(all opinions here are mine and mine alone)
All the current president's tweets and statements about dead people voting have come to fruition in Pennsylvania.
Bruce Bartman is indicted for registering his dead mother and dead mother-in-law to vote and even casting his mother's vote.
Under the law in PA, he could face 18 years in prison.
Here's where the lovely irony comes in: his dead mother cast her vote for Trump!
(opinions here are mine and mine alone)
During the pandemic, I've become a bit obsessed about playing Hearts on line.
I've always liked it, but in this strange time, I play it more and more.
Bern plays solitaire as much as I play Hearts.
We're both pretty good at what we play.
What's been your outlet to drive away thoughts of this strange time?
I also read a lot.
But I always read a lot--so that doesn't count.
We all need a diversion to get us through this lonely, nerve-wracking time.
link to my you tube blog
(all opinions here are mine and mine only)
Christmas Eve 2017—St. Andrew’s, Northford
Sing, Choirs of Angels, sing in exultation….
Hark! the Herald angels sing, glory to the new-born King….
It came upon a midnight clear, that glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold….
Angels from the realm of glory, wing your flight o’er all the earth.
Ye who sang creations story, now proclaim Messiah’s birth.
The shepherds feared and trembled when lo! Above the earth,
Rang out the angel chorus that hailed our Savior’s birth.
It’s all about the angel-song. A dark, chill, starlit night, shattered by the rustle of wings and a sound not heard by human ears before.
There were shepherds, of course, there to listen. And the mother and babe and dear, good Joseph…and the animals in the barn…. All of it is necessary to bring the Night alive…. But it begins with the angels, with their voices raised in song….
The first Nowell, the angel did say, was to certain low shepherds in
Fields where they lay….
The angels hovered ‘round and sang this song,
“Venite adoremous dominum…”
Angels we have heard on high, singing sweetly through the night
And the mountains in reply, echoing their brave delight.
Oh those angels….those angels….and their song….
***
About a dozen years ago I discovered that I had developed tinnitus—commonly known as “ringing in the ears”.
It began one chilly night when I was on the back porch, letting our then dog, Sadie, out and listening to the crickets. When I came back inside to the warmth, I realized I could still hear the crickets. Then, almost at the same time, I realized what I heard wasn’t crickets—it was below freezing and there were no crickets singing….
So I went to the doctor and was first examined by his 3rd year Med Student intern. I told the Med Student about the crickets.
He looked dutifully in my ears and asked: “are they crickets or cicadae?”
I told him, “Well, I thought of them as crickets, but I guess they could be cicadae.”
“It’s tinnitus,” he told me. Then he said, “tinnitus can be quite severe…some people are so troubled by it that they commit suicide.”
“You can’t tell people things like that!” I said, “What Med School do you go to?”
(It was Yale, by the way….)
Looking back, I realized the first symptom was hearing music after the music was over. At night, just before I go to bed, I switch off the radio in the kitchen that is usually tuned to classical music. I’d get half way up the back steps and realize the music was still playing. So I’d go back and check the radio. I must have done that a dozen times before I realized the music was in my head—echoing on long after it ended.
Which causes me to think about the angel song—how it must have stayed with the Shepherds all the way to Bethlehem and back, how the echoes of that celestial music must have still been in their heads when they laid down to try to sleep…how it must have greeting them the next morning when they awoke at dawn and how it must have lingered through the day.
How long must that angel song have stayed in their ears? Did the shepherds just get used to it and go on with their lives—or did it sing within them always? How could you ever let go of music like that? Why would you ever want it to end…?
*
Once, again years ago, In Saturday’s Waterbury Republican American there was a large block ad on page 3 that said: DEAR FRANK, GIVE US ANOTHER CHANCE. I LOVE YOU, BONNIE.
The pathos and pain of that ad touched me deeply. I could hardly breathe thinking about Bonnie and Frank—their broken relationship, the anguish of it all. No angel song echoes in Bonnie and Frank’s ears—all they hear is suffering and loss.
It is not a good time to hear the Angel Song. Things collapse around us. The sounds of fear drown out the Angel Song.
At this holy time—the birthday of the Prince of Peace—the Middle East is in chaos, hundreds of thousands of refugees have no home, terrorism escalates around the world, climate change threatens us more each day. The sounds of war and weather drown out the Angel Song.
Surrounded by the affluence of the richest state in the richest country in the world, we cannot help but see the sharp contrast of the bitter poverty on the edges of our wealth. The cries of need and want drown out the Angel Song.
And all of us—like Frank and Bonnie—have heartache and pain in our personal lives that tend to distract us—like ringing in the ears—from the Angel Song.
The writer, Madeleine L’Engle captures all this well. Listen:
“This is no time for a child to be born,
with the earth betrayed by war and hate
And a nova lighting the sky to warn
That time runs out and sun burns late.
That was no time for a child to be born,
In a land in the crushing grip of Rome;
Honor and truth were trampled by scorn—
Yet here did the Saviour make his home.
When is the time for love to be born?
The inn is full on the planet earth.
And by greed and pride the sky is torn—
Yet love still takes the risk of birth.
The clanging of greed, the tumult of war, the sharp cries of injustice, the shrillness of fear—a cacophony of noises drown out the Angelsong.
Yet love still takes the risk of birth.
Again, the Child is born. Again, the Gift is given. Hope, like a fledgling, spreads her wings within our hardened hearts.
When is the time for love to be born?
There is no time but this. And even in this dark time—on one of the longest nights of the year—a Light will shine if we can be the people who take the risk of love.
A Light will shine if we can let Hope find a home in our hearts and Justice spring new born in our lives.
A Light will shine if we only still the clamoring of fear and greed and hatefulness long enough to once more hear the Angel song.
*
“Yet with the woes of sin and strife the world has suffered long;
beneath the heavenly hymn have rolled two thousand years of wrong;
and warring humankind hears not the tidings which they bring;
O hush the noise and cease your strife and hear the angels sing.”
Once more, once more as always, Love takes the risk of Birth.
O hush the noise and cease your strife and hear the angels sing….
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdTebleamxYfCasoyjiXB9Y40J4IesPwU my youtube linkIf you can believe it (and I'm sure you can) our president discussed with Michael Flynn, who he pardoned, declaring martial law in the Oval Office to overturn the election!
Where are we living--a third world dictatorship or the greatest democracy in the history of the world?
White House insiders, who have supported this president, are leaking things like this to the press.
Even they are frightened.
With only 40 days left before Biden and Harris are sworn in we live at the whim of the former president.
Lord help us!!!!
(these opinions are mine and mine only)
(all opinions here are mine and mine only)
We went to Costco this week.
I have a Visa card through Costco and every year I get a check back for using it. This year was $268. Next year will be more.
Since this year's check would expire at the end of the year, we went to spend some of it.
I was terrified.
I don't mind going to the super market or the drug store, but the thought of going into a crowded big-box store was messing with my mind.
I don't know when I got anxious about Covid and certainly don't know when that will go away--but it is very real.
We even went the week before but the parking lot was so full I convinced Bern not to go in.
Oh, what a relief that was!
But then I heard on NPR that big-box stores, because of their size and height and ventilation, were safer than most stores.
So we went.
I gave them the check at check out and they gave me the change in cash. I guess you could just go in and cash it.
I'm glad we went. I breathed a little easier.
Joy on The View, said she was 'furious' at people over the virus. And the most of her fury was that everyone wasn't 'furious'.
I agree with her. A mayor in Kansas resigned because she got death threats over a mask mandate.
What is wrong with people?
It's not much to ask: wear a mask, socially distance, wash your hands. I'm furious that people can't do such simple things....
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdTebleamxYfCasoyjiXB9Y40J4IesPwU==link to my youtube blog
(all opinions here are mine and mine only)
I love New England until nights like this.
I almost fell on the deck taking Brigit out to pee at 9 p.m.
She ran down, peed and ran back and still needed the snow toweled off her. She's a rescue from Georgia and doesn't much care for snow.
We've been warned for days that it was coming. I went out and bought two flashlights in case we lose power.
I got my boots out for tomorrow.
Our neighbor, Mark, uses a snow-blower on the driveway, but we have to clear the walk out to the driveway and clean off our car and truck and hopefully put them somewhere so he can blow the snow.
And it's as cold as it's been yet.
New England spring and autumn, I love. I can make it through summer fine--though I don't love it.
But winter?
Take me to the West Indies for Winter....
(all opinions here are mine and mine alone)
Today the electoral college delegates cast their votes--and guess what, Joe Biden won.
Several Republican senators, who hadn't before (including, of all people, Lindsey Graham!) admitted that Joe was the President-elect.
Lord knows, I could be wrong, but I think it is finally, finally over. Republican House members might object to verifying the electors, but they are in a minority and the Republican Senators have more sense than to do that.
I've never lived through an election as divisive and contentious and as threatening to the tenants of democracy as this has been.
And I hope I never do again.
We must turn the page, step ahead, move on...however you want to say it...to a new administration and a new chance to come together in a way we haven't been able to in the last 4 years.
Our way of life and our country depends on us doing that.
So we must. We must.
(link to my youtube blog)
