dual personalities

Month: July, 2023

July 17, 2023

Come weary saints

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? I redeemed a gift card from Mother’s Day and had an hour-long spa pedicure, which had me walking on air for quite some time. Wow.

We had a guest preacher in church and he preached on Daniel 6–the lion’s den! I love Daniel so I was pleased. We need reminders of heroes like Daniel to keep us on track. We also had interesting musical accompaniment to all our hymns–a harmonica. Not the usual for A Mighty Fortress is Our God, but not bad. The OM and I stayed for a luncheon with our “fold” after the service. They acknowledged his birthday (today) but refrained from singing Happy Birthday.

We celebrated the OM’s birthday later on Sunday when everyone came over for a barbecue and party. (Even Mr. Smith)

Good times…and presents!

We watched McClintock! (1963), one of my favorite movies extolling the Patriarchy. It is loosely based on The Taming of the Shrew. (And Maureen O’Hara is one helluva shrew.) It has a smart script which moves along at a brisk clip. I enjoyed it thoroughly. It has nothing good to say about bureaucrats, the government or college boys, but is very sympathetic to Native Americans and free enterprise.

Anyway, when you have had enough of our modern day BS, I recommend a good dose of John Wayne at his most John Wayne-ish. “I know, I know. I’m gonna use good judgement. I haven’t lost my temper in forty years, but pilgrim you caused a lot of trouble this morning might have got somebody killed. Somebody oughta belt you in the mouth but I won’t, I wont…the hell I won’t.“

In other news baby Ida got her first taste of solid food…

It was a big hit.

And ol’ Ricky Skaggs is nominated for several Dove Awards this year, including this song which is a favorite of mine…

…as well as this banger version of Go Tell It on the Mountain with Crowder (for a little Christmas in July):

Have a good week!

7 Comments
July 14, 2023

Happy Friday, once again.

by chuckofish

Hello, dear readers, and happy Friday, once again. I hope you all survived Prime Day and the subsequent onslaught of competitive sales.

It was a quiet week for me. Mr. Smith was released from his cone prison today. And has quite the mane of hair going on.

First order of business is a long bath. He really did all right and didn’t complain about the cone too much. He did get overly excited every time I’d reach for the painkillers though.

This is hilarious to me: Hollywood Actors Join Writers on Strike The Wall Street Journal says, “A prolonged strike involving writers and actors could mean that broadcast and cable networks won’t have fresh scripted TV episodes ready for the early fall, and that Hollywood’s pipeline of fresh shows and movies will thin.” OH DARN. The WGA has been on strike since May 2 and as someone who cut the cord years ago, I have not noticed. And lol that the last time both the WGA and SAG went on strike at the same time, Ronald Reagan was the president of the SAG!

I tell Mr. Smith all the time not to bite the hand that feeds him. He never learns. And apparently Hollywood doesn’t either.

3 Comments
July 13, 2023

“Keep your accounts on your thumb nail”*

by chuckofish

Yesterday was National Simplicity Day so here’s some Thoreau:

When it was proposed to me to go abroad, rub oft some rust, and better my condition in a worldly sense, I fear lest my life will lose some of its homeliness. If these fields and streams and woods, the phenomena of nature here, and the simple occupations of the inhabitants should cease to interest and inspire me, no culture or wealth would atone for the loss.—Henry David Thoreau, Journal, 11 March 1856

I concur. What do you think?

[The photo is Thoreau’s Cove in 1908. U.S. Library of Congress]

2 Comments
July 12, 2023

Out and about

by chuckofish

July is turning out to be a busier month than anticipated. We went to an actual 4th of July party last week and to a birthday party for an old friend.

Are people finally getting back in the swing of things post-COVID? I hope so. The OM is always reluctant to go anywhere, preferring to stay home, but then he has fun, even with a bunch of oldsters. I am the same way. (I keep forgetting that I am an old lady.) But it is good to get out and about.

The boy brought the wee twins over to frolic in the afternoon yesterday. The driveway had just been sealed, so we had to frolic inside, but that was fun too.

The twins were very excited that I gave them that old globe. They know an impressive array of countries and states (and state capitols).

I heard all about their trip. It sounded wonderful–they even had to get out of the water once when there was a shark sighting!

I had lunch with some old flyover institute friends and we talked treason…and

So we’ll live,
 And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
 At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
Talk of court news, and we’ll talk with them too—
 Who loses and who wins; who’s in, who’s out—
 And take upon ’s the mystery of things,
 As if we were God’s spies. And we’ll wear out,
 In a walled prison, packs and sects of great ones
That ebb and flow by th’ moon.

That’s as good a plan as any. Hang in there with me. Keep reading Shakespeare.

5 Comments
July 11, 2023

Leave it to God

by chuckofish

Today we remember Frederick Buechner (1926-2022), Presbyterian minister, writer and theologian. He died last year and I miss him. Presbyterians do not have feast days, but if they did, today would be his, as it is his birthday.

He made a big splash in literary circles when his first novel, A Long Day’s Dying, was published in 1950. But then he entered seminary and the shine wore off. He was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and for the National Book Award for Fiction, but he never won any big awards.

He said:

I wanted to learn about Christ – about the Old Testament, which had been his Bible, and the New Testament, which was the Bible about him; about the history of the church, which had been founded on the faith that through him God had not only revealed his innermost nature and his purpose for the world, but had released into the world a fierce power to draw people into that nature and adapt them to that purpose… No intellectual pursuit had ever aroused in me such intense curiosity, and much more than my intellect was involved, much more than my curiosity aroused. In the unfamiliar setting of a Presbyterian church, of all places, I had been moved to astonished tears which came from so deep inside me that to this day I have never fathomed them, I wanted to learn more about the source of those tears and the object of that astonishment. (Now and Then)

To this day, I am still crying those same tears (and in a Presbyterian church!) that he described.

2 Comments
July 10, 2023

Claiming to be wise, they became fools*

by chuckofish

I did the flowers for church this weekend and they were a rather humble offering–Hydrangeas–not too inspiring.

C’est la vie. Meanwhile the summer is flying by.

And just when you think the Anglican Church cannot dig itself any deeper into its hole, another Archbishop says something really, really stupid. As usual, Ann comments better than I am able.

Funnily enough our sermon this Sunday was all about God as our Father, since we are still working our way through Hosea: When Israel was a child, I loved him (Hosea 11:1). As J.I. Packer wrote, “‘Father’ is the Christian word for God. Our understanding of Christianity cannot be better than our grasp of adoption.”

“Christians don’t always see how disbelief in one thing affects belief in another.” This article talks about the ripple effects of not believing in hell.

And thanks to Tim Challies for this great snippet from De Witt Talmage (1832-1902). “In many of the churches of Christ in our day, the music is simply a mockery.” As he says, “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.”

The boy and his petite famille made it back safely from South Carolina and we look forward to hearing all about it soon!

Have a good Monday!

*Romans 1:22-25

2 Comments
July 7, 2023

L’entente de la vie.

by chuckofish

A light update from me this week. At an estate sale last weekend, I got a copy of David McCullough’s The Greater Journey, all about 19th century Americans in Paris. This was a great get because a) it was a dollar and b) I didn’t know this book existed. I’ve been looking for another McCullough to read and this is right up my alley. Today’s blog title comes from a section of the book talking about how the 19th century Americans perceived the way the French enjoy the “harmony of life.”

I had an extra long weekend because of the holiday and because I had to use some comp days for working all of the previous weekend. My mom and I got some pictures and a mirror hung which had been on my to do list for two months. It is so much easier to do things with a little help! We are quite pleased with the results of our labor and our math skills.

On Friday, after happy hour (naturally), Mr. Smith and I decided to stay in Kirkwood for dinner and wait for a storm to pass. My mother and I decided to listen to some tunes which is an activity that tends to drive Mr. Smith into a rage. He just doesn’t seem to understand the sweet stylings of Chris Stapleton, yet. He took his aggression out on poor Larry the Cucumber.

I don’t think Larry will be the same. The next day, we had even more storms, which you know caused major damage in my neighborhood, but thankfully not on my block. Mr. Smith and I spent the next morning picking up sticks. Which quickly became chewing on sticks time for one of us.

Today, Mr. Smith had his surgery (it got delayed a week, don’t get me started) and now he’s home and feeling sad in a cone for the next seven days. But, he did get to watch a little Balthazar with me. He seemed fascinated by the french.

Also, I kind of hate myself, but I’ve been really enjoying the Luke Combs cover of “Fast Car”–I think it is the number one song in the country right now, so I’m not alone.

Well, that’s the harmony of life for me this week. Have a wonderful weekend!

3 Comments
July 6, 2023

What are you reading?

by chuckofish

Recently I was reading about Esther Forbes (June 28, 1891 – August 12, 1967), the American novelist and historian. She wrote a number of historical novels, but she is mostly remembered for writing the Newbery Medal winner Johnny Tremain, published in 1943. She also won the Pulitzer Prize for history in 1942 for Paul Revere and the World He Lived In.

My grandmother, Mira Sargent, was about the same age as Esther and they grew up in the same social circle in Worcester, Massachusetts. Both were descendants of old Colonial families with roots in the seventeenth century. Esther attended Bancroft and Mira went to Miss Hall’s School in Pittsfield. Their paths continued to cross throughout their lives–in New York City, Boston and back in Worcester. My father always said they were friends but who knows.

Anyway, I decided to read Paul Revere and the World He Lived In, although my expectations were low, having read other books by mid-century female authors of this ilk. How wrong I was! From the first paragraph I was engaged:

There had been week upon week of the cold grey fury of the North Atlantic, for it was mid-winter when the little refugee, Apollos Rivoire, made his crossing. At such a season only the hardiest of passengers ventured much above deck. Bunks were dank, bread wormy, beef tainted, and many of these small sailing ships never made port, but at least the Atlantic was crossed in great company. God brooded upon the face of these waters. His hand parted the mountainous waves. He upheld the ship. Even if one drowned, it was the Providence of God. Apollos did not drown. He entered Massachusetts Bay late in 1715 or early 1716.

Apollos Rivoire was the father of Paul Revere. He came to Massachusetts as a 13-year old Huguenot refugee, fleeing persecution in France. His family owned great vineyards, but they saw no future for him in France, so he was sent to America as an indentured servant who was apprenticed to learn the silversmith trade. I did not know that! As usual, there is a lot I do not know, but this book is filling in the blanks in a delightfully readable manner.

So read an old book; learn something new!

The painting at the top is by Albert Anker (1831-1910)

4 Comments
July 5, 2023

Old dead white men (and women)

by chuckofish

Here’s a reminder that knowing your past will guide your future.

“…[W]e are probably the first generation in human history that doesn’t really know the communities from which we come. I can’t name any of my eight great-grandparents. (Perhaps you can, but I would ask, respectfully, what do you know about them?) As Alasdair MacIntyre has famously argued, we speak of justice with verve and passion but are unlikely to know what justice really means or from whom we inherit the very concept. We’re so eager to throw off the shackles of our received traditions that we’ve wholeheartedly loosed our roots from the loyal land and bound ourselves instead to that great banality of modern self-actualization, “you do you.”

I do know the names of my eight great-grandparents, although I admit I don’t know much about my great-grandmother Isabel Stanley Sargent’s line. I only know she was from Maine and that she left her husband and two children and fled to Chicago. She was a shocking skeleton in the family closet, but undoubtedly there was a lot more to that story. I have a fair knowledge of the rest of my great-grandparents compared, I suppose, to my contemporaries.

Since I retired I have had it in the back of my mind to “organize” all the genealogy notes and notebooks I have stored in my office. I tell myself I should write some kind of narrative account of our family. I know from experience researching that there is very little written down out there in the way of personal history and a lot of it is full of mistakes anyway. Nevertheless, anything written down and preserved is good, if not always helpful. I think of my mother’s cousin Jane who wrote “a family history…at the request of her brother” for the “elucidation of our children and grandchildren.” A noble effort it was, which my mother and her sister Susanne tore apart and corrected and generally ridiculed. True, Jane made a few undeserved snarky comments about their mother, but beyond that and the multiple mistakes, it is still a valuable resource (with pictures).

So we shall see if I can get started. Starting is always the hard part.

Meanwhile my grandkids celebrated the 4th in patriotic red-white-and-blue style…

Cuties.

*The ODWM pictured is Joseph Warren Sargent, my great-great grandfather.

4 Comments
July 4, 2023

“Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!”*

by chuckofish

It’s our nation’s birthday. So celebrate appropriately. Drink a beer…

…watch a parade…

…or a baseball game…

…or a John Wayne movie…

…or some movie that demonstrates how, yes, Americans are exceptional…

…wear red, white and blue…

…get out into the Great Outdoors even if it is just sitting on your patio drinking that Yuengling! Smell the pine in your nostrils!

And, by God, be thankful you live in this country. (As the Madcaps say, “You could be living in Venezuela!”)

*Frances Scott Key

O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov’d home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto – “In God is our trust,”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

4 Comments