Aug. 15

 

THE SPIRIT LIVES ON

Our speaker, Fr. Joe Bradley, invoked the late John Kelly’s name, with reverence, crediting “St. John” with a life-changing encounter, the second time in two weeks our speaker has brought up John’s amazing life and contributions. John rescued a young drug-addled, despondent and despairing Joe Bradley, changed his life and essentially made him a man of the cloth. Last week Marvin Mutch said John’s ministry at San Quentin helped him survive a 41-year false imprisonment for a murder he didn’t commit.

Just a reminder that we will be judged, by entities both worldly and divine. Make the memory lasting and positive: Write for Spinnings. You know that’s a joke, right?

 

GOD REDUX

How fun it is to connect Rotary with religious sanctity, when in the beginning it was all about the Benjamins (did they have Benjamins in 1907? Or were they Tafts?).

Peter Webb wove a narrative out of the motto on the dollar bill, E Pluribus Unum, starting by distributing a few bills to members. His ethical speculation was that some might want to change that motto and “In God We Trust” to “This Money is My God.”

Then he asked for all the bills back. Somebody offered him 75 cents. Must have been a banker.

 

HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE ‘REDUX?’

It’s time to start thinking about this.

 

STRAWBERRY CRUMB CAKE

The magnetic Margaret Taylor attracted two President’s Clubs, Paul Rogerville sitting on one side and myself on the other. Funny how when she’s around the money just flows.

Happy birthday, Margaret and the other Rotarians who were not at the table, as Paul and I were.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TRUTH IS NEVER WHERE YOU LOOK FOR IT

Was it ‘three truths and a lie,’ ‘two truths and two lies,’ ‘twin truths and triple lies?’ Joy Rudkin seemed more comfortable with two lies than is seemly, which made it all but impossible to guess which was the lie. Or did it make it easier? How do you pronounce ‘redux?’

When did the rules for the game change? In truth, Joy actually climbed to the top of Notre Dame’s spire the day it burned and seemed unconcerned that she came this close to a fate not seen since Joan of Arc went up in flames. Joy swore it wasn’t her fault. Her group carried only comestibles, not combustibles.

Michelle Privitera did the ineffable and confused Gamemaster Tony Villanueva. She was faced with the need to decide that she would not decide to not decline President Anne-Sicle’s invitation to play Two Truths and a Lie. So she did. The real lie was that she did not win Franklin Templeton’s Employee of the Month award, though she knew where everyone sat at the boardroom table.

Chris DeLong could not play because his son, who has juvenile diabetes, was called to report to Stanford for a clinical trial. We know that’s true because who would use their child as the foil for a lie?

 

FROM DRUGS TO DEITY TO A DONATED HEART

St. Paul Parish Pastor Father Joe Bradley, a local boy by way of Bayside Elementary School and Serra High, came to tell his story of surviving a heart transplant and wrapped it in a heart-warming story about his dissipated youth spent abusing drugs and alcohol, his redemption after the intervention by John Kelly and his long and arduous journey from his diagnosis with a terminal disease to his ultimate replacement surgery.

His father, sister and brother died in their 50s of dilated cardio myopathy. He was diagnosed at age 48. Ultimately he became a transplant candidate, but it was not sunbeams and roses. As he waited for years his heart enlarged and deteriorated to the point where his existence was confined to a bed on the tenth-flood transplant ward at UCSF, where he spent a year waiting.

With a prognosis of four to six months to live, he wrestled with how to pray.

“The only way you’re going to live is if someone dies. As a priest I had a hard time with that.”

There were innumerable lessons along the way, but at the end it came down to the realization that all people are one, despite racism, xenophobia and the repeated violence of wars among nations.

Every time he hears people talk about differences among races, about superiority and inferiority between this group and that, about the infernal tugs-of-war among religions, he thinks about his donor. He was “not white”.

“We were a perfect, perfect match,” he said.

 

WELCOME GUESTS

Mike Peterson introduced Ken Constantino and just came out with it and said Ken may join and PrezAnne did the same with Nancy Magee with the San Mateo County Office of Education.

Tom Thompson introduced his better half, Jane, and Sheila Canzian  presented Joan Eagleson.

Ya’ll come back.

MO MOTOWN

Liz Mayta reported that almost two dozen Rotarians signed up for Motown at the Burlingame Grill last Thursday. Party bunch.