President Theodore Roosevelt on a horse in Colorado, c. 1905
“There were all kinds of things of which I was afraid at first, ranging from grizzly bears to “mean” horses and gunfighters; but by acting as if I was not afraid I gradually ceased to be afraid. Most men can have the same experience if they choose.”
―Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography
Agreed, but I will always be afraid of grizzly bears no matter what and always.
Come now, you’ve never read an actuarial table in your life, have you? Why they’ve got ten volumes on suicide alone. Suicide by race, by color, by occupation, by sex, by seasons of the year, by time of day. Suicide, how committed: by poison, by firearms, by drowning, by leaps. Suicide by poison, subdivided by *types* of poison, such as corrosive, irritant, systemic, gaseous, narcotic, alkaloid, protein, and so forth; suicide by leaps, subdivided by leaps from high places, under the wheels of trains, under the wheels of trucks, under the feet of horses, from *steamboats*. But, Mr. Norton, of all the cases on record, there’s not one single case of suicide by leap from the rear end of a moving train. And you know how fast that train was going at the point where the body was found? Fifteen miles an hour. Now how can anybody jump off a slow-moving train like that with any kind of expectation that he would kill himself? No. No soap, Mr. Norton. We’re sunk, and we’ll have to pay through the nose, and you know it.
Did you watch Double Indemnity (1944) last night? It was on TCM as part of their Star of the Month–Fred MacMurray–repertoire.
It is the ultimate noir film and, in my opinion, just a great movie. It is certainly Fred MacMurray’s best movie. And Barbara Stanwyck, although she has seldom looked worse, is terrific.
Edward G. Robinson, playing against type as is MacMurray, is wonderful in the good guy role.
However, it is the sharp dialogue and grim, realistic narration written by Raymond Chandler that makes the movie. I mean, no one before or since writes like him. Many have tried, but no one comes close.
It was nominated for seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Actress, Director, Screenplay, Cinematography, Music, and Sound. It won nothing. (Why wasn’t Fred nominated? And E. G. R.?) This was the year Going My Way won a bunch–hello, please!–but you know, the war was raging…voters went for sentimentality and breezy Bing Crosby, not a gritty crime drama.
Sigh.
Well, if you missed it, you might want to look it up. It’s a good one.
“No matter how bad things got, no matter how anxious the staff became, the commander had to “preserve optimism in himself and in his command. Without confidence, enthusiasm and optimism in the command, victory is scarcely obtainable.” Eisenhower realized that “optimism and pessimism are infectious and they spread more rapidly from the head downward than in any other direction.” He learned that a commander’s optimism “has a most extraordinary effect upon all with whom he comes in contact. With this clear realization, I firmly determined that my mannerisms and speech in public would always reflect the cheerful certainty of victory—that any pessimism and discouragement I might ever feel would be reserved for my pillow.”
–Stephen E. Ambrose, D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Battle for the Normandy Beaches
Leadership 101, guys. Now, go out there and SMILE!
“He knew that all was well, because he had done the best that he could, from day to day. He had been true to the light that had been given to him. He had looked for more. And if he had not found it, if a failure was all that came out of his life, doubtless that was the best that was possible. He had not seen the revelation of “life everlasting, incorruptible and immortal.” But he knew that even if he could live his earthly life over again, it could not be otherwise than it had been.”
–Henry Van Dyke, The Story of the Other Wise Man
Today is the feast of Epiphany, celebrating the ‘shining forth’ or revelation of God to mankind in human form, in the person of Jesus Christ. The observance had its origins in the eastern Christian church, and included the birth of Jesus Christ, the visit of the three Magi who arrived in Bethlehem, and all of Jesus’ childhood events, up to his baptism in the Jordan by John the Baptist. The visit of the Magi is traditionally interpreted as symbolic of God’s revelation of himself to the Gentiles.
I think I will re-read the short book The Story of the Other Wise Man written in 1896 by Henry Van Dyke, Presbyterian minister and Princeton graduate. It was a great favorite of our mother. It is a wonderful of story of the fourth wise man, who sets out to see the newborn king, carrying treasures to give as gifts–a sapphire, a ruby, and a “pearl of great price.” But he gets side-tracked on the way to Bethlehem. His journey lengthens and he finally finds Jesus as he is crucified.
“I do not know where this little story came from,” said Van Dyke, “out of the air, perhaps. One thing is certain, it is not written in any other book, nor is it to be found among the ancient lore of the East. And yet I have never felt as if it were my own. It was a gift, and it seemed to me as if I knew the Giver.”
*Isaiah 60:1
Yesterday I was back at work full swing and it was one of those days that really tests the soul. Not that anything bad happened or that people were mean or anything like that. It was just non-stop dealing with stuff.
I thought of this quote by C.S. Lewis:
“I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It does not change God. It changes me.”
“Toward Taos” by Eric Sloane
Know what I mean?
What a way to start the new year! According to our local weather guru Dave Murray, The Great Flood of 2015 is a very big deal.
Photo from FOX2 Facebook page
“During this event it has forced the closure of Interstate 70 in two locations, Interstate 44 in three locations, and Interstate 55 (at times overnight). This did not occur in the Great Flood of ’93, nor the December Flood of ’82…This flooding event is nothing less than historic and will serve as the new bench mark, the historic reference, for the Meramec River Basin, including the Bourbeuse.”
We who are high and dry take it all rather lightly, but I talked to a delivery guy at work who lives in House Springs who said he can’t even get home. That’s intense.
I am grateful that I can get home and that it is warm and dry there. All I have to do this weekend is take down my Christmas tree and box up all the decorations. This is not a small task, but it is not sand-bagging.
So a toast to and a prayer for all those who are fighting the flood and also for those newspeople who are in the field and in the studio reporting on the flood.
“And now let us believe in a long year that is given to us, new, untouched, full of things that have never been, full of work that has never been done, full of tasks, claims, and demands; and let us see that we learn to take it without letting fall too much of what it has to bestow upon those who demand of it necessary, serious, and great things.”
–Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke, 1892-1910
*Brad Paisley
“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.”
–Henry David Thoreau, Walden
“The nativity mystery “conceived from the Holy Spirit and born from the Virgin Mary,” means, that God became human, truly human out of his own grace. The miracle of the existence of Jesus, his “climbing down of God” is: Holy Spirit and Virgin Mary! Here is a human being, the Virgin Mary, and as he comes from God, Jesus comes also from this human being. Born of the Virgin Mary means a human origin for God. Jesus Christ is not only truly God, he is human like every one of us. He is human without limitation. He is not only similar to us, he is like us.”
–Karl Barth, Dogmatics in Outline
Merry Christmas!
But as far as I’m concerned, Mary is always going to look a lot like Imogene Herdman – sort of nervous and bewildered, but ready to clobber anyone who laid a hand on her baby. And the Wise Men are always going to be Leroy and his brothers, bearing ham. When we came out of the church that night it was cold and clear, with crunchy snow underfoot and bright, bright stars overhead. And I thought about the Angel of the Lord – Gladys, with her skinny legs and her dirty sneakers sticking out from under her robe, yelling at all of us everywhere: ‘Hey! Unto you a child is born!’
Happy Christmas Eve. We are going to the early service this afternoon which includes the Pageant. It always reminds me of the book by Barbara Robinson and takes me back to my own Christmas Pageant experiences at school. How well I remember going to the Inn to ask for a room and my friend Trudy Glick turning me away. We had a moment where we nearly burst into nervous laughter, but we didn’t. I sang a tremulous solo to my wife Mary. The Angel of the Lord fainted…or was that a Wise Man?
Keep the faith!
*Barbara Robinson, The Best Christmas Pageant Ever; the painting is by N.C. Wyeth.
“He saw clearly how plain and simple – how narrow, even – it all was; but clearly, too, how much it all meant to him, and the special value of some such anchorage in one’s existence. He did not at all want to abandon the new life and its splendid spaces, to turn his back on sun and air and all they offered him and creep home and stay there; the upper world was all too strong, it called to him still, even down there, and he knew he must return to the larger stage. But it was good to think he had this to come back to, this place which was all his own, these things which were so glad to see him again and could always be counted upon for the same simple welcome.” (Kenneth Graham, The Wind in the Willows)
Hope you are enjoying your countdown to Christmas! Try to slow it down and enjoy the simple things.
dual personalities 