books | dual personalities

Cheers, it’s Monday!

by chuckofish

Did you have a quiet weekend? I researched whether this pumpkin spice thing really has gone too far. And I got a lot of things around the house done and that felt good.

I went to church and read the first lesson–a not very inspiring passage from Sirach (one of those second-listed wisdom books from the Apocrypha). The second reader got to read from I Timothy–no fair.

Since it is that stewardship time of year, we had our weekly “stewardship moment,” which was delivered by a parishioner who is the producer of a weekly TV show. She was nervous about her testimony, so the two stars of her show came along for moral support and were seated in the congregation. Kind of sweet.

I went to an estate sale in the neighborhood and bought an “antique” wash stand which I put in my den, switching out a table that has never really fit there. I rearranged things and am pleased with how things look.

(Apologies for not having styled an appropriate vignette yet.)

I read quite a bit of Prelude to Terror, an old thriller (1978) by Helen MacInnes. After reading several books by Shirley Jackson, I was having trouble finding something to read. (Karin Fossum’s latest dreary Swedish mystery did not make the cut.) Helen seems to be just what I was looking for.

I watched Genius (2016) about the great editor Maxwell Perkins and the writer Thomas Wolfe. It was disappointing, despite having quite a primo cast.

Sigh. Well, here’s a little Wolfe to make up for the disappointment:

Some things will never change. Some things will always be the same. Lean down your ear upon the earth and listen.

The voice of forest water in the night, a woman’s laughter in the dark, the clean, hard rattle of raked gravel, the cricketing stitch of midday in hot meadows, the delicate web of children’s voices in bright air–these things will never change.

The glitter of sunlight on roughened water, the glory of the stars, the innocence of morning, the smell of the sea in harbors, the feathery blur and smoky buddings of young boughs, and something there that comes and goes and never can be captured, the thorn of spring, the sharp and tongueless cry–these things will always be the same.

All things belonging to the earth will never change–the leaf, the blade, the flower, the wind that cries and sleeps and wakes again, the trees whose stiff arms clash and tremble in the dark, and the dust of lovers long since buried in the earth–all things proceeding from the earth to seasons, all things that lapse and change and come again upon the earth–these things will always be the same, for they come up from the earth that never changes, they go back into the earth that lasts forever. Only the earth endures, but it endures forever.

—You Can’t Go Home Again

So it is Monday again and we are back at the salt mine. Make the most of your day.

4 Comments

October 11, 2016

Drawing the line

by chuckofish

Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon completed surveying for the “Mason-Dixon line” separating Maryland and Pennsylvania on this day in 1767. The work was done between 1763 and 1767 in order to resolve a border dispute involving Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.

In popular usage, the Mason–Dixon line still symbolizes a cultural boundary between the North and the South.

Reading about this, it suddenly occurred to me that the name “Dixie” (used as a historical nickname for the southern states) must derive from Jeremiah Dixon’s name!

Mind-blowing that I just thought of that. Did you know that?

Anyway, here’s a great song by Mark Knopfler (with James Taylor) about Mason and Dixon, which was itself inspired by the book Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon.

P.S. I read that book back in the 1990s and liked it.

4 Comments

September 19, 2016

Tempus fugit

by chuckofish

Happy 5th Anniversary to our blog! How time flies, right? Thanks for reading it! High fives all around.

My restful weekend turned out to be anything but that, which is typical, but okay.

Per usual, I went to the grocery store, had coffee with friends, and went to an estate sale where I rescued a needlepoint brick.

I also put a bid in for an antique full size bed. I never win when I bid at estate sales, but, of course, I did this time when I did not have access to a big car or the boy! (What was I thinking?!) So the OM and I went into figure-this-out-mode and managed to rent a pickup truck. Of course, the rental place called on Sunday morning and were like, sorry, there is no pickup truck available–will a mini van do? Long story short, we did rent a large Town & Country minivan which, when all the seats were collapsed, did the job.

Of course, we had to take the bed apart (not a terribly easy job) at the house and then make numerous trips with bed parts down the windy stairs and out to the car. Then we took it home and unloaded it and returned the minivan to the rental place.

Quite the four-hour ordeal. Oy.

The bed will stay in the garage until some day in the future when I have regained my mojo and want to tackle putting it together. Huzzah.

In other news I am still reading The Lamplighter by Maria Susanna Cummins and enjoying it very much.

I am more than halfway through this 424 page opus. The 1850s weren’t perfect by any means, but it is an okay place to escape from the 2010s.

I watched Keanu (2016)–

which is one of those movies where, literally, everything funny is in the trailer. The movie was not good and, as the boy warned me, there is not enough of the kitten in the movie.

I also watched Young Frankenstein (1974), which I realized I had never actually seen from beginning to end. It was funny (especially after Keanu.)

Last week while we were away, the wallpaper went up in our dining room!

I think it looks fabulous! I still have to put things back up on the walls and hang the curtains, but I did put the china back in the china cabinet.

So now it is Monday and it’s back to the salt mines once again!

4 Comments

September 12, 2016

“My ransomed soul he leadeth”*

by chuckofish

I had a rather long to-do list this weekend, and I checked off most everything on it. This included getting my hair cut, going to several estate sales, going to Lowe’s, cleaning up my closet, doing a little yard work, and going to church. Pretty typical.

[Daughter #1 celebrated her birthday in NYC with daughter #2. They had fun (see picture) and cake!]

I started reading The Lamplighter by Maria Susanna Cummins, which daughter #2 sent me. (Sentimental novels of the mid-19th century are a concentration of her doctoral studies.)

Published in 1854, The Lamplighter, Cummins’s first novel, was an immediate best-seller, selling 20,000 copies in twenty days. The work sold 40,000 in eight weeks, and within five months it had sold 65,000. At the time it was second in sales only to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It sold over 100,000 copies in Britain and was translated into multiple different languages.

I am enjoying it immensely. Although Nathaniel Hawthorne may have sneered at it, there is a reason so many people gobbled it up. It is well-written, diverting and instructive, and to the average person struggling along in the daily grind, uplifting.

[Gerty’s] especial favorite was a little work on astronomy, which puzzled her more than all the rest put together, but which delighted her in the same proportion; for it made some things clear, and all the rest, though a mystery still, was to her a beautiful mystery, and one which she fully meant some time to explore to the uttermost. And this ambition to learn more, and understand better, by and by, was, after all, the greatest good she derived. Awaken a child’s ambition, and implant in her a taste for literature, and more is gained than by years of school-room drudgery, where the heart works not in unison with the head.

Agreed.

At church the Gospel lesson was about Christ eating with sinners and the Pharisees grumbling about it. The Apostle Paul reminded us that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, he foremost among them. In the OT lesson, God changed his mind, at Moses’ prompting, and forgave the slackers in the wilderness. Most of us are grumbling Pharisees ourselves, and it is good to be reminded of it. It is good to be reminded of it weekly and to say this prayer of confession:

Most merciful God,
we confess that we have sinned against you
in thought, word, and deed,
by what we have done,
and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart;
we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ,
have mercy on us and forgive us;
that we may delight in your will,
and walk in your ways,
to the glory of your Name. Amen.

We will forget soon enough and once again be grumbling Pharisees.

Later today the OM and I are driving to Indianapolis where the boy is having surgery tomorrow at Indiana University Hospital. All trace of his cancer is gone, but there is still a tumor and they will remove it. If all goes well, we will return on Wednesday. Please keep us all in your prayers.

*Hymn 410

4 Comments

August 22, 2016

Trampling the sabbath*

by chuckofish

I had never heard/read/run across this phrase–“trampling the sabbath”–but I like it. It was from the first reading on Sunday, from Isaiah.

“If you refrain from trampling the sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day; if you call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, serving your own interests, or pursuing your own affairs…” (NRSV)

Don’t you think this is much better than the NIV (also the New English Bible and the KJV):

“If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words…”

“Trampling the sabbath” is so much more descriptive than “keeping your feet from breaking”…I mean really!

Anyway, I went to church. (Two weeks in a row!) We were celebrating the 50th anniversary of the ordination of one of our former rectors. There were a lot of people at church and cake and I got to sit behind my friend Carla’s granddaughter.

She let me hold her and didn’t even fuss about it. Quelle baby!

When I went home I got the OM to help me do some yard work. It was a glorious day–80-degrees and low humidity. Having filled up a couple of lawn and leaf bags, I sat outside for awhile and enjoyed the afternoon–unheard of in August in flyover country!

In other news this weekend, I read The Town in Bloom by Dodie Smith, who wrote I Capture the Castle. I enjoyed it. I had lunch with my friends and caught up on the phone with my dual personality and my two dear daughters. I re-charged for the week at work. What did you do?

*Isaiah 58:13

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August 17, 2016

“On the banks of the Wabash, far away”*

by chuckofish

“That month he developed the habit every night of picking up the Bible the last thing before he went to bed and reading a few verses, and from thinking a prayer and from thinking thanksgiving, he advanced to the place where he boldly, in the silence and serenity of the little room, got down on his knees and prayed the prayer of thanksgiving. Then he followed it by the prayer of asking. He found himself asking God to take care of all the world, to help everyone who needed help; to put the spirit and courage into every heart to fare forth and to attempt the Great Adventure on its own behalf… Then he arose, in some way fortified, a trifle bigger, slightly prouder, more capable, more of a man than he had been the day before. He had asked for help and he knew that he was receiving help, and he knew that never again would he be ashamed to face any man, or any body of men, and tell them that he had asked for help and that help had been forthcoming, and that the same experience lay in the reach of every man if he would only take the Lord at His word; if he would only do what all men are so earnestly urged to do–believe.”

― Gene Stratton-Porter, The Keeper of Bees

Today is the birthday of Gene Stratton-Porter (August 17, 1863 – December 6, 1924) who was an American author, naturalist, and nature photographer.

She wrote several best-selling novels–Freckles, A Girl of the Limberlost, and The Harvester–which are set in the wooded wetlands and swamps of the disappearing central Indiana ecosystems. She knew and loved these, and documented them extensively. Her works were translated into several languages, including Braille, and she was estimated to have had 50 million readers around the world. Many of her books are still in print.

I have to admit I have never read any of her books, but I have always heard of them–especially The Girl of the Limberlost, which has to be one of the all-time best titles ever. Indeed, Stratton-Porter is one of Indiana’s best known authors and she really put Geneva, Indiana on the map by writing about the Limberlost swamp. Besides writing best-selling novels, she was an amateur naturalist who studied the bird life of the upper Wabash and recorded her observations. She was also a pioneer photographer, taking pictures of the birds she studied and loved.

Stratton-Porter’s two Indiana residences, “Limberlost Cabin” in Geneva, Indiana

and the “Cabin at Wildflower Woods” in Rome City, Indiana

were both designated Indiana State Historic Sites in 1946 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. They are operated by the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites Corporation as house museums.

She also had a honkin’ big house in Bel Air, California (she was in the movie business too), but I’m going to limit myself to exploring more of the Hoosier State. Road trip, anyone?

*Indiana state song by Paul Dresser

5 Comments

August 12, 2016

10,000 Reasons

by chuckofish

The sun comes up
It’s a new day dawning
It’s time to sing Your song again
Whatever may pass
And whatever lies before me
Let me be singing
When the evening comes

As you know, I listen to Christian radio in the morning as I drive to work. (Stop rolling your eyes). It keeps me focused and positive, especially during this freakazoid election cycle.

Anyway, listening to Matt Redman’s song “10,00 Reasons,” based on Psalm 103, reminded me of how important it is to remember all the reasons to praise the Lord. It may not always seem like there are 10,000 (or even 10) reasons to praise the Lord, but there are.

You might want to make a list. Here is a start: 1. Frederick Buechner turned 90 in July!

2. You have a thousand books on your shelves at home to read.

3. You could barbeque tonight if you so desired.

4. There are still people in the world who make exquisite things like this.

5. GIFs like this make me laugh:

6. Good things are coming.

7. The geraniums are still going strong.

8. The Bible is online and you can look up scripture at will and in your choice of translation.

Over the weekend (another blessing) I’ll be working on my list. How about you?

Bless the Lord oh my soul
Oh my soul
Worship His Holy name
Sing like never before
Oh my soul
I’ll worship Your Holy name

Have a good weekend!

(The painting at the top is by Karen Mathison Schmidt via Pinterest.)

4 Comments

August 10, 2016

What are you reading?

by chuckofish

My scholarly dual personality is too modest to tell you that her book has just been published!

It was six years in the making, but now it is out!

Gregory Urwin of the University of Oklahoma Press writes:

I am pleased to announce the release of Volume 55 in the Campaigns and Commanders Series that I edit for the University of Oklahoma Press — The Campaigns of Sargon II: King of Assyria, 721-705 B.C. by Sarah C. Melville.

If you think you know the Assyrians from fleeting references in the Old Testament, think again. Melville has plunged deep into the sources, which are more extensive than most of us would think. She mastered Akkaidian, the language of the Assyrians, so she could read the clay, gold, silver, copper, lead, and lapis lazuli tablets on which these people recorded their history, along with inscriptions on freestanding steles, natural rock formations, walls, doors, thresholds, and bull colossi of palaces. She also deciphered palace reliefs, consulted archaeological studies, and reviewed the documentation left by the Assyrians’ enemies.

The result is a history that depicts the Assyrians as a much more complex race of warriors. They could be cruel in war, but they devised much more sophisticated means to hold their empire together than beheading defeated warriors and sending conquered peoples into exile. I found the brand of geo-politics that Sargon II practiced to be surprisingly modern.

At a time when ISIS fanatics are attempting to obliterate the pre-Muslim history of the Middle East and south Asia, the appearance of Sarah Melville’s book could not be more timely. Impeccable research and a lively writing style makes this the definitive look at the Assyrian way of war.

It is with no little pride that I see this volume take its place in my series. Part of that pride rests on the fact that Sarah is also the first woman historian to publish with Campaigns Commanders. It was about high time that happened…

So get your copy of The Campaigns of Sargon II today! I have mine and I look forward to finding out all about Sargon II.

On the fiction side of things, I finished the Grantchester book this weekend and also re-read Olive Kitteridge, the wonderful novel by Elizabeth Strout. If you have not read this great book, I highly recommend it.

Enjoy your Wednesday!

9 Comments

August 1, 2016

“Not everything in life could be considered material for a sermon…”*

by chuckofish

I had sad news over the weekend. My old friend and rector, the Rev. Ken Semon, died last week as the result of a biking accident at the age of 70. (You can read about it here.)

After leaving flyover country twenty years ago, he had answered a call in Arizona and was still working as an Episcopal priest in Santa Fe at the Church of the Holy Faith, the oldest Episcopal Church in New Mexico. He was really the finest minister and one of the best people I have ever known.

He was also a fraternity brother of Harrison Ford at Ripon College, a fanatical skiier, a PhD in English Literature, and a convert to Christianity. Maybe because he came to Christianity by choice and not by birth, he took it very seriously. A little too high church for my tastes, he was nevertheless a true Christian in every way and in my mind a rather saintly person.

It is appropriate that I have been reading Sidney Chambers and The Shadow of Death, the first book in the Grantchester mystery series, upon which the PBS series is based.

The author James Runcie is the son of the Rt. Rev. Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury from 198o–1991, and the protagonist, Sidney Chambers, is based on his father. You will recall that Robert Runcie served as a tank commander in WWII and earned the Military Cross for two feats of bravery in March 1945. He was also the only tank commander to capture a submarine.

Anyway, the Rt. Rev. Runcie came to my old church as the Holy Week preacher in the 1990s when Ken Semon was the rector. Runcie was a nice man and a good preacher. (I had lunch with his wife and I thought she was a bit of a pill.) It is nice to know that his son must also be a good guy and an Anglican.

I am enjoying this book a lot and I recommend it.

…but the plain fact was that even before he had involved himself in this criminal investigation he had had too many things on his plate. His standards were slipping and the daily renewal of his faith had been put on the back burner. He thought of the General Confession: ‘We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done…’

He started to make a list, and at the top of the list, as he had been advised at theological college, was the thing that he least wanted to do. ‘Always start with what you dread the most,’ he had been told. ‘Then the rest will seem less daunting.’ ‘Easier said than done,’ thought Sidney as he looked at the first item on the list of duties.

As you know, I do not believe in coincidence. I believe in the whispering voice saying, “You’re doing fine.”

Into paradise may the angels lead thee, Ken, and at thy coming may the martyrs receive thee, and bring thee into the holy city Jerusalem.

*Canon Sidney Chambers, “Grantchester” by James Runcie

7 Comments

July 29, 2016

This and that

by chuckofish

Friday again. What are your plans? This weekend I will be finishing Mr. Churchill’s Secretary written by Elizabeth Nel in 1958. She was one of Winston Churchill’s secretaries during WWII working tirelessly behind the scenes from 1941-45.

A friend at work loaned it to me and I have been enjoying it very much. It is full of intimate details only a woman would notice.

It was a new experience to travel in a battleship. It seemed like a floating city, and we were glad to see notices for our benefit: THIS WAY FORWARD, TO THE WARDROOM, etc., which must have infuriated the proper denizens. Ham and I shared a vast cabin astern; it seemed right over the propellers, and the shaking and roaring was continuous. The office was a little farther forward, but the Prime Minister’s quarters were just under the bridge and miles on toward the bow. To walk there took at least ten minutes. Four flights of steps had to be mounted, and the continual updraft was an embarrassment to one’s skirts, particularly as Royal Marines were stationed on duty at every turn.

Times have changed so much since this hard-working, patriotic young women worked so diligently for her country and for a man who liked to work in his pajamas in bed in the morning. She didn’t begrudge him this eccentricity because she knew how hard he worked. She thought nothing of it. And, of course, there was nothing to think about it.

I also have to pick out wallpaper for my dining room–an exciting prospect!