Communion: Does Everyone Get to Go?

The Virgin Mary adoring the Eucharist (WSJ)

The Catholic Church has been roiled by an issue that most Protestants had resolved:

Should Catholics be allowed to share Communion, one of their church’s most sacred rites, with their Protestant spouses?

(Obviously from the Protestant perspective the above designations are flipped.)

There are two principal views of the Eucharist: the banquet ("a welcoming meal, often linking it with Gospel accounts of Jesus’ willingness to eat with outcasts and sinners") versus a sacrament for believers ("the traditional requirement of moral worthiness to receive Communion"). Some conservative Catholics want to screen out those who, for example, advocate abortion or remarriage after divorce, both of which are legal but contrary to official teaching.

The Episcopal Church opted for inclusion decades ago ("All baptized Christians are most welcome to receive Communion with us."), but before Episcopalians go all high-and-mighty over the retrograde Catholics, we have to ask ourselves, are there any circumstances under which we would refuse Communion to anyone? The Episcopal Church defines Excommunication as [bold added]

The disciplinary exclusion of a person from receiving communion by competent religious authority. It represents exclusion from the corporate life of the church. Excommunication was intended to encourage repentance and not meant to be a punishment. The Prayer Book Disciplinary Rubrics for the Holy Eucharist provide that if the priest "knows that a person who is living a notoriously evil life intends to come to Communion," the priest shall tell the person not to come to communion until the person "has given clear proof of repentance and amendment of life."

The key word here is "repentance," and most branches of Christianity would agree: the wayward person would be welcomed back if he or she repents of the "sin" and promises (tries?) not to commit the sin again, whatever it may be. So, my sympathies are with the Catholic Church as it struggles with the lines that its members may not cross; everyone has lines, though they may not want to admit it.

Note: the pre-1970 Episcopal Church would not allow me, who was baptized at one, to take Communion until I was confirmed at the age of 12. Also, tardy worshippers were not to supposed to take Communion if they arrived after the confession--yes, it's all about repentance--midway through the service.

Here's the 1928 General Confession, which I once committed to memory and is rarely used any more (I do like the cadences of the old-timey language):

ALMIGHTY God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Maker of all things, Judge of all men; We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness, Which we, from time to time, most grievously have committed, By thought, word, and deed, Against thy Divine Majesty, Provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us. We do earnestly repent, And are heartily sorry for these our misdoings; The remembrance of them is grievous unto us; The burden of them is intolerable. Have mercy upon us, Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father; For thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, Forgive us all that is past; And grant that we may ever hereafter Serve and please thee In newness of life, To the honour and glory of thy Name; Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Boomers to Blame

Many baby boomers need assistance, too.

Lawyer/journalist/publisher Steven Brill asks the painful question:

How did we get here? How did the world’s greatest democracy and economy become a land of crumbling roads, galloping income inequality, bitter polarization and dysfunctional government?

Hint: the answer is in the title of his Time essay: How Baby Boomers Broke America.

Mr. Brill doesn't attribute America's current state to evil people but to the unintended consequences of a meritocratic system:

The story of America’s tailspin is not about villains, though there are some. It is not about a conspiracy to bring the country down, nor did it spring from one single source....

The Meritocracy’s ascent was about more than personal profit....it may be understandable for those on the losing side of this triumph of the achievers to condemn the winners as gluttons. That explanation, however, is too simple. Many of the protected class are people who have lived the kind of lives that all Americans celebrate. They worked hard. They innovated. They tried things that others wouldn’t attempt. They believed, often correctly, that they were writing new chapters in the long story of American progress.

Sure, the boomers who made it to the top were smart and worked hard, but now they are using the advantages of wealth, education, and social connections to create a new aristocracy. Elites

can spend what they need to in order to send their children to the best schools, provide tutors for standardized testing and otherwise ensure that their kids can outcompete their peers to secure the same spots at the top that their parents achieved.

Mr. Brill calls for bigger government to help the majority of Americans in the "unprotected" class. [bold added]

On the other side are the unprotected many. They may be independent and hardworking, but they look to their government to preserve their way of life and maybe even improve it. The unprotected need the government to provide good public schools so that their children have a chance to advance. They need a level competitive playing field for their small businesses, a fair shake in consumer disputes and a realistic shot at justice in the courts. They need the government to provide a safety net to ensure that their families have access to good health care, that no one goes hungry when shifts in the economy or temporary setbacks take away their jobs and that they get help to rebuild after a hurricane or other disaster. They need the government to ensure a safe workplace and a living minimum wage . They need mass-transit systems that work and call centers at Social Security offices that don’t produce busy signals. They need the government to keep the political system fair and protect it from domination by those who can give politicians the most money. They need the government to provide fair labor laws and to promote an economy and a tax code that tempers the extremes of income inequality and makes economic opportunity more than an empty cliché.

Your humble blogger has always been of the opinion ("belief" is too strong a word) that massive government redistribution efforts create more problems than solutions. I still hold out hope that eliminating suffering and providing a decent life for the majority who can't make it is possible through a combination of technological advancement and the voluntary actions of the rich, but it just may be that the problems are too vast to overcome without bigger government. I'm not in Mr. Brill's corner....yet.

Friday Run-on Parentheticals

Three of the people whom I am closest to ["whom I am" is the correct grammatical construction because whom is the objective case though it sounds terrible, but I am compelled to use the correct case because Mrs. Matthews (English) and Miss Sturies (Latin) would otherwise give me a bad grade that would follow me through high school and hurt my GPA and prevent me from getting into the college of my choice, thereby ruining the rest of my life] had their birthdays this week.

The good news is that I can get shopping and visits to the Post Office out of the way in one fell swoop (just like the mandibularly challenged pull all four wisdom teeth out at the same time which happened to me in my late teens by a dentist who was an ex-G.I. who went easy on the novocaine but in those days we boys were supposed to be tough and not simper like the kids do these days at the slightest twinge), but the bad news is that I can't use "I forgot your birthday" as an excuse because they all know each other.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Wandering About

After I took her to Sutter Emergency in March, I urged my friend to get a colonoscopy to ascertain the source of her abdominal pain. If she did schedule one (the procedure requires sedation, hence separate transportation), I offered to drive the 2½ hours to Placer County to take her.

As the saying goes, "Don’t let your mouth write a check your a** can’t cash.” Her appointment was at 7 a.m. today, so I drove in last night.

I had a half a day to kill, so it was an opportunity to walk around downtown Lincoln. I wandered into the Lincoln Museum, which displayed items from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century.

Kids like playing on these typewriters.
Unfortunately few know how to fix them.

A fact that you didn't know and didn't care about: Lincoln was named after railroad businessman Charles Wilson Lincoln. (That's no surprise if you knew the town was founded in 1859, before the 16th President took office.) Like other towns in California, Lincoln's economy was based on farming after the Gold Rush. Coal- and clay mining followed. All were helped by the Central Pacific Railroad, which ran through Roseville 15 miles away.

I talked with the volunteer docents, who were proud of their town's history. Seeing an Asian face, they brought up the subject of the Japanese-American internment camps. They mentioned how many of the families could return to their farms after the War because the neighbors had kept up the properties and paid the taxes. If that was even partly true, then Lincoln residents had behaved better than most.

Livestock scale.

The museum was quite small--two large rooms and a gift shop. The displays were neatly arranged, but surely there was more stuff in a warehouse. No, we don't have a warehouse, one of our supporters lets us use his garage.

It hadn't occurred to me previously, but I'll add Lincoln to the list of places to retire.

Over the Hump

It had been a day of unrelated tasks: physical chores, bookkeeping, and a 2½-hour drive to Placer County.

My dinner companion yearned for the cheesy goodness of Romano's Macaroni Grill. Fortunately, RMG has other fare that isn't so lactose-intensive. Seared steak, roasted potatoes, grilled broccoli, and a glass of red were the perfect ending to this Hump Day.

I will sleep well tonight.

Steph Posterizes CPIII

...on Family Feud.

Six answers, but what's the seventh?

The rules are simple: contestants guess the most likely answers that audiences give to questions. The questions are often constructed so that one cannot really say on national television what one is thinking ---especially if one is an NBA superstar.

A bald head? He shows more confidence taking an 80-ft shot

When the Chris Paul family faced off against the Stephen Curry family, the Curry clan won the match though they lost the first round because Steph refused to use wife Ayesha's answer.

Question: If a male stripper was nicknamed Popeye, what might he have? [Hint: the first six answers could have applied to the cartoon character Popeye, but what about a stripper named Popeye?]

(Answer revealed after the break.)

Wouldn't Want to Live There

The Chronicle follows middle-class families (they would be upper class in most of the rest of America) trying to make a go of it on a block close to downtown San Francisco:

Isis St is a short walk from City Hall

Those are the people who live on Isis Street, which should be everything that’s good about San Francisco. Funky flats. A group of progressive neighbors, many of whom are artists, writers and other creative types. A walkable neighborhood where you can get to Rainbow Grocery and a host of bars and restaurants in a flash. There are about 30 units of housing on the block, and six kids younger than 5 are growing up there. It should have been the best of San Francisco, but by April, it had become the worst.

The Schoen-Rene's stroll around their neighborhood (Chron photo).

[Ernst] Schoen-Rene’s 2½-year-old son, Laszlo, invented a game called “jumping over the poop.” Another kid across the street collected syringe caps and floated them down the stream of dirty gutter water for fun. People “as high as a kite” hopped Schoen-Rene’s 10-foot fence. He once tried to pick up a pile of cardboard somebody had ditched on the sidewalk to recycle it. But it was much heavier than he expected. There was a person passed out inside.

Homeless campers cooking over open flames on the sidewalk have started fires. They’ve partied and injected drugs on Schoen-Rene’s front steps, one time repeatedly throwing trash at his door, alarming the family inside with the thumping sound.

“There’s the poop and the needles and the rats,” Schoen-Rene said. “Oh, my God, there didn’t used to be rats.”

But the breaking point for him came when neighbors found a black suitcase with wheels on the corner that had clearly been used as a toilet by homeless people.

Mark Farrell, who served as interim mayor until London Breed was elected earlier this month, removed the homeless encampments in April. (It currently is a mystery where the homeless went, since most refused offers of indoor shelter, albeit sleeping on a floor bed.)

It’s far from perfect. On a recent day, he saw a tent on his corner with four people inside “with needles hanging out of their feet.” Police came and whisked them out of the neighborhood, signaling Farrell’s determination to keep the area clear. There’s still human feces on his street sometimes. And rats. And the wait-and-see feeling that the disastrous conditions could reappear at any time.

“Still, it’s amazing to have the street clean,” Schoen-Rene said. “It’s clean. It’s nuts.”

One silver lining of the experience is that Mr. Schoen-Rene can make a $300,000-$500,000 profit on the condo that he bought for $748,000 in 2010. He would have to leave the City to find something affordable, but if and when he does leave, I'll bet he will regret not doing it sooner.

Kim Walters (1951-2018)

My friend Kim Walters discovered in his later years that Buddhist teaching resonated powerfully, and so it was that the memorial service for the Tennessee native, who died of cancer at the age of 66, was held Friday at the Palo Alto Buddhist Temple. (A brief obituary is here.)

I had lost touch with Kim after we worked as junior staffers in a public company in the 1980's but saw him recently over the past five years when I helped him with his consulting practice. Alas, he couldn't finish a software product that could have sparked explosive growth.

A man is known by his loves--Kim loved his wife and two grown children, of course, as well as working on his company. He enjoyed riding famous roller coasters, tasting expensive whiskeys, and taking long car trips. His eyes would light up when he bought the latest device made by Apple, and he was always rescuing dogs from the shelter. Tennessee football was a special case (he graduated from UT), and he would spend hours discussing the high school seniors who had committed to Volunteer football.

I'll miss the hundreds of stories he would tell in his Southern drawl, the invitations to "supper", the how you doin' that started every conversation, and the kitschy birthday e-cards. These days, 66 is far too soon. R.I.P.

Why I Didn’t Flush the Urinal

Hint: this one makes a loud noise.

The guy on the toilet next to me was on the speakerphone talking to a girl. Yes, he ought to know better or maybe the girl didn’t care. But I wasn’t going to be the one to harsh his mellow by pulling the handle.

There are a lot of new trade offs that Emily Post never had to consider.

How Not to Market Books to Guys

This blurb was supposed to make me buy this book:

A New York Times bestselling author recounts growing up in 1950s Pittsburgh in this “luminous” memoir (Publishers Weekly) with nearly 2,700 five-star Goodreads ratings. “Loving and lyrical… This is a book about the capacity for joy” (Los Angeles Times).

"Luminous", "loving", "lyrical"? I feel the gorge rising.

Note: for the record I did like The Writing Life and found Annie Dillard's introspective reveries to be honest and thought-provoking.

Breathe Deeply and Count to Ten

Local sports item: Giants closer Hunter Strickland punches door, breaks pitching hand

In 2017 Strickland brawled with Bryce Harper (Mercury News)

subsequent X-rays revealed that the closer broke his hand after what manager Bruce Bochy described as a “snap” in which he punched a door with his right hand.

After being removed from [Monday's] game with three runs in and one out, Strickland made a “stupid decision,” he confessed a day after the fact.

Strickland underwent surgery Tuesday afternoon to repair his fifth metacarpal....Strickland will miss six to eight weeks.

Who does he think he is, LeBron James?

LeBron James revealed after Friday's [June 8] Game 4 loss to the Warriors that he had been playing with a broken right hand, which he injured following the Cavaliers' heartbreaking Game 1 overtime loss.

James said his emotions got the best of him as he punched a whiteboard in the locker room and called the injury "self-inflicted."

Comments:
1) Players feel the greatest anger when they or a teammate--but not the other team--are to blame for a loss;
2) Professional athletes spend a lifetime training under strict self-discipline. Possible explanations for these explosions of temper: a) the coiled spring snaps; b) roid rage; c) other athletes are doing it, so it's more acceptable.
3) Teams should consider installing padding everywhere, just like they do on goal posts.

New Stocks on the Block

Four years ago the hot stocks were in social, mobile, and cloud. [bold added]

Cramer's first theme is 'embrace the holy trinity,' meaning companies which are involved in social, mobile and the cloud. Cramer says Google (GOOG) and Salesforce.com (CRM) are two great stocks to own. For investors who follow revenue growth, Cramer says Workday (WDAY) and Cornerstone (CSOD) are also great names to own.

In 2018 the high-growth opportunities are in artificial intelligence, blockchain, and cybersecurity.

Together's got to be better, right?

Artificial intelligence has benefited from advances in processing power and analysis that are opening myriad new ways to create products. Meanwhile, growing attention to cryptocurrencies has helped persuade a crop of highly skilled entrepreneurs to work on putting the underlying blockchain technology to various uses.

As for the third: “Cybersecurity should be a perennial anchor on the list,” [Venture capitalist Charles] Moldow says. “So long as there are black hats, there will need to be white hats.”

Cybersecurity being the exception, the average investor is probably not a direct consumer of artificial intelligence or blockchain. In all cases he or she almost certainly has no idea how the technology works.

Go ahead and take a flyer, but do it with your Las Vegas money, i.e., funds that you can afford to lose.

Two Icons and the Man Who Loved Them

The cover photo (by Richard Landers) of My Girls

All right, I admit it, I really like the cover photo on Todd Fisher's My Girls: A Lifetime with Carrie and Debbie.

Todd Fisher, 60, spent his life in the presence of two Hollywood icons, his mother, Debbie Reynolds, and sister, Carrie Fisher.

More than just a chronicler, Todd helped them through failed marriages, financial problems, and substance abuse:

The author turned patriarchal in his teens, when he discovered his mother being cheated out of program sales during a Broadway show and observed [Debbie's second husband Harry] Karl’s lawyers shoving her around in their divorce negotiations. Mr. Fisher’s role expanded beyond son and brother into lawyer, bouncer, doctor, stage manager, business adviser, psychiatrist, gate-keeper and pal.

Fun fact: Todd Fisher was named after his dad Eddie Fisher's best friend, Mike Todd. When Mike died in a plane crash, Eddie Fisher left Debbie Reynolds to marry Mike Todd's widow, the A+-lister of the 1950's and 60's, Elizabeth Taylor, in 1959. So that's what my parents were talking about and why they changed the subject when we kids entered the room.

Tendering for Tenderization

Hundreds of sheet masks to choose from--Here's one offering on Alibaba.

The Wall Street Journal asks the important question: Do Korean Sheet Masks Actually Improve Your Skin? (If one watches--or is forced to watch--Korean soap operas, one can't avoid noticing that lovely actresses walk around with these beauty treatments.)

Answer: they probably help. [bold added]

the masks are mainly a Korean phenomenon. Sold in individual packets or as multi-packs, they consist of a pulp, fiber or bio-cellulose base soaked in a serum that purports to brighten, moisturize, smooth or perform other tricks when applied for the prescribed period of time, usually around 20 minutes. Manhattan dermatologist Dr. Dendy Engelman said that the form itself is effective: “Sheet masks use the material to trap active ingredients on the skin, forcing it to lock in the moisture and receive all the benefits.”

I wonder if the personal-care product developers got this idea from the kitchen. Any cook can tell you that plastic Ziploc® bags are effective in the marinading process because the bags help the meat to be in constant contact with the spice. The sheet masks use the same principle, albeit in a classier and more expensive manner.

It all depends on how much you are willing to tender for tenderization.

Father's Day, 2018

Dad, 92, relaxes at Ala Moana with a decaf latte.

Below is an old Father's Day post, last run five years ago.

I remember when Dad

Drove me to Little League three times a week and helped me work on my pitching motion every day after school.

Worked three jobs, which explained why he was always tired, so that he could buy a house and send all his kids to private school.

Installed all the wiring when the church put in its pipe organ.

Bought me a violin for $350, which was a lot of money in 1965.

Let me visit him in his office, where he was the manager. The atmosphere was hushed, quieter than a classroom (this was a long time ago).

Taught me chess, which was not one of his favorite games.

Helped get me great summer jobs at Brewer Chemical and Dole Pineapple.

Quit smoking, for his sake and ours, when the Surgeon General issued the first warning on cigarettes.

Gave me the family car when I learned how to drive.

Lectured me on how to treat women----politely, and always with respect.

Happy Father's Day, Dad, we'll see you soon. © 2018 Stephen Yuen