Saints and sinners

  West Virginia wildflowers of all colors now abound, although no one has ever planted them. 

I

I sometimes pick a few wildflowers to grace our kitchen table. But mostly, I just leave the flowers outside for everyone to enjoy.

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Have I ever told readers that I met Mother Teresa in Nicaragua in 1990? Yes, probably I've already told you, but, if so, I have simply forgotten, so now will tell you once again.  

Teresa has just been canonized as a saint by the Catholic church.  So, yes, I actually had met a saint way back then in Nicaragua, where Teresa and her nuns had been working tirelessly around the clock.  They provided health care, food, and clothing to needy Nicaraguans, as well as prayed daily with them, and just held their hands when they felt all alone. 

They were just following in the footsteps of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing.

 Mother Teresa was a remarkable woman in many ways; I'm so glad to have met her. She has shown us all what just one person can do. 

Mother Teresa, if you are somewhere, even in heaven, please help us out right here, right now, on our lonely planet earth, not only in Nicaragua, where I once met you, but all over the world.  

Having met Mother Teresa years ago and just now picking wildflowers right here around my home have been bright spots in my long life, where I have also endured much loss and suffering, including the tragic death of my older son.  We all have suffered great losses.  Does humankind have to endure great pain and suffering just because Adam and Eve once bit into the forbidden apple?  That really doesn't seem quite fair.

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Trump officials scramble to manage fallout after his $5K check pledge to all Americans

Indeed, Trump’s promise Wednesday, of $5,000 to every adult US citizen if Republicans keep their congressional majorities, is just one example in a long line of his dubious vows of cash payouts.

Like so many other of Trump's promises, this one is not likely to be kept, so voters should just vote according to their own priorities and pay no attention at all to whatever the president says. Even if Republicans do keep their congressional majorities, no one will be getting any money from Mr. Trump anytime soon. 

Wash. Post, Some restaurants, hospitals and construction firms pushed forward with layoffs as the end of temporary protected status for 232,000 Salvadorans loomed. https://wapo.st/4A8edjC

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                                                    What's coming next?

Wash. Post, Trump asks convention crowd to pledge to him they will vote, ‘cheat like hell’

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Wash. Post, Two of the most important corridors for international energy shipments are blocked.

                                            Yemeni civilians wave a white flag. 

Wash. Post, Trump says he would "love to see Ireland reunited." 

But then who would be in charge? (He was speaking then in Dublin.)

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Wash. Post, U.K. Parliament rejects bill to allow assisted dying for the terminally ill

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Wash. Post, At the Pentagon, Trump ties the legacy of 9/11 to his Iran war At a solemn ceremony marking the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, President Donald Trump edged close to embracing policies he has long criticized.

PBS, Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, the alleged plotters still have not faced a trial. After rejecting prosecutors' request to begin the trial in January 2027, a military judge at Guantánamo Bay has ordered jury selection for the trial of four alleged 9/11 plotters — including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, accused principal architect of the attacks — to begin on June 5, 2028.  Will that trial finally actually happen? 

(Will the defendants all still be alive by then?)

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                                                               Now onto our solar system

                                  Astronomers say that Mercury (seen above), one of our nearest fellow planets, is shrinking fast. 

Venus, another neighboring planet in our solar system, usually orbits just beyond Mercury but occasionally comes in somewhat closer to the sun. 

Mars is another nearby planet. 

Neither Mars, Mercury. nor Venus seem to harbor anything like life, not even mold or microbes, at least as far as we know.  

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We humans, along with earth's animals, plants. insects, microbes, and other living creatures, are most probably all alone in our solar system.  No creatures from Mars, as are sometimes depicted in stories, will ever come to visit us. 

But if they did, what might they look like? 

Yes, you and, I along with our fellow humans and other living beings here on planet earth, are probably all alone in the solar system. So we'll never have a visit from a Martian or from any other living creature coming from beyond our earth. 

 We are just here all alone living our everyday life, as humans have been doing since time immemorial, and which they will continue doing for centuries to come.