This morning started off grandly with a lovely Zoom church service @ First Presbyterian of Carbondale.  The miracle of technology, during the scourge of our pandemic…is amazing!  Our worship service has in ways been enhanced, especially when considering participation.  A member zoomed in from Florida and another from his station, in the Armed Services.  Last night,  Jonathon asked me if I was planning on attending service this morning, and I replied that since we were already there…I thought that I would.

The campus of Southern Illinois University looked resplendent in it’s Spring regalia.  Some of the blossoms are fading from the trees as the green leaves, or in some cases, dark red leaves, take their place on the natural clock.  Whenever I pass Anthony Hall, named after the famous suffragette, Susan B. Anthony, I think of the former chancellors that  I have known…and the hours that I have spent in the building both visiting with leaders who were my friends, and ensuring that the, ‘White House of the Campus,’ was in tip-top shape.  My good friend, Elizabeth, is the Civil Service Constituency groups representative on the Chancellor Search Committee, and we could not have a better professional to be our spokesperson and look out for our interests.  Having served on two chancellor search committees…I know what a important responsibility that the assignment is.

So, Jonathon and I were waiting to retrieve our take-out order from, Dale’s Burger Shack, and I noticed a Daily Egyptian newspaper video on Facebook regarding a protest…that I first thought was in Carbondale.  The Daily Egyptian is the award winning student newspaper of SIUC.  I soon discovered that the hubbub was in Springfield, our state capitol.  An inspired woman was passionately speaking trough a bull horn and she said, ‘they have closed down the fricking churches,’ as the assembled group cheered her on.  The DE reporter inquired of a gentleman why he was protesting and he responded that, ‘we did the 15 days of the stay-at-home-order…and it was time to open the businesses up and for everyone to go back to work.’  Another protestor, loudly proclaimed that, ‘ all it is is the flu!’  I get it!  Having worked from paycheck to paycheck for many years…I know the fear…and the hunger of millions of families due to the draconian closure of our entire economy.  This fear is not only real…but in fact can not continue any longer than is necessary.  Although much has been done, already, to ameliorate the immediate financial suffering of our brothers and sisters…it has only scratched the surface of the economic dearth for people all around us.

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We crossed the 40 thousand mark for deaths from COVID-19.  We have no earthly idea how many Americans are infected with the life taking disease…due to the lack of testing.  In short…we are in the midst of a world wide plague that none of us have seen…nor planned for.  Do we want to send everyone back to work…and have one-hundred and forty thousand deaths…instead of 40 thousand?  For our ‘way of life’….. will you donate a…daughter…or a son…or mom…or dad…or brother…or sister…or husband…or wife?

Why not turn from our comfortable conspiracy theories…and do just what we do when a loved one comes down with cancer…or a heart attack…or a stroke…or kidney failure…or diabetes…  We do what the doctor tells us is best for those that we cherish.  It does not matter how difficult that it is…it does not matter how hard that it is…it matters that their life is cherished.

Gelson’s cashier Roxana Catalan rings up a customer.

Alejandra Ortez loads bags into a cart for a customer at Gelson’s Market in Santa Barbara.

A Gelson’s cashier rings up a customer.

When my step-father passed away, suddenly, in 2001…Mary Jane said that she wanted to take into our home my mom, who had Alzheimers disease.  MJ quit her job to care for my mother…and it was hard…and it lasted three years.  When she wanted to return to work she could not find a job for a long while.  We did not ask the opinion of the left-wing or the right-wing of politics…we relied on love…and it was not easy…

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Note: The title is a quote from the author, Jack London.

The sun is shinning in Southern Illinois.  Our 16 year old Boston Terrier, Brody, has been for his hydrotherapy and, constant,  peanut butter incentive…and now, he is napping.  We planned on vacationing in Maine at the end of May…plans change.  We love Maine!  We visited Booth Bay Harbor, last May, and began planning, soon thereafter, our 2020 visit.  Ocean and Lobster…are hard to beat!  Facebook just notified me that Norah Jones is providing another free concert from her home.  She is singing as I am writing.

I heard a person on the radio say that our response to the pandemic is similar to building a plane as you are flying it.  I thought, that is the most descriptive statement that I have heard to illuminate our world-wide health crisis.  I think that the idea, that with our cloistered lives and segmented view of religion and politics and people…that there could be an event that would affect all of us, both the powerful and the powerless, was unimaginable just last year.  I heard a friend of mine say that he just did not believe that he would get the virus.  I pondered, don’t we all think that about our own invincibility.

Our sheltered lives have hardened us…a bit.  For whatever reason…when we could go wherever we wanted and stay as long as we pleased…we sought our own company and rallied around our tribe and our people…and worried little about the others…  Now we find ourselves looking out the windows of our homes and apartments and flats…and we long for the faces of other members of the human family…and we wonder what all of the fighting was about?

John Prine sang, ‘It is a half an inch of water and you think you are going to drown.’  Isn’t that the truth of life?  We worry about the most petty of problems and engage in the grievance process…for perverse pleasure.

We hear our brothers and sisters raising their voices in protest.  Some fear that there is a conspiracy afoot.  Others voice that the government does not have the right to prohibit them to assemble for their religious worship.  Some purchase all of the toilet paper that they can afford…while others rush to fill their freezers with meat…before there is no more of it…  I do not want to be judgmental.  People are afraid…and fear makes us lash out and speak up and exhibit actions that not necessary nor prudent.  I know that a virus..is not political…it is not a component of a vast and detailed conspiracy.  You know, when you examine how our day to day government functions.  Do you really think that there are evil geniuses that have mapped out a world-wide pandemic…?

Norah Jones just finished, expertly and beautifully, singing the old Hank Williams song, ‘I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.’  They’re are a lot of people, many of whom you know, that are lonesome…and they have a tear in their eye.  If you want to alleviate some of your fear and doubt and the feeling that you are riding on a plane that is being constructed while you are a passenger…call those people…and they will dry their eyes…and neither of you will feel lonesome…

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We attended a wonderful Easter church service, this morning.  I am slowly catching on to Zoom Church.  If you want to see your fellow congregants…you have to click the little arrow to facilitate the scrolling of the images of those in attendance.  There were all of my friends!  Beaming and smiling, virtually radiant, as they sat in their homes…and joined together for worship.  Pastor Kerry was there, with a photographic backdrop that is of the front of our sanctuary.  The first time that I saw it I thought that he was preaching from our church.  This morning he had the, ancillary effect, of fog around him…that slowly thickened as his message continued.  It produced a bit of a spiritual theatrical prop…by virtue of a technological hiccup.  Kerry, during his children’s sermon, produced what appeared to be  unbroken eggs, and subsequently asked what the children thought would happen when he broke one.  I thought, a splat of yoke!  When he did crack the shell…there was nothing inside!  I was totally immersed in the lesson…and I thought, as one of the fathers of a child uttered, ‘What?’  Of course the lesson was for our Easter morning…the empty tomb of the resurrected Christ.

Today is, Jonathon’s birthday, and we celebrated with Hunan curbside, delectable cuisine.  Aaron ordered a dish that I have witnessed Jonathon consume on more than one occasion.  It is called Beef Hot Pot.  Jonathon and I agreed that we were going to watch Aaron’s face as he enjoyed the first bites of the….Hot Pot.  Upon taking the initial sampling…his cheeks began to redden!  After the third…great drops of sweat appeared on his forehead!  I asked him how it was, and he replied that he had never eaten anything hotter!  He said that it was on par with a dish that he had enjoyed in Juarez, Mexico…many years ago when we were visiting Uncle Merle and Aunt Lauretta, who lived in El Paso, Texas.

We snapped photos…many photos…we always do.  MJ made peanut butter pie…and it was to die for!  There was craft beer to enjoy…I had a glass of wine.  Have you ever had a spring roll?  Earlier, I had visited two markets to seek a 6 to accompany the 3 that we already were in possession of…to adorn the peanut butter pie…with ganache topping.  There was no 6 to be had…and so we improvised…as we are all doing during our pandemic mutual experience…and placed a 3 and a 5 and a single regular birthday candle on top of the confection.  So…it was 3+5+vertical candle=36…or it was 356…or it was 35 and single candle…

I think that we are discovering, across our planet, that we have each other…and there is nothing else that has permanence in this human experience.  Everything else that surrounds our image of life…can be overcome by a sudden fog…that changes our entire reality.

The old folks knew that we had better focus on today.  They had lived through the 1918 Spanish Flu, and, personally, had their lives altered by the loss of family and friends and they understood that a,  new normal, can happen…overnight!  They had lived through the Great Depression…they had fought and lost loved ones during the Second World War.

Life is constructed of many days linked together to comprise months and years and decades.  But, the mystical and magical and mysterious trick…is that each day is a photo of our lives   and our loves and our passions…as we travel the road to Emmaus.

‘Now the same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.  They were talking with each other about everything that had happened.  As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him.  He asked them, ‘What are you discussing together as you walk along?’  They stood still, their faces downcast.  One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, ‘Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?’  ‘What things?’ he asked.  ‘About Jesus of Nazareth,’ they replied. ‘He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people.  The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was going to be the one that was going to redeem Israel.  And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.  In addition, some of our women amazed us.  They went to the tomb early in the morning but didn’t find his body.  They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive.  Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women has said, but they did not see Jesus.’  He said to them, ‘How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!  Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter into his glory?’  And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.  As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he was going farther.  But they urged him strongly, ‘Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.’  So he went into to stay with them.  When he was at the table with them, he took bread, and gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.  Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.’    Luke 24: 13-31   NIV

‘Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain women with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.  But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.  Then then went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.  And it happened as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold two men stood by them in shinning garments.  Then, as they were afraid and bowed their heads to the earth.  they said to them, ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead?  He is not here, but is risen!  Remember how he spoke to you when when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’  And they remembered his words.’   Luke 24: 1-8   KJV

I recall the passage of a year…felt more like ten.  Christmas has always been my favorite time, and the waiting for it to come…was interminable.  I dreamed of being 16…I believed that that magical number marked my entry into adulthood, and I really did not like others telling me what to do.  

During the first years of my career at SIUC, I waited for a promotion first to a crew leader, and later to a foreman that oversaw several crews.  It felt like my chances for advancement had flown out of the window…I was in my 20’s.  

As the years flew by at the University, I wondered if I would ever get the opportunity to retire.  I have been retired for almost 10 years.

Waiting for a health diagnosis, for your loved ones or yourself, is excruciatingly long, Yet, when it comes…there is relief.  

Christ’s disciples sat in darkness and despair…all hope was gone…their Rabbi was gone…the Messiah…the hope…the reason for living.  Three days went by…and …

So, we are all living in the midst of a pandemic.  We are sheltered in our homes…but we can see our lovely Spring outside our windows….

‘Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away.

For, lo, the winter is past

The rain is over and gone;

The flowers appear on the earth;

The time of the singing of birds is come,

and the voice of the turtle

is heard in our land

The fig tree putteth forth her green figs,

and the vines with the tender grapes give a good smell.

Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

Song of Solomon   2: 10-13   KJV

Alejandra Ortez loads bags into a cart for a customer at Gelson’s Market in Santa Barbara.

A Gelson’s cashier rings up a customer.

Gelson’s cashier Roxana Catalan rings up a customer.

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‘Hope deferred maketh the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.’   Proverbs 13:12   KJV

‘Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus.  Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders.  With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away.  He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night.  Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.  Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen.  This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.  At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.  Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.’    John 19: 38-42   NIV

So the disciples went home…and waited…and wondered…what is going to happen to them, and their lives, and their vision of the Messiah…that they had been engaging in…

What did the Rabbi mean when he had told them, ‘My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.’   John 18:36   NIV

The disciples witnessed Jesus…walk on water.  They had been there, in real time, when the master had fed over 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish.  Christ’s, disillusioned and doubting…and confused followers had personally observed this; ‘Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb.  It was a cave, and a stone lay against it.  Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’  Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, ‘Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.’  Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?’  So they took away the stone.  And Jesus lifited up his eyes and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me.  I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.’  When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out.’  The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth.  Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, and let him go.’

So, we are all in our homes and seeking sanctuary from a virulent pandemic, such as not seen in our generations.  Our lives and our plans and our purposes and our vision…have come to a screeching halt.  We did not see our invisible enemy…and we did not have the Coronavirus in our 2020 Day Planner!

Surety is comforting.  We want to know what is going to happen in the morning…we want to know what is going to happen throughout our year…

‘After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.  There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and,  going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it…’

‘And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.’  And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I?  And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me.’   Matthew 26: 21-23   KJV

‘Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder.  And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.  Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.  And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.  And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour?’    Matthew 26: 36-40   KJV

It is Holy Thursday, Maundy Thursday…the commemoration of the Last Supper.  We are living in the middle of a pandemic like none of us, unless you were alive in 1918 during the time of the Spanish Flu, have experienced.  We Christians are sobered and reflective and quiet…tonight…as we ponder the sacrifice of our Lord.

‘The Passion of Christ refers to the week of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.  It’s remembering the events of the week beginning with Palm Sunday when Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem and culminating in His suffering.’   Christianity.com

As we sit in our homes, and participate in our Maundy Thursday church services on-line…we reflect, in a unique manner, on the suffering of Christ.  We are isolated and afraid and trying to understand God’s plan…and our place in it.  Suffering is terrible and gut-wrenching and sleep depriving.  Worry can quickly transform into despair.  Hope can become hopelessness…without a north-star for our lives.  We all need a lighthouse.  We are spiritual beings living in earthly bodies.

‘We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.’   C.S. Lewis

‘There is no greater expression of love than the heroic Atonement performed by the Son of God.’    M. Russel Ballard

‘When God gets us alone through suffering, heartbreak, temptation, disappointment, sickness, or by thwarted friendships – when he gets us absolutely alone, and we are totally speechless, unable to ask even one question, then He begins to teach us.’    Oswald Chambers

‘So he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.  After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.  He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord are you going to wash my feet?’  Jesus replied, ‘You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’  No, said Peter, ‘you shall never wash my feet.  Jesus answered, Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.  ‘Then, Lord,’ Simon Peter replied, ‘not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!’    John 13: 4-9   NIV

Christ was a servant/leader.

I see the eyes of the image of Jesus…as he looked over Jerusalem…depicted on the painting that my mother purchased for me…when I first became a christian.  They were sad eyes.

As we travel through this mystery called life, we are discovering that we all are important, and we are needed, and we are vital to the health and safety and welfare of, countless fellow members of our human family.  When I walk through a market and see the precious staff working faithfully, for my benefit, I think…what would I do if they decided that the risk is just to great…and stayed home?  Two Walmart workers near Chicago have died of the Coronavirus.  My family’s welfare is dependent on these courageous souls…and without them…we can not survive!

Alejandra Ortez loads bags into a cart for a customer at Gelson’s Market in Santa Barbara.

Gelson’s cashier Roxana Catalan rings up a customer.

A Gelson’s cashier rings up a customer.

I know nurses…I have nurses in my family…they are heroes.  Hospitals and emergency rooms are battlefields, with an invisible enemy.  The troops in these dangerous settings, are fighting without the necessary PPE.  How many of us would endanger our safety by entering a room that is full of Coronavirus…without the necessary coverings…or for that part…with the necessary equipment?  Our futures depend on these selfless members of our family.

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I listen to and watch Dr. Anthony Fauci and admire his pleasant and straightforward manner of explaining the truth of the 2020 pandemic that we are in.  I think of his life of service and care and concern for his fellow men and women…and then to see the abuse and bizarre lies that are promulgated against him, in some circles. He is 79 years old and could easily say, why not retire…

Housekeeping has always been a dangerous job.  Custodial staff regularly disinfects and cleans and sanitizes and ameliorates the pathogens and virus and germs that make the rest of us sick….and that, at times, kill us.  When I was, actively cleaning as a Building Service Worker or a Building Custodian…I was sick all of the time.  Now, we see clearly, that our quiet housekeepers…are protecting the rest of us…from a killer…

During the latter portion of the last century, reality television shows became the hot ticket.  Until this day it is difficult to find a network prime time show that is not reality TV.  For many years the networks packed their prime time schedule with these, economical and popular programs.  Reality television is not real life.  I love reading, and fiction…including science fiction, but these stories…are not our human reality.  Those reporters…those journalist…university trained professionals…are keeping the rest of us informed and protected from the trial of our lives.  I was enrolled in Journalism at Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale.  It is a recognized academic discipline…who’s members are part of a unique brother and sisterhood, that is demonstrating why our country is so great among the nations!

There are our most wise citizens who have been asked to shelter in their homes and who can not visit with their children or grandchildren…and without them…we all would be lost.  Many of our precious elderly are sad…and others confused…and lonely.  They are the authors of our entire heritage.  They fought in Vietnam…and Korea…and WWII…they protected us…it is vital that we protect them!  As someone bemoaned recently that their senior year had been ruined due to the pandemic…a Vietnam Vet responded that his senior year trip was to Vietnam.  I remember those days…

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 Tomorrow is, Thursday of Holy Week, or Maundy Thursday.  The remembrance of the Last Supper of Jesus Christ.  Events happened quickly, following the Last Supper,  when Judas Iscariot, one of Jesus 12 disciples, following the diner…betrayed him with a kiss…and not long thereafter…he was crucified on a wooden cross that he was forced to carry through the streets of Jerusalem.  It never looked bleaker…it never looked darker…hope was never more forlorn…

Then, after three days…the resurrection…

‘Weeping may endure for a night…but joy cometh in the morning.’   Psalms 30:5   KJV

‘John Prine, Who Chronicled the Human Condition in Song, Dies at 73,’ said the New York Times article headline.

‘The unassuming Prine never had a hit single or a blockbuster album.  But he built a devoted following, won several Grammys and overcame two bouts of cancer to record and tour into his 70s.’

‘Other musicians revered him and covered him and covered many of his songs, which wrung wry, universal truths from everyday life.  Johnny Cash, in his memoir, named Prine as one of his key songwriting inspirations.  Bob Dylan, in a 2009 interview, said ‘Prine’s stuff is pure Proustian existentialism…and he writes beautiful songs.  Rolling Stone once called him, ‘the Mark Twain of American songwriting.’   CNN

We look for a clean and concise answer.  We seek a rationale and logical construct to place this hideous disease into.  Some say for us to follow the science.  Other tell us to look to Jesus.  Why can’t we do both?

I have heard many accuse the media or the news reporters as those  who are to blame.  They contend that our worries and fears are being produced by the coverage of our 2020 pandemic.  Could it be that if we adopt the ostrich’s philosophy and hide our head in the sand…we will finally emerge and the hoax will be over?  It has been said that a recession is when you are observing others being laid-off from their jobs…and it is a Depression when it is you that is being laid-off.

The disease is real for the countless nurses and doctors and medical professionals who are risking their lives…and are afraid…and are courageous…as they actively submit to what one called a, ‘suicide mission,’ each time they begin a work-shift!

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I shopped at our local, Aldi’s grocer, today.  I wondered if the brave staff of the little store…wondered why they were now essential employees…when not long ago…many considered them, the least among us?  Smiles were on their young faces…and fear was in their eyes…

The janitors have always been those who were seen and not heard. Quietly they labor to make the world that they have been assigned…a better place.  They rejoice when one of their clients recognizes them…or compliments them…or sees them…as human…and a colleague.  At Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale, the janitors are essential to the recruitment and retention of our precious students.  Without SIUC’s janitors…it would not survive…and now more than ever…

We will come out on the other side of this pandemic…and it will not  be the famous and the powerful…the politicians and potentates…or the anointed heirs of the earth…by virtue of their bank account.

We will survive because of the courage of…the little people!

We loved John Prine…he sang about us…he wrote elegant lyrics  about the little guy and the little gal.  John saw us…and we saw him…

So, we attended virtual church, this morning.  Through the utility of Zoom…there was pastor Kerry preaching a powerful sermon, and Kathy playing, masterfully, a  beautiful hymn, and Carlyn singing a lovely and uplifting song.  I could see my fellow congregants, smiling and in little boxes, and I reflected on the significance of our shared time together.

I am still enjoying my daily walks, as I heard our governor’s medical advisor say this afternoon that it was important for people to get outside…for their mental health.  I am addicted to snapping as many photos as I can of the beautiful spring blossoms on the campus trees.  The brilliance and vibrance of their, coat of many colors, is inspirational to me…in the darkness of our 2020 pandemic.

I was shopping for some necessary groceries in Kroger, yesterday, with my mask on…and my glasses kept fogging up…and once they fell off of my face.  The shelves were emptier than I had seen them since the scourge began.  Suddenly…there was my old friend, Brad, with a big smile on his face and an encouraging word…and I felt better and took heart, and thought that we will make it through this terrible event.

So often we do not realize what a word or smile or our phone call can mean to someone else.  Many of us feel alone in a crowd.  We are worried and afraid and unsure of what our future brings…we need each other, now, more than ever.

This is Holy Week for Christians.  The time of the last supper, and Judas betrayal of Christ, and Jesus’s trial by Pontus Pilate…and his scourging…and his carrying of the cross that he would be crucified upon.

‘Having arrested Him, they led Him and brought him into the high priest’s house.  But Peter followed at a distance.  Now when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat among them.  And a certain servant girl, seeing him as he sat by the fire, looked intently at him and said, ‘This man was also with Him.’  But he denied Him, saying, ‘Woman, I do not know Him.’  And after a little while another saw him and said, ‘You also are of them.’  But Peter said, “Man I am not!’  Then about an hour had passed, another confidently affirmed, saying, ‘Surely this fellow also was with Him, for he is a Galilean.’  But Peter said, ‘Man, I do not know what you are saying!’  Immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed.  And the Lord turned and looked at Peter.  Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, ‘Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.  So Peter went out and wept bitterly.’    Luke 22: 54-62    NKJV

Now, we have arrived at our great test and our passion…and our promise.  Will we let kindness be our daily creed?  Will we know, and remember, and stand with, our brothers and sisters that we have broken bread with at the table of humanity?  We are separated by a medical necessity…but we are more together and more united…than before…

We will come out of this pandemic…but we will be changed…we will never be the same.

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‘A miracle is a shift in perception from fear to love’    Marianne Williamson

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I have been watching Governor Andrew Cuomo, of New York, during his daily press conferences.  But, first of all, have your ever visited New York city?  It is full of people who are so tightly packed together that they seldom make eye contact with you…they do not have either the time or the energy.  Life is so fast paced, at least to this Southern Illinois native, that if you do not have your head in the game…you will be left behind.  We were staying in the Hotel Edison…when we decided to purchase a cup of coffee in the restaurant.  As I sat down at the bar, the person behind the bar came up to me in a hurried manner and asked me, I think, what I wanted.  As I looked up from the menu and paused, momentarily, he went to the person next to me and served them.  He then came back to me and said, ‘this is New York…you have to be quick!’  When we left the hotel and the bell man was assisting us with our luggage, I gave him what I thought was a healthy tip and smiled and thanked him, whereupon he stared at me and did not acknowledge either the tip or the thank you.  I felt somewhat like my buddy, Lee, who told MJ and I the story of visiting Chicago and not understanding a instruction that a traffic cop had uttered to him…and so the Chicago police officer yelled, ‘come on….Country!’ So, I love New York city…and yet I am wary of revealing my genteel up-bringing.  Yet, Governor Cuomo has demonstrated a compelling servant leadership.  His humanity is a constant member of his press briefings.  When he speaks of the city’s desperate need for ventilators and PPE for his health care workers and his pleas for any health care worker who is not engaged in fighting the pandemic to come to New York and help…

Governor Cuomo is real.  As I listen to him I not only feel his pain, but I understand his fear that with his best efforts…he is not enough to battle the unseen and devastating enemy of our generation.

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Dr. Anthony Fauci has been the the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984.  He is considered a national treasure and has been the recognized authority regarding infectious diseases for decades.  Threats have risen against this good man, who is 79 years old, and he has had to have his security detail increased.  Dr. Fauci has had to speak truth to power, which takes courage, and he has not been afraid to do so. When asked if he was concerned about the increasing threats to his wellbeing and life…he responded that, ‘I’ve chosen this life.  I mean, I know what it is.  There are things about it that sometimes are disturbing.  But you focus on the job you have to do.  And just put all that other stuff aside and try as best as possible not to pay attention to it.  And just forge ahead.  We have a really, really, very, very, difficult situation ahead of us.  All of that other stuff is secondary,’ he said.’    ABC News

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‘We’re being seen as walking Petri dishes.’

‘Anna Jones had just finished her shift at St. Rose Hospital in Las Vegas, where she works as an emergency nurse, when she received an email from her landlord labeled ‘Quick Action Needed.’  Her landlord – a quiet woman who lived downstairs from Ms. Jones and her husband – informed her that she would need to vacate the premises within 24 hours.  The reason, she said, was COVID-19.’    DailyBeast

As Mr Rodgers told us, many years ago, ‘When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers.  You will always find people who are helping.’