A couple of tunes helped make the difference tonight.
The first was on repeat as I started the after-dinner dishes.
We got this party started.
PINK.
Meal with the kids, a typical dad dinner: New York beef hot dogs, and vegetable options: tonight it was green beans, carrots, or corn.
Dessert was simple, treats mom brought home from the store recently. And then there was a mix of self-guided activity to round out the evening. Everyone was tired this morning, so I was trying to angle for early to bed.
It was tricky.
Yes, it’s tricky.
Somehow we had lights out before 9 o’clock in the evening.
It happens most often during the 3am hour. Lying in the darkness, mostly asleep, shifting my head, feeling for a more comfortable spot on the pillow.
If there’s a lot going on — and in 2020 it seems that way most every day — my brain might start to churn.
To-Do’s, Things Done, and often, Prayers: all these flow through my head at this Holy Hour. I call it the Goly Hour because I think of it as prime time to reach out beyond myself. A minute of hope and angst, I pray, insisting that all the doubts and uncertainty and worry subside, that these evils bend to the higher power.
It’s not easy.
It’s a mixed bag of results, how much calm this Holy Hour brings; sometimes not much; sometimes I doze off again; sometimes I battle and improve my position, my position in my mind.
Good, bad or draw, it’s the Holy Hour: me, my thoughts and God.
With the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg (RBG) this weekend — and on the Jewish High Holy Day of Rosh Hashanah — it seems appropriate to tie this post to this “Trifecta of Thought”: an Old Testament Bible reading as nod to Ginsberg’s faith, my own humble, Christian belief, and a few comments about RBG’s passing and legacy.
This approach might have some folks dropping off this blog, or at the least dismissing the stream of thought out of hand…well, if yes, so be it. This moment demands attention and insight; especially in this time of challenge and sacrifice and loss, we must…we MUST, share out thoughts. These are the thoughts that pretty easily rushed to the fore thinking about all this.
From Leviticus 23:23-32, the Biblical verse that decree the Jewish holiday, mentioned, it’s written in part, “…you shall observe a day of complete rest, a holy convocation commemorated with trumpet blasts.”
As RBG entered into eternal rest, we remember the trumpet she blasted in our society for decades to further the Rule of Law, and to insure that legal protections were given to all people, and in particular to women. Maybe it’s fitting that she exited this world on this day, the dawn of a new year on the Jewish Calendar.
From her early professional days as a professor in law school — incidentally, named the first woman given a tenured position at Columbia Law School; and after being the only woman in her law school class at Harvard — she responded to the circumstances, to the moment.
To those who considered the affirmative action a bad thing — that very precedent that helped her progress to more equal professional footing — she would later write “a bit delightedly, ‘that at last, the days of ‘negative action’ are over.'” Indeed, for the whole of her career she spoke intelligently, pointedly, and ever with the belief that well-considered opinions needed to be shared. I read in more than one account this weekend a central tenet that Ginsberg held even in legal dissent on matters before the Supreme Court, where she served for well more than 20 years. The belief was that an opinion, even in dissent, would further the dialogue on the topic well into the future (and long after she was dead and gone).
And so, Ginsberg’s belief that equality was, IS, for all people in society, and especially women,
this thinking also seems to ring true to me in relation to Christian thought. After all, Jesus taught that all people were, ARE, equal before God. Simple, obvious, Truth.
And considering in particular the role that women played in the Jesus story, the place women held in the progression of his life and death, it seems clear that women are indeed not just equal, but more appropriately thought leaders, people of action and support and DOING in society. And they should be not only listened to, but examples to be followed.
Amen AMEN.
Rest In Peace, Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Rest in the Power you gave so many. And we know, you will continue to give that power to so many. That is one of the lasting gifts you’ve left us.
From The Universe and The Time blog: “Carpe Diem, Vita Brevis” in other words, “Seize the Day, Life is Short”~
I stumbled across this blog a while back. Another iteration of a reminder we all need frequently – make the most each day; relish in the ordinary; we know not the hour or the day it will all be over, so make hay while you can.
YES.
And for the blog itself,
— Read on: theuniverseandthetime.blogspot.com/2013/02/carpe-diem-vita-brevis-seize-day-life.html
Our younger daughter has ups and downs with distance learning so far. Our other children, too. Maybe most kids do.
Not made easier by the two-way bilingual dynamic for the program she’s in.
Recently I sat with our six year old as she began her school day.
“Mariana Mariana…” the kids repeat.
I sit quietly on the side with my earbuds plugged into my daughter’s pink headset.
She’s a bit of a sleepy head right now. Deep into the week, a little earlier to bed might help. There’s a lot of yawning, a lot of fidgeting. And it’s only been 15 minutes.
Pandemic Life doesn’t make the kids’ days any easier. Bad air from surrounding wildfires don’t help.
I wonder how much these circumstances effect her experience. I bet a lot. A WHOLE lot. But that’s not the last word, either.
The situation isn’t ideal, but that’s life. Supporting through it, that’s God’s Grace in action.
Parents have been doing it forever; more broadly speaking, caregivers of kids have been doing it forever.
It’s how we support them. It’s also how we support each other. Chip in; come through when needed; be a go-to person, reliable, some one others can count on. Someone your kids can count on.
What happens next? Kids feel that sense of continuity and security. They feel the stability, they feel safe. And when this is so, children thrive.
We received this letter in the mail recently; it’s the second such letter since the pandemic took hold and shelter in place began.
The message this letter conveys is, “We’re in this situation together. There are people and organizations that want to help those in need; there are people Rut want to help you.
Let’s get through this together. We’re better as a community.
