Is This the Plan?
November 8, 2025 8:32am
Tuesday evening, we were driving back from Lexington (babysitting) and listening to the pre-game show, when the news broke that a plane had crashed on takeoff from Standiford.
It was a UPS cargo jet bound for Honolulu. Before it even left the ground, the engine was on fire. It climbed about 100 feet before the 41,00 gallons of fuel exploded and the plane crashed leaving a debris field 1/2 mile long through the businesses at the end of the runway. The three pilots died instantly and days later they are still searching for about a dozen missing. Fourteen confirmed casualties include a grandfather and his three-year-old granddaughter.
One second, you’re buying car parts – the next you’re engulfed in the fires of hell. I hope it was over so quickly the dead did not suffer but the possibility they had time to realize what was happening does haunt me. Is this a part of the plan or just shoddy maintenance? Only a God would know.
The following day, Nov. 5 would have been my parents’ 71st anniversary (he passed on July 1). I was born 9 months and 13 days after the wedding. They both came off the farm. She wanted more and he was a Korean War vet who was the first in his family to get a college degree.
Who can explain the capriciousness of God or fate?
A friend got bitten by a cat and weeks later developed cystitis that has turned his arm into a horror movie prop – his words, not mine. Then it spread to his whole body. He’s on a regimen of antibiotics but the outcome is unsure. Can you offer any commentary?
This existence is mostly pain with enough respite to keep us trudging to the finish line and God?….a pleasant deception to make us believe there is some point to all this and some rest at the end.
“The Self” LOL!
November 11, 2025 9:02am
In my reading this morning, I came across an article about the invention of the “self”. The author discussed individuality and our desire to be special and unique. This reminded me of an attitude I developed around the age of 12 ….in every situation every conversation, every interaction, I would deliberately cast myself in opposition to the position of my companions. If we talked sports, I was the scholar, if education, I was the athlete, if city life was the topic, I talked of my country roots.
I hadn’t thought of these pathetic attempts to make myself unique for a long time and even today – after thinking deeply about what makes us all human and our obvious failings – I still cringe at the recollection of my early attempts at this false individuality.
On this Veteran’s Day, I recall my Dad’s Korean War service and the sacrifices of my many veteran friends and family members. May our leaders exhibit the same self-sacrifice as the men and women they send into harm’s way!
The End
November 25, 2025 7:56am
“… how we seek to spend our time may depend on how much time we perceive ourselves to have.” — Atul Gawande
My father was lying in a hospital bed at 93; the Doctor said we had a decision before us, either we intubate and start extreme measures to keep him alive, or we withdraw everything and let nature take her course. My sister, the nurse, has seen this scores of times and supported my own position which was to accept the end.
He had been healthy a week before becoming ill. He had a BIG garden and was cutting 3 acres of lawn. It was not an easy decision but one we will all face in one way or another.
I find myself praying to a non-existent God for friends who are ill. I can’t help myself with this. It makes no sense, but I do it anyway…. even prefacing these encounters with, “I know you’re not really there but…”
But….
Back against the wall – what’s the alternative? This is the end according to Jim Morrison. The executioner takes his place and the prisoner looks heavenward.
The end.
Hope and Thanksgiving
November 30, 2025 11:08am
“The kind of hope that I often think about …. I understand above all as a state of mind, not as a state of the world. Either we have hope within us, or we don’t. It is a dimension of the soul. It’s not essentially dependent upon some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation. Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out. ” – Vaclav Havel
Like many others we had political discussions as part of our Thanksgiving celebrations. There are strong opinions on both sides, but the talks were civil and illuminating. I like to focus on facts, policies and commonality – to do otherwise is to exacerbate already deep divisions. We identified the top four issues, and I felt that we all want the same outcomes, we just see different paths to the solutions.
The top four????
- Affordable healthcare
- Energy/environment
- Military spending
- Equity – reduce disparities between the top 1% (or even 10%) and the rest of the population with regard to wages, education, and opportunity.