Friday 8th August

Yesterday,Thursday, I was out early to catch the church bus to an Episcopal Church in the City which was leaving at 8.30 for a Conference on Ageing.

 

There were six workshops on offer, of which we had to choose three.  I did the Paperwork of Spiritual Life, which was all about end-of-life issues, funeral planning etc.  I thought I did my funeral planning last week when I saw how meticulously one of our Emmanuel members had planned hers. But there was room for improvement - I hadn't selected the hymns for example.   Do I detect a rolling of eyes from my loved ones?

Then I did 'Using Medication Safely'  given by a pharmacist who said lecturing to people, warning them of the dangers of using medicines careless, is his life's work and passion.

Finally, I was going to do the Alzheimer's one but changed my mind at the last minute and did 'Praying with Photographs' which was very interesting.   The presenter put out a selection of black and white photos and we had to look at them all carefully, then in turn pick out one which speaks to us of God, and tell the group why.
This was the picture I selected -

I see God wherever there is love, because God is Love.  I told the group I learned that in the sermon on the  first Sunday after 9/11.  I added that this was in England, I have no idea what their sermons were about here.   But we were told,  in that sermon, that for all those who were asking where God was on 9/11, He was there with the victims at the Twin Towers.   He was with those who died; those left behind; those risking their lives - like the firemen climbing above the 70th floor who knew they wouldn't make it back down.   He was with me when Roy, then Larry, were dying.   He is everywhere where there is Love.  

Changing gear somewhat.   We had a very nice lunch there, it was catered by a nearby Mediterranean restaurant and consisted of a couple of rice dishes, very tender skewered chicken, hummus, pitta bread, tabouleh. 

On this day in history...........

8th August 1974 -     Richard-I-am-not-a-crook-Nixon resigned following  Watergate rather than wait to be impeached.   And by the way there is scandal going on now, said to be worse than Watergate (and it is not the crime, but the cover-up in these cases, that is so bad)  and there is a big cover up going on involving the IRS and incriminating e-mails which - the American public were led to believe - suddenly disappeared from a crashed hard drive.  But the likes of Steve Jobs were quick to point out that all hard drives can be recovered, so no one was buying that.

8th August 1863 - General Robert E Lee tried to resign after his defeat at the Battle of Gettysburg, but the Confederate President, Jefferson Davis, wasn't buying into that either, and did not want to accept his resignation.   But I suppose push came to shove when the Union soldiers were celebrating their victory.