I had appointments and work scheduled beginning at 11:30 so I was on the executive course at 7:00 to play 18 holes. I played 17, skipping the fourth hole. I got behind an extremely slow foursome that had no interest in common golf course courtesies. I walked up to the fourth tee as they were finishing their drives but they just ignored me. Are bad golf course manners more common and old people courses?
An older woman up the street had me rip out the badly deteriorated glue-down astro-turf on her front walkway. Once that was gone she decided the park bench that sat on the ugly carpet was itself in need of attention. It's the kind of bench you can buy at any of the big box stores - cast iron filigreed ends with wood slats. Her now-deceased husband painted it years ago but the weather has not been kind to the wood. So I disassembled it, sanded all the slats and gave them a fresh coat of paint. If I have time tomorrow afternoon I'll re-assemble it and take it back over.
From there to my doctor for a follow-up visit. Dr. Rodriguez is a great doctor. His concern for his patients is obvious; he has phoned me more than once to report lab results or other issues.
Pam works with Dr. Rodriguez at the hospital. She's one of the unit coordinators for 5c, which is an adult oncology unit. He often has patients on that unit and is so highly regarded that the staff of 5c asked him to be their physician for liaison issues (each unit has one).
Dr. Rodriguez's mother has been a patient on 5c a number of times over the last year as she battled cancer, a battle she lost last weekend. The staff bonded with her and she with them.
So this has been interesting confluence - Pam working with him and being a part of his mother's care team, and me seeing him fairly regularly. He made the connection between us early on and our relationship is more than the standard Dr./patient or Dr./staff member relationship. So at my appointment this afternoon he and I spent probably 30 minutes talking about his mother, the events leading up to her death, his reaction to it and the events of the next few days. This is more interesting because Dr. Rodriguez is from Paraguay and Roman Catholic. Sort of.
Tonight we went to what, in our conversation this afternoon, he said was a wake. But he didn't really know what that meant; he said it's not what they do in Paraguay. As he described it I realized it was what we call a viewing. It ran from 6:00 to 9:00 at one of the local churches (he had issues with the priests at his parish that led to this location). But when we got there a R.C. clergyman (priest?) was up on the platform with the open casket in front of him and the family seated in the first few rows. The clergyman spoke for a good 30 minutes, but because it was all in Spanish we have almost no idea what he said. At the end of his talk the 15 or so of us who weren't family went up and paid our respects, and then we left.
The whole thing was a little strange - going to a Protestant church to listen to a R.C. priest (?) say things in Spanish, with the requisite stand up/sit down routine of Catholic services. But imagine how weird it was for Dr. Singh, a Sikh, in the third row.
Biblical Christianity is not politically correct. PC requires a live-and-let-live approach to things religious. All roads lead to wherever you want to go. But Christ said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Peter said "salvation is found in no one else."
Religion is no substitute for faith in Christ's death for our sins. The country doesn't matter, the language doesn't matter and the building doesn't matter. But apart from believing that Christ paid the penalty for my sin, the rest is all empty and without spiritual value.
So besides being a little odd, this evening made me sad.
Dr. Rodriguez knows I'm the pastor of a new church and he always asks how it's going. Today I prayed that he and his family will come to visit some Sunday. I suspect he's never heard the difference between religion and saving faith.
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