will pick up the shards
of a ruined society and
slowly help rebuild

Back in 1947, The Berkshire Eagle from Pittsfield, Massachusetts printed this little note:

Professor Albert Einstein was asked by friends at a recent dinner party what new weapons might be employed in World War III. Appalled at the implications, he shook his head.

After several minutes of meditation, he said. “I don’t know what weapons might be used in World War III. But there isn’t any doubt what weapons will be used in World War IV.”

“And what are those?” a guest asked.

“Stone spears,” said Einstein.

This has come down to us through history as Dr. Einstein saying, “I can’t tell you what weapons will be used in World War 3. But I can you what weapons will be used in World War 4. Sticks and Stones.“

Any body doubt this?

In 2014, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago was quoted in the Chicago Tribune saying, “I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization as the church has done so often in human history.”

Cardinal George said that, “I was trying to express in overly dramatic fashion what the complete secularization of our society could bring.”

That was 11 years ago.

IN 2025, I think our current and former Presidents can expect to die in bed.

It wouldn’t surprise me if the next President dies in prison.

And I almost expect that the successor to the next President, and I am talking about the one elected in 2028 or possibly 2032, will die a martyr in the public square.

The country as we know it is bitterly and I mean BITTERLY divided.

The country is about 92.6% armed with guns.

Nobody trusts nobody and I cannot begin to understand who it is that half the of the country listens to that they don’t hear what is being said or somehow can accept and agree with what is being said.

On the one hand an ignorant and arrogant government, and on the other hand a gang of ignorant and arrogant hoodlums — so often the voters must choose between these two,” said a desperate registered voter in Philadelphia … so wrote Carl Sandburg in The People, Yes.

It won’t end pretty but it sure feels like it is all coming to an end.

It was a pretty good run and maybe this all lasted longer than anyone thought it would.

I guess when you get down to it, it was all pretty much a hypocrisy with all the all created equal stuff.

But it was, while it lasted, a useful hypocrisy.

Maybe that’s what this is all about.

I thought some inroads had been made in society on the basis of race but it was just a band aid and the band aid and scab got ripped off.

I thought some inroads had been made in society on the basis of equality but it was just a band aid and the band aid and scab got ripped off.

I thought some inroads had been made in society on the basis of love but it was just a band aid and the band aid and scab got ripped off.

I thought some inroads had been made in church along all these lines but it was just a band aid and the band aid and scab got ripped off.

The band aids and scabs got ripped off and the hypocrisy was exposed to the dismay of some and the cheers of others in a way I cannot understand.

And then?

To paraphrase Cardinal George, our successors will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization as has been done so often in human history.

We started in 1787 to make a More Perfect Union and got this far before those in the Country who needed to tear up the Declaration and Constitution got their chance.

Maybe next time.

tolerance of serious
wrong by leaders sears conscience
God’s judgment results …

Tolerance of serious wrong by leaders sears the conscience of the culture, spawns unrestrained immorality and lawlessness in the society, and surely results in God’s judgment.

Be it finally RESOLVED, That we urge all Americans to embrace and act on the conviction that character does count in public office, and to elect those officials and candidates who, although imperfect, demonstrate consistent honesty, moral purity and the highest character.

Adapted from Southern Baptist Convention Resolution on Moral Character Of Public Officials passed on June 1, 1998.

Oh well, it wasn’t carved in stone now was it and it wasn’t like anyone thought that back in those years of Bill Clinton in 1998, those folks voting on the resolution ever thought they might be called upon to actually follow through on what they were saying for themselves.

Be fair, who ever … WHO EVER … thought the SBC would ever have been called upon to support a leader who, while imperfect (Boy howdy!) COULD NOT demonstrate consistent honesty, moral purity and the highest character.

Unless … you don’t think … they DO think this feller DOES demonstrate consistent honesty, moral purity and the highest character?

BOY HOWDY!

Whoever thought that the flexibility of their faith would prove to be … so flexible?

Seems to me that we all grew up singing a song about the houses built on rocks and houses built on sand.

Soft sand.

Blow with the prevailing wind sand.

Here today and wiped away with the tide TWICE a day sand.

Houses built on sand.

You know what Bible story comes to mind?

Jacob cooking in the kitchen and Esau asks for a bowl of soup.

Jacob says nope … unless … you give me your birthright.

“Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?”

So Esau despised his birthright and he gave it up … for a bowl of soup.

The SBC had a role, a place, a birthright, but the SBC could see that THEY could lose an election and if the election was lost, what good was their birthright and the SBC despised their birthright for hope of gaining not much more than a bowl of soup.

What did Jesus say?

What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?

I have a copy of the New Testament translated in the Gullah language of the South Carolina Low Country.

That translation puts that verse, Mark 8:36, this way.

De poson wa git ebryting een de whole wol
an den dead an gone ta hell,
e done loss de true life, ainty?
E ain git nottin!

E ain git nottin!

Nottin!

one day in thirty
whole adult life to these
strange experiences

If you wish to know about elections I am the person to tell you. I have actually fought more parliamentary elections than any living member of the House of Commons. I have fought fifteen. Think of that! Fifteen elections, each taking at least three weeks, with a week beforehand when you are sickening for it, and at least a week afterwards when you are convalescing and paying the bills. Since I came of age I have lived thirty-five years, and taking an election as dominating one month of your life, I have spent considerably more than a whole year of this short span under these arduous and worrying conditions. In fact I have devoted one day in thirty of my whole adult life to these strange experiences.

From the essay Election Memories by Winston S. Churchill as published in Thoughts and Adventures in 1947 by Odhams Press Ltd. (a reprint of an earlier 1932 edition).

Churchill was 35 and had participated in 15 elections.

He had a few more to go including the one in 1945 where, thought the voters were happy that he, Mr. Churchill, had brought about an end to war, it was his Conservative Party that had brought the war on, or at least hadn’t done much more than try to appease Mr. Hitler.

Voters have long memories.

grand children are our
best gift to the world – life is
worthwhile that leads to them

In one of later books about Lake Wobegon, Garrison Keillor writes about visiting and old love and classmate who has cancer.

Mr. Keillor writes, “She is busy enjoying this world in the time she has left, lucky to have her granddaughter Annabelle living under her roof, Annabelle who was pulled out of school because it was holding her back, an ambitious reader who at the age of nine is done with children’s books and making her way into Dickens. He believed in the contagion of good humor and kindness even in the midst of sickness and suffering, which I, the English major, felt was sentimentalism, the idea of laughter in the hovels of the poor, but Dickens knew it firsthand and so does Annabelle. Laughter is not a privilege, it’s a basic element of humanity. And she loves his language. Like Dickens, she believes love is stronger than evil. And her grandma adores this child, curly black hair, brilliant smile, lying on the floor with her legs up on the sofa, book in hand. Arlene said to me, “I used to think that intelligence and happiness were somehow contrary, and I look at Annabelle and see that they go together hand in glove. She is my best gift to the world. My life seems worthwhile now that I know it leads to Annabelle.”

I was lucky to spend the last couple of days with 2 of my grand daughters and video talk with two more today and earlier this week with my grandson and his sister, and 2 weekends ago, travel with yet another of my grand daughters.

I am not dying with cancer and I am glad I read this early in my old age.

I DO wonder what makes my life worthwhile sometimes.

Then I read that last line.

My grand children are my best gift to the world.

My life indeed does seem worthwhile that I know it leads to these kids.

And I also know I am lucky as well as happy that to find this out while I have opportunity to enjoy it.

*Boomtown by Garrison Keillor, Blaine, MN, Prairie Home Productions, 2022.

an endless fund of
useless knowledge I understand
… but floyd of rosedale?

Over the years I have accumulated an endless fund of useless knowledge.

I have probably forgot more things now than I remember.

I remember that I know this things.

But I don’t remember or recall quickly what the thing is that I am trying to remember.

Much like Yogi Berra knowing that at home he had a Mickey Mantle rookie baseball card. He knew he had it somewhere because he knew but he didn’t want to look for it because he might not find it so knowing it had was more important than knowing he looked for it and didn’t find it.

When I was kid, we would often play the home edition of the game, Jeopardy.

Out of the box, the game came with little clickers which were either soon broken or we took them to play paratroopers at D Day as portrayed with clickers in the movie The Longest Day.

You would use the clicker to answer the question.

I mean, as it was Jeopardy, you would use the clicker to give the question that went with the answer.

Without the clickers, we would just clap our hands and then argue over who clapped first.

Every once in a awhile our Dad would play for a few rounds.

He would hear the answer, “John Nance Gardner” and know that he knew the question but instead of clapping his hands he would say, “JUST WAIT – I KNOW THIS” and then he would think a minute and we would wait, and then he would say, “Who was FDR’s Vice President for his first two terms.”

Then he would clap.

And we would laugh and laugh and say no, no no.

I was always good at Jeopardy myself but my ultimate moment was when I was taking a nap when the TV was and Jeopardy was on and they had a VISUAL Daily Double, which meant there was a picture of the building on the screen

I woke enough to hear the TV but my face was still buried in the sofa when the feller said, “This Art Museum …”

Without waiting to for the clue to finish or looking at the TV, I yelled “What is the Guggenheim.”

Which was correct.

I sat up and my wife looked at me with the look of oh brother.

And I said, “Name another art museum you can identify from seeing the building?“

But I digress.

So there it is.

I read a lot.

I search out odd facts.

I know a lot of useless things.

Oddly enough, back in the day when “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” was a hot show, no one and I mean, NO ONE ever said to me, “Mike if I get on that show, would you be be my ‘phone a a friend?’“

To tell you the truth, I think deep down no one would trust me to not try to be funny and slip them the wrong answer like of course it was Rutherford B. Hayes who was the first President to use a typewriter … even though everyone knows it was Woodrow Wilson.”

It would be too much temptation to go for the laugh and my friends knew it.

So here I sit.

All this accumulated knowledge and nothing to show for it.

I will admit that I do wonder where it all came from somedays.

And some days, I wonder, why do I know that?

Take the other day.

Watching the college football scores and half listening I heard the words, “Floyd of Rosedale goes back to Iowa City” and the other feller on TV says ” whattttt??”

I mean gee whiz.

Who hasn’t heard of Floyd of Rosedale?

On the other hand.

Why do I?