Insane Earthlings

Dr.  Frazier (Terry, in green shirt) hand-pedaling in 2020 If I was born a blank slate , it did not take long for the world to write the word WAR upon me. It was 1965 and the number of troops in Vietnam went from around 23,000 to over 180,000. That’s 180,000 young Americans sent to a country that most had never heard of, to fight a war that was un-winnable. A war that was misguided at best, illegal and immoral at worst. Soon the death toll of Americans would rocket and the shockwaves created would reverberate through every aspect of our lives. The names of the fallen were read each evening on the nightly news as families sat around the dinner table. Each name smudged on our collective psyche. Each wave of bombing would shake and tear at the fabric of our social order. The broadcast of real war footage into our living rooms shone a light on the horror of war previously unknown to those who had not been in battle themselves. This war, fought so far from our safe lifestyle here in ...

Last Sunday was our first full day on the white sugary sand of Siesta Key; our vacation destination last year and this year. Located near Sarasota on the Gulf Coast, we crossed through long stretches of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida to get here. A tiring trip, but worth it because once you make it here it truly lives up to its name. A perfect place to relax.   After dinner, we sauntered back down to the shore to watch the evening sun make its magnificent descent into the clear line along the horizon. We had realized last year that this was something we had never seen before, having been East Coast people our whole lives. Watching the last sliver of bright orange disappear into the water gave me a comforting sense of order in the universe. And this year I needed that sort of comforting reassurance more than ever. My previous post, Finding Balance in a Wobbly World , is about needing a reminder of G-d’s presence in our lives ever since my mother passed away in March of thi...