Life has been very busy and I’ve not had time to record my thoughts here in a number of days. I also missed the second anniversary of my entry into blogging. I’m grateful to all the folks who stop by and read my thoughts and in turn share their own. Blogging and blog reading has become a major pastime for me. I read the RSS feeds of over a dozen blogs each day. I get most of my news from blogs. In the past couple of months I’ve stopped listening to and/or reading daily newspapers and televised news. For the most part I’m more contented. I’ve found their constant hype of Brittany Spears, Election 2008 and other items to be a distraction from the problems faced by real people everywhere on the planet.
Not listening to the news has invited me to enjoy each day as it presents itself. I don’t hear about hyped storms. I’m not constantly listening to the argumentative and judgmental commentary of news anchors. It occurs to me that anchors can weigh a ship down. Maybe news anchors can weigh people down.
In the past week I received news that my nephew has left college and on Monday of this week joined the United States Navy. He’s going to be a Culinary Specialist. He’s going to following the footsteps of his grandfather and uncle when he reports to Great Lakes Naval training center for boot camp.
Dad was a Radioman and I became a Hospital Corpsman. I called to wish him well on his new venture. I’m trying to locate the neckerchief my Dad gave me to where when I wore Navy blues. Dad served in World War II and he had “tailor made” blues. I used to wear Dad’s neckerchief when I wore dress blues. I thought it might make a nice keepsake for Tom to wear his grandfather’s World War II vintage neckerchief with his dress blues. It’s been thirty years since I slipped into dress blues and although I still have my uniform I don’t know if I can find the neckerchief. Here’s hoping that I can.
There’s one of our brothers who recommends “news fasts,” once in a while for a day or two. No papers, no CNN, no radio. It’s amazing how it clears the mind, and then its rains and you didn’t know anything about how everybody was chattering about a horrible snow storm for two days prior.
Personally I was shocked when I came to religious life and there were televisions in the friaries. I don’t have one in my room and some of the old fathers only know how to interpret that as someone forbid it. I guess it’s the culture of scarcity against the culture of defending yourself against so-called “information.”
Peace to you today, brother.