The world continues to be in a state of flux, isn’t it? A new administration is attempting to undo everything the previous administration put into place, who themselves attempted to undo everything the then previous administration put into place. Politically, there’s a pretty severe whiplash going on for us normal people. On top of that, financial markets look pretty good, but experts question whether we are on the bubble, and warn that, at any moment, everything could come crashing down in ruin and destruction. Don’t you love those folks? You really want to invite them to a dinner party, don’t you? Except you can’t because for a great deal of the country, “they” are still warning that horrible things await us with CoVid, if we are reckless enough to want to return to normal after a year of all of this. And so we have college students on Spring Break, who some experts say will be just fine, since they are the least vulnerable to catching a life-threatening form of the disease. Of course, an equal number of experts are predicting those same students will stop by at home on their way back to school, and will infect their parents and grandparents and bring a new tsunami of disease down on the heads of all Americans… except for the ones who live in the states and the cities who have decided that all bets are off, and it’s time for everyone to see each other’s face again, and so the precautions we have all subjected ourselves to for these many months can now be thrown in the trash, since all is well, because… what happened again to make that so? Not so many people have died lately?
I’m not meaning to cast a dark and foreboding cloud on us today, although we still have yet to figure out how possibly to address and perhaps heal the race relations mess that seems to ooze everywhere… And then, of course, overshadowing it all is perhaps our greatest and most significant issue of the day: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, and the royal family… I know for me, there is not much else that could be a blood-chilling and terribly profound as a bunch of people not getting along! The only difference is that they are all wealthy, and privileged, and used to having every burp and belch covered by the media. (Really. Isn’t all that the silliest stuff that has ever taken the top of the news wires? I mean, they really should have interviewed me, for grilling what were perhaps the finest steaks on a backyard so far this year!) So, with all that as the backdrop of world and local events, we now come to the most significant happening in this 24-hour period: I’m getting shot today. Yep – I got called up from the minors, from waiting in the bullpen, from sitting on the bench, but sequestering in the soundproof room, and the powers that be have rolled the dice, turned over the card, and looked at the entrails of white dove, and determined that, yes, today, I can get my first dose of the coronavirus vaccine. It truly may be that I am on my path to immortality. By this afternoon, stuff will be coursing through my veins, bringing untold immunity and a force field of “na-na, you can’t get me!” power so that I may go forth and fight the big fight against this scourge of all humankind! Except, it’s only the first dose. So, what happens if I somehow contract the virus between today, and just after Easter, when I am scheduled to get shot again? Will I get half as sick as I would otherwise be? I won’t have a tattoo on my cheek that says, “Half done – should be fine….” So, since I have access to the all-knowing internet, I asked it what happens after your first dose, but before your second dose? The answer was very simple: it’s the difference between having a mule kick you in the leg, or kick you in the head, or miss you completely. You see, if I didn’t get the vaccine, it would be the same as if I were standing in line for head kick from our four-legged friend. I might survive, but I might not. After my first dose, they move me to the next line instead, where I would only get a kick in the leg, and maybe break something, but otherwise I’ll be fine. But after the second shot, that mule can line up any way it wants, but I will have a 93% chance of him missing the target. Now, I don’t know about you, but I really don’t want to get half-sick. So, I’ll get my shot today, and then continue to do things exactly the same way that I have for the last year. Stay home, mask when I can’t, and don’t go to spring break. That last one is pretty easy to do, and I think everyone will be happier if I skip it – this year… If you have already been shot, I salute you. If you are standing in line like me, I join you. If you are refusing to be vaccinated? Then I guess “pity” would be the best description. We need to do this, whenever, and as soon as we can. Because I really want, at some point in the future, to forget and ignore a mask when I am going to a restaurant to enjoy a nice meal. Sometime. Word for the day: juvenescent. Pronounced jew-ven-ESS-ent. It’s kind of a strange word. From the Latin, iuvenis, meaning “young man,” where we get “juvenile,” and then adding some letters to make it iuvenescere, which is a verb that means, “to grow into youth, or to grow young again.” It doesn’t meant to simply be young, but it’s the process of regaining, or being transformed into a younger version of our selves. Not going to happen, right, but in many ways, when we wake up with stiff backs and feet, and we are unable to drink that next cup of coffee, then we long for a fountain of youth, which indeed might bring us juvenescence. As George Bernard Shaw once wrote, “Youth is wasted on the young.”
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AuthorAfter 43 years of ministry, Randy Cross lived his "fourth life" and shared about retirement, living boldly and intentionally in our world. To be sure, there was some North Dakota thrown in. Archives
March 2023
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