Well, I am back from New York City! I had a terific time with daughter #1.
New York is indeed a great and beautiful city. I especially love the Upper West Side and wonderful Central Park. And of course–spending time with daughter #1–priceless!
More tomorrow after I’ve decompressed a bit!
So asks Siegfried Sassoon in his poem, “Aftermath”, written in 1919. Here it is in full:
Have you forgotten yet?…
For the world’s events have rumbled on since those gagged days,
Like traffic checked while at the crossing of city-ways:
And the haunted gap in your mind has filled with thoughts that flow
Like clouds in the lit heaven of life; and you’re a man reprieved to go,
Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare.But the past is just the same-and War’s a bloody game…
Have you forgotten yet?…
Look down, and swear by the slain of the War that you’ll never forget.Do you remember the dark months you held the sector at Mametz–
The nights you watched and wired and dug and piled sandbags on parapets?
Do you remember the rats; and the stench
Of corpses rotting in front of the front-line trench-
And dawn coming, dirty-white, and chill with a hopeless rain?
Do you ever stop and ask, ‘Is it all going to happen again?’Do you remember that hour of din before the attack–
And the anger, the blind compassion that seized and shook you then
As you peered at the doomed and haggard faces of your men?
Do you remember the stretcher-cases lurching back
With dying eyes and lolling heads—those ashen-grey
Masks of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay?Have you forgotten yet?…
Look up, and swear by the green of the spring that you’ll never forget.
And that was less than a year or so after the end of the war. Certainly, for Sassoon, the Great War remained the defining event of his life. He never ‘got over it’ and he never allowed himself to forget. But the world moves on and a lot of people prefer to cultivate amnesia, while others think that public remembrance is just a way to glorify and justify war (we’ll say no more of those people).
The veterans of WWI are now all at rest and those who fought in WWII are fading fast — all the more reason to remember then this Veterans’ Day. It’s no longer fashionable to talk in terms of “the greatest generation”, but really, many of these people did extraordinary things under the most hideous circumstances without wavering or complaining a bit.
Go to the military obituary page at the Daily Telegraph and read about some of the incredible things that people did and survived during WWII. Take mild-mannered naturalist John Cloudsley-Thompson, for example. At 21, he commanded a tank crew in North Africa, got severely wounded, did a stint training men at Sandhurst, and finally convinced his commanding officers to send him back to active service just in time for D-Day and the long fight to Germany. His marvelous obituary reminds us of what good character really means. In North Africa in the face of horrible fighting and conditions, the young officer “defused the tension of waiting to take on the Afrika Korps by directing his crew to hunt for spider and scorpion specimens. He even acquired a desert fox from a local which his crew tamed and nicknamed “Noball”. At one point the fox got lost inside the tank’s engine, forcing the entire squadron to wait before moving off.” Can’t you picture this and don’t you wish you could have known him? After the war, he became a well-known professor and prolific scholar.
There he is in 1964 in the Sudan. He is survived by his three sons. They sure don’t make ’em like that anymore. So let’s drink a toast to Professor Cloudesly-Thompson and all those like him, who served their countries. Be at peace.
Start spreading the news. I’m leaving today. Not to be overly dramatic or anything…but I am leaving later today for New York to have a little visit with daughter #1. I am tagging along with my husband who has a meeting. I have never done that before, but it seemed like a good time to do the whole ballyhoo thing.
Here’s hoping we do better than these guys:
Have a good weekend yourself!
XIII. “REST AND BE THANKFUL!”
AT THE HEAD OF GLENCROE
Doubling and doubling with laborious walk,
Who, that has gained at length the wished-for Height,
This brief this simple wayside Call can slight,
And rests not thankful? Whether cheered by talk
With some loved friend, or by the unseen hawk
Whistling to clouds and sky-born streams that shine,
At the sun’s outbreak, as with light divine,
Ere they descend to nourish root and stalk
Of valley flowers. Nor, while the limbs repose,
Will we forget that, as the fowl can keep
Absolute stillness, poised aloft in air,
And fishes front, unmoved, the torrent’s sweep,–
So may the Soul, through powers that Faith bestows,
Win rest, and ease, and peace, with bliss that Angels share.
–Composed by William Wordsworth during a tour in Scotland and on the English border in the autumn of 1831
“Rest and be thankful” are the words inscribed on a stone near the junction of the A83 and the B828, placed there by soldiers who built the original military road in 1753, now referred to as the Drovers’ road. The original stone fell into ruin and was replaced by a commemorative stone at the same site.
The section is so named as the climb out of Glen Croe is so long and steep at the end that it was traditional for travellers to rest at the top, and be thankful for having reached the highest point. The current road no longer keeps to the floor of Glen Croe but steadily climbs across the southern slopes of The Cobbler, on the north side of the Glen, to the highest point of the pass. The westward descent to Loch Fyne is through Glen Kinglas, and from here the A815, the main road to Dunoon and the Cowal peninsula, branches off to the south.*
I have not been to this particular corner of Scotland, but I wish I had! Wow. And isn’t it great that they erected a stone inviting people to “rest and be thankful”?
Anyway, I thought this fit in nicely with my effort to be thankful this month–don’t you agree?
*Information and photos via Wikipedia
I watched several good movies this weekend. The first was recommended by a friend with discriminating film tastes--Sunshine (1999) starring Ralph Fiennes and a host of English and Hungarian actors.
The film follows a Jewish family living in Hungary through three generations, rising from humble beginnings to positions of wealth and power in the crumbling Austro-Hungarian Empire. Fiennes plays all three characters: the grandfather who changes his name to become a Judge, the son who converts to Catholicism to get into the right fencing club in order to win an Olympic Gold medal and the grandson who ultimately sees the futility of it all and changes his name back to Sonnenscheim (sunshine).
It is a really well done movie filmed beautifully in Europe, which makes a good point without hitting anyone over the head. One must never sacrifice one’s “self” to a government, because they are all imperfect and will betray you in the end. The grandfather who loves the monarchy is let down and the son who acquiesces to the National Socialists is betrayed by the Nazis and murdered at Auschwitz while the son watches. He, in turn, becomes a Communist after the war in order to avenge his father’s death, but comes to learn that the Communists are ten times worse than even the Nazis. He learns that one must be true to oneself and one’s family in order to breath freely.
A Canadian-Hungarian production, it was not nominated for one single Oscar–gee, I wonder why? It won several European awards and the Genie for best Canadian Film. Ralph Fiennes is outstanding, although I wonder if he has a clause written into his contract that he will participate in up to but no more than three mad, impassioned sex scenes involving standing up with a woman or in some awkward position in the woods or on a table. Because of technology, you can fast forward through these.
Anyway, it held my interest for three hours and I recommend it.
I also watched Monsters University which I enjoyed very much.
You gotta love Mike Wazowski. And this guy:
On Sunday night I watched Cabaret (1972) which I had DVR’d when it was on TCM a while ago. I have to admit, I had never seen it before!
Directed by Bob Fosse, it stars Liza Minnelli as Sally Bowles, a nightclub performer who “romances” two men in 1930s Berlin. Liza won an Oscar and, although she plays a decadent and amoral gal, she is by far the most appealing person in the movie. However, try as she may, there is nothing remotely sexy about Liza and it all seems very tawdry and sad. Maybe that is the point. The men all look alike. It was a big hit in 1972 when I was in high school. It won eight Oscars. I’m glad I watched it, but it isn’t really my cup of tea. Give me Seven Brides for Seven Brothers any day!
This weekend was filled with lots of real-life Nazi monsters and not-so-scary animated Monsters. Weird.
Sunday was All Saints’ Sunday when we Episcopalians remember “all the saints” –and by saints I mean that “glorious band” of Christians who have gone before us, leading by example. Protestants generally regard all true Christian believers as saints.
William Farel, John Calvin, Théodore de Bèze, and John Knox in Reformation Park, Geneva
We are reminded on All Saints” Sunday to think of those saints who have influenced our lives. We all have them, starting usually, if we are lucky, with our mothers. I believe in God–Father, Son and Holy Ghost–chiefly because she told me about Him. Furthermore, I followed her example and her advice to remember that “this is the day which the Lord hath made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
Of course, there have been teachers, ministers, friends who throughout my life have supported and guided me. Some I’ve written about here, but their names wouldn’t mean anything to you, so I won’t make a list. (But a list is a good idea.)
Frederick Beuchner, however, is a saint you have probably heard of. I am happy to say that I have heard him preach and even shaken his hand. I brought my three children to hear him and they too have shaken his hand.
I have also heard Archbishop Desmond Tutu preach and shaken his hand.
I went to a Billy Graham “revival” and that, too, was an awesome experience. There were thousands of people present, so I did not get to shake his hand.
All three men are saints in my book and their words–both spoken and written–have helped me along on my journey.
I feel that I need to include a woman here in my personal army of saints–how about Jan Karon? She has done what is nearly impossible: written popular fiction with a palatable Christian message that is not “Christian literature” per se. She has sold millions–you go, girl!
It has never been an easy thing to be a saint out in the world. One might argue, today especially. They are not feeding us literally to the lions, but metaphorically, it happens every day.
What God says…is ‘The life you save is the life you lose.’ in other words, the life you clutch, hoard, guard, and play safe with is in the end a life worth little to anybody, including yourself, and only a life given away for love’s sake is a life worth living. To bring his point home, God shows us a man who gave his life away to the extent of dying a national disgrace without a penny in the bank or a friend to his name. In terms of human wisdom, he was a Perfect Fool. And if you think you can follow him without making something like the same kind of a fool yourself, you are laboring under not a cross but a delusion.
There are two kinds of fools in the world: damned fools, and what Saint Paul calls ‘fools for Christ’s sake’ (I Cor. 4:10).
–Frederick Buechner
Our dedication to Christ may sometimes make us look like fools, but I like the company.
*Hymn 286, The Hymnal, 1982
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I’m going to list five things for which I’m grateful. But since it’s early in the month, let’s start with the most basic, mundane stuff and work up to the most important closer to the holiday.
1. Elastic waists, stretchy material, and the color black. Let’s face it. Some of us 50-somethings have not aged as gracefully as others. I’m the type with lumps and bumps that require camouflage. So I’m grateful to J. Jill for styles I can wear comfortably, but still look reasonably tidy in. And black is definitely my favorite color.
picture from jjill.com
Okay. Now picture her a foot shorter, twice as wide, and thirty years older, and presto, c’est moi! Yes, I’m grateful (if dumpy).
2. I’m also grateful for this little product: Eucerin redness relief soothing nightcream.
I use it morning and evening. It’s not expensive and it works amazingly well to even out skin tone and help with those pesky wrinkles. I love the stuff.
3. Green Mountain Coffee. It gets me through those morning classes when I’m feeling uninspired. If only my students drank it too!
It’s roasted in Vermont — what more do I need to say? Yum.
4. Supermarket flowers. Every now and then I buy myself flowers. I especially like these (can’t remember the name), though I’ve never had this color.
They last for weeks if you use the (nasty) chemical preservative they come with. In November, which is notoriously cold and rainy, I am especially grateful for flowers.
5. Let’s not forget the vacuum cleaner. I know, it’s not exciting, but I thoroughly appreciate my warhorse. It takes a lot of use and abuse and keeps on going. Since you are all very well acquainted with vacuums, I’ll spare you a picture. However, mine is coming to the end of its natural life and I am thinking about getting a new one. I would appreciate recommendations!
So that’s my list of some of the little things that make my days better. No deep, spiritual connections here, but it’s a start, What are your basics?
*Obviously, I’m not getting anything for plugging the products listed above. I just like them!
Well, baseball season is finally over. Thank goodness.
Post-season baseball is just too stressful. We flyover fans identify so strongly with our hometown team and we are so eager for them to triumph…but we must keep telling ourselves: It is just baseball. Nobody died.
Yes, we will miss our (sad) skipper.
But life goes on.
One of my goals for November is to be more consciously thankful.
You would think that would be an easy thing in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, but experience teaches us (or me at least) that this is not so. We start that snowball slide to Christmas and get busier day by day. And when we get busy, we forget to be thankful.
My mantra this month will be: Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
Even today. Even when the Cardinals lose.
A sensible thanksgiving for mercies received is a mighty prayer in the Spirit of God. It prevails with Him unspeakably.
–John Bunyan
Halloween really crept up on me. For the first time, I forgot to send cards to my loved ones. Not that it has ever been one of my favorite holidays, but without any little children around, it holds even less appeal for moi. I mean there are people in my neighborhood who put up fake cemeteries in their front yards at the end of September! Good grief.
Since I have sworn off candy corn, what does that leave?
Well, because I love my traditions, I did dig out my Halloween candles earlier in the month.
And here’s an adorable picture of the boy in toddler cowboy mode:
In other news, earlier in the week I picked up my finished needlepoint pillow from the Sign of the Arrow.
You’re impressed, right? The ladies at the SOTA were too. Allow me to bask in the light of this accomplishment for a little bit, please.
And in honor of our departed pater, who died on this day 21 years ago, let us read Psalm 90.
LORD, thou hast been our refuge, *
from one generation to another.
Before the mountains were brought forth,
or ever the earth and the world were made, *
thou art God from everlasting, and the world without end.
Thou turnest man to destruction; *
again thou sayest, Come again, ye children of men.
For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday
when it is past, *
and as a watch in the night.
As soon as thou scatterest them they are even as a sleep, *
and fade away suddenly like the grass.
In the morning it is green, and groweth up; *
but in the evening it is cut down, dried up, and withered.
For we consume away in thy displeasure, *
and are afraid at thy wrathful indignation.
Thou hast set our misdeeds before thee, *
and our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.
For when thou are angry all our days are gone; *
we bring our years to an end, as it were a tale that is told.
The days of our age are threescore years and ten;
and though men be so strong that thy come to fourscore years, *
yet is their strength then but labor and sorrow,
so soon passeth it away, and we are gone.
So teach us to number our days, *
that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.
Edith Head died in 1981 at the age of 83, but because she was honored by Google on her birthday (October 28),
she has had a “new life” on the internet and in the blogosphere this week. Lots of bloggers posted about her and the memorable costumes she designed for actresses ranging from Mae West to Grace Kelly to Natalie Wood and Audrey Hepburn over her long career. Yes, she won a staggering eight Academy Awards and was nominated for 33!
I will not repeat what many bloggers have posted about the iconic designs Head provided for iconic Hitchcock and Cecil B. DeMille films. No, but I would like to mention a movie frequently overlooked when dissecting her career. It is one of the 33 for which she was Oscar-nominated: John Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance!
Who can forget John Wayne’s double-breasted cavalry bib shirt and that terrific 10-gallon Stetson:
Or his gingham go-to-meetin’ dress shirt?
And Head must have had fun designing Lee Marvin’s Liberty Valance costume. What a menacing figure he cuts in his striped pants, exuberantly embroidered vest and Mexican hat, twirling his silver-handled quirt! His costume says: I am one mean bad-ass and don’t forget it.
Jimmy Stewart looks very John Hough-like in his suit, about to be chosen as their representative to the Constitutional Convention.
Edith Head once said she really enjoyed designing the costumes for The Sting because they were mostly for men. I imagine she had a fine time working with John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Lee Marvin, and the incomparable Woody Strode!
Lest we forget: she was a very versatile lady.
P.S. She also designed the costumes for White Christmas. Who will ever forget Danny Kaye’s grey pants, grey socks, grey shoes ensemble? And, of course, these two goofballs:
