family | dual personalities

January 24, 2022

Hey, baby. There ain’t no easy way out*

by chuckofish

Mood. Life just keeps getting weirder, right? But we try to persevere in our own small way. Chin chin.

Happily, daughter #1 came home on Friday and we spent a nice weekend doing what I like to think of as normal things. We went to our new favorite place for happy hour and then came home and listened to music. The OM provided dinner. On Saturday we went to two estate sales and bought a few books and a couple of other do-dads. We went out to lunch. On Saturday night we watched the first part of The Ten Commandments (1956) which, between Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner and John Derek, features a lot of old fashioned male pulchritude.

As I’ve noted before, the film really holds up and we will watch the second half at a later date (we know how it ends.)

Sunday morning I made a tater tot casserole to serve for lunch after church. Then we all met up with the boy and his petite famille at church where we sang our Presbyterian hymns lustily and listened to a long sermon on Acts 20: 28-38 by the youth minister about being attentive to yourself (in respect to grace), to one another and to the Gospel. I am so happy to leave church feeling joyful and not annoyed as was previously always the the case. (The boy was annoyed because we sang Rock of Ages with the alternate tune, but this is a small price to pay for doctrinal satisfaction in my opinion.)

Lord, how delightful ’tis to see
A whole assembly worship thee!
At once they sing, at once they pray;
They hear of heaven, and learn the way.
With thoughts of Christ and things divine
Fill up this foolish heart of mine;
That, hoping pardon through his blood,
I may lie down, and wake with God.
(Isaac Watts)

After church we finally celebrated daughter #3’s birthday which was delayed from earlier in January because she was sick and then quarantined.

It had been almost a month since we had seen them! The wee laddie got a chance to drive the Raptor so he was a happy camper.

I suppose this may all sound extremely dull, but for me it was lovely and I am thankful. I am thankful that my husband went out in the cold and brought home a fast food dinner. I am thankful that my daughter spun records for me. I am even thankful that my grandson said he didn’t want to come over to my house after church because it is weird and ugly, but then he did and ate conversation hearts and a donut and was quite content. Life is weird and ugly, but there are also donuts.

Anyway, I am now a certified nerd because I actually understood these two Babylon Bee “stories” and they made me laugh out loud.

*Tom Petty

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January 19, 2022

In him we live and move and have our being

by chuckofish

Yesterday I caught up on all the stuff I do to keep the home fires burning. However, I also caught up on a new puzzle I was working on before I left and that took up an alarming amount of time.

Zut alors!

Tonight we will toast per usual our January 19th birthday girls–our mother…

and Dolly Parton,

who share a birthday with the fictional character Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Our three favorite role models.

This was an interesting article about the problem with leaving the Church. “We can’t comprehend the love of Christ individually. There may be a time to leave the local congregation but never a time to leave the church.”

Genesis 1.21: like I always say about elephants, evolution cannot begin to explain whales.

This is wonderful. (Thank you, Anne.)

And I loved this scene from the book of Acts (17: 22-31) which I read in my daily reading:

So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for
“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;
as even some of your own poets have said,
“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

When I was going through an old file, I found this New Yorker cartoon, torn out of a magazine in 1979.

Don’t forget to stop and look out the window today (but brush your hair first). There is a lot of Life going on out there: squirrels and birds and weather and the UPS man stopping by.

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January 18, 2022

“If you listen very hard/The tune will come to you at last”*

by chuckofish

Well, I am back from my short sojourn back east in Maryland. It was, of course, super fun and great to spend time with my darling daughter #2, DN and baby Katie.

Here are a few pics–although I didn’t take many and the precious babe was not often a willing subject…

We went to one estate sale and picked up an antique mirror for the new house. Otherwise, we stayed home and yacked and yacked for hours on end. We had Henry Mancini happy hours and ate some delicious food. We took some snowy walks and said hello to the neighborhood dogs. Perfect.

My travels went without a hitch or delay, so I am grateful and relieved. The OM did not burn down the house in my absence and was waiting for me at the airport when I arrived, so I have no complaints.

Thanks be to God.

*Jimmy Page

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January 3, 2022

“Lord, what times are these?”*

by chuckofish

Well, 2021 may have been a terrible year in the political/economic/cultural sense (although we are not supposed to say that), but for me, several things of note took place:

I retired from my flyover university.
We celebrated the 200th anniversary of the state of Missouri and the 200th anniversary of the Santa Fe Trail.
I finally (after 65 years) left the moribund Episcopal Church and found a new church home.

Numbers 1 and 3 represented Big Steps, opening new chapters, etc. All three involved celebrating. Yippee kayaks!

Now we embark on a new year. I am not optimistic in the political/economic/cultural sense, but I know there will be rejoicing and, indeed, much joy to be chosen.

So as you reflect on the new year and start setting goals, consider this. And keep in mind that “We are not able to become our best selves on our own. Our best life comes in complete dependence on the God who made us. Yet we still try. Self-reflection is helpful and plans for personal improvement can be beneficial, but this can also lead to more striving, specifically when we resolve in our own strength.”

For me, I am resolved to devote more time to my Bible reading, to resist sin and cultivate righteousness, to continue to put my house in order, to simplify.

And I plan to celebrate on a regular basis.

What is my vision of God’s purpose for me? Whatever it may be, His purpose is for me to depend on Him and on His power now. If I can stay calm, faithful, and unconfused while in the middle of the turmoil of life, the goal of the purpose of God is being accomplished in me. God is not working toward a particular finish–His purpose is the process itself.

–Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

And P.S. We did have a super fun Christmas and a super fun visit from daughter #2 and Katiebelle. Here are a few postcards from our holly jolly holiday (we really didn’t take a lot of pictures!)

Happy New Year, friends! Keep a-goin!

*Polycarp (AD 69 – 155)

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December 23, 2021

“Let every heart prepare him room”

by chuckofish

Christmas draws nigh and if we aren’t ready now, we’ll never be. Relax. Everything will be fine.

Today would have been our Aunt Susanne’s 97th birthday. She was our mother’s older sister and the Grand Dame of the family.

She was very different from our mother…

…as you can see in this picture taken in about 1930 (with their older cousin Marjorie). But they loved each other very much. When she was dying, it was Susanne who “understood” her best. After all, they had the most history together.

Of the three sisters, I think I am the most like Susanne, who also was a timid child. She played no varsity sports and she was not an intellectual like our mother. But she liked poetry and was a devoted church lady who endeavored to cultivate the fruits of the spirit (love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control). She also liked a glass of spirits at the end of the day. When she died, her house was in order. As her son wrote me a few years after her death in 2000:

My mother saved everything (well, almost everything), and when the time came to settle her estate and move her belongings, I thought, “Maybe it’s important to save the things she thought were important to save.” So, I packed almost every item I came across.
Our attic and my workshop are stacked full of identical boxes that are just the right size for moving–not too big, not too small. Each one is labeled with its contents.
Periodically, I open one and try to make a decision to keep, or pass on, the items inside.

He is still working on it, all these years later…So tonight I will toast these devoted sisters and also our dear Aunt Donna, the remaining Cameron girl, who is 88.

In other news, I finally watched the 1938 version of A Christmas Carol, the one with Reginald Owen. Some people actually think this is the best version. I can’t imagine why. It was not good, especially when compared with the close-to-perfect 1951 Alistair Sim version. I could go into detail explaining why it is not good, but suffice it to say, do not waste your time watching it. Indeed, the Muppet version is much better.

To recap, besides the three versions of A Christmas Carol I have viewed this month, I have watched White Christmas (1951), Miracle on 34th Street (1947), The Bishop’s Wife (1947), The Santa Clause (1994). And I confess that I jumped the gun and watched 3 Godfathers (1946). I just couldn’t wait until Epiphany–mea culpa.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYEohpf1Egw

Can you blame me? I am holding off on a few Christmas favorites at the request of daughter #1 who will arrive home later today.

Speaking of movies, this was an interesting article about movies that were filmed in our flyover hometown. I found Harold Ramis’s back-pedaling about the scene he filmed in East St. Louis to be hilarious.

Merry Christmas!

O God, take me in spirit to the watchful shepherds, and enlarge my mind;
let me hear good tidings of great joy, and hearing, believe, rejoice, praise, adore, my conscience bathed in an ocean of repose, place me with ox, ass, camel, goat, to look with them upon my Redeemer’s face, and in him account myself delivered from sin;
let me with Simeon clasp the new-born child to my heart, embrace him with undying faith, exulting that he is mine and I am his.
In him thou hast given me so much that heaven can give no more.
From The Valley of Vision

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December 16, 2021

A few toasts and a birthday

by chuckofish

Today is the 248th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. You remember–when members of the Sons of Liberty dressed up like Mohawk Indians and dumped hundreds of crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act. A toast to these domestic terrorists of yore!

It is also the 210th anniversary of the first two in a series of four severe earthquakes which occurred in the vicinity of New Madrid, Missouri. The New Madrid zone experienced four of the largest North American earthquakes in recorded history, with moment magnitudes estimated to be as large as 7.0 or greater, all occurring within a 3-month period between December 1811 and February 1812. At New Madrid, trees were knocked down and riverbanks collapsed. This event shook windows and furniture in Washington, DC, rang bells in Richmond, Virginia, sloshed well water and shook houses in Charleston, South Carolina, and knocked plaster off of houses in Columbia, South Carolina. In Jefferson, Indiana, furniture moved, and in Lebanon, Ohio, residents fled their homes. There was renewed concern in the 1990s of imminent earthquake activity and I remember putting away my antique china for fear it might be broken. We may have had some water in reserve in the basement too as a precaution…but nothing happened and I don’t worry about such things anymore.

Today is also the birthday of George Santayana (1863-1952), philosopher, essayist, novelist, poet, and legendary Harvard professor. Here is one of his poems, A Toast, in keeping with the situation:

See this bowl of purple wine,
Life-blood of the lusty vine!
All the warmth of summer suns
In the vintage liquid runs,
All the glow of winter nights
Plays about its jewel lights,
Thoughts of time when love was young
Lurk its ruby drops among,
And its deepest depths are dyed
With delight of friendship tried.
Worthy offering, I ween,
For a god or for a queen,
Is the draught I pour to thee,–
Comfort of all misery,
Single friend of the forlorn,
Haven of all beings born,
Hope when trouble wakes at night,
And when naught delights, delight.
Holy Death, I drink to thee;
Do not part my friends and me.
Take this gift, which for a night
Puts dull leaden care to flight,
Thou who takest grief away
For a night and for a day.

I will be toasting my dual personality on Saturday, because it is her birthday.

Here is a snapshot of the siblings a week after her 2nd birthday on Christmas morning. Our brother is 9, she is 2 and I am 4 1/2. I loved the dress I was wearing. Another girl in my class had it and I felt very cool. In fact, there might have been three of us in my small junior kindergarten class with that dress. It was red. The things that stay in your mind!

Anyway, here’s to my lovely and much-loved sister on her birthday.

(Long distance toasting!)

Now it’s time for tree-trimming…

The painting at the top is by Ernest Lawson (1873 – 1939) who studied at the Art Students League, New York, with J. Alden Weir and John Twachtman, and later in Paris at the Académie Julien. Upon his return to the United States he produced his famous impressionistic urban landscapes that linked him to the Ashcan school.

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December 7, 2021

Walls of ivy

by chuckofish

As winter approaches and we bring out all the cold weather gear, I thought I’d insert a few pics from the Middlebury College 1946 Winter Carnival booklet I unearthed while cleaning out a drawer in the highboy.

Here are the chairmen of the carnival committees…Our mother is in the front row, second from the left.

Here is the Middlebury women’s ski team–our mother is the third from the left.

And here is an attempt at college humor…Our mother is the gal in the front.

She had that fur-lined coat for years afterward. I remember it well. I still have her ski parka with the Pico Peak lift ticket attached and her wooden skiis, which she hauled to Arizona, California, and finally St. Louis after she was married, although she never skiied again. Of course, I cannot bear to get rid of them.

I have the poster from the Winter Carnival, which she designed, hanging on the wall of our den.

Although her time in college wasn’t perfect, she was happy there like nowhere else. I suppose that’s why I keep all this stuff–I like to think of her happy like that.

RIP to Senator Bob Dole, a gallant soldier and a Christian gentleman. Into paradise may the angels lead thee and at thy coming may the martyrs receive thee, and bring thee into the holy city Jerusalem.

And let us not forget that today is the 80th (the eightieth) anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor! You can watch/rent John Ford’s December 7th documentary (Best Documentary Oscar, 1944) here.

O Christ! Whose voice the waters heard and hushed their raging at Thy word
tho walked’st on the foaming deep
And calm amidst its rage didst sleep.
Oh hear us when we cry to Thee for those in peril on the sea
–William Whiting

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December 6, 2021

“Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled”

by chuckofish

The OM and I buzzed over to Jefferson City on Friday afternoon to see daughter #1 and partake of some small town Advent fun. We walked over to High Street which had been blocked off to traffic for some Christmas window display viewing. Everyone in town was there–just like in a Hallmark movie–without the romance! We then moseyed over to the Governor’s Mansion which was open for tours.

Then we walked home and watched…

The next day we drove to Boonville to tour the DAR Roslyn Heights house, built in 1895 in the Queen Anne style by Wilbur T. and Rhoda Stephens Johnson. It is currently the Missouri State Society Daughters of the American Revolution Headquarters and every December the different chapters decorate Christmas trees which are displayed throughout the house.

We stopped in New Franklin…

to view the DAR Santa Fe Trail Marker…

(…pink granite just like every building at my old flyover university.)

Then we headed over to Rocheport to have lunch at our favorite winery on the Missouri River.

That evening we strolled back to High Street to stake out space to watch the Jefferson City Christmas Parade. Once again, everyone in town was there.

It was an excellent parade with lots of high school bands and myriad floats and noisy trucks, but when the sun went down, it got much colder and we walked home. We watched another old favorite, The Muppet Christmas Carol (with Michael Caine!) which is a remarkably faithful re-telling of the Dickens story.

We got up early on Sunday morning so we could head back home and not miss church. I’m glad we made it because we heard an excellent sermon focusing on Luke 1: 26-38. Our senior pastor recommended we try starting each day with the prayer, “Behold I am a servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to Your word.” This sounds like a good plan to me.

Also, there was a baptism and an impromptu singing of “Jesus Loves Me” by the congregation. Both Lottie and the wee Bud exclaimed, “I know that song!” and chimed in accordingly. After church we went to Panera because our cupboards at home were bare. While we waited for our food to be ready, I asked the twins what they had learned in Sunday School and Lottie, after a pause, replied, “Fruit…fruit of the spirit.” Her Dad asked, “And what are the fruits of the spirit?” To my surprise, she reeled off, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control!” We were impressed and she repeated this several times, each time ending with a drawn out seeelllfff-controoool.” (I figured out they learned a song about the fruits of the spirit.) Will wonders never cease?

Have fun this week! Watch a Christmas movie, visit a small town or an historic home decorated for Christmas, memorize the fruit of the spirit, and remember you don’t deserve any of this. It is all a gift–and knowing this is a pathway to joy.

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November 29, 2021

Thankful postcards

by chuckofish

Our cup runneth over with thankfulness for a lovely week spent with family.

Katie hopped right into the fray and did remarkably well in the chaos that is our life. We had many uproarious frolics…

…and fun times playing with her Aunt…

and with her cousins…

Thanksgiving was lovely and low-key with everyone pitching in so no one had to slave in the kitchen.

We hosted a happy hour on Friday so our friends could come over and hang out with our visitors…

When daughter # 2 and DN and baby Katie left on Saturday morning at 4:30 am–they made it back to Maryland in 14 hours!–daughter #1 and I threw ourselves into decorating the house for Christmas to assuage our melancholy…

And finally on Sunday after church, we celebrated the boy’s birthday!

What a week! Now everyone is headed back to the salt mines and I will start cleaning up!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise him, all creatures here below;
Praise him above, ye heavenly host:
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Amen.

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November 23, 2021

Boyle says Boom!

by chuckofish

So daughter #2 and DN made it to town right on schedule and baby Katie made herself right at home.

Here she is wearing an old dress of her mommy’s. Can we say, owning it?

In the midst of the mayhem, daughter #1 and I even remembered to run over to the Optimists Christmas tree lot to buy a tree before they run out. (We won’t put it up until the 18th, but you gotta be prepared.)

Slam, bam, thank you ma’am, we were done and home in twenty minutes. We know how to roll these days.

Well, everyone’s busy this week and probably no one is reading the blog, but if you do, here are some funny moments from Brooklyn 99…

…and some inspiring words from John Piper.

“Evidently we are fair game for the devil when we don’t abound with thanksgiving. Unless the song of thanksgiving is being sung in our hearts the enemy outside will deceive his way into the city of our soul, and the enemy sympathizers within will make his job easy. So for the sake of your own safety, strive to fill your heart with thanksgiving! Guard yourselves with gratitude!” (John Piper, sermon on Colossians 2 – “Guard Yourself With Gratitude”)

Happy Thanksgiving!

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