Sunday, May 12, 2013

JUST ONE MORE KISS

                                          

May 11, 2014

I wrote this last year on mother's day and it was the last thing that I wrote on the blog all year. The article still reflects my thoughts and so I am offering it up once again.  Time is always much shorter than we ever imagine.  
   
Back in 2004 I saw for the first time someone without a face.  She had a scarf across her face and as she walked past me the scarf was swept to one side by an air conditioning vent.  The only feature left on her face were two beautiful brown eyes.  Her deep suffering went far beyond the physical pains she must have endured.  My heart ached for her.
 
Now in 2013 we are blessed to have surgeons able to do complete face transplants.  I can't help but think of the 2004 woman without a face and wonder if she is one of those blessed recipients of a face transplant.  Every time I see or hear about face transplants I rejoice for the people.  Recently  I read an article about a transplant and a picture was included with the story.  The donor's daughter was kissing the recipient on the cheek and commented that she could now kiss the face of her mother once again.

The article made me think of my own dear mother who died in 1996.  Oh how I would love to kiss her cheek just one more time.  My mother was not a kisser.  I am sure she did when we were young but as we grew up I don't remember my mother kissing me or my siblings.  But I know she loved to be around babies and would sit for hours cuddling them. And I know that she loved us. When she was stricken with Alzheimer Disease she would at times insist that she was pregnant.  There was no way to dissuade her.  She would insist that we needed to get busy and purchase a crib. As her dementia progressed I took every opportunity to kiss her sweet little face knowing the time would come when she would be gone.  I miss you Mom. 


Friday, March 1, 2013

Let Me Be Clear

 
 
This morning I listened to the President expound about the sequester and observed him once again playing the blame game. A reporter asked him if he at all thought he might be at least partially to blame for the sequester road block. He never really aswered the question.  He once again went on and on about how he had a wide majority of the American people choose the policies that he is attempting to implement.  I have never felt that 52% of anything to be a wide endorsement.  It is a situation where one side managed to squeak by and gain control often to the determent of many. After 15 minutes she asked the question once again.  Still no direct answer.   
 
I have arrived at the place where I recognize his left-wing ideals, candy coated in such jargon as  "protect the middle class".  Sometimes I find it difficult to listen to what he calls a press conference or a message to the American people.  Whenever he says, "Let me be clear", I know it is a statement in a grey area that he has said before.  In the case of the sequester it has finally been admitted that the original idea came from the White House. Just like bargaining with the devil, you have to be careful how you negotiate.  Tax revenues have been levied and yet the President will not honor his agreement to reduce spending.  He wants another tax levied with no cuts in spending. He makes hollow references to cutting entitlements and other budget items. 
 
So the statement,  "Let me be clear", does not provide clarity or even the truth.  It is veiled rhetoric at the most dangerous fork in the road possible. In the last few weeks I have heard that term untold number of times and shudder every time I have to listen to it again.   Mr. President, if you are being truthful it will come through loud and clear.  If you are not being truthful you can tell me all day that you are making things clear, but it won't matter.  Did I make myself clear?