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The In-between Days
Our son got married last weekend. At the rehearsal dinner, I shared what I believe are fundamental truths about marriage and the uniting of two people as one.
I clicked the red “Leave” button on a Zoom call; I pushed down so hard on my mouse, I was surprised it didn’t crack. I was furious at the conversation that had just taken place. The source of my frustration was a loyal teammate who had been by my side for seven years.
I don’t know if I’m a typical 64-year-old, but my phone is almost always with me. I hardly use it for anything as mundane as a phone call — I’m usually listening to a podcast while texting. Texting a sister or a brother; both sisters and both brothers; brothers, sisters, husband, brothers, and sisters-in-law; daughter. Rosary group thread, bunco thread, prayer thread.
This is my Route 66 birthday. Like the iconic roadway from Chicago to Santa Monica, my life has had a diversity of experiences. I have stood on the heights of success and in the depths of despair. My days have taken me across fertile plains, grand rivers, through majestic forests, as well as being forlorn in the empty heat of a desert. I have met wonderful, generous people and have known my share of duplicitous hypocrites. My days have seen the road ahead for miles, beautiful sunsets, creation’s monuments, and have felt the awe of being so small in a landscape, vast.
If you have yet to see Coraline I highly recommend you do so. An adolescent horror film from Focus Features and Laika Entertainment – the latter of which also created gems such as The Corpse Bride, and Paranorman – this animated film takes us on a strange journey of a young girl who is transported to a seemingly alternate world where she’s given all that she would want, but at a price. The animation style is unique for the time and just adds to the strange feel of the tale. Based on a novella by Neil Gaiman, it offers a warning for our modern times that I’m certain Gaiman would never intend, nor, I’m certain, would he in any way approve of the parallels I shall make in this commentary.
The debate the other night between Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Gov. Charlie Crist offered actual meat coming from Gov. DeSantis, with the new fake plant-based meat coming from Crist. We’ve lived in Florida long enough to have lived under both governors. DeSantis delivered answers that belong to a real governor. He answered questions directly, based on real-life issues, both state and national, and his policies. For example:
A text from my sister prompted this post. She lives in a small, rural mountain town in Maryland. It read as follows: “We had a luncheon after church for our lead singer/guitarist. He is moving to Williamsburg, VA. We are also taking a collection for a church in the Kentucky floods. A couple is going down to take the supplies and funds.”
In 1965, Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote a landmark report in which he contended that the rising number of black families headed by unmarried mothers would reduce the prospects for Blacks to rise out of poverty, in spite of that era’s landmark civil rights legislation.
