Three Down, Three To Go

Much advance publicity was made for the address the Master would deliver on “The Destruction of the World” and a large crowd gathered at the monastery grounds to hear him.  The address was over in less than a minute.  All he said was:  “These things will destroy the human race: politics without principle, progress without compassion, wealth without work, learning without silence, religion without fearlessness and worship without awareness.“
—    Anthony de Mello, SJ
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On This Day In:
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2020	#45 In A Nutshell
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2019	Three Down, Three To Go
2018	Too Significant
2017	Shadows
2016	Still Blurry
2015	For Awhile Anyway
2014	By Contrast
2013	A Very Long Time…
2012	Raise And Support
2011	Naturally
2010	A Quick Sunday Morning Read
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Why #45 Is Fated To Endanger Our National Security

Whoever is careless with truth in small matters, cannot be trusted in important affairs.
—    Albert Einstein
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On This Day In:
2021	Sustainable Development
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2020	#IncompetentDonald Is A Clear And Present Danger
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2019	Why #45 Is Fated To Endanger Our National Security
2018	Dehydrated
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2017	And Some Of Us Have Books
2016	I See No Proof
2015	Whither Tea Party?
2014	Nothing Is Known Absolutely
2013	Decoration Time
2012	The Beatitudes
2011	Good Fences Make Good Neighbors
2010	Back On The Asphalt
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	Greek Myths For Kids

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35 Years Later

Back on 29 October 1984, the restaurant pictured below was a fondue restaurant where I proposed to my (future) wife.  The table we sat at was located at the column just to the left of the door in the picture (between the two awnings).  The current restaurant is named:  “Opa!” and serves Greek food.
The table in the following picture sits almost exactly where we sat back in 1984.  The floor-plan / table layout is completely different from back then.  Our table was a four-place table back then and there was another four-place table directly behind me (where the lady is sitting at the bar).  My wife would have been slightly to the left (her right) of where she is currently sitting and where I am is almost exactly where I got down on one knee to propose (in the aisle, between tables).
My wife has had Greek food before.  This was my first time…  We both enjoyed the starter and our main courses, and we loved our desserts!
Hil had the Baklava Sundae for her afters…  (We told the waitress about Hil’s birthday and it being the anniversary of our engagement and they put a candle on her ice cream!)
I enjoyed the Banana Bread Pudding for my afters…
All in all, mid-week (Tuesday) at 3:15pm was the perfect time to dine there.  When we entered, we were literally the only customers in the place.  Service was prompt, friendly and helpful with the waitress offering suggestions.  The food taste was new (to me), just different enough to seem “exotic”, and the meal / experience another unique memory for us to add to our list of happy events together.
There is an axiom that you can never go home again.  Sometimes, “going back” doesn’t have to mean “being the same” to still be “great”…
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On This Day In:
2021	It Also Helps To Marry Well
	Holding Hands And Thinking
2020	A Mandelbrot Set
	I Still Can’t…
2019	Proposing A Happy Birthday
	35 Years Later
2018	Forever
2017	Too Good To Be True
	Plain Speaking
2016	She Is Still Singing
2015	Don’t Complain
2014	Nothing Is The Same
	Orange October (XII) – Giants Win Game 7 (3 To 2) And World Series (4 To 3)
2013	Hours, Days, And Years
2012	In Kev Are In Hil
2011	No Game, Didn’t Really Happen
	A Good Post

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Proposing A Happy Birthday

Falling In Love & Yes!!
Thirty-five years ago, my girlfriend (Hilary) and I got dressed up and went to try out a fondue restaurant which had opened in town (Walnut Creek, CA)…  It was also her birthday!
Hil’s Birthday 1984 and our Pre-engagement Photo (Hil in her little black dress)
I had written to Hil’s father (in advance) asking his permission for her hand and he gave his blessing.  We had just met (a little over five months earlier) in May.
We were (and are) very much in love.  I got down on one knee in-between the tables and I asked Hil to marry me…
She said: “Yes!“, and we were married in early December.   Thirty-five years later, the rest is history (and the unwritten future…)
[Happy Birthday, Hil !!
All my love,
— ALWAYS —
Your Kev
(XXX – OOO – XXX) ]
PS:  The fondue restaurant is no longer there.  It is now a Greek restaurant.  We will be going there (for an early dinner) to check it out.
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On This Day In:
2021	It Also Helps To Marry Well
	Holding Hands And Thinking
2020	A Mandelbrot Set
	I Still Can’t…
2019	Proposing A Happy Birthday
	35 Years Later
2018	Forever
2017	Too Good To Be True
	Plain Speaking
2016	She Is Still Singing
2015	Don’t Complain
2014	Nothing Is The Same
	Orange October (XII) – Giants Win Game 7 (3 To 2) And World Series (4 To 3)
2013	Hours, Days, And Years
2012	In Kev Are In Hil
2011	No Game, Didn’t Really Happen
	A Good Post

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Public Ridicule For Office Holder

Why Trump Only Goes Out In Public To His Own Rallies
Last night (27 October 2019), President Trump attended Game 5 of the World Series in Washington, D.C. between the Washington Nationals and the Houston Astros.  When introduced, the President was first booed by the crowd and then while pointing in his direction, the crowd began chanting “Lock him up!” repeatedly.  While politicians getting booed at baseball games (and other sports events) is nothing particularly newsworthy, it is notable (and a bit saddening) that Trump has so shamed the office that a crowd would chant to have him incarcerated on a televised event being seen around the world.
We can draw a line from Reagan’s line:  “Government is the problem!” to Joe Wilson’s:  “You lie!” at President Obama’s 2009 State of the Union Speech to a crowd shouting to “lock up” a sitting President.  When the general public is encouraged to disrespect the government and our elected officials, “We the People” all become a little less civil and a little less secure in our own liberties.
While I personally believe candidate Trump did conspire / collude with the Russians to influence the 2016 election and while I believe President Trump has continued to commit crimes (obstruct justice) and violate his Oath of Office, I am more dismayed “the Office” has been brought down in public opinion this way and is now subject to ridicule in front of the world.  If Trump is not impeached and subsequently removed from Office between now and November 2020, I hope the next election provides our nation with a President who can both bring respect back for the Office and (more importantly) give us “a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.“
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On This Day In:
2021	Why We Have So Few Personal Favorites
	I Would Have Liked You Anyway
2020	Why We Must Vote #45 Out
	If You Believe
2019	Sometimes I Still Have Trouble Sleeping
	Public Ridicule For Office Holder
2018	And Flights Of Fancy
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2017	By Their Acts Thy Shall Know Them
2016	Remembering
2015	One
2014	Sure Experiments And Demonstrated Arguments
2013	Irrational Complacency
2012	Why Criticize?
	Giants Sweep 2012 World Series With Game 4 Win (4 To 3)!!!
2011	Saying Just Enough
2010	Giants Win Game 2 Shutout of Rangers – 9 to 0!!!

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Sometimes I Still Have Trouble Sleeping

Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones.  And when you have finished your daily task, go to sleep in peace.  God is awake.
—    Victor Hugo
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On This Day In:
2021	Why We Have So Few Personal Favorites
	I Would Have Liked You Anyway
2020	Why We Must Vote #45 Out
	If You Believe
2019	Sometimes I Still Have Trouble Sleeping
	Public Ridicule For Office Holder
2018	And Flights Of Fancy
	Dodgers Lose 2nd Consecutive World Series!!
2017	By Their Acts Thy Shall Know Them
2016	Remembering
2015	One
2014	Sure Experiments And Demonstrated Arguments
2013	Irrational Complacency
2012	Why Criticize?
	Giants Sweep 2012 World Series With Game 4 Win (4 To 3)!!!
2011	Saying Just Enough
2010	Giants Win Game 2 Shutout of Rangers – 9 to 0!!!

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Is That Why Love Hurts?

A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.
—    Steven Wright
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On This Day In:
2021	Two Eff’n Right
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2020	The Premium Few
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2019	Is That Why Love Hurts?
2018	And Honest Politicians
2017	Maya, Maya
2016	Give Value
2015	Believe In Substitution
2014	Pragmatic Religion
2013	How’s Your View?
2012	Giants Win Game 3 Of The 2012 World Series 2 To 0!!!
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2011	What Is Your Ratio?
2010	Giants Win Game 1 With 11 Runs Scored – Repeat 11 Runs!!

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Family Visit

Earlier this week I got a call from my cousin Michael (from Arizona) saying he would be in the Bay Area and he would like to visit with me and my brother (Sean).  It turned out he was going to be visiting / staying with his niece about two miles from my brother’s house, so I said I’d pick him (Mike) up and we’d go visit there (Sean’s) for a few hours.  My brother is on dialysis four days a week, so he is hooked up to a machine for several hours at a time or recovering from being hooked up.  I called Sean to make sure he was up for a visit, and Friday, the three of us got together.
Sean & Mike (trading colors)
My brother (Sean) & my cousin (Michael Romero)
Me & my cousin (Michael Romero)
It’s hard to believe, but it’s been over 10 years since Sean and I drove down to Phoenix and visited Mike (and his family) at his house.  I had to go down there for a business meeting, so I offered to pay the costs for Sean and his son to drive down with me.  That way we could also make some side trips (to the Grand Canyon and to Yosemite).  (This was before my AFib and Sean’s kidney failure.)
Anyway, it was terrific to see my cousin Michael again!  (And, see my brother Sean, too, of course.)  And, yes we talked Warriors, Niners and Raiders.
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On This Day In:
2021	A Message To All The Democrats In Congress
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2020	Reminds Me Of #LyingDonald
	It’s All Been Rehearsed
2019	The Earth’s Breath
	Family Visit
2018	Forests, Shorelines And Mountain Paths
2017	Reach Down
2016	And Women When You Are 59
2015	Intersections, Explorations And Relationships
2014	[!(±*=)/≠], [!<]
	Orange October (XI) – Giants Win Game 5 (5 To 0)!!!
2013	Hard To Deserve
2012	Cloudy Between Games
	Admiration, n.
2011	One, Two, Three – Blink

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The Earth’s Breath

To encounter the sacred is to be alive at the deepest center of human existence.  Sacred places are the truest definitions of the earth; they stand for the earth immediately and forever; they are its flags and shields.  If you would know the earth for what it really is, learn it through its sacred places.  At Devil’s Tower or Canyon de Chelly or the Cahokia Mounds, you touch the pulse of the living planet; you feel its breath upon you.  You become one with a spirit that pervades geologic time and space.
—     Navarre Scott Momaday
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On This Day In:
2021	A Message To All The Democrats In Congress
	Where Did You Go In Texas?
2020	Reminds Me Of #LyingDonald
	It’s All Been Rehearsed
2019	The Earth’s Breath
	Family Visit
2018	Forests, Shorelines And Mountain Paths
2017	Reach Down
2016	And Women When You Are 59
2015	Intersections, Explorations And Relationships
2014	[!(±*=)/≠], [!<]
	Orange October (XI) – Giants Win Game 5 (5 To 0)!!!
2013	Hard To Deserve
2012	Cloudy Between Games
	Admiration, n.
2011	One, Two, Three – Blink

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Show Righteousness, Not Fear

On June 21, the writer E. Jean Carroll came forward with a vivid and disturbing claim that Donald Trump raped her in a department store in the 1990s.  She is the 22nd woman to allege that Trump committed acts of sexual misconduct.  These claims are more extensive and more corroborated than the accusations against Bill Clinton.
It’s worth contrasting Trump, who denied Carroll’s claim (as well as his other accusers’), with Clinton because his scandals helped spur the Southern Baptist Convention in 1998 to issue its seminal “Resolution on Moral Character of Public Officials.”  That document’s key statement was ominous and unequivocal:  “Tolerance of serious wrong by leaders sears the conscience of the culture, spawns unrestrained immorality and lawlessness in the society, and surely results in God’s judgment.”
The relentless drumbeat of claims against Trump – combined with the clear moral declarations of the past – have caused millions of Americans to look at their evangelical fellow citizens and ask, simply:  Why?  Why have you abandoned your previous commitment to political character to embrace Donald Trump?
Part of the explanation is undeniably basic partisanship and ambition.  White evangelicals are largely Republican, and they’re generally going to vote for Republicans.  And proximity to power has always had its attractions for religious charlatans of all stripes.  But I’d suggest the real reason for the breadth and depth of evangelical support is deeper and – perversely – even more destructive to its religious witness.
That reason is fear.
Talk to engaged evangelicals, and fear is all too often a dominant theme of their political life.  The church is under siege from a hostile culture.  Religious institutions are under legal attack from progressives.  The left wants nuns to facilitate access to abortifacients and contraceptives, it wants Christian adoption agencies to compromise their conscience or close, and it even casts into doubt the tax exemptions of religious education institutions if they adhere to traditional Christian sexual ethics.
These issues are legally important, and there are reasons for evangelicals to be concerned.  But there is no reason for evangelicals to abandon long-held principles to behave like any other political-interest group.
Instead, the evangelical church is called to be a source of light in a darkening world.  It is not given the luxury of fear-based decision making.  Indeed, of all the groups in American life who believe they have the least to fear from American politics, Christians should top the list.  The faithful should reject fear.
This is made plain to young Christians from the early days of Sunday school.  There, many millions of young believers are taught the biblical verse:  “For God gave us not a spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control.”
But in 2016, something snapped.  I saw Christian men and women whom I’ve known and respected for years respond with raw fear at the very idea of a Hillary Clinton presidency.  They believed she was going to place the church in mortal danger.  The Christian writer Eric Metaxas wrote that if Hillary won, America’s chance to have a “Supreme Court that values the Constitution” will be “gone.”  “Not for four years, not for eight,” he said, “but forever.”
That wasn’t faith speaking.  They were the words of fearful men grasping at fading influence by clinging to a man whose daily life mocks the very values that Christians seek to advance.
But why?  The American evangelical church isn’t so weak that it needs Trump’s version of secular salvation.  The early persecuted church would be stunned at the modern American church’s immense political strength.  It has become so strong that it exercises veto power over the political prospects of any Republican nominee.
Yet the church is acting as if it needs Trump to protect it.  That’s not courageous.  It’s repulsive.  And so long as this fear continues, expect the church’s witness to degrade further.  In seeking protection from its perceived enemies, the church has lost its way.
It’s time for evangelicals to exercise their political veto power.  America’s conservative people of faith should seek a primary challenger to Trump and send a message to the GOP that it will not compromise any longer.  And it should do so from a position of confidence – and faith.
—    David French
From his opinion / editorial:  “The Evangelical Republic of Fear“
Appearing in:  Time Magazine, dtd:  8 July 2019
Also, found online at:  https://time.com/5615617/why-evangelicals-support-trump/
[I make no claim to ownership of this editorial.  It belongs to either Time or to the author.  I normally only present excerpts from articles / editorials because I am trying to exercise “fair use”  while giving full credit to the owner and / or original source.  In this (rare) case, the editorial is presented in its entirety because the whole is FAR greater than any of its parts.  As always, I encourage readers to visit the original source.  I subscribe to the “hard-copy” version of Time.   —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
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2020	I Just Want To Stay Happy
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2019	Show Righteousness, Not Fear
2018	Sounds Like Politics, Too
2017	Resist More
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2016	Two Weeks To Go…
2015	Remembering
2014	The Creeping Death Of Civilization
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2013	License Problem
2012	Giants Win Game 2 Of The 2012 World Series 2 To 0!!!
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2011	What Are You Looking At?

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Ought To More Often Than Once

Once in his life a man ought to concentrate his mind upon the remembered earth.  He ought to give himself up to a particular landscape in his experience;  to look at it from as many angles as he can, to wonder about it, to dwell upon it.  He ought to imagine that he touches it with his hands at every season and listens to the sounds that are made upon it.  He ought to imagine the creatures there and all the faintest motions of the wind.  He ought to recollect the glare of the moon and the colors of the dawn and dusk.
—    Navarre Scott Momaday
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On This Day In:
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2020	Mostly To Just Smell A Few More Roses
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2019	Ought To More Often Than Once
2018	Talking About Egypt, Not The White House
2017	Left Behind
2016	Self-Restraint
2015	In The Midst
2014	Match Book
2013	Disservice And Disingenuous
2012	Giants Win Game 1 Of The World Series 8 to 3!!!
	On Death
2011	The Spirit Of Universal Connectivity
2010	SF Giants Pitchers Witness Protection Program
	Orange Outside (Too) & Fear The Beard
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Can I Get A Witness?

To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda or even stirring people up, but in being a living mystery;  It means to live in such a way that one’s life would not make sense if God did not exist.
—     Dorothy Day
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On This Day In:
2021	Too Heavy A Burden
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2020	Compare, Contrast And Learn
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2019	Can I Get A Witness?
2018	I’d Still Like To Try It Out
2017	In Every Thing
2016	Future Halo
2015	The Hard Way Every Time
2014	Indispensable Wits
2013	I’d Like To
2012	2012 National League Champions – San Francisco Giants!!
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	Light Shining Out of Darkness
2011	Just Kickin It
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2010	Giants Advance To 2010 World Series!!!

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Things That Go Bump In The Night

Last night, as I was finishing brushing my teeth / getting ready for bed, my wife comes into the bathroom saying she’s banged her head and she’s bleeding.  She was holding her left hand behind her ear and I could see blood pulsing down the front of her nightgown and bathrobe from her throat.  I asked her to move her hand so I could see and, when she did so, there was a pulse of blood down her head, the back of her neck and onto her robe.  I grabbed some toilet paper and held it up against where I thought the blood was coming from, but it was coming from slightly higher up and the blood pumped between my fingers, down the back of my hand and to my wrist.  I grabbed a bigger wad of paper and pressed against the (slightly) higher location and it seemed to pause the flow.  I told her to press the paper firmly and I was going to get some sterile bandages from the first aid kit then take her to the ER.  As I started to the hallway, she shouted at me to just wet a face-cloth and she would use that.  I was almost to the kit when she yelled again, “Just get me a wet face-cloth!!”  Rather than argue, I came back down the hall, reached into the linen closet and grabbed a face-cloth.  We walked back into the bathroom and I wet the cloth in the sink and applied it while taking the bloody paper and throwing it in the bin.
To make a longer story shorter, we went to the ER (a five minute drive), and, after a four hour process (interview / CT / tetanus shot), my wife got four staples and a tetanus shot for her trouble…  (See image below.)
A four(4) staple OWIE…
So, what happened?  My wife went to sit in a “computer” chair (with wheels) and she didn’t see it had a backpack on it.  When she tried to sit, she slid straight off the front of the seat and the chair shot away (on the hardwood floor).  We believe she must have caught the edge of one of the wheel case struts and she got an “L” shaped laceration requiring the four staples.  Fortunately, the blood only made it look a LOT worse than it actually was.
We were home by 3:30am and she has been resting all day.  And, in one week, (on her birthday), she can have the staples removed!!  To paraphrase a famous movie line:  “I’m getting too old for this sh##!“
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On This Day In:
2021	Press On
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2020	AMA
	Still Shiny
2019	Things That Go Bump In The Night
	Hoping I’m Careful
2018	I Must Be Truly Wise
2017	My Sensei
2016	The Worst Sin
2015	Rules Of Thumb
2014	A Prayer
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2013	Complacent Reality
2012	Two-minute Sex
	Just Staring, Why?
2011	A World Of Difference

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Hoping I’m Careful

While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.
—     Francis of Assisi
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On This Day In:
2021	Press On
	Mama Said There’d Be Days Like This
2020	AMA
	Still Shiny
2019	Things That Go Bump In The Night
	Hoping I’m Careful
2018	I Must Be Truly Wise
2017	My Sensei
2016	The Worst Sin
2015	Rules Of Thumb
2014	A Prayer
	Orange October (IX) – Giants Lose Game 2 In Bullpen Collapse
2013	Complacent Reality
2012	Two-minute Sex
	Just Staring, Why?
2011	A World Of Difference

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Shining In The Dark

Good friends are like stars……..
You don’t always see them,
But you know they are always there.
—    William Blake
[Even when hidden behind the clouds…   —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2021	Table Talk
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2020	Plant Roots For A Hundred Years
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2019	Shining In The Dark
2018	Sometimes Wisdom, Too
2017	What Do I Know…
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2016	Rare Competition
2015	Now Where Did I Put That Thing?
2014	Reckoning
	Orange October (VIII) – Giants Win Game 1 Of 2014 World Series!!
2013	Trying To Capture Serenity
2012	Above The Vaulted Sky
2011	Active Learning

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