On this day,December 7, 1941 the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor Hawaii and America entered World War II. I remember the day very well. It was a Sunday and I was in grade school. The war is so very real to me because it happened during my childhood and the memories are clear. So many young men and women too, lost their lives. It was such a huge matter that it enveloped the entire country, the people and the news. It…
Everyone has friends that we have neglected and should be in contact with. Dr. Johnson's advice is always valid: "A man sir, should keep his friendship's in repair." As life spins out control faster and faster with jobs, children, television and computers we lose track of our friends. One of the poems that I find very moving about our neglect of friends is the 1900 poem Around the Cornerby Charles Hansen Towne (1877 – 1949) Around the corner I have a friend,In…
I seem to be on some kind of rant about my Catholic Church, but the local diocesan newspaper, The Catholic Northwest Progress, has a two page spread this week about a former Lutheran pastor who is about to be ordained a Catholic priest. No, I’m not upset because the bishop plans to ordain a former Lutheran pastor. Nor am I disturbed because he is married. It is the fact that this married man is allowed to become a priest under…
The Catholic Church has a long tradition of supporting workers' right to organize. Popes have written about the rights of worker unions, bishops councils have proclaimed the fundamental right of workers to organize into unions and the Catholic church has consistently supported the right of workers to organize as a labor union. The Second Vatican Council expressed this right like this: "Among the basic rights of the human person is to be numbered the right of freely founding unions for…
In 1998 Gary Kinder published Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea. It was a compelling story about the sinking of an actual ship. (http://www.shipofgoldinfo.com/) The story really began in California, in 1848, when Captain John Sutter was managing thousands of acres of land known as Sutter’s Fort. He was looking for a place for a lumber mill. A location was found and construction began The damming of the stream resulted in the discovery of gold and the California gold rush…
We are in Scottsdale, Arizona. A place noted for year around sunshine and warm weather. This Thanksgiving it is dark, overcast and raining. It rained off and on all night. Lita and I have brought children. spouses and grandchildren here for Thanksgiving. We put over thirty people in the Westin Kierland Hotel and Resort here. They brought swimsuits and sun tan lotion when they should have brought umbrellas. Last night we had a family gathering and dinner inside. It was noisy,…
I’ve finished Michael Streissguth’s book Eddy Arnold on this trip and enjoyed reading about the great country western singer. He started out on the Grande Ole Opry and evolved into a more contemporary singer. He remained a very decent human being and a devoted husband his whole life. He sang and performed with all the great country western entertainers of that time. I was reminded in this book of the Oprey’s Minne Pearl screeching: “How-Dee! I’m just glad to be…
In 1960 the black and white film Never on Sunday was issued staring Melina Mercouri as a Greek prostitute who refused to work on Sunday. She later married the director who was blacklisted during the McCarthy era. The daughter of the mayor of Athens, she was expelled from Greece during the period of the Greek military junta. Later she was elected to Parliament and became cultural minister of Greece during the 1980’s. She died in 1994. So, why am I…
Yesterday, we did nothing. We didn’t leave except for lunch. We used the hot tub and dip pool, read and did little else. Great weather. Not hot and not humid. The ocean sounds are wonderful. The waves pound in less then 50 yards away, hitting the rocks and sending spray flying into the air. Pelicans swoop low to the water looking for a meal and drop like a stone when they see one. They appear to be successful. I think of that rhyme…
We are at the One and Only Palmilla resort at Los Cabos, Mexico. Los Cabos, "the capes," refers to the 20 mile long beach from San Jose del Cabo to Cabo San Lucas. This beautiful resort is on the beach about half way between the two locations. The tip of the Baja Peninsula is a point where the Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Cortez meet. The nearby town of San Jose Del Cabo has a very old Catholic Church,…
