Proud to be a Mountaineer

West Virginia University is in the NCAA men's tourney. The women's team didn't make it this year, but they look strong for next year.

Proud to be from West Virginia!

But sports is nothing compared to teachers.

The nine day teachers strike shut down all the schools in the 55 counties. And, after much bull-s*** in the WV Senate--they got what they wanted....

I heard someone from WV say on radio yesterday, "think about the people who were role models for you, who changed your life...how many of them were politicians? how many of them were teachers?"

Every teacher I ever had in those lush mountains of West Virginia touched my life in profound ways. And that goes for college and six years of post graduate study. I have a B.A., a M.T.S, a M.Div., and a Doctor of Ministry. I spent 22 years of my life in school. Besides my parents and close relatives and my wife, most of the people who truly touched me were people who taught me in those 22 years.

I've often said that the three professions who should be highest paid are Day Care Providers, Garbage Collectors and Aids in Nursing Homes. Those who care for our children and our elderly and pick up the trash of our lives need to be honored and compensated greatly.

I'll add a fourth group--anyone who teaches at any level.

Teachers have made me 'who I am" and I like who they've made me.

Ponder it in your own lives.

Remember for a spell those teachers who formed you, encouraged you, inspired you.

And thank God for the teachers of my home state who took to the streets to get a little more of what they deserve for what they do.

God bless them.

They make me proud to be a Mountaineer.

Now, if they all go vote for Democrats I'll really be happy....

They didn't do that last time around....

Fear

Another post about fear.

Tim and Mimi and Eleanor's new apartment is amazing. 13th floor of a building in the Clinton section of Brooklyn. Views of Manhattan on one side and Brooklyn on the others.

They have two balconies, but I can't go out on them.

I'm terribly afraid of height. Looking out the windows is fine, but stepping outside that high up is beyond me.

At the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in Anaheim, California years ago, my room was on the 12th floor and I had a large balcony. Not only did I not go out on the balcony to see the amazing vistas, I put a chair in front of the door to the balcony so I wouldn't go out sleep walking.

I've never walked in my sleep in my life!

Fear is the motivator of terrorists. The fear all around us in the age of Trump will keep us off the balconies where we can see the vistas of a different future and make up put chairs in front of our doors to keep out those 'different' from us. And make us buy guns to keep us safe. And make us 'hate the Other'.

These are bad and scary times.

Deep breath or two. It can only get better.

Go out on the balcony and see a future we can find hope, not fear, in.

my earliest memory

I heard someone--some writer or another--talking about their 'earliest memory' on National Public Radio today.

I didn't really hear what they said about their earliest memory because I was searching my diminishing brain cells for mine.

And this is it: I was walking but not talking, I think. My earliest memory is of two men fighting.

My parents and I were in a yard somewhere in summer. My father was in a lawn chair and I was standing.with my mother when a man came into the yard.

My father jumped up and ran to him and they grabbed each other and fell on the ground, fighting.

Or so I thought.

My mother picked me up because I started crying and was very scared. But she was laughing at the men.

Turns out it was my uncle Adelbert Bradley who had been away for a long time and my father ran to hug him and they slipped on the lawn and fell down.

They weren't fighting at all--they were in an embrace of love that got out of hand!

But that moment seared into my brain. I look at pictures of me as a child and have no memory whatsoever of the moments. In those pictures I am a couple of years older than the day Uncle Del came home. But his homecoming is my earliest memory.

Maybe fear makes us remember. I hope not, but it may.

Given all the fear in our culture these days...and all the anger...I dread the memories we will have of this time.

Better to remember embraces than fights.

That's what I say.

And hope.

Off to Brooklyn

We're going to Brooklyn tomorrow on the 7:30 train.

Tim will meet us under the clock and 'put us in a car'.

I asked Bern if it would be a random car. "Do you have room?" Tim would ask. And then we'd get in.

But 'in a car' means something different to Gen-X folks than to baby boomers, I pray.

We'll stay with Eleanor while Mimi goes to a Parent/Teacher thing for her (in day care, really???)

Then she'll go to work and we'll have Eleanor for the day.

Joy and Wonder.

We'll come back on an evening train. I don't know how we'll get there--'in a car' or if Tim or Mimi will drive us--unlike many New Yorkers, they do have a car.

Back late tomorrow night.

Worth every minute of the drive to New Haven and two train rides.

Eleanor.

Joy and Wonder.

Snowing like crazy

It's 9 p.m. and snowing like crazy. The Weather Chanel  says it's going to snow until mid-night or beyomd.

It's not that much on the ground, but a tree near our back porch has dropped a major limb and the other evergreens are weighed down with snow--heavy, wet snow.

Plus a wire just to the east of our front porch is hanging so low I fear a snow plow would catch it and tear it down. It seems to go to Joe and Lisa's house, across the street.

As early as it is I may go to bed soon, just to be unconscious to the storm.

Tomorrow will be a new day to move snow.

All the drama in Washington is muted by a snow storm.

One blessing from the snow, at least....

hard to believe...

Today is a lovely, warmish, almost-Spring-like day.

Tomorrow comes the snow and wind and ice.

It's hard to believe the weather can turn around so quickly.

The weather in Connecticut (and Ireland too, I've learned) prompts a saying: "if you don't like the weather, just wait a few minutes." Sounds more song-like when the Irish say it....

The same saying could apply equally well to our President. "If you don't like his stands, just wait a day or so."

No one I know--not even small children--have their opinions rocket around so quickly...sometimes in the same tweet!

DACA and gun control are the the most obvious issues he's flipped on overnight--but it seems to me we never can trust that he means what he says.

I know he's said he standing by his steel and aluminum tariffs--but given the uproar, don't bet money on it.

I've never been aware of anyone so fickle in what they believe.

(Though that assumes he actually 'believes' any thing. Which might give him too much credit.)

Brooklyn 'high'

Mimi, Tim and Eleanor moved on March 1. They are now in a high rise in Brooklyn on the 13th floor in a building with an elevator and a doorman instead of a 4th floor walk up. We'd seen pictures of the new apartment but a while ago Mimi did face time with us and showed us around. Glass walls look out on incredible views of the city. From Eleanor's room you can see Manhattan!

It is an outrageous place to live. Mimi said she felt like she was in a hotel.

Well, why not?

Two successful Gen-xer's should live in a hotel.

Our son and his family (wife Cathy Chen and girls Morgan, Emma and Tegan) live in a house in the Mount Washington neighborhood of Baltimore with 10 rooms and a basement they're going to turn into an in-law apartment for when we visit.

What shocks me, as a Baby Boomer, is that our kids turned out more successful in many ways than we ever did.

They broke the mold and made good on their dreams.

I couldn't be happier for them. They deserve all they've achieved. They've worked hard to get there.

Two incredible children. Two wondrous spouses for them and four perfect granddaughters.

How could I have ever imagined this.

Blessed, truly blessed in the best neighborhood in Baltimore and up high in Brooklyn....

Thank you, God, for such a gift.