tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77253812220315617132024-03-15T13:01:35.562-04:00Sherborn PastorThis Spiritual Life: thoughts on God, faith and meaning from a local church minister and teacherJohn Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205712186140374089noreply@blogger.comBlogger624125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7725381222031561713.post-7189596885228240362024-03-15T13:00:00.003-04:002024-03-15T13:00:58.607-04:00When Bullies Win the Vote, Human Decency Always Loses<p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgcYv61J6ePjgBhk_13WxwcNcBKTCxN_q_kNjlqR1ymtqQK4pBYKkUKB2rPmjTyY9toz0prQByK1HCJpjqFzPCe3jiFZFrEE8X7IDW5BBrEM-UhkIjHd862XDP9YgIZiSeWKAutKghkxz27vbhAZvAdsOzS7n2HYBB4ioucEZumJffH8xFlOM2J-v0Uv0/s735/bully-735x379.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="379" data-original-width="735" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgcYv61J6ePjgBhk_13WxwcNcBKTCxN_q_kNjlqR1ymtqQK4pBYKkUKB2rPmjTyY9toz0prQByK1HCJpjqFzPCe3jiFZFrEE8X7IDW5BBrEM-UhkIjHd862XDP9YgIZiSeWKAutKghkxz27vbhAZvAdsOzS7n2HYBB4ioucEZumJffH8xFlOM2J-v0Uv0/w400-h206/bully-735x379.jpg" width="400" /></a></i></div><i><br />“Why
do we continue to breed little minds who can find no recompense for their own
failures other than to belittle and mock the talents…of others? When will
everyone realize that we are all equal in the eyes of God?”<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>--Og Mandino, author</i><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">No
matter how hard I tried, I just could not get the words out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or the word actually.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d know what I wanted to say.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d begin to say it but then it was as if it
got caught in my throat and no matter how much I struggled, the best I could do
was an awkward, elongated sound, like “NNNNNN” or “DDDDDDDD.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
stuttered. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
wasn’t for very long, in middle school, for a few years. Every once in a while,
it will happen to me again, when I really, really want to say something, and my
eagerness seems to trip up my speech.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The medical definition of stuttering is straightforward. From
mayoclinic.org, “Stuttering is a speech condition that disrupts the normal flow
of speech….With stuttering, the interruptions in flow [of speech] happen often
and cause problems for the speaker.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Thank
goodness I grew out of it. Kind of ironic that I went on to do public speaking for
a living, my vocation and my life’s calling. But one thing never, ever happened
to me because of my stuttering and for this I am so grateful to God, to folks
in my life, and even to the world I grew up in. No one ever mocked me for my
stuttering. No one ever put me down. No one ever shamed me or called out my
stuttering in front of others to humiliate me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Who
would do such a thing? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Be
so cruel, mean spirited, so devoid of empathy, that they’d actually insult
someone because of a disability like stuttering? I’m not talking about middle
school kids who don’t know better, who bully out of deep insecurity. They usually
grow out of that meanness. I’m talking about an actual adult who did this, in
public, and I suppose, to build himself up by tearing down someone else.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
was a former United States president, who mocked our current president, for struggling
with stuttering. Happened at a rally in Georgia. I won’t quote what was said but
the former TV reality star apparently got what he wanted from that mocking:
applause and laughter from his supporters.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">That
awful story made me remember what it was like to struggle with stuttering. It
made me sad about the casual cruelty that has seeped into our common life in
the past few years, how once publicly accepted norms of decency and mutual
respect in the public square, have just gone away. How such meanness is now the
norm in social media, in many public meetings, in snarky news stories, and from
candidates who are supposed to represent the best of America and bring out the
best in Americans but do just the opposite.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Now,
too often, public speech is hurtful, hateful, spiteful, and personal. It digs
and it jabs, and it insults. It lowers our civic life to the level of the
middle school playground. When I watched the video of a powerful national
leader acting like an adolescent bully, mocking another, being so nasty, it
broke my heart. Angered me. Is this how we now talk to and about one another in
public? Are these the lessons we want to teach our children about what it means
to be a good citizen, and a fellow neighbor? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
reminded me of a very different political rally and story from October 2008. One
of the presidential candidates then was Senator John McCain, and the gathering was
held less than a month before election day. McCain versus Barack Obama. A voter
stood up and gave her opinion about Obama. “I have read about him and he’s…he’s
an Arab.” Code word back then, for either Muslim or terrorist or both.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">McCain
shook his head and gently said to the woman, “No ma’am, no ma’am” and then he
continued, “He’s a descent family man, [and] citizen, that I just happen to
have disagreements with…on fundamental issues and <i>that</i> is what this
campaign is about.” The crowd even applauded.</span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">My
calling out abhorrent behavior by a current leader isn’t political or partisan.
It’s not about this political party or that specific candidate. Not about
policy or legislation. It is about character. Human character or the lack of
it. As a person of faith, I’ve learned in my religious tradition that character
is what forms the heart of a good life and being a good man or a good woman, a
good soul. Character matters in the life of a person and in the shared life of
a country. None of us are perfect. But always trying one’s best to treat fellow
children of God with dignity, respect, and honor: that will always matter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Jesus said, “Do unto others as you would
have them do unto you.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
don’t stutter anymore. If I did, I’d hope and pray that no one would ever mock
me for that struggle. That people would treat me how they wanted to be treated
and that I would do the same for them. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Dear
leaders, fellow citizens, journalists, cultural influencers, those we are
supposed to look up to, learn from, and be led by: stop the mocking. Just treat
others with decency, kindness, and respect. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Is
that too much to ask?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church
of Christ, in Sherborn, Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at
sherbornpastor.blogspot.com and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville
Institute at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For
twenty-five years he was a columnist whose essays appeared in newspapers
throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He has served churches in New
England since 1989. For comments, please be in touch: pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
John Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205712186140374089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7725381222031561713.post-50234005165604327182024-03-08T12:38:00.003-05:002024-03-08T12:38:52.274-05:00What's the Hurry? Slow Down. Live Life. Know God.<p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzfDD5ewS9WEiJkLcyPy5e4Ew3RH92OiOVcVKqIkTHI-eKdBgOfPwtpTsc2QMw9wcOBBnyifanMGH4lSk1omctE6OHzV5PHHSDdcP388rSPXXCRPZDdSyqn7yVH-GxA7sLUPvcbcz3B9t3DiRrbUVHrHocnckl2gLGGZuqSV3igNVED1wORPKYsjGSwwg/s1866/rabbit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1866" data-original-width="1355" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzfDD5ewS9WEiJkLcyPy5e4Ew3RH92OiOVcVKqIkTHI-eKdBgOfPwtpTsc2QMw9wcOBBnyifanMGH4lSk1omctE6OHzV5PHHSDdcP388rSPXXCRPZDdSyqn7yVH-GxA7sLUPvcbcz3B9t3DiRrbUVHrHocnckl2gLGGZuqSV3igNVED1wORPKYsjGSwwg/w290-h400/rabbit.jpg" width="290" /></a></i></div><i>"Most
misery is caused by rushing.”<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>--Melissa
Kirsch, New York Times, March 2024</i><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
cannot wait.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
cannot wait to blow out of this work meeting and go home and chill. I cannot
wait for summer and the warmer weather! I cannot wait for retirement and all
the time I will have. I cannot wait for the coffee to brew faster, or for the
train to come quicker, or for the traffic to finally clear. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
just cannot wait.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">So
many of us—the truth is we cannot wait, for whatever the next thing is. For the
work week to conclude. For our tyrannical two-year toddler to finally get to that
next developmental stage. For our cranky high school senior to finally go away
to college. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It’s
like we are telling life: “Just hurry up already!” But is that anyway to live
and live fully? To live faithfully and to appreciate the precious gift of life
we receive from our Creator? If we cannot wait to get there and then, what
about here and now? What if all of our rushing ahead cheats us out of being
fully right now, and yes, even when right now is the last place we want to be?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Years
ago, I was brand new in my current church job and I so wanted to be a good
doobie and impress everyone, prove that they actually did hire the right person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, each morning, I would fly out of bed and down
the stairs to get the coffee maker dripping and then rush out the door to get
the <u>Boston Globe</u> newspaper in the driveway. One frosty January week, I
came flying out the door, skidded on black ice, went head over heels, totally airborne,
then landed with a heavy thud on my butt. OUCH! This happened <i>twice</i> in
one week. I recounted these woes to my spiritual director, and he dryly
commented, “Maybe the universe is trying to tell you to slow down, John. What
do you think?”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Yet
even 17 years later, I’m still a chronic rusher, and don’t seem ready to slow
down. To embrace the God blessed spiritual practice of being present in the
present. Rushing robs us of enjoying what is right in front of us, leaning into
whatever we are experiencing at a given moment. Life is amazingly diverse in
what it can give to us. Some days I imagine I go through something like twenty
different emotions in response to whatever is happening in my day. I get angry at
the traffic and then cranky at too much email and then smile when my co-worker
greets me with good humor and then I sing a song at full volume in the car on
the way to an appointment and then I sweat on the bike at the gym and then I
text my Godson and hear back about what ails him or what brings him joy and
then and then and then and then.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Rush
through life and such profound and simple life moments will be gone before you
know it. As a homeowner in New Orleans prayed one morning on the front lawn of his
flood ravaged house, a home my church group was helping to repair, “Dear God:
help us to appreciate this lovely day, that has never been before, and will
never, ever be again. Amen.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe I
should pray that prayer, live that prayer more often. Give up my addiction to
hurrying up and insisting others do the same too.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">GET
MOVING! (Not that I’ve ever thought or said that in the Dunkin’ Donuts Drive-thru
line.)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">One
of my favorite pieces of scripture comes from Psalm 46.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Its author writes, “Be still and know that I
am God.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Be still. Profound spiritual advice.
To orient ourselves to God, we must first plant ourselves in the immediate, that
which is, not that which we are running off to. God does not live in the past
nor in the future. The only place we can find God, find joy, find true life
satisfaction, is in the only time we have. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Now.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
a recent <u>New York Times</u> article, “Why the Rush?” Melissa Kirsch writes, “…the
poet Marie Howe…in her poem ‘Hurry’, describes running errands with a child in
tow. ‘Hurry up honey, I say, hurry,’ she urges, as the little one scampers to
keep up. Then she wonders: ‘Where do I want her to hurry to? To her grave? / To
mine? Where one day she might stand all grown?’”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
cannot wait. We cannot wait.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">But
life needs us to wait. To pay attention. To be engaged wherever we are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To be alive, not pseudo-living in some
imagined fantasy future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
will all stop one day. This life and our place in it. Howe is right. We are all
rushing towards the grave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, in the
interim and on the way, may our God put us, keep us, find us, love us, place
us, right here.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
can wait.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church
of Christ, in Sherborn, Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at
sherbornpastor.blogspot.com and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville
Institute at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For
twenty-five years he was a columnist whose essays appeared in newspapers
throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He has served churches in New
England since 1989. For comments, please be in touch:
pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
John Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205712186140374089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7725381222031561713.post-16051940744610079912024-02-29T14:17:00.000-05:002024-02-29T14:17:11.661-05:00Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People? I Keep Asking.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-KhMbMpNek270vvH_9J2S8B_9H4YkE8Z5C-PZN10wTSdenB3qMQKVqYwJS3VrYrlOlypJJzJ9d4vJWEE_gBo9jWq0zJ22wLpwq06wvm9SwnsU09Ei1d1kaSHxBaENKnbAg8yEaPYwElyFUBJvjD31SK9WkBrZ6ivC5oDOKd_aZBi2kZVXe8ErKdnHj10/s1050/why.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="1050" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-KhMbMpNek270vvH_9J2S8B_9H4YkE8Z5C-PZN10wTSdenB3qMQKVqYwJS3VrYrlOlypJJzJ9d4vJWEE_gBo9jWq0zJ22wLpwq06wvm9SwnsU09Ei1d1kaSHxBaENKnbAg8yEaPYwElyFUBJvjD31SK9WkBrZ6ivC5oDOKd_aZBi2kZVXe8ErKdnHj10/w400-h266/why.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“The
first holy truth in God 101 is that men and women of true faith have always had
to accept the mystery of God's identity and love and ways. I hate that, but
it's the truth.” --Anne
Lamott, author</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Why,
oh why? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">That’s
the response I had this morning when I opened up to the sports page of the <u>Boston
Globe</u> and read a sad story, one that just broke my heart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stacy Wakefield, the widow of recently
deceased former Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield, died this week. She was
just 53 and passed away from pancreatic cancer. Tim, her beloved husband, and
partner of 24 years…he died last October of brain cancer. They leave behind two
adult children: Trevor, 20 and Breanna, 19.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Why?!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
know why this one death saddens me so much. As a lifelong Sox fan, Tim
Wakefield was one of my favorite players. Not just on the field where his
infamous knuckleball kept opposing batters swinging and whiffing for 17 years.
He was also class and kindness and humility personified, never had a bad word
to say about anyone, and devoted most of his free time and post-retirement to
charitable works like the Jimmy Fund. He actually met Stacy at a charitable event,
and she too was committed to making this world a better place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Some
days, it just feels like there is such unfairness in the deaths that take the
good ones. Makes me wonder why so many of the bad ones seem too often
to get a pass in this life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Makes me
wonder about the horrors of all those killed, kidnapped, and tortured in Israel
and Gaza or all those Ukrainians who have been snuffed out, maimed, and made
homeless, all while an evil tyrant wages an unjust and cruel war.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
know that some might say of such human wreckage, “Well, life is not supposed to
be fair.” Or “Bad people doing bad things hurt the innocent.” To use the
language of the faith I claim, sin and evil are a reality in creation and when
these are active, the innocent sometimes become collateral damage from such awful
behavior. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Still
doesn’t answer why folks have to die of cancer. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">So
as a person of faith I don’t just ask, “Why?” I also ask, “Why, God? Why?” And
in the 63 years of my faith that began the day I was baptized; through eight
years of parochial school, four years of church youth group, three years of
grad school studying theology, thirty-five years of doing this God stuff for a
living…I’ve yet to come up with an answer for…</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Why?”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">And
I’ll keep on asking, even though I know an answer is not always coming, at
least not at my pay grade and at least not on this side of existence. Maybe in
the next life I might get some answers to the mysteries of the human condition.
But now? I don’t want to use tidy but empty theology to try and explain human
pain. “God needed another angel in heaven.” Or “God gives us no more than we
can handle.” Or “It’s all a part of God’s plan.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
get why folks need to believe in such explanations to the question of “why?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The chaos and randomness of life is a very scary
thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet maybe we humans are not
supposed to know the answer to everything under earth and heaven.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe we are supposed to stick to being
human, and accept the truth that mystery is a big part of what it means to be mortal
and absolutely a big part of having and claiming a faith in God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Why?”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’’ll
go ahead and keep on insisting it is my right, our human right, to offer that question.
To God. To the universe. To push back against how cruel and hard this life can
be, and how the innocent too often end up in the crosshairs of evil. Disease.
Natural disasters. Injustice. So, a billionaire cries “POOR ME!” and plays the
victim while blocks away in that same city, a family struggles to just put enough
food on the table today. To get by. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Why?”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">But
my faith then asks me, in return, “Is it for you John, to presume to know the
mind of God? To imagine that you can know all of the answers to life’s
mysteries?” And I have to confess and answer back, “No.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Why?”
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Ask
away. I know I will. It’s what we humans do. I just don’t expect an answer to
everything. What I do ask God is to grant me the humility and the trust, to be
ok with not knowing….</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Why?”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church
of Christ, in Sherborn, Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at
sherbornpastor.blogspot.com and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville
Institute at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For
twenty-five years he was a columnist whose essays appeared in newspapers
throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He has served churches in New
England since 1989. For comments, please be in touch:
pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
John Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205712186140374089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7725381222031561713.post-75280972848654710532024-02-20T15:58:00.001-05:002024-02-20T15:58:20.168-05:00The Best Life Means Showing Up for Others <p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC277EBxrI0VDVIX4dZ7BgsHWa-bZUfCBmLwT_qVARtNV7dBNi9gTaywTXB6yS4rJaSyA8q8rVKAjqZhiJs-zxoAedFyQTXsypC9n2K5loriKK4yEm3CuABfDSW8fCekiCqPqN58km458oWP2UTP_tDNp4s_md_GWlKvGpODdt7JYQd7nwcqNpdHPFySI/s650/showing%20up.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="433" data-original-width="650" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC277EBxrI0VDVIX4dZ7BgsHWa-bZUfCBmLwT_qVARtNV7dBNi9gTaywTXB6yS4rJaSyA8q8rVKAjqZhiJs-zxoAedFyQTXsypC9n2K5loriKK4yEm3CuABfDSW8fCekiCqPqN58km458oWP2UTP_tDNp4s_md_GWlKvGpODdt7JYQd7nwcqNpdHPFySI/w400-h266/showing%20up.jpeg" width="400" /></a></i></div><i><br />"Sometimes
the bravest and most important thing you can do is to just show up.”<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>--Brene
Brown, author</i><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Five
people sitting out in the pews. Just five souls in a cavernous space designed
to seat three hundred souls. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Five.
That’s the smallest number of worshippers I’ve preached to in thirty-five years
of professional ministry. It was a mom, a dad and three boys on a Christmas Sunday
several years ago. So many people came to church just the night before on the
eve of December 24<sup>th</sup>, that most of those faithful folks just wanted
to stay at home in their PJ’s and watch loved ones open presents and sip hot coffee
and relax by a toasty fire.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Which
I totally get! But, thank you God, for the five who showed up! </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">To
show up. To be present. To return to a place and a people week after week after
week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To be faithful to others who count
on you to be there for them. To go to some happening when you want to go, sure,
but to also go the times you really don’t want to go, yet you show up because
you made a commitment to others. To claim your seat. To be there for others by
being right here, right now. To be right as rain and as dependable as the day
is long because folks trust you to show up. Need you too show up. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Showing
up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">You
can’t make a church or a team or a choir or a workplace or a country or a
family or a neighborhood if folks don’t show up. But when folks do show up faithfully
and consistently, well, then anything is possible. As a church pastor, I am in
the business of encouraging and teaching the folks I serve to show up—for others,
for people who are hurting and to show up for God too. If people fail to show
up in the community God has created in my little corner of creation, things
will eventually fall apart. Empty pews. Empty church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">No
showing up. No community. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">No
“we” if everyone skipped Sunday sabbath or missed the fair committee; or forgot
to go to choir practice or neglected to show up at Sunday night middle school
youth group; or if we tried to help build a house for a neighbor in need but then
no one showed up to swing a hammer or we hoped to feed the hungry but not
enough servers said “I will help!”…well, then, we are all kind of doomed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">All
of this life would not be, cannot be, if we fail to show up for others, for causes
greater than ourselves, and just for the joy of hanging out with others. I know
I’m biased about the human need to show up. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m a joiner, a “show-er up-per type.” Always
have been. There was football teams as a kid and weekly church youth group and then
summer camp counseling and now a choir to sing in and a trivia team to compete
on and a dinner party to host with a tight circle of old friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of these places and spaces worked and still
work for one simple reason.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
all show up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Last
week there was a fascinating and depressing article in “The Atlantic” magazine,
by Derek Thompson, about the dying nature of hanging out in community, in the
United States, how in just one generation America has gone from a nation of
folks who love to associate and to show up, to a nation of individuals staying
home and staying away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The statistics he
cites are brutal for the vital work of building community, the need to have
community at the center of our civic life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“From
2003 to 2022, American men reduced their average hours of face-to-face
socializing by about 30 percent. For unmarried Americans, the decline was even
bigger—more than 35 percent. For teenagers, it was more than 45 percent. Boys
and girls ages 15 to 19 reduced their weekly social hangouts by more than three
hours a week. In short, there is no statistical record of any other period in
U.S. history when people have spent more time on their own.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">When
we don’t show up, we spend less and less time with our fellow townsfolk and
fellow citizens and persons next door. Less socializing leads to less trust and
less trust means more suspicion and contempt for the other. “I don’t know them!
I don’t like them!” Ever wonder why right now in the U.S. so many of us are treating
each other with such hostility, fear, and anger? Why some of our leaders work
harder to split us apart rather than bring us together?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Maybe
it’s because we are just not showing up enough. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Showing
up for the kids at t-ball and coaching. Showing up at a house of worship to
sing together and work for the common good together. Showing up for each other
in public meetings, not just to make a point and then storm out of the room,
but to listen to what someone else has to say and to stay. The more we show up,
the better chance we have of being in communities of mutual care and respect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Or
I guess can just sit at home on my couch and scroll on my phone through Reddit
or Facebook or maybe binge another TV show on Netflix and just feel lonely. And
alone. I don’t show up for others. I don’t give others a chance to show up for
me. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Wow,
that is sad. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Instead,
God willing and God inspiring, I’d rather show up and sing with my choir mates
and show up and take in a movie with an old friend and show up at church and
drink bad coffee and share gentle gossip and help with the food drive and show
up at school committee and try to figure out together, what is the highest good
for the most kids in town. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Showing
up: hope to see you there. I’ll save you a seat.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church
of Christ, in Sherborn, Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at
sherbornpastor.blogspot.com and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville
Institute at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For
twenty-five years he was a columnist whose essays appeared in newspapers
throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He has served churches in New
England since 1989. For comments, please be in touch:
pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
John Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205712186140374089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7725381222031561713.post-31390280674372094452024-02-13T17:13:00.000-05:002024-02-13T17:13:03.693-05:00Ashes to Ashes. No One Here Gets Out Alive. That's OK.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgINxNg1Dvifvtwz6X8ddp0aJlzcd7U_0tEnIE7hmvdz0WloURz4VkMc0RNbYr14EZaD5WHwDB0uOOpXP73_D0405ewdChrRSSWJl0e2b02-2CUo6SxowbnuOXXOEcvS6U2Ptt8xqxCFo4HBOPTlH8uBepZJovttrQVzho7vPQCBEuvyLo-avmMlC5D0wU/s2560/oneash-wednesday-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter.webp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1706" data-original-width="2560" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgINxNg1Dvifvtwz6X8ddp0aJlzcd7U_0tEnIE7hmvdz0WloURz4VkMc0RNbYr14EZaD5WHwDB0uOOpXP73_D0405ewdChrRSSWJl0e2b02-2CUo6SxowbnuOXXOEcvS6U2Ptt8xqxCFo4HBOPTlH8uBepZJovttrQVzho7vPQCBEuvyLo-avmMlC5D0wU/w400-h266/oneash-wednesday-ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg-converter.webp" width="400" /></a></div><p><i>"<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">As
we live our precarious lives on the brink of the void, constantly coming closer
to a state of nonbeing, we are all too often aware of our fragility.” ― Iris
Murdoch, author, “Nuns and Soldiers” </span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
Ash Wednesday, I will perform one of the most poignant, and kind of strange,
but oh so powerful, ministerial rituals. I’ll take my forefinger, dip it into a
bowl of ash made of burnt palms from last year’s Palm Sunday service, and then I
will make a gray and dusty cross upon someone’s forehead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then I will recite aloud this simple
declaration, this truth that no one escapes, that everyone faces into, as very
mortal mortals.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Remember
that thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
is the notion that we come from the earth and one day we will all return to the
earth. The recognition that like Adam and Eve, God shapes us from the
primordial stuff of life at its most basic level, and then we are born, and then
at death, we go back to that very same state. Dirt to dirt. And maybe stardust
too, stardust to stardust, the ingredient all life is created from by our God
of the stars above and the earth below and everything in between.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">As
a pastor I’ve dealt with the dust and dustiness of human death for a long
time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remember the first time I was
asked to actually help spread the ashes of someone who had died. I learned that
these really aren’t ashes in a way, more like coarse sand, with larger bits
too, of bone. I hope that doesn’t come across as ghoulish but, in a way, I
think it’s a good thing to learn about the reality that when our soul departs
and goes back to God, the remnants left behind are pretty simple really. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’ve
scattered the ashes of a sailor under the shadow of the Newport Bridge, by the
shores of the Naval War College on a warm spring afternoon, the sun dappling the
water, a sea breeze blowing in. I’ve buried the remains of a beloved church
member below the roots of a newly planted Japanese maple tree, its oh so red
leaves reaching up towards heaven. I’ve watched as the remains of a husband and
wife were intermingled, these lovers of almost seven decades, reunited one last
time. As a battered rowboat glided on an ancient New Hampshire lake, those
ashes were slowly scattered to return to the deep, in a precious place, by a
lakeside home that family had celebrated so many seemingly endless summers.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">But
summers always end. As do humans. Earth to earth. Ashes to ashes. Dust to dust.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">When
I see such human dust, I always feel humbled. It reminds me that I am really
not “all that” or oh so special, nope. Nothing fancy. A rich man’s remains look
no different than a poor man’s remains. And eventually I will intermingle in
the soil, with the soil, just like every other human being.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ashes teach me that I do not have all the
time in the world to live, though I may act that way sometimes. And so, if I
plan to do something—like say “I love you” or forgive a wrong or give away my
treasure—well, I better get to it. We all better get to whatever we need to do.
None of us knows when the final bell might ring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
ash I offer to others, that a colleague will smudge upon my forehead, marks me
as living within the boundaries of time and space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unlike God who was and is and will be, who is
eternity, I am and then…I won’t be any more, one day. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my tradition, the gift is that we also believe
and hope that when our mortality ends, our eternity begins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We will return to the mysterious power which
made us and return to the company of those who died before us, to the loved
ones we miss so much.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Ashes
to ashes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
know why Ash Wednesday does not pack ‘em in the pews like Easter or Christmas.
It is a somber day. A day of reckoning. A day when we come face to face with
our true selves, blemishes, and smudges and all. We face all of our frailties
and our scars and that which marks us as human. It is a day when we say, “Dear
God, You are God. I am not. Thank God.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Dust
to dust.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">On
this day, on this Wednesday, may we be reminded of our humanity and of our
mortality and not be afraid, but instead embrace with courage the life we still
have to live. For it is precious. It is finite.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It will one day be over. Remember. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Remember
that thou are dust, and unto dust thou shalt return.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amen. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church
of Christ, in Sherborn, Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at
sherbornpastor.blogspot.com and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville
Institute at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For
twenty-five years he was a columnist whose essays appeared in newspapers
throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He has served churches in New
England since 1989. For comments, please be in touch:
pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
John Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205712186140374089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7725381222031561713.post-58091792936876723952024-02-06T16:13:00.003-05:002024-02-06T16:13:44.361-05:00The Creeping Crud: We ALL Need a Little Comfort Sometimes.<p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglssshIdHJPC_BVyYGgF3El9KRrdea7DJfjkp0c5x74q5tnEo0SOnxiCNKly4XwKY9lQGD6mOOK8XbhAtpZreeNY7FP0qDKLfJAhoba7x1xwq86Ktln3GoQlzZpkxEsVH72WgTsZvpOYPwci_ZgBpOIZCwnnpsKmyDkvfotcCzYRyv5QrwStEBIGKfySY/s470/flu-season.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="260" data-original-width="470" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglssshIdHJPC_BVyYGgF3El9KRrdea7DJfjkp0c5x74q5tnEo0SOnxiCNKly4XwKY9lQGD6mOOK8XbhAtpZreeNY7FP0qDKLfJAhoba7x1xwq86Ktln3GoQlzZpkxEsVH72WgTsZvpOYPwci_ZgBpOIZCwnnpsKmyDkvfotcCzYRyv5QrwStEBIGKfySY/w400-h221/flu-season.jpg" width="400" /></a></i></div><i><br />"Comfort,
comfort my people, says...God. Speak tenderly...to her.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Isaiah 40:1</i><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
stink at being sick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Down for the count because
of illness. Staying home and waiting to heal. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every winter I try my best to keep at bay whatever
virus is lurking in these chilly months. I get vaxxed. I mask when needed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wash my hands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’m
a good doobie!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">But
then<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>every once in a rare while I just get
sick. We all do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes very sick. And
so, we have no choice but to lay low and hope and pray for just a little comfort.
A little kindness. A little healing eventually. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">My
winter bug journey of these past two days is not for the shy of stomach or
faint of heart and so I won’t gross you out with all the details but the version
of the flu I caught includes “intestinal upset,” a sweaty fever, a throbbing headache,
and nausea. It has also reduced my stamina so much that one trip up the stairs
calls for a nap! (And it’s not COVID. I tested.)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">But
thank God, I am just starting to get off the couch on this Tuesday late afternoon
after being down for the count from this past Sunday morning to now. I’m not
looking for sympathy or “poor you’s!” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s
plenty of sickness to go around right now and I’m blessed to have a job that
can spare me, a warm house to recover within. That’s a comfort. I found comfort
in recuperation by drinking something like four liters of ever dependable ginger
ale and nibbling lots of orange ritz crackers and eating bowls of bland oatmeal
and sleeping on and off and watching three movies in one day. Hunkering down on
my favorite chair, the aptly named La-Z-Boy, and huddling under a fuzzy blue blanket
to ward off the chills. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">All
comforts.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">But
the best comfort of all came from a stack of red and white heart-decorated get-well
cards from members of the middle school youth group, at the church I
serve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My colleague Victoria, who helps
run the group, dropped the hand-made cards off to me Sunday night, having used
the creation of these greetings to teach those kids about our responsibility as
people of faith and humans, to comfort others when they are sick. Or when they
are lonely. To offer comfort to a person who just lost a loved one to death. To
comfort the folks who find winter just too darn long, the darkness in this
second month just darn too pervasive. To offer comfort to a shut-in who can’t
do much more than look out the window, or to someone in memory care who could
sure use a cheer me up. To comfort folks who really need comfort on these cold
days: the homeless, the hungry. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
can all use comfort in this life. I know I certainly do, especially when I get
the creeping crud! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">So,
in squiggly tween penmanship, those wonderful young people wrote out in deep red
ink, all their heartfelt and sacred words of comfort to me…”Pastor John…I hope
you feel better and can come to our next meeting!” “Missed you tonight—best wishes!”
“Thinking of you!” “Please get better!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The greetings were especially comforting,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>because this was the first meeting I’d missed
in a long, long time. I really wanted to be there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">But
boy, did those cards and kind words lighten my heart, soften my soul, and
remind me what a gift it is to offer comfort to others, (which I get to do for
my job!) and also to be comforted. God comforts us. We comfort others. And the
circle of comfort continues. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">To
live a life of comfort means we live to comfort. To wipe away the tears of the
grieving and to tie the shoes of those too old or too young to do so. We comfort
a child woken up by a scary nightmare and dark shadows at night and we comfort
a prisoner who clutches at bars that will never set him free. Comfort never
asks, “Do you deserve it?” Instead, it always asks, “Do you want it?”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
always answer yes. I hope you do too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Comfort receivers always make the best comfort givers.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Comfort’s
kind of a hard sell these days, in much of our culture. We are living in a
sharp elbowed world in 2024. Some political candidates know no boundaries in
the crudeness and violence of their rhetoric, followed in a close second by
their vitriolic minions. So much of mass media is a mass slugfest, pundits pounding
pundits 24/7 on all those news channels. Public meetings erupt with, and are interrupted
by, the outraged, who fume and yell and don’t want much to listen or to even
just sit down and talk things through.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
need comfort—human comfort, God’s comfort—now more than ever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like a balm to heal our sin sick souls and a
salve to repair our broken world and relationships with our neighbors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We could do worse than to turn to the lessons
about comfort offered by a bunch of 6<sup>th</sup>, 7<sup>th</sup>,and 8<sup>th</sup>
graders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Get
better!” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">What
a beautiful hope for each of us, for all creation. May you comfort. May you
know comfort. And when you finish reading this, please share some comfort. Call
someone or write to someone or connect with someone who needs some comfort on
this cold February day.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church
of Christ, in Sherborn, Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at
sherbornpastor.blogspot.com and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville
Institute at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For
twenty-five years he was a columnist whose essays appeared in newspapers
throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He has served churches in New
England since 1989. For comments, please be in touch:
pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
John Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205712186140374089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7725381222031561713.post-3619491111275188372024-01-30T17:47:00.000-05:002024-01-30T17:47:07.333-05:00Who Tossed the Rock Through the Window? Time to Fess Up.<p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhti3dxhAXGR1y6058sflUQ-k-EWfVtTdsdqvBtTXRWv125_tGVdxN-2AXy4MM87zvika0JutXQjsTYdfLAj7OUsf4q9fC_cCVB20DOiGBtwwDSuk696vv4oy6cFgExvlSxeKoZWXQ7u418Un2KXQpp0phEhQ_Us_Cpg6W13v2KRXRDvrJk84bobfKV2pw/s612/rock%20window.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="388" data-original-width="612" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhti3dxhAXGR1y6058sflUQ-k-EWfVtTdsdqvBtTXRWv125_tGVdxN-2AXy4MM87zvika0JutXQjsTYdfLAj7OUsf4q9fC_cCVB20DOiGBtwwDSuk696vv4oy6cFgExvlSxeKoZWXQ7u418Un2KXQpp0phEhQ_Us_Cpg6W13v2KRXRDvrJk84bobfKV2pw/w400-h254/rock%20window.jpg" width="400" /></a></i></div><i><br />“Morality,
like art, means drawing a line someplace.”<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>--G.K.
Chesterton, British author</i><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Who
broke this window?!”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> A
group of us neighborhood boys stood in a sidewalk line-up, something like 55
years ago, on a warm summer afternoon. One of us had thrown a rock through the
glass front door of a home on our street, resulting in a pile of glass and some
very scared and angry homeowners within. That rock was meant to get the
attention of a boy who had taunted us, and then run home to hide. My mom or dad,
or maybe another parent, played interrogator to our collection of miscreant
minors. I remember vividly how I answered the question about who was guilty. Or
not.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Who
did it?!”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Not
me!” I said, too immediately, with false confidence, my head held down, not even
looking my accuser in the eyes. Of course, it was me who’d tossed that stone in
anger. The first time in my young moral life that I remember crossing a line, so
to speak. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">First
there was the rock. Then I had the chance to tell the truth and take
responsibility for my actions, but nope. I didn’t stay on the correct side of a
moral line that I’d been taught since birth. Failed to respect an ethical
boundary between right and wrong, lessons taught to me by my family and by my
faith. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Don’t
throw rocks through windows. You could hurt someone. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Always
be honest too. Don’t lie. Especially to an adult, or worse, your parents. If you
do the wrong thing fess up. Face the consequences. On that day long ago, I
failed to do the right thing. I crossed a line, as I have many more times in this
life. Not usually with rocks but with thoughts and with words and with things
undone. All humans do this. Cross lines of healthy and loving behavior into not
so healthy, less than loving behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
sin, stumble, screw up, become our worst selves. We pick up that rock.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">A
gift of trying to live an intentional spiritual life is that we can try, with
God’s grace and forgiveness, to see the line, and then hold the line. One of
the most important tasks of religion has always been to give its followers codes
of conduct. Ways of life. Think of the Ten Commandments. Or Jesus’ teaching to
love God, love neighbor, love self. Lines and laws that keep us in check when
temptation gets too great. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Yes,
faith traditions have also fallen short in this work. We’ve vilified the wrong
people or behaviors or worst, been hypocritical. Do as I say, not as I do. Yet when
faith gets it right, it shows us how to live good lives. How to do the right
thing. How to live so well, that the world is a better place for us having been
here. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Because
we also know what happens when line crossing becomes the norm in our world. When
codes of conduct, when norms for behavior, are ignored or mocked as old
fashioned or plain just run right over for expediency or moral relativity. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Then
chaos results, hurt and fear in the wake of so much line crossing. Can we trust
our neighbor or the stranger? Then there are the political and cultural influencers
who are supposed to lead us with decency and honor but who instead lead as
bullies and braggarts and blowhards. We pay a huge price for such communal line
crossing. Individuals, families, communities, and nations, even democracy itself,
threatens to fall apart. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Or
we can try and try again to do that right thing. Not in braggy or self-righteous
ways but in humility and hope. We can reject those who revel in their own wrongdoing
and wears their indictments and transgressions like badges of honor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can remember that we are moral role models
for our children, and kids on the teams we coach and in the classes we teach,
in the friends we keep. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Yes,
someone is always, has always, crossed the line. But for me, especially right
now in our world and culture, it feels like there is so much more at stake when
it comes to doing the right things or doing the wrong things. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t think I’m being overly dramatic or
going all chicken little-ish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With an
election looming and a planet reeling from wars and so much conflict, we need
line respecters, now more than ever. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">What
do you think? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
all throw rocks and cross lines sometimes. But to live spiritually gives us the
chance to confess, to make amends, to clean up our mess, and then to start all
over again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Thanks
for that second chance God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And sorry
about the rock.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church
of Christ, in Sherborn, Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at
sherbornpastor.blogspot.com and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville
Institute at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For
twenty-five years he was a columnist whose essays appeared in newspapers
throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He has served churches in New
England since 1989. For comments, please be in touch:
pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
John Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205712186140374089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7725381222031561713.post-21014890354485360122024-01-22T12:44:00.001-05:002024-01-22T12:44:42.090-05:00When I Am Old: Acceptance and Panic As Time Goes By.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyPIVbeUtarUV42TcwKGo1Icelhso3b6BKDuTxHmLRqVtxj14cbJGxGdl5J9GNgvWLqJKA7lmEMjwAIMPxP-IV0MG9nnK-ENdbYELVFIgQqdKNPNn5xrsmcACCER56iQYXjRpshcBuLWe9XmQSSTgWLBumJ2lbcTIr-uYfS0l5f3aX1P3-Ed05JMbfFbE/s3956/JFH1961.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3956" data-original-width="2501" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyPIVbeUtarUV42TcwKGo1Icelhso3b6BKDuTxHmLRqVtxj14cbJGxGdl5J9GNgvWLqJKA7lmEMjwAIMPxP-IV0MG9nnK-ENdbYELVFIgQqdKNPNn5xrsmcACCER56iQYXjRpshcBuLWe9XmQSSTgWLBumJ2lbcTIr-uYfS0l5f3aX1P3-Ed05JMbfFbE/w253-h400/JFH1961.jpg" width="253" /></a></div><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“The
glory of the young is their strength; the gray hair of experience is the
splendor of the old.”--Proverbs
20:29</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">When
I am old….</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’m
not quite sure who wrote the supposedly inspiring line, “When I am old, I will
wear purple!” but if I were them, I’d definitely add a few caveats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like, when I am old, I will wake up and feel
pain in places previously pain free and then think, “What the hell is that?” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Or
when I am old, I will read stuff about how folks much younger than me are
thinking or living or doing in the world, and I will admit, “The world is not
really mine anymore—and that’s ok.” Or, when I am old, I will finally and
begrudgingly sign up for membership in the American Association of Retired
People but then delete all their annoyingly daily emails without reading, because,
hey, I’m not that old! Or, when I am old, I will meet for a yearly New Year’s
reunion breakfast with the guys I hung out with in high school and then I will thank
my God for blessing me with such good friends at that tender time in my young
life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">When
I am old….when you are old.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
escapes no one, this aging thing, the clock of existence and time just ticking
away, no way to turn back the hands. The truth is that the amazing and
miraculous body and mind given to us by our Creator has an expiration date, a “use
by” date. At some point, in the days ahead we will just not wake up one morning
or we will take one final breath in our favorite chair while reading or at the
end there might be hospice and cancer or maybe an accident and then that will
be it. You get the picture. Accepting this fact of our mortality is, perhaps,
the biggest part of getting old, the most challenging spiritual and emotional hurdle
we leap over—or maybe just go around. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Because
aging either makes us panic or accept. Or more likely both. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Panic
and do kind of stupid things like Botox injections or dating well below your
age (that’s just creepy) or dressing ‘young’ and still looking old, or
resenting the young because they don’t believe what we believe so let’s just make
sure they won’t get their chance to run the world. Won’t get power until they
pry it out of our wrinkled, knobby, blue-veined hands. Talking about you Election
2024! And you too, Rolling Stones….are you still rolling!?!? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Aging
gives us the grace to accept just where we are at, to make peace with age, actually
thank God for the gift of our maturation, our ripeness! “My name’s John and I’m
63 years old!” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“HI JOHN! Welcome to AA, Aging
Anonymous.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Recently
I was with a group of old friends and colleagues, all of us thinking about and
trying to figure out this whole aging thing, what it means for us spiritually,
our relationship with each other and God. This gang of clergy—who have served churches,
and colleges and hospitals and at home; we have met two to three times a year
for almost 30 years now. There’s a gift of aging with old and dear friends. They
love us in spite of ourselves and because of ourselves. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They’ve stuck around to be witnesses to our
lives.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">My
friend Sarah said that aging is about both knowing more and knowing less.
Knowing more because of life and professional experience but also knowing less
and facing into the complexity of life not with hubris but instead humility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Aging can teach us that there is often more
wisdom in saying “I just don’t know” rather than insisting “I absolutely do know!”
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">When
I am old…when you are old. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Beyond
wearing purple, what might God be telling you to do, with the precious God-given
time that you have left on this beautiful and broken blue marble spinning in
space? For no matter what our age, God is always inviting us to ask ourselves, who
will I be in my time, and for this time, with God’s gift of finite time? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
adventure of aging is finding the answers to those question. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church
of Christ, in Sherborn, Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at
sherbornpastor.blogspot.com and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville
Institute at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For
twenty-five years he was a columnist whose essays appeared in newspapers
throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He has served churches in New
England since 1989. For comments, please be in touch:
pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
John Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205712186140374089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7725381222031561713.post-90051989187173110042024-01-15T13:31:00.000-05:002024-01-15T13:31:25.589-05:00My Opinion? We Need Less Opinion in 2024.
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHUF9jnf7Va5g_P3o_1Tm7D0L7UC5AaVIhXs7LjXu8CZa6PY9N3l1pPEqc6x7Y2FepEZRNB0C7uq_cLOnLh8F44VNgeP4JJoKyKQRDEvEL2td_RHB6L9AcQ8n_H129hAAg8sgFeKvhLfslI16cKOs9EoxvvH9DyCTg22tzyckkxq_RW4B9gVnO66gV_SA/s1755/blabbermouth_by_cheyenneshea_dd2yq2m-fullview.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1755" data-original-width="1280" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHUF9jnf7Va5g_P3o_1Tm7D0L7UC5AaVIhXs7LjXu8CZa6PY9N3l1pPEqc6x7Y2FepEZRNB0C7uq_cLOnLh8F44VNgeP4JJoKyKQRDEvEL2td_RHB6L9AcQ8n_H129hAAg8sgFeKvhLfslI16cKOs9EoxvvH9DyCTg22tzyckkxq_RW4B9gVnO66gV_SA/w291-h400/blabbermouth_by_cheyenneshea_dd2yq2m-fullview.jpg" width="291" /></a></i></div><i><br />"Fools
find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>--Proverbs 18:2</i><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Here’s
my idea of hell on earth. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Being
surrounded by people who insist on telling me exactly what their opinion is about
this political issue or that current event. Folks sure that <i>what I believe</i>
about politics or culture, or religion is completely wrong. And that <i>what
they believe</i> is absolutely, positively right. If I do not agree with them,
well, I must be unenlightened or not progressive enough or not conservative
enough or I am the enemy or just clueless or even evil. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Oh
wait. That’s the world we live in now! </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“No
comment.” Does anyone in our culture, in particular politicians, influencers,
sports stars, celebrities, pundits, journalists, “religious” types know of this
wise phrase, one so rarely spoken in 2024? “No comment.” </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Or
how about, “I’m not sure what I believe.” Or “I don’t know.” Or “I really don’t
have an opinion on that.” Or “I don’t think what I have to say is all that
important.” Or “I’m still thinking about it, praying about it.” Or “I’ve
actually changed my mind. I was wrong.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
irony is not lost on me that I have been an opinion writer for almost thirty years,
and I’ve been a preacher of opinions, and paid to have an opinion, for more
than thirty-five years. But I am not so sure anymore just how helpful that is. To
have an opinion and to feel compelled to share it with anyone, with everyone.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">LISTEN
TO ME! </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Does
the world really need one more opinionated person and opinion?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does this world really need another blowhard
candidate, with an overinflated ego, basking in the creepy adulation of his or
her minions, at some stage-crafted telegenic rally, preening like some latter-day
Mussolini? Is that what we need in a leader right now? How does that help
anything or anyone in this mess of a planet on fire with so much conflict,
violence, and self-righteousness? Do we really need to care about what a
university or a toilet paper company or a sports team or a celebrity or a
self-important billionaire thinks about the current hot issue of the moment? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’m
not so sure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Opinions,
millions of opinions are ours’ for the consuming every single day, heck every
single second on all of our screens. Whatever opinion we seek to affirm, our
opinion is just a click or a tap away. But is the creation of so much broadcast
opinion improving what ails us? Stopping wars. Making peace between faiths.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Running a country well and with competence.
Seeking the common good. Saving the planet.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">When
it comes to sharing just what I believe I need to be a little wiser and a
little humbler and a little quieter. My faith tells me I need to go to a silent
place on a regular basis. To listen to God and not just presume to speak about
God. My faith teaches me that if the strength of my religious belief depends
upon on my need to tear down another’s belief, that’s no faith at all. My faith
reminds me that I have one mouth but two ears, I need to listen much more, and
talk much less. My faith convicts me that just because I have an opinion does
not mean I actually have to say it out loud. Foist it upon others. A wise
spiritual mentor of mine once taught me a strategy for figuring out when to
speak and when to go mute. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Ask
yourself three questions. Does it need to be said? Does it need to be said now?
Does it need to be said by me?”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Of
course, this is all just my opinion about opinion. I could be wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what heaven on earth it might be, if for just
one day in our world, no one, not a soul, expressed any opinion about anything
or anyone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Shhhhh.
Quiet please. Listen. Learn. Hush. Pray. Amen. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church
of Christ, in Sherborn, Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at
sherbornpastor.blogspot.com and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville
Institute at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For
twenty-five years he was a columnist whose essays appeared in newspapers
throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He has served churches in New
England since 1989. For comments, please be in touch:
pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.</span></i></p>
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John Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205712186140374089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7725381222031561713.post-83607340723758077192024-01-08T11:49:00.001-05:002024-01-08T11:49:22.593-05:00Need Help With January Resolutions? Don't Go It Alone. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP8XqmsWaGKEFt-sQb55_hJ0702aI10O6SvkT58Av6WCP86WjYYqHIsVS3uAgpcP9j1D4x-MOMHv6sOJEmc5irCltogHnL8FRAx1sgTcYM7gi9cHS_CwimOSd5hXFigXWpkKL1E5XBnojkFMkzLz1xdYqADLuAGDtISGl02OltYpSJS4cCZRzvx1R2wCo/s1310/new-years-resolutions-1310x833.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="833" data-original-width="1310" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP8XqmsWaGKEFt-sQb55_hJ0702aI10O6SvkT58Av6WCP86WjYYqHIsVS3uAgpcP9j1D4x-MOMHv6sOJEmc5irCltogHnL8FRAx1sgTcYM7gi9cHS_CwimOSd5hXFigXWpkKL1E5XBnojkFMkzLz1xdYqADLuAGDtISGl02OltYpSJS4cCZRzvx1R2wCo/w400-h254/new-years-resolutions-1310x833.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“In
the beginning….”<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>--Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
finally went back to the gym last week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s
about time. I’ve been paying $19 a month to the Planet Fitness Gym in the next
town over for so long that I’ve singlehandedly paid for the college tuition of
the gym owner’s three children. Their braces too. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Ok.
I exaggerate. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">But
for something like 15 years I’ve been sending that nationwide chain of training
facilities almost twenty bucks every thirty days. That’s $3500 to pay and then
not use any of the treadmills or stationary bikes or weight machines there. I
know why I keep up that membership. It’s on the rare chance I will go beyond a
hope-filled but most often doomed effort to get back in shape post January 1<sup>st</sup>
.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">For
so many years, it goes like this. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
a fit of new year’s optimism and earnestness I resolve to go to Plant Fitness
at least four times a week. Then about mid-February, on a chilly windblown afternoon,
as I prepare to drive over to the gym in my ice-cold car, in the dark, in
sweats that barely keep me toasty, my resolution stumbles and then it’s back to
the couch for me, and my gym bag sits in a corner of my bedroom collecting dust.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Perhaps
you dear readers have faced such defeats. We humans make a beginning at
something, a start, a resolve to take up this new hobby or that new pastime,
this new lifestyle change or that professional pursuit and then we stumble. We
aren’t able to keep at it. To follow through. To make the change. To give up a
vice. To start a new routine. To get back into the dating scene or to save more
money for a rainy day or eat less or exercise more. To quit drinking or smoking
or using pot. To go back to church. To pray each morning.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Making
changes in life is hard. Sometimes very hard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Our well-loved habits, especially the ones that bring us the most
pleasure and stimulate the pleasure centers of our brains—these impulses are often
the most difficult to curb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One study
from a Yale University researcher estimates it takes a full ninety days to end
an old habit and begin a new habit. In Alcoholics Anonymous, newcomers are
often advised to do “90 in 90”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s
90 meetings, one a day, for three full months. And don’t drink. The longer we
stick to something new and eschew something old, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the greater our chance at success. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">But
the most important spiritual lesson I’ve learned in the many January beginnings
I’ve tried in my 63 years, is that I cannot do this work alone. I can’t quit solo.
I can’t get in shape on my own. I can’t go this life alone, tough it out all by
myself. For me to change I need help from others. People to keep me
accountable. Call me out in love if I go back to a bad habit. Folks who love me
so much that they don’t want me to return to my old unhealthy ways. I need help
from folks who struggle just like I do with addictions. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">If
I ever decide to go back to cigarette smoking, a nasty and dangerous addiction
I struggled with for almost four decades, my friends and family will kill me.
Not actually take my life but they would be so angry, hurt, and worried for me
and so let down. In the rare moments I want a cigarette (yes even two years after
my last Marlboro Red) I remember all the people I need to stay alive for now.
For my nieces and my God kids and the people I serve at church and folks in the
choir I sing with my cycling team and my mom and siblings and friends and so
many others. I let someone I trust that I had a craving. By being honest, the
power of jonesing for a cancer stick loses some of its power. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Want
to change your life? Ask another for help. Recovering addicts in 12 Step groups
know the power of this truth. So do support group members, running buddies and
hiking partners and anyone who enjoys living life in community. It can be as
simple as you and your dog going on a walk together knowing you each need one
another. Or training for a marathon with crazy folks who’ll run on a frozen
January morning. Sitting in a church basement packed with people and <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>saying out loud for the very first time, “My
name is Bill and I’m an alcoholic and an addict.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Because
finally, to begin, to begin again, to begin for the first or thousandth time,
we need others. We need our God, a Higher Power of our choosing, to come to us
most powerfully through the help of fellow human beings and children of God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
the beginning…what are you starting or ending or beginning these days? My
advice is simple. Ask for help from another. Ask for help from God. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">And
maybe I’ll see you at the gym.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church
of Christ, in Sherborn, Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at
sherbornpastor.blogspot.com and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville
Institute at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For
twenty-five years he was a columnist whose essays appeared in newspapers
throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He has served churches in New
England since 1989. For comments, please be in touch: pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
John Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205712186140374089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7725381222031561713.post-27630424087075080612023-12-31T12:42:00.008-05:002023-12-31T12:47:22.144-05:00For a Happy and Happier New Year...How About Love?<p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGDIstwvIt99Lv8mF51O5Z5fcR5cFX4WZz0AfBkjmEb31NtdVCD5u3_6rN4qEA5TSSKcpjeKyI_X_9odv7TJc87cQ4Dya_7X7FW1V-YRVU20l9VtWlRMtA34qom0oYn48AA3CwOnGTmt42m6DdfDLmXNVM8GTPVGkvYYEhBQx9hZkTnykxJcUZYspdaqI/s930/transparent-heart-shape-64fa947d40dae6.5928272516941436132657.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="930" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGDIstwvIt99Lv8mF51O5Z5fcR5cFX4WZz0AfBkjmEb31NtdVCD5u3_6rN4qEA5TSSKcpjeKyI_X_9odv7TJc87cQ4Dya_7X7FW1V-YRVU20l9VtWlRMtA34qom0oYn48AA3CwOnGTmt42m6DdfDLmXNVM8GTPVGkvYYEhBQx9hZkTnykxJcUZYspdaqI/s320/transparent-heart-shape-64fa947d40dae6.5928272516941436132657.jpg" width="310" /></a></div><br />"</i></span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><i>Five-hundred
twenty-five thousand, six-hundred minutes…. Five hundred twenty-five thousand
moments so dear….how do you measure, measure a year?”<span> </span></i></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><i><span> </span>--“Seasons
of Love” from “Rent” by Jonathon Larson, 1996 </i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">In
the end, in the beginning, it is all about love. Love. It will be all about
love, too.<span> </span>At least that’s what I
believe as each of us, as our world, stands on the edge of an old year about to
exit and a new year about to enter.<span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Love.
If we know it, if we practice it, we will be saved. If we ignore it, if we
reject it, we are doomed in a way, as children of God and as God’s world
too.<span> </span>The cliché is true—love is the
answer. Love marks the best year of all. <span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">I
mean there are many other things, of course, I could use to measure a year, to fixate
on it, in these final hours of 2023.<span>
</span>Things I could use to quantify the past 365 days. Like coffee. I probably
drank something like 800 cups this year, probably more. Some good and smoky and
dark, and some not so good, tepid, weak, brown hot water. Some were solo as I
looked out the bay window in my house and watched an orange sun rise above the
horizon at dawn. Some cups came in very good company, with an old friend at a
downtown coffee shop, or in a church basement at a 12-step meeting.<span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">I
could take a pretty typical way of measuring a year, the way our society often
uses to measure whether or not we are “successful.” How much money did I make,
starting last January 1<sup>st</sup> up until now? Cash. Loot. Mammon, to use
an old-fashioned bible term.<span> </span>According
to some that is the ultimate measure of my worth, <span> </span>as a human, as a worker, as a cog in the
machine of the economy. The more money I make the better I am and the less I
make the lesser I am.<span> </span>God help me if I live,
or die based upon my 2023 W-2.<span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">How
about Amazon? That could tell me about how I lived this year, using consumption
as my yearly yardstick. You know, he who dies with the most toys wins. Right? <span> </span>As of today I placed ninety-two Amazon orders
in the past fifty-two weeks.<span> </span>My first
was “The Farmer’s Almanac 2023 Edition” on January 3<sup>rd</sup>, along with a
carton of thirty Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate packets.<span> </span>My final order of this year was for a Bose Bluetooth
speaker.<span> </span>Not sure what these purchases
say about me. I have a sweet tooth? I love music? I’m a weather freak? Yes and
yes and yes. But that is not the whole of me. Is Amazon you? Are we ultimately what
we buy, what material things we collect in a year? I sure hope not.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">So
many ways to analyze one year. How about Spotify? The song I listened to more
than any other in 2023 was “Movin‘ Right Along” by Kermit the Frog and Fozzy Bear.<span> </span>Ok, so I’m not some music aficionado but I
like what I hear and I smiled a lot to that song. There was the miles I rode on
my bike—something like 600 or so. The miles I put on my car—in the neighborhood
of 13,000.<span> </span>The miles I put on my
body.<span> </span>It’s about time for me to get
another new hip.<span> </span>I think I’ll wait until
next year.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">How
about prayer to mark one year? How many times did I pray? “God grant me the
serenity…” or “Our Father….” or just plain old, “God please help me with…” I
know I prayed an awful lot and know I wish I’d prayed even more. Just because I
am a paid Christian, in a way, doesn’t make me a better pray-er than other
folks. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">I
think that “Seasons of Love” gets it right when it makes its claim for the best
way to measure a year, and moments so dear, 525,600 minutes. It proclaims, “How
about love? Love. LOVE?! Seasons of love!”<span>
</span>Moments of love were me at my best last year and will certainly be the
best of me in 2024.<span> </span>The best of all of
us as humans and citizens and neighbors and family folk and friends too.<span> </span>As I leave this year and get ready to enter a
new year, I hope I can resolve to ask God to help me to love more in 2024. Love
my loveable acquaintances, yes, but also love folks it is hard to love. Love
others, absolutely, but also love myself.<span>
</span>Love this world and seek to heal it to of so much hurt and pain. Jesus
got it right when he condensed the whole collection religious laws to just three
items. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Love
God. Love neighbor. Love self.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">I
can always use more love and God knows Creation needs so much love, maybe now
more than ever.<span> </span>God’s love that can
actually end war and cease poverty and stop us boneheaded, stubborn humans from
hurting and hating each other.<span> </span>Of that,
I am sure. <span> </span>I have to have that hope to
move into what feels like a very fraught 2024.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">How
about love? 2024—bring it on. Bring it on, in love. All 525,600 minutes of it.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><a name="_Hlk104640311"><b><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior
Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church of Christ, in Sherborn,
Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at sherbornpastor.blogspot.com
and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville Institute at Saint John’s
University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For twenty-five years he was a columnist
whose essays appeared in newspapers throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
He has served churches in New England since 1989. For comments, please be in
touch: pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.</span></i></b></a></span></p>
<span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: small;"><span></span></span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: small;"> </span></p>
<br />John Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205712186140374089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7725381222031561713.post-24045868100895322842023-10-23T16:00:00.000-04:002023-10-23T16:00:41.105-04:00The Forced Humility of Finally Getting COVID...WHO, ME?!!!<div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0KzbwlHcQnuu_g9Anh5fpQPeF1o1ZfzNT4IOgMw1CfWUkrWj5kuk7hZeRXdNtuEKZvwGcOxV_sL9tmADi_WUMpfGcZegczjuzGI9gqN_7a8WGs9dxErUOJ7d-FD-S-25_RtriP1nWbyH6Ak2IrOD_YDVE_ahsFq4STzTuAjtabJFJS5ViFMqHvGpwkPM/s1200/covid1.webp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1200" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0KzbwlHcQnuu_g9Anh5fpQPeF1o1ZfzNT4IOgMw1CfWUkrWj5kuk7hZeRXdNtuEKZvwGcOxV_sL9tmADi_WUMpfGcZegczjuzGI9gqN_7a8WGs9dxErUOJ7d-FD-S-25_RtriP1nWbyH6Ak2IrOD_YDVE_ahsFq4STzTuAjtabJFJS5ViFMqHvGpwkPM/w400-h210/covid1.webp" width="400" /></a></div></span></i></div><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />Always
remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">--Jim
Wright, journalist, 1971</span></i>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
was a “NOVID” for 1,318 days. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“NOVID”
as in one of those rare folks who’ve never had COVID. Since March of 2020 I wore
a mask when necessary and prudent and I washed my hands regularly and I got vaxxed
on schedule and I followed all the rules, and I was COVID free. UnCOVID. Anti-COVIDED.
NOCOVID/NOWAY.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Until
I wasn’t.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Until
one night last week when I was up much of the evening with a nagging cough,
something I attributed to a bad cold (or so I wanted to believe).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I arose the next morning early, drove
straight to a nearby CVS at 7:05 am, bought an overpriced test kit from a
sleepy-eyed clerk, swabbed up and then waited for my results. Ten minutes later
it said I was COVID free! WHEW! </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">But
still, I was very cautious that day—I didn’t want to give anyone else what I
had—whatever it was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then another night
of hacking and sniffing and an itchy nose and triple sneezes, and up again at 7
am and I retested and then….</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">$%^#@!
NO!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Two
lines, one blue and one pink, on my antigen test, gave me the verdict. I was
infected. I had it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After more than
three and a half years of avoiding getting sick from the disease that gave our
world its worst pandemic in more than 100 years, I was ill. With COVID: the
virus that’s infected 717 million people worldwide, according to the World
Health Organization, and killed almost seven million people. At the height of
COVID’s virulence and power, it was the third leading cause of death in the
United States. It took the lives of 340,000 Americans in 2020, 475,000 in 2021,
and 244,000 lives in 2022.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Until
last week I’d kind of forgotten (and yes, probably on purpose) just how disruptive
and awful and scary COVID was, for a long time. I forgot about the pages and
pages of obituaries in <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>December editions
of <u>The Boston Globe.</u> Morgues overflowing in New York City. The Thanksgiving
and Christmas I spent all by myself. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Memory
is malleable. It can keep us happy by editing out what we recall, excluding the
traumatic stuff. But memory can trick us too, let us imagine that sure it
happened to others, but it won’t happen to me! Right?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
think I actually believed that somehow—with extra care, Irish luck, or by plain
old fate--I could elude COVID. Then life taught me otherwise and I got infected.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’m
not looking for sympathy. I am realizing an important life and spiritual lesson
from my serendipitous escape from COVID for so long. I hate to admit it, but I
was kind of cocky about my seeming bullet proofness when it came to COVID. In
my sometimes too big ego, I guess I was privately proud of myself. I was more
careful than others, that’s it. My immune system was supercharged, no doubt. Or
my genes kept me safe: thanks Mom and Dad! </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
suffered from terminal uniqueness. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">That’s
the phrase used in recovery circles to describe those addicts who think that
the rules might apply to others, but not to them. That they are instead “special”
in their addiction, maybe even better than fellow addicts, both when it comes
to using and to getting clean and sober. But then, inevitably, they spend some
time in the rooms of 12-step groups and realize their story isn’t so one of a
kind. In actually similar to the stranger’s story right next to them. Then they
get humbled: by the hard work of recovery, and by one inescapable truth, taught
in the crucible of forced humility.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
are all just bozos on the bus, most of the time. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
are no better or no worse than the other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We are a part of the human condition just like everyone else. We put our pants on one leg at a time, as the cliché
proclaims.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are not the first in line
nor the last. Nope—we are smack dab in the middle along with most of the rest
of humanity. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
write this the day before I get to go back out into the world after five days
of isolation at home, resting and recovering and savoring the good food my circle
of friends so graciously provided to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And so, I remember this: I am just like any other bozo on the bus. Like
any other child of God making their way in the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">You
are too. We all are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’m
not grateful I got COVID, no. I am grateful to God for the health strengthening
medicine I took and the miraculous vaccines that shielded me and the kind people
who checked in with me every day I stayed in isolation, who prayed for me, and sent
me a card. Thank you.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Yes,
I am just another bozo on the bus. Welcome to the club, John.</span></p>
<p><a name="_Hlk104640311"><strong><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church
of Christ, in Sherborn, Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at
sherbornpastor.blogspot.com and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville
Institute at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For
twenty-five years he was a columnist whose essays appeared in newspapers
throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He has served churches in New
England since 1989. For comments, please be in touch:
pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.</span></i></strong></a></p>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk104640311;"></span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
John Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205712186140374089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7725381222031561713.post-42005975469688475472023-09-22T17:21:00.002-04:002023-09-22T17:21:43.196-04:00I HAVE A COMPLAINT! Our Exhausting World of Grievance...<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWX8ilZZIH4Xs5gaZ8oy_CEoQKx-7t1OGZl_-CrukpskIUfhjNr0dcHKFKBxZRTUIaM_U1JVBZtnP_369umM_h6BiKEJGowvDQHP_9pF9z5slYBrMlSF_edRZjsOhadBG-rJCeXQ7FAu51lowgU1jOvWeFZ3CPfwU4RWjJVhHft3C9Ngvr3TSodV7rnCQ/s600/complain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="347" data-original-width="600" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWX8ilZZIH4Xs5gaZ8oy_CEoQKx-7t1OGZl_-CrukpskIUfhjNr0dcHKFKBxZRTUIaM_U1JVBZtnP_369umM_h6BiKEJGowvDQHP_9pF9z5slYBrMlSF_edRZjsOhadBG-rJCeXQ7FAu51lowgU1jOvWeFZ3CPfwU4RWjJVhHft3C9Ngvr3TSodV7rnCQ/w400-h231/complain.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />"The
whole congregation…complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness….‘If
only we had died…in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our
fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this
whole assembly with hunger.’" </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>--Exodus 16:2-3</span></i>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Humans
have been complaining about as long as, well…as long as there has been
something or someone to complain about. Take the ancient Israelites. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Please! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But seriously….</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">According
to the bible story, Israelites were enslaved in Egypt for 400 years until God, with
help from Moses and Aaron, freed them. The liberated community fled into the
desert to find a new home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So far, so
good.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But then, seemingly, in little
time on that journey, the complaining started and not just complaining but world
class kvetching, to use a favorite Yiddish word.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Israelites were so complaint-filled that
they told their leaders they’d rather have been enslaved again, back where they
came from, even dead (!), for at least in Egypt, their bellies were full. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
whole of the Exodus story is chockful of complaining. We’re hot! We’re cold! We’re
out of food! There’s no water! God doesn’t listen to us! Billy took my
football! Okay, maybe not that last one but aggrievement does mark our human story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Because,
I guess, to be human is to complain and to complain is to just be human. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Yet,
lately in our culture, I think we’ve raised the art and the practice of
complaining to a whole new level, especially on social media and in our political
life. For example…have you ever read a public neighborhood online forum, ala “Next
Door ______”? (Fill in your town or city.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Spend
a few minutes scrolling thereon and it can seem as though the main thing that
folks do in “our town USA” is complain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>About
the neighbors. About town services. About animals. About Amazon trucks. About
town meeting. This week I read one complaint by a patron of a local burger
joint. He was livid that the restaurant closed five minutes early! The writer
upbraided the establishment and even noted how the employees made silly faces
at him from behind the locked door. I kid you not. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">But
then the commenting by commentators on the complaining comment, began and yes,
you guessed it, they complained too, about restaurants that had left them
unhappy. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A local pizza joint. A fast
food place. An upscale mall
establishment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a pile on, a
complain-a-thon. Who could top the other by being more miserable and more
outraged? And all because someone couldn’t get a late-night burger. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Oh, the horror!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It’s
not just locally that some wear resentments like badges of honor. Many candidates
for high office are complaint factories too, folks who base their whole “platform”
on complaining.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>About how if they lost,
someone must have cheated. About how if they won, someone must have undercounted
the votes for them. They complain about the press if the media does not offer
fealty to their overblown egos. They complain that their opponents just hate
America and want to destroy it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
are living in an age of grievance politics. Whiny politics and whiny candidates
and whiny voters. To win, I guess all you must do is talk about how terrible
the other guy or gal is, how corrupt, how perverse, etc., etc. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
am exhausted by all this negativity and complaint. It’s forced me to look at all
the ways I fall into the trap of complaint in this life. That person isn’t
driving fast enough! They are out of my favorite diet soda at Marketbasket! And
how ‘bout those Red Sox!? Patriots?! They stink! </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">But
here’s the truth about chronic complaint and complaining. It’s toxic. It can
ruin relationships. Who wants to be around someone who is constantly tearing
things down? Not me. Compliant make us see only the bad and not the good.
Complaint make us weary and cynical. Complaint is a spiritual killjoy. Do it
enough and it will parch your spirit and exhaust those around you.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Except,
I suppose, folks who can’t wait to jump on to Facebook or X (can I complain
about Twitter’s new name?!) or Next Door to lodge their latest complaint. And our
leaders, the one’s addicted to complaint and anger. All aggrievement, all the
time. Who can I attack now? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">When
I fall into the habit of haranguing and harassing, I lose gratitude for the life
I live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which for all my temptation to
complain is in fact a good life. I have enough food to eat. A safe and
comfortable home. I have wonderful job (most days) that pays me to do good in
the world. People to love and who love me. And all through the grace of a generous
God, who dares me to look for the good each and every day, share that good with
others, and always say, “Thank you!”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Kvetching.
Complaining. Whining. Grumbling. Murmuring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Nit-picking. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It’s
human nature, heck, my nature, but there is a deep spiritual and communal price
to pay for a life built upon grievances. Life’s too short to spend it
aggrieved. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Instead,
let’s look for the good. Thank God for the good. Leave complaint to others.</span></p>
<p><a name="_Hlk104640311"><strong><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church
of Christ, in Sherborn, Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at
sherbornpastor.blogspot.com and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville
Institute at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For
twenty-five years he was a columnist whose essays appeared in newspapers
throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He has served churches in New
England since 1989. For comments, please be in touch: pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.</span></i></strong></a></p>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk104640311;"></span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
John Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205712186140374089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7725381222031561713.post-39282457719420456432023-09-13T17:47:00.000-04:002023-09-13T17:47:19.449-04:00Nazis In My Hometown?! They Came to Attack the Stranger. <p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkBcRS_eaIrDOCuLG9FskfMjTomPxS5dqSNGr4PobEmc4fA7SwZBGoutY_2rch_ENxxJrajsc2Czx_9Nw2jRVILIESohiYjUd4Ul6rfPk8UGxXdQ4m8UCKOM9uU3OqVtFUTfIwSDb6QTXzqDoWI0pO9j12afwQ0F3P0aoXETojuD7x-BtWiEBZhZ-EPAg/s640/nazis%20new%20england.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkBcRS_eaIrDOCuLG9FskfMjTomPxS5dqSNGr4PobEmc4fA7SwZBGoutY_2rch_ENxxJrajsc2Czx_9Nw2jRVILIESohiYjUd4Ul6rfPk8UGxXdQ4m8UCKOM9uU3OqVtFUTfIwSDb6QTXzqDoWI0pO9j12afwQ0F3P0aoXETojuD7x-BtWiEBZhZ-EPAg/w400-h225/nazis%20new%20england.jpg" width="400" /></a></i></div><i><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“On
only one occasion does the Hebrew bible command us to love our neighbor, but in
37 places it commands us to love the stranger. The stranger is the one we are
taught to love precisely because he is not like ourselves.”<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>--Jonathan Sacks, rabbi,
philosopher, theologian</span></i><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">One
hundred years ago to be exact. 1923. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">That’s
the year my grandfather, Armand Bolduc, and his brother, Mark, immigrated from
Quebec, Canada to rural, Vermont, looking for work and trying to find a new home.
To make their way and to make a living in that strange place where folks spoke
a different language and had different customs and culture, but also where
those strangers were welcomed by those already there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Someone took my grandfather in and gave him
work. Welcomed him.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">My
mom told me that story just this week, as we drove by a small Christian college
in Quincy, in the Wollaston neighborhood, a school called Eastern Nazarene. It
was founded by Christians in the early part of the twentieth century to provide
affordable and high-quality education. That college then and now is intentional
about grounding its mission in the life and person of Jesus Christ, the one who
taught many good things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the one who
famously (or infamously) said, “I was hungry and you fed me. I was a stranger
and you took me in.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">That’s
just what Eastern Nazarene is doing right now. Welcoming strangers. Helping to
feed hungry kids. Providing safe shelter. It’s partnered with the state of Massachusetts
to open up a Welcome Center on its campus for migrants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At present 58 immigrants, mostly from Haiti,
are staying at the college in a dormitory. All are in family units with
children or expecting a child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their
stay is short-term; in days they will be moved to more permanent housing.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Now
back to the “stranger” part.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As reported
by the Patriot Ledger and Quincy police, “[Last] Saturday, 25 to 30 white men
in khakis and face masks marched to the site housing the families and ‘stood on
a public sidewalk while holding flares, a banner and chanting for the migrant
families to 'go home' and that they 'were not welcome.'"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those men were members of NSC-131, a neo-Nazi
white supremacist group based in Massachusetts. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Why do they never have the guts to show their
faces?!)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Never
thought I’d have to write these two words together in one sentence. Nazis and
Massachusetts. Never thought those fascists would show up in the neighborhood
where I grew up, a place of modest homes on narrow streets, nearby to a
beautiful beach, home to lots of folks who also have immigrant roots. Irish.
Chinese. Brazilian. Canadian. The point being that until that group showed up
at the college to intimidate and harass those women, men and children fleeing
poverty and violence, I never imagined such hateful and racist storm troopers
could be right next door. Ready to reject any who dare to come to America. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Yes,
there is a huge migration and illegal immigration problem in our country right
now. Actually, there’s been one for more than a generation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The fault lies not with any one political party—its
lies with both sides of the aisle and a handful of demagogues more interested
in scoring political points than reaching consensus on sane, compassionate, and
prudent immigration policy. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
problem is that folks at the extremes control the debate right now. The ones
who want to build a wall. The ones who want wide open borders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The answers lie in the middle, but not many politicians
are staking out space there right now.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Which
is a shame and a dereliction of their duty as our elected officials. The odd
part is that some of them also claim to be people of faith, even followers of
Jesus. They pray on the one hand and then slam the door in the face of the
suffering on the other hand. They see no contradiction in this either. I guess
for them, politics trumps faith. That sentence is true in more ways than one.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">At
present there are migrants staying in short term shelters in eighty
Massachusetts’ cities and towns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope
the Nazis aren’t planning some kind of sick road trip around the Bay
State.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s up to us, I’d argue, we, the ones who overwhelmingly
can trace our roots back to an immigrant, to now stand up for these people in
need. Who come to us from a strange land, seeking the promise and challenge of
life in the United States.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
don’t think that is too much to ask. And I give a lot of credit and kudos to
the people of Quincy for being so welcoming. The night after the Nazis showed
up, a group of counter protesters came to campus with signs about love,
welcome, and mercy. Kind of like Jesus did when he came upon a stranger, especially
one hurting and lost.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
was a stranger and you took me in.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Count
me as a supporter of that ethic. May the people of Massachusetts and the rest
of the country remember our immigrant roots and care for the one on the road, who
is just looking for a new home and a new life.</span></p>
<p><a name="_Hlk104640311"><strong><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church
of Christ, in Sherborn, Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at
sherbornpastor.blogspot.com and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville
Institute at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For
twenty-five years he was a columnist whose essays appeared in newspapers
throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He has served churches in New
England since 1989. For comments, please be in touch: pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.</span></i></strong></a></p>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk104640311;"></span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
John Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205712186140374089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7725381222031561713.post-52128880417196490492023-08-25T17:31:00.004-04:002023-08-25T17:31:59.705-04:00Please Summer: Stick Around Just a Little Longer...<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo-pmkyFiFfEBLOdoFHrvPXgMYg9bVtCp3A3tvyR-jIFanER3YtfruqiQX-lneHB5QdKqbUnF4nVf1vV5JcF0rbxMDI62dluYZJGa0fgnnCsgp8eNGj3WU4KllYiUfN43pY45NV2dI-cgrFlCQxrgJmqMTtQKgPdWSGG6wuIwa8KDhsm7WqqsfbHdsqYE/s500/saying-goodbye-to-summer.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="275" data-original-width="500" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjo-pmkyFiFfEBLOdoFHrvPXgMYg9bVtCp3A3tvyR-jIFanER3YtfruqiQX-lneHB5QdKqbUnF4nVf1vV5JcF0rbxMDI62dluYZJGa0fgnnCsgp8eNGj3WU4KllYiUfN43pY45NV2dI-cgrFlCQxrgJmqMTtQKgPdWSGG6wuIwa8KDhsm7WqqsfbHdsqYE/w400-h220/saying-goodbye-to-summer.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br />“Bye-bye,
so long, farewell…See you in September, See you when the summer's through….”<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span>--recorded by “The Happenings”,
written by Wayne and Edwards, 1966</span></i>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
already miss the summer.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
miss…having little need for an alarm clock much of the past two months or so. I
miss oh so sweet corn slathered in butter and oh so juicy tomatoes fresh off
the vine. I’m already missing hot dogs at the ballpark and soft serve ice cream
melting on my hand. I miss early morning bike rides as the mist rises off the
meadows when the roads are so quiet, so deserted, so safe. I already miss a
schedule that is not jam packed. I want to continue enjoying summer with space and
time to just be, to breathe, to not feel like life is so chock full of so many
things to do and to do TODAY. No time to waste! </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
miss writing postcards from places on my road trips. From Bethlehem, New
Hampshire, a gem of a town, just around the corner from where the Old Man in
the Mountain once lived. How about Ithaca, New York, with the Baseball Hall of
Fame just around the corner or Kennebunkport, Maine, and its down east charm.
Don’t forget Cleveland, Ohio and Elizabethtown, Kentucky too. So many destinations
on summer road trips.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many miles to go
before I sleep on a balmy summer night, fireflies lighting up the evening and
stars strewn across a dark August sky. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
is what happens to me as the end of August looms large. Every year I end up missing
summer even before it is over. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Call it
August anxiety or a late August lament.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>On the one hand I am so grateful to God for coming up with summer in the
first place (nice job!) but on the other hand I’m also asking (ok begging) God
for just a few more precious summer days to enjoy.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I know that if you want to get all technical, summer 2023 is not close to over.
It doesn’t end until Saturday, September 23<sup>rd</sup>, and that’s three weeks
and change away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet calendar and schedule
wise, for many of us, summer will actually conclude at one minute past
midnight, on Tuesday, September 5<sup>th</sup>, the day after Labor Day. One
last long weekend in the sun. The day after the last true summer cookout. Then
there are families with kids who mark summer’s end with school’s start.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some kids return to classrooms pre-Labor Day and
some post-Labor Day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But when the
children and college students hit the books, summer is absolutely, positively,
completely kaput. The return of yellow school buses to the streets and orange U-Hauls
jamming up downtown Boston are signs that summer is gone, gone, gone.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Yes,
I know that there are some in this world for whom summer’s demise is not so
bittersweet. Like the retired, the ones freed from the 9 to 5 routine. Or folks
who no longer must go to school or whose offspring have graduated and moved
away. Also, the happy go lucky ones who actually enjoy the coming cold and
chill of a late September evening with frost just around the corner. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s okay for them but for me, summer is always
the bees’ knees.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">As
I write this kvetch on the 25th day of August, I should not be so quickly
anticipating the end of my favorite season. I should be reveling in the time
left for summer 2023, right? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Time for one
more sweet sausage sandwich at Fenway Park and yes, this year the Sox may still
be relevant and in contention come September. We can only hope and pray…God:
please don’t let our Red Stockings turn into manilla folders come the 9<sup>th</sup>
month.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">So,
my advice (that I should also heed) is simple and direct. Get out there and
summer however you can and do it quickly. The divine gift that is the fair
season may be fast dwindling away, but still, there are a few sips still left
in the August bottle, sips of cold beer after mowing the lawn. Wearing flip
flops or better yet, going barefoot. Rocking in the hammock. Reading a book on
the beach ‘til the sun goes down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">September
is surely on the way, but for now? Let’s savor summer.</span></p>
<p><a name="_Hlk104640311"><strong><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church
of Christ, in Sherborn, Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at
sherbornpastor.blogspot.com and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville
Institute at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For
twenty-five years he was a columnist whose essays appeared in newspapers
throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He has served churches in New
England since 1989. For comments, please be in touch: pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.</span></i></strong></a></p>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk104640311;"></span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
John Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205712186140374089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7725381222031561713.post-44165495027463910362023-07-26T17:16:00.002-04:002023-07-26T17:16:58.867-04:00A Ride Proves We Can Make the World a Better Place. TOGETHER! <p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1UaJfBgXtIzO6FDpXYZQoOpTmd_OHxgkRUUXaRl3zrP4lyrpC_HYND8St92Z0A6n4XxpyG2CXgxwwkIqKk4MPHf8yEIP9v8N-X3DQSMnLA8juetD4SdQRhbUg9tIL9idGToAxa_Xfppp7vph0MQ3VtklRd1PdRxByqzpUEhfTPKpt_L_857iRLkYcXwc/s4928/ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3280" data-original-width="4928" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1UaJfBgXtIzO6FDpXYZQoOpTmd_OHxgkRUUXaRl3zrP4lyrpC_HYND8St92Z0A6n4XxpyG2CXgxwwkIqKk4MPHf8yEIP9v8N-X3DQSMnLA8juetD4SdQRhbUg9tIL9idGToAxa_Xfppp7vph0MQ3VtklRd1PdRxByqzpUEhfTPKpt_L_857iRLkYcXwc/w400-h266/ezgif.com-webp-to-jpg(1).jpg" width="400" /></a></i></div><i><br />“Be
a good ancestor. Stand for something bigger than yourself. Add value to the
Earth during your sojourn.”<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>--Marian
Wright Edelman</i><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
always cry at the end of the ride. Tear up. Get choked up when I finally arrive
at the finish. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Let
me start at the start. In a little more than a week, August 5<sup>th</sup> to
be exact, me and about 6,000 other cyclists will ride up to 211 miles in two days,
as we all participate in the Pan Mass Challenge (PMC). If you’ve noticed more
bikers on the road these past few weekends, many of those are PMC folk getting
in their final training miles before the big day or days. For more than forty
years, the PMC has raised almost $900 million for the Dana Farber Institute, Boston’s
world class cancer treatment center in Boston. Our 2023 goal is $70 million,
and every dollar goes to the cause. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
is a ride of amazing numbers. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">At
its longest point it stretches all the way from the rolling hills of Sturbridge
to the rolling dunes of Provincetown, more than 200 miles. I’m cycling one day
from Wellesley to Bourne, about 82 miles. It takes a good while to get from
here to there. I’ll start out at 7 am or so in the morning and arrive at the
bridge (God willing and good weather!) by 3 pm or so. And yes, by the end my
backside is pretty sore. One metric I found estimates that me and the folks on
my route will circle our pedals some 55,000 times that day. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
do the PMC for lots of reasons. It gets me off the couch and on to my bike,
forces me to get back into shape each spring and summer. I ride for the people
I love and at the church I serve who have cancer or who have succumbed to
cancer. I always carry their names with me: Scott, Uncle Billy, Uncle Mark,
Nora, T. Michael, Sue, Dorothy, Lynne…that list is a long one. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">But
hope lies in the truth that in the 13 years I’ve ridden, the advances in cancer
care have been almost miraculous. The PMC has been a big part of those
breakthroughs at the Dana Farber.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also
ride for the thrill and the fear of actually riding a bike that long a
distance. Each year I wonder: can I do it? I ride for the discipline it forces
me to have every summer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can’t fake it.
Either you can do it or can’t and the day of the ride is always crunch time. I
ride because the life I have is a pretty darn good one and so my faith and my
conscience tells me that it is my responsibility and call to help others. To do
some good while I am here. To share the abundance of my life with others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">One
of the biggest reasons I ride is to just be a part of something bigger than
myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To be involved and in the thick
of a great cause, a bold crusade and to do that with thousands of other amazing
people. While out on my training rides I inevitably see at least one other PMC’er
and we nod in recognition and sometimes we even yell out encouragement to one
another. “Have a good ride!” “Be safe!” “Good luck!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a power and a grace to being a part
of such a world changing group of people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>All of us pedaling and straining and working and trying our best to
achieve these simple goals. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">To
beat cancer once and for all. To find a cure. To give hope to those who are sick
and to their loved ones.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">So,
if I may do so, on behalf of all the PMC riders and volunteers and staff: if
you are a praying person please pray for our rides. For safety. For cool temps
and maybe even a cloudy day! (Last year was almost 100 degrees and full sun.)
Pray for the folks in your life who have cancer, and those who have passed on,
and those who grieve and those who are still fighting.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
are living in very toxic times in a very toxic world. It’s even fashionable,
especially among the political elite and media, to be cynical about the
world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To tear down others without a
thought. To talk not of the good but instead to always focus on the bad. To
look out into God’s Creation and feel not hope, but instead despair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">But
when you get to be in community with almost 10,000 people for the weekend,
people who want to be a part of the solution, people who want to do good,
people who smile through the sweat, people who just keep pedaling…you get to
see the world can be a beautiful place too. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">If
you see us on our bikes in the days ahead or on PMC weekend, please give us a
wave and we will wave and smile right back at you. Maybe that might make you
feel more hopeful for the world. Imagine having the faith that a small group of
committed people, working together, can absolutely can actually make a
difference. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Change
the world. Heal the hurting. Comfort the afflicted. And all on two wheels and under
human power and grit. Nothing more.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It’s
for all these reasons that I cry each year when I get to the foot of the Bourne
Bridge and then cross the finish line and remember and celebrate that I am a
part of something bigger than myself. That all of us can make this world a
better place, if we believe and if we get to work.Together.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">That’s
how I’ll be spending the first weekend in August. See you on the road!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">(If
you’d like to donate to my ride, go to: <a href="https://profile.pmc.org/JH0352">https://profile.pmc.org/JH0352</a>)</span></p>
<p><a name="_Hlk104640311"><strong><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church
of Christ, in Sherborn, Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at sherbornpastor.blogspot.com
and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville Institute at Saint John’s
University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For twenty-five years he was a columnist
whose essays appeared in newspapers throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
He has served churches in New England since 1989. For comments, please be in
touch: pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.</span></i></strong></a></p>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk104640311;"></span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
John Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205712186140374089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7725381222031561713.post-57276223024491826202023-07-16T14:32:00.000-04:002023-07-16T14:32:36.371-04:00"PLAY BALL!" and America's Aspiration to Truly Be 'For All'<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0UrKh1-UIRSbJ6Y_mg9AA_4eRQlzMFXax0Uz5099gzccv49PiK9_fWJpIfPn5Cfiq6Qabok1jx35IJ3fv78SdWfgk5tcwTwJVbjuiFBA0CfT_eOTVrKgMABfjlsOYTD7xOyWVrZAnuJsKpB3JhtnANgxoeBgGVWu-Kv6mYVEGwSdzV9akYBAQntp9Ox0/s1536/baseball%20for%20all.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1536" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0UrKh1-UIRSbJ6Y_mg9AA_4eRQlzMFXax0Uz5099gzccv49PiK9_fWJpIfPn5Cfiq6Qabok1jx35IJ3fv78SdWfgk5tcwTwJVbjuiFBA0CfT_eOTVrKgMABfjlsOYTD7xOyWVrZAnuJsKpB3JhtnANgxoeBgGVWu-Kv6mYVEGwSdzV9akYBAQntp9Ox0/w400-h266/baseball%20for%20all.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Put
me in coach, I’m ready to play, today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Look at me, I can be, center field.”<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>--from
the song “Centerfield” by John Fogerty</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Baseball
for everyone. No one left out.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It’s
called “Baseball for All” a movement and a nationwide organization. Its mission
embodies for me two things in this world that I absolutely love. First,
baseball, that most American of pastimes whose holy season is peaking right
about now, as major league teams are in the thick of pennant races, even our
own Boston Red Sox! And then there is the “…For All” declaration, for all, as
in everyone is invited to play the game and no one is ever left out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All God’s children have a place at the plate
and in the field. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
love that vision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To play a game where
no one if ever left behind, where everyone has a chance to get picked for the
team.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In baseball. In life.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“Baseball
for All” was formed by ball player and coach Justine Siegal in 2010 with one
simple goal: to promote the participation of girls and young women in the game
of baseball at all levels of play. In the words of their founder, “Too many
girls are told they can’t play baseball because of their gender. We’re here to
change that. <span class="color15">I want girls to know they can follow their
passions and that they have no limits—that their dreams matter.”</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’ve
been witness to this “Baseball for All” movement in the life of my 15-year-old
Goddaughter Bridget, whom I’ve watched grow up in life and yes, grow up on the
baseball field too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve seen her play
ball, from the days in her backyard, when on tiny toddler legs she stood at the
plate and swung her plastic bat with mighty gusto, at a wiffle ball I’d thrown.
Days on the local ball field when in T-ball, she ran down the first base line
with such joy, a huge smile on her face. I’ve watched her play in Little
League, the only girl in the dugout, who played with such passion and purpose,
squatting behind the plate as a scrappy catcher.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">And
then I got to watch Bridget, just this past week, as she played for an all-girls
team in the National Girls Baseball Championship. Upwards of 400 girls and
young women played, from 8 to 18 years old, on more than forty teams, from the
United States and Canada. They were the Florida Bolts and the Boston Slammers,
the New York Wonders, and the Toronto Cardinals. They all came together to play
ball and that they did. Hitting with power, fielding with finesse, and running
like the wind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s the baseball I saw
as I cheered in the stands on a hot baseball field in Elizabethtown, Kentucky.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">All
those girls and young women want, is to be able to play, to be welcomed to
compete on the field, just as surely and as clearly as boys and young men are
invited to play.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then baseball is truly “for
all.” Kind of makes me think how wonderful it would be if all of life worked
that way too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You know. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">For
all.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">As
in for all of us to share in both the fruits and the challenges of this
God-given life, none of us left behind or looked over or rejected or kept out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That phrase ‘for all” is in fact found in the
31-word pledge of allegiance, the one you and I used to recite in the classroom
before we went off to our school for the day. Remember? It’s not just “for all”
but “liberty and justice for all.” For every single American. For you and for
me and for the rich and the poor and the gay and the straight and the boy who
plays baseball and the girl who plays baseball too. Christian and the Muslim
and the non-believer as well.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“For
all” has been an aspirational ideal of our country for a long, long time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We struggle and we stumble to make this
nation “for all” and then someone like Rosa Parks comes along and the door of
equal opportunity and access to rights and privileges opens up a bit
wider.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are living in strange times,
times when many politicians in our country aren’t expanding “for all” but are
in fact diminishing the ranks of “all.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Like if you are a trans kid in need of medical treatment. Or if you are a
same sex couple looking for a graphic designer to help with your wedding. Or if you are just trying to vote but the government keeps making it harder and harder. These are times that can be discouraging for many of us, we who are a part of
the “for all” too and want to see “for” actually become “for all.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
find my hope, still, in the witness of all those girls and young women who have
fought for so, so long for the chance to pick up a baseball and play the game.
Play on a level playing field. Play just as hard as the boys and play to win,
and play for the joy of competing, and play to just…play.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Way to go Bridget and all your baseball
loving sisters too! Thank you.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">You
remind us that “for all” actually means for <i>all</i>. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No exceptions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>No one forced to sit out on the sidelines or in the dugout. Everyone
invited to “PLAY BALL!”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">God
give us the courage and the resolve to realize this ideal and hope. For me. For
you. For all. </span></p>
<p><a name="_Hlk104640311"><strong><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church
of Christ, in Sherborn, Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at
sherbornpastor.blogspot.com and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville
Institute at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For
twenty-five years he was a columnist whose essays appeared in newspapers
throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He has served churches in New
England since 1989. For comments, please be in touch:
pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.</span></i></strong></a></p>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk104640311;"></span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
John Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205712186140374089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7725381222031561713.post-15423842304544697292023-06-15T15:26:00.000-04:002023-06-15T15:26:52.851-04:00Can't Love God and Hate a Neighbor. God Is ALWAYS Love. <p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
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</p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_wnCpx2BvDkitsQYF_bTLzi7dR30ThMGuN17LUyLAsFQb3mKyuAZFl15CVMPBsCJtWsZrB4syiGiZwvbMzMP9orXdpjq3cSZ_R2bSPp2hO2LiwvyzEPIs_FplA4a0-bP_cpAMVquMNExbZyWBMn5IdyQESgpaGXRslRUVPKzy2Vf4N_0ftlmz3ZMg/s470/God%20H%20Pride.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="246" data-original-width="470" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_wnCpx2BvDkitsQYF_bTLzi7dR30ThMGuN17LUyLAsFQb3mKyuAZFl15CVMPBsCJtWsZrB4syiGiZwvbMzMP9orXdpjq3cSZ_R2bSPp2hO2LiwvyzEPIs_FplA4a0-bP_cpAMVquMNExbZyWBMn5IdyQESgpaGXRslRUVPKzy2Vf4N_0ftlmz3ZMg/w400-h209/God%20H%20Pride.png" width="400" /></a></i></div><i><br />“I
have decided to stick to love...Hate is too great a burden to bear.” –the Rev.
Dr. <span class="authorortitle">Martin Luther King Jr.</span></i><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Who will we next choose to hate? What
group? What tribe? What community?</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In twenty U.S. states it is now a matter
of law or public policy that gender affirming care is banned for young people
13 to 17 years old. Even if their doctor believes that it is medically
necessary. Even if their parents agree that this is good for the mental health
and well-being of the child they love. Even if for these young people such care
represents the chance for them to finally become the person they believe they
were meant to be, created to be, as a child of God.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I think I might be a little less angry
about these anti-LGBTQ laws if the insincerity and calculated politics of the
legislators and governors who so often favor such actions, was not so clear and
obvious. You see by hating the LGBTQ community, you can actually win votes, at
least in some parts of the country. Hate the so-called “woke” crowd and you can
run for President. Use your faith to justify such mean-spirited and soul
crushing public policy and you even get to go straight to heaven.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Really?!</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I know some might see my use of the word
“hate” as over the top or exaggerated or strictly for effect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I use that word “hate” intentionally but not
lightly. Here, “hate” fits. Hate is defined in the Merriam Webster’s Dictionary
as (in part), “intense hostility and aversion usually deriving from fear,
anger, or sense of injury.” Works for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We humans tend to hate that which we fear; tend to hate that which we do
not understand; tend to hate people we perceive are somehow making it hard for
us to be who we are supposed to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s
that last reason to hate someone or a group of “someones,” that most confuses
me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">How is someone following American Medical
Association (AMA) approved guidelines for medical care a threat to anyone? In
the words of the largest professional medical organization in the country, “</span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The AMA opposes
the dangerous intrusion of government into the practice of medicine and the
criminalization of health care decision-making,” said AMA Board Member<strong> </strong>Michael
Suk, MD, JD, MPH, MBA. “Gender-affirming care is medically necessary,
evidence-based care that improves the physical and mental health of transgender
and gender-diverse people.”<span class="authorortitle"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Trans folks aren’t telling straight folks how
they are supposed to live. Who they are supposed to love. How they are supposed
to constitute their families. The last time I checked, my trans loved ones
actually think it is my own business (and their own business too) about how to
understand and then live into gender. You know. Live and let live. Privacy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It is kind of odd that so many of the same
folks who worship at the altar of small government and libertarianism then also
advocate for laws that represent government intrusion into private lives and
medical care. And to tell a parent how they are supposed to make medical
decisions for their kids? To dictate to people how they are to care for and
understand their own bodies?</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">And the whole faith angle? Using the
Christian faith as a philosophical justification to hate? To see trans folks as
somehow less than human and to claim that God feels that way too? Pastors
preaching contempt for LGBTQ folks from so many pulpits across America? </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Look. I’m a Christian too. Have been for
62 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have served the church as a
working professional clergy person in the United Church of Christ for almost thirty-four
years. Nothing in the Bible I read or the faith I practice or the religion I
try my humble best to teach tells me that I have the right or the duty to hate
someone else just because of their status as a trans person. As the author of
the First Letter of John writes, “Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate a
brother or sister are liars, for those who do not love a brother or sister,
whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.” (1 John 4:20)</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I get that for some people the changes in
our cultural understanding of gender can be hard to understand. But instead of
derision, what would it mean for more and more of us to just be curious about
this issue and not so threatened?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What
would it mean for us to actually talk to trans people and ask them to tell
their story and then to listen in love and respect? What would it mean for us
to honor the bodily autonomy of folks and not presume to tell someone else what
they can and cannot do? What would it mean for us to just be a part of the
conversation and not the condemnation?</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Who is the next class of citizens to hate?
</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The thing is, once we give ourselves
permission to dislike another because they are different than us, well then,
the flood gates of intolerance, disdain and discrimination open wide, letting
forth a torrent of self-righteous belligerence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Which I think breaks the very heart of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because the one faith truth I believe with
all my heart and soul and mind and that I hold to with all my might is this
simple declaration. God is love. God is love. And if God is love then God’s children
are supposed to always lead with love too. No exceptions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe a little humility too. After all, who
are we to stand in judgment of another human being for just trying to become
who they truly are?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Who is the next group to hate?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">How about this instead? Who is the next
group to love? Who needs to be shown mercy? Who could use a little
kindness?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I like those questions much
better. How about you? Love? Hate? </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I choose love. Love. LOVE.</span></span></p>
<p><a name="_Hlk104640311"><strong><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church
of Christ, in Sherborn, Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at
sherbornpastor.blogspot.com and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville
Institute at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For twenty-five
years he was a columnist whose essays appeared in newspapers throughout
Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He has served churches in New England since
1989. For comments, please be in touch: pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.</span></i></strong></a><span class="authorortitle"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="authorortitle"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></p>
<p></p>John Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205712186140374089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7725381222031561713.post-62172829128537380172023-05-31T16:58:00.002-04:002023-06-01T09:46:31.491-04:00The Advice I Wish I'd Been Given at Graduation 44 Years Ago<p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></i></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie5i-F14ltnfxilkhObnd0YmPAyxFtDMWwkuD4ez4XqDLSUFcVP6lk9rSPaRqCMT3J58tQ_cUTcB7m6r9KO9J2gl_ZcrrSNVrDTrwRJoYMAwrZZLaCnePdVBKrHi3KP_GTX2_NO0LhmMeluRmZD3Bog9JENUWUvaNUrZHONNlXI-GzSCKdItbiRXBh/s1211/class_210.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="788" data-original-width="1211" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie5i-F14ltnfxilkhObnd0YmPAyxFtDMWwkuD4ez4XqDLSUFcVP6lk9rSPaRqCMT3J58tQ_cUTcB7m6r9KO9J2gl_ZcrrSNVrDTrwRJoYMAwrZZLaCnePdVBKrHi3KP_GTX2_NO0LhmMeluRmZD3Bog9JENUWUvaNUrZHONNlXI-GzSCKdItbiRXBh/w400-h260/class_210.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></i><br /></div><i>(This is the speech/sermon
I offered this week to a group of hometown, about to be high school graduates.
I offer it here in a spirit of the optimism and hope that is graduation season.)</i><p></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;">First
from scripture, from the book of the prophet Jeremiah.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God’s people wondered if God was present in
their lives after they’d gone through hard times. This is what God said, “For
surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare
and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”</span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;">And
a favorite quote of mine from the American film director Robert Altman, about
giving advice since all of you right now are in a marathon of events where lots
of people are offering lots of advice. Altman said, “I'll give you the same
advice I give my children: Never take advice from anybody.”</span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;"> </span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;">Thank
you for letting me be a teacher and pastor to many of you and your
families.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I will miss you so much. Visit
when you return home from college and whatever lies ahead, please!</span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;"> </span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;">Now,
as one whose done ministry for forty years, an observer of human life, a
writer, a Master of Divinity degree holder, a 62-year-old with much life
experience, I should have something helpful to offer all of you. Some advice: wise,
deep, maybe even profound. </span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;"> </span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;">But
when I think back on the advice I got when I was graduating? On that day, I was
very excited and very scared. I actually dug up a picture of me from 44
years ago, May 1979, the month I was in your shoes. Yup. I once sat where you are.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had a lot more hair then and a lot
less wrinkles and my sideburns were very seventies and I’ve no idea why I am
not smiling but, I was 18. Enough of that ancient Polaroid! </span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;"> </span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;">Now--of
the advice proffered to me that day 44 years: by well-meaning relatives, teachers,
parents, peers? It’s totally lost to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’ve no clue what they said. So, instead of presuming to be the one to
offer you advice, I’ll instead offer the advice I wish someone had given to <i>me</i>,
when I was getting ready to set off to the University of Massachusetts. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;"> </span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;">So,
to the John Hudson of May 1979. Here’s some advice from John Hudson of May
2023.</span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;"> </span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;">Life
goes much faster than you might imagine. At 18, John, you are looking at all
the days and weeks and months and years ahead for you and seeing these as
seemingly without end. That’s what you are supposed to do at 18. You can’t envision
yourself at the ripe old age of 62. That’s as old as your grandfather but be
warned. Life does seem go by in a breath. In the tick of a clock. In the
passing of sunrise to sundown. One day I you’ll be at high school church camp
with your best friends in the world, playing ultimate frisbee, running like the
wind. Today? I can still cycle my bike up a long hill, but the legs hurt, I get
winded easier, and I bike on a new hip. Time goes by fast, very fast. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;"> </span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;">So,
I guess what I am saying is that in the passage of all those years, I wish you,
my 18-year-old self had realized the miracle that is daily life. I wish I had
savored things more, the relationships in my life. Friends. Family. Wish I had
told people more, that I loved them. I wish I had been able to tell my dad before
he died how much I loved him, how he shaped my life for the good. He wasn’t
perfect. Well, neither was I then or now. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;"> </span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;">So,
John, life is finite. Pay attention.</span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;"> </span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;">And
don’t be so afraid and don’t hang on so tight to life. Don’t get so hung up on
what people think of you. You are going to spend much way too much time caught
up in trying to make others happy, trying to be the person you think everyone
else wants you to be. Instead, John, trust in who you are and who God has made
you to be. God has given you unique gifts and talents. Your job is to figure out
what those are. What brings you joy. What you are really good at doing. How you
can make the world a better place on this great blue marble in space. </span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;"> </span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;">John--you’ll
figure it all out. Trust me. You will! Trust that almost all the time, things do
turn out well, for the best and just as they are supposed to. All the worrying you
do, the angst, it will most often be over a fictional future. Our worst fears
turn out to be empty imaginings. Try and live with courage every day. When
things get hard, dig deep. Pray. Learn from struggles. You’ll make it through.</span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;"> </span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;">And
finally, eighteen-year-old John, be kind and humble. Be kind. Be humble. The
world is always filled with enough bullies ready to hurt others, with enough
blowhards who act as if they have the answer to everything, that they are
always right. Our world is overflowing with people have who so much money that they
do not know what to do with it all. I’ve learned that money helps, but only to
a point and what really matters is the quality and depth of all the
relationship in your life. Old friends. Loyal family. God. Be humble, John. You
are a good young man, but you are not “all that” and that is ok. Just be
yourself. </span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;"> </span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;">Dare
to believe in some awesome power working for the good, in a higher power that
wants the best for you, in an all-loving power giving you the drive to make
this world better. Have faith. God will be there for you. God put you here for
a reason. </span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;"> </span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;">Good
luck and God bless 1979 John.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You are
going to have a good life, not a perfect life, or a life without pain, but still,
a good life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trust that. And remember to
say thank you to God at least once a day for at least one thing you are
grateful for. </span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;"> </span></p>
<p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;">To
you, the class of 2023: God bless you all. Let everyone say, Amen!</span></p><p><a name="_Hlk104640311"><b><i>The Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior
Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church of Christ, in Sherborn,
Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at sherbornpastor.blogspot.com
and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville Institute at Saint John’s
University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For twenty-five years he was a columnist
whose essays appeared in newspapers throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
He has served churches in New England since 1989. For comments, please be in
touch: pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.</i></b></a></p><p></p><p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"> <span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;"><br /></span></p><p>
</p><p class="quotation" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk136438875;"> </span></p>
<p></p>John Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205712186140374089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7725381222031561713.post-3465847466167152362023-05-16T16:33:00.000-04:002023-05-16T16:33:11.166-04:00The Seasons Turn. Life Turns. God Grant Us Faith In The Turn. <p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
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table.MsoNormalTable
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mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
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mso-para-margin:0in;
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mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
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mso-ligatures:standardcontextual;}
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</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC9n89ijxY0mv3-clw9pewfpU3lfpduNoeo1z3FINR7308SV9v3TDlwRdHAr6Ddn-HEziWaWd1oMvXZ1zYF7i6v-Nv4thEEakzO6k6Wb_UaorJeR2hWXWDm2tWrSbRwNkTo4h_J8Ln2r4s9DLknu4SRx1RI-z3tTfUGwB60DmJaaeZTFfRVn5V_eGM/s4159/tree%20cville%2023.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2817" data-original-width="4159" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC9n89ijxY0mv3-clw9pewfpU3lfpduNoeo1z3FINR7308SV9v3TDlwRdHAr6Ddn-HEziWaWd1oMvXZ1zYF7i6v-Nv4thEEakzO6k6Wb_UaorJeR2hWXWDm2tWrSbRwNkTo4h_J8Ln2r4s9DLknu4SRx1RI-z3tTfUGwB60DmJaaeZTFfRVn5V_eGM/w400-h271/tree%20cville%2023.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">“I
don’t know what lies around the bend, but I’m going to believe that the best
does.”--from
“Anne of Green Gables” by L.M. Montgomery </span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Spring
comes. It absolutely does. It always does. But it takes its time too.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’m
just finishing up my yearly trip to central Minnesota in the spring, a visit to
the Collegeville Institute, a writing, research and retreat center on the campus of the
Benedictine Saint John’s University in Collegeville. I always enjoy my time
here, in part, because of how different it is in this part of the world, from
my part of the world. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Geographically.
<i>The landscape is so flat here!</i> Culturally. <i>Why are these people so
darn nice all the time?</i> Gastronomically. <i>Of course there are tater tots
on the menu!</i> And definitely, meteorologically. <i>Has it stopped snowing
yet!? </i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">You
see this corner of God’s creation is as far north as Montreal, so even as back
home in southern New England we’ve been reveling in the daffodils and balmy temperatures
for weeks, folks in these parts are just making the turn.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
Turn.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">That’s
the day or days when Minnesotans know that winter has finally turned, and that spring
is here. The earth has turned. Life has turned. The world here has turned away
from the chill and towards the sun.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Yes,
spring’s arrival might be slow or tentative. The day I arrived here a little more
than a week ago, seven days into May, the trees, and bushes out back behind my
little apartment were almost bare, with the tiniest of little green buds, still
not blossoming. Now, just eight days later, those buds have popped, awakened,
burst forth, opened up, exploded, all signaling that yes, old man winter is finally
retired.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">At
least for this year.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Because
while we in the Boston area had that most wimpy of winter wonderlands (try 11.4
inches, our lowest total in 50 years) Minnesota got whacked by winter. Try 86
inches here in Collegeville (2<sup>nd</sup> most ever in 100 years), 90.3
inches in Minneapolis (3<sup>rd</sup> most) and Duluth at 139 inches, the most
ever recorded since snowfall records have been kept. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">That’s
a lot of snow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">That’s
why people here are so happy, joyful, even giddy (a term not often used for Midwesterners)
at this turn of the seasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I imagine
that just weeks ago, it might have been tempting for residents of the north
star state to wonder if winter was really ever going to end. If life would ever
turn. Go from cold to warm, dark to light, and buried to liberated.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">That’s
not just a temptation for people who so much want one season to end and another
to finally begin. It’s also a temptation for all humans, for we who can easily wonder
during a difficult season of life that we find ourselves living within…is this
ever going to end? Is this ever going to turn? Will spring ever come back to me
and my soul?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">When
someone we love has died and we wonder if this harshness of grief will ever lessen,
if the pain will ever soften. When a relationship has ended and our feelings
around it are still so raw, so hurt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When ill health keeps us down and taxes our bodies and makes us weary. When
the kids won’t stop bickering and my job feels so mind numbing and the politics
in our country are so toxic and, and, and.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It’s
almost easier to fatalistically think none of these realities will ever turn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That life will just keep on being stuck.
Buried in a way. The harder thing is to instead trust and believe that the seasons
will one day soon change, and the snow will melt, and the buds will bloom, and
the flowers will come alive, and yes, life will be renewed.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Things
will turn. “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under
the heaven.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are told of this
spiritual wisdom by the author of book of Ecclesiastes. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That if we wait, that if we trust in the
surety of the seasons, that if we look for God’s good in all seasons, that if
we have courageous faith enough, life does turn. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It turns.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">And
if the circumstances do not turn, well, then God willing, and God inspiring,
how we are dealing with those challenges will turn. We’ll somehow be stronger.
We’ll ask for help. We’ll dare to look for the good in the midst of the bad. We’ll
pray and pray again. Maybe we’ll just hang on, hang on, with all we’ve got, until
spring arrives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
Turn. It comes. Thank God, it does come. Not necessarily in our human time of
understanding and not always on our schedules but the seasons—they do turn.
They turn under the mysterious sway and the faithful watchfulness of God. Our
God of the seasons. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Yes.
Life turns.</span></p>
<p><a name="_Hlk104640311"><strong><i><span style="font-weight: normal;">The
Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church
of Christ, in Sherborn, Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at
sherbornpastor.blogspot.com and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville
Institute at Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For
twenty-five years he was a columnist whose essays appeared in newspapers
throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He has served churches in New
England since 1989. For comments, please be in touch:
pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.</span></i></strong></a></p>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk104640311;"></span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p></p>John Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205712186140374089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7725381222031561713.post-43459080885021853122023-05-06T12:09:00.001-04:002023-05-06T13:30:08.328-04:00Why the Hurry? How Our Fast Lives Keep Us From Enjoying Life. <p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPjkGOKPTgUPmMj9yF_AeHDZvJAi5W2MBM_kOVi-9gAf9-KCduPDG66d_RoDvBV0nuVu-2yWi4sfHiU_WlsbMdbQCc2MYVHMiYteM2aDaAeFRApQ34Ko_DvBOnoU6h5hdbiMBEsPLxAB4m54Qi0-19KEuY86QrEL3tG6YXpLdAiHz1omgbTpjDANbO/s620/Too-Much-Too-Fast-Why-We-Need-to-Pause-in-Life.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="414" data-original-width="620" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPjkGOKPTgUPmMj9yF_AeHDZvJAi5W2MBM_kOVi-9gAf9-KCduPDG66d_RoDvBV0nuVu-2yWi4sfHiU_WlsbMdbQCc2MYVHMiYteM2aDaAeFRApQ34Ko_DvBOnoU6h5hdbiMBEsPLxAB4m54Qi0-19KEuY86QrEL3tG6YXpLdAiHz1omgbTpjDANbO/w400-h268/Too-Much-Too-Fast-Why-We-Need-to-Pause-in-Life.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">“Anything
worth doing is worth doing slowly.”<span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> --Mae West </span></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">You
have no record of my prescription!! </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">I thought to myself, did not say out loud,
thank God.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">That
happened this week after standing in a twenty-minute-long line at my local
chain drugstore, waiting to pick up a solution I was supposed to drink to…well,
let’s say help evacuate my innards…so, the last thing I wanted to hear on this
day before a lovely hospital procedure was that things were not clockwise lined up.
Not ready to go. Not happening now. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not
on my schedule. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not timely. Not on the
dot.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">I
called the doctor’s office in a righteous huff. The administrator quickly apologized.
The doc was so busy with caring for other patients, he’d missed signing off on
the script. My ego and my anger deflated quickly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I thought, “Why am I such a jerk
sometimes when things don’t happen in my time and on time and fast?” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Like
when I am standing in line at the grocery store or stuck in traffic on the Mass
Pike or waiting on hold with my airline or twiddling my thumbs when an
appointment is late or even a no show.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So many times, when these normal hiccups in life happen, I get miffed.
Annoyed. Hassled. Fuming. Convinced that if the world only went at the speed I
demand, things would be so much better.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Which
isn’t really true. The reality is that almost all of the time when I am
stressed because of the clock or when I am rushing to get from here to there or
when I am impatient with another person because they are too slow for me, I buy
into one worldly myth.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Faster
is always better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Faster. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">As
in faster internet speed or faster driving for our commute or faster service at
a restaurant or faster answers to a late-night email or text or faster
attention at the doctor’s office.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Always
it feels like our frenetic culture demands that things speed up, no turning
back or dialing it down. Fast food. Fast home grocery delivery and fast
ordering on Amazon. Who has time to go to the store? We overpack our schedules
and see weekends and holidays as times not to slow down but in fact to try and do
even more and faster. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">One
winter I was in such a rush to get to work that twice in one week I zoomed out
my front door onto an icy February walkway, slipped and fell in a dramatic upward
arc and then landed in a heap on my back. Coffee flying one way. Briefcase tumbling
the other. Me staring up at the sky, wondering if I broke my tail bone. I asked
my spiritual director what he thought it might mean. He said the obvious I
was blind to.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">“Maybe
God is telling you to just slow down, John.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Yup.
Yet how rarely do I slow down. I forget that the things I do well and really enjoy
in this life, the activities and relationships that bring me meaning, these always
involve taking my time. Being thoughtful. Paying attention. Pacing myself. Not
being such an impatient self-important jerk. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Good
sermons and good writing take time, many hours, can’t just be instantly ordered
up on CHATGPT. Prayer is not like a hundred-yard dash. I have to sit in the
quiet and be still and listen. When I’m with loved ones, like Bridget who I
play catch with when I visit her out in Minnesota, if I rushed this beautiful ritual,
it would ruin it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My woodworking in the
basement? My baking bread, trying out a new recipe? My counseling the people I
serve? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">I
have to slow down, slow down, slow down. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Soon
I’m taking my yearly writing retreat at a Benedictine college in central
Minnesota, nestled among the plains and the lakes of that bucolic place. I’ll
stay in a spartan one bedroom apartment for ten days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ll write. Ride my bike. Talk to God. Rest
and sleep. Visit old friends. Most importantly, I will turn off my email, leave
the calendar back home, shut off the news, and jump off the treadmill that is
life for too many of us in 2023. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">I
know I’m lucky. I am so grateful to be able to do this. I so wish that more of
us would find creative ways and time to just chill. Stop rushing. Why do we
believe that if only we go fast enough, well then, then we’ll absolutely be a
good parent, a good worker, or a good child of God? That’s the devilish spirit
of the world trying to trick us into believing fast is always good and slow is always
bad.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Perhaps
we should take a cue from the Almighty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even God rested and slowed down after a long week. God worked six days
to bring forth Creation. But as Genesis tells us, “<span class="text">On the sixth
day God finished the work that [God] had done, and…rested on the seventh day….
God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all
the work of creation.”</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="text"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="text"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Even the Creator slows down sometimes. That’s wise
spiritual advice for us. We are just human creatures made by God to enjoy this
miracle called life. </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="text"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="text"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">And slowly. Slowly.</span></span></p>
<p><a name="_Hlk104640311"><b><i>The Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior
Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church of Christ, in Sherborn,
Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at sherbornpastor.blogspot.com
and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville Institute at Saint John’s
University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For twenty-five years he was a columnist
whose essays appeared in newspapers throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
He has served churches in New England since 1989. For comments, please be in
touch: pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.</i></b></a><b></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="text"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p></p>John Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205712186140374089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7725381222031561713.post-74726407260340709792023-04-26T16:24:00.005-04:002023-04-26T16:46:24.000-04:00How to Heal a Hurting World? Be Kind. Be Kind. Be Kind.<p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6lI3FOGa_RyOqaACO8tpA4uxZF4_AqWgDgKyiwqhfIsvXd0htAEW7ekV8qgAfJe-8AeJjmdoWSoihoHorr1WUo5DMXFK1c08FRtmDQmTi5JyOudtb7zk-GBLUU5XPib9Lt_aGJTf-VYLMH4Ifhdim1k7trdxwOH5Vh4lhzJhsPmfKqP1yg78lqH3K/s1200/jostotts8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6lI3FOGa_RyOqaACO8tpA4uxZF4_AqWgDgKyiwqhfIsvXd0htAEW7ekV8qgAfJe-8AeJjmdoWSoihoHorr1WUo5DMXFK1c08FRtmDQmTi5JyOudtb7zk-GBLUU5XPib9Lt_aGJTf-VYLMH4Ifhdim1k7trdxwOH5Vh4lhzJhsPmfKqP1yg78lqH3K/s320/jostotts8.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><i>“Simple
kindness may be the most vital key to the riddle of how human beings can live
with each other in peace and care properly for this planet we all share.” —Bo
Lozoff</i><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">This
is the story of Jo, or Josephine, if you want to be formal. Jo is the sweet and
kindhearted daughter of a colleague and good friend, and she’s a typical kid in
many ways. She wants to play the ukelele like her mom. Jo sings in the church kids’
choir, and loves to go to the beach, and idolizes her older sibling. Jo always seems
to have a big smile, at least in the photos I see of her on Facebook.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in one unique way Jo is unlike any other five-year-old
kid I know or have ever known.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">You
see, for Jo’s fifth birthday earlier this month, she had but one wish. One
hoped for gift. One item at the top of her present list. She pined not for a
doll or a baseball glove or a board game like Candyland. Not for a pair of new
shiny leather shoes or some kid sized crocs. Nope. All Jo wanted for her big
day was to watch her favorite local sewage disposal company pump out her family’s
septic system in the side yard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">That’s
it. That is what she wanted the most. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Jo’s
love affair with the Bay State Sewage Disposal Company began when, as a toddler,
she’d watch company technicians do their thing with a big, huge pipe shoved
down into a hole in the ground and, for whatever reason, she was fascinated by
this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mom Beth decided to let the
company know and that’s when the kindness began. The care. Jo was invited to visit
their headquarters in person and there was welcomed with open arms and real
enthusiasm, given an official lime green T-shirt to wear, with the company logo,
just like the grown-up sewer specialists got to wear. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Who
knows why kids have the likes that they do? At the age of three, my baby sister
Claire liked nothing more than to watch the weekly visit of the trash truck
guys as they manhandled and dumped out our dented and full metal barrels. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I was five, I was fascinated by all
things John F. Kennedy, me being his namesake and all, as an election day
baby.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some kids love Legos. Other kids love
sanitation I suppose.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Now
Jo’s big day—one day after her birthday—was on the 10<sup>th</sup> of April. That
morning Bay State Sewage Disposal technician Nichole came by for a visit and a
tech call. Jo stood by and watched with joy as all the family’s…well, let’s just
say “muck” …was sucked up and out and then into a bright red truck. Jo got to
sit up in the cab, her arms stretching up to hold on to the big steering wheel.
Nichole brought a birthday card for Jo signed by folks from the office. But the
biggest surprise for Jo was about to come.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">As
Jo and her mom and dad stood at the end of their suburban driveway, a convoy of
eight trucks from the company drove by and with their air horns honking and
their drivers waving to their number one fan, they gave Jo the best present of
all, the most amazing gift really any of us can hope for in this often rough
and tumble life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">They
showed Jo kindness, simple human goodness, and care. They didn’t have to do
that and no doubt they could have been out on some other calls or just hanging
out back at the office but instead, all of those people went out of their way
to make a little girl feel special, like the most important person in the
world. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Who
among us would not want to feel that way? To be treated with such surprising kindness
and such sincere warmth and attention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>All of us as children of God, as very human humans—we each need to know
and be reminded every single day, that we are loved. That we matter. That our
life on the earth makes a difference in the lives of others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s a little five-year-old kid still
alive in all of us and all they want, all we want, really, is to be treated
well, with a little mercy and a little love and a little joy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I get that every day, no matter what the
world might throw my way, I can take it and why? Because I am strengthened for
someone showed me kindness. A stranger. A friend. A neighbor. A co-worker. A
family member.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">It's
no great revelation to name the truth that right now, our world is so often
anything but kind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Open the newspaper or
listen to the news or surf the web and these are all filled with sadness, so
much carnage and hurt. Mean-spiritedness too. It seems worse now in 2023, more
than ever before. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s because we have public leaders
who bully others, and an ex-President who somehow made it socially ok to verbally
beat up and publicly humiliate people. Maybe it’s because of the gun violence
that is so prevalent now, that it is so prevalent and so shocking, that we are
no longer shocked by such cruelty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe
life feels less kind because COVID sent us all away from each other.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Who
knows? But this I absolutely do know.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Kindness
counts. Kindness creates a better world. Kindness is never, ever wasted.
Kindness is needed by you, by me, needed universally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No kindness? No life. No good life. So, happy
birthday Jo! And happy kindness day Bay State Sewage Disposal Company.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You cared. You were kind. God love you!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">As
the American philosopher William James once said to a nephew seeking life
guidance, “Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind.
The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Today,
be kind. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p><a name="_Hlk104640311"><b><i>The Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior
Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church of Christ, in Sherborn,
Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at sherbornpastor.blogspot.com
and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville Institute at Saint John’s
University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For twenty-five years he was a columnist
whose essays appeared in newspapers throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
He has served churches in New England since 1989. For comments, please be in
touch: pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.</i></b></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p></p><br />John Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205712186140374089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7725381222031561713.post-45980197065781820382023-04-14T15:58:00.003-04:002023-04-14T15:58:37.040-04:00The Marathon Bombing Ten Years Later: Remember. Be Strong.<p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"></span></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkVZ85wesh8b9hjGOqIYOjJNrPUTbrITGZk2WCpAa56EEj73bNeK1ArOz4bwfkZ9B8YlC-r4td4AMLjFmDn2Yvts7cSoBW2KAF2p5EGmB6onG_lTB1ycuR6qJbK6oqY0VdojHW0rgsptdCITTC4GXTPenHyh8Em22mbANvmTU5WcG_UVqVE7lx0Y5n/s1024/boston-marathon-memorial-1024x683-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkVZ85wesh8b9hjGOqIYOjJNrPUTbrITGZk2WCpAa56EEj73bNeK1ArOz4bwfkZ9B8YlC-r4td4AMLjFmDn2Yvts7cSoBW2KAF2p5EGmB6onG_lTB1ycuR6qJbK6oqY0VdojHW0rgsptdCITTC4GXTPenHyh8Em22mbANvmTU5WcG_UVqVE7lx0Y5n/w400-h266/boston-marathon-memorial-1024x683-1.jpeg" width="400" /></a></i></div><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br />“And every third Monday in April, you
welcome people from all around the world to the Hub for friendship and
fellowship and healthy competition -- a gathering of men and women of every
race and every religion, every shape and every size; a multitude represented by
all those flags that flew over the finish line.”<span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>--President Barack Obama</span></i><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Why does it seem so often that it is such a beautiful
day when the bombs go off? When planes become weapons? When a race becomes a
place of the fallen and the courageous and the innocent?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It was bright and a bit chilly, a typical mid-April
Boston day, the 15<sup>th</sup> of the month, 2013. The sun peaked in and out
of white puffy clouds in a sharp and clear blue sky, looking down upon the race
course and runners. They were 26,000 strong who gathered in Hopkinton at dawn.
It was the race of a lifetime for many of them, as they ran to raise funds for
charity or ran to prove to themselves, “I can do it!” or ran for fun or ran to
win.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At 9:00 am, when the “BANG!” of the
starting pistol went off and the mobility impaired and then the wheelchair
racers came out of the chute, thus began the long trip east to the Hub. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It was and still is 26 miles, 385 yards, from a New
England town green to Copley Square.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">For the 117<sup>th</sup> time on that third Monday in
April, Patriots Day, Boston was playing host to the oldest marathons in the
world, begun in 1897.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tens of thousands since
then had run the suburban streets and urban hills, hopping gracefully over
trolley tacks, moving through the tunnel of screams by Wellesley College, grabbing
cups of cold water proffered by the thousands of enthusiastic spectators that
lined the route.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It was supposed to be a normal Marathon Monday, exciting
and fun and a great race. Folks from around here know the drill for the day.
Some have even been known to go for a hat trick. Start at 5:30 am in Lexington
for the reenactment of the shot heard round the world, then head into Boston
and Fenway Park to watch the Red Sox play an 11:10 morning game, and finally after
the game, walk over to Kenmore Square and watch the runners as they near the finish.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">An absolutely perfect Boston day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Until it wasn’t.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I was home working on a newspaper column when a little
before 3 pm, the radio reported that there had been some type of explosion near
the finish line. Surfing on my keyboard to Boston.com for the latest update, I
discovered it was frozen, static, overwhelmed by too much traffic. Then the
radio confirmed that there were two suspected bombs that had gone off and there
were, no doubt, many dead and injured. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And my heart fell. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The first person I thought of was Michelle, a good
friend, fellow singer in a community choir, whose kind spirit still makes
everyone she meets feel special. Just hours before on Route 135 in Natick, a
group of us had cheered her on, waving wildly as she ran by us, in her first
Boston Marathon. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Is she ok?” Like so many of us I wondered and
worried. For her. For friends over by the finish line in the cheering crowds
and people on the patios downtown drinking beer and celebrating spring and of
course, all those runners. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So earnest. So committed. So strong. So threatened.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Later we’d learn that a pair of terrorist brothers packed
pressure cookers full of shrapnel and bomb material and left them on the street
in backpacks to take down and take out anyone in the vicinity. Three died: Krystle
Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant manager from Medford, Lingzi Lu, a
23-year-old Boston University grad student and 8-year-old Martin Richard, from Dorchester.
It’s so important to remember their names and their lives, especially a decade
later. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Remember the more than 260 people maimed and injured. Remember
the traumatized runners like Michelle and how so many people that day asked,
pleaded, “Is she ok? Where is he? Please God, please….” There were the brave
first responders. The amazing doctors and the nurses who saved so many lives. Anonymous
crowd members who rushed into the mayhem to rescue and to comfort the victims. Remembering
it feels like a bad dream, a memory so hard and intense and sad I can’t shake
it. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">If there was anything redemptive in those initial days
after, it was the fierce and brave Boston strong response of so many. From
ordinary citizens. Leaders too, like Red Sox star David Ortiz who reminded a
packed Fenway crowd a week after the bombing, “This is our _____ city! And no
one is going to dictate our freedom. Stay strong Boston!” He expressed our
communal commitment to get back up and our communal anger at so cruel and
hateful an act.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It still makes no sense. So much pain and tears and
loss and why? Sometimes the world just breaks apart. Sometimes evil emerges
from the shadows. And then we must respond with courage. President Barack Obama
spoke at Trinity Church Boston at the memorial service for the bombing victims,
forty-eight hours after the explosions. He reminded America and the world of
the greatest powers of all. Faith. Community. People united. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Our faith in each other, our love for each other, our
love for country, our common creed that cuts across whatever superficial
differences there may be — that is our power. That’s our strength. That’s why a
bomb can’t beat us.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Ten years. May God bless our sacred memories. May God
bless Monday’s marathon too. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p><a name="_Hlk104640311"><strong><i>The Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior
Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church of Christ, in Sherborn,
Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at sherbornpastor.blogspot.com
and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville Institute at Saint John’s
University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For twenty-five years he was a columnist
whose essays appeared in newspapers throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
He has served churches in New England since 1989. For comments, please be in
touch: pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.</i></strong></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p></p>John Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205712186140374089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7725381222031561713.post-91242608221647712202023-04-05T14:27:00.000-04:002023-04-05T14:27:00.149-04:00The Sideshow of American Politics: God Help Us All<p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"></span></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2EetlHZ8i2qun4kYmOf2d7f1EiGRXMcC6j2BczRieqQ1MqXGip_3RDOwMaOZpYoHR-Jn78Ce45VshIA0k5IsIq8SawESpaMZ02xg5WSp23bzh4nTkiN8kUCFQQe1MNCg_GjwEAz_GNj_QgOfDY4LkC8O5N7mwRaK332odpwZskKoO6YAqfigaWCV0/s1200/indictment.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2EetlHZ8i2qun4kYmOf2d7f1EiGRXMcC6j2BczRieqQ1MqXGip_3RDOwMaOZpYoHR-Jn78Ce45VshIA0k5IsIq8SawESpaMZ02xg5WSp23bzh4nTkiN8kUCFQQe1MNCg_GjwEAz_GNj_QgOfDY4LkC8O5N7mwRaK332odpwZskKoO6YAqfigaWCV0/w400-h266/indictment.jpeg" width="400" /></a></i></div><i><br />“Politics is a sideshow in the great
circus of life.”<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>--Robert Dahl,
American political scientist</i><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I don’t want to hear about it. Read about it. Watch it.
Period. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yes, I’m trying my best to be on a news embargo this
week when it comes to the indictment of…you know who I’m talking about. The
guy. Oversized tie. Loves McDonalds. Owns a tower.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I’m trying my best to ignore just what he is being
indicted for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it for some complicated
illegal plan? A backroom conspiracy worthy of Watergate like press attention? Nope.
In 34 felony counts he’s accused of paying off or suppressing with hush money
the stories of….1) His supposed mistress, an actress in pornographic films. 2)A
doorman who claims to know about his other extramarital affairs and 3) A Playboy
playmate of the year who says she had an affair with him as well. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">You can’t make this stuff up. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The depressing part, at least for me, is that the sideshow
accompanying this legal action against an ex-President is being supersized in
importance by the media, by other politicians, by comedians, by pundits, by seemingly
anyone (I suppose myself included) with an opinion on the situation. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I apologize if I, by writing this, am also a part of
the problem. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The 45<sup>th</sup> President is not the first President
to be indicted. Ulysses S. Grant was arrested in 1872 in Washington D.C. for
speeding in a horse-drawn carriage. He was apparently having a ball, racing
through the streets of the capital. Grant was taken to the courthouse (he
actually gave the arresting cop a ride) and put up $20 bail. When he failed to
show up the next day, he forfeited the money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>That was the end of his saga. President Richard Nixon almost certainly
would have been indicted for his role in Watergate but that was short-circuited
by President Gerald Ford who pardoned him for all those alleged crimes. At
least Nixon resigned from office and slipped off into semi-retirement in
California. He knew when the show was over and when it was time to exit—stage left.
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I know there are lots of folks who are convinced this
is the story of the moment and therefore it deserves all the coverage it gets,
even as it sucks up every whiff or oxygen in the room called American
life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anybody else suffocating? I know
an argument could be made that this is big news, what must be the lead, 24/7,
at least for the next few weeks. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Me? I’m not so sure. I think of the stories that
really, really matter and that deserve continuing coverage much more, but have
been bumped from page 1.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have we already
forgotten the six who died in a Nashville school, killed by an AR-15 wielding assailant?
Or how school and mass shootings are now so common? Or how about the war in
Ukraine? The fact that global warming is causing the accelerated melting of the
world’s glaciers, with half of them projected to be gone by the end of the century.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The indictment story has been raised to a fever pitch,
to breathlessly breaking news by every major and minor media outlet. It would be
laughable if it wasn’t so sad and singular a moment in the history of our
nation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe we are focusing on this
political soap opera because we don’t have the attention span or the civic
right stuff to actually take on and solve, together, real issues. Maybe we are
just getting the leaders that we deserve, that the problem isn’t the idea and
ideal of democracy. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The problem is the
cast of circus performers we keep electing to office. The ones who desire power
more than public service and infamy more than humility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And that’s on both sides of the aisle.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But this is what our politics have come to. You might
even say that politics is the new religion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As David Brooks observed in a 2020 <u>New York Times</u> column, published
just before the Presidential election, “Politics has become a way to define and
signify your identity, and that is elevating politics to too central a place in
life.” As central now, maybe, as religion once was in American life. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The numbers reflect this changing reality. A Wall
Street Journal/National Opinion Research Center poll revealed last week that the
number of Americans who view religion as “an important value” has dropped precipitously,
from 62 percent in 1998, to 39 percent in 2023. If folks aren’t going to church
or synagogue or mosque to contemplate ultimate meaning, to be in community, and
to work together for change, are they now finding this communal identity in rabid
partisanship? In being a Democrat or a Republican, a liberal or progressive or
conservative or moderate? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">How else to explain our cultural and media fascination
with a person who hasn’t even sat in the Oval Office in for more than 800 days,
two plus years?! Is it about entertainment? Scandal? Being riveted to the news,
like watching a car wreck in real time? I just don’t get it, not at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then again, I don’t get the Kardashians or
Survivor or The Real Housewives of Wherever TV shows either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Wake me up when the circus is finally over and when the
circus leaves town. Wake me when we are more interested in following leaders
who have integrity, wisdom, and decency, and who work for the common good, and not
just their own narrow partisan beliefs. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God help us all. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Until then? I’m loving my podcasts and reruns of CSI
Las Vegas. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">For now, no news is good news.</span></p>
<p><a name="_Hlk104640311"><strong><i>The Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior
Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church of Christ, in Sherborn,
Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at sherbornpastor.blogspot.com
and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville Institute at Saint John’s
University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For twenty-five years he was a columnist
whose essays appeared in newspapers throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
He has served churches in New England since 1989. For comments, please be in
touch: pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org</i></strong></a></p>
<p></p>John Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205712186140374089noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7725381222031561713.post-528723105772087742023-03-28T16:47:00.000-04:002023-03-28T16:47:05.170-04:00Thank You God for the Promise of Spring! For the Crocuses Too.<p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"></span></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggDiAtfTsOCYAkC7Cd1yCrdXzrLLeIPj_vaGzeOV9OpGA8SR8JGbTMzMEzPb2LmnlI-Q42kvwl1cHSJiN_6QwC-liLup9vkryMceSjExITAQMzCOxQnxf4I6WllZ8lrX-BDgZYPGpWLL6eDn03U7WilTf4zu7OLoNqb62mCsH9Hacz39mcf7Iw6egK/s4608/crocus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4608" data-original-width="3456" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggDiAtfTsOCYAkC7Cd1yCrdXzrLLeIPj_vaGzeOV9OpGA8SR8JGbTMzMEzPb2LmnlI-Q42kvwl1cHSJiN_6QwC-liLup9vkryMceSjExITAQMzCOxQnxf4I6WllZ8lrX-BDgZYPGpWLL6eDn03U7WilTf4zu7OLoNqb62mCsH9Hacz39mcf7Iw6egK/w300-h400/crocus.jpg" width="300" /></a></i></div><i><br />Crocus: seasonal flowering plant, in the iris
family; low growing with large white, yellow, and purple flowers. In colder
climes, such as New England, croci are often the first plants to flower in the
early spring. <span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span>--gbif.org
et al</i><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Sixty-two springs and I still get excited when the
signs of a new season appear. When this part of the world begins to turn away
from winter and turns toward the fairest season of all, and begins to thaw out. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Spring. And it is springing right now, if not already sprung.
</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I know this by the appearance of delicate purple crocuses
that are now pushing up through the chilly mud, to turn their flowery faces to
whatever sun they might find in the sky.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>One day in late March I walk by the patch of forlorn dirt by my front
door, all mucky and covered with nothing but a few leftover leaves from last
fall and maybe some “seen better days” mulch. Then I return home just one day
later and there be the crocuses (or croci), often the very first plants to
flower in the early spring, some years even courageously pushing up through the
snow, as if to dare winter to stick around any longer. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">You can feel spring in the air now, see it in the sky
and even hear it in the atmosphere. The birds all seem to somehow sing a little
louder, as if to reintroduce themselves to us, and when a patch of blue breaks
through early April gray storm clouds, it seems all the bluer somehow. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it is the peepers who act for me (maybe
you too) as a sprightly and springly alarm clock, their high pitched chirping sounding
like a one note chorus. These tiny frogs can be found and heard in wetlands and
ponds. They emerge right about now and that peeping you hear is the mating call
of the northern spring peeper. There may be no more evocative spring sound than
this glee club amorous amphibians.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There’s always the boys of spring to herald this time
of year and around here that would be the Boston Red Sox.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I must confess, given the Sox schizophrenic behavior
the past few years, I have very mixed feelings about the Old Towne Team. Since
2018, they’ve won a World Series, but also finished dead last twice. What team
shows up this spring? I have no idea. They don’t either. The BoSox are also now
the most expensive ticket in Major League Baseball. For a group of four to go
to a game at Fenway, it costs $324.37, for tix, parking, beer, and hot dogs,
and that was as of last summer. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The good
news is that there’s always the Worcester Red Sox, now playing just miles down
the road. A $17 seat will get you a great view and baseball in its purer
form.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe that’s where I’ll head soon
for the first game of the year.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Yes, there are so many ways to mark the transition
from the chill to chilling out, from skis to shorts, from fireplace to
fireflies. Like that first ride on the bike, thighs burning, lungs pumping,
butt hurting and yet—thank you God for a new season. That’s spring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As is putting up the storm windows and
pulling down the screens and hopefully not getting a hernia in the process! And
there’s all those other spring firsts too. First BBQ. First cold beer on a warm
day. First mowing of the lawn, the sweet and familiar smell of fresh cut grass
such an elixir.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First time in shorts—yup,
those legs are pasty white! First hot dog at the park.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First t-shirt day.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Even as we emerge from a winter that was as wimpy as
they come, still, it is such a gift from God to be transported by the sure movement
of the earth and the position of the sun to a new time of year. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A new reality in a way. For me spring is when it
seems as if anything is possible in this life, perhaps more so than at any
other time of year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Spring brings me
hope. Spring reminds me that each day is filled with new possibilities. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In my faith tradition the holiday and holy day of
Easter pushes back against the notion of final endings or dead stops. With the
God I know, there is a forever eternal second chance waiting for us all, if only
we have the courage to look for it and then to begin again. To allow the spirit
of spring to reside in our hearts and souls is to imagine that no matter what our
age or what our station in life, there is something young within all of us,
that looks to tomorrow and imagines with excitement, “What if?!”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What in your life right now needs a little spring? A
jump start? A pushing up through the soil and a bending up towards the light
and the heat? What needs renewing in your soul, in your spirit, in your body? A
grudge to be let go of.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A hurt to be forgiven
or healed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A love to be found or some
love to be offered to one in great need.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The days ahead offer all of these things and so much
more. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thanks, dear crocus. We missed
you. Good to have you back. Good to be in the miracle called spring. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p><a name="_Hlk104640311"><strong><i>The Reverend John F. Hudson is Senior
Pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church of Christ, in Sherborn,
Massachusetts (pilgrimsherborn.org). He blogs at sherbornpastor.blogspot.com
and is a resident scholar at the Collegeville Institute at Saint John’s
University in Collegeville, Minnesota. For twenty-five years he was a columnist
whose essays appeared in newspapers throughout Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
He has served churches in New England since 1989. For comments, please be in
touch: pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org.</i></strong></a><b></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span></p>
<p></p>John Hudsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14205712186140374089noreply@blogger.com0