Well, we made it to Friday. It was a short week, made even shorter by taking Friday off. That’s right, the whole St. Louis fam crew is road tripping to Illinois to celebrate a certain four-year-old’s birthday. Thankfully, I wrapped the presents on Monday night and hopefully, I won’t forget to load them into the car.
This sweet, sleepy pup is headed to the kennel for two plus days of what I’m sure he considers more fun than home life. Ideally, he will come home very tired and want to cuddle with me while I have the Sunday Scaries.
We have had the most ideal weather this week–upper seventies, minimal humidity, sunshine. And the Southern Magnolias in my neighborhood are blooming. Our ear drums maybe bursting from the loud cicadas, but our walks have smelled delightful.
Well, I’ll leave with this short post. I’ve got to pack (oops) and this way, you can look forward to a fun update from my mother on Monday. Pray for our safe travels. xo.
Today marks the 113th anniversary of the first Indianapolis 500 race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Ray Harmon was the first winner of the 500-mile auto race in his Marmon Wasp.
I will toast Harmon and his Wasp with an orange soda and the wee bud, who, as you know, loves all things with four wheels and a motor.
It is also the birthday of film director Howard Hawks, born in 1898 in Goshen, Indiana. I appreciate him more and more as the years go by. As Orson Welles once said in an interview with Peter Bogdanovich, “Hawks is great prose; [John] Ford is poetry.” I think that is a good assessment. Anyway, I will watch one of his many great movies tonight. Maybe Air Force (1943) since I have been on a WWII kick since Memorial Day.
Meanwhile the new Longmire book arrived on Tuesday and I am happily catching up with Walt and Henry…
Katie and Ida are hanging out on the deck…
…and the bud is playing it cool on the driveway…
And Anne hits the nail on the head several times in this one.
Here’s to the last day of school! Hang in there! God is in control!
Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.
–I Corinthians 15:52-53
Yesterday I went to the funeral of a lady in my Bible Study class. She was quite a gal who had lived a long and meaningful life. She was a teacher, a missionary, a college professor, and an author. By all accounts she was ready to meet her maker. Anyway, it was the first funeral I had attended at my new church and I was not disappointed.
We sang four hymns enthusiastically, con brio.
Her three adult children read various things. One read the Heidelberg Catechism Q & A #1:
QUESTION:
What is your only comfort in life and death?
ANSWER:
That I am not my own, 1 but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, 2 to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. 3 He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, 4 and has set me free from all the power of the devil. 5 He also preserves me in such a way 6 that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; 7 indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. 8 Therefore, by his Holy Spirit he also assures me of eternal life 9 and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for him.
One read part of her mother’s testimony and one read from C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity. A soloist sang Handel’s I Know That My Redeemer Liveth. The Senior Pastor preached on Romans 8:18-25.
I might have added one or two more scripture readings, but I thought it was pretty close to perfect as is. No pomp, no circumstance. No smells and bells. Just the community faithful gathering at the proverbial river.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Yesterday, of course, was a beautiful sunny day with nary a cloud in the sky. We had no plans other than cleaning up from the day before. C’est la vie.
Yesterday was also the birthday of Walt Whitman, so I read some poetry.
I have been thinking about Gen. Douglas MacArthur and listened once again to his farewell speech to West Point, arguably one of the best speeches of the 20th Century.
In twenty campaigns, on a hundred battlefields, around a thousand campfires, I have witnessed that enduring fortitude, that patriotic self-abnegation, and that invincible determination which have carved his status in the hearts of his people. From one end of the world to the other he has drained deep the chalice of courage.
Let’s all take a few moments to think about that patriotic self-abnegation and the men (and women) who made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of their country.
(Here’s a photo of my grandfather on the right with his younger brother who was killed in the Argonne Forest in 1918.)
If you have half an hour, listen to the speech.
As I have said before, Memorial Day is not just an excuse to have a day off and barbecue with family and friends–although we did that yesterday.
There was no mention of Memorial Day at our church which I found interesting but not really surprising. It was just a regular service and two of the four hymns made me cry like a baby. I was a mess. C’est la vie. Our new young pastor finished the Letter to Titus in his sermon and he was on fire, which was pretty impressive considering it was Titus. But that goes to show that any scripture is worthy of our study and exegesis.
In the afternoon the boy and his family, daughter #1 and her friend Liz and her husband and kids gathered with us for family fun and frolic. We started off outside…
…but we had to move inside when it started to thunder and rain. Our twins showed their twins how to have fun at Mamu’s house…
The menfolk had to move the barbecue into the garage, and by the time we were almost ready to sit down to eat, the tornado sirens were blaring, the wind was blowing and the air had turned that green color we know so well. I went to check what was going on outside and Lottie was like, “Mamu, what are you DOING?!” (She was all for heading to the basement immediately.) I said, “Oh it’s nothing to worry about!” and daughter #3 agreed, “If it starts to hail, we’ll reconsider.”
In no time Lottie had the little ones set up with pillows under the dining room table…
As we sat down to eat (at the table), it started to hail. But the hail was only dime-sized, so we went on and ate our dinner.
All’s well that ends well. That’s life in flyover country.
This is a moving tribute about Sacred Duty: A Soldier’s Tour at Arlington National Cemetery. Lest we forget.
Meanwhile, tonight I’ll be watching They Were Expendable (1945) which has become my Memorial Day tradition.
This is just a great movie. Great action scenes and the romance between Donna Reed and John Wayne is one of the sweetest in cinema history. And General MacArthur makes an appearance.
“That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
–President Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, 1863
In case you need reminding, Sunday is John Wayne’s birthday. He would be 117. If you are in Fort Worth, be sure to sign up for…
I will be home streaming my own John Wayne film festival.
Nobody slams a door like John Wayne.
How will you be celebrating?
P.S. Saturday is the birthday of Ralph Waldo Emerson. I disagree with him about quite a few things, but I agree with this:
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.
Finish every day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in. Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.
This new day is too dear, with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.
–RWE, Collected Poems
Now there’s three aces!
*Bob Dylan
But I ain’t gonna go to hell for anybody I ain’t gonna go to hell for anybody I ain’t gonna go to hell for anybody Not today, not tonight, not tomorrow, no never, no way!
At my granddaughter’s pre-school, they worked on a questionnaire on the last day. In the section “When I grow up”, the 3-4 year olds were asked the question, “What will you do for fun?” Katie answered, “Tidy up.”
I laughed out loud. I’m sure her lovely mother (and probably the pre-school teachers) makes everything fun, à la Mary Poppins, even tidying up, but oh my goodness. She is a girl after my own heart.
I spent the morning tidying up. It is what I do. That and “desk work” as my Aunt Susanne used to say. I have never been one for deep cleaning, but tidying up, yes.
Life is seemingly full of chaos, so tidying up gives us the illusion of some control. We need that illusion. That is why we make our beds in the morning and hang up our clothes. Indeed, studies show that children thrive when there is order, routine and, yes, rules.
How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? –Proverbs 1: 22
Feeling down? Tired of the news cycle and all the bad news? Severe weather forecasts giving you the blues? Me too.
Well, it’s times like these when I turn to my DVD collection to find something–not necessarily the “best” movies–but one that will cheer me up. You know, like McClintock! (1963), because John Wayne.
Yup. Here are some further suggestions:
Hatari (1962) John Wayne and a diverse hipster crew go on safari in Africa. “Hatari” means danger in Swahili, but there’s nothing to worry about in this adventure film.
The Professionals (1966) Four American soldiers of fortune head to Mexico to rescue a kidnapped wife, but everything is not what it seems. The Oscar-nominated screenplay is A+.
The Court Jester (1956) Singing, dancing, jousting–“A royal treat for the whole family”. A great cast, a great screenplay, and Danny Kaye.
Guys and Dolls (1955) Sometimes a musical hits the right spot and this is one of my favorites. Marlon Brando sings!
Pillow Talk (1959) A classic rom-com starring Rock Hudson and Doris Day as a playboy songwriter and an interior decorator who share a party line and fall in love.
The Best of Times (1986) Robin Williams and Kurt Russell star as two guys hoping to redeem themselves thirteen years after a disastrous high school football game. We can all relate.
The Sting (1973) Newman and Redford in a classic caper film involving a complicated plot by two professional grifters to con a mob boss.
The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming! (1966) Chaos (and hilarity) ensue following the grounding of a Soviet submarine off a small New England island.
Hoosiers (1986) One of the best sports films ever tells the story of a small-town Indiana high school basketball team that enters the state championship led by coach Gene Hackman with a spotty past.
21 Jump Street (2012) or 22 Jump Street (2014) Just because. Channing Tatum.
P.S. The boy concurred with these choices and also suggested Roberta, The Awful Truth and Top Hat–all classics from the 1930s, plus Donovan’s Reef (1963) and Kung Fu Panda (2008). What would you suggest?
On this day in 1844 the Missouri and Mississippi rivers reached the most devastating flood stages in history. The Mississippi River swelled to nearly 12 miles wide during the the flood. Crowds gathered on rooftops in St. Louis to watch the houses and trees of Illinoistown (now East St. Louis) being carried away. Steamboats that were still running on the river reported crashing into chimneys and mill machinery hidden below the water’s surface. River pirates took small boats back into the flooded, abandoned towns, looting the upper stories of homes.
The 1844 flood and 1993 flood square off as St. Louis’s “biggest”—the 1844 flood carried 21 percent more water, but the 1993 flood crested more than 8 feet higher. Had the 1993 flood carried the 1844 flood’s volume, it would have almost certainly crested St. Louis’s floodwall (the 1993 flood came within three feet of crest).
To give you an idea, here’s a photo of high water–flooded levee with buildings on one side and boats on the other–at St. Louis during the 1858 flood. (Missouri Historical Society Collections.)
Not until June 28 did the waters begin to recede. By the middle of July the river was back to normal.
After the flood, Congress passed the Swamp Act in 1849 providing land grants to build stronger levees.
“A young man was sitting at home when a terrible rainstorm began. Within hours, the man’s house began to flood, and someone came to his door offering a ride to higher ground. The man declined, saying, ‘God will take care of me.’ A few hours later, as the waters engulfed the first floor of the man’s home, a boat passed by, and the captain offered to take the man to safety. The man declined, saying, ‘God will take care of me.’ A few hours after that, as the man waited on his roof—his entire home flooded—a helicopter flew by, and the pilot offered transportation to dry land. Again the man declined, telling the pilot that God would care for him. Soon thereafter, the waters overcame the man, and as he stood before God in heaven, he protested his fate: ‘You promised that you’d help me so long as I was faithful.’ God replied, ‘I sent you a car, a boat, and a helicopter. Your death is your own fault.’ God helps those who help themselves.”
After getting up early and going to buy flowers at Trader Joe’s and taking them to church where I arranged them for Sunday services, I went with daughter #1 to watch Lottie play lacrosse…
It was quite hot as you can see!
The young bud found a friend while he cooled off under a tree…
After that early start to the day, I took it easy! I read another D.E. Stevenson book (published in 1957)…
…and enjoyed it very much!
On Sunday I went to the early service so I could go to the bud’s last lacrosse game. We had a good sermon on Titus 3:1-8 and another really good Sunday School class. Then it was back to the lacrosse field to sit in the almost 90-degree heat! The bud (and most of the players) was less than enthused.
Summer in STL is upon us I’m afraid.
Meanwhile Katie and Ida were introduced to Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood–they were spellbound.
I will spare you a rant about Scottie Scheffler and the Louisville PD, but this about says it all. And this is perfect:
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, Let this blest assurance control, That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate, And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
dual personalities 