dual personalities

Tag: quotes

May 8, 2013

The daily tide

by chuckofish

May 6 (Monday) was the 149th anniversary of Henry David Thoreau’s death of consumption in 1862 at age 44. I’m sorry I missed it, but these things happen.

When his aunt Louisa asked him in his last weeks if he had made his peace with God, Thoreau responded: “I did not know we had ever quarreled.” His last words were “Now comes good sailing”, followed by two lone words, “moose” and “Indian”.

Bronson Alcott planned the service. The Boston Transcript reported:

Selections from the Bible were read by the minister. A brief ode, written for the purpose by William Ellery Channing, was plaintively sung. Mr. Emerson read an address of considerable length, marked by all his felicity of conception and diction — an exquisite appreciation of the salient and subtle traits of his friend’s genius — a high strain of sanitive thoughts, full of beauty and cheerfulness, chastened by the gentle sorrow of the hour. Referring to the Alpine flower adelweiss, or noble purity, which the young Switzers sometimes lose their lives in plucking from perilous heights, Mr. Emerson said, “Could we pierce to where he is we would see him wearing profuse chaplets of it; for it belongs to him. Where there is knowledge, where there is virtue, where there is beauty, where there is progress, there is now his home.” Mr. Alcott read some very appropriate passages from the writings of the deceased, and the service closed with a prayer by the Rev. Mr. Reynolds. A long procession was then formed to follow the body to the grave. The hands of friends reverently lowered it into the bosom of the earth, on the pleasant hillside of his native village, whose prospects will long wait to unfurl themselves to another observer so competent to discriminate their features, and so attuned to their moods.

Can you imagine such a funeral? It must have been something.

Originally buried in the Dunbar family plot, Thoreau and members of his immediate family were eventually moved to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts.

thoreau-head2

Have no mean hours, but be grateful for every hour, and accept what it brings. The reality will make any sincere record respectable. No day will have been wholly misspent, if one sincere, thoughtful page has been written. Let the daily tide leave some deposit on these pages, as it leaves sand and shells on the shore. So much increase of terra firma. this may be a calendar of the ebbs and flows of the soul; and on these sheets as a beach, the waves may cast up pearls and seaweed.

—Journals

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May 7, 2013

Now with gladness

by chuckofish

I read the second lesson in church on Sunday. It was a great passage from the Book of Revelation, the one that starts out “I saw no temple in the city, for the temple is the Lord God Almighty…”

BritLibAddMS35166ApocalypseFolio003rAngelApeardToJohn

Here is paradise! The hymns reflected this nicely. We sang #620, “Jerusalem, My Happy Home” and #621, “Lights’ Abode, Celestial Salem”.

The sermon, no surprise, did not address the holy city, but was about “Friends”. The preacher vaguely connected this to the Gospel, but it was a stretch.

I can’t help wondering if some ministers do not want to talk about resurrection and heaven, because they do not really believe in it. It certainly makes them very uncomfortable. Partly I think this is because they enjoy their life here and now too much. They certainly don’t buy into the idea put forth so well in hymn #621:

Now with gladness, now with courage,
bear the burden on thee laid,
that hereafter these thy labors
may with endless gifts be paid,
and in everlasting glory
thou with brightness be arrayed.

But what did old Thomas á Kempis know? Or for that matter, the Victorian (J. M. Neale) who translated it?

Well, who am I to say? It just got me thinking, you know? And Lord knows I have to think about something during those long sermons about #friendship.

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May 2, 2013

“I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.”*

by chuckofish

quote1

I love quotations and have been filling “quote books” since I was in the eighth grade. I have no idea where that first book is, but I remember it clearly. It was a plain spiral notebook with a brown cardboard cover. I wish I could find it. I have no doubt the contents are priceless.

Forty-three years later, I am still at it. I have lots of quote books in every shape and size. Trouble is, there is no rhyme nor reason to my books and I have no idea where any particular quote is.

But as Melville writes: “There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness is the true method.”

Whenever I go back and look at one of these books, I find great things, which I have inevitably forgotten.

Here’s a quote from Mark Helprin’s Soldier of the Great War, which I read many years ago:

“Alessandro, in memory, things, objects, and sensations merely stand in for the people you love.” He had to rest and breathe before he continued. After a while, he said, “If I long for a thunderstorm in Rome sixty years ago, or seventy, for the heavy rain and the disheveled lightening, for the wet trees that were completely free and completely abandoned, it’s not because of the rain, or the quiet, or the ticking of the clock in the hallway–all of which I remember–but because of my mother and my father, who held me at the window as we watched the storm.”

Do you have a quote book?

*Said by the ever-so-quotable Ralph Waldo Emerson

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April 30, 2013

No time to read?

by chuckofish

“Once upon a time in the dead of winter in the Dakota Territory, Theodore Roosevelt took off in a makeshift boat down the Little Missouri River in pursuit of a couple of thieves who had stolen his prized rowboat. After several days on the river, he caught up and got the draw on them with his trusty Winchester, at which point they surrendered. Then Roosevelt set off in a borrowed wagon to haul the thieves cross-country to justice. They headed across the snow-covered wastes of the Badlands to the railhead at Dickinson, and Roosevelt walked the whole way, the entire 40 miles. It was an astonishing feat, what might be called a defining moment in Roosevelt’s eventful life. But what makes it especially memorable is that during that time, he managed to read all of Anna Karenina. I often think of that when I hear people say they haven’t time to read.”

― David McCullough

roosevelt

They sure don’t make ’em like him anymore.

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April 29, 2013

“You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don’t help.”

by chuckofish

I had a bad day on Friday and it carried into my weekend. I’m afraid I am not spiritually advanced enough to power through those bad days. I disappoint myself, but it’s the truth.

It takes some work you know. I won’t go into all the details, but I finally had a breakthrough when I watched Awakenings (1990) on Saturday night.

No, that is not Robert De Niro in the car with my brother! That's Robin WIlliams.

No, that is not my brother in the car with Robert De Niro! That’s Robin Williams.

Leonard Lowe, De Niro’s character, who has been “awakened” from a 30-year catatonic state, tells us:

Read the newspaper. What does it say? All bad. It’s all bad. People have forgotten what life is all about. They’ve forgotten what it is to be alive. They need to be reminded. They need to be reminded of what they have and what they can lose. What I feel is the joy of life, the gift of life, the freedom of life, the wonderment of life!

It is important to be reminded of this frequently. I highly recommend this wonderful movie, although be prepared to cry off-and-on for two hours. This also is a good thing (see here.)

I went to church on Sunday and was under-whelmed by the service and the sermon, but was gladdened by the display of new spring growth evident in the church grounds.

2stfran

stfran

There was plenty of spring bounty at the grocery store as well.

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dierb2

Back in my yard, there is plenty of work to be done already.

violets

ivy

But I’m feeling better already. Aren’t you?

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And for you doubters out there who don’t believe that Robin Williams is my brother’s doppelganger…here’s proof!

Here he is (on the right obviously) in 1989 with his bro-in-law.

Here he is (on the right obviously) in 1989 with his bro-in-law.

Born a few weeks apart in 1951, the only way to tell them apart is that Robin is a LOT more hairy.

Have a great week!

7 Comments
April 26, 2013

She dwelleth and abideth on the rock

by chuckofish

“Your house, being the place in which you read, can tell us the position books occupy in your life, if they are a defense you set up to keep the outside world at a distance, if they are a dream into which you sink as if into a drug, or bridges you cast toward the outside, toward the world that interests you so much that you want to multiply and extend its dimensions through books.”

― Italo Calvino, If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler

Or all of the above, right?

Furthermore, there are plenty of people who read, but do not have books in their home. Books, after all, gather dust and some people never read a book twice, so why would you want to own it? It is just entertainment. But for some of us, books are old friends whom we visit and re-visit.

books

The world can always be divided in two. You know, between people who collect and people who don’t. People who buy books and people who never buy books. People who buy a house and furnish it and never think of it again and those who are continually feathering their nests.

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I spend a lot of time in my nest. Having my things around me (and my mother’s things and her mother’s things and so on) makes me happy. I appreciate them and enjoy them.

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This is not to say, I don’t believe whole-heartedly in “editing” and being organized. But I had a friend once who lived like she might have to move out of her house overnight and she wanted to be ready. That meant no extraneous possessions–like last month’s magazines. The minute her son outgrew something, she got rid of it. If he didn’t play with a toy for some designated time, out it went. (This begs another question–Are children allowed to have their own things and should their mother be getting rid of them?) I could not live that way, but to each his own. You do what you have to do.

It is never a good thing to get too attached to our things. They are, after all, just things–not people.

But I always told my children: in case of a fire, someone grab the sampler!

It went without saying that the priority was getting oneself out the door!

The key, of course, is enjoying what you have. Don’t you agree?

2 Comments
April 25, 2013

Happy birthday, Oliver Cromwell!

by chuckofish

Well, this week we celebrate the birthdays of many worthy souls, but I have to say, none so worthy as Oliver Cromwell (25 April 1599 – 3 September 1658). I do love old Oliver, great-great-great-nephew, by the way, of another favorite, Thomas Cromwell. As an American and a member of the “rabble,” a lover of liberty, as a believer in public education for all and a Puritan at heart, I certainly sympathize with this Roundhead who rebelled against the absolute power of the monarchy and the divine right of kings.

“I had rather have a plain russet-coated captain that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that which you call a gentleman and is nothing else.”

–Letter from Cromwell to Sir William Spring. Sept. 1643

Indeed.

“I confess I have an interest in this Mr Cromwell; and indeed, if truth must be said, in him alone. The rest are historical, dead to me; but he is epic, still living. Hail to thee, thou strong one; hail across the longdrawn funeral-aisle and night of time!…”

Thomas Carlyle, Historical Sketches

oliver cromwell

You either love him or hate him. But even those who despise him, have to admit he was a good Protector of England.

“To give the devil (Cromwell) his due, he restored justice, as well distributive as comutative, almost to it’s ancient dignity and splendour; the judges without covetousness discharging their duties according to law and equity…..His own court also was regulated according to a severe discipline; here no drunkard, nor whoremonger, nor any guilty of bribery, was to be found, without severe punishment. Trade began again to prosper; and in a word, gentle peace to flourish all over England.”

Physician to the Cromwellian Court, George Bate, Post-Restoration indictment of his master Oliver Cromwell.

There seems to be little middle ground.

“He was a practical mystic, the most formidable and terrible of all combinations, uniting an aspiration derived from the celestial and supernatural with the energy of a mighty man of action; a great captain, but off the field seeming, like a thunderbolt, the agent of greater forces than himself ; no hypocrite, but a defender of the faith; the raiser and maintainer of the Empire of England.”

Lord Rosebery, in W.C. Abbott, The Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell

I can relate to that “practical mystic.”

Anyway, I think this is a perfect occasion to watch Cromwell (1970) starring Richard Harris as Cromwell and Alec Guinness as Charles I. This is actually a really good movie, and I think Harris, although an Irishman and raised to be a hater, gets Cromwell just right. It is, indeed, one of his best film roles. Alec Guinness looks eerily like the King and manages to make him real and sympathetic.

richard harris

Here’s a clip to whet your appetite:

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April 24, 2013

She’s a pilgrim living in the modern time

by chuckofish

Oh my goodness. I got some good new music for my birthday! Thank you to my dual personality who gave me This Empty Northern Hemisphere by Gregory Alan Isakov.

Gregory Alan Isakov is a singer-songwriter. Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, he emigrated to the United States as a child, and was raised in Philadelphia. I sure do like him!

Meanwhile Calhoun County has been declared a disaster area. (Flooding on the line.)

And this guy is under water again:

UPI.com

UPI.com

Here is the statue of Lewis and Clark and their big ol’ dog when the river is not flooding:

"Captain's Return," by Harry Weber

“Captain’s Return,” by Harry Weber

Ah, but where was I? Good music for my birthday. But don’t worry–I will tie it all together:

“The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers and cities; but to know someone who thinks and feels with us, and who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden.”

― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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April 18, 2013

Prayer 101: Stand by me

by chuckofish

luther diet of worms

As the trial of Martin Luther began its second day during the assembly of the Diet of Worms in 1521, he refused to recant his teachings despite the threat of excommunication. On April 18 he stood alone against the mighty Catholic Church and prayed one of the all-time great prayers:

Almighty and eternal God, what a strange cause this is! How it loosens people’s tongues! How small and insignificant is their trust in you! How weak and tender is the flesh, and how powerful and busy is the devil, with the help of his apostles and the worldly wise!! How quickly the world withdraws help, does an about-face, pursues the easy way, and speeds on the broad road to hell where the godless belong. It sees only the brilliant and powerful, great, mighty, and respected! If I should turn my eyes to it, I would be done for.

Oh God, Oh God, Oh my God, stand by me against all the wisdom and reason of the world. Do it. You alone must do it. It is not really my concern, it is yours. Alone I have nothing to do with these great lords of the world. I want good and quiet days, undisturbed. But it is your cause: it is righteous and eternal. Stand by me. Oh true and eternal God, I do not rely on human counsel, for it would be in vain. All that is carnal and tastes carnal fails.

O God, O God, do you not hear me, my God? Are you dead? No, you cannot die; you are only hiding. Have you called me to this place? I ask you so that I am sure. God, grant it! Never in my life had I thought to oppose such great rulers and never had I set out to do it.

O God, stand by me in the name of your dear Son Jesus Christ who shall be my Protector and Defender, even my mighty Fortress, through the power and help of your Holy Spirit.

Lord, where are you? Come, come, I am ready like a patient lamb to lay down my life for this cause. It is your cause and it is righteous. I will not separate myself from you forever. Be it resolved in your name that the world cannot force me to act against my conscience, even if I had still more devils, and if my body which is first of all your creation should have to perish. So your Word and Spirit come to my rescue even if only for the body. And my soul is yours. It belongs to you, and it remains with you forever. Amen. So help me. Amen.

Priceless. How then shall we pray? The direct approach, as always, is best. So help me. Amen.

5 Comments
April 17, 2013

Happy birthday, Karen Blixen

by chuckofish

Karen Blixen (17 April 1885 – 7 September 1962), née Karen Christenze Dinesen, was a Danish author also known by her pen name Isak Dinesen.

Karen Blixen

Blixen is best known for Out of Africa, her account of living in Kenya, and one of her stories, Babette’s Feast, both of which have been adapted into highly-acclaimed, Academy Award-winning films. Prior to the release of the first film, she was noted for her Seven Gothic Tales, published in 1934. Unable to find an interested publisher in England or Denmark, she was first published by Random House in the United States.

“Man, my friends,is frail and foolish. We have all of us been told that grace is to be found in the universe. But in our human foolishness and short-sightedness we imagine divine grace to be finite. For this reason we tremble. We tremble before making our choice in life, and after having made it again tremble in fear of having chosen wrong. But the moment comes when our eyes are opened, and we see and realize that grace is infinite. Grace, my friends, demands nothing from us but that we shall await it with confidence and acknowledge it in gratitude. Grace, brothers, makes no conditions and singles out none of us in particular; grace takes us all to its bosom and proclaims general amnesty. See! that which we have chosen is given us, and that which we have refused is, also and at the same time, granted us. Ay, that which we have rejected is poured upon us abundantly. For mercy and truth have met together, and righteousness and bliss have kissed one another!”

— Isak Dinesen (Babette’s Feast)

A few years ago I read a lot of Isak Dinesen and she really is a great writer. Although Danish, she wrote in English–a fact that I find amazing. You can read more about her here. I highly recommend Judith Thurman’s 1983 biography of her, Isak Dinesen, as well.

This would also be an appropriate day to watch either of the above-mentioned movies. Alas, I think I only have the VHS version of Out of Africa! Oh well, maybe I will re-visit her Gothic Tales instead.

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