A GREAT AMERICA, AGAIN

     It has been a kind of healing. It's as though we settled upon an island of how it used to be. And for those few hours in the National Cathedral we saw again the America that aspires to greatness. We experienced again the temperament, tenor and a sense of the essence of America's better self and soul.
    The very nature of the George HW Bush observance has been a picture of a better nation. Dignity, decorum, tradition, respect, honor, devotion and service has filled the days. The formality is out of the American handbook. The stories have been from those who knew him and from the historians who have studied and documented his life.
     The point here is not to see the late President Bush as anymore than he was, but to see in him the qualities of what has accompanied the American journey. Loyalty, friendship, humility, service, courage, love of family, and a guiding faith.
     Certainly there have been other men and women who also displayed these qualities. Given our recent history it has been good to remember who we can be, who we really are.
      What has been on display in our Capitol is a core sample of the dignity of a nation, a government larger than mere mortals, the yearning, maybe even the dream to transcend the human stain to be something truly great, something that helps America lift the human condition to something noble.
       One need only to look at the images of the front row, the men and their mates who are part of an exclusive American echelon. It was telling, very telling. Maybe nothing more dramatic than when the creed of belief was being read. Almost everyone in the Cathedral read or recited a belief, but one President scowled and glowered.     
        Was the Bush mourning, memorial and observance enough to shock this nation out of its toxic mood? Can those few brief hours of class, historic symbolism, and evocation of the hallowed work of trying to live full to the reach of a democratic republic, and the ghosts who made it so, bring us to our senses? Perhaps, but perhaps not. It has been, however, a cleansing, re-charging and hopeful spring in this winter of a pernicious and virulent administration. By the very comparison on display we may understand we all have a hand in the job to form a more perfect Union, to establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility...to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.

seasonal visitations

  faces from the sparkle shop

celebrating new days

photo of sunrise in Cambria by Karen Dean-a good neighbor

   See you down the trail.

TREATING THE DIS-EASE

    Spoiler alert-there is a bit of positive thought ahead but first the news.

    Child psychologist Dr Ava Siegler says we are in the midst of a "national disaster" and parents are the first responders.

    Dr Siegler and others in psychology says decency, civility, knowledge and truthfulness "are not values of the trump government."

data points

     The recent George Washington University poll finds

• 71% of voters say trump's behavior is not what they expect from a President
• 68% of Americans believe his words and actions could accidentally get us involved in an international conflict
• 63% of Americans say the country is on the wrong track

    Another study tells us what we learn from the news, most Americans are anxious about trump's affect on the surge in white supremacy.

the therapy

    David H. Rosmarin a professor at Harvard Medical school and the director of the Spirituality and Mental Health Program at McLean Hospital has good advice.

    Rosmarin says we should set aside 1-3 minutes a day to worry about the worst things that can happen and accept the reality that we are not in control. 

     He suggests we take time off from the news and social media. 

     Dr Rosmarin and many of his colleagues tell us that in these days of trump we should eat well, work out, and work on personal relationships.

     There is a consensus we should spend time with friends and loved ones and focus on enjoying the company and the good feelings of the moment.

     

     Indeed many of us feel a sense of depression. Normally mellow and relaxed people are trapped in a sense of anger and even rage. 

     As parents and grandparents we should tell children the meanness, selfishness, ego centricity  and lies of the president and some of his supporters and advisors are anti American, wrong and-this is important-will eventually be punished or corrected. 

     This reminds me of the "bad things happen to good people" advice and help books. Most of us have faced challenges and difficulties, uncertain of outcomes. In those periods we are counseled to rely on those we love and care for, people and belief, to understand however desperate a situation there are things for which to be grateful and to remember, all things change, this too will pass. 

     I'm not advocating this, but simply reporting-as we have communicated with our grand daughter, and even with  adults, about how wrong is the behavior, tone and mood of the president, especially his pathological lies, we feel better.

    Telling the truth and affirming the positive values that once undergirded this democratic republic is a one day at a time way of combating the tension, toxicity and corruption of this time in America.

catch the good beams when you can

    See you down the trail.

     

CUBA FILE-ST. LAZARO

 A PLACE OF FAITH-

A UNIQUE MIX

       (Rincon Cuba) Twenty miles from Havana, cultures cross
in a unique Cuban practice of faith and healing.

      Tens of thousands of Cubans make pilgrimages to St. 

 Lazarus for healing and acts of devotion.  The church is 

 named for Saint Lazarus (Lazaro in Spanish), a Catholic Bishop.

      The ill, lame and blind, walk, crawl, come by car or buggy.

       Here at Rincon, Cuban folklore has morphed the traditional St. Lazaro.  Babalu Aye, an Afro-Cuban deity in Santeria and St. Lazaro have been blended.  According to Santeria Babalu assumes all the sickness of his people, thus the crutches of the blended St. Lazo/Babalu Aye. 

      Icons of other Santeria and blended Catholic-Santeria saints  are sold in the plaza.  Pilgrims bring them gifts including cigars.  Several of the icons are depitcted with cigars.

     The poor, some of whom have sacrificed to make the pilgrimage beg so they may buy flowers or other gifts to leave for Babalu Aye/St. Lazaro. Others seek healing in a
grotto called the Living Waters.

      Many accounts abound of miraculous healings provided by the water.  Some of the pilgrims bring empty bottles and casks.  Others pray and then anoint or drink.

      The church conducts normal Roman Catholic masses and services.  The Cuban government has never banned the services nor the pilgrimages to St. Lazaro.

      See you down the trail.