Dreamscape

I found myself at the Eucharistic liturgy in an Episcopalian church. Somehow, the pew I was sitting in was uncomfortable so I crossed over the aisle and awkwardly climbed over a lady sitting at the end of the row. In doing so I missed what was going on at the altar. As a result I failed to receive Communion.

Later, I went to the sacristy in order to complain to the celebrant about the length of the service. I wanted to persuade him that it should have been considerably shorter. But he hardly paid any attention to me; instead he was caught up in conversation with a woman.

This vivid dream brings back traces of my ecclesiastical career. It also gives expression to my current impatience with long ceremonies, speeches, movies, and other such events. For me at this stage of life I prefer shorter rather than longer in almost everything. Even this blog.

Turmoil

Sudan, Yemen, Bahrein, Kuwait – These are places formerly not in my consciousness. Now part of our global community, they occupy my rapt attention. Virtually every day, I read about the turmoil that has engulfed them and hope for populist forces to win out. But the possibilities for other outcomes, some of them awful, loom in the background. What is going to happen to these vulnerable communities? And what will be the impacts on our mighty, but troubled, nation? 

Sixtieth Reunion

Starting decades ago, each springtime, I would watch some of my fellow alumni in Harvard Yard as they marched in celebration of their sixtieth reunion. Most of them walked confidently, though somewhat guardedly, on their own; some of them used canes; a few sat in wheelchairs as they were pushed along.

These men all impressed me the same way: They struck me as awfully old. That made them different from me, different enough to make it seem unlikely that I could ever look quite like them.

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Transition

Many Americans, arriving at middle or later life, change careers. I have known one man who went from being a butcher to becoming a sculptor. And another friend has jumped from being a financial investor to being a portrait painter.

Both of them accomplished the leap with notable success. The former butcher made statues that adorned cemeteries and churches. The second has seen his portraits grace the halls of a famous university.

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Agewise

The words “Trolling the Oceans to Combat Aging” headlined a puff piece in a recent New York Times Style Section that crossed my breakfast table. It featured a new skin product, based on ocean algae, and designed to erase alleged defects of the human face.

Normally, matters of style do not slow down my reading of the daily newspaper. Anything against aging, however, grabs my attention immediately. I stand opposed to all forms of anti-aging.

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Gun Control, Anyone?

By now, the events in Tucson no longer lead the evening news. The attention of most people has turned to other concerns, important things such as football playoffs. The American public’s interest does not pay sustained attention to massacres.

That’s what happened to the other notable mass killings in this still-new century. The killings on the Virginia Tech campus, the shooting spree that killed ten people in the Washington DC area, and the murders at the army base in Texas — all have faded from the public memory. We have little interest in continuing to think about the meaning of these events.

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