Sunday Soliloquy

It's a quiet Sunday afternoon, and I've been thinking about all the people I've known in my life. Facebook and Twitter, of course, stimulate the process, but social networking only scratches the surface of recalling the myriad of human beings that have contributed in one way or another to my collective experience since being born. I've often made reference to James Burke's work, The Day the Universe Changed, and since my retirement it has been in that context that I have begun to ponder those days that my life changed. Still paramount is the moment of birth, the miraculous introduction to life! It's only equal will be the moment of death, but the period between is marked by occasions which have significantly altered the future course.

An example of such profound change is how I now experience Sunday in contrast to my observance of the Sabbath until a decade ago. My church attendance was not perfect, but relatively near so. Sunday and church were virtually synonymous for the first half-century of my life, but the stark opposite has been true since my estrangement from organized religion.

In a strict orthodoxy this would constitute my loss of faith as grounds for excommunication, with the accompanying rejection of ordination obvious. To the contrary, however, I have discovered in such great changes a prevailing continuity, an aspect of eternal quality which creates a past, present and future from infinity. I have not lost my conviction that the nature of our relationship to that from which the infinite emerges affects the quality of life we experience, both individually and collectively.

I give thanks for the opportunity at hand to contemplate the days on which my life changed completely and yet continued. This to me is the revelation of the Christ upon human consciousness that transcends dogmatic creed and catechism. My life has changed; my faith remains.

Dear Reader,

As we settle into our new quarters, more regular blogging may be just around the corner. With the upcoming midterm election there is so much to think about and act upon. In the New Testament sense, I am both amazed and astonished by what is going on in our country. We've been warned about the consequences of losing our moral bearings, but just what that means didn't really sink in until we embraced being an idiot nation. I want to believe that the Rally to Restore Sanity might prove to be a turning point and that's why I'll be in attendance. What a hoot it would be to see you there! I finally got around to putting our recent photos on Flickr (which I hope you'll enjoy by going to the link) so that I can give my undivided attention to reporting from the rally. Keep tuned.

Morning

In the still of pre-dawn I find myself awake and ready to greet the day. I'm six weeks into retirement and loving it! Daily our new home feels more like it's ours and not just a vacation destination. We've seen the glorious fall colors in the Rocky Mountains, in town, and across Nebraska as we visited Mary's family. Today, Mom and Kim will drive down from Billings and become our first overnight guests. Life is good.

10/10/10

I just could not forgive myself if I missed this opportunity.

Some Assembly Required

My good intention to discipline myself to daily journaling has gone to hell. For better or worse, the mandatory lunch hour at my last employment enabled me to post at least four times a week. I am relishing the longest weekend of my life but it has thrown any semblance of a schedule to the wind. Mary and I made a long overdue trip to Lincoln to see our family there, and one more weight added to my guilt trip is knowing that I really need to get those photos posted to flickr. Mom and Kim will visit us this weekend, and then, just because we can, we're going to Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity in Washington, D.C. It's no wonder that it's taking us a little bit longer to unpack all the boxes. It's an interesting process, taking all the things that you have found a place for, packing them up, and moving them to a new location where the challenge becomes to discover where they all should go. We've decided that we need some furniture to replace what we left behind, and in our economic bracket that can only mean some assembly required. The bookcases are completed, the desk nearly so, and the printer stand and file drawer will just be icing on the cake. Life is good, and each day of retirement has thus far been a happy one.