Missing Church

I MISSED CHURCH today, which is unfortunate because I really wanted to go, but the congestion in my chest and bronchial tubes or whatever was too unpleasant to inflict on th epublic, so I stayed home with my trusty bottle of Robitussin. It may be that our long ry air is full ot pollen and mold and god only nows what all else, and that a good rain will wash it all clean. The reasons to hope for rain mount. I finally felt well enough to get out around noon, but only briefly, long enough to use the public library internet connection to connect my computer, then, to take my laptop home, online and us it online upon my arrival. Pretty slick if you ask me. I don't even know whether I still have an internet connection in my house; I haven't received a monnthly bill in the snail mail for what seems like a long time, As the day progressed, I bemae more convinced that skipping church was the right ove, and that treating today lke a "sick day" was the appropriate course of action. Had I left the house I might not've seen Obama on television. Evidently he has decided to once again come out of the wookwor a few weeks before a big election, and hit thestump trail for Democrats, bless him. Obama can be a great asset for Democrats, and thus for America's continued existence, as long as he is willing to remain engaged in public life, which he seems to have some appetite for, but a limited one. Since American presidents and their party never tend to do very well in off year elections, it seems highly lely that Trump and the Republicanswill take a beating on November 3, and, lord willing and the creek don't flood, the MAGA movement will spend the final two years of Trump's deflated, defeated presidency quietly lurking while Trump blusters and prevaricates his way through the rest of hisfun house presidency. Then the historical profession takes over. Trump's presidency will belong to history and to the historians who will write and speak about it. Over time, as the decades and centuries pass, historians from different generations write voluminous tomes detailing and analyzing all the former presidents and their administrations. I'm a life long Harry Truman fan, being from Missouri. in a graduate school history seminar in 1982 the profressor asked the class, a few graduate students, myself included, whether Truman's reputation, over time, is improving or declining. I triumphantly raised my hand and blurted out "Improving!". I was dead wrong, it turned out. Now nearly fifty years later, I have no idea what Truman's historical reputation is doing, rising or sinking, but historical analysis, inevitably, is a roller coaster.By far my favorite presidents are Truman and FDR, with Lincoln thrown in, and maybe Jefferson. Nobody even was handed more power and responsibility in a more diffficult situation than Harry Trump, in April, 1945. And, he rose to the occasion. For that alone, he is among my heroes. My hope is that the Robutissin helps me through this congestive illness, and that my voice can ring out loud in gospel choir tomorrow morning at the senior center. I can get right back into church next week. It'll still be there. So will my pantheism, according to which everything I see and experience is part of an ultimately perfect cosmic whole.