February 11, 2023
HIS
DESK – HIS DRUM
His desk became a drum –
tapping it – tap tap – with
the tips of his fingers – but
what he really wanted was
to come up with a poem –
that does what a primitive
drum does – music, a beat,
getting the spirit in a reader
dancing – moving – wandering
and wondering - the new. Tap.
Type. To get that sound out from
under your sleeping inner, inner self.
Tap, tap, tap and running with it.
© Reflections,
Andy Costello
February 10, 2023
Every day has its moments – its twists and turns.
We give them times and moments – days and years -
so we can be able to label them when different things
happen – not just
for history – but for talking about our
lives. What’s happening?
When? When? When?
When I was 11 years old – my dad took me to Portland …..
Last year - I think
it was last year – it was in the summer –
I ran into Archie. I hadn’t seen him since our Coney Island
days….
She dropped me – just like that – I didn’t see it coming –
and
the hurt is still there – rubbing me like sandpaper for a
year now….
I’ve been happy thinking about the time I got to Estonia ….
Always like a chocolate shake and a Big Mac ….
Thanks to Raymond Macintosh I learned how to play chess ….
Miss not reading the Washington Post every morning ….
Try to say the Rosary prayer every day ….
© Reflections,
Andy Costello
February 9. 2023
POST CARDS
Post
cards – like baseball bubble gum cards –
seem
to have sticking around – long lasting value.
We
find them in books and letter box collections.
The
messages on the back don’t seem to have
the mystery of letters – especially relationship letters.
Letters
can be glued closed and sealed. Post cards
can be
read on the sneak. Then there is the picture
on the
post card – often telling us where the sender
is visiting
on a vacation: Rome, Vienna, Niagara Falls.
Life: words,
pictures, trips. Where have you been?
© Reflections, Andy Costello
February 8, 2023
ABOUT TIME
10,000 flies and 150,000 butterflies
saw it – but never said it - when they
saw a plane – take off and fly for the
first time. “About
time! We’ve been
doing that all these years.” But I’m
willing to bet Wilbur or Orville got
that thought when a fly landed on
their plans some summer day or
a butterfly flew by them in Dayton.
© Reflections,
Andy Costello
February 8, 2023
Quote for Today
"I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us .... We need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone; like a suicide. A book musT be the axe for the frozen sea inside us."
Franz Kafka [1883-1924]
Letter to Oskar Pollak [January 27, 1904]
PROVOCATIVE
MEMORIES CAN GIVE US
A
GREATER UNDERSTANDING OF THE BIBLE
The title of my homily is, “Provocative Memories Can Give Us A Greater
Understanding of the Bible.”
Provacative moments can give us provocative memories.
Provacative memories can give us a greater understanding of
the Bible.
Today I just want to look at today’s first reading: Genesis
1:20 to 2:4a.
Using just the first chapter of today’s first reading from
Genesis can point this out.
Just 100 plus yards from here – out there in the Atlantic
Ocean – we get the first sentence in today’s first reading, “Let the water teem with an abundance of
living creatures, and on the earth let birds fly beneath the dome of the sky.”
We have birds – just pause at our boardwalk or parking lot – and look – but today let’s
just stick with the creatures of the sea.
Out there we have today’s first reading. Be amazed at all the swimming creatures out
there in the ocean – and be amazed at God the Creator.
Today’s first reading is from the priestly author – which
goes back to about 550 BC.
Be amazed at what’s right here before us.
Say what the author says - that John Collins quoted
yesterday, “It is good!”
Sometimes we forget. We stop being amazed at what is right
in front of us.
Live here near the ocean long enough and we can stop being
amazed. So I try to catch visitors and retreatant’s amazement when they come
here to San Alfonso.
As I was reading today’s first reading last night I got the
title of my homily, “Provocative Memories Can Give Us A Greater Understanding
of the Bible.”
I’ve been to the aquarium in Boston, Baltimore, Virginia
Beach and Coney Island.
I have a major provocative moment and memory that hit me at
the Coney Island Aquarium.
I’m standing there silent looking into this gigantic fish
tank filled with fish of all kinds.
The door behind us barges open in this big room with this
major fish tank. In come 200 grade
school black kids – and they rush to the tank – yelling, screaming, pointing
out just what the author of today’s first reading is pointing out and they
telling each other, “Look at that one!
Wow. Look at that one. Look. Look. Look!”
So that’s my homily thought for today.
“Provocative Memories Can Give Us a Greater Understanding
of the Bible.”
February 7, 2023
JOY
I had some money in my wallet –
in the money part of the leather.
I decided to buy some joy.
A chocolate milk shake was my
first choice. Good move. But what
else? I walked next door to a drug
store. I walked up and down all aisles.
What will bring me joy? That was
my exact question. For starters - perfect
question - for anyone looking for joy.
I spotted it on the next to the bottom
shelf – in the last aisle. It was a medium
blue wooden yo-yo – only $2.99.
I went outside to the cement sidewalk.
Amazing. I could till feel joy in my face
and hands and in my inner being.
I could still do “Walk the Dog” and
“Around the World” and “Rock the
Cradle” and then bring the yo-yo
back home to it roost after each trick.
It must be at least 66 years – since I was
last doing that as a kid in a school yard –
OLPH Brooklyn. Today three kids
standing there went, "Wow! Wow!"
And with joy I gave the youngest kid
my yo-yo. I guess I always wanted to do
that – to have some kid give me such joy.
© Reflections,
Andy Costello
February 6, 2023
FRED FISCHER
Fred died.
Years earlier, he must have had some money,
so he went to a funeral parlor [great name] –
and put down money for his funeral - 2 days -
afternoon and night – a church service and
a burial. Paid for all in
full. Back around 1950.
Fred outlived everyone in his family – everyone
he knew on the Lower East Side of Manhattan –
and everyone he worked with way back when.
At his funeral there were only 4 people: two nuns
who used to visit him – clean his apartment –
do his shopping – and two priests who use
to visit him. I was
one of the two priests.
Easy visit. Nice visit. I’ve done hundreds
of funerals – but Fred’s back around 1968 -
I remember the most. Why?
© Reflections Andy
Costello
February 5, 2023
CEMETERY
Ten years after I die I wonder what
you will say as you stand at my grave.
I rather you’d say that now while
I’m standing here in a moment
of time with you – but no that’s
another occasion. That’s another
type of moment. Whatever!
I just hope there is a “Thank you!”
in the mix of your remembering.
I hope I'm still in the bricks of the
places where we walked and in the
waters under the ferry boats as we
crossed the Narrows below Bliss Park.
© Reflections,
Andy Costello
