357. Busy Day

First, I had some comments and some email on matters of importance to me and I appreciate them very much.

Friday night, as I said I would, I visited the wake of Tyrone Richie, who died on Monday. The Kingdom Land Baptist Church is a very small building. It was completely filled with lots and lots of other young people who appeared to be close to 18, as Tyrone was, along with lots of other people of all ages, as was 11th Street for a block up and down both sides of the road. At the viewing, I met his cousin and his mother and expressed sincere sympathy with tear-filled eyes. Young people simply shouldn't die such horrible deaths, or for that matter at all. Life is completely ahead of them and the potentiality - for anyone - is great. I will keep Tyrone and his family in my prayers.

I've reported my father's illness. He seemed better today and I told him so. His color was better, his voice was stronger and we picked up our political conversation close to where we left it off - except he had watched most of the Sunday morning Spinmeisters and had some opinions on all of them. He asked me how much gas was - still $4.09 at 7th and Algonquin - $4.29 closer to me at Broadway and Baxter. He is in favor of drilling for more oil in America, but the Democratic argument of the oil companies having 68,000,000 acres under lease that they haven't drilled on appeals to him more than drilling in ANWR or going to any foreign countries. But he also recognizes that either of those plans does little right away and thinks it is rather shortsighted to campaign on them. Even more to him appealing is the idea of hydrogen power, or nuclear power. We agree on nuclear power - it is one of those issues where my position can get me thrown out of my liberal-elite-latte drinking circles. (For the record, as some of you know, I drink my coffee black and strong). I have a few non liberal beliefs but we'll let that go for now. Dad isn't sure that Obama has a real plan to end the War, which he opposes, and he is absolutely certain McCain doesn't. He also thinks McCain is a fool to keep Phil Gramm around, given that neither one of them is apparently "very strong on the economy." While I was there they came in [they being light blue for a nurse, flowerdy-patterns for staff, and purple for an aide] and took a bunch of vital stats, all of which were remarkably better than yesterday's. So, he is doing better and may be going home later in the week. That's a good thing.

Today's Bible readings were all about sowing and reaping. From Isaiah, the well known words of the rain and snow falling upon the earth making it fertile; in the Psalms the response was "The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest." The Second Reading came from Romans although I didn't think it fit in well with the others. It was about creation, but human creation, which is a lot more complicated that sowing seeds and waiting for rain and later a harvest. Or is it? The Gospel of Saint Matthew provided the Parable of the Sower. In today's world, where there are fewer and fewer individual sowers as most of us rely on companies like Archer-Daniels-Midland and Cargill as our personal farmers, this parable's meaning may not be personal enough. We must all in our lives prepare the rich soil which produces fruit. That could mean our circle of friends, the work we do, the people we help or harm, and they way we treat our terrestrial home, Earth.

From the Scriptures, I turned to Shakespeare. A garden-party fundraiser was held today at the Landward House for the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, commonly known as Shakespeare in the Park. Chicken, burgers, hot dogs, and brats, along with other picnic foods were offered while listening to a bluegrass band called Relic - four guys on guitar, banjo, mandolin, and bass. They were really good. I'm not a country-music fan, but I love me some real banjo-picking bluegrass. They threw in a few blues tunes, and two or three other standards, but it seemed more like Renfro Valley or Pineville than 4th Street and Magnolia Avenue along the Left Bank of the Ohio river near Milepost 606. The Landward House, by the way, is a 22-room three story Italianate mansion built for the Reverend Stuart Robinson in the 1880s.

As I said earlier, I also visited Dad today, and from there, at about 8:00 pm, ventured to Mom's for more yardwork. Visiting Mom usually entails yardwork. Fortunately she doesn't share Dad's political opinions. She's a rather non-political retired state employee who has always been a Democrat and will almost always vote for the Democrat, knowing that such a vote is almost always the best one she can make. She was for Hillary early on but switched to Obama about two weeks before Kentucky's Primary. She never told me why. As she is basically a quiet conservative Baptist Democrat, it is probably best I not ask for an elaboration. She can't vote for Yarmuth though. She is in one of Jefferson County's twelve precincts which were drawn into the Second Congressional District in the 1990 Reapportionment of the Congress. Prior to that time, she was in the Fourth. David Boswell will get her vote in that race.

So, this week's first day is past. Onward to the prize before us - another week to work, pay taxes, spend our earnings, and enjoy our friends. Woohoo!