Puffs

I have attended what I consider “my fair share” of funerals over the years. There are several that stand out to me for one reason or another.

Funerals of family members, of course, maybe stand out the most, but one of the first one I remember was not long after I returned home to southcentral Nebraska after time in the military, the East Coast and St. Louis. It was the funeral of a cousin, Art Hoelting. What impressed me the most was the number of people at the funeral in the St. Stephen’s parish church.

By that time, the world became familiar with the huge funeral production of famous people, like President Kennedy, and they were all publicized on TV. I am not sure what I expected at St. Stephen, but the number of people attending a church service at a small church sitting out in the country for a poor “dirt farmer” just amazed me.

There have been other funeral services that I’ll remember over the years, but two services in the last week brought out the urge to write about funerals.

The first one was in Superior for Mrs. Vernon Kimminau. It was not ‘large’, in terms of numbers. In fact, the church was not nearly full. However, Mrs. Kimminau was the mother of a Catholic priest, Father Bernie Kimminau ,and the number of Catholic priests attending the service and con-celebrated the funeral Mass was astounding. I’ve attended funeral services for Catholic priests before and the number of fellow priests attending was great, but this was for the mother of a priest, and the number had to be around 30 priests and the former bishop of the Lincoln Diocese.

The second funeral I attended was that of Jim Nejezchleb of Deweese. Again, the number of people attending was not huge as both people I’m writing about were not young anymore and most likely had out-lived most of their relatives.

However, the Nejezchleb family had a poem printed and distributed that I found impressive. I had never seen it before and I’ll reproduce it below.

Written by N. C. Wilson the poem is called: “Death by Living.”

• Be as empty as you can be when that clock winds down.

Spend your life.

• Enjoy life now.

And now.

And now.

Before the nows are gone.

• You have hands, blister them while you can. You have bones, make them strain

– They can carry nothing in the grave.

You have lungs, let them spill with laughter and praise.

• May you live hard.

And may your life be grace for those behind you.

• Laugh deeply.

Give more than you receive.

Give gratitude.

Touch as many of the least of these as you can along the way.

How many seeds will you get in the ground before you yourself are planted?

• Your life is a story.

Your days are numbers.

In the rain or the sun, in the snow or the fall.

There is a day waiting for you that will be your last.

You will return to dust.

Your birth scene will find its counterpart.

From this moment until then, live your story.

A O

Enough said for the time about funerals. Time to talk about more recent things. Things like Spring lawn and garden work.

Slowly, over the past month, or so, I’ve seen where many neighbors or residents of the village have been out to work in their lawns and gardens.

Me . . . every time the weather seemed to be good enough to do some outside work, I was going to appointments of some kind and when I was absolutely free, it rained or was way too cold.

This last weekend, things worked out. I was able to find our daisy plants buried in a patch of weeds. They were still there, but now may be able to grow to their full potential.

I enjoyed it greatly.

But now I have to find all those other flowers hid under leaves and last year’s dead weeds.

I enjoyed it all so much I even put the snow shovel away for the season. Then I learn we’re due for a hail storm tonight.

A O

International activities are numerous and at times interesting. The one item getting the most attention these days seems to be the war by several Middle East countries on Israel.

It seems to be a war of attrition that has been going on since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. The war has been carried out over the years by various states or groups.

The current war was started in October 2023 when a political group in Gaza undertook an assault on southern Israel with an attack that left more than 1,300 people dead with more wounded or captured by Hamas. The surprise attack was compared somewhat to the Pearl Harbor attack in WWII or the September 11, 2001 attack on the U. S. in New York.

It was a complete surprise.

Israel responded . . .

Israel invaded Gaza, destroying the Hamas political structure, occupying land, killing many Hamas soldiers and other, non-soldiers.

What I’m leading up to is “why is Israel being condemned by many in so many countries?

Israel is being asked to stop its war against Hamas.

They are being asked to stop “defending themselves.”

This is similar to Russia invading Ukraine and Ukraine fighting back, “defending themselves.”

This is similar to Japan attacking the U. S. at Pearl Harbor and the U. S. fighting four long years, “defending itself.”

There are many examples from history we might site as being similar.

I am amazed that Israel is being labeled “the bad guy.”

In its short history as a nation, Israel has defended itself on numerous occasions. They had always restrained themselves and the root cause simple regrew itself and attack Israel again at a later date. This occasion was just too much and Israel seems intent on getting rid of the people causing the pain and suffering such as was inflicted on Oct. 7, 2023.

I hate wars, but I believe that a nation has the right to protect itself. I spent four years of my life helping the U. S. keep its people safe.

Today, the world is complicated, but evil is still evil, no matter how it is presented.

Hamas started as a political action group, but quickly changed into the controlling group in Gaza. Other political groups do (or at least did) exist in Gaza, but there has been no political elections for some time. Many of the Hamas ‘leaders’ operate out of Turkey or other countries outside of Palestine.

War is ugly, but a country has the right to protect itself. Those calling for Israel to stop fighting to defend themselves do not understand good from evil.

A O