New Orleans was recently based by a big storm. It will come back. It always has. How fast? How much? How? We'll see.
People recover from drugs and drink.
N.I.H. has come up with a good pill for AIDS.
More research and more testing is in progress.
The cut can heal. The leg can mend. The marriage can improve.
There is atrophy and entrophy - but there is also new beginnings and new life.
Then there are the buds and leaves of Spring.
Saul fell to the ground and stood up a humbled man.
Counseling helps some people.
12 Step Programs help some people.
Prayer helps.
God helps.
Streets are repaired - sometimes totally redone.
It takes time for consstruction and reconstruction.
There is the second draft in writing.
There's editing and re-editing.
Disgrace happens - grace can appear.
Hail Mary full of Grace.
December 8, 2006
St. Mary's Upper Chapel
7:50 A.M.
August 27, 2022
Thought for Today
"The Lord has more truth yet to break forth out of his holy word."
John Robinson [1586-1625]
alleged address to the departing pilgrims, 1620
August 26, 2022
Thought for Today
"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
Eleanor Roosevelt [1884-1962]
Catholic Digest, 1962
August 25, 2022
Reflection
SELF-DESTRUCTION
Does every person have a tendency to self-destruct - at least a a tiny bit from time to time.
We do self-destruct.
We are going to die - at some point.
We certainly can fight it - by exercise and good eating habits.
We can also wallow in couches and stuff our bodies with chips and dips.
The Berlin Wall came down. The Iron Curtain opened.
Surprise! Islam appears. Threats happen. September 11 becomes a big moment on our calendars.
We go to confession. We come out refreshed.
Then deja vu appears again and again and again.
There is a crack in everything - eventually.
Everything and everyone has a fatal flaw.
We have our Achilles Heel.
St. Paul in his letter to the Romans articulated this clearly in Chapter 7 verse 15.
We hurt the ones we love.
We damage our relationships at times.
We slip and slide from time to time.
The banana gets bruised and turns brown.
Tsunamis, tidal waves, floods, hit us - and we stand in the water or the water's edge as we feel the unsure of life.
Words clan become daggers.
Comments can cut and even crush.
To be human is to be caught in sin and grace.
We can also do well.
Hail Mary, full of Grace.
December 8, 2006,
St. Mary's Annapolis,
Upper Chapel, 7:45 A.M.
August 25, 2022
Thought for Today
"Perhaps it is no wonder that women were first at the Cradle and the Cross. They had never known a man like this man - there has never been such another ... who never made jokes about them, never treated them either as 'The woman, God help us', or 'The ladies, God bless them!"
Dorothy Sayers, in J. Morley
and H. Ward {eds} Collecting Women
(1986) attributed,
August 24, 2022
Thought for Today
"Many people believe that they are attracted by God, or by Nature, when they are only repelled by man."
William Ralph Inge
More Lay Thoughts of a Dean (1931) pt. 4, ch. 1
August 24, 2022
Reflection
DOG BITES MAN
I had an interesting dream last night.
I wake up - remembering this part of the dream. I'm in Brooklyn and I'm in a car with two kids.
The kid who is driving opens up the window.
We go by a white poodle like dog.
The driver slows down and starts saying things to the dog.
The dog leaps at the car window.
Halfway through the open window the dog is biting me on the left side of my face. His teeth are grabbing my left cheek.
I'm sitting in the right front seat of the car.
I say, "Roll up the window!"
I'm wondering if it's a roll up window or are there buttons?
Realizing it's buttons I say, "Push it up!"
If he pushes the window up half way, we can capture the dog. He can prevent it from falling into the car or onto the street.
Then I say, "Get me to the hospital for a rabies shot!"
I add, "I think Lutheran Hospital is that way."
Instead, the kid is driving towards 95 Street.
I then think of Victory Memorial Hospital where I was born. Maybe we can see a Blue Hospital Sign for Victory - but I say again, "Lutheran is down by the water - around 44 to 48 Street."
I wake up thinking about the dream. Then I wonder about whether this kid is under 18.
I wake up thinking that in the dream I realized we have the dog who bit me in the car. That might be helpful in finding out about rabies.
I wake up thinking about last night. I come into the common room and John Hamrogue is watching ZTV - but surfing.
He asks, "Anything you want?"
I said, "No."
So he has on something - switching- switching - and then he says, "Do you want the college basketball game?
It's Bucknell vs. Wake Forest and I said, "Okay."
We're watching it for about 4 minutes.
Then he switches and surfs - without asking.
He goes by Frontline - which triggers, "This is the program mentioned in the paper about Jim Wet - and the program I heard mentioned on NPR the other day - and the question was, "Is this entrapment?"
He's watching it and when he figures out what it is - he wants to switch - I'm not sure if there was a comment.
He says, "Man bites dog."
And then comes the gesture of putting the clicker on someone else's chair.
He does that and walks out.
I watched the rest of the program on Jim West. It was quite interesting. I also like Frontline for its documentaries.
Did his walking out - after the comment, Man bites dog" find its way into my dream.
Was I supposed to bite the dog?
Did the Frontline part of the story about Jim West in the ca with the one kid triggering the kids in the car part of my dream
Life is funny.
You might never know what you're biting into till you dream.
