The week is almost over and so is the month of May. Time, like an ever-rolling stream, and all that.
I don’t have many plans for the weekend, which is kind of nice. I have the new Walt Longmire mystery, which was released on Tuesday, so I am already back in Absaroka County.
I am 70 pages in and Henry has not appeared, so I am a bit dubious, but we shall see.
I liked this post about “the beauty of the unnamed and the unnoticed…the glory of mundane faithfulness.”
And let’s not forget to toast Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957), one of the most influential composers in Hollywood history, on his birthday. Winner of two Academy Awards–for Anthony Adverse (1936) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)–his scores were brilliant and influential (think Star Wars, entirely derivative).
I had a very busy day yesterday, so I didn’t have much time to prepare a blogpost. But here is some Walt Whitman–his birthday is coming up on the 31st, so prepare yourselves…
Daughter #2 reminds me that baby Wes has been practicing his barbaric yawp recently, discovering his voice.
I had to go to the doctor’s for an annual ‘well’ visit yesterday morning so I treated myself to a daytime John Wayne birthday screening of The Horse Soldiers (1959) in the afternoon. It was great, of course, a true tonic for what ails ya. At least for me. It is important to know what your tonic is. (Hopefully not drugs or alcohol.)
On the evening of Memorial Day, after my family had gone home, I watched Twelve O’Clock High (1949), which is Gregory Peck’s greatest film (except for To Kill aMockingbird). He should have won the Academy Award for his portrayal of Brig. General Frank Savage.
As I have said before, it is incredible to me how the pilots and crews of those B-17s managed to do what they did over and over again. It is no wonder that many succumbed to battle fatigue, which is what this movie addresses. The film made use of actual combat footage during the battle scenes and the results are impressive. If you haven’t viewed it recently, treat yourself.
I also cleaned my closet and threw away/gave away a ton of old shoes that I will never wear again. That feels good.
And here’s another good one from Kevin DeYoung about What We Need Most. “Our main problem is not lack of time or resources or the annoying people in our lives. Your main problem and my main problem is that we do not see enough the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
(Prairie Peony)
And remember this:
“Only if your god can outrage and challenge you will you know that you worship the real God and not a figment of your imagination…If your god never disagrees with you, you might just be worshipping an idealized version of yourself.”
It’s been a busy long weekend so far. I played cards at someone’s house on Friday night! Of course, I shut that party down too, but it was fun while [I] lasted. On Saturday daughter #1 took me to a shindig at her club where they were celebrating their 125th anniversary. We had dinner and drank wine on the patio and listened to live music–the Boomer’s favorite playlist of ’70s tunes. It was very fun.
In the middle of all that I went to a funeral for an old acquaintance from my old church. It was at the PCUSA church she had attended for the last 15 years or so, which was interesting. It was a very pretty church, but the service, to me, was pretty lackluster. When we sang “Abide With Me” at the end of the service, I started to cry right on cue. Sacré bleu!
On Sunday we held our service out on the church lawn. We started doing these outdoor services during COVID and we continue now two or three times a year as weather permits. The youth provided the music. But everything else was as usual. We heard a good sermon on Joshua 23:1-16 which is Joshua’s last speech before he dies. We sang good hymns, including my favorite, Come Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy. The tears streamed down my face. The sun broke through the clouds at the end of the service and the birds flew overhead. The bud said, “I guess God wanted the sun to shine on us!” Indeed.
Yesterday was Bob Dylan’s 85th birthday! I hope you celebrated appropriately! God loves you, Bob, and so do we.
As is my tradition, in honor of Memorial Day, I watched my favorite WWII movie, They Were Expendable (1945). It is just the best.
Listen, son: you and I are professionals. If the manager says, “Sacrifice”, we lay down a bunt and let somebody else hit the home runs. We know all about those destroyers out of commission, tied up around San Diego. We could use them here. But they’re not around. They won’t be. Our job is to lay down that sacrifice. That’s what we were trained for, and that’s what we’ll do. Understand?
A toast to all the sailors and hunters home from the hill.
Today daughter #1 and the boy and his family are coming over to my house to enjoy some driveway sittin’. The boy will do the honors of bbq-ing some hamburgers. We’ll have chips ‘n dip, French Fries, salad, and something yummy for dessert. Nothing fancy. Just the way we like it. I hope you enjoy your day as well.
Well, we are well into the year and May is almost over! We ask ourselves, how did that happen?
It is graduation season and the commencement speeches range from the banal to the excruciating. I saw a clip of Harrison Ford that was just embarrassing.
But this is really good–watch the whole thing:
And in honor of Memorial Day, we salute Johnny ‘Joey’ Jones of Fox News, who re-enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps on Wednesday. God bless him.
I had a very busy day yesterday with three–count ’em–events to attend. It was crazy, but I survived.
The first was a very chichi luncheon in Tower Grove Park to which I was invited by a dear friend. I had a lovely time and caught up with another old friend and talked to some people with whom I had weird connections.
The featured speaker was a “leading voice in ecological landscape design, pioneering a plant-systems approach that anticipates a changing future”–zut alors! It was actually quite interesting.
Then I went to the opening reception of an art and photography show at the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center where my co-editor of the Kirkwood Historical Review’s work was featured. I was so impressed with Ron’s photos! He has traveled all over the world, but his pictures are not, here’s the Eiffel Tower. They’re like, here’s a wall that looks like a Mondrian painting or here’s a crack in the ceiling that looks like Winston Churchill. Who knew 90-year old Ron was an artiste!
Finally, I went to the “Poetry Corner” at the Schaeffer House at my church to, yes, read poetry and discuss. I enjoyed it, but the chairs were very uncomfortable and it had been a long day, so I went home at the earliest opportunity. As daughter #1 says, I know how to break up a party.
Well, it’s good to get outside your comfort zone once in awhile. Read some poetry!
A blog I read recently asked the question Have you ever met an author in person? That got me thinking. The answer is not many, but, yes, a few come to mind. And by “met”, I mean “shaken their hand”.
I met Frederick Buechner when he preached at Christ Church Cathedral here in town. He came at the invitation of his old friend Hays Rockwell, the Bishop. I shook his hand after the service and he shook my children’s hands as well.
I heard John Updike speak at my flyover university one afternoon in the “chapel”. And I sat behind Marilyn Robinson when she spoke at my university. I could have reached out and touched her mass of frizzy hair, but I restrained myself. I had a good view of her when she spoke to the relatively small audience (at least compared to Updike).
I met Nancy Willard when she was a speaker at my old high school and I was the alumna representative of the writing contest back in the ’90s. I drove her to and from the event and ate dinner with her. She was very nice.
Madeleine L’Engle spoke at my church 35+ years ago and I exchanged a few words with her afterwards. I went to the Ethical Society to hear Nathaniel Philbrick and he signed my copy of Blind Ambition. Amor Towles came to town, but I had to see him on Zoom.
All of these sightings meant something at the time, but I don’t remember much about them now. Words of great wisdom were not imparted that I recall. The best was Buechner and half the people there were shocked when he asked the people (and children) in the back of the church to be quiet. But his message was always pay attention!, wasn’t it?
The lesson I think is that authors are much less interesting than their books are. Most of them just want to be left alone to work–traveling and speaking is something they do to please their publishers and sell books. If you have the good luck to actually know a writer, more power to you, but meeting them randomly at an event isn’t much.
So read a book!
“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.”
Quelle stormy Monday! Always a good time to clean the house and catch up on chores and desk work.
I forgot to mention that Sunday marked the 250th anniversary of the Continental Congress’s 1776 “day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer.” William Livingston submitted the resolution calling for a national day of prayer, and wrote, “it becomes the indispensable duty of these hitherto free and happy colonies, with true penitence of heart, and the most reverent devotion, publickly to acknowledge the over ruling providence of God.” This was celebrated on the National Mall by tens of thousands of Americans gathering, lifting their voices, and re-dedicating this nation to God, under sunny skies with worship music, praise, prayer, and Bible readings. Of course, this made a lot of people crazy, but who cares? As one wag commented, “By all accounts, it was a warm, family-friendly, faith-forward event, with no shootings, leatherwear parades, naked bicycle riders, or even a single fistfight breaking out at the food truck line. It must have been pure misery for corporate media reporters assigned to cover it.”
William Livingston, by the way, was a Presbyterian and the brother of Philip Livingston, one of 12 Presbyterian signers of the Declaration of Independence. This is an interesting article by Kevin DeYoung about those 12 signers.
And here’s a little Barney Fife pick-me-up for the start of the week:
(It’s a silly show, but I feel better knowing that J.D. Salinger was also a fan of The Andy Griffith Show and, in particular, Barney Fife.) We can’t always be reading the Psalms.
Good weekend! How about you? I had to recover some from my windy drive back from the prairie in the speedwagon, but I did. I can report that the prairie is greening up nicely. On Saturday, even in the rain, daughter #1 and I ventured to an estate sale and did pretty well, finding something for daughter #2. We had lunch at the Village Bar and then we went to the dollar store and our favorite Presbyterian re-sale shop where we picked up some DVDs for $1.50. Score! Then we wandered around our local antique mall for awhile–always a fun thing to do. The simple pleasures.
That night I watched We Are Marshall (2006), the DVD of which I had bought earlier in the day. It is the true story of the aftermath of the plane crash in 1970 that killed the entire Marshall University football team, the coaching staff and a lot of fans. Matthew McConaughey is excellent as the new coach, as are all the actors, and the directing by McG is impressive. I cried through the whole movie. I love a good sports movie, don’t you? I remember watching it with the OM when it first came out. He played football in high school (All ABC League!) and that was important to him. Some of those relationships impacted his whole life. When he died and the email went out to his classmates, almost the entire subsequent thread was about football.
I really liked it and I recommend it.
I went to church on Sunday, sang some favorite hymns, heard a good sermon on Joshua 13:8-14; 22:1-6,10-34, and saw the assistant Pastor’s new baby, Asa, who is two weeks old. The Kindergartners also received their Bibles–always a highlight. I went to the bud’s last lacrosse game of the season. It was very hot!
Yes, it’s all-of-a-sudden summer in my neck of the woods!
And I guess you have to be pretty old to get this one:
dual personalities 