[Magdalen] Another milestone

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

My beloved came home today and announced that the tire low pressure light
was on. I drove over to a service station (our local Stewarts Ice Cream
etc. store) and found all the tires were a bit low, got them up to
pressure, except for the right rear tire. No matter what I did, I could not
get the cap off the tire.
I went into the store and asked the young lady if I might borrow a
screwdriver. She grimaced and said, so sorry, they did not have anything
like that. I explained what the purpose was.

"Well, would you like me to look at it?" she asked. So what's the harm?

"That would be very nice of you," I answered.

She went out to my car and twisted the cap off the tire. <sigh>

I always think of myself as the guy with the cast iron grip.  Well, today
-- 

not

so

much.



It's a bit of a letdown to realize, bit by bit, I'm losing who I am.  As do
we all.

Hey, it could be a lot worse.  I'm in the best shape of everyone in my
music group.

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

A young Protestant woman who was suffering from a life-threatening illness
wanted to go to a graduate school in theology to study to be a parish
minister.
She made an appointment with an admissions counselor who explained the
application process and gave her the necessary forms to complete.
At the end of the meeting, the woman put her hands in the crutches she had
leaned against the admissions officer's desk.  'Do you think they'll accept
me?"
"Yes," the college rep replied, "I really think they'll accept you."
"But I'm dying," she said.
"Well," the rep said, "we're all dying."
"But I'm really dying."
"Well, we are all really dying.  I've never seen anyone not accepted
because they were really dying."
"Really?"
"Really.  Maybe you are called to be here to help us all remember this
truth - that what we call 'living' is really 'dying.'"
"Really?" she asked again.
"Really."
[From "A poetic reflection: what we all living is really dying" by the Rev.
Minka Shura Sprague, The Living Pulpit, July-September 1995.]

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy