dual personalities

Month: April, 2013

April 18, 2013

Prayer 101: Stand by me

by chuckofish

luther diet of worms

As the trial of Martin Luther began its second day during the assembly of the Diet of Worms in 1521, he refused to recant his teachings despite the threat of excommunication. On April 18 he stood alone against the mighty Catholic Church and prayed one of the all-time great prayers:

Almighty and eternal God, what a strange cause this is! How it loosens people’s tongues! How small and insignificant is their trust in you! How weak and tender is the flesh, and how powerful and busy is the devil, with the help of his apostles and the worldly wise!! How quickly the world withdraws help, does an about-face, pursues the easy way, and speeds on the broad road to hell where the godless belong. It sees only the brilliant and powerful, great, mighty, and respected! If I should turn my eyes to it, I would be done for.

Oh God, Oh God, Oh my God, stand by me against all the wisdom and reason of the world. Do it. You alone must do it. It is not really my concern, it is yours. Alone I have nothing to do with these great lords of the world. I want good and quiet days, undisturbed. But it is your cause: it is righteous and eternal. Stand by me. Oh true and eternal God, I do not rely on human counsel, for it would be in vain. All that is carnal and tastes carnal fails.

O God, O God, do you not hear me, my God? Are you dead? No, you cannot die; you are only hiding. Have you called me to this place? I ask you so that I am sure. God, grant it! Never in my life had I thought to oppose such great rulers and never had I set out to do it.

O God, stand by me in the name of your dear Son Jesus Christ who shall be my Protector and Defender, even my mighty Fortress, through the power and help of your Holy Spirit.

Lord, where are you? Come, come, I am ready like a patient lamb to lay down my life for this cause. It is your cause and it is righteous. I will not separate myself from you forever. Be it resolved in your name that the world cannot force me to act against my conscience, even if I had still more devils, and if my body which is first of all your creation should have to perish. So your Word and Spirit come to my rescue even if only for the body. And my soul is yours. It belongs to you, and it remains with you forever. Amen. So help me. Amen.

Priceless. How then shall we pray? The direct approach, as always, is best. So help me. Amen.

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April 17, 2013

Happy birthday, Karen Blixen

by chuckofish

Karen Blixen (17 April 1885 – 7 September 1962), née Karen Christenze Dinesen, was a Danish author also known by her pen name Isak Dinesen.

Karen Blixen

Blixen is best known for Out of Africa, her account of living in Kenya, and one of her stories, Babette’s Feast, both of which have been adapted into highly-acclaimed, Academy Award-winning films. Prior to the release of the first film, she was noted for her Seven Gothic Tales, published in 1934. Unable to find an interested publisher in England or Denmark, she was first published by Random House in the United States.

“Man, my friends,is frail and foolish. We have all of us been told that grace is to be found in the universe. But in our human foolishness and short-sightedness we imagine divine grace to be finite. For this reason we tremble. We tremble before making our choice in life, and after having made it again tremble in fear of having chosen wrong. But the moment comes when our eyes are opened, and we see and realize that grace is infinite. Grace, my friends, demands nothing from us but that we shall await it with confidence and acknowledge it in gratitude. Grace, brothers, makes no conditions and singles out none of us in particular; grace takes us all to its bosom and proclaims general amnesty. See! that which we have chosen is given us, and that which we have refused is, also and at the same time, granted us. Ay, that which we have rejected is poured upon us abundantly. For mercy and truth have met together, and righteousness and bliss have kissed one another!”

— Isak Dinesen (Babette’s Feast)

A few years ago I read a lot of Isak Dinesen and she really is a great writer. Although Danish, she wrote in English–a fact that I find amazing. You can read more about her here. I highly recommend Judith Thurman’s 1983 biography of her, Isak Dinesen, as well.

This would also be an appropriate day to watch either of the above-mentioned movies. Alas, I think I only have the VHS version of Out of Africa! Oh well, maybe I will re-visit her Gothic Tales instead.

4 Comments
April 16, 2013

This is true

by chuckofish

katie

“Sooner or later we all discover that the important moments in life are not the advertised ones, not the birthdays, the graduations, the weddings, not the great goals achieved. The real milestones are less prepossessing. They come to the door of memory unannounced, stray dogs that amble in, sniff around a bit and simply never leave. Our lives are measured by these.”

–Susan B. Anthony

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April 15, 2013

Hello, ship

by chuckofish

Okay, name that first line!

first lines

It is, of course, the great first line of The Sand Pebbles by Richard McKenna, published in 1962. I was reminded of this when I found the book at an estate sale on Saturday and bought it.

sandpebbles

I plan to read the book soon, but I had hoped to watch the movie. I thought we owned the DVD, but I was wrong. We only have the 2-video VHS set! The story of my life. So no Steve McQueen this weekend.

HF7Y3114_The_Sand_Pebbles_SD

This is a great movie, you will recall, and it was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor. It won NONE. They were robbed! This was the year (1966) that A Man for All Seasons took home the big awards–you know, that movie about Thomas More. Bah. Give me Steve McQueen any day.

So anyway, I will have to Netflix the movie and watch it later. Meanwhile, despite this disappointment, I had a good weekend. I had lunch with the boy on Saturday after going to an estate sale together. I worked in the yard and started my DIY project in the bathroom. I went to Church!

I celebrated daughter #2’s birthday with her father by making a trip down to:

ted drewes

A real treat.

And the Florida room is officially open!

floridaroom

Have a great week! It is supposed to rain here all week, but that’s okay. You know what they say about April showers.

4 Comments
April 13, 2013

I cheated

by chuckofish

in 2nd grade on my outside reading sheets by listing books I hadn’t read and forging my mother’s initials. I distinctly remember thinking my forgery perfect, though I’m sure my teachers thought otherwise. I didn’t like reading. In fact, I hated it. That is, until I discovered this book by Agnes Sligh Turnbull:

George

It’s about a smart, eye-glass-wearing rabbit named George, who visits a nice family and improves the behavior and school performance of the two children, a boy and girl aged 6 and 8 respectively. The big sister stopped pulling her little brother’s hair and bossing him around and the little boy stopped fussing and insisting that he could do as he liked without regard for anyone else or his personal safety. I was enthralled and fervently wished a plucky rabbit would turn up and make my life perfect.

While that didn’t happen, I did learn that if reality didn’t involve fantastic talking rabbits, books might. The possibilities were limitless and I was hooked. So my heartfelt thanks to Agnes Sligh Turnbull for igniting a lifelong love of reading in this dual personality.

Turnbull-portrait

According to Wikipedia, Turnbull (1888-1982) was the daughter of Scottish immigrants, who lived most of her life in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and wrote best-selling novels and some juvenile fiction about decent (often Episcopalian) people struggling to make the right decisions and improve their lives. That was before being good became boring. Thanks to the internet, I was able to reunite with George and now I have my own copy of the book that inspired me (it’s pretty average, truth be told).

What sparked your love of books?

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April 12, 2013

Happy birthday, Susiebelle*!

by chuckofish

3kids

Sunday is daughter #2’s 23rd birthday. So today we wish her a Hipy Papy Bthuthdy!

“Can you read, Pooh?” Owl asked a little anxiously, and this is what he wrote:
HIPY PAPY BTHUTHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY.
Pooh looked on admiringly.
“I’m just saying `A Happy Birthday’,” said Owl carelessly.
“It’s a nice long one,” said Pooh, very much impressed.
“Well, actually, of course, I’m saying `A Very Happy Birthday with Love from Pooh’. Naturally it takes a good deal of pencil to say a long thing like that.”

(In Which Eeyore has a Birthday and Gets Two Presents)

I’m just saying.

MissSue

This is my favorite picture of daughter #2 from back in the days when her role model was Stephanie Judith Tanner and she was writing a novel called “A Man from Melville”. Probably because she had two active and outspoken older siblings and had endured years of endless teasing, the Belle was always good at entertaining herself. She was so adept at shrugging it all off and going to her room where she could spend hours working on craft projects and reading Christian romance novels. She’s come a long way since then, but thankfully she is still the same old girl with the sunny, forgiving, glass-is-half-full personality.

I have mentioned before that, although as parents we look back nostalgically at our children’s childhoods and we miss “those days” (and our youth), it is truly wonderful when they turn out to be great adults. We appreciate and love them on a whole new level. And it is true that people who have a sunny, forgiving and generally positive attitude toward life are frequently not appreciated for their depth. In daughter #2’s case, this is a big mistake.

Who else but the Belle could have persuaded me to read Moby-Dick?

“Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure. Consider also the devilish brilliance and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes, as the dainty embellished shape of many species of sharks. Consider, once more, the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began.

Consider all this; and then turn to the green, gentle, and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself? For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half-known life. God keep thee! Push not off from that isle, thou canst never return!”

― Herman Melville, Moby Dick

Happy birthday and God keep thee!

*A birthday shout out to our girl Sarah Michelle Gellar as well!

Buffy-Sarah-Michelle-Gellar

Sarah was born on April 14, 1977. As our loyal readers know, her alter-ego, Buffy Summers, shares a birthday with our mother. We consider her kin.

7 Comments
April 11, 2013

It’s official

by chuckofish

AP Photo

AP Photo

Spring is here. Last night we had our first severe weather of the season in our flyover state. “I heard this big ol’ boom,” said one victim telling her story to the ubiquitous reporters who swarmed the area after the debris settled. The weather teams were on high alert last night and much of the primetime TV schedule was pre-empted.

Unfortunately I had to go to the airport to pick up my husband last night who was returning from a conference in California. We made it home before it got bad. We literally pulled into the garage and went inside and it got dark and the rain came down. Phew. The worst of the storm went north of us.

I do love our mid-western weather, and, indeed, weather. But severe weather, not so much. No one was hurt last night and for that we are grateful.

4 Comments
April 10, 2013

To-whit! To-who!—a merry note

by chuckofish

“How wonderful yellow is. It stands for the sun.”
– Vincent Van Gogh

fors1

fors2

forsythia_sa_1_lg

pansies

“When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest. The only thing that could spoil a day was people and if you could keep from making engagements, each day had no limits. People were always the limiters of happiness except for the very few that were as good as spring itself.”
― Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast

6 Comments
April 9, 2013

April is…

by chuckofish

A new calendar page:

photo-4

crazy weather:

“The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day.
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You’re one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
a cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
And wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you’re two months back in the middle of March.”
– Robert Frost, Two Tramps in Mud Time, 1926

It was just days ago that these were under 12" of snow!

It was just days ago that these were under 12″ of snow!

spring cleaning and DIY projects:

DIY

flowers on my desk at work from spring gardens:

photo-5

birthdays:

bday party

New spring dresses:

sisters

April is Laurence Olivier month on TCM. His movies are featured every Wednesday this month.

laurence_olivier

Set your DVR tomorrow for Sleuth (1972), A Little Romance (1979) and Clash of the Titans (1981).

And, of course, April is this:

fredbird

Hope your April is off to a good start!

5 Comments
April 8, 2013

Note to self

by chuckofish

It is Monday morning. Need some morning inspiration? Here is Dame Kiri Te Kanawa singing Richard Strauss’ “Beim Schlafengehen” from “Vier Letzte Lieder”. It is one of those pieces that is impossible to hear without choking up (as I did this morning). But it is inspiring and beautiful. Listen to the whole thing.

Remember Linda Hunt as Billy Kwan in Peter Weir’s great movie The Year of Living Dangerously (1982)? Billy listens to this music obsessively during an important juncture of the story. I remember buying the Strauss LP after seeing the movie and listening to it over and over. Yes. Nerd. C’est la vie.

3 Comments