Looking at the online news about the young man who murdered Charlie Kirk, he's so young, 22 years old, could be anybody's beloved grandson. I feel so sad for him, the destiny he has set for himself; and I wonder if he ever asks himself, "How could I have been so stupid!"  In my Time, I've seen now, I guess, four political assassinations that come to mind, two Kennedy brothers, MLK, and Charlie Kirk. I don't want to live in a society where mad shooters take from the people the opportunity to make our own political choices. This opening digression because I saw the young man's face again as soon as I opened my computer to contemplate a blogpost. And news coverage of NATO leaders meeting and frantic to cover what the US is pulling from NATO involvement, as I think again and always of ants fighting and killing the next ant bed as though we were so important on this Earth in a galaxy of trillions. We will kill the Earth in our determination to save it from th...

  At Beck Avenue and 12th Street, this is how the downtown area of St Andrews now known as Smith's Yacht Basin was when I was a boy, the sheltered little "harbor" opened into St Andrews Bay; far across the way you can see the Magnolia Beach shoreline. In the photo's background, the pine trees made good shade for getting cool, but cars and trucks parked under them got pine resin dripped on them, difficult to get off and quickly dried to solid lumps ruining any vehicle's paint. There are four pine trees in the photo, but in my Time the little one was gone, and there was that wonderful line of three large  pine trees, as I say, cool shade on these hot July days. The two-masted schooners are fishing smacks like the Annie & Jennie that took my father's brother Alfred to his death when she broke up in a storm while transiting the Old Pass the night of January 8, 1918.  To the right of the schooners, the smaller white boat was owned by an old Norwegian fisherman ...

It used to be a custom, taken from the Church of England, that the first Episcopal parish in an area was named Christ Church. Just so, Christ Church, St. Andrews, Florida; but later, probably in 1926 when St Andrews and Millville were merged into Panama City, the name was changed from Christ Church, St Andrews to St Andrew's  Episcopal Church, Panama City.  Similarly but for different reasons, originally chartered as Christ Church, Apalachicola the name was early changed to Trinity Episcopal Church. Our custom has gone by the way, but it was not unlike naming First Baptist, First Methodist, First Presbyterian. And there came to be something prestigious in being "First Church" or "Christ Church."  It's sad I am that in my Time, the gender, sex, marriage issues have divided Christian denominations, and so fiercely and in concrete certainty. I have my certainties also, trying to keep myself mindful that there are just as many on the other side who are just as c...

Early always: hot & black in my magic mug. Later, Wednesday breakfast: heart pills with ice water, then pickled herring with second mug of hot & black. To ward off ppht, no bread, crackers or other carbs.  Nap came on anyway, and carried me to half past twelve noon. Early again: hot & black in my magic mug. Later then, about seven AM, Thursday breakfast: heart pills plus furoforty with ice water, then soft-scrambled cheese-eggs with ice water. Hopefully, no nap today. POD includes one o'clock at Pruitt Health with M, then lunch/noon dinner/lunch somewhere with K. Last week, Chili's to try the ribs (excellent), today who knows then. ++++++ Reading, on my computer screen, "How Green Was My Valley" by the Welshman. With that as my sole commitment, all day yesterday, how would you like to be so totally retired that you can afford to enjoy a full day early morning until nine o'clock PM with your nose in a book? I can speed-read, but this one is to read, sto...

We had weeks-long plans for yesterday, our 69th wedding anniversary, that featured a five to seven pound red snapper going in the oven for baking, along with cheese grits, the stone-ground long-stir kind. Neither Tarpon Dock Seafood nor Buddy Gandy's had a large red snapper, though, so we shifted gears mid-morning and elected for two o'clock dinner at Hunt's, where Linda had the bit of snapper filet, Kristen had the ahi tuna, and I had a dozen raw half-shell and the seafood platter.  The oysters, I order their Louisiana oysters because they are large, and for me the bigger the better, and if they're not salty that's easily seen to. So, even though we were overwhelmingly exhausted and down for naps before noon, the day turned out maybe even better, because it was no more costly than our plan would have been, plus there was nothing to do in our own kitchen here in 7H.  The bag of stone-ground grits is ready to open, and I'll take notice of the fish markets for whe...

Our gospel reading for today is the REWARDS section at the end of Matthew 10:40-42. Matthew has Jesus promise a suitable reward to specific people for certain acts or for living a certain way. As he does not elaborate, it is frustratingly unclear what Matthew intends us to understand the rewards to be. In fact, some Christians will glom onto the "reward" as being what the later church came to promise, everlasting life in a heaven that's described at the end of Revelation - - first bodily at the general resurrection with the coming of the Son of Man to institute God's kingdom on earth at the end of days - - then, as the understood kingdom did not come, reward shifted to the soul passing into paradise at death (or to paradise through some cleansing period such as purgatory); all in compliance with and obedience to church authority.  Seriously as though an earthly institution in human life could control the workings and actions of Melek ha-olam.   So, what are the Reward...