Flos Carmeli

A Fan Club? I honestly

A Fan Club?

I honestly do not know enough about Cardinal Ratzinger to call myself a fan. I may be--I certainly like much of what I have read of him and heard of him. It little matters. There are apparently enough people out there who think well of our good Cardinal to have a fan club dedicated to him. I'd greatly appreciate it if those who know the Cardinal's work better than I do could advise as to whether the site does him justice. I hope so. I'm thinking of adding it to the side column--a lot of that going on recently.

The Divine Ms. K (Again)

The Divine Ms. K (Again)

There is simply not enough of Ms. Knapp to go around. Witness this succinct, much needed, wise entry on her remarkable blog. Then make her blog one of your daily stops. She exposes one of several different kinds of cancer than can afflict the body of Christ.

El Camino Real scores more

El Camino Real scores more points

Mr. Culbreath at El Camino Real wins kudos for being the second person in the world to mention the sublime work noted in this quote from his site:

It may not be springtime in Christendom, but my hunch is that winter is slowly receding. The Orthodox composer John Tavener is evidence of this, and his "Akathist of Thanksgiving" is one of the most sublime works of music ever recorded. Even more sublime are the words of this hymn, which were discovered in the possession of a Russian priest who died in a Siberian concentration camp. (My personal favorite is Ikos 10: "Glory to Thee for thwarting my useless intentions" , which Tavener renders "Glory to You for ruining my unprofitable plans" !)

An Interesting Album in St.

An Interesting Album in St. Blog's

I didn't realize Mr. Lams did music. Via Davey's Mommy--here's the link to a really interesting page which includes a couple of real player tracks. Soft jazz with some interesting vocals. Sounds a bit retro--a little lounge--I really, really like what I've heard. I'm averse to internet commerce as a general thing--but this may just tempt me. I won't say it's beautiful, but I really like the blend. The title track has little sense of the B-52s with a laid back jazzy track. Robot Love--who would have guessed. My sincere thanks to Mr. Lams for making a difficult day a little brighter.

Later: Released Christmas of 2000--hardly recent news--guess it just takes me a while to catch on. Well, thank goodness I have.

Prayers and Sympathy My prayers

Prayers and Sympathy

My prayers for Cardinal Law and the people of Boston, and my heartfelt sympathy and prayers to all of those who today have felt they lost a father and leader. God's will in accomplished even in the difficult things and this trial has reached one end. My prayers that it is soon laid to rest and God will turn all mourning into joy. I pray also for all who rejoice at what might be viewed as calamitous, may God be with you all and help you to help your wounded brothers and sisters recover from this trial. May God's peace be with all and may the comfort of the Child who is to come from the Virgin's womb blanket all in peace, serenity, and love.

Advent is a penitential season and events of the day have given us much to think about and cause for close examination of ourselves and our reactions. May God be your help in this labor.

"For behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy which shall be to all peoples, for unto us is born this day in the city of David a savior which is Christ the Lord."

Response to a Discussion

Response to a Discussion Elsewhere

In other arenas, there is a heated discussion going on regarding comments made about one or another of blogdoms many personalities. Here is a response I have posted.

In any blog course correction is needed. I too infrequently visit these most popular of blogs because I tire of the endless allegations, attacks, and insinuations against the Holy Father and the Bishops.

One blogger may have been overheated in his rhetoric, and that is unfortunate if true. But sometimes when the heat is applied the flames spread. Perhaps it is time to give the whole set of issues a rest until we actually know something. The media light a fire and many of us run to throw gasoline. It's a fault, but it is very human.

So let this be the end to escalation. No one need know this blogger said anything about another had it not been stirred up to the top. Those of us who read these notes would have noted and either tsk-tsked or nodded our heads and moved on.

The art of blogdom often seems to be the art of stirring up trouble where none need be. My opinion of you, or any other blogger is just that, an opinion, unsubstantiated by close acquaintance and therefore made on the basis of words alone--often a faulty indicator of real feeling. I suspect that if we were to gather all the antagonists in a room and talk it out we would find underneath a great deal more agreement than disagreement. Blogdom does not really make that possible as we read the words in the isolation of our rooms without body language or other signals and then tend to impute motivation or meaning.

Peace to everyone. All of these things, even the seemingly most earth-shattering are things of the moment. They are straw for the fire--spoken and then vanished, done and then lost. They do, however, have echoes and ripples in eternity. Rather than amplify the damage, isn't it better to let those slights pass and move on--not sowing the wind to reap a whirlwind?

However we may feel, charity is always the best resolve. If the attitude of one blogger toward another needs to change, isn't prayer and private conversation a better first step than public stockading. Doesn't the Bible tell us to correct our brother in private first? We need not make a public spectacle of every errant opinion, and we better serve one another when we choose not to do so.

We need to be quieter, more temperate, kinder, and more Christ-like in our dealings with one another. True, there are pharisees, but I rather think the misled outnumber the pharisaical by a large majority and it is better to presume the lesser crime to start. Those who are misled should be corrected, gently, without overt provocation. This is not simply a lesson for blogging, it is a lesson for life. We are called to be peacemakers (in the nondiplomatic sense of that word). We are called to help each other achieve sanctity. How do we do that with endless sniping, complaints, and impugning. All the world is dross and all that happens in it fleeting and momentary. To use the language of the civil-rights era (and before) we need to walk forward our eyes on the prize--eternal life with God.

Spinning a Metaphor--Potential Energy

T.S. O'Rama in a most excellent post on his site, gives me an opportunity to spin a metaphor than may or may not work. We'll see.

A Baptist pastor continually preaches the following thing on the radio (I don't have a specifically Catholic radio station in tuning distance so I listen to the local Christian one):

"Christians have to spend more time remembering their position in Christ, not their condition."

In other words, focus on who you are - God's - and not your condition, which is often disconcertingly poor. It is interesting to this cradle Catholic that even Protestants have problems with legalism and "position vs. condition".

Now I want to show how incorrect the Baptist Pastor is in this saying. An object has energy by virtue either of movement of the body (kinetic energy), movement of its constiuent particles (thermal energy) or by its position and/or condition potential energy. It is this last that I want to use as a metaphor for the Christian life.

Too often we have great stored energy in Christian life. We make no harsh commitments, we don't drive ourselves too hard, and we don't really challenge ourselves in the things that matter. As Dubay and others have pointed out, the harsh reality is that We are not saints because we have not yet chosen to be. By that, all the writers mean that we have not made up our minds to let God's will be our will and to live our lives in that reality.

That is where potential is. We are all potential Saints. Thus we must move from potential to actual. And our potential is precisely in both our position in Christ and our condition in obeying God's word and will. If we are remiss in the latter, our position in Christ imparts some energy toward our sainthood--but we are like a loosely bound spring sitting on the ground. When we spring up, our motion is done, feeble and not enough to move us very far. However, if we change our condition, we may also change our position in Christ. Right now we wait on the ground near his feet. But as we obey we become like springs more tightly wound and compressed, and God lifts us up. From a height, when the tightly bound spring is released, the energy is much greater, the potential becomes powerful kinetic energy and we are suddenly transformed in Christ and become signs for all people. We are Saints.

Sainthood is possible for each one of us. Not only is it possible, it is necessary. Too often we excuse ourselves saying, we are not like St Therese, or St Teresa. But the reality is, God already made a St. Therese, he doesn't need another. He already has a St. Teresa, a St. John of the Cross, a St. Philip Neri, a St. Swithun--He has no need of more. But what He does need and what He wants is a Saint Steven Riddle, a Saint _______________ (put your name in the blank). We have no excuses for not responding to God's need. We are simply lazy people. We think that Heaven will come to us if we wait long enough.

Now, please bear in mind, though this was spawned by some thoughts at Mr. O'Rama's site, this is in no way a particular indictment of him. It is an indictment of every one of us (myself included) who has not yet made up their minds to be Saints and to tread whatever path God has laid out for us in that direction. I long for Sainthood, but I want it to be easy. It's time to change my position or my condition, because I'll need all the extra energy I can get from that stored potential to overcome the inertia that I allow to keep me in my deadly, ungodly path.

Another New Blog Mr. Culbreath

Another New Blog

Mr. Culbreath has won my attention both with the name of his blog, El Camino Real and with his mention of one of my present favorites Mr. Dana Gioia. Go and enjoy. (Link found via Nihil Obstat).

More from Fr. Dubay, S.M.

More from Fr. Dubay, S.M.

Father Dubay is a treasure to those of us seeking closer union with God. He speaks clearly, if at a very high level, about the necessities and the realities of the spiritual life. Witness this:

from Seeking Spiritual Direction Chapter 2: The Key Priniciple of Mediation Father Thomas Dubay, S. M.

Anyone who is moderately attuned to the things of God knows from experience how we resist personal change for the better. Perhaps we do not set our minds explicitly to a refusal, but we nonetheless cling to what we are in the spiritual life. If the reader has any doubt about this general trait, a simple question might shed some light: "Am I significantly better right now than I was a year ago? Have I made any concerted effort to improve, to get rid of my faults?. . . What has this to do with spiritual direction? People find the path to God only if the really love truth, if they shape their minds and wills to moral rectitude, if they follow the light wherever it leads, if they embrace reality revealing itself, even when the embrace implies hardship, suffering, and unpopularity.

Hard words for hard times. Or is that hard words pointing the way to better times? Only in the pursuit of God does life begin to have meaning. Only in the realization that every moment is permeated with grace, with gifts, with opportunities, and with His presence can we begin to understand the shape of our existence. Life is at base meaningless if God is not the end-all, be-all. Everything else fades and vanishes. Treasures here on Earth are for the moment only, on loan from God not merely for our own betterment, but for the betterment of every person we meet. When we fail in this, we fail in the only important thing we have to do in life. And such failure is bitter, bitter fruit.

A Salutary Admonition From the

A Salutary Admonition
From the Author of The Imitation of Christ these words:

Imitation of Christ Book 1 Chapter 1 This is the greatest wisdom -- to seek the kingdom of heaven through contempt of the world. •It is vanity, therefore, to seek and trust in riches that perish. •It is vanity also to court honor and to be puffed up with pride. •It is vanity to follow the lusts of the body and to desire things for which severe punishment later must come. •It is vanity to wish for long life and to care little about a well-spent life. •It is vanity to be concerned with the present only and not to make provision for things to come. •It is vanity to love what passes quickly and not to look ahead where eternal joy abides.

In short, it is vanity to sit safe and secure, surrounded only by the tattered finery of self and believe that salvation will stop by and knock on the door.

Twice in the past day I have been reminded that Jesus told us "Straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leads unto salvation." Too often I forget that. I lean on the mercy of God, in which I believe, but in addition to relying upon it, I should be demonstrating that mercy to others. We are all called to serve and the terms of service are non-negotiable. God is to be our All, and if He is anything less, then He is nothing at all to us.

A Morning Illusion My recent

A Morning Illusion

My recent trip to NoVA intruded into my morning commute in a magnificently pleasant way. While driving to work I thought I could smell the scent of boxwood along the route. As there is nothing remotely resembling boxwood anywhere along my route it was a wonderful, heaven-sent reminder of the time I had recently been able to spend with family and loved ones in NoVA. We are told not to look for consolations in our prayer life, but what can you do when God literally showers one with them every day, every hour, every moment of life? After all simply drawing one breath after another is a profound and beautiful gift from a loving God. Everything in the world points to Him, why do so few choose to look?

Some Response, But Encouraging More

Some Response, But Encouraging More

To the post below about spiritual reading. Please contribute your thoughts, ideas, notions--already I'm seeing a wonderful diversity of thought about spiritual reading and am formulating a number of ideas about how it divides which I will share with the world once I can formally articulate them.

Some Thoughts on Blogs and Blogging

Thanks to Mr. Gotcher, I found this set of comments by Mr. Hand (?) which provide much food for thought regarding what we are doing on our blogs. Are we here to show off, to make a stand, to be a community, to simply repeat news heard otherwhere?

The explicit goal of this blog is to talk about matters of prayer, spirituality, and Church Doctrine in a non-confrontational way. One of the ways I would like to guide this ship is by the star of Church Teaching and Love of God. I acknowledge that I often fail in charity and in substance--many times inconsequential trivia fill the blog channels. But I trust others to let me know when I have failed in charity and when I am overly shortsighted. I also trust others to lead me back on track eventually.

The philosophy and theory that drives everything I put here is that "all the earth is God's and the fullness thereof." So every subject is a right and proper subject for conversation, but always in charity, humility, and accordance (as far as I understand it) with the magisterium of the church. I do not wish to be the center of this blog--or only wish to be as example of what NOT to do (much of the time). The point of blogging is (1) to preach to the converted--we all need it (and I speak of and to me as much as to anyone else--a good teacher learns much preparing for his students) and (2) to glorify Jesus Christ, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit for the many blessings and mercies they have showered upon the world and on me.

More than anything else, I desire "to sing of the glories of the Lord forever." My Lord, My God, My King, My Heart, My All. With Augustine--"My heart is restless O Lord, until it rests in thee."

Classic Catholic is Back

Classic Catholic is Back

Perhaps only for the season, but Mr. Gotcher's Classic Catholic Blog is back on-line. Sorry it took me so long to find out.

On Blogging, Journalism, and Writing

On Blogging, Journalism, and Writing

Ms. Kropp of More like Mary, Less Like Martha fame, has two marvelous posts regarding the relevance of the Holy Father's comments on journalism to bloggers. (Link goes to first post, scroll down for the second.) I do not blog like many others, but I hope that the Holy Father's comments serve to inform this blog in the best way possible.

Available at Blackmask The Webmaster

Available at Blackmask

The Webmaster at Blackmask has been working overtime and he has recently provided for us a wonderful little book by Charlotte Yonge, John Keble's Parishes: A History of Hursley and Otterbourne. Keble is a remarkable man. Some of his work is available at the Anglo-Catholic Project Canterbury site. You would do well to seek it out.

On William Law I bring

On William Law

I bring up William Law in the light of my last post and in light of the fact that Dylan of recent date has very generously provided some excerpts of his work .

Law was tutor to the children of the notoriously anti-Christian Edward Gibbon, who found much to recommend about Christianity in the person of this tutor. His works tend to be Anglo-Catholic/Catholic Friendly, or perhaps better stated, "Mere Christianity." And his insights are the insights of the ages, of mystics and of saints who have grown close to God through prayer and trial. Were he not of another communion, it is likely that Mr. Law would be considered a blessed or perhaps even a Saint of the Catholic Church. I encourage all to read the excerpts provided, and if they appeal, one can partake of complete works at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. (The entire Christian Community owes a great debt of gratitude to Mr. Harry Plantinga for the effort that went into producing this wonderful site. Mr. Plantinga is one member of a very distinguished family of (?)Evangelical Protestants that includes Alvin Plantinga--a philosopher (some of his work is available through the LeaderU site), and Cornelius Plantinga, Jr. (author of a magnificent book, Not the Way It's Supposed to Be subtitled A Breviary of Sin)).

On Spiritual Reading

On Spiritual Reading

Thomas Dubay, a writer I much admire and am much in awe of, wrote a book some time ago that it has taken me a while to get hold of. While at the Basilica Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, I stumbled across it and knew that among the many treasure there, this was one that I had to have for my collection. The book, published in 1993 is Seeking Spiritual Direction and it is filled with the usually profound, subtle insights that mark all of Fr. Dubay's work.

I rarely read a nonfiction book completely linearly, and spiritual books are such that I find myself dipping in at intervals even as I read straight through. Last night I looked up a subject of particular interest to me--Spiritual Reading. After a great deal of very interesting, helpful discussion Fr. Dubay gets to the "short list" of what he calls A-1 reading. His point throughout is not to waste your time on "mediocre" spiritual reading--the stuff of much of the marketplace now--but to confine spiritual reading to the A-1 tried and true proven classics. He implies that the longer the list of spiritual reading, the more likely that less worthy works are somewhere on it. Father Dubay's Short list follows:

from Seeking Spiritual Direction--"Can I Direct Myself?"
Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M.

Input on contemplative prayer is essential. Ordinarily, one begins with one or two sound introductory works and proceeds on to the masters. At the head of a short list of masters would be Saints Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, probably in that order. somewhere early in one's serious pursuit of God should be read Imitation of Christ and the major classics written by other saints: for example, Augustine's Confessions, Francis de Sales' Introduction to the Devout Life and Treatise on the Love of God, Thérèse of Lisieux's The Story of a Soul, Newman's Sermons, and French spiritual writer Dom Chautard's Soul of the Apostolate Periodically one should intersperse among didactic works the lives of the saint for all the reasons we shall now consider. (pp. 145-146).

This list certainly seems a worthy starting point for great spiritual reading, and everything on it certainly seems required reading for those actively seeking closer union with God. (One note: the Bible is, of course central on this list, but it is treated much more fully elsewhere in the book). But I am certain that it is not the complete list of helpful reading. What I would like to solicit is discussion on what might constitute a fuller reading list. I still want only the A-1, best of the best, top of the line classics. If you would be so kind as to leave a list of two or three books that have profoundly moved you and helped you toward a closer walk with God and a brief description of the contents thereof, I would like to compile these into a longer list.

Additionally, please help with any insights as to where to start with writers for whom Fr. Dubay has indicated an Opus, but not identified a "starting work." For example, those better acquainted with Newman could help all of us with suggestions as to which group of sermons to start with. I will be happy to provide some insight into which works of Teresa and John I would recommend, as well as which editions might best aid the reader.

Later I will add to Fr. Dubay's list works from the protestant tradition that everyone of solid Catholic Background could easily profit; however, for the time being, let us consider only mainline Catholic works and their influence on you. Thank you so much for any contribution to a project that I think would benefit the entire community of St. Blog's.

New Blogs Added Today To

New Blogs Added Today

To my lefthand column: welcome to De Fidei Oboedientia, and the tenors/baritones/basses of the Kropp Family Singers--Mr. Larry Kropp of On the Ragged Edge and husband of Ms. Amy Kropp of More Like Mary, Less Like Martha, and Mr. Jerome Kropp of Discipleship of Letters. Blogs to watch as they grow

A Word to the Wise

A Word to the Wise

Part I
I hope you all have been stopping by Mr. Mooney's place Xavier+. In the last several days he has posted a wonderful poem by Milton (Lord, I know I'm aging when the words "wonderful" and "Milton" occur in the same sentence) and a reflection by Rabbi Heschel. Both of these (as well as much else) are well worth your attention.

Part II
I really love Conversations That Matter. Indeed, the only conversations that do. St. Blog's Blurb typifies this as a communal Lectio and, indeed, it is, in all the best meanings and senses of that word. This is another place one would do well to visit AND be guided by the four movements that regulate the posting of all the members:

1. What did I hear? What did he say that affected me? What did I hear for the first time? What leapt off the page at me? What word or phrase is important? 2. How does this make me feel? No thoughts, opinions or judgments. If you can use the words, I think... intelligibly in the sentence it is not a feeling. Stick to feelings. Maybe start the sentence with I am... 3. What will I do? How does the gospel call me to live? No plans, hopes or dreams; what concrete action will I do this week? 4. How shall I pray? Prayers, litanies, tropes, and other forms based on the readings may be posted.

Once again, deepest thanks to Father Keyes C.PP.S. for maintaining this worthwhile and impressive (if perhaps underused) blog.

An Amusement from Quenta At

An Amusement from Quenta

At the suggestion of Fr. Tucker at Dappled Things, I was perusing some of the "back issues" of Quenta Nârwenion and I came upon yet another quiz, the results of which appear below, and except for the diagnosis, don't much miss the mark. We were VERY amused.

Which Personality Disorder Do You Have?
brought to you by Quizilla

On Sin Dylan blogged a

On Sin

Dylan blogged a link to Jesuitical apologia for all things sexual which paralleled a line of thought that has recurred for some time. Since the time Kairos made some oblique comments on the issue (probably months ago--didn't mark the particular comments.) A pertinent excerpt of this venture into the brave new world of reformed morality follows.

Bearing one another's burdens and respecting one another's experience and insight should mark, quite decisively, both the mode and the content of ecclesial teaching. One might ask whether, as a Church, we "have shown partiality in [our] instruction" by investing so much of our teaching energy and authority, and over so many years, on sins of the flesh. One wonders whether a more impartial (and effective) approach might, for example, be more concerned about, and more decisive in response to, the production of land mines or the exploitation of the poor all around the globe.

First a comment on the quote--the whole article, summed up in this paragraph strikes me very much as "methinks the lady doth protest too much." If the church has already embodied too much of its teaching in sexuality, why do we need more of it from a faction that, if not in dissent, is certainly standing at a distance from concurrence? The whole article reeks of what I have come to term the Jesuitical betrayal. Unfortunately, this betrayal is a result of the central strength of the Jesuits, a remarkable training in intellectual battle. It seems that when the mind and ego are given precedence over spirituality, the result is ever so. There are a great many loyal Jesuits, I am certain; however, the voice that dominates is ever the one in disagreement. (And not to slight the Jesuits, the same seems to be true of many of the Old Orders--witness Joan Chittister, Richard Rohr, and others too numerous to detail.)

Now to my main point. I had been wondering about the huge emphasis on sexuality in Church teaching. Part of my reason for wondering is purely selfish--such teaching gets in the way of what I want. The other part is simply seeking to make sense of it all.

After some thought, it occurred to me that the preponderance of teaching on sexuality is necessary because this is the weakest front in the battle against Satan. We look at our highly sexualized society today as some sort of aberration. In fact it is consistent with the long line of human civilizations. We laud those societies that are not so sexually charged--but, in fact, there are no such societies. The Islamic requirement of purdah is an acknowledgement of the fact that sexual urges are the least governable and the only way to restrain them is to do everything possible to dampen them. Victorian society for all its renowned repression, was in fact every bit as sexually charged as modern day society. The Church teaches much on sexuality because it is protesting against the "exploitation of the [morally] poor" and the "production of [spiritual] landmines."

We are sexual creatures. I cannot speak for the female side, but I feel at times very Augustinian--"Lord make me chaste, but not yet." I must admit to the attraction/distraction presented by an attractive female--attractiveness consisting of more than mere surface beauty. But even mere surfaces can be very distracting. From other men I've talked to and shared with, this seems to be a universal problem. I don't know if it is as pervasive on the female side, though I tend to think that the relative absence and poor performance of the female equivalents of Playboy and its ilk, that it may not be directly. Perhaps it takes a deeper form that looks more to the attractions beyond the superficial.

No matter, it seems from discussion and implication that many American men would agree that the greatest temptations they face are sexual temptations. True, many are lured by money and power and the glamours of those intangibles. But for those of us in the middle ground who wouldn't mind having more money but don't particularly relish the notions of power, it seems that the easiest way through the relatively tight armor of God is through the sexual impulse. Paul acknowledged this when he stated that it was better to be unmarried, but it was far better to marry than to burn. Now, I find this particularly Pauline teaching particularly onerous and atraditional diverging strongly from the traditional practices of the Jewish people and from the Old Testament command to "be fruitful and multiply." It smacks of a certain element which, when distorted, becomes Manichaeism. But what Paul is acknowledging is the tremendous, overwhelming power of the sexual impulse and its ready exploitability by the Powers and Principalities for their own purposes.

The Church teaches on sexuality because the battleground for most ordinary people (or at least most ordinary men) is centered in this integral part of our humanity. We go long distances out of our way to justify any number of practices or diversions in this realm.

Sexuality is a great gift and a great burden. As Jesus promised, "To whom much is given, much is expected in return." A gift of this magnitude--the ability to engage in the act of creation as the instruments, as it were, of God's creation on Earth, is overpowering. Thus the temptations to abuse the gift is also nearly overpowering. We are expected to be good stewards of all the goods granted us. Thus the Church speaks frequently on the matter of sexuality, keeping a balance between Manichaeism and indulgence, pointing out the right use, and more importantly the right way of thinking about and viewing this tremendous gift as signposts along a path bestrewn with landmines.

Thus, whenever I begin to question the wisdom of the Church in these "difficult" or to some "insupportable" teachings, I am certain that I am speaking and not some revelation from above. For my own ends I am capable of distorting the clearest truths. Acknowledging this, I may also humbly submit to the Church's teachings in the matters, and for an hour or a day at time beat back the barbarians at the gates.

Sexual sin is not the worst sin, but it is nevertheless sin. It is falling short of the glory that God has imaged for us and which we are to reify. And any such "missing the mark" is a grievous offense both to God and to our fellow human beings. For often sexual sin is simply a matter of making a person into an object of desire. In so doing we demean ourselves and the object of our affection.

Delightful Surprises To my mind,

Delightful Surprises

To my mind, there is nothing more delightful than when someone does something utterly unexpected and "out-of-character." It's a very humbling experience because you begin to understand, "My ways are not your ways" and you are faced with the fallacy and hypocrisy of judgmentalism. On my vacation my Father-in-Law did at least one such thing.

In the course of the vacation we were talking about movies. Now this is a man whose collection consists of every film John Wayne ever made, and almost all the other westerns and similar films you can name. His idea of a perfect day is Tora! Tora! Tora! followed by The Longest Day.. So imagine my shock when he said of Roman Holiday, "You know, that is my favorite movie." Now I largely trust my wife in matters of light romantic dramas/comedies and pretend no expertise. I had never been enticed by this title as my wife had never given it much of a review. So, hearing this stunning bit of news, I popped his tape of it in and watched it.

I won't say that it is now my favorite film, nor anything close to a favorite, but it was a wonderful film. I am ever grateful for having been introduced to it, and even more grateful for having been introduced to this hidden aspect of my Father-in-Law's character. A man who was already great in my estimation became a mite more interesting in this sudden revelation.

If it is true that you do not merely marry a spouse, but a family, I have been wonderfully blessed by these members of my family. I thank God for them daily and I thank God for the enrichment and joy He has seen fit to provide me through the aegis of my wife and her wonderful family. I cannot possibly say enough good about these people who have, from the beginning, accepted me and taken me in as one of their own. We are quite different in many respects, but the difference is always polite and always respectful. Once again, what a tremendous, wonderful family and God-given blessing. I hope all of you who are married might experience the same for yourselves.

Truer Words Were Never Spoken

Truer Words Were Never Spoken

T.S. O'Rama blogs with respect to my comments on the weather:

Sounds like my base state of being. What is ironic is that I've often felt like a good move would be from Ohio to Virginia, and to thus shorten and de-sting the winter and also to enjoy the surreal beauty that covers much of that state. Steven Riddle wants none of the cold of Virginia. But if you are used to Florida I can see how Virginia looks chilly, just as the Minnesotans must grin at my Ohio complaints. It does wear off eventually - my Maine friend, after eight Ohio winters, is no longer laughing at the mild winters.

I moved from Virginia to Ohio, and those were miserable winters. I spent ten years longing to leave Ohio, and when I did so, I moved to Florida. The first winter we were here, we were in short sleeves and shorts throughout December and January. We laughed at those who bundled up in parkas and gloves. The second winter, we too were in overcoats (though not parkas) and gloves when we went up to see the Manatees at Blue Spring, and we understood the poor creatures' seeking warmer climes. I sometimes swear I am not far enough south yet. As it happens, I am not particularly affected by warm weather--and it doesn't get as hot here as Ohio and Virginia can get. In seven years I haven't experienced a single day that touched 100 degrees.

So weather really is relative--but I have never, never liked the cold, and moving from Virginia to Ohio felt like moving into the deepest arctic territory. However, the reverse move would hold for a couple of years, and then the teens and twenties that fill much of a Virginia winter would begin to chill as much as the zeroes and minuses that I remember from many of my Ohio years.

All of this simply makes me reflect on the marvels of humankind. It brings to mind, for no reason at all the following reflections from Act II Scene ii of Hamlet (note particularly the last third):

I have of late but wherefore I know not lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed, it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory; this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire why, it appeareth no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!