To Do List or Not To Do List, That is the Congestion

 January and February are months of True Drudgery for me. My duties and tasks are overwhelming.  Is it this way for everyone, specifically in Jan-Feb?  

In 2024 I wrote myself a Jan-Feb To Do list, I guess so I wouldn’t be surprised by anything, such as:

• It’s January 15th!  Have you paid your quarterly estimated taxes? Due today!

• Church stats (this is actually 9 separate tasks). Forget the Feb GA deadline, YOUR deadline is January 26th!

• People are clamoring for retreat info.  Better send that email soon!

• Learn the music for the retreat!  Better practice some more!  And get that song lyric sheet done and printed.

• Why are the Christmas decorations not in the attic?  Eh?!

• Where is your email inviting voters in your precinct to the fundraiser for which the deadline is in 10 days?  Better get on that!

And so on.  

I completed these tasks.

There are 55 individual items on my list for these two months.  So far I have completed 24 of them.  That’s just the regular stuff.  I have also had a $#!t-ton of stuff to do in the grassroots category, all rushed and desperate-feeling, and not part of the 55 tasks.

I feel competent to do each task individually, but not competent to complete all of them during this short time period.  I even would enjoy doing some of them, if they weren’t bunched together.  

Most of these are not yet finished.  The deadline looms.

The Common Household Husband is facing huge stresses, real and equally overwhelming.

Add to this the anxiety of just living in these times.  

And the challenges that come naturally with aging.  

And the tasks that come with our paid jobs.  

And winter storms.  

And prolonged cold.  

And the grocery store always being out of raw-fresh-not-frozen turkey breast to roast at home.

Another 2 inches of snow overnight.
Windchill in the negatives.

Had to shovel a carveout to reach
the mailbox.

These are things that even an abundant supply of tea and dark chocolate cannot cure.

Sooner or later something in the Common Household was bound to explode.  Two nights ago it did.  Both members of this household uttered harsh words.  Used nasty tones to each other.  A door was slammed.  Both members of this household went to bed angry with each other.

The next morning, thanks to both members of this household being thinking and feeling human beings, we said our apologies to each other, and acknowledged that the unbearable stress is getting to us.  

This is all while we are adequately fed, clothed, and sheltered.  I cannot imagine the trauma of those being beaten down by our own government, literally beaten, shackled, threatened, tossed around, separated from family, racially profiled, subjected to illness, disappeared.  And murdered. All that is brought to us by several unfeeling, greedy, racist human beings, and moreover by their enablers who hope to profit.   Never forget that human beings are capable of what they are doing.  

All this is to say, please take care of yourselves and each other.  The Common Household Husband and I said out loud that we must recognize when the stresses are getting overwhelming for each of us, and take extra precautions not to act or react harshly.  

Please do gather in groups of people who will care for and look out for each other.  

Please do art.  

Please do music and singing.  Keep a song in your pocket. Here is mine for this year.

Find beauty.  Encourage each other.  As the scripture I heard today says:

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  - Philippians 4:8

Pie should be on that list in Philippians 4:8.

The Gospel of John, Chapter 9: Blindness

 Read Chapter 9 here.

This is a fascinating chapter with a difficult lesson.

After narrowly escaping being stoned to death, Jesus is walking along somewhere.  He sees a man who has been blind from birth.  The disciples want to know if the cause of the blindness is the man’s sin or his parents’ sin.  Jesus says, nope, neither one; he’s blind so that “the works of God might be displayed in him.”  (This could lead into a deep discussion of theodicy, but I’m not going there - too tired.)   

And then Jesus lapses into metaphor again: day, night, I am the light. “As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me.  Night is coming when no one can work.” (verse 4).  So the themes of light and work(s) continue.

Jesus makes a paste of mud with his spit, puts the paste on the blind man’s eyes, and tells him to wash in the pool of Siloam. When the man does this, he can see.  

The neighbors have a dispute on who this now-seeing person is.  They bring the man to the Pharisees.  Uh oh, this is sure to mean trouble for Jesus.  The Pharisees decide that Jesus’ healing the man on the Sabbath breaks the laws of the Sabbath.  It probably has something to do with touching mud?  Or spit?  Or it’s a false accusation?  Not sure.  

The Pharisees still doubt the man’s story, so they send for his parents, who are afraid to tell the truth.  They know the Pharisees will expel from the synagogue anyone who says Jesus is Messiah.  The Pharisees question the man a second time which understandably makes him testy.  The Pharisees get testy right back, and insult the formerly blind man.

The man finds his voice to stand up to authority.  He says to the Pharisees, 31-33 “... We know that God does not listen to sinners.* He listens to the godly person who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”

*An aside - many of us would say that God does listen to sinners.  Note that this is the formerly blind man speaking, not Jesus and not the gospel author.  But perhaps the point here is that the Pharisees, as portrayed in this gospel, are not going to claim so.

The Pharisees, who clearly think that Jesus is not from God, feel threatened by this man’s challenge to their authority.  They taunt him:  “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” (verse 34).  This contradicts Jesus’ declaration in verse 3 that neither the man’s sin nor his parents’ sin caused the blindness.  The Pharisees throw the man out, presumably out of the synagogue.

Hearing that the man has been expelled, Jesus finds him.  He asks the man, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”  The man replies, who is that?  Jesus, in typical fashion for this gospel, replies by referring to himself in the third person:

“You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.” (verse 37)

The man professes belief in Jesus (aligns with him, is loyal to him, beloves what Jesus beloves) and bows down to him.  

Then Jesus, fulfilling his prediction in verse 3 that the works of God would be displayed through this blind man, says, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.” (verse 39)  Does this statement conflict with verse 3:17?

A review of judgment and condemnation so far in this gospel:  

• In 3:17 the gospel writer said “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn (judge) the world, but to save the world through him.” 
• In 5:22-27 Jesus said that The Father has given all judgment to the Son. 
• And in 5:30 Jesus said “my judgment is just, because I seek to do … the will of him who sent me. 
• In 7:24 Jesus urged The Jews to not judge by appearances, but “judge with right judgment.”   
• In 8:1-11 the woman caught in adultery has been condemned to death, but Jesus said only those who can claim to be without sin can inflict her punishment, and in the end, no one was left to condemn the woman.
• In 8:15-16, Jesus said he judges no one and then backtracked and said he judges with the Father who sent him. 
• In 9:39, Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.” 

So is it 3:17 (not to condemn the world) or 9:39 (for judgment)? In these past few chapters, Jesus seems to be more about judgment, at least of the religious authorities, than he is about saving. 

The Pharisees are sort of like the Keystone Cops, and haplessly say, Who us?  “Surely we are not blind, are we?”  

Jesus’ reply is fascinating to me.  

41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say,

‘We see,’ your sin remains.

He seems to be saying that the Pharisees’ claim to “see” is what makes them sinful. All along in this gospel Jesus has chastised those who don’t understand his metaphors, with the Pharisees chief among those he disses. I think he is compelling the Pharisees to “become blind”, that is, to stop thinking they have all the right answers and try to experience the world from another perspective.

If I can get past all the polemical accusations against the Pharisees, and their portrayal as unabashedly evil,  this is a most interesting chapter.  Who among us can really see everything and has all the facts to justly judge a situation or another person?  

Coming up in Chapter 10, Jesus is about to throw at them a brand new metaphor.  Who will see and understand?

Metaphors: blindness, light, 
Images and themes: judgment, belief, work
People/Beings:   a blind man, the disciples, Jesus, the blind man’s neighbors and parents, the Pharisees.
Places: Walking along (somewhere in Jerusalem)

The Gospel of John, Chapter 7: Not Yet Time

 

The Gospel of John, Chapter 7:  Not Yet Time

Read Chapter 7 here.

After that big argument with the authorities about eating flesh and drinking blood, Jesus decides he is better off staying in Galilee, away from Judea, because “the Jews were looking for an opportunity to kill him.”  

The Jewish festival of Sukkoth is approaching.  Jesus’ brothers encourage him to go to Judea so he can be more widely known.  The text says in verse 5 “(For not even his brothers believed in him.)”  Jesus says, my time has not yet come, the world hates me; you go on to Judea but I’m staying here in Galilee.  

Except (!) Jesus sneaks into Judea anyway!  

Some in the crowds are complaining about Jesus (verse 12).  Jesus goes to the temple (i.e. in Jerusalem, which is in Judea) and begins teaching.  This astonishes The Jews, but Jesus says, it’s not my teaching but the teaching of the one who sent me.  He accuses them of not keeping the law of Moses (quite daring!).  And asks why are you looking for a chance to kill me?  The crowd says “You have a demon!  Who is trying to kill you?” (verse 20) 

Apparently the issue still is that Jesus healed someone on the sabbath.

Jesus says “the one who sent me” a lot in this gospel.  He spends a lot of his time insisting that he is not speaking of his own accord, but speaking on behalf of God.  He also speaks of himself  in the third person.  Clearly, the authority of Jesus is a main theme of this gospel.

People in Jerusalem begin asking, is this the Messiah?  

The Pharisees and chief priests send police to arrest Jesus (verse 32).  But the police don’t carry out their orders, because “his hour had not yet come.”  Jesus speaks metaphorically, “I am going to him who sent me.  You will search for me but you will not find me…”  The Jews take his statement literally - is he saying he is going to teach the Greeks?

On the last day of the festival, Jesus again refers to himself as living water.  His declaration causes some in the crowd to believe he is the Messiah, but others say that the Messiah couldn't possibly come from Galilee. (verses 41-43)  

The police have not arrested Jesus, because he speaks in a way no one else ever has.  The Pharisees are incensed and accuse the police of being duped by Jesus.  They present themselves as having the appropriate judgment and they say the crowd doesn’t know the law the way the Pharisees do.  The crowd are “accursed” (ignorant, guilty, damned).  Again the polemic nature of the gospel shows.

The Pharisee Nicodemus (who back in Chapter 3 had gone to see Jesus), speaks up for Jesus, saying he deserves a hearing.  The rest of the Pharisees mock Nicodemus, saying, don’t you know there is no prophet to come from Galilee?

The insults are really flying in this chapter. and there is an ominous tone, a sense of foreboding.  

Metaphors:  thirst, water

Images and themes: Jesus teaches ‘from God’, failing to arrest Jesus, 

People/Beings:   Jesus, his [unbelieving] brothers, “The Jews”, the crowds, some of the people of Jerusalem, the Pharisees, the temple police, Nicodemus.

Places: Galilee, the Festival of Booths in Jerusalem, the temple.

Keeping the Tally

 

A certain subset of Americans has been working for 10+ days, sitting indoors during an airborne-spread virus pandemic, to tally votes.   This post is dedicated to them.  Thank you, election-vote-talliers.  I am grateful to you.

Some of these workers tallying votes are tired, tired, tired.  They have been harassed, crowded upon, falsely accused.  Yet they have stayed on task.  Here’s a description of the process from one election officer in Pennsylvania.

I was an election officer on election day for the past four years.  In 2017, I won an election (!) to become the “Majority Inspector” in my precinct.  This gave me the honor of working for a smidge above PA’s hourly minimum wage rate for 14-15 hours straight, twice a year, to process voters.  Together, my neighbors and I made democracy happen.  Although the conditions of the job are not excellent, it was worth it to me to participate in the election process in this way.  

This year I did not work the primary election, as the spread of covid seemed dangerous.  Silly me.  It was worse by the time the general election rolled around, but I was committed to making sure people in my precinct could vote in person on Nov 3.   

I have spent a portion of my life counting things. It is an activity I like. This is ironic, because I am horrible at mental math – can’t add or subtract in my head to save my life.  But with the aid of spreadsheets, most of my jobs have involved counting things such as corn, soybean, wheat production and trade, grain shipment vessels, members of church, dollars in elderly relatives’ bank accounts, numbers of voters, and, occasionally, the number of small children in the group I have been put in charge of.  This last one has been the most sacred of counting duties.  

Every year at Halloween the Common Household enters into the eternal argument of how much candy to buy.  The Husband buys too much, and I complain that he has bought too much.  It’s a tradition now. I have tried to keep a tally of the number of trick-or-treaters that come to our door, to use to predict next year’s Halloween candy demand.  This attempt failed to reduce the excess candy that enters the house each year.

This year, I only half-heartedly put up Halloween decorations.  But I was delighted to find, inside our Halloween box, three historical documents which I present herewith.

Common Household Trick-or-Treater tally, 1998

In 1998, the Common Household children’s ages were 5, 3, and -0.6 (in utero).   The tally sheet shows that I myself was firmly in charge of the tallying task.  I was aided by a 5-year-old who wrote all her numbers backward but had learned that 10 + 10 = 20.  

Number of trick-or-treaters: 33.

Common Household Trick-or-Treater tally, 2000

The tally for 2000 starts out well, but an interloper hijacks the tally with false data.  The 2020 election tally was secure, but we all know that 2000 had problems, and here is proof.

Number of trick-or-treaters:  who knows?  There is no paper ballot trail.

Common Household Trick-or-Treater tally, 2002

By 2002, our children were 9, 7, and 3 years old.  Our tally team had progressed to graphs and multiplication.

Number of trick-or-treaters:  28.

This year we had 7 trick-or-treaters.  And a lot of leftover candy, which is not a bad thing, considering that my favorite candidate did not win her race.  We must find solace somewhere.

Haiku Mueller Report

Citizen does cartwheels in front of White House.  April 21, 2017

Mueller Report in haiku

Investigation

Presented in two volumes.

Exoneration?

  

* * * *

Volume One describes

“Sweeping and systematic”

Election attacks.

Trump campaign staffers

Fall all over themselves

In self-promotion.

Russians on Facebook

Harm to Ongoing Matter

And fooled most of us.

Papadapoulos

Is fun to say, and so is

Veselnitskaya.

Russian citizen

Offers info on Clinton.

Young Trump salivates.

At June 9^th meeting,

Only topic – adoption

Or so Trump dictates.

Early on November 9,

Investigative Technique

Wrote, “Putin has won.”

A crucial footnote¹²⁷⁸

Claims that stolen emails are

Not property.  Arrrgh!

Harm to Ongoing

Matter, Investigative

Technique, Grand Jury

The admissible

Evidence does not meet the

Standard, says Mueller.

Where were you on June 9, 2016? I was at this cabin in the woods.

* * * * * * * *

Volume Two details

Evidence of Trump’s attempts

To obstruct justice.

“We determined not

to make a firm judgment on

the case.”  Oh, Mueller.

The fact that Russia

Swayed our election threatens

Trump’s fragile ego.

He needs “loyalty.”

Comey offers honesty

To Liar-in-Chief.

In safes everywhere,

Contemporaneous notes

Lie in wait, as proof.

President asks staff

To lie, cover up, and change

The facts to falsehood.

Reasons for firing

Comey are shifting sands on

The beach of Trump’s mind.

Harm to Ongoing

Matter, Harm to Ongoing

Matter, Personal

President wants staff

To do the dirty work and

Say “Sessions, you’re fired!”

Like the son in the

Parable, they said, “I go,

Sir,” but did not go.

* * * *

Crime committed? Who

Knows?  Absolution? No way.

Have at it, Congress.

The Presidential Oath of Office

Group Text PSA

This “conversation”, which occurred in November 2018, shall serve as a public service announcement about the need to avoid group texting unless absolutely necessary, like, if you are a chaperone in the marching band and need all students come to the busses at once.  Except for that, don’t do group text.

You can tell this is a text conversation by the appalling lack of concluding punctuation. 

Husband:  Here is our thanksgiving dinner!  (with photo of turkey in freezer)

Older Daughter:  What dish should I bring?

(Oh, happy day! She really is an adult.  Only a true adult would offer, without being asked, to bring a dish.)

Son: Are we carpooling?

(There followed a discussion about whether they could travel to our house together, which meant lots of annoying pings, because Group Text.)

Older Daughter: No one has answered yet what dish I should bring

Son: You should bring my plates!

(For Rosh Hashanah, Older Daughter had hosted the meal at her house. More evidence of adulting! She threatened to charge her brother $5 for the meal if he didn’t bring something to the meal.  He brought garlic bread on two plates, but left his plates at her house.)

Husband: How about cranberry relish

OD: Ok, and no

  

Husband:  What does that mean

Husband: Fine.  I’m charging you $5

OD: I’m not making a dish that I don’t like

YD:  Stuffing?

OD: I could bring cranberry in a can

Me:  Yes.

(I immediately regretted this response.  Son is old enough to contribute something to the dinner, too, and he should be the one bringing the cranberry in a can, because he has fewer resources than OD.)

Me:  You could bring dinner rolls

OD: Ok!  Spicy dinner rolls

Husband:  Yeah.  Kung pao dinner rolls.  With candy on top.

OD: And shrimp

Son, fearing that one of his favorite parts of the Thanksgiving dinner would not be available:  Should I bring some actual rolls?

Husband:  How about egg rolls?

OD: How about jelly rolls?

Me:  You people.  SMH

YD:  What does that mean?

Son:    “shaking my head”.  I just looked it up

OD: Shake my hamster

YD:  Spoke many Horatios!

OD: Saucy mother’s headache

Son:  single-male household

OD: Smashing more heads

Me:    GROUP TEXT SHOULD BE USED SPARINGLY

Son:    Dad started it!

YD:  Tools this powerful should only be in the hands of people like us!

Husband:  Ya scunners!  I’ve decided we’re having borscht for thanksgiving and that’s that.

(And now the group text conversation has deteriorated into references to the Mac Nac Feegle of the Terry Pratchett books, in which “ship” means “sheep”.)

YD:  Shouldn’t we be havin’ the ships for Thanksgiving with these wee dafties?

Husband:  And snails!  Roasted snails with lots of garlic

YD:  and beef Wellington!

Husband:  And deep fried stoat!

YD:  I think Mom is too appalled to respond.

Husband:  Mom is talking with Uncle J.

Yes, in fact, I was trying to have an actual vocal conversation with my actual brother on my cell phone, while enduring the constant pinging of the group text conversation.

Let’s take a vote:  should group text be outlawed, except for marching band?