Blogs
Political Discernment
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 09/06/2016 - 20:52May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart
be pleasing in your sight,
Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
For the past year or so I have been seeking discernment within the Episcopal Church in Connecticut about how I can best serve God’s mission here in Connecticut. What skills and gifts can I offer? What do I desire? What does God desire of me? Is God calling me to become a priest? a deacon? a lay minister? something else?
How do I balance all of this out in terms of being a loving husband and father, in terms of supporting my family? How do I balance all of this as I seek to show God’s love to the people I meet in my daily life and work as I try to practice self-care as well so I don’t burn myself out? How do I bring God’s love into our current political climate?
All of these things I considered last May during the state legislative conventions. I had run for State Representative in 2012 and 2014. I knew that if I did not run again, there was a good chance that my opponent would run unopposed, that the people from my district would not be given a choice about who their State Representative would be.
Yet running a full campaign is a lot of work. It is stressful on the candidate. It is stressful on the candidate’s family. My wife said that I had done my part by running twice already. Someone else should run.
Here we are in September. No one else has agreed to run. The Working Family Party, hoping to maintain its ballot line has been looking for someone to run, and they spoke with my wife. She agreed that it would be okay if I ran, so today, I accepted the Working Family Party nomination for State Representative in the 114th Assembly District in Connecticut.
At this point, I am not expecting to form a candidate committee, appoint a treasurer, do fundraising, phone banking, door knocking, or many of the other things associated with campaigns today. However, if people step forward to do some of these campaign activities, I will support their efforts.
Given the opportunity, I will gladly speak, debate, write articles, press releases, and further the discourse in whatever ways possible.
My focus remains on how I can best serve God. My goal is to help return our public discourse to one based on respect for all candidates as being created in the image of God. My goal is to help return our public discourse to how God would have us treat the poor, the marginalized, the outsiders, no matter what their race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, or religion.
I ask for your help, your support, your prayers, and your involvement, in my own discernment in what God is calling me to, in our common discernment about how we can help our nation become more loving and compassion.
Kintsugi
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 09/05/2016 - 18:00It was a special vase
full of magic and grace
that we acquired
fifteen years ago.
Over the years
it had tumbles
gained cracks
but stayed intact.
Yesterday
in was smashed
beyond repair
and I just don’t care
any more.
So I sat under the broom tree
with the prophets of old
and sulked.
Then the Lord came to me
and said,
“You know that’s not true.
You know you care
more than you can stand.”
I replied,
“Yes Lord,
but I just don’t have the energy
to pick up
all the broken pieces.”
Then the Lord replied,
“but I do.”
So the Master Craftsman
gathered several apprentices
and we all worked together
picking up the broken pieces
building a new vase
with the cracks filled with gold
even stronger
and more beautiful
than before.
What I’m Reading – Late August.
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 09/04/2016 - 18:50I try to start each day with readings from the lectionary. I aspire to write weekly poems based on the lessons of the week, but I rarely get to it. So, as I look at the browser tabs open, they include The Lessons Appointed for Use on the Sunday closest to August 31 and on Sunday closest to September 7.
Often, I read lessons from Lesser Feasts and Fasts and then spend time reading about assorted holy women and holy men. In my browser tabs, I found, Martin de Porres, 1639, Rosa de Lima, 1617, and Toribio de Mogrovejo, 1606: Witnesses to the Faith in South America - August 23 and the feast of St Bartholomew – Aug 24.
Last Sunday, Paul referenced “I remember Mama” in his sermon. (See also the Wikipedia article and an episode).
Various stories about the culture wars in Christendom have come across my newsfeed, including and Brief Challenges South Central's Petition to Nullify Oliveto Election. This is contrasted to an interesting lawsuit, A St. Cloud church is suing the city to keep its tiny house.
Also, I’ve been praying for Sisters found dead in Mississippi and thinking about Pub Theology, though I am a bit concerned about their pricing model.
In the broader culture wars, there is an oldie but goodie making the rounds, Russia Wants Bulgarians to Stop Vandalizing Soviet Monuments To Look Like American Superheroes. Someone pointed me to Werner Herzog’sLo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World. It looks like it is well worth exploring.
I also stumbled across Postwaves. I looked at it briefly, but nothing jumped out at me. I should revisit it some time.
My blog post at the National Nurse Practitioner Residency and Fellowship Training Consortium is An Invitation to Digital Introverts It is an idea I hope to explore further.
Another idea that I started exploring is based on what Facebook thinks of your political views. I wrote about this a little bit in Facebook Ads and Robert Burns. There is more to explore there as well.
Another topic I’ve been following has been EpiPens
- Cost of EpiPen: One senator's daughter is Mylan CEO, another's needs drug
- Dear EpiPen Customers . . .
-
> Mylan to offer generic EpiPen for 50% less
All of this fed into a blog post I wrote, Express Scripts, Mylan, and the EpiPen.
Two random other links, Bruce Springsteen stops ‘Jersey Girl’ performance for a marriage proposal and OLA Wallingford, which is where we went for Kim’s birthday.
Fiftieth Birthday
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 09/03/2016 - 03:57(For Kim on her Fiftieth Birthday)
Half century seems nigh unto eternity
to the young
but to others
fifty is the new twenty one.
Her daily grind was littered
with death and disappointment
but still on the weekends
a young girl
eagerly rode
wild and free
on her loving pony
over back woods trails
in the memories
and body
of a chronically ill mother
as she looked on
to her daughter’s bliss.
In the midst
of all the pain and suffering,
of the mother,
of the daughter,
of the world;
each day
contained the hope
of enjoying the world
God had made
especially for her.
Choosing Love and Waging Peace
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 09/02/2016 - 05:59This weekend, my wife will celebrate a major birthday. I had planned on various things to help celebrate the day. After the past few weeks, some celebratory rejoicing really seems to be needed. Every week seems to have included the death of at least one friend or colleague. Each week has been met with news of a friend starting chemo or another moving into hospice.
Both my wife and my youngest daughter suffer from chronic illnesses and, as is often the case, plans have needed to be altered. Having been brought up in the context of American masculinity enabled by a busy and demanding work schedule and compounded by my personal family history, I’ve powered through keeping a calm exterior.
Likewise, on the national political front, I’ve restrained my commentary. The divisiveness and nastiness online is something I do not want to take part in. Instead, I’ve focused on my poetry, hoping it could be an antidote to some of the broken politics we’re seeing. My wife has posted pretty pictures of animals with the phrases Choose Love or Wage Peace.
How do we choose love and wage peace in these turbulent times? I’ve tracked the course of typhoons Lionrock and Namtheun as they hit Japan. I believe that Lionrock passed far enough to the north to avoid issues for my eldest daughter in Japan, but Namtheun is passing to the south and may bring her flooding at the around the same time as Hurricane Hermine hits parts of the United States.
I also thought of her when a band that I follow on Facebook posted their cover of Michael Jackson’s “Will You Be There?” The tune caught my attention. Where had I heard it before? It finally dawned on me. It was in the movie Free Willy which I watched with my older daughters when they were younger. I believe my eldest skated one of her figure skating routines to it.
Hold me
Like the River Jordan
And I will then say to thee
You are my friend
Free Willy came out the year my second daughter was born and I watched it repeatedly with my daughters. It had the tagline, “A 12 year old street kid. A 3 ton orca whale. A friendship you could never imagine. An adventure you'll never forget.” The storyline description is “When a boy learns that a beloved killer whale is to be killed by the aquarium owners, the boy risks everything to free the whale.”
Yesterday, my middle daughter posted one of her latest paintings. She used a knitted canvas made out of yarn my late mother had left. It is beautiful, on many levels.
While my wife and daughter were at the hospital, I contacted various people letting them know what was going on. I sent a long description to the school my daughter attends and while my wife was sitting in the emergency room, she received this message:
“I just wanted to remind you to get a medical note for [your daughters]’s absences. We have a strict attendance policy at the high school and I don’t want [your daughter] to have any attendance issues.”
It must be difficult to work in a job where you encounter great suffering and you are obliged to not show compassion or sympathy, but instead to make sure that policies that are ineffective at best, send the wrong message, and limit opportunities to show compassion are properly followed. It must be difficult to work in a job that precludes choosing love and waging peace.
Our priest stopped by the hospital to visit with my wife and daughter. For those brought up in churches where priests only visit to administer last rights, let me assure you that the latest bout was not life threatening and everyone is on the mend. We go to a church where priests visit the sick regularly, a church where priests, and members of the church actively choose love and wage peace.
When I cancelled the event to celebrate my wife’s birthday last night, we received many kind words. One friend even stopped by to drop off flowers that she and her husband and gotten my wife for her birthday.
It is early I the morning now, a time when I get up to read, study, pray, and write. My wife and daughter are both sleeping quietly and for part of my morning routine today, I am contemplating what it means to look for compassion around us, to see the beauty of God’s creation on a dark rainy day, and how to practice choosing love and waging peace in a culture that discourages it.
