Healthy faiths (and healthy nations) allow room for dissent and do not demand uniformity of thought. The 60th anniversary of JFK’s death reminds me of the first break with conformity I remember–that to be elected president one must be a Protestant.
My friend Al is a “cafeteria Catholic,” an easy conversion for a “cafeteria Methodist,” described by a wise priest during Al’s confirmation. The adjective cafeteria likely complements your descriptor, too. You may generally agree with your tribe, but with a few (or many) caveats.
With authoritarian conformity on the rise, let’s affirm our Founders’ vision of religious liberty, which allows for a Brunswick spirituality. Like Brunswick stew, everyone’s faith is a little different. You and your sister may both use Mama’s recipe, but your stews may differ from each other’s and from Mama’s.
The election between presidential election years and mid-term election years always falls on an odd-numbered year. In many ways, yesterday’s election felt odd. It was odd to vote while:
hellacious wars rage in Europe and the Middle East;
the US House of Representatives can’t get its act together; and
the leading Republican presidential candidate erupts in anger during the first of four trials.
Meanwhile:
in a mostly red Ohio, voters added a constitutional provision for women’s reproductive rights;
in a mostly red Kentucky, voters reelected a blue governor for the bluegrass state; and
a respectable number of Mississippians said, “Let’s go, Brandon,” but Elvis has still left the building.
I found these interpretations of this odd election cycle to be helpful:
Business development companies and real estate investment trusts are exempt from federal corporate income tax if they distribute at least 90% of taxable income to shareholders. Congress did this to encourage investment in these sectors. Over the years, I became familiar with, and comfortable with, REITs, but I didn’t have the same level of familiarity or comfort with BDCs.
I learned that my brokerage firm offers strong BDC analysis. Based on the depth and detail of their research, I built positions in twelve BDCs. Today, BDCs account for more than a quarter of the portfolio’s value and more than half of its income. Most BDC investments are in the form of loans to small and mid-size companies. This BDC exposure lowers the average credit rating and adds more risk.
The BDC sector grew and matured since I dabbled in it a decade ago. Some BDCs are run by major financial companies (such as Barings, BlackRock and Blackstone). Institutions (such as Sun Life and the Teacher Retirement System of Ohio) looking for “alternative investments” have been drawn to BDCs. I don’t trust my current ability to manage a dozen BDCs, so I lean on my brokerage firm for this.
With 12 high-yield BDCs in the portfolio, I increased my focus on quality in the other 24 companies, which form the core of the portfolio. I increased exposure to Microsoft and Apple. I added some relatively low yielders I’ve admired, but avoided, for many years: Colgate-Palmolive, Nike, Abbott Labs, United Healthcare and Costco. The day after my first Costco hotdog, I added it to the portfolio.
Nine of the business development companies are rated BBB- by Standard & Poor’s, Fitch or Kroll. Until I develop a ranking strategy I’m using a pre-S&P tool called the alphabet:
Barings BDC Incorporated (BBDC);
BlackRock TCP Capital Corporation (TCPC);
Blackstone Secured Lending Fund (BXSL);
Blue Owl Capital Corporation (OBDC);
Capital Southwest Corporation (CSWC);
Crescent Capital BDC Incorporated (CCAP);
Golub Capital BDC Incorporated (GBDC);
Sixth Street Specialty Lending (TSLX);
SLR Investment Corporation (SLRC).
I could not find current credit ratings for the other three BDCs in the portfolio: Fidus Investment Corporation (FDUS); PennantPark Investment Corporation (PNNT); and WhiteHorse Finance Incorporated (WHF).
As of October 31, 2023, the aggregate portfolio yield was 6.14% for the 36 equity holdings and a 5.83% cash position.
In addition to prior disclaimers in this series of posts, be aware that companies in the relatively young BDC sector tend to be more opaque than traditional corporations. Information is not as easy to find, credit ratings tend to be lower than many corporations, and BDC loans to companies do not have the same regulatory oversight as banks. I’m not a financial advisor and this isn’t financial advice!
Suffering is part of life’s adventure. My aunt, 92, said of her older sister/my mother (who died in ’07), “Midge is coming for Christmas.” I said, “Oh, that would be great.” Maybe sensing my doubt, she said, “Mom (my grandmother, who died in ’95) said so.” We shared memories of Christmas celebrations in our ancestral home town. She may know more than I realize. A lot can happen before Christmas.
I’ve learned through my aunt’s experience with memory loss that all is not lost. At an earlier stage, she sometimes said, “I think I’m losing my mind.” I always replied, “No, there’s nothing wrong with your mind. You’re just losing your memory.” As I age and become more forgetful, I hope to “hold that thought.” Here’s some Richard Rohr guidance about how we are healed as we sit with those who suffer:
Each time I was recovering from cancer, I had to sit with my own broken absurdity as I’ve done with others at the jail or hospital or soup kitchen. The … sympathies and compassion connect and become one world. … Jesus said we have to recognize Christ in the least of our brothers and sisters. It was for our redemption, our liberation, our healing—not merely to “help” others …. when we see it over there, we’re freed in here, and become less judgmental. I can’t look down on a person receiving welfare when I realize I’m receiving God’s welfare. It all becomes one truth; the inner and the outer reflect one another.
In his “Practicing Forgiveness” class, Stewart Jackson contrasted transactional forgiveness with relational forgiveness. When we receive something, we expect to pay for it. However, grace (unmerited favor) is not about a transaction, but rather about a relationship. Stewart shared John Patton’s thesis:
I understand forgiveness between persons to be an important and essential part of God’s reconciliation of us with each other. It functions, however, more as a witness that God’s reconciliation has taken effect than as something we are required to do in conformity to an external standard.
Forgiveness has already happened. When Prohibition ended in 1933, the Alabama legislature gave each county the option to be “wet” or “dry.” I grew up in a supposedly “dry” county. In a long ago sermon, the preacher said grace is like a bootlegger realizing that all along he had been operating in a “wet” county.
We’ve lost much of the ancient respect for divinity. We’re awash in profanity, which is “meaningless talk about the holy.” I’m increasingly reluctant to use the “G word.” Sometimes, Jewish writers substitute G-d for the divine name, showing a respectful reluctance to write the word.
YHWH (or Yahweh) is the most common ancient Hebrew word for the Creator, used about 6,800 times in the Hebrew texts according to Kurt Struckmeyer. Elohim occurs about 2,600 times and the shorter El about 238 times. In Judaism, Adonai (“Lord”) is a common spoken substitute for YHWH or Elohim.
Some English Bibles translate the divine name as “the LORD,” and Adonai as “Lord.” As large trees snapped around him during Hurricane Idalia, meteorologist Reynolds Wolf was instinctively creative, saying “good heavens,” “sakes alive,” and “goodness sakes.”
My grandmother’s favorites were “Lordy, Lordy,” and “my goodness gracious.” And then there’s OMG.
It was a 13-hour day, including 8 hours of driving to help a friend with some legal matters, a mix of accomplishments and tasks unfinished. Some tasks were aided by phone conversations with friends and colleagues, including one international call. I marvel at communications technology, fondly remembering my parents’ first phone, installed when I was five years old. Rotary dialing was fun!
As I drove, I thought about the devastation in Lahaina, in Chernihiv, and others who’ve dealt with catastrophe in the first half of 2023. My long day was an exception. Some folks know nothing but long days. I was mellowed by the thought all is well. Then I remembered that I hadn’t thought about Wordle all day. Cathey got it in three, but I had one more test awaiting me. This one was multiple choice:
The photo gallery of indictees in Georgia’s election fraud case reminded me of the 1973 dramatic comedy film, The Sting. If this indictment is ever converted to a screenplay, the “Con” would be stealing the election under the clever guise of “stopping the steal.”
In the 1973 movie, Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) enlists Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman), a master of the long con, to help him swindle Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw), a big time crime boss, to avenge the death of Hooker’s friend Luther. Lonnegan is the “Mark,” or target, of the con.
In a movie version of this week’s indictment, the State of Georgia would be the “Mark.” In the federal case brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith, the “Mark” would be the United States of America. Today’s story includes many comedic elements, but it is clearly in the tragedy genre.
One tragedy is a widespread loss of trust in elections. Millions believe the former president’s claim that the election was “stolen,” in spite of the excellent work by his administration’s Election Security team. Testimony under oath should reveal whether the claims of fraud were real, or the real con.
I thought of my friend Burns Nesbitt (1933-1999), a USAF chaplain, when I read an article by Glen O’Brien, an Australian Methodist historian: “Methodist Religion among the Soldiers of the American Civil War.” O’Brien provides insightful glimpses into a devastating war. Some excerpts:
“Chaplains kept a … record …. (of) each soldier’s … professed experience … and … his baptism.”
“In most Confederate regiments…. The day began with prayer and ended with either a prayer meeting or an evangelistic service. … A Presbyterian chaplain from North Carolina wrote that sometimes they felt as if they were in a camp meeting rather than in the army expecting to meet an enemy.”
O’Brien said when opposing armies were separated by a river, there would be a ceasefire when baptisms occurred at the river’s shore. Here’s an account of a rookie chaplain in the Army of Northern Virginia:
Not conversant with military terminology, (the rookie) understood the order for a parade in full dress uniform to mean that he should appear in the vestments of his communion. Accordingly, he put on his pure white robe of office and took his place in the ranks of his regiment. All around he could hear the soft laughter of the soldiers at the “green chaplain.” However … as his regiment passed in review, General Lee lifted his hat and said, “I salute the Church of God.”
This week, I’ve been trying to sit with my nemesis, a former US president, in an attempt to get in touch with why he gets under my skin. I’ve learned that it’s difficult to sit with someone I resist so strongly. My mind goes almost anywhere to escape: the other 13 Republican presidential candidates, the heat, the stock market, word puzzles, editorial cartoons, anything.
Richard Rohr’s 7/25/23 mediation, “What We Resist Persists,” offered some helpful coherence:
When I entered the Franciscan novitiate in 1961, part of our training was learning to avoid, resist, and oppose all distractions. It was … the only way they thought back then. It was all about willpower: celibacy through willpower, poverty through willpower, community through willpower. But what we need isn’t willpower; we need the power to surrender the will and to trust what is. … It was … fruitless and futile … because if we start with negative energy, a “don’t,” we won’t get very far (see Romans 7:7–11). … it’s just “Don’t! Don’t do anything!” When we hear that, the ego immediately pushes back. Somedays we have strong willpower and we succeed, but most days we barely succeed.
The next step (for me) is to identify what it is about my nemesis that I resist so strongly.
ted.today 