It's grown to be tentative anyway, and this morning I think I'll not write a blogpost, I'll just post in +Time the thoughts of a couple of other people whose views seem clearly in my ballpark.

Maybe along with car pictures sent to me by a respected colleague and close friend. Why the car pictures? One reason is that they

Push me back, push me back, way back,

Push me back, push me back, waaay back;

not back to seventeen, but close enough to score.

That's the car, a beauty! If you don't think so, no matter: the polls closed and your vote was too late to be counted anyway.

Below is my stuff for today. If I were Roman Catholic I'd have to be a Franciscan, otherwise no way, Jose; my Faith is to shun dogma and believe that what I say I believe isn't worth the paper it's printed on, the only thing that matters about faith is whether I live it. Or reasonably try to live my promises. Father Richard has it right, his essay below (scroll down) is worth its paper.

The first quotation is A THOUGHT FOR TODAY from Anu Garg's word for today post. About racism, it's another right-on. I like Ta-Nehisi, if you don't like Ta-Nehisi (nearly rhymes with Tallahassee), I have to let that be your problem, not mine. It's pretty early right now, I'm at my chair and table in my office-study-den looking out my window on downtown StAndrews and Beck Avenue, and it's still dark. When it gets to be daylight I'll be able to see the WTH is it, the word slips my "mind", it's not exterminator, but close, not annihilator either, the burn-up place, WTH, no not ventilator, dammit all to aitch, what's the word? Not facilitator. Anyway, the point is that it's too early even having downed my first cuppa hot and black, I can't put thoughts together this early except, thinking of the THOUGHT, to say that my definition of a racist begins with view that you know you're looking at a racist when s/he says "I'm no racist". Doesn't even have to precede "comma but".

But about the Ta-Nehisi, a strange name. Most names are strange anymore, why is that? Some mothers (I think mothers do most of the naming, is that your experience too?) seem to assign names they made up just because of the sound, yet almost guaranteed to do a kid a major disfavor in life. Some names are more or less traditional and may or may not carry a "class" association. Some moms give names that proclaim a person's ethnicity before you ever know anything about them. Solomon is a Jew. Thomas? IDK. In some Spanish-speaking countries the law requires a traditional name, and if it's Thomas the law requires it be spelled without the H, Tomas, and pronounced with the emphasis on MAS. I think Ta-Nehisi proclaims Black, plus how to spell it doesn't tell you how to say it.

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2019/08/ta-nehisi-coates-jesmyn-ward-interview

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Racism tends to attract attention when it's flagrant and filled with invective. But like all bigotry, the most potent component of racism is frame-flipping -- positioning the bigot as the actual victim. So the gay do not simply want to marry; they want to convert our children into sin. The Jews do not merely want to be left in peace; they actually are plotting world take-over. And the blacks are not actually victims of American power, but beneficiaries of the war against hard-working whites. This is a respectable, more sensible bigotry, one that does not seek to name-call, preferring instead to change the subject and straw man. -Ta-Nehisi Coates, writer and journalist (b. 30 Sep 1975)

Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation

From the Center for Action and Contemplation

Week Thirty-Nine: Compassion

Common-Sense Compassion

In this homily, Fr. Richard reflects on the well-known story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30–35), a parable Jesus used to teach us what common-sense compassion looks like in our everyday lives.

This is probably the most well-known of all Jesus’ parables, probably because the lesson of compassion is so obvious. First of all, we have a scholar of the law. This smart man stood up to test Jesus, asking, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus just asks, “Well, what’s written in the law?” And the answer the man gives is perfect. He puts together the two great commandments, exactly as Jesus himself would do: “Love God and love your neighbor.” Jesus says to him, “Do this and you will live.” Then there’s a giveaway line: “Because he wished to justify himself, he then asked, ‘Who is my neighbor?’” (Luke 10:25–29).

Jesus tells him this beautiful story that we call the story of the Good Samaritan. I’m sure many of us have been told that the Samaritans were the outright enemies of the Jews, so here Jesus is picking a bad guy in their eyes to be, in fact, the good guy.

In the story, a man who was coming down from Jerusalem fell victim to robbers and was left half-dead. A priest and a Temple assistant were going down the same road but passed him on the other side. Priests and Levites had to maintain ritual purity. In Judaism at that time touching a dead body made a person ritually impure. That’s perhaps the reason these two walked by the man. They’re not necessarily bad people; they’re just trying to maintain ritual purity so they could enter the Temple. This is part of the point of the story: love is more important than ritual purity. These men want to be pure and to do their priestly works, so they pass up a chance to love an ordinary human being.

The Samaritan who came upon the man was moved with compassion. I might say to the man, “I’ll pray for you,” but the Samaritan really goes out of his way! He bandages his wounds and takes him to an inn. He gives the innkeeper money, and even offers to repay any more that the innkeeper spends in the injured man’s care. He goes to the utmost degree to show compassion. Jesus simply asks the scholar who was trying to justify himself: “Which of these three was neighbor to the wounded man?” (Luke 10:36).

What Jesus is doing in this beautiful story is defining what love of neighbor is: it is the concrete practice of love and caring. We already know this law of compassion, because it is written in our hearts. Our common sense knows what we are supposed to do, and we still don’t do it. We contradict our own good common sense when we seek ritual purity or any kind of moral superiority instead of loving who and what is right in front of us.

Here's what I believe.

For peace in the community, I'll add Blue and All, though that skirts the issue, misses the point, which saddens me.

incinerator, that's the word. and it's daylight now, sure enough, there it is, due north of my window.

Here's another pic I like