Promise...again

OK, I spent about an hour writing a post about Advent. It was, I must say, well worth reading.

But something went wrong and it didn't post.

I promise you to try to recreate it tomorrow, but I can't tonight because I'm so disappointed, confused and pissed that it went wrong.

Did I ever tell you I HATE THE INTERNET?

Even as I use it, I hate it. I haven't added it up yet, but I think there is more wrong than right about the whole thing....

Maybe I'll write a post about that and find that somehow it got screwed up.....

A Promise

advent

Today is the first day of the Christian year--the first Sunday of Advent.

I went to St. Peter's today--my parish church. A very good service...the music is excellent, the preaching is above good. Since Advent is my favorite season of the year, that's important to me to have music and preaching. The sacrament...well, it just happens however it happens.

I'm up too late and will write more tomorrow about Advent.

I plan to deal with the whole Winter Solstice thing and the images of Advent and my own metaphor for the season.

Tune in tomorrow after I get some rest.

Comfort Food

Every Thanksgiving Bern gives people who come to dinner little presents. This year she got most of it at the Consignment Shop, I think. Mine was great--the Velveeta Cookbook!

I'm not sure Bern has ever tasted Velveeta, having grown up in an ethnic family. But in my childhood, Velveeta qualified as a food group....

I read through the book thinking it must be from the 1950's but when I checked, it was published in 2001! People must still eat Velveeta somewhere.

Each and every recipe began with "Cut a pound of Velveeta into cubes...." A pound of it! Amazing!

My favorite recipe used, you guessed it, a pound of Velveeta. But it began with a pound of chicken breasts cut into strips ("cut the chicken while partially frozen and then return to the refrigerator to completely thawed....) This recipe also includes broccoli--frozen Broccoli but broccoli none the less. Sounds like a promisingly healthy recipe, right? But get this, you saute the chicken in a cup of Miracle Whip! Really, I wouldn't make this up.

Sauteed in Miracle Whip you add the frozen broccoli and cover to cook the broccoli. Then you add the cubes of Velveeta and stir until it melts. Serve the whole thing over egg noodles.

And that is the most healthy recipe in the whole book.

I'm trying to invent a recipe that combines Velveeta and sausage gravy over biscuits with home fries or grits on the side. That's comfort food with a capital COMFORT.

fallacy of the undetermined result....

The three granddaughters are here along with Cathy, their mom. Josh is coming in on the 10:30 p.m. train from baltimore. Tomorrow Mimi and Tim arrive. The brood returning to the nest. O, Lord, I love Thanksgiving....

The plan, to avoid the great traffic problems, was for Josh and Cathy and the girls and the dog to come up today. But Josh had to work (lawyer stuff--who can comprehend such things? So Cathy was coming anyway with the dog and three girls (2 are 4 and one is, well, one). I thought that was crazy. I had all sorts of nightmares about scenario's on the New Jersey Turnpike, for example, of barfing dog, screaming baby, out of control twins and Cathy alone in some kind of Honda van with all that driving 75.

So I went down on the train yesterday to ride back to CT with them.

And here's the truth. The ride we had--dog, girls, the whole thing--Cathy could have done that alone, I must admit.

That's where the fallacy of the undetermined result comes in.

The Fallacy of the Undetermined Result make immediate sense in sporting events.

A runner is on first and the next batter hits into a double play. The next batter after that hits a home run and we think, "if that guy hadn't hit into a double play it would have been a three run home run."

Well, no. Everything would have been different if what happened hadn't happened.

Life is a series of accidents that are meaningful but not determinative. What 'didn't happen' doesn't determine 'what happens next'. What Happened contributes to what Happens Next.

So, the guy didn't hit into a double play but walked. First and second, no one out. The pitcher bears down and strikes out the guy who (in reality) hit the home run because everything is different because the player didn't hit into a double play. Think about it: "If we'd left a hour earlier we would have missed the traffic jam that backed us up for 90 minutes...."

Well, if you'd left an hour sooner, that tractor trailer might have crashed into you at exit 7 and you'd be dead.

The Fallacy of the undetermined result is a valuable thing to ponder.

What it eliminates, if you ponder hard enough, is all 'regret'. If you hadn't done the thing you 'regret' you imagine things would have turned out all different and all right. But, here's the Fallacy to that, if you hadn't done the thing you 'regret' something all together, never anticipated and totally different than what you imagine would have happened.

I want to write more about this but I've been in a car for 5 hours with 3 kids and in a house with 3 kids, two dogs and two women for 5 more hours. I can't cope.

AND, if that all hadn't happened, what I'd be doing now would be so enormously different from what I'm doing now that the "Fallacy of the Undetermined Result" must be true and needs to be pondered and pondered deeply.

Find a Castor Oil Tree and Ponder. OK?

full moon

The moon is full and surrounded by fog.

I walked my dog a bit ago and he seemed hyper-alert, moving his head, stopping to stare, suddenly changing direction.

The full moon in Cheshire is one thing--in Waterbury it was another.

We could tell for several days that the moon was coming full. Folks who were on the edge were even edgier. Folks over the edge were outright lunatics.

Working in a city church convinced me forever and without a doubt that it isn't just the tides the moon pulls. It pulls emotions too, and mightily.

I actually miss the craziness of full moon at St. John's.

Now only my dog and me are looney....

good Sunday

I've gotten over my upset about the Anglican Covenant until the next time it comes up!

I went to Northford today to do church. It's a great little congregation, part of the Middlesex Cluster. There was a baptism. I love baptisms.

Afterwards someone said, "I liked how you told us what you were doing as you went along...."

I honestly didn't remember doing that but as I think back it was a kind of 'instructed baptism'.

The little girl was Emma, same name as one of my granddaughters, so I loved her already.

There was a need organist and we did "Amazing Grace" and "Shall we gather by the River". Couldn't get better than that.

There were 43 people there--looking back in the service book, that was a big crowd.

I worry about the church. Little churches like this are on the edge financially, even with the Cluster to hold them together. Actually, churches a tier or two higher than St. Andrew's are in trouble. I have a friend who is retiring because his parish wants a half-time priest.

Pray for the church.