dual personalities

Our Labor Day weekend has been very rainy and gloomy. C’est la vie. We still had fun. Daughter #1 came in to town to have lunch with an old friend on Friday and then we visited several antique malls.

This is our idea of a good time. It was a lot of junk, but daughter #1 found a few things accidentally.

We watched The Wizard of Oz (1939) on Saturday night and were once again reminded what a wonderful movie it is. And let’s remember, it’s 83 years old! Almost an antique! It is one of my top five favorite/best movies ever. It is perfect. The technicolor! The details! The acting! Judy Garland! The Munchkins! Toto! No CG!

Good lord, I hope they don’t go through with plans for a “a modern reimagining of the iconic musical.” This would be a huge mistake. It is always a disaster to “re-imagine” something that is perfect. Just no.

But, yes, it is wonderful. Watching it on our big tv, I noticed several things for the first time. For instance, did you ever notice that in the scene where Dorothy and her three compadres enter the scary forest in search of the witch, the Scarecrow is carrying a handgun? He is. Anyway, it is worth watching again for the 100th time.

The boy and his family came over after church on Sunday to celebrate Labor Day with a barbecue. It was raining, but we had fun anyway.

Everyone enjoyed the burgers and hotdogs and a Tippins creme pie for dessert. It’s the little things, right?

Well, enjoy your day off if you have one today. Watch an old movie. Read a poem about work:

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,

Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,

The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,

The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,

The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck,

The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,

The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown,

The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing,

Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,

The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,

Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

–Walt Whitman, “I Hear America Singing”

And this is a good illustration. “If a non-christian wants to know why we believe that the Bible is God’s word, there’s a lot of things that we could talk about.”

*Baptist minister Robert Robinson (1735–1790) wrote “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” at age 22, not long after his conversion, which was influenced in part by the preaching of evangelist George Whitefield. The meaning of Ebenezer originates more than a thousand years before Christ, during the ministry of the prophet Samuel, who played a pivotal role at a key juncture in the history of God’s people. Read all about it here.