dual personalities

September 8, 2023

“Mel: I’d like to see you have some direction. Cher: I have direction! Josh: Yeah, to the mall!”

by chuckofish

I read today that Chesterfield Mall is being torn down and replaced with a $2 billion mixed-used development with more than 2,500 apartments that “will create an urban city center in Chesterfield, a suburb that has never before had a downtown.” I’m sure it will look like every other American suburb with new-build downtowns. Congrats, Chesterfield.

Malls used to be such a thing. And now, they are tearing them down or turning them into office space. Or leaving tearing them down and leaving the lot vacant for like 15 years before finally building a subdivision on top. I mean, to be fair, I haven’t been to a mall in ages. But I miss them. I’d like to go to the mall and walk around, popping in and out of stores without having to drive and park and drive and park and get in and out of my car in the heat. And that free air conditioning! Sign me up. Alas, I also enjoy not potentially being murdered outside the Footlocker or in the garage.

And shopping isn’t even that fun these days. Everything is the same or so marked down you assume slave labor produced it half a world away. Pretty unappealing. The Wall Street Journal agrees, kind of, writing, “Shopping has, in many ways, become an uninspiring activity: We see something on Instagram or on your favorite actor or a friend, google it and buy it. It can all feel very preprogrammed and predictable.”

Anyway, I’m not sure what my point is, but I was pretty surprised about the Chesterfield Mall.

*Blog post title is from Clueless.

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September 7, 2023

This and that

by chuckofish

“I dare not neglect prayer and thanksgiving if I am to enjoy God’s transcendent peace and overcome my worries. I must abhor thankless bitterness and eschew sulkiness. My worries must be enumerated before the Father, along with thoughtful requests framed in accordance with his will. These requests must be offered to the accompaniment of sincere gratitude for the many undeserved blessings already received, and for the privilege of stretching my faith by exposure to this new and improved hardship. Thus the follower of Jesus learns really to trust the all-wise and all-gracious sovereignty of God (Rom. 8:28), as he begins to experience the profundity of Peter’s injunction: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:6f.), (D.A. Carson).

Anne reviewed Kevin DeYoung’s new book in Christianity Today. Five stars!

And, wow, this is really something. “[T]hese two people are in a lot of trouble.”

So feel the sun on your back, wear pink pants, pray without ceasing, and remember that God’s mercies are new every morning.

3 Comments

September 6, 2023

Senior moments

by chuckofish

If you recall, I bought an antique glass-front bookcase at auction a couple of weeks ago. The boy brought it home for me and it fit perfectly in the den/tv room where the desk used to be that daughter #1 now has in her house. However, the shelves were stacked at the bottom of the case and it appeared to us that there were none of those clips you put in the holes to support the shelves.

Curses. We measured the holes and I sent away for a set. They were too big, so I sent away for the next smaller size. They were too small. Unbeknownst to me, the OM also sent away for them, so we had four sets that didn’t fit. Then he sent away for three more, which didn’t fit, so we had seven (!) sets and nothing fit.

Frustrated Season 3 GIF by The Simpsons - Find & Share on GIPHY — Seriously. 🤡

Finally we took the shelves out to see if we could hammer the bigger clips in and, lo and behold, underneath them there was a little plastic bag with metal thingamabobs that fit. Huzzah!

There is a lesson here, but I am too irritated to think about it.

And too grateful that I finally have my bookcase, filled now with books.

P.S. Let me know if you need any of those shelf supports–I have seven sets–all sizes!

5 Comments

September 5, 2023

Choice

by chuckofish

“God is going to invade, all right: but what is the good of saying you are on his side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else – something it never entered your head to conceive – comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left? For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realized it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side.”

–C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

(Matthew 24:44)

(The painting is by Albert Bierstadt.)

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September 4, 2023

“I blew out my flip-flop, stepped on a pop top”*

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? Mine was pretty quiet. I caught up with reading and watched several good movies. And today is a bonus day–huzzah!

On Friday afternoon daughter #1 and I went to our favorite local restaurant/bar (one we had helped keep open during COVID) for a happy hour bottle of wine. We had not been there in at least six weeks, but our two favorite waiters came up to greet us with a cheery hello as we entered. They pointed us to our favorite window seats and then came over to explain that the menu had changed and the Rosé we always ordered was no longer on the new list. We asked which they recommended and they said the French, so we ordered it. When the wine arrived they asked if we wanted the hummus and we said, of course.

In this day and age it really is nice to be known and recognized and welcomed somewhere. The only other place this happens is in church!

It was good to be back in church after August, which had been rather hit or miss (mostly miss) because of travel and illness. We sang a rousing selection of the good old Anglican hymns and the more folksy American ones. I love them both.

Beneath the cross of Jesus
I fain would take my stand,
the shadow of a mighty Rock
within a weary land;
a home within the wilderness,
a rest upon the way,
from the burning of the noontide heat
and the burden of the day.

(Elizabeth C. Clepbane, 1890)

The wee twins and the boy, along with daughter #1 and Mr. Smith, came over for a barbecue on Sunday night. (Daughter #3 was sick at home.) We had not seen the twins in several weeks–it is a busy time of year! We heard all about first grade and all the things.

In other news, baby Ida got a tooth!

And Mr. Smith got a haircut!

If you have the day off from work, enjoy it! Rejoice, rejoice, we have no choice.

*RIP Jimmy Buffet. We ate cheeseburgers (a little short of paradise) in your honor on Saturday night!

4 Comments

September 1, 2023

Ursus update

by chuckofish

DN is re-reading Moby-Dick and, reading this about Ahab in the chapter about dining at the captain’s table, he thought I’d like the reference to bears in Missouri:

“Though nominally included in the census of Christendom, he was still an alien to it. He lived in the world, as the last of the Grisly Bears lived in settled Missouri. And as when Spring and Summer had departed, that wild Logan of the woods, burying himself in the hollow of a tree, lived out the winter there, sucking his own paws; so, in his inclement, howling old age, Ahab’s soul, shut up in the caved trunk of his body, there fed upon the sullen paws of its gloom!”

Of course, I did.

(I also love that phrase, “nominally included in the census of Christendom”.)

Have a good weekend–re-read something good, watch out for bears!

(Photo–St. Louis Public Radio)

3 Comments

August 31, 2023

The watered garden

by chuckofish

Mood. Yesterday my electricity went out shortly after I had finished doing my morning Bible reading. “Great,” I thought. “That’s just great.” Because, you know, when your electricity goes out, that means you can’t:

Get your car out of the garage;

do laundry or vacuum;

use the internet;

watch TV or listen to music;

use the dishwasher and a host of other electric appliances–

in fact, you are stuck.

I Swiffered the first floor and watered my plants. Then I started looking at some of my books in the living room (the room with the most natural light)…

and went through the drawers in the highboy.

I found something I had been looking for for some time–my husband’s family history. So that was fortuitous.

Eventually the electricity came back on in about two hours. Turns out, it was a planned outage–but no one told us about the plan. Thanks. But some good did come out of the annoying situation.

My life is like a watered garden.

The Lord will guide you continually,
And satisfy your soul in drought,
And strengthen your bones;
You shall be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

(Isaiah 58:11)

P.S. Baby Ida (top) kinda has some cousin vibes…

Remember him?

4 Comments

August 30, 2023

The heart replies

by chuckofish

When summer’s end is nighing
And skies at evening cloud,
I muse on change and fortune
And all the feats I vowed
When I was young and proud.

The weathercock at sunset
Would lose the slanted ray,
And I would climb the beacon
That looked to Wales away
And saw the last of day.

From hill and cloud and heaven
The hues of evening died;
Night welled through lane and hollow
And hushed the countryside,
But I had youth and pride.

And I with earth and nightfall
In converse high would stand,
Late, till the west was ashen
And darkness hard at hand,
And the eye lost the land.

The year might age, and cloudy
The lessening day might close,
But air of other summers
Breathed from beyond the snows,
And I had hope of those.

They came and were and are not
And come no more anew;
And all the years and seasons
That ever can ensue
Must now be worse and few.

So here’s an end of roaming
On eves when autumn nighs:
The ear too fondly listens
For summer’s parting sighs,
And then the heart replies.

–A.E. Housman

(The painting is by Pablo Picasso, 1902)

3 Comments

August 29, 2023

We do not lose heart

by chuckofish

As previously noted, the summer has flown by and now it is almost September! Good grief, Charlie Brown!

My weekly Bible Study group has started up again. It is good to be back with these faithful ladies, although the prayer requests at the end of our meeting are a constant reminder of the dark world we live in full of sickness and depravity.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory…

(2 Corinthians 4:16-17)

We are reading Even Better Than Eden: Nine ways the Bible’s Story Changes Everything About Your Story by Nancy Guthrie, which takes us from Genesis through Revelation. It’s a departure from our usual format of reading one book of the Bible, but it should be interesting (and a lot of work!) I am also enrolled in Hillsdale College’s free online course, “The Genesis Story: Reading Biblical Narratives.” I am halfway through and so far I am enjoying being “back in the classroom.” There are even quizzes!

This is a good one from Carl Trueman about “the isolated wasteland of modern life” and the opportunities the church has.

And I liked this one from Tim Challies about growing old. “It is in old age that the fruit that began to grow in the younger days finally comes to its ripeness.”

So do not lose heart, keep up with your Bible study and let the breeze mess up your hair!

1 Comment

August 28, 2023

Postcards from Music City

by chuckofish

Nashville sure has changed since we first went in 1996! And even in the five years since we last went in 2018–wow! So many tall glass buildings, so many tourists, so much partying and traffic and noise. You used to be able to walk around in the two square blocks where everything was, but now you really can’t. It is a real scene. Yes, Uber was a real good idea and daughter #1 is a whiz at getting around.

On Friday, after checking in to the very swanky Omni Hotel, we went to dinner at Bakersfield, then Uber’d to the Opry, which has not changed. We saw Ricky Skaggs, Deana Carter, Jeannie Seely, and Vince Gill, along with some up-and-comers.

It was a treat to hear good live music. However the Uber/taxi scene after the show was what I imagine Saturday night in Calcutta is like, but we managed.

On Saturday morning, we walked over to the Diner on 3rd Avenue that is 5 stories high.

We walked around on Broadway…

…and then went back to the hotel and to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum which is actually attached to the Omni. We saw the new Patty Loveless exhibit (and the Whispering Bill Anderson Exhibit) and then walked through the rest of the multi-level museum. It was full of great stuff!

We had tickets for the Patty Loveless sold-out concert/interview and daughter #1 got in line where she stood with Patty’s most devoted fans for good seats when the doors opened at 2:30–about an hour and a half. I came down after taking a quick nap in our room.

I was really surprised by my emotional reaction to seeing Patty.

The tears sprang to my eyes when she walked out (and they played a few notes of “How Can I Help You Say Goodbye”) and I literally did not stop crying as she sang through four songs. It didn’t help when a man yelled “We love you, Patty!”–reminding me of the boy in a similar moment back in the day. Thankfully I had a Kleenex in my purse. Why am I never prepared? Why do I bother to wear mascara?

Patty was crying during “Too Many Memories” and there weren’t a lot of dry eyes in the house. She is my age and she still looks great and sounds terrific. Quelle lady. After the mini-concert she was “interviewed” by one of the museum curators and talked for an hour and a half about growing up in Pikeville and her journey to stardom.

We thought about trying to shake her hand at the end, but I didn’t want to make a spectacle of myself, so we left.

We went to Husk, which is super hip, for a drink.

Then, exhausted, we went back to the Omni where we got a glass of wine for the room and watched The Fate of the Furious (2017). I really enjoyed it–Vin Diesel, the Rock, Jason Statham, Ludicris, Kurt Russell, Scott Eastwood, Tyrese Gibson, et al–over-the-top ridiculousness, but fun.

On Sunday we drove home (during a series of fierce rainstorms) and listened to the playlist of the “Western Edge: the Roots and Reverberations of Los Angles Country-Rock”, which was great too.

Love those Kentucky rest stops!

We had a great time in Nashville, but, boy, was Mr. Smith glad to see daughter #1 when we got home!

Thankfully, the OM did not burn the house down but Mr. Smith did chew up my vintage bicentennial rug in the kitchen. C’est la vie.

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