53 Comments
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Sharie Patty's avatar

I was there with you in the Cactus Theater!!

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Linda S's avatar

Your words gave me hope. I am admiring the Bishop and praise her courage.

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Robot Bender's avatar

Me, too.

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Lawrence Phillips's avatar

I believe that Episcopals could be the ones to build a bridge with other Christian faiths so that the size of the Democrat voting pool would get larger. You know, using true inclusivity and compromise.

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David Kannas's avatar

When you think about it, we Christians worship one God, something that is often lost in the various ways that we practice that faith. It is my humble opinion (Micah, Chapter eight being my favorite part of the Bible) that God is somewhat disappointed in all the stuff we have invented around God. I am reminded by my pastor on a regular basis that the building in which we worship is not the church. It is the people that gather there who are the church. He is right. Bishop Budde brought to our attention and that of what's his name that we need to walk humbly with our God and that showing mercy is being Godly.

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Lawrence Phillips's avatar

Very nice. Thank you David.

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Lawrence Phillips's avatar

Micah, Chapter eight? 6:8?

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David Kannas's avatar

I stand corrected. Thank you.

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Lawrence Phillips's avatar

Thanks for teaching me. I am weak on my religeous and Middle Eastern history and am working on it. You throwing the reference out there taught me a lot.

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Christine's avatar

Oh if he would have only listened. I love what you wrote. Thank you.

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SusanA's avatar

I understand completely why you loved the Lubbock crowd. I grew up in that part of the country and the people are real and kind and solid.

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Heidi Emanuel's avatar

Finding common ground in singing a hymn together-perhaps hope springs eternal!

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Joe's avatar

We live in a media landscape that goes out of its way to play up our differences. Too often, it allows us to overlook the true nature of our being, which is that we have far more in common than any media headline would suggest. Sounds like that much more appealing reality poked its head up, unexpectedly, one night, at a little theater in Lubbock TX.

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Matt Klein's avatar

Thanks,

Tasted earthy, like ya still got your feet there, and didn't give me gas

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Sue Olmos's avatar

The Central Florida Master Choir (Ocala) will be performing Faure's Requiem 3/30 in Dunnellon (3pm) and 4/6 in Ocala also at 3pm. Free to the public and .... we're pretty darned good, too!

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Majik's avatar

Garrison, you might read this comment, or you might not, but in case you do, I wanted you to know that I just bought a package of the cheerfulness postcards that you're selling here. More about that in a moment. I also read your post today and felt gratified that you felt in good company among the Baptists in Lubbock, Texas, because that's where we congregate these days . . . with the Baptists, I mean, not in Lubbock . . . although we weren't always Baptists. We both were born and baptized as Roman Catholics, but I wandered away from that church after misspending my teenaged years pursuing sex, drugs, and rock & roll, but came to Jesus when I was 20 and started going to a Swedish Covenant Church on Sundays with the couple who told me about God loving me and having a wonderful plan for my life and also attending a coffee house for young people in the basement of an Assembly of God Church run by the son of the pastor who also told me about God loving me and having a wonderful plan for my life. This was up in New England, and six months later when I returned home a changed man, I met my once and future bride in an Evangelical Free Church, which is kind of like the Swedish Covenant Church but with a somewhat wilder pedigree in that they may have been Pentacostal originally back in Scandanavia but then settled down considerably over the years when they came to America to the point where the "speaking in tongues" was no longer considered to be a thing that any member should do or even want to do. My wife had been a member of the Evangelical Free Church since her teens that she'd spent better than I did mine. After we married and moved from our hometown of Tempe, Arizona, to where we live now in Yuma, Arizona, we couldn't find an Evangelical Free Church and so fell in with the Baptists where we've remained for the last thirty or so years except for a brief stint as Presbyterians before they run us off . . . well me, not her . . . but she followed me back to the Baptists where she is very happy and I am mostly so. But back to the cheerfulness cards. We both enjoyed your book "Cheerfulness." And this next thing is kind of sad but, hopefully, also uplifting. A lawyer friend of mine suffered a stroke and later died, but when we visited her before she died in the rehab center down the street and around the corner from our house, we brought her a copy of your book and a bouquet of helium balloons, and she absolutely loved both of these gifts. She was a good woman, and she left behind a husband who loved her and their young teenaged daughter who terribly misses her mother but has her mother's mother now who is helping to raise her. Say a prayer for these three people if you feel so inclined . . . but also know that your book brought some joy and happiness to some people in their time of need. Remembering this and writing about it now has cheered my morning some and also better equipped me to get up and go face my day. Thank you again.

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Michele Mandrioli's avatar

“God’s plan” for our lives is the random mix of DNA we got from a random sperm with a random mix of our paternal grandparents’ DNA and a random egg with a random mix of our maternal grandparents’ DNA. It is up to us to make the best of what we happened to get.

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Majik's avatar

Well yes, THAT’s certainly one way of looking at it, Michele . . . minus all the wonder and romance! ❤️

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Nichael Cramer's avatar

Two points:

1] I can’t get the lovely notion of an auditorium-filled a cappella rendition of “Not Fade Away” out of my head.

2] Although she certainly does not need my support, God bless Bishop Budde.

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Ryan Collay's avatar

Here ‘Come to Jesus’ moment was amazing! I have found the entire text, including Mathew’s building your house on sand metaphor…the Guardian shared the complete program…no one else seems to have. Just the last few minutes looking at the Orange Lard and family…wow were they squirming! Praise god for sphincters!

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David Kannas's avatar

Bishop Budde, a slight woman in clerical robe, standing in the National Cathedral and telling what's his name that he, in fact, is a cruel phony was priceless. True to form, what's his name responded with "she's just nasty." Such is the state of our nation under what's his name. You, like I, are the age where we can hope we live long enough to see what's his name be the has been that he is. Or maybe a never was is more accurate. Happy travels.

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Ryan Collay's avatar

There complete program, starting with the reading from Mathew…building on rock instead of sand…the Guardian share it!

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Michael Granzen's avatar

What a beautiful and generous essay. Gives me hope. Thank you!

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Jeannine's avatar

Shakespeare is "buttery?" Then again. I still don't understand how wine can be buttery, either. I drink water. I must be a Philistine.

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Pamela Delk's avatar

Thank you. Your words always cheer me up!

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Deborah Kile's avatar

You may not care who the Lubbockians voted for, but I do. They can sing hymns all night long but they're still hypocrites.

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Charmaine Martin's avatar

The Santa Fe Opera is presenting The Marriage of Figaro this summer. Beautiful music I am amazing setting. A trip to the Opera is the highlight of my year. Perhaps I'll see you there!

https://www.santafeopera.org/

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Charmaine Martin's avatar

music IN an amazing setting. The keyboard and I have a merry war betwixt us.

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