Concerning the day Kennedy was shot,
the biographer wrote, “What has become
unraveled since that afternoon in Dallas
is … the sense of a coherent reality
most of us shared. We seem from
that moment to have entered a world
of randomness and ambiguity.” It
was like a light went on for the reader,
“Of course, then, that day, that moment
while I was driving home from school,
turning the corner, hearing the news —
that specific recollection is the un-
ambiguous moment before the giant
doorway leading to national ambiguity
opened. And I drove on into what event-
ually would resemble more a dystopian
brave new world and a shrugging of
Atlas than the magical realm of Camelot.”

The viewer loves the very popular show set in the Caribbean,
where the white police detective with the paunch from the UK
always considers the dilemma and solves the almost inexplicable
crime and that is exactly what is wrong with the very popular
show. Of course, the Northern European British Isles, white
guy goes to the Caribbean and helps the helpless, clueless,
regardless how earnest assistants on how to solve the crime,
always. Yes, according to the dominant white country producing
the film no matter how beautiful the brown-skinned people in
the series are the incredibly intelligent (even while presented
as sort of clueless) white guy is the one who gets the job done
in a flashing moment of sheer genius. And, of course, now the
viewer is faced with a dilemma.

He sat in the waiting room after
being escorted from the lobby
as the afternoon was passing,

the sun was setting, the rain
was falling and the fog was
descending. It was the perfect

mood for hearing stories from
those several others who sat
around. “I have gone blind in

my left eye and am now almost
blind in my right eye,” she said.
He said, “Yes, the left eye. I had

a pressure reading of forty-seven
in my left eye and they couldn’t
save it and now I’m losing sight

in my right eye.” Others joined in,
interestingly and somewhat ironic-
ally, all talking about glaucoma in

the left eye. He hadn’t been in that
place before but he felt a sort of
camaraderie with them all because

of asymmetrical glaucoma of the
left eye. It reminded him of the time
he went to a widowed person’s meet-

ing as a young widowed person and
hearing such sad stories of deaths of
spouses. He couldn’t help but think

as he sat there waiting for his examin-
ation, that, in comparison, this was a
proverbial walk in the park, perhaps

even if only with one good eye,
yes, thank you, Jesus,  for the
one good eye.

He rejoices and gives thanks tonight
because he expected the worst and
got a temporary reprieve. He’s been
told he can make it for a while and
“a while” sounds real good when
ASAP was de rigueur. And so after
the physician’s appointment, stop-
ping off for a great dinner of fish and
chips shared with his wife at an Irish
restaurant and then home for a few
deep breaths and four fingers of
potato vodka sounded just great.
While at one time in his life he
hated the thought that he might
ever have to put drops in his eyes,
he now has to put three drops during
the day and one before bed and he
just can’t wait.

Watching the Democratic debate
and hearing about all the issues
facing the United States, he thought
that it would be a really good idea
if all the men left the stage and left
the women to fight it out because
of all the injustice women have en-
dured over the years and how they
can identify with the “wretched of
the earth” because, by and large,
that is the way they have been
treated — yes, just that way.

This from Quartz’ Sarah Todd:

The Four Things That Make Practically Everyone Feel Loved

When someone shows compassion toward them in difficult times.
When a child snuggles up to them.
When their pets are happy to see them.
When someone tells them “I love you.”

All I can say is “Amen.”

She does wish that it be otherwise
but that is simply a wish and, unlike
Jiminy Cricket, she doesn’t wish upon

a star. She also doesn’t pray for a
cure because she knows that the
situation can’t be reversed but she

does pray for healing to get the whole
thing in perspective and be reconciled,
not so much in Stoicism or fatalism, as

in the reality of genetics and things
inherited and that, in spite of dis-
appointments and prospective hard-

ships, in faith that life is, at root, good.
Then she remembers the serenity prayer
and decides, it is what she will pray,

and so she does.

After the official questioning, during a break,
Several of the white, male, minority committee
Members and their white, male assistants
Stood around yucking it up showing for the
Cameras that they were confident of what had
Preceded. During the confab, two assistants
Chuckled nervously (with their ample waists
Bobbing up and down and their double chins
Flapping back and forth like two Santas at
Macy’s listening to eager kids), but their over-
Exuberance and the disconcertingly rapid
And persistent nail-biting by one of the
Committee members told a very different
Body language story.

So many we are encountering, so many who now
seem so important and more than we ever thought

were around or we would ever have to encounter,
tell us things that over time will be forgotten be-

cause they are false and because they are out
there by these people who wax so important but

are just blips on the face of history, forgotten and,
by the grace of God, never to be heard from again.

He stood at the commode thinking about a potential
major surgery and a conversation he might have with
the surgeon, “I’m not afraid of the surgery. I’ve had

a lot of surgeries over the years, but I don’t want pain,
because I have had a lot of psychic, mental, physical,
emotional, spiritual pain in my life and I really don’t

want anymore. I’m not an addictive personality so you
can give me whatever it is that will keep me in la-la land
until my body can get along by itself and don’t worry

about constipation; things move along pretty well for
me. If I were given a death sentence today, it would
be all right with me, speaking as a former hospice

spiritual provider, and as I heard from so many
of my hospice patients echoing what I just said,
‘I don’t mind dying; just keep me out of pain.’”