50 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 5-13-19”

  2. What guy? All I see is a swamp. We had lots of those in SC.
    I got an e-mail this morning that says the father of a transgendered shooter says it was caused by an alien.
    I believe an alien as much as I believe transgendered.
    Do you realize that “transgender” was not a word ten years ago?

    WE are inventing words to describe physical conditions that don’t exist.
    QoD
    When a man becomes a woman, what does he do about the beard? I once, while standing in front of a mirror, shaving, that it would be nice to be a woman and didn’t have to scrape a blade across my face. But then I noticed Elvera getting pretty and changed my mind.
    Women want to get pretty. Men just want to be presentable.

    Did I say good morning?
    Good morning everyone but Jo.
    Good evening Jo. Your week is already on the way.
    Off to slay dragons now. 😉

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  3. Good Morning. I went to see my Aunt Virginia yesterday. She is going to do some sort of immumotheraphy rather than chemo or radiation. Why did she want to do for Mother’s Day? Go to Costco! At least I know what is for dinner tonight and she and Mr. P ate all the shrimp they wanted.

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  4. Morning! Where’s Waldo….I just knew he had to be in that photo and he is quite well camouflaged!
    Sun shiny day with showers later on…in the 60’s we shall have it today! Time to open the windows and air this place out and bring spring indoors!
    Chas the “trans” girl who is 16 had/has a very tragic life. Her “Dad” has been in this country illegally and perhaps that email was citing him as an “illegal alien”….? He has been deported a couple times and came back into our country….he has been convicted for domestic violence/abuse….but it was reported that this young lady missed her Dad…and somehow she thought she should be a boy…what a mess…..

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  5. This may belong on the “Politics ” thread. But just the same:
    I see on FoxNews that a school district has decided to eliminate the “valedictorian” award for outstanding students in an effort to prevent suicide.
    So? I wonder if everyone but Jere Weidner was supposed to commit suicide in 1949?

    She was the wrong choice anyhow. Valedictorian” is supposed to be for the outstanding student, not best looking.

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  6. It is tragic for a girl to try to be a boy because they can’t measure up to what is required due toe lack of testosterone. Boys can join girls teams, but a girl cannot be a quarterback or left guard. It won’t work.
    Boys can put on girl’s clothes, but a woman in shirts and pants is still a female.

    The whole Western World is in trouble. Most of us don’t realize what’s happening.
    Everything!

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  7. I don’t do laundry on Sundays unless it’s an emergency or we’re just back from a trip. Yesterday was beautiful, I did four loads and hung the whites out on the clothesline. Heavenly. Except for the work.

    I had to do that because the next three days are packed. I’ve been moving ever since I left Charleston. 😦

    Jo’s service is tomorrow at 11. I’ve canceled Bible study. I’ll be bringing a dish, playing the clarinet, and speaking. I’m about to start printing photos of her.

    I may have an hour or two off on Thursday afternoon, otherwise, it’s busy, busy, busy.

    I was depleted and exhausted after the retreat–I actually fell asleep on the ferry to Fort Sumter!

    May is always crammed with activities. A year ago, we had just returned from Europe and I was running around with Jo’s niece getting things in place for her 100th birthday party–and printing pictures.

    I’ll be with Jo’s niece again today.I like her, but she needs a listening ear more than anyone else today!!!

    QOD: How do you find time to not be busy–especially when you don’t want to be busy but somebody’s got to do it?

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  8. I refuse to be busy. My husband and children are my priority and that is that. It is what God has given me to do. I don’t know how others do the things they do. I am glad God gave me this as it suits me. Almost like He had a plan when He formed me.

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  9. Beautiful spring day here today. Trees are blossoming, bees are buzzing, at least eighteen hummingbirds at the feeders last count. I love this time of year. If I had a favorite….

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  10. You do things you have to do.
    Then you do things you need to do.
    Then you do things others want you to do. (This has limits, but you understand)
    Then you do things you would like to do.

    Then, you relax and think of things you should have done.
    Maybe next time.

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  12. I’m not very good on the “busy” setting.

    I started tinkering with the old weathervane on the patio yesterday — this is a tin model, a horse, that adorned the garage roof at the house I (mostly) grew up in (we moved there when I was maybe 9?). I salvaged it when the house was sold so I could use it someday on my *own* house. But it sat in the garage until maybe a year + ago when everything from my mom’s storage got hauled out of there and sorted. There was the weathervane, way back in the corner (along with the old water pump from my mom’s childhood home in Iowa — that’ll be the next project).

    So now the weathervane will be put on top of the garage here, but it needs some work first. A couple of the directional letters were badly bent so before I can do anything with it I had to carefully straighten those out without breaking any of them off. Being tin, those letters seemed really delicate and some of them were badly twisted out of shape.

    I managed to get them mostly straight yesterday with some gentle prodding. It was actually easier than I thought it would be, I was sure something was going to break off as soon as I tried it and then I’d have another problem to solve.

    Next I need to do some sanding and cleaning and a couple rust spots need removing. It was painted white but I will spray paint it black. I think I need to oil the movable parts of it, too, but after the painting process.

    Then I need to buy a base (they sell them on Amazon where you can buy just about anything) and find someone who can install it.

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  13. Sleep eventually falls into the “must do” category. You have to arrange for that.

    There was a time when a 590 drop in the Dow would have been a market crash.
    I remember when the market went over $1000. It was in 1971-72. I was at Purdue.

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  14. Michelle, your comment about bringing “a dish” reminded me of my dad’s jokes when we were in Iowa one summer. My uncle, a farmer, had died very unexpectedly while we were visiting that year and the funeral plans for a lunch at the church afterward involved lots of people bringing “dishes.” There was also the special “hot dish” on the list. It seemed like such an Iowa phrase. Anything *in* those dishes? Or was it just a dish?

    I guess we needed some diversion amid the family vacation-turned-tragedy, but I welcomed my dad’s way of making me laugh.

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  15. Is Chas still bitter about the choice for valedictorian at his high school graduation? 🙂

    On Chas’ QoD: The hormones given in sex change procedures involves both hormone blockers of the natural sex hormones as well as supplying the opposite sex hormone. Since it is the presence of androgens (namely, testosterone) that cause body hair to grow longer and thicker (while, paradoxically, slowing or stopping scalp hair growth), blocking those androgens would reverse the process, causing a male to no longer grow a beard.

    There is nothing new under the sun. Daniel and millions of others like him were castrated for millennia for various reason. Nehemiah also would have been a eunuch. In many societies, such as the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, poor parents often would have their male children castrated so that they could become members of the civil service – both the Christian Byzantines (the Orthodox Church took a literal prescriptive view of Christ’s words in Matthew 19:12) and the Muslim Ottomans, who took over Constantinople from the Byzantines, used eunuchs as government officials. The Ottoman Empire collapsed at the end of WWI. From the Renaissance era to the 19th century, Catholic European society imitated the Eastern example by castrating boys with good voices to produce castratos, who were famed for their singing ability and performed in operas and in the Vatican. The last castrato retired from the Vatican in 1913. The ancient Hindu caste of Hijra is a caste of transgenders, eunuchs, and those born with ambiguous genitalia (called intersex), who have designated functions within traditional Hindu society. There are probably still eunuchs serving Middle Eastern monarchies; there certainly were just a few decades ago, as the explorer Wilfed Thesiger noted meeting an African eunuch who was a government official in Arabia in the late 1940s. There is a definite correlation between the accepted use of castration, and a having a highly developed and extremely prosperous segment of society, as eunuchs were nearly always employed by the wealthy and powerful. “The thing that has been, is that which shall be, and that which is done is that which shall be done.” (Eccelsiates 1:9). The Western World is highly developed and extremely prosperous. See also Ezekiel 16:49.

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  16. Interesting roscuro — my answer to chas was going to be a shorter summation without all the fascinating historical context: hormone treatments. 🙂

    Truly, nothing new under the sun.

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  19. My son is a chemical engineer, but I’m glad I didn’t depend on chemicals to make me what I am.
    I knew that Daniel and his cohorts had been castrated. But that was then.
    And boys with good soprano were castrated by the Roman Church to prevent voice change.
    But I don’t think it was a good practice.
    If God had wanted men to sing soprano, he wouldn’t have invented women.

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  20. I use to know how to be busy. Right now I do not see well enough to be busy, busy, busy. Tax season is as busy as our lives get. But these days tax season never ends. Art is very busy. Prayer helps set priorities to what God considers most important. How much is too much, and what is required to glorify God rather than people? I do not know the answer to that question. I do enjoy the programs at funerals when I learn about the person’s life. If a big to do was in the final wishes then it is good to try and make that happen. Others would prefer the funeral message would focus more on God so there might be hearts touched that could be saved through the funeral message. Each situation has a combination of reasons as to why things are done the way they are. We do really miss people when they are gone and a big send off can help hearts that are grieving.

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  22. I do not find myself very interested in castration, but I do not have a medical background which I suppose makes people interested in all surgical procedures. A little bit of that history goes the distance for me. In other words, what is in the Bible is enough for me.

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  23. An out of town friend visiting me once announced “you surely know how to step back and relax!”. I had invited her to spend a couple of nights with us instead of being alone in a hotel. We had just had breakfast (I arose early to make cinnamon rolls, quiche and fresh fruit) and we were relaxing in the living room having our second cup of coffee. That’s just normal for me.
    I do think life is more laid back in Colorado…hiking/walking, having a chat over coffee ( we have many coffee shoppes) making time to have dinner with friends. There are those times when every event being held happens to be all in the same week or month, but that is not the norm. I am an introvert…I do not like crowds and most of my friends understand that. When invited to something of a larger crowd I decline. Boundaries are a good thing and I try not to overcommit.

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  24. Chas, you did depend on chemicals to make you what you are, chemicals woven together in extremely intricate and marvelous ways. The human body is an infinitely complex chemical formula synthesized by the Master Chemist.

    Rejecting the excessive imbalance of a super prosperous society should not lead to a careless dismissal of the beautifully balanced restraint of biological creation. Men and women both produce and use both estrogen and testosterone. It is simply that men have more testosterone than estrogen and women have more estrogen than testosterone. Men and women are both human and they share even their hormones in common. Perhaps one of the clearest illustrations of how the biology of the sexes is more united than divided is found in the reproductive hormone oxytocin. Most people associate with women giving birth and being able to breastfeed, as medicinal preparations of the naturally occurring hormone oxytocin (it may be called pitocin) are given to induce labour and to prevent postpartum hemorrhage. But oxytocin is actually used by men in a vital biological process, without which pregnancy would not occur, that of ejaculation. Oxytocin is also a neurotransmitter and has been linked to the areas of the brain involved in forming emotional attachments in both sexes. Woman is bone of man’s bone and flesh of man’s flesh, and both male and female are created in the image of God. Their physical bodies, even in a sin-sick world, reflect that united glory.

    Most of the medications used in sex change procedures were not originally developed for such a purpose, they were developed to treat life threatening health problems. Androgen blockers, for example, are used in treatment of prostate cancer, as cancers involving the reproductive organs frequently feed off of the sex hormones and are impossible to control without first blocking the sex hormones. One specific androgen blocker, spironalactone, is actually a potassium-sparing diuretic, used in the treatment of heart failure alongside other diuretics, to prevent the loss of potassium, which is an element the is absolutely vital to proper functioning of the heart. It is the dosages (used as a diuretic, spironalactone does not significantly block androgens) and the reasons for using such medications that makes the difference whether they are used to treat illness or to facilitate a chemical castration (androgen blockers were prescribed to homosexuals when homosexuality was illegal).

    One final note, Jesus, when he made his comment in Matthew 19:12 about eunuchs, noted that some were born eunuchs. The group of biological health conditions grouped under the term intersex includes people with unique chromosomal or cellular abnormalities that make their sex more or less ambiguous. One such famous example is the South African athlete, Castor Semenya, who is a woman, but has naturally high levels of testosterone that give her an advantage in sports. Intersex conditions are rare, but not so rare that you will never meet such a person. Remember what Isaiah, when prophesying the coming of salvation said about eunuchs and remember that several of the eunuchs mentioned in the Bible were – despite the prohibition of eunuchs entering the congregation of Israel in the law of Moses (Deuteronomy 23:1) – people of faith who served God, among them Daniel, Nehemiah, and two different Ethiopian eunuchs. This promise applies, not only to those born with biological abnormalities, but also to those who have had medical procedures that render them infertile, who seek the Lord:
    “No foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord
    should say, “The Lord will exclude me from His people”;
    and the eunuch should not say,
    “Look, I am a dried-up tree.”
    For the Lord says this:
    “For the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths,
    and choose what pleases Me,
    and hold firmly to My covenant,
    I will give them, in My house and within My walls,
    a memorial and a name
    better than sons and daughters.
    I will give each of them an everlasting name
    that will never be cut off.” [HCSB]

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  25. It is a beautiful, gracious promise that Isaiah gives from the Lord. That last phrase, “never be cut off”, shows that God is know how to make puns. The Apostle Paul later made the same pun, but in righteous anger at those who were troubling the Galatians (5:12) church, telling them they needed to be circumcised and follow the law in order to live the Christian life: “I would that they were even cut off that trouble you.” The use of the pun as both a gracious promise to those who were irreversibly maimed and apparently lost to the promises of Israel, and as a curse to those who turned the gracious gift of free salvation into a heavy burden of works, should serve as a reminder that our God is not ashamed of interacting with the unpleasant and uncouth aspects of human life. Other religions find it offensive to think that God could assume our physical flesh and do all the bodily functions that humans do. Christians need have no such contempt. After all, Jesus was circumcised.

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  27. Qod2….well it must be the same make as mine Michelle…it is set up with WiFi and I should be able to sit in one room and print from the printer in the den…I usually have to go in the den and turn the thing off then on again…thus rebooting it….why does everything have to be rebooted? 😏 🖥

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  31. Yesterday my aunt wanted to tell me what she wanted when she dies. It was a difficult conversation to have. Then she loaded me up with things to bring home. I have a new cake plate, a relish dish, and a teapot. I was lucky to get out with that little. 😉 She wanted to send me home with tomatoes too.
    She wants to be cremated and for us to spread her ashes where my father’s are spread. She said he was her favorite brother. I promised her we would do that. She said everyone can go out to lunch but she doesn’t want any kind of formal gathering. I tried to talk her out of that. I told her that wasn’t for her, it was for us to collectively mourn and say goodbye. She still doesn’t want it. She also doesn’t want the more maudlin/extremely religious of her siblings coming to make sure she is right with God and pray over her. She told me she and God have a good relationship and what it is isn’t of anyone else’s concern. She is the 3rd child of 12. The oldest 5 were physically and mentally abused by my grandfather in the name of religion. That are all damaged in some way. Number 4 Aunt spent a lot of time as a psychiatric nurse and graduated from Orel Roberts University. She is the most damaged of all.

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  32. My niece is legally married to a “trans man”. “John,” formerly “Jane” takes testosterone, has had her breasts removed, her chest made to look like “pecs”, and a full hysterectomy. She can grow some beard. If you didn’t know “he” was a she, you would not guess. (Although I think her being overweight may play into that, too.)

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  33. There is a bird in the picture, walking across the mud flats, Chas. Close to the middle of the picture and slightly to the left. It is hard to see.

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  39. Some people who believe that the Bible condones homosexuality think that Daniel was gay. Also, I think they say that about the centurion (?) who came to Jesus asking Him to heal his servant. (They say the servant must have been his lover.)

    Chas’ statement, “If God had wanted men to sing soprano, he wouldn’t have invented women,” reminds me of a cartoon I saw long ago. A baby bird is telling his mother-bird, “If God had wanted me to fly, He’d have given me a propeller!”

    Kim – I agree with Cheryl. You could have a simple memorial service.

    I think it is often out of false, or misguided, humility when people claim to not want any kind of funeral service done when they die. (Hubby said that a time or two.) As you said, it is for the living, not the dead. Civilizations have had varying forms of funeral rites because there is a need in us to acknowledge the person’s death and process it somehow.

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  40. NancyJill – Your mention of coffee shops in your area reminds me of something Nightingale told me the other day. One of her friends from childhood is in NYC for a family trip, meeting other family there.

    The friend posted something on Facebook about how, when you’re in NYC, why not visit a Starbucks, as if that is a typical NYC thing to do. Nightingale thought, but did not comment, “Because you can get Starbucks anywhere! It’s not a NYC thing! Go to a local coffee shop!” 😀

    Speaking of coffee shops, I enjoyed that latte so much at the Stafford Coffee Company, I can’t wait to go back for another one! (Just earlier this time. Last time it was in mid-afternoon, and I couldn’t get to sleep for a long time that night.) But we don’t go there very often. Not because we don’t like it, but because it’s a bit on the expensive side, as most lattes and such are. At least for us.

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  41. About men singing soprano… The vocal ranges of men and women, while men are generally lower and women generally higher, can vary greatly, without any kind of hormonal or medical interference. There is a woman (a wife, mother, and grandmother) who sings tenor in the city church choir. She simply cannot sing alto, never mind soprano, that is how low her voice is pitched. Similarly, some men can, with no medical or surgical alteration, sing the equivalent of the soprano. It is called a countertenor voice:

    I myself speak with quite a low pitch, as my mother does – my voice gets even lower when my asthma is bad (as it is right now). But when I can sing in the choir, I sing soprano.

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  45. I was just trying to be “cute” in a couple of my comments above, just to make a point.
    I didn’t realize that it would generate such commotion.
    But, I mean it also.
    I think God created men and women to be different.
    When we try to change that, we get lots of trouble.

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  46. There are those who want to keep confusion stirred up over gender because it is profitable for them to do so. It is sad how much focus is on that and how it can wreck lives permanently. It is like a fad or something and people make a lot of money from fads.

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  47. Bee Gees!

    I remember the first song I heard of theirs — but I don’t really remember what it was — and I thought it was a girl singing. I was on the beach as I recall. I was surprised to see them on some TV rock show. “They’re boys!”

    Major tie up on the bridge coming home, a truck accident was the cause but we didn’t figure that out for a couple miles. On the other side of the road, but all the traffic coming off the other bridge was being diverted so they were in a bigger mess than we were.

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  48. Interviewed a couple port execs today on the tariff crisis. But I couldn’t help segueing at the end of the last interview into the new bridge that’s being built on the LB side of the 2 ports.

    I’ve been going over the port bridges for years, having lived and worked in both areas on either end at various times in my life.

    This new one will be massive, and it will have LED lights that can change color with the seasons and holidays. Supposed to be open by the end of this year.

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  50. Sex change: I think this probably falls under the question of whether we “can” (kinda, yeah) or “should” (probably not) …

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