Resources for 55+ Citizens in Mystic

Seeing a couple of Letters to The Day recently has reminded me that the demographics of Mystic show that we need to take more care that the 55+ group of citizens will require new and creative thinking and action.  Many of these people have contributed to our community for a lifetime.  We owe them special care.

The First United Methodist Church Mystic would like to identify the greatest concerns among the 55+ community.  Please go to this page on the church's website to contact us with your feedback.  You will see that you can call or email http://firstumcmystic.org/contact-us.html  Pass this on to a friend.

Let's create some effective, creative programs to use one of our most important resources.

Helping Veterans - Soul Repair Center

Brite Divinity School, Ft. Worth, TX is opening a new center to provide public education and research to better understand moral injury, expecially as it relates to veterans.  A book, Soul Repair, is forthcoming.

Read more and get in touch with the Center.

http://www.brite.edu/programs.asp?BriteProgram=soulrepair

Kitchen Serving Needy

This letter to the editor of The Day, New London, CT, appeared in the Tuesday 31 July. edition  Can we gather the information and see if we can help??

Kitchen serving needy is forced to close
Mary Howland Former director FAMILY Kitchen Mystic

It is with a heavy heart that I write to tell your readers that F.A.M.I.L.Y. Kitchen housed at Faith Lutheran Church, has closed. We served a free meal to anyone who came, every Monday night for nearly three years. We served over 6,000 meals, and handed out dog and cat food, as well as kitty litter. Regretfully, I have become ill and can no longer work the hours it took, nor do the physical labor that was involved.

I want to tell everyone that we had the finest staff of volunteers I have ever worked with in my 30-plus years of volunteering.

I also would like to note my appreciation for the Faith Lutheran Church, Stop & Shop of Groton, and all those who donated. Left over money and food stuffs will go to other organizations serving the needy.

I will miss our patrons terribly and wish them the best. If there is a church out there who wishes to take up this effort, please feel free to contact me, and I will advise on the start up. I can offer advice only at this point, but the need is very real in our town, and I pray someone will step up.

In a recent editorial David Brooks says,

"Equal opportunity, once core to the nation’s identity, is now a tertiary concern. If America really wants to change that, if the country wants to take advantage of all its human capital rather than just the most privileged two-thirds of it, then people are going to have to make some pretty uncomfortable decisions."  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/10/opinion/brooks-the-opportunity-gap.html

How would you identify the "uncomfortable decisions?"

Patriotism = Voting

SHOW YOUR PATRIOTISM

YOUR VOTE WILL SHOW MORE BRILLIANT COLOR AND A LOUDER SOUND THAN ALL THE FIREWORKS IN THE WORLD.

Interruptions

Henri Nouwen, in his book "Reaching Out," says: "I met an older experienced professor who had spent most of his life there (University of Notre Dame). And while we strolled over the beautiful campus, he said with a certain melancholy in his voice, 'You know....my whole life I have been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted, until I discovered that my interruptions were my work.'" (Henri J.M. Nouwen, Reaching Out, Garden City., N.Y.: Doubleday & Co., Inc., 36)

Father's Day

My heart leaps up when I behold
   A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;    
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
   Or let me die!                         
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

 

“The child is father to the man.”
How can he be? The words are wild.
Suck any sense from that who can,
“The child is father to the man.”
No; what the poet did write ran,
“The man is father to the child.”
“The child is father to the man!”
How can he be? The words are wild!
 
Gerald Manley Hopkins (1884-1889)