Once the killing starts, deaths mount. The fringes, especially terrorists on the right, have started in places like Toronto. Let’s stop, think about it, and not do it. None of us are perfect, none of us expresses divine love as we should, all of us need the mercy of God. Let’s have mercy as we hope to have mercy. Revenge is sweet until the deaths mount. America had one Civil War and the deaths went on and on until finally... Read more
“No.” This is a powerful statement, particularly when said to what everyone is doing or at least to most people who matter most. Marketing hates “no,” because “no” means no sale. Christina Rossetti was born in an age where “no” was a necessity. Judas had always sold Jesus for cash, but now Judas was a corporation selling Jesus for big money. The devils and the devilish in us always peddle “cool” over beauty, because “cool” can get us to beclown... Read more
Athena, You came into our lives in a small way and then grew in importance. Early on we loved you, because you were beautiful. A human is designed to see beauty, you were, and so we loved you. It did not hurt that you demanded little and gave so much. You returned affection and our veneration, dear Athena, with warmth. We did not know then, what we know now, that you would protect us from the vermin that fill our... Read more
Imagine reading a great work and deciding you are a hero. This will not go well. John Wilkes Booth played Mark Antony in Julius Caeser. Antony gets the best speech defending the murdered Caesar against the assassin: Brutus. Booth killed a man he thought a tyrant, our greatest President: Abraham Lincoln. He shot the Emancipator in the back of the head and leapt to the stage and shouted his practiced line: Sic semper tyrannis. Booth broke his leg and was left... Read more
Most of us are just good enough to be John Wilkes Booth, but a few are good enough to be Brutus. That man is dangerous to liberty, because he has a soul noble enough to love his country, freedom, and the glories of the past, but not great enough to face the trouble of his day openly. Christianity has no place for the conspirator. God help us, but many of us Tweet like Patrick Henry, but act like Judas. We... Read more
Barbara Bush was (so far as I can tell) a very good wife, mother, grandmother, and friend. She was not (mostly) a power in politics. In so far as she was political, her instincts were a mixture of good and bad. Her main focus was on literacy and there may be someone out there opposed to literacy, but they certainly are not Christian. We are people of a Book! There is a good custom that we honor the dead for... Read more
As a writer, Philip Glass is a great composer. I will try to defend this slight momentarily, but first let me glory in a splendid music of Philip Glass leaving aside the words that go with some of his music. We were lucky enough to hear the Pacific Chorale and Orchestra sing and play The Passion of Ramakrishna at Carnegie Hall, a work the Chorale and Orchastra commissioned years ago on the West coast. The forty-five minutes of this piece could... Read more
This is not about the President, but about what I saw and heard when part of my family visited Trump Tower.* We are a family of political junkies and never miss the chance to go to a political library or home of a President (even Nixon) when we can. If you visit from childhood (thanks to like minded parents), then you see and hear a good bit. Nothing is better than being a youngling and meeting a guide who knows... Read more
The Agony of the Delayed Flight I think the person in despair, because of our delayed flight, ranting, and careening, attempting to do something, was wasting his life. He would “scratch his way” to the front and so he did. What to do instead? Let’s glory in the Union, fight hard for our beliefs, relax a bit as well, and be thankful. Perhaps, we should thank God as well for living in a good time. We can let the fear... Read more
Last week we ate some feast food, literally (lamb!) and spiritually. The Holy Week and Paschal services are intense, hard, and full of wonder. Today I got some plain cooking: pinto beans and cornbread. It was right good. On a trip to California this week, a hardworking man asked if I was a Christian. I am and told him so. He began to share about his life and what Jesus had done for him. He was a bit older than... Read more
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