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39 for 35; or, 25 or 6 to four
Our maple reawakens The dogs awakened us extra-early today, which annoyed my beloved wife to no end. We let them outside, but made them wait for breakfast while we went back to sleep for a while. Mrs. Orr never really did get her sea legs the rest of the day, though, and felt groggy. Worse than toddlers, trust me. When I stepped out into the back yard, I saw the maple was decked with tiny pink blossoms. As quick as the moon changes, it will be covered in suncatching leaves. It’s hard to believe that it was a slender sapling, smaller in diameter than my wrist, when we planted it…
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Not Sure Whose Will Be Done
I’ve long detested men who cultivate trademarks and eccentricities. Far too many in my past and present who wear garish socks, or inappropriate hats, or bizarre haircuts or outlandishly-sculpted facial hair, or a certain color of clothing every day (because the world needs more Johnny Cashes), or who steeple their fingers when offering their ninth-hand opinions, or who fondle pipes and cigars because a certain professor did so, or who carry hundred-dollar water bottles snapped onto their noncombatant and too-wide hips. It’s one thing to have a natural quirk; many men have them. But to read the biography of a famous or infamous man and then affect an eccentric mannerism…
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The Hardening Of The Heart
I managed to stay awake until almost midnight last night, intermittently checking the election returns. When I finally went to sleep at 1145 pm, Biden had 223 electoral votes and President Trump had 166. Still, things looked very hopeful for Mr. Trump. My wife couldn’t sleep and got up before 400 am to check the election status, so I got up with her. Our reaction was the exact opposite of how we felt four years ago when we awakened to the news that Hilary Clinton was not going to get to grind her boot in our faces for four years. I had been telling family and friends for months that…
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Mountains To Moors
When I arrived at work this morning, I had to stare for several minutes at the dark beauty I saw before me. The lights in the parking lot gave fire to the orange and red ornamental maples ringing the lot. Goblins had come along in the night and stuck Poe’s flambeaux into the mulched earth and left them to burn until the sun returned to chase away the effect. Walking to my building, I heard two young men near a car talking. I winced at the tone and content of their words. It’s not an original observation to say that today’s males are not….well, men. There is a hideous softness,…
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The Silver Curtain
I am drawn to certain things, and I cannot tell why. Certain types of music, certain faces, certain scents…and these are not merely things congenial to me. They seem to have an underlying pull, a significance to me. Why? Why this sort of music or this shading of light, and not another? Some time ago, I flirted for a while with the idea of reincarnation and thought perhaps the mysterious affinities were related to a past life. But I could never make the full idea of reincarnation “fit,” mostly because I looked around, almost completely unsuccessfully, to see if I could discern anyone who seemed to be an “old soul,”…
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Peonies And Honeysuckle
I awoke this morning and inhaled a lungful of the sweetest, most floral air I’ve tasted in some time. The sky was lightening up in the east and the birds were already warming up for their concerto. The coffee tasted good and the floorboards were cool and smooth beneath my feet, and I wasn’t too, too achey or groany, so it was starting off to be a decent late May Wednesday. Then I made the mistake of checking the local news. The governor of my state has issued a mandate that all of his cattle must henceforth. wear a face mask while in public. My own voice blended with the…
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Contemplating Foolishness
Christian history and tradition are rich with stories of the “holy fool” and the mendicant religious pilgrim. I possess neither the inclination nor the mettle to say goodbye to my wife and family and life to pursue such a course. And yet… There is a facet of my spirit’s personality, obscured usually even to myself, that is drawn to the idea of solitude and wandering and abandoning the things of this world. I have known a handful of people whose lives have been so marred by sudden and devastating tragedy that I cannot imagine how they found the grace and strength to soldier on until the end of their own…
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Honey, We’re Running Low On Tinfoil
I’m not very conspiracy-minded, but today I had a somewhat cloak & dagger thought. The older I get, the less I can rely on my memory, and my memory is taxed frequently by passwords. I have so many, I have to keep track of them in a little pocket notebook and a few other hiding places. And I create good passwords. No obvious personal info in any of mine — my passwords are as random and bizarre as could be imagined. And I change them frequently. After morning prayers and lectio divina, I use a password to get into my laptop. Then I use a different password to access my…
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Waste
Some of my acquaintances enjoy poking fun at me because of the tender spot I have in my heart for animals. Their (mostly) good-natured ribbing descends to the level of derision when I include in my circle of affection the plants and trees in this world around me. A few years ago there was a lovely little maple tree in the area adjacent to my parking lot at work. Like all such ornamental trees, it stood in the manicured and mulched borderlands around the striped asphalt rectangle where overpriced, over-gadgeted cars sit and drip oil and antifreeze while their owners are inside, trading hours for dollars. I never parked near…
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Sixes And Sevens
If ever a day were designed to make a man want to be back in his cozy home with his wife and animals, today was that day. A Monday, a rainy Monday, a rainy Monday after insufficient sleep the night before, a rainy Monday after insufficient sleep the night before when one’s coworkers are bitter, gossipy, pessimistic, vulgar, and determined to draw one into their simmering cauldron. This was my Monday. The ability to focus so intently on one’s duties that one blocks out all distractions and temptations must indeed be a high spiritual gift. I aspire to lead a life so virtuous that one day before I retire (if…