% of Americans, in several polls, wanted witnesses and evidence.
They won't get them.
What will be the political implications of this fake trial?
I'm not sure. But I know what I hope for. Americans realizing how dangerous this president is and voting him out of office big time.
That I hope and hope fair well.
By a party vote, he will be declared fit to stay in office.
No witnesses or further evidence.
All over but the shouting.
And shouting there will be!
By the president claiming 'total exoneration'.
And by the Democrats shouting about how unfair the process in the Senate was.
Shouting aplenty! I promise you that.
75% of Americans, in several polls, wanted witnesses and evidence.
They won't get them.
What will be the political implications of this fake trial?
I'm not sure. But I know what I hope for. Americans realizing how dangerous this president is and voting him out of office big time.
That I hope and hope fair well.
Thursday, January 30, 2020
Here's what I don't understand
In the last week 7 times the people who have viewed any other post have viewed the one below.
I don't understand why. It's over a decade old.
I don't understand why. It's over a decade old.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Charlie Manson
He's 74 and bald and has a beard not unlike mine but still more black in in than my whiteness.
I didn't know he was that old until I saw it on the Internet with his new photo, looking even older than 74, but still with the swastika tattooed between his eyes.
I was 22 when the murders happened and as shocked as I was--as we all were--by that violence (how tame it seems to what violence we've known since...) I probably wouldn't be so obsessed with him except for two things. Squeeky Frome, one of his girls, was in prison in Alderson, WV and all things West Virginian interest me. And there was this: the first parish I served was St. James in west Charleston--a black church in a redneck neighborhood because the diocese wanted to kill it off, so far as I could see--about a block from where Charlie grew up. I probably passed relatives or friends of his in the Kroger store or on the street. I was always aware that I was in Charlie's 'neighborhood' while I was the priest at St. James.
And now he is old and will die in prison. And I am getting older and will die somewhere, somehow. Charlie probably had people who loved him when he was a child--maybe not, since that would explain his madness--but I think he did. I don't think madness of the category of Charlie can be easily explained away. He grew up about 75 miles north of where I grew up and his disciples killed Sharon Tate and Abigale Folger and three others one night in California. I'm not sure why I remember those two names and not the names of the other three, who are as dead as Sharon and Abigale.
And I don't know why I was so surprised and moved to see his picture on the web. Or why we are still, in some way connected.
While I was at St. James, there was a gas station half-a-mile down the road that blew up when two men from the state were inspecting the tank. The explanation was that one of them was wearing shoes with heel tabs on them and a spark set off the gaseous residue around the tanks. Does anyone put those tabs on their shoes anymore? But the people in the neighborhood knew different--that gas station blew up because it was only a hundred feet from where Charlie grew up.
Evil endures for most of us and insinuates itself into everything around it.
I heard a radio show today about "excitable children". It was about kids that in my childhood we would have called 'bad'. I wonder if Charlie was like that or if he was just a normal, everyday kid who, in ways beyond believing, went bad?
Maybe if his mom had heard that radio show Charlie would be a CPA in Charleston and Sharon Tate would be an aging starlet and those two guys who got blown to Kingdom Come at the gas station would be grandfathers playing golf somewhere.
My theology runs dry when it is confronted with Charlie Manson or Stalin or Hitler or the rulers in Darfor or those folks who blew themselves up this week to kill innocent people. I don't know what to make of them--they don't fit the grid and defy my optimistic view of human nature.
Today one of the most helpless homeless who come through St. John's, a guy who is seldom, if ever, sober or straight and lives under a bridge or in a tent city behind the Home Depot was wearing a sweat shirt someone obviously gave him that said "Save Darfor".
Don't tell me there is no irony. Irony, by the way, is something I will write about at lengths beyond your willingness to read at some point.
Tonight I will sleep with two thoughts in my mind that I hope my dreams will inform: what is my 'animal familiar', because my friend Malinda told me she asked that from a dream and got a horse--a creature she does not like--AND I hope my dreams will tell me someway to deal with Charlie Manson and his ilk, who I cannot explain.
Sweet dreams.....
I didn't know he was that old until I saw it on the Internet with his new photo, looking even older than 74, but still with the swastika tattooed between his eyes.
I was 22 when the murders happened and as shocked as I was--as we all were--by that violence (how tame it seems to what violence we've known since...) I probably wouldn't be so obsessed with him except for two things. Squeeky Frome, one of his girls, was in prison in Alderson, WV and all things West Virginian interest me. And there was this: the first parish I served was St. James in west Charleston--a black church in a redneck neighborhood because the diocese wanted to kill it off, so far as I could see--about a block from where Charlie grew up. I probably passed relatives or friends of his in the Kroger store or on the street. I was always aware that I was in Charlie's 'neighborhood' while I was the priest at St. James.
And now he is old and will die in prison. And I am getting older and will die somewhere, somehow. Charlie probably had people who loved him when he was a child--maybe not, since that would explain his madness--but I think he did. I don't think madness of the category of Charlie can be easily explained away. He grew up about 75 miles north of where I grew up and his disciples killed Sharon Tate and Abigale Folger and three others one night in California. I'm not sure why I remember those two names and not the names of the other three, who are as dead as Sharon and Abigale.
And I don't know why I was so surprised and moved to see his picture on the web. Or why we are still, in some way connected.
While I was at St. James, there was a gas station half-a-mile down the road that blew up when two men from the state were inspecting the tank. The explanation was that one of them was wearing shoes with heel tabs on them and a spark set off the gaseous residue around the tanks. Does anyone put those tabs on their shoes anymore? But the people in the neighborhood knew different--that gas station blew up because it was only a hundred feet from where Charlie grew up.
Evil endures for most of us and insinuates itself into everything around it.
I heard a radio show today about "excitable children". It was about kids that in my childhood we would have called 'bad'. I wonder if Charlie was like that or if he was just a normal, everyday kid who, in ways beyond believing, went bad?
Maybe if his mom had heard that radio show Charlie would be a CPA in Charleston and Sharon Tate would be an aging starlet and those two guys who got blown to Kingdom Come at the gas station would be grandfathers playing golf somewhere.
My theology runs dry when it is confronted with Charlie Manson or Stalin or Hitler or the rulers in Darfor or those folks who blew themselves up this week to kill innocent people. I don't know what to make of them--they don't fit the grid and defy my optimistic view of human nature.
Today one of the most helpless homeless who come through St. John's, a guy who is seldom, if ever, sober or straight and lives under a bridge or in a tent city behind the Home Depot was wearing a sweat shirt someone obviously gave him that said "Save Darfor".
Don't tell me there is no irony. Irony, by the way, is something I will write about at lengths beyond your willingness to read at some point.
Tonight I will sleep with two thoughts in my mind that I hope my dreams will inform: what is my 'animal familiar', because my friend Malinda told me she asked that from a dream and got a horse--a creature she does not like--AND I hope my dreams will tell me someway to deal with Charlie Manson and his ilk, who I cannot explain.
Sweet dreams.....
On and on it goes
The Impeachment trial in the Senate goes on and on.
Each day something new comes out to add evidence to the President's guilt. Just today, Les Parnes released a half-hour video where the President speaks to him. Just as in the tape he released two days ago.
Two conversation--one about getting rid of an ambassador--with a man the President claims he 'doesn't know'!!!
But we all know that in the end--witnesses or not--the Republicans will vote not to remove him from office and he'll be free to say he was 'exonerated' and continue his behavior.
On and on it goes.
But we all know how it will end.
And not in a way that is good for our democracy or for you and me.
On and on....
Each day something new comes out to add evidence to the President's guilt. Just today, Les Parnes released a half-hour video where the President speaks to him. Just as in the tape he released two days ago.
Two conversation--one about getting rid of an ambassador--with a man the President claims he 'doesn't know'!!!
But we all know that in the end--witnesses or not--the Republicans will vote not to remove him from office and he'll be free to say he was 'exonerated' and continue his behavior.
On and on it goes.
But we all know how it will end.
And not in a way that is good for our democracy or for you and me.
On and on....
Monday, January 27, 2020
The Bradley Girls
Today we got Josh and Cathy's yearly calendar.
It is full of pictures of our three granddaughters.
There are even a few pictures of them with Eleanor McCarthy, our daughter's girl.
I gave Bern a picture a few years ago that said:
"I didn't know how much love my heart could hold
until someone called me 'grandma'."
It's true for 'gandpa' as well.
Oh, those girls....Those girls....
It is full of pictures of our three granddaughters.
There are even a few pictures of them with Eleanor McCarthy, our daughter's girl.
I gave Bern a picture a few years ago that said:
"I didn't know how much love my heart could hold
until someone called me 'grandma'."
It's true for 'gandpa' as well.
Oh, those girls....Those girls....
Sunday, January 26, 2020
1/26/2020==RIP Kobe and Gianna
Tragic that 41 year old Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash today.
He was a hero of mine on my favorite NBA team, the Lakers (because Jerry West of West Virginia University played for them).
But more tragic was that his 13 year old daughter Gianna was with him. She is the age of my twin granddaughters, Morgan and Emma. What a loss.
Kobe had much yet to contribute to our world.
But Gianna's life was snuffed out as a child.
Alas.
He was a hero of mine on my favorite NBA team, the Lakers (because Jerry West of West Virginia University played for them).
But more tragic was that his 13 year old daughter Gianna was with him. She is the age of my twin granddaughters, Morgan and Emma. What a loss.
Kobe had much yet to contribute to our world.
But Gianna's life was snuffed out as a child.
Alas.
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