Today I am remembering my dear mother who died on this day in 1988. In this Polaroid, she is holding her adored namesake, daughter #1, who is wearing a dress she made. Truly her granddaughter was a newfound joy for her. But I always knew it was her own children and doing for them that kept her going. And so it goes.
Indeed, June has been a hard month as I am continually thinking back to the events of last year when the OM’s health was going steadily downhill. He died on the 30th.
Yesterday, when I woke up at 6:30, the electricity was out. I could not make coffee. This did not bode well for the day. It came back on at 7:00 a.m. and the day progressed.
Then my plan for lunch fell through and I was feeling down. Then the guy who checks my sprinkler system called and he came by to do his annual thing and turn it on. He is a nice guy with a long pony tail and we had a chuckle about how big the rabbits are this year. We discussed trimming that needed to be done. My mood improved.
I listened to Albert Mohler have a conversation with Carl Trueman about his latest book while I worked on my needlepoint project which has been literally years in the making.
Reading an old blogpost, I was reminded that ten years ago the OM and I ventured out to Westport, MO and Council Grove, KS to do some genealogical poking around. It was a fun trip. It is a good thing I have been writing this blog for nearly 15 years, as I would remember nothing otherwise.
I went to the local library to return Odd Thomas and peruse the stacks a bit.
It was rainy on Sunday, but we had no tornados like they did in central Illinois!
And yesterday was dark and gloomy, but that’s just permission to stay home and read. Indeed, I always have a stack of books waiting for me.
But if you are like me, you are always looking for something good to watch. Usually this means re-watching something old, sometimes really old. Here are a few movies I’ve re-watched recently.
Captain Newman, M.D. (1963), a “comedy-drama” starring Gregory Peck, Tony Curtis, Angie Dickinson, Robert Duvall, Eddie Albert and Bobby Darin. Darin was nominated for the supporting actor Oscar. He really went all-out in his big scene and I’m still sad that he didn’t win. Peck plays psychiatrist Captain Josiah Newman who is head of the neuro-psychiatric Ward 7 at the Colfax Army Air Field military hospital during WWII where he uses “unconventional” methods to treat his patients. I enjoyed it a lot and all the actors are very good.
I also watched Ride With the Devil (1999) directed by Ang Lee and starring Tobey Maguire, Skeet Ulrich, Jeffrey Wright, Jewel, Simon Baker, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, James Caviezel. It is based on the novel Woe to Live On, by Daniel Woodrell, which is a good book worth reading. Set during the American Civil War, it follows a group of men who join the First Missouri Irregulars, also known as Bushwhackers—guerrilla units loyal to pro-Confederacy units of the state—and their war against Northern Jayhawkers allied with the Union army. It is an excellent and authentic depiction of this terrible time in Missouri history, when, frequently motivated by vengeance, both sides thought that they were right and wholly justified.
Another good movie I viewed recently is Appaloosa (2008), starring Ed Harris (who also directed), Viggo Mortensen, Renée Zellweger, and Jeremy Irons. Based on a novel by crime writer Robert B. Parker, the story takes place in the town of Appaloosa where the leading citizens hire lawman Virgil Cole and his deputy Everett Hitch to restore order, authorizing Cole to lay down the law as the new marshal. It is not a great movie but it is entertaining and mostly worth watching because of Viggo Mortensen and his character’s development. Watch him. He is really good.
I also finished reading Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz. It is a well written book (rare these days) with a surprisingly chaste and sweet hero, no bad language and relatively little really grotesque violence. Still, it was not my cup of tea. It was far too creepy for me. I do not need to lose sleep over the fictional Powers of Darkness that proliferate in his books. No sir. So I think that will be enough Koontz for me.
On the other hand, here’s a Case Against Christian Doomerism. The world is nowhere near as uniquely bad as you think it is.
And when Joni Eareckson Tada speaks, it’s a good idea to pay attention: Five Points in My Pain.
Enjoy your day! Read something good, watch something old, watch the sky.
Happy belated Father’s Day to all the good fathers out there!
Good fathers are a blessing and should never be undervalued.
I had a busy weekend as usual, starting on Thursday. Lots of fun stuff and good friends. This balances out with the beginning of my summertime weeks when I mostly stay home and work around the house. This works for me. The best part about being retired is having my Mondays back.
I went to church by myself on Sunday where we sang “Behold Our God”, “How Great Thou Art” and “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”–as you can imagine, I was a mess by the end of the service. Our Music Director also sang this song at the Offertory with a teenage boy from the congregation which was likewise great:
It was a two-Kleenex service to be sure. The sermon on Psalm 29 (God’s voice is like thunder!) was excellent. Our adult ed class on Prayer was also excellent. The young men (mostly seminary students) who have led this class are impressive and give me hope for the future.
I would not miss church for anything.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, Save in the death of Christ my God! All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.
–Isaac Watts, 1707
Yesterday was also the Summer Solstice–the days will start getting shorter now!
Do you know who Larry Arn is? He is the president of Hillsdale College and I got an email from him recommending the books of Dean Koontz, who is a bestselling author of suspense fiction. He has sold like 500 million books. Not my usual go-to choice, but I take a recommendation from Larry Arn seriously, so I got Odd Thomas from the library and have started reading it.
Here is an interview Larry Arn had with Dean Koontz about the novel and the nature of evil. Pretty interesting.
So far, I am enjoying the book. It is well written and the main character is engaging. We shall see. One must keep an open mind.
Yesterday the psalm of the day in my Bible reading plan was #95:
Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. 2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. 3 For the Lord is the great God, And the great King above all gods. 4 In His hand are the deep places of the earth; The heights of the hills are His also. 5 The sea is His, for He made it; And His hands formed the dry land.
6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. 7 For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand.
Today, if you will hear His voice: 8 “Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, As in the day of trial in the wilderness, 9 When your fathers tested Me; They tried Me, though they saw My work. 10 For forty years I was grieved with that generation, And said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts, And they do not know My ways.’ 11 So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”
Immediately upon reading this I was transported back to the Episcopal church I attended as a child where we did Morning Prayer three Sunday mornings a month. We sang (or intoned) the Venite:
O come, let us sing unto the Lord; * let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving * and show ourselves glad in him with psalms.
For the Lord is a great God, * and a great King above all gods. In his hand are all the corners of the earth, * and the strength of the hills is his also. The sea is his, and he made it, * and his hands prepared the dry land.
O come, let us worship and fall down, * and kneel before the Lord our Maker. For he is the Lord our God, * and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.
O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; * let the whole earth stand in awe of him. For he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth, * and with righteousness to judge the world and the peoples with his truth.
(BCP, Rite I)
In this way, week after week, we memorized it. This is a good system in many ways–especially the intoning which aids memorization I think. Unfortunately in most Episcopal churches nowadays Morning Prayer is seldom read anymore. It is relegated, if at all, to an early morning weekday service no one attends. I also noted when I checked in my BCP that in Morning Prayer Rite II the final verse of the Venite is left out. Do they no longer believe that the Lord is coming to judge the world? Hmm.
Well, let’s just say that I thought that when I left I would miss the Episcopal liturgy a lot more than I do. In other words, not at all. And I still have multiple BCPs to read if I feel the urge.
On Tuesday night I went to the Strawberry Festival at Mudd’s Grove sponsored by the Kirkwood Historical Society. Since I’m on the board I felt compelled to go and eat ice cream with fresh strawberries on top. It was a lovely June evening…
…and I was proud of myself for choosing a seat at a table where I knew no one. I spent a pleasant hour talking to an old man who had lived his whole life in Kirkwood and remembered when it wasn’t such a fancy place. We shared a few good chuckles.
Anyway, it was nice to be out and about.
And I laughed so hard reading this, I literally wept–Drama in Real Life. Maybe you had to have had a station wagon with a “suicide bench” in the way back to relate, but I doubt it.
Have a good day and don’t be afraid to talk to the occasional stranger!
Today we celebrate the Battle of Bunker Hill, fought on June 17, 1775, during the early months of the American Revolutionary War. The battle took place after New England forces moved onto the Charlestown peninsula and built defenses on Breed’s Hill, close to Bunker Hill. British forces attacked on June 17, 1775, and eventually took the ground, but the fighting was costly. The battle showed that colonial forces could stand against the British army in a major engagement, even when they lacked the training, supplies, and structure of a professional military force.
Today is also the birthday of my grandfather Daniel Herbert Hilton Cameron, who was always called Bunker. The nickname suited him.
He would have fit right in with those Sons of Liberty. As it was, he was too young for WWI and too old for WWII. He missed out on the opening of the frontier. Like a lot of men, living a conventional life was sometimes a challenge. But he loved his wife and three daughters and he did the best he could. We toast you, Bunker, on your 126th birthday!
Here’s tae us Wha’s like us Damn few, And they’re a’ deid Mair’s the pity!
Can you believe it is the middle of June and the year is almost half over?! Good grief.
Sunday and Monday were spectacular weather days–low humidity, blue skies and temps in the seventies. We do not take days like that for granted here in flyover country, especially in June. And, of course, the Tiger Lilies are literally everywhere.
While cleaning out a drawer this weekend, I found several packs of Bible Tabs which the OM had purchased and never used 🙄. So I got it into my head to put them to use in my Reformation Study Bible which does not have them. Well, this is not as easy as it looks, let me tell you. After several false starts and giving up on the fancy leather tabs, I soldiered on and finally got into some semblance of a rhythm around I Samuel. I finished the job, but you can see there are some obvious gaffs. C’est la vie.
I do feel a certain sense of accomplishment. Thank you.
Meanwhile, here’s a good one about Paul’s “relentless call to relentless gratitude.”
And I really like this one from Andrea about Jesus seeing and healing us one at a time.
So count your blessings and be grateful that God is doing 10,000 things in your life every day.
How was your weekend? We had a very stormy Thursday here in flyover country.
You may have heard–tornados in Illinois and Indiana! DN sent this scary video he took from their backyard deck:
But it was a beautiful sunshiney, low-humidity day on Friday and we took advantage of it.
In the morning I went to an estate sale and got a new/old garden ornament…
I went down to the Link Auction Galleries and picked up the painting I won last weekend. Then I picked up lunch at Straub’s (chicken salad) and headed to daughter #1’s house. From there we went to her pool and sat out in the sun for a couple of hours. Then we headed out to Wildwood where the boy bbq-ed smashburgers and we indulged in daughter #3’s guacamole (from DN’s famous recipe). I was fairly exhausted by the time I got home!
Saturday was dark and intermittently rainy so I took that as a sign to stay home and take it easy. Mr. Smith did get a shampoo that afternoon and afterward he and daughter #1 came over to my house for a visit and a glass of wine. He kept watch while we talked. It’s his job and he takes it seriously.
I went to church on Sunday and heard a good sermon on Psalm 28—The Lord is my strength and my shield! We sang great hymns and I held it together until the last verse of the communion hymn–c’est la vie. We continued studying Tim Keller’s book on prayer in our adult ed class–excellent. Afterwards I went to Trader Joe’s to stock up for the week. Onward!
In other news, Katie lost her first tooth…
…and the boy shared this video of the National Anthem at the soccer game on Friday night–pretty cool:
That’s Dan and Shay (country artists) and, yes, that was Tom Cruise singing with his hand on his heart standing next to handsome David Beckham! I may have to watch some soccer.
P.S. Keep daughter #1 in your prayers this week as she is helping with her church’s VBS–every evening after work! They do get dinner, but, wow! That’s dedication.
Yesterday was the 47th anniversary of the passing of John Wayne in 1979. His legacy lives on through the John Wayne: An American Experience Museum in the Fort Worth Stockyards where visitors can explore the life and career of Duke, as well as through the work of the John Wayne Cancer Foundation, dedicated to the fight against cancer in his honor. His family has done an impressive job preserving his name and image.
We also remember that 22 years ago yesterday, President Ronald Reagan was laid to rest at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California.
I have been reading his autobiography, An American Life, and it really is the quintessential American story–small town boy with brains, talent and good looks, who through hard work becomes a movie star and then the governor of a (then) great state and ultimately president. Only in America.
My personal favorite: Santa Fe Trail with Olivia de Haviland and Errol Flynn
Today we also remember the wonderful character actress Mary Wickes, who was born Mary Wickenhauser on June 13, 1910 in St. Louis, Missouri. She grew up in University City in Ames Place about two blocks from my childhood home. She graduated from Washington University in 1930 and then moved to NYC and appeared on Broadway, before transitioning to film and television.
Mary Wickes and Patrick Knowles in Who Done It? (1942)
From the 1940s to the 1970s, she often played supporting roles as professional women – such as secretaries, nurses, therapists, teachers, and housekeepers – who made sarcastic quips when the leading characters fell short of her high standards.
And who can forget her as Emma, the busybody housekeeper in White Christmas (1953)?
I don’t know about you, but in our family we are constantly quoting her exclaiming, “This calls for champagne!”
She never married or had any children, but she left a large estate and made a $2 million bequest in memory of her parents, establishing the Isabella and Frank Wickenhauser Memorial Library Fund for Television, Film and Theater Arts at Washington University. She is buried in the Wickenhauser family plot in the Shiloh Valley Cemetery in Shiloh, St. Clair County, Illinois.
So why not watch a movie starring John Wayne or Ronald Reagan or a movie or TV show featuring Mary Wickes tonight–I know I’d love to find Season 2, episode 1 of Murder She Wrote, wouldn’t you?
dual personalities 