Editorial

As Louisiana tries to protect vulnerable nursing home residents from coronavirus outbreaks, the facilities still have a significant source of risk for new infections. Hundreds of employees coming and going each day have refused to take a virus test.

am going to be honest with you, and I you might have already figured this out, but I really don’t know what to write about in this space anymore. Call it writer’s block. Call it boredom. Call it struggling to reach a minimum word count. I think my inkwell has run dry, and after a combined 12 and a-half years, maybe that’s expected.

Is it is or is it isn’t? Is it really the virus that is dangerous or is the danger from the hype? Though I am cautious and trying to be a good neighbor, I am also taking all of this with a grain of salt.

Transcendence occurs when we have an experience which gives us a glimpse beyond our mundane physical world. Sometimes this happens when we experience God in the stillness of prayer or solitude. Other times this happens when we confront the power or vastness of nature. The starry sky can overwhelm one with the sense of eternity, just as the power and size of the ocean can make us aware of God because we feel so small by comparison. Transcendent experiences where we feel the presence of God can’t be forced, but we can make ourselves ready for them, and put ourselves in situations where they are more likely to happen. Nature and solitude are two of the more common ways to foster transcendent experiences, but many people also get them through being in sacred places, such as churches or temples. Some find the experience through works of art or music, and it can also come via our contact with holy men or women. Truly holy people often radiate God’s love so strongly that one feels God’s presence through that person. One problem with transcendent experiences is that they don’t last forever. Despite glimpsing eternity in the experience, we inevitably fall back into the humdrum monotony of everyday life, and that return can be a letdown. We should seek these experiences, but realize that they are but a glimpse of our ultimate origin and destination. – Christopher Simon

Once their service ends, veterans often expect to start a new career. In many cases, the same skills and characteristics that helped make them successful in the military, such as ambition and a drive to succeed, make veterans uniquely suited for entrepreneurial endeavors like business ownership.