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Musings
of a Senior Scribe
Snow Blind
By Mona Lease
Hi, all! I trust everyone made it through the blizzard! It surely was
fun figuring where to put all the snow, huh? Seems like that's when all
the "stuff" happens - just to try your patience. It looked like there
were two snow plows every block and a half or so, aside from the
professional ones. I called a plower and I would be 15th on the
list? HOW?
I was at an impromptu gathering. The conversation turned to money -
there's a surprise!! I've been listening to conversations lately. I am
amazed at how much "information" gets lost or added. I've watched a
group of people talking and the intended recipient of the conversation
walks away to take a text from a cell phone or something else.
The intended returns to the conversation. However; the speaker started
a new conversation with another. People are listening. Someone asks
what the first conversation was. (Is that rude?) Oh, Joe owes Jack
money. Jack said Joe could... then the intended "ear" left. But an
answer was never decided. Instead an answer was "assumed." Like trying
to drive in the blizzard we just experienced… conversations can become
"snowy" when interrupted with cell texts, butt-ins, etc. Since Jack has
money, it's assumed Joe can take his time repaying/not pay at all/ take
the money to work with him; they work together/gas up Jack's car; Joe
has a credit card, etc. And like the driven snow; it obscures the
conversational path before you.
It seems we judge the internal man by the external - how we live/our
morals/our response to any given situation, etc. Without ever knowing
issues like physical health (maybe they don't want anyone to know they
wear a catheter or are dying), dreams, goals, promises they've made to
someone, how they want to die (we've seen how they live), what they
really want people to think of them, how it affects them when they fall
short of a personal goal, etc.
And we're never gonna know as long as we are "snowblind" - and
concentrate on cell phones, iPads, iPhones, houses, cars, clothes, etc.
A few years ago a guy died. People were putting beer in the casket with
him. They said he would have wanted it that way. But, I always
wondered; was that projected upon him because that's all they ever did
with him? And I always wondered - If you had asked him, would he have
said yes he wanted his wife and kids to remember him that way? That he
wanted his parents to see him that way for the last time?
And this brings me to Darke Co. Right to Life and Crisis Pregnancy. We
recently lost Virgil Unrast to complications of a stroke. He was at the
helm of the above mentioned services for the 20+ years I worked with
and around him. Many times I stopped at the "office" to speak with him.
Together we pondered Christianity and how to get the numbers of teen
pregnancy to drop along with the "crisis pregnancies." (These are
usually unplanned). Virgil was never too busy to give you his full
attention - eye contact and all. He was big on mentoring the kiddies
and all who wanted to better themselves or further the "cause" of
stopping teen/unplanned pregnancy.
In one of our last conversations, I remember him perched on the edge of
his desk, swinging his foot clad in a farm boot. Looking me directly in
the eye, he asked - "Mona, what if we get to the other side and Jesus
asks us - Do you love Me? Did you ever love Me?" So, what would happen
if we took the "Death with Dignity" we see at funerals and applied it
to the living? What would happen if we took that "dignity" (our love?)
and applied it now - while they can appreciate it and probably need it
the most? What would happen if we looked each other in the eye and
turned off the "stuff" and listened? What if we weren't
snowblind? RIP, Virgil.
Remember the kiddies and our service people. Take good care of the
furry and feathered ones out there. Be safe and healthy. Ever
Toodles!! MONA
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