Still June 24, 2021

June 24, 2021 still

 

As regards the other issue I was thinking of, All you of the catholic variety, you may remember as we were growing up in the western catholic culture, two of the famous names that were ingrained in us were: St John Fisher and St. Thomas more, two big martyrs under King Henly VIII. For you non-catholics, you may remember the movie, A Man for all Seasons …it was the life of St. Thomas More. These were some of our heroes in the catholic saints culture,

Both from the UK, but I say a western catholic culture.

On Tuesday this week, Fr. Bernard Ngidi, who is the main celebrant at our mass in the morning, chose ST. Paulinus of Nola, a very early Christian saint, so that the altar was covered with a white cloth. When I came into the chapel in the morning, having re-read the biography of my two heroes who were martyrs, murdered by Henry VIII because of faith matters. So, being martyrs, having shed their blood for their beliefs, the color of the altar covering should have been red. Ha. So, as I entered the chapel, I immediately noticed that the color was white and not red as I thought it should have been.  So I asked Fr. Bernard, why white, and he said because it is the feast of Paulinus of Nola, who was not a martyr. I was stunned…who is Paulinus of Nola, I thought, and then I realized that Fr. Ngidi comes from an African culture and didn’t know any more about St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher, than I did about Paulinus of Nola. He grew up in an African culture where those names probably didn’t get much mention whereas in our western culture, these were big Christian heroes. So we have various cultures in our house.

In the German speaking European culture, they eat everything with both knife and fork, unlike us uncouth Americans. I smile when I see one of them have a piece of bread with peanut butter or jam eating what we would just take in our hand with a knife and fork. They will also eat an apple after first peeling it with a knife, when I just munch it down. Ha. And then there are many cultures in Africa so that saying one is of an African culture tells nothing any more that saying that a person is of a white culture. Every nationality of whites has its own culture as does every African nation its own culture. I knew this, of course, but this very simple but real experience  at Mass the other day caught me.

 

June 17, 2021,

   MRI on Monday, the 14^th, but the pills that I put under my tongue to stop the spasms during the MRI might as well have been a piece of chocolate or lump of butter.  They did nothing…zilch. And, of course, the whole thing was a disaster.  My left leg was doing an Irish jig the whole time and especially when it came to having to scan the spine, it was clear that it would never work. We has to just give up. The radiologists were very kind and thoughtful, but they didn’t think of the cost, because they quickly got in contact with an anaesthetist who said he would be free Friday morning and they quickly booked him and me for another MRI. That’s tomorrow. I may have to ask for some help from the family when I see the, what I expect to be, huge bill . I hope that we can cover it. I may have to rob an ATM. 

But to be a bit more positive, the main radiologist who was doing the job on me has the name Koleka. She didn’t know what it meant…just the name her parents gave her. So I got in contact with Nomonde, my Xhosa sister, and she said it probably comes from the verb Kholwa, which means believe, so it would mean BELIEVABLE, which can also be understood as dependable, or trustworthy. It is also used in a colloquial way to mean someone who has a soft heart and loves to smile.  I can’t wait to tell her tomorrow what her name means.

Also, on the positive side, our internet is working like a charm now. You can type to your heart’s content and you won’t be interrupted.

People ask about my health and I tell them that apart from this leg with the spasms, I am a very healthy person. Today when the doctor came he took my BP    144/63   wow. What more Could I ask for. But if any of you have some ideas about chronic constipation, any kind of miracle potions, I would be happy if you would let me in on the secret. I understand that this is the situation of a great many seniors, but I think my case is complicate by the lack of peristaltic movement to do the pushing. Sorry to talk about such mundane things but that is my life and the life of many other seniors who are too embarrassed to talk about such things. To be continued. It is past my bedtime and I go early for the MRI tomorrow.

   Let me add something. Last night, at supper, I put my two med.pills in my sweater pocket to be taken closer to   when the action starts with these bloody spasms. But I forgot to take them and went to bed and finally fell asleep  with the action still going. But at 11:20 I was awakened (must have been an angel) and realized that I hadn’t taken my meds and they would, I hoped, slow down the action so I could sleep. I was not supposed to take any food or water from midnight on, so I was just in time before the deadline, to take them with a sip of water, and then went happily back to sleep.

 

June 19, 2021 The MRI is over but I am too lazy and tired and weak to explain now. Later.

 

 June 9, 2021

 

For Catholics, we have gone through the feast of the Trinity….”..we are created in the image and likeness of God”

What that means to me is that we are created for relationship, the triune God , Father, Son and Holy Spirit, loving each other (the height or depth of relationship). It was most obvious during the lockdown, we were cut off from many of our opportunities to meet with, to relate with, them and it became clear, if it wasn’t before that we really are created for relationship…in practical terms, I am tired of virtual hugs, I want the real thing. Just s bit of a reflection on the feast of the Trinity.

    Now comes the feast of the Sacred Heart. Love. We never say, for example…. I love you with all my liver….or I love you with both my lungs….or I love you with all my feet.  The heart is the normally accepted symbol of love,  I love you with all my heart. The rest you can guess.

 

Today was a very special day for me. A friend volunteered to take me to the hospital to book an MRI ( I got the ok from my community to go for it….R 29,200.00   Wow, that’s a lot.) My neurologist, Dr. Wolpe, said that in order to get beyond treating the symptoms, we have to have another look at the brain and spine to see if we can get some indication of where these spasms are coming from. It didn’t show up on the last MRI in 2019, but maybe it will show up now…. My fingers and toes are crossed---please pray for the MRI to show where these spasms are coming from, so that we can start to deal with the cause and not the symptoms.  He also asked me to have a blood test done to see in there was some indication there. That was also done today by one of the local vampires at the hospital. Its her job and she is good at it. So on Monday next week, June 14, I will go into that cavernous machine and this time I will have put the pills under my tongue ahead of time so that it knocks out the spasms. The first time I had an MRI after the knee op, I was give these two little pills to put under my tongue about 20 to 30 minutes before sliding into that machine and I was gone. Never felt or heard a thing. I want that to happen again now. Then on the 30^th of June, I am supposed to get another xray of my knee so that the orthopaedic surgeon can compare   this new xray with the previous one because that one showed what seen to be the femur bone receding from the metal of the knee replacement as there seemed to be a small gap.  Hey, I am falling apart. Ha. So it was a very good day because of the progress regarding my health problems with the spasming knee. Then, When I got back home, I discovered that the internet on off problem was settled. I have been on internet now since 7:30, without interruption and   is now 9:15. Wow. A miracle. and now it is almost time to say  good night. I am closing down now. But there is one more thing before I hit the sack. Another great thing happened today…one of our Mariannhill bishops was just named as the new Archbishop of Durban. He takes over from Cardinal Napier whose resignation has been accepted by Pope Francis as he is 80 yrs. old now and beyond the retirement age of 75. So one of our own Mariannhill home boys has been chosen to head the Durban archdiocese. He is young…64 yrs. old. His name: Siegfried Mandla Jwara.

And now it is time to say good night. 25 past 9.

 

May 29, 2021

 

If you thought the events of Jan. 6 were shocking, what comes next could be far worse.

A chilling new poll by PRRI, the Public Religion Research Institute, found that nearly one in four Republicans (that's tens of millions of people) believe the QAnon mythology that "the government, media, and financial worlds in the US are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles." You might just shake your head and laugh at this nonsense, except that that they also believe that "because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country."

This is no fringe cult. The number of people believing these and other outlandish QAnon conspiracies is enormous. There is a current of poison circulating in American society, threatening its cohesiveness and its social and political order. "If it were a religion," according to PRRI founder Robby Jones, "it would be as big as all white evangelicals Protestants, or all white mainline protestants.

 

 

 

May 19, 2021

 

The Israeli military said it plans to expand its bombardment of Gaza in the coming days, despite growing calls for a cease-fire. 

No intention of having a cease fire. They want to flatten Gaza and teach them not to mess with Israel. That should put anyone else off complaining about Israel not treating people humanly or not obeying international law. They haven’t done so up to now so why should they start now?