Everett Jenkins Birthday Blog

  A week ago, I attended and participated in the wedding of my oldest daughter, Camille, to Jeremy Pointer in the city of Spokane, Washington.  It was an emotional time for me, filled with many tears. Most people first saw those emotions when they saw me walking Camille down the aisle with tears traveling down my cheeks. Of course, I was not alone.  Camille had tears too and when Jeremy saw the two of us, he began tearing up too.  It got so bad that the pastor decided to intervene by saying that we needed to get on with the ceremony to avoid having everyone in tears.  I was able to do my job and answer "I do" when the pastor asked who gives this woman to be married to this man. I then sat down. But the tears only stopped for a brief time. Actually, the flood gates had already begun to flow when Camille called me in late February and asked that I go through the old photo albums and send her some photos that she could use in a video montage during the wedding rece...

  As I seemingly grow older, I tend to see God everywhere. God is there when I awake in the morning and take my first deep breath.  God is there when I venture out into the daylight and see the beautiful green hills that surround my neighborhood.  And I see God every night when I venture out to look at Orion's Belt and then turn around to see the Big Dipper.  There is something very spiritual about the night sky. I also see the hand of God in the stories that I read every day.  Often it is in the biographies of people that are little known.  But sometimes it is in the stories of seemingly ordinary individuals who achieve some extraordinary accomplishment.  One story where I saw God was in the story of Michel Talagrand.  I invite you to read about him and see if you can see the hand of God in his story too. Peace, Everett "Skip" Jenkins Fairfield, California March 21, 2024     A bel Prize for 2024 Won by Michel Talagrand for Studies of Un...

  By some "divine" coincidence, the following was the quote from the Monday, March 18, 2024, page of "A Year of Zen" calendar; "The mountain of release is such that the      ascent's most painful at the start, below;     the more you rise, the milder it will be. "And when the slope feels gentle to the point that     climbing up sheer rock is effortless      as though you were gliding downstream in a boat, "then you will have arrived where this path ends." Dante ***** I do not know where this Dante quote comes from, but what I do know is that the Monday, March 18, 2024, episode of PBS's "Dante" covered the life of Dante through the year 1306 and covered Dante's Divine Comedy through The Inferno.  The program has been insightful and profound.   I highly recommend that everyone watch the program and ponder on Dante's motivation for writing this monumental work.  Both the watching and the pondering could pr...

  March is Women's History Month Women's History Month - Wikipedia and on March 11, Ramadan began Ramadan (calendar month) - Wikipedia Ramadan was the time when it was hoped that the Israel-Hamas War would be paused for humanitarian reasons  Israel–Hamas war - Wikipedia but it was not.  In a previous email (see below), I discuss the legacy of the 1948 Deir Yassin Massacre which gave rise to the Nakba. Sadly, the 75th-year anniversary of the Nakba has predictably proven to be woefully tragic. As a student of history, I sense that the result of this latest episode of the Nakba will not bring peace but will produce a generation of young Palestinians who are committed to resist. One example of such historical resistance fighters created by the Nakba was Fatima Bernawi    Fatima Bernawi - Wikipedia I encourage everyone to become aware of her story.  I found it intriguing not just because she was the first Palestinian woman to organize a resistance attack in Isra...