Feast of the Assumption

August fifteenth is the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is a beautiful Marian Feast and when I was growing up always signaled that the end of summer is near. It is comforting to believe that two people, Our Lord, and his Mother, have their bodies with them in eternal life. It gives me hope that I will be reunited with my parents, whom I miss. On the other hand, I assume and I hope, that my resurrected body will not be disabled. I am growing weary of that and when the time comes will be glad to relinquish this body for one that works better.

The Assumption also makes us pause and realize that Mary lived on for some time after the death and resurrection of her Son. She was surrounded by people who, although not related, cared for her. She was old enough to be a grandmother, although official church teaching says that she had none. It is comforting as I age to think of Mary as an older woman, not the young girl of the Annunciation paintings and to realize that she knew some of the life changes and problems that I face.

In addition, I would like to propose that on this feast, it would be good to think about how our society cares for the aging, especially aging women who have not worked in careers. While that demographic is changing, it still exists and I believe that just as the disciples gathered around Mary and took care of her needs, so too should our communities gather around those who need care.

The elderly, especially elderly widowed folk and disabled people, often need more help financially with a better foundation of income, more help with health care and support services than our current society provides. The church, or ecumenical churches working together, could do a great deal of good here by setting up insurance companies that will provide services over profit to investors; credit unions could be of great service with lower interest rates on loans and credit cards and work could be provided for many people at home so that aging would not be so synonymous with poverty as it currently is.

In addition, private foundations could also be of service in providing for many helping aids. More about this in a later post. For today, I give thanks and praise for the Life of Mary, the Blessed Virgin and her roles for us to emulate. I ask her prayers for all of us, especially those of us who are disabled and aging.

This and That and Who I Am

I began this blog with the intention of writing everyday. Now, on the second day, I am already looking at the blank blog space and wondering what to say. I will take this opportunity to introduce myself. I am old enough to be a grandmother, but since I never married, never had any children I am looking forward to being a grandaunt instead. This summer both of my sister's children have married and one couple is expecting their first child, a boy, in the Fall--near my birthday in fact. We are all quite excited and praying for a healthy baby.

When I was six years old, six days after my sixth birthday to be exact, I contracted Polio. I like to say the Polio virus "caught me", after the custom of an African tribe I read about in the only Anthropology course I ever took. It was graduate school and the University of Chicago was like an intellectual smörgåsbord. Once a student matriculated in one department or school, the whole university was open. I accepted the invitation and studied how different people viewed illness. It was eye-opening. The cold caught me. The polio virus caught me. It had a certain charm and made sense. Why would any of us catch a cold or any illness for that matter? It put the illness in its place--as an interloper, an intruder in my life that had temporarily won. (I don't remember after nearly three decades if that was how the tribal members viewed it, or if I am making the concept my own as I write this. Quite probably it is the latter.)

Illness, disability in particular, has shaped my life, defined certain things that I can do and others that I cannot do. But I am not the illness or the disability. I will write about this more in the coming blog posts, I am sure.

Over the last few months, as I prepared to become a blogger, I have been reading other blogs. Several are by women who are caring for special needs children and they have touched me particularly so that I hope to link to them and comment from time to time. I was a "special needs" child before the term was invented. So there will be more about that too.

Gardening is a passion, color is a joy and it manifests itself in knitting, sewing, photography and digital editing. Cooking, which I once loved enough to be a passable gourmet cook, has become a chore as I age and I fight the calorie battle that is so much worse for a sedentary person. I will write about all of these things. I will tell you more about myself tomorrow.

I hope to post once a day and will try to make sure to come here at least two or three times a week. So please come back and visit my blog often.