Spirituality | dual personalities

August 31, 2018

“Don’t point that finger at me unless you intend to use it.”*

by chuckofish

Woohoo, three-day weekend coming up!

I have no Big Plans but daughter #1 will be driving in from mid-MO.

We’ll barbecue, because…

Screen Shot 2018-08-30 at 10.48.51 AM.png

Maybe we’ll have a dance party…hopefully with the wee babes!

Screen Shot 2018-08-30 at 11.43.46 AM.png

No doubt we’ll watch a movie…

Screen Shot 2018-08-30 at 11.45.41 AM.png

Maybe we should watch a Neil Simon movie and toast him since he died this week at 91. The Odd Couple (1968) is always a solid choice and funnier than you remember.

Screen Shot 2018-08-30 at 12.48.38 PM.png

I can’t take it anymore, Felix, I’m cracking up. Everything you do irritates me. And when you’re not here, the things I know you’re gonna do when you come in irritate me. You leave me little notes on my pillow. Told you 158 times I can’t stand little notes on my pillow. “We’re all out of cornflakes. F.U.” Took me three hours to figure out F.U. was Felix Ungar!

Murder By Death (1976) is also quite funny–a satire of all those Agatha Christie-type mysteries featuring all the famous detectives you can think of. As I recall, David Niven and Maggie Smith steal the show as “Dick and Dora Charleston”.

Screen Shot 2018-08-30 at 12.50.03 PM.png

We can all relate to Truman Capote’s character, Lionel Twain, when he says:

You’ve tricked and fooled your readers for years. You’ve tortured us all with surprise endings that made no sense. You’ve introduced characters in the last five pages that were never in the book before. You’ve withheld clues and information that made it impossible for us to guess who did it. But now, the tables are turned. Millions of angry mystery readers are now getting their revenge. When the world learns I’ve outsmarted you, they’ll be selling your $1.95 books for twelve cents.

[Here’s an interesting article about Neil Simon and his influence on American society.]

Well, whatever you choose to do this long weekend, I hope you have a good one! Take a real break from your work and remember:

When we start being too impressed by the results of our work, we slowly come to the erroneous conviction that life is one large scoreboard where someone is listing the points to measure our worth. And before we are fully aware of it, we have sold our soul to the many grade-givers. That means we are not only in the world, but also of the world. Then we become what the world makes us. We are intelligent because someone gives us a high grade. We are helpful because someone says thanks. We are likable because someone likes us. And we are important because someone considers us indispensable. In short, we are worthwhile because we have successes. And the more we allow our accomplishments — the results of our actions — to become the criteria of our self-esteem, the more we are going to walk on our mental and spiritual toes, never sure if we will be able to live up to the expectations which we created by our last successes. In many people’s lives, there is a nearly diabolic chain in which their anxieties grow according to their successes. This dark power has driven many of the greatest artists into self-destruction.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Out of Solitude: Three Meditations on the Christian Life

*Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple

5 Comments

August 13, 2018

Postcards from Colorado

by chuckofish

The OM and I had a wonderful time in Colorado at the beautiful Broadmoor Hotel. Granted there was a huge hail storm while we were there. You might have read about it or watched a video about it.

Screen Shot 2018-08-07 at 6.51.44 AM.png Pretty intense.

The view out our window before…

the view out our window after (note geraniums)…

Millions of dollars worth of roof damage

Flash flooding

It was the talk of the week, that’s for sure. We had fun nonetheless and visited the Garden of the Gods, Seven Falls and the art museum at Colorado College. We got lost going to the Airforce Academy and had to go back to the hotel and drink rosé on the patio, but c’est la vie.

Back in church on Sunday I read the first lesson from First Kings, but the second lesson was a better one from Ephesians, which we should all take to heart every day:

²⁵Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. ²⁶“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, ²⁷and do not give the devil a foothold. ²⁸Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.

²⁹Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. ³⁰And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.³¹Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. ³²Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. 5 ¹Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children ²and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (4:25-5:2)

The rector gave a good sermon on the gospel lesson (John 6:35, 41-51). Helen Feesh was back as the substitute organist, although she played the piano for some reason and the Voluntary was Debussy’s Arabesque No. 1!

Screen Shot 2018-08-12 at 11.37.34 AM.png

She brought her son with her, who was visiting. A professional baritone, he sang two great solos, which I enjoyed, especially Watchful’s Song from Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Pilgrim’s Progress.

When I was leaving the rector made a joke about being glad to see me back before Labor Day, but he wasn’t being snarky. He understands why I don’t go in the summer and doesn’t hold it against me. So, all in all, it was a very pleasant experience, although I got a little misty-eyed when the congregation bid adieu to Brenda, our wonderful soloist/cantor, who is moving to Colorado with her family. Sunrise, sunset.

I’ll have a few more postcards tomorrow. Until then,

Whoopi-ty-aye-yay
I go my way
Back in the saddle again

3 Comments

July 24, 2018

A wretch like me

by chuckofish

Today is the birthday of the great John Newton (1725–1807), the English Anglican clergyman who once served as a sailor in the Royal Navy and later as the captain of slave ships.

Screen Shot 2018-07-23 at 10.05.40 AM.png

Eventually he was “saved” and he became ordained as an evangelical Anglican cleric, serving Olney, Buckinghamshire for two decades. He opposed the slave trade, allying with William Wilberforce, leader of the Parliamentary campaign to abolish it. He lived to see the British passage of the Slave Trade Act in 1807.

Screen Shot 2018-07-23 at 10.43.37 AM.png

He is perhaps most famous for writing hymns, including the ever-popular Amazing Grace and Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken. Let’s all take a moment.

Screen Shot 2018-07-23 at 10.02.55 AM.png

I must note that Newton is not honored with a feast or fast on the Episcopal Church calendar. All I can say is, quelle typical.

3 Comments

July 10, 2018

A penny for your thoughts

by chuckofish

Screen Shot 2018-07-09 at 5.13.47 PM.png

This is what I wish I was doing but I’m not.

Yesterday was a jam-packed day at work and I was dead tired after and I had no inclination to work on a post.

So here’s a photo of Kate Middleton and Prince Louis.

Screen Shot 2018-07-09 at 5.22.35 PM.png

Let us now pray for him who is to receive the
Sacrament of new birth.

We receive you into the household of God. Confess the faith of Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection, and share with us in his eternal priesthood.

What d’ya think of that?

Have a good day!

2 Comments

June 19, 2018

“Cheer up now, you faint-hearted warrior…”*

by chuckofish

Today is the birthday of Charles Haddon Spurgeon (June 19, 1834 –-January 31, 1892) who was an extraordinary English preacher. Theologically he was a Calvinist, denominationally he was a Baptist, and he said, “if I am asked what is my creed, I reply, ‘It is Jesus Christ.'” When he died in 1892, London went into mourning. Nearly 60,000 people came to pay homage during the three days his body lay in state at the Metropolitan Tabernacle. Some 100,000 lined the streets as a funeral parade two miles long followed his hearse from the Tabernacle to the cemetery. Flags flew at half-staff and shops and pubs were closed.

Screen Shot 2018-06-18 at 5.29.34 PM.png

Spurgeon’s Metropolitan Tabernacle today

Spurgeon remains highly influential among Christians of various denominations among whom he is still known as the “Prince of Preachers.”

I can attest to the fact that he is alive and well on Instagram.

Screen Shot 2018-06-15 at 9.12.24 AM.png

Screen Shot 2018-06-18 at 3.25.58 PM.png Screen Shot 2018-06-18 at 3.26.27 PM.png Screen Shot 2018-06-18 at 3.27.15 PM.png

Screen Shot 2018-06-18 at 3.42.14 PM.png

I am no lover of memes and quotes taken out of context, but I have to admit, I like a little Spurgeon in my Instagram feed!

Interesting flyover tie-in: William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri purchased Spurgeon’s 5,103-volume library collection for £500 ($2500) in 1906. The collection was purchased by Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri in 2006 for $400,000 and can be seen on display at the Spurgeon Center on the campus of Midwestern Seminary.

*”…Not only has Christ traveled the road, but He has defeated your enemies.” (CS)

3 Comments

June 14, 2018

“The mind was dreaming. The world was its dream.”

by chuckofish

“A book is more than a verbal structure or series of verbal structures; it is the dialogue it establishes with its reader and the intonation it imposes upon his voice and the changing and durable images it leaves in his memory. A book is not an isolated being: it is a relationship, an axis of innumerable relationships.”

Today is the anniversary of the death of Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator.

He is buried in the Cimetière de Plainpalais, in Geneva, Switzerland, along with John Calvin.

Screen Shot 2018-06-13 at 7.50.07 PM.png

Many people thought that he should have been awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. This makes me think of Philip Roth, who died a few weeks ago, who also felt robbed of the same award.

Well, as Calvin said, “Man’s nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols.”

If you are looking for something to read, you might look up old Jorge Luis Borges. I am not well read in his canon, but what I have read, I liked.

I’m talking to an American: there’s a book I must speak about — nothing unexpected about it — that book is Huckleberry Finn. I thoroughly dislike Tom Sawyer. I think that Tom Sawyer spoils the last chapters of Huckleberry Finn. All those silly jokes. They are all pointless as jokes; but I suppose Mark Twain thought it was his duty to be funny even when he wasn’t in the mood. The jokes had to be worked in somehow. According to what George Moore said, the English always thought, “better a bad joke than no joke.”

I think that Mark Twain was one of the really great writers, but I think he was rather unaware of that fact. But perhaps in order to write a really great book, you must be rather unaware of the fact. You can slave away at it and change every adjective to some other adjective, but perhaps you can write better if you leave the mistakes.

I remember Bernard Shaw said, that as to style, a writer has as much style as his conviction will give him and not more. Shaw thought that the idea of a game of style was quite nonsensical, quite meaningless. He thought of Bunyan, for example, as a great writer because he was convinced of what he was saying. If a writer disbelieves what he is writing, then he can hardly expect his readers to believe it. In this country, though, there is a tendency to regard any kind of writing — especially the writing of poetry — as a game of style. I have known many poets here who have written well — very fine stuff — with delicate moods and so on — but if you talk with them, the only thing they tell you is smutty stories or they speak of politics in the way that everybody does, so that really their writing turns out to be a kind of sideshow. They had learned writing in the way that a man might learn to play chess or to play bridge. They were not really poets and writers at all. It was a trick they had learned, and they had learned it thoroughly. They had the whole thing at their finger ends. But most of them — except four or five, I should say — seemed to think of life as having nothing poetic or mysterious about it.

(Interview with Borges in The Paris Review)

3 Comments

June 11, 2018

“Summertime, and the livin’ is easy.”*

by chuckofish

I was feted this weekend (belatedly for my birthday back in April) with a trip to and a tour of Bellefontaine Cemetery on the northern edge of our fair city. As you know, I do like a historically-significant cemetery. Bellefontaine (pronounced “Belle-fountain” by the locals), established in 1849, when the Rural Cemetery Association purchased the former Hempstead family farm located five miles northwest of the city, is such a cemetery.

: A mini Gothic cathedral fit for a beer baron

A storm was brewing in the southwest and came crashing in as we finished the tour. We got a little wet running to our car, but that was preferable to spending one more minute with the tedious docent who had triggered me almost immediately with her irreverent, “amusing” stories of the famous/infamous residents of the cemetery. I hate the attitude that reduces everything in history to an anecdote for simple minds. Sorry for the rant. I love Bellefontaine cemetery, but clearly a self-guided tour is the way I should go in the future!

After our tour the plan was to go to the Crown Candy Kitchen for lunch.

Screen Shot 2018-06-10 at 9.19.58 AM.png I have never been to this local landmark, which like the cemetery is in a most disreputable and run-down part of town, and I was really looking forward to it. When we got there, however, there was a line of people waiting outside (under the awning) in the rain! We decided to pass and moved on to our favorite Cafe Osage in the CWE. The drive there was like something out of Escape from New York (1981)…

Screen Shot 2018-06-10 at 9.34.42 AM.png …but we got there and had a lovely lunch.

All in all, it was a terrific outing with my creative (and flexible) BFFs…there were even presents!

On Sunday the OM and I went out to breakfast with the wee babes and their parents, because they are headed to Florida today and didn’t want to come over for their usual Sunday night visit.

Joe Cool says 8:00 am is way early in the morning for socializing, dude

The rest of the weekend was spent puttering in the house and gabbing on the phone with my daughters. I also planted some more geraniums in pots and puttered around in my yard.

Unfortunately, it was too hot to linger on the patio and the Florida room is only habitable in the early morning or evening hours.

Don’t forget that today is the feast day of Barnabas on the Episcopal calendar of saints. I always liked old Barnabas.

Those who were scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, and they spoke the word to no one except Jews. But among them were some men of Cyprus and Cyrene who, on coming to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists also, proclaiming the Lord Jesus. The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number became believers and turned to the Lord. News of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast devotion; for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were brought to the Lord. Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for an entire year they met with the church and taught a great many people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called “Christians.”

At that time prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus stood up and predicted by the Spirit that there would be a severe famine over all the world; and this took place during the reign of Claudius. The disciples determined that according to their ability, each would send relief to the believers living in Judea; this they did, sending it to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.

Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the ruler, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

(Acts 11:19-30;13:1-3)

Barnabas is a great role model for us all, although he did get fed up with Paul and bail on him. That happens; we are only human.

*Ben Quick in The Long, Hot Summer (1958)

4 Comments

May 30, 2018

“Pray, and let God worry.”*

by chuckofish

“I have decided the two options for me are (1) to torment myself or (2) to trust the Lord. There is no earthly solution to the problems that confront me. But I can add to my problems, as I believe I have done, by dwelling on them.”

–Marilynne Robinson, Gilead

We had a health scare with the OM over the long weekend which ultimately turned out to be not that scary, treatable, not a death sentence, etc. But, oh brother, it was another reminder to wake up every morning, rejoicing in the day, make the most of it, and trust in the Lord!

Screen Shot 2018-05-29 at 11.34.04 AM.png

*Martin Luther

2 Comments

May 29, 2018

What are you reading?

by chuckofish

The wee laddie likes to be read to, but he also likes to turn the page (mostly likes to turn the page) and so it is not easy to read a book to him fast enough. We will persevere. Lottie likes to be read to also. If they are playing on the floor and I start reading aloud, they will stop what they are doing and come over and climb up on the sofa and listen. Not for too long, if I don’t turn the pages fast enough, but for a little while. This is a good thing.

I was talking to one of my students the other day, one who graduated from our alma mater 10 years ahead of me (and so is in her 70s). We were talking about her parents who are both 96 and about to celebrate their 75 wedding anniversary! I’m not sure how we got on the subject, but she was telling me about how her father was a great one for reading to his three children when they were growing up. He read to them until they were practically teenagers and always in the dialect/accent of the character. They all loved it. He is still reading aloud, all these years later, in our Shakespeare class. She admitted that he practices at home. I can hear him sometimes through the wall of my office and it warms my heart.

The only time I read aloud these days (except occasionally to the wee babes) is in church. This past Sunday, because it was the long holiday weekend I suppose, attendance was spotty. In fact, one of the assigned lay readers did not show up! So after a pregnant pause in the service, I jumped up and headed to the lectern to read, unrehearsed, from the letter of Paul to the Romans:

So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— ¹³for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ¹⁴For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. ¹⁵For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” ¹⁶it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. (8: 12-17)

How I do love old St. Paul and all his commas! I did all right and 90-year old Shirley told me after the service that I had made a good catch.

Never stop reading!

3 Comments

April 24, 2018

The secret sauce

by chuckofish

Screen Shot 2018-04-23 at 2.38.52 PM.png

Screen Shot 2018-04-23 at 2.35.03 PM.png

“One of the reasons I made the most important decision of my life, to marry George Bush, is because he made me laugh,” she said. “Find the joy in life, because as Ferris Bueller said on his day off, “Life moves pretty fast; and if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you’re going to miss it.” (Barbara Bush, commencement address, Wellesley College, 1990)

Screen Shot 2018-04-23 at 2.30.26 PM.png

Goodbye, Bar. We’ll miss you.

Into paradise may the angels lead thee; and at thy coming may the martyrs receive thee, and bring thee into the holy city Jerusalem.

Screen Shot 2018-04-23 at 2.24.43 PM.png

As someone said to me, “It looks like God put on a suit and came to the funeral.”

Screen Shot 2018-04-23 at 2.39.10 PM.png

Episcopalians arriving at St. Martin’s.

*A eulogy was given by Barbara Bush’s longtime friend, Susan Baker, wife of former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, who said Mrs. Bush — the wife of the 41st president of the U.S. and mother of the 43rd — was “the secret sauce of this extraordinary family.”

[The photos are from Google search. I was there in spirit only and could not take pictures.]

2 Comments

Category: Spirituality

by chuckofish

by chuckofish

by chuckofish

by chuckofish

by chuckofish

by chuckofish

by chuckofish

by chuckofish

by chuckofish

by chuckofish