Sunday Notes

PHYSICIANS HAVE USED MAGGOTS to save the infected right foot of a diabetic woman. Fascinating -- not just because of its uniqueness (in modern medicine) -- but because in this we're seeing a redemptive use of insects that we've previously written off as being products of the fall. Now, if the doctors can figure out a redemptive use of mosquitoes one of the greatest "why" questions of the universe will be answered.
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MY PASTORAL COLLEAGUE PAUL SPRINGER got some good ink in today's Modesto Bee. He's doing a great job as the chaplain at Emanuel Medical Center.
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MY BROTHER, AND HIS FAMILY, are moving from Tempe, Arizona to Cookeville, Tennessee, in a few days. So when I happened into conversation a week ago with someone from Cookeville, I asked her about the big issues in town.

Well, it seems that this town of 27,000 people, along I-40, between Nashville and Knoxville, has THREE WAL-MARTS (!) -- including a super-center, and from her perspective the city is leading the effort to keep Target from invading their turf.

What a contrast to the West Coast where it seems that most every town is trying to throttle Wal-Mart and is hoping to attract the very slightly more upscale red and khaki.

BTW, the cost of living index for Cookeville is 94.3 compared to 106.2 in Turlock (national US average is 100). The average Cookeville house sells for $150,000. I checked the MLS listing of Turlock homes on the market this morning. The average asking price of the 232 houses on the market is $1,014,464. That figure is skewed by a few really expensive homes on the high end. But still, there are cheaper places to live than California.

I'm not sure, though, that it would be worth it to live in a place where the Wal-Marts are the happening thing in town. And I'm not even anti-Wal-Mart! As frustrating as the cost of living is here, from my perspective, it's worth it to pay a bit more to live in California.