Bingo Skit

 Narrator Pete:                                            The Day Bingo was Gone!

When the key in the lock, opened the Franklin Senior Center, who knew what the day

would bring.  The cafe opened with the alluring smell of coffee. The Sunshine Club 

participants started arriving.  The yoga mats soon spread out.  The Senior Van arrived  

and dropped off passengers. All seemed normal, until the Director of the Senior Center

made an announcement over the intercom for everyone to gather in the cafe.

Listen to what the Director said.

Director Steve: I’m afraid I have some alarming news.  This morning all the equipment

for Bingo is gone.  It’s missing.  Someone took it.  

Everyone:  No/what happened/how/who cares/now what….Angry Ad Libs!

Director Steve: Quiet down and listen.  I know this impacts some of you, but we still 

have other activities–cribbage, mah jong, bridge, scrabble, puzzles and

Everyone: What?  What else?  What now? How?

Helen: Someone stole Bingo?  Who?

Everyone: Yeah, Who?

Alice: That’s not right.  I miss Bingo.

Everyone: Yeah.  Get a life.

Bill: How can we play with no cards?  Can we buy more?

Everyone: Yes.  Buy more.  We pay taxes, buy more Bingo cards!

Director Steve:  Order!!  Keep it down.  This isn’t murder.  Someone, we don’t know who, 

or why, or how, but the Bingo board, cage, numbered balls, and cards

are all gone.

Faith: Maybe the school department borrowed it, or some other town department.

Helen: Maybe another town took it.

Director Steve:  If anyone borrowed the Bingo equipment, they would have asked permission

first.  Everything is gone.

Bill: Call the police.

Alice: Yes, file a missing Bingo game report.

Director Steve:  Wait/wait/wait/  Don’t get carried away.  It’s only a game, and an old, kind of 

decrepit one, at that.  I’d feel foolish calling in the police over a silly old game.

Bill: I just called the police.

Director Steve:  (panicked voice)  You did??  Who gave you authority?  What if it’s just missing?

Faith:  Where would anyone put a Bingo Board, cage, and other stuff?  No it’s gone.

Police Chief Pete: Hello!  Good morning.  Quiet down.  Listen up!

Good morning.  For those of you who don’t know me, I’m the police chief.

I understand your Bingo equipment is missing.

Helen: Yes!  There’s been a theft of a vital component in the Senior Center operation.

Alice: Of course!  Bingo is vital.  What are we to do?

Police Chief Pete: Well, I know this is disruptive.  I’ve never played Bingo, myself, but I

do recognize the seriousness of the situation.

Everyone: Yes!  Help us!  Please help.

Police Chief Pete:    I will find it and I promise I will find the guilty person who stole it.  Any 

Questions?

Alice: Stop talking and start looking.

Director Steve:  Look, I know this is a hardship but we will get through it.  Stay strong.

Everyone: Yeah!  Boston strong.  Franklin strong.  Senior Center strong!

Faith: Don’t take too long, or I’m going to a different Senior Center.

Police Chief Pete:  So what is exactly missing?

Everyone: Bingo Board–big board/cage/cards/number balls…

Police Chief Pete:  ALL that?!?

Deputy Director Bob:  What do we do meanwhile?

Director Steve:  I will order new Bingo equipment/ new bingo software/automated balls/ virtual 

Bingo show that is much better than the old Bingo Board.

Everyone: Yay!  

Director Steve:  It will come tomorrow.  See, you won’t be without Bingo for long–one day.

Police Chief Pete:  That was fast.  Too fast.  So fast, it’s suspicious, like it was pre-meditated.

Director Steve, you keep stressing that the stolen Bingo equipment was old?

Outdated?  

Director Steve:  Yes, actually, the thief did us a favor because now we have an excuse to 

purchase new Bingo equipment.

Deputy Director Bob: Yes, it actually was so worn, it was embarrassing.

Police Chief Pete:  Mmmm.  You know, I’m going to get search warrants to search the premises

of the Senior Center, Director Steve, and Deputy Director Bob’s homes.

Director Steve AND Deputy Director Bob:   WHAT!!!  Wait!  What, why?

Police Chief Pete:  I think this theft was an inside job.  It looks like a scheme to get new Bingo

Stuff, especially since the Director and Deputy Director already ordered new 

Bingo Equipment before the old Bingo stuff was even missing.

Director Steve AND Deputy Director Bob: Er. We give up.  

Deputy Director Bob:  We did it for the Senior Center.

Director Steve:  We didn’t think the police would get involved over an old Bingo Game.

Everyone:   Don’t arrest them.  They did it for us.

Police Chief Pete: Still.  A crime has been committed.

Everyone: NO!

Helen: We’ll say it was all a joke.

Bill: I called the police.  I’ll say it was a mistake.  I didn’t know it was a joke.

Faith: We will all stick together.  It was a joke, a mistake.  It will be our word–all of

us, against you, Chief.

Police Chief Pete: Ah.  I see how it is.  I guess there’s nothing I can do.

Director Steve: You got that right.

Everyone: BINGO!

Tehillim 71:9

 Tehillim is a book in the Torah.  We Christians call the book Psalms. Psalm 71:9 is about feeling vulnerable in old age.  "Do not cast me away when I am old; do not forsake me when my strength is gone."

I am approaching 80.  Since I recently traveled across country, to go to a wedding, I often felt age related vulnerability.  I found the parking garage, the shuttles, the airports, overwhelming.  

However, I don't feel cast off.  The opposite, people defer to me.  I find it embarrassing.  I think, "Do I look the decrepit?"  But I know it's kindness.  Too bad King David didn't feel that way.  He worried about his age-related weaknesses.  

One thing King David and I have in common, though.  We have always love and trusted God's grace and know that God won't abandon us.

Historical Conspiracy

 The Lost Pope by Glenn Cooper doesn't have any sex in it.  I make that statement because the hero, Cal Donovan, is always jumping into bed with women.  The author doesn't make it necessary for the story, but still.  And I do get it, I really do, but this book proves that it's not necessary.  It's a good story.

What if I told you that Mary Magadalene wrote a Gospel?  Mmmm.  You've heard that, already.

What if I told you that she wasn't a prostitute?   Mmmmm.  You know that.

Well, I bet you didn't know that she was married to Peter.  That when Peter knew he was going to be killed, he passed the papal ring to her.  

Got ya!

That's the story and the papapari to prove it, is what this story is about.  The author tweaks the noses of rich conservative Catholics.  They want to suppress the idea of a woman pope, never mind discredit Cal's dream woman, Sister Elisabetta. As usual, the setting is Cambridge, MA, and Rome, there are libraries in Harvard and the Vatican, and the chase.  It has everything.  I think you'll like it.

Emotional Triggers

 There was something that happened at the wedding rehearsal, that still bothers me. I'm sure no one noticed or if they did, would remember it.  It amazes me how fast something hurtful, even if not intentional can deflate one's confidence.

Before I left for the wedding, I posted the reading Christina chose. At the wedding rehearsal, I started reading it.  It's from Song of Songs, about a lover waiting for his beloved.  Song of Songs is poetry. It begins with "Hark."  The minute I said "Hark," someone giggled. As I continued about "peeking through the latices," there was more giggling. I was not reading it dramatically, either.  After all, this was only a rehearsal.  I read it matter of fact.

It unsettled me.  Instantly, insecurities enveloped me.  I remembered my Boston accent was strong.  I remembered a speech teacher telling me that I had, "an annoying Merrimac Valley nasal twang." I remembered all the criticisms I received in Toast Masters.  I remembered when I quit being a Lector in church, no one tried to talk me out of it.

Well, it's over with, what's done is done.  However it came across, no one will remember.  It was the wedding that was important.

Christina & Ian's Wedding

Celebrating

 Christina's wedding was fabulous!  It lasted five days!!!!!  The first day was a dinner to meet everyone.  After all, people came from across the globe. The wedding was in California.  The groom and myself live in Massachusetts.  The bride's mother was Austrian.  So, everyone got together for appetifs at a restaurant, then to the bride's father's house for food and snaps.  The next day was the wedding rehearsal, followed by dinner at a Middle Eastern restaurant.  Finally--the big day.  The wedding was a nuptial Mass.  It was beautiful.  After the Mass, Christina took a bouquet and placed it at the foot of a statue of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.  They said it was an old Catholic custom.

Following the wedding was a reception on a cruise ship.  While the revelry went on, the ship cruised Newport Harbor.  What a fantastic experience!

My!  I know I'm using a lot of exclamatory statements, but how else to describe this event?  Lastly, the next morning was a brunch, at a restaurant.  

May God bless this marriage of Christina & Ian.

Apocalypse

 Here's another Book Review.  This time it's Wild Fire by Nelson DeMille.  John Corey is the detective with his long suffering wife.  He's a smart mouth investigator.  His friend was murdered in an assignment that was meant for him. Corey's partner is his wife.  Both are investigating this crime, in the Adirondacks.  

The bad guys are out to blame Islamis.  This takes place right after 9/11 They hope to accomplish revenge by nuclear bombing American cities, which will force our government to think Islamic terrorists were responsible and go to war.

This is a fast-paced political thriller.  I see that it is part of a series and John Corey is featured in all of them.  If you like sarcastic, sexy heroes.  This is a book for you.

Sancta Indifferentia

 This book is so timely, I don't know why it's not more popular.  Reading the Times: A Literary and Theological Inquiry into the News by Jeffrey Bilbro is a guide to keeping your sanity while being bombarded by TV, radio, video clips, podcasts, newspapers, magazines, blogs, tweets, Facebook, etc. vying to get your attention.  Bilbro describes how all this attention-getting information affects us.  It's too much, too loud. and all-together too mis-leading, making us judge--too fast.

Bilbro recommends that we approach everything with "sancta indifferentia."  IOW, "holy indifference."  In thinking about this, I think "sancta indifferentia," is how I approach my favorite mysteries.  I love reading Louise Penny mysteries.  I am interested, very interested in the crime.  But I'm not intensely upset by the crime because, well, I know it's fiction, besides Inspector Armand Gamache will solve the mystery.  The same with Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot.  That's how to approach the news.  Distance yourself; you can't do anything about it; it's part of God's plan; it's karma; it's kismet, it's cosmic justice, ca sera sera.

Another recommendation is to balance what you read with the opposite view.    Watch liberal and conservative news.  M er Iran, I wondered how come they're still shooting at our planes and ships. So, I turned the channel to Al Jazeera.  Al Jazeera was claiming victory over America.  Finally, I turned to BBC and got the "bare-boned" news.  The conflict was still on-going.  The USA was bombing all the military targets it could, and Iran had mined and closed the Strait of Hormuz.  So, who's winning? Well, let's call it a draw.  It's stalemated.  

Back to "sancta indifferentia."  Does it matter to you?  What can you do about it?   This too shall pass.  Ca sera sera. Don't get your knickers into a knot!

There are some people who are just incapable, unwilling, to read opposing views.  Bilbro said they are too entrenched in their identifying "tribe," "group," "party," "people."  They are incredulous that anybody could possibly disagree with their interpretation of "whatever."  If you showed them facts proving the opposite, they would not believe it.  They think the facts are falsehoods to trick you into thinking the opposite of what they believe. 

God bless them.

Speaking of God, Jeffrey Bilbro is a Senior Elder in his Luteran Church.  So, he recommends aligning oneself with reasonable, good, God-centered people.  They will help you keep your sanity.  Read what they read, listen to, and watch what your "tribe" does.  Start discussion groups.  You don't have to be a church goer.  Join a book club of like-minded, open people.  Read different books to discuss.  Have a Discussion group, like the Franklin Senior Center has. They conduct polite conversations on contemporary issues.  Have each member subscribe to different periodicals and talk about their readings.  Make sure to pass around and leave these magazines on the table, in the Senior Center.  As the author concludes, "...reading the news isn't good in and of itself, but ...it can be an instrumental good to journeying well with our Christian and non-Christian neighbors."

The Power of Love

 This is my niece's pick for a reading for her nuptial Mass.  To better understand and read it, I'm doing a Lection Divina on it.

LECTIO:    Songs of songs   2: 8-10, 14-16: 8: 6-7

STUDIUM:

This is a narrative poem about the love between a young maiden and her lover.  Metaphorically, it can be the love God has for His Church.  

MEDITATIO:

This Reading begins with the lover rushing to find his beloved.  Sometimes, I can't wait to get to my prayer time to be with God.  I do feel like this Lover, rushing like a gazelle.  And God is waiting for me.  I begin with "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."  This sign of the Cross is blazed on my body , like a blazing fire and water cannot wash it away.

ORATIO:

Thank you Jesus, for loving me.

CONTEMPLATIO:

Love is stronger than death.  I accept the love of God and strive to make my love for Him a reflection of perfect love.

Senior Citizen Haiku

 Help me up, my friend.

I want up, my bones say no.

Glory Be! Gravity!

Straight Roads Made Crooked

You haven't heard from me in a while because I've been traveling the Lincoln Highway. Yes, I've been reading Amor Towle's The Lincoln Highway.  And loving it.  I love Towle's characterization.  Each one of his characters were endearing, to me.  I wish I knew them.  Their adventures were often "hair raising." The morality was interesting and often thought provoking.  The plot was simple, but convoluted.  It reminded me of the expression, "You can't get there from here."

Keep life simple and true to yourself.  Always be kind.  That's the way to live, just like the best characters in Lincoln Highway.

Redemptive Suffering

 Jesus' suffering on the cross is the epitome of redemptive suffering.  He willing suffered because He loves us.  This came to mind, tonight, as I froze my butt off, watching my granddaughter play softball.  The game didn't get over till 8:30 pm.  The field's lights were on.  It was dark!  I was wrapped in a blanket and couldn't stop shivering.  

Why did I do it?  That's what parents and grandparents do for their loved ones.  They suffer out of love.  This also is redemptive suffering.  

Besides the fact, that even though these girls are sixth graders, I don't see any improvement in their playing, since they played Tee Ball.  When they throw; they overthrow.  They never catch anything.  Their pitchers walk everybody because they can't find the strike zone.  OY.  See, redemptive suffering.  

Stay Above the Fray

 A few days ago I posted the poem I chose for "My Favorite Poem" Event, at the library.  It was "How Can I Keep From Singing."  Yesterday, President Donald Trump was almost assassinated, again.  The war with Iran and Lebanon is still going on.  Never mind, the numerous conflicts in Africa and drug wars in Mexico.  I'm sure there are more situations I haven't named.  Again, "How Can I Keep from Singing," comes back to mind.  

I guess I'll resurrect my mantra, "All is passing.  Only God abiding."

Ba-BOOM!

 Dr. Takashi Nagai was a doctor who studied radiation.  Fate placed him in Nagasaki when the atomic bomb was dropped.  Being a sincere Catholic convert, his faith perspective saved him from despair and anger.  His wife was killed instantly, with her rosary melted intwined in her hand.  His children survived but were sick, as he.  

The book, The Bells of Nagasaki, takes us threw that fateful day.  He was working when a blinding light, change of atmosphere, wind--it's hard to describe, threw everyone here and there.  Some people were blown far away--dead.  Dr. Nagai was buried under debris and gradually worked his way out.  Those that survived tended to the wounded.  "The blind leading the blind."  They did what they could.

The most interesting part of the story is Dr. Nagai's eulogy.  The was thankful for the end of the war.  He was thankful for a stop of his country's suicide nationalism.  He thanked God for a new chance.  He thanked God for taking his wife and friends home.  

May we all have his perspective in tragedy.

Crazy Secrets

I'm spending a small fortune on Glenn Cooper Books.  I couldn't find them in my library or the Minuteman Library network, as books.  They were available, however on Hoopla.

With a little help from a librarian friend, I connected and read, Library of the Dead by Glenn Cooper.  As usual lately, life was put on hold, while I read. At first, I thought I was reading a book of short stories.  There seemed to be three stories.  It begins in Medieval times, in a Benedictine monastery.  The next story is the usual degenerate hero that Glenn Cooper has his readers lusting to meet.  This hero is Will, an FBI agent.  Lastly, the reader finds herself in Area 51--UFO land.

Once they all meet, it makes sense.  As usual, the book is a fast-paced thriller.  I think Will is in other books.  If so, I'll keep you updated.

Accidents

 I heard this poem today that made me think of the novel "Hare."  The poet, Norman Maccaig ran over a hare.  We have all run over a squirrel, skunk, rabbit, etc.  One time I hit a bird, rather a bird hit my windshield, and once a dog ran into my car.  

This poem, Interruption to a Journey, states simple facts, but relives how I felt. It does this by meter.  At least, that what I think.  This is a simple experience, probably all of us have experienced.  But the way it is written adds depth.  We are forced to think about it.  Only a poem can do justice to this experience. When we harm a living creature, it shouldn't be a small thing.  Accidents change something.  It leaves us in a different landscape.

The hare we had run over Bounced about the road On the springing curve Of its spine.

Cornfields breathed in the darkness, We were going through the darkness and The breathing cornfields from one Important place to another.

We broke the hare's neck And made that place, for a moment, The most important place there was, Where a bowstring was cut And a bow broken forever That had shot itself through so many Darknesses and cornfields.

It was left in that landscape. It left us in another.

Something To Do About Nothing

 Everyone has a hobby, be it watching TV, fishing, Facebook, etc..  There is something everyone enjoys doing, even if it's nothing.  Well, even nothing is something.

Besides, what some people call nothing is really something to the person perceived to be doing nothing:               to people working--reading is doing nothing
          to some academics--sports are doing nothing
          to some science nerds--liberal arts are nothing
          to laborers--supervisors do nothing
          to hedonists--praying is doing nothing
Well, you get the idea.  Doing nothing actually is something to somebody.  They are embracing something different from your something.

And that's something.

Secrets in the Cave

 Yes, I'm racing through another Glenn Cooper thriller.  This one is The Tenth Chamber.  It's about a French archeologist who stumbles upon a cave with pre-historic paintings that make Lascaux caves primitive.  Well, they both are primitive, but the ones at Ruac are still vibrant in color, movement and variety.  The only problem is the town's people.  They're really odd--really.  That's the problem.  The town doesn't want the publicity and there are plenty of reason why they don't.  

Luc, the major character has his hands full when too many accidents happen.  He gets pulled off the job.  His best friend gets killed.  Are they all accidents?  I don't think so--too coincidental.  

Hope During Turmoil

 Tomorrow, I'm going to a "My Favorite Poem" event.  I tried to find something apos pro to our times. I looked back to the sixty's era.  People were angry with their government, a war was going on, and many protest songs were popular.  I settled on an anthem of sorts because it mentions the craziness of that time but also offers hope.  We sing it in church, called "Always Rejoicing."  The folk singers usually called it "How can I keep from singing?"

It's origin seems to be a 19th century anthem, perhaps written during the Civil War.  A Civil War certainly would have been the opportune time to seek hope amidst turmoil. Although some people associate the hymn to the Quakers.  I can see it that, too.

Comparing the civil war times to our current polemics, I think these lyrics are apos pro. Whereas, you will hear about the political, military and anxiety-ridden disorder, what is emphasized, by the repeated last line in each stanza, there is always hope.  Always.

Lyrics

My life flows on an endless song
Above Earth's lamentation
I hear the real though far-off hymn
That hails a new creation

Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear that music ringing
It sounds an echo in my soul
How can I keep from singing?

What though the tempest 'round me roars
I know the truth, it liveth
What though the darkness 'round me close
Songs in the night it giveth

No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that rock I'm clinging
Since love is Lord of Heaven and Earth
How can I keep from singing?

When tyrants tremble, sick with fear
And hear their death knells ringing
When friends rejoice, both far and near
How can I keep from singing?

In prison cell and dungeon, vile
Our thoughts to them are winging
When friends by shame are undefiled
How can I keep from singing?

My Reading Niche

 Good grief!  Has it been almost ten days since my last posting.  My bad.  My excuses are that my bronchial asthma has made me tired and more or less housebound.  That means that I've been reading a lot.  So much so, that I haven't been posting Book Reviews.  I want to hurry to get into the next book. 

I've found my reading niche.  I like conspiracy thrillers--think Raiders of the Lost Arc. I particularly like Vatican conspiracies.  I've been reading Glenn Cooper and am addicted.  I can't get enough.  I finish one and begin another without posting a review.  Sorry.  Not sorry, I just want to get back to my book.

Library of the Dead

2009

Down: Pinhole

2014

The Devil Will Come

2011

The Keepers of the Library

2012

The Lost Pope

2023

Down − Floodgate

2015

The Debt

2017

The Last Conclave

2025

The Showstone

2019

Three Marys

2018

The Tenth Chamber

2010

The Quantum Priest

2016

Near Death

1998

The Cosmos Keys

2025

Down − Portal

2015

The Library of the Dead

Clean

2020

The Physician of Nineveh

2025

The Fourth Prophecy

2022

The Resurrection Maker

2013

The Silence of Flesh: A Novel of Conscience, Identity, and Holy Vows

2025

The Taken Girls

2021

The Tenth Chamber: A Gripping Archaeological Conspiracy Thriller

2025

Sign of the