Why Me? Why Write? Why Now? Why Not?

The Me is Doug Curran…Douglas M Curran…Douglas Metcalf Curran. Douglas is Celtic for “dweller by the dark stream”. Curran in Gaelic means “little spear”. And Metcalf? Scottish for “I met a calf”? Hey I don’t know! I don't have all the answers. I'm still trying to get the questions right. At least I seem to be a spear fisher by some dirty water. Or maybe I'm a Druid. And that Curran thing may not even be as Irish as my Irish American wife, Colleen Fitzsimmons, hoped it was when she married me. Ok, I might be a Viking. It's like this. I was reading this book, The Lion Of Ireland, see, and the author, Morgan Llewellyn, recounts a last battle between Brian Boru and the Viking invader king, to regain Irish dominance again throughout the island and kick the fureners out. The Viking king's name? Olaf Cuaran? Cuaran? Curran? I'm a Viking now, so I am? And a descendent of one of those marauding and murderous pillagers and plunderers? I've never pillaged a thing in my life...well, maybe a book or two from somebody. I'm really just a gentle giant who loves books and music. Ok, I bought a sword recently, but only as a wall decoration to enhance my Irish family history coat of arms! Honest! Viking, Schmiking, so rest my Irish soul! Or my wife will have my old bald Irish head!

January 31, 2011

On turning 69, the Challenger and Eqypt...

Ok, on turning 69, not much to say about that, except the day didn't turn out as I had wished. It was Friday, Jan 14th, by the way, and I was tired of too frequent bladder issues, so decided to go to the Instacare and check my blood sugar. It had been normal a few months ago, but I had a too sweet Christmas and I didn't trust some offshore generic meds I had gotten because my American made ones were too costly lately.

Turns out I had a lot of glucose in my urine and my blood sugar was 457! Yikes! What's going on? The doc gave me some brand name Actos samples, my most important diabetes med, and told me to call my regular doc on Tuesday. He started me on insulin when he tested me again at 428. So it's been a week of much testing and at this point, I've gotten the sugars down to 268. I'm doing a major food overhaul and weight loss again to try to fix this if possible. Not a great birthday present, but obviously a necessary attention getter.

And speaking of space shuttles, Thursday was the 25th anniversary of the Challenger blowup on lift off. Yes, I remember it too. I was laid up in a hospital in Kahuku Hawaii, trying to recover from a strep infection in my lower right leg, which I since have identified as cellulitus from several recurrences of it here in Utah this past decade. Very painful and thank goodness for antibiotics! But lying there watching that amazing take off and then seeing that explosion take a dozen dedicated lives so soon after heading into space, was a wrenching and numbing experience. It has since made me wonder if our incessant quest for outer space is worth it in lives and dollars over so many years, something we are told is important and in our national interest, until we experience such a loss. Or whether we had such a loss or not.

And speaking of challenges, Colleen had accepted an assignment to direct a youth choir for our Orem Stake Conference Sunday meeting yesterday. It took four weeks of rehearsals once a week with some fairly challenging kids, good volunteers but some not good singers. So we had to get the good singers to sing louder than the weak ones without the weak ones singing too loud too. Confused? As it turned out, they sounded good collectively - a little soft, but able to finish out well. I had a little gliche with some of the hymns, some late changes I never got, so had to push the panic button and alert the music people last minute. Colleen is still mentally and phyically worn out from that and work this week and sleeping 12 hours a day since.

And our conference speaker Kevin Pearson of the Seventy, was riveting in his rhetorical strength and spiritual depth. As he especially talked about Lehi's Dream and the Tree of Life Saturday night, one of the most important things to remember was just to..."stay close to the tree", which symbolized the love of God. That was his theme on Sunday too, to remember all the many ways our Father shows he loves us - individually.

And now to the Middle East, starting with unrest in Tunisia, and then all hell breaking loose in the streets of Eqypt this past week. There they were, some of my favorite pyramid builders' children's children, taking out their frustrations from 30 years of dictatorship under Pharaoh Hosni Mubarik and his military machine. Some rioters even looted their own museum and tore off the head of a mummy. Man, that's cold. Eventually people will rise up when oppressed too long though but seemingly some democratic process might come out of it - or another despotic regime, who knows?

But it raises a lot of questions about that geo-political area, especially among the Israelis, who do not want another "let my people go" moment with Eqypt. How will it all end? Is there anything about this and other events that signals the great second coming of the very Jesus these people rejected there? That's my main focus and am always looking for signs of that event - so I will stay riveted on cable news, as they monitor that as well such mundane things as another predicted crippling winter snowstorm from the midwest to the east coast this week and whatever will be its aftermath. Might even seem apocalyptic for a few days. And I love snow a lot, but would I feel the same way after so many big white dumps. All I can say is...YES! I'm old man snowman and never ashamed to admit it.

1 comment:

  1. Gosh, Dad, your blood sugar things scares me. I hope it can get regulated and back to normal. I'm drinking my green smoothies each morning and I'm feeling like I have more energy during the day, which helps my thyroid issues. Love you!!

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