DETOUR, THERE'S A SPIKEY ROAD AHEAD

HERE'S MY STORY

Believe it or not, I was "rescued" from a lonely desert life in 1975!

Back then I was slightly smaller than a tennis ball, quills and all.

Now I am close to 24 inches high and 24 inches in diameter.  

My stiff, very hardy sharp quills are an average of 1.75 inches long.

I have been in this location, Paul and Belle's yard, since 1981.

I am a jovial, friendly type who in my entire life have never harmed anything nor anyone.

I am the quasi companion of the loving human who took me out of the desert.

The Human:    

The Author

It was summer time and I was a vicar at a Catholic Parish in El Cajon, California.  I had the temerity to invite my agoraphobic mother, MJT Dion to come from Massachusetts for a few days.  Little did I ever dream that she would agree. Huh?  Here's what happened.  She told everyone that her son had invited her to California.  One of her dear friends, the dearest of dear friends said, "Well, it's not the moon, Mina, let's go together."  Now it is clear what happened:  BFF rules!  My mother actually gets on a plane and flies from Massachusetts to San Diego.  Thanks to Eva, BFF, Mina's gonna fly.

Don't get me wrong.  This was not the first time.  Her first flight was in honor of her dear baby, Roland.  It took her first born, me, to corral her but it was her sweet baby who won the prize.  Massachusetts to Texas.  That's a whole 'nother story, but not for now.

So back to me, sitting there by the side of the road in Borrego Springs, CA.  

I actually convinced MJT to get out of the vehicle to come and imitate Moses by walking the desert.

Mama never knew what a desert looked like.  All she knew was that the Israelites had a bad time there.

But, as afraid as she was, she trusted God to let her set foot in the desert.  Unlike Peter, she took a short, very short spin and jumped back in the car.

Once she was there, I was glad that no one would disturb me any more.  

WRONG!!!

The next thing I know is that I am in a damp, suburban style earth. That would be OK except that I am wondering what my future is.

First:  Potted plant.  Yecch, nothing worse. 

Then:  Nice rich soil with lots of water and other great food.

Finally (Maybe):  Comfortably warm sunny embrace most days and all the water I could ever hope for.

Finally, MJT is gone; Eva is gone; I am here.  Remember that when you are in the eternal threshhold

I would appreciate a simple wave and a sincere goodbye.

I REMEMBER WHEN...

I REMEMBER WHEN...

Let me invite you to have an interesting trip down your personal memory lane.  I am inviting you to think back at the times you said (or didn't say) "This, I will not forget."  Some might be safe, but many of them will be in the category of "stories that I will have to tell my children."

 Here are some samples of mine.

 1 - The day when I saw my first dead human being.  My aunt Cecile. (1942 

No, it was not traumatic.  I asked my father (EFR Dion) if I could touch her.  He said "yes."I touched her hand.  I can still feel it as I write.  I am convinced that the experience of what happened that day helped me to put dozens of fellow humans on their peaceful way to God.

2 - My first three days at school.   (1942)  

Enough of that personal stuff.  How about some history?

3 - The Hiroshima bomb (1945)  I was playing "back yard" baseball.

4 - Street celebrations of VJ day (1945 Driving home with EFR Dion with 3 pickerel in the creel.) 

5 - The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Boston Red Sox in game 7  (1946 Driving home with  EFR Dion's  brothers, Ed - driving - Normand and Donald) Note the French spelling of Normand.

6 - US Olympic Hockey Team beats Russia for Gold in Lake Placid, NY  (1980- I was alone with the two "babies" since the Voice from the Kitchen was conducting an RCIA session.)

7 - The assassination of John Kennedy  (1963 - We stayed up all night following the reports coming across short wave radio.  I was in Rome. It was after the evening meal. I was receiving the          sacramental cloths from the religious sisters who had the clearance to launder them.  I could hardly understand Italian at the time.  The young religious sister persisted.  I got the message.)

8 - Oklahoma City bombing  (1995)

9 - Campaign of lies by George W. Bush to justify attack on Iraq before the regime of Donald Trump.  This was the most viciously immoral White House that I had experienced before this one.

10 - Middle East airplane attack especially in New York  (2001).  We were living in Fremont, California at the time.  Son Jo-El was relaxing on the floor in front of the TV after breakfast before going to university.  I was listening to him say that a plane had hit one of the towers.  I was in the middle of telling him that this was not new.  

I was saying that in 1945 a B-25 bomber hit the Empire State Building.  Suddenly, as we watched the screen, #2 son exclaimed  “Oh *%@!" as the airliner struck the second tower before our very eyes. He never reported to class that day.  I did not report to work.  We didn't know it, but there was more to come.  If so, we did not want to miss it.

11 - 4 years of University studies in Rome, Italy -- 1961 to 1965 

12 - For a Catholic kid, I can boast that I have received all seven sacraments

Why have I done this?

I and the Voice from the Kitchen enjoy these and other points of interest in my life and in hers as gifts of God.  We hope that you can enjoy the memories that you have for your own peace and comforting entertainment.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT TAKES AWAY LIFE -- IMPRISONMENT RUINS IT

I have often thought about the thoughts that you see above.  Lately they have been more insistent because for the last three+ years we the people of this country have seen human life attacked on many fronts.  

Lately, with the re-introduction of capital punishment in the USA, I have been shaking my head and clenching my teeth over the frontal attacts on human life that have been perpetrated against us.  You see, we humans are a community of creatures not simply a collection of individuals.  That means that what happens to one is felt by all and what happens to the many, shakes the one.

That is true of the heroically good as well as the demonically evil.  That is a truth that doesn't seem to resonate very clearly in hearts of people.  It seems that the spiritual vibes of loving happiness and devotion are in a constant skirmish with the power of the volcanic, burning heat of destructive anger.  

Beyond that, I wonder if we creatures of mind and emotion are confused about the definition of our values.  

Do we ask ourselves about the way we judge our behavior? 

Do we sk ourselves if we believe that humans actually have an impact on global warming?   Do we know what we mean when we proclaim ourselves to be "pro-life?"  Do we even know what we mean when we proclaim ourselves to be "pro-choice?"  Do we bother to dive to a deeper understanding of what it means to be "socialist?"  Do we try to reach into the inner meaning of what is means to be "capitalist?"  

I think of many things along such lines and then I shake my head when I read some of the false choices that people expostulate to make themselves appear to be more intelligent or more virtuous than they really are.  I think of the discussion that I encountered the other day before the execution of a man who had been on death row for more than a decade.  There was a question about the efficacy of the drug to be used to cause his death. The question was how long it would take for him to die.  Really?  I remember that same discussion from a few years back.  I wrote to the publisher and suggested the guillotine.  That never fails.  But, wait!  It is said that it is so quick that brain death is not immediate and that even the eyes still function for that fractional delay.  Hmmm, back to the drawing board.  In no part of the discussion was the idea put forward that after more than a decade on death row that this person's life had already ceased to be his own.

I present all these scenarios to make the point that the only one who really knows how to take life away is the Creator of life Himself.  I also am telling you that, since I am leaving the management of life to the Creator, my only choice is to be "pro-choice," just as He wants us all to be.

LAW AND ORDER --

Oh, Boy!  Law and Order.  There has been a lot of noise in the politisphere about this lately.

Law and Order!  What is that?

Easy - Law is what is on the "books" before I got here.  [I refer you to the Mosaic LAW.]

           Order is the way I tell you to act according to my reading of the LAW.

Here's a simple example of order according to Joseph Thibault, my one and only Grandfather and the living patron saint of EFR Dion, my father.

"Never cross the street in the middle of the block.  Always go to the intersection to cross the street.

Now, I am rarely a pedestrian on a city street in this, the 21st century.  Now,  I tell you that I am aware of the wisdom of the order cast upon me at the ripe old age of 5 years, 9 months old.  ( 1942 )

Can you see the connection between our venal lawmakers (AD 2020) and the hypocritical Pharisees of  BC ?? to AD 100?  

Law is what takes place in the courtroom.  Order is what I can get away with.

Law is what the Supreme Court says I can do.

So now, what I opined was right.  I arrest you, you disagree.  We seesaw back and forth in court appeals until we get an order.  By the time we think we have a resolution, other court decisions have superseded the one that we have on the dockett, so we amend our position to accommodate our desires to fit the elements of the newly proclaimed legal reality.

You see the path here.  Law is nothing but an embryonic reality that has quasi infinite potential for evolutionary replication.  

To quote the famous person against whose life my father dedicated my name,    

     "...because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression."

                      (Paul, Romans 4:15)

Think of this as you wonder why any intelligent human being would think that a conservative person and a progressive person would have different understandings of the law.  Isn't the law, law?

BTW:  Smile. There are three topics that have eternally, non-ending half lives:

law

politics

theology

I bring my musings to an end by expostulating without regret or fear of having erred:

It is essential that to save the constitutional republic of the United States of America a constitutional convention must be convened NOW.

Might be a good idea not to forward this one!

SAN DIEGO CALIFORNIA CITY LIFE

THIS IS ABOUT 100% WHAT I SAW LAST NIGHT

Last night, I had to run to the pharmacy for a very small but important pill -- laxative -- in the hope that morning would bring the relief that makes octogenarian life worth living :-)

I gathered my car keys, my wallet and my telephone, final instructions from the Voice from the Kitchen and went directly to the family car.  No garage, just a driveway.

It happened to be almost dark but still a little bit gray.  I went to the driver's side of the car, unlocked the door, slid into the seat, did all the habitual, ritualistic things and before I knew it I was rolling backwards down the way.  

Then, in the various fractions of seconds between the initial instant of control and the total awareness of the space, I saw the full glory of the beautiful body of the animal what was escaping from beneath the front end of the car.  WOW!  So glad that he was more interested in getting away from me than to fight from his hiding place. 

I must say that over the years we have come to appreciate the presence of these beautiful, nocturnal rodents.  We have never become friendly with them, but we have always been accepting of their presence.  This evening was about the closest that I have ever come to triggering the defense mechanism.

Isn't it nice to have an occasional burst of  "close call" joy?

They are beautiful.  

INDEPENDENCE DAY - A SMILEY STORY -

It's early December.  I am the Director of Human Resources of a large electronic components manufacturer in San Diego, CA.

I have just finished finalizing the schedule of paid holidays for the coming year.  The entire senior management group has reviewed and approved it.  I make the required number of copies for the managers and supervisors of the clerical and assembly departments.  I walk around and distribute them.  I return to my office only to find two very fidgety production floor supervisors.

They greet me politely, ask my permission to enter - 

I willingly grant them entry and before we can sit down one of them says, in a shaky voice, "Why don't we have the 4th of July off?"

Me:  Whoooaa!  That can't be right.  Really, I forgot that?

"Yes, sir.  It is not written here, anywhere"

Me:  This, I have to see.  Show me.

"Here, sir.  See - Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, etc.  Why no 'Fourth of July' holiday next year?"

No, I did not laugh; I didn't roll my eyes; I did not even change my tone of voice.  I was talking to first generation Americans for whom "Independence Day" had no significant meaning.

I invited them to have a seat, a cup of coffee and asked them to give me a moment to tell them something.  I then explained to them that Independence Day is the Fourth of July.  I then asked them for a moment of patience while I made a small change to the posting for the general public,

"4th of July, Independence Day."

Many of them could file that in case the question came up in the naturalization interview that many of them would be preparing to face in the year to come.