Life has been very hectic lately. I’m not really sure why, but it just seems that way. This is a brief slice of life, thoughts, and other stuff. I like that word, “stuff!”
+ I appreciate Ron Paul and Barack Obama. I’ve read about the commonality between the two – something like they actually think and talk about what they think. They don’t just spit out sound bites that don’t really answer questions being asked but are force-fitted into questions. Ron Paul is more Libertarian, which frankly I like. Obama is just refreshing.
To be honest, while I don’t agree with his politics, I like Dennis Kucinich because of his blunt honesty and convictions. Of course, he has no hope of winning at this point and like Paul he has nothing to lose from being honest and up-front about what he thinks and believes. I lived through his oversight of the City of Cleveland through its default, but Dennis has remade himself and I respect his convictions and am glad he is in the race, even if I don’t necessarily agree with them all.
All three need to be considered much more seriously by the American people. All the polls suggest that we are fed up with the way things are being handled in Washington. Polls suggest that most of us feel the country is on the wrong path. If, however, we keep electing the same kind of people, whether Republicans or Democrats, then nothing will change. Yet, that is exactly what we do. This is one reason why I voted for Ralph Nader during Bush’s first run for the White House. I really didn’t want Nader to win, but in protest I voted for him because we need a strong third party to challenge the status quo of Republocrates. I’m wondering whether in the long run a parliamentary system might just be better than the system we now have – or at least the way it is being experienced in this time.
+ I went to Providence, RI the last couple of days to help conduct a focus group for the study I’m involved with at The Church Pension Group. It’s a great town, it seems. I was able to spend a good bit of time talking with the bishop. I do have to find a new job and place of ministry where I actually get paid at the end of next year, after all. There is a church on the campus of Brown University in Providence that might well be what I consider an ideal kind of place of ministry, St. Stephen’s Church. They don’t have the best website, but a wonderful place for ministry.
I also traveled on the Acela Express Amtrak train for the first time. Very nice, I have to admit. The train was pretty speedy at times, and the ride was quite smooth (of course, I’m used to New York City subway trains, if that tells you anything about my sense of a smooth ride).
Category Archives: personal
One step closer
GO TRIBE!
That’s all I have to say. 🙂
I shall not walk…
There is a hope in the heart of every man, a desire that will not die even when buried under much that seems hopeless. Hopeless. From whense does it come?
Here is a bit of music I discovered on Luiz’s Wall in Facebook, posted by Robert Laws.
Ben Harper and The Blind Boys of Alabama. I Shall Not Walk Alone
What are you made of?
When nothings seems to go your way, what do you do? What do you say? How do you act?
What are you made of?
Moods
I can feel myself going into a real melancholic mood. A lot of things have happened over the last two and a half years (or seven years, depending on how I want to look at it) and I am just weary.
I need a break, and I think I may actually take one come September. It has been a long time. I didn’t get to do a retreat before either of my ordinations and I have not had a real vacation in years.
September, September. I’m sure one thing or another will work against it, but I do need it. I need to be discipled and make it happen, regardless.
Once
Go see the movie, Once. It is great!
Fashion – more than outwared appearances
When one is celebrating the Mass, one should be aware of wearing the right underwear.
Yeah, it makes a difference.
iPhone
Okay, I saw my first iPhone yesterday. Yes, it is incredible! We are about to the point of Science Fiction communication devises!
I can get out of my current cell contract without penalty after August, but I don’t know whether to buy an iPhone then or wait until the next rendition in 2008, which will include a couple very nice additions – like a larger screen. Now, the current screen is really amazing – real Web, video, TV, etc. all look great, but an extra inch can make a world of difference.
Each One of Us
From “A Thomas Merton Reader,” edited by Thomas P. McDonnell.
Background – Thomas Merton had just arrived at Gethsemane, the Trappist monetary in Kentucky, as a postulant.
“In any case, the Father Abbott turned to us with just as much ease and facility as if he had nothing else whatever to do but to give the first words of advise to two postulants leaving the world to become Trappists.
“‘Each one of you,’ he said, ‘will make the community either better or worse. Everything you do will have an influence upon others. It can be a good influence or a bad one. It all depends on you. Our Lord will never refuse you grace…'” (p. 143)
In all of our communities, we must make a decision of whether we will be a good influence or a bad one, whether we will make the place we find ourselves better or worse. Our dispositions, our attitude, our words along with our actions will all contribute to whether we are a “smell of life” or a “smell of death.”
Which will it be? In all of our politicking, moralizing, and pontificating, what will it be? Are we an element that uplifts and encourages or an element that speeds the decent into banality, superficiality, hypocrisy, and idiocy?
Despite our person foibles and problems, we still have the ability to decide! Which will it be? How will we be known?
Saltaire, Saturday
Boy, is everything more expensive on the island! I a lot of money on a meal yesterday evening. I walked over to the next town, Kizmit(?), because they actually have a couple restaurants. Actually, there is a deli-grocery story here in Saltaire and the restaurant across the board-walk from the rectory, but it is the Saltiare Yacht Club, and, well, we don’t belong.
So, I order a glass of wine in Kizmit before looking at the prices of the dinners. Wow! The cheapest thing is plain pasta for $17.00 bucks. My simple meal was $31.00 plus tip. Now, the wine was cheaper than in New York City, but that ain’t sayin’ much. Oh well.
Since there is no TV, I fell asleep when the sun went down and promptly woke up when it came up. By 9:00 am, I had already showered, had a cup of coffee on the dock as I read with some Oreos, opened the church and read morning prayer, taken an walk on the beach, gone to the store. It was a productive morning.
While sitting on the dock, I watched a white water bird of some kind fish. He would look intently into the water and, whooosh, drive his head into the water and pull up a tiny fish. I couldn’t even see those tiny little fish. One after another he caught fish and ate. Up and down the shore he went. It was nice being able to just watch something like that for an “extended” period of time. I took a nice, long walk along the beach. As my friend Jason (the Barefoot Priest) said, it is a great place to be re-energized!
I’m a bit sunburned. I should be nicely red for mass tomorrow.