dual personalities

Tag: poetry

August 23, 2023

It matters not how straight the gate

by chuckofish

We are in the middle of a flyover heatwave, so there is not much going on! Everyone is keeping cool inside (if they can) and that includes me.

It is good weather for reading poetry–perhaps a poem by William Ernest Henley (1849-1903) whose birthday is today.

You may recall that his famous poem “Invictus” was the favorite of Nelson Mandela who recited it to his fellow prisoners at Robben Prison. Clint Eastwood named his biographical sports movie Invictus (2009) after the poem.

This poem doesn’t really take into consideration God’s providence, but I can see how it resonates with some people. Sadly, I am unable to think of Henley and his most famous poem without remembering Richard Armour’s parody: Out of the night that covers me/ Black as the pit from pole to pole,/ I thank whatever gods may be/ I have not fallen in a hole.

Also, I did not know that the one-legged Henley was the inspiration for the character Long John Silver in Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. File that fun fact away.

I see hummingbirds in my garden not infrequently. When I catch a glimpse, I always think it is a very large insect and then I realize, no, it’s a hummingbird! They are amazing creatures indeed.

So keep cool, read some poetry, and remember:

The works of the LORD are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. His work is honorable and glorious: and his righteousness endureth for ever.

(Psalm 111:2-3)

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August 14, 2023

“I cannot go to school today,”/Said little Peggy Ann McKay*

by chuckofish

Once again I am down with the dreaded whatever, using great quantities of Kleenex and trying to stay hydrated. I did nothing all weekend. Well, the twins came over for a few hours on Saturday morning while their parents were busy. Thankfully daughter #1 came over to support me.

We went through the box of Steiff animals, which we thought would interest them, but they were not really impressed with my old collection. “Why are they called Steiff?” We did note that “Bucky” beaver matched Lottie’s Buc-ee’s sweatshirt which she got on their recent roadtrip to South Carolina.

I was prepared to send some Steiff animals home with the twins, but since they did not show any interest in them, they went back in the box. That’s okay, I understand how that goes.

We were amazed at how my old Christopher Robin doll could be the laddie’s twin. However, getting him to pose for a picture is a losing proposition.

We eventually let him do his own thing with the Lego boxes and entertained Lottie with looking at American Girl stuff. We are nothing if not flexible. And we certainly have plenty of options.

I couldn’t go to church because of my incessant coughing, but I did read through the online bulletin. Well, I hope I start to feel better this week. Pass the DayQuil!

*“Sick” by Shel Silverstein.

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August 1, 2023

Nil sine Numine*

by chuckofish

Today we celebrate the day in 1876 when U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant signed a proclamation admitting Colorado to the Union as the 38th state. Because the country had just celebrated its centennial a few weeks earlier, Colorado became known as the “Centennial State”.

Several months prior, in December 1875, leading Colorado citizens gathered to draft a state constitution, among them our great-great grandfather John Simpson Hough, who represented Bent County.

He received 240 votes in the sparsely populated county.

Delegates to the convention came from every district in the soon-to-be state. They met at the Odd Fellows Hall, upstairs from the First National Bank, on Blake Street in Denver. Modeled after the United States Constitution, Colorado’s Constitution set the terms and duties of state government officials, and outlined the manner by which a law could be introduced and passed. It established the State Supreme Court, as well as district and county courts. A program for the supervision and maintenance of a public school system was created.  A state tax system was developed, rules that regulate railroads and other corporations were adopted, and provisions created to amend that State’s constitution.

So join me tonight in a toast to the state of Colorado and to John S. Hough.

In science news, please note that the first of two full moons in August will reach its peak today, August 1, so be sure to check it out. And as an added bonus, both of the full moons this month are also supermoons!

And here’s a poem about the moon by Robert Louis Stevenson:

Have a good day! Read some history. Look up at the night sky.

The painting is “Moonlight Study” by Christian Friedrich Gille, 1831 .

*The motto of the state of Colorado: “Nothing without the Deity”

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July 24, 2023

“When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee”*

by chuckofish

I thought we were going to have a quiet weekend because the boy and his family were in Kansas City, but we had visitors Sunday night–my brother and his son, who passed through our flyover town on their way to Arizona where Foster is moving. Lots of excitement as you can imagine. Cousins…

…and oldsters…

Further excitement when our resident OT professor from Covenant Seminary gave the sermon on Sunday–all about the Assyrians coming down like a wolf on the fold, i.e. 2 Kings 19:35-37. My DP would have really enjoyed it. We sang “It Is Well With My Soul” and I missed the twins, because they would have loved the fact that they know it and would have sung with gusto.

And back in Maryland daughter #2 beat the heat with her little ones.

(And the OM enjoyed lots of quality time with Mr. Smith.)

A good weekend all around–and no storms!

*Lord Byron

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July 19, 2023

Every moment of happiness

by chuckofish

It’s Wednesday, so let’s all just take a moment to be thankful:

O MY GOD,

Thou fairest, greatest, first of all objects,
my heart admires, adores, loves thee,
for my little vessel is as full as it can be,
and I would pour out all that fullness before thee
in ceaseless flow.
When I think upon and converse with thee
ten thousand delightful thoughts spring up,
ten thousand sources of pleasure are unsealed,
ten thousand refreshing joys spread over my heart,
crowding into every moment of happiness.
I bless thee for the soul thou hast created,
for adorning it, sanctifying it,
though it is fixed in barren soil;
for the body thou hast given me,
for preserving its strength and vigour,
for providing senses to enjoy delights,
for the ease and freedom of my limbs,
for hands, eyes, ears that do thy bidding;
for thy royal bounty providing my daily support,
for a full table and overflowing cup,
for appetite, taste, sweetness,
for social joys of relatives and friends,
for ability to serve others,
for a heart that feels sorrows and necessities,
for a mind to care for my fellow-men,
for opportunities of spreading happiness around,
for loved ones in the joys of heaven,
for my own expectation of seeing thee clearly.
I love thee above the powers of language
to express,
for what thou art to thy creatures.

Increase my love, O my God, through time
and eternity.

(“Praise and Thanksgiving” from The Valley of Vision, the Puritan prayer book)

And that said, it seems appropriate to read this from Willa Cather’s My Antonia.

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July 12, 2023

Out and about

by chuckofish

July is turning out to be a busier month than anticipated. We went to an actual 4th of July party last week and to a birthday party for an old friend.

Are people finally getting back in the swing of things post-COVID? I hope so. The OM is always reluctant to go anywhere, preferring to stay home, but then he has fun, even with a bunch of oldsters. I am the same way. (I keep forgetting that I am an old lady.) But it is good to get out and about.

The boy brought the wee twins over to frolic in the afternoon yesterday. The driveway had just been sealed, so we had to frolic inside, but that was fun too.

The twins were very excited that I gave them that old globe. They know an impressive array of countries and states (and state capitols).

I heard all about their trip. It sounded wonderful–they even had to get out of the water once when there was a shark sighting!

I had lunch with some old flyover institute friends and we talked treason…and

So we’ll live,
 And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
 At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
Talk of court news, and we’ll talk with them too—
 Who loses and who wins; who’s in, who’s out—
 And take upon ’s the mystery of things,
 As if we were God’s spies. And we’ll wear out,
 In a walled prison, packs and sects of great ones
That ebb and flow by th’ moon.

That’s as good a plan as any. Hang in there with me. Keep reading Shakespeare.

5 Comments
June 29, 2023

Rejoice in the Lord always

by chuckofish

June is almost over. [Insert praise hands emoji.]

Well, I am thankful that I no longer am a member of a church where they might say the “Sparkle Creed“. And “I’m gonna laugh endlessly at their stupid “sparkle” god like Elijah laughed at the prophets of Baal.”

Moving on, I loved this by John Piper about his most influential teacher.

And this is really cool:

And here’s a poem by Jorge Luis Borges:

God have mercy on me, a sinner.

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May 31, 2023

I contain multitudes

by chuckofish

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.

4 Comments
May 24, 2023

Watching the river flow

by chuckofish

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
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May 4, 2023

“Thine are these orbs of light and shade; Thou madest Life in man and brute”*

by chuckofish

On Tuesday when the boy came over for our weekly gabfest, a deer ran across our neighbor’s lawn into another neighbor’s back yard. In the middle of the day! What is with the wildlife around here? Deer, coyotes, foxes, BEARS?!

Speaking of wildlife, a Robin built a nest on our kitchen windowsill.

Later we noticed that there is one solitary blue egg.

I hadn’t seen the Robin in awhile and I was afraid the egg has been abandoned. I could have told the Robin that this is not a good place to build a nest, but would she have listened? I doubt it. Nature is red in tooth and claw and of this we are constantly reminded.

O life as futile, then, as frail!
O for thy voice to soothe and bless!
What hope of answer, or redress?
Behind the veil, behind the veil.

I thought, well, c’est la vie. But then the Robin was back on the nest.

The bird also has found a house,
And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young,
Even Your altars, O Lord of hosts,
My King and my God.

(Psalm 84:3)

In other news, in a miraculous turn, my English Ivy has come back. It was dead, dead, dead a month ago, as was my neighbor’s ivy. I should have taken a picture if it, but it was too depressing. Don told me to be patient and wait and see, but I really thought some scourge had taken it out. However, in the last two weeks it has greened up and filled in.

Now it needs trimming!

Well, have a good day.

[*You can read all of Tennyson’s very long poem “In Memoriam A.H.H.” here.]

4 Comments