https://youtu.be/MLNVV75yoY8
Link to my youtube blog
(opinions here are mine and mine alone.)
We got the long promised thunderstorm last night in Cheshire.
It was astonishing.
Lots of thunder and lightening that outlined the trees perfectly.
Hard rain for a while.
The sounds echoed and re-echoed around town.
Nature is greater than us.
What a show Mother Nature can put on.
I stood on the back porch for a long time, watching the lightening and listening to the rolling thunder and the rain.
Then, this afternoon, a rabbit was in our yard. It had the longest ears I'd ever seen on a local bunny. I watched him for a long time too. Whenever a bird would call, the bunny would lift his head and listen.
That bunny and those birds are precious in my heart.
And what are we doing to save all this wonder of nature.
Not much.
Maybe nature would be better off without us around.
Ponder that.
Friday, July 24, 2020
Thursday, July 23, 2020
Baseball, thank you God, is back!
https://youtu.be/MLNVV75yoY8 (link to my youtube blog)
All opinions here are mine and mine alone.
Baseball is back!!!!
Tonight the Yankees go to DC to face the Washington Nationals in the first game of a 60 game season.
Dr. Anthony Fauci will throw out the first pitch. Very symbolic.
I have always been a Yankee fan.
My father and two buddies in NYC waiting to ship out to WWII from New York were given tickets to a Yankee/Dodger World Series game. My father decided whoever won would be his team.
The Yankees won.
So I grew up in the southern most county of West Virginia being a New York Yankee fan.
My friends never understood.
Sports--and especially baseball--have been important to this country in times of crisis.
Baseball, for me, is more like "life" than other sports. Lots of time passes and then something happens! Lots of 'down time' in baseball, unlike football and basketball and soccer. Lots of time to look around and have conversation and wait for whatever is going to happen next. Just like normal life.
Since life today is anything but 'normal', I think baseball will remind us of what normalcy was like. And I think, give us some hope for the future.
Besides that--Go Yankees!!!
Wednesday, July 22, 2020
Birds live on high
https://youtu.be/MLNVV75yoY8
(link to my youtube blog)
All opinions here are mine and mine alone.
Birds live on high. I watch them every day--soaring, swooping, flying fast and far.
Our neighborhood hawk flies so high it's just a dot in the sky.
I would make a terrible bird--I hate heights.
As a deputy to the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in Anaheim some years ago, my room was on the 18th floor! I tried to get a room lower down but there were none.
I didn't dare go out on the balcony and before I went to bed I locked the balcony door and wedged a chair under the handle in case I sleep walked!
(I've never walked in my sleep in my life....)
Mimi and Tim and Eleanor lived on the 13th floor in Brooklyn. I couldn't go out on their balconies for love nor money.
I'm sure I've mentioned this fear of height before, but have been reminded of it because our neighbor is painting his house and is up on scaffolding up to the tip top of the house. I can't bear to watch him up there.
I used to be afraid of airplanes until I told a friend of mine in college. I was going to have to fly that weekend and told him I probably wouldn't be able the sleep the night before the flight.
"How do you feel about it?" he asked me.
"Terrified, anxious, scared..." I begun to answer.
"No, no," he said, 'those are names for what you feel. What are your physical feelings?"
I explained about a nervous stomach, a clinched butt, light-headed feelings.
"Well," he told me, "why don't you 'name' those physical feelings 'excitement'?
I took his advice and call my feelings on an airplane "excitement". It works! (A couple of glasses of white wine helps too....)
But not for high places. I don't know why. And I sure wouldn't drink wine before going up scaffolding!
(link to my youtube blog)
All opinions here are mine and mine alone.
Birds live on high. I watch them every day--soaring, swooping, flying fast and far.
Our neighborhood hawk flies so high it's just a dot in the sky.
I would make a terrible bird--I hate heights.
As a deputy to the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in Anaheim some years ago, my room was on the 18th floor! I tried to get a room lower down but there were none.
I didn't dare go out on the balcony and before I went to bed I locked the balcony door and wedged a chair under the handle in case I sleep walked!
(I've never walked in my sleep in my life....)
Mimi and Tim and Eleanor lived on the 13th floor in Brooklyn. I couldn't go out on their balconies for love nor money.
I'm sure I've mentioned this fear of height before, but have been reminded of it because our neighbor is painting his house and is up on scaffolding up to the tip top of the house. I can't bear to watch him up there.
I used to be afraid of airplanes until I told a friend of mine in college. I was going to have to fly that weekend and told him I probably wouldn't be able the sleep the night before the flight.
"How do you feel about it?" he asked me.
"Terrified, anxious, scared..." I begun to answer.
"No, no," he said, 'those are names for what you feel. What are your physical feelings?"
I explained about a nervous stomach, a clinched butt, light-headed feelings.
"Well," he told me, "why don't you 'name' those physical feelings 'excitement'?
I took his advice and call my feelings on an airplane "excitement". It works! (A couple of glasses of white wine helps too....)
But not for high places. I don't know why. And I sure wouldn't drink wine before going up scaffolding!
Sunday, July 19, 2020
OK, back to politics
link to my youtube blog
All opinions here are mine and mine alone.
Birds aplenty in our yard today. Lovely.
We had virtual church and Bryan's sermon was great. In my 26 years at St. Paul's in New Haven and St. John's in Waterbury I had assisting priests and seminarians galore and loved to hear them preach. But in the Middlesex Cluster I seldom have heard other folk's sermons. So, virtual church is good in that way.
Enough of that: I'm back to politics.
Chris Wallace interviewed the President this morning on Fox News. Chris is the most independent correspondent on that channel.
He called 'fact checks' on the president over and again. The president said that in an agreement with Bernie Sanders, Biden had agreed to 'defund the police'.
It's not true and Chris pointed that out. The president asked an assistant for the text to the Biden/Sanders agreement and couldn't find what he said was there.
Because it wasn't.
The president also said we did more tests per capita than any other country and had fewer deaths per capita from Corona.
Neither is true and Chris called him on it.
He also said (the president) that the virus would 'go away', which he's said many times, and it never has. And won't until we control the spread.
Don't believe me. Google the interview. Time after time the president lies and Chris calls him on his lies.
It's amazing.
The man in the most powerful position in the world is a pathological liar.
Astonishing, that would be, if it wasn't so damn frightening and harmful.
Go watch the interview.
On Fox for goodness sake!
Enough of that: I'm back to politics.
Chris Wallace interviewed the President this morning on Fox News. Chris is the most independent correspondent on that channel.
He called 'fact checks' on the president over and again. The president said that in an agreement with Bernie Sanders, Biden had agreed to 'defund the police'.
It's not true and Chris pointed that out. The president asked an assistant for the text to the Biden/Sanders agreement and couldn't find what he said was there.
Because it wasn't.
The president also said we did more tests per capita than any other country and had fewer deaths per capita from Corona.
Neither is true and Chris called him on it.
He also said (the president) that the virus would 'go away', which he's said many times, and it never has. And won't until we control the spread.
Don't believe me. Google the interview. Time after time the president lies and Chris calls him on his lies.
It's amazing.
The man in the most powerful position in the world is a pathological liar.
Astonishing, that would be, if it wasn't so damn frightening and harmful.
Go watch the interview.
On Fox for goodness sake!
Saturday, July 18, 2020
Strange Bluejay behavior
https://youtu.be/MLNVV75yoY8
(link to my youtube blog)
(All opinions here are mine and mine alone.)
A bluejay flew down and got a drink from our birdbath.
Then he did a weird thing: he laid on the grass and spread his wings.
I watched for 10 minutes then started down to see if he was ok and he flew away.
Very odd to me.
Almost as odd as the time we're living in. The virus is one thing that makes things odd. The US is one of the few developed nations that hasn't dealt with it in a meaningful way. Cases in the south and south-west and California are out of control. No end in sight.
But so is what's going on with the President and in D.C.
It's been over 90 degrees there for over a week.
Maybe the heat is making things odd.
But I bet that not it.
(I'd better stop before I get overtly political. Better to talk about bluejays.)
(link to my youtube blog)
(All opinions here are mine and mine alone.)
A bluejay flew down and got a drink from our birdbath.
Then he did a weird thing: he laid on the grass and spread his wings.
I watched for 10 minutes then started down to see if he was ok and he flew away.
Very odd to me.
Almost as odd as the time we're living in. The virus is one thing that makes things odd. The US is one of the few developed nations that hasn't dealt with it in a meaningful way. Cases in the south and south-west and California are out of control. No end in sight.
But so is what's going on with the President and in D.C.
It's been over 90 degrees there for over a week.
Maybe the heat is making things odd.
But I bet that not it.
(I'd better stop before I get overtly political. Better to talk about bluejays.)
Friday, July 17, 2020
I need a pedicure
link to my youtube blog
(All the opinions here are mine and mine alone.)
OK, two reasons it is hard for me to cut my toenails: I'm overweight and both my knees don't bend very well--one from surgery and one from arthritis.
Bern cut my nails once during this weird shut-down. But I remembered, while she was doing it, how much it bothered me that my mother cut my father's toenails, so I won't let her do that again.
The pedicure place I go to is right down the street. It is run by a family of Asians--Vietnamese I think. Extremely polite and competent. I don't know when they will re-open, but I miss them.
(I'm writing fluff like this because if I got into politics on my blog: Mary Trump's book, the President's Rose Garden political rally, his handling--or not!--the pandemic,him trying to shut out the CDC from virus statistics and school openings, the President and his daughter plugging Goya on line--violation of strict ethics restrictions that the White House can't recommend any 'products'--his latest 'racist remarks'--"police shoot white people too"--thing after thing after thing.
If I started down that line I might offend even people who 'sort of' agree with me.
That's how outraged I am right now.
So, I better stick to nature and toenails for the time being.)
Wednesday, July 15, 2020
Something I still stand by
(the link to m you tube blog)
(These are my opinions and mine only.)
This is a post I wrote after our president was elected to my four granddaughters. I stand by it.
Open letter to my granddaughters #2
Thanks for letting me write to you to work through my emotions and thoughts about the election of Donald Trump as President. I have a lot to ponder and writing is a good way to do it. I don't know if you'll ever read these ponderings, but I am writing them because of you--you are the Future to me. I'm longing to be hopeful about your future in this confusing and painful moment.
"Rural white working class people" is a term that must be said thousands of times a day on TV and radio and in print to try to understand what happened Tuesday. "Rural White working class people" we are told, gave Trump the edge he needed.
I know the older three of you know where I come from (Ellie's just 4 months old, so she doesn't yet....) I come from southern West Virginia. Both my grandfathers were farmers. My maternal grandmother ran a boarding house for single coal miners for several years. My Grandmother Bradley raised my father and his siblings. My father had an 8th grade education. He was a farm boy who worked in the coal mines until 4 years in World War II damaged his lungs. After that, he was a bar keeper, worked in a grocery store, drove a dry cleaning truck and, in his last years, sold insurance. My mother taught elementary school--beginning before she had a BA!
The town I grew up in was Anawalt. There were 400 people there and about.
I 'was' from "rural white working class people".
That's who I am down deep.
So, why didn't I understand them more accurately before the election?
Did all my education and urban living divorce me from my roots in some radical way? I think many people would think that.
But I'm not sure. I wasn't really 'comfortable' and 'myself' at Harvard Divinity School. I'm still baffled by New York City. I'm ill at ease in many gatherings of Episcopalians--my chosen people!--because they sometimes are from a social class and level of wealth that makes me anxious. Even the town I live in--Cheshire, CT--sometimes makes me nervous because it is so upper middle class and white.
I think I spent all my full-time ministry is cities and among minorities and the poor because I am more at ease there.
The election, as you can see, has made me question 'who I am?' in a profound way.
Maybe I'm caught between two worlds: my mountain roots and my comfortable New England adopted life--in ways I didn't understand before Tuesday's election. And in ways that make me an 'outsider' to both. I have been thrown into a deep place of reflection unlike anything I've known before.
I know 'understanding' is the 'booby-prize' but I write, trying to get a handle on what threw me for such a loop two days ago.
If you don't mind, I'll keep pondering by writing to you...to the future....OK?
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