Stopped by a red light on my way home from work yesterday, I heard a sound I had not heard since early last year: children playing a game on a field with coaches shouting and parents clapping. Most of the parents were wearing face masks but the children weren’t. They were playing baseball, not usually considered a close contact sport.
The FDA has authorized the use of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine now for children as young as 12 stating the benefits outweigh any risks. There are still adults who refuse the vaccine and there may be legitimate medical reasons; however, it seems that getting vaccinated is the key just as it is for all those vaccinations received as infants.
Jenner was first ridiculed when he proposed his vaccination against smallpox, a deadly killer. Polio has almost been eradicated by vaccination. Let’s hope that people learn to trust science again rather than believing rumors circulated by ignorant people on the internet. Then we can hear more than just the sounds of a baseball game.
Prayer for the Day
Hold us in the present, Lord of time and space,
For we know son we will have summer;
Free us from the demons of our past, God of wisdom,
For we know that they can shape us in ways we do not want;
Open us to the future, Holy Broadener of our minds,
So we act beyond the boundaries we set for ourselves.
In the name of the One who shows us the way,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen
Thoughts for the Day
The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.
Isaac Asimov, writer, professor of biochemistry (1920-1992)
Science and everyday life cannot be and should not be separated.
Rosalind Franklin, chemist and x-ray crystallographer
With you, O Lord, is wisdom, she who knows your works,
And was present when you made the world;
She understands what is pleasing in your sight, and what is right according to your laws.
Send her forth from the holy heavens, and from the throne of your glory, send her,
That she may labor at my side, so that I may learn what is pleasing to you.
For she knows and understands all things, and she will guide me wisely
In all my actions, and guard me with her glory.
Wisdom of Solomon 9: 9-11