Last year at this time I was watching Aaron Judge and my Yankees every night and getting ready for my softball season with my son and grandson.    This year I am watching Ozark, Bosch and Outlander after a hard day of Zooming and mask and glove wearing.   Next year? I want my Life back!

About a week ago, my friend, Gil, sent me the picture shown on this blog. Twenty people wearing masks over looking Jerusalem. Prophetic ? Not exactly…. We were on a trip to Israel with about twenty people. Two weeks of touring on a bus and meeting people. We didn’t know — until about the end of the first week, that we were an incubator for the Flu virus.

It started as a small project. My desire was to put together a gift for my son. A sweetly arranged photo album of fond memories of his first 21 years. Of course, I’ve already done his customary baby album, but I stopped at about 7 years old. When would I get the time to actually focus on this project again? Into the basement, I went. I located the bin of arranged photos, separated by age, activity, and school. I slowly unpacked the photos and began the trip down memory lane. Do you know this trip? A photo jogs a memory and then you find yourself in that moment in time.

  Our Saturday night activities have actually fallen into a nice routine.

 

Looking back several weeks I wrote of concert plans.

One of the themes of Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” is that there needs to be a balance between man’s pursuit of liberty and the government’s responsibility to maintain order for the common good.

Back in the day there was a character (pictured) in the Little Abner comic strip who walked around with a perpetual black cloud hanging over his head. His name was Joe Btfsplk.  In sum, he was bad luck and brought it on to others.   I encountered Joe at a young and impressionable age and have carried his dark image through out my life.