Uncategorized | dual personalities

Within our inward temple

by chuckofish

What powerful Spirit lives within!
What active Angel doth inhabit here!
What heavenly light inspires my skin,
Which doth so like a Deity appear!
A living Temple of all ages, I
Within me see
A Temple of Eternity!
All Kingdoms I descry
In me.

An inward Omnipresence here
Mysteriously like His within me stands,
Whose knowledge is a Sacred Sphere
That in itself at once includes all lands.
There is some Angel that within me can
Both talk and move,
And walk and fly and see and love,
A man on earth, a man
Above.

Dull walls of clay my Spirit leaves,
And in a foreign Kingdom doth appear,
This great Apostle it receives,
Admires His works and sees them, standing here,
Within myself from East to West I move
As if I were
At once a Cherubim and Sphere,
Or was at once above
And here.

The Soul’s a messenger whereby
Within our inward Temple we may be
Even like the very Deity
In all the parts of His Eternity.
O live within and leave unwieldy dross!
Flesh is but clay!
O fly my Soul and haste away
To Jesus’ Throne or Cross!
Obey!

–Thomas Traherne, An Hymn Upon St. Bartholomew’s Day

In commemoration of his poems and spiritual writings, Thomas Traherne is included in the anglican calendar of saints. Today is his feast day (in the Episcopal Church) and this is the collect for the day:

“Creator of wonder and majesty, who didst inspire thy poet Thomas Traherne with mystical insight to see thy glory in the natural world and in the faces of men and women around us: Help us to know thee in thy creation and in our neighbors, and to understand our obligations to both, that we may ever grow into the people thou hast created us to be; through our Savior Jesus Christ, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, in everlasting light. Amen.”

The stained glass window is one of the four Traherne Windows in Audley Chapel, Hereford Cathedral, created by stained-glass artist Tom Denny in 2007.

And I just thought this was really nice:

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September 26, 2016

Grant us strength and courage*

by chuckofish

⁶Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; ⁷for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; ⁸but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these. ⁹But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.

¹¹But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.¹²Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

There was a lot of uncomfortable scripture in Sunday’s lectionary starting with the “Alas for those at ease in Zion” cautionary speech from Amos, continuing with Paul’s strong words to Timothy, and concluding with the difficult parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Our rector soft-peddled most of it, urging us to “see in love” and to notice the needy etc. All very well and good, but Amos, Paul and Jesus would have rolled their eyes.

During the Prayers of the People one of the acolytes fainted/had a seizure. Since I sit up front on the epistle side of the church, I had a birds-eye view of the whole thing and it was pretty unsettling. I was unsettled to begin with, because I had just heard that three members of the vestry had resigned, including one person who is a regular pillar of the church.

On the one hand, I was happy that I am so out of it that I had no inkling of any drama going on, but it was unsettling nonetheless. I really hate drama at church.

Our U-verse was out on Friday night, so I was forced to watch a DVD and put Longmire off until we were back online the next day. I watched I’m Not There (2007)–or “Ruminations on the life of Bob Dylan, where six characters embody a different aspect of the musician’s life.”

Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger, among others, play the different Bobs. It was interesting, but seemed overly gimmick-y. The best thing about it was the real Dylan playing on the soundtrack.

The boy came over on Saturday and we watched the Cards–Cubs game which was fun.

We won 10-4 so that was especially good too.

And I saw these on Etsy:

Now it is Monday and a very busy work week looms. All will be well, right?

*BCP, Post-communion Prayer

6 Comments

September 24, 2016

We have art in order not to die of the truth*

by chuckofish

In one corner of my living room hangs a pleasing watercolor that I inherited from my grandmother (father’s mother). You’ve seen it in pictures before. Remember this one taken just after we painted the living room and before the fern took over?

I’ve always loved this painting and wondered about how my grandmother came to own it, and what the artist who painted it, Sears Gallagher, was like. So I looked him up, and wouldn’t you know, he has a Wikipedia page.

A close-up of my watercolor

A prolific American artist, who specialized in watercolor and etching, Gallagher was born in Boston in 1869. Apart from the obligatory study abroad and summers spent in Monhegan, Maine, he lived in Boston all his life, dying there in 1955. Commercially successful and critically acclaimed, he was compared to the likes of Winslow Homer and James McNeill Whistler, at least according to Wikipedia. The Metropolitan Museum in NY and the Chicago Art Institute are among the museums that own his work, particularly his etchings, which until recently have gained more attention than his watercolors. Despite his success, he is not what one would call famous. I suspect it’s because too much of his work survives, and also because he lived a conventional, scandal-free life. He occupied the same house in a suburb of Boston from the time he married until he died. He and his wife had two children, a boy and a girl.

image from the Boston Public Library via Wikipedia

He took his art very seriously and even pushed the boundaries of style in his younger days. I really love his watercolors of Maine.

Apparently, he belonged to the artist’s colony on Monhegan Island. This painting of Christmas Cove is similar to the one I own. He liked to paint the beach and water,

but sometimes he explored other subjects.

And once in a while, he even did a portrait. I wonder who this lovely lady was? She reminds me a little of my grandmother.

Maybe he wasn’t a grand master, but I bet Sears Gallagher has helped just as many people “not die of the truth”. His painting has certainly made my house a nicer place to live. So tonight let’s make a toast to Sears Gallagher, a wonderful artist and (by all accounts) a good man.

*Friedrich Nietzsche

** all photos via Google image

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September 23, 2016

“It seemed to be a good idea at the time.”*

by chuckofish

The reboot of The Magnificent Seven opens today, but you will not catch me going to see this remake of a remake. Please. I mean look at these guys.

Of course, they have changed the story so the bad guy is an industrialist. Of course he is. Bandits are so yesterday. Robber Barons–big time bandits–clever.

Also, you can bet that this new version is 100 times more violent than either of the earlier movies.

So no, I prefer to dust off the original, The Seven Samurai (1954), directed by Akira Kurosawa

and starring Toshiro Mifune as one of the seven.

Or I could watch the original American remake, The Magnificent Seven (1960) starring Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen et al.

I could go either way. You do what you want. You will not hurt my feelings.

Meanwhile the boy and daughter #3 came over for dinner last night. I figured the boy would like to get out of the house since he is still recuperating. (He gets his staples out next week.)

So that was nice. And he looks pretty good, right?

The dining room is looking pretty good too!

Have a super weekend!

*Steve McQueen as Vin in The Magnificent Seven (1960)

4 Comments

September 22, 2016

This and that

by chuckofish

Well, did you hear that Curtis Hanson died? This makes me sad, because he was one of the few directors who made movies that I have actually admired in the last twenty years. Seriously, there are so few. But I liked L.A. Confidential (1997), Wonder Boys (2000), In Her Shoes (2005), and Lucky You (2006). And I am a big fan of 8 Mile (2002)

which starred Eminem, who said, “Curtis Hanson believed in me and our crazy idea to make a rap battle movie set in Detroit. He basically made me into an actor for ‘8 Mile.’ I’m lucky I got to know him.”

So tonight I will toast Curtis Hanson and this weekend I will try to watch one of his movies.

In other news, while the world goes to hell in a hand-basket, my flyover town is all in a tizzy about the new “improved” mascot of the local Jesuit university.

New Billiken

Old Billiken

I hear that the Billiken’s new look is a hot topic in the twitter-sphere.

Anyway, I found this whole kerfuffle amusing.

Meanwhile the Cards are still in the race for the wild card spot. And we have the best mascot ever.

God’s grace abounds.

3 Comments

September 19, 2016

Tempus fugit

by chuckofish

Happy 5th Anniversary to our blog! How time flies, right? Thanks for reading it! High fives all around.

My restful weekend turned out to be anything but that, which is typical, but okay.

Per usual, I went to the grocery store, had coffee with friends, and went to an estate sale where I rescued a needlepoint brick.

I also put a bid in for an antique full size bed. I never win when I bid at estate sales, but, of course, I did this time when I did not have access to a big car or the boy! (What was I thinking?!) So the OM and I went into figure-this-out-mode and managed to rent a pickup truck. Of course, the rental place called on Sunday morning and were like, sorry, there is no pickup truck available–will a mini van do? Long story short, we did rent a large Town & Country minivan which, when all the seats were collapsed, did the job.

Of course, we had to take the bed apart (not a terribly easy job) at the house and then make numerous trips with bed parts down the windy stairs and out to the car. Then we took it home and unloaded it and returned the minivan to the rental place.

Quite the four-hour ordeal. Oy.

The bed will stay in the garage until some day in the future when I have regained my mojo and want to tackle putting it together. Huzzah.

In other news I am still reading The Lamplighter by Maria Susanna Cummins and enjoying it very much.

I am more than halfway through this 424 page opus. The 1850s weren’t perfect by any means, but it is an okay place to escape from the 2010s.

I watched Keanu (2016)–

which is one of those movies where, literally, everything funny is in the trailer. The movie was not good and, as the boy warned me, there is not enough of the kitten in the movie.

I also watched Young Frankenstein (1974), which I realized I had never actually seen from beginning to end. It was funny (especially after Keanu.)

Last week while we were away, the wallpaper went up in our dining room!

I think it looks fabulous! I still have to put things back up on the walls and hang the curtains, but I did put the china back in the china cabinet.

So now it is Monday and it’s back to the salt mines once again!

4 Comments

September 17, 2016

And how can man die better, Than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers, And the temples of his gods?*

by chuckofish

Way back before the great Horatius helped the Romans gain their freedom in the late 6th century BC, the Etruscans ruled over them. Livy, one of our only sources for early Rome and a late, inventive one at that, makes it seem as if the Etruscans were a mean, exploitative lot, who took everything of value from the Romans, including some exceptionally beautiful and highly upstanding Roman ladies. It seems to me that Etruscan art and artifacts tell a different story.

They seem more like Hobbits than Uruk-hai, if you know what I mean. Take their wonderful necropolis at Cerveteri, for example:

Doesn’t it look like a sort of Hobbiton for the dead?

Curiously enough, while the tombs look round on the outside, the interiors map as rectangular spaces.

One of my favorite structures is the Tomb of the Five Chairs, in which, that’s right, archaeologists found five chairs.

Seated on those five chairs (and with feet resting on the footstools) were five, wonderful terracotta statues, of which only three survive, two in the British Museum and one in the Capitoline Museum in Rome.

I’ve loved those statues since I took a class in Etruscan art in college. Aren’t they fabulous? There’s something extremely endearing about them, and they aren’t exactly what you’d call threatening. To be fair to the Romans, most Etruscan art depicts full-size warrior types like this:

I wonder who those people in the Tomb of the Five Chairs were. In any case, I love the Etruscans’ cool necropolis with its round tumuli and rectangular subterranean rooms. While I don’t approve of disturbing graves, I confess that I would love to visit Cerveteri. Road trip anyone?

*Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay, “Horatius at the Bridge”

All photos via Google image.

3 Comments

September 16, 2016

With a knick-knack paddywhack

by chuckofish

It has been quite a week and I plan to do very little this weekend.

Here’s Good news for Longmire fans.

And a prayer to begin the day from Samuel Johnson:

Almighty God, the giver of all good things, without whose help all labour is ineffectual, and without whose grace all wisdom is folly: Grant, we beseech thee, that in our undertakings thy Holy Spirit may not be withheld from us, but that we may promote thy glory, and the coming of thy kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Enjoy your Friday!

The paintings are by Edouard Vuillard and Frederick William Elwell.

1 Comment

September 14, 2016

The Lord is my refuge

by chuckofish

The boy is okay.
1 Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High

    will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.

2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,

    my God, in whom I trust.”

³Surely he will save you
    from the fowler’s snare
    and from the deadly pestilence.
⁴He will cover you with his feathers,
    and under his wings you will find refuge;
    his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
⁵You will not fear the terror of night,
    nor the arrow that flies by day,
⁶nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
    nor the plague that destroys at midday.
⁷A thousand may fall at your side,
    ten thousand at your right hand,
    but it will not come near you.
⁸You will only observe with your eyes
    and see the punishment of the wicked.

⁹If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”
    and you make the Most High your dwelling,
¹⁰no harm will overtake you,
    no disaster will come near your tent.
¹¹For he will command his angels concerning you
    to guard you in all your ways;
¹²they will lift you up in their hands,
    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
¹³You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
    you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

¹⁴“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;
    I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
¹⁵He will call on me, and I will answer him;
    I will be with him in trouble,
    I will deliver him and honor him.
¹⁶With long life I will satisfy him
    and show him my salvation.”

–Psalm 91 (NIV)

The OM and I are heading back home today. Daughter #3 and her mother are staying in Indianapolis with the boy ’til they release him on Friday or Saturday. We were very impressed with the University Hospital in Indianapolis and the A Team that operated on the boy. All is well.

5 Comments

September 12, 2016

“My ransomed soul he leadeth”*

by chuckofish

I had a rather long to-do list this weekend, and I checked off most everything on it. This included getting my hair cut, going to several estate sales, going to Lowe’s, cleaning up my closet, doing a little yard work, and going to church. Pretty typical.

[Daughter #1 celebrated her birthday in NYC with daughter #2. They had fun (see picture) and cake!]

I started reading The Lamplighter by Maria Susanna Cummins, which daughter #2 sent me. (Sentimental novels of the mid-19th century are a concentration of her doctoral studies.)

Published in 1854, The Lamplighter, Cummins’s first novel, was an immediate best-seller, selling 20,000 copies in twenty days. The work sold 40,000 in eight weeks, and within five months it had sold 65,000. At the time it was second in sales only to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It sold over 100,000 copies in Britain and was translated into multiple different languages.

I am enjoying it immensely. Although Nathaniel Hawthorne may have sneered at it, there is a reason so many people gobbled it up. It is well-written, diverting and instructive, and to the average person struggling along in the daily grind, uplifting.

[Gerty’s] especial favorite was a little work on astronomy, which puzzled her more than all the rest put together, but which delighted her in the same proportion; for it made some things clear, and all the rest, though a mystery still, was to her a beautiful mystery, and one which she fully meant some time to explore to the uttermost. And this ambition to learn more, and understand better, by and by, was, after all, the greatest good she derived. Awaken a child’s ambition, and implant in her a taste for literature, and more is gained than by years of school-room drudgery, where the heart works not in unison with the head.

Agreed.

At church the Gospel lesson was about Christ eating with sinners and the Pharisees grumbling about it. The Apostle Paul reminded us that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, he foremost among them. In the OT lesson, God changed his mind, at Moses’ prompting, and forgave the slackers in the wilderness. Most of us are grumbling Pharisees ourselves, and it is good to be reminded of it. It is good to be reminded of it weekly and to say this prayer of confession:

Most merciful God,
we confess that we have sinned against you
in thought, word, and deed,
by what we have done,
and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart;
we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ,
have mercy on us and forgive us;
that we may delight in your will,
and walk in your ways,
to the glory of your Name. Amen.

We will forget soon enough and once again be grumbling Pharisees.

Later today the OM and I are driving to Indianapolis where the boy is having surgery tomorrow at Indiana University Hospital. All trace of his cancer is gone, but there is still a tumor and they will remove it. If all goes well, we will return on Wednesday. Please keep us all in your prayers.

*Hymn 410

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dual personalities

Category: Uncategorized

September 27, 2016

Within our inward temple

by chuckofish

September 26, 2016

Grant us strength and courage*

by chuckofish

September 24, 2016

We have art in order not to die of the truth*

by chuckofish

September 23, 2016

“It seemed to be a good idea at the time.”*

by chuckofish

September 22, 2016

This and that

by chuckofish

September 19, 2016

Tempus fugit

by chuckofish

September 17, 2016

And how can man die better, Than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers, And the temples of his gods?*

by chuckofish

September 16, 2016

With a knick-knack paddywhack

by chuckofish

September 14, 2016

The Lord is my refuge

by chuckofish

September 12, 2016

“My ransomed soul he leadeth”*

by chuckofish