IT'S BEEN ONE MONTH SINCE I LAST WROTE TO YOU -- and since November 25, 2010 since # 1 -- 74,000 times viewed since then

Luke 13:6-9 - Parable of the barren fig tree

I have the picture above as the symbol for this article.  I have made up my mind to cultivate this tree with more effort to increase its productivity over the next year.  With God's help,I can do it.

Hey, wanna see what I wrote then? Click here to see it. 

It was the evening of Thanksgiving.  This is the evening of Thanksgiving.  The thoughts do not fly quite so often these days for two reasons.  I have too many things on my plate, among which are two Bible studies, contract work with a translation company and various and sundry other projects that come and go.  One of them is regularly communicating with the Lay La Salette Missionaries around the world and organizing and heading pilgrimages to Israel and various places in Europe.  If I am not mistaken,I think I wrote a piece every day for about 450 days straight.  When I look back on it, I can't imagine how I did it.  And that is not all.  There are topics that I have judged are not what I want to discuss here, for reasons of my own.  But I do want to fulfill my dream of leaving autobiographical material to my sons and to those with enough sense to click and see what lies behind the dead guy who dared us "No Crying at my Funeral."  

  That is a blog that is tied to an online Catholic magazine "ParishWorld.net."

I do not produce weekly for that blog and when I do it is mainly to comment on spiritual and/or doctrinal material for my own sake or the sake of the publication for the good of the faithful readers.  It is a blog that has a religious personality and I compose it when I have something to connect to my general spiritual attitude. I can say, quite honestly that readers of that bog will not cry at my funeral.  They will raise their eyes to heaven and thank God that I have now become His face to face problem.

I have two other blogs that I maintain at varying levels of regularity.  One is quite narrowly focused on the activities and beliefs of the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette  and the other is one that I save for my patented rants and that I do not "market" actively.  I simply take the chance that the thoughts that appear there may amuse whomever happens to trip over them by accident during a Google browsing session. That's why over 8 years only 4,000 pairs of eyes have been offended by the content.  

Now it is Thanksgiving again and everyone has gone home after a sumptuous meal of turkey, ham, Lebanese salad, Indian spicy cabbage with sausage, rice and bread, Camenbert following a bracing 1 ounce apéritif of "Makers 46" accompanied by vegetable "lumpia" made by genuine, pure blooded Filipino hands.  The Kentucky bourbon is in the midle of that multicultural pot-pourrit as a political comment.  Too bad that Mitch wasn't here.  (No, I am not a Democrat.  If you followed my blogs, you would know that I vote my mind so that I maintain the right to attack any politician, or all of them collectively.) This year is the first year ever that I voted a straight ticket --  Zero incumbents.

I have a fairly long list of ideas that I would like to unveil for you.  I have them all listed in a very visible part of my computer.  I am reminded of them every day, several times per day.  All I need is the discipline that I had four years ago and get them captured in a blog post for your enjoyment.  

Well,I am now falling victim to the el tryptophan syndrome, so I leave you with a hope and a prayer that you will have many things to thank God for in the coming year.

Oh, BTW, remember, "No Crying at my Funeral."

WHOSE READING THIS NOW?

United States
Germany
Canada
United Kingdom
France
China
India
Australia
India
Jamaica

Don't ask me who they are.  I just know that I am told by my handy dandy stats reporter that there are people in these ten countries who read what you do.  To all of you around the world who read a simple old man's musings about his life, welcome and trust in my respect for you.  I am glad that I don't use foul language, except for the occasional Latin use of a common Anglo Saxon expletive, camouflaged for the sake of propriety and a show of Classical European culture.
Nearly three years ago now, on Thanksgiving eve I began to do this and I just never stopped.  In fact, from this I sprouted a couple more blogs because I did not want to compromise the nature of this one.  So I created one that is basically very Catholic...life style Catholic, not doctrinally Catholic in its totality.  Then I was cornered because every now and then I just love to let the grouch in me have his day, so I took a page out of Malcom Muggeridge and Jean Baptiste Poquelin de Molière and created a blog that is as much a rant as anything else.  You should visit that one...Wow, some good stuff there.  Lots of politics and soon there will be a post there about insurance companies...Oh yeah...life insurance, if you please.  They made the mistake of messing with me while I am still alive.  They should have waited a while.  Then, a couple of years ago, the missionary in me decided that there is a way to evangelize and to exhort and to pray and meditate and reflect for personal growth and the edification of members of the Faith Community, so I have that one too and some of you read that one as well.  Truth to tell, it is a lot more mellow than the Crusty Kurmujjin, of course.
So now I am 16 days away from the third anniversary of my blogging life and on the anniversary, I will be partly in the air, partly in Istanbul and partly in Moab, the land of Ruth.  It's always fun to fly in the opposite direction of the International Dateline.  You never know where you are and are always mystified about what the time of day is.  So anyway, if you get word from me there, just realize that I am not looking for the Lost Ark... or whatever that place is renowned for!
So, this old man never ceases to be amazed at the wonders of the 21st century.  If you read the Crusty Kurmujjin, you will see that the amazement sometimes turns to utter disgust...without nary a nasty word, guaranteed.  That is one development of the 21st century that I am resisting.  I only cuss when certain people are around...and come to think of it, both of them are dead already...Sheesh! I'm getting old.
C ya's later, alligaters...

THANKSGIVING, INDIAN, VIETNAMESE, FILIPINO, JAPANESE

Yesterday (November 22, 2012) was Thanksgiving in the United States of America.  Even though that day is passed, I, as a Roman Catholic, allow myself to follow the Catholic tradition of celebrating the important stuff over a period of 8 days, known an an octave.  So, in a way of speaking, today is as much Thanksgiving as was yesterday.  
On Thursday morning, I and Belle, you all know her as "The Voice from the Kitchen," were sitting there in the Church where we are convinced the start of Thanksgiving should be celebrated.
The pastor there is of Vietnamese origin.  He did what very few Catholic Priests do, he actually gave a personal testimony about his first and foremost reason for celebrating Thanksgiving.  It was the second time in my life that I had heard a priest do this.  It just so happens that both times it came from a refugee from Viet Nam.  I am going to relate these experiences to you as well as a third that I read from the San Francisco Chronicle some eight or nine years back.  Through it all, why don't you turn the corner of the page up so that you can try to find the one thing in your life for which you are REALLY grateful.
Yesterday's story starts in Viet Nam before the fall of Saigon.  The father was a soldier fighting against the Communists. He would be gone for a while, come home for a while and then leave again.  It was never clear if he would ever return to the house.  In fact, it was never clear whether the family would still be there if and when he returned.  By the grace of God they all came to the United States and stayed at a camp installed at a military base.  When they finally got out of there and settled, life really took a turn for the better.  The priest who was telling the story was fifteen years old at the time.  What is he thankful for?  He is thankful for the inspiration that God gave him to be aware that he was now able to plan for his future.  He told us, "you have no idea how good it feels that you no longer doubt that there is a future for you."

The first time I heard a Catholic priest give a personal testimony was on the occasion of an earlier Thanksgiving Day, some fifteen or more years ago.  He was saying, just as the last one was, that the best way to say "thank you" is to share something of value with someone who has less than you do.  He said that it was easy for him to do this.  The fact is, he said, that I know what it is to be comfortable and to be poor, really poor.  He said that when he was poor, he wanted to be comfortable, because comfortable was good, and poor was not.  He continued, "I am now comfortable, and I tell you without shame, that comfortable is better than poor.  So, if you are comfortable, join me in sharing something with the poor."  So, he continued, this is Thanksgiving weekend.  Don't forget that to share is to say "thank you."

The Editorial in the San Francisco Chronicle was written by an Indian immigrant.  This was some nine or eight years ago.  He enumerated some ten reasons why he was glad to have come to the United States.  He also said that he was not alone in feeling the way he did about his decision.  
The first thing he said was, "No, it's not the money."  In fact, he said, I am a well educated engineer.  I could make tons of money in India.  His reasons to be thankful included, near the top of the list, the following: I can work for the company I choose; I can quit from there and go to another company that I choose; I can marry the person whom I love, not the one who has been chosen by my parents; My children will be able to choose freely the school that they want to attend and be a professional in the line that they choose and I intend to allow them to marry the person of their choice.  

I am writing this because these are all items that we take for granted.  So what else is there for us to be grateful for?  I have been thinking about this for quite a while.  What is the BIG thing for which I should be celebrating Thanksgiving?  I have some personal ideas.  I had good, righteous parents; loving siblings; a kind and loving extended family community; good schooling; honest work all my life; a loving and giving spouse; kind and loving children and finally, a far flung community of like minded, righteous, kind and loving friends.
That's on the human side.  I am glad to say that I am grateful for the solid and unwavering faith that I live, great gift from God and nurtured by all the people named above.  

So to all of you, Happy Thanksgiving-mas.  It's not just one day, it is a season...make the most of it.  It is the closest thing that we ever can hope for that approaches a religious holiday in the good ol' US of A.

THANKS TO THE ENGLISH FOR...

While I was in church this morning, I had a bunch of  Brit/USA thoughts flit across  my mental horizon.  Somehow I wonder why the English get so much of our attention.  After all, they were not the first to the party.  But they sure stole the show, didn't they?  Right out of the gate they have the largest, oldest operating company on the North American continent (Hudson's Bay Trading).  They aren't even the first Christians to make it here.  Not even the first missionaries.  Just as they were behind Raul Amundsen to the  South Pole, they were behind Leif Erickson to North America.  Perhaps, thankfully for them, Leif was more interested in the fish than in the land.  Or maybe he had a solid home life, who knows?  Then, of course, the Spaniards claimed the sunny south.  Their predilection for warm weather must have had something to do with the way the flags were planted.  The Portuguese were in on the game too, but no one could tell them apart from the Spaniards except for the fact that their language was so sloppy, that no one could understand them.  It is possible that they made friends in Brazil because of their delivery of cheap labor from Africa.  So, with all of this spinning round and round in my coconut, I came home and found a little boy in a shirt that was printed with an image close to the one at the head of this piece.  It's then that the following happened:
Dear English, thanks for the pretty color scheme for our own flag.
                             Thanks for letting us borrow and remake your language.
                             Thanks for being more interested in Canada than in US.
                             Thanks for disliking the French more than US.
                             Thanks for exiling the best cooks to Louisiana.
                             Thanks for wearing those nice, bright red unis to Concord.
I have told you once before that I worked for a British Company for a couple years.  Some of them have a sense of humor about "losing" the "States" and some do not.  No matter who they are, they do enjoy the days off.  They also like to claim Thanksgiving as their gift to us.  That, dear friends is a story for a different blog and a different time.  Be that as it may, I do hope you are having a blessed Thanksgiving episode this year.

THANKSGIVING THOUGHTS -- GOBBLE, GOBBLE

THE NATIONAL BIRD OF THE USA

Do you know why I put that caption there?  Give it a thought.  You must know that before the Bald Eagle was declared, by an act of congress to be the national bird, there had to be a discussion, right?  The guys in Washington had to debate the question right?  So, come on, you do agree with me that one of the candidates for the honor had to be the Wild Turkey, do you not?  Maybe someone knows, but unless we go back to the acts of Congress of the early 1780's, we won't really know.  What we do know is that Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to his daughter deriding congress and its decision to choose the Bald Eagle over the Wild Turkey.  Was he ever in on the discussion?  We do not know.  Is this a serious letter or a tongue-in-cheek bush beater?  We don't know that either.  So, the Bald Eagle it is and my national bird remains:

Now, a moment of autobiographical revelation.  Turkey was rarely, if ever, the center piece of the Thanksgiving celebration on 1 Hartford Street.  We had a huge pot of stew made of  meat balls, pigs' hocks and thickened with a generous amount of burnt wheat flower.  The technical, scientific name for this delicacy is "Ragou au Pates de Cochon."  It is the one meal that MJT Dion did and her pre-eminence in the art of its preparation was never challenged by anyone else.  This stew, perhaps a cousin of  Acadian Gumbo, has not graced our table for nigh on to 27+ years, as follows:

It was a year when Edward Dion, who was suffering from Alzheimer's Syndrome had occasional outbursts of clarity.  MJT decided to fight her agora phobia to come to Southern California accompanied by her grand-daughter Lisa, just for Thanksgiving.  It was a foregone conclusion that the STEW was the fare of the day.  We all put in our time for the meticulous preparation.  The crowning moment was when Ed arrived and saw "Mina", he smiled, got happily agitated and for about ten minutes stayed close to "Mina" though he could not speak.  She too was speechless, but from emotion.  It was a marvelous celebration.  I will never forget it, and I'll bet that if you ask Lisa about it, she just made get a little weepy for a moment too.

Since then, we have turkey and bunch of other stuff.  We are a mixed culture household [always have been, only now it's more Asian than Canadian], so there are a lot of varied expressions of the celebration.  Except for one.  It is always a religious occasion for us.  I could get Theological and Biblical here, but let's just say, that if Thanksgiving is to be true to its nature, it has to take the Creator and the Father and the Son and the Spirit seriously in the expression of gratitude.  Even if you start with the centuries old tradition of harvest festivals, we are convinced that you have to place God at the head of the event.  Therefore, no matter what your position about Thanksgiving is, please remember, for at least one instant, that it goes beyond the turkey to God.  That, my friends, is my thought for the day.

GOOD & EVIL ---

At least one of you knows which is which

The other night we were in a situation where the topic up for discussion was prayer.  Along the way, toward the end of the session, the problem of evil in the world came up.  The all pervasive presence of evil in the world was the provocative attitude of the moment.  Yes, the Devil is the one who runs the world and we don't have much chance of winning, or at least that is what it seems like.  I don't have to tell you that I have had a thought or two about this over the years.  You don't have to tell me that you too have had a thought or two about the same topic.  Because it is such a common thought and a common topic I decided that I would make it a little interesting and a little lighter than what it can turn out to be when it happens over the Thanksgiving table when Uncle Shatterdipicous [Nasty Greek] brings it up.  So, here we go.
One of the problems we have with Good and Evil is that we sometimes have a hard time telling them apart.  That's why I got the bright idea to put up the Kanji symbols for the two.  Now, except for my Japanese friends, I doubt that any of you know which is which.  Which is the point.  There is Good that we know is Good and there is Evil that we know is Evil.  We sit here thinking that if it were always that easy, life would be smoother.  Ha!  Think again.  Most of you adults know that sometimes the sweetness of the evil is mighty inviting.  C'mon, admit it.  I'm going to leave that one alone.  After all, I don't want to get too graphic.  I still have to have a good enough conscience to be able to sleep tonight.
Now, what about when Good and Evil look exactly the same?  It happens all the time.  We know a lot of goods and evils that serve two purposes.  What about certain insects that are harmful to us but also help to keep our world in balance?  [All except for mosquitoes]  How about the plant that you love to have in your house, except when you have a child who may be tempted to put some of it in his mouth and die?  How about fire?  How about the Sun?  How about our fellow humans?  How about that essential being, water?  Now, water is an interesting one.  Water can be its own enemy.  Did you ever think of that?  Every time you go for a swim, just remember that you are using the nature of water against the water itself.  If only we could do that for all the evils that we encounter.  Wouldn't it be nice?
Finally, I got riled the other night because the topic was naming our times as so evil that there could never have been any time worse.  The devil is getting the upper hand.  Now listen, I'm an old man.  I know that there is a lot of evil in the world.  I also know that it's not a newcomer.  If you want to see some evil, read your history book.  If you've thrown your history book away, read the Bible.  You'll see that they had short-changers, slave drivers, murderers, rapists, whores, rustlers, religious sex under the altar, for money, of course,  the selling of war prisoners to the allies to use in wars away from home, gambling, drinking, gerrymandering and watering the tavern wine.  I could go on, but I won't, it only continues.  It gets more common because the population grows, but nothing changes, except that as humans get smarter they find slicker ways to get it done.
There were some champions of the Good in the room too.  It is also true that we human beings have come a long way on the good side.  We still live the commandments to take care of one another.  We have better medicine, better transportation, better communications, better education, better understanding of language, better engineering, better food to balance our diet.  What about Doctors without Borders; Amnesty International;  Habitat for Humanity;  National Association of Free Clinics;  Salvation Army;  St. Vincent de Paul;  Non-Profit hospitals and schools;  Non-Profit special housing cooperatives;  non-profit rehabilitation centers, Monasteries...I could go on and on,  but I will finish by reminding all the pessimists in the room of the helping reaction that occurs in times of natural calamities.  
The existence of Good and Evil side by side in the world, starts with the ability that we humans have of choosing ourselves over everything else.  It's easy to say, but the complications that this simple reality causes are enormous.  So outlandishly enormous that even Uncle Shatterdipicous can't bring them back to size...certainly not at Thanksgiving Dinner.


OK, you win.  The "Good" is on your left.  The "Evil" is the other one, on your right.