August 2, 2009
Screens and Other Delights
I’m taking a break from writing about the solutions to our financial woes because I’m on vacation right now and I’ve put the challenge of raising $400,000 to pay our debts out of my head (almost) for now.
Instead let me suggest that I strongly disagree with the people who believe our world has taken a turn for the worse. Why do I say that? Screens! Someone (and I’m not saying who) left the back door open a bit and there were dozens of flies buzzing about the the kitchen. It made me think that not too long ago, there were no screens and people were at the mercy of flies and mosquitoes all the time. Then the neighbor’s cesspool backed up and for a few days there was a heady aroma of...well you might be reading this during breakfast (certainly not during the homily) so I won’t be more descriptive. But again it made me think that there was a time when there were no sewers or indoor plumbing, and that odor permeated everyplace all the time.
While the nation’s leaders are working on health care coverage (and let’s pray they get it right), I’m grateful that we have the knowledge of medicine that we experience today. I just took my morning medications for my heart, knowing that this will help me live longer and healthier than my grandparents did. (They died of heart disease in their 60’s.)
So, as I lie in the hammock with my laptop -- and yes I get wireless connection out in the yard -- I think about how much better our lives are now. I’ll finish writing this and then spend some time talking to God about all that I’m grateful for. Yes my family, friends, our parish...but also for the simple, sometimes taken-for-granted things...
Fresh peaches...bees buzzing around the flowers...new cut grass...garbage pickup...the breeze (blowing away from the neighbor’s house and no toward me) ...hydrangeas...jazz...coffee... electricity,..the sound of a fountain...reading glasses...and lest I forget: screens.
