“Keep a clear eye towards life’s end. Do not forget your purpose and destiny as God’s creature. What you are in His sight is what you are and nothing more. Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take nothing you have received–but only what you have given; a full heart enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice and courage.”
–St. Francis
Christ with Heavenly Angels, Tiffany window, 2nd Presbyterian Church, Chicago, IL
Jesus’ life was a life of obedience. He was always listening to the Father, always attentive to his voice, always alert for his directions. Jesus was “all ear.” That is true prayer: being all ear for God. The core of all prayer is indeed listening, obediently standing in the presence of God.
–Henri Nouwen
An internationally renowned priest and author, respected professor and beloved pastor Henri Nouwen (1932-1996) wrote over 40 books on the spiritual life. I was always impressed that Nouwen, having taught at both Harvard and Yale divinity schools and reaching an international audience with his books, moved to Canada and spent ten years as pastor at the L’Arche community in Richmond Hill, Ontario, living with people with “intellectual disabilities”. He was a truly humble person.
I highly recommend him to you.
So did anyone watch The Horse Soldiers over the weekend? I did and it was as excellent as I remembered.
I also watched a bad Woody Allen movie and caught up with Longmire, finishing season two. Longmire is the A&E show that takes place in Wyoming (but is mostly filmed in New Mexico) about a 21st century sheriff (named Walt Longmire) in a small town and his deputies and Native American friends and enemies. It is pretty good and I like everyone in it. Season three has just started.
Some of you will remember Bailey Chase (far right) from Buffy, season four. How could you forget him?
On Saturday I went to the annual book sale at the Ethical Society, which I have blogged about before. It is such a good sale! I bought two bags of books! What is wrong with me? One of the volunteers brought me a cart from the kitchen to pull around with me, so I wouldn’t have to carry them around. This was nice, but I could tell he wanted to engage me in a conversation, and I wanted none of that. It is bad enough having to overhear/listen to those Prius-driving ethical humanists while they engage in conversation with themselves. Oy.
Just a sample of my $23 purchase–but you can never have too many copies of Leaves of Grass, right?
I also went to a used bookstore where I cashed in a gift certificate a friend gave me for my birthday. I had never been to this store and I have to admit that it always looked vaguely sinister to me from the outside–but I was wrong. They had a lot of good books for sale besides science fiction. And the proprietor did not look (too much) like this guy:
I will definitely go back! You really can’t judge a book (store) by its cover! Haha.
On Sunday I was back at church for Trinity Sunday. The Old Testament lesson was the creation story from the Book of Genesis–the whole story–Genesis 1:1-2:4–which is a long reading, but, boy, is it good. Luckily it was Shirley from the Lay Reader A-Team who read it. High fives all around. If you were not in church on Sunday, I suggest you go read it on your own. Brilliant.
Hope you fathers had a nice day. The OM took several naps.
In honor of Father’s Day, here is a picture from an article in the old Globe Democrat circa 1965 of our pater doing what he loved best–playing war games in our dining room back in the day.
and surveying his vast collection of painted soldiers.
Good times. You can see that the collecting gene prevails in the family. Have a good week!
This post will be an odd departure for all you Cardinals fans out there, but let’s talk the World Cup. In this family every four years normal work and life comes to a shuddering halt so that we can watch soccer. This is not to say that we actually follow the sport any other time because we don’t. It’s hard to explain. Suffice it to say that devotedly watching the World Cup has turned into a family tradition — and you know how big I am on those.
And let me be honest. While even I can recognize and appreciate a great goal,
this was unbelievable, but all the video has been removed from Youtube
I mostly watch to vilify the teams I don’t like and mock them for their histrionic rolling around on the ground in order to get a free kick. And oh my, the Netherland’s thrashing of Spain (5-1) yesterday was eminently satisfying, although I did feel sorry for the good-looking Spanish goalie.
his Friday the 13th was really bad!
We dutifully root for the U.S. and English teams even though we know they won’t win. England always seems to lose on penalty kicks — sigh. Then we choose our favorite team among the real contenders — whoever takes our fancy and seems to play the most sporting and skillful game — and go from there.
I should also add that I tend to comment on which players are good looking, which have the oddest tattoos and hair, and which are just plain ugly (having another female around to help with this commentary would be fun), but we all love to notice their names. Take the German Per Mertsacker, affectionately known as Meetsacker, or Bastian Schweinsteiger — does that mean pigsticker? It’s certainly quite a mouthful for the Spanish commentators (btw. one should always watch on Univision — the Spanish commentary is wonderful even to those of us who don’t know Spanish — and they show all the games commercial free). So you see, the possibilities are endless because “The thing about football – the important thing about football – is that it is not just about football.” (Terry Pratchett).
Give it a try — the England vs. Portugal game is on tonight at 6 eastern time. Poor England is expected to lose (“sniff”), but you never know…
*Albert Camus
We have enjoyed a really nice June in our flyover state–relatively cool and lots of rain. This is certainly not always the case! So it is good to take a moment and think about how nice it is.
The grass looks great and has not started to burn up yet.
The flowers are happy.
And the tiger lilies are starting to pop!
We can enjoy open toe espadrilles
and more hours of daylight. Lately it has been cool enough to actually work in the yard after dinner.
And here’s a fun fact: The Horse Soldiers (1959) was released to movie theaters 55 years ago yesterday.
This is one of my favorite John Ford movies. It’s the one where a Union Cavalry outfit sets out from northern Mississippi and rides several hundred miles behind confederate lines in April 1863 to destroy a rail/supply center. Based on a true story, the raid was as successful as it was daring, and remarkably bloodless. The Horse Soldiers was filmed on location in Natchitoches Parish Louisiana along the banks of Cane River Lake and in and around Natchez, Mississippi. The locations give it a real sense of place and authenticity that Civil War movies don’t always have. The plantation house, for instance, where Towers’ character lives, is a real antebellum house and not Tara.
William Holden plays a doctor who immediately comes into conflict with the commander of the mission (John Wayne). The officers are overheard discussing their secret plan by a clever southern belle (Constance Towers) who must then be taken along to assure her silence. Holden is a great foil for Wayne, who, in my opinion, gives one of his best performances. He has a couple of really memorable scenes, such as the one where he explains to Hannah Hunter why he hates doctors. Nobody could break whiskey glasses like John Wayne.
It should also be noted that the Duke is very sexy in this movie and the sophisticated William Holden never has a chance with the leading lady.
The main female character is also a refreshingly good one. She has some depth–she is smart and spunky and well-played by Towers.
The Horse Soldiers also includes a large number of great Ford character actors–from Anna Lee to Hoot Gibson, Strother Martin, Denver Pyle, Ken Curtis, Hank Worden, and even the always bizarre O.Z. Whitehead–all playing clearly defined people.
These characters are but one aspect that sets apart Ford’s films from the vast majority of run-of-the-mill movies made over the years. But this aspect is huge. All the minor characters have a line or two and all are memorable.
You remember them all: the officers, including Major Gray, an actor quoting Tennyson (“Blow, bugle, blow”) and Colonel Secord, almost a senator (“This would look great on my record”), as well as the enlisted men (“You told us it was all right as long as we could see the top of her head.”), the deserters (“We’re confederate, but we ain’t hostile–honest”) to Lukey, Hannah’s devoted slave (“Contraband? That’s me, ain’t it?”). The Horse Soldiers also includes the leg-amputating scene with Bing Russell (Kurt’s father) which traumatized me as a child.
Anyway, The Horse Soldiers is my Friday movie pick. Sure, it’s another reminder that they don’t make ’em like this anymore, but c’est la vie.
Here’s some good news: Rock Hudson is the Star of the Month on TCM in June!
Every Thursday TCM will show a fabulous line-up of Rock’s greatest films. Most of them are eminently watchable. Here are the movies that will be shown this month.
Our mother was a fan of Rock Hudson and so I grew up watching his movies on television. My all-time favorite, of course, is Pillow Talk (1959), his first pairing with Doris Day.
It airs Thursday, June 19 at 8:00 (EST) p.m. Doris Day was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar and Thelma Ritter, who plays her hard-drinking housekeeper, was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. As I have said before, both ladies were robbed. Rock may have lost the title role in Ben-Hur that year, but he was a huge hit in this best of all rom-coms. His career got a big boost and took a new and very popular direction.
Send Me No Flowers (1964) will also be shown that night. It is also wonderful and, like Pillow Talk, stars Tony Randall as well as Doris.
I am not such a big fan of Rock’s overblown 1950’s soap operas, such as Magnificent Obsession, All That Heaven Allows and Giant–which are all on tonight–but he is stalwart and handsome in all of them. And they are certainly better than most offerings on summer television!
So mark your calendar and/or set your DVRs for Rock Hudson.
*Brad Allen in Pillow Talk (1959)
Happy birthday, Jerome Silberman! Alias Gene Wilder (born June 11, 1933). Okay, I admit, I love Gene Wilder.
Maybe it is because he chose his stage name because he liked the character Eugene Gant in Look Homeward, Angel and he was always a great admirer of Thornton Wilder. Those are good reasons.
Maybe it is because he does such a great imitation of Kirk Douglas as Jim, the Waco Kid, in Blazing Saddles (1972), which is a movie I do not love. But Gene is perfect.
Anyway, I like him. Despite the fact that so many of his movies are take-offs and parodies, which is not a genre I love, I like him.
Oy. Will you toast Gene with me tonight? Happy 81st birthday, Jerome!
*Leo Bloom in The Producers
I gazed upon the glorious sky
And the green mountains round,
And thought that when I came to lie
At rest within the ground,
‘Twere pleasant, that in flowery June
When brooks send up a cheerful tune,
And groves a joyous sound,
The sexton’s hand, my grave to make,
The rich, green mountain-turf should break.
–William Cullen Bryant
Interesting side note to my art and poetry choice today: Asher B. Durand finished “Kindred Spirits” (above) in March 1849. It was a memorial to his friend and mentor Thomas Cole, who stands in the landscape with writer and poet William Cullen Bryant. The painting was commissioned by art patron John Sturges following the death of Cole at age 47. He gave the painting to Bryant, a close friend and “kindred spirit” of Cole and Durand. The painting remained in Bryant’s family until 1904 when it was donated to the New York Public Library.
“Kindred Spirits” was sold by the NYPL to Alice Walton at a private auction for a purported $35 million dollars in 2005. She bought the painting to be the centerpiece of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. Some New Yorkers resented this greatly and the New York newspapers were outraged by the sale, one critic writing that its sale meant “not just the removal of a beloved painting from a beloved setting, but also a diminishment of New York City itself.”
Well, I can see how they felt and I’m pretty sure that the heirs of William Cullen Bryant would be disappointed that the NYPL sold their gift–although the price it got would blow their minds–but it’s one more reason for me to head south to Crystal Bridges. I have been meaning to do this for quite some time.
Anyone want to go with?
[At Pentecost Peter] intendeth to prove…that the Church can be repaired by no other means, saving only by the giving of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, forasmuch as they did all hope that the restoring drew near, he accuseth them of sluggishness, because they do not once think upon the way and means thereof. And when the prophet saith, “I will pour out,” it is, without all question, that he meant by this word to note the great abundance of the Spirit….when God will briefly promise salvation to his people, he affirmeth that he will give them his Spirit. Hereupon it followeth that we can obtain no good things until we have the Spirit given us.
–John Calvin, Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles
Sunday was Pentecost, but I stayed home and got busy cleaning. It is how I deal with the feeling that comes over me when one of my children leaves again.
Daughter #2 left for Chicago on Saturday and is there now. Then in a few days she will head back to Maryland for the summer. She has a long drive ahead but she is in good company, so it will be fun.
Aforementioned Good Company
Meanwhile I keep busy dusting, vacuuming etc. It works for me. Onward and upward.
I also worked in the yard.
FYI: the pumpkin plants appear to be thriving, although only time will tell.
Also I have lots of good books to read
and good movies to watch, such as this one, which I watched Sunday night.
This guy always cheers me up.
And now I am back at work with lots of catching up to do! Have a good week!
For a brief period every spring/early summer our family DOES CHORES in a hopeless attempt to keep up with our neighbors, all of whom have houses that could headline a feature article on ‘small town perfection.’ Yesterday one of our neighbors arrived home with an air compressor-driven power washer that weighs a ton (my boys had to get it out of the car for them) and makes a lot of noise, but also transforms a dirty clapboard house into a blazing beacon of whiteness. Well, hey, thought I. If it works for them, it might work for us. I assigned the job to #3 son because he wants to earn money and I figured he’d enjoy getting wet and using what amounts to a junior fire hose. Alas, the boy managed to sleep through most of the fun, but I think his dad rather enjoyed the experience.
my very own Tim Allen
Aside from egging the boys on I’ve been achieving domestic bliss inside. My new table arrived earlier this week (look for pictures of it in situ in a future post). It’s a 19th century mahogany ‘work table’ from the Canadian Maritimes (I’m thinking Scottish).
Here it is in antique store
We have an older, somewhat similar table from my family. Twenty years ago it looked like this
You get the idea
We’ve tried to protect it, but those handy drawers invite constant use and it has taken its toll. I decided that it needed to move to ‘my end’ of the sofa where it would be subject only to my delicate, feminine touch (stop laughing). But I couldn’t just switch tables because I needed something with drawers for all my DH’s stuff and our other end table is a round, tilt top. Thus I found a perfect excuse to buy a new antique!
Having done that, I decided to revive the ones I already care-take, so I bought some wonderful new furniture polish that I highly recommend:
The key is to put it on sparingly and then LEAVE IT for at least one hour before buffing. Today I tackled my 18th century Windsor Chair, my glass-door bookcase and my Gothic clock. See how much shinier they look!
Truly, it works. All you need is some elbow grease.
Stay tuned for my next project — repainting the upstairs bathroom…
What household improvements do you plan for this summer?
dual personalities 