RECAFFEINATED MONDAYS: Making it Work

Saint Francis of Assisi Church, Coyoacan, Federal District, Mexico. (Wikimedia Commons)

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.

The Prayer of St. Francis

We are on day 155 of 15 days to slow the spread.

Some of y’all didn’t read my Friday post, and it shows.

I told you that I’m avoiding the political commentary, but this weekend on social media was particularly vile. If you know, you know.

I actually wrote a hellfire and brimstone post and then thought the better of posting it.

Because, unlike y’all, I read my Friday post.

This was not the post I had planned to write. And for once, I was actually planning what to write.

True story.

I wanted to tell you about my weekend of creating the things. I’ve got the draft of the novel into Scrivener. Now I just have to learn how to make the best of use of Scrivener.

I printed the draft of an art/printing project that I’m working on. Details when appropriate.

I worked most of Friday evening on a video audition. My green screen finally arrived after traveling by Pony Express from California. Seriously, it took about two weeks.

I had to figure out how to record using the green screen and a virtual background. I’m still in the process of assessing and buying the equipment I need. This month was the green screen.

Since I’ve not upgraded the laptop yet (feel free to hit the tip jar on your way out), and since I still need a better web cam, I ended up using my iPad to record the video in Zoom. It works well, until you try to download it on an iPad which I could never get to work.

So, I signed into Zoom on the aging PC, downloaded the file, saved it to Google Drive because it was too big to email. Opened it on the iPad to edit. Converted it to an MP4. Re-saved it on Google Drive. Went back to the PC, renamed it, and submitted it.

It reminded me of the time my driver’s license expired. We were at the beach when I turned 50, which was on a Saturday. So, I went straight to DMV on Monday morning. They couldn’t renew an expired license. I had

Available from The Write Side Shop
(click the pic)

to show them my birth certificate.

At that point, I couldn’t put my finger on an actual copy. I drove across town to the Vital Statistics office, used my expired driver’s license to get a new birth certificate. Then I drove back across town to DMV and used the new birth certificate to renew my license.

This is a true story. And yes, it meant that I crossed the river and through customs (Richmond residents will get that) whilst driving with an expired license.

Sometimes, life ain’t easy.

Sometimes you just have to do what it takes to get the job done.

That may or may not include writing a hellfire and brimstone post and then deleting it because it would do more harm than good.

The Prayer of St. Francis was the closing affirmation at church yesterday. We’re still online and I suspect we will be for a while.

Hatred. Injury. Doubt. Despair. Darkness. Sadness.

Or, the short version: 2020.

I don’t have the answers to all that is going on. But, I know the One who does.

I said weeks ago that, when we don’t know what to do, the one thing we can do is pray.

Kudos to St. Frankie for showing us how to get the job done.

Speaking of understanding, you really should go read Shaun’s most excellent piece. Learn a little history. Do yourself some good:

The Long Defeat of History


 

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