BuddhistDruidChristianHumanist

Welcome to my blog. In this short entry, I’d like to encourage you to do two things: 1. Please come back to this blog regularly. I have been distributing new posts via social media and email to friends. But this blog will really come alive if people come back and check on it without an invitation. I plan to post something about once a week and I’m considering a series of posts on how to focus on spiritual strength regardless of your religious identity. 2. Please feel free to comment on blog posts with your thoughts and reactions to what you have read. I think this blog will be that much richer with an interchange of ideas as well as ideas that inspire further posts by me. Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing from more of you. Todd

This blog post was originally a sermon I gave thirteen years ago under different circumstances of change. I’ve edited to make it more relevant to today’s circumstances. I’m sure many of you have heard of the Golden Rule, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, found in almost every world religion. In light of the recent CoViD-19 epidemic, I would like to share with you what I call the Silver Rule. Also found in some form in nearly every world religion, it is most concisely summed up in the opening pages of Douglas Adam’s science fiction masterpiece, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is not an Earth book, never published on Earth, and until the terrible catastrophe occurred, never seen or heard by any earthman. Nevertheless, a wholly remarkable book. In fact, it was probably the most remarkable book ever to come out of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor of which no Earthling had ever heard either. In man

It has been quite a while since I posted anything about my cancer journey here on this blog. So, here is an update. Basically, things have been going relatively smoothly on the new protocol and by using the fasting regimen for the days leading up to my treatment. I have jumped around from Monday infusions to Tuesday infusions and back to Monday infusions. I have mostly stayed on the every two week schedule. Generally, I have settled into some predicable side effects. On the current protocol, I get an infusion on Monday which lasts for about 3-4 hours at the hospital. At the end of that infusion, the nurse connects me to a portable pump that continues to infuse a chemo medicine for the next 44 hours. I go back on Wednesday to have the pump disconnected and usually get an infusion of fluids which seems to help with any dehydration issues, although those have been less since I tend to eat and drink more easily on this protocol. Especially compared to the pill proto

The title of this blog post comes from a fairly well-known passage of the Gospel of Matthew (Mt. 22:15-22) in which he is asked a difficult question to test his knowledge of and fidelity to the laws and covenants of Judaism. In this passage, he is asked if it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. Behind this question is a raft of Hebrew scriptures. There is the prohibition against “graven images” (Exodus 20:4) as well as the prohibition against bowing down to other Gods in verse 5. Connected to these prohibitions are numerous scriptural stories in which the ancient kings of Judah and Israel are berated by the prophets for paying tributes to foreign kings. Each time this happens, the prophet scolds the king for relying on idolatrous foreign kings rather than placing their trust in God. So, when Jesus is put to this test, he is not simply being asked should we pay taxes. He is being asked should we pay tribute to Caesar. Jesus’ response to this question is beyond clever. First of a