Looking Down the Barrel of a Brand New Day - COMPLETED

Sixty-Two

Monday, January 2, 2017

Jack

Back to work. But that doesn't mean we have to stop drinking champagne.

Office Celebration of Gary's acquittal!!

Ceci

Funny, I was just thinking I should have a glass.

Jack

Of course you should. IT HAS BUBBLES!!

Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Jack

09:55:20

Court this morning for the sweet kid who grew up in our back yard. I need to create some love in the hearts of the DA and Judge, then find a path this boy can take to redemption. 

Ceci, do you know that in a dark club in Detroit, we met? We danced. No talking. No names. One dance. Years of time ago.

Friday, January 6, 2017

Jack

Our health insurance company sent me a letter dated a month ago, informing me that our health insurance was terminated two months ago for "late payment". 

When I drive my flaming Subaru into the lobby of their headquarters and they try to link it to ISIS, you will know the truth. 

On the upside, we went to the pickle place for lunch.

Saturday, January 7, 2017

Ceci

I remember that Eileen and I loved to dance and I remember that you were game and joined in our fun.

I had a good time last night hanging with some girlfriends for a b-day party. We got drunk and all practically started crying considering the future of our country.

Jack

Yeah. It didn't seem very festive or jolly to bring it up over the holidays, but we're in for a hurricane of shit. I have to consciously restrain myself from blurting out acid, bitter, insults on the internet. The frequency of me ranting like a lunatic while driving has tripled. Sometimes, when another car pulls up alongside, I pretend I'm talking on a speaker phone so I appear less unhinged.

Shopping for health insurance has made me even more unstable.

Ceci

Same here. It's gonna break us.

Jack

I keep thinking about Gethsemane. Do you know that story? 

I don't, but I remember bits from Sunday School and Jesus Christ Superstar. Jesus and the Apostles are crashing in an olive garden in Gethsemane. Jesus knows he is heading for a really bad day the next morning: betrayal, conviction, the crown of thorns, and being nailed to a cross. 

He decides to talk over his options with his Dad (God), but in the end, Jesus decides to submit to torture and death. Many miracles are attributed to Jesus (my favorite is the lunch of endless fish and loaves because I love fish and loaves), but, to me, his most impressive miracle is the unrecognized miracle of restraint. 

Think about it. There is Jesus the almighty, conferring with his Dad, the even more almighty. They have the power to do some wicked Jedi mind tricks, or to turn the Romans into salt, or to nuke the whole city. But instead, Jesus doesn't waste anybody. He restrains himself. Jesus quietly submits. His restraint, peaceful protest, may be his most powerful miracle. I don't entirely buy the spin that "he died for our sins", like a holy get out of jail free card. That seems like the lose-weight-while-sitting-on-your-ass theory of salvation. I think the lesson may be that we can't stop evil with evil, or violence with violence. And that, even though doing the right thing is often hard, unfair, and feels like total bullshit, sometimes we have to step up and absorb the hate. That's why I keep thinking about Gethsemane.

On the other hand, would quiet submission or peaceful protest have worked against Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, etc... I'm not so sure. Maybe it's a mixture. Martin Luther King confided to Malcolm X, that King's peaceful civil disobedience was effective, in part, because the white man knew that if Dr. King was not successful, Malcom X's militant approach might follow.

I don't know. It is a very hard question. It is a very important question.

I don't know, Ceci.

[⭐Vote⭐ for champagne and uncertainty!]

Photo 1: Crucifixion by Didgeman, 2002 (Pixabay #1734261).

Photos 2-3: Taken and owned by the authors, 2017.