Ned Henry January 18, 2021 · nedhenry.medim.com
I’m actually going to try to post this the night before if the site will let me. It is an hour and 15 minute talk that Marianne Williamson gave on January 19, 2018 about Martin Luther King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. I just listened to it again this evening. If just one of you takes the time to listen to it, it is well worth making this posting. This was my first exposure to Marianne Williamson. This talk didn’t really sink in at the time in a way that spurred action but it did touch me deeply. It is the reason I wholeheartedly supported her candidacy for President in 2020 when my friends thought I was nuts. This talk is from the heart and I want my President to talk from the heart. I didn’t become a follower of hers or anything. Didn’t hear other talks but did give money to her campaign and got on her mailing list and that is how I found her daily lessons in the Course in Miracles. I urge you to listen to what she has to say about Martin Luther King on this MLK day 3 years later.
My Cancer Journey 1/18 #2
This is Joy. My second cousin who feels like a niece. One of the people I feel the closest to during this time. I’m not going to talk about her today except to say that this was taken maybe 20 years ago. She and her mom had come to visit me in Atlanta. It was after I had moved into town. I moved inside the perimeter in in 1996. So I’ll bet this was around 2000. We were going to eat breakfast at the original Flying Biscuit on Clifton (for me) and on McLendon for most of you. It’s on the corner of those 2 streets almost in Little 5 Points. Liz lives in this neighborhood. It’s called Candler Park. Flying Biscuit is a breakfast spot and now they have several around town but this location was the first one. Great biscuits. So we probably had put our name on a list to be seated and we wandered down McLendon a little bit in front of those shops down the block. I don’t know what’s there now. It’s been a while. I snapped this picture of Joy in front of one of those shops. Well this is the COMMERCIAL for Lucia Di Lammermoor. That IS Lucia in the display window during the MAD SCENE which is the most famous scene in this opera where she goes crazy. It is usually staged with plenty of blood. It is magnificent. I know I use that word a lot but it is just a mesmerizing scene. There is one of the very best sextets in all of opera at the end of Act 2. The Mad scene is in Act 3. It on The MET on Demand tomorrow night, January 19. I think it will go up at around 6 PM ET and be there for 24 hours and then they change out the opera to next day’s opera on demand. I know most of you won’t bother but it’s there for 24 hours for free on demand. And I recommend you experience this classic Italian opera.
3:30 PM Just listened to the Marianne Williamson’s talk again. I just might be the most powerful talk I have ever heard in my entire life. If you are worried about the inauguration, the peaceful transfer of power, put down your worry and fear for a moment and look to this talk for some guidance. You can always go back to your fear and worry and even hope for the best in the furture. But on THIS MLK day look to this talk for a moment to help you develop some courage, to help you find a way to participate not just as an individual but collectively. We need to be able to participate as a generation in the so badly needed transformation of our society and of our world. And this talk is a start to help you find that voice inside you that knows what to do.
Lots of trivial things going on — my glasses broke, I couldn’t sleep and then I did, my feet got cold, the Buc’s unexpectedly won, and The Beatles accompanied me for breakfast. There will be more trivial stuff for the rest of the day, shower, clean the wound on my leg, put the lotion on my back, put on clean fleece socks, get some dinner, watch PBS Newshour, try to do a little walking and even get outside for a few minutes on this sunny day. But it all seems so trivial after listening to this talk again.
I’ll come back later. Someone might be listening.
4:35 CIM Lesson 17 — I see no neutral things (because I have no neutral thoughts).
Sat outside on the deck for a half hour with a cup of Peppermint tea and just took in the air, the trees, the birds, the squirrels. I literally was pulling my hair out. It was relaxing as I pulled it out and let it float away in the wind. Have to get back to some more of those trivial things on my list. Later.
6 PM — So didn’t get to the shower but did clean my open wound. Did some things, sent some texts, took the trash out boring day to day things. They all seem to take so much longer with cancer. Maybe I’m just being more deliberate than normal. Carmen is on tonight so after the news I will watch that and hopefully get a good nights sleep. Newshour comes on both of my TV’s live at 7. I can get it on one channel at 6 but not both. The antenna isn’t as strong in the den. and for walking it’s better on both TV’s so I can almost watch it while I walk. So I’ll watch it live at 7 and walk for the hour. Well really walk and stand for the hour. Which means I’m going to go fix dinner now and eat and get that done. Make a call to Andreas, my friend with a rare and tough cancer in his nose — carpenter cancer. I think I told about it before. After dinner the news and a walk, then Carmen and a few hits off the vape pen and then with any luck at all a peaceful night sleep. Even if it’s with drugs to get me there.
The Prosperos seems to be putting out an anti-vax message from some of the higher ups. I’m not going to spend a lot of time thinking about it or debating it. It might be an official postion — it might not. I don’t know and I don’t care. I am on the side of the medical doctors at this point. I am going to do absolutely everything they tell me I need to do to get better. And vaccine for Covid is part of that process, albeit a small part, but a part nonetheless. So I will take the vaccine when it becomes available to me. And if it kills me, so be it.
Talk to tomorrow.