QUARANTINE BLOG # 624

December 14, 2021

Robert Joseph Dole died last Sunday, December 5.  His funeral in our nation’s capital where he served for almost 30 years was this past Friday, December 10.  Now that this great statesman and leader has been laid to rest and his name has dropped from the headlines, QB offers some reflections on a life well lived.

If you watched Bob Dole as he served first in the House of Representatives, then in the Senate, and as the Republican candidate for President in 1996, you saw he always held a pen in his right hand.  That pen was there to take attention away from the fact that his right arm was paralyzed from wounds he received in World War II that almost killed him (and to keep well-wishers from trying to shake hands right-handed because of the constant pain in that hand).  If was also a permanent reminder of the men and women who had served with him.  

The funeral procession left the National Cathedral and stopped at the World War II memorial.  In 1997, one year after his last failed presidential bid, he took over as the national chairman of the fund-raising campaign for the memorial.  He raised more than $190 million.  Dole spoke at the memorial’s dedication when it was completed in 2004, and he often visited the memorial to shake hands with veterans who visited it.

Former President Bill Clinton, the only former president to attend the funeral, said Bob Dole gave even more to his country than he had to after fighting in WWII.  “The power of that example should inspire people in public service today and for generations to come,” Clinton said.

Known for his humor, on Friday, during his own funeral service, he snuck in one last punch line via a letter he wrote to be released upon his passing.  

“As I make the final walk on my life’s journey I do so without fear because I know that I will again not be walking alone. I know that God will be walking with me,” he wrote. “I also confess that I’m a bit curious to learn if I am correct in thinking that heaven will look a lot like Kansas and to see, like others who have gone before me, if I will still be able to vote in Chicago.” 

A poem that he often quoted in speeches, “The Dash,” was read at the funeral, and is today’s closing for the blog.

Bob Dole once wrote a book of political humor called Great Political Wit: Laughing (Almost) All the Way to the White House, at joke at his own failed presidential run against Bill Clinton in 1996.  A year later, when Clinton awarded him a Presidential Medal of Freedom, he pretended he was being sworn in as president, before joking, “Sorry, wrong speech.”

He was also known for once referring to former presidents Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, and Richard Nixon as “See No Evil, Hear No Evil and Evil.”

👉  Here are the last two Senior T-shirts:

👉  A brief pause for books:

👉  Today’s Advent meditation from Walter Brueggemann is, “The Yet on the Other Side.”

As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he” (Matthew 11:7-11).

John is the one who gets everything ready; you cannot jump into the goodness of Christmas without readiness from him.

Did you think when you heard John that he would be a cowardly little guy? Jesus asks. That’s not Advent. Did you expect when you saw him he would be all dressed up in fancy party clothes? Maybe for Christmas, but that’s not Advent.

Jesus knows his jailed cousin is crucial for getting ready. But after he speaks of John for a while, he reverses field. As if he said the hoper, the demander, the summoner is crucial, and you must pay attention. But I do not want you to pay so much attention to John and Advent that you do not notice the change in your life when the newness comes. John is a big public figure. Everyone knows about him, from King Herod on down. Yet the least in the kingdom is greater than John. What a footnote! No matter how crucial is the old moral urgency, the old disciplines of obedience and devotion, that produce good deeds and mercy and compassion, what comes at Bethlehem is greater. Greater are those who believe and practice the newness.

These weeks of Advent are a time to stand with John in jail and look to the newness. Imagine what it would be like to be least in newness and thereby greater than all the old arrangements.

This yet is our news. Jesus says, Let anyone who has ears, listen!

The newness of God is at hand! May we believe the newness, receive it, and practice it that we may share in the works of Jesus and live into the miracle that is surging around us. Amen.

👉  I’m closing today with Linda Ellis’ poem “The Dash.”

I read of a man who stood to speak at the funeral of a friend. He referred to the dates on the tombstone from the beginning to the end. 

He noted first came the date of the birth and spoke the following date with tears. But he said what mattered most of all was the dash between the years.

For that dash represents all the time that they spent life on Earth. And now only those who loved them know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not how much we own, the cars, the house, the cash. What matters is how we live and love, and how we spend our dash.

So, think about this long and hard. Are there things you'd like to change? For you never know how much time is left that can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough to consider what's true and real, and always try to understand the way other people feel.

Be less quick to anger and show appreciation more, and love the people in our lives like we've never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect and more often wear a smile, remembering that this special dash might only last a little while.

So, when your eulogy is being read with your life's actions to rehash, would you be proud of the things they say about how you spent your dash?

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