Hurray for Waterbury!!!

A Jury in Waterbury, CT today required Alex Jones to pay nearly a billion dollars in damages to the Sandy Hook families whose relatives died in a school shooting he called a hoax.

I served St. John's in Waterbury for 21 years as their rector.

When I drive through, as I did today, I always look for the church tower on the Green and have fond memories of my time there and all who touched me deeply.

Good for that jury.

Not enough Bad could happen to Alex Jones.

(Jones, by the way, was my mother's family name, but that doesn't let him off the hook with me!)

To lie about dead children.

How much more despicable could you be?

Not much.

Not much at all.

 

Getting old just happens

    No one wants to get old...it just happens.

    Time passes.

    Just like that.

    I see a lot more doctors than I did when I was 40.

    Many of my health care providers have retired!

    So, I'm breaking in new ones.

    I wear hearing aids, for goodness sake, and today I asked my PC doctor to get me a (gasp!) handicapped parking sticker.

    I filled out my part of the form and should get it soon.

    Easy parking!

    Not a bad trade for getting older.

    But by no means a good one....

    Just wait.

    It will happen to you.

 

Old friend and older friends

            I got a post card last week from a Credo conference in Roslyn, Virginia from 3 priest friends--Chris, George and Nancy.

    I knew the first two when I was a young priest in West Virginia. They were on the Jr. High Camp team with me and became life-long buddies. (They called me 'Bomber', though I don't remember why.)

    The last was a seminarian in CT years later. An upper middle class woman who would serve upper-middle class parishes after she was through with me in the urban church.

    I've been retired so long I don't really know what Credo stands for anymore--or most Episcopal Church logos.

    They wrote to let me know they were sharing stories about me--Lord help me!

    I wish I could have been there with them.

    Old friends, bookends...whatever that means.

    I love them all.

 

Still feeling strange

 I'm still on so many drugs from the hospital that I feel a little strange.

At the peace, I had to race to the bathroom to keep from pooping on my alb.

Trying to let down my pants and pull up my floor length alb with a rope around my waist made me feel truly sorry for women in long dresses trying to go to the bathroom.

I was back before announcements were over but my alb wasn't straight by any means and I coasted through the Eucharist.

I see my GP tomorrow and hope she can straighten me out some.

I'm on a drug to rid my body of fluids and it seems like I have to pee every 20 minutes!

(I know it's not true, but it seems that way.)

I just want to feel normal--if I even know what 'normal' feels like.

(Sorry about all the pee and poop stuff in this post--just that kind of day....)

poem

 

 YOU ARE MY SPRING

 

Walking on the Canal today, Bela and I

were serenaded by dozens of birds.

 

Bela stopped twice to cock his head and listen.

I could not escape their songs.

My soul leaned toward Spring.

 

Perhaps they are back too soon

and will freeze in the February night.

But they were there this morning,

trying out their voices,

making music that sounded like April,

when we both were born.

 

Some winters, here in the Northeast,

test the will and Hope, itself.

Others, like this one,

tease us with their mildness.

Either way—Winter Comes.

 

And it is the Spring I lean toward, always,

no matter which winter rolls in.

 

Today, walking with a Puli dog,

listening to the misplaced choruses of birds,

I realized that I lean toward you

the way I lean toward Spring.

 

In all the Winter-times of my life,

I lean toward you.

You are my Spring,

my Hope, my Love.

                              VALENTINE'S DAY 2012 to Bern

President Pot

 President Biden has announced that he will pardon the several thousand federal prisoners in jail for 'possessing Pot'--not selling or dealing, but merely having it.

He also urged governors to pardon those in state prison for merely possessing MJ.

We are on our way to legalizing marijuana across the country and to taking it off the list of 1st level drugs.

I never smoked much weed (It made me paranoid) but I know it's not like Molly or Heroine or other class one drugs.

And those in jail for merely possessing it are majority minorities and not well educated.

Let them get back to their lives.

Possession should not be a crime anymore than possessing Scotch or Bourbon should be. 

Just don't smoke or drink and drive. That should be against the law.

But in the privacy of your own home?

Toke up.....

Way to go, Joe!

I''m an addict

Oh, not to drugs or alcohol--to gummies!

I hadn't ever eaten one until last week.

Bern eats them all the time and I picked up a bag and got hooked.

Now I eat them several times a day.

The bears are fine, but I like the Lifesaver gummies.

Yesterday I had a whole bag of various shapes that claimed to have fruit as their main ingredient. 

Don't know if it's true, but I'm getting more of them when I go to the store next.

Ummmm...Gummies....