Curious as to what a would-be-saint thought about as he made his way in relentlessly unbearable summertime heat, I tracked down the following description in A Year With Thomas Merton:
This is what Father Merton posted in his journal on 5 July 1949:
Usually I am in agreement with Merton on most of his takes; but this business that “it is good and satisfying to suffer these things for the world…” made me stop and think “No way.” Suffering for the world while doing penance was never on my life list of things to do.
Then again, the more I thought about it, I saw where again, Merton was giving some sound advice. If you do have to endure some pain and it is unavoidable, why not make it transactional and trade the suffering in for an indulgence, a grace or a favor from God? Maybe the penance you pay will get you a step or two closer to heaven. Makes sense to me.
As for alleviating suffering from the heat, we have some dude named Willis Carrier taking care of that in 1902 when he invented A/C. Makes me wonder if, when Willis first presented his A/C idea to folks anyone asked him “What you talking about Willis?” (Sorry to end on that, but I thought it was a “cool” thing to say.)
Music-wise it takes the following a couple of minutes to fully kick in. However, when they do so, it takes off. Pick it up at the the 3:20 mark and as Ronnie would say “Turn it up.” (Free beer at Buzzy’s if you get that Ronnie reference.)
Chief Larry and I have a Buzzy Podcast set for tomorrow discussing the upcoming Summerstock production. That video is available now on YouTube (click here.)