I'm not alone!

In vain have I fought against the temptation to post this. I mean, really, they deserve it.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

John Updike, I hardly knew ye

I think it's a shame that I first read John Updike while I was in high school. Waaaay too young. I've never read him since.

The novel in question was The Centaur. I hated - no, let me revise to the gentler sounding yet equivalent "loathed" - loathed his protagonist who forever seemed to be biting back belches. That's pretty much all I remember about the guy aside from a visceral dislike.

What were they thinking, giving us a John Updike novel? What was their goal? We couldn't have understood, no matter how fine the writing. And it has turned me off of John Updike for life, which is hardly fair.

I heard an interview today with John Updike - an old interview, obviously - and he was so wonderfully funny, dry and self-aware. I bet that's in his novels. Now that I'm 40, I think I'm going to try him again.

Thomas Aquinas

Man, all this inaugural stuff has put me off my stride. But today is Wednesday, which makes me think of midweek Eucharists, which makes me think of saints, and today happens to be the feast day of Thomas Aquinas, a big day indeed.

I can speak only ignorantly of Aquinas and don't have time to do the research I would like. But my impression is of a person who does the exact opposite of what I am doing today: who thought through things deeply and methodically and presented them clearly and publicly. I admire the heck out of that kind of methodical thinking. It seems to me to be a spiritual discipline of its own.

Here's the collect of the day.

Almighty God, you have enriched your Church with the singular learning and holiness of your servant Thomas Aquinas: Enlighten us more and more, we pray, by the disciplined thinking and teaching of Christian scholars, and deepen our devotion by the example of saintly lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Nominee: Most ridiculous inauguration promotional tie-in

I clipped this out of the local paper. Who knew Obama was also a pharmacist!

 

I also saw a window display at a Hallmark store for Valentine's Day that showed a picture of President Obama in a large heart. People! Please! I know we're happy, but I mean, come on!

Definitive proof: God doesn't answer prayer

Just found the inaugural invocation from 2001, by Franklin Graham.

We pray, 0 Lord, for President-elect George W. Bush and Vice President-elect Richard B. Cheney, to whom You have entrusted leadership of this nation at this moment in history. We pray that You'll help them bring our country together so that we may rise above partisan politics and seek the larger vision of Your will for our nation.

Use them to bring reconciliation between the races, healing to political wounds, that we may truly become one nation under God. Give our new president, and all who advise him, calmness in the face of storms, encouragement in the face of frustration, and humility in the face of success. Give them the wisdom to know and to do what is right, and the courage to say no to all that is contrary to Your statutes of holy law.

I'm thinking that didn't happen.

Actually, maybe they DID bring the country together to rise above partisan politics, etc., etc. It just wasn't around them. I take it back: God does answer prayers, in God's own peculiar way.

Thoughts on the prayers

Three inaugural prayers, to be specific: Gene Robinson's prayer at the Inaugural Concert, Rick Warren's invocation, and Joseph Lowery's benediction.

I realized something commenting on someone else's blog. I felt uncomfortable both with Gene Robinson's and Rick Warren's prayers, and I wonder if this is because each was trying to prove something. I felt +Robinson's prayer was trying to overcompensate for the perceived (and real!) exclusivity of Warren's selection, and that Warren was trying hard to speak from an inclusive position that doesn't come naturally to him. Joseph Lowery didn't have anything to prove; he was just happy. And as a result, his prayer sounded like a genuine prayer and not a performance. That's my personal reaction to it; I'm sure other people feel differently.

I was VERY uncomfortable with the nationalism I sensed in Warren's prayer, as in "Help us, O God, to remember that we are Americans, united not by race, or religion, or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all." I understand why he did it; it echoes Obama's call that 'there's not a red America and a blue America," but I'm not sure God is interested in having us remember that we're Americans. I'm fairly certain God doesn't care if we're Americans or not.

Equally, however, I didn't enjoy the screechy preachiness of +Robinson's prayer: "Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic “answers” we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future." First of all, as a public speaker, nothing with quotes around it is going to carry. Second, I have never appreciated prayers that claim and blame a "we" when it is clearly pointing a finger at "you," and which lay out an agenda for what "we" need to do and give it to God. The sentence is also WAAAAAY too long. I say that as a person who has a habit of writing long, complex sentences.

Of all of them, Joseph Lowery seemed most comfortable drawing specifically from his own church tradition without apologies: using a voice from "Lift Every Voice and Sing," referring to "the mountaintop," turning an old racist slogan on its head, and prompting the crowd to say Amen.

As far as I'm concerned, Obama placed the prayers in the right order: OK, better, and the best for last.

Another inaugural weeper

At least for me. I was coming home today and at the end of Fresh Air, they played an instrumental version of "Life Every Voice and Sing." I first sang that at a district glee club when I was in 4th-5th grade, round about there, and knew nothing of its history as the Black national anthem until much later.

In case you don't know it, here are the words. Read 'em and weep.

Lift every voice and sing,
'Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on 'til victory is won.

Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chast'ning rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
'Til now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.

Various pre-inaugural thoughts

My mind (and I sense I am not alone in this) is full of thoughts of tomorrow's inauguration. I'm crying at the drop of a hat these days just thinking about it. Yesterday, driving to a friend's house for lunch after church, I heard a smattering of the concert at the Lincoln Memorial and it seemed that everything made me cry, but nothing so much as hearing Marian Anderson singing "My Country, 'Tis of Thee."

The other song that's killing me, strangely, is Carly Simon's "Let the River Run." Strangely because, of course, that was the theme song to Working Girl, a movie about making it on Wall Street. But the song itself speaks to me of liberation. I particularly love the line, "Let all the dreamers wake the nation," which seems emblematic of this election for me.

Terrible video, but I've always loved this song.

Also this morning in the Bay Area section of the Chronicle there were several inaugural-related articles, two of which particularly caught my eye.

The first was a story of Betty Soskin, 87, the oldest active National Park Service ranger in the country, who will be at the inauguration as the guest of Rep. George Miller -- my representative in Martinez! The great-granddaughter of a slave,

"From the age of 13, I haven't ever said the final words to the Pledge of Allegiance out loud" said Soskin..."You know, the words about 'liberty and justice for all.' I just couldn't let those words out of my mouth, because I knew they weren't true for me.

"But at the inauguration, I will say them for the first time in more than 70 years. It's a small thing, I know," she added, laughing joyously, "but I am going to say them -- and say them loud!"

I also loved the story of the six-year-old rapper with his new video, "Obama made me proud." Obama's been running for president since he was four.

My first clear memory of national politics was seeing Jimmy Carter sworn in. All the students at Del Mar Elementary watched the occasion on TVs set up in the cafeteria. I remember it vividly. I am just imagining how many children, of all races, are going to be watching the inauguration tomorrow and I can only guess what kind of impact that will have. I truly believe that the impression made by this election will be deep and lasting. Perhaps I am overstating the case, but I suspect this of changing the country forever.

Obama made a lot of people proud, in the best sense of the word. What a wonderful way to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.

And in my worklife...

...we have finally unveiled our new and vastly improved website which I encourage you to visit:

www.confirmnotconform.com

Quote of the day

I really hope you put America back together. No pressure though.

From Thanks and Have Fun Running the Country: Kids' Letters to President Obama, mentioned in today's Chronicle Book Section.

Quote of the Day

Ted Sorensen, who wrote John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address, said that great oratory required "speaking from the heart, to the heart, directly, not too complicated, relatively brief sentences, words that are clear to everyone."

In an article in the Washington Post , mostly about rhetoric in inaugural speeches. Wonderful.

And one more...

By an amazing coincidence, I am, at this very moment, reading "Paradise Postponed," a novel by John Mortimer who died this morning. The headline in the NY Times is wonderful: "John Mortimer, Creator of Rumpole." I've always loved the Rumpole mysteries, both written and Leo McKerned, but I'd never read any of his novels. So far, I like Rumpole better. There's not much of a better tribute, I would think, than to know that something you created will remain after you have gone. Leo McKern is dead and John Mortimer is dead, but Rumpole will live on.

Numerous obits

My, my, my, the days go by with no one person catching my interest and today there are four.

First, Pedro Aguilar, aka Cuban Pete, King of the Latin Beat, Mambo dancer. "While staying with an uncle in Washington, he was taught tap dancing by a maid who reasoned that if she could hear him tapping out steps on a box, he was not getting into mischief." And he gained a lot of his footwork from his time as a boxer. Dance seems to appear in mysterious ways in a lot of people's lives. It seems almost like an unstoppable force, the body expressing itself through movement.

Second, L. Ann Wieseltier, an accountant who worked with all sorts of creative types. And, boy, do creative types need the Ann Wieseltiers of this world -- and those of us who enjoy the performing arts need her, too. I actually prefer the family's obit for this: "For thirty three years Ann helped musicians, actors, artists, photographers, and dancers be successful through her financial expertise and deep sense of caring. She always looked forward to tax season as an opportunity to reconnect with people who were more like friends than clients." What a gift she offered the Bay Area arts community and all of us who enjoy their performances.

Third, there's Rabbi Alan Lew who encouraged meditation as a part of Jewish faith and practice. Nor was meditation separate from social justice. "Rabbi Lew believed spirituality was inextricable from social justice. At execution night vigils at San Quentin Prison, he spoke of forgiveness, compassion and the sanctity of life. He slept on the streets of San Francisco and in Golden Gate Park as acts of solidarity with the homeless, sometimes getting arrested in the process for acts of civil disobedience. Fischer said that on at least one occasion, Rabbi Lew told his congregation to invite the homeless into their homes, reminding them that biblical prophets had urged it." He sounds like a mensch to me.

Finally, Andrew Wyeth, the big name on our list. The thing that strikes me about him is that he kept doing what he did no matter the opinions of people around him. The one that killed me was the reaction he got from his own father.

N.C. Wyeth, the only art teacher Wyeth ever had, didn’t always agree with his son’s taste.

In a 1986 interview with the AP, Wyeth recalled one of the last paintings he showed to his father, who died in 1945. It was a picture of a young friend walking across a barren field.

“He said, ‘Andy, that has a nice feel, of a crisp fall morning in New England.’ He said, ‘You’ve got to do something to make this thing appeal. If you put a dog in it, or maybe have a gun in his hand,’” Wyeth recalled.

“Invariably my father talked about my lack of color.”

So from his father, he was told he needed "to do something to make this thing appeal," and from art critics "Because of his popularity, a bad sign to many art world insiders, Wyeth came to represent middle-class values and ideals that modernism claimed to reject...Art critics mostly heaped abuse on his work, saying he gave realism a bad name." I dunno...I think it would drive me mad. His work is strangely uncategorizable, isn't it? Blessings upon him for doing the art he felt called to do. May we do the same.

Sermon Prep Quote of the Day

Men like to have an adjustable God, who is conveniently righteous or variantly just. When they profess to seek a God who is both just and merciful, they hope too often not that his justice will be tempered by mercey, but that his justice will be diluted by mercy.

John C. Schroeder in the Interpreter's Bible exposition of 1 Samuel. That would be the 1953 Interpreter's Bible - a classic, and far superior to the New Interpreter's Bible. Don't let the dated bindings fool you.

This makes me sad

I think I posted about Ted Haggard way back when he was outed and ousted, but maybe I just wrote some friends about it. At any rate, he's back and there's a documentary about him coming up on HBO.

Most people seem to be focusing on his comment that he's "a heterosexual with issues," but that's not the thing that got my attention.

Here's the thing that made me sad. An article in the Denver Post says, "During his worst times, he said, those who were most attentive were the filmmakers, Barbara Walters ('she wrote loving e-mails') and CNN's King."

I should have written him and invited him to go to an Episcopal Church where (I hope) he would have been welcomed no matter what. He would have been welcomed if he decided he was gay, or if he decided he was heterosexual with issues, or if he really wasn't sure. Now, knowing the church in all its failings, there would no doubt have been a desire for Haggard to be one thing or another and be a poster child for whatever it was. But I feel very bad that the Church in all its many manifestations seems to have let him down.

Quote of the Day

Yesterday I learned how to load and shoot a pistol and a semi-automatic. Why? It’s a life skill I have always wanted to have, and I figured that Texas was just the place to gain it. I’m a real good shot, as it turns out. Hit the bullseye every time. Later this week I intend to learn how to two-step.

The aptly named PeaceBang on her blog Beauty Tips for Ministers writing about her sabbatical experiences in Amarillo, Texas. Gotta watch out for those Unitarians.

Pre-Inauguration thoughts

Did you know about the Citizen's Briefing Book? I just got an email about it today.

We wanted to tell you about a new feature on Change.gov which lets you bring your ideas directly to the President.

It's called the Citizen's Briefing Book, and it's an online forum where you can share your ideas, and rate or offer comments on the ideas of others.

The best-rated ones will rise to the top, and after the Inauguration, we'll print them out and gather them into a binder like the ones the President receives every day from experts and advisors. If you participate, your idea could be included in the Citizen's Briefing Book to be delivered to President Obama.

I think that's mighty cool. Practical, too. Take a look and see what you think.

In other Inaugural thoughts, I ran across this prayer yesterday that I wanted to share.

For Sound Government (Book of Common Prayer, p. 821)

O Lord our Governor, bless the leaders of our land, that we may be a people at peace among ourselves and a blessing to other nations of the earth.
Lord, keep this nation under your care.

To the President and members of the Cabinet, to Governors of States, Mayors of Cities, and to all in administrative authority, grant wisdom and grace in the exercise of their duties.
Give grace to your servants, O Lord.

To Senators and Representatives, and those who make our laws in States, Cities, and Towns, give courage, wisdom, and foresight to provide for the needs of all our people, and to fulfill our obligations in the community of nations.
Give grace to your servants, O Lord.

To the Judges and officers of our Courts give understanding and integrity, that human rights may be safeguarded and justice served.
Give grace to your servants, O Lord.

And finally, teach our people to rely on your strength and to accept their responsibilities to their fellow citizens, that they may elect trustworthy leaders and make wise decisions for the well-being of our society; that we may serve you
faithfully in our generation and honor your holy Name.
For yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Amen.

There's some other good prayers right around there.

More about the pray-ers later. Maybe.

Extremely cool

For a change of pace...

...from all those obituaries, I wanted to share with you this wedding announcement.

"The bride, 76, graduated from New York University. She is the daughter of Celia and Joseph Posen, who lived in Brooklyn.

"The bridegroom, 79, is the chairman of ABC Carpet & Home, which has stores and outlets in the New York area, Florida and England."

You have to read the whole thing. It's way too sweet.

Wading in

A couple of days ago, I was listening to my Africa Today podcast from the BBC that included a report on African protests against Israel's incursion into Gaza. In Khartoum, Sudan, a group of 5,000 "mostly peaceful" protesters were chanting. What were they chanting? "Down, down, U.S.A.! Down, down, U.S.A.!"

The anchor said to the reporter, "The sentiment seems to be more anti-American than anti-Israeli. Why is that?" Her response was

There is a very strong anti-Israeli feeling here…but I think that the American support for the Israelis has also really touched a nerve here. And this fits in with a kind of wider world view that Sudan has: that the West, Israeli, the Americans are targeting Arab countries like the Palestinians, like Gaza, and like Sudan itself….and there have been quite a few of these demonstrations … outside the American embassy which was indeed shut today because they feared the crowd could get out of hand.

Then yesterday, on Grandmere Mimi's blog, she posted an AP report that said, "Anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on the Iraqi resistance Wednesday to stage 'revenge operations' against American forces to protest Israel's Gaza offensive...The State Department dismissed al-Sadr's calls, describing them as 'outrageous.'"

"Any call for attacks against Americans is outrageous and, frankly, not worthy of much more comment," deputy State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters. "Outside calls to attack Americans for what's going on in the region are outrageous."

Here's the thing: I would think our government might want to consider why these countries perceive the U.S. in this way, rather than just brush off the comments as "outrageous." Especially considering U.S. lives are at stake.

Could it possibly have something to do with non-binding resolution passed by the House of Representatives yesterday that says the House of Representatives "(1) expresses vigorous support and unwavering commitment to the welfare, security, and survival of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state with secure borders, and recognizes its right to act in self-defense to protect its citizens against Hamas’s unceasing aggression, as enshrined in the United Nations Charter."

I was really struck, upon reading the whole thing, at how one-sided the language is. Certainly I'm not saying that Hamas is a paragon of virtue, but I just don't think Israel is blameless, here.

My point being that it might be in the U.S.'s best interest to appear more impartial. In this, I defer to none other than the father of our country, General George Washington himself, who said as much in his Farewell Address of 1796.

So likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.

One of the things that impressed me most about the last presidential election was that, by having a free, fair and democratic presidential election, we may have done more to promote democracy abroad than by all force of will or arms. The point I'm trying to make is that we might all be better off seeing to our own house than in interfering all over the place. I'm not talking about isolationism, I don't think. More leading by example than by didactic self-righteousness. (She says didactically and self-righteously.)

Warped powercord, RIP

I don't know how well you can tell from this photo that the box junction in my powercord is literally warped from overheating! This was the powercord I replaced in Uganda after frying the first one's circuitry when I plugged it in without an adapter, so I don't know if this one was doomed to die here in the U.S.

 

At any rate, Radio Shack fixed me up quite nicely with a fancy new powercord on clearance because it only works with older model computers. I'm starting to think this computer's days are numbered. It's been a good little thing. We'll see what deals come up.

computer malfunction and quote

I'm going to be offline very shortly because I need to get a new powercord for my laptop. I need a new powercord because last night, my powercord overheated to the point where it is now a slightly melty powercord. Mom, I know you're reading this. Really, it's just an old powercord.

In the meantime, I leave you with this quote of the day from today's Times article about Marian Robinson moving into the White House with her daughter and son-in-law, and how organic foods are not her thing.

“If you’re going to have fried chicken,” she said, “have fried chicken.”

Words of wisdom.

Quote of the day

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance.

From my fortune cookie. Even the fortune cookie writers are looking forward to the end of the Bush administration!

"Probably" as in "You probably won't get eaten by an alligator" or "probably" as in "It probably won't rain today"?

I'm kind of shaking my head over the ad campaign from the British Humanist Association (aka atheists). They paid 140,000 pounds to buy ads on the sides of 800 buses and other vehicles in England, Scotland and Wales, and the reason is understandable--even laudable: Comedy writer Ariane Sherine who devised the campaign "was inspired to seek donations after objecting to a set of Christian advertisements on a bus."

When people went to a highlighted website address, they were told that whose who rejected God were condemned to spend all eternity to "torment in Hell".

Ms Sherine said she sought donations for a "reassuring" counter-advertisement.

The problem, though, is that they undermined their own position! The slogan plastered on the sides of these buses, as you see above, is: "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

Ummm...probably? Have you never heard of Pascal's Wager? "Probably" doesn't exactly cut it. The real problem is the nature of the God being promoted (assuming there is a God, of course). If people believe in a wrathful God, this ad is not going to help.

I appreciated the Church of England's response. Among other things, the C of E spokesman said, "Christian belief is not about worrying or not enjoying life." Thank you! Put that slogan on a bus!

Headline of the Day

Newman's Own the 'most edible' soy crisp

Talk about damning with faint praise! Full story here.

Quote of the day

You have such a stunningly superficial knowledge of what went on that it's almost embarrassing to listen to you.

Zbigniew Brzezinski to Joe Scarborough about Israel and Palestine. Just a lovely moment.

I think I'm at least smart enough to know I have a stunningly superficial knowledge of what's going on. Which is why I have had nothing to say on this blog about what's going on currently in Gaza. I'm reading, listening and praying, not in that order.

GRB 080319B

On Christmas Eve, I heard a sermon in which I learned about GRB (that would stand for Gamma Ray Burst) 080319B, an event that was seen on earth on March 19, 2008. NASA reports that it took place halfway across the visible universe, 7.5 billion light years away, meaning also that it took place 7.5 billion years ago, before the earth came into existence. How they know this, I don't know.

One of the many things I love about this story is that there's a movement afoot to name this the Clarke Event since Arthur C. Clarke died hours before this event was seen. “'Coincidentally, the passing of Arthur C. Clarke the day before seems to have set the universe ablaze with gamma ray bursts,' says Swift science team member Judith Racusin of Penn State University in University Park, Pa." We can't help ourselves, can we? Even these scientists, knowing that this event happened before the earth was even created, still related back to a person they loved, respected and admired here on earth.

Happy Epiphany!

Quote of the Day

"What struck us was that the little ones were completely on their own and that they had lots of swimming gear with them," said Holger Jureczko, a police spokesman.

Thanks to Paul C. for posting this article on Facebook.

Thoughts on Christmas 2008

It was a strange Christmas for me. Strange because it was so easy and peaceful. This is the first year in a long time that I haven't been working on Christmas, the first year in an even longer time where my energy wasn't directed toward completing something by the end of the year. Working as a parish priest, there's lots of things on the to-do list with services and programs; as a student or working in schools, which is the way it's been all the rest of my life, there was a summing-up at the end of a semester.

So this was the very first year in which Christmas and the end of the year was not some kind of a conclusion. Instead, my work load remained fairly constant and the end of 2008 has flowed seamlessly into 2009. Everything got done and I kept being confused about it. Gifts were purchased; letters and packages got mailed. I kept wondering what I was doing wrong, what I had forgotten. But it wasn't that. It was that for once the end of the year didn't pile up on me.

On the minus side, it means the new year doesn't feel new, just a continuation of what had been happening before. But on the very positive side, I feel rested and ready for what is to come, and very aware that I have no idea of what that might be. I don't feel I need to recover from Christmas, and that is a wonderful thing to have. I hope you have been able to have that as well and, if not, I pray for a speedy recovery from the avalanche that is the end of the year.

All best wishes to you and those you love for 2009.

A last glance at Christmas

Enjoy this fabulous nativity scene, one of the best presents I got this year. Behind it, you will find a jinglebell knuckleduster, which I'm sure will come in very handy. Get out your drum for day 12, and merry Christmas!

 

It's Christmas!

I would just like to point out that it is still Christmas, and I hope you are enjoying it! My resolution is to sing at least one more Christmas carol before the end of the Christmas season. I'm thinking "Angels We Have Heard on High."

I can't diet yet

 

i made a crazy impulse buy of this thingamajigger that allows you to make checkerboard cakes! And here it is! A little angle-y, but still...a veritable checkerboard. I'm mighty pleased.