Mystical Murmurs: My Interfaith Life

I just got this joke on email, and I can't resist posting it (pun intended). This will leave you no doubt where I stand, assuming you had any. While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75 year old rancher, whose hand was caught in the gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Sarah Palin and her bid to be our next Vice President. The old rancher said, "Well, ya know, Palin is a post turtle." Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a post turtle was. The old rancher said, "When you're driving down a country road you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a post turtle". The old rancher saw the puzzled look on the doctor's face so he continued to explain. "You know she didn't get up there by herself, she doesn't belong up there, and she doesn't know what to do while she's up there, and you just wonder what k...

I knew I couldn't stop blogging for long. Just call me Ladel Torque Palin. At least, that's what the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generato r suggested. Now you give it a go! Sqeegee Jester Palin? Thor Surprise Palin? Oh, no, I'm going to need a 12-step program for this also!

Yes, it's true. I have been neglecting my three faithful readers while remaining glued to CNN. I repent! But with the debates beginning next week ... I may need a CNN 12-step program!!! Or new eyeglasses, at the very least. Bear with me!

Just kidding! He doesn't really know me, of course. But I was 19 years old and working as a student Radiologic Technologist at the Delaware Hospital (another career, another lifetime ago), on December 18, 1972, when the word got around that newly-elected Senator Biden's family had been involved in a devastating car crash outside Wilmington. You could have heard a pin drop. I recall the day had been slow otherwise; we waited for more news. Biden's sons, Beau and Hunter, arrived for x-rays; I wasn't on the case, but lingered with my colleagues in the hallway. I don't remember hearing anything about the boys' condition (they survived and are fine!). But I do remember, as if it were yesterday, when the news arrived that Neilia Biden and the Bidens' toddler daughter, Amy, had been killed instantly in the crash. Delaware mourned -- truly. I moved away in 1977, but the memory lingers. We all felt terrible for the Biden family. Well, time passes, and I moved to ...

This weekend someone at church happened to mention he'd heard that crickets and spiders usually first appear at the same time during the summer. I'd never heard this; it sounded like a old wives' tale to me. Last night, sitting on my porch, listening to a medley of cricket-songs, I recalled what he had said. And, yes, at the far end of the porch, there she was: the orb-weaver, or her descendant, swinging gently in the light breeze, backlit by my neighbor's garage light. Well! this is a nasty development! The hair on my arms stood straight up. Her body is at least an inch across. Her legs are red-striped. YUCK. I know, I know -- she's part of God's creation. But so is toothache, and I don't have to like that , either! She'll be fine as long as she stays at the other end of the porch. I'll try to appreciate her. I'll try to list 5 reasons for liking her .... You go first.

OK , I know I'm rushing the season. But I am SO OVER summer. Not that I am a real enthusiast in the first place. After a blistering July, we are having a relatively mild August here in the Delaware Valley. Even for those who like to complain about heat (that would be me), there hasn't been that much to complain about. And the days are getting shorter; the nights have a first hint of coolness. I should be rejoicing. But I am exhausted all the time. I have so many projects that I planned to undertake this summer. So many small improvements I wanted to make at home, things taking no more than 10 minutes, things as small as changing a light bulb. Have I done any of them? Noooooooo .... I know this will be a familiar lament for any of you who suffer from summer SAD (seasonal affective disorder), as I do. And I am fortunate to have only a mild case! Even so, I'd like to curl up in a dark room and sleep till about the middle of September. But I'm going to stay out of direc...

I don't know what I really expected from Lambeth 2008. I gather, from my reading, that lots of talk and prayer took place. That new relationships were forged, and multiple points of view expressed in love. That the Holy spirit was palpably present. This is all to the good, of course -- nothing to sneeze at. I suppose we are lucky there was no outright schism. Of course, the bishops who really can't stand us weren't there. Progress? I don't know. The idea of an Anglican covenant is still very much alive. We are still urged to refrain from ordaining LGBT folks, and not to bless their unions. So what has changed? My new hero is Bishop Marc Andrus of California, who says the following on his blog : In not abiding by the moratorium on same-sex blessings I take it as incumbent on me and on us in the Diocese to actively labor to both understand the position of those to whom that moratorium is important, and to convey the reality of our life together to the world. I must redoub...