Landing

Anecdote:

I went to the cathedral, and the priest’s baby was “in the audience,” that is, one of the four of us forming the congregants.  I got to touch the baby’s hand when we exchanged the peace, without any of the awkwardness of touching a stranger’s baby, instead it was friendly.  After the service, as we were walking away, the priest said, “I never know who will be here, one time it was a bunch of kids from Kansas City,” and I stopped and went back and talked to her about Kansas City.  She went to school in Nevada, Missouri.  That was nice.

Deep spiritual thought:

A February clincher from your man Leo Tolstoy:

You will have moments in which you no longer believe in the existence of the spiritual dimension of life.  Look at these moments as events in the development of your faith…. In moments of self-delusion, a religious person forgest that what happens in his physical life cannot interfere with what happens in his spiritual life.  In these periods, when your spirits have fallen, you have to treat yourself as an ill man.

How do you treat yourself when you are ill?  Sometimes confinement, that is, don’t leave the house when you realize if someone steps on your foot you might kill him.  Small treats.  Particularly sweets.  Hot drinks.  I do believe in watching too much TV.  I also believe in reading too much, though I need a fast book for this.

Teeny bits of exercise, little walks, little yoga.  Really little, though, don’t get crazy.  Certainly writing, long lists of complaints and wrongs and great use of the “f” word.

Text or message or email or call at least one person who will reply that you are perfect and everyone should know it.

Joke I stole from the internet:

I met this pirate once. He had this huge belt buckle, and I mean huge. It was this big sailing ship’s steering wheel, you know the kind? Those big wooden wheels with the spoked handles all around it.

Anyway, I see this thing on his belt buckle and I’m all “What the hell is that?! What does that thing do?”

He looked right back at me and just said, “Argh! It’s driving me nuts!”