I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy,...

I would never wish the President and First Lady to get Covid-19, but now they have.

I pray they recover, I truly do.

But, I'm not surprised. The President has violated every guideline his own experts set for living through the pandemic.

I only worry about how many more around him or at his no-masks, no social distance rallies might be infected.

This virus has no limits--Red or Blue doesn't matter.

It infects minorities and the poor much more, but even the leader of the free world is not immune.

He's now at Walter Reed Hospital. I truly wish him well.

And I also wish this infection convinces more Americans to obey the guidelines and protect themselves and others.

We're not going to get through this until common sense prevails.

Common sense is what we need.

That shouldn't be hard.

But it is.

(All opinions here are mine and mine alone.)

 

  

Trying to relax

It was a great day--cool and dry.

I read a lot and watched some TV--a netflix show called "AWAY", a series about the first trip to Mars.

I really recommend it.

I was just trying to clear my mind after the disaster of the first presidential debate.

I mostly did it.

English muffin for breakfast--one piece with cream cheese and one with peanut butter and jelly.

A salad and Chicken salad from last night for lunch.

Fish and chips and cold slaw Bern fixed for dinner.

Celebrating the Yankees and Lakers wins last night.

Lots of distractions.

But it still haunts me--the debate and how out of control the president was. What a nightmare!

But deep breaths and Autumn weather and reading and "AWAY" helped a lot.

Hope you're recovering too.

I can't wait for Harris/Pence to debate. That should give me joy and wonder.

(all opinions here are mine and mine alone)

  

D.D. and the debate

I won't give you more than his initials--D.D.

He was the bully who plagued me through grade school and until the 7th grade.

Then one day he told me he was going to beat me up at the underpass that passed under the train tracks at the bottom of the hill from our school.

I got down there first and got two rocks in my hands from the stream there and waited for him to come.

When he saw the rocks in my fists, he kept walking and never bothered me again.

Bullies only bully until you stand up to them, then they back down, being weak under all their bluster.

The President reminded me of D.D. in last night's debate, talking over both Biden and Wallace, always interrupting, never letting other people complete a sentence, lying and threatening, being as un-presidential as anyone could be.

I was sorry I watched it, but the Yankees, who I thought would keep me watching, blew out the Indians and I happened to click over and was hooked.

After that display of not playing by the rules, complaining about everything, telling falsehood after falsehood, I truly can't imagine how people still support him (except White Supremacists, who he wouldn't disavow). It was so bad that the Presidential Debate Committee have announced they'll be adding more restrictions to have a clear and respectful debate.

A sad, tragic and painful moment for our democracy--the way our president acted in front of the world. (People from 200 countries were watching--what do you think they think of us now.)

Pick up some rocks in your fists and vote.

(all opinions here are mine and mine only)

 

  

Lord, I wish it would rain!

 CT is in a bad drought. 

It's threatened to rain all day, but hasn't. A few misty, moisty moments, but no real rain.

Thunderstorms are forecast for tonight.

But we don't need storms.

We need three or four days of gentle, steady rain.

Lord, I wish it would rain.

Several communities around the state have put severe restrictions on water usage.

Not like with Noah, of course, but a week of rainy days would help a lot.

(all opinions here are mine and mine alone)

 

 

I think about dying

 What the pandemic has one to me is make me think about dying.

Not just because I'm over 70 and have had asthma and have both a cardiologist and a cancer doctor, but because I think about dying occasionally anyway.

Scientists have said, recently, that people who die know they are dead for a few minuets before their brain shuts down.

I don't know how I feel about that.

I'm not sure I want to know I'm dead for some moments before I'm really dead.

I want to be cremated. And I was looking at my feet and legs beneath my shorts a few minutes ago, imagining them turning into ashes.

Bleak thoughts, I know, but they are my thoughts and I must be honest about them.

If the president wins re-election, dying wouldn't be the worst thing.

That's how strongly I believe that Biden/Harris must win.

Truly.

Death would not be the worst thing compared to four more years of this....

(all opinions here are mine and mine alone.)

 

 

My sports teams

OK, I'll admit it. I root for the New York Yankees, the L.A. Lakers and the Chicago Bears.

It's the Yankees because when my father was in New York, waiting to ship out to WWII, someone gave him a ticket to a Dodgers/Yankees world series game and he decided to root for whichever team won the game.

That was the Yankees. So I grew up in southern West Virginia being a Yankee fan.

I love the Lakers because Jerry West, from East Bank, WV who led the WVU Mountaineers to their only trip to the NCAA finals, played his entire pro career with the Lakers and became part of the management after that.

I love the Bears because as a kid I admired their uniforms--Black helmets and jerseys and white pants at home; Black helmets, white jerseys and black pants on the road.

 Anyway, all my teams are doing great!

The Bears were behind to the Falcons 27-10 going into the 4th quarter today and I stopped watching. I shouldn't have. They scored three touchdowns in the 4th to win 31-27!

The Yankees are in the MLB playoffs, not as high ranked as I wish, but they had lots of injuries and all those guys are back for the post-season.

The Lakers won the Western Division 4-1 and will play either the Miami Heat or the Boston Celtics in the finals. I hoped it would be the Celtics for old time's sake, but they're down in the Eastern Division and might not make it.

For those of you with no interest in sports, I apologize for this post....

 

 

The name of this blog

Ever so often I feel called to remind people who may be new to this blog, what the name means.

Read the book of Jonah--my favorite book of the Bible, except maybe for Luke's Gospel. I love Jonah because his journey is a lot like mine and because, of all Biblical texts, it ends un-resolved, with Jonah just sitting on a hillside pondering his life.

Like the whale that swallowed Jonah, my whale was a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship to divinity school. It took me away from a Ph.d. at the University of Virginia or a place in the graduate writing program in Iowa.

It also saved me from being drafted for Viet Nam. The only deferment in 1969 was to study in Seminary.

I was eventually spit up--as Jonah was spit up in Nineveh--on the Episcopal priesthood...somewhere I never wanted to be. 

Jonah, in God's name, saves the people of Nineveh. But when that's over, he sits on a hillside asking God why he brought him half-way around the world to save a city God could have saved on God's own.

God causes a Castor Oil Tree to grow over Jonah to give him shade, then sends a worm the next day to kill the tree.

Jonah is outraged about God killing his tree.

But God tells him, "Jonah, you are upset about a tree you did not create, but not about all the people of Nineveh that would have died if you hadn't come to save them?"

And it ends with Jonah, still angry, pondering that.

I ponder still. I've loved my life as a priest, but I never wanted to live it.

Just like Jonah, I sit and ponder things.

That's why my pondering is called "Under the Castor Oil Tree".

Me and Jonah, pondering on....