More, Please.

Every day the pleas go out, the bidding begins for more PPE gear, masks, ventilators and beds.

Each day the numbers climb of the sick, the dead, the unemployed.

The news reveals faces, slumped shoulders of battle-fatigued nurses and doctors.

But, thankfully, stories also tell  of Goodness unleashed: applauding, volunteering, appreciating and donating.

Some day there'll come a reckoning of how we got here.  One day we'll look in our national mirror and see how the selfishness of some harmed too many.  We'll value  Truth, the kind our parents and grandparents spoke. "It's for your own good.  Trust me.  One day you'll thank me."

But I doubt anyone reading this needs reminders of what's going on in our world, country, or your own home.

So, maybe you're like me,  wondering  how to  live in times like these, besides keeping our distance and washing.

Yesterday in Forward Day by Day, a devotional guide from the Episcopal church,  Ken Woodley shared this story.

One day Ken was helping serve the Holy Eucharist, "when a disheveled man joined the procession. 'Sir,' the usher said, 'you have already received.' The man replied loudly,'But I am still hungry.' The usher gestured for the man to return for a second helping of the bread of life and the cup of salvation.  I wept."

Ken's story reminded me of my hungry heart and a Eucharist several years ago when our grandson Basil, about two, knelt at the altar with his family. After receiving and swallowing, he extended his small hands, looked up and said, "More, please."

While we desperately need more equipment,wisdom, personal and national sacrifices to battle this pandemic,   I believe there's a deeper need.

Tomorrow's Palm Sunday with no fronds nearby.

Maybe the disheveled person inside me needs to unfurl my own palms.

"More, please."