Uncategorized | dual personalities

November 1, 2018

“Lord, keep us steadfast in thy Word”*

by chuckofish

Happy birthday, Lyle Lovett!

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Lyle Pearce Lovett (born November 1, 1957) is a Grammy-winning country singer/songwriter and actor. I have seen him in concert at least three times.Lovett still resides in North Harris County, Texas in the farming community of Klein, named after his great-great-grandfather and where he was raised. He hails from a long line of Texas Lutherans–there are several German enclaves in the state. As such, he always ends his albums with a hymn, a country tradition, and his way of a tithe.

This was interesting.

Today is also All Saints’ Day. It’s a good day to remember all the saints in your life, past and present.

Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. (BCP)

*Lyle Pearce Lovett

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October 31, 2018

Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott*

by chuckofish

Screen Shot 2018-10-30 at 1.24.29 PM.png October 31, 1517 was the day Martin Luther nailed his Ninety-five Theses on the door of the All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg.

Screen Shot 2018-10-30 at 2.14.26 PM.png Did you know that Luther’s theses are engraved into the door of All Saints’ Church, Wittenberg? The Latin inscription above informs the reader that the original door was destroyed by a fire, and that in 1857, King Frederick William IV of Prussia ordered a replacement be made.

Today is also the anniversary of our pater’s death in 1992. One of his former students gave me a picture of him and I have it in my office. He watches over me with a slightly annoyed look on his face.

I forgave him for his many imperfections a long time ago and I don’t mind him hanging around in my office.

“A single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener. So our prospects brighten on the influx of better thoughts. We should be blessed if we lived in the present always, and took advantage of every accident that befell us, like the grass which confesses the influence of the slightest dew that falls on it; and did not spend our time in atoning for the neglect of past opportunities, which we call doing our duty. We loiter in winter while it is already spring.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden

So join me in a toast tonight to Martin Luther and to ANC III.

And if you’re going to a Great Pumpkin party, make good choices!

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*Martin Luther

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October 30, 2018

What are you reading?

by chuckofish

Screen Shot 2018-10-29 at 8.44.12 PM.png Over the weekend I finished reading Clock Dance, Ann Tyler’s new book. Although the book jacket proclaims that she is “at the height of her powers,” she is not. It was very thin, and it made me sad remembering her earlier books which were favorites of mine.

That said, however, the book is not without merit, and is still a lot better than many books published these days and touted as great works of art.

Anyway, I went back to my Ann Tyler shelf and pulled out Saint Maybe from 1991. I am enjoying it a lot.

I am also reading When You and I Were Young, Whitefish, a memoir by Dorothy M. Johnson, who you may recall was a writer mostly known for her western fiction. She wrote the short stories that became the movies The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Hanging Tree and A Man Called Horse. She was quite a gal.

What are you reading?

[The painting is “Evening Reading” by Georg Pauli, 1884]

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October 29, 2018

Postcards from the weekend

by chuckofish

What a joy to have two daughters home for the weekend! The sun shone all weekend. We did all the things.

Margaritas at Amigos

Muny Mochas at Ted Drewes

Wee babes getting ready for Boo at the Zoo

So much fun AND we even went to church! My BFF Carla gave the Stewardship talk and it was an amazing testimony about church community. I was reminded that no matter how irritated I may become with my denomination, it is important to have a church home.

Screen Shot 2018-10-29 at 6.50.08 AM.png I am taking daughter #2 to the airport this morning and then it’s back to the salt mine and my usual routine. Have a good week!

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October 27, 2018

#notabitanxious

by chuckofish

It’s packing day! Tomorrow, Chris and Nicole begin their epic move to Idaho.

Baldy In Idaho by Wilson Pollock

While the DH and I are feeling a little frazzled, the younguns seem to be managing with perfect aplomb. They’ve obviously been reading their Seneca:

“The world you see, nature’s greatest and most glorious creation, and the human mind which gazes and wonders at it, and is the most splendid part of it, these are our own everlasting possessions and will remain with us as long as we ourselves remain. So, eager and upright, let us hasten with bold steps wherever circumstances take us, and let us journey through any countries whatever: there can be no place of exile within the world since nothing within the world is alien to men.”

Or perhaps they’re channeling their inner Willie Nelson:

At any rate, we’re staying positive and trusting in the good Lord to bring them safely to their new abode.

The Lord is your keeper;
the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
The sun shall not smite you by day,
nor the moon by night.

The Lord will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and for evermore. (Psalm 121)

Now I’m off to make cookies for the journey. Keep our travelers in your prayers.

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October 26, 2018

Red letter days

by chuckofish

Screen Shot 2018-10-01 at 1.05.35 PM.png Thank goodness today is Friday! And bonus: this morning I am running up to the airport to pick up daughter #2 who is popping in for a quick visit from Maryland! Daughter #1 will drive in from mid-MO to join us later tonight.

We’re going to have a little Halloween party so the wee babes can come over and wear their costumes again. In between we’ll do our usual old-lady stuff: go out to lunch, check out estate sales and sip margaritas in the afternoon. Who cares if it’s going to rain all weekend?

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You will recall that today is the 157th anniversary of the day the Pony Express ceased operation in 1861. The idea of a fast mail route to the Pacific coast was prompted largely by California’s newfound prominence and its rapidly growing population. William Russell, Alexander Majors, and William Waddell, who were already in the freighting and drayage business, founded the Pony Express in St. Joseph, MO in 1859, delivering messages, newspapers, and mail from St. Joseph to Sacramento, CA along an approximately 1,900-mile-long route.

Screen Shot 2018-10-25 at 1.34.46 PM.png Majors was a religious man and resolved “by the help of God” to overcome all difficulties. He presented each rider with a special edition Bible and required them to sign an oath:

I, …, do hereby swear, before the Great and Living God, that during my engagement, and while I am an employee of Russell, Majors, and Waddell, I will, under no circumstances, use profane language, that I will drink no intoxicating liquors, that I will not quarrel or fight with any other employee of the firm, and that in every respect I will conduct myself honestly, be faithful to my duties, and so direct all my acts as to win the confidence of my employers, so help me God.”

The Pony Express demonstrated that a unified transcontinental system of communications could be established and operated year-round. When replaced by the telegraph, the Pony Express quickly became romanticized and its reliance on the ability and endurance of individual young, hardy riders and fast horses was seen as evidence of rugged American individualism and awesomeness.

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In honor of this anniversary I propose we try to find Pony Express (1953) starring Charlton Heston as Buffalo Bill and Forrest Tucker as Wild Bill Hickok. I’m sure it is highly fictionalized (i.e. made up out of whole cloth), but any movie with a young Chuck Heston is probably worth watching.

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And here is Crowder’s new song, which I like a lot.

Have a great weekend!

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October 25, 2018

“Lord of harvest, grant that we Wholesome grain and pure may be”*

by chuckofish

On Tuesday night, after a separate work event, I rushed over to the Candy Corn Festival being held at a big Lutheran Church half an hour away in order to meet the wee babes (in costume) and their parents.

The 6:00-6:45 p.m. time period was set aside for the toddlers from the pre-schools that were included and it was wild. The four of us could barely keep up with these two curious babes.

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Lottie says, “Neigh!”

BTW, there was another Rapunzel (in a store-bought costume) at the event, but Lottie, even sans wig, was way cuter. I did not spy another Flynn Rider, but there would have been no competition there either. I mean really.

And for some context:

BTW, I did not get any candy corn.

*Henry Alford

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October 24, 2018

Nothing gold can stay

by chuckofish

Screen Shot 2018-10-23 at 11.02.58 AM.png

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

–Robert Frost

It is the time of year when I always think of this poem.

Keep your eyes open for the “Golden Hour” when the sun is just at the point on the horizon that the light is redder and softer than usual, and it hits the golden and orange leaves of the trees and turns them into molten gold.

All too soon it will be dark driving home and winter will be upon us. I am never ready for that.

[The painting is by Eric Sloane.]

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October 23, 2018

“Was the minding of one’s own business no longer a subject taught in schools?”

by chuckofish

Over the weekend I finished A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. I agree with my DP that it is a wonderful book! When I finished, I was tempted to turn back to page one and start again.

“Like the Freemasons, the Confederacy of the Humbled is a close-knit brotherhood whose members travel with no outward markings, but who know each other at a glance. For having fallen suddenly from grace, those in the Confederacy share a certain perspective. Knowing beauty, influence, fame, and privilege to be borrowed rather than bestowed, they are not easily impressed. They are not quick to envy or take offense. They certainly do not scour the papers in search of their own names. They remain committed to living among their peers, but they greet adulation with caution, ambition with sympathy, and condescension with an inward smile.”

Really, really good.

I hear they are making a mini series for television. It will be produced by Kenneth Branagh and he will star as Count Alexander Rostov. This is unfortunate. As you know, I am not a fan of Branagh. I pictured Ralph Fiennes myself, someone taller. Whatever.

I found this to be very interesting.

And, of course, isn’t it telling that The New Yorker only ‘noted’ the book in its “Briefly Noted” section?

The protagonist of this novel is a Russian count who, after the Revolution, is imprisoned by the Bolsheviks in the luxurious Hotel Metropol and remains there for the next three decades. The count’s sedate life provides an ironic counterpoint to the grim doings of Bolshevik and Stalinist Russia, most of which occur out of sight. The count, made to take a job as a waiter, uncovers various mysteries of the hotel, while friendships with foreign diplomats and a close association with a Party member keep him somewhat abreast of outside events. The novel would be more compelling if these terrors intruded more, but Towles gets good mileage from the considerable charm of its protagonist and the peculiar world he inhabits.

Good mileage. Ugh. BTW, the terrors intrude plenty; they are mentioned and inferred with subtlety. But who cares about that anymore? Amor Towles, I guess.

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October 22, 2018

“Let us with a gladsome mind, praise the Lord, for he is kind”*

by chuckofish

The weekend turned out to be busier than anticipated, mainly because the weather was so beautiful.

After my estate sale adventures proved uninspiring, I convinced the OM to take an autumnal drive to Washington, MO in Franklin County (about an hour’s drive)…

Screen Shot 2018-10-21 at 11.52.00 AM.png …and have lunch at The Green Duck.

Despite a wrong turn and an unnecessary 20-minute detour, we found our destination and enjoyed a yummy lunch which was definitely a step above our usual weekend Steak ‘N Shake indulgence. I will note that the OM appears to have forgotten all his Boy Scout orienteering skills in his embrace of and subsequent dependence on Google Maps and his iPhone. Then again, it must be admitted that we were looking for The Blue Duck restaurant as opposed to The Green Duck. (Blue Duck, you will recall, was a bad guy in Lonesome Dove.) Zut alors! Life is so complicated.

On Sunday I went to church and read an odd lesson from Hebrews wherein I had to say Melchizedek twice. Later that afternoon I had to go to a work event (the 2nd annual “Hootenanny”) held at the Ethical Society…

The Sunday School room wall at the Ethical Society–God love ’em

…where old hippies sang protest songs and promised to Resist Authority.

This is my life

Of course, seniors singing protest songs is akin to Episcopalians singing gospel music…so I was not uncomfortable. When I got home it was nearly time for the wee babes to come over for Sunday tacos with their parents and I barely had time to vacuum up the crumbs from their last visit.

So you can see that my weekend went by in a flash. I did manage to watch Signs (1999) as well as a “quirky” English spy thriller, Q Planes (1939) which starred Laurence Olivier, Valerie Hobson and Ralph Richardson (always a favorite of mine.)

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It is definitely worth watching.

I am presently working my way through season 2 of Miami Vice, which in retrospect, is decidedly not the great show we thought it was back in the 1980s. (Except episode three–“Out Where t he Buses Don’t Run”–which is great.) Now I watch it mainly to see this guy…

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