Author: Nick

A few months ago I started taking the local papers: The Advertiser and The Advocate. I skim both papers every day. I do the Sudoku puzzles in both. It’s my desperate attempt to keep mentally alert at 71. The other thing I do because of my age is check out the obituaries. I have decided I need to take an obit picture or at least designate one already taken. I see that people make mistakes when posting obit pictures. I always get a little pang when I see the picture of a young person heading up an obituary. I feel misled when I read the obit and find the deceased was in their 90s. There is something dishonest about posting a pic of the deceased that’s decades old. On the other hand, I understand not posting a recent picture. When we get old, we are often not recognizable to old friends and family. That’s why I think I need to find or take a picture that most people I know will recognize when I pass when I am likely to look nothing like I do now. The other thing I notice is that there are a lot of folks […]

  I receive Fr. Richard Rohr’s postings each day. Frankly, I don’t usually read them. It’s not that I disagree with them. It’s that most of them are over my head, spiritually speaking. At 2 a.m., this morning I woke and, is my custom, I opened up my phone looking for something to read or listen to, something so boring it would put me back to sleep. I came upon Fr. Rohr’s posting. It didn’t put me to sleep. It hit me directly with its simple truth. I have stolen most of it and reproduced it here. I have emphasized my favorite lines. I suppose Fr. Rohr won’t mind. The Wisdom of Job Tuesday,  July 7, 2020 Theology does not by itself provide wisdom in crisis. All theology must become a living spirituality to really change us or the world. It’s disappointing that we Christians have emphasized theology, catechism, and religious education much more than prayer and practice. The biblical book of Job is probably one of the greatest books on prayer that has ever been written. It breaks our stereotypes of what it means to communicate with God. If we view Job’s story as a journey into an […]

If you are to survive all that has and is happening in 2020 get this through your thick skull: You can never go back. This can be a hard truth, especially for us older folks, but we need to accept it to survive. Let me give you some examples. Work. Work will no longer be a noun. For most, it will no longer be a place you go to. It will be a thing you do. There have been too many jobs, we discovered in 2020, that can be done best from home. The costs of commuting, providing workspace, and dealing with the personnel conflicts that arise from “office politics” will drive this change. For many, but not all, work is no longer a place. Shopping. If it can’t be delivered to our homes, we probably don’t need it. Health. Health will no longer be something we entrust to our health care providers. In 2020, we learned that they don’t know everything; in some cases, don’t know anything. Health will have to be a matter of personal responsibility. We listen to those with more knowledge and experience, but we decide for ourselves. We can’t trust everyone with a medical […]

  I haven’t posted since April. It’s not that things haven’t been happening. There have been lots to comment on. I just didn’t know what to say. What hasn’t already been said about COVID-19? There seem to be only two positions: The danger has been greatly exaggerated. It hasn’t been taken seriously enough. We went from the “greatest economy in history” to the “highest unemployment since the depression” seemingly overnight. We transitioned from “if you don’t stay home, you’re evil” to “if you aren’t out protesting, you’re evil.” We have two candidates for President. One can’t stop tweeting and the other can’t string a coherent paragraph together.  If we agree on anything, it’s that the world has gone crazy. What can we do? What should we be doing? I think the answer is in the last Psalm.  Psalm 150 1 Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary;     praise him in his mighty heaven! 2 Praise him for his mighty works;     praise his unequaled greatness! 3 Praise him with a blast of the ram’s horn;     praise him with the lyre and harp! 4 Praise him with the tambourine and dancing;     praise him with strings and flutes! 5 Praise him with a clash of cymbals;     praise […]

I get the feeling that our world, through this pandemic, is being changed forever. I have been working out of my home for decades. After this is over, I think it’s obvious that many will work “remotely” from now on. It will be a dramatic change in the workforce. As employers and workers both discover that much can be accomplished with great efficiency through remote employment. I am also convinced that many will learn that “working from home” is not for them. It takes a certain personality to work remotely. One has to be self-motivating. It’s also necessary to be able to work at all hours and on any day. The work is determined by the need and not just the calendar. The work world will change. The social world will change as well. We won’t hug or shake hands as readily as we once did. We will, perhaps forever, view others as potential sources of disease. Sports events won’t be the same as we shy away from gatherings of perhaps thousands of germ-infested humans.  Eating out will be rarer. As will shopping. The easy of remote dining and shopping will prove too addictive for most of us. I […]

  On that original Palm Sunday, crowds came out and greeted Jesus like a hero prophet. They covered the path before Him with their cloaks and waved palms in His honor. This Palm Sunday there were no parades. No shouting of “Hosanna.”  Palm Sunday started a week gloriously that ended up in apparent tragedy. This week promises grimness as well. Even with the lack of parade and homage paying to Jesus, it’s more important than ever to recognize His Kingship, to live with the knowledge that He is in control and security in knowing He will see us through this storm as He has so many times before. This week we will likely see death. We will see finger-pointing. We will see exhaustion and maybe even despair in those trained to care for the sick and save lives. We may begin to see doubt in the young that the old are worth the financial sacrifices they are making. We will see the old missing the smiling faces and touches from those they see far too infrequently even in good times. The “adventure” of “staying home” will begin to be much less exciting and more exhausting. It will be more […]

My daily routine is pretty simple. I get up. Have a cup of coffee. Go for a swim. Eat breakfast at one of a number of breakfast eateries. Then I go into the office for a couple of hours. My swim place and breakfast places are shut down. Take out breakfast isn’t the same.  Even my office is encouraging work from home. I am realizing that I am going to have to make some life changes. I’ve given this some thought and here are my plans. Take more day trips. I know this sounds contrary to the social distancing thing, but consider: This isn’t New York or San Francisco. We can leave our homes without making social contact. My plan is to select a drive-through I either haven’t been to in a while or have never patronized. Leave the house, tank up at a self-service gas station, enjoy a ride in the country, pick up drive-through lunch and head home. I know me. I am not going to be able to sit in my house for weeks. So that’s plan one. There are some other possibilities: Plant a garden.  I have done a bit of gardening in the past. […]

I’m getting pretty tired of living in an “abundance of caution.” They canceled my favorite sporting event, March Madness. They want me to work from home. The only reason I work is so I can get out of the house. Now they are saying all of us old folks just need to stay home and die. Well, I added the “and die” part but you get the idea. It’s not that this virus is the worse thing ever to hit mankind. It’s just that “man” kind has become unmanly. We are a society of wimps. Look at the facts: This thing is far from the worst virus ever. Relatively few die. Most recover. Many don’t even know that they are sick. We have decided as a society that no one should have to suffer because of this. We expect to be paid even if we don’t work, to make a profit even if we close our doors. We demand a reliable “test” to comfort ourselves that we are not sick even if we have no symptoms.  We close our schools but require them to continue to provide meals. Have our parenting skills come so low that we don’t feed […]