One thousand unidentified bodies were found on land they wanted to build a medical school in Mississippi.  It was on the site of a former mental hospital.  And all the director of the medical school could do was complain about the three million it will take to give each body a proper burial.  And as the article said if the money was needed for their football team, it would be obtained.  Where is the outrage?!  Each person once had a Mom and probably a Dad.  And the parents invested their hopes and dreams for their child.  And no one knows who they are?  Where is the outrage?  That is the only thing I can say.  And I have to repeat a third time:  Where is the outrage?!

I learned Phil Everly died recently.  I immediately played the anthology I had of The Everly Brothers–a best of–“Looking Back.”  It is twenty cuts and is the best collection I ever heard of them.  In the eighties they reformed and came out with at least two albums.  I can comment on the first, which was superb and had Albert Lee playing on it and was produced by Dave Edwards.  “On The Wings Of A Nightingale” was expressly written for them by Paul McCartney in two part harmony.  The album which came out was in no way dated.  “Asleep” which closes the album is absolutely stunning.  The whole album is fresh and worth hearing.  I have no idea whether it is available on CD.  By all means if it is, get it.  You can’t go wrong.  When you hear them sing, it is hard to separate their voices.  They blended so perfectly.

I don’t know how much longer Pax will be with us.  Last night the dog came in and walked to the kitchen.  He was on his haunches and his hind legs were so weak that he could not get up right away.  He has two torn knees and get pain meds twice a day.  Our vet said on his last visit just make him as comfortable as you can.  There is no more he can do for him.  Pax is thirteen and an half–pretty old for a large dog.  The time will come when we will have to put him down.  Right now I will enjoy him as long as I can.  He won’t be around much longer.

Our involvement in the Middle East (after 9/11) was really about vengeance.  The American people wanted someone to pay for the thousands who died at the world trade centers.  And our president used that as an excuse to invade Iraq and have a greater presence in the Middle East and to this day we don’t know whether he outright lied or was deliberately fed faulty intelligence when he claimed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.  And it was not true.  Terrorism got worse there.  And we are still in Afghanistan–the longest war we have ever been in and we don’t hear about much but we are still there.  And you have to wonder why.  Much money is being made and no one is honest:  we are there because of the oil.  We want a greater presence in the Middle East because of the oil there.  None of the politicians want to say that openly but that is the truth.  We are there because of the oil.  Fighting terrorism is just an excuse.

Pax the elder of our pack of four dogs is getting old.  Both knees are torn and we started giving him pain meds.  It was just too painful for him to get around.  We were thrilled when we started giving him a second pain pill (in the morning) and he became more active.  No dog lives forever.  He is thirteen — old for a big dog (he must be eighty pounds) now.  His rear muscles have atrophied.  The vet said to make him as comfortable as possible.  He has been around forever.  He is the father of two of our dogs.  He is feisty.  Sometimes he will come into my room just to get one pat on the head and then he leaves.  He is one confident dog.  He literally prances up and down at the end of the day for after the last “out” for all the four dogs he will get some kind of treat.  And he knows that and gets all excited.  Now it is a slice of bread with some peanut butter dabbed on it to hide the pain pill.  He has always loved bread.

It is always better in the light.  I need to get out, rub shoulders with others–even if it is only briefly.  Sleep is coming from the darkness.  It is an abyss.  You have no control of your dreams.  It is almost like death.  My surroundings are too familiar.  Outside it is light (and sometimes hope).  Depression is too easy.  It is always better in the light.

Give us today our daily bread.  The prayer we give every day is God satisfies our daily needs.  This is illustrated by one of Jesus’ parables.  A farmer had a great crop and he built a gigantic store house.  And Jesus came to him and called him a fool.  Jesus informed him his time has come.  You don’t have to stock up.  He will take care of us every day.  And it is a day at a time. That should be our prayer:  He fulfills all our physical needs a day at a time.  Each day you face.

A Reprieve For Pax

Author: siggy

It was a reprieve for Pax.  Last week one day he just lay there almost motionless.  My dog would not eat or drink anything.  He just lay there.  I thought it was the beginning of the end.  He is a big dog, thirteen years old.  Really big dogs don’t live as long as smaller dogs.  I thought his time was up.  His malaise lasted only one day.  All of a sudden he perked up, drank water and ate again.  It was not his time.  I will try to not take his life for granted any longer.  I don’t know how much time he has but I will make an effort to treasure his remaining days.

“Noah’s Ark” was gone.  It was a big boat, over forty feet long — really a small yacht — that sat, raised up high on a platform, in a meadow at the crest of a hill.  We passed it every time we drove home from town.  I started calling the boat “Noah’s Ark”.  It was a landmark.  I have lived in this town ten years and my wife even longer, and she always remembered that boat sitting there.  It stood, surrounded by high weeds, for years–maybe several decades.  She told me that the owner and his family had at one time lived in it, down in Florida.  He died recently.  Now The Ark was gone.  I wonder what will happen to it.

Peace always revolves around grace.  Each party commits mistakes.  Conflict always exists.  There can not be peace without grace.  And grace does not come about without forgiveness.

If you talk about conflict between nations, there are always atrocities committed by both parties.  Conflict is on-going.  The only thing that breaks the vicious cycle is forgiveness.  We don’t earn that.  Only grace enables a nation to forgive the other.  Then the cycle is broken.  It is done one person at a time.

Let us get more specific.  Let us talk briefly about Iraq.  Thousands of civilians in that country lost their lives in the fray and civil unrest.  No one talks about them.  Many civilians died.  Many people are mourning their close relatives who died there.  Yes, many Americans died there or were injured, too.  And their survivors are mourning them, also.

There is only one thing that will stop the carnage–forgiveness brought on by grace.  And as I said before you can’t earn it.  Each party has to forgive the other.  Vengeance does not solve anything.  That only happens by grace.

I must be getting old:  Ray Manzarek (from The Doors) died today.  He was seventy-four.  He lived a lot longer than his mate Jim Morrison.  Far too many musicians died early.  Too much fame too early.  Ray, at least, made it to a ripe old age.  Each year someone else dies who I followed in the sixties and seventies.  Of old age.  I feel old, today, although I won’t stay there.  From dust we come and to dust we shall return.  Death and taxes.  We all face that one day.

Our local post office had a beautiful Norfolk pine in its lobby.  For a long time (several years) it was a flourishing tree. It must have liked the the light it was getting in that spot.  Then it started losing branches and started dying.  There seemed nothing our postmaster could do about it.  Once a branch becomes brittle and breaks off it is too late.  Some of the branches were still healthy.  Finally it died.  I had the image in my head how healthy it once (???).  I felt so bad when she took it out of there.  She suspects it got over watered.  It was so beautiful once.  And now its dead.  I just felt bad for it.