QUARANTINE BLOG # 105

July 13, 2020

Let’s start this blog with one from our “People Have More Fun Than Anybody  Department,” because until we get to the comic strip, there’s not much to smile about.

**  With more than 80% of Georgia’s critical care beds now in use, health systems across the state say they’re quickly nearing capacity – not every patient in a critical care bed has COVID-19 – as cases of COVID-19 continue to rise.  In all of June, 47 COVID-19 patients were admitted to the hospital in Albany.  In just the first eight days of July, 37 were admitted.  In metro Atlanta, Emory Healthcare’s confirmed COVID-19 patients have more than tripled in the past 14 days.

Augusta Mayor Hardie Davis enacted an executive order Friday requiring people to  wear face coverings to slow the spread of COVID-19.  Augusta joins a number of Georgia cities including Atlanta, Athens and Savannah to require masks, despite Gov. Brian Kemp’s order that cities not take stronger measures than the state has.   The order applies to all commercial establishments, government buildings and all public squares and spaces.

** According to data released by MLB on Friday, 58 Major League Baseball players tested positive for the coronavirus upon reporting to their team, while an additional 13 tested positive after workouts began in what is called Spring Training 2.0.  One-third of the league’s teams had an infected player or staff member after workouts began last week.

**  CNN says if you live in Mississippi and you have been in contact with your state lawmaker, you may want to get a coronavirus test.  For weeks, politicians flouted mask recommendations inside the state Capitol.  Twenty-six state legislators have now tested positive for COVID-19, including Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and State House Speaker Philip Gunn.

One lawmaker who contracted coronavirus, Rep. Ronnie Crudup, Jr., gave a warning countless people continue to ignore – and not just those in Mississippi.  “I can honestly say that I wore my mask 95% of the time when I was around the Capitol and public places, but that 5% can make a big difference.”

My Dad used to tell a story about a farmer who periodically hit his mule across the head with a heavy club.  When asked why he did it, the farmer replied, “I have to do something to get his attention.”  Maybe those 26 legislators have experienced the heavy club.

** “Flash!  Ah ah!  Savior of the Universe!”  Well, that’s not the way the comic strip Flash Gordon began, but it is a strong memory from the movie by the same name with the soundtrack by Queen.  But let’s start at the beginning.

The first outer space science fiction strip was Buck Rogers which made its newspaper debut in January 1929, and followed with a radio serial and a film series.  Imitators followed including Tom Swift, Brick Bradford, Don Dixon and the Hidden Empire, Speed Spaulding, and John Carter of Mars.  

But the most famous, and successful was Flash Gordon.  Published five years later, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the Buck Rogers strip.  Buck Rogers had been very successful, spawning novelizations and children’s toys, and King Features Syndicate decided to create their own science fiction comic strip to compete with it.  Flash Gordon ran as a daily from 1934 to 1992, with the Sunday strip continuing until 2003.  Reprints are still syndicated.

The comic strip follows the adventures of Flash Gordon, a handsome polo player and Yale University graduate, and his companions Dale Arden and Dr. Hans Zarkov.  Their arch enemy is Ming the Merciless, ruler of the planet Mongo (the trio flies there in a rocket ship trying to prevent Mongo from crashing into earth).  Mongo has at least 6 different kingdoms, each with their own ruler under the thrall of Ming.  Notable among the kingdoms are the forest kingdom of Arboria, ruled by Prince Barin, and the flying city of the Hawkmen, ruled by Prince Vultan.  Eventually, Ming is overthrown, and Mongo is ruled by a council of leaders led by Barin.

Sam J. Jones beat out Kurt Russell and Arnold Schwarzenegger for the roll of Flash Gordon in the 1980 film.  In this version, Flash is a star for the New York Jets.  A genius of casting was choosing Max Von Sydow to play Ming.  With diverse rolls like Jesus Christ in The Greatest Story Ever Told, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, James Bond’s nemesis, in Never Say Never Again, and Lor San Tekka in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, he brought life to a comic book character in a comic book movie.  A planned Flash Gordon trilogy was scrapped because of a fall out between Jones and the producers.  The film did poorly at the box office, but is notable for its soundtrack https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYTYqs-ytSk composed, performed and produced by the rock band Queen.

**  God has placed in every one of us an insatiable hunger for Himself.  When the Psalmist says, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God,” he is speaking a universal language (Psalm 42:1-2 NKJV).

And Jesus says, “Blessed, nourished by God’s goodness, are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness – those who actively seek right standing with God – for they will be completely satisfied” (Matthew 5:6 Amplified Bible).

The hunger which this beatitude describes is no simple hunger that can be satisfied with a mid-morning snack, or a thirst which could be slaked with a cup of coffee or a glass of ice water.  It is the hunger of the man who is starving for food, and the thirst of the woman who will die unless she drinks.

The blessing is not limited to the one who achieves this goodness, but the one who longs for it with his or her whole heart.  If blessedness came only to the one who achieved, none would be blessed!  But blessedness comes to the woman or the man who, in spite of failures and failings, still holds to the passionate desire for that blessing.

You remember David longed to build the temple, but he was forbidden.  Regardless, God said: “Whereas it was in your heart to build a temple for My name, you did well in that it was in your heart” (2 Chronicles 6:8 NKJV).

Don’t mistake David’s desire for wishful thinking.  David arranged supply lines for the materials his son, Solomon, would need to build the temple.  He made treaties with the tradespeople and the craftsmen who would supply the work for the construction.  He hungered and thirsted to build the temple.

William Barclay translates, “O the bliss of the one who longs for total righteousness as a starving person longs for food, and one perishing of thirst longs for water, for that man or that woman will be truly satisfied!”

-30-