dual personalities

Tag: music

December 30, 2025

The scent of a tangerine

by chuckofish

It got very cold indeed here in flyover country. From 78 degrees on Sunday it dropped over 50 degrees! (A 70 degree change if you count the wind chill!) Yikes. We missed a new record by one degree! (Set in 1911.) I’m feeling a little jealous of the twins down in Florida!

Well, anyway, I am starting to get back on my feet, getting some things done around the house. And that’s a good thing.

Today we toast country singer Suzy Bogguss on her birthday. She was born in 1956 and grew up in Aledo, Illinois. We always liked Suzy back in the day–what a voice–and we are happy that she is finally being inducted as the next new member of the Grand Ole Opry on January 16, 2026.

Way to go, Suzy!

And here’s a poem by James Crews, “Winter Morning”:

When I can no longer say thank you

for this new day and the waking into it,

for the cold scrape of the kitchen chair

and the ticking of the space heater glowing

orange as it warms the floor near my feet,

I know it’s because I’ve been fooled again

by the selfish, unruly man who lives in me

and believes he deserves only safety

and comfort. But if I pause as I do now,

and watch the streetlights outside flashing

off one by one like old men blinking their

cloudy eyes, if I listen to my tired neighbors

slamming car doors hard against the morning

and see the steaming coffee in their mugs

kissing chapped lips as they sip and

exhale each of their worries white into

the icy air around their faces—then I can

remember this one life is a gift each of us

was handed and told to open: Untie the bow

and tear off the paper, look inside

and be grateful for whatever you find

even if it is only the scent of a tangerine

that lingers on the fingers long after

you’ve finished peeling it.

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December 29, 2025

My eyes have seen the Messiah

by chuckofish

After a disorienting week of coughing at home, I finally made it back to church on Sunday. We had one service so it was the whole congregation together–very nice. I sat behind the pastor’s wife and their two children and she complimented me on my plaid Christmas pants. Quelle nice girl.

Our own Becka Marsh sang this version of Simeon’s Song during the offertory and I thought it was so lovely.

I played it a lot when I got home and I cried every time.

I also read The Three Godfathers, the short story by Peter B. Kyne on which John Ford’s 3 Godfathers (1948) is based (also the seven other versions). It seemed appropriate. The story ends with the remaining godfather stumbling into New Jerusalem with the baby as a woman sings

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, lift up your gates and sing,

Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna! to your King!

He hands the baby to the woman and the author questions, “Who knows? Perhaps in that moment the woman, too, like the Three Bad Men, beheld the King!”

How could I not then watch the movie? (I did, and I could not love it more.)

Meanwhile, following a mild Christmas and balmy temperatures during the week–not to mention some fiery sunsets–

–we were warned a fast moving line of severe storms would move through Sunday afternoon–always exciting and unwanted. But nothing much happened.

My eyes have seen
My eyes have seen
Joy beyond belief:
I’ve seen the Messiah!

2 Comments
December 10, 2025

“E: Well, shall we go? V: Yes, let’s go. (They do not move)”*

by chuckofish

Well, we’re still waiting! I have been here a week–I hope I don’t have to leave before the baby arrives–Zut alors! mais c’est la vie.

In the meantime, while we’re waiting, here are Kevin DeYoung’s 10 best books of 2025.

Here are the 6 Favorite Christmas Hymns of Keith and Kristyn Getty. I concur!

And rest in peace Raul Malo, the lead singer of the Mavericks, who died on Monday.

What a voice!

And last week in Gatlinburg…

*Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

4 Comments
December 3, 2025

In the time of this mortal life

by chuckofish

I am heading up to the prairie today to be with daughter #2 while there is a break in the weather. Pray for cleared roads and no precipitation! Pray that the baby comes in a timely manner and in the right way. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

And here’s a song I like:

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP)

2 Comments
November 19, 2025

Humble yourselves

by chuckofish

I have had a very busy week so far and yesterday was particularly aggravating. I had to go down to the monolithic and intimidating BJS medical center where parking is always an adventure. I had to wait for over an hour for my appointment which took 10 minutes. Zut alors! but c’est la vie. After that, I went to the Link Auction house, also in the CWE, and picked up some items I had won at last weekend’s auction. I could not fit it all in my car so I will have to go back today. (The boy had to come over to my house and help me get one large item out of my car!) Life is complicated.

Driving home from the CWE, I avoided the highway since it had been jammed up going down to the city, so I was once again shocked to see the devastation from the May 16 tornado in Forest Park. All the big trees are just gone from Lindell Blvd and all the way down Wydown in Clayton. Many of the mansions still have boarded up windows and tarps on the roofs. Mother Nature can sure be rough. But she helps us keep our perspective.

And then, last night, I had a Kirkwood Historical Society board meeting, so I was out after dark! Good grief, Charlie Brown!

I will stop grousing now in order to remind you that today is the birthday of Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, the Russian composer, born in 1859. He was a student of Rimsky-Korsakov, whose influence was quite strong. I remember this selection from records we listened to in my childhood:

Enjoy!

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
–I Peter 5:6-7

(The photo at the top is of a scene typical of the arrangements I find when the wee laddie has visited my house. He came with his Dad yesterday.)

3 Comments
November 10, 2025

So I’ll make my stand and remain as I am

by chuckofish

The other day I mentioned the story of Billy Graham going to see the dying Steve McQueen and that truly is a great story. But the even better part of all that was how the flight instructor over time converted the questioning Steve into a “born again” Christian. I know quite a few people like that flight instructor now–“ordinary” men who take Mark 16:15 very seriously in their daily lives. One such guy is Bill who was an executive at some big engineering firm. He is a piano-tuner now (in retirement) and he evangelizes quietly everywhere he goes, just talking to people. He is not ashamed of the Gospel. No sir. He sees it as his duty to spread the Word.

The Billy Grahams of this world are wonderful, but it is the Bills among us who do the real work where the rubber meets the actual road.

This is a wonderful message from John Piper on Eight Ways to Live Out Your Assurance.

And here’s a song for Monday–the great Mark Knopfler singing the great Bob Dylan:

Oh, a false clock tries to tick out my time
To disgrace, distract and bother me
And the dirt of gossip blows into my face
And the dust of rumors covers me

[Chorus]
But if the arrow is straight and the point is slick
It can pierce through dust no matter how thick
So I’ll make my stand and remain as I am
And bid farewell and not give a damn

(Meanwhile we made it to the prairie–where it has turned cold and even snowy!–and we went to church where daughter #2 and the girls became members along with a dozen others.)

We are surrounded by God’s benefits. The best use of these benefits is an unceasing expression of gratitude.
–John Calvin

1 Comment
November 5, 2025

Come on in, the door is open

by chuckofish

Daughter #2 sent this pic of her street in response to my post yesterday about not much color yet in my flyover neck of the woods. The prairie is ablaze!

Here are two articles about growing older which I found to be very interesting. “This is a plea for aging Christians not to follow millions of your peers in making a tragic mistake: leaving the place, and especially the local church, where you have built up years, if not decades, of relational capital.” In other words, Boomers need to stay put. Retirement ought not be exclusively about playing golf and collecting seashells. “For decades, you’ve been amassing wisdom and experience and patience and perspective. Now, on the other side of a career, you’re finally free to share those riches with others. There are younger men and women in the throes of their early careers, new fathers and mothers insecure in their parenting, teens eager to grow up but unsure how — all in desperate need of your rooted presence.” I think of 80-something John who goes out to lunch with my son and mentors him on his spiritual walk. I think of Allan who keeps the furnace going and the grass cut at the church he has attended his whole life. I think of all the old ladies in my bible study group who pray without ceasing for us all.

(This meme never gets old.)

And in this one Carl Trueman talks about assisted suicide and the disturbing modern vision of what it means to be human. “We might even say that it represents a dehumanized and absurd view of what it means to be human. Our dependence upon others, and our obligations towards them, are what define us. The richest experiences in life arise in those contexts where we are not isolated individuals or lonely egos wandering aimlessly through this world. Love, friendship, kindnesses done, and kindnesses received are not inconveniences but elements of the very fabric of life.”

Go to church! Make some new friends. Share what you know. Learn about Jesus. His arms are open.

And this is for anyone who might need to hear it again:

2 Comments
October 27, 2025

The Spirit and the gifts are ours

by chuckofish

Well, I had an easy trip up and back to outstate-Illinois in my Mini Countryman, which is a speed demon on the windy prairie highway and zooms across the cornfields like the Autobahn. I do love my car.

If I ever want to fly
Mulholland Drive
I am alive

Hollywood is under me
I’m Martin Sheen
I’m Steve McQueen
I’m Jimmy Dean

DN went to his conference and I helped daughter #2, who is in the large basketball phase of her pregnancy, with the prairie girls. We went to Home Depot to buy paint for a bathroom update …

…they were into it. It was a whole scene.

Back home, I got up on Sunday and met the boy and the twins at church. I had missed the week before when I was in Virginia so it seemed like forever (two weeks)–how nice to be back! Our pastor gave a really good sermon on Philippians 3:1-11 (and even made an unusual, but appropriate, reference to Mike Wazowski, which made the bud perk right up.) Where does our confidence come from? The righteousness of God that depends on faith!

As Reformation Day approaches (October 31), we sang “A Mighty Fortress is Our God”, plus a selection of 19th century and 21st century hymns, plus a mighty solo rendition of the Fernando Ortega hymn, “Give Me Jesus”–perfect.

It was a gloomy and rainy Sunday afternoon, so I opted to stay home and not go to the bud’s soccer game(s). As Mamu I am allowed to do that.

Have a good week! Here’s a poem:

And maybe it was a bar tune,
Maybe not, but there we were, hunched
over too-small desks in History 101,
all ninety-five freshmen humming—
by need not desire—every note, every verse
of Luther’s best-loved hymn, Our helper He…
the right man on our side as we scribbled,
hands almost numb, the body they may kill –
his theology of lyrics, our theology –
from age to age the same for the final question
the spirit and the gifts are ours of the final exam,
and we would win the battle, our hearts pumping
with belief, our throats thumping with crescendo:
one little word would never fell us.

–Marjorie Maddox, “A Mighty Fortress”

3 Comments
October 13, 2025

La-dee-da, la-dee-da

by chuckofish

How was your weekend?

It was a beautiful weekend here in flyover country–a little warm for October, but I’m not complaining. It was perfect for sitting outside at the winery, which daughter #1 and I did after our DAR meeting in the morning. The meeting was pleasant also–I do so love talking SEC football with a Crimson Tide fan, which I did while eating breakfast.

Anyway, we enjoyed the musical entertainment at the winery–a guy singing the 1970s playlist, which must be what boomers who go to wineries want to hear. And I’m okay with that.

At church we heard a good sermon on Philippians 2:12-18:

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. 17 Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. 18 Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

Work it out.

Rein it in.

Offer it up.

The communion hymn was Yet Not I But Through Christ in Me, which gets me every time. Once again I asked myself, why do I wear mascara to church?

We also sang this classic from 1787, but with the traditional American tune, which I really like:

After church, since there was no adult ed, we went to the Sunny Street Cafe for brunch. The twins are very grown up now and well behaved, although once they have scarfed down their pancakes and/or French toast, they are not ones to linger over a second cup of coffee and more conversation. C’est la vie.

I was sad to hear that Diane Keaton has died. She was a favorite of mine. She had some class–a rare thing in Hollywood. She liked turtlenecks, she eschewed plastic surgery, and like Woody Allen said, “She prefer[ed] to look old.” Apparently no one knew she was ailing. She died privately and with no hoopla. Guess it’s time to dig out Annie Hall (1977). La-dee-da, la-dee-da.

Have a good week! Be faithful and fruitful!

4 Comments
October 7, 2025

Don’t fence me in

by chuckofish

Today marks the 75th anniversary of my parents’ wedding at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Savannah, Georgia in 1950.

Time like an ever-rolling stream and all that.

In other news, The Church of England announced Friday that the Right Reverend and Right Honorable Dame Sarah Mullally has been named the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury–as Albert Mohler says, “A liberal nurse to lead a dying church?” Ugh. As Mohler says, “My own life has been so enriched by the Anglican tradition, and my soul has been fed by towering figures such as John Owen and Bishop Charles Ryle. I hold dear the memory and examples set by towering Reformation martyrs such as Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, Bishop Nicholas Ridley, and Bishop Hugh Latimer. I learned much from J. I. Packer and John Stott and a host of others, living and dead. I am thankful for such good work done by so many for so long. I pray for them. I cherish Anglican music, though I hear it far more commonly in my library than in my church. I grieve for my Anglican friends.”

Well, as Anne says, “Yes, for sure, go to church, but be awfully careful which one. It’s kind of a jungle out there. But for sure, only by being incorporated as a living stone into the same building with the stone that the builders rejected, which is the chief cornerstone, can you be really happy and have the life you really need and desire.”

On a happier note…

And here’s a treat: Bob Dylan sings one of my favorite Cole Porter songs.

4 Comments