Thought for the day
by chuckofish
“You don’t have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.”
–C.S. Lewis
“Angel of the Lilies” by Louis Comfort Tiffany in the Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst
dual personalities
Tag: spirituality
February 10, 2015
February 9, 2015
When the storm of life is raging / Stand by me
by chuckofish
How was your weekend? We enjoyed a glorious mid-winter weather break this weekend with record-breaking temperatures in the low 70s. Wow. After church the OM and I headed down to Ted Drewes only to find it closed with a sign saying it would be open by Valentine’s Day! Why? I have no idea. Confused and let down, we drove back to our flyover town and settled for Andy’s frozen custard, which was good, but just not the same.
Otherwise the weekend was pleasant enough. I did some more work on the basement re-organization project and went to lunch with some girlfriends. Again, we were thwarted in our plans, due to our chosen restaurant being too busy. Everyone and his brother was out and about this weekend!
Since I had finally gotten the DVD back from the boy, I watched Road to Perdition (2002) and enjoyed it a lot.
I was quite struck by the cinematography, so I looked up the cinematographer, Conrad Hall who, it turns out, won his third Oscar for this movie. I found out that he was the son of James Norman Hall, who along with Charles Nordhoff was the author of Mutiny on the Bounty. He was born in Tahiti and studied filmmaking at USC. Nominated ten times, he won Oscars for American Beauty (2000) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1970) and the aforementioned Road to Perdition, his last film. He was nominated for one of my favorites, The Professionals (1966), but not for another favorite, Cool Hand Luke (1967). Indeed, he was a great cinematographer.
The beautiful musical score is by Thomas Newman, who is the son of the great Alfred Newman (How the West Was Won and many others) and the cousin of Randy Newman. Thomas has been nominated twelve times for an Oscar, but has never won. He composed the music to Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and Oscar and Lucinda (1997) among many others.
Considering that The Road to Perdition is a movie about Irish-American mobsters, there is not an overabundance of violence. (But it is directed by Sam Mendes and not Martin Scorcese.) Bad things happen, terrible things, but first and foremost it is a very low-key film about fathers and sons. Tom Hanks plays the anti-hero who is so screwed up by his upbringing that he cannot escape perdition, but he does the best he can to save his son.
Daughter #1 sent me the link to Bob Dylan’s speech accepting the MusiCares Person of the Year Award. Read the whole thing, because it is quite the speech. Bob is just the Best.
I can not tell you how much I love it that he quotes the old hymn “Stand By Me” in front of all those unbelievers! Testify. When I do the best I can / And my friends don’t understand / Thou who knowest all about me / Stand by me.
The Old Testament reading on Sunday was the wonderful passage from Isaiah 40:21-31:
21 Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:
23 That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.
24 Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.
25 To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.
27 Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God?
28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
So do not faint and grow weary, Kiddos. All will be well. Have a good Monday.
January 30, 2015
WWDD
by chuckofish
How is it that I missed this wonderfulness?
And this:
Do you have big plans for the weekend? My only scheduled event is an annual church dinner which raises money for the youth mission trip in June. It is billed as “The Elegant Italian Dinner,” but it is anything but that.
Last year’s big event
They hang twinkly Christmas lights around Albright Hall, turn the lights down very low and serve lasagna. The youth group members wear bow ties and are the waiters. The cool dads serve as the bartenders. (This is an Episcopal Church–there is always a bar.) You get the picture. But it is always fun and the OM even goes.
I’m sure Dolly would too.
Besides this special event, I will be forging on with the basement clean-up. The OM cleaned off his workbench last weekend. Onward and upward.
Friday Movie Pick: Last night TCM featured movies starring Rod Taylor who died earlier this month.
They showed The Time Machine (1960), The Birds (1963), The Glass-Bottomed Boat (1966) with Doris Day, and a few other movies of his. My favorite Rod Taylor movie is, of course, the original 101 Dalmations (1961).
Rod Taylor was the voice of Pongo! I loved that movie! My friends and I in kindergarten “played” it during recess for a long time. Everyone wanted to be Pongo. I would watch it tonight, but I only have a VHS copy!
Oh well. I have a solution. Rod, who was good friends with John Wayne, made one movie with him: The Train Robbers (1973).
Rod is the one in the red kerchief.
It isn’t a particularly great movie, but it works for me! (And, yes, I have it.)
Have a great weekend, y’all!
January 20, 2015
Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening
by chuckofish
Did you enjoy your long MLK weekend?
We celebrated (belatedly) the birthday of daughter #3
and I celebrated (belatedly) the birthday of an old friend with my pals.
The OM and I watched American Sniper
with Bradley Cooper and–this is the last thing I thought I would be saying–he was awesome. He really deserves the Oscar. This movie is really, really good. Clint Eastwood–and I am not a big fan of his directing–knocked one out of the ballpark. I also have to say kudos to Clint, who is eighty-four, for even being able to attempt this at his age. (I know a lot of guys in their eighties and it is hard to imagine any of them making a movie in the desert.)
Put this movie on your “to do” list!
According to Forbes, American Sniper blew past all reasonable predictions and crushed the January record books with a scorching $90.2 million Friday-to-Sunday and an estimated $105 million Friday-to-Monday debut frame. Well, no kidding. This is a movie with an actual (non-comic-book) HERO in it, with a plot, characters, action, tension–the whole nine yards. Of course, people are going to go see it. Duh. Wake up, Hollywood.
In between bouts of reading Middlemarch, I read a Louis L’Amour oater, Ride the Dark Trail, about one of the innumerable Sacketts. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I am also enjoying Middlemarch, which is full of passages like this:
“My mother is like old George the Third,” said the vicar, “she objects to metaphysics.”
“I object to what is wrong, Camden. I say, keep hold of a few plain truths, and make everything square with them. When I was young, Mr. Lydgate, there was never any question about right and wrong. We knew our catechism, and that was enough; we learned our creed and our duty. Every respectable Church person had the same opinions. But now, if you speak out of the Prayer-book itself, you are liable to be contradicted.”
It is a sure sign that I am really getting old, that I identify with the minor, comic characters, I suppose.
Oh, lordy, life is good, right?
January 16, 2015
Friday movie pick: “I once was lost, but now am found”
by chuckofish
Considering that this is the long MLK weekend and we will be celebrating the birth of Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday, I think an appropriate film to watch tonight is Amazing Grace (2006)–a really good movie about the wonderful British saint William Wilberforce, who headed the parliamentary campaign against the British slave trade for twenty-six years until the passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807. (I have blogged about him previously here.)
Directed by Michael Apted, it stars a bevy of British hotties, including Ioan Gruffudd as Wilberforce, Benedict Cumberbatch as William Pitt and scene-stealing Rufus Sewell as Thomas Clarkson. Former hottie Albert Finney is John Newton, who, you will recall, though once the captain of a slave ship, experienced a spiritual conversion, became an evangelical Anglican priest, and wrote the much-loved hymn “Amazing Grace.”
I watched it again the other night and was quite impressed with the screenplay, the beautiful production values and the acting. It is a rare movie where the Christians are the good guys!
P.S. It is interesting to note that everyone–from Alan Jackson to Celtic Thunder and everyone in between–has recorded the hymn “Amazing Grace.” I like it played on the bagpipes myself.
We had a piper at my mother’s funeral and he played “Amazing Grace.”
Have a good weekend!
January 15, 2015
“I’ve seen the promised land.”
by chuckofish
Almighty God, by the hand of Moses your servant led your people out of slavery, and made them free at last; Grant that your Church, following the example of your prophet Martin Luther King, may resist oppression in the name of your love, and may secure for all your children the blessed liberty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Martin Luther King, Jr. is remembered as a martyr on the calendar of the Episcopal Church with an annual feast day on the anniversary of his death, April 4, but his birthday is commemorated liturgically today.
King’s oldest daughter Yolanda was a classmate of mine at Smith College. She was a theater major, however, so I don’t think our paths crossed. “In life,” she said, “I had to be prim and proper and poised — the King daughter. But acting, I could be zany, silly, sometimes the foolish person that I am. I could let the rough edges show.” (NYTimes obit, 2007) I get that.
I am reminded today that my son’s poem “Stop the Violence” was awarded 1st place in the MLK poetry contest at his elementary school (or was it the school district?) back (circa) 1994 when he was in the second grade…I wish I had a copy of it to share with you, but it is lost in a dusty pile of memorabilia. I think he was given a medal.
I remember telling my children that Dr. King was a Baptist minister who believed that we are all God’s children. It is a good thing for all of us to keep in mind.
Martin Luther King, Jr. statue over the west entrance of Westminster Abbey, installed in 1998.
January 8, 2015
“Turn out the lights, the party’s over”*
by chuckofish
Well, we are a week into the new year. Now that my girls have returned to their respective homes in the East, I am going to throw myself body and soul into cleaning, organizing and de-cluttering my house. (Here’s an article on Purging the Pantry.)
Because daughter #2 wanted me to keep up the tree and all the Christmas decorations for the BF when he visited, I am way behind in putting away all things Christmas. Oy.
But as I say every year, all this cleaning keeps my mind off my personal pity party. How about you? How do you deal with the ‘Mean Reds’?
*Willie Nelson
January 1, 2015
Happy New Year!
by chuckofish
Can you find the pixilated Dual Personality in this festive bunch?
I give you an old reliable–but still wonderful–poem for the new year by Alfred Tennyson. Nothing much has changed since he wrote it in 1850. I mean people are still people and it is good to keep that in mind. Tennyson was writing about the “faithless coldness of the times” back then too.
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light;
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more,
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.Ring out the want, the care the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.Ring out old shapes of foul disease,
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darknss of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
December 22, 2014
“Who in these latter days was born for blessing to a world forlorn”*
by chuckofish
Advent Four. In the gospel lesson Mary is visited by the angel Gabriel, who says, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” Mary, not surprisingly, is perplexed by this and “pondered what kind of greeting this might be.” Our assisting priest, who gave the sermon, informed us that the word “ponder” is only used twice in the gospels, both times referring to Mary. He advised us to do more of our own pondering, but not to worry when the Big Questions remain unanswered. He reminded us that we don’t have to wait for complete understanding to act in faith. I get that.
I will miss our assisting priest–who is technically retired–as he heads off to Florida for several months. His sermons actually make sense. C’est la vie.
Since daughter #2 came home on Friday, I have been busier than probably in the entire prior four weeks (combined).
Best friends since Vacation Bible School
No kidding. Well, I expect to be busy when we have a full house at this time of year. And that’s okay.
I will do my best to fit in some ponder-time during the twelve days of Christmas, but I ain’t makin’ any promises, y’hear? There will be plenty of time in January for pondering.
By the way, I just finished a ponder-worthy book: Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel.
A.S. Byatt described it as “a terrible and swirling horror comedy about a very fat medium on the perimeter of the M25, haunted by mean and nasty spirits veering between damnation and the trivial.” Mantel really is a genius and this book is pretty disturbing. She reminds me of Shirley Jackson–brilliant and slightly cracked and a great, great writer. I highly recommend it.
* Hymn 63
December 1, 2014
“‘Sleepers, wake!’ A voice astounds us”*
by chuckofish
I had a lovely long holiday weekend. How about you?
I ate a delicious Thanksgiving meal and celebrated the boy’s birthday the next day with tortellini and salad and leftover pie.
I watched 22 Jump Street, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, The Wizard of Oz, La Belle et La Bête (1946) and Miracle on 34th Street (1947)–all of which I enjoyed immensely.
I went to church twice on Sunday. I debated going to the morning service, knowing that I would be going back at 4:00 p.m. for Advent Lessons & Carols, but I thought I should go because it was the first Sunday in Advent and that means Rite I! As you know, I am one of the few people who still enjoys saying “And with thy spirit” instead of “And also with you”–so I went and I’m glad I did.
The service started off with The Great Litany (BCP p. 148-153) with all the great “Good Lord, deliver us” stuff, i.e. “From all inordinate and sinful affections; and from all the deceits of the world, the flesh, and the devil” and also “From all false doctrine, heresy, and schism; from hardness of heart, and contempt of thy Word and commandment.” It is so easy nowadays to forget about “the crafts and assaults of the devil,” isn’t it? Well, Good Lord, deliver me!
Our rector gave his usual nonsensical sermon, full of misquoting and mispronouncing, but I must say, that listening to him week after week has taught me a lesson in humility. While I am listening (and wincing), I inevitably come away with something. He is a brave soul to get up every week and try. He is no Phillips Brooks–although he attempted to quote him–and that’s okay.
After church I prevailed upon the OM to assist me in hanging the outside Christmas lights on our humble abode. The boy usually does this for us, but he was working on Sunday, and as the temperate weather was forecasted to end, I thought we better get to it. Of course, it was much more complicated without the nimble and manly boy, who executed this job previously with nary a grumble. It took us twice as long and the OM blurted out quite a few goddammits while breaking more than a few light bulbs and bumping his head. Anyway, the lights are up.
Advent Lessons & Carols was lovely too. We sang all the good Advent hymns we didn’t sing in the morning. I got to read the second lesson–Isaiah 40:1-8 which is “Comfort, O comfort my people…”. The best (or at least most adorable) reader was a little third grader who read Zechariah 2:10-13 with a lisp right out of central casting. “For lo, I will come and dwell in your midst…”–she had a little trouble with “midst” (and who doesn’t)–but so cute.
Photo from the Grace Church Facebook page.
Afterwards we had the annual Advent dinner and “craft”. I passed on the craft. I got hugs from the boy’s old friends, Michael visiting from NYC and Weezer visiting from L.A. It was a win-win.
Have a great week!
*Hymn 61, The Hymnal 1982
