shazam

What am I doing this morning. Been up an hour from sleeping on a board hopefully to dissuade Captain Sciatica, now I know why he wears that lightning bolt on his costume, 

the conniving gardenia-sniffing alphabet sun on the beach. But lots of suggestions at church yesterday so I’ve switched from a dozen aspirin to an Aleve regimen. Yesterday I’d swallowed so many aspirin (melt on tongue and gulp down with coffee or hot water) that the brain felt anesthetized while I was in the pulpit; not woozy, just absent, all mouth no brain; and gulping more during Sunday School, even less present at ten-thirty than at eight o’clock. If anyone wondered “is that really Father Tom up there?” I noticed too, as I sat in the back of the church watching the imposter who resembled me but much older. That's probably how I'll look as an old man, but I certainly hope not.

But anyway, Captain Marvel, I could be wrong, but it seems like in my earliest memories earnest little Billy Batson was bringing down the lightning bolt so he could smash Germans or Japs. WW2 did strange things for us, such that I’ve never been able to overcome my hatreds formed between age six and age ten. Other national enemies have come and gone, and I have no negative feelings about China, Korea, Russia, Vietnam, Islam, just, sadly, those two ancient Ineradicables, one of which holds hostage my very heritage. 

I reckon all that will be closed in the sod.

Been a good person this morning as I sit here in my blue velvet chair that my mother gave me, heating pad warming the small of the back; and perceiving a good person as one who forces self to refrain from reading news and commenting politically. It’s almost irresistible, but Bubba does it. A primary lightbulb being kept on these days is not forgetting that most people disagree with me, and the unthinkable realization that I could be wrong. I’m not, but I could be. So, wishing to not offend people I love, my lips are sealed and my fingers in mittens. What then to contemplate -> -> that Sunday after church when we drove down to their dealership on West 6th Street to see the dreamy new 1948 Hudson, except for Kaiser-Frazer, the first truly post-war American car, and to have my imagination stoked as, on the way home, my parents talked about possibly buying one, and should it be a six or an eight, a Super or a Commodore. 

It didn’t happen. Neither a 1948 Hudson nor the 1948 Buick I lusted for. Our neighbors the Sheffields got a sleek new Hudson. My father ordered a new 1948 Dodge, totally a pre-war automobile, that, stories told here before, was for my mother’s 36th birthday, mama and I drove down to the BayLine depot, climbed up on the boxcar ramp and chose the dark green one over the bright blue one, served as family car for years, and, my mother finally getting that Buick in the mid 1950s while I was away at university, the Dodge was given to me ten years old as I started my senior year at UFlorida, then our car our time in Rhode Island and first six months of marriage.  

Actually, yesterday’s gospel, John 9:1-41, showed Gospel John’s imaginative word skills so magnificently that this morning I meant to blog continuing our Sunday School lesson. But never mind. In fact, no mind at all. Still not answering roll call.

Shazam anyway.

DThos+ plodding along in +Time+

John 9:1-41

As Jesus walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes, saying to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some were saying, “It is he.” Others were saying, “No, but it is someone like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” But they kept asking him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ Then I went and washed and received my sight.” They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. Then the Pharisees also began to ask him how he had received his sight. He said to them, “He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see.” Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not observe the sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner perform such signs?” And they were divided. So they said again to the blind man, “What do you say about him? It was your eyes he opened.” He said, “He is a prophet.”

The Jews did not believe that he had been blind and had received his sight until they called the parents of the man who had received his sight and asked them, “Is this your son, who you say was born blind? How then does he now see?” His parents answered, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but we do not know how it is that now he sees, nor do we know who opened his eyes. Ask him; he is of age. He will speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that anyone who confessed Jesus to be the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue. Therefore his parents said, “He is of age; ask him.”

So for the second time they called the man who had been blind, and they said to him, “Give glory to God! We know that this man is a sinner.” He answered, “I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.” They said to him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?” He answered them, “I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?” Then they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.” The man answered, “Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but he does listen to one who worships him and obeys his will. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.” They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you trying to teach us?” And they drove him out.

Jesus heard that they had driven him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir? Tell me, so that I may believe in him.” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and the one speaking with you is he.” He said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped him. Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, “Surely we are not blind, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”