Banned from the Buffet

I should be banned from buffets.  I'm not sure I'm mature enough to handle them. Whatever food cutoff valve I'm supposed to have, gets disconnected, and I don't stop until it's way too late.

We recently went to a buffet that specialized in pizza.  My son was back from a week at camp, Father's Day was approaching, and we thought it was a good way to celebrate.  The food was good, with a plethora of specialty pizzas being set out, new ones every few minutes.

I would get the slices I wanted, a relatively tame two or three pieces, when they would announce a new kind of pizza being set out.  Well, there was no way I was not going to try the new one.  That would be rude not to try it.  And then, just when you thought you were sated, they would set out the pizza of your dreams, the perfect combination of toppings, sauce and crust.  And this could go on for hours - the new wonders just wouldn't stop.

For dessert, one of  my greatest human weaknesses was set out, iced cinnamon rolls.  I'm not proud.  I lost count of how many I had.

I have been doing much better with diet and exercise recently, losing weight and improving my blood pressure.  In one fell swoop, I had consumed about as many calories as I had in a week.

I am not alone in my irresponsible indulgence at buffets.  My Dad had a similar problem.  The first buffet I remember the family going to was at a restaurant in Northern Michigan, when I was only about ten.  It was so long ago, that where we went was called not a buffet, but a smorgasbord, and it featured Scandinavian foods.

My father had a farming background, in a very frugal family, and he was a charter member of the "Clean Your Plate" club.  He always strived to eat everything set before him.  Well, he didn't know how to handle a smorgasbord. How could you eat everything when they had set out so much?

Finally, after much consumption, I went back to the restroom with my Dad, where he upchucked his entire meal.  He was not a heavy set man, and was prone to healthy eating but not over-eating, but he had simply lost his mind at the smorgasbord.  After he cleared out his smogasbordic contents, he was in a different frame of mind than the rest of us, moaning in discomfort over our overindulgence. Imagine how we felt upon leaving the restaurant, and my Dad asking as we piled in the car, "Hey! Who's up for ice cream?"

Like father, like son.  Minus the barfing part.  Mine just turns into another layer of fat.

I should be banned from the buffet.  Whenever I forget, Alison just needs to remind me, "Are you sure?  Do you remember what happened last time?"

I do.  I remember the pain. I remember the weight gain.

And then I remember the cinnamon rolls.

Seeing through Older Eyes

The Eye of Sauron, as drawn by Summer Burstow, has nothing to do with this story, other than a loose connection to an eye theme,  It is what is called click bait.

You know you're getting old when the only thing you ask for your birthday is a magnifying glass.

I used to see for what seemed like miles.  I was always the first in the car to read distant road signs, long before anyone else could even make out that there was a sign.  And I could read the finest, tiniest print that was presented to me.  There was no line in the eye chart that I couldn't rattle off.

Growing up, I felt like I didn't have normal vision.  I had Super Vision, and I could see farther and closer than anyone else!  I was Super Vision Lad, and it helped me feel special.

I could read anything I wanted, for as long as I wanted.  When I was a teacher, there was nothing a student wrote that I couldn't decipher, no matter how twisted their scrawl.  In accounting, it was very helpful in detecting and translating the very many different kinds of data, hand and machine written, that was presented to me.

But years of this super ability, and constantly using it, finally took its toll.  Things slowly became less clear, especially the smaller scrawls. The strain of trying to focus on it was beginning to cause severe headaches, and I finally had to bite the bullet and get glasses.

I tried reading glasses, but the difference in going from written records in front of me, and then to the computer caused things to go out of focus and contributed to greater eye strain.  If I was just reading, then reading glasses were helpful, but going back and forth from different sized data sources was maddening.

So I had to get real glasses.  The eye doctor put me in trifocals, and you had to learn what section of the glasses to look through to see up close or farther away.  It took awhile to get used to, but eventually I adjusted without having to think about it.

I used to not mind night driving, but now it's becoming more of a pain.  I can do it, but I have to take off my glasses to prevent glare, and it's not as easy as it once was.  I can understand  why some who age steer away from it.

I don't need to wear my glasses all the time.  They're still most valuable for reading.  It's just, that both professionally and recreationally, I'm constantly reading one thing or another. So I hardly ever take them off anymore.  Of course, the more you use them, the more dependent you become on them. Lately, I've found that wearing them even improve my view of the television.

Every few years I find that the eye doctor has to adjust my prescription, as my fine print ability continues to decline.  And rather than get trifocals with even sharper regions, just on those rare occasions where I want to write something tiny, like the back of a baseball card with 20 years of statistics, I just get out my extra special birthday present - my very own magnifying glass!

Sometimes I miss having super powers.  It was fun being Super Vision Lad.  But seeing through older eyes isn't all bad.  There is wisdom and joy, in watching the young grow up around you, and still being able to cherish the sunset, and reading the finer print in life.  Even if it takes the help of a magnifying glass.

Politics is Not a Zero Sum Game: Saturday Political Soap Box 167

It's not always easy coming to a decision in  a family. Nevertheless, decisions do get made. And often, in families that genuinely care for each other, those decisions are weighed with the considerations of everyone who is part of the family, and a plan of action is implemented that benefits the family as a whole.

In our churches, our communities, and other local groups, we go through the same process.  We work together to resolve problems, and present practical solutions that are as inclusive as possible.  It's not always easy.  Sometimes even in churches where all worship the same God and hold the same articles of faith, there can be unexpected conflicts and divisions.  But, ideally, we weigh them out, and in the healthiest organizations, those solutions will enhance their growth and strengthen their unity.

Like it or not, these decisions that are made are political ones.  Politics is not a dirty word.  It's how we resolve problems that face us, and allow us to move forward.  Politics is a way of making decisions that apply to all the members of a group.  Without politics, there is chaos.  Without politics, there is only brute force.  Without politics, social Darwinism is given free reign.

It seems nowadays, the higher you go up the political food chain, the greater the resistance to working towards common solutions.  We have grown to where the political parties have taken on almost tribal qualities, and the last thing they want to do is to be seen compromising with each other. It becomes more important to demonize your opponent than it is to work with them to benefit the whole.

It doesn't help that politics is not a zero sum game.  Every change results in winners and losers.  That is inevitable when you try to solve problems.  If you gain green jobs, you may lose coal jobs.  If you universalize health care, you may create rationing and you will definitely devastate jobs in the sectors that profiteer off of health care, like the private insurance industry.  If you support one Mid-East country, you may destabilize other countries.  If you spend more, you may have to tax more in order to pay for it, and all taxes are not created equal, so one group may have to pay more than the other.  If you raise tariffs to even the economic playing field, you may be damaging the ability of the country to sell products abroad.

That doesn't mean solutions to problems shouldn't be attempted.  But they do require thought and compromise.  Sometimes, to balance everything, legislation may look like a Rube Goldberg contraption.  It's not a help, though, that our major political parties are more interested in dominating the other than in solutions that help the American people.  It doesn't help when the voting populace deliberately selects people who are pledged not to compromise with each other.

Our system's genius is being founded on the principle of checks and balances.  But that does not mean permanent gridlock.  The checks and balances are there to prevent extremists and autocrats from controlling our government processes.  And it is also there to prevent majority mob rule from crushing the rights of minorities.  It is not there so we blithely watch our infrastructure crumble around us, paralyzed in our attempts to do anything about it.  It is not there to see millions of Americans have inadequate health care, with the major rationing mechanisms being who your employer is, or how much money you have.  It is not there to do nothing about issues like background checks, which the overwhelming majority of citizens want, to instead be mired in a special interest toxic stew.

We all have our interests and ideology we want to defend.  There's nothing wrong with that.  That's what politics is for.  But we need to start valuing politicians who are willing to work with each other to get things done.  We have serious problems in this country that can no longer continue to fester. We need a more civil tone from our politicians, and from the citizens that vote for them.

We are Americans.  We are one family, one community, one civic faith.  Just like your own family, church, and community, not everyone is going to get everything they want.  But something has to be done, and it needs to be done in a way that benefits everyone as much as possible, and distributes the negative effects of necessary change as fairly and as broadly as possible.

We have serious problems in our nation and our world that must be faced up to.  Let us do it together, in the spirit of cooperation and compromise.  That is the way to make America truly great again.

The Specter of Crushed Expectations

I've made a lot of Facebook friends.  Some of them have come from people I knew long ago, back from high school, or even earlier.  Some are people that I was close to, but most of them were casual acquaintances.  They're some who I am closer to now than then, whom I wished I had the brains and social courage to have connected better to back in the day.

There are a few whom I considered rivals or even nemeses that I am friends with now.  People whom I had sworn that I would never like, whom I now cherish.

But there is one group that I have not let back in, and probably won't.  And that is a group of girls that taught me some harsh lessons in what it was like to be bullied, excluded and made fun of.

Fourth grade was a tough year for me.  It was the year where my imagination got me in trouble and became a source of incredible ridicule.  Anyone interested in more details should seek out the story War of the Witches and the Martian.

But it was not Dona Bow and her close friends, who were the witches in my swirling fourth grade imagination, that were the problem.  Dona was never cruel to me, not once that I can recall.  There were other kids who relentlessly made fun of me when they found out I thought I was a Martian. They very worst were another group of girls, whose names I will not mention.

That group of girls delighted in making fun of me, but in the cruelest way possible.  It wasn't enough to taunt me or bully me.  No, these girls thought it was fun for one or more of them to pretend to like me, make it seem like they actually had an interest in me, and if I indicated at all that they I liked them back, and that just maybe I had turned a corner and was coming back into popularity, that is when they changed.  They started laughing at me, at my foolishness to think that they could actually like me.

For the longest time, I was like Charlie Brown, thinking that, this time, Lucy would hold the football in place.  But every time she would pull it away.  You would think I would catch on.  Eventually I did, but it took a lot longer than you would think.  I was so desperate to believe, it took a lot of soul crushing before my spirit was finally broken.

And a part of me remains broken to this day.  I still am reluctant to believe people when they say they like me.  I keep fearing they are going to pull the football away.

Luckily, I married well above my station, and I have learned that not everybody plays those kind of games, that real relationships can be built. So, thankfully, within my family I have been able to build up a lot of trust and confidence.

I see the news and it seems to me there is a lot of evil in the world created by men who can't relate to women well,  I don't understand the violence.  I never will.  But I understand where the insecurities come from.

The clock is ticking towards work time.  I wish I had a better wrap up.  I will revisit, or re-edit, very soon.

In the meantime, let's try to be kind and understanding to each other.

Wonder-full Weekend Monday Musings

It's true.

Diet wise, this was not a wonderful weekend.  But everything else was.

We had a wonderful day on Friday.  We celebrated by a trip to Chamblin Bookmine in Jacksonville.  It's a huge used bookstore that is almost cave like in it's meandering stacks of books and little nooks and crannies.  You can get lost in there, and to me, that's the highest praise one can give a bookstore. Our haul was about as much as we had ever gotten there, with the whole family indulging.

We went to see Wonder Woman, at a 3D XD screen, with stadium seating and reclining lounge seats. It was a great experience, but it wasn't as wonderful as the movie we watched.  Wonder Woman was one of those rare pitch perfect introductions to a character, one that took the best interpretations of a super heroine that had been written about for 75 years.  I loved not only the interpretation of Wonder Woman, but also the World War One setting.  The actress did so much to make Wonder Woman a flesh and blood character that we could love, admire and appreciate, that I feel it is going to be criminal when this film is completely ignored at the Oscars.  Gal Gadot and the Director, Patty Jenkins, deserve Oscars.  They will not get them.

Then we ate at The Cheesecake Factory.  I did not see Sheldon.  I got something called Chicken Parmigiana Pizza Style.  I did not realize how huge it was, with the crust being made of  breaded chicken coated in Parmesan and herbs, topped with mozzarella and other cheeses, and fettuccine noodles,  It was incredible.  I would show you a picture, but it was etted on before I could think of it. Showing my food on Facebook or other places is not my forte.

Benjamin started a week at camp Sunday.  We let him drive to get us there.  He did very well.  It was his longest stretch of driving to date.  We're not rushing him on getting a license.  That will come after more experience, and we all decide he is ready.  Unlike some kids in our area, Benjamin is not getting his own car.  You won't see pictures of him standing next to his own new vehicle.  Sorry, but the Strait  way concentrates more on college than cars.

Trump continues to be a huge embarrassment and, more importantly, a huge danger.  His incompetence is hurting our standing in the world, and endangering our citizens.  There is no more excuse to stick with him, Trumpeteers.  He's never going to do whatever it is you thought he was going to do.  You got conned.  It's okay.  It happens to all of us.  Now, however, is the time to own up to your mistake, and help us move on to Mike "The Handmaid's Tale" Pence, or Paul "Ayn Rand" Ryan. You see?  What are you afraid of?  Unless there is a special election, which is about as likely as a zombie outbreak, no liberal can do you harm.  At least until 2018.

Until next time,

T. M. Strait

Simplify the Message: Saturday Political Soap Box 166

Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party made surprising and significant gains against the Tories in the UK.  Prime Minister Theresa May of the Tories called the election to solidify and increase the Tory Majority.  Instead, they lost the majority and will have to form a coalition government with one or more minor parties.

Why did the Labour Party make such significant gains?  They moved away from The Third Way message perpetuated by Tony Blair, and in the United States by the Clinton and other corporate Democrats.  They returned their message to the everyday Brit, and communicated it in a basic but effective manner. "For the many, not the few".

Progressives and Democrats should take note of this.  We have many policy wonks, myself included, who in their zeal to get things right, design complicated programs that only Rube Goldberg could love,  We can't do that anymore.  Our programs need to cover as many people as possible, and be communicated as simply as possible.

On campaigning, we should:

Stop funding campaigns from corporate and special interests.

Raise funds from social media and small donors.

Build from the grassroots up.

Learn local issues and get on the people's side of them.

On economic issues, we need simple, succinct promotional points, easy to understand and spread:

On Social Security:

Remove the cap.

On Health Care:

Medicare for All.

On Education:

Free College Tuition for All who work hard and earn it.

Strengthen the community core by strengthening Public Schools.

On tax policy:

Restore a progressive, fair and simple tax system.

These are just a few examples are where I think Progressives should be pushing the Democratic Party. Yes, we need to replace Donald "Con Man" Trump, and Mike "Handmaid's Tale" Pence, and Paul "Ayn Rand" Ryan.  But let's do it by offering something new and exciting, not just the stale and incremental ideas of the old.

Government Certified

Now a king in the elderly domain.

I have smashed through another life milestone, like it or not.  Time marches on relentlessly for all of us, whether we're ready for it or not.

At 62, I am now a government certified old person.  I am now eligible for Social Security, if I so choose.

Do I feel old?  Some mornings I do.  Yet, overall, I still have the same spirit and thinking that I did when I was thirteen.  I avoid mirrors as if I was a vampire, and when I do see myself, I fear that I have stumbled across a picture of Dorian Gray.  Oh, yes.  That reflection in the mirror looks old so I can look young.

They say that 60 is the new 40.  I don't know about that.  Sometimes I feel like 62 is the new 57.  Not much of an improvement, but at this point, I'll take it.

I may celebrate by indulging in fine refreshments, but not too much.  I don't want to upset my delicate constitution, nor further increase my girth to the point that I have to get new clothes.  That's right. My dieting goals have changed from looking good and feeling fit , to 'oh please, Lord, don't let me have to go out and buy a whole new wardrobe'.

There is now not a Senior discount I can't pursue and use.  There is no more shame in it now.  We went to a fast food place recently where they automatically gave me a Senior coffee instead of a regular coffee,  Fantastic, except the Senior coffee was about half the size of the regular.  What?  You think because I'm old I can get by on less caffeine?  Au contraire!


One of the things I don't have, that many my age do, is grandchildren.  I have two boys in their thirties, and I am extremely proud of them and what they have achieved in life, but as of yet, having children is not one of them.  That's okay.  I'm a patient man. I can wait.  It's going to make it that much more special when it does happen.


Yes, I will be drawing Social Security soon.  I will be stepping down from a full-time accounting career, and spending more time with family, and pursuing my life long interest in storytelling.  I will keep my hand in accounting, as long as I can keep carpal tunnel at bay, and I can still remember how to count.

Even my most conservative friends do not buck at collecting Social Security.  When it's for them personally, it ceases to be an entitlement, and magically becomes something they have earned and deserved.  Which is true.  It is an insurance program, though, and not a retirement investment plan, solely from your own account and funds.  As with all insurance, some of what you get is from the funds as a whole, coming from the money younger workers pay in.  And this is at should be, and will be for those younger workers, as they grow older and eventually retire themselves.

But if you're one of those who sneer at any so-called government handout., do me a favor.  As you start to draw Social Security, take your contribution information to an actuary, and have them tell you the exact time when the funds you draw cease to be your own contributions and you start drawing form others, and pledge to stop your Social Security at that precise moment.  Any takers?

I didn't think so.

Thursday's Answers to Wednesday Questions

Some one asked if these were rhetorical questions.

I don't know.  Some might be.  But they were rhetorical in the senses that I  really wasn't expecting anyone to answer them.  I mean, I would have loved it if somebody did, but I wasn't counting on it.

I, however, will step up to the plate and answer my own questions.

Circular firing squad - fire away!


Do you spend more on cell phones than you did on land lines? Uh, yeah-ah!  You bet your numchucks we do!  Hated them until they became like mini-computers, and it became easy to text someone rather than for me to make the DREADED phone call, which I have always had a hard time doing.  

How many tattoos do you have?  None.  Zip. Nada. Do you think there are many people in the United States, outside of religious affiliations that frown on them, that do NOT have tattoos? It sure don't seem like it to me.  Trends change over the years, though.  It's inevitable that we return sometime to an era when they're rarer.  Maybe I'm wrong.  Maybe we'll become Ray Bradbury's Illustrated Man.

Why do actors and actresses, who rely on being to adapt different personalities and roles, who need really to be a blank slate, why do they get tattoos that will need to be covered up? Don't know.  Don't seem very practical to me.  This is a rhetorical question to me, but maybe others have a greater rationale.

What is your favorite restaurant? Chain - Carrabas. Fast Food - Chick-fil-A .  Local - Wong's and Reaal BBQ.  Do you like what my Mom called "sit-down restaurants", or do you prefer quicker places, and take out/delivery? Sit-downs okay once in a while, but there ain't nothing like bringing it back home and netflixing/DVRing. According to what I've been reading, that puts me halfway to being a millennial.

What do you think of movie theaters that serve full meals and/or alcohol as part of the experience? I don't know if I want to be with a large number of people who are chomping, with food odors wafting over everything.  Not to mention possible inebriates while living in an open-carry State.  Have you been to one? No. 

Do you like pina coladas? It's been a very long time since I had one.  I thought it was okay, but, obviously, if it's been years, they must not impress me that much.   How about walking in the rain? I don't mind it.  I had to walk yesterday in the rain to get from the depot to the main building at the Okefenokee Heritage Center, and I got soaked to the bone.  The experience wasn't entirely unpleasant, and I did eventually dry out.

Do you get cable or satellite, or have you switched to streaming only? We really should switch to streaming only.  We just haven't thought it through completely.  I love entertainment choices, and don't mind paying some, but I may have to rethink things as my retirement percentage accelerates.

Do you binge-watch, or still see a show a week? Sometimes we mini-binge.  For us, that might be three or four episodes in a week.  I think the most we did at once was three episodes in a row of Stranger Things.  Yeah, go ahead.  Try to watch that one slow.

Does it feel like sometimes that there are more people who want to write a book than who want to read a book? In my world, definitely.  With self-publishing becoming easier and easier, it seems like everyone has one now.  My impressions are also affected by my participation in the OHC Writer's Guild.

In your life, how many comic books have you read? A conservative estimate would be around 25,000.

What is the last fiction book  you read? Aether Legion by local author Winfield H Strock III, a science fiction novel set in the Victorian era.  Currently I'm reading The Way of the Kings by Brendan Sanderson, the first part of a fantasy epic.  Volume one runs close to 1,000 pages.

Do you read for pleasure? Houses are basically a way to keep your books from getting wet.  If not, how did you get this far in this blog story? I wrote it, so I bought it.

What if the election was hacked, and the Russians had tampered with our voting results?  This question is getting less outlandish by the day. What would happen then?  This is something the Constitution doesn't cover. Would there be a special election? There should be, but there won't. Depending on the size of the scandal, either Pence or Ryan will become President.  There's been no real plan for this, has there?  None whatsoever.  Who could conceive of such a nightmare scenario?  Welcome to Alternate Reality #666wtf.

If you voted for the orange con man, have you yet realized what a huge mistake you've made? From what I've seen, the ones I know just refuse to talk about politics. Do you realize that if you man up and own your mistake, that I will forgive you for it, even welcome you home like the Prodigal Son? I will, unless he leads us into war, or accelerates violence towards minorities, Then pleasantries are done.

Do you understand that climate change/global warming is not a hoax? Yes. Aren't you ashamed of our withdrawal from the Paris Accords? Yes.  OK, this is going to make forgiveness harder.

Are you a dog person or a cat person? Dog.  

Are your musical tastes mired in a particular era, or are you more eclectic? I traverse randomly across the musical universe.

This really is a wander across the questioning universe, isn't it? I need to get more sleep.

Wednesday Wandering Questions

Do you spend more on cell phones than you did on land lines?

How many tattoos do you have?  Do you think there are many people in the United States, outside of religious affiliations that frown on them, that do NOT have tattoos?

Why do actors and actresses, who rely on being to adapt different personalities and roles, who need really to be a blank slate, why do they get tattoos that will need to be covered up?

What is your favorite restaurant?  Do you like what my Mom called "sit-down restaurants", or do you prefer quicker places, and take out/delivery?

What do you think of movie theaters that serve full meals and/or alcohol as part of the experience? Have you been to one?

Do you like pina coladas?  How about walking in the rain?

Do you get cable or satellite, or have you switched to streaming only?

Do you binge-watch, or still see a show a week?

Does it feel like sometimes that there are more people who want to write a book than who want to read a book?

In your life, how many comic books have you read?

What is the last fiction book  you read?

Do you read for pleasure?  If not, how did you get this far in this blog story?

What if the election was hacked, and the Russians had tampered with our voting results?  What would happen then?  Would there be a special election?  There's been no real plan for this, has there?

If you voted for the orange con man, have you yet realized what a huge mistake you've made?  Do you realize that if you man up and own your mistake, that I will forgive you for it, even welcome you home like the Prodigal Son?

Do you understand that climate change/global warming is not a hoax?  Aren't you ashamed of our withdrawal from the Paris Accords?

Are you a dog person or a cat person?

Are your musical tastes mired in a particular era, or are you more eclectic?

This really is a wander across the questioning universe, isn't it?

Saddle Up Tuesday Tidbits

Sometimes all you can do is saddle back up and try, through a brain freeze or blues, through the silent fog  of recessed coherence or a cacophonous noise that shatters focus on any one thought.

So here I try again, hoping that I can write something, because a day without writing is like a runner who doesn't get out for his morning jog.  It gives you a gitchy, incomplete feeling for the rest of the day.

--------------------------------

I am approaching that special age when one first qualifies for Social Security, at least those who want to draw at the earliest eligible age.  How long that will last, before the Republicans bump it up, is any one's guess.  Or if even they keep the Social Security system at all.

I have set to begin drawing on August 1.  I will still be working part time in accounting, and between all sources of income and retirement, I will be contributing as much or more than I am now.

The eventual goal is to earn money, within the allowed limits, at things I love to do.  That would involve more writing, and other things involving the story-telling arts.  That might include, in addition to writing, work as a docent or teaching classes, extra work in movies and television, audio recordings, just to name a few.

--------------------------------------

I was moving forward on my health plans, but my diet received a serious setback this last weekend. We had not one but two church buffet style meals, and I'm afraid my middle name became Overindulgence.  I gained back 3.8 pounds, the first dramatic weekend gain-back since I started trying again.  It wiped away about three weeks worth of progress.  Oh, well.  I just gotta get back in the saddle again.

------------------------------

No, I have not seen Wonder Woman yet.  That's to come this weekend for my birthday.  We hope to see it at the fanciest screen we can find, and  hopefully, that will scoop in a trip to my favorite bookstore, Chamblin Book Mine.  It has a wonderful labyrinth quality to it that is really special.  And a trip to a favorite restaurant,  possibly The Cheesecake Factory.

Yeah, I can see that weekends are going to be a problem on this diet thing.

Sigh.

Thanks for tidbitting  with me for a little while.  Maybe I'll have a clearer, more focused topic on Wednesday.

Or maybe I'll just wander.

Don't It Make You Wanna SHOUT!

Don't it make you wanna SHOUT.....in a cacophony of many languages!  Many tongues that translate into one.....

ALLELUIA!

50 days after Easter, 9 days after the ascension of Christ, the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples.

From Acts 2

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them.

5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,[b] 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine."

Many were converted that day.  Many were inspired to join the fold.

Peter spoke to the crowd, and many were baptized.

-----

After the Resurrection, after the ascension, and in the passion of Pentecost, in the midst of this explosion of tongues and coming together, what were they to do? Reading on in Acts 2 -

 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

Alleluia, indeed!

The World Doesn't Always Go On

A celebrity loses her mind, and posts a photo that is way beyond any measure of good taste, disgusting and despicable.  She is rightly condemned, and she loses her position at a major media corporation.  What she did is, sadly, not an isolated incident.  Horrible statements and photos appear all across both sides of the partisan divide, and one act never justifies another.  We all pray for a greater civility and respect in our culture.  Things can be corrected.  The world goes on.

We are in the process of shredding our social safety net, with huge cuts in programs that benefit the average American.  Health care, Medicaid, Medicare, Meals on Wheels, public education, environmental protections, and even Social Security (particularly the Disability portion) are all being considered for massive cuts, or even elimination. Although the resistance to these changes will be greater than some suspect, these and other domestic programs are under siege and will likely see substantial changes.  But what one group of politicians take away, another group can restore later.  The world goes on.

Our democratic institutions are under severe stress, as there may have been collusion between a political campaign and a hostile foreign power.  But we should not lose hope.  There is now a special Prosecutor, and the free press has not yet been dismantled.  I have faith that the truth will be revealed, and that patriots on both sides of the partisan divide will come together to resolve the problem in the best interests of the United States of America.  The world goes on.

President Trump, in his infinite lack of wisdom, withdraws our country from the Paris Climate Accords.  The idea, I guess, is to put America First, and to double down on the fossil fuels that are causing climate change.  In this case, the world doesn't go on.

At least, it doesn't go on in any recognizable way.  The likelihood of worst case scenarios, as projected by the overwhelming body of scientists and scientific evidence, becomes almost a virtual lock if the United States government turns it back on it.  The worst case scenario is that, within the next generation or two, large swaths of the Earth will become uninhabitable, and there will be hundreds of millions of climate refugees  It will make the few thousand Syrian refugees we were afraid of look like a grain of sand on an infinite beach.  The best case scenario is that other countries ignore us and find green solutions and alternative energies that mitigate the extremity of damage we could face.  Of course, that leaves the United States as a declining and irrelevant power, and out of the loop for the green economy to come.  But that is the choice our President has made.  America First will become America Last.

There are still signs of hope.  Many states, municipalities and even corporations are turning their backs on the President's withdrawal, and forming a kind of Climate Rebel Alliance.  Lacking federal support will hurt immensely, but not surrendering shows courage and the vital importance of moving ahead, whatever the obstacles.

The world doesn't always go on.  It may be easier to break than some people think.  But you have to hope and pray that more wake up to their mission, as spoken of in many of the great faiths, to be good stewards of this fragile planet.