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SWEET ONLINE ENCOUNTER So a couple of days ago, I was following a story on a nostalgia site about the town where I went to high school ..... |
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So the story was about the old hospital. I write a comment and another woman comments that she grew up in a house next to the hospital......Well, I recognized her name because we were neighbours and went to school with her brother and was friendly with her mother, who was really sweet and her father was the mayor of our town for longer than anyone else.....Her parents have been gone for years now. All that brought back many memories of her amazing father. He was a loud, hearty Irishman who did most of his politicking in the pub over a pint and if anyone wanted his ear, they knew that was where to find him. I danced with him at an Italian wedding years after I had moved away and we laughed about the time I bribed him with Peanut Butter cookies. And this was the story I told his daughter. Her brother John and I often walked to school together.....I was writing an article for the school paper and looking for an interesting angle and he suggested I interview his father, the mayor and ask his opinion on the situation.....Well, I kept phoning his office without any luck....I asked John how to get his attention and he asked his mother. She liked my idea for the article, but her husband was a busy man.....She told me that the mayor had a weakness for freshly baked peanut butter cookies. She told me to bake a batch and then as soon as they were out of the oven, put them in a paper bag and immediately bring them to the mayor's office and ask his secretary to put them on his desk. She said that it had to be a paper bag so he would see the oil stains and smell the cookies.. That's what I did......I sat there in the outer office for only a few minutes and the mayor called me into his office....He laughed uproariously at my bribe.....and the trouble I had gone to and gave me a 20 minute interview, which made my article.........Everyone loved that man...... So yesterday, his daughter told my story to both her brother, who is a lawyer and lives across the country and an old friend who both asked her to pass on their greetings to me......Sometimes I love the internet. _
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My family is scattered all over the country. I grew up on the West Coast and moved to the East Coast XX years ago. The internet has been a fantastic way to stay connected and reconnect with old friends. 
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but sometimes Yes, I appreciate the internet in so many ways, but sometimes I get really frustrated with my own dependence on it.....especially during Covid...My connections to people become so mechanized and sterile instead of in person ......Sometimes my need for connecting physically, touch, body language, facial expression, tone of voice takes over and I resent these sterile, boring screens and keyboards.......
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I've connected with an internet group about my home town. I remember when I left there, I sort of shook the dust off my feet and never looked back. Of course, I did return to see my mother and my grandparents and sometimes during those visits, I would see old classmates. But I was never one to go to class reunions. Then I reconnected with a special friend, classmate, and "outlaw" relative. We weren't exactly inlaws, so we call it "outlaw", his sister married my uncle. Now that I'm older, I find it kind of interesting to read some of the "remember when" comments by others who also grew up in our town and school. Be a prism, spreading God's light and love, not a mirror reflecting the world's hatred.
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Great blog , enjoyed the read.  The mayor got his cookies and you got your story, happy ending for all.
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Great blog , enjoyed the read. The mayor got his cookies and you got your story, happy ending for all.
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6/19/2021 4:33 am |
A basic human need is to be around others. After talking with friend just yesterday I realize loneliness can be detrimental to ones health. Sparkle this brings to mind why people rely on religion to make it through life. It gives a feeling of comfort-----thinking someone is with them------even though imaginary. It is self deceiving but it seems to work for some. This brings to mind when I contribute to tearing down religion---I may be destroying a persons last shred of hope. I have some thinking to do on that one. Party On!
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A basic human need is to be around others. After talking with friend just yesterday I realize loneliness can be detrimental to ones health. Sparkle this brings to mind why people rely on religion to make it through life. It gives a feeling of comfort-----thinking someone is with them------even though imaginary. It is self deceiving but it seems to work for some. This brings to mind when I contribute to tearing down religion---I may be destroying a persons last shred of hope. I have some thinking to do on that one. Party On! I fell in love with a Christian man theyears back.....I still love him, but not in a romantic way.......anyways, when I got to know him well, he revealed a tangled mass of faith-based contradictions that he obsesses over.....I have another friend who became a Lutheran minister later in life....He is an artist who fell in love with Christian art.....specifically the Coptic icons and he is now trying to find the exact mixture of substances that went into a certain blue pigment that was used for Mary's robe.....He is very into the rituals....the pomp and ceremony and the liturgical chants of the coptic church......He embroider his own vestments copying ancient patterns. I grew up in the Lutheran church and I don't even recognize it from what he is doing...... So there are many different ways Christians gain comfort from their religion....Christianity has mountains of paraphernalia that one can pick and choose from.to bring one comfort, be it ritual or a justification of being RIGHT with the world's biggest religion to back you......To me, it's a boring heap of rotting assumptions that I have long since shrugged off......I love the freedom to think what I please....In spite of bouts of loneliness.
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