The original is a huge mural painted into the stucco on the refectory wall in an out-of-the-way convent called Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. We made a point to go out there one day to see the weathered version of Leonardo Da Vinci’s treasured artwork just prior to its latest restoration. Far from being a museum or art gallery, the venue had just a few visitors allowing us space and time to observe the painting. I was somewhat taken aback by the fact that it was located in what Presbyterians would refer to as the fellowship hall just above […]
Thank God for Good Government
While affirming the separation of church and state, I thank God for giving us governments by which we may live together for the common good. From the federal to the local levels, governments made me into the person writing these words that public schools taught me to use. Government protected me from diseases and disasters and enemies, foreign and domestic. From Medicare to Social Security, it has been the helping hand for us older folk. All the roads I have travelled in my lifetime were built by the governments of the people and by the people and for the people. […]
Good Ancestors Are Hard to Find
As an amateur dabbler in matters of my family tree, I try to keep it fertilized and trim it occasionally when it promises bad fruit or withered limbs. I do hit a snag as to whether certain ancestors might not be kith and kin and would wish I had some choice in picking a more nobler pedigree. Cassius reminded us and his friend that “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars / But in ourselves, that we are underlings”. Stumbling around in our own stash of stardust, we don’t get to choose our ancestors who, over generations, created […]
The Unseemly Demise of My Sister’s Cat
While there’s very little glory in the gory details of this sordid tale that ends in catastrophe, my conscience continues to plague me until I have let most of the known world know what happened on that bloody day. I’m not big on confession [even during Lent], but I’m scared that purgatory and/or hell itself will literally have kitty litter all over the place. And no more catnaps! On good days, I am indifferent towards most cats because a childhood experience when I was traumatized by several domestic feline terrorist on the overloaded dining room table of an elderly relative’s […]