June | 2017 | dual personalities

June 5, 2017

And then we were all in one place

by chuckofish

Didn’t do much this weekend. Stopped by a couple of estate sales, went deeper into the Longmire oeuvre, read the first lesson in the Pentecost service on Sunday (“The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come.”), and went to Washington, MO with the OM to eat some lunch by the mighty Missouri River.

I also watched the movie Hacksaw Ridge (2016), directed by Mel Gibson, which tells the true story of Desmond Doss, the first conscientious objector to win the Congressional Medal of Honor.

(“Doss single-handedly entered enemy line of fire to retrieve approximately 75 casualties, carrying them one-by-one down a 400-foot escarpment. “*)

Doss, a Seventh Day Adventist, who refused to carry a gun on religious grounds, although he served in a fighting unit as a medic, was ostracized at first by fellow soldiers for his pacifist stance. However, he went on to earn their respect and adoration for his bravery, selflessness and compassion after he risked his life — without firing a shot — to save 75 wounded men in the Battle of Okinawa. It is a pretty inspiring story and well told, and a throwback to heroic war stories of the Golden Age of Hollywood. The cast is good with Andrew Garfield excellent as Doss, playing it very straight, and the likable Vince Vaughan channeling John Wayne in the Sgt. Stryker role.

But (and this is a big but) the computer-generated violence is over-the-top. Just because you can now show people having their legs blown off, doesn’t mean you should. The battle sequences are too much and obscene in their detail. It would have been possible to cut 20 minutes out of this movie and still gotten across the horror of the battle (and it was truly horrible, no doubt about it). Whatever happened to restraint and suggestion?

Mel Gibson, as we know, is a single-minded Roman Catholic, who, as we have seen in past movie outings, tends to wallow, literally and figuratively, in the blood of Christ. What was his childhood trauma anyway?

Well, it is a good movie nonetheless and well worth watching for the story of the modern Christian hero Desmond Doss. Nowhere in this movie is anyone invited to laugh at or even smirk at Pvt. Doss and I liked that.

And now it is Monday. I have several hard things to do this week, but none of them is climbing Hacksaw Ridge. Onward and upward.

*Read more here.

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June 3, 2017

Seventy-six trombones led the big parade*

by chuckofish

Except here, a tractor or county emergency vehicle usually leads the way. But I get ahead of myself. Today is the Dairy Princess parade and festival in my North Country town. Downtown the Green is buzzing with activity. There’s a bouncy castle, a petting zoo, a cake walk, chicken barbecue and loads of vendors selling unnecessary plastic items or colorful tutus. My church is selling bottled water and salt potatoes (whatever they are).

The parade starts at 1:00. In a good year, bagpipers lead the way and there are floats, but lately it has been mostly emergency vehicles, farm machinery belching exhaust, and random people throwing penny candy at the crowd. C’est la vie.

I plan to go anyway. Who’d want to miss this guy?

While I’m off bonding with my community, the DH and son #1, who is home for his 5th college reunion, will be on campus enjoying various alumni weekend activities. The alumni keep away from the village hoi polloi and have their own parade.

When I’ve become exhausted by my dizzying small town social life, I’ll take up my needle and do more embroidery. See how I’ve progressed? I’ve done the outline, except for the flowers and leaves which I’m adding now. The little leaves are kind of blobby, but I’m still mastering my stitches.

My progress has been made possible by the brilliant gift of a needle-threader from my very sweet niece, Mary. Thank you!

What will they think of next?

Have a wonderful weekend!

*”The Music Man”. Dairy Princess photos from the blog, “Windswept Adventure,” and NCPR (north country public radio) via Google. SLU photo from http://www.stlawu.edu.

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June 2, 2017

A landslide in the mind

by chuckofish

“Perhaps there can be too much making of cups of tea, I thought, as I watched Miss Statham filling the heavy teapot. Did we really need a cup of tea? I even said as much to Miss Statham and she looked at me with a hurt, almost angry look, ‘Do we need tea? she echoed. ‘But Miss Lathbury…’ She sounded puzzled and distressed and I began to realise that my question had struck at something deep and fundamental. It was the kind of question that starts a landslide in the mind. I mumbled something about making a joke and that of course one needed tea always, at every hour of the day or night.”

–Barbara Pym, Excellent Women

Happy birthday to Barbara Pym, the English novelist, born in 1913. I am re-reading A Glass of Blessings and enjoying it very much. Just the thing to calm the mind after a short but stressful week at work. (At least until the next Walt Longmire mystery arrives in the mail.) I recommend her to you.

And this is funny.

Have a good weekend.

What have you got planned? Sunday is The Day of Pentecost:

Almighty God, on this day you opened the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of your Holy Spirit: Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by the preaching of the Gospel, that it may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

(The first painting is The Red Table (1919) by Leon de Smet (1881-1966); the second is by Mary Cassatt, Lady at the Tea Table (1883-85).)

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June 1, 2017

Time flies

by chuckofish

Can you believe it is JUNE already?!

Daffodils Contre Jour, Bruce Yardley (b. 1962)

She wore her yellow sun-bonnet,
She wore her greenest gown;
She turned to the south wind
And curtsied up and down.
She turned to the sunlight
And shook her yellow head,
And whispered to her neighbor:
“Winter is dead.”

–A.A. Milne

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