Fly Me To The Moon

 And let me play among the stars...

I'm still reading articles on the discoveries of the James Webb Telescope. It's hard to differentiate between the crazies and the scientists.  The former tend toward a prediction of the end times.  The experts are giving us facts that I'm still finding hard to grasp.  

UCF planetary Scientist Noemi Pinilla-Alonsos was among the first to see the galaxy clusters, cosmic ridges and new stars 13 billion lightyears away at the edge of time and the birth of the universe.  I love her quote below:

It holds key information on the first stages of the formation the solar system.  We know that we all are made of the same materials that form the solar system, in reality, and that is one part of that inventory of materials that we don't know.  So knowing about the first stages of the solar system is knowing about ourselves.

That last sentence is so very exciting. 

I saw an older episode of "Young Sheldon" last night.  Sheldon was questioning his Baptist minister about the nature of God.  He was asking if God is the savior of (just) the world, or the universe.  The minister was completely flummoxed.  

I would recommend that Pastor Jeff read "Your God is too Small" by J. B. Phillips.

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Twinkle, Twinkle

 Twinkle twinkle little star

When I attend my daily water aerobics group we sing the twinkle song while exercising our arms and fingers.  This week it has reminded me of the James Webb telescope photos.  

How I wonder what you are

Years ago I was a huge Carl Sagan fan and have done my best to wrap my brain around these latest photos of the vast unknown.  But I cannot. 

Up above the world so high 

These photos take us far beyond our galaxy; lead us far beyond the Big Bang theory.  I cannot begin to grasp what this means,  By the way, the best words I know to explain the Big Bang are the song lyrics from the TV show, Our whole universe was in a hot, dense state, then fourteen billion years ago, expansion started, wait...The earth began to cool, the autotrophs began to drool... 

What I do know is that these photos give me an even greater sense of God's power and glory.  They remind me of the book of Revelation.  The true meaning is yet to be revealed. 

Like a diamond in the sky.

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The Greatest Country Song of All Time

George Jones

He said I'll love you 'till I die

I finally got around to reading the featured article about country music in the current AARP magazine and was reminded that many experts consider "He Stopped Loving Her Today" as the greatest country song of all time.  

And furthermore, Rolling Stone magazine named "He Stopped Loving Her Today" as number 275 on their list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.  So, not just a country song, but all songs ever written!

I just don't get it.  Country music is loaded with sad songs.  By the way, my favorite is "Sunday Morning Comin' Down" as sung by Johnny Cash. 

Written in 1980 by Bobby Braddok and Curly Putman, "He Stopped Loving Her Today" was recorded by the sad and brooding George Jones.  

I've read that Jones hated the song when he first heard it.  He thought it was too long, too sad, and too depressing.

Well, hey, isn't that an excellent description of  country songs?  

He stopped loving her today

They placed a wreath upon his door

And soon they'll carry him away

He stopped loving her today 

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I Love My AARP Magazine

 

Many  people dread that first AARP Magazine arriving in the mail.  It's a sign that they've been thrown into a new phase of life - whether they want it or not. 

I loved mine from the beginning.  The most recent features country music but my favorite article is called "I Witnessed History."  It depicts eight stories told by normal, every day folks who unexpectedly landed in the middle of a significant event in history.  

One of my favorite's was written by 78 year old Mary Robinson.  In 1980 her husband was transferred to London.  Mary would be working part time so she had to find a baby-sitter for a couple of days a week to care her baby boy, Patrick.  

The agency sent over an 18 year old Diane Spencer.  Yes, that Diane Spencer! 

Diane and Patrick

 She became very fond of Mary and Patrick. When the family moved back to the states, "these little blue airmail letters started arriving."  

Then, in 1981, a note came saying that Mary and her husband would be receiving an invitation to the wedding.

Yes, that wedding!

For the rest of Diane's life the two women stayed in touch.  The last visit the had was a lunch at Kensington Palace with just Diane, Mary, and her two children. 

The next, and final time they were together was when Lord Chamberlain invited Mary to the funeral in 1997.

Every one of the eight stories is spellbinding.  Be sure to look at your current copy - if you're old enough.

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Humility

I spent much of my life putting up a very strong front. I couldn't handle being vulnerable.   I had great difficulty accepting help.  I know many people who've done the same thing.

This morning's church service was  good in so many ways.  The theme for this month has been has been on targeting five emotions, Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust,  all based on the Pixar film "Inside Out."

Today we dealt with anger.  As I looked around I saw a couple of friends who I know have anger issues about what's happening in their lives.  

 We get in trouble when we refuse to accept reality.  It makes us feel angry and impotent. 

Below is a parable taken from one of David Seaman's books.  It describes me in my younger life.  

DON'T TAKE ME TO THE HOSPITAL - PLEASE!

The scene didn't make sense.  There he lay in the street bleeding; the hit and run driver gone.  He needed medical help immediately.  Yet, he kept pleading. "Don't take me to the hospital, please"

Surprised, everyone asked, "Why?"

Pleadingly he answered, "Because I am on the staff at the hospital.  It would be embarrassing for them to see me like this.  They have never seen me bleeding and dirty.  ...I am a mess."

But the hospital is for people like you.   Can't we call an ambulance?"

"No, please don't...the admissions clerk would be upset...she always gets upset if anyone from admittance doesn't have all the details she needs to fill our her records.  I didn't see who hit me, and I don't even know the make of the car or license number.  - Just pull me over to the curb.  

With this he tried to crawl to the gutter while everyone left him alone. Maybe he is still there.

Are you good at binding up other peoples wounds but angry and secretive about your own?  Over the last few years I've finally been able to evidence some humility and ask for help.  And it has changed my life immeasurably.

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Redemption

 

This summer  I've been rewatching some of my favorite movies.  My favorite genre is redemption films.  Perhaps my favorite redemption movie ever is "Life as a House."  It's not a religious film.  It's R rated. The house is a metaphor for all of the wounded characters.  Each one of them is a mess and, as the old ramshackle house is torn down and the new one is rebuilt, so are the lives of the people.  Each one receives healing, even the one who dies. 

When I was still working I used this powerful film as a discussion starter several times.  It tends to make folks react emotionally.  I'm not an emotional person.  I'm a left-brain, pragmatic, analytical robot. 

But when I watched the movie a few days ago, sitting all alone on my couch,  I experienced a big surprise.  Toward the end something strange happened.  I began to cry, to sob actually.  

A few years ago a friend told me this story.  In the year 2000, her daughter, who lived in Santa Monica, California, was helping to get a library started in her children's school.  They had no building and no books.  

She learned that the house that had been built for a movie there had recently been disassembled and stored.  She asked that it be donated for the library and reassembled at the school.  This was the house from "Life as a House".  Later that year the movie premiered in a little theater in Santa Monica.  The proceeds were donated to the library.  So that particular house isn't just a metaphor.  It will live on forever in the hearts and minds of the children who read the books they discover inside.

This, in its self, is both remarkable and healing.  

***

Check out my new book "Florida, A Love Story" on Amazon. 

Home

 I had a nice surprise earlier in the week.  My husband David's brother-in-law called to tell me how much he enjoyed my new book, Florida, A Love Story.  This was especially exciting to me because he's a retired professor and somewhat of a historian.  Long retired, he still enjoys leading classes on Shakespeare and other lofty subjects in his retirement community.

 At some point, when we were discussing story telling, he brought up Toni Morrison.  This surprised me.  We then had a discussion about her work.   He told me he'd read everything she'd ever done and asked if I'd read the novel she'd written in 2012 titled Home.  I had not.  I'd never even heard of it.  But I ordered it from Amazon while we were still on the phone.  

Home is about a black man returning home from the Korean war in the 1950s, Morrison describes Frank as a modern Odysseus returning to a 1950s America minded with lethal pitfalls for an unwary black man. 

In this painful, scathing novel Morrison, as usual, doesn't preach.  She just tells Frank's story.  Early on, when Frank is on a train he sees a woman and her husband who has obviously been beaten.  Frank asks a waiter what happened.  The waiter explained that the man got off the train to buy a cup of coffee and the proprietor and others had physically thrown him out of the restaurant.  

The abused couple whispers to each other, she softly, pleadingly, he with urgency.  He will beat her when they get home, thought Frank...What was intolerable was the witness of a woman, a wife, who not only saw it, but had dared to try to rescue - rescue! - him.  

I've been thinking about this passage for two days. 

I told David's brother-in-law about how some Florida schools want to ban Toni Morrison's books Beloved and The Bluest Eye.  We agreed that neither of us was surprised.  Morrison told  a truth many of us don't want to hear.    

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