Here is a vintage photo of my DP (on top) and me (middle, right) with our cousins at their house on Lake Damariscotta in Maine, circa 1964. I don’t know where my brother is–off fishing with Bunker? Our Uncle George is in the back, holding up the pyramid. We had super fun that summer as you can imagine.
Indeed, I am thinking of those cool Maine breezes as we bear up through a mid-summer heat wave in flyover country. Heat waves are nothing out of the ordinary here–despite what HC may say–but they are no fun. In the summer of 1936, for instance, St. Louis endured an unbroken 37-day stretch of 100-degree–plus temperatures. I remember one old lady from my flyover institute telling me how in the 1930s they would escape the heat of their un-airconditioned city apartment by sleeping in Forest Park! The whole family. It was a thing people did (and were allowed to do). As a child, she had great fun. Maybe not as much fun as a lake house in Maine, but fun.
Fun is what you make it after all. So keep a merry heart and be thankful for air-conditioning. Pray for the electric grid.
A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit dries the bones.
Praise God that His grace is sufficient for each day.
How is your week going? I have been working inside, moving things around to accommodate my new wing chair, which I am picking up later today with the assistance of the boy and his truck. My home is definitely a work in progress…adding and subtracting and rediscovering things that I have put away. As the @madcapcottage boys say: “When it’s time to change! Let’s rearrange…”
I worked in the yard for small amounts of time this week, but we have entered that portion of our flyover summer when it is too darn hot to do much outside. The yard is on its own.
I also worked on (and finished) my new Rifle Co. puzzle.
It was a fun one!
And I am reading J.C. Ryle’s oft-quoted book Holiness.
Published in 1879, it is remarkably readable and relevant. I highly recommend it!
“It is vain to shut our eyes to the fact that there is a vast quantity of so-called Christianity nowadays which you cannot declare positively unsound, but which, nevertheless, is not full measure, good weight and sixteen ounces to the pound. It is a Christianity in which there is undeniably ‘something about Christ and something about grace and something about faith and something about repentance and something about holiness’, but it is not the real ‘thing as it is’ in the Bible. Things are out of place and out of proportion.”
Boy, old J.C. should see what passes for Christianity these days!
Tomorrow is the birthday of film director and writer John Huston, who was born in Nevada, Missouri in 1906. He made a lot of movies–some bad and some good. You might want to watch one of his good ones such as Key Largo (1948) or The African Queen (1951). He also directed The Bible: In the Beginning, which was the second highest-grossing movie in 1966. (No kidding.) He also played Noah. It is not a great movie, but I would like to see Peter O’Toole as the Three Angels again. He was pretty great.
You will recall that he (they) brings down the wrath of God on Sodom and Gomorrah.
In my Bible reading I am currently in Judges and have recently read all about Samson and Delilah–quite a story! I was reminded that Cecil B. deMille made a movie about them with Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr cleverly titled Samson and Delilah (1949). I want to check it out.
I mean that story was made for the movies!
When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines, “Come back once more; he has told me everything.” So the rulers of the Philistines returned with the silver in their hands. 19 After putting him to sleep on her lap, she called for someone to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him.[a] And his strength left him.
20 Then she called, “Samson, the Philistines are upon you!”
He awoke from his sleep and thought, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.
21 Then the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes and took him down to Gaza. Binding him with bronze shackles, they set him to grinding grain in the prison. 22 But the hair on his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.
Not surprisingly, June has buzzed by. We are a week away from July! I have been taking it easy this week, while also trying to get ready for my trip to North Carolina which commences on Saturday when daughter #1 and I leave at an ungodly hour on a very early flight out of town.
I am praying for easy travel, nice weather and good health for all concerned.
Anyway, I don’t have much to blog about, just a few links and a reminder:
“Beware of manufacturing a God of your own: a God who is all mercy, but not just; a God who is all love, but not holy; a God who has a heaven for every body, but a hell for none; a God who can allow good and bad to be side by side in time, but will make no distinction between good and bad in eternity. Such a God is an idol of your own, as truly an idol as any snake or crocodile in an Egyptian temple. The hands of your own fancy and sentimentality have made him. He is not the God of the Bible, and beside the God of the Bible there is no God at all.”
This is very true. “Christianity has a long history of taking words seriously. Hold fast to that noble tradition. As Jesus said, ‘by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned’ (Matthew 12:37).”
Our father was like this too. It’s called being a gentleman, which, as we know, is a dying breed.
The woman in this painting looks comfortable, doesn’t she? Reading under an umbrella at the beach. Lovely. It was very hot this weekend in my flyover town and I could have used a beach, but there is no beach nearby. I had to make do with an air conditioned house. Not complaining.
I was working on my DIY project anyway. I developed blisters on my hand and had to stop. You might think this is because I was working so hard, but really I am just a wimp.
I finished the Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling) mystery which I enjoyed. I hope she writes more with Private Detective Cormoran Strike. I started in on John Cheever stories. I am not a big fan of short stories. They are always a little too creepy and clever. Cheever’s are no exception, but he is a good writer.
I went to evensong with the boy to see his old pal Michael preach–his first homily since getting the green light for divinity school.
The boy and his old chorister buddies (head proctor, middle, and chaplain, right, at the RSCM camp)
The chaplain’s grandmother told me that she thinks we should all rent a bus and travel to NYC together when he is ordained. I was like, for sure, great idea! I can picture it now: the bus pulls up in front of St. Bart’s and all Michael’s flyover friends and family spill out on to Park Avenue! I am so ready.
I watched several movies including Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) wherein Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) et al go on “a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one-man weapon of mass destruction.”
My expectations were low, so I enjoyed it. Personally I think they should make a whole movie about Dr. McCoy (Karl Urban) who definitely did not get enough face time in this voyage of the starship Enterprise.
I also watched an old favorite of mine, Proud Rebel (1958), which deeply affected me as child.
Alan Ladd plays a former Confederate who is searching for a doctor who can help his son who is mute as a result of a traumatic event during the Civil War. His son is played by his real-life son David Ladd and they make a likable and attractive duo. Wonderful Olivia de Haviland plays the woman who helps them and gives them a place to live and falls in love with both of them. The supporting players are good and it is well directed by the great Michael Curtiz. The music is even by Jerome Moross! It is a good movie that has a lot going for it. If only Alan Ladd weren’t as stiff as a board! If only he could muster an iota of romantic interest in Olivia’s character! If only he could act! It has everything going for it–even a smart and loyal dog–except for a leading man who is up to the part. There are many reminders of Shane in this film–from the boy to the bad guys–but one of the reasons I suppose Shane works is that the title character (as played by Ladd) endeavors heroically not to show his feelings for Mrs. Starrett. Alan Ladd is good at not showing his feelings.
And what did we learn here? That Alan Ladd could have played Spock? Discuss among yourselves.
It is worth living long enough to outlast whatever sense of grievance you may acquire. Another reason why you must be careful of your health.
(Marilynne Robinson, Gilead)
Summer has never been my favorite season. In our flyover state it is HOT and growing up we did not have air conditioning. Yes, you read that correctly.
I was one of those weird kids who actually liked school. And as we did not belong to a country club and I was not sent away to camp, I was bored a lot during the summer. I did not have a friend in the neighborhood. So I read a lot. I watched way too much TV. I went to the grocery store with my mother. A big day was when we went to the movies. Sometimes friends of my parents would give us their box seat tickets to the baseball game. You get the picture. It was a long three months.
Anyway, I have come to appreciate the summer and its slower pace. It helps that we live in an air-conditioned house now. That makes a big difference.
I enjoy all the goings on in my yard. From the day lilies
to the pumpkins
to the critters.
I did not take this photo of a mini-bear, but they are everywhere. There’s a whole chipmunk village underneath our yard.
I appreciate the longer days. For instance yesterday, the boy came by my office at the end of the day and together we trekked down to the new auction house which has replaced the one that was so conveniently located across the street from my office for many years. (Much to my chagrin, some shady dealings forced this 150-plus-year old business to close.) The new auction house has set up in an old church designed by one of our city’s most famous architects and we went down to check out the preview of the inaugural auction which will be this Saturday.
It was great to do that and get home before dark! Summer has its upside.
I tried to think of a good summer movie for my Friday movie pick, but nothing really came to mind. Jaws (1975)? The Parent Trap (1964)? Dirty Dancing (1987)? American Graffiti (1973)? Gotta say, I’m just not in the mood.
Here’s a summery-at-the-beach photo of three little ladies circa 1917–cousins, all named Catherine after their grandmother Catherine Rand Carnahan, after whom I am also named.
The oldest (top) is my grandmother Catherine Carnahan. The girl in the middle is her cousin, Catherine Carnahan. The baby is Catherine’s niece, Catherine Bays (daughter of her sister, Anna Carnaghan Bays).
“The summer ended. Day by day, and taking its time, the summer ended. The noises in the street began to change, diminish, voices became fewer, the music sparse. Daily, blocks and blocks of children were spirited away. Grownups retreated from the streets, into the houses. Adolescents moved from the sidewalk to the stoop to the hallway to the stairs, and rooftops were abandoned. Such trees as there were allowed their leaves to fall – they fell unnoticed – seeming to promise, not without bitterness, to endure another year. At night, from a distance, the parks and playgrounds seemed inhabited by fireflies, and the night came sooner, inched in closer, fell with a greater weight. The sound of the alarm clock conquered the sound of the tambourine, the houses put on their winter faces. The houses stared down a bitter landscape, seeming, not without bitterness, to have resolved to endure another year.”
Last week I replaced the pillows on my wicker sofa in the Florida Room. Unfortunately, it has been way too hot (108-degrees yesterday!) to enjoy this room except in the early hours of the day. Zut alors!
We are in the middle of a drought as well. Maybe tonight would be a good night to watch “The Rainmaker”–that’s the movie (1956) with Katharine Hepburn and Burt Lancaster, not the John Grisham one released in 1997 with Matt Damon. Or maybe not. It’s not a great movie.
I must say I’m feeling a little like Lizzie Curry these days.
What would be a good choice of movie to watch tonight? That is, of course, if the electricity holds out!
(Props to the boy for using his blog name in my post.)
Peter Pan:
And I will come and save the brave noble red skin
Ugga wugga wigwam! I have always been a big fan of day lilies or, as we say in our flyover state, tiger-lilies. They are all over the place and they bloom for a long time during the hottest of weather. As a small child I was jealous because we did not have any in our yard. I really felt deprived. (Not that I ever verbalized this to my mother who no doubt would have gamely tried to add them to our garden.) Anyway, I have made sure that we always have them in any yard that we have lived in since I had any say in the matter.
dual personalities 