a flowering tree in Sneem, County Kerry, Ireland
Good Day, God!
I really can’t bring myself to say Hi — which is strange, God, as I am sure most people would be appalled at my informality with You — Creator of EVERYTHING!
Today was a day of Grand Vistas — oceans and lakes and green green fields and brilliant yellow gorse — as we drove around the Ring of Kerry. But this is the image I wanted to share with You. Thank You, God, for the small and fleeting beauties of this earth — especially when they are seen against the ancient and enduring granite. Tis a comfort, as they say.
We passed by the place where Daniel O’Connell was born and I learned about him and his place in history. How could I not know about a man who inspired Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King? The Catholic Emancipator!
In 1828 Donald O’Connell couldn’t take his elected postion in the House of Commons unless he swore the Oath of Supremacy — saying that the “Queen’s Highness is the only supreme governor of this realm, and of all other of her Highness’s dominions and countries, as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things or causes . . .” He refused and because of his popularity (and the fear of revolution) the English actually changed the rule and he was able to serve in Parliment. Later, in 1846 he persuaded Parliment to repeal a law requiring special dress for Jews.
Sigh. How is it, God, that we do these things to one another?
Hmmm. How is it I can “feel” this wrong so strongly — while the starvation of over one million Irish just twenty years after this incident — seems by its very size to be denied entry into my psyche. One quarter of the country dead by starvation? How can that be? Good men doing nothing? Did people say it was an Act of God — and acquit themselves of any responsibility? So many “holocausts”, God.
Could we have a Make Over, God?
You say, of course! YOU are willing — now help me to be willing!
Story teller,
A Moment with God 
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