…whom I will miss especially because she always reminded me of my mother and now that connection is gone.
We toasted daughter #1 and celebrated her birthday yesterday…
And we toasted all those brave souls who died on September 11, 2001. Last year I included a video in a blogpost about a fine young man who died in one of the towers helping others and I encourage you to watch it again. Lest we forget.
Yes, there was a lot of toasting, but some events call for that. L’chaim! In the midst of life we are in death (BCP).
This reminder of the Budweiser ad that only aired once in honor of 9/11 is cool.
And I liked this article about taking up your cross daily. “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me,” Jesus says.
For when we cease to worship God, we do not worship nothing, we worship anything.
–G.K. Chesterton
What do you worship? Yourself? Science? Social Justice? It’s an important question.
Well, here we are–a new month and the year almost half over! It is also the start of the festivities celebrating Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee.
We wish her well. Here are some thoughts on a long monarchy and what comes next for the church. “Queen Elizabeth is a devout Christian and has increasingly made this clear through her annual Christmas broadcasts. At the same time, she is the representative of a sort of national folk-Christianity; a symbol of a time when Britain was a Christian nation. As such, she has allowed us to fool ourselves that things are not as bad as they could be. The nation still has a Christian heart.”
And, boy, this rings true:
“Where men are forbidden to honour a king they honour millionaires, athletes, or film-stars instead: even famous prostitutes or gangsters. For spiritual nature, like bodily nature, will be served; deny it food and it will gobble poison.” ― C.S. Lewis, Present Concerns
Do you think he was talking about us?
Anyway, it is feeling decidedly like summer around here. Here’s a summery snapshot of my grandmother (Catherine) and her beau/future husband (Bunker Cameron) circa 1919 with some great-aunt in between.
Bunker is, of course, goofing around wearing someone else’s hat. Catherine thinks it’s hilarious. Who knows what the old lady thinks–but she was probably amused by Bunker too.
I went to the dances at Chandlerville, And played snap-out at Winchester.
One time we changed partners, Driving home in the midnight of middle June, And then I found Davis. We were married and lived together for seventy years, Enjoying, working, raising the twelve children, Eight of whom we lost Ere I had reached the age of sixty. I spun, I wove, I kept the house, I nursed the sick, I made the garden, and for holiday Rambled over the fields where sang the larks, And by Spoon River gathering many a shell, And many a flower and medicinal weed– Shouting to the wooded hills, singing to the green valleys. At ninety-six I had lived enough, that is all, And passed to a sweet repose. What is this I hear of sorrow and weariness, Anger, discontent and drooping hopes? Degenerate sons and daughters, Life is too strong for you– It takes life to love Life.
–Edgar Lee Master, “Lucinda Matlock–Spoon River Anthology”
Today we wish Elizabeth a happy 90th birthday. She was born four months after our mother and to me, at least, they always bore an uncanny resemblance to one another.
dual personalities 