dual personalities

Tag: spirituality

July 31, 2013

No instructions

by chuckofish

This is how I felt yesterday trying to think of something to blog about.

Thomas Eakins' "The Artist's Wife and His Setter"

Thomas Eakins’ “The Artist’s Wife and His Setter”

I tried to get excited about Thomas Eakins, the artist who painted this picture,

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but I couldn’t.

portrait-of-amelia-van-buren

Even the babies in his paintings were thoughtful and looked depressed.

baby

So I will just offer you this thought for the day from Anne Lamott:

“You will go through your life thinking there was a day in second grade that you must have missed, when the grown-ups came in and explained everything important to other kids. They said, ‘Look, you’re human, you’re going to feel isolated and afraid a lot of the time, and have bad self-esteem, and feel uniquely ruined, but here is the magic phrase that will take this feeling away. It will be like a feather that will lift you out of that fear and self-consciousness every single time, all through your life.’ And then they told the children who were there that day the magic phrase that everyone else in the world knows about and uses when feeling blue, which only you don’t know, because you were home sick the day the grown-ups told the children the way the whole world works.

But there was not such a day in school. No one got the instructions. That is the secret of life. Everyone is flailing around, winging it most of the time, trying to find the way out, or through, or up, without a map. This lack of instruction manual is how most people develop compassion, and how they figure out to show up, care, help and serve, as the only way of filling up and being free. Otherwise you grow up to be someone who needs to dominate and shame others so no one will know that you weren’t there the day the instructions were passed out.”

4 Comments
July 12, 2013

T.G.I.F.

by chuckofish

This is my first full 5-day work week since I had a vacation week followed by a short holiday week.

I’m not complaining, but I am ready for the weekend, aren’t you?

I am having a few friends over tonight for “Episcopal Souffle”. One friend is bringing her “Holy Spirit Salad”; another will bring bread and another dessert. Add wine. Voila: dinner! Easy-peasy.

Here is the hymn “Come Labor On” (Ora Labora) at St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue which includes an improvisation by Gerre Hancock (1934-2012), Organist & Master of Choirsters at St. Thomas Church, for all you organ fans. Perhaps you could argue that this hymn is more appropriate for Monday, but I think it works for the end of the work week. (Also note that yesterday was the feast day of St. Benedict who drew up the Rule of Life: Ora et Labora.)

4 Comments
July 8, 2013

The harvest is plentiful

by chuckofish

How was your weekend?

Mine was very quiet and I was able to catch up with all the loose ends in my household. Laundry, groceries, dusting, mulch-spreading, etc. I also read in church on Sunday–another good St. Paul finger-shaker: “God is not mocked” (Galatians 6:7–16). Good stuff. We also got to sing 2 patriotic hymns:
“America” and “My Country ‘Tis of Thee”.

The sermon was about the Gospel lesson (Luke 10:1-11, 16–20) and Jesus sending out the disciples in pairs to spread the good news. There were a couple of digs at the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses–of course we would look down on their success! We were encouraged to be friendly etc. Yeah, right.

churchmice

All in all, however, it was a very satisfying service. How often is it even possible for me to say that? So thank you, Lord, from the bottom of my heart.

The boy and his bride came over for dinner. POPS

They took our lawn mower back over to their new house. And some big clippers. Ah, I remember when we use to do that!

I watched Of Gods and Men, an excellent French film directed by Xavier Beauvois, starring Lambert Wilson and Michael Lonsdale.

Hommes-dieux-poster

Based on the true story of seven French Trappist monks from the monastery of Tibhirine, Algeria, who were kidnapped in 1996 and found beheaded. The Armed Islamic Group of Algeria claimed full responsibility for the incident. It won the Grand Prix at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival, but wasn’t even nominated for the Best Foreign Film Oscar that year. Amazing.

I also watched The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) with Steve McQueen.

Steve McQueen as a Dartmouth man

Steve McQueen as a Dartmouth man

Not really one of my favorites–it’s overly and self-consciously “stylish”–but it’s always worth a look at Steve in those famous Persol shades.

There are also some fine glimpses into familiar Boston locales, such as

800px-Copp's_Hill_Burying_Ground

Copps Hill Cemetery where Increase and Cotton Mather are buried along with other notable Puritans.

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Thomas Crown lived in the 2nd Harrison Gray Otis House, built by Charles Bulfinch, located at 85 Mount Vernon Street on Beacon Hill. Very nice.*

I seem to remember that my parents got a kick out of all the Boston locales back when they went to see it in 1968–their old stomping grounds.

*(Please note that the 1999 remake with Pierce Brosnan took place in New York City and Crown is no longer a Boston Brahmin and Dartmouth man, but a self-made rich guy. I wonder if this is because movie-makers assume the movie-going public no longer knows/cares what a Boston Brahmin is and what the heck Dartmouth is. Movie goers just wouldn’t “get” it? Phooey.)

3 Comments
June 20, 2013

Where are you now?

by chuckofish

Facebook, as you know, is a veritable font of new-agey platitudes and politically-correct advice. Once in a rare while, however, I find something that a friend has posted that makes me sit up and pay attention.

laotzu

Lao Tzu, or Laozi, is traditionally regarded as the author of the Tao Te Ching and as the founder of Taoism. I readily admit I know next to nothing about eastern religions. (If you are interested, you can read about it here.)

Whatever. I just think these particular words are eminently true. It is SO important to live in the day.

Here is what Frederick Buechner says about it:

“Much as we wish, not one of us can bring back yesterday or shape tomorrow. Only today is ours, and it will not be ours for long, and once it is gone it will never in all time be ours again. Thou only knowest what it holds in store for us, yet even we know something of what it will hold. The chance to speak the truth, to show mercy, to ease another’s burden. The chance to resist evil, to remember all the good times and good people of our past, to be brave, to be strong, to be glad.”

― Frederick Buechner, The Hungering Dark

So BE in the present. Or at least try hard. Look around you. Pay attention. Listen. Be brave, be strong, be glad.

Praise the Lord.

3 Comments
June 14, 2013

Happy Father’s Day

by chuckofish

ward cleaver

“Then came the reflection, how little at any time could a father do for the wellbeing of his children! The fact of their being children implied their need of an all-powerful father: must there not then be such a father? Therewith the truth dawned upon him, that first of truths, which all his church-going and Bible-reading had hitherto failed to disclose, that, for life to be a good thing and worth living, a man must be the child of a perfect father, and know him. In his terrible perturbation about his children, he lifted up his heart—not to the Governor of the world; not to the God of Abraham or Moses; not in the least to the God of the Kirk; least of all to the God of the Shorter Catechism; but to the faithful creator and Father of David Barclay. The aching soul which none but a perfect father could have created capable of deploring its own fatherly imperfection, cried out to the father of fathers on behalf of his children, and as he cried, a peace came stealing over him such as he had never before felt.”

― George MacDonald, Heather and Snow

Happy Fathers Day to all you good fathers out there and grace to you, and peace, from God our Father.

6 Comments
June 12, 2013

Mid-week readjustment

by chuckofish

“Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

“Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

We tend to think that if Jesus Christ compels us to do something and we are obedient to Him, He will lead us to great success. We should never have the thought that our dreams of success are God’s purpose for us. In fact, His purpose may be exactly the opposite. We have the idea that God is leading us toward a particular end or a desired goal, but He is not. The question of whether or not we arrive at a particular goal is of little importance, and reaching it becomes merely an episode along the way. What we see as only the process of reaching a particular end, God sees as the goal itself.

What is my vision of God’s purpose for me? Whatever it may be, His purpose is for me to depend on Him and on His power now. If I can stay calm, faithful, and unconfused while in the middle of the turmoil of life, the goal of the purpose of God is being accomplished in me. God is not working toward a particular finish–His purpose is the process itself.

–Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest

*The above illustration is from GodBricks, “Blogging at the intersection between LEGO and religion”.

5 Comments
June 6, 2013

I want to go to there

by chuckofish

Something new has opened in Nashville, Tennessee! A Johnny Cash Museum!

the-johnny-cash-museum

You can read about it here.

Well, until we can get back to Nashville, we’ll just have to listen to Johnny singing. Here’s a little something:

Hear the trumpets hear the pipers.
One hundred million angels singin’.

Testify. Can’t do better than that.

3 Comments
June 3, 2013

Long may you run

by chuckofish

It was quite a weekend. I took part in more socializing than in the first 5 months of the year combined.

A very dear friend and her husband were visiting from Virginia and we had dinner with them at a friend’s house with other members of our high school class–a mini reunion of sorts. There were tornado sirens and we turned on the TV during dinner to make sure we weren’t in the path of disaster. Luckily the tornadic activity passed by us to the north, but you can never be too sure. Unbenownst to us, there was a lot of local damage and power outages galore.

Oh my goodness.

Oh my goodness.

On Saturday we went to my old man’s 40th high school reunion which was held at his bff’s house up on a bluff above the Mississippi River.

BFFs

BFFs

Such a view!

Such a view!

river2

river3

There was a pig roast (sorry, no pictures) and lots of nostalgic ’70s music. Hello, Neil Young.

Martin and Cap check out those newfangled phone devices.

Martin and Cap check out those newfangled phone devices.

The boys shot off a cannon and there were fireworks.

boys73

On Sunday I went to church because I was reading the second lesson. It was one of those “as we have said before, so now I repeat…” exhortations that ol’ St. Paul is known for. Great stuff. My favorite to read. While we were passing the peace, the first lector said, “Good job,” to me. “As usual. We had the A-team today.” I chuckled, but I was pleased. I’ve never been on the A-team before. Boo yah.

I had brunch with my BFFs from Virginia and then went home to work in the yard a little before it rained. A lovely end to an exhausting but wonderful weekend.

#Oldfriends

#Oldfriends

Oh, this old world
Keeps spinning round
It’s a wonder tall trees
Ain’t layin’ down
There comes a time.

7 Comments
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

4 Comments
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.

2 Comments