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--></style></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>As I approach my 69<sup>th</sup> birthday I am amazed how little older the looked-up-to older-and-wiser members of our community are! Thankyou all for the wisdom about engaging with the world And the aging process at once and the same time!</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Sent from <a href="https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=550986">Mail</a> for Windows 10</p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><div style='mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal style='border:none;padding:0in'><b>From: </b><a href="mailto:oe@lists.wedgeblade.net">isobeljimbish--- via OE</a><br><b>Sent: </b>Sunday, July 15, 2018 10:35 PM<br><b>To: </b><a href="mailto:oe@lists.wedgeblade.net">Order Ecumenical Community</a><br><b>Cc: </b><a href="mailto:isobeljimbish@optusnet.com.au">isobeljimbish@optusnet.com.au</a><br><b>Subject: </b>Re: [Oe List ...] Earthrise @ 79</p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>Thankyou Margaret and Rod- </span><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>Thankfully we have many spirit tools to encourage us to keep following the crimson line. “ The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” That is my condition quite often. <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>We are ageing, and yet our spirits are guiding us day by day and God is right here, in the midst of all the mess. I don’t know if I am making any sense, I listen to what y’all say as you write. I compare my experiences with others around me. Mystery will not let us down. Joe used to say “ God does not make mistakes.” That word has been a comfort to me in rough times. <o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>Love and peace,<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>Isobel Bishop <o:p></o:p></span></p><div id=AppleMailSignature><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>Sent from my iPhone<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><br>On 16 Jul 2018, at 1:19 pm, Margaret Aiseayew via OE <<a href="mailto:oe@lists.wedgeblade.net">oe@lists.wedgeblade.net</a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>I’m sorry to say, Rod, that I don’t think so. My concern for the world my grandchildren will inherit and all the messes they will have to clean up seems to demand a great deal more from me than I would have expected at this stage. I need a break in the heat and a new umbrella to stay out in the crowds longer, but I find myself out there anyway.</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Margaret</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif'> OE [<a href="mailto:oe-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net">mailto:oe-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net</a>] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Rod Rippel via OE<br><b>Sent:</b> Sunday, July 15, 2018 11:09 AM<br><b>To:</b> OE<br><b>Cc:</b> Rod Rippel<br><b>Subject:</b> Re: [Oe List ...] Earthrise @ 79</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black'>John, Thank you for your reflection and the many comments it has catalyzed. I am, now 83 just approaching 84! I wonder if responses and thoughts on the aging process aren’t in some way due to exposed nerve endings resulting from the latest turn in our culture taking place under Trump?</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black'> And perhaps represents a nostalgic longing to “get out of this mess.”</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black'>How? By simply falling back on the comforting realization that we won’t be around to “see the results.” And we no longer have the energy to throw ourselves into the battle for “A better world?!”</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black'> I certainly experience a pervading fatigued as as my wife and I try to engage in the current political struggles and charitable demands.</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black'> Thank you for starting all the reflections.</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black'>Rod Rippel</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black'> </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='background:whitesmoke'><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black'> John Epps via OE </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='background:whitesmoke'><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black'>Sent:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black'> Wednesday, July 04, 2018 2:47 PM</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='background:whitesmoke'><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black'>To:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black'> OE </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='background:whitesmoke'><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black'>Cc:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black'> John Epps </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><p class=MsoNormal style='background:whitesmoke'><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black'>Subject:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma",sans-serif;color:black'> [Oe List ...] Earthrise @ 79</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:8.0pt;text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black'>Earthrise @ 79</span></b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black'>Recently we were returning from a trip to Kansas and stopped for lunch at Denny’s in Limon, Colorado. We’d been watching storm clouds gathering on the horizon and were hoping to make it home before they hit. As we were leaving, I held the door for an obviously elderly couple – both were white-haired, somewhat bent-over, and he had a cane. Walking was a chore and pushing open the door would have taxed their capacities. They could obviously use some help, so I pushed open the door and held it as they struggled through. Then they uttered the words that still jar me: “Thank you, sir.” “Sir?” Coming from them? I was taught to use that term to refer to those older than I. That statement occasioned an interior rainstorm of reflections, including lots of wind, rain, and some hail.</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black'>Looking back over the last month, I’ve had more “sirs” thrown at me than at my senior year at The Citadel. There it was earned, deserved, and welcomed. Here it’s a surprising address heralding the onset of elder-ness that I didn’t think I had earned (yet) or deserved, and certainly not welcomed. There are plenty of signs, from the number of medications it takes to keep going to the diminishing energy and frequent naps. But I have ignored those as simply the afflictions of a young man with something gone wrong (to use a phrase from JWM). </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black'>Reality will not be denied. It breaks through our facades.</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black'>This time it drove me to look at a work I’d heard about but never examined: “On Holy Living and Dying” by Jeremy Taylor published in 1839 (a century before my birth). I turned quickly to the section on Holy Dying. Here’s an excerpt. “A person is a bubble…all the world is a storm, and people rise up in their several generations…like bubbles descending from nature and Providence; and some of these instantly sink into the deluge of their first parent, and are hidden in a sheet of water, having had no other business in the world but to be born, that they may be able to die: others float up and down two or three turns, and suddenly disappear, and give their place to others: and those that live longest in the face of the waters, are in perpetual motion, restless and uneasy; and being crushed with the great drop of a cloud, sink into flatness and a froth; the change not being great, it being hardly possible it should be more a nothing than it was before. So is everyone….”</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black'>This goes on for 10 pages with powerful images and the same message about our relative insignificance in the cosmic scheme of things. Somehow, and I don’t know how, I found this strangely comforting, and not unsettling as one might assume. You just never know where wonder will break through, but when it does, it’s well worth celebrating.</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:8.0pt'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black'>John Epps</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'> </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'><img border=0 width=376 height=1 style='width:3.9166in;height:.0138in' id="Horizontal_x0020_Line_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.png@01D41D33.8DAA8FD0"></span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;color:black'>_______________________________________________<br>OE mailing list<br><a href="mailto:OE@lists.wedgeblade.net">OE@lists.wedgeblade.net</a><br><a href="http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net">http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net</a></span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></div><div id=DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><table class=MsoNormalTable border=1 cellspacing=3 cellpadding=0 style='border:none;border-top:solid #D3D4DE 1.0pt'><tr><td width=55 style='width:41.25pt;border:none;padding:9.75pt .75pt .75pt .75pt'><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><a href="https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient&utm_term=icon" target="_blank"><span style='border:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0in;text-decoration:none'><image001.jpg></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p></td><td width=470 style='width:352.5pt;border:none;padding:9.0pt .75pt .75pt .75pt'><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:13.5pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#41424E'>Virus-free. <a href="https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient&utm_term=link" target="_blank"><span style='color:#4453EA'>www.avast.com</span></a> </span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p></o:p></span></p></td></tr></table><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'> <o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></blockquote></div><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:5.0pt;margin-right:.5in;margin-bottom:5.0pt;margin-left:.5in'>_______________________________________________<br>OE mailing list<br><a href="mailto:OE@lists.wedgeblade.net">OE@lists.wedgeblade.net</a><br><a href="http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net">http://lists.wedgeblade.net/listinfo.cgi/oe-wedgeblade.net</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>