6/26/24

 Wednesday, June 26, 2024

1968 Iwo Jima was returned to Japan by the US

2003 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Lawrence v. Texas that gender-based sodomy laws are unconstitutional.

2015 US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 same-sex marriage is a legal right across all US states

2015 US President Barack Obama sings "Amazing Grace" as part of his eulogy for the 9 victims at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston

In bed      On the recliner during the night, up at 3:50 after dreaming of TSJ in a meat market on E. Wisconsin Avenue inviting us for dinner but my back pain resisting the invite,  let Lilly out for a second time, did the NYT mini-crossword and Connections.  I fell asleep again and had the best night's sleep I've had in quite a while but I've been very sleepy all morning, with no energy.

Prednisone, day 45, 15 mg., day 9.   I took my pills at 5:30, with a CGM reading of 152. 

I'm grateful today for summer, for warm temperatures, gentle breezes, cerulean skies, and cotton puff clouds.  I'm grateful that I could drive to Costco and pick up what we needed, despite my bad back and absence of energy.  I'm grateful that I have ready access to reliable transportation to well-stocked food stores, and that I don't live in a fresh-food desert.    I am grateful that I have the resources to buy what we need (or desire) and that, unlike so many others, we are not counting pennies or foregoing one necessity or desire to have enough money to pay for another.  I'm especially grateful that I remember "living on the cuff" at Mr. Kelly's little grocery store on 73rd Street and buying money orders at the Currency Exchange to pay utility bills.  I'm grateful that I know I am not "better" or more "deserving" than the many who don't have the abundant life I enjoy.  I'm grateful that I am full of memories, many of them good, many not, but all of them fashioning, forming, forging me.

Anniversaries.  First, Iwo Jima.  The battle for control of Iwo Jima lasted 36 days. The final death toll among Marines was 5,931 killed in action, died of wounds or missing in action and presumed dead — more than twice as many Marines than had been killed in all of World War One. An additional 209 deaths occurred among the Navy corpsmen and surgeons assigned to the Marines. The Fifth Fleet and participating U.S. Army and Army Air Corps units suffered other fatalities during the battle. In all, more than 800 Americans gave their lives for every square mile of Iwo Jima’s black volcanic sand.  Another 20,000 Americans were wounded.  That number does not include men like my father who came home emotionally, spiritually, and mentally wounded, but with no Purple Heart.  American control over the island whose ash soil contains so much American blood lasted 23 years, while my father's wounds, and those of thousands of others including my mother, my sister, and me, lasted a lifetime.     In 1968, the year the U.S. gave this god-forsaken island back to Japan, other Marines and soldiers, sailors, and airmen were engaged in the Tet Offensive in the Vietnam War, a war in which countless battles were fought, and lives sacrificed, to gain possession of hills, villages, or other terrain only to have the VC/NVA retake it as soon as we withdrew.  Now, the unified Vietnam is one of our major "trading partners."   In the 30 years since the trade embargo was lifted in 1994, our two-way trade has grown from virtually zero to $124 billion, making Vietnam our ninth-largest trading partner in goods.  Where 58,220 Americans died to prevent the Communists from governing, now American corporations rush to contract for cheap labor, to avoid paying living wages to American workers including Vietnam veterans, and to maximize profits.

Second, I note Lawrence and Obergefell because I wonder how long these precedents will stand after Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

Lastly, I recall the remarkable eulogy that President Obama gave at the funeral of the 9 victims at Mother Emanuel AME, including his unexpected breaking into Amazing Grace in the middle of it.  He is not a gifted singer by any means, but he is a gifted orator and he correctly judged that singing that song at that time in that place with the grieving congregation and country looking on, even with his rough delivery, was the right thing to do.  Millions will long remember it, including me.

C&W Music.  I listened to one of my C&W playlists on the way to Costco, including Emmylou Harris' When He Calls:

When darkness fills the valley / Fear and dread strive deep within us

But our burdens soon will be lifted / When these old homes turn to dust

When He calls/  I'm going to live with Jesus

In His kingdom He welcomes everyone

I shall not fear no more earthly peril / For He will carry me Home

There is something very poignant about the lyric "I'm going to live with Jesus," not words of "salvation' or 'redemption', or 'Glory Halleluia' elation and exultation, but just "I'm going to live with Jesus."  The descriptors of earthly life are grim: darkness,, fear, dread, burdens, and peril.  All that will be gone when she finally moves in and lives with Jesus who welcomes everyone, even her, who He will lift up and carry Home.  I think back on the religious music of my childhood: Tantum ergo sacramentum, O salutaris hostia,  and the heart-touching (not!)  Holy God, we praise thy name.  Lord of all, we bow before thee.  All on earth thy scepter claim.  All in heav'n above adore thee.  Lyrics and music designed to really engage the hearts of Catholic children and adults.  Compare these with another old favorite, 

Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling-- /  Calling for you and for me;

Patiently Jesus is waiting and watching-- / Watching for you and for me!

    Come home! come home /  Ye who are weary, come home!

    Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling  / Calling, O sinner, come home!