Category: Life

A Mind is a Terrible Thing…

…to um, uh, what was I going to say?

Oh yeah! Lose. A mind is a terrible thing to lose. I guess one of life’s little jokes is that as we get older we experience momentary lapses in memory and/or concentration. They older you get, the goofier the results. I have certainly been reminded of my mortality of late, to wit, the following recent episodes of my encroaching senility.

Episode 1, in which we see our hero shuffling into the bathroom of a morning to perform his daily ablutions. Take meds, check. Grab toothpaste, check. Root around in the drawer for the razor, check. Apply toothpaste to razor and…Well, I almost shaved my teeth, but I realized my error just in the nick of time and brushed my face instead. Still recovering from all the cuts.

Episode 2, in which our intrepid moron, saunters over to the microwave to warm his tepid cup of coffee. Open door, insert coffee mug, close door, and wait. After staring at the machine for the requisite 50 seconds like the RCA dog listening to his master’s voice, head tilted endearingly to one side, our moron opens the door and retrieves his coffee. He takes a tentative sip. “Hmmm…seems a bit cool. This microwave must be acting up. Oh well, I’ll take a look at it later.”

Ahem. I think you need to turn the microwave ON for it to work, Dimwit!

Oh, I could go on, but there’s a limit to how much humiliation I can take before noon. Now where the hell are my glasses??

Heh, they were on my head the whole time…heh…<sigh>

Comes the Dawn

Ok, I gotta be straight with you, I’m pretty depressed about Tuesday. The leaden ball in the pit of my gut feels much worse than the one from October 20th…or 10/29, 10/13, 9/29, and 9/15 all rolled into one for that matter. Why? Because this matters and those other things don’t. I know many of you feel the same way.

Nevertheless…

The year ‘s at the spring,
And day ‘s at the morn ;
Morning’s at seven;
The hill-side ‘s dew-pearled ;
The lark ‘s on the wing ;
The snail ‘s on the thorn ;
God ‘s in His heaven
All ‘s right with the world !

~ from Pippa’s Passes, Robert Browning, 1841

It depends on how you look at life doesn’t it? So, when fear and anxiety crowd your soul, take heart, because

Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the skies.
Your righteousness is like the highest mountains,
your justice like the great deep.
You, Lord, preserve both people and animals.
How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!
People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house;
you give them drink from your river of delights.
For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light.

~PS 36:5-10 NIV

Aftermath

These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of men and women.

~ Thomas Paine, The Crisis, December 1776

 

A Message from the President of the United States

Friends, and Fellow-Citizens: The period for a new election of a Citizen, to Administer the Executive government of the United States, being nor far distant, and the time actually arrived, when your thoughts must be employed in designating that person, who is to be cloathed [sic] with that important trust, it appears to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression of the public voice, that I should now apprise you of the resolution I have formed to decline being considered among the number of those, out of whom a choice is to be made.

I beg you, at the same time, to do me the justice to be assured that this resolution has not been taken without a strict regard to all the considerations appertaining to the relation which binds a dutiful citizen to his country; and that in withdrawing the tender of service, which silence in my situation might imply, I am influenced by no diminution of zeal for your future interest, no deficiency of grateful respect for your past kindness, but am supported by a full conviction that the step is compatible with both.

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