Uncategorized | dual personalities

November 2, 2017

“I’ve got the sun in the mornin’ and the moon at night.”*

by chuckofish

Once again, I relate to Calvin’s father. My favorite refrain (then and now) is, “Put on a sweater if you are cold!” …also “and it builds character!”–but that’s another story…Well, anyway, we turned on the heat in our house, because it is, after all, November. November!

In November we like to try to be more intentionally grateful, so here’s a quote from a book by one of my favorite authors.

“What was the world coming to and what hearty pleasures folks today missed out of life! One bag of meal her pap said, used to make a whole family rejoice. Now folks came ungrateful from the store, grumbling they had to carry such a heavy market basket. Was that the way this great new country of hers was going to go? The easier they made life, the weaker and sicker the race had to get? Once a majority of the men got weak and soft, what weak, harmful ways would they vote the country into then? Well, her pap’s generation could get down on their knees and thank the Almighty they lived and died when they did. How would they ever have come and settled this wild country if they said to each other, “Ain’t you afeard?” How would her pappy have fetched them the long way out here on foot if he’d kept asking all the time, “Are you all right! How do ye feel? Do ye reckon ye kin make it?” No, those old time folks she knew were scared of nothing, or if they were, they didn’t say so. They knew they ran bad risks moving into Indian country, but they had to die some time. They might as well live as they pleased and let others bury them when the time came. Now Libby’s generation, it seemed, lived mostly to study and fret about ailing and dying.”

―Conrad Richter, Sayward in The Town

My children would no doubt agree that this sounds like me as well. One could argue that the abundance of things we have has made us ungrateful. That is sad. We take things for granted when we should be grateful. So look around and be grateful. Count your blessings.

When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings name them one by one

Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.

-Johnson Oatman, Jr. (1856-1922)

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*Irving Berlin/image of sampler from Etsy

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November 1, 2017

“Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.”*

by chuckofish

Today is the birthday of William Merritt Chase (November 1, 1849 – October 25, 1916) who was an American painter, known as an exponent of Impressionism and as a teacher.

But did you know that he was born in Indiana? Me neither. Although he studied for a short time in New York City as a youth, he was forced to leave New York in 1870 due to declining family fortune and return to St. Louis (!) where his family was then based. While he worked to help support his family, he became active in the St. Louis art community, winning prizes for his paintings at a local exhibition. Chase’s talent elicited the interest of wealthy St. Louis collectors who arranged for him to visit Europe for two years, in exchange for paintings and Chase’s help in securing European art for their collections. Well, well…

Anyway, I especially like his interiors with all their detail…

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Self-portrait, 1915

Chase won many honors at home and abroad, was a member of the National Academy of Design, New York, and from 1885 to 1895 was president of the Society of American Artists. After a long and successful career, Chase died on October 25, 1916, at his home in New York City, an esteemed elder of the American art world. He was interred in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.

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William_Merritt_Chase_-_First_Touch_of_Autumn_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg Today his works are in most major museums in the United States. We even have a couple in the Saint Louis Art Museum:

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So a toast to old William Merritt Chase and…one more shout out for 500 years of speaking truth to power…

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*Henry Ward Beecher

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October 31, 2017

“A heretic! [What?] Someone throw me a bone. You forgot salvation comes through faith alone.” *

by chuckofish

As you know, Protestants around the world are celebrating the start of the Reformation five centuries ago. It’s been 500 years!

On October 31, 1517, the day before the Feast of All Saints, the 33-year-old Martin Luther posted theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. The door functioned as a bulletin board for various announcements related to academic and church affairs. The theses were written in Latin and printed on a folio sheet by the printer John Gruenenberg, one of the many entrepreneurs in the new print medium first used in Germany about 1450. Luther was calling for a “disputation on the power and efficacy of indulgences out of love and zeal for truth and the desire to bring it to light.” He did so as a faithful monk and priest who had been appointed professor of biblical theology at the University of Wittenberg.

Luther attacked the abuse of indulgence sales in sermons, in “counseling sessions,” and, finally, in the Ninety-Five Theses, which rang out the revolutionary theme of the Reformation: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ He willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance” (Thesis 1).

Here are all 95 Theses, #37 being particularly pertinent: Every true Christian, whether living or dead, has a share in all the benefits of Christ and the Church, for God has granted him these, even without letters of indulgence.

Tonight I plan to watch Luther (2003), which features Joseph Fiennes as ML, and toast the man who was perhaps the first figure in western history to resist visibly and publicly a political superpower (in his case, the papal authority in Rome) and live to tell the story. Indeed, his “Here I stand” moment before Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms in 1521 was an amazing act of courage and an astounding break in history.

While we’re at it, let’s include all those brave reformers of yore, and here is an appropriate prayer, which you might have missed back on October 13 when the Episcopal Church remembered Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, Bishops and Martyrs, 1555:

Keep us, O Lord, constant in faith and zealous in witness, that, like your servants William Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, we may live in your fear, die in your favor, and rest in your peace; for the sake of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

*From The 95 Theses Rap (or, oh, the things you find on the internet…)

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October 30, 2017

Here I stand

by chuckofish

I spent most of Saturday getting ready for a dinner party that was part of a church “progressive dinner.” It is my policy when asked to host something like that to try to say yes, but I understood when the OM grumbled at 4:30 pm, “Why are we doing this?” Because we can, is usually my answer. I knew, as well, that we would be assigned all the “widows and orphans” in the church, and I laughed when this lady showed up first (and early):

But as it turned out, we had quite a lot of fun.

The next morning in church, the rector began his sermon with a question: Tuesday, October 31 is a big day-does anyone know why? And I don’t mean Holloween…

Crickets.

Anyone? he said. I was proud of my timid self for speaking up and saying, loud and clear, “500 years!”

He chuckled. Yes, And what happened 500 years ago?

“The REFORMATION!” I said.

(I’m sure he was thinking, of course, Katie would know that answer…and for once, he was probably glad I was there.)

He went on to preach his sermon on Martin Luther and the Reformation. I was very pleased. He even told us he was wearing his Here I Stand socks, which he had bought in Wittenberg, Germany. This made me jealous–I want Here I Stand socks! The best I can boast is a “Saved by Faith Alone” mug which I use at work. Not exactly a conversation starter.

Meanwhile, the wee babes are all set for their first Halloween. They tried out their costumes at the “Boo at the Zoo” event earlier in the week.

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How cute are Dorothy and the Scarecrow? Darn cute.

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What do you mean, we’re too little for candy?

We went over to their house Sunday night for chili. The little guy was up on his feet and on-the-go constantly until he tried to eat dinner and conked out.

Lottiebelle, who is much less mobile, knows how to pace herself. She was awake and ready to go when we left.

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Well, all this talk of Standing (see above), reminded me of this classic from 1990:

That should get your week started off right! Have a good one.

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October 28, 2017

O, full of scorpions is my mind!* (or, everyone’s a critic)

by chuckofish

It’s going to be a busy weekend full of drama and romance. Tonight we’re going to see the American Shakespeare Center touring troop perform “Macbeth,” and tomorrow, “Sense and Sensibility,” which I presume is an adaptation of the Jane Austin novel. I may overdose on art!

“Macbeth” is probably my favorite Shakespeare play, although I’ve never seen a really good performance. The film versions I’ve seen are simply dreadful. For some reason, the play invites overproduction and overacting. From Orson Welles’ spiky, “statue of Liberty” crown

and Roman Polanski’s naked, sleepwalking Lady Macbeth,

to Sean Pertwee’s inexplicable post-apocalyptic interpretation,

And the point is?

actors and directors tend to go overboard.

War paint? Really?

Without question, the best version to date is Kurosawa’s wonderful “Throne of Blood”, but let’s remember that it’s a retelling, not Shakespeare.

I mean, talk about chewing the scenery…

I suspect that sometimes the exotic, foreign factor colors our perception. Would the film be as great in English? I doubt it. I’m still waiting for a really excellent Macbeth, though admittedly I haven’t seen all that many performances.

Judging from the PR stills, tonight’s production isn’t going to buck the trend. Let’s be honest. These witches look like something out of a bad High School play.

And blow-dried Macbeth doesn’t inspire confidence either.

Let’s put it down to an over-eager PR photographer and give them the benefit of the doubt. My past experience with the ASC has been quite positive, so I’ll reserve judgment and get back to you.

Maybe Macbeth is just one of those plays that is better read than performed. Have you ever seen a great Macbeth?

*Shakespeare, Macbeth

5 Comments

October 27, 2017

History lesson Friday

by chuckofish

Today is the 179th anniversary of a dark day in Missouri history–the day Gov. Lilburn Boggs

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issued Missouri Executive Order 44, also known as the Extermination Order. This executive order, issued on October 27, 1838, claimed that Latter-day Saints had committed open and avowed defiance of the law and had made war upon the people of Missouri. Governor Boggs directed that “the Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State if necessary for the public peace—their outrages are beyond all description.”

Executive Order 44 was issued during the 1838 Mormon War, which was caused by friction between the Mormons and their neighbors due to the economic and electoral growth of the Latter-day Saint community and Joseph Smith’s vocal opposition to slavery. In other words, the Mormons were too many and too affluent, and worst of all, they sided with the abolitionists.

The order was never rescinded–not until Missouri Governor Kit Bond did so in 1976–a mere 137 years after it was originally signed. Basically, for all that time, it was legal to murder Mormons! Bond expressed “on behalf of all Missourians our deep regret for the injustice and undue suffering which was caused by the 1838 order…” I should say so.

And now for our family connection…

Lilburn Wycliffe Boggs was born in 1797 in Lexington, Kentucky. Boggs married his first wife Julia Ann Bent, a sister of the Bent brothers of “Bent’s Fort” fame, in 1816 in St. Louis. They had two children, Angus and Henry. After she died at an early age, he married Panthea Grant Boone, granddaughter of Daniel Boone, in 1823 in Callaway County, Missouri. They had many children, the oldest being Thomas, born in 1824 in Bates County.

In 1840 Thomas Boggs went to what would eventually become the Colorado Territory to work with his father’s old in-laws, the Bent Brothers, at Bent’s Old Fort along the Arkansas River. In 1862, he settled along the Purgatoire (Picketwire) River south of present-day Las Animas and began a settlement known as Boggsville, which was the first white non-military outpost in that wild country.

You will recall that the brother of our great-great-grandmother, Mary Prowers Hough–John Wesley Prowers–

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also lived in Boggsville with his family, and for awhile the Houghs lived there as well.

The restored Prowers house in Boggsville.

Boggs raised sheep and Prowers raised cattle, separated by the Picketwire River in friendly fashion. Both ventures flourished on the land surrounding Boggsville during the 1860s and 1870s, and Boggsville thrived, serving as as a center of trade, agriculture, education and culture. It soon became an important stop on the Santa Fe Trail. In 1870, after the creation of Bent County, Boggsville became the county seat of Bent County. At it’s pinnacle, Boggsville boasted about 20 buildings, the first schoolhouse in Bent County, a stage stop and trading house. It was a hub of activity until 1873, when the Kansas Pacific Railroad established the town of Las Animas two miles north.

Boggsville was a very diverse settlement–in fact, our great-great-grandmother was the only “anglo” woman there in those early years. But even so, the name of the town may have turned off Mormons traveling west. Who could blame them?

Interesting note (this is how my mind works): On May 6, 1842, Gov. Boggs was shot in the head through a window at his home. Boggs survived, but Mormons came under immediate suspicion. Orrin Porter Rockwell of the Mormon Danites was accused of the alleged assassination attempt.

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Careful readers in the Longmire oeuvre will remember that Orrin Porter Rockwell is a character in A Serpent’s Tooth.

Have a great weekend–read some history!

“Isn’t it queer: there are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before; like the larks in this country, that have been singing the same five notes over for thousands of years.”

Willa Cather, O Pioneers!

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October 26, 2017

The cure for envy

by chuckofish

Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. For surely there is an end; and thine expectation shall not be cast off. (Proverbs 23:17-18)

When we see the wicked prosper we are apt to envy them. When we hear the noise of their mirth and our own spirit is heavy, we half think that they have the best of it. This is foolish and sinful. If we knew them better, and specially if we remembered their end, we should pity them.

The cure for envy lies in living under a constant sense of the divine presence, worshiping God and communing with Him all the day long, however long the day may seem. True religion lifts the soul into a higher region, where the judgment becomes more clear and the desires are more elevated. The more of heaven there is in our lives, the less of earth we shall covet. The fear of God casts out envy of men.

The deathblow of envy is a calm consideration of the future. The wealth and glory of the ungodly are a vain show. This pompous appearance flashes out for an hour and then is extinguished. What is the prosperous sinner the better for his prosperity when judgment overtakes him? As for the godly man, his end is peace and blessedness, and none can rob him of his joy; wherefore, let him forgo envy and be filled with sweet content.

–C.H. Spurgeon, Faith’s Checkbook

Spurgeon is right on the money if you ask me. Have a good day and cultivate “living under a constant sense of the divine presence.” It works.

(The painting is by Edward Seago, The Norfolk River)

2 Comments

October 25, 2017

Deep thoughts for Wednesday

by chuckofish

Today is St. Crispin’s Day and the 602nd anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt!

It is also two months until Christmas! Have you started planning for Christmas?

I have–just barely. But I have been thinking about it. This year, in addition to daughter #2 visiting, we will have her husband staying with us. Zut alors! We will also have grandchildren present for the first time. (Last year they were in the NICU.) And daughter #1 will be driving in from central MO, not jetting in from NYC, praying for good weather. Times change faster than the blink of an eye.

This all got me thinking about the passing of time, which sometimes can be a bit depressing. So here are a few thoughts to get you thinking as well.

“This life therefore is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness, not health, but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it, the process is not yet finished, but it is going on, this is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.”
―Martin Luther

“Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains.”
―Henry David Thoreau, Walden

“There is a time in the life of every boy when he for the first time takes the backward view of life. Perhaps that is the moment when he crosses the line into manhood. The boy is walking through the street of his town. He is thinking of the future and of the figure he will cut in the world. Ambitions and regrets awake within him. Suddenly something happens; he stops under a tree and waits as for a voice calling his name. Ghosts of old things creep into his consciousness; the voices outside of himself whisper a message concerning the limitations of life. From being quite sure of himself and his future he becomes not at all sure. If he be an imaginative boy a door is torn open and for the first time he looks out upon the world, seeing, as though they marched in procession before him, the countless figures of men who before his time have come out of nothingness into the world, lived their lives and again disappeared into nothingness. The sadness of sophistication has come to the boy. With a little gasp he sees himself as merely a leaf blown by the wind through the streets of his village. He knows that in spite of all the stout talk of his fellows he must live and die in uncertainty, a thing blown by the winds, a thing destined like corn to wilt in the sun.”
―Sherwood Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio

Do you see yourself as a leaf blown by the wind or someone on the road and growing in righteousness? Or are you fishing and gazing at the sandy bottom?

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Discuss among yourselves.

3 Comments

October 24, 2017

You go, Girl!

by chuckofish

Today is the birthday of Sarah Josepha Buell Hale (October 24, 1788 – April 30, 1879) who was an American writer and an influential editor.

Hale wrote many novels and poems, publishing nearly fifty volumes by the end of her life, but she is probably best known as the author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Hale also famously campaigned for seventeen years for the creation of Thanksgiving as a national holiday and for the completion of the Bunker Hill Monument.

That’s Colonel William Prescott in front of the monument.

Hale also founded the Seaman’s Aid Society in 1833 to assist the surviving families of Boston sailors who died at sea.

She is recognized on the Episcopal liturgical calendar with a lesser feast day on April 30.

Gracious God, we bless thy Name for the vision and witness of Sarah Hale, whose advocacy for the ministry of women helped to support the deaconess movement. Make us grateful for thy many blessings, that we may come closer to Christ in our own families; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who livest and reignest with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

We must also note that it is the birthday as well of one of our favorite writers, Brenda Ueland (October 24, 1891 – March 5, 1985), about whom we have written many times.

“Now before going to a party, I just tell myself to listen with affection to anyone who talks to me, to be in their shoes when they talk, to try to know them without my mind pressing against theirs, or arguing, or changing the subject. No. My attitude is: ‘Tell me more.’ This person is showing me his soul. It is a little dry and meager and full of grinding talk just now, but presently he will begin to think, not just automatically to talk. He will show his true self. Then he will be wonderfully alive.’ …Creative listeners are those who want you to be recklessly yourself, even at your very worst, even vituperative, bad-tempered. They are laughing and just delighted with any manifestation of yourself, bad or good. For true listeners know that if you are bad-tempered it does not mean that you are always so. They don’t love you just when you are nice; they love all of you.”

–Brenda Ueland, Strength to Your Sword Arm: Selected Writings

Join me in a toast to both ladies, won’t you?

And this struck me as mildly amusing:

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October 23, 2017

“Let us live well, and times shall be good. We are the times: Such as we are, such are the times.” *

by chuckofish

Well, the weekend flew by as expected and was jam-packed with fun and plenty of good conversation. While I was hard at work on Friday, daughter #2 went to the zoo with the wee babes and hung out with Phil et al. Screen Shot 2017-10-22 at 2.22.22 PM.png On Saturday the two of us drove to Columbia to check out daughter #1’s new apartment. Here are a few iphone pictures, which I’m afraid do not really give you an idea of how great it is.

What about that gallery wall?

We also took a lovely walk in the nearby nature area and bird sanctuary. (We did not venture into the town or near the campus as it was Homecoming Weekend.) Then we drove to the Les Bourgeois winery in Rocheport and ate lunch at the blustery blufftop Bistro overlooking the Missouri River. It was beautiful and I highly recommend it. I mean what could be better than this view?

Screen Shot 2017-10-22 at 2.21.48 PM.png I could have happily sat there all day (drinking wine) but we had to get back to town to our flyover home and have dinner with the whole gang.

The wee bud is now pulling himself up and starting to cruise along furniture. He is a 14-pound dynamo.

Daughter #2 departed in the early morning rain and daughter #1 left in the afternoon. Sigh. But the wee babes and their parents returned on Sunday night and we ventured over to the Pumpkins and Pizza party at church.

Here’s a hint of things to come on Hallowe’en.