October 3, 2022
Thought for Today
"Morals are an acquirement - like music, like a foreign languages, like piety, poker, paralysis - no man is born with them."
Mark Twain,
Seventieth Birthday, 1907
Monday, October 3, 2022
Sunday, October 2, 2022
October 2, 2022
Reflection
THE HEAT OF THE DAY
It's July.
It's hot.
The air conditioners are on - everywhere.
Electric bills will be higher now that Maryland has stopped the so-called electrical or energy price controls.
There could also be a breakdown on the a grid brown-out or even a blackout.
Then we have to go outside.
It's July.
It's hot.
I don't like July or January - August of February - at least in Maryland.
I do like seasons - appreciating warm days in winter and cool days in summer.
Do people use their money to live in cool spots in summer - and warm spots in winter? Yes!
I've lived in Tobyhanna - in the Poconos - and it had tough winters and great summers.
I now live in a humid area - near the Chesapeake Bay.
Real estate prices tell us what land is considered valuable and what land isn't.
Where I am living now is valuable property: Annapolis, Maryland.
Jesus why didn't you come to us as a Navaho or an Eskimo or South American Native American?
People don't seem to know you as is.
God's People don't know you as is.
Yet, God, you are here, in this place - with every people - and Jesus - you are Navaho, Eskimo, Guarani and Brooklynese - and we don't either know you - or we kill you.
In the meanwhile - where you are - when you are - turn the air conditioner on or put another log in the fire.
Saturday, October 1, 2022
October 1, 2022
Reflection
CHANGE #607
Last night I had my #607th conversation about the question, "Can another person change."
Can a person change?
Can I change?
We're always talking about others - especially about those who negate - those who drain us - those we don't want around.
Can they change?
And the answer I keep coming up with is, "Have I ever changed?"
My sister-in-law, Joanne, once said to me, "You've changed!"
Afterwards, while driving, I thought about that.
I'm too close to myself to see change in myself.
People who haven't seen us for years might see a nervous person who now seems much more confident.
I look at sermons I preached 10 years ago. They look so insipid. They seem so uninspiring. So yes I see that I have changed from 10 years ago.
Question: can I sit down and resolve to make a change and then do it?
Once more the question of specifics shows up. Be specific in the how of the changes you want to make.
I could go to be an hour earlier each night.
I could try to eat one orange or apple each day.
I could bite my tongue more and listen better.
I could take one hour each week to clean up and out my room.
I could us my black Progoff loose leaf filler each week.
Will I?
Friday, September 30, 2022
September 30, 2022
Reflection
MIDDLES
Middles are the places where we need persistence, patience, strength and the ability to push ourselves.
Beginnings are easy. I can dream up a thousand projects a day.
I can start something new - with excitement - but it's that second chapter - it's that noon day devil - it's those interruptions - it's the need for naps - it's those next miles when I run out of gas.
I'm still in middle age - well a bit older - 67.
Translation: there are a lot of things i want to do before I die.
Translation: if I consider myself to be in my old age - then I'll coast.
Translation: I rather stay young - creating, dreaming, imagining, with lots of future possibilities.
So Lord, in the middle of every middle, give me the push - be with me when I stop to sit on a bench for a while - and then get young again.
Didn't Dante use the image of the middle - as the metaphor - the central metaphor for his great writing.
Here I am in the middle of the dance floor - so dance.
Here I am in the middle of the woods - them walk.
Here I am in the middle of the river - start rowing.
Here I am in the middle of my life - just do it.
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