Blessings and More

Because The Villages, our community here in central Florida, is so very large and still expanding, our parish receives many new parishioners every month. Part of our welcoming process includes an offer to bless each family's new home. Many folks accept this offer.  

The Church actually has a specific rite for the blessing of a new home; indeed, it has rites for the blessing of people, homes, businesses, religious articles, vehicles, pets...you name it. And here in our parish, we permanent deacons are often called on to perform many of them...sort of a "Blessings are Us" kind of thing. 

October 4th is the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, a saint who was particularly fond of all God's creatures. And so, on that morning, shortly after morning Mass, two of us, Deacon Greg and I, spent some time blessing a large gathering of family pets our parishioners had brought to the parish. We conducted the blessing rite outside, under a portico, so we would all remain dry in the event of rain. As it turned out the day was perfect. After the readings, prayers, and general blessing, we then blessed each animal individually, while sprinkling it with holy water. Given the circumstances, and the large number of animals, I'm amazed at how placid most of these wonderful creatures remained.    

As I recall, the animals that morning were all dogs and cats, nothing too odd or too wild, so this year was fairly normal. In the past I've been asked to bless snakes, tarantulas, lizards, and a few other of God's not very domestic critters. A few of our local farmers and ranchers have also asked me to bless cattle, goats, and horses. Yep, we do it all.

One of our parishioners, Maria, had asked if I would go to her house that morning and bless her two birds. She didn't want to take them to the parish blessing rite because it would probably upset them, being surrounded by dozens of noisy dogs and cats. Of course I agreed.

My experience with birds as pets is limited to a single bird. When I was a child, our family had a parakeet named Heinz, a clever little bird with a fondness for learning new words. Heinz had developed a close relationship with our female Weimaraner, Heidi. Heidi, a very tolerant dog, readily accepted her new flying friend. Heinz often landed on her back, then made his way across her head, and down to her nose. There he would stand, sometimes for ten or fifteen minutes, just looking at her. Heidi accepted all this and seemed to enjoy his walking on her back. Perhaps she appreciated the massage delivered by his little bird feet.

I won't go into the details of Heinz' sad and premature demise in which Heidi played no part. Although accidental and certainly unintentional, it was all my doing, a truth I have tried to repress for the past 70 years.

Anyway, when I arrived at Maria's home, she, her husband, and their little dog greeted me. I was then introduced to their two birds who were enjoying themselves out of their cages. Other than the limited knowledge I picked up from my childhood experience with Heinz, I know very little about tropical birds. Parrots, cockatiels, cockatoos, mynahs, and others are mysteries to me. They're very attractive birds, are long-lived, and seem quite intelligent. I'm also intrigued by their remarkable ability to imitate human speech and other sounds. 

I can't recall the names of Maria's two birds, although given the state of my aging brain, that's not unusual. But both birds, and the dog, seemed very interested in this man who had invaded their home, at least until I blessed them and sprinkled them with holy water. That led to some confusion. One bird, I believe it's a cockatoo (?), stood on my hand as I blessed it, and Maria captured the moment with her phone's camera. The bird, however, was eyeing my ear, so it was probably wise that I handed it back to Maria.

So, there you have a few hours in the life of a deacon, extending God's blessings to His people and His creatures. It's a small but enjoyable part of my ministry, and I'm always overwhelmed by the joy it brings to His people.

Newsy Odds and Ends

We’ve been exposed to a lot of conspiracy theories in recent years, but amazingly many have turned out to be true. In an effort to generate a few more, here’s my take on a several recent stories I stumbled cross. 

Do Masks Stop the Spread of COVID? You might not have heard of Cochrane, a UK-based network that produces sound information used by organizations throughout the world for healthcare decision-making. Cochrane has an exceptionally strong international reputation and prides itself on the quality of the evidence supporting its studies. Among its latest offerings is a fascinating study on the efficacy of masks, hand-washing, and other means to stop or slow the spread of respiratory viruses such as influenza, SARS, and COVID-19. 

Cochrane investigated the results of dozens of randomized controlled studies conducted worldwide that examined various physical measures to stop respiratory virus infections. I’m guessing most people would find the results unexpected. Cochrane found that medical, surgical, or N95 masks “make little or no difference in how many people caught a flu-like illness/COVID-like illness.” That’s right, it seems all those masks we’ve bought and worn didn’t really offer very much protection. If this is really true, just consider the ramifications. One thing’s for certain: a lot of folks sure made a lot of money thanks to this “error”. To read a synopsis of the study, here’s the link: Cochrane Study 

Medicare and Social Security need Work. Most seniors don’t like to hear that politicians are even considering making changes to either Medicare or Social Security. I suppose many of us think we’ll probably be long gone before these two programs run out of money and are either completely refurbished or simply disappear. But the truth is really quite different and relates not only to the costs involved but also to demographics. Both the Government Accounting Office and the Social Security Administration agree that these programs are “unsustainable” and will run out of funds by 2037. For the mathematically challenged, that’s only 14 years from now. If you’re my age, 78, or older you may not be around in 2037, but your children and grandchildren will probably still be here and will have paid into these programs for their entire working lives…just in time to watch them go broke. I can’t speak for anyone else, but that’s not a legacy I want to leave behind. 

Politicians are not a courageous lot, and almost all consider reelection far more important than the long-term needs of their constituents or the good of the country. Few politicians engage in strategic thinking since most tend be be tacticians who worry more about the short-term effects of their votes or their latest TV live shot. Perhaps even more disheartening, few of today’s politicians ever consider the lessons of the past, so they continue to make the mistakes that generated those ignored lessons. We see this, too, among the bureaucrats who run the day-to-day operations of our government. They have become a cadre of careerists, too often lacking in moral courage, and dedicated to extending the life and increasing the size of any government programs they manage.

To all you seniors who think Social Security and Medicare will outlive you: don’t count on it. These two programs account for 45% of the federal budget, a percentage that’s increasing every year. Long before these programs run out of the cash needed to keep them going, changes of some type will have to be made. Whether this involves limiting eligibility, extending recipients’ eligibility age, increasing the amount withheld from those who pay into the system, or simply cutting the benefits, something will have to be done, and fairly soon. 

Wind Turbines and Dead Eagles. It seems the widespread expansion of wind turbines has led to a huge increase in dead birds. We’ve heard about this for years, but the data seems to be either classified (the Interior Department refuses to release the actual number) or just downright embarrassing. So…the folks who wrap themselves in the green blanket of alternative renewable energy find themselves at odds with another set of environmentalists who desire to protect God’s creatures. 

I’ve never been accused of being an environmentalist of the radical green or any other variety, but I’ll admit up front that I really like birds. To me they’re among the most fascinating of living creatures. They’re also worth keeping around since God obviously thought they were good enough to create on day five:

So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth” [Gen 1:21-22].

We should, therefore, be careful about how we, as the earth’s stewards [Gen 1:28], care for God’s good creatures. Climate-change radicals, predicting our immanent destruction, consider dead birds (and, it seems, dead humans) nothing more than acceptable collateral damage. Nothing is more important, they tell us, than saving the earth from the ravages caused by man. These are the same folks who have canonized John Kerry and Greta Thunberg, the former a serial liar since his Vietnam days and the latter…well, nobody really knows what she really is or how she got there. The trouble is, people who jump on bandwagons might enjoy the ride, but they rarely anticipate the unintended consequences that bring everything to a screeching halt. But that’s another subject…

Anyway, back to our birds…

It seems wind turbines are particularly threatening to soaring birds of prey; i.e., eagles, falcons, hawks, osprey, even condors. These birds spend most of their time just soaring above the earth, scanning the ground or water for prey; thus, they are far more likely to collide with the blades of wind turbines. Talking about this with an acquaintance the other day, he wondered how this could happen since those huge blades seem to move so slowly. He didn’t understand why birds couldn’t avoid them. What he really didn’t understand was the speed of the tips of those blades. As an old helicopter pilot, I’m very familiar with blade-tip speed. A large wind turbine can have blades well over 200 feet long, which can generate blade tip speeds in excess of 150 miles per hour. A blade, weighing several tons, and moving at that speed, can certainly catch a soaring bird by surprise. Another contributing factor: the location of turbines in areas where such birds are especially plentiful. For example, wind turbines located offshore can adversely affect seabirds and migratory birds who fish or pass through areas where offshore turbines are usually located.

When it comes to birds killed by wind turbines, what kind of numbers are we talking about? Nobody knows for sure, but it seems the numbers are growing. 10 years ago (2013) it was estimated that over 500,000 birds had been killed by turbines. But most estimates came from the wind turbine industry, probably not the most objective source. Current estimates by the federal government, another questionable source, vary but range upwards to 400,000 per year. These numbers are expected to increase considerably as the number and size of turbines increase. 

Golden Eagle and Wind Farm

Many bird lovers are most concerned about the long-term effect on eagles. Eagles, of course, are a protected species, and individuals who kill a bald eagle can be fined $5,000 and spend up to a year in jail. I found it surprising that wind farms are allowed a certain number of eagle “takes” — a polite euphemism for the number of eagles the spinning blades are allowed to kill every year. When the wind farm exceeds its takes, the company gets fined. At the Two Rivers Wind Project in Wyoming, the total number of bald eagles legally killed annually by wind farms would be almost 30% of the eagle population in the area. It would be very hard for any species to withstand such losses.

Now we’re hearing rumbling along the east coast about the unexplained deaths of unprecedented numbers of whales and other sea mammals, allegedly related to the construction and operation of offshore wind turbines. The powers in charge all deny any connection, while the locals, including the professional fisherman who claim they know the area best, disagree. I just find it interesting that these wind turbines seem to be at war with both of the species God created on that fifth day: “the great sea monsters…and every winged bird.”

I’m not smart enough to know what to do about all this, but it seems we have jumped into technologies without really studying their possible, usually unintended, effects on the rest of our interconnected world. The fact that we don't understand these connections should lead us to move with extreme caution as we introduce new technologies. We see this as well when it comes to electric vehicles and the potential environmental effects of battery production and rare earth mining.

Politicians just love to do seemingly important things by making grand gestures and forcing their will on those who elect them. Sadly, far too often they make these decisions in favor of those entities that provide them with the most money. Perhaps they would be far more successful and certainly more worthy of our votes if they simply let the market — i.e., the people — make those decisions within a framework that balances both good and not-so-good consequences. 

Cardinal in Red Vestments

I'm sure it's apparent from a number of my earlier posts that I truly enjoy our local bird population here in Central Florida. A remarkable number of large birds inhabit our neighborhood. On any given morning or evening, while out walking with our dog, Maddie, I might encounter egrets, bald eagles, osprey, herons, ibises, anhingas, hawks, owls, and more.

I have to admit, though, I probably enjoy our songbirds the most. It's hard not to be cheered by their pre-dawn singing as I walk along with Maddie, wondering what I'm doing strolling through the streets in the semi-darkness. As it turns out, I'm enjoying the songs of our local birds. (Maddie demands two long walks daily, one early and another late.)

Perhaps the most common of our local songbirds are the northern mocking birds. They're also our most active singers, and living up to their name, will often sing ten or twenty different songs in rapid succession, mimicking the other birds and sounds that they hear. Brown thrushes are another common songbird in the area, and they too mimic other birds.

But my favorite is the cardinal. How can you not like this most obvious of songbirds? The male's bright red coloring and rapid-fire song is a true attention-grabber. We have many cardinals in our neighborhood and, in fact, this spring a cardinal couple made a nest in one of the shrubs right outside our front door. By the time I realized they were there, the little ones had hatched and were about ready to leave the nest.

Yesterday afternoon, as I relaxed on the lanai reading and rubbing Maddie's tummy, I heard a cardinal's telltale call and there he was, sitting on a cable box in our backyard. He was about 30 feet away but the telephoto lens did its job fairly well. Here's the photo...cool bird.

Local Cardinal