I just booked the flight to take Ben to University of California at Santa Barbara. We will be out there Sept 7 through 12, at which point I will leave Ben and return home to Boston. He is ready to go!!!!! He has been home for the summer and is now eager to launch into his PhD work in material science engineering. He is also eager to experience California. There is still the minor issue of finding a place to room!!!!!!! But the big picture looks bright.
Jon is entering his fourth year at the University of Chicago studying Medical Physics. He just moved from a studio apartment to a one-bedroom. We flew Ben out to help him move.
I (Don) am slowly recovering from Lyme Disease. There is significant fatigue, and I’ll never forget the unremitting headaches for a time. Soon I will have to wean myself from the Percocets, but they sure have been helpful during this convalescent period. The doctor thinks I should continue to have checkups so I have to go see someone at the Infectious Diseases clinic. Wow, do I feel special!!!! What’s next, quarantine? It’s been sometime since I have been able to work out at the gym, but I hope that soon I will be able to get back.
Not too long ago Tammy Faye Mesner passed away. I grew up with her. She was on TV in Norfolk, VA, the city of my birth. She worked at the then fledgling CBN, Pat Robertson’s network. I still remember not being able to watch Jim and Tammy and their puppet show. Even as a young teen I was ill at ease with her, and her growing popularity was not just a mystery to me but also very troubling. The soap opera style of ministry, the prosperity gospel, the over-the-top self preoccupation and self-promotion in the name of evangelicalism made it at times impossible to explain how the PTL club and I could be part of the same camp. In fact, I am not sure we are. No one desires to speak ill of the departed. But I am amazed by the number of articles among evangelicals who continue to laud Jim and Tammy. The PTL phenomenon was a blot on evangelicalism, and it is better forgotten. It is not my desire to judge a person’s relationship to our God. But Jim and Tammy’s refusal to step back from the media and public ministry has been only a continuing sign that an enlarged view of self is at the heart of the demise we all witnessed.
I am reminded that both our Lord and the Apostle Paul ended their earthly ministry forsaken and abandoned. At times I wonder if evangelicalism has the courage to follow.
