So, I decided to send Christmas cards to some of my first cousins. I wrote them a letter and copied it and stuffed the envelopes yesterday.
Today I went to the Cheshire post office and the line is out the door with only two Postal Workers dealing with it. So I went to Stop and Shop because I know they have stamps at checkout.
After buying $32 worth of stuff and taking it to my car, I start the engine and realize why I went to Stop and Shop was for stamps.
I have to go back and get them.
What a dope. And not, as you know, for the first time.
(It just occurred to me that I may be publishing my growing dementia...not a good thing in any sense....)
Monday, December 28, 2015
Sunday, December 27, 2015
The third day of Christmas
What is it three French hens?
One of the things that makes me glad I am an Episcopalian (as hum-drum as being that is) is that we really realize Christmas is a 'season' and not a day.
There are twelve days to the Christmas season and then comes Epiphany.
One of the things I talk about in my class "Reading the Gospels side by side" is how there are two Christmas stories we conflate into one. Luke is Mary's story: Gabriel and Elizabeth and the shepherds and angels and stable and all.
Matthew's story is Joseph's story: dream to marry Mary even though she's pregnant, the Magi, dream to go to Egypt, dream to come back.
Epiphany is the coming of the Magi. And if we can be certain about the timing, they saw the star on Christmas night and it took them two years to find the baby. So, the wise men aren't at the creche as we always show them.
When I was Rector of St. John's, we'd put the Magi in the window farthest from the creche on Christmas Eve and move them from window to window until the feast of the Epiphany on January 6.
That still didn't make sense, since they didn't come to the creche but to the home of Mary and Joseph--but, heck, it's the season of Christmas, why be pedantic?
But I have the addresses of some of my first cousins and I'm sending them Christmas cards in the next day or so (since it's still Christmas) with letters. Seeing 6 of them at my Aunt Elsie's funeral--and my son, Josh's, retort that I should 'keep up with family'--made me do it.
Mejol and I are fine. I'd like to reach out to some of the others as well.
Since it's still Christmas and will be for 9 more days.
God, being an Anglican is the best!!!
One of the things that makes me glad I am an Episcopalian (as hum-drum as being that is) is that we really realize Christmas is a 'season' and not a day.
There are twelve days to the Christmas season and then comes Epiphany.
One of the things I talk about in my class "Reading the Gospels side by side" is how there are two Christmas stories we conflate into one. Luke is Mary's story: Gabriel and Elizabeth and the shepherds and angels and stable and all.
Matthew's story is Joseph's story: dream to marry Mary even though she's pregnant, the Magi, dream to go to Egypt, dream to come back.
Epiphany is the coming of the Magi. And if we can be certain about the timing, they saw the star on Christmas night and it took them two years to find the baby. So, the wise men aren't at the creche as we always show them.
When I was Rector of St. John's, we'd put the Magi in the window farthest from the creche on Christmas Eve and move them from window to window until the feast of the Epiphany on January 6.
That still didn't make sense, since they didn't come to the creche but to the home of Mary and Joseph--but, heck, it's the season of Christmas, why be pedantic?
But I have the addresses of some of my first cousins and I'm sending them Christmas cards in the next day or so (since it's still Christmas) with letters. Seeing 6 of them at my Aunt Elsie's funeral--and my son, Josh's, retort that I should 'keep up with family'--made me do it.
Mejol and I are fine. I'd like to reach out to some of the others as well.
Since it's still Christmas and will be for 9 more days.
God, being an Anglican is the best!!!
Saturday, December 26, 2015
One good thing
One good thing about this computer I have so many complaints about--I somehow told it to use my photos for screen savers until it goes completely to sleep.
The first one is always of Mimi in Sidney, Australia, gesturing with you to the bridge and opera house from a field across the water. Then they are random. I must say, I probably stopped taking pictures 8 or 9 years ago--so the ones I can sit mesmerized and watch are from back then.
The twins as babies.
Our dog, Sadie, with Josh and Cathy's dog, Sumi--both dogs RIP.
Baby Bela in the back yard.
Shots of Block Island...Bern and Sadie and me and the water and the land.
Pictures of plants.
Mimi, Josh, Cathy and Bern (a little before Tim was a staple....)
Animals--pets--galore.
Memories.
Sometimes the fact that my computer turns off much sooner than it should is mitigated by 10 minutes or so of watching pictures of the past.
That's one good thing. Memories....
The first one is always of Mimi in Sidney, Australia, gesturing with you to the bridge and opera house from a field across the water. Then they are random. I must say, I probably stopped taking pictures 8 or 9 years ago--so the ones I can sit mesmerized and watch are from back then.
The twins as babies.
Our dog, Sadie, with Josh and Cathy's dog, Sumi--both dogs RIP.
Baby Bela in the back yard.
Shots of Block Island...Bern and Sadie and me and the water and the land.
Pictures of plants.
Mimi, Josh, Cathy and Bern (a little before Tim was a staple....)
Animals--pets--galore.
Memories.
Sometimes the fact that my computer turns off much sooner than it should is mitigated by 10 minutes or so of watching pictures of the past.
That's one good thing. Memories....
Well worth the search...
I'd been wanting to see "Spotlight" since it came out--then "Star Wars" came out (which I saw--wonderful and more like the first movie than any others) and the big cinemas suddenly devoted a dozen screens to it and it disappeared to the smaller theaters.
I finally caught up with it today after being too late for a show in Middletown and not being able to find a theater I thought I knew in Plainville. I saw it at the Cinema 1/4 on Rt 17 in New Haven. Cinema 1/4 is really low budget--nothing like the Cinema Infinities round and about. Only 4 screens playing movies (except for 'Joy') that slipped down to the second tier of cinemas. I went to the early show and they don't start popping the pop corn until people start coming in. They actually 'pop the popcorn' instead of bringing it in in huge plastic bags! The seats don't rock or recline and feel like my desk chair. The previews are for the other three films they are showing. You can hear the muffled sounds of the theater next door through the wall. The bathrooms are a horror! But they had "Spotlight" and I was there for the 11:50 a.m. show. There were 30 people or so for the four films and I may have been the youngest person there! Several walkers and lots of canes....
"Spotlight", if you don't know, is a movie about the Boston Globe's expose' about the abuse of children in the archdiocese of Boston by well over 100 Roman Priests that had intentionally and systematically covered up by the hierarchy of the church, including Cardinal Law. All this happened in the first couple of years of this century and the work was interrupted for months to let the 'spotlight' team of four reports and an editor work on 9/11 stories.
But it all came out. The Globe eventually did 600 articles about the abuse. Cardinal Law resigned. The heavily Roman Catholic population of the Boston area were stunned and horrified. It had been a cover-up of Watergate proportions--but it wasn't burglary but the sexual abuse of over 1000 children that had been hidden.
I love a good newspaper movie and this one goes beyond 'good' to 'great'.
The show, it's director, the screen writers and at least three of the actors--Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keyton and Rachael McAdams should get Oscar attention. It's that good. Really.
Find a way to see it when you can.
It is profoundly troubling but shows the positive side of the media we all seem to criticize--what journalism can do for 'the good'--in a remarkable way. It makes you proud to live in a nation where freedom of the press is part of 'who we are'....
I finally caught up with it today after being too late for a show in Middletown and not being able to find a theater I thought I knew in Plainville. I saw it at the Cinema 1/4 on Rt 17 in New Haven. Cinema 1/4 is really low budget--nothing like the Cinema Infinities round and about. Only 4 screens playing movies (except for 'Joy') that slipped down to the second tier of cinemas. I went to the early show and they don't start popping the pop corn until people start coming in. They actually 'pop the popcorn' instead of bringing it in in huge plastic bags! The seats don't rock or recline and feel like my desk chair. The previews are for the other three films they are showing. You can hear the muffled sounds of the theater next door through the wall. The bathrooms are a horror! But they had "Spotlight" and I was there for the 11:50 a.m. show. There were 30 people or so for the four films and I may have been the youngest person there! Several walkers and lots of canes....
"Spotlight", if you don't know, is a movie about the Boston Globe's expose' about the abuse of children in the archdiocese of Boston by well over 100 Roman Priests that had intentionally and systematically covered up by the hierarchy of the church, including Cardinal Law. All this happened in the first couple of years of this century and the work was interrupted for months to let the 'spotlight' team of four reports and an editor work on 9/11 stories.
But it all came out. The Globe eventually did 600 articles about the abuse. Cardinal Law resigned. The heavily Roman Catholic population of the Boston area were stunned and horrified. It had been a cover-up of Watergate proportions--but it wasn't burglary but the sexual abuse of over 1000 children that had been hidden.
I love a good newspaper movie and this one goes beyond 'good' to 'great'.
The show, it's director, the screen writers and at least three of the actors--Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keyton and Rachael McAdams should get Oscar attention. It's that good. Really.
Find a way to see it when you can.
It is profoundly troubling but shows the positive side of the media we all seem to criticize--what journalism can do for 'the good'--in a remarkable way. It makes you proud to live in a nation where freedom of the press is part of 'who we are'....
Friday, December 25, 2015
Christmas Eve Sermon--2015
Christmas Eve 2015
St. Andrew’s, Northford
Sing,
Choirs of Angels, sing in exultation….
Hark! the Herald angels sing, glory to the new-born King….
It came upon a midnight
clear, that glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of
gold….
Angels from the realm of glory, wing your flight o’er all
the earth.
Ye who sang creations story, now proclaim Messiah’s birth.
The shepherds feared and trembled when lo! Above the earth,
Rang out the angel chorus that hailed our Savior’s birth.
It’s all about the angel-song. A dark,
chill, starlit night, shattered by the rustle of wings and a sound not heard by
human ears before.
There were shepherds, of course, there
to listen. And the mother and babe and dear, good Joseph…and the animals in the
barn…. All of it is necessary to bring the Night alive…. But it begins with the
angels, with their voices raised in song….
The first Nowell, the angel did say, was to certain low
shepherds in
Fields where they lay….
The angels hovered ‘round and sang this song,
“Venite adoremous dominum…”
Angels we have heard on high, singing sweetly through the
night
And the mountains in reply, echoing their brave delight.
Oh those angels….those angels….and their
song….
***
About a dozen years ago I discovered
that I had developed tinnitus—commonly known as “ringing in the ears”.
It began one chilly night when I was
on the back porch, letting our then dog, Sadie, out and listening to the
crickets. When I came back inside to the warmth, I realized I could still hear
the crickets. Then, almost at the same time, I realized what I heard wasn’t
crickets—it was below freezing and there were no crickets singing….
So I went to the doctor and was first
examined by his 3rd year Med Student intern. I told the Med Student
about the crickets.
He looked dutifully in my ears and
asked: “are they crickets or cicadae?”
I told him, “Well, I thought of them
as crickets, but I guess they could be cicadae.”
“It’s tinnitus,” he told me. Then he said, “tinnitus can be quite
severe…some people are so troubled by it that they commit suicide.”
“You
can’t tell people things like that!” I said, “What Med School do you go to?”
Looking
back, I realized the first symptom was hearing music after the music was over.
At night, just before I go to bed, I switch off the radio in the kitchen that
is usually tuned to classical music. I’d get half way up the back steps and
realize the music was still playing. So I’d go back and check the radio. I must
have done that a dozen times before I realized the music was in my head—echoing
on long after it ended.
Which
causes me to think about the angel song—how it must have stayed with the
Shepherds all the way to Bethlehem and back, how the echoes of that celestial
music must have still been in their heads when they laid down to try to
sleep…how it must have greeting them the next morning when they awoke at dawn
and lingered through the day.
How
long must that angel song have stayed in their ears? Did the shepherds just get
used to it and go on with their lives—or did it sing within them always? How
could you ever let go of music like that? Why would you ever want it to end…?
*
Once, again years ago, In Saturday’s Waterbury Republican American there was
a large block ad on page 3 that said: DEAR FRANK, GIVE US ANOTHER CHANCE. I
LOVE YOU, BONNIE.
The
pathos and pain of that ad touched me deeply. I could hardly breathe thinking
about Bonnie and Frank—their broken relationship, the anguish of it all. No angel song echoes in Bonnie and Frank’s ears—all
they hear is suffering and loss.
It
is not a good time to hear the Angel Song. Things collapse around us. Isis is
making us all afraid. The political campaign has turned toxic. The sounds of
fear drown out the Angel Song.
At
this holy time—the birthday of the Prince of Peace—the Middle East is in chaos,
tens of thousands of refugees have no home, climate change brings killer storms
to the South, heavy snow to the West and a Spring like Christmas to normally
chill New England.
The sounds of war and weather drown out the
Angel Song.
Surrounded
by the affluence of the richest state in the richest country in the world, we cannot
help but see the sharp contrast of the bitter poverty on the edges of our
wealth. The cries of need and want drown out the Angel Song.
And
all of us—like Frank and Bonnie—have heartache and pain in our personal lives
that tend to distract us—like ringing in the ears—from the Angel Song.
The
writer, Madeleine L’Engle captures all this well. Listen:
“This is no time for a child to be born,
with the earth betrayed
by war and hate
And a nova lighting the
sky to warn
That time runs out and
sun burns late.
That was no time for a
child to be born,
In a land in the
crushing grip of Rome;
Honor and truth were
trampled by scorn—
Yet here did the Saviour
make his home.
When is the time for
love to be born?
The inn is full on the
planet earth.
And by greed and pride
the sky is torn—
Yet love still takes the
risk of birth.
The clanging of greed, the tumult of
war, the sharp cries of injustice, the shrillness of fear—a cacophony of noises
drown out the Angelsong.
Yet
love still takes the risk of birth.
Again,
the Child is born. Again, the Gift is given. Hope, like a fledgling, spreads
her wings within our hardened hearts.
When
is the time for love to be born?
There
is no time but this. And even in this dark time—on one of the longest nights of
the year—a Light will shine if we can be the people who take the risk of love.
A
Light will shine if we can let Hope find a home in our hearts and Justice
spring new born in our lives.
A
Light will shine if we only still the clamoring of fear and greed and
hatefulness long enough to once more hear the Angel song.
*
“Yet with the woes of sin and strife the
world has suffered long;
beneath the heavenly hymn have rolled two
thousand years of wrong;
and warring humankind hears not the tidings
which they bring;
O hush the noise and cease your strife and
hear the angels sing.”
Once
more, once more as always, Love takes the risk of Birth.
Thursday, December 24, 2015
Chistmas dinner on the grill
Hey, I'm not complaining, I love the warm weather, but I'll be grilling the steaks for Christmas dinner out on the deck!!! Never done that before. Ever.
I always write something for Bern for Christmas and have a two year ban on sharing it. So, you'll get to see it in 2017. And I already posted a blog about how she got it early because I'm a dope.
Turns out, she was glad to get it early because she always feels pressure to read it and Christmas day is not a good time to slip away and read. So, my being a dope worked.
I opened my gift tonight--she always makes me something.
So, she made me a hat--but not just any hat: a Puli hat.
The hat looks just like our Puli dog Bela and I love it!!!
She wrapped it in a box that had my name and address on it and I thought--she didn't 'make' me something this year. And when I saw it, I was sure she'd found a Puli Hat on line and ordered it--that's how well made it is!
It is remarkable. I'll be wearing it when it gets a tad colder and try to find a way to put a picture of it on my blog (which is doubtful since I'm such an anti-nerd). She had to convince me she sewed it and the label she put it in finally let me believe her.
A Puli Hat, for goodness sake! Amazing!
Be well and stay well, my friends. And Merry, Blessed, Peaceful Christmas to you all.
I always write something for Bern for Christmas and have a two year ban on sharing it. So, you'll get to see it in 2017. And I already posted a blog about how she got it early because I'm a dope.
Turns out, she was glad to get it early because she always feels pressure to read it and Christmas day is not a good time to slip away and read. So, my being a dope worked.
I opened my gift tonight--she always makes me something.
So, she made me a hat--but not just any hat: a Puli hat.
The hat looks just like our Puli dog Bela and I love it!!!
She wrapped it in a box that had my name and address on it and I thought--she didn't 'make' me something this year. And when I saw it, I was sure she'd found a Puli Hat on line and ordered it--that's how well made it is!
It is remarkable. I'll be wearing it when it gets a tad colder and try to find a way to put a picture of it on my blog (which is doubtful since I'm such an anti-nerd). She had to convince me she sewed it and the label she put it in finally let me believe her.
A Puli Hat, for goodness sake! Amazing!
Be well and stay well, my friends. And Merry, Blessed, Peaceful Christmas to you all.
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
The eve of The Eve
Bern and Mimi and I went to see the new Star Wars movie this afternoon.
I haven't seen a couple of the sequels, but I know this: on the ones I've seen this one most closely recreates the original.
Hans Solo and Chewy are there, as is Princess (now 'General') Leia. And Luke Skywalker is in the last, super-dramatic scene. Another movie is surely in the offering.
But the two main characters are Rey and Finn--she a girl who was a scavenger on a desert planet and he a storm trooper who defects. They are terrific.
Hans Solo's and Leia's son is the new incarnation of Darth Vader and truly evil, though he seems conflicted when he meets up with Hans.
What makes Rey special (as Bern pointed out) is that she is a female character who is a hero in a big way but without reserve or explanation. She is the star of the movie and wonderfully and understatedly acted.
It's a winner--lots of special effects and battles and noise.
See it.
I haven't seen a couple of the sequels, but I know this: on the ones I've seen this one most closely recreates the original.
Hans Solo and Chewy are there, as is Princess (now 'General') Leia. And Luke Skywalker is in the last, super-dramatic scene. Another movie is surely in the offering.
But the two main characters are Rey and Finn--she a girl who was a scavenger on a desert planet and he a storm trooper who defects. They are terrific.
Hans Solo's and Leia's son is the new incarnation of Darth Vader and truly evil, though he seems conflicted when he meets up with Hans.
What makes Rey special (as Bern pointed out) is that she is a female character who is a hero in a big way but without reserve or explanation. She is the star of the movie and wonderfully and understatedly acted.
It's a winner--lots of special effects and battles and noise.
See it.
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