I hope this little letter finds you well. As we near the end of the year, I trust you have an enjoyable Christmas and that you approach the New Year with hope and confidence.
For several years now, I have taken out some time to reflect upon the year. Here is my offering for the unique year that was 2020.
In terms of my studies, I continue publishing my lectionary studies each week. These studies have been my way of looking back upon 37 years of peaching and teaching in the church. I invite you to join me at https://lectionarypondering.blogspot.com for a discussion. I am working on publishing my book on the Church Dogmatics of Karl Barth. I am in contact with two publishers, so I hope I will be giving you an opportunity to support my writing by the book (just a little humor) in a few months. I am part of a small reading group with Glenn Knepp and Lynn Eastman. Eberhard Jungel, God as Mystery of the World, was on of the best theology books I have a read in a long time. We devoted a session to African religion through John Mbiti. We were impressed with Charles Taylor, reading A Secular age and Sources of the Self. We read Peter Hodgson, Winds of the Spirit. We concluded the year with Katherine Sonderegger, her second volume on Systematic Theology dealing with the Trinity.
Chuck and Ginger Britt, friends who live in Kentucky but whom we knew in Indiana, visited in January. I had the privilege of officiating at their marriage many years ago. In the same month Suzanne and I met with Lyn Eastman and his wife in St. Armand’s Circle.
In February, we enjoyed Largo Family Restaurant on a Sunday night with Angel and Brenda, the uniqueness being that they have very good kariochi on that evening of the week. We had a nice time with the Raber family several times this year. I occasionally do pastoral functions, having the privilege of officiating at the baptism of Neil Effer and his daughter Madeline. To be part of this service, in which an adult affirms his faith for the first time before a congregation (Palm Harbor UMC) was truly a privilege, and he had so much joy in offering with the rest of the congregation the welcome of his daughter. We went to Bingo and Bubble at Westfield Mall with Cato and Susan.
In March, we had the pleasure of visiting with friends from Indiana, Alice and Greg Conrad, eating at John’s Pass and traveling there in our Jeep with the top open. Our Sunday school class, Bible Buddies, had a pot luck that began the month, which we thoroughly enjoyed. Angel invited me to be the who posed for his portrait painting group as well. That was fun. On the negative side, this was also the month that The Breyley’s stood behind their towing company in claiming that we took up two parking spaces, which would have been impossible with where we were parked. We decided to leave The Breyley’s at that time. Unethical dealings are not something we support. Angel and I went to a Blue Jays and Orioles pre-season game.
In May, as soon as we could in Florida, we visited a restaurant in Safety Harbor.
In June, Tim, Suzanne’s son, came for a visit. We always enjoy his visit.
In July, a friend of mine from LA Fitness, Kyle, joined us for nice evening of pizza and conversation. We also bought a 2004 Nissan 350z convertible that had 44,000 miles on it. We have a Jeep Sports Wrangler. Having these two vehicles has brought much happiness to us. They are simply fun vehicles to own.
In October we had a very nice meal with our neighbors at an Italian restaurant on Sand Key. We also discovered new pizza place in Safety Harbor that had some very nice outdoor seating and live entertainment. We enjoy the children on our side of the The Breyley’s. They bring such energy and enthusiasm to everything they do.
In November, we enjoyed a Thanksgiving Dinner at Capital Grille. We returned for my birthday dinner as well. Yes, I am 69. We have enjoyed decorating our home for Christmas this year. We have not always done so here, but this year we got into that spirit after Thanksgiving.
A word is in order about some of the friends outside of church we have met. We have a friend from Chili, Brazil, and Albania. We have some wonderful children that play in the common yard that are white, black, and in between. We have a single black father who is doing a great job with his son. A single black mother and her grandmother are raising two children. Most have no church affiliation, and at least one claims Islam as heritage, if not practicing. Other young couples are part of the mix. We appreciate them all. One of the reasons we moved here was the taste of the world one gets in area like this. They have added much to our life experience, which I think should be one of the blessings of retirement.
When we go to SS class again, which meets outside at Palm Harbor UMC, I did so at first and Suzanne came later in the year. The class meets outside, so masks are not required. So far, the church expects us to wear masks inside, so we do not go to worship. I go to the men’s group that meets at Sonny’s barbecue, “Wing Men,” because most of us order wings for lunch.
life in retirement goes beyond simply paying attention to Bible and theology.
Movies:
Call of the Wild
Black and Blue
Mr. Right
Invisible Man
Opnelia
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Phantom of the Opera (2004)
Taxi Driver ((1976)
Judy
Last Christmas (2019)
Terminator Dark Fate (2019)
Another Version of You (2019)
Ford vs Ferrari
Doctor Sleep
Clemency (2019)
Upload (this was fun)
Uncut Gems
The Vast of Night (2020)
Cosmos (2019)
Knives Out (very creative)
Motherless Brooklyn
Black Christmas
Making Time
Rocket Man
The Good Liar
Jumanji: the Next Level
Funny Face (1957)
Capone (2020)
African Queen (1952)
Barefoot in the Park (1967)
Impossible Monsters
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (1975)
Grease (1978)
Pride and Prejudice (2005)
Bottom of the 9th
The Way Back
Gentlemen
Black Box
Emma
Greener Grass
Sorry We Missed You
Rebecca
First Cow
Resistance
Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Antebellum, starts intriguing but ends with revenge of the worst sort
Bill and Ted Face the Music
The Photograph
All kinds of Christmas movie on Netflix and Amazon Prime
TV Shows:
NCIS has been a treat
Bib Bang Theory is awesome, watching all 12 seasons this year
Bosch
The Good Witch (season 5)
Vikings
Crisis of Infinite Earths on The CW
Arrow
Supernatural (Season 15)
Flash (Season 6)
Hannibal
Republic of Doyle
Unforgettable
Lucifer, season 5
Outer Limits, from 1990s
Thriller from 1970s
Blacklist, Season 7
The Good Place Season 4
Queen’s Gambit
Homecoming
Booth at the End
Ray Bradbury Theater from 1980s
American horror Story Season 9
The Expanse, Season 1
Book: (Mostly from Lifetime Reading Plan)
Nostromo, Joseph Conrad
Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
Poems and Autobiography by William Butler Yeats
Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann
Joseph and his Brothers, Thomas Mann
The Holy Sinner, Thomas Mann
Long Days Journey into Night, Eugene O’Neill
Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett
The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams
A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams
Death of a Salesman Arthur Miller
Our Town, Thornton Wilder
A Passage to India, EM Forster
Hiroshima, John Hersey
Farewell to Manzanar
Catcher in the Rye JD Salinger
A Severed Head, The Good Apprentice, The Sea, the Sea, Iris Murdoch
Theory of the Novel, George Lukacs
Seven book series Foundation, ranked by many to be the best science fiction series ever, by Isaac Asimov
In terms of health, I started the year with a chest cold that started on Christmas Day 2019. The worst of it lasted for three weeks, but I still had effects for another few weeks. It was not until February that I started playing tennis and stickball again. Second year in a row that I have had this. I hope to avoid it by using Zicam sooner and Vick’s. If not, Mucinix for the day and Alka Seltzer plus at night work well. As the year began, I continued to have a bit of pain in my right elbow. However, my weight has gotten down. In February, I continued dental issues with getting a crown. I have learned to run from on the front of my feet than heel to toe, I continue to have strength training days at LAFitness, and used the sauna regularly until that stopped in March. My yoga has become a daily routine, using a P90X2 version that focuses upon strength training. I get in bicycle rides when I can, usually to Clearwater Beach. I played tennis with neighbor Angel. He no longer felt comfortable playing in July. Reggie from LA Fitness played tennis for a while, but he moved to Orlando and have not seen him since. I continue playing stickball with a group in the neighboring park on Friday morning. They are from Top of the World, and over 55 community. I say with some humor and some honesty that I get reminded each time why Suzanne and I do not want to live in an over 55 community. We like being around young people. We do not need such a community to remind us daily of our aging. We feel young and want to stay that way as long as we can. I did not get sick again until December, when I received my pneumonia booster shot and felt puny rest of day and next day. I could not lift my left arm for another day. In this area, Suzanne has made the biggest improvement. She has found a new lease on life, it seems, and joins me often for walks when she could not do so before. She seems to be getting the right combination of thyroid and hormone treatments that have helped her get new energy.
Our dogs, fox terrier Annie and Maltese Tinker, both continue to bring much joy and remain healthy.
I share just a few thoughts about the pandemic and the election.
Of course, 2020 has been a unique year. As to the Covid-19 pandemic, I determined early that shutting down businesses was not the way to deal with it. We have never done so before. We needed to educate those at risk, maintain social distance, and go about our business. I think the mask situation has gotten way out of hand. Too many federal government bureaucrats and governors have taken the occasion to bring out their inner tyrant. If you hear about me in jail, it will be because I have disobeyed an order to wear my mask outside. I would like to see more Americans get ornery when it comes to the state telling us who we can have in our homes and how much we can travel. I guess covid is also bringing out the inner “meekly submit to tyranny” spirit in Americans. Leaders using our anxiety and fear over the virus to manage our behavior. We are allowing fear to determine our behavior. I understand that churches will err on the side of safety. If I were pastor of a local church, I would likely do the same thing. However, in Florida, having services outside under a tent would have been possible. I puzzle about bars and restaurants allowing customers to take off their masks when they sit down, but one cannot do that in church. I am concerned with people becoming so isolated that they get depressed and sick. I am very concerned that so many people have undoubtedly died alone, without friends, family, and pastor around them.
The election of Biden concerns me. My primary concern is the damage his progressive politics will do to the country. I would not say I like Trump, but I like his court picks, getting out of wars, his strong stance toward China, his middle east peace deals, renegotiating trade agreements, reducing regulations and taxes, the vitality of the economy before covid, and his focus on getting back to work. The rise in minority votes for the GOP is gratifying, as is the increased presence of conservative women. The anomalies of the election are puzzling. Biden won fewer counties than Obama, but won more votes than Obama did. Trump won all but one of the “bell weather” counties, but lost the election. Trump won more votes than the previous election and lost. He won more minority votes than a GOP candidate has done in decades, and he lost. States changed their voting procedure on the proclamation of a governor rather than the constitutional direction that legislatures make such changes. Entire states stopped counting votes at the same time, something that happened only once before in one county, Broward in Florida in 2000. Peter Navarro, Stephanie Powell, Michael Flynn, and Rudy Gulianni are all people for whom I have respect. In fact, if I were a Democrat, I would want the accusation examined thoroughly, for I would not want that cloud hanging over my party. Their accusation of massive fraud deserves a fair hearing and examination. I think ballot harvesting and mail-in ballots have got to go. If Democrats continue down this path, the only reason is to commit fraud that will affect the outcome of close elections. The Dominion voting system has got to go. It is far too tainted to give a credible election process. The Democrats have shown their lack of moral integrity the past four years in their challenge to the GOP delegates, their attack on the electoral college, their lies regarding Trump and Russia, basing their impeachment of Trump on lies, and their allowance of violence by their supporters in order to intimidate people to vote their direction (a tactic of fascists). They are corrupt from the top, meaning Obama and Clinton. Changing the voting procedure in specific states late in the game to their benefit without legislative approval opens the door for suspicion of the results. I wish the Supreme Court would have taken the Texas case, but I also understand why they did not. The Democrats have the moral corruption necessary to make them fully capable of doing what Trump says. Yes, they are morally capable of developing an algorithm that would assign two-third of a vote to Trump and one and third vote to Biden. I do not trust them, so the more that one can do to make sure that only citizens and registered voters vote the more we can be sure of election integrity. The Trump team has every right to challenge the election process in areas they think there was fraud. Such challenges show far more respect to the process than the Russia hoax conjured up by the Clinton and Obama team. At the same time, courts tend to view the electoral process as a political rather than legal matter. In this case, states at least appear to have violated the constitution by adopting an election procedure that was not approved by the legislature. However, I remain disturbed that the Trump team has not shown in court settings or other settings that mattered anything actionable either in terms of changing vote counts or even bringing persons to jail for fraud. Senate hearings and independent reports do not accomplish much. It seems to me at this point that the Democrats took a page out of what Trump did four years ago. They focused on the states they narrowly lost, focused on strongly democrat areas (Milwaukee, Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta, at al), and got out their vote in sufficient numbers to Winn narrowly in some states (Wisconsin, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona), and win in Michigan and Pennsylvania with larger numbers. Democrats have a history of big city machine politics and know how to play that game.
I am very concerned that Christians on both sides of the political aisle are so embedded in their political ideology that they cannot imagine how a Christian could adopt the opposing view. I usually see such notions on my twitter feed, which trends liberal. Thus, the progressive will say that he or she cannot imagine how a Christian could vote for Trump. You cannot imagine how over 70 million Americans could disagree with you? Shame on you. You have so identified your political ideology with Christ as to make it an idol. It has blinded you and made you deaf to what others are saying to you. If you are truly a Christian, you need to tear down the idol that your political ideology has become and bow before the one whom you claim is Lord. Christians ought to have some humility regarding their political commitments and even develop enough empathy to consider why so many people vote differently that do you. Many Christians need to recover their faith in the providential care of God. We are in the hands of God, and not simply the hands of scheming political operatives. God is present, even when it seems like political and economic power plays rule the day. The divine presence may be mysterious to us, but such faith will lead us toward a life of hope, peace, joy, and love.
Here is a cute little movie from the grandkids for my birthday.
Here are just a few more random pictures.
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