Today's homily focused on the idea that God's forgiveness is for everyone. Before we ask, He is there. We don't have to search for Him, just be ready to accept His love.

The second reading today expands on what love means in the eyes of God. According to this famous passage, love trumps all. More than charisma, understanding, humility, hope, and even faith, love is the most important goal of any act in our lives.

We have to give ourselves up to this love, and allow love to flow from all of our actions. ​

With a Saturday open in Janelle's schedule, we decided to make a trip up to Anchorage today to stock up at Costco (the savings really does make the trip worth it, but rather stocks our limited freezer and cupboard space) and hang out with Robert and Shawna Jack.  Amazingly, it turned out that Rob had one of his rare Saturday's off as well, so we got to spend nearly all of the day enjoying each other's company.

This meant that we managed to get in our trip to Costco, a brief visit to Gamestop to renew my Game Informer subscription (they make you go to a store rather than let you renew online), and a total of five Catan games.  In some bizarre twist of fate, each of the five players of our five games won one.  Despite Janelle's irritation with Trevor going to extreme measures to cut her off from building a settlement in not one, but two games, we had a great time that was only made better by Rob making us king crab legs for dinner.

Only Connor and Rowen were a little disappointed with the trip as Rob and Shawna's children were a bit too busy today to play with the boys as they have in the past.  Still, when asked, they both told me that they were glad that we went, just that they want to have more fun next time.

Janelle got some amazing pictures of the sunrise on the way in which she will hopefully share later.  The morning drive was gorgeous.  While the way back was well after sunset and thus dark the entire way, I was still taken aback at the beauty of the Alyeska ski hill lit up at night.

It was another fantastic day!

[p.s. I should also mention my good fortune. Due to a shipping error in Rob's favor and his wonderful generosity, I'm now the proud owner of a Kylo Ren Black Series Force Effects Lightsaber. I've told the boys that we aren't taking it out of the box until we have moved to a more permanent (and larger) home ... no matter how much I beg.]

I​ stand by our Declaration of Independence in that the first of our "certain unalienable rights" is "life."  This, at its most basic level, means that we should be allowed to sustain that life no matter our racial, ethnic, religious, or financial situation.  We should not be denied access to healthcare because we were not fortunate enough to be born into wealth.  Parents should not have to worry about how much an emergency trip to the hospital with their children is going to cost them.  They should not need to make the choice between life-giving medication and food and shelter for their families.  The miraculous marvels that can improve and prolong lives should not be kept only for the new noble class of the wealthy.

As a public school teacher, I have too often seen my students go without glasses, dental care, and even visits to the doctor because their parents cannot afford it.  Even with my "Cadillac" health insurance, I have often avoided my own medical issues, and had to depend on the generosity of family to help pay for some of the medical costs for my family.  

I'm not talking about making certain that all people are insured, as current governmental plans claim to do, but that all people have access to healthcare, period.  One of the major complaints of such an idea is the cost, but our medical costs are already the highest in the world; meanwhile we have some of the lowest care in industrialized nations (Don't believe me? Google "us healthcare compared to other countries" for yourself).  By relying on insurance companies, all we have done is added another "middle man" with profit margins of its own.

Another concern is that fewer people will enter the medical field if such a system were in place.  This is again disproven by the facts.  The doctor to patient ratio is lower in the U.S. than most industrialized nations with universal healthcare, and the gap is growing.  Why?  Malpractice insurance and fewer governmental incentives to help such people get the education required are eating most of the pay that our system provides.

The people who have fed us the lies that universal healthcare would be bad for us are those who have profited from our current system (think Martin Shkreli but on a larger scale).  Don't believe them.  Don't even take my word for it.  Look at the numbers yourself.

We need to stop denying ourselves our own rights.

While waiting for the television shows that we normally watch to come back from their winter break, we finished the final season of DS9 and started looking for another sci-fi show to take its place.  That's when we noticed that the three Stargate series have become available on Netflix.  We immediately began digging into Atlantis as our primary show, and have enjoyed it immensely.

Ironically, we were only watching the series as current television was on hiatus, but now that they've returned, we're still watching Atlantis.  Even though I believe we are in a platinum age of television, with actually too many amazing shows, dazzling plot lines, and fantastic characters to follow, Atlantis really hit a sweet spot for us.  It managed to walk that fine line between being campy and intense while giving interesting characters (after Ford disappears) and some thought-provoking science fiction.  Better still, even the younger boys are hooked (despite some occasionally scary bad guys).  Sadly, at the pace that we're going, we will probably run through the entire show pretty soon as it only went for five season with each season set at twenty episodes.

After Firefly, I think I place it as my second-favorite sci-fi show.  Both Battlestar and DS9 get a little too weird near the end of their runs which keep them at 3rd and 4th (respectively).  Granted, there's a lot of sci-fi that I haven't seen, and some of the newer shows have had amazing concepts, so mine should not be counted as a definitive ranking.  Still, if you haven't seen the show, it's worth the time.

I've felt a couple of small earthquakes since I first arrived here last summer, but most of the times the cause for the house shaking has not been the primal forces of nature but some of our overly enthusiastic neighbors in massive pickup trucks driving well above the speed limit and sounding like they need muffler adjustment.  One in particular also has been known to share his love for music with heavy bass even into the early morning hours of the night.

Thus, when I was abruptly brought to wakefulness by Janelle​'s insistent shaking (well, she grabbed me and the earth was doing the shaking), I first thought that one of them was the cause.  My fuzzy-headed logic quickly sobered when it felt like our rather solid bed turned to water and the entire room rolled like it was on the high seas.  My mind still didn't register danger, but rather an almost scientific curiosity about the phenomenon.  I immediately began to mentally compare it to the only other sizable earthquake that I've experienced.  Rather than run for cover, or to gather my children, I was trying to look at the floor and walls for the wave-like signs I had seen so many years ago.  Meanwhile, Janelle and I were discussing how strong of an earthquake it was and what steps we might take, but I have no real memory of the actual words that we said.

The sound of something falling brought me out of my reverie, springing me out of the bed to drunkenly run towards my sons' shared bedroom.  I only got as far as our door before I had to steady myself as the house continued to rock.  I managed to open the door and was greeted by black furry lightning as Satin bolted through the open door and immediately under the bed.  Gripping both sides of the doorframe, I pushed myself laterally a few feet to the next open doorway (the bathroom) and gripped its molding to steady myself again.

By this time the waving had subsided to mere tremors.  Ranger had fiercely attached himself to the top of the loveseat with his claws.  He gave me a bewildered look that seemed to say, "What the hell did you do this time?" and moved his mouth like a meow, but no sound came out.  I gave him one comforting stroke (which may not have been the wisest idea) and he immediately rubbed into my hand rather than bite it (which I appreciated as my own nerves needed calming).

With the practiced steps of a man who often must blindly negotiate presents left behind by his pets, I made it the next few feet to the boys room and opened the door.  All of the boys were soundly sleeping.  As the tremors had faded and my mind was still too foggy to think of the concept of aftershocks (which we thankfully didn't feel), I decided that I didn't want to wake them.

I returned to bed and reported the condition of the boys to Janelle.  I then laid back down and tried to fall back to sleep.  My heart was pounding for a little while, but I felt more tired than anything else and was able to fall asleep soon enough to not notice Rowen get into my bed an hour later--at least, not until Janelle started pushing into my side of the mattress (he ended up claiming about half of the bed for himself).

Our morning inspection showed no cracks or issues with plumbing or gas.  As we have nothing really hanging on our walls or on display, the only fallen objects were the pieces of Janelle's as-yet-unassembled desk and a plastic bucket that we use for Carcassonne.  Considering that the earthquake registered 7.1 and was under 70 miles away, we were pretty fortunate.  All told, I kind of enjoyed the experience in a rollercoaster-esque fashion, but I wouldn't want to do it again anytime soon.

I've made a couple of attempts at a variety of different types of posts today, but all of them have fallen flat. I've also noticed an increase in spelling and grammatical errors. My sentences just aren't going where I want them to go, so I've decided to call it a night.
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Thank the unions it's Friday! I really need to catch up on some sleep tonight.

I'm happy with my post from yesterday because it generally says what I believe and doesn't get into mud slinging.  However, I partially wonder if I'm fulfilling the aphorism "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good [people] do nothing."   Also, as an educator, aren't I responsible to stop the spread of ignorance?

Then again, it's not like my posting on social media is really the equivalent to doing something.  Generally, when I try to comment or correct, it tends to explode into a series of more ignorant comments (some of them made by me) that only get me more angry than the original post did.  In the end, the exercise only seems to further entrench the person I was trying to enlighten as well as lead to me getting unfriended by people whom I (perhaps sadly) still care about.  Getting blocked by people certainly doesn't let me guide them in the future.

I generally try to stay silent.  When I come across a post that makes my blood boil, I often quickly research the subject to confirm that my position has backing, write a scathing (and often insulting) reply ... and then delete it.  Sometimes I then write a more measured response, but more often I leave it at nothing.  Unfortunately, on rare occasions I "accidently" hit the "post" button; although, I have been better about deleting my comments after the fact.  If it's something particularly upsetting, I might write about it as one of my own posts.

There's too much hatred out on the Interwebs as is.  I really shouldn't add to it.  

I've really struggled to keep my views of certain political candidates off social media. I've watched as friends, loved ones, relatives, and numerous acquaintances have posted their support for one candidate or another while demonizing anyone who disagrees with them. As we approach this coming primary voting season and the level of partisan venom continues to grow, I really only have one thing that I want to say:
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Don't vote in anger, out of fear, or because of hatred ... the dark side are they.

I sent my new realtor an email this evening thanking for her suggestions and letting her know a bit about some of my concerns from the past.  With the four hour time difference, she would have received the email at about 12:20 A.M. Michigan time. 

I received her reply five minutes later!

I now feel bad for having sent the email so late as I didn't think that she would see it until business hours tomorrow.  Considering the pictures, write-up, suggestions, as well as this kind of immediate response well outside of wakeful (let alone business) hours, I'm absolutely floored by this new realtor.  

I tend to want to put a damper on my enthusiasm so that I don't suffer too much disappointment from unmet expectations, but everything these past couple of weeks has been fueling my optimism to almost unquenchable levels.

Calm down, Paul.  Calm down.

WE'RE GOING TO SELL OUR HOUSE!

[I blew it ...]