dual personalities

December 12, 2015

“My, how foolish I am!”

by chuckofish

“You know what I’ve always thought? I’ve always thought a body would have to be sick and dying before they saw the Lord. And I imagined that when He came it would be like looking at the Baptist window: pretty as colored glass with the sun pouring through, such a shine you don’t know it’s getting dark.

Tiffany window 1st Baptist Church, Selma, Alabama

Tiffany window 1st Baptist Church, Selma, Alabama

And it’s been a comfort: to think of that shine taking away all the spooky feeling. But I’ll wager it never happens. I’ll wager at the very end a body realizes the Lord has already shown Himself. That things as they are, just what they’ve always seen, was seeing Him.

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As for me, I could leave the world with today in my eyes.” (Truman Capote, “A Christmas Memory”)

You can watch the whole, Emmy-award-winning TV version here, although the quality isn’t very good.

I remember watching it way back when, and being deeply affected. It’s just the thing to remind us that Christmas doesn’t require a lot of bells, whistles, and fancy presents. All I really want is for my boys to come home safely and fill the house with their irrepressible presence (talk, laughter, music, movies, Nerf battles, Lego creations, computer games, culinary endeavors, and endless mugs of tea). Later today the first traveler will arrive home, and tomorrow, if he isn’t too jet-lagged, we will decorate our tree.

Joyeux Noell indeed!

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December 11, 2015

“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep”*

by chuckofish

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As you know, I sometimes usually listen to a Christian radio station driving into work in the morning. They are playing a lot of Christmas music now and here’s a new one that I like, which is loosely based on the famous poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1863. (It takes a lot of liberties.)

Here’s the poem. It’s rather timely I think.

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along th’unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head:
‘There is no peace on earth, ‘ I said
‘For hate is strong, and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.’

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
‘God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men.’

Till, ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Here’s a version of the older arrangement by the Civil Wars–I like it, although it’s a little breathy for my taste.

And here’s the version I remember from a Christmas record we had when I was a child.

Did you listen to them all? Which one did you like best?

It’s Friday–enjoy your weekend!

4 Comments
December 10, 2015

Follow me in merry measure

by chuckofish

“Tis the season, man! Deck them halls and all that jazz.

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Here are a few things that are making me happy…

New videos from Total Lacrosse!

Although this is truly stupid, it still makes me happy. I mean, haven’t I been saying this for literally years?!

Dolly’s Coat of Many Colors is on television tonight (on NBC)!

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Hello, Rick Schroeder!

Christmas cards are starting to arrive–not many–but I do love them!

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And who doesn’t love poinsettias?

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In less than a week daughter #2 will be home and daughter #1 won’t be far behind. So smile, and as my dual personality says, fight that inner Scrooge!

 

5 Comments
December 9, 2015

Reason is indignant

by chuckofish

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“God travels wonderful ways with human beings, but he does not comply with the views and opinions of people. God does not go the way that people want to prescribe for him; rather, his way is beyond all comprehension, free and self-determined beyond all proof. Where reason is indignant, where our nature rebels, where our piety anxiously keeps us away: that is precisely where God loves to be. There he confounds the reason of the reasonable; there he aggravates our nature, our piety—that is where he wants to be, and no one can keep him from it. Only the humble believe him and rejoice that God is so free and so marvelous that he does wonders where people despair, that he takes what is little and lowly and makes it marvelous. And that is the wonder of all wonders, that God loves the lowly…. God is not ashamed of the lowliness of human beings. God marches right in. He chooses people as his instruments and performs his wonders where one would least expect them. God is near to lowliness; he loves the lost, the neglected, the unseemly, the excluded, the weak and broken.”

–Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas

 

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December 8, 2015

“I went through the same thing with John Barrymore”*

by chuckofish

Last night on TCM they showed The World Of Henry Orient (1964), one of Peter Seller’s lesser known movies.

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It is one of my top 10 favorite movies of all time.

It is about two misfit girls who go to private school and their infatuation with the pianist Henry Orient (Sellers).

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Marian and Val

I remember watching this movie on television for the first time with my mother in the late sixties. Oh, how I loved Val in her shetland sweaters, knee socks and flaps and hand-me-down fur coat! She was so cool. The girls were sloppy, free-spirited and, to me, very real. Years after seeing it for the first time, I realized that Marian is the one I really relate to–the nerd Val befriends. She is the one who holds it–and Val–together.

Furthermore, it is one of those great New York City movies as well–where everything looks wonderful and romantic. All those scenes adventuring through Central Park, clambering over the Manhattan schist. Sigh.

It is based on a book by Nora Johnson, who went to Smith College and was the daughter of the screenwriter Nunnally Johnson. It is a good book, which at the time it was published was compared to A Catcher int he Rye (!)–but the movie is better than the book (not the Catcher in the Rye). Another fun fact: Merrie Spaeth, who played Marian, also went to Smith College and was the roommate of the older sister of my sophomore year roommate. She went on to become a speechwriter for President Reagan.

I highly recommend this movie. It even takes place at Christmas time!

*Boothy in The World of Henry Orient

6 Comments
December 7, 2015

“Let’s go”*

by chuckofish

Some of you movie fans may recognize the title of today’s post as a quote from the movie The Wild Bunch (1969). William Holden says it throughout the movie in a screenwriter’s attempt to bind a wandering plot together, sort of like John Wayne saying “We’re burning daylight” or “That’ll be the day”. However, whereas this device worked in John Wayne movies, it does not in this movie–probably because it is never clear where the bunch is going.

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Do not confuse these guys with The Professionals, who may look similar, but are like night and day.

They are going to hell, I guess. The movie sure does. What a mess, especially the director’s cut, which I made the mistake of watching this weekend. The cast is good, but they have no idea what is happening either. I felt sorry for them.

This movie is frequently hailed as a landmark, a brilliant western which re-defined the genre, blah, blah, blah.  It is just another story of old guys who are out of sink with their time. Their “code of honor” is at odds with society in 1913–but it is a made up code of honor, not unlike the code in Sons of Anarchy. It doesn’t work, it will never work. Once again, the violence is unremitting and boring. Maybe in 1969 it was shocking. Sadly it is shocking no more. Repetitive and bestial, yes. I get it, men–even children–are beasts.

Oh well, I did watch a good  movie this weekend–Mr. Holmes (2015) starring Ian McKellen as the aging Sherlock.

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Set in 1947, this movie is about an aged Sherlock Holmes, retired now to the English coast, who is trying to remember his last case and deal with the onset of memory loss and senility. It is a marvelous, low-key story about an old man who, unlike the guys in the wild bunch, is ultimately not afraid to change.  Ian McKellen is wonderful as is Milo Parker as Roger, the smart little boy who is the son of Sherlock’s housekeeper. I highly recommend you find this movie and watch it–a rarity among this year’s deluge of super heroes and sci fi extravaganzas. No sex, no violence, no vulgarity–only intelligence and subtlety and love. How rare.

In other news, the OM and I went out on a beautiful, balmy Saturday and bought our two Christmas trees. We wrestled the small tree into its stand when we got home after the OM hacked off a good chunk of the lower trunk in order to make it fit. The poor thing has a bit of a Charlie Brown aura about it now, but who cares? It is lovely all decked out in its finery.

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I wrapped quite a lot of presents and have my out-of-town packages ready to go. I worked on my Christmas cards. I capped off the weekend with Lessons & Carols at church where we sang all the great Advent hymns.

All in all, a productive and not-too-hectic weekend!

So now let’s go…

…and look East. The time is near

of the crowning of the year.

Make your house fair as you are able,

set the hearth, and set the table.

People, look East, and sing today:

Love, the guest is on the way**

*Pike Bishop (William Holden) in The Wild Bunch (1969)

**Craig Philips, Advent Carol

4 Comments
December 5, 2015

Defying Your Inner Scrooge

by chuckofish

I don’t know about you, but I think that this year it’s going to take real effort to get into the Christmas spirit. I’m fighting to keep my inner Scrooge at bay. Here is my five step plan to win Christmas.

1.Deck the halls. If you’ve always wanted to fill the house with giant silver balls, go for it. Some fancy magazine might even give you an award. Then again…

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2. Avoid the office holiday party like the plague. There’s nothing so Christmas-spirit-killing as the thought of sharing bad hors-d’oevres and the same old small-talk in a hot, loud venue full of people with whom you have nothing in common except endless, petty complaints. I’m right and you know it.

3. Avoid over-indulgence of all kinds. Moderation is your watchword.

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No one wants to end up looking like a drunken elf. Avoid the deceptively pretty drinks. Choose something you don’t like (whiskey for me); you’ll drink it slowly or not at all.

4. Do something new. Why not? Traditions are great, but after a long time, they have a tendency to become sad — you know, because some people are gone and it’s not the same anymore. Stage your own “sing along with Mitch” or something.

5. When in doubt, read. It’s the best escape around.

That’s it. Pretty simple, I know. But I’m going to try to follow my own advice. Let me know if it works for you.

I’m going to a holiday concert this afternoon and tomorrow at church I’m not only a greeter, but a reader and communion server. Whew! I’ll need a nap after that. I leave you with Tennyson’s perceptive poem, Ring Out Wild Bells!

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light;
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more,
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease,
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

Have a great weekend!

1 Comment
December 4, 2015

“Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings”*

by chuckofish

I had a busy week, especially yesterday, so I am planning to take it easy this weekend. I’m going to go to the church on Saturday for the Christmas cookie sale, wrap presents and mail packages and probably buy our Christmas trees.

Sunday is Advent Lessons & Carols and I am a reader.

I am going to watch Christmas movies and probably more of Sons of Anarchy season three, which I started when the OM was away at a conference this week. (He hates the show.)

SONS OF ANARCHY (Season Premiere, Tuesday, September 11, 10:00 pm e/p) -- Pictured: Katey Sagal as Gemma Teller Morrow -- CR: Frank Ockenfels/FX

But how can you not love a show where Katey Sagal’s character (the SOA Queen Bee), while desperately trying to hot-wire and steal a car, says “Goddamit” in frustration and grabs her purse to find her reading glasses! I can so relate.

Enjoy your weekend! Three weeks from today is…Christmas!

*Isaiah 40:9

3 Comments
December 3, 2015

“Every Christmas it’s the same. I always end up playing a shepherd.”*

by chuckofish

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Well, as they say, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

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Lots of old friends are showing up.

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I’m sure it’s the same at your house, right?

I watched A Charlie Brown Christmas the other night, but not the 50th Anniversary Special which was un-watchable. I mean I tried, but woof. As always, I enjoyed A Charlie Brown Christmas which I was no doubt watching for the 50th time!

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Indeed, I remember watching it for the first time 50 years ago and loving it so much. All my friends watched it. I became a huge Peanuts fan after that. I had a lot of Peanuts stuff.

I insisted on reading the book aloud at our family Christmas Eve celebration the next year (everyone read something) and annoyed my older brother by trying to read in the voices of the kids on the television special. He was extremely intolerant of me in this respect. I felt his judgement keenly. (I was in the fifth grade and he was a cool tenth grader.)

Siblings. How do we survive the judgement of our older siblings? (Well, I guess my dual personality can tell you.) That was the last year we had our family reading and sing-along on Christmas Eve. Our older brother went to a party at his girlfriend’s house the following year, and was always busy elsewhere after that.

C’est la vie. Funnily enough, I think our brother resurrected this tradition for his own family. I’m sure they never read A Charlie Brown Christmas.

*Shermy in A Charlie Brown Christmas

7 Comments
December 2, 2015

Point taken

by chuckofish

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Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at Heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in’: aim at earth and you will get neither.

–C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity 

Quote found on TitusOneNine, the weblog of the Rev. Canon Kendall Harmon who, among other things, is editor of The Anglican Digest. The photo of God rays in Scotland is from this blog.

2 Comments