MY LIFE - MY CAREERS - MY CUP OF TEA

Notice it says "mostly" original parts.  Original tonsils are gone.  Original eye lens are gone.  I'm only 4% Jewish according to my DNA, but I lost that original part in the early 1970's or so.  I don't have as thick a head of hair as I used to have and the original dark color has given way to grey.  I don't know how many teeth I have left, but whatever the number is, only 50% are original but even then they are only about 50% natural.  Have my original mind, but only half of its memory.  I have both original languages from way back when, but like my teeth the others are far from being original but when I get hungry on travel they do come in handy.

This morning after Mass about five of us declared that we were celebrating birthdays this week.  It was quite interesting to note that I was far from being the eldest.  
So here I am wishing you all a good life.  I pray that we will all be blessed with the kind of loving friendship that God gave to Moses along the way.  Of all the people who crossed the Red Sea out of Egypt, only Moses lived all the way through it and got to see the Promised Land before he died.  Then, some time later he got to accompany God to Mt. Tabor in a glorious victory celebration  with the Transfigured Lord, His Father and The Holy Spirit.  

That's what I'm shooting for, 120th birthday celebration with Moses and Our Heavenly Father.  Plus, I also expect that not a single one of you will shed a single tear at  my funeral.

This is the time when I had a REAL Thibault face!

HOW TO BE GOOD ACCORDING TO JOHN THE BAPTIST

John the Baptist is a person who was totally dedicated to God as a Nazirite.  This dedication required that he not shave or cut his hair, that he not imbibe any alcohol and that he refrain from sexual congress.  There were Nazirites who could maintain that level of sacrifice for a year or two but very few of them ever made it a way of life until the day they died.  As we know, John spent some time in the desert and then he staked his mission claim on the banks of the Jordan in order to prepare the chosen people for the coming of the Messiah.  John, the bridge from the Old Testament to the New, spreading the word of God at the very place where God led His people into the Promised Land.  The description of his physical appearance is not that complimentary.  Wrapped in sheepskins, eating wild honey and whatever other edible wild thing he could grab.  He's a person who must have been ugly just from the odor that exuded from him.  But there he was, testifying to the world that the Messiah was in the area, just as the patriarchs and the prophets of old had promised.  Despite his appearance, he was a powerful force for God.  He had a following, and a devout one at that.  One day, some people came at him with a desire for answers  Three questions came at him from three different slices of the population.  All three of his answers were cut and dried and all three should have been known by those who ventured to ask them, because all three were, and still are, expressions of basic morality as foreseen in the Law and lived out by John and Jesus and their followers until this very day.
You know how people are.  They just have to ask.  So the questions come from
1. good people
2. tax collectors
3. soldiers
Whose missing?  The politicians

Those people didn't ask because they didn't have to ask.  They already knew.  Hey, they knew everything.  Did you ever meet a politician who didn't know everything?  That's why they miss out on so many good things.  They miss out on seeing their children grow in age and in wisdom and in Grace.  They miss out on seeing the smile of new immigrants who are making giant steps in the ability to speak a new language.  They miss out in the learning of the precious gentle and gentile behaviors of their new neighbors in the neighborhood...But then again, because they already know everything, they don't miss out on these things because they are convinced that these are the behaviors and talents that they have to measure, to control, to regulate because they know better than anyone else what is good for the world.

As for me, along the years I have come to know and love the song of David that goes,

LORD, who may abide in your tent?                                                                        Who may dwell on your holy mountain?

Whoever walks without blame, doing what is right,

speaking truth from the heart;

Who does not slander with his tongue, does no harm to a friend,

never defames a neighbor;

Who disdains the wicked, but honors those who fear the LORD;

Who keeps an oath despite the cost,

lends no money at interest, accepts no bribe against the innocent.

Whoever acts like this shall never be shaken.

Don't cry at my funeral

MY TRIP TO NEBO WITH MOSES

It has been more than a month now since I and the small family that we are were granted the time and ressources to visit the land of my birth for what could be one last time.  It turned out to be more than what I thought it would be and less than what I had dreamt.  
Ever since I have been back home in San Diego I have been living in the shadows of the experience as connected with the experience of the great Patriarch, Moses.  Specifically, I cannot shake the recurring picture of Moses standing by the right hand of God for the last time, looking out over the gorgeous expanse of the Promised Land.  I keep visiting the vision day after day, each time with a deeper appreciation for the way that God was letting Moses know that this vision was the key to his passing through the Pearly Gates for having done God's bidding for so many years and through so many harrowing moments.  There is a great measure of merciful justice in the picture that we see when we visit and bask in the simple language of Exodus:                                                                                               

The VIEW, North over the Land of Milk and Honey

1  Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, the peak of Pisgah which faces Jericho, and the LORD showed him all the land 2 Gilead, and as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, 3 the Negeb, the plain (the valley of Jericho, the City of Palms), and as far as Zoar. 4 The LORD then said to him, "This is the land about which I promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 'I will give it to your descendants.' I have let you see it with your own eyes, but you shall not cross over."  5 So there, in the land of Moab, Moses, the servant of the LORD, died as the LORDhad said; 6 and he was buried in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor; to this day no one knows the place of his burial. 7 Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were undimmed and his vigor unabated. (Emphasis mine) 8 The Israelites wept for Moses in the plains of Moab for thirty days, till they had completed the period of grief and mourning for Moses. 9 Now Joshua, son of Nun, was filled with the spirit of wisdom, since Moses had laid his hands upon him; and so the Israelites gave him their obedience, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

10  Since then no prophet has arisen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, 11 in all the signs and wonders the LORD sent him to perform in the land of Egypt against Pharaoh and all his servants and against all his land,         12 and all the great might and the awesome power that Moses displayed in the sight of all Israel.  (Deuteronomy, chapter 34)

The story says that Moses himself brought himself there and that while He was there, he and God had their final recorded encounter.  When God announced that Moses would not cross over, I just know that Moses did not let that bother him.  He had it in hs sight, in his mind and in the depths of his being.  He knew that he was seeing more than any single other leader of God's people would ever see of this gorgeous land.  Moses knew right then and there that he had delivered what God had ordered and he would take the memory of it all with him as he was seeing it in the very presence of the One who had saved him from Pharaoh and the current of the Nile.  Here they were together, celebrating their victory together before the servant would reach the maximum of the divinely decreed human life span (120 years) and the Father Creator would go on preparing the way for His Son's mandate.

I have deciphered the eulogy found at the foot of the monument
"To this lad in rime, who e're thou art draw near.
Here lies the Friend most loved, the Son most dear
Who never knew joy but Friendship might divide
Or gave his Father Grief but when he died."

Believe it or not, I am sure that there is a connection between Moses and the tombstone just above.  It is a headstone that can be found in one of the many historically important graveyards of the city of Boston, Massachusetts.  I tried to make the contrast clearer, but was not very successful. This is the grave of John Hurd, Jr. Officer in the Massachusetts Regiment in the Continental Army.  He gave his life in 1784 for what was yet to become the United States of America.  He was all of 24 years old. 

This young man is one of the hundreds, if not thousands of young people who died for what we have today.  While I was standing there I was thinking of Moses.  God actually rewarded Moses by showing him that the goal had been reached.  John Hurd was never able to bask in the sight of the goal for which he fought.  

I went back to Massachusetts on the occasion of my 80th birthday.  I was there with my beloved spouse, the one whom you know as the "Voice from the Kitchen." (Isabel by name)   We had our two loving sons with us, Marc and Jo-El.  We spent a good part of two days with near family and two days in Boston.  Yes, I felt like Moses.  Now all I need are 40 more years to fill out the divine quota.  Especially the part that says that Moses was still spry at his age.  (Verse 7) 

One way or the other, I announce and decree once again, in the names of John Hurd, Moses and our loving Father Creator, there is to be No Crying at my Funeral.