Usually July is a “study leave” month for UU ministers. This has been the busiest July in all my years as a parish minister! There’s just so much going on. Luckily, I love my calling. Right now I am in Pennsylvania, visiting family. It is good to get a break.

What a bizarre time we are in in the United States. That’s an understatement, I know. This whole Epstein files situation is so curious to me. I’m glad that people are taking it as seriously as it deserves to be taken. The part that I’m having more trouble comprehending is how anyone didn’t know that Tr*mp would be implicated. Haven’t we always known that he was close with Epstein and was grossly inappropriate with women, including underage females? In any case, I’m glad that more people are seeing at least that much light now. Is this, finally, the decency around which we can form something like consensus? It’s good to know there is some limit to the madness that is MAGA.

That’s one thing I’ve been pondering recently.

I’m also wondering if summer will ever feel good again. I mean, there are entirely too many 90-plus-degree days, too many heatwaves. It’s too dangerously hot all too often. I’m glad I get some time off in the summer, but the extreme heat makes it hard to make the most of many of the days, I’m afraid. If it’s 90 degrees and I have the option to be inside in AC all day, that’s what I’m going to do. But that’s not the best way to spend time off, and it makes me sad. It’s also the only time of year that I can travel (other than sabbatical), so that’s a bummer too. I’m afraid that this is just the new normal thanks to climate change.

I’ll leave it there for now. I just wanted a blog check-in for the month, in case anyone is reading!