More Delights and Disdains . . .

of a diminutive nature of late . . . Number 19

Disdains:

Honing my driving skills by unsuccessfully dodging potholes. The roads in South Carolina are pathetic as I was reminded of during a recent trip to Duluth, GA. My son and I were in search of a specific car that I wanted to get him before he goes back to university this Fall. More on the need for that later. Anyway, I haven’t been traveling like I used to and had forgotten the Wizard of Oz-like colorized feeling that washes the black and white out of your day when you cross over the state-line into Georgia and leave the potholes behind.

Delights:

Thanking God for His grace, BMW for their drivers training, and Fiat/Mazda for their engineering skills. These together prevented my son and the other driver from incurring any injuries during a recent automobile accident, though I cannot say as much for his car. A total loss. But the front of the car buckled exactly as designed, the airbags deployed perfectly, my son steered skillfully while the angels spread their wings. An apt example for those who understand the tension between an individual’s free-will and what might be predestined.

Playing MURDLE, a WORDLE-esque daily online murder mystery game replete with suspects, weapons and clues to decipher. Perfect to clear out the Parkinson’s brain fog.

Reading Roger Scruton’s Our Church, a personal reflection on his life as a member of the Church of England. Scruton, who died in 2020, was an excellent writer, philosopher, and a church organist. In this book, he observes that local Anglican churches, empty though they are, still protect England’s national culture through its defining texts - the King James Bible, the Book of Common Prayer and the Hymnal. He admits that this protection is declining as church membership plunges toward zero and discusses what future role an established Christian church has in a nation of non-Christians. We don’t have an established church in America, though I can remember when the Southern Baptists thought they were around here. When I was first elected to the SC House, the SC Southern Baptist Convention had a dedicated lobbyist at the statehouse in Columbia. They kept a watch on the alcohol and gambling bills that the city folks would want. I also suspect that they were there to stand against the only other church that employed a lobbyist - the Roman Catholic Church. By the time I left office, neither group could be found in the lobby.