To realize I have forgotten what someone looks like because I haven’t seen them for a year is a lesson on the transience of life.  I need that lesson now, and I can refer to the New Testament about what to expect.  Anyway, I’m not depressed, but rather joyful about it.

I like to think about good things in the future, and a restoration of that memory is one of those possibilities.  Not here, now, but then.  Hey, I’m going to some happy gatherings yet, and a funeral is not on the list.

I’m looking for the colors of the sugar maple in the fall, the pumpkins in the field, the apples on the trees.  I remember them all.  I remember you, too.

It was bred in hate, that 9/11 attack and that does not fit into our Judeo-Christian civilization, even as a response.  Twenty years later we continue our peaceful lives, reverting to violence only when the followers of Mohammed force us.  The peace of Christ does not yet prevail.

Do we make plans like that?  I rule out self-defense, though they may be even more intricate.  Let us continue our ways, where a shot at the moon, a coronavirus vaccine, and even a new pasta dish are not ruled out.  May I continue in this Judeo-Christian civilization without those who would disturb us.

My car wouldn’t start today, so I had to have it towed to the dealer (I used to get a new battery from Sears in the old days).  Though I went along to the dealer, they couldn’t take it right away, so they gave me a ride home.  I may have to rent a car if they keep it for the weekend.

It’s my first time without a warranty.  I can still afford to pay for it, though my son, (God bless him) has offered to substitute for the warranty.  Offspring like that make life worth living.

In God’s secret accounts, there are many such happy moments, times that make you glad to be alive.  I wonder what heaven is like?

My son has been to Argentina, with his wife, and when he returned he gave me a small statuette of St. Rocco, the Glen Cove saint who is remembered also in France and Argentina.

The saint is known for healing all kinds of diseases, and also for his friendship with a dog, which makes him somewhat unique, though St. Francis befriended a wolf.  People feel at ease with patrons of man’s best friend, and this is one of the assets of St. Rocco, who was not a demanding personality.

To have grown up in the company of the saints is a privilege unappreciated by many.  It certainly expands our contact with influential people.

In 1850, a hundred years after they had been slaughtered by the Ojibwe Indian tribe, the Dakota tribe presented their conquerors with a big Drum, to help heal the pain between them, and to put to rest any feelings of revenge or gloating that might still exist.

David Treuer, an Ojibwe Native American, offers his account of this symbolism and how the drum ceremony alleviates his Vietnam (he’s a veteran) grief.  The article in The New York Times magazine is like a Drum presented to American Christians to allay any grief from the Indian wars of our past.

The Native Americans have taken to the God of our Civilization in the various Catholic Indian Schools, but not in general.  They remain mired in aloofness to Christianity otherwise.