July 4, 2019

Independence Day. Hmmm. Not much commotion or activity here. I didn’t get an invitation from the consulate this year which is a bit unusual so I will ask my friend who works there if there was any outreach to the American community here in the Durban area regarding how to celebrate 4^th of July, as if there is anything to celebrate about.

Le me give a quick overview for the past weeks. Time has flown and I have been lazy and a bit down because there has been no noticeable change in my condition (the spasms are still coming 24/7 and no one can figure out why or from where. I have more or less adapted to the situation and don’t really get bothered too much and, thank God, it has let me drive in peace without any unnatural activity while I am driving.

    I joined the Savannah Park church community twice no on Sunday and joined with a concelebrating friend who did the incensing and communion distributing so I didn’t have to strain to stand still in one place for a long time.

   I also went once to the hospital for Mass at 6am and got the usual customers. I might try that once a week because it means doing a bit of setting up with a small easily moveable table that I can lean on.

   I conducted a funeral liturgy at the crematrorium as a long time friend of the family. She didn’t want a Mass but the family felt that we had to have some kind of God input as they are, on the whole, a very faithful church-going family and are plugged into lots of good church activities. It was a great celebration

After a month’s worth of wasted medicine (nothing happened to improve the situation) the doctor decided to try Cortisone. He gave me a scrip which I was able to use to order 3 IV’s and a pile of pills to see if the cortisone would help to change the situation. The sisters did the IV’s in their sick bay at the convent, 3 days in a row, each drip lasting an hour. Then we went onto oral (pills).  6 pills a day after a meal, for 5 days….then 5 pills a day for 5 days, then 4 pills a day for 4 days, etc. till we get to one pill a day. After 3 weeks we will have a look to see in there are any improvements in the situation.

I have been lazy to get at my blog and have been a bit down because no matter what we have tried so far, nothing seems to be working to take away the spasms. I think that I have adapted my life to this situation so that I just go through the day taking things as they come (like so many of you) because there is nothing else that can be done. I Use one crutch and, after a shaky beginning, gradually get to walk more or less normally and straight, but with the left leg seeming to get stiff and tired too easily.

I missed the St. Marys Nursing school graduation which I really wanted to attend to encourage the young nurses to keep on keeping on, because I was having one of those IV’s that same time that same day.

A friend brought some mutton curry over for me to chomp on and it is good for both body and spirit. I have also gotten out to do a bit of visiting just to get out of the house.

I gave up on the physiotherapy because the hard work she was doing was being undone by the spasms which more of less canceled out what she was trying to do,,,,to get that bloody leg straight.

Many people have been, I think, unreasonably sympathetic towards me. Feeling so sorry for me. Ha. Just watch the news each night,  Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen. Suffering like you can’t believe. And many of you….”been there, done that”…have had your own experiences and maybe continue to deal with even life-threatening health issues so that I know that I am still in kindergarden in comparison and have no right to complain. I am OK, believe me.

The more I see of Trump the more I am sad at the whole turn of events since he became president. I won’t go into details here. Government by tweet…no consultation, just instinct, feeling, for so many complicated issues. I am just begoggled. But if the Democrats want to challenge him in the up coming election (I registered for voting absentee by the way) they will have to get a candidate (out of the many promising ones) who can address the issues that are so close to his followers. There are too many priorities, 200 means there are really no priorities. Today should be a day of trying to build unity but I feel that with all the military and huge expenses it is like the Russians of the North Koreans, showing off how we are big and tough enough with our planes and tanks and weapons to “obliterate” you if you don’t play the game our way.I am not sure that most Americans want to be seen by the world as the world’s biggest bully ready to destroy at the drop of a hat anyone or anything that gets in our way.

It seems that success is measured not in improved relationships but is purely money terms…..how many billions of dollars we have earned by selling planes, guns, rockets, etc. that are used for killing people on all sides. Sell some more, make more money, improve the economy, Yuk.

My friend Jim Meyer, priest from Detroit, sent this as a reflection for 4^th of July.

WHAT IS A PATRIOT? (edited)

As we light our firecrackers and put another vegan burger on the barbecue we would do well to reflect on the virtue of patriotism. Certainly we can be grateful for the blessings we have received as Americans. We can be equally grateful for the ways in which we as a nation have been a blessing to other peoples and places. For all of these deeds we can stand proud.

But patriotism is about more than pride. It is a virtue. In fact it is a dimension of love, love of one’s country. And love calls us to nothing less than truth. So as we reflect on those things, we would do well to also face the fact that like other nations we are fallible and at times stand in need of a different vision.

All too often patriotism is confused with nationalism. While patriotism is love of one’s country, nationalism is the misguided belief that one’s nation is better than other nations. So while patriotism calls us to truth, nationalism can cloud or even hide the truth.

So it is that from the beginning there have been Americans who have challenged the way things are done. They have painfully led us to be better than we might have been. We read of them as heroes of our history. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King Jr. made us better but suffered for the daring of their words, let alone their actions. They were patriots, not because they waved a flag, put twisty stickers on their cars and endorsed everything that we were as a nation. They were patriots in that they spoke the truth and became catalysts for making us better.

In a nation where freedom of speech is a given, the responsibility to speak the truth is an awesome one indeed. Challenging speech in any nation may appear to be unpatriotic. But it is only seen to be such by those who do not know the difference between true love, which calls the beloved to excellence and nationalistic blindness, which prevents the vision that can bring us to greatness.

Many of us not only call ourselves American. We call ourselves Christian Americans. For us then nothing less than the message of Jesus can be the lens through which we view and judge ourselves as a nation. Where there is a conflict between what He said and what we do, when His Beatitudes conflict with our policies and endeavors, the conclusion can be none other than that we are wrong. Only a patriot can see that. Only a patriot will dare to speak it.

So speak it where you can. For those who for whatever reason cannot speak up, supporting those who do is also patriotic. "Supporting the troops" may be important but supporting the truth and those who dare to speak it is even more so. This is a dimension of patriotism that may not be spoken at the parades. May God Bless America and may America learn more fully how to bless the world.     J. Robert Schaden

I think that this is enough for now.  Enjoy the day. I will be doing some visiting today, one of those to be visited Is a young man, friend, who had to have both kidneys removed and continues to work kidneyless getting dialysis regularly hoping that he can perhaps be lucky enough to find a kidney donor. He is not 40 yet. Hey, everyone has a story.    Love and Peace ,  Fr. Cas.