Every fall I seem to get this stuffy nose, sore throat, sinus clogging, voice robbing thing.

So its in for the weekend, no church, no nothing, but what’s a guy to do?

My main hobby is music, something I’ve been in and around since I was a child and I play several instruments, the piano, mandolin, guitar, but basially I consider myself a bassist.

I own four basses, a Fender GB41 acoustic-electric, an Ergo electric upright, an Ashboury traveling bass, and a special edition Fender Precision electric bass. These are all good instruments but, of course, they’re only as good as their strings and most instruments, except for high end and boutique products, come with strings like the tires on your new car, enough to get you out of the store and home and not too much more.

Some time ago, though, I discovered Rotosound a company in Britain that makes strings for electric basses and has been doing so for decades. Their list of endorsees is very long and includes some of the biggest names in electric bass and their strings, wow! I recently replaced the stock strings on my Precision with Rotosound Jazz 77’s and its like I’ve purchased a new instrument; a nice mellow bottom with just the right balance of bass “thud” and sustain (musicians talk about their strings like people talk about wine). What that all means is that the strings produce very solid discernable low notes (not muddy or blurred together) yet it has enough sustain in the tone that the notes carry from one to another without large gaps between them. Anyway, I spent a few moments this morning playing the instrument and as the strings settle in (it can take a while for a string to stretch out on an instrument) the sound gets even better.

In that vein I’ve often said that most people are musical but they simply haven’t found the right instrument. When we’re kids we’re largely forced to play what our parents, or the music teacher, tell us to play and if we fail at that we spend the rest of our lives thinking we have no talent and so we leave playing music behind. But not everybody is supposed to be a piano player and just because you’re the tallest kid in the school doesn’t mean the orchestra leader should shove as an upright bass into your arms. When people find their instrument, the one that resonates with them, who they are and what sounds they like to hear, then its amazing how “talent” seems to follow. Sadly many people who haven’t yet found their instrument just give up and the music stays inside them.

There’s a life lesson in there somewhere for sure…

Actually so far so good.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading and working on a presentation for an ecumenical gathering in LaCrosse on December 2nd. The cats have been swapping laps as my wife and I sit on the couch with our books, and I’ve been getting to bed at a reasonable hour. I’m missing some good movies, I suppose, but I’m also not getting hit in the face with minute by minute panicked coverage of the stock market or whatever is the latest happening in the life of some “star” so it seems a fair trade.

I had a few comments to moderate (I’ve chosen to moderate them after some rather “interesting” unmoderated ones came along) regarding the posting about Highway 61 in winter and prayers for San Francisco. I, however, in reviewing them, accidentally deleted them. Sorry.

But Mimi, thanks for your concern. We’re just used to driving through that stuff around here.

And Anonymous, I still think its a good idea to pray for the city of San Fransisco because it does two things. When we pray for someone or a group of people it takes away hostility because we begin to see them as humans. Second we are advised that behind the struggles we see in history are not so much people, but as St. Paul says, “principalities and powers…” that is spiritual forces working in and through people and cultures. By prayer we address not just what or who we see but also what is unseen behind the events of our time.

While the debate is going on about using human embryos for stem cells the real work, and real success, has been continuing with the use of adult stem cells. In this case a woman given a rejection free windpipe grown from cells taken from her own hip.

Now this is up by Duluth, a couple hours north of here, but it gives you an idea of what I’m looking forward to on the same Highway 61 when the snow starts falling in earnest. By the way, this isn’t me on the video, and therefore the dog isn’t mine, and the country music, well…

Your odds of winning an imperishable reward from giving alms is insurmountably greater than winning a perishable reward from playing the lottery.

I was just about to go to sleep when an odd idea struck me.

You know how so many times conservative, traditional, and Orthodox Christians just look out west at San Francisco and shake our heads? Now I do agree there’s a fair amount of what we would consider curious and dare I say even dangerous and sinful about that town but what do you think would happen if observant Christians all across America just started praying for it? I mean bathe the whole place with prayer, every time you see something crazy or wrong happening there just pray and pray even when the place isn’t in the headlines.

Has anyone ever tried it? Could it be that we’ve spent so much time reviling the place, making fun of it, and just frankly hating it that we’ve forgotten to pray for it? And what would happen if a few thousand fervent Orthodox Christians starting asking for the intercessions of the Mother of God, or perhaps St. John of San Francisco for that city? After all the Scripture says we’re not fighting against people but against spiritual principalities and powers.

If you’d like to give it a try pass this along.

Has returned to Orthodoxy and no longer provides abortions…

The activity of people who do not understand the true meaning of life is always directed at the struggle of existence, acquiring more wealth and pleasures, and not getting rid of their sufferings and preparing for eternal life. The more people are busy with this in their daily lives, the less time they will have for the only true pleasure that man has, love.

Leo Tolstoy

Hat tip to Dick Staub