A Meandering Mind

Morning comes, a new day dawns

My spirit awakes and yet still yawns

Slowly my mind tries to kick in

But, instead,  it goes off meandering. (hal)

This blog was first published on December 26, 2017.  Another very similar one, "My Meandering Mind," was written two years later.  And still my mind meanders (following a winding course, like a stream).  Life is like a stream winding its course from mountain top to valley and eventually life, like every stream, flows into some ocean.  

Merry Christmas on this Second Day of Christmas to all who should happen to read this blog and a very Happy Birthday to our youngest son, Luke.  So many say Luke was born “the day after Christmas” which sounds so anti-climatic and piddling.  And it just isn’t so!  There is nothing anti-climactic or piddling about Luke in his birth or in the journey he has traveled since.  Luke was born on the Second Day of Christmas!  Doesn’t that sound a whole lot better?  I think so.

My aging mind wanders back and forth, from here to there, from there to here,  from then to now, and from now to then, giving me great enjoyment in these morning hours.  I do not see this as a deficit as some of you may think it might be.  To the contrary, this wandering mind is a tremendous bonus.  The gift of a meandering mind takes me everywhere—from childhood memories, to teenage rebellions, to educational pursuits, to the birth of our children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and even imagines the unknown  future.  I wouldn’t trade it in for anything!  For example, I am thinking right now of a LP album purchased many years ago called “Love Is A Season,”  by Edye Gorme, one of my favorite singers back then.  In the album she sings, “Love is a season within the heart, we never know when it will come and go.  Love is no season on some calendar chart, there is no place for it, you simply wait for it…”  Now I’m trying to figure out why this album came to my mind—and it is simply this—Christmas is a season within the heart, it is no season on some calendar chart, you simply wait for it…” So, our son Luke was born on the Second Day of Christmas, not some day “after” a date on some calendar chart, for Christmas (like love) is a season within the heart.

Oh, this meandering mind of mine. Now it seems to insist on checking out Edye Gorme.  I discover she was born in 1928 as Edith Garmezano in New York City to Jewish immigrants.  Her father was from Sicily and her mother from Turkey.  Thank goodness there were no bans or walls preventing her parents from coming to this land, for then I would have missed, and the world would have missed the lovely voice of Edye Gorme, singing “Love is a season within the heart…Love is no season on some calendar chart…”

Merry Christmas on this Second Day of Christmas and to our son, Luke, a very Happy Birthday!

Luke, Kim, Ethan and Eleni at Christmastime.
They came in spirit to our house on Christmas Eve,
all the way from Flagstaff, and sang carols to us.
What a gift that was for us!

A Christmas Card for You

 

Dear Facebook Family and Friends at Christmastime,

Where can we find, in this moment of time, a message that will give us hope and encouragement in the midst of a pandemic?Can the Christmas message breakthrough in spite of our fears, our struggles, and yes, even our despair? Cherie and I find such a message  in the third stanza of “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear.”  The words give us hope and encouragement in the midst of the Coronavirus, Cherie’s diagnosis of cancer, and all the fears, struggles, and despair that we experience along our way.

“And ye, beneath life’s crushing load, whose

forms are bending low, Who toil along the

climbing way with painful steps and slow,

look now!  For glad and golden hours come

swiftly on the wing.  O rest beside the weary

road, and hear the angels sing.”

Howard Thurman wrote, “Despite all of the crassness of life, despite all of the hardness of life, despite all of the harsh discords of life, life is saved by the singing of angels.” Look now! Stop now! Listen now! Can you hear the singing?  “O rest beside the weary road, and hear the angels sing!”

The angel song is somewhat muted in the midst of life’s crushing load, our toil along the climbing way, and our slow and painful steps, but ....

    “Still through the cloven skies they come with peaceful wings unfurled, 

      and still their heavenly music floats o’er all the weary world; 

      above its sad and lowly plains, they bend on hovering wing, 

      and ever over its Babel sounds the blessed angels sing.”

The angels are singing now.  Their message:  Love is at the heart of things—all things—at all times.

Merry Christmas 

What Is God Doing?

Charles Albert Tindley, an African American Methodist minister, wrote the hymn “Stand By Me” in 1906. For the last several days the words of that hymn have been rambling around in my mind.  There is a rumor rampant among people of faith that God is hanging around just to get us out of our difficulties, to free us from disease, to do whatever we bid God to do.  The hymn suggests that the rumor just isn’t so.  God doesn’t take whatever is “bad” or “traumatic” or “hurtful” away…God stands by us in the midst of it.  I like to say, God “carries” us through whatever kind of “crucifixion” comes our way.  Like the Apostle Paul we spend a good deal of our time praying for God “to take it away” and fail to see, to know, and experience the reality of God standing by us and carrying us through whatever is ours to go through.

“When the storms of life are raging…Stand by me.

When the world is tossing me, like a ship upon the sea…Stand by me.

In the midst of tribulation…Stand by me.

When the host of hell assail, and my strength begins to fail…Stand by me.

In the midst of faults and failures…Stand by me.

When I’ve done the best I can, and my friends misunderstand…Stand by me.

In the midst of persecution…Stand by me.

When my foes in war array undertake to stop my way…Stand by me.

When I’m growing old and feeble…Stand by me.

When my life becomes a burden, and I’m nearing chilly Jordan…Stand by me.”

What does it mean to “stand by”?  When I stood at my mother’s grave and wept, my two daughter-in-laws came up to me, put their arms around me, and stood there with me in my grief.  I shall never forget that moment.  Just think, God stands by us like that!

“We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade the presence of God. 

  The world is crowded with Him.  He walks everywhere incognito” (C.S. Lewis). 

Fraudulent Christianity

 While It Is Day:  Fraudulent Christianity

“In the eyes of the Christian faith…no state of society can ever prevail, in the past or now or in the future, which satisfies the concern of Christians for the world…He/She (the Christian) is always dissatisfied with the existing state of affairs.” (William Stringfellow)

The following was reported in USA Today on Wednesday:

“President Trump's spiritual adviser Paula White-Cain says she hears victory from heaven…

Megachurch pastor and televangelist Paula White-Cain who is spiritual adviser to President Donald Trump, delivered a prayer service Wednesday night in an effort to secure Trump's reelection.

During the service, which was streamed on Facebook Live, White-Cain called on ‘angelic reinforcement’ from the continents of Africa and South America.

‘I hear a sound of victory, the Lord says it is done,’ she said. ‘For angels have even been dispatched from Africa right now... In the name of Jesus from South America, they're coming here.’

White's video has gone viral since it went online Wednesday night. And many have expressed outrage over her words.

‘God is sending angels from a place Trump called a [expletive] to help him get re-elected?’ Bishop Talbert Swan, a pastor, activist and NAACP Chapter President, wrote on Twitter. 'I hear the sounds of victory...' Consider a hearing aid.’

‘She’ll be lucky if Stephen Miller doesn’t send those angels to ICE Detention Centers,’ wrote Ana Navarro-Cárdenas, political strategist and commentator for CNN, Telemundo and The View.

White-Cain also stated that ‘demonic confederacies...are attempting to steal the election from Trump.’”

*****

Will we permit angel “caravans” from the south, north, east or west

 to influence our democratic process?  

We seem unwilling to let any strangers (angels) in these days.

Or, will we release the “better angels” within ourselves?

What “demonic confederacies”?  

How can an election be stolen from someone before he is elected?

Sometimes I am embarrassed to be called a Christian.

Two Issues Out of Many

 The First Issue:  Election Hysteria

Mr. Trump has trumped up his rhetoric about election fraud in the upcoming November election.  Attorney General Barr has echoed that rhetoric making unfounded claims about U.S. elections, vote by mail and voter fraud.  There is no evidence whatsoever to support the rhetoric—but then, evidence doesn’t seem to matter anymore.  Both Mr. Trump and Mr. Barr are undermining the credibility and legitimacy of the democratic election process.  So is Russia, according to Director Wray of the FBI.  VOTE!

Does anyone remember the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity (the Voter Fraud Commission) established by Donald Trump?  It ran from May 2017 to January 2018 and was then disbanded.  The commission’s task was to review claims of voter fraud, improper registration, and voter suppression following Trump’s claim that millions of illegal immigrants had voted in the 2016 election, costing him the popular vote.  No evidence was found to support that claim or of any widespread fraud in the American voting system.  VOTE!

Now, in this election year of 2020, Mr. Trump suggests that if he wins the election it will not be rigged.  But the only way he can lose is if the election is rigged.  Just think about that!  VOTE!

The Second Issue:  Divisiveness

Last Tuesday Mr. Trump once again at his rally in Moon Township, Pennsylvania, disparaged Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar implying that she is not American.  “She’s telling us,” he said, “how to run our country.  How did you do where you came from?  How is your country doing?”

Omar was born in Somalia.  She came to the U.S. when she was eight years old.  She is an American citizen and serves as a representative of the people of Minnesota in the U.S. House of Representatives. She is as much an American as Mr. Trump or any of the rest of us.  We are all immigrants, or the sons and daughters, or grandchildren, or great grandchildren of immigrants—including Mr. Trump.  

Immigrants, Black Lives Matter Protestors, Democrats and all others in this wonderful place we call America ARE AMERICANS—NOT ENEMIES.  A house divided against itself cannot stand!

Despicable

 The “Law and Order” mantra has been violated by the very person who has been touting it.  Mr. Trump flaunted the law (and order) by holding an indoor rally in Nevada on Sunday without social distancing (and a largely un-masked crowd) in defiance of the state’s ban on local gatherings of 50 people or more.  He also violated the Covid-19 guidelines set by his own administration.

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak called the rally “shameful, dangerous and irresponsible.”  “Tonight,” the governor said, “President Donald Trump is taking reckless and selfish actions that are putting countless lives in danger here in Nevada.  The President appears to have forgotten that this country is still in the middle of a global pandemic.”  Trump later claimed that he didn’t think he was subject to the 50-person guideline.  He sees himself  as “above the law.”

As Governor Sisolak made clear, “This is an insult to every Nevadan (and American) who has followed the directives, made sacrifices, and put their neighbors before themselves.”  For months “we the people” have been denied the opportunity to attend a funeral of a loved one or friend or to visit a grandparent in a Nursing Home, or attend a worship service, or visit with family members.  The people have been faithful to the emergency directives given by the governors of their respective states in response to a still spiraling global pandemic.  Even NFL games are being played in mostly empty stadiums.   But this does not apply to Mr. Trump!  

It is despicable (“deserving to be despised; so obnoxious as to rouse moral indignation”)!  It irks me.  I’m not at a loss for words to describe the rally, held in blatant disregard of the law, and which health officials warn (on the basis of evidence:  Tulsa, Sturgis, etc.) is a “super spreader” event. 

It is repugnant, disgusting, contemptible, irresponsible, deplorable, revolting, odious, disgraceful, dishonorable, ignominious, shameful, base, ignoble, reprehensible, and dastardly.  And so much more…. 

Morning Musings

The hymns of the Christian Church have been a significant part of my life—from childhood to the present.  Many of those hymns I know by heart.  Sometimes a certain hymn pops into my mind as the following did this morning:

“I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies, 

no sudden rending of the veil of clay,

no angel visitant, no opening skies; 

but take the dimness of my soul away.” 

That happens to be the second verse of the hymn, “Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart.” The words were written by George Croly in 1867—and here I am pondering those 153-year-old words in the year 2020.  

Would it help if I could see the way ahead?  If I could know what is in store tomorrow?  Would that I could dream a dream which would answer the questions that haunt me?  How wonderful it would be, if like the Apostle, I could have a Damascus Road experience, or hear as clearly as Amos or Isaiah what truth is—a kind of “prophet ecstasy”.  If only the “veil” of “not knowing” were lifted.  To be visited by an angel, as Mary was, would certainly ease my mind and give me a hint of what to expect as the journey continues.  If only the sky would open and give me the “light” by which to see and to know what lies ahead.  

We all seek for the dream, a prophet’s ecstasy, the lifting of the veil, an angel visitant, or an opening sky.  We think if only we had that kind of sight or insight, we would be able to cope, to know, to control, and to “do something”.   We do not want to live in“dimness.”

Croly’s fourth verse seems to say that the dimness that frustrates us so will not be taken away—that it is part of what it means to be human and alive.  

“Teach me to feel that Thou art always nigh;

Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear,

To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh;

Teach me the patience of unceasing prayer.”

Croly also wrote the hymn, “Search Me, O God,” in which he says:

“Lord, take my life, and make it wholly Thine

Fill my poor heart with Thy great love divine

Take all my will, my passion, self and pride

I now surrender, Lord, in me abide.”

“I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies, 

no sudden rending of the veil of clay,

no angel visitant, no opening skies;