Wherein I rediscovered myself..

I wasn’t lost for long really. But it doesn’t take long for negative self-talk to do its damage. Plus there aren’t a lot of Sunbeams For Jesus appearing on the news these days.

I was sort of dithering around with all the stuff I ought to be doing, but wasn’t. I did not ring the bell to get off the bus at the Corner of Diet & Exercise. You know what I mean?

But finally, attributes like inner peace, calm and freedom are working their way back in. Part of being set free involves shutting off the negativity. You do not have to believe lies.

The Truth is not a “personal” thing. The Earth is not round, solely for you. It is a sphere for you, for me, for Lady Gaga, and for Donald John Trump.

But I’m walking again. I’m controlling my intake of starches, sugars, and fats. Starches and Sugars and Fats, Oh my!

I take my blood pressure daily. It is trending downward.

It’s getting better..

I slept maybe four hours before I awoke. I have been up about two hours, looking for entertainment (?) options on YouTube, as is my habit.

I caught the tail end of The Russian Orthodox Liturgy from a church in Moscow. Patriarch Kyril, Head of The Russian Orthodox Church, was there. He told a joke in his homily, which is odd for an Orthodox homily. But he is the Big Guy, so I guess he can if he wants.

Crazy Seeker, the Ukrainian metal detecting duo, were magnet “fishing” in an algae- choked pond in a swamp, somewhere in Ukraine. When the magnet wasn’t catching on submerged logs, they managed to pull up scrap iron that should have been recycled. But why recycle, when you can drive out to a swamp near Kiev, and toss it in a pond? The Ukrainian sense of fun is lost on Americans.

Finally Marina Morlock, The Russian Motor Mouth, decided to unpack her groceries for the entire cyberworld to see. It looked like she bought Russian delicacies in nice boxes that are microwavable. And we have thermonuclear weapons targeted to fall in the general proximity of where Marina lives. Really. We do.

No one is a citizen of any country anymore. Rather, we are all hostages. And we hold elections to decide who gets to hold the guns to our heads. But consider this. It’s better than having Stalin around , running things.

When I get in the groove of the discipline of praying the Holy Rosary Of The Blessed Virgin Mary, I can repeat the fruit of each Mystety from memory before I pray a decade while contemplating that Mystery.. The Fruit is the benefit that come to those devoted to The Rosary.

The most intriguing fruit of the Mysteries is the fruit accruing to The Joyful Mystery of The Nativity. That fruit is POVERTY. Poverty. What we fear almost as much as cancer or death itself. The Nativity, that joyful season,devoted to the ostentatious display of wealth.Wait. I meant the joy that accompanies the Birth of Jesus.

Yet the Religious take a vow of poverty. They do something to earn a living, everything from simply asking for donstions to making cheese or bread or wine to keep the Order, the Community functioning

Poverty, a benefit? That doesn’t mean we want the poor to go without food or clothing or shelter. Poverty. Not for others, but for ourselves.

Consider poverty delivering us from the lure, then the trap of material wealth, the accumulation of things.

Look. I’m no poster boy for this. It’s deuce difficult. I’m not telling anybody to take this road.

Choose it for yourself., as we all must do to be truly free.

The time is 1:31 AM (Eastern North America).I am listening to the Flower Duet from Lakme´ by Leo Delibes sung by a young soprano, Sarah Shafer The other vocal part is taken by a flautist. Now Ms. Shafer is singing the Casta Diva from Norma by Bellini.

The Casta Diva is a challenging piece in the operatic repertoire. Truth be told, I love bel canto opera. My wife? She doesn’t understand.

Now Beethoven’s Violin Concerto performed by Itzhak Perlman, violin and Der Berliner Philharmoniker, Daniel Barrnboim conducting.

This is absolutely sublime beauty, I have ignored for too long.

High Culture is part of the common ground we, as human beings all share. Open the concert halls and the opera houses. End the lock down as soon as possible.

I have not posted in a while. I have had some well-being drama, family drama, cultural drama, political drama.

The last two I will ignore for the time being. My thoughts and feelings, AKA opinions, don’t really matter, and are highly unoriginal. You know, the way your thoughts, feelings and opinions exist solely for your entertainment.

The well-being drama seems pretty scary, as I try to get my blood pressure, lipids and A1C back under control. Diabetes, stroke, heart disease are very sinister and cause for concern Wondering whether I will ever have sex again always takes a back seat to wondering whether I will live to see my next birthday. Know what I mean?

So it’s back to the rather diligent self care that I practiced before the COVID-19 precautions supplanted all other activities in 21st Century America.

I walked this afternoon. I kept it simple, just 2 miles. The idea was to finish and recover in a reasonable amount of time and be ready to walk tomorrow.

The blood sugar, actually my A1C is in the diabetic range. I’m taking metformin for right now.

Family Drama centers around my son, his wife, and how his mother messed his head up as well as mine, forty two years ago. I’m back to re-living that nightmare.

So I’ll leave it at that.

1. The Covid-19 pandemic and the moves made to slow its spread have adversely affected the American and global economies.
2. The Chinese economy is basically an export economy. They sell stuff to the rest of the world.
3. With the rest of the world in recession, fewer Chinese exports are being purchased.
4. This should have repercussions throughout China.
5. If a one party totalitarian dictatorship has to concern itself with civil unrest, civil unrest should be forthcoming.
6. Can the Communist Party of The People’s Republic of China survive?

It is agonizing to watch former V-P Joe Biden stumble through a speech, a Q&A session with reporters, even friendly ones, and misremember facts. Why is The Democratic Party subjecting this man to this humiliation? We notice, people, we notice.

What if the strategy isn’t about getting a man of questionable mental faculties elected President? There is the unspoken message that implies an incapacitated President Biden will resign. Then a Vice-President Harris will assume the Presidency.

He has to win for that plan to work. Another message that the Biden candidacy sends is that senility and aging is pathetic, embarrassing to the affected individual. He is a burden, not just financially and emotionally, but also in the practical terms of care, for his children and , well, heirs. Joe Biden depicts the worst fear, about aging that many people have, creeping, irreversible dementia.

They wouldn’t do that, would they? Run a mentally enfeebled man in the most visible political campaign in America? They would, if the dystopian strategists of the Democratic Party wanted to send a subtle message that euthanasia is a valid end of life choice. Remember a hundred years ago, a public relations mastermind got women smoking with a publicity stunt. That was not about politics, but it was about molding public opinion and values.

Are millions of Americans thinking, “Don’t let me get that bad that I make a fool of myself “? That sure piques interest in euthanasia, at tbe onset, voluntary, of course. It is always “voluntary“. Then when the global health care budgets get tighter, and the demographic collapse looms, precipitated by the effects of the Zero Population Growth Principle, and ready access to abortion, euthanasia will no longer be voluntary. The dystopian master planners get their way, with the help of a failed politician in his dotage.

Funny how a recipe comes to me over several days of just thinking about what to do with ingredients I have on hand or could easily purchase.

I had some pasta, farfalle, bowties, and mostachioli rigate, like penne, a chicken breast and a bottle of poppy seeds. I thought a pasta and chicken salad would be nice for summer supper. I did need vegetables, summer vegetables, a local tomato, a cucumber, fresh parsley, also feta cheese. I had pine nuts I needed to use. So I chopped up the cucumber, tomato, and parsley, then diced the roasted chicken breast ( boneless, skinless, app 1lb, .454kg). I added them all to large mixing bowl.

I made a dressing from the juice of 4 lemons, plus some zest, then a half-cup (120ml) olive oil, and about 3 tablespoons poppyseeds. I blended the mixture til the oil and juice were emuldified. I poured it on the salad and mixed everything well, ( or as we say in the American South, real good).

A quick taste told me something sweet was needed and I added some fresh blueberries and walnuts , for a more pronounced nutty taste than what the pine nuts offered.

I served this pasta salad from a pasta serving bowl

J liked the pasta chicken salad. That’s what counted.

I wrote a post in the middle of the night I have not yet posted and may never do so.

I just should have gone to Vietnam. And if I had died, well, I would be a name on The Wall.

Now I am 69 years old. And who we fought there are here now. Communists. Only they call themselves by other names, like Antifa, or….(uh) we won’t go there.

Like the Bolsheviks, Stalinists, Maoists, and others, they hate what I hold dear. And they want me dead.

Enough for now. It’s going to be a long war. It has been a long war, since 1917.