how we spent Christmas

Leaning into the arms of the couch with our new nephew, Patrick Hiram!

A Plumb LIne For Post Modernity

Every now and then you meet an author who is able to cast a new light on an old subject and give you inspiration that you felt was never really to be had. An author who says so succinctly what you have been meaning to say for years and never had the right words. Robert Farrar Capon is that author for me, he is indeed a plumb line from which post modernity stands against. Consider this on the subject of spirits: "Once in a while someone asks me if I drink. My answer is always: No; drinking: is not a human activity. No man in his right mind can possibly set out "to drink" in the current sense of the phrase. Drinking, like Sex, is one of the big fake subjects. Of course I go on to explain to my questioner that I usually take a short vermouth at noon, a sherry or a rince cochon before dinner, a couple of glasses of Zinfandel, California Chablis, or better with my meals, and not infrequently, a reasonable quantity of Scotch with my conversation. But I do not drink. My care is for the matter and the occasion, not for the activity of drinking. By a long love for the real subject, the fake one has been made to sit down and shut up".
~From Bed and Board: Plain Talk About Marriage

Absolutely Rediculous! (Especially if you are, or were ever, homeschooled)

...And yet, so true.

Bella

You must see this movie! You really must. Kathryn has done a tremendous job on her blog Shrewsbury's Whimsy in really getting to the heart of the matter. I can not explain how the movie impacted me nearly as well. What I can say though is that it is so powerful and speaks to me in a way that no movie ever has. It portrays the humanness of this world in all of its glorious depravation. When you need to be reminded that human life is sacred, no matter how fallen we are, go see this movie. Hint: it would make a great birthday present for me if it comes out by March.

The Omnivore's Dilemma

I highly recommend this book. Especially if you are the least bit interested in where your food comes from, or ever wonder why the American standard of quantity over quality is the de facto rule. Interestingly, when the book was finished it was the back cover that caught my eye for the last finishing touch.

Mark Danner, who is the author of Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib and the War on Terror, praised Michael Pollan (author of The Omnivore's Dilemma) stating: "...the happy reader could almost miss the profound truth half hidden at the heart of this beautiful book: that the reality of our politics is to be found not in what Americans do in the voting booth every four years but in what we do in the supermarket every day. Embodied in this arrestable, picaresque journey through America's food world is a profound treatise on the hidden politics of our every day life."

This really is a gem of a statement. And yes, it does come from an avowed humanist, but Truth is reflected in many places. Consider as '08 approaches...do you think that the hope of our Nation rests on the voting booth? Or is it what we do every day...at home, at work, at school, in the kitchen, with friends, etc. I am convinced that it is the latter, and yeah, that seems somewhat small and insignificant on a Friday night...But if you think about it, would the Divine, who has wrapped the rest of creation up into a fabulous mystery have it any other way?

Birthday Ball

Who gets a ball for their birthday but the Marines? Reminded every year that their corps spirit was invoked in 1775 raises many an oohrah and grunts of jovial amen. All kinds of devils are stirred with the flowing of new wine and sparkling spirits through the course of the evening. They're called Devil Dogs by more than the Germans; their wives know what they are before they ever hit the war zone.

Like tonight, it's a good time to chat with friends, listen to ceremonial speeches and get a dance in to digest our buffet dinner served by the long suffering waitresses. Semper Fi. Goodnight.

movie marathon

We watched another movie based on the books of Elizabeth Gaskell. "North and South" is rather dark and dreary in 19th century England, during the cotton mill expansion, but the story such a production of fine work. The characters are a contrast of soft and strong willed people. The contentious relationship between a clergyman's daughter, Margaret, and the stern tradesman, Mr Thornton provide the firey backbone of the novel, while the social conditions of the factory workers is examined in light of the caring friendships Margaret finds with one family in particular--the leader of the worker's union. Like her other book-become-movie, "Wives and Daughters," I find a happy similarity between Ms Gaskell and Jane Austen, whose characters come readily to life on the screen.

tidings

Watching the movie "True Lies" last night, I'm reminded how much work goes into making one little piece of one film by experiencing how much work it takes to train one pilot to man the machine. In the final stages of the movie, two Harriers fly in to save the day by blowing up a bridge, which takes about 5 minutes of show time. But they didn't hire professional actors for the fly by; these guys were normal Harrier pilots from Cherry Point who probably took out a whole day of tedious preparation to perform one, tiny impressive feat of flying, and are then left behind to gaze in sceptical disbelief as Schwartzenegger hauls off in one of their birds. At any rate, the movie has numerous other good points, highly worth viewing.

Meanwhile, Kermit's down in the no-man's land of the desert dropping 500-pounders before the quiet audience of cacti and tarantulas. He cooks pasta in his room on a counter-top burner and shares space with a fellow who shares his name and they are both wise to the ways of looking after their wives from afar who need daily proof of their love.

People Matter...

Really... they do. You would not believe this statement as you drive down the highway, stand in line at the market, read the news, or toil at work. The human is now a limiting factor in the equation of business, politics, warfare, and even religion.

I am continuously burdened at my work by the way that I am not treated like I matter. And, I am not trying to be selfish, or say that "hey, what about me." But you know what I am talking about. I even have the "privilege" (if you can call it that)of working for an organization that prides itself on caring for its people...and they do, it's just that their idea of caring for people is not based upon the reality of being human. And yes, this bothers me...I have a tough time with it...it makes me tired...all the time.

However, every now and then I get a glimpse of the Glorious eternity that God has in store for us...and that glimpse comes through community. Community comes in many forms, but what is especially meaningful to me is the community that I share with close friends. Electra and I have been blessed with an albeit small, but heavily concentrated community of phenomonal friends. These folks have become family and in doing so have opened themselves up to us in a way that exposes both themselves and us as well in a vulnerable manner. We laugh, cry, drink fine wine, and LIVE together.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his small, but influential book LIFE TOGETHER remarks that "Christ lived in the midst of HIs enemies. So the Christian too, belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life, but in the thick of foes." How I wish that I could live the cloistered life! But that is not where I am called to be right now...maybe later...But how important it is therefore to gather community around you! Bonhoeffer goes on to say that "Christianity means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. No Christian community is more or less than this. Whether it be a brief, single encounter or the daily fellowship years, Christian community is only this. We belong to one another only through and in Jesus Christ." Isn't that freeing!

It is through the Covenant relationships that we have been blessed with that enables the sacrament of Communion becomes most real. The sharing of life through death has become real. As we bear one anothers burdens we die unto ourselves and recieve the life giving reality of freindship. Though we live in a fallen world, and all here is lost. It is the moments with close friends that are shared through good times and bad, great conversation, and babies crying that we are able to glimpse eternity and be reminded that yes...Virginia, people really do matter.

#1 Mistake

With the change of the sun's course this month, our rose bed dominated by an original holly bush has turned into a dungeon. Kermit noticed the new sun pattern last week. I got the first big, very pictoral book on "landscaping with roses" I could find in the library and discovered: yes, #1 priority is a minimum of 6 hours of full sun. So...they survived a hot summer root bound in a pot in teh back yard of the feed store only to be stuck in a damp, dark bed next to a nubian holly bush, waving their spotty leaves at me and crying "we're not (quite) dead yet!" Project Rescue the Ramblers ensues tomorrow.

Meanwhile, my boss at work has been in charge of catering a party of 200 for a well-respected elderly gentleman in the local community. The family hired a friend to do the planning, and because said friend needed to be out of town next week, she had all the plans laid for this Sunday. The dying man went off liquids; they say he'll go any day now. My boss wonders all Saturday: to cook or not to cook? What happens if he's not dead yet by Sunday afternoon? A funereal preception? Well, we might as well invite the dear man to his own funeral. How many of us will enjoy such an opportuity when we dare to importune others by clinging on to our nearly-dead frames?

Some Images of the History

From Capon's The Fingerprints Of God:

"Only the logic of the imagination can fathom the parables-or the Bible itself, for that matter. Think of it this way. The house of human discourse has many floors; but in our time, we live entirely in the basement of propositional logic. Down there, we're surrounded by TV commercials, talk shows, police procedurals, hospital dramas, situational comedies, newspapers, radio, magazines, and Internet chitchat- every one of which inundates us with cellar talk. To be sure, every now and then a novel or a poem may invite us upstairs to experience the sunlight of imagery. But that's too much brightness for us. Soon enough, we run back down to bask under the fifteen-watt bulb of literalism. Imagery isn't just hard for us to look at; the eyes of our mind are blind to it. And as a result, we're blind to Scripture as well, because, as I've said, it's the images of Scripture that make it whole. The Bible, if you will, lives in the upper rooms of the house of discourse. It has, of course, its propositional moments, its times in the basement of language where it hangs up the socks and underwear of revelation. But its major thread, the grand clothesline on which it displays the principle garments of salvation, lies exclusively in the realm of imagery".

meandering

The roses went into the ground yesterday! Our front-entry garden is taking shape and new character, with the addition of lavender, coreopsis, Japanese daisies, and some viney ground covers. One rose is a climber with wide-open, sweet-smelling blooms, Don Juan, and the other is a bushy, purply-leaved Mocking Bird in name and varigated pink in bloom. Thanks and ongoing dedication goes to Mama Linda for the adoption of these beauties into the garden family. I hope Don Juan climbs right on up the front railing next year, to droop a nodding head of welcome to guests of the little castle!