Feel the city breakin
and everybody shakin'
and were stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive~~~Staying Alive; The Bee-Gees
So Wednesday, 20 April, I encounter another hiccup---at the ECBOE. This has happened a couple of times already, So I was kind of assuming 'everybody' in the building would be kind of on the same page---by now.
Nope!!
I mean, it is 5:05PM, for crying-out-loud!! What is everybody in such a hurry, for!! I get downstairs to the power-door; ramp-area to egress the building by scooter---to find that the power-door is ALREADY security-locked. In effect, I am locked in the building; gggrrr. Because this has happened before, I now have the building engineer's phone number to call so that I can get the door unlocked. Here is the kicker. I call; he answers, and assures me he is on his way. Now, this isn't is the Empire State Building!! I am a patient man, but it is 5:20PM---and still no engineer. I call the number again---no answer. Great!! Now I'm thinking that he has forgotten me~~~and went home, himself. I decide to stay put; thinking that I don't want to end up being like ships passing in the night---and miss my connection. At 5:35PM, I make another call. This time, gratefully, the call is answered. It is the engineer; profusely apologizing!! He got wrapped up in his boiler-room project, and forgot all about me. When the call concluded, he was there, unlocking the door; having had no more than a minute elapse. Finally, finding my way home.
Thursday, 21 April, was a day punctuated with emotions. The underpinning of these emotional responses was the anticipation, and the accompanying angst of the scheduled Good Friday biopsy of the prostate. Thursday is only a part-time day at the ECBOE, so I decide that I will supper at the American Legion Post, in Hamburg, NY. They have a Thursday-Night-Spaghetti-Dinner, and this is going to be the last one till September. In attending the supper, I am overwhelmed by the richness of friendship; friendship developed through reunions and these American Legion Post Casino excursions. What was presented to me were some very very thoughtful gifts; gestures of encouragement for the Friday biopsy procedure. On the one hand I was given a paper-weight with Biblical prose applied to it, and some simulated gem-stones having Faith, Laugh, Relax, and Dream etched on them. On the other hand, I was given a Rosary Prayer Booklet, and a Rosary~~~that was Blessed.
Now these gestures, in their own right, are getting me all choked up inside. When I find out that the rosary is blessed at Sts Peter & Paul Church, in Hamburg, NY---I am using my napkin to wipe away tears. You see, on the cusp of a procedure reminding us of the frailties of life, I was wisked back to the vitality of youth, and my first foster-home experience. This was 1957, when I was in first-grade and the second semester of that experience being spent at Sts Peter & Paul grade school. While this was a so-long-ago, milepost, holding the rosary in my hand had brought memories back in a vivid way, and my emotional roller-coaster ride for the evening was now only coming off its first hill.
With the supper now over, I was still looking for an 'answer'. I was still searching to hang my sense of need on a reclamation; a redemption source. In starting back home, I made my way over to the West Side. Of course, while I am on my own quest I am also aware that the many Catholic Church communities are having Holy Thursday services which includes the washing of the feet. With traffic, and my scooter situation, I am looking for a shrine-kind-of-display to do some praying; some reflecting, and finding some comfort. Where do I start?? Why not the first decade of the first set of mysteries; The Joyous Mysteries~~~The Annunciation. On-and-off, I spent 5 years of my grade-school experience there, and so I thought I would find what I was looking for. But alas, this just hadn't taken me across the threshold; given me my watershed moment. My thought was to check-out Nativity Church, because it was nearby. But then a voice said that should go to the last decade of the last mysteries; The Glorious Mysteries~~~The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church. My response; sure---why not. I had 'heard' that the Church had gotten a new lease on life; that it was no longer inoperative as so many of the West Side parish churches now are. Many of these parishes are now nothing more than hollowed reminders of an era long ago, before the late sixties; early seventies mass migrations to suburbia where absentee-landlords, and urban decay---whittled away their vitality. Parishes like Holy Cross, The Immaculate Conception, Our Lady of Loretto, Nativity, Annunciation, Cathedral, and Coronation were the respective linchpin to thriving Catholic, and, by-and-large Italian-American communities.
In getting to The Coronation of the BVM, while there is no visible shrine, I was very pleasantly surprised at a level of activity that I had not expected to see. Coronation had come back; come alive---big time. There were vehicles---parked all over the place. For me and my van, while I made for an 'improvised' vehicle standing-position, it was nonetheless, a place I was going to stay---to reflect, and pray.
Due largely to a very large and loyal Roman Catholic Viet-Namese immigrant population, Coronation has found a new-lease-on-life. There were many many men, women, and children hussling in for the 8:00PM Services. And I will add---they weren't attired in rice-paddy; burlap-cloth either. They were all dressed in their Sunday-best!!
In observing the new-found energy, I found myself getting immersed into an emotional baptism. Here I was, at 59 years old, sitting in front of a grade school I had attended, as a foster-child, in 1959. I was 8 years old at the time, and had so much of my life still ahead of me. And---I was happy. Even though it was a foster-home, the Lajacano's and Sansone's treated Victor and myself well. And everybody at Coronation---liked me!! I was always wearing that 'Little-Louie' smile.
In that moment of 'seeing' the 8-year-old on the one hand, and realizing, at 59, the frailty of life on the other...I lost it. I was in the van; I did not care. In my weeping, I had also found my Reclamation, and called out; "I give myself over to you, Jesus." "Whatever Your plan, I give myself to You."
I wiped my tears, made a sign of the cross, pulled myself back together, decided I was going to find out if this Church is handicap-accessible to attend, and left for home.
Friday; Good Friday, 22 April---1PM. Had the biopsy. Everything seemed to go as planned.
Will find out the results by the end of the week. The Doctor even showed me a couple of images of the sonogram. I was just amazed with all the technology involved.
By Friday evening, it went from Good Friday~~~to GREAT FRIDAY||||
All of Sabre-Nation was a-buzz!!! In the first period of overtime, Tyler Ennis, the fleet-of-foot, left-handed rookie forward took a snap wrist-shot off of a rebound on the right-side just below the face-off circle---to beat the Philadelphia Flyers 4-3. The win sends the preliminary round series back to Buffalo for game six. At this point, the Sabres are ahead---3 games to 2.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive~~~Staying Alive
--{-=@
Hickok
The Promise
PS: It might not be---Always Sunny in Philadelphia||
"Don't waste your life in doubts and fears: spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour's duties will be the best preparation for the hours or ages that follow it."
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