Oh well, they will always be there.
We had a good trip to Florida and I am again renewed. I did, however, go splat on the floor the first day we were there. I have had lectures about picking up my feet, and I keep trying. Happily, George, Nancy and two grands were there to help me up and minister to my various hurts - some worse than others. We had a glorious time fishing but the fish are just not here anymore. I have two theories for this. One is the climate change. Two years ago I began seeing sea creatures I have never seen before on our beaches, and when investigating I find that they are from more southern waters, heading away from the warming of the waters of the earth. The same might be said of the fish, though I think the main culprit here is the leaky oil well in our just immediate past. With one exception we caught sharks and channel catfish. Yuk. We have some other ideas about trying different places and techniques when next year comes. Saxon (elder grandchild of the Scotts) stayed home with his dad and together they tore down an old building on the place and plan to use the lumber to build a new room in the small apartment they have on the mesa. He is very proud of himself. This new action comes as a result of his turning 15, and next year will apply to Mally also. She is certainly capable of putting in a full day's work when her time comes. We will have Spencer at the beach for a couple more years.
George and I have been asked to go to a marriage seminar as mentors of sorts. I think we will go. We will soon reach our 50 year marriage mark, and all the people who predicted doom for us will have egg on their faces. It just takes work and patience and humor and love and there you have it.
Please pray for daughter Mary Beth and her husband Ken as he battles cancer It's a hard fight but they go valiantly on and will finish the course. We need a complete healing, here, just as we need your prayers for this to happen. Thank you in advance.
God has given me a curriculum for the jr. and sr. high students ar church and I was up to do it myself. Our perceptive minister, realizing that I am not in physical shape to do this alone, has worked out a roster of couples, feeling that the presence of boh men and women is important here. I will write the material I have been given and off we go! Such an adventure this will be. I am excited about it and very happy not to have the whole thing on my shoulders- particularly since I need a new left knee and will do this asap. This leaves only the right shoulder and I will be totally bionic. My spine is deteriorating with L4 and L5 having disappeared. Not sure what happens next, but I know I'll find out. There are days when I wish I didn't have to.
Blessings to all of you, those I know and those I don't. MJ
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
mmmmmmm
I guess you will have to wait for a quote that I promised last post,(and some of them are really good) because I am going to the beach for a week. This is for the healing of my very soul. To me it is the most beautiful place in the world, but them I was raised down at St. Teresa, on the gulf coast of Florida (right where Florida bends. It's a 4 mile stetch of private beach. We once had a house there, but it's gone now, however daughter Nancy and husband Scooter rent a house every summer and we go for a week. We'll fish and dig in the sand and play board games with the grands. So, so much fun. Blessings to all.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
When I spoke of rereading meaningful passages,
I am not going way back today - save that for later. I have just finished "Empire" by O.S. Card. Here is a passage from the Afterword.
"Because we haven't had a civil war in the past fourteen decades, people think we can't have one now. Where is the georaphic clarity of the Mason Dixon line? When you the red-blue state divisiion in the past few elections, you get a false impression. The real division is urban, academic and high-tech counties versus suburban, rural and conservative Christian counties. How could such widely scattered 'blue' centers and such centerless 'red' populations ever act in concert?
Geography aside, however, we have never been so evenly divided with such hateful rhetoric since the years lieading up to the Civil War of the 1860s. Because the national media elite are so uniformly progressive, we heep hearing (in the elite media) about the rhetorical excesses of the 'extreme right". To hear the same media, there is no 'exreme left", just the occasional progressive who says things he or she shouldn't.
But any rational observer has to see that the Left and Right in America are screaming the most vile accusations at each all the time. We are fully polarized - if you accept the idea that sounds like it belongs to either the blue or the red, you are assusmed- nay, required-- to espouse the entire rest of the package, even though there is no reason why support in the war agains terorism should imply you're in favor of banning all abortions and against restricting the availability of firearms, no reason why being in favor of keeping government-imposed limits on the free market shoud imply you also are in favor of giving legal status to homosexual couples and against building nuclear reactors. These issues are not remotely connected, and yet, if you hold any of one group's views, you are hated by the other group as if you believe them all. ..... it goes deeper than this,however. A good working definition of fanaticism is that you are so convinced of your views and policies that you are sure anyone who opposes them must either be stupid and deceived or have some ulterior motive....treated as if you were a traitor for deviating even slightly from the party line.
It goes deeper than this however. A good working definition of fanaticism is that you are so convinced of yuour views and policies that you are sure anyone who opposes them must either be stupd and deceived or have some ulterior motive. ......
Does tis lead inevitably to civil war? Of course not - although it's hardly conducive to stable government or the long term continuation of democracy
"Because we haven't had a civil war in the past fourteen decades, people think we can't have one now. Where is the georaphic clarity of the Mason Dixon line? When you the red-blue state divisiion in the past few elections, you get a false impression. The real division is urban, academic and high-tech counties versus suburban, rural and conservative Christian counties. How could such widely scattered 'blue' centers and such centerless 'red' populations ever act in concert?
Geography aside, however, we have never been so evenly divided with such hateful rhetoric since the years lieading up to the Civil War of the 1860s. Because the national media elite are so uniformly progressive, we heep hearing (in the elite media) about the rhetorical excesses of the 'extreme right". To hear the same media, there is no 'exreme left", just the occasional progressive who says things he or she shouldn't.
But any rational observer has to see that the Left and Right in America are screaming the most vile accusations at each all the time. We are fully polarized - if you accept the idea that sounds like it belongs to either the blue or the red, you are assusmed- nay, required-- to espouse the entire rest of the package, even though there is no reason why support in the war agains terorism should imply you're in favor of banning all abortions and against restricting the availability of firearms, no reason why being in favor of keeping government-imposed limits on the free market shoud imply you also are in favor of giving legal status to homosexual couples and against building nuclear reactors. These issues are not remotely connected, and yet, if you hold any of one group's views, you are hated by the other group as if you believe them all. ..... it goes deeper than this,however. A good working definition of fanaticism is that you are so convinced of your views and policies that you are sure anyone who opposes them must either be stupid and deceived or have some ulterior motive....treated as if you were a traitor for deviating even slightly from the party line.
It goes deeper than this however. A good working definition of fanaticism is that you are so convinced of yuour views and policies that you are sure anyone who opposes them must either be stupd and deceived or have some ulterior motive. ......
Does tis lead inevitably to civil war? Of course not - although it's hardly conducive to stable government or the long term continuation of democracy
Saturday, July 2, 2011
complete idiots
On this subject, I have been one of these for the last week. Having found lumps in an aching breast, I was escorted to various physicians by my everloving youngest, only to find out, after writing my complete funeral service, that I did not, not, not, have cancer. Why was I so quick to accept it? No idea - I am usually not that wimpy, but somehow I did it, even with Nancy and Dad poo-poohing the whole thing. To my next crisis I now say, So What? And to my children, forgive my maundering and stewing.
In other news, my sister in Tallahassee is and has been hospitalized for some time. She has atrial fibrillation and nothing seems to stop it. I hope to see her when we go over next weekend. The trip will also give us a chance to visit MB and Ken. He has been in some misery and there will be more to go before he is well, but they soldier on (unlike me). It will be so good to be there with them and I hope to find a way to be a help to MB. They are both very special to me.
That said, I have, for some years, been copying quotes from books, bits that especially spoke to me, and I think it's time to share some of them with you. I ususally comment on them, even if briefly. So, next time look for some of these.
In other news, my sister in Tallahassee is and has been hospitalized for some time. She has atrial fibrillation and nothing seems to stop it. I hope to see her when we go over next weekend. The trip will also give us a chance to visit MB and Ken. He has been in some misery and there will be more to go before he is well, but they soldier on (unlike me). It will be so good to be there with them and I hope to find a way to be a help to MB. They are both very special to me.
That said, I have, for some years, been copying quotes from books, bits that especially spoke to me, and I think it's time to share some of them with you. I ususally comment on them, even if briefly. So, next time look for some of these.
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