Just a little more than usual
Everyday, I’d say my wife, our kids, and the grandkids to a certain extent. Politically in a good way, probably Rachel Maddow, Pete Buttigieg; in a bad way, Donald Trump and the cast of doomsayers still propping him up.
Then there are the memories of folks no longer with us– my mom and dad, my brother. Certain comics and authors and a couple of seminary professors come to mind, along with an athlete or two.
Off the top of my head, I know that Dwight D. Eisenhower was President, and that the Brown V Board of Education case came before the Supreme Court, a case in which the court voted unanimously to find segregation in schools to be unconstitutional.
The rest is with an assist from Wikipedia… the year 1954 started on a Friday; Jonas Salk announced the polio vaccine, and the first doses would be administered in Pittsburgh; West Germany won its first World Cup title, over Hungary; Vietnam was divided at the 17th parallel; there was a coup d’etat in Guatemala; Hurricane Hazel devastated the Caribbean, U.S., and Canada; the Castle Bravo and Castle Romeo (hydrogen) nuclear tests were conducted in the Marshall Islands; the first operational subway line was opened in Toronto; The U.S. Air Force Academy was founded; Arturo Toscanini’s retirement was announced after a performance at Carnegie Hall, during which he had a memory lapse; President Eisenhower laid out what became known as the Domino Theory at a news conference in April; April 11 was denoted as the Most Boring Day in the 20th Century; Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe got married; Roger Bannister ran the first sub-4 minute mile, in England; the words “under God” are added to the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance; Diane Leather was the first woman to run a sub-5 minute mile, also in England; Joseph McCarthy’s popularity declines after Special Counsel Joseph N. Welch lashed out with his now famous attack–“Have you, at long last, no decency?”
There is much more, but one last entry: food rationing ended in Great Britain, 14 years after it began early in WWII, and almost a decade after the war ended.
I form first impressions based on what I see and hear. Sometimes the red flags are plainly visible. My time as a clergy person allowed me to hone those skills a bit, but I wouldn’t want the job of Personnel Director or work for a SVU or the FBI as an interrogator. I might be able to smell a rat or know when someone is simply full of themselves, or when a grandchild is outright lying about eating their vegetables.
When I think of a good judge of character, I’m thinking of a seasoned veteran like the ones on any good cop show (they must exist in real life), or maybe a CIA operative or a prosecutor who does their homework and persists in exposing the bad guy because they trust the evidence or have an educated hunch.
One could argue that there was a paucity of good judgment in light of the results of the 2024 Presidential election.
Often enough, the best part of the day is right now, first thing in the morning– when I’m writing in here, sitting with my cold brew at the ready, and it’s still dark and quiet.
It’s hardly ever that we have a packed calendar, but there are stretches when we have places to go, people to see, and I really like when all that is behind us– unless it’s a vacation and we’re going on a road trip somewhere, or folks are coming here.
It’s enjoyable when we go out to eat. It’s a good feeling when the bills are paid and we still have money in the checking account.
I find myself to be selective when it comes to the people I really like being around. Mostly I prefer peace and quiet and an unstructured day. So, I guess I’m most happy when the schedule is open, and we don’t have to be anywhere, and financial obligations have been kept at bay for another month.
I can usually pick a time we were with the grandkids– our get-togethers happen fairly regularly– but I’m gonna go with a trip to Shady Maple with my sister-in-law and her husband. Shady Maple is a well-known smorgasbord in Lancaster County, PA. In fact, it claims to be the largest such establishment in the U.S.
One does not go to Shady Maple without saving one’s appetite ahead of time– you have to get your money’s worth… They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner (or supper), and each meal is a feast for the eyes and the stomach, an almost embarrassingly vast array of dishes and choices, from salad to entree to dessert. The coffee is decent, too. We had lunch there and it ended up being the last time we ate that day.
If you’re ever out that way, stop in and enjoy! There’s also a huge gift shop downstairs, along with a free-standing grocery store and furniture store– one-stop shopping for a variety of needs and wants.
If nothing matters, then anything goes. If anything goes, then nothing matters. If there are no guard rails, no checks and balances, no respect or sense of decorum—and people are fine with this—then it is official: we have lost our way and the beginning of the end is at hand.
There has always been a fine line between order and chaos, between civility and mayhem. It’s always been a matter of enough people agreeing to try, agreeing to live in an honorable manner, daring to step out in pursuit of ideals.
And agreeing to not take advantage, even though the temptation and a certain potential for abuse will always be present.
Jefferson, Franklin, Madison, Hamilton and the rest devised a plan to give us civilians and citizens a say in and a responsibility for the matters that affect us all. It was and remains a daring experiment, characterized by both great strength and surprising fragility. Its continued existence has always depended upon enough of us committing to a certain restraint, to guidelines and boundaries, to rules and expectations written on parchment and paper, and maybe on our hearts.
Donald Trump doesn’t give a shit about any of this, and neither do many of the rest of the heartless automatons with fried circuits who currently claim the power and, delusionally, the moral high ground. We have been watching the decay for many years, even before Trump crawled out of his gilded lair and, with the help of the real “visionaries” around him, pounced on the inherent vulnerabilities– including trust– in our system of governance.
The rot is systemic now, and the only thing between further degradation and reclamation in some form is us taking a stand—in the voting booth and in the streets, shouting loudly at our representatives in Congress to take their jobs seriously, to find some courage and stop enabling the Usurper-in-Chief and the rest of the leeches and predators who, for some reason, find taxation without representation a sort of soothing elixir.
It’s an uphill battle– fighting the typical human inclinations toward deception and self-enrichment and abuse of power. Both the beauty and vulnerability in our system is that nothing is carved in stone, perhaps unenforceable at times. Welcome amendation and change can happen along the way, but a true miscreant can elbow his way in. What’s happening now should be found repulsive and evil, the furthest thing from welcome change, from truth or patriotism or anything resembling genuine Christian faith or the better angels of our nature.
The longer this deviance has opportunity to persist, the harder it will be to stop without having to resort to drastic measures. Trump and the rest will be no help, because they don’t care. They want to blow it all up, with no thought for societal repair or improvement.
They are, many of them, stunningly misguided and inept, selfish and lazy. But crazy like a fox.
I’d like to say veggies and fruit, but it’s dark roast coffee beans, Oatmeal and Raisin Cliff Bars, Berries and Vanilla Chobani yogurt, something from the deli, and Utz Ripple Chips. My wife tends to all the really healthy stuff, so we eat smartly more often than not.
The last time around, I talked about my father. On this current trip around the sun, maybe I’ll switch it up and talk about a public figure, an athlete. I don’t know him beyond the myriad highlight reels I’ve watched, along with interviews he’s given. I’d still like to meet him.
He was the epitome of a sportsman, skilled and humble, poetry in motion, many say in a league by himself. No one could touch him on the ice. He literally skated circles around other players, controlled the game and perhaps revolutionized it, or at least his position. He played a key role in bringing New England hockey fans two Stanley Cups, in 1970 and 1972.
Bobby Orr became a legend in his time in Boston. He of course was human, and his left knee in particular was proof of this. It was the way he carried himself, though– a player with rare talent, who never let notoriety or fame go to his head. Game after game, he just played with a zeal– and maybe a joy– that left everyone speechless and appreciative, and often in awe.
I don’t know how Orr in his prime would fare in today’s game, but it doesn’t much matter. In his day, and in all the days since, he has remained the kind of person we might aspire to be– kind, honest, and humble.
My brother has a signed picture of Orr flying through the air after his overtime winner in 1970. Bobby even personalized it, with a little note about how my brother was one of the great pond hockey players in central Mass., or some such thing. I’ve always been a bit envious.
What more can be said regarding Trump’s tone deafness in the aftermath of the loss of the Reiners?
There’s no way, anymore, to access words that sufficiently address the depravity and immaturity. It’s all been said. The burden going forward will fall to the sane among us who must create new vocabulary that captures the essence of a 79-year-old 10th-grader who thinks he can say and do whatever he wants because he’s POTUS.
He apparently has never gotten the memo about the list of things that should remain unsaid– or un-done– because he’s POTUS.
What should bother us all is that there is no one close to him who has the courage to correct him, or stop him, or report him to the authorities as a danger to himself and others. It’s been an endless flow of sewage since 2015, and people in positions of being able to do something about this should be way past tired of putting up with it. The rest of us can signal our dissatisfaction in the voting booth, but that’s not happening soon enough.
One more thing… did anyone else read that screed/tweet from Trump re the Reiners and wonder if it didn’t sound more like Stephen Miller?
Pretty much, I guess. I’ve never been one for making long range plans, especially anymore. The only thing approaching goals or plans that I might have had a year ago would have been to stay ahead of the bills, and stay healthy enough to be useful around the house, enjoy the grandchildren, and tackle a couple of woodworking projects.
3 Cents' 