SNOWBIRD 2

THE WORRIER

September 25, 2010

 It took me clear

until Thursday to calm down,

to rejuvenate, to rejoice.

I’m still a bit up in the air

but I feel a change coming over me.

I can’t seem to put in sequence

the slightest responsibilities

and deal with them one at a time.

I’m afraid

·   I won’t make it (to some scheduled event);

·   I’ll be late.

·   we won’t have enough food;

·   we’ll have too much food.

·   we will run out of clean clothes;

·   we brought too many clothes.

·   I’ll finish my book and won’t have anything to read.

·   I’ll never finish it.

I

·   Can’t wait to get home;

·   Dread getting home and back to routine

This worrying illness is

Debilitating.

RIDDLE

The week we were in sunny St. George

I got no tan at all.

The week we were at Snowbird 9000 feet;

I got a beautiful tan.

Why?

Give up?

In St. George, I went swimming at 7 AM

Before the sun came up;

At Snowbird I went swimming at 9 AM

in full sun.

SNOWBIRD 2010

 SNOWBIRD 2010

September 18-25, 2010

“I hope I don’t have to put up with her all week,” says Ed on the day we leave for Snowbird.

“I hope I don’t have to put up with you all week,” counters Amy.

“I’m glad I don’t have to put up with either one of you,” chirps Dad.

But at the end of the week, Ed says, “I love Amy, Mom.  I didn’t get to see much of her.”

She drove to Salt Lake to work everyday.

Herriman Fire

 Sat.  The first evening.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

I’m a little despondent tonight.  Our first night.  It’s always hard.  Lonely.  Whoever isn’t here you miss:  DeRay, Ed, my sisters.  Anyone who has been here before.  Amy is compelled to her computer.  I only brought one book.  I can’t finish it tonight.  I should have brought more.  I can’t be without.  We finally went for a walk.  Amy enjoyed taking pictures.  I can’t get interested.  Hers are always so good.  I was a wee bit excited about wearing my new MBT shape-up shoes.  I feel like I’m going to fall.  It’s a bit like walking on stilts.  I should have taken my walking sticks.  I like the shoes.  They feel good.  Nevertheless,  I took them off the minute we got back.  Amy says she is feeling better just recently—doesn’t feel so tired.  I was dismayed that my knees hurt so much.  I was about ready to bear my testimony re my knee recovery.  Tonight while walking, I couldn’t catch my breath, my knees hurt; I couldn’t believe how I have deteriorated in a year.  I hate to get old. I can’t hear or see or walk.  Amy said it took a good two years for her knee to get better.  “Yeah, but you had an injury and could heal.  Mine is obviously arthritis and old age and can only get worse.”  It’s a bitter pill to swallow sometimes—especially graciously.  I didn’t go on a hike for the first time this year.

Sun.  Dad brought Ed up on Sunday afternoon.  I fixed Manicotti because I thought Aunt Olive was coming and she’s Italian.  We went to bed at 10.  Ed was a good sport about it.  “Thank you for inviting me, Mom, my favorite week has arrived.  I’m having a good time, even though it’s sickening.”  There was a big fire down in the valley this evening that burned for several days.

Mon.  “I enjoyed going to bed early,” Ed said this morning, “I want to do it again tonight.”  In the evening, I went to the pool with Amy.  We were the only ones there; almost a full moon.  Beautiful and serene beyond comprehension.  Spiritual.

Tues.  Ed came up to our unit after water workout, got dressed and took himself down to the family movie at noon (while I was on a geology tour).  “Now I’ve seen two bad movies.”  Went to pool with Amy.  A little raccoon came to the pool.  I thought he was going to jump in so I jumped out.  Amy to bed at 9:30.  Ed has been so compliant.  I know I’m driving Amy crazy.  I’m not as compliant.

Ed wearing hat, using walking stick.

Red-Leaf Aspen

Wed.  Hiked up to the Cliff for the Oriental run tour.  It (temporarily) wasn’t raining.  We rushed there only to wait.   A lady in a red sweater with a red purse was lolling about so I asked her if she was going on the tour.  “What tour?”  I told her she could join us.  The couple from Wisconsin (who were also to the Welcome Reception and on the geology tour) finally found the Marco Polo where we were supposed to meet and as we sat talking, someone asked where everyone was from.  The woman in the red sweater said she was from Southern Utah.  “Oh, I was raised in Southern Utah.”  “Where?”  “Orderville.”  “I have an aunt who was raised in Orderville.”  “Who is your aunt?”  “Her name is Shirley Esplin Hart.”  “Guess what?  She’s my sister.  Who do you belong to?”  “I’m Jane’s daughter.”  “Is your husband the judge?”  “Yes, I’m Cherie.”   We only lasted about half the tour. It was time for the adult movie at Iron Blosam.  We walked to the Snowbird Center down all those slow stairs in a driving rain.  We were soaked through so we completely changed clothes when we got back before he went to the movie.  Two wonderful hours to myself.  I’m right to the end of The Thirteenth Tale – a mystery and I want to finish it in peace and quiet.  I left the pizza out, knowing Amy would know to cook it and went down to the Wildflower for Vera’s presentation.  It was uplifting, which surprised me.  It was a bunch of senior beauty queens and contestants – singing, preaching, showing off their talents.  One former queen designs and makes the blueprints for houses, has her General Contractor license, designs and sews ski apparel (had her own company); make jewelry, sews everything including wedding dresses; writes poetry, makes calendars, photo albums – no end to what she has done and can do.  Paints.  Vera did her AA spiel, Isaiah 40 – whatever – you know The 12 Points.  I took the croissants down to Vera’s earlier but I had no intention of going down to eat with her senior beauty queens.  I’d had my fill of perfection.  After pizza we went to the pool.  We told Ed about the wondrous full moon so he went down but alas, it was cloudy and we saw no moon.  It was supposed to be the biggest moon in whatever.

THURS.  After breakfast, I went down to lap swimming.  Ed came down on his own at 10, wearing a hat!  (I told him he couldn’t go to water workout unless he wore a hat.  He’s always refused to wear a hat because he doesn’t like to get his hair messed up.)  After lunch, Ed and I walked on the Handicap Trail, taking pictures of him in his cool hat.  It has taken me clear until Thursday to calm down – to rejuvenate, to rejoice.  We went swimming earlier because Amy said it wouldn’t be so crowded.  Just the three of us in the pool.  Lovely.  Ed did his laps.  I played.  Amy did her routine.  Later Amy and I went for a walk down to Creekside.  Stretched.  Enjoyed the Christmas lights and the Big Moon.  Ed & I went to bed before Amy.

Red/Yellow Leafed Aspen

FRI.  We just missed the tram.  “If you had hurried, we could have made the tram,” I accuse Ed, “then we could have relaxed.”  “You don’t know how to relax,” he counters.  We hurried back from our walk on the handicap trail and caught the 2:30 tram.  I’ve never been there when it’s been so warm.  Lovely.  Surf & Turf, egg plant, baked potato for dinner.  DeRay was our guest.  I won a free movie at the Welcome Reception so Amy picked one out.  Blind Side.  We all enjoyed it.  A true story.  DeRay and Ed left at 10.  Amy is playing solitaire.  DeRay brought up my birthday present – a kindle.  Now I must read!!!!

The Photographer

SAT.  After checking out, we got swim passes and swam and visited until noon.  I was ready to go home.  Amy said I had been here all week, this was her first day, she worked everyday; she wanted to enjoy the beauty all around.  We drove up to Alta, planning to maybe hike to Cecret Lake but it was hot and we noted that the more vibrant colors were lower down.  I love the red and yellow aspens that DeLoy says don’t exist.  Actually, he says red leafed aspen don’t exist.  (He's a professional forester.)  We stopped at a little trail and found a cove to eat our lunch with rock benches.  Everything you do with Amy turns out spiritual.  She has this knack of making simple everyday things meaningful.

SAD STORY

What would you do?

JT rented A’s condo starting December 1, 2009.  From the first, it was a struggle getting the down payment or cleaning deposit; and then the rent.  Finally after much stress and delays, in March, she was paid up so we thought it was a new beginning.

She hasn’t paid a penny since, except in bad checks.  Lots of promises.  On Saturday November 6, the constable gave her a 3-day notice to pay or move.  On top of court costs, D had paid $165 (this time; more earlier) for the constable service.  She had petitioned the judge to set the judgment aside; or have it reversed; she didn’t want her credit ruined; she’s a nice person.  The Judge looked at it, seeing no money, no bond, and being in possession of a $7,500 bad check, he called the constable and told him to proceed with the threat to change the locks on the doors when the 3-day notice expired.  She then called the constable and he told her exactly what time he was coming.  She wasn’t there.  Did she think that D, one more time, would have mercy on her. . .  would believe her that she would have the money on the 20^th? 

Tuesday November 9, the constable inventoried everything while D changed the locks.

Not hearing a word from her, D writes her an email saying, “We need to talk.”

In ensuing emails he tells her that he thought she would have her cell phone with her and had plenty of time to get her personal belongings out.  It’s not as if she didn’t know she needed to have everything out.

On Sat, Nov 13, 2010 at 6:37 PM, she wrote:  I am not sure what your intentions were, I do know that with me being in Denver until late Sunday night, i was not given proper time to remove my belongings or necessities.  It would have saved alot of expense if you had just agreed to a few days for me to pack and move.  That is all that I asked from you.  You doing this, did not get your money any sooner than the 20th did it?  It just affected my credit, and costs me alot of money for a place to stay, and to replace necessities - not to mention the stress that it caused for my child.  This was not handled very christianlike at all.  I would say it was your way of being a bully.

He answered:  On Sat, Nov 13, 2010 at 2:25 PM,

I DID NOT INTEND TO HAVE STUFF YOU NEED ,  CELL PHONE , ETC LOCKED INTO THE CONDO.  I THOUGHT THAT YOU WERE GOING TO BE THERE..   I AM IN MURRAY THIS AFTERNOON FOR SEVERAL HOURS.  IF YOU WANT TO MEET ME YOU CAN CERTAINLY GO IN AND GET NECESSITIES.  JUST LET ME KNOW?

THE GREAT DECEIVER

November 15, 2010

Who signed an agreement to pay $1,100 per month rent (which included $220/month condo fees that we have paid faithfully; as well as $5,500 special assessment for new siding)?

Who hasn’t paid a penny of rent for 8 months?

Who promised the money would be in the bank next Tuesday; next Friday?  On the 17^th? On the 20^th a multitude of times?

Who made up excuse after excuse and begged for clemency because the money would definitely be there on a certain day and it never was?

Who reneged on the court mediation?

Who took advantage of someone bending over backwards to accommodate them?

Who ruined their own credit by not paying rent and then blamed others?

Who embarrassed themselves in front of her teenager and other family members and then blamed someone else?

Who lies over and over and over again?

Who doesn’t keep promises over and over and over again?

Who breaks the law by writing out three bad checks?

Do you know what the IRS would charge in penalties and late fees regardless?

 On the other hand:

Who paid court and constable charges three separate times?

Who spent untold hours in the court house and meeting at a rendezvous point that someone else never showed?

As of this date, who is owed almost $10,000?

D wants to tell her that he is not a Christian; he is a Moron (for believing her).

SMALL MIRACLES

 Today at the Olympic-size pool

We had a near catastrophe

When Ed took off his goggles

His artificial eye was missing.

This is the first day in a whole year

That we were the only ones in the pool

The water was calm; visibility excellent.

Still I panicked.

I didn’t see how we could find it

Before it was sucked up in the filtration system.

I looked for a minute.

I thought I saw it.

I dove.

Nothing.

Should I get the two swimmers

Who were stretching out on the edge of the pool

to help me look;

First I’ll ask the life guard.

He found it in a few minutes;

But I still had to get it off the bottom

Before it moved.

I picked it up with my toes

And in a rare act of flexibility

Was able to grab it with my hand before it dropped.

The last time Ed lost his artificial eye

He was in elementary school.

It was the day of the failed

Iran hostage rescue attempt.

“You think you’ve got problems,”

the principal joked,

“What about President Carter?”

It did put things in perspective.

The whole school searched;

One of the students found it;

Believe it or not.

Another time, it came out by our pool

After dark.

Everyone looked and one of the boys

Found it on the deck close to the pool;

Or was it Amy?

How many painful expensive surgeries

has he had to build the eye socket:

With nothing in, it quickly shrinks.

Small miracles.

Eventually the hostages were set free

But Carter didn’t get re-elected.

The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic crisis between Iran and the United States. 52 US citizens were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, after a group of Islamist students and militants took over the Embassy of the United States in support of the Iranian Revolution.

Sixty-six Americans were taken captive when Iranian militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979, including three who were at the Iranian Foreign Ministry. Six more Americans escaped and of the 66 who were taken hostage, 13 were released on Nov. 19 and 20, 1979; one was released on July 11, 1980, and the remaining 52 were released on Jan. 20, 1981.

The episode reached a climax when, after failed attempts to negotiate a release, the United States military attempted a rescue operation, Operation Eagle Claw , on April 24, 1980, which resulted in a failed mission, the destruction of two aircraft and the deaths of eight American servicemen and one Iranian civilian. It ended with the signing of the Algiers Accords in Algeria on January 19, 1981. The hostages were formally released into United States custody the following day, just minutes after the new American president Ronald Reagan was sworn in.

  When Ed was small looking at his baby book,

He exclaimed:

“There’s good looking ole Eddy.”

Now he’s acculturated,

He doesn’t say that anymore.

He says,

“Gosh, I’m ugly.”

 

 

An Apology

I could tell Pancake, the cat,
had her feelings hurt.
She scampered around like a fugitive.
Amy is out of town;
no one had played with her.
I didn’t like her climbing on my keyboard
or on the counters.

“I’m sorry Pancake;
I don’t mean to be mean.
I’m not mad at you.
Please don't flatter yourself.
No need to feel special. 
I’m grouchy with everyone;
cantankerous for no good reason.”

Are we on God's side?

For a while now, I have been bothered by attitudes of superiority, both in the Church and in the nation.  Such a mind-set contradicts our sacred belief that all people on the earth are children of our Father in Heaven.  Think about it. . . the 3^rd World Countries; Muslims in the Middle East; everybody.  We believe that children will not be punished for anyone’s sins but their own.  Why would we ask God to take sides or bless us over them?  He surely loves us all and blesses us according to our needs.  As Bill Staines sings:  All God's Critters Got a Place in the Choir.  Some sing low, some sing higher. . .

Yesterday, my cousin, V.P., send an article by Rev. Candance Chellew Hodge, in which she wrote:

Posted: November 6, 2010 07:23 PM

"God Bless America!"

I stared at the big block letters etched into the layers of grime, usually reserved for the mundane "wash me" message, on the back of a tractor-trailer I was following on the highway. Someone believed in those words so deeply that they took the time to laboriously hand-etch the letters, big enough to be read by passing motorists in all lanes.

That phrase has littered our political landscape since President Ronald Reagan made it a mainstay in his speeches. The uttering of the phrase has even become a political test of sorts, used by both Republicans and Democrats to prove they are down with the Big Man Upstairs.

In this last election cycle the idea of God blessing -- or not blessing -- America was a staple of Republicans and Tea Partiers. Many issued dire warnings about how America has turned its back on God and endangered our "chosen nation" status by embracing all manner of social ills like same-sex marriage, abortion and government control of social programs like Social Security and Medicare.

In Nevada, it was Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle who told a church audience in Gardnerville on Oct. 10 that America has "walked further and further away from the precious promises of God as a nation, as we have walked further and further away from his teachings about our own duty as Christians, we find our nation in a terrible fix." . . .

Jeff Sharlet writes that DeMint believes America should develop "a leadership led by God" instead of by government.

"People are seeing this massive government growing and they're realizing that it's the government that's hurting us. And I think they're turning back to God in effect is our salvation and government is not our salvation and in fact more and more people see government as the problem, and so I think some have been drawn in over the years to a dependency relationship with government, and as the Bible says, you can't have two masters."

Clearly, Angle and DeMint, along with many other evangelicals, juxtapose freedom and God -- but only an American style of freedom, where wealth and military might is closest to the heart of God. In his book American Evangelism, Christian Smith writes that, by positing that America is a "Christian nation," evangelicals believe that America's freedom and prosperity can be directly traced to its "open commitment to its Judeo-Christian heritage ... America is thought to have become great because it was founded on Christian principles, recognized God's laws, and fostered a Christian-based culture."

Our dismal economy, and the end of our seemingly bottomless prosperity, is seen as God's punishment for not toeing God's moral line. To get back to God they feel they must "take back the country" and obliterate any form of social progress they believe God doesn't like.

But, we have not turned our back on God. Instead, it is God who has turned away from America -- and it's not a recent occurrence. God forsook America a long time ago because our ideas of blessings are all upside down. We see money, wealth and power as blessings from God, when in reality they have very little to do with God and everything to do with a human "will to power."

Most evangelical Christians today are described perfectly by Meister Eckhart, who said about 700 years ago: "Some want to see God with their own eyes, just as they see a cow; and they want to love God just as they love a cow. You love a cow because of the milk and cheese and because of your own advantage. This is how all these people act who love God because of external riches or because of internal consolation. They do not love God rightly; rather they love their own advantage.". . .

The lumping together of Christianity with the "blessed" social order and setting it up as the arbiter of human freedom within history proves Barth right. We put ourselves in the driver's seat and order God to do our bidding. In this way, Barth said, we create a "criminal arrogance of religion" that equates our own desires with the desires of God -- and leads to an inverted set of values. The "blessed" accumulate tangible, material goods. Those who are poor, disenfranchised, homeless or ill are definitely not blessed, and are to be viewed as morally suspect since they must have done something "wrong" to deserve such a horrible fate.

Jesus never mentioned material wealth when he talked about blessings. In Matthew 5:3-11, Jesus said those who are blessed are poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who are meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those who are merciful, those who are pure in heart, those who are peacemakers and those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake.

The United States, as a nation, does not possess any of these qualities of blessedness. We are a rich nation, where the meek, the hungry and the peacemakers are marginalized, not just in society but church as well.

Until we know and acknowledge that we are all connected in this world, then we will continue to create No-Gods of nation, family, military and capitalism and set them up as evidence of our blessings from God. In reality, our freedom is not found in the social order, but in the acknowledgment that God is not on our side, or on anyone's side.

Instead, God is the source of all -- the ground of all being -- that flows without regard to race, color, creed, sexual orientation, nationality, wealth, poverty, piety or morality. God blesses us -- as a nation and as individuals -- when we realize we cannot simply live only for ourselves or for our nation, but for God and for each other.

My cousin wrote:  I agree with the article, and I am disappointed that President Obama has started to end every speech with "God bless the United States of America." I think it's a sop to the super-religious, just as wearing a flag pin in his lapel is a sop to the super-patriots.  I sometimes think they are pseudo-religious and pseudo patriots.   I recall hearing on the radio an interview with a fellow who had been to Norway.  He said that if a politician in Norway said "God bless Norway" at the end of his speeches. he would be laughed off the stage.  I know many of our co-religionists would say this makes their point (that Europe is going down the tubes because of its secularism), but I go back to Abraham Lincoln's adage:  We should pray to be on the Lord's side, not to have the Lord be on our side.  VP

Especially at Christmas time, maybe we simple should echo Tiny Tim’s prayer: 

“God bless us, every one!”

Mama's Checkbook

Checkbooks tell a story.

In Mama’s handwriting:

Check #129

Dated December 5, 1930

To Dr. Norris

$40.00

assumably for the birth of my sister, Lucy.

Mama wrote:

“Dr. Norris really got worried

and figured if he saved the mother

he’d be doing good.

So we were very thankful

when the mother and baby

both got along all right.”

No hospital.

She was born in the Adams home in Kanab.

This year on November 16

she turns 80 years old.

Lucy, Shirley, and maybe Lynn James

Lucy

Lucy, turning 80 this year.

What does it cost to have a baby today?

Tell me.