Looks like he decided to join his pals further south after all.
In a related observation, this looks like a gator, doesn’t it? I had a bit of a shock this morning.
monday musings
here’s a sobering thought
You know those people in your life that annoy you and make you crazy?
Yeah.
When we get to heaven, we’re going to embrace them warmly and joyfully, aren’t we?
Aren’t we?
I know….
just…thinking
I visited Emily Dickinson’s home this weekend, a tremendous treat for me since she’s one of my favorite poets. It was a delightful way to spend a little time indoors on a rainy New England afternoon. I loved seeing the little bits of history they had there, but I especially enjoyed a little moment upstairs in her bedroom, where I stood at the window and looked out at the field she must have gazed upon a million times. The docent explained she was playful and would call to the neighborhood children playing out there and lower a little basket of gingerbread to them.
What a quirky thing! I loved the thought of a playful Emily, laughing in that room.
I also liked hearing about it — that somehow enough of her life was recorded that these kinds of stories could be shared. I wondered what people might say about me when I’m gone. I hope they say I liked to laugh. And I was kind.
What about you? What would people say about your life?
I had no time to hate, because
The grave would hinder me,
And life was not so ample I
Could finish enmity.Nor had I time to love, but since
Some industry must be,
The little toil of love, I thought,
Was large enough for me.
a modern still life
The view from my office this morning shows a bowl of pears, a candle, and a flower (the traditional elements), along with my almost finished latte and journal, and then … Random crap on my table… Some seeds, a bag of apples, lightbulbs, a bottle of drain cleaner. And caulk.
Because who couldn’t use a little caulk.
I feel like Rembrandt.
No. Not really. I don’t even feel like Andy Warhol.
Happy New Year 2009!
Today is the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. According to Pope Paul VI in his encyclical Marialis Cultus, “This celebration… is meant to commemorate the part played by Mary in this mystery of salvation….It is likewise a fitting occasion for renewed adoration of the newborn Prince of Peace, for listening once more to the glad tidings of the angels, and for imploring from God, through the Queen of Peace, the supreme gift of peace.” It is a beautiful and fitting way to start the new year because Mary’s example of obedience to God serves as a model for all of us to trust, explicitly, in God’s will.
It is easy to accept God’s will in our lives when things are going well, but when we face challenges in our lives, whether they be related to poor health, financial struggles, difficulties in our relationships, or any number of disappointments that hurt us, embracing Mary’s example of submission seems practically impossible.
Secular society treats the word “submit” with great disdain. We are taught through the media, the “talking heads”, and celebrities who really have no qualifications as role models that submission is a sign of weakness, and worse, the result of oppression. For Christians, however, submission to God’s will is an action.
It is a choice that we make.
new post at Rosary Army
I know we’re all trying to make a concerted effort to stay on task and celebrate Advent before Christmas, instead of what the retail industry would have us do, which is to embrace Christmas before Halloween so the Valentine’s Day hearts can go on sale on December 26. Well, who said we had to listen?
I admire the folks who can really pull it off. I think I get about halfway there but I admit to getting sucked into celebrating Christmas a couple of weeks into Advent. The Advent wreath and hymns at Mass are a reminder that it isn’t Christmas just yet, but then I succumb to my favorite holiday shows and … well … I’m weak. I admit it.
It starts with one of my favorite cartoons, A Charlie Brown Christmas. I so loved it as a child although probably for very diffierent reasons than I love it now. When Linus reads from the Gospel of Luke and tells the nativity story I am overwhelmed. So beautiful!
The cartoon is usually aired right in the middle of the self-induced hysteria that generally substitutes for Advent. To my amazement, the show sends a powerful and timely message about the misplaced values and commercialization of what mainstream society calls the Christmas Season. As Catholics, though, we celebrate the Christmas season starting with Christmas and ending eight days later. Unfortunately, it seems like everybody else moves on to New Year’s when we start to celebrate the real Christmas season.
Still, I can reconcile the mixed messages. A Charlie Brown Christmas rejects commercialization and focuses on the real meaning of Christmas. Before the T-shirt kiosks at the malls were making money on their “Put Christ back in Christmas” shirts, the Peanuts Gang sang it loud and clear. I don’t mind the reminder, even if it comes a little early. In fact, I need to hear the message early to prioritize and remember that I am not preparing for Christmas turkey and gift exchanges and too much eggnog.
a timely monday musings
Another presidential campaign cycle is winding down. Today, on the eve of elections, many people are thinking about and going over the issues one last time before commiting to a candidate tomorrow. Some, like me, have exercised the opportunity to vote early. Regardless of when we get around to casting that vote, the nation, it seems, is hanging in the balance until one of those candidates is proclaimed the victor.
It appears that this election will be closely monitored, from within our borders because of so much partisanship, but also from without, as I can never recall an election that commanded so much interest from abroad.
It is the almost rabid partisanship that has me concerned. While I fervently want my candidate to win, I don’t think the country will collapse overnight if he loses. The odds are generally in my favor that one of them is going to be elected [smile].
I also think that the threats from both sides to move to another country is neither practical, nor good for America. This is a great country. It will still be a great country on Wednesday morning. As her citizens, we have to remember that once the election is over, we need to put away the blue flags and the red flags and go back to the business of waving the one flag that unites us, you know, that pretty banner with the red, white, and blue.
new Monday Musings…um…on Tuesday
When I was a kid, I used to watch my mom while she read her favorite books. In those very early days in the United States, she read dime novels in Spanish — some Corin Tellado stories that pre-dated the English-language Harlequin Romances. As her English improved, my mom graduated to reading Erma Bombeck’s columns, and later, the collected works.
Mom alternately laughed and cried as she read those vignettes. There is no doubt in my mind that my own writing was influenced by my mother’s appreciation for Bombeck’s ability to capture the joys and [hidden] pains of motherhood and family life. I have the sneaking suspicion that the Nobel Prize in Literature would not be as well-received as my having a small column in the local paper.
This realization delights me to no end, yet it speaks to a great truth about how subtly we are influenced by our parents and family. My mother didn’t have 300 channels of satellite radio, 1000 channels of on-demand TV, or endless hours on the internet; she had books to keep her company. Some of the moms I knew had hobbies like knitting, sewing, and crafts. Mine, it seemed, read. It’s no surprise that I grew up to be like my mother.
new Monday Musings (don’t faint)
It seems like I’ve been in a bit of a prayer rut lately. Maybe it’s the changing season; maybe it’s that I am undergoing some kind of change myself. I dunno. But I do know that I have felt an absence of something, or perhaps not so much an absence of something as a deep-seated yearning for something more.
Enter the social utilities where I play a bit throughout the day. Many of you come to the forums here at Rosary Army. Others participate in any number of opportunities to twitter, plurk, pownce, rejaw and otherwise microblog your activities throughout the day. These utilities are wonderful ways for us to connect to a community of faithful Catholics that share our lives in all the mundane and dramatic turns that make us human.
One of my plurky friends, Edgar the Mexican, announces the Angelus daily. Okay, it’s not a ringing bell, but it is a call to prayer nonetheless. Do churches outside of Rome even ring the bells anymore?
be careful what you poke fun of
I kind of ended up poking myself in the eye! Here’s this week’s Monday Musings. Start it here, but jump on over to Rosary Army for the rest of it.
Every morning on my drive to work I get caught at the red light at a very busy intersection. It’s one of those lights that seem to be out of whack with the rest of the grid, so I feel as if an eternity passes before it changes. Forgive my hyperbole, but when I’m trying to get to work on time, and I have coffee on the brain, it does seem like a very long time.
In spite of the gripe-y nature of my observation, though, the truth is that the corner generally offers some kind of local flavor for entertainment. For example, last year, there was a company that would go to homes and buy junk. For cash! I might have invited them over to relieve me of the mess in the basement, but their advertising was suspect. Ok, it was down right weird. Inexplicably, they placed their “junk movers” on each corner of the intersection dressed in royal blue Mario Brothers type work clothes — only, all of it, including an Afro-wig, was royal blue. They looked like that Blue Men troupe. Weird!
Of course, during election times there is a motley crew of folks waving and asking the commuters to honk for their candidates, and there is the random hawker, selling anything from home-made meat pies to kitschy stuff bought from some mail order import company. You get the idea — the corner is always full of surprises.
Last week my senses were assaulted by a woman dressed somewhat like a prairie settler from a hundred years ago, but she was in all white, including some Jed Clampett-looking boots in white, and she was verbally assaulting the drivers as they zoomed past. I figured that I had hit paydirt that morning — here was my entertainment, and I was lamenting that the light would change too quickly and I wouldn’t hear what she was yelling at us.
I got up pretty close and lowered the window, and right about when I heard “The Lord our God will smite you!” I caught sight of the bible that she gripped in her hand. She was waving it around and wildly gesticulating, and I thought to myself, oh brother, it’s just one of those bible-thumping weirdos. [more…]
another cup of coffee 