Happy

[H2O Man]

44. This week, I went

to a doctors appointment. Seeking to take all focus and attention off of myself, I expertly shifted the conversation to politics. She told me about the number of people they see there, suffering from increased anxiety, depression, and stress. She said that includes a lot of children, because of Covid, and hostilities that have separated families, neighbors, friends, etc, due to the social-political stressors.

If a person has a health scare, it causes serious stress. And we are entering our second year of a constant scary health crisis. Many have been sick, and too many have died. And it's not just the virus. My brother died in January, and I see how hard it is for extended families to deal with the wide variety of issues that arise. Add to that, there's idiots refusing to wear a mask, People who are rude in parking lots. And a vicious, organized attack on our government.

So I understand people feeling down. Yes, I do. We are facing the reality of our political opposition deciding to use weapons to settle differences, as a military force. We are the party of rational thought, of non-violence, advocating for a just society. So people are going to get tired and discouraged.

People can only do the best that they can. And that's the great advantage of having a big team -- when some people are tited or discouraged, they can rest. For we have many different levels of talents, time, and energy. I wish that I had the energy that I did as a young man. But I don't. So I try to contribute as a tired and grumpy old man.

Being a tired and grumpy old man, I find benefit from reading Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi, and other inspirational leaders. Lately, I've been looking at the Gospel of Matthew, which is interesting for a number of reasons. For one, there are a series of quotes that sound mighty similat to Buddhism. A person might conclude that Truth is Truth, in both space and time. I also like that scholars think that it includes sayings from the hypothetical source Q, and also A. (Such manuscripts don't exist, of course, because they are from oral traditions among non-literate followers.) There are sixteen of those quotes in thay gospel, with some repetetion. For example, Jesus repeatedly says, "Do not be afraid," which is actually another way of saying that we must find peace of mind before we can bring about peaceful resolutions to the world's human problems.

We'll talk more soon. It's almost 2 am, and old men often become tired-er and grumpier after midnight.