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Comments:

• Mike, I am stiff, sore, and uninterested in exercise every day of the week that ends in “y”. I just do it. Thanks for the encouragement.

  Post: Never a Debtor

  Link to comment from May 8, 2024

• Thank you for laying out your experience so clearly and compassionately. Your parents never intended to leave left the mess you faced, and you know it. I hope you got an acknowledgement of your burial plot donation and your added donation of money for burial costs for tax purposes from the congregation. When I led congregations I coveted such donations and always gave a donation statement to the donor.

  Post: Unsettling Experience

  Link to comment from May 8, 2024

• Thank you all for your kind and thoughtful responses. As it happens, my sister and brother abhor debt as much as do. I am told that after a surgery like mine, one may expect a recovery to take 12-18 months. I certainly am not racing to the finish line, but my surgery was a real success and I am grateful. The recovery will be—with therapy and exercise—all it can be.

  Post: Never a Debtor

  Link to comment from May 6, 2024

• Friends, Thank you for the holiday good wishes. May I return them to you. I know from experience that these are hard days. As to the suffering and sadness so many have in any given year, there are no satisfactory explanations for anyone at any age. The hardships and sacrifices families make at any time—but especially in this season—are both heart rending and inspiring. The patient and persistent care of the medical professionals is so often wonderful. I encourage people to take their lead from the patient they are with: be silent when quiet is right, patient when things are slow or hard. Remember that the patient gets to make very few choices, has very little control over who does what, or when it happens; so, give space, ask permission, don’t be directive or over-sharing. Keep angry and fear-filled tears out in the hall—unless the patient needs to see them. Most of all, smile in a true fashion, express gladness to have time together, say you love one another. We only have now. Your caring presence remains in their hearts in the long, dark reaches of the night or during the rigors of treatment. My heart hurts for you all, my friends. Blessings and healing.

  Post: Twelve Days Long

  Link to comment from December 26, 2023

• Dick, Back in the 80’s, I served a congregation in Lincoln Park, a bit west of Patterson. It was a little town time forgot, with a sign on an old stone building next door to me that read, “George Washington slept here”. It had a single traffic light and a lone flashing light. One parishioner could ride her beautiful blue-eyed roan mare to church now and then. I remember J.M. Towne, too.

  Post: ’Tis the Stress Season

  Link to comment from December 14, 2023

• Dick Quinn’s observations are especially pertinent, I think. For me, I think you are quite right to draw an analogy from your Coast Guard service. Now, as then, you are faced with making a Bayesian analysis of the situation. If you have all contingencies covered, and those arrangements let you sleep at night, however you choose will be the best choice you can make. Best wishes and many thanks.

  Post: Searching for When

  Link to comment from December 4, 2023

• I’ve gotten questions about what my last paragraph means. I meant the demonstrable and pervasive reality of INEQUITY that burdens many people, some in multiple ways. A Google search of the term will provide mountains of evidence and discussion. This is not a forum for addressing that topic, so I refer interested persons there. Many thanks to everyone for taking the time to read my little story and make a comment.

  Post: Starting Late

  Link to comment from October 5, 2023

• Thanks to all for your comments and questions. We have saved enough for the life care facility entry fee, which was our real goal. Any more will be lagniappe.

  Post: Starting Late

  Link to comment from October 4, 2023

• Bill, I have found a very useful, brief, discussion of the Social Security and Medicare question, with footnotes and references, “Why Opting Out Is Not The Answer” at www.guidestone.org. Remember, you aren’t only deciding for yourself, but for your family and dependents as well. And it’s for all the benefits, which are truly considerable, not just a monthly check at age 67 or so. .

  Post: Starting Late

  Link to comment from October 4, 2023

• Good questions; thanks for them. Our children covered much of their school expenses through scholarships, work, etc. We helped, of course, but not vast sums. Part of what made it easy to be heedless for so long was our ferociously busy lives, which eased when our kids began to be much more independent. We were able to “come up for air”, as we described it. Raises and bonuses were easy “saves”. We did reach our “entry fee” goal. Two key elements all along were excellent health insurance and hating debt fiercely.

  Post: Starting Late

  Link to comment from October 2, 2023