Test 2

Test.

Sunny morning here on Vashon Island.  Peak summer is in gear, fire danger high.  The annual Strawberry Festival is this weekend.  The Three Amigos are going to have big training weekend and avoid the crowds.  We will be doing twelve miles on Saturday, then Evening Mass, then camp out, then twelve more on Sunday.  We will be checking out out gear and ourselves.  Will we hold up?

Last night was Rick’s birthday party.  Rick was multi-tasking; drinking red wine and running out to chase the deer out of the nursery.  Ah, life in the country.  This morning Rebecca and I are off to see Mr. Apple who is a friend of Kelly’s and guru of the I Pad.  We spent big bucks at the Apple Store in the upscale section of Seattle yesterday.  So today the goal is to get the blog going with all the necessary bells and whistles with the new machine.

That’s the news from here.  And Annie is winging her way toward Buffalo and the Niagara Frontier.  Ivette is going to be here today or tomorrow.  Friends and associates and St. James busy with final preparations.  Love you all, Phil.

On Vashon Island grow incredible wild blackberries.  And this year there is going to be an incredible crop of them.  So much so that it is taking on the appearance of a Hitchcock movie thriller.  Thousands of berries coming at you from every angle and they are getting ripe.  Who ya gonna call?!

And on top of that my Camino buddies are kidnapping me tomorrow morning and swooping to the nearest Apple store to get better equipment to blog on.  So, we are upgrading from the Kindle Fire to an I Pad type unit.  Time is short and getting the right gear together is essential for the big trip.

Also, had the first day of archery camp.  Had thirteen young folks eager to go.  Only two of those were with me last year so most were new to my methods.  But fun is the name of the game and we accomplished that.

Annie is in Vermont with the movie traveling from city to city.  Are there any cities in Vermont?  I don’t know but happy trails to her and her posse.  They will be in Buffalo from the 18th to the 22nd.  Too bad she is a vegetarian because I would otherwise direct her to the Anchor Bar for the original Buffalo chicken wings!  Alright, enough of this, my eyes are closing, SJA, Phil.

Kelly, Rick and I have another meeting this evening to work on the problem of getting pix on the blog.  This is essential to figure out.  I am grateful for their persistence.  What we need is a good solid eleven year old.

Annie is on her way to Buffalo, NY to do the question and answer sessions that go along with the showings of “Walking the Camino”.  I am trying to link her up with my friends there.  I was born and grew up there.

Back to things Camino, yesterday I was practicing walking in a relaxed mode.  Just how empty can I get in body and brain to just glide along and rest while on the move?  De-stress and unwind and still keep up the pace.  Quite the worry and just keep moving with the least amount of effort.  I have heard it said that worry is a tool of the Devil.  Keeping our limited energy compact and moving in a straight line to the west is what we are after.

In the service I can definitely remember taking catnaps while standing up.  Of course we did a lot of things that we didn’t think were possible.  So, it doesn’t seem at all out of the question to be able to walk and relax and rejuvenate on the move.  Worth a try, yes?

Galileo Galilei is the old Galileo that we know and love.  Genowefa Kurzynski is my mother who a few of us know and love.  They have something in common which is very important to me.

On Father’s Day I wrote a post about my dad.  And I had started this blog after Mom’s Day.  So I have been feeling like I have been neglecting my mom on this one.  So, I will attempt to catch up at this point before Spain and all that.  For without her influence maybe the Camino wouldn’t have occurred for me at all.  I must pay my dues.

GG’s story we should be familiar with.  He through his scientific studies figures out that our solar system works in a certain way and this information is revolutionary.  So new and different that the Church gets on his case big time.  But he persists and they persist and things reach a state where he is under house arrest and told to cease and desist with his teachings.  This is really the short story and I am sorry for that but it will due for practical purposes.

I am getting my information from Dava Sobel’s book entitled “Galileo’s Daughter”.  Dava Sobel wrote the book “Longitude”  which was a real winner.  Somehow this one is not so well known but still excellent.  The basic idea is that this is a collection of letters that were written from his daughter who was in a convent and it was their only means of communication.  Her letters survived and his didn’t so we get only one side of the conversation but it is enjoyable and his ideas come through.

What I see in this is a man that remains loyal to his Church in spite of the trouble that it gives him.  He remains loyal to it in spite of being on the receiving end of a good dose of friendly fire.  How does that work?  How does a man maintain his course in spite of the actions of an organization that he is loyal to?   Here is one little story from the book that illustrates his ability to do this.  In the town where he was under house arrest there was a new church being built nearby.  The new building required a new bell.  Because of the poor means of transport it was easier to cast the bronze bell on site rather than in a foundry at some distance.  The locals were having trouble with the process and finally approached GG to help.  He did not hesitate and leant his scientific expertise.  And the project was completed and the church had it’s new bell.  Bravo GG!

In this snarky world we don’t seem to see this nowadays.  Or does it happen and we don’t seem to notice.  But I think that GG’s faith was so strong that he really didn’t have a choice.  In other words, he steered his course to do what he thought was right and still gave his respect to the Church.  He took the friendly fire and went through it because I believe that he believed that in the end God would sort it out in his favor.  Nice!  And what courage.

On to GK, my mom.  One of my spiritual advisers, Connie, helped me understand something about her that freed me to join this same Church.  This all goes back to an understanding that was held between my Mom and my Dad.  Because my Dad was a devoted Lutheran and she a devoted Catholic it never occurred to them that one could change and the understanding was that boys would go with their Dad and girls would go with their Mom to Church.  And because of the circumstances of their married life I was the only child.  So because I was brought up outside of the Catholic Church she was punished by not being able to receive Communion in the Church that she knew and loved.   Does this sound familiar?  Is this another case of friendly fire?

But, just like GG, GK persisted and I think now as I look at it with the help of Connie she was the same kind of rock.  She was the same kind of person that went forward with that faith that says that I am going to do what is right and God will sort it out in the end.  Excellent, A plus!

Mom, I am leaving out all the horsepower, drive, love and care that you brought to the family in the hundreds of things that you did every single day.  I am leaving out so much that it is ridiculous but what to do.  Really what is important at this point is to realize the great role model that you were to me and too others.  Thanks Genowefa Kurzynski, my Mom.  Bravo GK!

Sorry, next year Fernando.  They played hard.  They played well.

Last night Kelly, Rick and I met for our weekly pilgrim meeting and wine tasting.  We did make reservations in Madrid for a hotel but didn’t quite get to our major goal of moving photos from the camera to this blog site.  Good grief!  We tried but once again we were born in the wrong century.  But help will come.

This week is the archery camp at the Sportsmen’s Club that I head up.  That is my last big obligation before Spain.  I have to remind myself to have fun, right?  Too many times I have gotten things accomplished and was glad they were done but never took a moment to enjoy them.

OK, so the major thrust here is to have you all root for Argentina today.  The World Cup Finals is today and this is most important.  Fernando our esteemed cameraman is from Argentina.  He and our esteemed soundman (also from Argentina but at the moment do not have his name)  are in Madrid waiting for us to arrive.  So, for our crews sake throw your weight behind the South Americans on this one please.  We need to have all our ducks in their rows to be happy ducks!  We need a good positive start!

Saint James is Afoot, Phil.

I was talking with Tucker and I told her that the result of “walking and talking ” with her and a hundred other great folks that have come to my Camino was a college education. Just a thought, Phil.

It’s Greek.  It means spiritual maturity.  A lofty goal don’t you think?  I am off to a Teleios meeting in a few moments.  These are small men’s bible study groups of which there are something like a hundred in Western Washington.  Have been going for ten years but can’t remember exactly.  Locally we have a great bunch of guys who participate each week.  We take turns leading the group and hosting the meetings.  It all seems to flow along effortlessly somehow.  Today we are studying First John chapter 3 I think.  Bad me, I should have read it by now.  I have way too many irons in the old fire.  The best to you all, Phil.