That's just fine but it's atypical, this dearth of food opportunities. Oh, and religious services too. So everyone is trying to get excited and fulfilled by their church's online efforts. That's gratifying to an extent. But will it last? If the months roll on with no change, will we remain as attached to our particular church, feel the same sense of community with each other?
Is anger starting to build behind all the closed doors? There are so many reasons to feel anger now. What happened to our normal assumed lives? Our children in particular may be reeling in shock as they are less likely to be schooled in how life offers up brickbats sometimes. Will they get jaded like the young generation of the Great Depression?
I heard a comment that the people who experienced the Depression came out of it "paranoid" and they never shed that totally. If our current shutdown becomes very extended - seems quite possible - will today's youth end up with similar scars in their psyche? Adversity can build character. But adversity is still adversity.
Kids just assumed they could slide from one sports season into the next. How can the parents now share with them how life can indeed deliver roadblocks?
We have never experienced anything like this.
Personally I can live without church - it's a side matter, maybe not even that. Christianity today has become a cloak which our president wraps around himself. He has legions of followers who applaud him with that. All these lemmings seem to want to put Trump on the very level of God and Jesus, it seems. Maybe even to supersede God and Jesus. Maybe literally to enter the Bible at some point. To which I shrug and express total consternation about what has happened to all of us.
Trump wears no cloak of Christianity in my mind. I think he's a total con artist and that it has been apparent for some time.
There's no point in even trying to argue with Trump supporters anymore. So if Easter is a time when Trump gathers strength in the public eye, mesmerizing his flock such as the local Apostolics, then I'm just not interested. With the exception that I really wish Willie's had some chocolate bunnies in stock. Steph at Willie's said Town and Country had that coveted item in my eye (or palate). I said thanks and added I was not that desperate.
Was rather surprised Saturday when I stopped at DeToy's for meal pickup and noticed the Town and Country parking lot was nearly filled. We're all supposed to avoid close proximity with other people. The DeToy's person told me Town and Country was open because it was considered "essential." Boy, I don't know. Were all the people there really doing essential shopping? Well of course not. The people could not have all been there to get chocolate bunnies (LOL).
I sent Mr. Sack an email when his work was slowed by illness, the nature of which I never asked about, and mentioned that old cartoon plus a couple others. He thanked me in a response. We met in our college years, he at the University of MN-Twin Cities and me at St. Cloud State. I interviewed him for a class project.
When faxing was new and novel, I faxed him a cartoon idea which he seemed to utilize, with a variation. This was when Clinton was trying to deny he had ever really used marijuana. "I didn't inhale," Clinton said. Remember that? Sack's specific idea was probably funnier than mine - he's the pro. He dubbed Clinton Joe "Don't Inhale" Camel.
I'm happy for my church of First Lutheran if it's maintaining the bond with its congregants. We're ELCA which means you can feel comfortable joining us if you vote for Democrats. We have become an outlier in that respect.
There's another ELCA church in town - don't know if two are really necessary - and this is a church I once associated with the most assertive (translation: pain in the a--) leaders with the Morris public school teachers union. I can never get that out of my head. Our education system is much more user-friendly today than back in those times ('80s and '90s). Look at how lengthy the honor roll lists are today. Amen and hallelujah.
I am very heartened by First Lutheran and Faith Lutheran of Morris behaving more and more like there is no dividing line between them. We lost some people to Good Shepherd but they were mostly oddballs. Good Shepherd is the sanctuary for those who don't accept gay rights. Well, yawn, go ahead and keep pounding that drum, you people - hardly anyone cares about that any more.
I suppose evangelicals are cheerleaders for Trump because he wants to kick all the transgenders out of the military. The rest of the world is moving on from you people, you Neanderthals. But when you tune in to Fox News, you get the sense the Neanderthals are still setting the tone for Christianity, defining it.
All of cable news even outside of Fox treats Easter like a sort of universal fountain of celebrating. Why? Can't we respect Jewish people a little more? There are many other people who are non-Christians and we must strive to live with them with mutual respect.
I would profess there is one huge universal: our love for chocolate bunnies.
Now that my parents are gone along with my uncle Howard and wife Vi of Glenwood, I'm alone for major holidays. For nearly all my life we'd all get together either here in Morris or in Glenwood. You'll see a "Williams" monument at Glenwood Lutheran Cemetery. That's us. Howard and Vi are laid to rest on one side, my grandparents Martin and Carrie on the other.
But in 2020 it's yours truly alone and there's no pet in our household any more either.
So I seek my chocolate bunny - creme-filled eggs will do - and I also call up the concluding scene of Monty Python's "Life of Brian" on YouTube. Ah yes. "Look on the Bright Side of Life." Well, those words are inspiring, aren't they?
Will we have a county fair in 2020?
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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