NOVEMBER 18, 2022
Thought for Today
"I hear America sing singing, the varied carols I hear."
Walt Whitman
I Hear America Singing
Friday, November 18, 2022
Thursday, November 17, 2022
November 17. 2022
Reflection
SELF DESTRUCTION
People self-destruct.
Some do it slowly; some to it quickly; some do it dramatically.
When Governor Eliot Spitzer of New York State got caught with prostitutes, the press articles and TV commentators voiced various theories.
For example, "He wanted to get caught."
Someone else said, "People in high places think they are exempt from being caught. So it's a power question."
Others said, "It's all connected and it's complicated. It's being the son of a powerful father."
Others added, "What was he thinking or not thinking? Is he stupid?"
As priest - as male - as human - as me - I know we all do stupid things. We self-destruct.
We don't get enough sleep - and we'e dragging ourselves like an overweight suitcasre.
Then we resolve not to do stupid again.
But we do.
Expet deja vu.
Expect more stupidity.
Expect repeat performances.
We overeat. We over indulge. We over mess up.
We want to be rational - but our inners can be more than an electrical system. We have snakes, owls, and sharks in our deep waters. Probably an octopus or two as well.
St. Paul in Romans tried to get his hand on all this, He said, "We don't do what we said we were going to do and vice versa, we do what we don't want to do."
St. Augustine - reading and reflecting on what Paul said - realized Paul was speaking my reality.
Don't we all?
Don't we all mess up and we ddon't know why.
It's the onging struggle of resolution vs. stupidity - sin and grace - recovery and fall - Genesis and Exodus.
"Father forgive me, I don't know what I am doing?"
Wednesday, November 16, 2022
November 16, 2022
Reflection
YOU HAD ME WHEN ....
Once more, in the movie, As Good As It Gets, Holly Hunter says the line she said to Melvin, "You had me when...."
Then he loses her with his return comment .... as he puts his foot in his mouth.
The message she gives is: "You should have stopped then and there."
In relationships I see this going on at times.
A person says something and they are our friend for life - or the opposite happens - a person says or does something and we give up on them for life.
When we were studying the Jungian Personality Types - one of the personality traits for those who have a strong suit when it comes to operating out of or functioning with feelings, it's that when they have doubts, they become absolute doubts.
Those who function out of thinking can have intellectual doubts and the person they have doubts about can recover more easily.
Being a feeler type, I resonated with this.
If I have doubts about another, I am not logical about them. My gut sends the signal: "Avoid this person!"
It's not logical. It could be their beard or their tattoos or something they say or do or what have you.
We know cultures who know this stuff with the repetition of the old saying: "Fool me once, it's not my fault. Fool me twice, it is my fault."
There is the same message with dogs peeing on our leg. It's that second time....
So folks have doubts about others - just as the have gut feelings about this person - as being a good one.
The stuff of life is in the meetings after a mistake in a relationship - or not being blind after a commitment.
Tuesday, November 15, 2022
TINY
TATOO
Once upon a time there was a short guy named Tommy. He tried to get into the Army, but he wasn’t
accepted, He was too short. He tried the
Navy, no luck as well. Likewise the Air Force and the Coast Guard. Nope.
All through grammar school and high school the Military
Service was his hope. It was his dream. No luck. Tough – especially because he was
picked on all through his grammar school and high school days for being so
short. Too short – too picked on – too often.
What to do with his life? He didn’t know.
One hot summer day – sitting on a bus in Cincinnati, Ohio –
22 years of age – it hit him – what he was to do with his life. He looked at the left hand of the person
sitting right next to him on that bus.
The guy had this really neat tattoo – on his left hand. It was of a blue bird –
a beautiful blue bird.
“Wow,” Tommy said to
the guy next to him. “That’s a neat tattoo.”
The guy – his name was Albert – said, “Thanks!” Then Albert added
another “Thanks” and said, “Sometimes people make nasty comments about my bird tattoo
– but I like it. Glad you do, too. Thanks again.”
Tommy thought about that moment – and it led to the rest of
his life. He did the research and found a Tattoo School in New Orleans – one of
the best in the United States. In 6
months he was an apprentice – and in two years he had his own place. He chose
Chicago – lots of people – lots of people who had a high percentage of tattoos.
And in 10 years he became one of best tattoo artists in the
United States tattoo world - doing all kinds of tattoos.
Tommy – because he was short – also came up with a unique
tattoo – and this is how he really became famous. Little People – especially Little
People - from all over the United States flew to Chicago to get his special tattoo. They saw it mentioned in Tattoo Magazines. I
bet you didn’t know there are 2 main tattoo mags. There are also 4 Little People’s
Magazines
The tattoo – you’re not going to believe this – I didn’t
think it was true at first either – but this special tattoo was mostly words – and
a tiny tree with a tiny blue bird - and you’re also not going to believe where
people got this tattoo – or only where Tommy would tattoo it: on the bottom of
a person’s left foot big toe. He picked the left foot because he got his idea
of becoming a tattoo artist having met Albert on that Cincinnati bus – with his
tattoo of a blue bird on his left hand.
The words he would tattoo on the bottom of big toes were
words he came up with from his favorite character in the Bible – Zacchaeus –
the patron saint of small people. The words were: “Remember Zacchaeus – shorter
– smarter – than all the rest. He climbed a tree and he saw Jesus best.”
In the magazine articles about Tommy - people read about
Tommy’s instructions to the short people who came to get this tattoo. Whenever someone starts making fun or making
comments about your smallness, sit them down. Take off your left sock and your left
shoe and tell them to read what they see on the bottom of your left big toe.”
Then say, “Luke 19:1-10”. Then
Tommy added: “Guarantee: they’ll never
forget what they saw and they’ll never pick on short people again.”
November 15, 2022
Reflection
"I'M FINISHED
WITH THIS GUY. NEXT!"
In the movie, My Cousin Vinny, Vinny the Lawyer scores a knockout with a witness, He then says. "I'm finished with this guy. Next!"
For some reason that scene and that line stays with me.
We meet someone - and upon further examination - we say to ourselves, "I'm finished with this guy. Next!"
It happens in conversations, relationships, dealings, what have you, with each other.
Did Jesus ever wonder about The Rich Young Man who walked away - or the crowd who walked away from him in Chapter Six of John - when he said, "I am the living bread."
People who date each other sometimes say, "Good bye" to each other.
People are fired from their jobs.
People switch doctors.
People switch insurance agents, churches, and barbers.
However, sometimes the opposite happens. People are unable to say, "Good bye."
Another question: "At times and in some situations are we ethically allowed to say, "Goodbye. I'm finished with you?"
Another question: "Should we say "Goodbye!" in certain circumstances - like abuse?"
Sometimes and in some situations people won't forgive others - when they ought to say - what Jesus said on the cross, "Father forgive them, they don't know what they are doing."
They don't.
Sometimes people put other people in hell - isolating and cutting them off from communion with others.
Solitary confinement - "the Hole" - "the Box" - are horrible places to put others.
I don't believe God ever says, "I'm finished with this gal - or this guy."
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