Thoughts on the birth of my first grandson

I have pondered your arrival for several days now and am still at a loss to put to words what your arrival means to me. When one looks at a new born child, it is with a sense of awe, no more so when the child is your descendant. 

I hold you as my grandfather held me and I am reaching back in my past. Re-enacting a scene that has played out down through the centuries of our family. Someday the little hands that I hold will hold the tiny hands of his child, my great grandchild, and then of my great great grandchild. Always with the same awe and puzzlement that is before me now. 

Your mother wanted you so much I will not even attempt to put that into words. Your arrival was preceded by countless prayers and tears and cries to the Father. My prayers were lifted up in my home, in my car as I drove to work, in so many churches and along countless walks alone. "Lord, make Rachel a mother." I doubted at times whether my oldest daughter would be so blessed, but God in his wisdom granted our prayers at the time and place of his choosing, not ours. And not before many tears were shed for reasons that are beyond our understanding. But, as always, what God had planned for our family is better than what we planned, for now we have you. We are so happy that you are now here and will always be thankful to God for his providence. 

Our family is more complete now. As our family has grown it has still seemed as though someone or something was missing. We couldn't name it, but all who loved your mother sensed that perhaps our thoughts were about you. That missing piece now so tiny yet so large. At Thanksgiving and Christmas and all other big family gatherings there was this unspoken person who was not there, who we all felt should be. 

I think now of these holidays and simple family days to come. Soon your mother will come to our home bearing you in her arms. In a flash it will be that you will come walking up the steps holding her hand. Later you will bound up those steps with your parents trailing behind, bearing some story of an accomplishment or victory at school or play. 

We await those days with anticipation but for now are content to watch you in your helplessness and dependence on your father and mother. There is a beauty in the state you are in this day, totally dependent on others, without the ability to do one thing for yourself. You only have this sense of what you need, food and comfort. You know this will be provided and cannot even conceive of being without. You are nine days old and have never been hungry or cold or hot. You have been blessed to be in the arms of a man and woman who have committed their lives to each other and to you and have the means to provide for you. In time you will realize what a blessing indeed this is, for even in the hospital where you were born there are those who share your birth date who do not share in your good fortune. 

In the months to come you will teach us so much. You will remind us of the wonder of this earth, as mud squishes through your toes, butterflies catch your eye, dogs lick your face, and raindrops fall on your head. You will teach us about trust. You will remind us of the joy and laughter that comes with learning. You will remind us to be thankful for all the things we forget to thank God for, as smiles fill your face when you learn to take a step, to feed yourself, to dress yourself, to do something nice for someone else. 

You will teach us about faith, real faith. As your parents fill your mind with stories of God, the Lord himself will fill your heart, and you will believe. How our Lord himself was once right where you are, gazing at his mother and father, helpless. And you will not doubt. Later others will introduce you to doubt, but that will not come from your parents or from the Lord. My prayer for you this day is that you will ever stand strong and not waver. 

I have a favor to ask of you, Truman Dyrud. As with your mother and her siblings and my other grandchildren, the first word you heard from my lips was the name of the Christ, Jesus. I also made the sign of the cross on your forehead. It was my little way of thanking God for you and doing one little thing to start your life as He would have it. I ask that when you come to such a time in your life, that you do this for my great grandchildren and their children. And if you have time in all the excitement, say a prayer for me, as I will for you. 

I am happier than I can say that you are here. I so look forward to sharing the days, weeks and years to come with you. God bless you Truman and lift you up, be a good man. 

You can smoke frozen pork ribs

I'm sure the title of this post is heresy to smoking purists.

The problem with smoking meat, is every article or book you read goes through this long diatribe about things to do for that perfect ending to a the hours on the smoker. Wet sauce, dry rub, do this, do that, salt them, don't salt them, marinade, dance a jig, down a shot of whiskey, and on and on.

One day I decided to smoke ribs on the spur of the moment. Like, fire up the smoker, remove ribs from the freezer and stick 'em in. Fortunately I had some St. Louis style ribs that were just the right length and did not require firing up the chain saw.

I guess I was curious more than anything. I was sorta wanting ribs, but mainly I wanted the smell of the smoker going on a cool spring day as I did some yard work.

I cooked them about the same amount of time I would if company was comin. Around 6 hrs, around 200-225. No salt no pepper no marinade. These were nekkid ribs and they were just fine. Not my best but they would have been good enough for family and for most of the people I would invite over to the house.

Would they win a competition? Never? Could I open a restaurant selling Eskimo style ribs? Doubtful, though Minnesotans would by them in droves if I stuck "fusion" in the name. Will I do it again? Absolutely.

Great day just to fish

There are days when it is nice just to be on the lake, whether the fish are biting or not. I don't have one of those fancy fish finders, and I don't read the fishing tables. Mainly I just fish when I feel like it. If the fish are biting, I keep going, if they aren't I stop. Usually.

Today we fished for crappie, mainly jigging white grubs. Boy there were a ton of bites but seems the fish were just playing with us. Lots of nibbles few nice bites. In two hours the two of us caught about fifteen or so. Threw them all back for someone else to catch.

The lake was like glass almost all morning. An occasional gust but otherwise just nice and calm. Easy to use that trolling motor and not fighting the wind like it is often around here. The water temp is about 80, which is getting nice for swimming.

My wife likes to fish, which is good, most of the time.

The Nativity of John the Baptist

When I became Catholic, there were many things I grew to love that I had not thought much about when pondering finer points of theology. One is the church calendar. There is always something going on and it is always pointing to Jesus.

This week we celebrated the birth of John the Baptist. Just six more months until Christmas! Three months ago, when snow was still on the ground, came the annunciation - 9 months until Christmas. The angel told Mary at that time that her cousin Elizabeth was in her sixth month. Mary traveled to see Elizabeth, who became in a way the first evangelist, sorta. It was Elizabeth who proclaimed that the child Jesus, living three months in the womb of Mary, was "my Lord".

John the Baptist. The Precursor. He must increase and I must decrease. Leaping in the womb as Mary approaches Elizabeth. Preparing the way of the Lord. In the wilderness with a few followers. The baptizer of Jesus. Martyr at the hand of Herod Antipas.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us. 

I'm not a statistician, but... Governor Wald's claims seem a little bizarre

Our local CBS station reports this from our governor's press conference. It was earlier today and when he also announced the lockdown order.

"Walz said that if the state did nothing to slow the spread of COVID-19, projections show that upwards of 74,000 people in this state could potentially be killed by the virus."

That's a scary figure, and I'm sure intentionally so. As of this writing, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center, 21,181 people in the whole world have died of the virus. Total. All of Italy, all of China, all of Spain, all of every country in the world.

I guess here in Minnesota we are just particularly vulnerable.... that over three times as many people will die here as in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD. Fortunately for us all we live in a state that can't stand to do nothing, for both problems huge and tiny.

The virus is serious, but so far our death total here is 1. (Minnesota Dept of Health)

Neither the cheerleading of the President, nor the doomsdayism of the Governor is helpful.

A year from now we will commemorate the anniversary of this terrible event. I'm sure someone will drag out that 74,000 figure and crow about how wonderful it is that deaths were so far below the forecasts of today.

Women's book club doing their first video chat

Overheard statements from the next room....

i don's see suzie

i see mary but you're tiny

i see you and you're big

i see you but only when you talk

i hear you but you're not moving

i see you when you're talking but don't when you're not

what are you drinking..
i have my tea
i have my water

i just lost joanne

there's lisa, yea!!!

everybody's frozen for me


And on and on it goes. 9 minutes down, 60 to go.

Life during wartime

Like everybody else, I can't get the song out of my head.

"Heard about Houston? heard about Detroit?
Heard about Pittsburgh, PA?
You oughta know not to stand by the window
Somebody might see you up there
I got some groceries, some peanut butter
To last a couple of days....

He's not playing golf.

My brother died a year ago today. I miss him more than I can write about, so I won't even try.

A friend pondered, in a sort of joking/sort of not joking way, "I wonder who is in his foursome today". Around  major sporting events, he has told me my brother has "the best view of all".

I don't have any real conception of what heaven is like, but I think I am on firm ground when I assert that it is not at all like golf. It is not like watching Alabama/Auburn in football

The Bible tells us over and again that our mind cannot conceive the glory of this new land. Perhaps it will be familiar but in a way that gives new meaning to the word familiarity. My brother is going to this land beyond land in a time beyond time worshiping the King of all Kings. Perhaps he is already there.

Closing Churches in March of 2020

Having grown up in the Baptist Church, I fully expected the wave of shutdowns over the virus. In the church of the first 50 years of my life, closures were rare, but not unheard of. Particularly in the South where any threat of ice or snow was reason to call off church. Love for senior citizens was always the excuse, "we don't want the old folks slipping on the sidewalk". This also meant, "the senior citizens are too stupid to make decisions for themselves". Power out, close the church. Hurricane warning, close the church.

This was a key reason the handful of non-Catholic churches I am in touch with gave for closing. "we have lots of old folks". No you don't, no more than any other church. You have SOME old folks, they dominate your finances, but not your membership. However, you still think they are too stupid to make their own decisions. Got it. 

I was particularly disappointed when my Catholic Church here stopped all masses. At the time it did not seem the right thing to do, and after several days it still does not. However, I don't have to make the decision, I just get to sit in the stands and second guess the coach.

Seems we could have worked around this. No more than 50 at a mass, got it. Not more than 10, we'll work around that. Have more masses or communion services and spread the people out. We could have found a way to stay open. In fairness I should point out that my parish is expanding Eucharistic Adoration from one day a week to seven, and asking that no more than ten be in the church sanctuary at one time. That is good and much much better than totally shutting down. 

Behind the closings there is an assumption that during times like these, all gatherings of large groups of people are bad. It's bad for a bunch of sports fans to gather at a casino, it's bad for teenagers to party at the beach, and it's bad for Catholics to gather together to drink the precious blood of Christ and eat his precious body. Listen to the public pronouncements. Gatherings of the Church are lumped into the same category as all other meetings. The secular rulers of this age see nothing special about who we are or what we do when we gather, which is to be expected.

In this current round of church closing, it is all being done under the guise of some good end. My little country parish proclaimed that the common good should be our aim. Pope Francis has said similar things. Does this mean that as a Christian my highest priority is something other than to be more and more like Christ? That is what I thought at first reading. Perhaps it just means the common good is important. I get that, but there is something about the Church being in agreement with government that makes me a bit uneasy. There is a always a conflict between the secular idea of a common good and the devotion to Christ of His Church.

During this time the parish I live in proclaims....

It is important for us to be in solidarity with one another and seek the common good the best we can together. With that in mind, I am choosing to honor the recommendations of government authorities...

Wow, that's a scary one. How many times in history have good people said that and ended up on the wrong side of history.

Perhaps the church is right and the government is right and we should close the churches as a way to help our fellow man survive this crisis. Perhaps. Perhaps. Closing churches does not make us a better people. It does not make us more like Christ, who walked among those with terrible diseases. It does not make us physically stronger and more virus resistant. It is not a common good. We are weaker today than a week ago. We will be weaker still a week from now.

Jail time, I need more

Once a month I help conduct a church service at the local jail. Like hospice, this is an "I get to", not an "I have to".

The attendance is usually very light, never more than a half-dozen. After all, this is a fairly small county jail, not a Riker's Island or Folsom Prison.

Today there were three of us. Me and two women in their mid-30s. The Sunday Mass gospel reading for today is the story of Jesus and the woman at the well in Samaria. Many of you know that story, of the discarded, rejected, outcast woman who encountered Christ in two drinks of water. The drink of physical water that she provided him. The drink of everlasting life of living water that He offered to her.

You know the story, we all do. But I know it better from sharing it with two women who are also scorned, discarded, rejected and outcast. Right now. Right here. They knew that woman in the passage. They knew her tears. They knew how hard her life was. Face to face.

We held hands and shared prayers. I will likely not see either of them again. But time and again the gospel message comes to life for me in the faces and voices and tears of the hurting and the dying. I am drawn to them for reasons that I do not understand.

My life has just been so much more than it should have been...

What I will do/not do during virus time

I will not stop being with people.
I will not stop shaking their hand.
I will run to the Eucharist, the Church, the Body
I will offer a touch to the hurting and suffering.
I will be paranoid and irrational.
I will joke about the virus and my mortality
I will buy things I don't need.
I will go places I shouldn't.
Just as I always do.

One good thing from this virus stuff

Perhaps when this is all over with guys will discard hugging, as quickly as they seemed to adopt it.
Or is this a Minnesota thing?

When I lived in Arkansas in the mid-80s, men shook hands, boys high-fived. Normal greetings.

When I lived in Missouri in the mid-80s to early 2000s, men shook hands. McGwire and Sosa made variations of the fist bump or fore arm bump acceptable in certain settings.

By 2003 or 4, around the time we moved to Minnesota, men were hugging. It's always been ok in times of extreme emotions, such as a wedding or a funeral. But for the past twenty years or so, men have been hugging as a normal standard greeting. You stick out a hand to shake, and some will say, "come on bud, gimme a bro hug". Yes, I'm about as likely to do that as give you some of Tinkerbelle's pixie dust, a silver chair from Narnia, or a piece of cake from Wonderland.

It's odd and very much out of character for most of us. Which explains why it never made it into the business world. Not the real one. Same with politics and the arts. Toby Keith hugs, Merle Haggard shakes hands. Kennedy and Nixon shook hands. Bernie Sanders and Jeb Bush offer hugs. Hank Paulson and Warren Buffet shake hands. Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos seem more the hugging types.

Anyway, the strong handshake from a strong hand is always welcome, whether during virus time, Christmas time, or any other time.