July 23, 2022

Reflection

JAMMED  CAMERA

I grabbed  my camera - digital. 

I started taking some pictures of some men - painting way up near the roof of the Carrol House - next door to us at St. Mary's  Annapolis.

It was to be unique picturing of people working.

I took about 23 pictures - but I wasn't counting.

Enough already.

I think I took 10 more pictures. 

In the meanwhile, the men came down and went inside the house.

In the meanwhile people came along and wanted their picture taken. They posed, so I took their pictures.

Flowers wanted their pictures taken. They posed. I took their pictures.

Sailboats in Spa Creek wanted their picture taken.  They too posed. I took their pictures.

Finally, after taking at least 100 shots, I was shot.

So I stopped.

I sat there and looked at my 127 pictures - on the tiny peek in screen.

I liked about 7 pictures.

I rather have my old camera  - with film - and the wait - and the going to the drug store to see my pictures - 5 days later.

I realized in this transaction waiting is better - as well as the old.

 

July 23, 2022

Thought for Today

"Ten years after your death                                                                              I meet on a page of your journal, as never before,                                        The shock of your joy."

Ted  Hughes

Visit  (1998)

 July 22, 2022

Reflection

LIFETIME  MANTRAS

Do people have lifetime mantras?

I was driving with 3 people going to a funeral. One of the 3 said 300 times in a 3 hour trip, "You have no idea."

Was that her lifetime mantra in a lifetime sentence?

Was she always saying to herself: "My husband has not idea how hard I work all day"?

Did she say as a teenager - after getting a B on a paper she had to write in her junior year of high school, "Teacher you have no idea - how much work I put into this paper. So and So got an A and did so little work on her paper."

"It's not fair."  Is that another life mantra - people going through life saying that?

I hear others saying, "I was just wondering." Then they say what they are wondering about.

Or, "Can I ask you a question?"

Or, "How am I doing?"

Or, "Are we there yet?"

Or, "This is crazy."

Or, "I'm out of here."

Or, "Isn't this wonderful?"

"When are they going to get it?"

"Unbelievable."

"Do you hear me?"

"I'm amazed."

"Can you do me a favor?"

"What's happening?'

"I don't get it."

"Listen."

"Thank you."

"I'm sorry."

"We gotta ...."

"I'm tired."

"I'm dead."

I have no idea if people have lifetime mantras - lifetime repeats - lifetime little sayings that they say over and over again. I don't know - but it's something that I think about over and over again.

July 22, 2022

Thought for Today

"Come mothers and fathers,                                                                          Throughout the land                                                                                        And don't criticize                                                                                            What you can't understand."

Bob Dylan

Song: The Times They Are - A-Changing

1964 Song

July 21, 2022

Reflection

IT  ALL DEPENDS     

We are so different.

We are so the same.

Sometimes it all depends.

Twins look so much alike - especially identical twins - but slowly - we get to know who's who?

It all depends.

Someone driving down a highway gets a phone call right in the midst of three lanes becoming two. They reach for their phone, so they can say, "I'll call you right back. However, in that split second - so they can look down to reach for their phone - it  was just  enough time to be side swiped at 56 MPH.

Two hundred cars are now backed up for a half-hour. If  someone didn't have a cell phone .... If someone didn't call....

And the domino effect from that one phone call rippled into four thousand different situations.

It all depends.

My parents were in the mood and here I am.

They chose to go to a soccer game 12 years earlier and that's how they met.

It all depends.

I didn't get married - so I didn't produce any children - so somebody from my loins five hundred years  from now won't be jotting down something like this on a Thursday morning. 

Sorry.

Does God think about all this?

I do have choices - and every choice has repercussions - from picking up a phone - choosing to go to this game - driving down this road,

Being the fourth child - and last child - I pinch myself in gratitude.

Thank you mom and dad.

Thank you God.

 

 July 21, 2022

Thought for Today

"Herein lies the tragedy of the age: not that men are poor ... not that men are wicked ... but that men know so little of men."

W.  E. B. DuBois [1868-1963]

The Souls of Black Folk

(1963) Chapter l2

 July 20, 2022

Reflection

BUT WHERE?

But where can we hide?

Where can we escape?

Where can we put everything down, so we can gather ourselves up?

I like driving alone in a car - no radio on - just quiet - and I find myself seeing things in my life - people. places, situations, unfinished business, neglects, problems, as I drive along.

It's a drive within to drive out my demons - sometimes on my way to visit people - I don't want to visit - worse people - I want to avoid.

It's a chance to sit with God - provided traffic isn't crazy or jammed up.

Quiet churches and chapels are also wonderful places.

Walks - like driving - are also excellent. 

There has to be a saying, "I walked away from my problems and they weren't there when I returned."

Treadmills aren't the same as walking outside - at least for me - so I prefer  good weather - good walking weather.

Plane rides are special - perhaps its especially great to get away from my regular haunts, my regular obligations - perhaps  because of the metaphor of climbing above everything - like on a mountain - and as I look down below - everything looks so small - as from a plane window.

So when people ask me about prayers, I ask them about their hiding places.

We have them.

Jesus had them.

Of course they tracked him down - but in the meanwhile he had some moments and places to hide.

More.

 July 20, 2022

Thought for Today

"We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet we know this is not true."

Robert Wilensky

in Mail on Sunday,

February 16, 1997

Quotes of the Week

 July 19, 2022

Reflection

COME APART 

OR

COME APART

A few years ago, I gave a Saturday morning time of retreat to some religion catechists.

I like to come up with as theme.  So since we were coming apart to do this. Since we were leaving a part of ourselves at home - and bringing a part of ourselves to a quiet place - a church basement - the gospel scene of Jesus escaping to a deserted place hit me.

I don't know what the new translation is - but the old one uses the words, "Come apart to a deserted place."

I also like to come up with a catchy title - so the words and theme, "Come Apart or Come Apart" hit me.

We need time at different times in our life to catch up with ourselves.

We need time to escape from times and its pressures - and commitments - as well as the people and the places that pull us.

We are like a parent in a car on a long  trip and three kids are pulling and pushing each other - and us. One is saying, "He hit me." Another is saying, "She's sulking." Another is yelling, "He took my crayons." Another says, "Where are we going?" Another whines, "When are we going to get there."

Scream!

We want to stop the car right then and right there and yell, "Time out."

We want to scream, "Shut up."

We want to say, "At the next stop I'm leaving you."

We can't wait till they grow up.

We want to get into a quiet place - before we come apart.

We want to put all our pulls and pushes, screams and squirms, into a big plastic bag and dump them into the next dumpster  we see on the side of the road.

Come apart - before - we come apart.

 July 19, 2022

Thought for Today

"In a consumer society there are two kinds of slaves: the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy."

Ivan Illich

Tools for Convivality 

(1923) Chapter 3

July 18, 2022

Reflection

COMMON  PRAYER

What is common prayer?

I guess it's praying together.

Is it ever done when and where the community is so one that it forgets itself and becomes one with God?

Gregorian Chant - Taize singing - or Rock Concert - are these moments when the crowd is so one that it is in the image and likeness of God?

Or is the opposite reality the image of God?   When we broken people are trying to pray and our voices are off key - strident - not together - and at varying speeds?

Is it  when people are broken, stubborn, strident that we are God - the God of broken tablets of stone - of broken heart - of God on the cross.

To enjoy eggs the shell is cracked and poured out onto the frying pan - fried eggs or scrambled eggs - or eggs in hot water - and then after the breaking and being burnt - the broken shells and the scramble, they give off the Eucharistic words, "Take and eat!"?

I write this in the crumminess of our common prayer. It's horrendous. I've been here before.

I guess my ego has to be broken, scrambled, burnt.  I guess I need to have my shell removed.

Is Eucharist here too?

Take and eat.

This is my body broken for you - while I want to blame others and say, "This is my body, being broken with you."

Amen.

July 18, 2022

Thought for Today 

"At eighteen our convictions are hills from which we look; at forty-five they are caves in which we hide."

F. Scott Fitzgerald, 

Bernice Bobs her Hair (1920)

 JULY 17, 2022

Reflection

WON'T  BUDGE

"Budge" is an interesting word - but what does it really mean?

Not having a dictionary on hand, I'd guess it means "move".

We hear comments like, "You can't budge her." or "He won't budge an inch."

But it has negative overtones or connotations. As in stuck .... As in stubborn .... As  in wrong .... As in being a pain....

Budge....

But's it's mainly in the context of the other guy or gal - never ourselves.

Well, not never ourselves ....As we think about issues, we have to see things we won't change our opinions on: spitting, criticism of someone's mother in public, lifting the embrgo on some place, capital punishment, etc.

Budge ....

It's a word that has some good connotations in it as well - now that I think about it - so see I can budge. I didn't begin this reflection with any positive thoughts about this word "budge".

So I'll have to write a poem or some short piece using the word "budge" in it. I could bring into a poem or poetic piece words like "bridge" or "bud" or "breakthrough" or "blossom" or maybe even the word "burn".

Oops - even more -  budge can give hints of resurrection - which brings up the question of death.

Who is going to move the stone?

Maybe if I stop throwing stones at those I don't like - or those I think dead - or at those I don't think will budge - maybe they will budge.

Is that the way this works?

 July 17. 2022

Thought for Today

"'I'm a Norfan, both sides' he would explain, with the air of one who had seen trouble."

H.G. Wells,

Kipps (1905)

Book 1, ch.  6, pt.1