QUARANTINE BLOG # 298

January 22, 2021

Congratulations to Luke Herrington, named to the Dean’s List in his first semester at Augusta University.  The Dean’s List is for students with a 3.5 grade point average or higher.  Luke’s GPA is 4.0.  And the certificate Luke is holding is a Certificate of Academic Achievement from the School of Computer and Cyber Sciences.

👉  British-based Saga Cruises has become the first cruise line to officially make coronavirus vaccination a pre-sailing requirement.  Saga Cruises said that passengers must have received both doses of the vaccine at least 14 days before they are set to board.  Interestingly, Saga does not have a similar requirement for crew members. “Our focus in the first instance is on our guests and ensuring all of them have been vaccinated,” the Saga’s website says.  “We have comprehensive… protocols in place to protect our crew, including quarantine and regular testing and as soon as crew can be vaccinated, they will be.”  

While your favorite blogger has been expecting this – and supports it – other cruise lines are looking into the legal issues requiring guests to require the vaccination.  Norwegian Cruise Lines says it is looking into the potential legal ramifications.  To date, despite internet rumors, Carnival Cruise Lines has made no announcement either way.  

👉  Alan M. Dershowitz, who is known for his work in U.S. constitutional law and American criminal law, offered an editorial comment in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal about congressional efforts to impeach former president Donald Trump.  He wrote: “Now that Donald Trump is a private citizen, the Senate should dismiss the article of impeachment against him for lack of jurisdiction.  The Constitution is clear: ‘The president . . . shall be removed from office on impeachment . . . and conviction’ – not by the expiration of his term before the impeachment process is complete.  It also mandates that ‘judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal and disqualification’ – not or disqualification . . . For the victorious Democrats to seek revenge against Donald Trump would set a terrible precedent, distract from President Biden’s agenda, and make it hard to heal the country.”

👉  Here’s a Sunday panel from my favorite comic strip married couple, Edda and Amos:

👉  And from another great comic strip married couple, Blondie and Dagwood:

👉  Maybe someday I’ll do a blog series about pet peeves, but then it would just go on and on and you get the idea.  But here is one that The Mandalorian settles:

👉  Thunder Road is a black and white 1958 drama-crime film starring Robert Mitchum as moonshine runner Lucas Doolin.  Mitchum also produced the film, co-wrote the screenplay and the theme song, “The Ballad of Thunder Road,” and did the vocal for the song.  The film is set in the mountains of Kentucky and Tennessee in the late 1950s.  The role of Robin Doolin, Lucas’s younger brother, was written for Elvis Presley per Mitchum’s request.  Mitchum personally submitted the script to Elvis in Los Angeles.  The singer was eager to play the role, but his manager Colonel Tom Parker demanded Elvis be paid an enormous sum of money, more than the entire budget for the movie, which ended negotiations.  Mitchum’s son James got the part.  Here is today’s hot rod song, “The Ballad of Thunder Road.”

👉  Today’s close is by Dr. Gary Chapman.

“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” (Isaiah 52:7).

More than eight hundred years ago, Francis of Assisi prayed, “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.”  Sometimes when we hear the latest tragic story of violence in the world, the idea of being instruments of peace can seem overwhelming.  But small acts of kindness remind us that in the face of fear, injury, and hatred, good does exist.

Good exists in the hands of volunteers who help build houses after natural disasters, in the sacrifices of military personnel fighting for someone else’s safety, and in the simple ways we choose to serve others at work, at home, and in the community.

As Francis concluded, “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.”  Acting kindly means dying to our selfish desires so that the needs of others might be met.  Self-denial goes against everything the evening news suggests about human nature.  But when we live out God’s kindness in ordinary ways, even moments of despair can become opportunities for hope. 

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