I heard these words at 8:30 a.m.

"You are fully retired." What has been convenient is all needed offices are within one to three blocks and I've had to return to a couple multiple times.

More home movies

Firsts for me

Thursday I went to the drive-in alone and saw Aquaman. In addition, I had no radio so relied on others to hear through open windows and skylight so I missed some dialog. It was still fun and a beautiful night under a full moon. Then Easter Sunday I was alone after church. It was a fine, beautiful spring day and I enjoyed it but again, I was alone. Another first on Easter Sunday.

Home movies

Keeping in touch with the babies.

Letter of Lentulus

The letter

The purported letter reads, in translation:

Lentulus, the Governor of the Jerusalemites to the Roman Senate and People, greetings. There has appeared in our times, and there still lives, a man of great power (virtue), called Jesus Christ. The people call him prophet of truth; his disciples, son of God. He raises the dead, and heals infirmities. He is a man of medium size (statura procerus, mediocris et spectabilis); he has a venerable aspect, and his beholders can both fear and love him. His hair is of the colour of the ripe hazel-nut, straight down to the ears, but below the ears wavy and curled, with a bluish and bright reflection, flowing over his shoulders. It is parted in two on the top of the head, after the pattern of the Nazarenes. His brow is smooth and very cheerful with a face without wrinkle or spot, embellished by a slightly reddish complexion. His nose and mouth are faultless. His beard is abundant, of the colour of his hair, not long, but divided at the chin. His aspect is simple and mature, his eyes are changeable and bright. He is terrible in his reprimands, sweet and amiable in his admonitions, cheerful without loss of gravity. He was never known to laugh, but often to weep. His stature is straight, his hands and arms beautiful to behold. His conversation is grave, infrequent, and modest. He is the most beautiful among the children of men.

Different manuscripts vary from the foregoing text in several details; Ernst von Dobschütz enumerates the manuscripts and gives an apparatus criticus.^[6] The description agrees with the so-called Abgar picture of Jesus; it also agrees with the portrait of Jesus Christ drawn by Nicephorus, St. John Damascene, and the Book of Painters (of Mt. Athos).^[4]

A first for me.

Within 32 hours I attended a baby shower, a funeral, and a wedding reception, the entire cycle of life. That is a first for me in such a short time frame.