November 20, 2022
Reflection
I DID
What's a man - or a woman - to do when their spouse has died - not physically - but emotionally?
What's woman a man to do when their spouse refuses to talk about it to each other - or to a counselor?
Friday, November 18, 2022
November 19, 2022
Reflection``
IRELAND
I'm about to take a trip to Ireland.
For starters - here we're sitting on the tarmac tonight. Aer Lingus - the take off - talking - reading - sleeping - waking up in the morning - to see the green - fields down there - out our airbus windows.
Ireland....
Coming home to the place where I could have been born - if mom and dad stayed there - married there - like their brother and sister did - over there.
If they stayed there, would there be a me?
Life. Mystery. Where we come from. Where we are. How we got to be who and where we are from.
Ah sweet mystery of life ....
We're here....
First: the bus ride - looking out the windows - with American eyes - inner sights as well - and the questions - the what if's, the what might have beens ....
Are there answers to what if's - other than the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life."
Are their poems other than,"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood...."? No one can take both roads.
Am I asking everybody''s questions? Does everyone wonder about roads - the roads I took and the different roads I never took.
I'm sure these questions are louder and clearer after the death of loved ones - or divorce from broken ones.
Is this the origen of the word, "Interesting" - when it is said long and slow and has a pondering overtone.
Ireland - I'm saying to myself - if I was born here - I'd be speaking Gaelic. If born here[ would I have become a priest? If born here, would I be the youngest or would I even be?
I'll find answers to some of my questions as I go down different roads - especially the roads of Galway.
Ooops! I still need to unpack so much.
November 18, 2022
Reflection
Circles: Church Circle, State Circle, and the downtown circle that I'm not sure if it has a name - at the bottom of Main Street.
Restaurants: Cafe Normandy, McGarvey's, Galway Bay, Picola Roma, Chick and Ruth's ....
Gardens: St. Mary's, Paca House, ....
Red bricks: Lots of red bricks.
Churches: St. Mary's, St. Anne's, The Presbyterian Church, so man more - once you get out of the downtown area.
Naval Academy: with its youth and its uniforms....
St. John's College: with its Great Books history ....
Benches: the Seelos Bench at St. Mary's, key benches around town to give the weary walker a break....
People: Buckwheat, the Mayor, the Governor, the Speaker of the House, visitors, the Traffic Control people giving tickets and citations....
Shops T-shirt shops, Storm Brother's Ice Cream, trinket and souvenir shops ....
Alleys: guick sneak throughs to the next street....
Annapolis: 17 of the best years of my life....
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?"
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