Plasterer's Pondering: Year-end Reflections on 2021

Walk on Clearwater Causeway

To any who might make the time to read this little reflection on 2021, merry Christmas and happy New Year.

I enjoy taking out some time at the close of the year to reflect upon the year. It has been an important part of my spiritual discipline for many years. It helps me attend to what I am doing with my life.

I want to let you know that Suzanne and I remain healthy and our children remain healthy. As we age, something that for many of us in our youth we take for granted is not quite so much so as we age. Suzanne and I have a healthy routine of a walk in the morning. She continues to help us eat healthy. I have continued my weight routine I learned from P90X while I was in Logansport. I also do its version of yoga every day. I do plyometrics and core exercises twice a week. I still get in a run and some tennis when I I can. During the cooler months I try to get in more work on the bicycle. My longer bike ride is to Clearwater Beach and back, which is about 11 miles.

Michael and David remain in Indianapolis. For Christmas, the children of David and Kari sung a Jingle Bells for me. You can listen here. It was so cute. Michael is working for PNC now. David is working for a part of the government of Indiana, assisting in distributing grant money. Kari is a nurse. My four sisters remain in good health in Missouri, Wisconsin, South Dakota, and Virginia.

I guess I have had a work day of sorts. I spend a couple hours most day in various types of exercise. I spend time reading and studying for about 4 hours. My studies include continued work on the Old Testament. I am working through the books of the Old Testament, paying special attention to texts that occur within the historical periods that scholars designate for Israel. I have studied texts related to Moses and the Tribal Federation, the emergence of sacral kingship with Saul, David, and Solomon, and am now in the period of a divided monarchy of Israel and Judah. This means I have studied some psalms, the Song of Solomon, and some proverbs. I have also been studying cultural movements, such as existentialism, deconstruction, and critical theory, all of which has gotten me into philosophy and theologies based upon them. It has been a delight. I still love reading philosophy. Most of the books I have had in my library and I have shared with my sons or Glen.

I have continued to have a delightful learning time with a book reading group comprised of two others, Glenn and Lyn. We started the year with some work on the Trinity, which led us to Augustine and the Cappadocian Fathers. We also read: Tripp Fuller Divine self investment; Clark Pinnock in Reason Enough, The Openness of God (1994), Most Moved Mover (2001); Joseph A. Bracken, The World in the Trinity: Open-Ended Systems to Science and Religion. You can read my conclusions here. We ended the year with some reading involving writers with an existentialist persuasion, such as Gabriel Marcel and Soren Kierkegaard. You can read by reflections here.

I have continued to publish by lectionary reflections. As often as I have studied these texts and preached from most of them, I find that Homiletics preaching magazine continues to challenge and inspire me. You can read my reflections here.

In May, my book on Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, was published by Pinnacle. It already had a purchase from someone I met on twitter through #karlbarth. He said it was helpful for the project on which he was working relating Barth to parish life in England. It was a blessing. I am going to continue my little efforts to get word out to those who might have some interest in Barth. I look forward to further publication with Pinnacle. I received two royalty checks. It was not much, but it was satisfying. I have made about $240 so far.

Also in May, Suzanne and I celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary. We are living the dream, as they say.

Suzanne and I have continued to enjoy some television. Worthy of note is the Blacklist, where we watched Season 8 on Netflix. We watched all of Monk again. It was a delight. We liked Manifest. I liked Season 10 of the Walking Dead. We completed Game of Thrones. We watched The Courier, a cold war film. We liked The Father and Mank among the Academy Award nominees for best picture. Judas and the Black Messiah brought back memories of 1969 and my opposition to the Vietnam War and support of Civil Rights, but also opposed to the violence in the street. Fatherhood was delightful. We enjoyed watching the TV show Psyche all seasons.

In August, it was a delight to assist with communion with Pastor Cathy while Pastor Keith was on retreat. We attend the Bible Buddies class, although not much at the close of the year. I have also gone to the Wing Men group on Tuesday at Sonny’s, but again, not much toward the end of the year. I agreed at the end of the year to be on call for the pastors, since both were out at the same time.

Also in August, I had my first experience on the Kayak. It was in Dunedin. It was much fun with people most of whom were half my age. It was wonderful to be so accepted among them. It took a team effort to get me back. Three waves converged on me and tipped me over. It was a struggle, but also fun.

In September, Suzanne and I were sick together for about three weeks, the worst of it being the first week. We do not know if it was Covid, but it had many of the symptoms, including temperature and fatigue. It was not pleasant, but both of us got through it.

In December, I turned 70. In the past, the change of decade bothered me. It did not this time. It might be because I feel healthy and have projects on which I am working.

In December, something that brought good memories, Twins baseball heroes Tony Oliva and Jim Kaat got into the Hall of Fame.

In December Tim, Suzanne’s son, came with his girlfriend Kelly. She stayed for 10 days and Tim another week. We always have a good time with Tim and it was nice to spend time with Kelly. We had a nighttime cruise on Starlight in Clearwater, where the meal was not as good as we remember from the past, but it was still a nice time.

I deal more with death, as one can imagine. I have had some losses that I share with you. Reading existentialist authors lately has made me even more aware of how death shadows us all. We never know when the projects of our lives and the dreams we have for the future will end.

A colleague from Indiana, Dick Hamilton, died in February. I mention this because he was the essence of the old “Christian gentleman.” He was liberal theologically and politically, but in a gentle and kind way. I still recall the one sermon I heard from him at North UMC. He used an example from music. He is comfortable with his faith being background music for his life, gentle influencing every part of his life. Yet, faith also needs to have the role of claiming our full attention. Such music might get loud and annoying, but our faith may need to be that way at times as well. He was an inspiration.

Rush Limbaugh died in February. It has been so comfortable for me to tune in since around 1990 and hear what he had to say. He was part of the family. He had a positive spirit, often urging people to find out what they are passionate about and find a way to have a job organized around that. Given his marriage troubles, I longed for him to find some happiness there, and apparently he did. The hateful things I have spent little time reading is not surprising. He was effective for the conservative movement. He was done with conservatives playing second to the dominant liberal establishment. Yes, he was a vigorous proponent of his position. Spirited debate is what happens when the stakes are high. I know some wanted him to tone it down, but I do not know any liberal who wanted their people to tone it down on the change of wanting push granny over the cliff, racist, misogynist, fascist, and many other choices terms. In fact, the hateful things said about Rush upon his death are the same things said against every GOP presidential candidate since Reagan. The only specific criticism that hurts me because it is so unfair is that he made fun of Michael J. Fox. I happened to hear that show. He was asking what all that movement was when he saw Fox being interviewed. Apparently, on video, his motions had a certain look. It was strange that Rush did not know something, but especially something like this. When he came back from commercial break, he apologized for not knowing that Fox had Parkinson’s disease. However, ever since, Rush “made fun of” Fox having the disease. Rush has a bond with his audience that goes beyond most, and we know his heart. The last thing he would ever do is make fun of someone for a disease. Given that some Christians have gotten into the act as well, which I find shameful, let me say this. You will be surprised at whom Christ allows to have fellowship in the heavenly banquet. Fortunately, the one who decides this matter is not you or me. In any case, I liked Monday because it seemed like the weekend stimulated him with many creative thoughts. His insights into political life were always worth hearing. I disagreed with him on some key issues of the day. One was his view that conservatives needed to support George H. W. Bush rather than vote for Perot. I wanted to register some disappointment with Bush, and besides, Clinton seemed like a conservative Democrat, so I did not see much difference. I am still not sure if it was a good or bad choice on my part, since the GOP won the House under Clinton. Two was the second war with Iraq with George W. Bush president. I just could not see how bombing and invading a Muslim country would have a longterm positive effect. I think on that one, I was right, and Rush and Bush were wrong. The only other major disagreement with him that registers with me today is the obvious favoritism he offered Trump during the primaries. I have not liked Trump, but that started long before he ran for President. For many years, I am sure I will wonder what Rush would have said. To Rush, I would simply say that I miss your voice, insight, and humor. I miss your vigorous defense of the basic values and principles of the country at its founding and as embodied in the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution.

In March, Greg Conrad died. He was a good friend from Indiana who was a snowbird in in our area. He loved golf. We did not have our visit this year. He was diagnosed with covid, went into the hospital, and died, all within a little over a week. It seems someone got into the golf cart sick. It was someone from Indiana who flew to Florida. It made me more aware of people around me. If someone is sick, stay away. I am not sure if he had pre-existing conditions. We will miss him. He was so much fun to be around. He and his wife were so nice to Suzanne. She cleaned for them and groomed their dogs. We always enjoyed our time with them.

Toward the end of the year, a friend from Seminary with whom I reconnected on Facebook died suddenly, the result of a fall, as I understand. He made many kind and thoughtful comments on my posts.

The proper way to have dealt with COVID would have been to protect the most vulnerable among us, allow the rest to pursue normal activity, and get the vaccine. The damage done by the shutdown has yet to be told. People are starting to document the effect upon children and youth. As I have indicated many times, I am pro-vaccine, but anti-mandates for either the vaccine or the mask.

Every COVID strategy leads to herd immunity, and the pandemic ends when a sufficient number of people have immunity through either COVID-recovery or a vaccine. It makes as much sense to claim that an epidemiologist is advocating for a “herd immunity strategy” as it does to claim that a pilot is advocating a “gravity strategy” when landing an airplane.

We now have over 800,000 COVID deaths in the United States, plus the collateral damage. Sweden and other Scandinavian countries–less focused on lockdowns and more focused on protecting the old–have had fewer COVID deaths per population than the United States, the UK, and most other European countries. Florida, which avoided much of the collateral lockdown harms, currently ranks 22nd best in the United States in age-adjusted COVID mortality.

I remain a member in good standing with the United Methodist Church. I have my charge conference connection with Vincennes Community UMC in Indiana and with Palm Harbor UMC in Florida. I submit my brief report to both conferences. I support the protocol that allows for progressives and evangelical-orthodox to separate peacefully. I remain convinced that many people need to accept the biological reality of being male or female. Many people need the healing in intimate areas of their lives that the traditional view of marriage and family provides. Beyond that, although I am all for re-thinking traditional teaching for a contemporary audience, I am not in favor of the church abandoning its history by alienating the church of today from the church of yesterday.

I became curious about what covid had done to other churches. We visited several large and well known churches in the area. The last was The Chapel, which is the one church we attended where it was almost like the pandemic never happened. It is like going to a Christian music concert for about 20 minutes, and then hearing a message that as far as I can see from two months is biblical and inspiring. The age range, the many young people, and the racial mix, is attractive. One of the preaching pastors is black and the music leader is a dynamic young black man. It has reconnected me with my origins in the church in Austin, MN, which was a non-liturgical church, contemporary music for its time, evangelical, and focused upon applying the Bible to life in preaching.

If you are interested, here are just a few political thoughts for this year.

The year began with upheaval in Washington DC. The odd thing was that Trump supporters, who have peacefully rallied for years, suddenly had a a few of their number raid the capitol building. An Air Force officer was shot. I am not sure what they thought they could gain. It is clear that some extremist conservative groups planned the raid long before the rally on that day. That means Trump could not have incited the attack upon the Capitol. The effort to blame all Trump supporters for this is typical of the media, Democrats, NeverTrump conservatives, and the rest of the Left. The attempt to suppress political speech concerns me deeply. At the same time, Trump was wrong to claim the election was stolen. Given the Time Magazine report on the secret history of the 2020 election, the group of rich, powerful white guys who “fortified” the election against Trump, combining the tech world, Labor, and the US Chamber of Commerce, I find it amazing that Trump and the populist movement he led got as close as they did. Once again, the establishment and the elites pulled out a victory, even if only narrowly in a few states. I hate that corporations are making me think about their politics. I wish they would stick to being good at what they do. Their pandering to the woke left to deflect criticism from them as individual rich white people and from the their morally questionable business practices has alienated me from them. I will do what I can to give as little of my money to them as I can. Of course, they are so pervasive in our economic life that they are hard to avoid. I will have to await neutral businesses who will compete with them, provide a good product, so that I can support them. I say neutral because I have no interest in conservative politics being supported by a business either. I just want the business to do its business.

In August, Biden conducted by bipartisan assessment a disastrous pullout in Afghanistan. As I understood it, a small contingent of Americans was all that was necessary to keep the Taliban somewhat checked. I am not one who thought invasion of either Iraq or Afghanistan were good things. Going after bin-Laden made sense, but attacking and rebuilding a Muslim and primitive “nation” was not something I thought the USA should be doing. I saw no way for it to be successful. I have no doubt that anyone could have done it better than Biden did.

With any good fortune for the country, the rest of the Biden program will not pass.

My suspicion is that the real president is Obama, but only because Biden seems to be so out of it mentally. But then, I think that when the history of this period is over, Obama and Soros are behind the BLM-Antifa protests in the streets, something a community organizer would do on a national scale. Create enough instability and fear to intimidate voters your direction politically.

I am concerned about the public square discussion. Patrick Oden noted: When you demonize people, they don't trust you want the best for them. When you then need to depend on them to trust you, it's too late. Demonizing makes for great politics and self-righteous grandstanding, but it makes for bad social reliance and cooperation. I appreciate Governor DeSantis so much. I think Fauci has become an opponent of good health policies as well as freedom. Part of what angers me is that I have had to make decisions to stop supporting businesses who make a big deal about supporting politics I cannot support. Starbucks is one such company, as well as Nike and Coke.

Trump did not help matters when he claimed he won the election. So far, I see no evidence of that. Granted, the money of Zuckerberg and the added weight of the AFL-CIO and the Chamber of Commerce combined to tip the election to Biden in the battleground states. They did to Trump what Trump did to Hillary 4 years before. I am concerned about the money of George Soros, who funds anything he can that weakens America, including BLM, Antifa, and the Steele Dossier. The major media outlets were part of the shameful dissemination of the Steele Dossier, using what they knew to be a lie to vilify Trump and his supporters. No one will suffer for what they did to this country in those years. I am ready for a reboot of the FBI, which has become part of the progressive cabal. I was glad for the victories in North Carolina and hope it says some good news about November 2022. Help is on the way.

I believe that election integrity is a real issue. We need to have photo ID as a basic rule and get rid of ballot of harvesting.

I do not want the gender confusion promoted by the progressive. I want to accept the biological fact of male-female. That is science.

I do not want cancel culture. I do want freedom of speech. I treasure the Bill of Rights.

I do not accept the notion that crime is simply a social construct to protect privileged classes. Social justice warriors and their attempt to defund the police is simply not a country in which I want to live. I appreciate the police standing between me and the criminal.

I do not accept the notion of printing more money so that wealth is devalued. I do not want either inflation or recession, and certainly not both at the same time.

I am pro-vaccination, but opposed to mandates in any form, whether vaccination or masks. The shutdowns advanced large corporations like Amazon and put many mom-and-pop stores out of business. The use of fear by the progressives to gain political power is not new, but I remained concerned about what they will do that power.

I am opposed to open borders. I want legal immigration, but remain concerned about crime and other matters when people begin their relationship with this country in that way.

Climate change is an attempt by those who want the government to gain increasing control of the economy. Extreme poverty—the norm for most of human history—plummeted 80%, thanks to economic growth and access to energy. Global crop yields of grains increased over 200%. Deaths from climate-related disasters decreased 96%. As a percent of global gross domestic product, damages from natural disasters have actually declined since 1990. Air pollution in the U.S. (not to be confused with greenhouse gases) has declined 73% since 1980. Skepticism about climate policy is merited.

I am concerned that some people want a war over Taiwan and Ukraine. The wars in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan have been a disaster for the country and for conservatives. A better approach would have been targeted US missile strikes and helping the opposition to the totalitarian and terrors supporting political leadership in both countries.

The last comments are what make me think that I do not want live in the same country that progressives seem to want. Simply put, AOC, Ilhan Omar, and so on, want to impose a form of government that would make me want to leave. My political thinking changed in the mid-70s after reading George Will, William F. Buckley, and Milton Friedman. I remain committed philosophically to the economics of Adam Smith and Milton Friedman rather than Karl Marx. I remain committed to the respect and dignity owed to each individual and to what they own, as we find in David Hume, John Locke, Immanuel Kant, and Hegel, rather than persistently favoring perceived “common good” to the diversity provided by individuals, as we find in all brands of socialism. I appreciate the creativity that capitalism encourages, as people use their faith in themselves and others to pursue goals, demonstrate some dimension of love for what they do, whom they do it with, and whom they do business with, sustained by a hope for a better future for themselves and those about whom they care.

Critical theory has its root in Karl Marx. It is an alienating critique. Applied to the history of the country, it seeks to alienate the present generation from their past. For the purpose of present political purposes, it seeks to denigrate the past by pointing to its imperfection and sin. Granting that these sins were present, it refuses to acknowledge the lengths to which the nation has gone to amend them. It also creates a distorted view of the past to enhance the moral superiority of the anointed ones who embrace critical theory. I do want what they want in their push to alienate Americans from their founding as a nation. Applied to race, it elevates something unimportant, the color of one’s skin, into a place of prominence. I do not want what progressives want in using this critique to alienate people from each other based upon race or gender. I care far more about character than I do the color of skin. People should advance socially and economically because of merit rather than quotas or tribal chauvinism. Violent organizations like BLM and Antifa are the storm troopers of the Progressive movement. They are like the KKK using violence to advance their racial and religious policies, or the fascist violence of Hitler.

When I step back, I want to reaffirm my commitment to the constitution. That includes its vision of distributing power across three national institutions, among the several states, and most of all to the people. I could think of myself as reactionary in the sense that far too much power has gravitated toward Washington DC. States need to be the primary domestic polices of this country. The variety of responses to domestic issues provided by states would make them a laboratory of experimentation. It also would give citizens the option of moving to a different state.

Enough with such seriousness.

I wish you the best as you close the door on one year and open a door to another.

Peace,

George Plasterer