Wednesday, thinking of dinner

Up early with black & dark and, still reeling from the most gripping college football game I ever remember watching, Georgia Bulldogs, UFlorida’s most traditional rival UGA but still SEC SEC SEC, I just now finished reading https://www.redandblack.com/sports/football/a-change-in-plans-jake-fromm-s-unexpected-journey-from/article_e7104186-ee36-11e7-b10c-63cdf4e3ccec.html about Jake Fromm, Georgia’s wonderboy quarterback and though no intense football person I’m left wondering whether Jacob Eason will bench and wait for Fromm also to blow out a knee or will pack and move on. Let’s see what happens Monday in Atlanta. Oklahoma could have beat Alabama, but I don't know about Georgia with the Dawgs ranked 3 and Crimson Tide rated 4. Alabama is/was doing to CFB what the NY Yankees did to MLB back in the fifties when I was in college. 

All this prompted by an overnight email from Dr. Mike in Atlanta sending me a newspaper clipping from November 8, 1841 mourning the death of my great-great-grandfather George Weller, who, long before the Civil War, was founding rector of Christ Church Vicksburg that Linda and I visited several years ago enroute to or from Hot Springs, Arkansas for Jacob Williams’ wedding. 


George Weller died in a fever epidemic. Ray Wishart came across his grave monument in the huge old historic cemetery in Vicksburg a few years back and sent me a picture, which I still have, a tree now growing up through and tilting the grave-marker as I recall. 

George Weller was the father of my great-grandfather Reginald Heber Weller, rector of St John’s Episcopal Church, now the diocesan cathedral in Jacksonville, Florida. I have a stack of George's sermons here, written in his hand and each stitched as a booklet, marked by him on the cover as to dates and churches where he preached each one. My resolve upon retiring from parish ministry in 1998 was, as a retirement project, to type each sermon out, which I did for one and, God rest my GGGF's soul, nearly died of boredom and abandoned the project.

George's son my greatgrandfather RH Weller had thirteen children, two were Episcopal priests, RH, Jr (bishop in Wisconsin) and CK (my Uncle Charlie), brothers of my own Pop, AD Weller. Mom & Pop’s son Alfred, Jr - - I’ll write about Alfred later this week on the hundredth anniversary of his drowning when the Annie & Jennie broke up while heading out the Old Pass in a storm. That memory of family stories my grandparents told me still stirs my deepest emotions a century later.

This morning I’m remembering that yesterday I drafted, which I don’t recall ever doing before in the well more than seven years I’ve been writing a daily blogpost, wrote a blogpost for this morning. Owing to the early email from Dr. McKenzie it has been overtaken, but I think I’ll copy and paste it anyway because of the link it contains to a meditation that more or less speaks my mind — about our comparatively laughable Sins Personal that we are so conscious of, over against our deadly Sins Corporate that we so fail to see. Read it and grieve or, if as morally unconscious as the rest of humanity, go on with life:

Never do or would I forward a received email in the context "forward this to five people if you really love Jesus" or "if you love America" or any such. Those emails are personally offensive to me and a slam at my integrity. I don't mind receiving them from friends to whom they express something meaningful, but what I send out into the email-osphere is my own decision not under some sort of moralistic duress!!

Every morning, it comes seven days, a spiritual piece is waiting for me from Fr. Richard Rohr, a Franciscan. The pieces are almost all excellent and relevant to wherever I am, wandering lost in the forest. Yesterday's piece spoke to me particularly. In the past when this has happened, I've done a copy and paste. This time I'll just post a link so that anyone who's interested or curious may go direct to it. In my view, it says it all for Christians and Americans. Check it out if you wish, and perhaps hold it in mind as expanding consciousness when Lent comes round next month.



Anyway, whatever.

Dinner at noon today: roast beef at my sister's house. 


DThos+