Roy’s Sunday Letter, June 26, 2022

     ** For my adult life I watched Mark Shields. PBS News Hour, CNN.  HIs recent death at 85, brought forth comments Mark would appreciate:.

Generosity of spirit....Irrepressible humor....Could spot a phony, Called out injustice....Spoke to and was liked by everyone on the set.... Mark was interested in people, their families, their achievements, their failures. David Brooks said, "Mark and I often greatly disagreed, never with malice or disrespect." Mark's traits are missed in the public discourse of today.

* .A recent news analyst spoke of our divided country in this way:

   1/3 want our Democracy and Constitutional government to continue; the people decide; those elected represent those they serve (the original concept)

   1/3 would like an Oligarchy (small number make decisions) or Dictatorship (I think we know the preferred)

   1/3 just want lower gas prices, the supply chain to stock the shelves, and planes to take off and land

     ** Ex-PGA millionaire golfers continue to be given more millions by the Saudi oil money. I call their lack of integrity "bankruptcy of the soul."

* Since April 2020, I have loaded individual names to each Sunday Letter and Gmail (about 60). By next Sunday I will have completed the shift to Aweber, an email, marketing platform. You, the SL reader, will not notice a significant format change. For me, I look forward to the ease of sending to 1 or 500. Anyone who wishes to not continue to receive my Sunday Letter, just raise your hand,

     ** Updates: 1) My web site opens on my Book. You can read about my writings and order my collection of short stories and other writings.

                         ) On the site bar, under Stories & Blogs, recent Sunday Letters and my 4 Blogs thus are easily found and read. New Blog this week.

For those who now have my book, your comments on the book or individual stories will be helpful in completing my Home Page. The site is a work in progress.

                                                   www.royswritings.com

Long coffee with a friend this week.

Certain words kept entering our talk over court decisions, political moods, the latest warning of climate disaster, and, of course, "how are you."

Our words:    Grace - The giving of space, letting go of shaming & blaming, allowing others to be themselves

                     Connections - Resisting the pull to be disconnected, isolate, the importance to know we are in connection with others, and our complicated world

                     Forgiveness - Yes, forgiveness to give, and to receive. There is also the over-looking, letting small wounds and hurts go (not stockpiling, really letting go)

                     Care Anyway - So much is happening, so quickly, 24/7. We can be and may be overwhelmed. The right path is to care anyway, to care because, to not go away.

Roy, on the same crooked path as us all