April 2, 2022
Thought for Today
“If you haven’t any charity in your heart, you have the
worst kind of heart trouble.”
Bob Hope
Saturday, April 2, 2022
Thursday, March 31, 2022
March 31, 2022
GRACE AND ACCEPTANCE
© Andy Costello, Reflections
2022
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
March 30, 2022
BEING HOOKED
El pez muere por la boca.
The fish dies because he opens his mouth.
Sometimes, it’s hard to keep my mouth shut.
Sometimes, it’s hard to not bite my tongue, instead of
biting the hook.
It’s difficult to listen.
It’s hard to count to ten or especially a hundred before
saying anything.
It’s hard to ask the other person to repeat what they
just said, because, “I wasn’t really listening.
I was distracted. And I want to hear again just what your said.”
It’d hard to go into a store or a mall and not buy
anything.
It’s hard to go on a diet and everyone around us is
munching on pretzels and potato chips.
It’s hard to be with conservatives or fundamentalists or liberals
and not react to a statement that sends us up the wall.
It’s hard to not eat fresh bread.
When the fish are jumping, it’s hard to see the “No
fishing” sign.
Thinking is difficult.
Using your head is difficult.
Fishing: head first.
El pez pudren de cabeza.
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2022
Tuesday, March 29, 2022
March 29, 2022
THE WAR
Watched a movie video this evening with Denis. It was his day off and he rented it. Never
heard of it: “The War.”
It was about a guy – Stephen Simmons - coming home from
“The War” and then a mental hospital – because of “The War” and how his life
impacts the lives of his wife and two kids.
The only actor in the movie whom I ever heard of was
Kevin Costner. He played his regular part: the caring, the understanding, the
struggling person.
For me, the key line in the movie, and I also think the
whole plot of the movie, was this: Kevin Costner says to his wife in a moment
of struggle, “My dad used to say, ‘Nothing you’re going to do in this life is going
to make a difference.”
That hit me right in my mind. I got up and found a piece of
paper – a napkin – and jotted it down.
I want to make a difference – but I won’t change the
world. It’s a pretty big place.
Is that what his father meant?
Yet I hope I am making a difference in the lives of the
people I know, love and serve.
Then the movie proved that our lives make a difference in
the lives of those we meet.
In Vietnam, Kevin tried to save the life of a buddy – but
he didn’t. He tried carrying him on his shoulders to the safety of a helicopter
– but he had to leave him there on the ground and fly away.
That became his nightmare – but he also had a dream: to
make a difference – and he did.
I’ll have to look at that movie again – on some day off.
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2022
Monday, March 28, 2022
March 28, 2022
MY DEMONS
Found the following scribbled in one of my notebooks, “In
Edward Albee’s play, ‘A Delicate Balance’, Mother says we sleep to let
the demons out.’”
Never saw the play, nor do I know where I found that
comment. All I know is that it must have hit me then that I have demons and I
realize it also hits me now.
Demons ….
Never really thought much about demons, Never read much
about demons. I do know that the Bible mentions demons.
Demons….
Well, what about them?
Who has done work on demons? Is there a good book on
them? Are there lists and types of demons?
I don’t know.
Next question: do I believe in them?
I must think so, because when I read Albee’s words, I
found myself asking, “Well, what are my demons?”
If according to Albee, sleep is the key, then the stuff
of my dream are greed and need, laziness and jealousy, lust and fear. Those are main energies – capital sin stuff.
They are the stuff of my demons – procrastination but mostly fear.
They are there when I wake up in jumble of forgotten
things I failed to do - and sometimes –
but very rarely does the demon of anger appear.
So I don’t feel like the characters in the Gospel of Mark
– who seem to have whole boatloads of
demons – demons that shriek out [1:24] and who want a wild ride in pigs down a
hill side and into the lake to drown [5:13].
According to the Enneagram my sin is pride.
Come to think about this -after reading Albee’s comment
once again. It fits. Albee is right. I want to be loved and liked and I fear
making mistakes in public and being rejected. Who wants that stuff?
So I hope this piece is something you can try on as well
as me. Amen.
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2022
Sunday, March 27, 2022
March 27, 2022
TECHNICOLOR
How do you see life?
In black and white or in technicolor?
How do you dream? In black and white or in technicolor?
I’ve heard people say that they dream in black and
white. I didn’t believe them – because I
assume dreams are scenes from everyday life – much of the time – jumbled up –
but based on real life – and real life is in technicolor.
Movies have been in black and white – and television
programs – and you can still catch them that way.
Then there’s the comment that some movies have been
ruined – because they have been colorized.
One day my nephew Michael said something that really
surprised me. He died back in 1977 – so
I don’t remember if they had a color TV at the time or not.
I had taken him and his brother and one sister at the
time to the movies.
The movie was Popi.
We got home and at supper his dad asked, “Well, how did
you like the movie”?
Michael said something that intrigued me. He said, “The
movie began in black and white and then switched to technicolor.”
I didn’t notice that as I watched that movie with them
that afternoon.
Afterwards I checked it out. The whole movie was in color.
I asked myself, “What got a small kid to say, ‘The movie began in black and white and then switched to
color.”
So I asked Michael, “When did it switch to color?”
He answered, “When they left Spanish Harlem and moved to Florida.”
How do you see life: in black and white or in technicolor?
© Andy Costello, Reflections 2022
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