Counting down...

Michael Long, in the National Review, has written a series of columns this week on the top 5 "conservative" rock songs of all time. Interesting list. I won't play spoiler...take a look for yourselves.

Here they are: #5, #4, #3, #2 and #1.

Suggestions for summer reading

These look to be books worth looking into by Justin Mitcham. They both look intriguing:

The Sweet Everlasting
Sabbath Creek

I think I'll re-read Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird once more this summer, or C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters. Hmmm...gives me an idea.

What is on everyone's summer reading list, if anything? I plan on continuing with the Loyola Classics series that I've been digging into. Next up is Helena, by Evelyn Waugh.

A partial list, just for fun:

Parnassus On Wheels, by Christopher Morley
The Haunted Bookshop, by Christopher Morley (sequel to above)
The Wonder Clock, by Howard Pyle
Travels With Charley: In Search of America, by John Steinbeck
Leisure: The Basis of Culture, by Josef Pieper
The Pianist, by Wladyslaw Szpilman
Gates of Fire: The Battle of Thermopylae, by Steven Pressfiel
Everything That Rises Must Converge, by Flannery O'Connor
Christ In Dachau, by John M. Lenz
Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig, by Johathan Eig

What's on your shelf for the summer? I'd love to know.

Why I love reading...

Every age has its own outlook. It is especially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds... by reading old books. -- C.S. Lewis from the Introduction: St. Athanasius' On the Incarnation

Requiescat in pace

According to this report the man killed in this watercraft accident on Lake Travis near Austin yesterday was Fr. Todd Reitmeyer, longtime blogger, priest of the Diocese of Sioux Falls. It is heartbreaking to read his latest blog entries as he prepared for and began his vacation with his family in Texas. As this January post from his archives suggests, he had been thinking about preparations for death for awhile. Dealing as he did as a priest with funerals and seeing how a lack of preparation could cause family infighting, he had begun a list of things to take care of in advance to help you avoid leaving your family in that situation. It's worth considering.

Requiescat in pace, Father Todd.

Hat tip: Amy

Teaching Johnny About Islam

Holy crap...enough already. Just give California back to Mexico or Spain or whomever, and let them fight it out with the Muslims...unbelievable.

 

From Investor's Business Daily:

 

Education: In our brave new schools, Johnny can't say the pledge, but he can recite the Quran. Yup, the same court that found the phrase "under God" unconstitutional now endorses Islamic catechism in public school.

In a recent federal decision that got surprisingly little press, even from conservative talk radio, California's 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled it's OK to put public-school kids through Muslim role-playing exercises, including:

Reciting aloud Muslim prayers that begin with "In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful . . . ."

Memorizing the Muslim profession of faith: "Allah is the only true God and Muhammad is his messenger."

Chanting "Praise be to Allah" in response to teacher prompts.

Professing as "true" the Muslim belief that "The Holy Quran is God's word."

Giving up candy and TV to demonstrate Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.

Designing prayer rugs, taking an Arabic name and essentially "becoming a Muslim" for two full weeks.

Parents of seventh-graders, who after 9-11 were taught the pro-Islamic lessons as part of California's world history curriculum, sued under the First Amendment ban on religious establishment. They argued, reasonably, that the government was promoting Islam.

But a federal judge appointed by President Clinton told them in so many words to get over it, that the state was merely teaching kids about another "culture."

So the parents appealed. Unfortunately, the most left-wing court in the land got their case. The 9th Circuit, which previously ruled in favor of an atheist who filed suit against the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, upheld the lower court ruling.

The decision is a major victory for the multiculturalists and Islamic apologists in California and across the country who've never met a culture or religion they didn't like — with the exception of Western civilization and Christianity. They are legally in the clear to indoctrinate kids into the "peaceful" and "tolerant" religion of Islam, while continuing to denigrate Judeo-Christian values.

In the California course on world religions, Christianity is not presented equally. It's covered in just two days and doesn't involve kids in any role-playing activities. But kids do get a good dose of skepticism about the Christian faith, including a biting history of its persecution of other peoples. In contrast, Islam gets a pass from critical review. Even jihad is presented as an "internal personal struggle to do one's best to resist temptation," and not holy war.

The ed consultant's name is Susan L. Douglass. No, she's not a Christian scholar. She's a devout Muslim activist on the Saudi government payroll, according to an investigation by Paul Sperry, author of "Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have Penetrated Washington." He found that for years Douglass taught social studies at the Islamic Saudi Academy just outside Washington, D.C. Her husband still teaches there.

So what? By infiltrating our public school system, the Saudis hope to make Islam more widely accepted while converting impressionable American youth to their radical cause. Recall that John Walker Lindh, the "American Taliban," was a product of the California school system. What's next, field trips to Mecca?

This case is critical not just to our culture but our national security. It should be brought before the Supreme Court, which has outlawed prayer in school. Let's see what it says about practicing Islam in class. It will be a good test for the bench's two new conservative justices.

Two Horses

Just up the road from my home is a field, with two horses in it. From a distance, each looks like every other horse. But if you stop your car, or are walking by, you will notice something quite amazing.

Looking into the eyes of one horse will disclose that he is blind. His owner has chosen not to have him put down, but has made a good home for him. This alone is amazing.

If nearby and listening, you will hear the sound of a bell. Looking around for the source of the sound, you will see that it comes from the smaller horse in the field. Attached to her halter is a small bell. It lets her blind friend know where she is, so he can follow her.

As you stand and watch these two friends, you'll see how she is always checking on him, and that he will listen for her bell and then slowly walk to where she is, trusting that she will not lead him astray.

When she returns to the shelter of the barn each evening, she stops occasionally and looks back, making sure her friend isn't too far behind to hear the bell.

Like the owners of these two horses, God does not throw us away just because we are not perfect or because we have problems or challenges. He watches over us and even brings others into our lives to help us when we are in need.

Sometimes we are the blind horse being guided by the little ringing bell of those who God places in our lives. Other times we are the guide horse, helping others see.

Good friends are like this. You don't always see them, but you know they are always there.

Please listen for my bell and I'll listen for yours.

Time to stay home and rent a movie instead

Initial reviews of The DaVinci Code are mixed-to-disappointing. Disney announces that Prince Caspian, the Narnia sequel has been pushed back from late 2007 to May of 2008, and Universal Studios has purchased the movie rights to show us the horror that was Beslan. No thank you...that is one movie I will NOT be seeing. Watching the news unfold and reading the accounts of that awful tragedy has scarred me enough, thank you.

 

The most disappointing part of this whole DaVinci madness is not just that sheeple are buying into the load o'crap that is Dan Brown and his fiction, but that Tom Hanks, Ron Howard, and even Ian McKellen (et tu, Gandalf?) have used the occassion to take shots at Christians and Christianity as a whole.

 

Matt Lauer on Today interviewing Opie and Ian:

"There have been calls from some religious groups, they wanted a disclaimer at the beginning of this movie saying it is fiction because one of the themes in the book really knocks Christianity right on its ear, if Christ survived the crucifixion, he did not die for our sins and therefore was not resurrected. What I'm saying is, people wanted this to say 'fiction, fiction, fiction'. How would you all have felt if there was a disclaimer at the beginning of the movie? Would it have been okay with you?"

There was a pause, and then famed British actor Ian McKellen [Gandalf of Lord of the Rings], piped up:

"Well, I've often thought the Bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying this is fiction. I mean, walking on water, it takes an act of faith. And I have faith in this movie. Not that it's true, not that it's factual, but that it's a jolly good story. And I think audiences are clever enough and bright enough to separate out fact and fiction, and discuss the thing after they've seen it."

And finally, we have the following response from the press office of the Opus Dei Prelature sent to ZENIT to the derisive comments that were uttered by Ron Howard:

On Thursday the Italian press published interviews with Ron Howard, director of "The Da Vinci Code" film. In statements attributed to him, Howard said that "to deny the right to see the film is a fascist act," and also "to tell someone not to go see the film is an act of militancy and militancy generates hatred and violence." The Opus Dei is mentioned several times in these interviews. The phrases seem to refer to recent statements by Church authorities.

I would ask Ron Howard to keep calm and express himself with respect.

It is not wise to lose sight of the reality of the situation: This film is offensive to Christians. Howard represents the aggressor, and Catholics are victims of an offense. The one offended cannot have his last right taken away, which is to express his point of view. It is not the statements of ecclesiastics or the respectful request of Opus Dei -- to include a notice at the beginning of the film that it is a work of fiction -- which generates violence. It is rather the odious, false and unjust portrayals that fuel hatred.

In his statements, Howard also repeats that it is simply a film, an invented story, and that it must not be taken too seriously. But it is not possible to deny the importance of the movies and literature. Fiction influences our way of seeing the world, especially among young people. It is not right not to take it seriously. Artistic creativity certainly needs a climate of freedom, but freedom cannot be separated from responsibility.

Some have praised Howard's "brass" in having the courage to take on Christians with this movie. I demure. If Opie TRULY had the courage they attribute to him to take on "militancy and violence" he would be making a movie taking on Islam, or the murder of movie-maker Theo Van Gogh in the Netherlands a few years ago. You can bet that if a Christian had murdered a filmaker we'd never hear the end of it. But a Muslim stabbing to death a filmaker critical of Islam on the open street? Nary a yawn from Tinseltown.

The Haunted Bookshop

"The life of a bookseller is very demoralizing to the intellect... He is surrounded by innumerable books; he cannot possibly read them all. He dips into one and picks up a scrap from another. His mind gradually fills itself with miscellaneous flotsam, with superficial opinions, with a thousand half knowledges. Almost unconciously he begins to rate literature according to what people ask for... That way lies intellectual suicide."

Christopher Morley, The Haunted Bookshop p 25

God's Bouquet

The following was on each table at the St. Elizabeth's Hospital Employee Banquet at The Cornhusker Hotel last week. I thought it worth passing along.

God's Bouquet
You must bloom where you are planted
In the garden we call life,
And bring some special beauty to
Each corner where there's strife.

Perhaps you're but a dandelion,
Wishing you were a rose,
Yet in this place of growing things,
You're the one God chose.

It's up to you to finish what
The Good Lord has begun,
By growing just the way you should
And face the rising sun.

There's room for you, if you but choose,
In a glorious array
Of beauty from God's garden, that
He'll add to His bouquet.

--Sister Mariam Barker, C.D.S.

Give to the Lord the glory due His name... -- 1 Chr. 16:29

The Lost Leader

Just for a handful of silver he left us,
Just for a riband to stick in his coat--
Found the one gift of which fortune bereft us,
Lost all the others she lets us devote;
They, with the gold to give, doled him out silver,
So much was theirs who so little allowed:
How all our copper had gone for his service!
Rags--were they purple, his heart had been proud!
We that had loved him so, followed him, honoured him,
Lived in his mild and magnificent eye,
Learned his great language, caught his clear accents,
Made him our pattern to live and to die!
Shakespeare was of us, Milton was for us,
Burns, Shelley, were with us,--they watch from their graves!
He alone breaks from the van and the free-men,
--He alone sinks to the rear and the slaves!

We shall march prospering,--not thro' his presence;
Songs may inspirit us,--not from his lyre;
Deeds will be done,--while he boasts his quiescence,
Still bidding crouch whom the rest bade aspire:
Blot out his name, then, record one lost soul more,
One task more declined, one more foot-path untrod,
One more devils'-triumph and sorrow for angels,
One wrong more to man, one more insult to God!
Life's night begins: let him never come back to us!
There would be doubt, hesitation and pain,
Forced praise on our part--the glimmer of twilight,
Never glad confident morning again!
Best fight on well, for we taught him--strike gallantly,
Menace our heart ere we master his own;
Then let him receive the new knowledge and wait us,
Pardoned in heaven, the first by the throne!

-- Robert Browning

Knowledge and Context

On one hand, we are a society that whines and cries about the most ridiculous and inane, while ignoring completely the plight of those subjected to brutality and horror on a scale we can't begin to fathom.

 

Ben Stein recently wrote in a column about a discussion he had with a psychologist about what he (the shrink) would say to college graduates about how to succeed in life. Here are his first three:

First, he said, materialism has become more powerful than it has ever been in his life. The worship of money and the things money can buy is more acute, more unchallenged, than it ever has been. This is a trap, because almost no one can ever have enough. There will always be someone with more. And most of all, the occupations that lead to serious wealth are not well suited to most temperaments. Trying to jam yourself into that round hole will do you more harm than good if you are square dowel.

Second, almost no one today knows anything about history. No one has context. But life without historical context is shallow and unsatisfactory. If you don't know how mankind suffered in World War II, if you don't know how your fellow Jews or Slavs suffered in the Holocaust, if you do not know what Communism did to fifty million good people, you cannot possibly know how blessed your life in the United States of America is in 2006. If you do not know how much your grandparents had to work to get you where you are, you cannot know how precious that car your parents gave you is, or how lucky it is that you can study without having to work at a part-time job. If you do not know how your fellow African Americans were treated in rural 1920s Mississippi, you cannot know how lucky you are to live in an America that has the opportunities this nation now affords men and women of every race.

Knowledge of history is context and context is everything.

Third, treating people with kindness and respect is almost an antiquity. You hardly ever encounter it any longer. But it yields great results in terms of what it does for you, and it is not a sign of weakness to be kind. It is a sign of strength. Plus, it is its own reward.

{Emphasis mine.}

 

The historical context is one that is increasingly important to me as I grow older. Because I have a college degree in History, and because I have witnessed in my own short lifetime the increasing ignorance and even disdain for it, often by those "teachers" charged with molding our own children. From Christians ignoring completely the writings of the early Church Fathers, to citizens and their politicians discounting their own pasts, we all lose our context and hence the lessons to be learned from those who came before us.

 

Stein closes his article by recounting an encounter he had after going over this list with his friend:

I walked out to my car and passed by a statuesque, attractive, not young woman who had been heavily worked on, plastic surgery wise. She told me she had written a book. She gave me a postcard ad for it. The ad said (and I am not making this or any other part of this story up), "My parents went through the Holocaust and all I got was this lousy T-shirt." As far as I can tell, the book is about how badly the Holocaust affected her exercise, sex, and eating habits. She drove off in an eighty thousand dollar car.

How often, I wonder, does she get on her knees to thank the GI infantrymen of the Huertgen Forest or Bastogne? I think I know.

Which brings me to something I would have added to this list on how to succeed: Get on your knees often. Be thankful. Be prayerful. Be grateful that you live in a country that affords you opportunity if you only apply yourself. Be thankful your children are not stolen from you in the night.

 

Be thankful you can make an ass of yourself by entertaining the thought of initiating the most frivolous of lawsuits. And then have the intelligence to not engage in them.

Angels Among Us

From an article in our local paper today:

It was a small story, really. A simple story. It was a story about 7-year-old Joel Enriquez, a second-grader at Sacred Heart Catholic School, who made a balloon-powered valentine to send to his mother in heaven.

But as Joel and his classmates gave the valentine a special sendoff, the wind blew and the balloons’ red, white and pink ribbons snagged the upper branches of a big barren tree — too far up for Joel and his teachers to reach, not far enough to reach Maria Enriquez in heaven.

That’s when Capt. Joe Millard and his crew from Fire Station 7 stepped in. On Feb. 16, a snowy and bitterly cold morning, they brought their ladder truck and climbed 45 feet to free the valentine.

Because the balloons had lost their helium, new balloons were attached, and this time Joel’s valentine bounced, bobbed and weaved its way up beyond the clouds.

That story, published in the Journal Star Feb. 17, made its way across the continent. Newspapers in Los Angeles, Dallas, Tallahassee, Fla., Massachusetts and Windsor, Ontario, reprinted the article.

Columnists recounted it as a reminder of what is good in a world filled with war and worries. A Dallas writer used it to remind Latinas to get checked for cancer, the disease that took Maria Enriquez in October 2005.

Be sure to read the original story from Feb. 17th as well. There is simply not enough coverage of stories like this in the news today. War, man's inhumanity to man, shock and titillation, and the callous partisanship of politics rule the day. But now and then a story like this shines through the fog of those things and reminds us of the better qualities inside us all.

Random Ramblings from me :)

Random Thoughts from Monday night

 

A cup of wine, under the flowering trees;

I drink alone, for no friend is near.

Raising my cup I beckon the bright moon,

For he, with my shadow, will make three men.

n      Chinese poet Li Po (701-762)

 

I’ve enjoyed having a glass of Maker’s Mark on the rocks before bed lately. While sitting outside sipping my drink this summer I will keep the above in mind. It’s certainly more poetic than the following by Crow T. Robot during an old episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000:

 

Life getting you down?

Headache pain?

Try booze.

 

See what I mean? Just doesn’t flow as nicely. <smile>

 

I watched the final episode of “Seventh Heaven” tonight. I used to watch it every week for it’s first six or seven seasons, but stopped watching around the time Matt and Sarah got married. It was a really good show, and ended up lasting ten years and 221 episodes. Tonight’s episode was not all that great, but I haven’t watched in a few years so perhaps it was limping towards the finish line for awhile, and needed to get off the air before they “jumped the shark.” But it was neat seeing how the kids you watched every Monday have grown up, and the flashbacks were heartwarming. The fadeout to Roy Orbison’s “You Got It” was a nice touch, too.

 

While watching this finale, I saw a promo for a new movie starring Sondra Bullock and Keaunu Reeves called The Lake House. It looks like a weeper, opening June 16. Also a nice counterpart to Over The Hedge which I’ve been looking forward to since first seeing the previews last year.

 

I recently finished my first Hemingway novel, A Farewell To Arms. While it was a good book to be sure, the story of Frederick and Catherine in Italy during World War I is likely one that I won’t fully appreciate for some time. Perhaps that’s where Hemingway’s greatness lies…it has to soak into you so that you fully absorb it after some time passes.

 

I am currently reading Mr. Blue, a book in the recently reissued Loyola Classics series. A short novel at 115 pages, Mr. Blue was written by Myles Connolly in 1928 as a modern-day story of a St. Francis of Assisi character. Connolly was a huge fan of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s work, specifically The Great Gatsby. J. Blue is an “anti-Gatsby” in a way, a peek at what would have become of Jay Gatsby if he had not been so intent upon affluence and the wooing of Daisy, but had used his money and his life to achieving a more selfless end. I am also beginning a book of collected poems of Robert Browning (1812-1889), whom I have never read, but have always wished to do so. I would have picked up my book of Yeats poetry, but it is for the moment sealed inside a bookcase downstairs, shielded from the dust generated by all of the basement remodeling by a plastic sheet taped over the shelves.

 

We visited the first weekend of the Farmer’s Market in the Haymarket here in Lincoln on Saturday. My main reason for going was to reconnect with an old friend from high school, Becki, who I called out of the blue two weeks ago to finally do some catching up. Becks has retired from teaching after seventeen years and has founded her own salsa company, Moody Girl Salsa, and was in a stand at the Market on this day. She’s in several stores in the Lincoln/Omaha area, but if you wish to sample a jar or two, you can also visit her website and order some for yourself. I highly recommend it, as while I love salsa, I am picky about it, and the two jars we bought on Saturday morning are already history, so a reorder (and soon) is on tap for this week. Do yourself a favor and pick up a few jars for the summer.

 

While at the Market one encounters many people with their dogs on a leash. I paused to chat with and kneel down to pet two of the dogs because they so closely resembled Fenway. It was the first time I had petted another animal since that final Saturday morning at the vet, and I can’t believe just how much I’ve missed that. Damn but I miss my dog.

 

Serendipitous moment of that morning: A man stopped in front of me and pointed at the Red Sox jersey I was wearing and said, “I was at Fenway Park on Tuesday night.” I replied, “The rainout with the Yankees?” “Yes,” he said. And we both looked at each other and heaved a collective heavy sigh while continuing to walk in opposite directions. Nothing else need be said. Fenway has sold out over 270 straight games. This man finally got to a game, traveling from Nebraska to watch the hated Yanks…and it rains. Pathos personified, being a Sox fan.

 

Eric Genuis is a man I’ve gotten to know over the years who is a classically trained composer and pianist, recording several CDs. He tours with former St. John’s parishioner Dave Barry as Radix, and we’ve seen their performance of The Passion for several Palm Sundays when they return to Lincoln. Eric and I have spoken about the loss of children as he and his wife have lost 5 to miscarriage/infant death, while four children have survived. While we lost one to miscarriage some of his talks and his music have helped to heal that hole. Eric’s latest CD that is receiving a lot of play in my stereo is one he recorded in Europe with the Slovak National Symphony last year. It’s a beautiful piece of work, and in this year in which we celebrate Mozart’s 250^th birthday, one that helps to remind us of the simple beauty that we can find in everything, if we but slow down and take the time to appreciate it. Eric’s mission is to help people discover the world’s inherent beauty, and with this CD has gone far in doing just that. A nice tonic to the mass-marketing and intrusive media that pervades our lives. The deeper one enters into Mozart…into beauty…the more one seeks to find there. In short, the more one allows it to penetrate the soul, then the more it is felt as transcendent, sublime, and consummately beautiful.

 

Sorry to have rambled so much, y’all. I haven’t had time to catch up as much as I’d like to as I finished one five-month long project only to transition right into another that may be keeping me busy until January ’07. We had equipment pick-up the other night, and it won’t be long before I begin calling the kids to organize our first baseball practices for Nolan’s team this summer. Currently we’re halfway through soccer season and doing well. We had planned on going to Kansas City the week of Memorial Day, but I got called to jury duty and Nolan will be taking his turn as altar server at morning masses that week, so we’ll just stay home and hopefully enjoy some nice spring weather.

 

I’ll leave you romantics with the following, and hope to catch up again (in a shorter form) with you soon!

 

 

Meeting At Night

The gray sea and the long black land;

And the yellow half-moon large and low;

And the startled little waves that leap

In fiery ringlets from their sleep,

As I gain the cove with pushing prow,

And quench its speed i’ the slushy sand.

 

Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach;

Three fields to cross till a farm appears;

A tap at the pane, the quick sharp scratch

And blue spurt of a lighted match,

And a voice less loud, through its joys and fears,

Than the two hearts beating each to each!

 

n      Robert Browning