The report from the hospital was much the same this morning, which in Pop’s situation is good news indeed. Mom called early with the update that Pop’s vital signs are still solid and he continues to be critical, but stable. He has finished his course of penicillin, which was aimed at treating the possibility he has contracted leptospirosis. However, the lab results to date are still inconclusive as to what may have been the source of his illness. My sister Johanna and I still feel deep down inside that knowing well the area that our cottage is located in, and Pop’s exposure background and symptoms timeline, there is a startlingly perfect match for a case of blastomycosis or histoplasmosis. The doctors have mentioned discontinuing his daily treatments of itraconazole, which treats both “blasto” and “histo”, but our family is adamant at this point that they should continue with the antifungal treatments until they can positively rule out these two or any other mycological based illnesses.

Today is Father’s Day. Happy Father’s Day Pop! We love you. You have cared for us throughout the years and imparted to us your wisdom, hardheadedness, and sometimes opinions, but you have been a good father and we honor you on this day, and on every day.

My sister shared some writing Dad did for a meditation for Trinity Episcopal Church, in Canaseraga, NY, on March 25, 2001, for the service of Lent IV. Trinity is the church back home where my parents attend and are heavily involved in. His writing was based on a passage in the Bible from the book of Isaiah.

Isaiah 59:1-15a. “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his dull ear, that it cannot hear.

It is your own iniquities that raise a barrier Between you and your God.

Dad’s writings on this topic follow below and seem to have been perfectly made for Father’s Day and the way he taught us to approach life. One of Dad’s strongest messages is that we all have free will and that it is incumbent on us to choose wisely. Dad’s writings on his thoughts on this topic, in verbatim, are as follows:

I love the story about the person who cries ceaselessly, “Why me, O Lord, why me? O why me?” On and on. Finally an answer comes booming out of the clouds, “BECAUSE YOU IRRITATE ME!”

This story illustrates for me, how easy it is to assume that the deficiencies in particular situations belong to the Almighty rather than to us. How can we really think the lord was unable to change the situation?

Maybe he wants us to change it. And maybe he wants us to live our way through it, trusting that he is at our side at every moment. At every single moment. How can any one of us think that the ruler of the universe had a momentary bout of deafness as we were saying our prayer? Or is it possible that god is now waiting for us to listen for His response? The response that He has been giving us all along.

And what about this: Is it possible that we really do irritate God? Well, we most likely do, I suspect. I know that my children irritated me from time to time, even as my grandchildren do now. (And vice versa, of course). This is not to imply that my children don’t still manage to irritate me from time to time. But my irritation with them has always been minor compared to my love for them. So, I have always been there for them, at least in the long run of things. And they have always known that, in the long run of things. And according to them I have been a very good parent. In the long run of things.

And now, we have to believe that god is even better at parenting than I am.