Sunday Homily, July , 2007, 16th of the Year

Readings:

Wisdom  12, 13, 16-19,   You judge with clemency.

Psalm 86,   Lord, you are good and forgiving.

Romans 8, 26-27,  The spirit comes to the aid of our weakness.

Matthew  13, 24-43,  A farmer sowed good seed in his field.

Our first reading (Wisdom 12) is from the Book of Wisdom, written about 100 years before Jesus. Though the author is unknown, he was a member of the Jewish community at Alexandria in Egypt and wrote in Greek. Solomon did not write this book as we used to think; the author sometimes speaks as Solomon, a common artifice authors used to emphasize the value of their writings.

The second reading (Romans 8) continues Paul’s letter to the Christian community in Rome. This community was predominantly Gentile, though there were Jewish Christians there too. In this letter Paul is making a point that Christians were free of the Jewish law of Moses. Paul’s view was that Jesus and faith in Jesus was the only source of salvation and he was beginning to push Christian communities away from Judaism and toward a faith more compatible with Greco-Roman thinking.

The Gospel reading continues in Matthew (Matt 13). Most scholars date this Gospel as around the year 70, probably after the destruction of Jerusalem.  It points to a growing rift between the followers of Jesus and official Judaism. It is clearly anti-Pharisee and anti-scribe.  It quotes the holy books of Judaism a lot more than the other Gospels to show their promises were fulfilled in Jesus and that he is the Messiah. Matthew also writes about how Jesus was not accepted by most Jews but accepted by many Gentiles. It is clear that Matthew depended on Mark, written several years before. Matthew contains 600 of Mark’s 661 verses.

Homily 

I want to focus today on Jesus’ teaching that God is now and was always with us, and how we can see God. There’s that Bible verse in today’s Responsorial Psalm 86 vs.5 that says “You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness.” Stack has said it’s his favorite line in the Bible.  I decided to google this verse and found the same words in multiple places in the Bible.  Psalm 145: vs. 8-9 has exactly the same lines. And Psalm 103 vs. 8 has the same.  And it’s not just in the Psalms.  The Book of Exodus Ch. 34, verse 6 reads, “The Lord is a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness.” The Book of Joel Ch. 2, verse 13 has exactly the same line. And the Book of Jonah Ch. 4, verse 2 has the same.

The take-away from those verses that describe God as “gracious and merciful, slow to anger and rich in kindness,” could be that whenever we see those traits and those behaviors, we are seeing God.  Jesus’ said the kingdom of God is here, and is experienced when we share mercy and kindness with one another.

On July 4^th I joined a group of family and friends for the Fair Park fireworks display. At the end of the evening Leo & Freddie, seeing fireworks for the first time, said, “This was the coolest ever.”

Later I remembered some of what I saw and experienced about being gracious and showing kindness.

1. I got to Fair Park early and walked around, then sat on a bench eating a corn dog slathered with mustard. I saw a woman walking with 2 children and an infant in a stroller. The little one dropped a stuffed toy to the ground. Another woman saw it and, noticing the mother hadn’t seen it happen, called out to her and pointed to it.  They made eye contact and I saw them connect with a smile as the mother picked up the toy. This was a brief but gracious human contact.
2. At one point after our group got together at the lagoon, my nephew Merik, offered to take Leo and Freddie on a walk around the lagoon. He entertained them for 30 or 40 minutes, and his act of kindness allowed the other adults time to visit.
3. Gina, a close friend of my daughters Joey and Sam, came with her husband and 2 daughters, who are a little older than my grandsons. Gina thought about the 4 kids who would be there and brought snacks for all of them and also light sticks to make necklaces or bracelets or, like Freddie, just to wave around. The kids loved it and I took note of her thoughtful kindness.
4. Most of the group had gotten snow cones while walking around. So I decided to get in line for a snow cone for myself (I was told that there were sugar free ones) and for Gina’s daughter who had missed out on one. It was a really long line of more than 30 people. After a while I struck up a conversation with a woman in line. Later another woman, also in line, joined in the conversation. At one point the latter woman, who was sort of ahead of me and the first women (line not straight but uneven), offered that we both go ahead of her. Of course by this point we had all been in line a long time and had tired feet. That was another act of kindness and mercy.

 My question: when have you seen God lately?  And when do others see God in you?

Readings:

1 Kings 3:5, 7-12,  Give your servant an understanding heart.  

Psalm 119,   Lord, I love your commands.

Romans 8,  28-30,  We know that all things work for good for those who love God…

Matthew 13, 44-52,  Kingdom Parables

Kevin and John ready to start Mass.

Homily:

We heard of Solomon’s call to be king of people of God

We heard in Paul’s Letter our call to be “conformed to the image of Jesus” 

And we heard in Matthew the parables about putting the treasure buried in a field and the pearl of great price ahead of everything else we could have.

The Offertory helpers, Bill, Paul and Carrie.

Our word for today is asking how we hear our call and how do we answer our call?

I remember the answer I was given growing up (long long ago), hearing it in sermons and in weekend retreats at Grand Coteau, Louisiana. We were told that we are called to be holy and holiness was presented as perfection— You know the quote from Matthew: “Be you perfect as your heavenly father is perfect”. According to Matthew Fox, in his book Original Blessing, the quote from Matthew’s Gospel, “Be you perfect…”, does not refer to moral perfection and does not have here the later Greek meaning of being totally free of imperfection. The word ‘teleioi’, translated as “be you perfect”, actually meant “to be full-grown, to be complete or whole”.

Our musicians, Celeste, Shonda and Ben.

Remember also how we were given the lives of the saints, in which they were portrayed as achieving perfection and we were taught to imitate those perfect people. The lives of the saints inspired me, but there was no way I could live up to the idealized stories of their lives of perfection. Going to seminary at age 18 and to a monastery at age 22 was how I chased after the ideal of holiness as perfection.

Remember also how we were taught to make an examination of conscience, detailing everything we thought or did wrong–not about what we thought or did that was good or generous or loving or courageous or compassionate, not how we were becoming more full-grown or complete. The implication was that we were lacking and in sin almost all the time; that was scary folks. We were told we were imperfect, not holy, and I took that to mean I didn’t measure up, I wasn’t good enough. We were taught that there was a time, in the beginning when our original parents were in a paradise and were good/perfect, and connected to God. But that in Adam we sinned and were separated from God.  

Georgie and Mom, Michelle.

What if we came to learn in the last 400 years, like Matthew Fox did, that there was never a state of perfection in our world, that creation in our universe has been going on for 20 billion years and that our universe has been expanding all that time, and is this moment expanding at unimaginable speed. It’s not really about being perfect.

In all creation beauty and imperfection go together. Every tree is beautiful, but if you get up close you will see that every tree is imperfect. The same is true of the human body. Every human body is beautiful, but every human body is imperfect. In creation, in nature, imperfection is not a sign of the absence of God. It’s a sign that the ongoing creation we are part of is no easy thing. We bear scars from the living process, and we can and must celebrate those scars, those imperfections.

Georgie's sister, Zoe.

My take on updating the idea of holiness includes thinking about how we accept imperfection, including our own, and about how we are growing, not to be perfect, but to be more complete, more whole, more caring for ourselves and others and more caring for mother nature and our place in the universe.

Yesterday I was visiting a friend who, when I said I was doing the Mass today, asked what my homily would be about and I said holiness. My friend said, I just finished watching a Ted Talk by Ann Lamont, a favorite author of mine. She said “Laughter is carbonated holiness.”

Question: How do you think of ‘holiness’ in our time?

Georgie's sister, Tori.

And Georgie's brother, Buddy. 

Readings:

Exodus  22, 20-26,  You shall not molest or oppress an alien.

Psalm 18,   I love you Lord, My Strength

1 Thessalonians 1, 5-10,  You know what sort of people we were among you.

Matthew 22, 34-40,  The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.

Zoe & Michelle say, "Hi, Everybody, Welcome."

Exodus observations–

What: One of the great books of the Bible, the second book of the O.T.  A good read.  The name  means 'departure' and refers to one of the most important events in Israel's history, the departure of the people of Israel from Egypt where they had become slaves after going there to escape drought in their own land.

Author: not Moses, but a bunch of people putting together the story most likely after the Babylonian Captivity, therefore around 555 before Christ.

Our selection:   comes from the "Book of the Covenant," that is, the law or commandments.

The materials in the book are akin to many legal codes of the ancient Near East, the most famous of which is the Code of Hammurabi, 20th Century before Christ.

Today's reading comes from a section of the code dealing with the laws of social conduct.  They inculcate a social ethic based upon compassion.  Abstract justice is not enough, especially for the underprivileged.  The lesson was obviously chosen to go with the summary of the Law that forms the gospel reading. 

Watch how Yahweh (that is, the person writing in Yahweh's name) says he is compassionate just after declaring he will kill certain types of people if they are not compassionate.

Cupcake of The Week to Zoe on her 6th birthday today.

Matthew observations–

What:  another example of the cultural game of "gotcha," a set up.  How this works you got to know the background…

Background:  The Pharasees identified 613 commandments in the Torah (first 5 books of the O.T.)  248 were positive ("thou shalt"), and 365 were negative ("thou shalt not").  How could anyone remember all of them?  Were some more important than others?  If you choose one, what about another??

See where we are going?   Our Gospel, "the Greatest Commandment?"  Matthew has the the Pharasees ask this question to put Jesus into a bind.  But again, Jesus slips their trap.  

Cupcake of The Week to Zaile & Billy on their anniversary.

Some teachers distinguished between "heavy" and "light" commandments.  The "Ten" are examples of the heavies.  An example of a light commandment is in Deut. 22, 6-7, which stipulates that a person who finds a bird's nest with a mother sitting on eggs or with young may take the young but must let the mother go.  The reason for observing all these commandments: "That it may go well with you, and that you may live long."  (Deut. 5, 16; 22, 7)

Resources: The New Interpreters Study Bible; St. Louis U. Liturgical @ Liturgical.slu.edu

Cupcake of The Week to Shirley for putting up with Jerry and Poncic.

Love Myself ?   I’m okay, you’re okay?

I hate it when I get these ideas.  I composed a homily yesterday evening and was all ready to go this morning when I woke up.  At 8:00 A.M., 30 minutes before Rosemary & I depart for Vines, I change my mind.  I want to talk about an event that took place Saturday evening. 

I want also to tie it with the great commandment.  I have said it maybe a hundred times, there are 3 commandments here, love God, love my neighbor as myself, and love myself.  Loving myself, from my own experience and my experience in psychology, is the most difficult and the foundation of the first two.  I don’t love myself, I don’t love anybody else.

A  little dictum that sums it up for me is, “I’m okay and you are okay.”  It does not have to get dramatic, just simple.

Cupcake to Greg to console him for getting stung on his right eyelid at the house project yesterday.

Here is what happened last evening and exemplifies some of this.

At about 6:30 I told Rosemary I was going to walk across the street to the Chase bank on the corner of Preston & Royal.  It was a gorgeous Saturday night and I thought, ‘I’ll just walk over to the bank and make a deposit of a check.’  We live maybe 300 yards from this corner.

So I walk to the bank, I make the deposit, and am ready to return, crossing back across Preston at the light.  But what do I see?  A man is lying on the cement on his right side, his right hand under his head, and he is asleep.  He is in the corner parking slot in the small Chase parking lot. 

Mary and Frank with a cupcake for Nikki & Cameron on their birthday.

I think, ‘Is he alive, does he need help?  He is in a bizarre spot, tons of Saturday evening traffic, out of sight tucked into the parking nook, and looking like a homeless person, old, gray pants and t-shirt.’  He also has a sunburn high water mark on his left arm, a sign he is outside a lot.

‘Should I go check on him?  What if he pulls a gun or knife and kills me?’  I feel like the Pharisee in the parable of the Good Samaritan.  So I call 911.  At least something.  The lady says the police will swing by right away.

I walk away a bit, not toward the corner, but toward the drug store so I can see him.   I’m curious.  I stop and wait.  I wait maybe 15-20 minutes, hoping to see the cops check on the guy.

Offertory, Sandra, Jerry, and Grace.

Finally I say to myself, ‘Stop being such a wimp.  Go check on him.  The cops are taking too much time.  I’ve worked with lots of guys like this.   He won’t hurt me.  I’m bigger and in better shape anyway.’

So I walk over to him, look down, and say, “How you doing, man?”  It wakes him and he looks at me with light blue eyes which are like out of focus.  He wonders where he is.  This young man is on something.  That is obvious. 

The first thing he says is, “Thanks for checking on me.”  Does that ever touch me.  We talk a bit and finally he asks me if I have a cigarette.  I said I don’t smoke, but I wished I had a cigarette, if that was all he wanted for a little pleasure. 

The Team.

I admit that if he wanted money for food, I would have walked him right over to McDonnell’s on the opposite corner.  I also admit that I did not want spend the evening carrying him down to The Bridge, if he asked me for a place to stay.  And I certainly knew Rosemary would toss me out if I brought him home.  He did neither.

So I asked him if he was okay and he said yes.  I walked away again toward Dougherty’s drug store.  I looked back one time and he was still just sitting there on the cement looking around and looking at the people driving up to use the ATM machine, which probably made them nervous.

Bethany and Ray.

The guy is in my spirit right now.  I wonder.  How did he get to where he is?  Where is he?  When did he get addicted?  Does he love himself, enough to love his neighbors?  Can he say, ‘I’m okay and you are okay.’

What do you need to do to say, ‘I’m okay and you are okay,’ if you can’t say it this morning?

 Readings:

Jeremiah 1, 4-5, 17-19,  Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.

Psalm 71,  I will sing of your salvation.

1 Corinthians 13, 4-13, Love is patient, love is kind.

Luke 4, 21-30, No prophet is accepted in his own native place.

For those who don’t have a decent Bible or a book of the readings, here are two links that I use,

The Bible at Your Fingertips (http://st-luke-church.org/bible-at-finger-tips.php) and USCCB, The New American Bible (http://www.usccb.org/).  

The difference?  The first is Protestant more or less, and the second is officially Catholic and has the 12 little books in between the O.T. & N.T., called Deuterocanonical or Apocrypha. 

Both are good translations.  

Buying a bible?  The Jerusalem Bible.

The Reads, Taylor, Teresa, and Doug.

 Jeremiah observations:

Who:  One of the Big 3 and my second favorite behind Isaiah, whom we will hear from next Sunday.  Why a favorite: because he shares his feelings with gusto. 

Time:  you can guess it, before and during the Babylonian Captivity.  Notice how much prophetic energy is concentrated around this one event?  Shows how big it was in Jewish history.  Keep 500 before Christ as the beacon date.  

What: you can guess this, too.  Criticism of behavior, warning of punishment from God, and eventually a better day.

What today: Jeremiah’s call by God to be his man, really Everyperson’s call to be God’s special.  This call theme carries through our next 2 readings, especially the next one, The Big One.

Georgie arriving with free hugs.

 1 Corinthians, 13 

Here it is: Paul’s famous treatise on what love is.   

I used to get 1 Corinthians 13 fatigue, I heard it so often at weddings.  Lately, however, I appreciate it more because I never cease to need to be reminded of what love involves.   

Karina with her little doggy, Pelusa

 The Greatest of these is love.

When I returned from East Africa in May of ’86, I decided to study Spanish because I wanted to stay in Texas.  Plus, I discovered I had a gift for languages in East Africa learning Swahili.  So I went to Cuernavaca, Mexico where I spent 2 five week periods. 

The second 5 week period I stayed in the small house of a lady named Maria Luisa.  She had a crippled daughter named Karina.  Maria Luisa had two Mexican girls renting a little space in her house.  One of these girls was one of our teachers at the language institute.  I stayed in a little hut in the back and I stayed there because I wanted to live with people who spoke only Spanish.

Karina at the grave of her mom, Maria Luisa, who died last year in a car accident after surviving 3 cases of cancer. The little fenced area contains also the parents of Maria Luisa. An old cemetary in Cuernavaca.

When I returned to the States after running the Mexico City Marathon in September of ‘86, I continued to keep in contact with mother & daughter. A year or so later they lost their little house and had to move into the garage which had been an attached part of the house. 

Year by year I used to visit them, usually around Christmas when Rosemary & I would take a break in Mexico.  I think what started me helping the two women was when Karina fell down at some point, broke the apparatus she wears on her withered left leg, and did not have the money to buy a new one. 

CC and Emma.

Each Christmas we would visit with hopefully enough money to help them get through the year.  With the help of numerous people at St. Mark’s and then our community from 2004, I gave them as much as $2400 a year,$200 per month.    This was especially true when Maria Luisa started coming down with what turned out to be 3 cases of cancer. 

Six year ago, as Karina reminded me, we brought an extra thousand to help them establish a small shop.  They did and we were able to back off the support.  However, there were times when Maria Luisa was hospitalized and dependent upon Karina.  These times the shop did not get opened and I would help them with maybe a thousand. 

Sisters, CC and Kayla arriving.

This past fall, after having survived 3 cases of cancer, Maria Luisa was killed in a car accident.  Karina was panicked.  In fact, she feared she was going to be kicked out of the garage.  I sent her $600 and she seemed to level out.

Though I did not expect to get to visit Mexico again this year because of the rising cost of air fares, Rosemary & I decided I needed to check on the woman.  And so I went last Monday, coming home Friday.  Three points came up.

Zoe arrives.

1.  It was excellent that I went.  The visit calmed and encouraged Karina.  I gave her $700. 
2. She said she is afraid she cannot run the shop alone, is looking at selling out, closing, and taking up cleaning houses in her neighborhood.  There are some middle class homes in the area.
3. I asked her what can I help her with so that she can get her peace back.  Reluctantly, she said $2000 will help her clear all the bills from her mother and her own apparatus recently broke.  Then she won’t fear getting kicked out of her garage, which she says that she owns. 

Brother and Sister, James and Kara arrive.

For my part, I told her I would consult about the money.  I also suggested that now was the time in her life at 45 when she could put to use her considerable mental capabilities.  I suggested, too, that she broaden her contacts, especially with a couple of influential women I personally know in Cuernavaca who would empathize with her.

Why do this?  Why not work to alleviate the suffering of the thousands running from Syria or even poverty in Mexico?  Mostly I have never known how.  But I do know I can help a person here or there whom I care for.  I can show my love for one.  I don’t know how to do it for thousands.

“The greatest of these is love,” says Paul.  You people in this community are good at this.  But I will ask anyway, ‘To whom are you showing your love?’

Dembneys, Chris, Kate, and Susan arriving.

Welcome to The Team this Sunday, Mike.

Readings:

Exodus 17, 8-13,  Joshua mowed down Amelek and his people.

Psalm 121,  The Lord Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven & earth.

2 Timothy 3, 14-4, 2,  Remain faithful to what you have learned.

Luke 18, 1-8,  The persistent widow & the ornery judge.

Georgie helping Leo with the candles.

He is beside you at your right hand: In praise of Pete Wacks

It often strikes me as disappointing when I hear or give a eulogy.  Why?  Because the person has no say, like ‘He’s lying,’ or ‘Why did you not tell me all those good things while I was alive?!’

Pete Wacks was one of my best buddies at Christ the King grade school and at old Jesuit.  Moreover, he is alive and most of this story I have told him. 

Ben, I'm envious of your Zeke Elliott do.   Maybe if I could do that with my hair Rosemary might love me a little bit.

When we were adolescents Pete was the guy I would like to have been.  He was well built without even working out.  This was the age of flat tops.  His was the best.  He was one of the guys we all hung around together.  Which scared me when Msgr. Bender thundered one Sunday, “If your friends are going to hell, you will too.”  One story why: the German Shepherd event.

It was a Friday night football game at Highland Park, our junior year.  As we walked out of the stadium early we saw a friendly German Shepherd on a chain under the north stands.  We, the three of  us, got into my dad’s black & white ‘54-‘55 4 door Chevie.  I used it for my morning paper route. 

Welcome home, Kevin.

Going east on Lovers Lane we got the red light at Preston.  Lo and behold, right in front of us was the German Shepherd in the University Park dog wagon.  We did not think twice.  Pete seated next to me and Jerry in the back both jumped out and let the Shepherd out, he jumped into the front seat next to me, and off we headed north onto Preston.  We had not gone 20 yards when, bam, we are engulfed in the red lights of the University Park police.

It takes a community to get suited up around here.

The cop told us to follow him to the station and there we were asked to get the dog out, which we did.    After grilling us we spent 3-4 hours in a jail cell.  Meanwhile Jerry had been begging them not to call his parents.  His mom was just on the verge of delivering her 9^th or 10^th child.  About 12:30 they released us.

The police never called our parents.

This is just one of the episodes that characterized our adolescent years.  See why I joined the Jesuits?

Welcome in, David.  When I was a young Jesuit teaching at Jesuit in the '60's, David was one of our star assistant principals. 

Guess what: I recounted this story to Pete last Monday when we visited him in Chicago.   He could not remember it!  Instead of joining the Jesuits, Pete joined up with the F.B.I. & worked for 35 years.  He also got into running, doing the Chicago Marathon ca. 12 times, plus the Boston, N.Y., and some others.

Pete retired in “97 .    He is now bedridden and has amyloidosis, plus a few other conditions. I know our loving God is waiting to embrace him.

Welcome in, Catherine, Becca, and Grace.

Theme Today: July 4th, Why I'm proud to be an American

Readings:

 Ezekiel  2,  2-5  Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites, rebels.

Psalm 123,    Our eyes are fixed on the Lord, pleading for his mercy.

2 Corinthians 12, 7-10, A thorn in the flesh was given to me.

 Mark  6, 1-6, A prophet is not without honor except in his native place.

Emma says, "Welcome in, Everybody, and meet my friend, Teddy, my dad's old special friend."

Ezekiel observations:

Who:  Ezekiel is one of the Big 3 prophets.  Why?  48 chapters.  The other 2: Isaiah & Jeremiah.  These 3 have lots of chapters & material.

Ezekiel was born into the priest class.  He later was considered a prophet.  He got The Call from God.  When he was about 25 he was swept up in the Babylonian captivity, around 590. 

When: It covers the period of the Captivity, 600-550 before Christ, which Ezekiel lived personally.  But the work is composed toward the end of the Captivity, around 550.  This is Ezekiel’s material, but it has been saved and edited by his fellow priests.

The special magic lady of our neighborhood who puts together our July 4th parade and party every year, Patty Cody.  It is also her birthday.  Her helpers Aviana, The Queen Mother, and Larry.

Message:

1. Ezekiel criticises the people and warns them that their bad ways will be punished, for example, by being defeated and led into slavery and the Captivity.
2. He promises comfort and a brighter future for the captive people, especially envisioning a restored temple (which then lasted until when?  The year 70, when the Romans finally destroyed the temple & the priestly cast ceased to function, to this day).
3. An amusing vision: The Dry Bones, chapter 37.

Today’s selection:   Ezekiel gets The Call or invitation from God to go tell the Israelite people that God sees what is going on.  Which means, tell them they are behaving horribly and they will pay dearly for their misbehavior. 

                Happy 4th of July and welcome to our party.

2 Corinthians observations

1.  This second letter to Corinth is often called the severe or tearful letter.  Paul was upset with the Corinth, Greece community because of what he thought were false prophets undermining his authority.  These people could have simply been people who disagreed with him.  At points you can almost hear Paul playing his violin & singing 'Poor Paul.'

2.  He talks here about a thorn in his flesh.  So, what is that?  People have speculated for centuries.  Could it have been he was OCD (obsessive compulsive), bi-polar (mood swings from manic & dramatic to depressed), epilepsy, or something else?  Is there evidence in his writing for any of this?  Maybe. No way to really diagnose.  The patient has been dead for a few years.

Sources: Good News Bible, New Interpreter’s Study Bible, St. Louis U. Liturgy Studies, Wikipedia

            Will somebody decorate my bike like that for Iowa?

July 4th : Why I am happy to be an American

One of the nice things about being 75 is that I find myself looking back over the years and counting the special blessings of my life.  This 4^th of July week I it struck me that of my 75 years I had the privilege of living in East Africa for about 10 of those years.  While I was often critical of American foreign policies, I was happy to be an American. 

Why am I happy to be an American?  I have an East African story and two small contemporary stories.

             Engines are warming up.  Patriotic dogs welcomed.

When I lived in East Africa I based out of Tanzania.   I gave seminars and retreats also to priests and nuns living in Kenya and in Uganda.  This was the time of Idi Amin, a rather crazy tyrant who resided in Kampala, the capital.

One time my team & I had a program, probably a month long program in Uganda.  We were just down a dilapidated two lane, main highway going west from Kampala to the most western town, Mbarara.   There was a center run by some sisters on the south side of this highway.  We had probably 20 participants. 

                                   Who's having more fun here, Dad or Kids?

I used to run every day.  When I ran on the road I was in Idi Amin territory with occasional trucks passing with his soldiers.  When I returned to the center I was in the rebels’ territory.  The State dept forbade Americans from entering Uganda because of Idi Amin.  But in we went, anyway.

I never had any trouble with the soldiers on the road and, certainly no trouble with the rebels in the forests behind the center.

                          Away we go, just follow the fire truck.

My one trouble came when I was returning to Kenya & Nairobi, the capital.  I was at the border, Uganda side.  I went up to a Ugandan soldier at a low desk, showed him my passport, and made a mistake.  I spoke Swahili.  The guy went off.  I thought I was going to jail.  Why?  Swahili was the language of Tanzania and Kenya, both against Idi Amin.

I remember getting through, catching a country taxi into Nairobi, and getting out in the middle of the town to see the American flag flying over the embassy. 

                    Larry's favorite toy, and you should hear it.

Seeing the flag and what it stood for was like seeing a friend in a foreign land.  I would see it occasionally in Nairobi and in the capital of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam (which means harbor of peace in Arabic).

That was then.  This past week two special events took place.

Another favorite toy, especially for the kids, but perhaps for a few big kids, too.

Monday Rosemary & I set out on the White Rock Creek Trail to go ride our bikes around White Rock.  Almost at the end of the trial, the south end, just before it goes under Northwest Highway, Rosemary hit a pot hole and had two blow outs.  Both tires at the same time.  A very unusual event.

I came along and we determined that I should ride back to Royal Lane, get the car, and pick her up a point about half way back on the trail.  She would walk the bike back. 

                               Patriotic golf , Anybody?

When I picked her up, she said she was touched.  People kept passing her.  11 men and 5 women.  Of those people 7 men and 4 women asked if they could help her.  One woman even asked Rosemary if she would like her to tow Rosemary’s bike.  I, too, was touched.

Finally, yesterday morning, July 4^th.  We have an annual parade and picnic every July 4^th morning.  Preston Hollow elementary school yard is the scene.  A fire truck leads the parade and police cars are scattered here and there.  The parade circles around the neighborhood, and returns to the school, where there is a petting zoo, face painting, snow cones, a DJ with patriotic music, and refreshments provided by The Queen Mother.  Guess what the biggest treat is: donut holes. 

It is always embarrassing to run into a former Jesuit student.  He knows too much. 

The kids are beautiful, the families are beautiful, and the lady who coordinates all of it is The Best.

Why are you happy to be American?