Happy Groundhog Day

Rise and shine, Campers. And don't forget your booties cuz it's cold out there.

I have been very negligent of ye ole' blog. Went an entire month without nary a "howdy do" on this thing, and I apologize to the 2 or 3 fan club members who still read my blog. I am well. If it makes you feel any better, I have yet to send out my Christmas cards with my annual letter. I just don't know how to sum up my year. Perhaps I will date it Groundhog Day. Or perhaps it will be a Lenten missive?

The man I have been keeping company with knew how hard New Year's Eve would be for me so we had a quiet evening at home for dinner and then he took me to KC for a night of music and dancing later that weekend. Being with someone right now scares me for I fear my heart is either frozen or encased in plexi-glass, but I have been lucky to find this fine man who is kind and giving and loving beyond my wildest imagination. We do not share the same taste in music, but I am trying to expand my tastes. The choir I am in will be doing a Night on Broadway in March and Mozart's Requiem in May, and I guess he will be expanding his tastes as well.

Mabel (Daughter #1) fainted off the treadmill a couple of weekends ago and hit her head. Needed some staples in the back of her head, and we had to talk her into taking the day off work. Telling her she needed to rest from a concussion didn't convince her. Telling her needed the time to grade papers that she lost while being in the ER all Saturday didn't convince her. But reminding her that she couldn't wash her hair for 48 hrs and would have to teach with dirty hair made her realize that she couldn't teach that way. In the end, she took the Monday afterwards off, called in "ugly," and I came over to wash her hair carefully and not touch the staples. If you know my daughter, she never handled Q-tips in her ear well so nurse after nurse in the ER reminded her that she would need an epidural if she ever gave birth! He b/f got a kick out of that and documented the day with photos on her iPhone. It was determined that she has low blood pressure and she is fine with another war story for the year.

Barack on! Was the inauguration a thing of beauty?? I was so moved and so lucky to be able to watch as much of it as I did during the day. Working at a university in the College of Education, I was able to watch much of it on the internet and then the swearing in on tv in the dean's office. What a momentous occasion. I sure wish my mother had lived long enough to see this day. I have added The Rev. Gene Robinson's prayer that did not get much, if any, air time. Poetry.

"O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will bless us with tears - tears for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women in many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless this nation with anger - anger at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort at the easy, simplistic answers we've preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth about ourselves and our world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be fixed anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility, open to understanding that our own needs as a nation must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance, replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences.

Bless us with compassion and generosity, remembering that every religion's God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable.

And God, we give you thanks for your child, Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Give him wisdom beyond his years, inspire him with President Lincoln's reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy's ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King's dream of a nation for all people. Give him a quiet heart, for our ship of state needs a steady, calm
captain.

Give him stirring words; We will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters' childhoods.

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we're asking far too much of this one. We implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand, that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find
joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity, and peace. Amen."

It has been cold in Missouri and even colder when I went to Chicago last weekend to visit my friend Bruce and run around in 4-degree temps. I even got to meet a blog friend for breakfast. which was so much fun. Those who do not blog cannot understand how wonderful it is to meet people from all over the world through this and then get to meet them personally. What a joy!

We didn't get the snow St. Louis got last week so life is cold but tolerable in mid-Missouri.