Our Hard-working Postal Workers

Have you sent something in the mail, wondering where it even is now? I know I'm not the only one whose tracking updates are sketchy or non-existent. I've seen it both from friends on Facebook and from small business groups.

It's hard. It's a hard time. We are entering Christmas, and we like to give and receive gifts, and it's a way to feel connected to people who are geographically distant. And even more people are geographically distant this year. I sympathize and empathize, and I wish everyone could get a good hug, or take a walk, or whatever helps with that loss and frustration....every day. I have compassion for your frustration.

At the same time, I would hope that we have compassion for our hard-working mail carriers. If they are not getting our packages sorted or scanned or delivered on time, let's have compassion on them, too. They are risking themselves to Covid and back injuries and sore muscles, working longer and harder and wearing themselves down, to sort and deliver the mail, with an unprecedented volume of mail and with unprecedented shortages of employees. Can you imagine being short-handed and then trying to pick up the slack whenever someone goes out sick?...when you're already working longer and carrying heavy packages? And how demoralizing it must be when you know that no matter how hard you work, you're probably not going to get some of this delivered on time?

I'm sure the deliveries of the holidays can be overwhelming in the best of years. But this is definitely not the best of years.

Let's be there for our postal workers if we can. Let's thank them if we have a chance. Smile if we have the opportunity. We are even allowed to gift our mail carrier (up to $20 worth, not to exceed $50 in a year is what I have read on the internet). I'm not suggesting that, just sharing it for those who would like to know. Let's realize, too, that in the wee hours or whenever they get off work for the day or on their day off, they might get on Facebook or some other social media, too. And so, when we complain, let's complain because it's hard but not complain about the people who are out there trying so hard. Let's express our appreciation for their Herculean efforts.

Thank you to all our postal workers, and may you stay well through this very difficult time. God bless everyone who is working so hard in this season of our lives, health care workers, grocery store workers, delivery people, retail workers, hotel employees, day care workers, and so many more. Thank you!

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How I Got into the Business of Making Cloth Masks

We had a partial box of paper "surgical" masks in the house when the pandemic hit.  I thought that would be all we would need. After all, we were just trying to "flatten the curve", right? 

Soon I realized I might want to make cloth masks for my family.  Well, I had a bit of fabric left from previous sewing projects; and I had a bit of 1/4" elastic, probably from my grandmother's stash; and I had pipe cleaners from some crafts with the kids. So, having found instructions I liked, I began making masks for my family. 

Then I ordered supplies through eBay, and I made masks for my adult kids' roommates and co-workers, and then for a friend's wedding. Pretty soon, I had made and given away 100 masks. In the meantime, one of my sons kept suggesting I make masks to sell. 

So I ordered more supplies and opened an account on Etsy. About that time a friend suggested metal nose strips to replace the pipe cleaners. That made a huge difference in efficiency and durability, and I was happy to begin my selling on Etsy with this improvement to the masks. 

Update: I have since closed my Etsy shop and am no longer selling masks, because they became readily available at reasonable prices. 

The Poor You Will Always Have with You

"The poor you will always have with you." How often have we heard these words? So many times that you might think you know what I'm going to say. But maybe you don't.

I have heard and read these words in Scripture since childhood. As an adult, I have often heard and read them used as an excuse to neglect people who do not have enough. (You knew I was going to say that part, didn't you?). However, they were originally said in a specific context. But is there yet another take-away for us?

Jesus said this in defense of the woman who had anointed his head and who had been hypocritically accused of waste. He pointed out that he would only be with us on earth for a little while. She had shown him this sign of great respect. She had acknowledged the honor that was due to him.

We know that Jesus cared about the poor. He stated that our very salvation depends on our care of others. He said: "…For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me…"  (Matthew 26:35). And, following a list of people we could help, he said that he will tell us to enter the kingdom of heaven. 

 

So, is there anything we can learn, millennia later, from Jesus saying, "For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me."  (Matthew 26:11).

Is there anything we can learn if we look at this sentence - as many people seem to do - without the context of the woman; but if we include the second part of the sentence? What if we keep at least the context of a complete sentence? We would not always have him with us in the same way that they did in those times. But we do have him with us in our churches, in our hearts, and wherever we are.

If we want to look at the lesson as universal, for all time, maybe what he meant for us - who live outside of the time when he walked on earth as a man - is not all that different. Maybe he meant for us to honor his place in our lives and refresh our souls by communing with him...in our churches, in our hearts, in the beauty of his world. After all, the two great commandments are to Love God and to Love our neighbor. He tells us to honor and help our neighbor, but he also gives us the strength and guidance we need to do so.  He said, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."  (Matthew 11:28).

(Scriptures taken from: Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition).

America was Already Great

America was already great. We didn't need to be made great again. We are great in our people who contribute to food banks or help the people in their neighborhoods or on the street corner; in our people who work each day to keep society running well; and in our people who are not able to work (whether through disability or not finding employment they were educated or trained for), but who contribute at home through their love, and who sometimes bring a smile to others or lift a heart, all of whom are of great worth; and in our people who come from other countries and offer the work of their hands or minds to enrich us. We were already great.

 

 America was never perfect. In our past, we have devastated the Japanese by dropping bombs on their cities; we have abused the Chinese by rioting against them for being here, after they worked hard and risked their lives to build our railroads for us; we took the land from the people who lived here when we first came and have treated them unfairly ever since; we have brought slaves and, once we freed them, never, as a nation as a whole, quite treated them with equal respect. We have always had plenty of room to grow and become "greater".

 

 But in the past four years, we have - it might seem - become less great in some ways. We seem to have become less great as we separated children from their parents with no way to keep track of them and reunite them; as we sent troops to clear a peaceful protest for a presidential photo op; as we have sent federal troops in unidentified uniforms to quell protests by picking up people walking down the street, with no charges, and putting them into unmarked vans; and as we have reinstated the death penalty at the federal level after 17 years and even while we learn of all the people who have been falsely incarcerated for crimes they did not commit. I'm puzzled at the idea that America is any greater. 

 

 But we are still great as a people. We still, individually and in many groups, help others. We still do our work every day, whatever it may be, or if we are not able to work, we still love and are loved by our families. There will always be sin and there will always be sorrow. We can fight some - not all of that, but certainly some - and mostly we can fight it by our personal good works and by striving to be a nation that is greater in its care for all...from helping and protecting the mother who is expecting a precious child to helping and protecting, as much as is in our power, the elderly, the sick, and the dying.