It’s Really Too Late

Tags

Advent, Billy Collins, Blessed Mother Mary, bottle brush trees, Christmas decorating, Crafts, hope, Magnificat, Poetry, religion

Are you starting to panic? Too much left to do and not enough time? Forgetaboutit! Tis the season to enjoy friends and family and good eats. Stop obsessing!

Easy to say I know. Not having to shop is a big plus. I’m in truffles today. I have them all set up on cookie sheets, just letting them harden up a bit before I do the rolling. This year it’s ground almonds, cocoa, sprinkles, and powdered sugar. I have 39, so ten of each except one.

Tomorrow the nut clusters and I have all the yummy cookie, candy stuff done. The cooking should be easy on Saturday. One casserole which throws together and the ham. The rest is just a veggie and a relish tray, and heating up some stuffing. Have to remember to get that out of the freezer tomorrow.

If you are deep into reflection on the true “reason for the season” however you define that, then you might find some uplifting thoughts at Women Beneath the Cross‘s, The Magnificat: Realizing God’s Dream.  Commonweal, in a short reflection tells us Jesus’ flight into Egypt, while of course echoing Moses, also speaks eloquently to immigrants today, and the dangerous lives they face. And Michael Hogue from Tikkun Daily Blog, reminds us that the only answer is hope in incremental improvements in a very imperfect world.

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I guess it’s pretty late for crafts, but you might want to stop by a Michael’s after the holidays and pick up some of these for next year to do. They are those old rather nasty looking “bottle brush” trees. Most everyone has had one or more of these in the past. Vickie at Uncommon Artistic Endeavors has all the simple directions to turn these cheap “trees” into real stunning decorations.

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I know that poetry, like most art is somewhat subjective. What I love, you loathe, or points between. But this poem, called Aristotle from 3quarksdaily, is simply stunning in its imagery. Please do yourself a favor and take a look. I don’t think you will be sorry.  

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Sometimes prayers are answered like immediately. I kid you not. (that was a popular saying back in the day.) We have this cat, Calvin. He’s a beauty, all orangey and spotted. He likes milk, and he bawls at you when he wants it. He’s taken to sitting on the table with me in the morning and following along with morning prayer.

He usually prowls around with the other boy cats during the night. Last night he was absent. This usually causes a minor concern that he has been let outside and forgotten. All doors are checked. He is not around.

So I figure he’s just hunkered down in one of his hidy-holes.  In the morning, no Calvin emerges to join me for Thursday, Week IV, antiphons and psalms. I begin to worry. As we discover various hidy-holes, he creates new ones. Is the tyke sick?

So, I’m doing my prayers, and I say, “God, will you push Calvin out into the open just so we know he’s okay?” Less than ten seconds go by, before I hear a rustling behind me. A large box is on the table, on its side, and Kate has taken to it as her refuge. When I look, Calvin is rearranging himself in it. Been there all night no doubt.

God, busy as things get, seems to have time for my simple request. 🙂

Believe it, or not, as you wish.

***

It’s a slow day. What can I say. The truffles are done, and dinner is in the oven.

What’s on the stove: Arroz Con Pollo. Stuffed celery. Rolls.

Fa La La La La and All that Stuff

Tags

chimpanzees, culture, evolution, Jesus, Mad Men, Matthew, Nativity, Poetry, weird hobbies

Last night was the longest night of the year, the shortest day. We had an eclipse that I didn’t see because of cloud cover. It’s only four days until Christmas. The Baby Jesus is coming! Since I’ve got all I need for a cozy holiday, I don’t give a flying fig newton if it snows us in.

For all these reasons, I’m not gonna talk about any of the repulsive, idiotic, evil, buffoons in Congress and elsewhere, until after December 25. We are gonna focus on funny, sweet, interesting, mind-opening, items that enrich, enliven, and empower. Promise.

But come, December 26, well we will be our old snarky self. Count on it.

Now to actually find some nice news.

I know I posted a book review yesterday. You’ll probably want to pick this one up too: It’s called Swallow and would make a great coffee table book, guaranteed to start a lively conversation.

Proving that there is a hobby out there for everyone, one Dr. Chevalier Jackson, began collecting items that he had removed from the bodies of his patients. Umbrella tips, opera glasses and padlocks. There are stories galore of people with strange desires to ingest all manner of bizarre “things.” Mary Cappello tells the tale I am told, with wit and aplomb. Take a look if you can swallow that kind of thing :O

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Every parent knows that children, both boys and girls, attempt to emulate their parents and parent themselves. They use pets, and dolls mostly.

Well it turns out that chimp youngsters, especially girl chimps try to do the same. They carry sticks around, cradling them, and other wise mimicking the “mothering” behaviors of their moms. Although in chimp society, females do most of the child care activities, even a boy or two has been seen caring for his stick. (Don’t you dare go there!)

Which just goes to show, that girl apes are really just chimps off the same block. :O

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Namelessneed is one of those real poets. You know what I mean. The kind of stuff I can’t write, but wish I could. You should always pay attention to such people because they touch you in the most unexpected ways. Go read W O R D M A T H S because I said so.

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Some families read Matthew’s account of the birth of Jesus, as a Christmas Eve ritual. They mostly don’t read the opening part, with  all that genealogy stuff. Boring you know. Tim, at Straight-Friendly, shows us why we should read it, and what lessons we can learn from it. If you don’t read Tim regularly, you’re, well, missing more than you know.

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Do you miss Mad Men?  I do. Awfully bad. Really. Big Think has an article on it and why it’s still the best of the best.The message speaks volumes to our lives today. I wouldn’t argue with that assessment. Funny I should, since I have about as low an opinion as one can get of Ad men. I mean they are creatures of some other planet. I guess, their excesses, portrayed so elegantly on the show, are a lesson to us, one we should look at seriously.

What is my bitch with Madison Avenue you ask?   It’s that  their ads never bespeak a world that is actually real. Case in point.

There are, at this time of years, innumerable ads urging us to go out and buy cars as gifts! wrapping them up in big bows and surprising our beloved with their favorite brand. Except, that 99.9 percentages of us cannot afford to do this. Do they really thing the .01 percent who can watch television? Somehow, I rather doubt. it.

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What’s on the stove: t-bones with baked potatoes/sour cream and cauliflower with cheddar cheese.

Ho, Ho, Ho, Witchy Poo is Back!

Tags

Advent, bible, birthers, Christine O'Donnell, Christmas, Frankincense, fundamentalists, Genesis, GOP, Jesus, Michael Steele

She learned at the knee of the Wasilla Wombat. She learned that when the electorate rejects ya, get up, dust yourself off, and keep on yappin’. You will surely find enough poor souls to pay your way.

So Christine O’Donnell, finding the cupboard most bare, formed a PAC and, now her bills taken care of, she can utter profound (in her ditzy mind) quips, and otherwise try to interject herself into adult conversations.

Not content to get two of the top ten quotes of the year, she’s after more. She’s in a friendly race with sista Sarah to be both the most obnoxious, won’t go away buffoon and the biggest butcher of the English language to date.

If enough isn’t being said about the tax bill being decided Ms. Chatty Christie has weighed in. Of course she’s all for the Bush tax cuts being extended and she hates all the stuff for those in economic free fall. According to the non-witchy one, tragedies come in threes–Pearl Harbor, Elizabeth Edwards death, and now these confounded extensions of unemployment benefits. She then tried to explain what THAT meant, and of course failed. Halloween can’t return fast enough.

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You and I are much alike. Therefore, I feel confident that you too have spent countless hours? maybe even days, wondering what the hell frankincense  is or was. Given the season, well, I went a lookin’ for an answer for us both.

I tried Senator Franken, but he demurred, pointing out that there is an “e” after the K in his name, not an “i” as in frankincense. So I figured Slate would have the answer, and they did. Read all about it here, and surprise friends and family with your new-found sparkling intellect.

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I think a lot like Keith Olbermann I guess. At least two of his items from last night’s show were links on my blog. We, meaning me and he and his researchers must be reading some of the same bloggers online. That’s comforting to me. And of course, you can know that you’re getting the “best” when you come here. *snicker* and “toot”.

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It appears that Michael, I’m da black man in the Repiglians world, Steele, has decided to give it another go round. Shocking all the Repoopers with the news he was not gonna go “quietly into the night” he threw his hat in the ring to be the paper tiger in the GOP once again.

Now this pissed off tons of the GOP regulars, since they thought that two years was enough to prove they aren’t the bigots everybody says they are. They were tired of Mr. Steele’s general stupidity, hoof and mouth disease, and all around big spender attitude.

Ain’t it just fun watching the GOP fracture along so many different lines?

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Let those with brains, think. We, with regularity, point out that fundigelicals are guilty mostly of reading biblical texts in a manner that supports their own needs and general beliefs about the world. They accept as literal those things that seem right to them anyway, and reject/ignore/explain away other quite direct statements when they cut against their needs and beliefs.

A provocative post at Biologos explains how early Jewish theologians were pained to clothe Adam and Eve, to protect their ideas of cultural “rightness” in their day. Indeed, we are all subject to that influence. Read, Genesis, Creation and Ancient Interpreters: Adam and Eve’s Nakedness.

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If you just want to read something sweet and uplifting and well, Christmasy, then read Five String Guitar’s post about he and his wife’s latest Christmas shopping trip. It will warm your heart! Try it!

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Hold onto your shorts folks. I have a major announcement to make! I do not DO NOT DO NOT have an opinion on the Julian Assange/Wikileaks affair. Nope, I surely don’t. Stand by: I may have one tomorrow. But so far, I don’t.

***

Take a look at this face, and if you ever see it, you will be looking into the face of a modern medical miracle. This man can actually walk and speak.

This buffoon, a Lt. Col. in the Army just pled guilty at his court-martial and faces eighteen months in prison, all because he refused to go to Afghanistan because the President is not a citizen and thus cannot legally give such an order.

What is worse, he was not ordered to Afghanistan but VOLUNTEERED, just to force this case. It is simply stunningly amazing that anyone can be this stupid, and be a surgeon.

Do not, repeat, do not, allow this man near you with a scalpel. No doubt his medical licence is also at risk due to his felony conviction.

***

The Contrarian is installing plastic sheeting over the bay windows in the living room. Plenty of naughty words are emanating from there. I am not going out there to see. The cats have all gone into hiding. Brandy wouldn’t come up the steps again, the rain/slush/snow had her carpet all frozen up and slick. So now there are towels down, until it warms enough to de-ice. This is all no big deal, except when it’s 4 below zero and 2:30 am and you are out there begging and pleading with her to “try.”

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What’s on the stove today?  Tostados! Hurrah.

Related Articles

• Christine O’Donnell: unemployment benefits deal a ‘tragedy’…like Pearl Harbor, Elizabeth Edwards (pinkbananaworld.com)
• Christine O’Donnell: Pearl Harbor, Unemployment Benefits Extension Both ‘Tragedies’ (huffingtonpost.com)

Are You Prepared?

Tags

Advent, bible, God, Jesus, Luke, Malachi, prayer life

This is indeed a busy time of the year. For believers, it is more so I suspect as we attempt to meet our secular obligations of tree and gifts, parties and food, all the while being mindful of it’s religious significance.

Indeed, Advent is the new year of the Church, a time of preparation for the coming of the Lord and the necessary waiting that that too entails.

What exactly does it mean to prepare for the coming of the Lord? A couple of our readings from today’s liturgy points to a conclusion. In Malachi 3:1-4 we learn that God will send his angel to “prepare the way.” We will be refined like gold and silver. It suggests that we should be participating in this preparation so that our refining will not be long and painful.

Similarly, in Luke 3:1-6, John the Baptist warns us to prepare the way of the Lord and to make his roads straight and make the rough smooth. We are to engage both singularly and in community in an effort to make the “Way” easy for all.

What exactly constitutes preparing the way? It is a difficult question, and undoubtedly elicits many responses and there may be more than one which is correct. But it seems to me, that one thing we might do as believers is to engage in a process that we usually leave to Lent–namely that of self-examination. This may well lead to repentance, but can also and more productively lead to changes in faith life that in fact prepare for the coming.

I can think of three areas that we  might concentrate.

I was reading yesterday about the disciples who were walking to Emmaus when they met the risen Lord. They did not however “see” him as such. Only later, in the breaking of the bread did they do so. It has been suggested that they failed to recognize the Lord on the road because their knowledge of Christ didn’t include this possibility. Their knowledge was faulty, and thus they were unable to perceive his presence with them. In the familiarity of the breaking of the bread, they immediately knew him.

What does this suggest?

Well to me, it suggests that we should never feel satisfied that we “understand” God or his teachings. We are and should ever more be, learners and seekers of knowledge. If we have knowledge, we should seek better knowledge. We should always be challenging ourselves and our information.

For me, this always entails reading against my comfort. I purposefully read the fringes a lot, both in Christianity and elsewhere. I listen carefully to the arguments advanced by atheists and those who profess Christian beliefs much different from my own. I test my beliefs against those. If my beliefs are correct or more correct, then surely they will withstand the comparison. If not, they should surely fade away.

So for me, the first thing I ask myself, is: am I challenging my preconceived notions about God and Jesus, about his message and methodology?  It may surprise some to hear me say that not everything a fundamentalist has to say to me is wrong by my estimation. I have read commentaries on the bible that were fundamentalist in nature and surely I have agreed with some of their statements on some things. It’s just that overall, I consider this method of interpretation to lead to false conclusions, and frankly too much of the rest is childish and simplistic. But there is truth to be found here. And it is important to stretch ourselves always.

The second thing I ask myself is what am I doing in my prayer life and how should that be altered? Am I going through the motions? Am I praying at all? Am I praying thoughtfully? Am I taking the time to do so in a manner that is reverential and not just “oh I’m stuck here in this grocery line. A good time to cross off “prayers” on my to do list.” Are my prayers centered on me or on others and the world? Am I asking that things be my way, or the way best and most likely to be of benefit to the greatest number?

Third, I think we all must ask whether our church is aiding us in our preparation? Is it encouraging our questions and searching or is it regurgitating a set of dogmatic statements that we are to adhere to ? Does it uphold our struggles with our wildernesses and our Emmaus times? Does it honor our “heretical” thoughts as we examine in all honesty exactly what Jesus means to us personally? In other words, is it a faithful partner or the Boss?

I think that question is important, since a church that is steeped in rigid dogma may not be helpful in our pushing out at the edges. It may squelch or try to even gently dissuade us from challenging our beliefs in order to better know our Lord. As I said, nothing is lost from truth, it will out. If we have it, it is surely strong enough to remain standing after our questions.

So I suggest to you that indeed, we have much preparation to do in the coming short weeks. The Lord awaits us with anticipation as we travel the road to Christmas morning. Let us do our best to see him clearly and with honest love, and a deep appreciation of his teachings.

Lord give me the wisdom to see you clearly and to discern truth first. Let my desires of what I want you to be, be tempered with the realization that the truth of you is always better than making me feel comfortable. And let me then, Lord, speak that truth to others in loving compassion for all. Amen.