It is the last day of May and the Christmas Cactus is blooming again!
It is also Walt Whitman’s birthday! We will toast him and all the birthdays we have celebrated in May.
We do not all contain multitudes. Some people, I am told, do not even have/are incapable of having an inner monologue. (This is science.) I toast those who do.
In other news, in reading through the Bible, I have found several references to bears, which I found interesting. I was unaware that there even were bears in the Ancient Middle East. But I guess there were. Here is an interesting article about a difficult passage. Why did God send bears to attack a group of boys?
And here is John Piper on fighting the fears of old age, which, believe me, I am fighting. He never pulls any punches:
Your outward sufficiency is getting smaller, right? You are weakening. Your body is weakening, your eyes are weakening, your ears are weakening, your memory is weakening, and everything is wasting away. That’s what it means in this age to die. We all will die if Jesus doesn’t come, to which we say, “Come, Lord Jesus.”
But I believe the promise of 2 Corinthians 9:8 is that every good work that you are expected to do by God, you will have the resources to do it — the mental resources, the physical resources, the affectional resources, the financial resources. If you don’t have the resources to do it, he doesn’t expect you to do it.”
Well, take time to smell the flowers today, consider the cosmos, talk to the “Listener up there!” and have a snack.
Today we toast Bob Dylan on his 82nd birthday! Huzzah!
Recently, when I awaken in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep, I have been re-reading Chronicles, Volume I by BD. He is one of the best-read guys you could know. He never wasted his free time in his youth, but read whatever was available on the bookshelves of whoever’s apartment he was crashing in. And he remembered what he read.
I read the biography of Thaddeus Stevens, the radical Republican. He lived in the early part of the 1800s and was quite a character. He’s from Gettysburg and he’s got a clubfoot like Byron. He grew up poor, made a fortune and from then on championed the weak and any other group who wasn’t able to fight equally. Stevens had a grim sense of humor, a sharp tongue and a white-hot hatred for the bloated aristocrats of his day. He wanted to confiscate the land of the slaveholding elite, once referred to a colleague on the floor of the chamber as “slinking in his own slime.” …He got right in there, called his enemies a “feeble band of lowly reptiles who shun the light and who lurked in their own dens.” Stevens was hard to forget. He made a big impression on me, was inspiring. Him and Teddy Roosevelt, maybe the strongest U.S. president ever. I read about Teddy, too. He was a cattle rancher and a crime buster, had to be restrained from declaring war on California–had a big run in with J.P. Morgan, a deity figure who owned most of the United States at the time. Roosevelt backed him down and threatened to throw him in jail.
Good stuff. So read some history, some poetry, and listen to some BD today: pick a good one.
Then she opened up a book of poems
And handed it to me
Written by an Italian poet
From the thirteenth century
And every one of them words rang true
And glowed like burnin' coal
Pourin' off of every page
Like it was written in my soul
We have had a lot of rain in the past few days. And, not surprisingly, there has been flooding near here…
(Photo of the Cedar Creek Lodge Apartments parking lot in South County courtesy of Fox2)
Anyway, May is a month for birthdays and today we toast Dennis Hopper (1936-2010), who had quite a career in Hollywood as a supporting actor in many films. He was also known as a notoriously difficult actor and his career nearly ended early on because of his reputation. Had it not been for John Wayne hiring him to appear in The Sons of Katie Elder (1965), Hopper acknowledged years later, it would have ended.
During the filming of True Grit (1969)–released the same year as Easy Rider–he got to know the Duke quite well. Perhaps this explains in part how he became a Republican in later years, having given up drugs and Rock ‘n Roll.
It is also the birthday of Bob Saget (1956-2022) who died last year under somewhat mysterious circumstances in a hotel. It turns out he fell and hit his head and died in his sleep. He never made any noteworthy movies, but he was the “raddest, baddest dad a kid ever had” on Full House (1987-1995). He was no Ward Cleaver, but he was pretty rad.
Yesterday was the birthday of actors Henry Fonda (1905-1982) and Harry Carey, Jr. (1920-2012) both of whom made quite a few movies with John Ford, any of which would be worth watching tonight. Harry is also the OM’s doppelgänger.
And lest we forget, today is also the 80th anniversary of the Dam Buster raids in WWII in 1943. It might be time to watch The Dam Busters (1955) again.
So we have quite a few toasts to make and lots of good movie options to consider watching. Thanks be to God.
Today we toast Kevin James and Channing Tatum on their birthdays!
In case you were wondering, they did actually make a movie together. The Dilemma (2011) directed by Ron Howard is not a great movie, but you might want to give it a whirl. I am always in the mood for these two.
Today is also the anniversary of the day in 1865 when John Wilkes Booth was surrounded in a barn in Maryland and killed. And, hey, Mary Chapin Carpenter wrote a song about it.
…whom I will miss especially because she always reminded me of my mother and now that connection is gone.
We toasted daughter #1 and celebrated her birthday yesterday…
And we toasted all those brave souls who died on September 11, 2001. Last year I included a video in a blogpost about a fine young man who died in one of the towers helping others and I encourage you to watch it again. Lest we forget.
Yes, there was a lot of toasting, but some events call for that. L’chaim! In the midst of life we are in death (BCP).
This reminder of the Budweiser ad that only aired once in honor of 9/11 is cool.
And I liked this article about taking up your cross daily. “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me,” Jesus says.
For when we cease to worship God, we do not worship nothing, we worship anything.
–G.K. Chesterton
What do you worship? Yourself? Science? Social Justice? It’s an important question.
I had a busy week. We even went out on a weeknight.
The OM got to use his office’s (air-conditioned) suite at the ballpark so he invited a group of friends and clients to watch the game. I had not been to a Cardinals game in many years, not since my flyover university used to sponsor nights at the ballpark. Also I lost interest in the redbirds when they fired Mike Matheny in 2018 (sigh). Anyway, it was fun to watch a game right on the third base line.
The little bud made a new best friend, who taught him how to yell, “You’re a bum!” to the manager. (Our manager is a bum, so it’s okay.) We had a 6-0 lead through seven innings and then lost the game because we have no relievers. C’est la vie.
After my busy week, all I wanted to do was chillax and watch the 150th Open at St. Andrew’s. I did get to see a little, but since I went to church on Sunday I missed the end. (Congrats to Cameron Smith who to me always has a disconcerting Nathan Bedford Forest vibe.)
We celebrated the OM’s birthday with a little party after church.
(The pictures of our birthday parties always look the same, don’t they?) Mr and Mrs Crypt Keeper–c’est la vie.
I’m impressed the OM blew out all the candles with one breath. (So was he.)
The French Silk pie was from Tippins and a big success. I made a tater tot casserole which was also a hit.
Here’s hoping this week will not be so busy and maybe it will cool off a little. It has been a hot summer, but that is par for the course and I am not complaining (as long as the electric grid holds out.)
And here’s a bonus picture of precious Katiebelle doing her chores:
We are deep into summer here in flyover country. The Hibiscus is blooming!
This is always thrilling to me because this plant has grown from seeds harvested from a friend’s yard which I planted years ago. Yay Hibiscus!
Today we note the birthday of Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862).
Thoreau was an intriguing character, even to his contemporaries, but particularly to a whole generation of Americans who grew up in the 1950s and became hippies in the 1960s. I always think of Rockwell Gray, who was an adjunct professor of English at my university and who I knew and liked. He was a certain type of WASP, highly intelligent and very kind, who would have preferred to be Jewish or at least Irish so he could just relax and be a square peg. He loved Thoreau. Like so many others, he felt he was a kindred soul. And don’t we all, to some extent.
Perhaps I am more than usually jealous with respect to my freedom. I feel that my connection with and obligation to society are still very slight and transient. Those slight labors which afford me a livelihood, and by which it is allowed that I am to some extent serviceable to my contemporaries, are as yet commonly a pleasure to me, and I am not often reminded that they are a necessity. So far I am successful. But I foresee, that, if my wants should be much increased, the labor required to supply them would become a drudgery. If I should sell both my forenoons and afternoons to society, as most appear to do, I am sure, that, for me, there would be nothing left worth living for. I trust that I shall never thus sell my birthright for a mess of pottage. (Life Without Principle)
Today we celebrate the birthday of Fred Astaire (May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987), American actor, dancer, singer, choreographer par excellence. Fred was born in Omaha, Nebraska where he started performing at age five. I always liked his movies from the 1930s the best–the ones with Ginger Rogers–but he was in some good movies later in a long and storied career.
He wasn’t much to look at and his singing voice was a warbly soprano, but he could sure dance like nobody’s business. So let’s watch a Fred Astaire movie tonight. They’re always good for what ails you. Here’s a list.
And there’s this…I gather Fred was not amused…
This interview with Saint Paul on the subject of what is wrong with us is brilliant. Just to make things crystal clear.
This article about the late Sen. Orrin Hatch makes me like him even more.
Meanwhile, it finally stopped raining and we have been enjoying beautiful weather. It is also getting hot and we had to turn on the air-conditioning. Zut alors, it is May 10!
This little gal and her mommy are arriving on Thursday, so I have to get busy preparing the house for visitors. Woohoo!
For Christ the Lord hath risen, Our joy that hath no end.*
How was your weekend? We had a glorious (but windy) Saturday, followed by a rainy Sunday–par for the course this spring. Daughter #1 came home and we went to the Sappington House Country Craft Festival where we walked around their lovely grounds, checked out their library and perused the craft booths.
Junior fiddlers tuning up
We moved on to a couple of estate sales. Daughter #1 found a nice little “brown” table and when one of the guys helped us move it to my car, he asked, “Which car is yours?” I said, “The little green car over there.” “Oh, the Mini Coop!” he replied. “I remember you ladies! Have a blessed day.” Yes, we are that Mother-Daughter pair in the Mini Coop. My day was made.
We spent the remainder of the afternoon on the patio soaking up the vitamin D under the umbrella, which, thankfully, did not blow over.
We went to church on Sunday and heard a good sermon on shame from the text, Genesis 18:9-15. After church we celebrated my birthday (again) with a breakfast casserole and cake…
and more presents…
We played inside…
…but we also managed to spend some time outside…
We found a good spot for my new elephant…
Then everyone went home and I caught up with daughter #2 on FT.
Are those baby Crocs not the cutest?
Meanwhile, continuing on my theme of watching Akira Kurosawa films, I watched The Hidden Fortress (1958) last week, which stars Toshiro Mifune and Misa Uehara as the princess. The story follows two unlucky and rather stupid peasants who seemingly cannot do anything right. Bickering constantly, they end up in the middle of a war and become pivotal in helping a princess get over the border to safety in Hayakawa. Of course, Toshiro Mifune is there as the general tasked to escort the princess and do all the heavy lifting and thinking. The princess herself is a very interesting character–smart, dignified, courageous, kind, and beautiful. The bond forged between her and the bondswoman she saves is quite touching. (Boy, you can have all your Disney princesses–this is a great princess.)
There is a lot of action and we get to see Toshiro do some great stunt riding– standing in the stirrups and wielding a sword with both hands while screaming the Japanese version of a rebel yell. It doesn’t get much better than that.
A lot has been written about George Lucas being heavily influenced by this movie when developing Star Wars. This is not surprising since everything he has ever done is derivative of something else. (He has said that R2D2 and C3PO are based on the two peasants.) You can argue that Kurosawa was derivative of John Ford–okay. But the bottom line is that this is a very entertaining and insightful film. It also has something significant to say about kindness (what an overworked word these days) and friendship. The princess learns a lot and she isn’t ashamed to say so. Even on the verge of being beheaded, she can say:
I have enjoyed the journey. The happiness of these days, I would have never known living in the castle. I’ve seen people as they are, without pretense. I’ve seen their beauty and their ugliness with my own eyes.
Great, great movie–check it out. You can rent it on Amazon Prime or watch it here.
P.S. We also watched Paul Blart: Mall Cop II (2015)–one of our low-brow favorites. The OM was riveted, but apparently unamused. Sorry (not sorry) Kevin James is a laugh riot.
*The Day of Resurrection, John of Damascus, 749, tr. by John M. Neale, 1862
