Where is Your Energy?
I wanted Kamala Harris for President, and I’m happy to have her as my Vice-President. Really happy. But there are too many things that have happened and are happening in the world that are getting short-shrift because all of our energy is going into loving/hating presidential/national politics.
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Alex Trebek died. My mother loved Jeopardy! She structured her evenings around Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. But I loved Jeopardy! too. I remember the show from when I was a little girl (is that possible?—yes, it premiered in 1964; Trebek took over as host in 1984). I was thrilled when White Men Can’t Jump featured an aspiring contestant on the show. I loved Alex’s even-keel temperament. It takes talent to tell someone they are wrong and do it with sympathy but not condescension. We could all learn from Alex Trebek.
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I rose from the kneeler, and it popped down on the floor with a loud thump! “Damn!” I exclaimed. So went my return to Sunday morning church this morning for the first time since March. Plus masks and social distancing and no hymns and, for me, no communion. The readings were the justice words of Amos and the gospel parable about the waiting bridesmaids. Cursing and the asshole bridesmaids (look it up.) That’s about right, it seems to me.
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We had lemon juice from lemons on a small tree in our yard squeezed over our apples this morning for breakfast. Or maybe it was lime juice. I thought one then the other. It doesn’t matter. It made the apples good.
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The wave pools that appear between the beach and the walkway after a hard rain have remained even though we haven’t had a hard rain in days. The coastline might be changing. Here. Now. Where I live, while I live. I will never forget standing on the grounds of my daughter-in-law’s workplace on the West Bank of New Orleans and hearing the scientist leading our tour say, in thirty years, where we stand will be underwater. That was four years ago. We have twenty-six years left to go.
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The Saints play Brady and the Bucs again this evening. I hate Tom Brady. Even divorced from Belichick he’s still a cheater. Some things never change.
Where are you putting your energy today?
MVH
Alex, let’s try painful deaths for $800. What is Pancreatic Cancer? But a better question: how do you stay stoic when it hurts so bad? What is impeccable?
Ellen Morris Prewitt
Mike, I didn’t know that about the painfulness of pancreatic cancer. Makes it even more bitter. love to you, e
emma
So many events have gone unnoticed during this chaotic year that I’ve taken to going back through the archives of the NYT to read some of those back page stories. Just when I become too jaded to even think of possibilities for next year, I see little miracles that occurred like sweet breezes that did not get noticed because they were not hurricanes and jim Cantore was not standing on their shore. Let’s hope all the storms subside for a while so we can get some emotional rest!
Ellen Morris Prewitt
What a wonderful practice, Emma. And that it gives you hope, gives me hope. <3 "Jim Cantore was not standing on their shore." 🙂
Floridia
Whew!
This has been a doozy.
I’ve been challenged and buffeted and failed and succeeded and inspired in 2020.
In this season, I’m trying not to seek to be right all the time. That leads me to finding those moments when I disagree with others but conclude—though I don’t agree, that that doesn’t make them wrong. This isn’t easy. As I’m being called to manage some of my siblings in the work place, I’m having to learn and relearn how to address. behaviors with an uncomfortable directness and not be condescending. Pray for me. I need to get comfortable real fast. LOL
That’s my quest for what I think Hebrew 12:14 (the Floridia interpretation) asks of me: Run after peace with everyone, this is holy living because if I don’t how will I recognize the Lord in others and the Lord’s presence in my own life.
THANKS so much for sharing your writings. I bet your Momma smiled when she met Alex.
Ellen Morris Prewitt
I have read this several times, Floridia, hoping to imprint it in my brain: “though I don’t agree, that doesn’t make them wrong.” You are so good at lovingly addressing behaviors, I have faith in you, while I also will pray for you. And this also I hope to remember, as it seems the only goal in life that really matters: “recognize the Lord in others and the Lord’s presence in my own life.” Thank you for this. And yes, my mama is charming Alex right this very minute!