Dear friends, I received an email yesterday that asked, “With the President sick, what are you praying for?  For him to get well quickly, or that he be disabled and all his ill deeds stop?”

 I thought a while, trying to plumb my deepest feelings.  This is what came: I am praying for his spiritual recovery. Praying for what in Hebrew we call “tshuvah,” “turning,” repentance. Not just emotional change, but action too.  

 This is what I pray for, to hear from a hospital bed at Walter Reed. Shalom,  Arthur

“I was wrong. What I spoke was wrong [cough], what I did was wrong.

“I thought my shouts and my sneers could outshout the virus. I was wrong.  That itty-bitty thing, so small I can’t even see it, and it laid me low. [cough cough]

“No mask, no distancing.  I thought that would make me more [cough cough] imposing, more powerful [cough]. Maybe with people they did; not with the virus. Every time I opened my mouth to shout or sneer, people quailed and the virus [cough] flew right in.

 “And it’s not just the virus. It’s the CO2.  The California Fires, the mid-West floods, the more I sneer at the climate hoax [cough cough cough cough], the worse they get. The fires and floods for the country, they’re like the virus inside of me. [cough]

 “And that debate. The more I yelled, the tougher the nasty press and some of my own supporters got. It’s not working with them, either.

 "[Cough cough silence] I can hardly breathe. Funny. Me and those black guys. Who’d have thought? Maybe ----  

“The nurse --  when I tell her what to do, even when I shout, she smiles at me and does something different. Usually feels much better. If shouting doesn't work any more, maybe what I need [cough] is people who know how to help. Not just do [cough cough] whatever I tell them.

"Maybe I need to pull. Back. From the whole thing. This whole campaign is about yelling. Maybe just stop campaigning. [c-c-coug [silence]h cough cough cough]. Can't. Breathe. I. Need. Help.  Nurse! “