I say God permitted it for some indiscernible reason.  And then I look at it realistically—how much worse could it really have been?  The brick could have hit my wife instead of me, and she’s quite a bit more sensitive.  I could have been killed.  A few stitches are nothing.

I am amazed how lightly I get off, sometimes.  I once had to have cancerous flesh excised from my nose.  The dermatologists had a plastic surgeon on premises, and she did a completely amazing job on my nose.  It looked better than before.  What a stroke of luck.  You can bet my prayers were ones of thanks.

We’ve got to realize, we are incapable of seeing the big picture.  There is a place for faith in this stupendous, varied universe.

If you’re not sure of the meaning of a word or phrase, wouldn’t you have sense enough not to use it?  Not me.  I recalled a phrase from my high school Spanish, and I just had to use it.  I did.  The Hispanic house cleaners on whom I tested it gave me blank stares, and so I knew I’d made a faux pas.  (I know the meaning of those last two French words.)

Nobody likes to appear foolish, so why take the chance?   We may like the feel of taking a chance, and that’s the gambler in us.  Through ages of evolution the Creator has nurtured in us the instincts which at times pay off in the modern world.

We also have the upper, cortex part of the brain which glories in the reasonable human.  That’s a sort of control.  It can give life real meaning.

As I spoke to Rudy during his last days, my advice, never expressed, might have been, “Do not go gentle into that good night.  Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” (Dylan Thomas)

I am grateful Rudy never did that.  He waited in peace, and quietly, at the change of shifts, slipped away into his better home.  I am sure that with a man of his generosity, the welcome was memorable.  So may it be with me, so may it be with all of us.

Children sometimes want to know why they have to do something.  So do adults.  There may not be an answer.  Life has its own demands, and we fulfill them so that we can go on living, so that we may be fulfilled as the Redeemer promised.  There’s so much to life we haven’t discovered yet.

In Western Civilization there is a code that lays open opportunities of advancement and fulfillment that do not readily occur in the Muslim or Indian world.  (They fill in when you need tech support for your computer).  And then the atheists of Communist China make a different opportunity by copying fashion or devices, like Western cars or gadgets.

Yes, the West has opened much more than Marco Polo discovered in the East.  I say make a place for these immigrants, but especially those from the south, where Venezuela and Cuba are copying the wrong things.

He towered above the average man, a presence who demanded immediate respect.  He just now walked into the sunset, still looking like the man women loved to follow—if they didn’t know how he did things.

Give him a problem: Iraq had people dying of poisoning before the invasion by U.S. troops.  Iraq paid money to find out what was causing it.  He, a toxicologist, went with State Department approval and found out the Iraqis had ground up seed wheat to make bread.  The seed wheat, acquired from the U.S., had been treated with methyl mercury to forestall rotting before planting.  That solved, he headed his jeep to the forbidden north of Iraq.  His new bride went with him, safe in his care.

His first wife had left him; such actions were beyond her.  This one was loyal.  At 81 it was time to go, into the sunset.  He was my little brother.