Donald, I know there are a gillion and a half very serious, pressing concerns right now, including the terrifyingly high rates of Covid-19 deaths each day and questions about which GOPP* Congress people aided and abetted the insurrectionists (i.e., committed treason), but I’m going to focus on something much more mundane today – the White … Continue reading White House delouse
Spiritual Practices
Boxing Day and Kwanzaa ~ compare and contrast
To: The Lame Duck Earth Scorcher Sometimes I think I’ve been living under a rock most all my life or that I’m about as incurious as they come. For years I’ve known that the day after Christmas is called Boxing Day and until about 1 minute ago I didn’t even wonder what it was referring … Continue reading Boxing Day and Kwanzaa ~ compare and contrast
May we not squander our moral courage this time
To: He Whose Moral Compass is Kaput Yesterday the Twitter-verse had a scare because Dionne Warwick was trending so people thought she must have died. She very much has not died and the reason she was trending was that she reached out to Chance The Rapper and teased him about including “The Rapper” in his … Continue reading May we not squander our moral courage this time
Vulnerability shouldn’t be a luxury
To: The Sorest, Most Messed-Up Loser Ever Yesterday our intern chaplain preached and near the end of her sermon our senior minister said in the chat that she thought it was one of the best sermons ever. It was a truly wonderful sermon on an incredibly challenging portion of the lectionary – Mathew 25: 14-30, … Continue reading Vulnerability shouldn’t be a luxury
LOVE > FEAR
Mr. Grifter, Actually, a grifter is a small-scale swindler so it doesn’t really apply to you but I’m enamored of the rhyme (“mister” and “grifter”) so I’m going with it. I don’t want to focus squarely on you today though, so I’m going to segue to my preferred topic, which is the relationship between fear … Continue reading LOVE > FEAR
Bitter and sweet, sweet and bitter
President* for only 73 more days (and counting) Trump, My word of the day today is “bittersweet”, which is defined as either “bitterness and sweetness combined,” which I think is rather too literal and pretty lame, or as “pleasure mixed with overtones of sadness,” which I like quite a bit better (https://www.yourdictionary.com/bittersweet). In this morning’s … Continue reading Bitter and sweet, sweet and bitter
Godspeed for those ballots and for a dear one who passed on
President* Trump, Before we left the house to deliver our ballots to the official drop box nearest us, I did something I’ve never ever done before – I kissed the envelope and wished it godspeed. I’m realizing now that I should have kissed Laura’s too as I was holding both of them while she grabbed … Continue reading Godspeed for those ballots and for a dear one who passed on
Robert Trump and rocky ground
President* Trump, I wish I could be unreserved in extending my condolences to you in the wake of your brother, Robert’s death. I do feel sad for you and for the rest of your family and his friends. We’re coming up on the two-year anniversary this week of my brother-in-law’s death and I still think … Continue reading Robert Trump and rocky ground
Raising up the gnat
“President” Trump, I want to come back to Sister Dang Nghiem and what I’ve learned from her so far. I finished her dharma talk on how to grieve last night and over and over I was astounded by her incredible equanimity and restraint. You see, throughout the entire hour and 23 minutes of her lesson, … Continue reading Raising up the gnat
Meeting and greeting a Buddha half-face
Dear President Trump, It’s hard to believe there are still some quirks of mine that I’ve not previously shared with you, but I don’t think I’ve told you before that I frequently see stuff other people don’t see – literal stuff, not just connections between issues or ideas. I see faces in bits of debris … Continue reading Meeting and greeting a Buddha half-face