dual personalities

Month: January, 2012

January 7, 2012

Westward leading, still proceeding

by chuckofish

Thursday night I went to the Feast of the Epiphany of Our Lord Jesus Christ Evensong at Grace Church. It was a lovely respite during a busy and stressful week. The church was still decorated with white poinsettias and trees with white twinkly lights. The three wise men had joined the rest of the creche figurines before the altar. And we got to sing “We Three Kings”–always a favorite. I remember learning it for my first Christmas Pageant, which was held actually at my school (back in the good old days). The Junior Kindergartners made up the “choir”. We wore freshly-ironed white cottas with big red bows and carried these neat flash-light candles. We sang in the near-dark. It was very mysterious and cool. And “We Three Kings” was a very mysterious and cool hymn. All that traversing afar, over field and fountain, moor and mountain, following yonder star. Not to mention that dramatic ohhhhh-ohhhh-ing into the refrain! Then there is that fourth verse:

Myrrh is mine; its bitter perfume
breathes a life of gathering gloom;
sorrowing, sighing,
bleeding, dying,
sealed in the stone-cold tomb.

Awesomely descriptive and creepy. I can honestly say that was the best pageant I was ever in. The next year, as a Senior Kindergartner, I was given a part (with a solo) so it was much more stressful. I was Joseph. (Yes, I went to an all-girls’ school.) My best friend, Trudy Glick, played the Innkeeper, and we could barely contain our hilarity during our important conversational exchange concerning the lack of room at the inn. Oh well. At least I didn’t faint, like my good friend Harriet who played an angel. And I made it (tremulously I’m sure) through my solo.

Good times. Were you ever in a Christmas pageant?

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January 6, 2012

We’re gonna howl at the moon

by chuckofish

I have a 20-minute drive to work (17 when I hit the lights right) and so I listen to a lot of music while I drive. I listen to everything from Gilbert & Sullivan and classical music to soundtracks and country, with the occasional Eminem thrown in for good measure. Today I happened to be listening to an old favorite from country’s glory days in the 1990s, Hal Ketchum.

The boy had borrowed this CD (and scratched it up some) recently and had returned it, not to its jewel case, but to my car for some reason, and so I was listening to it. It is so good! He has a great country vibrato that I am always partial to.

With 15 top 10 singles to his credit, Hal is not a super-star by any means. He is no Garth Brooks or Alan Jackson, no Kenny Chesney. But he has been a member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1994 and, according to his website, he often hosts the “Opry Live” show on GAC. He’s had a good career and is still, despite health problems, making music. And that’s the thing, right? Here is a little Hal to brighten your day. (And you’ve got to love those woolly caterpillars over his eyes!)

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January 5, 2012

Small but mighty

by chuckofish

Daughter #1 has moved to New York City…and not under the best of circumstances. Her purse was stolen the night before she was scheduled to take a train from Washington D.C. to NYC on New Year’s Day(!), and with it her credit cards, driver’s license, money, and her phone. But per usual she soldiered on and got to NYC and into her apartment and managed to start her new job the next day. Phew. I couldn’t be prouder of her. But, then, that’s always been the case. She never allowed circumstances to get the better of her–

Though she be but little, she is fierce! (Thank you, Will Shakespeare.)

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January 4, 2012

Guess what’s out on DVD?!

by chuckofish

Season 2 of the best show on TV, Justified, is now available on DVD.

the incomparable Timothy Olyphant

I love this show. The writing and characters are wonderful! Here’s a favorite “prayer” from the first season:

Dear Lord, before we eat this meal we ask forgiveness for our sins, especially Boyd- who blew up a black church with a rocket launcher, and afterwards he shot his associate Jared Hale in the back of the head out on Tate’s Creek bridge. Let the image of Jared’s brain matter on that windshield not dampen our appetites, but may the knowledge of Boyd’s past sins help guide these men. May this food provide them with all the nourishment they need. But, if it does not, may they find comfort in knowing that the United States Marshal Service is offering fifty-thousand dollars to any individual providing information that will put Boyd back in prison. Cash or check, we can make it out to them. Or to Jesus. Whoever they want. In your name, we pray. Amen.

Justified reminds us of how good TV can be. Why aren’t all shows this good?

Season 3 premiers January 17th. Don’t miss it!

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January 4, 2012

Back at work

by chuckofish

…with a new Snow & Graham calendar, thanks to daughter # 1.

Well, the Christmas Holidays can be very hectic indeed. First we put up all the decorations and then we take them down. We spend months picking out gifts, wrap them and then tear them open. We clean up. We go to the grocery store (a lot). The family gathers and then they disperse once again. Everyone is so busy! Daughter # 1 moved to NYC over the weekend. Daughter # 2 is in Chicago visiting a friend. And the boy moved into a grown-up apartment yesterday. Phew. It was almost a relief to go back to work for some quiet time!

And so, as I endeavor to regain my equilibrium, I offer this well-known quote from the wonderful Robert Louis Stevenson:

“The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life’s plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.”

I plan to do some major league cleaning and sorting and arranging in all my empty rooms. Life’s plain, common work is before me! (And that’s a good thing.)

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January 3, 2012

2012: Let’s think positive

by chuckofish

“Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering – and it’s all over much too soon.”
–Woody Allen

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January 2, 2012

A new year’s discipline

by chuckofish

Gratitude … goes beyond the “mine” and “thine” and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift. In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline. The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy.
-Henri J. M. Nouwen

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January 1, 2012

Feast of the Holy Name

by chuckofish

I was scheduled to be a lay reader this morning, so I had no choice but to go to church, having stayed up until midnight watching 6 seasons-worth of Buffy the Vampire Slayer season finales with daughter #2. This was clearly an awesome and rewarding undertaking, but still entailed staying up way past my bedtime.

The congregation was (not surprisingly) very small this morning. Those who came were treated to a collect that is used only when Sunday falls on January 1 (about once a decade) and the first lesson which is a wonderful New Year prayer:

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the Israelites: You shall say to them, the LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. So they shall put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.

Numbers 6:22-27

Happy New Year!

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