dual personalities

Tag: quotes

January 1, 2014

Face to the front

by chuckofish

Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page. Take up one hole more in the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but on the first of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front, and take no interest in the things that were and are past.

–Henry Ward Beecher

AMEN!

Henry Ward Beecher (June 24, 1813 – March 8, 1887), you will recall, was quite a fellow.

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The son of the celebrated preacher Lyman Beecher and the brother of renowned author Harriet Beecher Stowe, he was an American Congregationalist clergyman, social reformer, and speaker, known for his support of the abolition of slavery, his emphasis on God’s love, and his 1875 adultery trial. His personal life was the thing that soap operas are made of and it is pretty amazing that no one has thought to make a movie about him. (But we do not want this guy to play him!)

He is cool enough, after all, to have a statue in Brooklyn.

Statue of Beecher in Brooklyn, NY

Statue of Beecher in Brooklyn, NY

I would like to go see the Plymouth Church in Brooklyn where he was the first pastor. (This would be a fun walking tour.)

57 Orange Street between Henry and Hicks Streets in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood

57 Orange Street between Henry and Hicks Streets in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood

According to the NHL, it was designed “to accommodate the large crowds that came to hear Beecher and his cohorts. Its simple design reflects the Puritan ethic of plain living and high thinking, and the walls that once rang to the sound of abolition oratory remain largely unchanged.”

Among those who came to hear Beecher were Mark Twain, Booker T. Washington, and Abraham Lincoln. In fact, so many flocked to hear his sermons that special “Beecher boats” were needed to ferry the throngs from Manhattan!

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Abraham Lincoln stained glass window by Frederick Stymetz Lamb

Abraham Lincoln stained glass window by Frederick Stymetz Lamb

“The stained glass windows of Plymouth Church are widely recognized as artistic treasures. The prominent artist Frederick Stymetz Lamb designed, and his brothers of the J. and R. Lamb Studios in Greenwich Village built the nineteen major windows of the Sanctuary, and installed between 1907 and 1909. As planned by then-minister Newell Dwight Hillis, they are unusual in depicting historical, not religious, subjects, taking as their theme the influence of Puritanism (the parent of Congregationalism) on the growth of liberty in the United States-personal liberty, religious liberty and political liberty.”

Well, it’s my kind of place. And as you know, this is how my mind works.

Happy New Year! Thanks for reading our blog in 2013! Keep reading in 2014!

3 Comments
December 31, 2013

Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come*

by chuckofish

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The blogosphere, as you can imagine, is all about new year’s resolutions right now. Lists of resolutions: lose weight, quit smoking, save money, get fit, drink less, manage stress. You get the picture. Well, no thanks. January, I will admit, is a good month to get one’s closets in order, to edit one’s stuff, to clean house. But so is every month. You gotta keep up with these things or you can be buried alive.

That goes for a lot of things. 

When it comes to New Years Resolutions, we can do better. I suggest we read the Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards– all 70 of them.

According to the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale, the Resolutions were Edwards’ guidelines for self-examination. Puritans set great store by biblical injunctions to submit themselves to divine searching and to monitor their motives and actions. On a community level, congregations were exhorted to practice introspection as a duty of great consequence.

Edwards lays out the Resolutions in a matter-of-fact style, treating them much like scientific principles. Of the seventy resolutions, the first one dated, No. 35, was written on December 18, 1722, when the Diary begins. The last, No. 70, was composed on August 17, 1723.

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Let’s resolve to be more self-examining. We can do better.

“There are always two sides to every story, and it is generally wise, and safe, and charitable, to take the best; and yet there is probably no one way in which persons are so liable to be wrong, as in presuming the worst is true, and in forming and expressing their judgement of others, and of their actions, without waiting till all the truth is known.”
― Jonathan Edwards, Charity & Its Fruits

*Alfred Tennyson

3 Comments
December 20, 2013

People disagreeing everywhere you look makes you wanna stop and read a book.*

by chuckofish

So recently the Man Repeller’s Amelia Diamond was cogitating about who she would choose as her celebrity BFF. You can read it here. This is a brilliant topic.

She was writing about her imaginary friendship with Mindy Kaling, a twenty-something wunderkind with whom I can not relate. Daughters #1 and 2 think she is hilarious, but I’m afraid I am neither young or hip enough to get her. She went to Dartmouth and so did my BFF, so we have that going for us. I will probably reverse my opinion on Mindy at some future point, but sorry, no.

The comment section of this post was fascinating. Answers included Emma Stone, Tina Fey, Cecily Strong, Courtney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Axl Heck from The Middle and Bernadette and Penny from The Big Bang Theory. And Angela Lansbury. (I have no idea whether these people realize that some of these are fictional characters or if they mean the actors who play them. If that is, indeed, the case, they should know the names of their BFFs.) Okay then.

Well anyway celebrities don’t really matter much to me these days. The only well-known person I would like to hang out with is of course, Bob Dylan. We could be BFFs.

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We are a lot alike. We read a lot. We stay out of politics. We love the Lord. He is a better and more prolific writer than I am, but I understand the process. We trust our gut. We are even starting to look alike.

And we are in total agreement that:

People are crazy and times are strange
I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range
I used to care, but things have changed…

I have also always felt that Johnny Depp is probably a long lost family member. He always reminded me of my older brother in his younger days. This may come as a surprise to his children, but it’s true.

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Yes, Johnny, in his own flaky way, would fit right in with the Chamberlins. We are the flakiest.

And I mustn’t forget Sarah Michelle Geller,

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who is, after all, like a fourth daughter to me.

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She would fit right in, don’t you think?

Who would you choose as your celebrity BFF?

P.S. This would be a good night to watch Edward Scissorhands (1990) which qualifies as a Christmas movie after all.

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* “Watching the River Flow”, Bob Dylan, 1971

8 Comments
December 12, 2013

A sermon and a half

by chuckofish

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“Well done!” he said. “And remember: Worry about nothing, pray about everything.” He’d gotten this message from a wayside pulpit somewhere–a sermon and a half in a half dozen words, and a splendid exegesis of the Philippians passage.

Shepherds Abiding, Jan Karon

I highly recommend reading some Jan Karon during this holiday season. It has a calming effect. And it reminds us that we shouldn’t take everything quite so seriously.

I have been slowly but surely getting things done around my house.

After a few false starts my little tree is up. The old man and I could not, between the two of us, wrestle it into its stand. We gave up, amid a shower of pine needles and exclamations of “goddamit!”, convinced that we needed a new stand. So after work on Tuesday I stopped at our neighborhood hardware store and had a meaningful conversation with the man there. He advised me to wrap the trunk of my tree with electrical tape and try again. Which I did when I got home. I am proud to say that I got the tree in the stand (without the aid of Mr. Goddammit). Later in the evening I put the lights on and decorated it.

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Pretty nice, don’t you think?

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I wrote my Christmas letter and mailed it to my out-of-town friends and family this week. I also mailed my Christmas package to my dual personality. Check and check.

We are cooking with gas.

6 Comments
December 11, 2013

Animals all, as it befell

by chuckofish

Illustration by Ernest Shepherd

Illustration by Ernest Shepard

It was a pretty sight, and a seasonable one, that met their eyes when they flung the door open. In the fore-court, lit by the dim rays of a horn lantern, some eight or ten little field mice stood in a semicircle, red worsted comforters round their throats, their fore-paws thrust deep into their pockets, their feet jigging for warmth. With bright beady eyes they glanced shyly at each other, sniggering a little, sniffing and applying coat-sleeves a good deal. As the door opened, one of the elder ones that carried the lantern was just saying, ‘Now then, one, two, three!’ and forthwith their shrill little voices uprose on the air, singing one of the old-time carols that their forefathers composed in fields that were fallow and held by frost, or when snow-bound in chimney corners, and handed down to be sung in the miry street to lamp-lit windows at Yule-time.

CAROL

Villagers all, this frosty tide,
Let your doors swing open wide,
Though wind may follow, and snow beside,
Yet draw us in by your fire to bide;
Joy shall be yours in the morning!

Here we stand in the cold and the sleet,
Blowing fingers and stamping feet,
Come from far away you to greet—
You by the fire and we in the street—
Bidding you joy in the morning!

For ere one half of the night was gone,
Sudden a star has led us on,
Raining bliss and benison—
Bliss to-morrow and more anon,
Joy for every morning!

Goodman Joseph toiled through the snow—
Saw the star o’er a stable low;
Mary she might not further go—
Welcome thatch, and litter below!
Joy was hers in the morning!

And then they heard the angels tell
‘Who were the first to cry NOWELL?
Animals all, as it befell,
In the stable where they did dwell!
Joy shall be theirs in the morning!’

The voices ceased, the singers, bashful but smiling, exchanged sidelong glances, and silence succeeded—but for a moment only. Then, from up above and far away, down the tunnel they had so lately travelled was borne to their ears in a faint musical hum the sound of distant bells ringing a joyful and clangorous peal.

The Wind In the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
You can read the whole chapter here.

Doesn’t everybody love this book? Even Theodore Roosevelt wrote a fan letter to Kenneth Grahame. You can read it here.

By the way, Kenneth Grahame bequeathed all the royalties from his works to ‘the University of Oxford for the benefit of the Bodleian Library’, an act of generosity that has enabled the Library to purchase many important books and manuscripts over the years. His wife Elspeth Grahame was a great supporter of the Friends of the Bodleian, and made important gifts to the Library through donation and bequest.

On a related note, a descendent of the original Sir Thomas Bodley, who “re-founded” the Oxford library in 1598, ended up in my flyover town and in the 1850s was one of the original members and founders of my own Grace Episcopal Church. There is a Bodley Road here in town as well. Isn’t that something?

But as you know, that is how my mind works.

7 Comments
December 10, 2013

“The main trouble is there are too many people who don’t know where they’re going and they want to get there too fast!”*

by chuckofish

Cary Grant, David Niven and Loretta Young

Cary Grant, David Niven and Loretta Young

The Bishop’s Wife (1947), directed by Henry Koster, is a wonderful black and white Christmas movie that you may have missed. We discovered it on television back in the 1970s and have loved it ever since. Of course, it is right up my alley, being about an Episcopal bishop (David Niven) who is trying to raise funds to build a Cathedral. And there is Cary Grant as an angel–talk about great casting–who comes in answer to the bishop’s prayer for “help”. According to IMDB, Grant was first cast to play the bishop and Niven the angel, but when the original director was replaced, Koster decided they should be switched. A brilliant move. The resulting film was nominated for Best Picture, Director, Film Editing, and Music. It only won for Best Sound. It also boasts a great script by the playwright Robert Emmet Sherwood from the novel by Robert Nathan.

It was re-made in 1996 as The Preacher’s Wife with Denzel Washington as the angel and Whitney Houston as the wife. I have not seen this version, but I know they’re not Episcopalians. Sigh. It isn’t cool anymore to make movies about Episcopalians I guess. C’est la vie.

Well, I highly recommend this terrific Christmas movie from 1947. You should definitely make room in your busy holiday schedule for this treat.

* The Bishop’s Wife (1947)

7 Comments
December 9, 2013

‘Tis the season or “Look Doris, someday you’re going to find that your way of facing this realistic world just doesn’t work. And when you do, don’t overlook those lovely intangibles. You’ll discover those are the only things that are worthwhile.”*

by chuckofish

Regular readers of this blog know that the dual personalities are not particularly social animals. We like to stay home, but ’tis the season, as they say, and lately I have been very busy. And please note: This was all happening during a period of snow/snowy mix/sleet.

The other night I went to our church ornament party which is a fund-raiser for Outreach. This ladies-only event is always a “hilarious” good time where 40 or so church ladies of various ages choose a wrapped ornament and then hope it won’t get stolen by the next person in that favorite holiday tradition: the Dirty Santa game. Who invented this? Thanks a lot.

The associate rector clowns around.

The associate rector clowns around.

susieries

Well, I had to fight for it, but I got the ornament I wanted!

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Saturday morning I ran over to church where the Christmas cookie sale/used book sale was underway and bought a bagful of books. Yay!

Later that morning my three best church girlfriends piled into Carla’s SUV for a trip to our flyover state’s first capital, the quaint town of St. Charles.

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It was their Christmas Walk weekend so it was very crowded despite the bitter temperatures.

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Santa arrived and there were Victorian carol singers. Chestnuts were roasting on an open fire. There was even a band.

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Most of the “quaint” shops are full of dreadful tourist-y merchandise, but there are some nice stores and I picked up a few things. It was a lot of fun, although super crowded.

Then we were off to our 3rd annual overnight at Monette’s Cabin, a charming bed ‘n breakfast nestled in the rolling hills of our picturesque flyover state. Last year it was 71-degrees when we arrived. This year it was 21-degrees! But we saw a lovely sunset.

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We came prepared with lots of treats.

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Between the four of us rocket scientists we could not figure out how to get the DVD player to work, so we could not watch the Christmas movies I had thoughtfully packed, but oh well. We talked the night away and when we were all gabbed out we came back home on Sunday.

nextmorning

Then I talked my old man into going with me to our friendly Optimists tree lot to buy our two Christmas trees (in the snow). Now they are defrosting and I will tackle them later this week. Phew.

How was your weekend?

*Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

8 Comments
December 5, 2013

That’ll be the day!

by chuckofish

Last weekend I ended up watching three of my all-time favorite movies: Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Searchers and The Wizard of Oz. All three should have won Best Picture Oscars, but, of course, none of them did. For me, Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1962) and The Wizard of Oz (1939) are perfect movies. I wouldn’t change a thing about either of them.

The Searchers (1956) is a great, great movie, but it is not perfect. It is arguably the pinnacle of the John Wayne-John Ford collaboration and is considered one of the greatest Westerns ever made. I watched it on TCM as part of their “Essentials” series, introduced by Robert Osborne and Drew Barrymore. I was curious to hear what they had to say. Robert Osborne, who has the best job in the world, can be quite a dolt, and he certainly was this time around.

Permit me now a little rant. Osborne said he preferred John Ford’s black and white films shot in Monument Valley. The technicolor photography of The Searchers was “lurid”. This is comparing apples and oranges. I love the black and white westerns as well, but The Searchers is a whole different scale and category. It is an epic. To give Drew credit, she said she felt like she was watching a work of art, and for once I agreed with her.

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Osborne said a lot of other stupid things, but the most egregious comment was stating that John Wayne is at his most “Duke-ish” in this movie. John Wayne is not the Duke in this movie. He is a bitter war veteran who is eaten up with hate. The woman he loves has been savagely murdered by Indians along with her husband and son. He is heart-broken and angry and hell-bent on vengeance. Is this the Duke? Hardly. (As the boy explained, “The Duke is The Fighting Seabees.”)

SearchersEthan3

No, John Wayne is acting in this movie and he is great. He should have won an Oscar for this movie. But, of course, Robert Osborne and Drew Barrymore never mention Wayne’s acting or anyone else’s for that matter. It is as if they do not expect there to be acting in a Western–there is only action, right? He did mention that for once Jeffrey Hunter had a better part than usual, but no credit was given to John Wayne.

John-Wayne-in-The-Searchers

As I said before, this is a flawed film. The great John Ford seems uneasy with the serious subject matter and he undermines Wayne’s great performance by frequently cutting from a dramatic scene to a haw-haw “my fi-an-cy” scene in an irritating way. Even at the denouement of the movie when Wayne’s character finally confronts his long-lost niece, Ford cuts immediately to Ward Bond with his pants down. Why does he do this? It is perplexing. It is, indeed, almost like two films: the one with John Wayne out on the trail and the one with the people back at home. When the two intersect, it is problematic.

But still, John Wayne is at his graceful best: throwing his hat, gesticulating and waving, galloping and shooting, and spitting out lines like,

“Well, Reverend, that tears it! From now on, you stay out of this. All of ya. I don’t want you with me. I don’t need ya for what I got to do..”

and

“What do you want me to do? Draw you a picture? Spell it out? Don’t ever ask me! Long as you live, don’t ever ask me more.”

He does it all like no one before or since. He can tell you how he feels by moving one muscle in his face. I have heard that the Duke himself considered this his greatest role and his own favorite movie. Of course he did.

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6 Comments
December 2, 2013

You know what time it is

by chuckofish

You know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake up from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Romans 13: 11–14

Well, this reading from Sunday morning seems like a timely scripture for this Advent when the country goes en masse on a month-long frenzy of spending and partying which has nothing to do with the real “reason for the season”. I don’t know about you but I’m taping this one to the mirror.

I went to church twice this Sunday, because we had the annual Lessons and Carols service at Grace in the early evening. I got to be one of the readers and read the third lesson. This still makes me so happy. It doesn’t take much, right?

In other news, the boy came over and put up our lights.

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Not a great iPhone picture, but you get the idea.

Not a great iPhone picture, but you get the idea.

Don’t they look beautiful?

I also got out a lot of Christmas decorations this weekend. And I put away a lot of stuff to make room for the Christmas decorations. I set up my mantle.

Come, thou long-expected Jesus, born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sin release us, let us find our rest in thee.

Let us live honorably.

1 Comment
November 26, 2013

Ponder anew: counting our blessings

by chuckofish

prayer-stained-glass-religion

“Gratitude goes beyond the ‘mine’ and ‘thine’ and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift. In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline. The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy.”

― Henri J.M. Nouwen

So November is almost over. Advent starts this Sunday! Have I been successful in my effort to be more consciously thankful? I think so.

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, “Only he who gives thanks for little things receives the big things.”

This is so true. And, hey, what we may think of as small things are probably the Big Things. There are many, many things to be grateful for, but these are the main five in my book.

1. Home and family–so easy to take for granted–but my ordinary life is quite wonderful.

2. A church home: Isn’t it wonderful (to borrow a phrase) to have some place to go “where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came”?

3. Work: I am personally so grateful to have a job that I actually like and where I feel I am making a small difference.

4. Health–One of those things that I don’t really appreciate until I am sick or my knee hurts–so it takes some effort to think, hey, I feel pretty good today!

5. An inquiring mind: It’s so important to exercise this gift every day along with that not-so-athletic body! And there is also this:

“The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That’s the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.”

― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

So in these waning days of November as we ready ourselves for the festive national holiday of Thanksgiving, let us actually give thanks!

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