Sunday,
August 26, 2012
Dear
Dee,
The
big news around here is MP3 players. It was promised over a year ago that they
would begin selling them here and the time finally came. All along, I told
myself that I wasn’t going to go for it and line these people’s pockets any
more than I have to. This is, after all, a land where phone calls are 23 cents
a minute, Xeroxing is 12 cents a page and on and on. So it stood to reason that
the player and the songs would be overpriced as well and, of course, they are.
It’s a SanDisk Sansa Clip+ and it’s $69.20. The songs are $1.55. Well, I held
out for a whole week before I caved. It was the lure of having some small
measure of control over my life—being able to choose what song to hear when I
wanted it. Thus far, I have applied the brakes at 24 songs, lest I use up my
entire month’s budget on music. But now I have added a new element to my Sunday
“services.” I downloaded two songs by Susan Boyle—her signature “I Dreamed a
Dream” and “Amazing Grace.” So I begin with the latter which, in her
astonishing voice, puts me in a more spiritual frame of mind. Then I off-tune
the FM radio, which is part of the player, to static to shut out the noise and
begin my readings. Then I end with “I Dreamed a Dream” again.
I find
it hysterically funny that all of the music has been purged of profanity. Just
about every song in the Amy Winehouse catalogue has a title followed by (clean
version)/ What is funny about it is that I have never been in a more
profanity-laden environment in my life, including the U.S Navy. I can’t go for
more than about 10 or 15 seconds without hearing the “f-bomb” or some variation
of it. The same restrictions apply to the movies they show us—none over PG-13.
I guess that makes some kind of twisted sense when you consider that most of
the population is at the emotional level of pre-schoolers.
My
friend, C.A., came up with some good news—in Oregon, the only hard and fast
requirement is that I sign up for the registry. Everything else is at the
discretion of the probation officer. Of course, that puts me at the mercy of a
single individual who could be merciful or a total jerk. But it would give me a
fighting chance, unlike California and its Draconian Jessica’s Law. So I have
fixed my sights on Portland. It’s interesting that the sermons that C.A. has
been sending for the last year are from the First Unitarian Church of Portland,
Oregon, which I assume is her church. Could this be an omen—a beckoning of
sorts to tell me that this is where I need to be?
I have
started a regimen of meeting Tony and another guy out in the rec yard four
nights a week to walk the track for about two miles. The other guy is a retired
Navy commander and defense contractor. As always, I meet the most interesting
people among the SO population.
I go
outside at my own peril. In the wake of a couple of flash flood rains, the
mosquito population is burgeoning. They are practically swarming. At one point,
I had four bites at one time. And the strain down here is very aggressive. They
will bite through your clothing, which I have never seen before.
Church – The sermon was by Rev.
Thomas Disrud and was titled “There Is Only Trying.” He posited that for every known
accomplishment, there has been the essential ingredient of the willingness to
try. His sermon, dated Jan. 13, 2010, came just two days into the new year. He
spoke of New Year’s resolutions as an attempt to try doing something differently
and lamented the fact that most such resolutions are abandoned within a few
days of their adoption.
This
week’s message from our old friend, Rev. Fleck, was titled “The Sanctity of the
Ordinary” and dealt with the ordinary nature of Jesus’ existence on earth and
that his greatest accomplishments were not the miracles ascribed to him—walking
on water, raising the dead—but the simplicity of his message to love and
respect one another.
That’s
about it for this time. Now to slap on some headphones and listen to some
Maroon 5…because I can.
Love,
Steve
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