dual personalities

Tag: family

September 2, 2024

Ora et labora 

by chuckofish

Happy Labor Day! Hope you are having a good day. The twins are coming over again and we will find something fun to do, hopefully with daughter #1 and Mr. Smith.

We picked the twins up for church on Sunday while their parents were still distracted getting ready to move to daughter#3’s parents’ condo over the weekend. They checked their depravity and drew pictures in notebooks I had brought for that purpose. The bud drew many variations on this theme:

And Lottie drew her ‘stories’:

We sang this hymn which always makes me cry…

After church we went to the Sunny Street Cafe for brunch. The twins had dinosaur pancakes and were quite content. The boy picked them up shortly after we came home and they were annoyed that they hadn’t had time to play, but the OM sighed with relief.

To this I hold, my hope is only Jesus
For my life is wholly bound to His
Oh, how strange and divine, I can sing: All is mine!
Yet not I, but through Christ in me

4 Comments
August 29, 2024

That pile of broken mirrors

by chuckofish

This week was a scorcher, but par for the flyover course. The forecast for the long weekend is optimistic so we’ll see.

Daughter #2 and her family escaped to Michigan, but they encountered a huge storm halfway through their vacay which knocked out the electricity to 400,000 people and their running water!

C’est la vie. Before the weather catastrophe, my brother and sister-in-law drove over for a short visit…

…and caught up with the comings and goings of Pete the Cat et al.

Yes, the month is winding down. I will toast Jorge Luis Borges again and suggest you read this short story about a man whose father tells him he had “Lunch with Borges” once. It reminded me of my father telling me he sat on Gertrude Stein’s lap as an infant. We know our parents so little really.

As in dreams
behind high doors there is nothing,
not even emptiness.
As in dreams
behind the face that looks at us there is no one.
Obverse without a reverse,
one-sided coin, the side of things.
That pittance is the boon
tossed to us by hastening time.
We are our memory,
we are that chimerical museum of shifting shapes,
that pile of broken mirrors.

This is an interesting reflection on Peer Gynt, showing how a troll becomes a troll. “In 2024, we live in a world of trolls. What is the name for cowardly people who leave hateful comments on the internet? Trolls. Our family’s word for road-ragers? Road trolls. Peer Gynt is a story for today.”

And here’s a heads up that the Church of England remembers John Bunyan with a Lesser Festival on 30 August. I was glad to see that a memorial window to Bunyan was unveiled in the west aisle of the north transept of Westminster Abbey in January 1912. It was erected by public subscription and designed by J. Ninian Comper and shows eight main scenes from the first part of Bunyan’s most famous work The Pilgrim’s Progress. The inscription reads: In memory of John Bunyan. The Pilgrim’s Progress. B.1628. D.1688.

“You are not yet out of reach of the gunshot of the Devil. You have not yet resisted unto death in your striving against sin. Let the Kingdom be always before you, and believe with certainty and consistency the things that are yet unseen. Let nothing that is on this side of eternal life get inside you. Above all, take care of your own hearts, and resist the lusts that tempt you, for your hearts `are deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.’ Set your faces like a flint; you have all the power of Heaven and earth on your side.”

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August 26, 2024

Our strength and refuge

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? Friday I went to lunch with some old friends at my former flyover university faculty club. Then we went back to their house where I boxed up some books to take home. They are getting ready to downsize and that means getting rid of a ton of books. But God only knows where I am going to put more books! Daughter #1 came over to their house and filled a box for herself. I would have taken more, but as I told my friends, I already have a lot of their books.

The rest of the weekend I spent looking at/reading my new-old books. What a pleasure! I also took some old computer monitors over to a nearby recycling event and enjoyed a great sense of accomplishment which I relished all weekend. And daughter #1 and I continued our scientific study of the correct wine-bread ratio…

On Sunday the OM and I picked up the twins to take them to church with us since their parents are very busy getting ready to move. It had been awhile since the twins had been to church so they needed to re-learn some church behavior basics. They did pretty well. The bud drew some interesting pictures…note the devil prominently portrayed in hell…

After church we went home with the twins and the OM picked up lunch at McDonald’s. Then we took a little walk where the bud was able to pet a nice black Lab named Titan, who sniffed his face. Then we played more or less quietly at home while the OM took a nap. Lottie beat me repeatedly at Chutes and Ladders, but the bud told me that winners are losers and losers are winners, so there. And the first shall be last, right?

The boy picked them up mid-afternoon and stayed to chat for awhile, always a treat for me.

I changed my clothes for a third time and we headed back to church at 4:30 for the ordination service of our youth minister. Once again I was overcome with thankfulness that I am a member of this church.

Meanwhile daughter #2 and her family drove up to Lake Huron to spend the week, leaving at five in the morning for the long drive.

I remember those days–leaving before dawn to get a jump on the driving while the kids sleep! (Note both babes are wide awake.)

They are having a good ol’ time.

And not to get political, but this was hilarious.

So put your phone down, look up, and thank God for the day. Then read some old books!

4 Comments
August 23, 2024

Réflexions

by chuckofish

I have had a quiet, contemplative week–no visits from rambunctious twins or feisty dogs. No severe weather or noisy street construction. Sigh. In other words, nothing very exciting to write about.

I did a lot of puttering around in my home and in my yard. I caught up with some “desk work”. I went to the Dollar Tree to buy candy. I watched some bad movies. Ye gods–The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969), despite an all-star cast including Katharine Hepburn, Paul Henreid, Yul Brynner, Richard Chamberlain, Giulietta Masina, Edith Evans, Danny Kaye, etc., was unwatchable.

As Vincent Canby wrote at the time, “[Bryan] Forbes, who persists in making conventional films of unconventional properties…moves his cameras around quite a lot, but there is really little he can do to hide the fact that “The Madwoman of Chaillot” is—as it was 20 years ago—an incredibly precious theatrical conceit, just the sort of thing somebody might think would make a great Broadway musical comedy. As we all know, it didn’t.”

We also watched Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down (2001), which I had not seen since it came out, lo, so many years ago.

It is successful in getting across the horror of war, especially a war in that part of the world, but it was unrelentingly violent. Also, despite it having a great cast, I could not tell who anyone was. The characters were practically indistinguishable. The sound and the editing were impressive (they won Oscars) but only made it harder to watch, as did the frenetic cinematography. Impressive in its own way–I watched the whole thing–but I don’t need to watch it again, ever.

Here are three things to remember as we seek to build God-centered homes where sound doctrine is the foundation and our Lord Jesus Christ is the cornerstone.

And this is a great one from John Piper. I love it when he really gets going on a topic! “‘Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.’ You cannot be neutral to Jesus Christ. There is no neutrality in dealing with Jesus. If you are not for him, you are against him. If you are not seeking to gather faith and obedience from those around you, you are scattering people away from him.”

And forgive me, here’s Jiminy Glick…

Yes, it was a slow week, but I did go over to daughter #1’s house last night for a glass of wine and to let Mr. Smith practice his balancing act…

Have a good weekend!

4 Comments
August 22, 2024

One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh*

by chuckofish

Today we toast Ulysses S. Grant and Julia Boggs Dent who were married on this day in 1848 in the Dent family townhouse in St. Louis. The ceremony was performed by Reverend Dr. William S. Potts, who was a close friend of the Dent family.

The Dent townhouse was torn down some time ago, but the Dent’s country home, named “White Haven”, still remains. Julia’s father, Col. Frederick Fayette Dent, was a fur trader operating along the Mississippi River. He became quite wealthy and built a 850-acre plantation outside of St. Louis. Julia Dent, the fifth of seven children, grew up at White Haven. She attended the Misses Mauros boarding school in St. Louis and graduated at the age of seventeen.

Following his marriage and after serving with distinction in the Mexican-American War, Ulysses Grant resigned from the army in 1854 and returned to civilian life somewhat impoverished. Grant tried several business ventures but failed. Julia and Ulysses returned to White Haven and lived there for five years until Grant reenlisted in the army to serve in the American Civil War. In 1866 Grant purchased parts of the property and established a commercial farm and horse breeding operation. Amid an increasingly volatile economy, Grant sold off livestock in 1875 before losing the estate outright in 1885 to William Henry Vanderbilt, just three months before his death.

A portion of the plantation was later purchased by Adolphus Busch where he developed his Grant’s Farm property. The acreage around the main house was initially rescued from development of a Grant-themed amusement park in 1913 by Albert Wenzlick, a St. Louis real estate developer. The house was maintained by Wenzlick and his son until the latter’s death in 1979 when, after years of public engagement and fundraising by local advocates, the 9.6-acre property was finally acquired by a joint venture between the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and St. Louis County.  The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986.

This is a fascinating article about the years-long struggle to save White Haven, which once again underscores the importance of grassroots support of historic preservation. I was surprised to learn that I knew several of the major players, but was unaware of all that was going on at the time.

Earlier this year I also learned that part of the original acreage where Grant’s Hardscrabble log cabin was located is now a cemetery owned and maintained by the St. Paul’s UCC Church since 1926.

A marker was placed in 1946 by the Webster Groves chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution to mark the site of Hardscrabble in the current St. Paul Churchyard. (The cabin now resides at Grant’s Farm.)

Since then the OM and I have bought grave sites at the cemetery. It seems entirely appropriate that the final resting place for our earthly remains will be in Cousin Lyss’s Hardscrabble farm.

*Ecclesiastes 1:4

7 Comments
August 20, 2024

Days consecrated to the useless*

by chuckofish

My week is off to a quiet start and that is okay with me. I don’t have much going on besides having to do my homework for my Bible Study which starts anew on Thursday.

This week I will also be reading works by Jorge Luis Borges, the Argentine writer, poet and philosopher, whose birthday we celebrate on August 24. Here is a snippet from an interview with William F. Buckley where he speaks about the English language…

I could listen to him talk for hours.

Meanwhile Don’s dahlias are beautiful…

As a member of the Asteraceae family, the dahlia has a flower head that is actually a composite with both central disc florets and surrounding ray florets. Each floret is a flower in its own right, according to Don, but is often incorrectly described as a petal. God’s amazing creation!

I guess things went well on the first day of school…


And here’s a fun fact to know and share: In 1954, Charles Schulz introduced Charlotte Braun to the Charlie Brown cast as a loud-mouthed female character (a role Lucy would later inherit). Readers disliked Charlotte, and she disappeared a few months later after only about 10 times in the strip. 

I have a feeling Charlotte may have hit too close to home for some people (loud-mouthed females). But she’d fit right in now…

Enjoy your Tuesday!

*Jorge Luis Borges, from the poem “That One”

5 Comments
August 19, 2024

Blessed be my rock

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? It was warm and humid here in flyover country, but basically very nice considering it is August. No complaints from the peanut gallery. Saturday morning I got up early and went to Trader Joe’s to buy flowers and then buzzed over to church where I arranged them for Sunday morning.

As with all things, I like to keep it simple.

After that, daughter #1 and I drove out to the western suburbs to pick up a chandelier which daughter #2 had purchased on Facebook Marketplace.

We also went to an estate sale–a good one–in a house people had lived in a long time. I even figured out whose house it was! Daughter #1 found a nice little shelf and some other odds and ends and I got an old book.

The illustrations reminded me of our own wee bud (see below). We went to lunch afterwards. A productive morning, indeed, and the rest of the day I was free to putter around.

On Sunday we headed to church and Sunday School. You could tell that everyone was back from vacation and we had a full house–our singing raised the roof! Delightful! Our young seminarian preached on Psalm 11 (In the Lord I take refuge) and he did a fine job. He will be ordained next Sunday and I am looking forward to attending that special service.

Afterwards we went to daughter #1’s house where we had bagels and fruit salad and sat outside on the deck while Mr. Smith frolicked with the twins. Then we walked up to Jackson Park for some playground time.

Everyone was worn out by the time we went home…

School starts today–the twins are now big second graders!

Have a good week! Stay cool.

5 Comments
August 15, 2024

“This city is headed for a disaster of biblical proportions”

by chuckofish

Yesterday the twins came over at 9:00 in the morning and stayed all day because their Mom is back at work this week, but school doesn’t start until next week.

We played inside, played outside, watched YouTube videos about natural disasters, went to Dewey’s for pizza (where the bud spilled an entire glass of Sprite and burped very loudly so that a man outside said, “You were burping in the restaurant, weren’t you?”), got wet running to the car in the rain (even though we had an umbrella), played inside some more, and then watched a movie, which we finally agreed on after much wrangling: Ghostbusters (1984).

We watched most of it before their dad picked them up around 3:15. It was a long six-plus hours, but the truth is they are more fun than a barrel of monkeys.

I should note that there was also a plumber at our house for a good three hours, cabling the sewer line.

The world is more than we know.

4 Comments
August 13, 2024

Let ‘er buck

by chuckofish

Today we celebrate Annie Oakley, born Phoebe Ann Mosey in 1860. She was an American sharpshooter and became a international celebrity, performing in Europe before royalty and other heads of state, when she toured with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.

There have been several movies, a TV show and a famous Broadway musical dedicated to her life. Indeed, when I was growing up, every child knew who Annie Oakley was. That is probably not the case anymore, although as a female hero, you can’t do much better. Oakley believed that women should learn to use a gun for the empowering image that it gave and I concur, but that is hardly a popular opinion these days.

Anyway, I will toast Annie Oakley tonight. I just watched Hidalgo (2004) which features Annie Oakley as a minor character. This is a good movie about the famous long-distance rider Frank T. Hopkins, and I enjoyed watching Viggo Mortensen effortlessly ride a horse, which as I have previously noted, is rare these days.

So if you are not in the mood for Annie Get Your Gun (1950), I recommend Hidalgo.

This is a good suggestion: Embrace the World’s Miraculous Absurdity. Also, the Bible includes several lists of sins. This article helps us understand those sins by reversing them.

And Katie went to her first soccer practice…

Girlfriend, I hear ya.

3 Comments
August 12, 2024

Speaking of the plentiful imagery of the world

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? We had beautiful weather–temps in the 70s and 80s–unheard of for August! We tried to optimize time spent outside by going to the winery and also enjoying the first driveway sittin’ in a long time.

Friday evening daughter #1 and I went to church to hear Abram Van Engen talk about his new book on reading poetry.

I enjoyed it very much and am also enjoying reading his book. But then, I enjoy reading poetry. Van Engen contends that poets do what God instructed Adam to do–name creation (Genesis 2:19-20). And when you think about it, that is what poets do–they point things out, they draw our attention to things. I think of Billy Collins’ poem “Litany”:

You are the bread and the knife,
the crystal goblet and the wine.
You are the dew on the morning grass
and the burning wheel of the sun.
You are the white apron of the baker,
and the marsh birds suddenly in flight.

However, you are not the wind in the orchard,
the plums on the counter,
or the house of cards.
And you are certainly not the pine-scented air.
There is just no way that you are the pine-scented air.

It is possible that you are the fish under the bridge,
maybe even the pigeon on the general’s head,
but you are not even close
to being the field of cornflowers at dusk.

And a quick look in the mirror will show
that you are neither the boots in the corner
nor the boat asleep in its boathouse.

It might interest you to know,
speaking of the plentiful imagery of the world,
that I am the sound of rain on the roof.

I also happen to be the shooting star,
the evening paper blowing down an alley
and the basket of chestnuts on the kitchen table.

I am also the moon in the trees
and the blind woman’s tea cup.
But don’t worry, I’m not the bread and the knife.
You are still the bread and the knife.
You will always be the bread and the knife,
not to mention the crystal goblet and—somehow—the wine.

and anything, of course, by Walt Whitman…

After working in the basement for awhile on Saturday morning, we went to our favorite winery in Hillsboro and sat and listened to music and people-watched and drank wine in the sunshine. That is the best way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

On Sunday we went to church. Unbeknowst to us (and everyone else) the man teaching our Sunday School class was sick and so they moved the Children’s Sunday School teacher training into our room, so we ended up attending the training class! It was interesting, but I do not plan to volunteer for that particular ministry.

After church I had lunch with my two best friends and later the boy and his family came over for some Sunday driveway sittin’. No one took any pictures except this one of Lottie with Mr. Smith.

We barbecued hotdogs and ate chips ‘n dip and watermelon, which everyone enjoyed. My philosophy is keep it simple.

And here’s some fun news you can use.

Now that’s a happy map! Have a good week. Read some poetry! Pet a dog. Keep it simple.

6 Comments