Bigger or Better: Life outside of Texas

 Sometimes during hard times in life, when we are not absolutely overcome by stress, we get to grow a little in our soul. Hardship seems to naturally bring reflection--the very beginnings of it are seen in the common exclamation "Why me? How could this happen?"--and once we get over the self-pity, we can delve into true introspection, and begin an honest examination of our essence. Which is how I arrived at questioning whether I valued flesh over spirit, i.e. mankind's health or his redemption. I am very passionate about promoting health literacy and preventing disease [This may have come from my nursing career, or it may have caused my nursing career, or it may be that I don't want to be in charge of healing the entire world so let's get everyone's self-actualization going.], and boy have I had a lot to work with (or rather, work against) in this SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. I'm posting medical articles, giving [mostly]-solicited advice, and commenting with [the ...

 Last week the bishop of our church congregation [which doesn't actually congregate nowadays, being mostly on Zoom] helped us fill out a list of foods we needed from the Bishop's Storehouse [think of it as a  Food Bank, but managed by a religious organization]. It's the second time in the past two months that I've received groceries from the Storehouse, and it is such a God-send. I feel a little weird being on the receiving end, because it's not like we don't have any money, but it helps relieve some financial pressure when we don't have an income.  And it has a big impact on our menu.  Meat for hamburger patties? From the Storehouse. Cheese for the hamburgers? Tomato slices? From the Storehouse. Potatoes for homemade fries? From the Storehouse. Bread buns for aforementioned hamburgers? From the Storehouse, and quite miraculously: the volunteer who bagged the groceries put a cantaloupe on top of the buns, so they were a bit flattened, but overnight they flu...