[Magdalen] Rant

[Allan Carr]

I sent this to another list, but as time passes, I'm more and more aware
that Bishop Schori is talking to each one of us in whatever our
circumstances.


------------------------------

On Healing and Wholeness

Healing is the primary work of people of faith and the communities of which
they are a part.  Christians, as disciples of One who came to save (rescue,
heal, make whole) the world and its inhabitants, seek to heal their
relationships with one another and with all that is.

Episcopalians believe this is God's mission and we are its ministers or
servants.  We are meant to seek to repair what is breached and broken, to
stitch up what is torn, to heal what is sick, to release what is imprisoned
and oppressed, to comfort the dying, to encourage the ignored, forlorn, and
grieving. Our life finds meaning in responding to the cries around us and
within us, as individuals in community. We follow One who was himself
vilified, tortured, and finally executed for proclaiming the possibility of
reconciled relationships in communities divided by poverty, violence, and
religion.

The tragic death of Thomas Palermo challenges us all to attend to the work
of healing.  We cannot restore what is past, but we can seek reconciliation
and wholeness for all who have been affected - the Palermo family, Heather
Cook, the biking community and others in Baltimore, the Diocese of
Maryland, bystanders and onlookers who have witnessed any of these
traumatic events.

We begin in prayer - lament and wailing at loss and at human frailty.  We
continue in prayer - for succor and comfort, for compassion, for
transformation and healing.  Episcopalians worship a God who came among us
in fragile human flesh and suffered pain and death at the hands of other
human beings. We understand his resurrection to mean that death does not
have the final word - and that healing and wholeness transcend the grave.
That healing is never quick or easy, it does not "fix" what has already
happened, but it does begin to let hope grow again.

Our task is that hard work of healing. It requires vulnerability to the
pain of all involved - victims, transgressors, onlookers, friends and
families and coworkers and emergency responders and community members. A
violent death often divides communities, yet ultimately healing requires us
all to lower our defenses enough to let others minister to us, to hear
another's pain and grief, to share our own devastation, and indeed to look
for the possibility of a new and different future. Healing also comes
through a sense of restored order, which is the role of processes of
accountability.

Healing requires hope for a redeemed future for the Palermo family as well
as Heather Cook. Many have been changed by this death, yet their lives are
not ended. They can be healed and transformed, even though the path be long
and hard. Our work is to walk that path in solidarity with all who grieve
and mourn. May we pray with the psalmist, "Yea, even though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, you are with me." May we also be that
companioning presence, the image of God in the flesh, for those who walk
through that valley.

*The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori*
*Presiding Bishop and Primate*
*The Episcopal Church*

On Tue, Feb 24, 2015 at 11:30 PM, Allan Carr <allanc25 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Camille attends an Alzheimer's day care center for six hours a day. She's
> driven there and back by our home care person, who we have for eight hours
> a day. Camille's still mostly a pleasant person, but her constant
> forgetfulness and repetition of the same question over and over again can
> be wearying. I hear myself getting exasperated (as I try to stay calm)
> while giving the same answer back, over and over again.  I'm thankful for
> that center - which she enjoys going to.
>
> I made the decision that we would stay here in our house as long as
> possible. We each have a long term insurance policy which we paid premiums
> on for many years. Camille is approved for 24 hour care and I'm approved
> for eight hours. At this time, I'm splitting the cost of eight hours of
> care between the two policies.
>
> Evenings can be tough, not because of her, so much, but because of my own
> forgetfulness. I'm forever losing my iPhone, getting exasperated,
> eventually using the Find My iPhone program from the computer to set off
> the iPhone's alarm, only to find it close to where it should be. Back when
> I was using canes, I would also forever lose them by the end of the day.
> Now, I use a walker because I think the canes stressed out my shoulder
> muscles too much and brought on that month of severe pain (thankfully
> suppressed by celebrex) which was, at first, misdiagnosed as a cervical
> pinch.
>
> I quit celebrex after an MRI said that that portion of my spine was ok and
> that particular pain is also gone. I still have lower back pain due to
> spinal stenosis and a peripheral neuropathy that is slowly crippling me,
> but pain is suppressed by a host of medications I take daily. My mind
> mostly came back after leaving the celebrex TBTG, although I'm still
> forgetful at night.
>
> Anyway, we're both capable of taking our clothes off and getting to bed,
> so I'm not getting an aide in the evenings just for my forgetfulness,
> although sometimes I feel almost desperate when I lose something. There's a
> limit on the total amount of spending in each policy and I want to stretch
> out each policy as long as possible.
>
> Life is kind of infuriating. I had saved our money to do much traveling in
> our old age, but our bodies or minds interrupted those plans. I plan to try
> later this year.
>
> When my hearing got so bad that I couldn't enjoy movies at theaters, I
> indulged in a huge 60 inch TV, more than ten years ago. I planned this year
> to replace it with a new 2015 4k Sony TV when they come out in the spring.
> I also planned to switch from my expensive TV bundle of programs to a much
> cheaper one and do a lot more streaming from Netfix, Amazon, HBO, and
> wherever.
>
> My big TV failed last week. I'm not going to fix it, There are a couple of
> old tube TVs still in the house, but I totally feel like going TV-less
> until I buy the new TV, whenever that is. But, it's another exasperation.
>
> I feel for you, Jim, and will try to remember to be companionable in
> prayer.
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 24, 2015 at 9:56 PM, <sally.davies at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Amen.
>>
>
> --
> Allan Carr
>



-- 
Allan Carr