Thursday, April 13, 2023
In bed @ 10:15, awake at 4:30, up at 4:40, thinking of TSJ and touching email from Jack Levine. 58℉, high of 73℉, RED FLAG WARNING: very warm weather, windy, dry conditions will support critical fire conditions across southern Wisconsin. SW w.inds today at 8 to 12 mph with gusts up to 25 mph. Sunrise at 6:13, sunset at 7:32, 13+18.
Jack's email. To: David Lowe, Dan Goldberg, Steve Chernof, Chuck Clausen, Ken Finkel "miss Tom. Should we do something (simple, private) ? I hurt some. Jack" Spring and Fall, Hopkins: " . . . And yet you wíll weep and know why. / Now no matter, child, the name: / Sórrow’s spríngs áre the same. / Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed / What heart heard of, ghost guessed: / It ís the blight man was born for, / It is Margaret you mourn for."
Geri and Lilly are on their way to Pet Supplies for a bath. Before they left, Geri gave her as thorough a brushing as was possible with Lilly's nervousness. I thought about taking a photo of them, struck as I was by Geri's character of taking care of those within her reach of care: Lilly, me, her children, Ellis, her father after her mother's death, my father, Elise, Micaela, so many friends who come to her for her listening, caring, solicitude.
Home. I arrived at the crux of the novel, a 'reconciliation' visit by Rev. and Mrs. Ames to the Boughtons (after the Hagar and Ishmael sermon) during which Jack seeks enlightenment on the doctrines of predestination" and salvation. He points out to the two ministers some of the inconsistencies or contradictions found in Scripture leading to some consternation and irritation on the part of the reverends, with Rev. Ames, who appears to be more thoughtful than Boughton, finally saying "I'm not going to make nonsense of a mystery because that's what people always do when they try to talk about it. Always. And then they think the mystery itself is nonsense. A conversation of this kind is a good deal worse than useless. In my opinion." The fallback explanation: it's a mystery. Our brains can't comprehend it, only God can. But it's true and you must believe it to be a True Believer.
Days later, Jack is found in the barn where the DeSoto is kept, half-dressed, with his shirt and socks stuffed into the tailpipe of the car, an unsuccessful suicide attempt. As usual, Glory takes care of him, cleaning him up before he can come into the house and be seen by his father, reminding of the great lines from The Great Gatsby about Tom and Daisy Buchanan: "They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and . . . then retreated back into their money . . . and let other people clean up the mess they had made." Jack is hardly careless and he has no money to retreat back to, but he does leave messes that others have to deal with.
I'm quite taken with this story, in part because of 'the prodigal son' theme, the relationship between father and son, and because of the story of Glory's disappointing life, but more because of the big brother - little sister relationship between Jack and Glory, and the depiction of Glory's love and loyalty towards Jack. Glory reminds me of course of Kitty and me, Geri and Jimmy A.
The more of the novel I read, the greater the sense of what I think Robinson calls "the transcendence of the ordinary," the preparation of a meal for the family to eat, the ironing of a shirt for Jack or her father to wear, the inherent love-significance of these ordinary acts.
My Personal VA Pharmacist. I had a video conference this morning with Jill Hanson, my personal pharmacist. She's a big help in dealing with access problems with the huge pharmacy at Zablocki Medical Center. I owe her a debt of gratitude for moving off of metformin and safely onto Jariance/empagliflozin and 4.5 mg Trulicity, getting my blood sugar readings down.
Classified Documents Leak Arrest. A 21-year-old gun nut in Massachusetts was arrested today in connection with the leak of highly classified documents to a gamers web site. I was the classified and top secret control officer at 2 of my duty stations in the Marine Corps. I sew hundreds, thousands (?) of classified documents, leaving me with the impression that anything classified as Secret or Confidential probably doesn't need to be classified at all. The whole system needs to be rethought. Who is empowered to make classification decisions, what needs to be classified, at what level, with what distribution, etc.
Backache much of yesterday and today, and it doesn't take much to trigger it: filling the dishwasher, making my bed, washing the patio table.
Walmart. I drove to Saukville to replenish my supply of 7 and 1/2 oz. cans of corned beef hash, plus Diet Pespsi w/o caffeine, Frank's Sauer kraut, GrapeNuts cereal, some Johnsonville maple flavored breakfast sausages, Mr. Coffee diffusers, Grape Nuts, bananas, and Bosc pears.
Dinner out at the new Arby's drive-through. Reuben for Geri, Hawaiian beef-brisket sandwich for me. Tasted OK but led to GERD overnight.
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