The world-famous Minnesota Red-tail will soon be no more. Northwest will become Delta and folklore will be lost. Here is one of a number of tribute videos on YouTube. This one shows history as well as contemporary. The evolution unto extinction.
39 degrees (F)
Our one day January thaw. The first day above freezing since Dec. 29 and only the 8th since Dec. 1. But it was a day of hope. Somewhere off in the distance of February will be a warm day or two. And then by sometime in May......
I hope.
Yes, there is a football game tomorrow.
The Pittsburgh Steelers- out to be the first team to win six of these over-hyped national secular holiday games.
The Arizona Cardinals- once of St. Louis- are out to win their first. (Hey, this is the best they've done in 61 years!)
So, like a junkie faced with a table full of their favorite substance of use and abuse, I will find myself pulled, coerced, and finally joyfully watching the commercials game.
One would think my Pennsylvania roots would be favoring the Steelers but two things go against that. First, they are not the underdogs and I tend to be an underdog fan. (The Packers being an exception to that. Sort of.)
And second, my Pennsylvania roots are with the Philadelphia Eagles (see what I mean about underdogs?) and an old Eagles fan would find it very difficult to root for those meanies from the west.
So it is the underdog in their first Super Bowl that I hope to see win.
But let's be honest, it also helps this game to have Springsteen at half-time.
LiveScience had the results of a research project that should raise some interesting debate somewhere:
Boys in the United States with common names like Michael and David are less likely to commit crimes than those named Ernest or Ivan.What is more interesting than the study itself are the reactions to the article. General opinion is that it is "BS" and a "load of crap" masquerading as science. One comment likened it to a form of profiling. One of those commenting said:
David E. Kalist and Daniel Y. Lee of Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania compared the first names of male juvenile delinquents to the first names of male juveniles in the population. The researchers constructed a popularity-name index (PNI) for each name. For example, the PNI for Michael is 100, the most frequently given name during the period. The PNI for David is 50, a name given half as frequently as Michael. The PNI is approximately 1 for names such as Alec, Ernest, Ivan, Kareem, and Malcolm.
Results show that, regardless of race, juveniles with unpopular names are more likely to engage in criminal activity. The least popular names were associated with juvenile delinquency among both blacks and whites.
Everyone knows that names more often than not reflect one's ethnic / racial background - which also what frequently stands behind "disadvantaged home environment, residence in a county with low socioeconomic status, and households run by one parent". Of the five "unpopular" names on this list, Kareem is almost exclusively used by Arabs and Turks, Malcolm is popular among blacks because of Malcolm X, Ivan is Russian for John, Alec is a frequent Russian/Jewish abbreviation of Alexander, and Ernest is an old Central European name with fancy literary associations.When you think about it, not many Euro-Americans would name their son "Jesus." But many Latin Americans would. What is "popular." Not to mention that historically the top American names were English versions of Saints names and popularity does change.
January 30 - The Beatles give their last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records. The impromptu concert was broken up by the police.
Talk about keeping the old ways going! The economic stimulus plan vote in the House was with no Republicans voting for it. Not a one. A complete boycott. I tend to agree with a couple of the commentators I heard on TV last evening about it.
1) The GOP is playing to their (small) core base. That very conservative base that will never like anything a Democrat does in the White House who may be following the idea that they should pray for Obama to fail. It is a very narrow idea- and not one based on building a consensus. That group has not wanted a consensus if it didn't agree 100% with their views. Compromise is a dirty word.
2)They will now be able to vote to support the final bill (possibly) to play to the greater audience that is giving Obama the benefit of the doubt and some of the highest approval ratings in history. There will be a conference committee version that will contain a few more things they want and they can then say they stuck to their guns and supported the final bill, as imperfect as it may be, because the country has to work together. It will be a win-win situation- they hope.
3) Some of my thoughts about the whole thing center on the nagging belief that in the end both sides may be somewhat stuck. In old ideas that may very well be outdated. Both sides are sticking to their traditional economic theories to get out of this. I am not an economist, but it seems as if none of the ideas truly work as suggested. Some serious processing of the whole mess needs to be done. But of course we need to do something right now. That's where some real give and take has to happen. Some of what I have also heard on TV is that the biggest problems in the political quagmire may be the congressional leaders and not Obama. We will see.
4) At least the Republicans are being consistent- many of them voted against REPUBLICAN George Bush's stimulus proposal as well. So maybe they are being bi-partisan after all.
Last answer in Jeopardy round with the category being "Players Pro Team".
Answer: Kirby Puckett
Question: Who are the Minnesota Twins.
No one got the answer.
Yes, they are no doubt frivolous, but the word amazing is also quite appropriate. Over at List Universe they have the Top 10 Bizarre or Frivolous Lawsuits. Here's the link. As an alcohol counselor my favorite is # 3:
For a while in the 1990s, Anheuser-Busch, the producers of Budweiser, ran a series of ads in which two beautiful women come to life in front of two truck drivers. A Michigan man bought a case of the beer, drank it, and failed to see two women materialize. Cue the lawsuit. He sued the company for false advertising, asking for a sum in excess of $10,000. Thankfully the court dismissed the suit and the man remained penniless and dateless.
It is 1,474 megapixels BIG. You can zoom in and see the most remarkable details. It is made up of 220 separate photos by David Bergman.
It is probably the Best Inauguration Photo. Ever!
What's fun is just panning and zooming and seeing what you can find. One that I found is straight up from Obama's forehead in the last row of the lower section, only about 4 rows above his head is a Green Bay Packer knit cap being worn.
Hours of fun!
I hear helicopters several times a day. I heard one this evening as I came out of a meeting near downtown. They are the helicopters that bring patients to the hospitals here in town. It is hard to miss the sound. It soars over the other sounds and echoes off the buildings. When they land at the hospital near where I live their flight pattern takes them right over the top of my apartment. They are a reminder of the fragility of life and the great lengths we go to save it.
I think I first became truly aware of the medical helicopters 12 or so years ago back in Wisconsin. One day I was sitting on our front porch and the UW medical chopper went over the house heading from our local hospital to Madison. About ten minutes later we got a phone call that one of our teenagers was in the chopper after an accident. About a year later we were called to the hospital for another teenager with a life-threatening illness. We stood with the family as they gave the okay to fly their son to Madison. Later, as we left our house heading for Madison the helicopter went over and this time we knew who was on it and why.
At those times I realized very powerfully and personally that whenever the helicopters fly it is not good news. Someone is in grave danger. Fortunately for the two teenagers I knew they were treated and discharged a time later, healthy and happy. Such is not always the case. Every helicopter is carrying someone who is personal and important to other someones. Every medical chopper is also carrying medical staff working hard to keep the person alive so they can be treated.
When today I hear the helicopters I say a silent prayer for God's Spirit to be there in whatever ways are needed. When I see some of the pilots or crew sitting down for lunch in the hospital cafeteria I say Thank You to God for their presence. Life is a precious thing- so easily lost. I am glad there are these people (and many others) who work hard to keep it.
By Martin Buber
Yahweh, Jesus, Allah God,
I do not suppose you are very tied to titles,
You seem to revel more in creating and loving
Than arguing like we do.
You are beyond any name,
Beyond this group or that,
Beyond ideas or any ability to
Control You by definitions.
You are the Utterly Free One.
You are the Eternal I
That always allows me to be a Thou
Whenever we meet.
You are the Speaker, I am the spoken,
So Love must be your name!
Which is always beyond words.
Source: All Real Living Is Meeting
Inward/Outward
DUCCIO di BuoninsegnaNo football today.
None.
Nada.
The shakes set in. The frozen tundra moves beneath my feet.
Soon hallucinations begin. Brett in a Packer uniform.
Voices scream in the head. Go Pack Go.
Cold turkey week. The Ice Bowl is back.
I may have to actually DO something today.
(Daughter and Dad at the Strasburg RR in Pennsylvania.)
Arguably (to anyone but our family) the most important item for the week.
Today is my daughter's 28th birthday.
That was also a Saturday. And a lot warmer, I think, than today is. Of course it was back in Pennsylvania and not the frozen wilds of Minnesota. But I wouldn't remember anyway- I was preoccupied.
The result of that day has been a great life with her. I hope she feels the same.
Later this week the nominations for this year's Academy Awards will be announced. One of the issues that often arises is that comedies (and sometime musicals) are overlooked in nominations. The other day my daughter and co-movie-enthusiast raised that question. "Why are all the big movies sad?" Or for that matter even tragic. So, to stop for a moment here are the nominees for the past 4 years (Winner in italics):
***2004It would appear that on average over the past four years that 60% could be considered tragic stories, although there might be a sense of hope in at least one ending. One of these was a biopic (The Aviator). Of the 8 non-tragic stories, five of them were biopics and three were fictional. All the winners were tragic and some profoundly so.
Million Dollar Baby (Tragic)
The Aviator (Tragic)
Finding Neverland
Ray
Sideways (Tragic, but a sense of hope)
***2005
Crash (Tragic)
Brokeback Mountain (Tragic)
Capote (??)
Good Night, and Good Luck
Munich (Tragic)
***2006
The Departed (Tragic)
Babel (Tragic)
Letters from Iwo Jima (Tragic)
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen
***2007
No Country for Old Men (Tragic)
Atonement (Tragic)
Juno
Michael Clayton
There Will Be Blood(Tragic)
Milk (Inspirational but tragedy)So I thought a little more about this issue. What is it about the tragic story or the true tragedy that brings such honor to its production? Is there something inherently "better" about such drama? Or do we just assume that "drama" has to have a tragic ending? The "lived-happily-ever-after" story seems to be too unreal and not the way the world seems to work? It's easy to keep on asking these questions.
Benjamin Button (Inspirational but at least sad if not tragic)
Slumdog Millionaire (Drama, may or may not be tragic)
And the two I haven't seen yet:
The Reader (Holocaust related. Not sure of its direction)
Frost/Nixon (Drama, but a tragedy in the classic sense)
Yes, I know that sounds HEAVY, but think about it. It may answer why comedies are not taken as "seriously" as dramas and especially tragic dramas.Tragedy- The oldest form of drama, raising issues about the nature of human existence, ethics or human relationships.
--Link
The tragic vision impels the man of action to fight against his destiny, kick against the pricks, and state his case before God or his fellows. It impels the artist, in his fictions, toward what Jaspers calls "boundary-situations." man at the limits of his sovereignty--Job on the ash-heap, Prometheus on the crag, Oedipus in his moment of self-discovery, Lear on the heath, Ahab on his lonely quarter-deck. Here, with all the protective covering stripped off, the hero faces as if no man had ever faced it before the existential question--Job's question, "What is man?" or Lear's "Is man no more than this?" The writing of a tragedy is the artist's way of taking action, of defying destiny, and this is why in the great tragedies there is a sense of the artist's own involvement, an immediacy not so true of the forms, like satire and comedy, where the artist's position seems more detached. (Sewall "The Vision of Tragedy," Corrigan 49-50).
--Link
It has been an historic week with more than I have been able to put into writing at one time. But thankfully yesterday the BIG news of the week came out: the nominations for the Academy Awards. So, a day later but no less essential in its content, here they are (* = I have already seen):
Performance by an actor in a leading role
Richard Jenkins in "The Visitor" (Overture Films)
Frank Langella in "Frost/Nixon" (Universal)
*Sean Penn in "Milk" (Focus Features)
*Brad Pitt in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler" (Fox Searchlight)
Performance by an actor in a supporting role
*Josh Brolin in "Milk" (Focus Features)
*Robert Downey Jr. in "Tropic Thunder" (DreamWorks, Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)
Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Doubt" (Miramax)
Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.)
Michael Shannon in "Revolutionary Road" (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount Vantage)
Performance by an actress in a leading role
Anne Hathaway in "Rachel Getting Married" (Sony Pictures Classics)
Angelina Jolie in "Changeling" (Universal)
Melissa Leo in "Frozen River" (Sony Pictures Classics)
Meryl Streep in "Doubt" (Miramax)
Kate Winslet in "The Reader" (The Weinstein Company)
Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Amy Adams in "Doubt" (Miramax)
Penélope Cruz in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (The Weinstein Company)
Viola Davis in "Doubt" (Miramax)
*Taraji P. Henson in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
Marisa Tomei in "The Wrestler" (Fox Searchlight)
Achievement in directing
*"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.) David Fincher
"Frost/Nixon" (Universal) Ron Howard
*"Milk" (Focus Features) Gus Van Sant
"The Reader" (The Weinstein Company) Stephen Daldry
*"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight) Danny Boyle
Best motion picture of the year (Tomatometer rating)
*"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (72%) (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
"Frost/Nixon" (91%) (Universal)
*"Milk" (92%) (Focus Features)
"The Reader" (60%) (The Weinstein Company)
*"Slumdog Millionaire" (95%) (Fox Searchlight)
What? No Kate or Leo for Revolutionary Road? No Springsteen for Best song?
And none, absolutely NONE for Gran Torino.
Here's a list of numbers of awards:
- FEATURE FILMS WITH TWO OR MORE NOMINATIONS -
(This list does not include Short Films or Documentary Short Subjects.)
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"-- 13
"Slumdog Millionaire"-- 10
"The Dark Knight"-- 8
"Milk"-- 8
"WALL-E"-- 6
"Doubt"-- 5
"Frost/Nixon"-- 5
"The Reader"-- 5
"Changeling"-- 3
"Revolutionary Road"-- 3
"The Duchess"-- 2
"Frozen River"-- 2
"Iron Man"-- 2
"Wanted"-- 2
"The Wrestler"-- 2
As I said above I want to reflect on Obama's words on Tuesday and see how I feel by Monday.
P.S. Yes, it was good to take the oath of office again after Roberts' goof. At least that wasn't a first since it has happened twice before.
First there's the Invocation by Rev. Rick Warren:
Almighty God, our Father, everything we see and everything we can’t see exists because of you alone. It all comes from you. It all belongs to you. It all exists for your glory.Then the Benediction from Rev. Joseph Lowery. (Note the use of James Weldon Johnson's great hymn, Lift Every Voice and Sing):
History is your story. The Scripture tells us, “Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is One.” And you are the compassionate and merciful one. And you are loving to everyone you have made.
Now, today, we rejoice not only in America’s peaceful transfer of power for the 44th time. We celebrate a hingepoint of history with the inauguration of our first African American president of the United States. We are so grateful to live in this land, a land of unequaled possibility, where the son of an African immigrant can rise to the highest level of our leadership. And we know today that Dr. King and a great cloud of witnesses are shouting in heaven.
Give to our new President, Barack Obama, the wisdom to lead us with humility, the courage to lead us with integrity, the compassion to lead us with generosity. Bless and protect him, his family, Vice President Biden, the cabinet, and every one of our freely elected leaders.
Help us, O God, to remember that we are Americans, united not by race, or religion, or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all. When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget you, forgive us. When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity is ours alone, forgive us. When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the earth with the respect that they deserve, forgive us. And as we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches, and civility in our attitudes, even when we differ.
Help us to share, to serve and to seek the common good of all. May all people of good will today join together to work for a more just, a more healthy and a more prosperous nation and a peaceful planet. And may we never forget that one day all nations and all people will stand accountable before you. We now commit our new president and his wife, Michelle and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, into your loving care.
I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life, Yeshua, Isa, Jesus (Spanish) pronunciation, Jesus, who taught us to pray:
“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, thou who has brought us thus far along the way, thou who has by thy might led us into the light, keep us forever in the path, we pray, lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee, lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee. Shadowed beneath thy hand may we forever stand -- true to thee, O God, and true to our native land.The difference was amazing in style, more than content. Yet each was, in many ways, quite representative of their different traditions. I am sure though that Warren may get in more trouble with his Evangelical brethren for being a little less exclusive than some would want him to be.
We truly give thanks for the glorious experience we've shared this day. We pray now, O Lord, for your blessing upon thy servant, Barack Obama, the 44th president of these United States, his family and his administration. He has come to this high office at a low moment in the national and, indeed, the global fiscal climate. But because we know you got the whole world in your hand, we pray for not only our nation, but for the community of nations. Our faith does not shrink, though pressed by the flood of mortal ills.
For we know that, Lord, you're able and you're willing to work through faithful leadership to restore stability, mend our brokenness, heal our wounds and deliver us from the exploitation of the poor or the least of these and from favoritism toward the rich, the elite of these.
We thank you for the empowering of thy servant, our 44th president, to inspire our nation to believe that, yes, we can work together to achieve a more perfect union. And while we have sown the seeds of greed -- the wind of greed and corruption, and even as we reap the whirlwind of social and economic disruption, we seek forgiveness and we come in a spirit of unity and solidarity to commit our support to our president by our willingness to make sacrifices, to respect your creation, to turn to each other and not on each other.
And now, Lord, in the complex arena of human relations, help us to make choices on the side of love, not hate; on the side of inclusion, not exclusion; tolerance, not intolerance.
And as we leave this mountaintop, help us to hold on to the spirit of fellowship and the oneness of our family. Let us take that power back to our homes, our workplaces, our churches, our temples, our mosques, or wherever we seek your will.
Bless President Barack, First Lady Michelle. Look over our little, angelic Sasha and Malia.
We go now to walk together, children, pledging that we won't get weary in the difficult days ahead. We know you will not leave us alone, with your hands of power and your heart of love.
Help us then, now, Lord, to work for that day when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when every man and every woman shall sit under his or her own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid; when justice will roll down like waters and righteousness as a mighty stream.
Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around -- (laughter) -- when yellow will be mellow -- (laughter) -- when the red man can get ahead, man -- (laughter) -- and when white will embrace what is right.
Let all those who do justice and love mercy say amen.
AUDIENCE: Amen!
REV. LOWERY: Say amen --
AUDIENCE: Amen!
REV. LOWERY: -- and amen.
AUDIENCE: Amen! (Cheers, applause.)
Thanks to Street Prophets for the link to this truly scary, truly unChristian thought:
That's why I do not hesitate today in calling on godly Americans to pray that Barack Hussein Obama fail in his efforts to change our country from one anchored on self-governance and constitutional republicanism to one based on the raw and unlimited power of the central state.I am speechless and offended as a Christian and as an American citizen. I am saddened as well. But I am not surprised. Fortunately this is an extreme view that is better left aside.
It would be folly to pray for his success in such an evil campaign.
--Joseph Farah, World Net Daily
Prior to the Inauguration yesterday there were a number of moments over the past week that gave a sense of what all this was really about. Off the top of my head here were the things that struck me as important- whether materially or symbolically.
A little more than 44 years ago Dr. Martin Luther King went to Norway and accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, as he said, on behalf of movement that hadn't achieved its goal, nor the goal of peace that the award celebrated. Today many of those dreams came true.
Today the world can see that at our heart the United States does work hard at practicing the principles we preach. We have had a peaceful transition of power as we have had with only one exception (1861) for 233 years. We have shown that on many levels the promise of equality is real. Here is what Dr. King said on that day in 1964. Read it and weep for joy!
I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when 22 million Negroes of the United States of America are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice. I accept this award on behalf of a civil rights movement which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of justice. I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children, crying out for brotherhood, were answered with fire hoses, snarling dogs and even death. I am mindful that only yesterday in Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeking to secure the right to vote were brutalized and murdered. And only yesterday more than 40 houses of worship in the State of Mississippi alone were bombed or burned because they offered a sanctuary to those who would not accept segregation. I am mindful that debilitating and grinding poverty afflicts my people and chains them to the lowest rung of the economic ladder.
Therefore, I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is beleaguered and committed to unrelenting struggle; to a movement which has not won the very peace and brotherhood which is the essence of the Nobel Prize.
After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I receive on behalf of that movement is a profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time—the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression. Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts. Negroes of the United States, following the people of India, have demonstrated that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation. Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love….
I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the “isness” of man’s present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal “oughtness” that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.
I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. I believe that even amid today’s mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men. I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive good will proclaim the rule of the land. “And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid.” I still believe that We Shall Overcome!
January 20 - Lyndon Baines Johnson leaves office as Richard Milhous Nixon is sworn in as the 37th President of the United States of America.
Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, the first openly gay bishop of the Episcopal Church gave the following invocation at the "We Are One" celebration at the Lincoln Memorial..
O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…Sadly this prayer took place 10 minutes before the "official" start of HBO's programming of the event. Perhaps somehow it will end up on YouTube.
Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.
Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic “answers” we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.
Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be “fixed” anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.
Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.
Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.
Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.
And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.
Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for ALL the people.
Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.
Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.
Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.
Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.
Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.
And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.
AMEN.
--Episcopal Cafe
I find the proximity of today's celebration of Martin Luther King Day with tomorrow's inauguration of our first African-American President more than just a curiosity. It is a reminder of how far we have truly come in the past 41 years since Dr. King's death. Yes, I know that's a cliche these days. But by writing it again I am trying to reinforce in my mind the fact of it, the truth of its still unbelievable historic importance.
Yesterday part of the kickoff of the inaugural events took place at the Lincoln Memorial, truly sacred ground for many of us. There in front of The Great Emancipator Dr. King enunciated his dream. It is still an indelible image of, then, unrealized promise and hope. It is still a reminder of how far from reality that dream was in 1963. (Link to YouTube of speech.) Yesterday the Obama inauguration celebration began. It is one of the great moments of the American Dream and the American Promise of liberty and justice for all. It may be one of the greatest moments of my 60 years of life and may define a different understanding of our nation forever.
On this MLK Day in this 2009 Inaugural Week may a new dream be born. But more on that tomorrow. For today, again, words of Dr. King, still relevant, still challenging all these years later.
No individual can live alone, no nation can live alone, and anyone who feels that he can live alone is sleeping through a revolution. The world in which we live is geographically one. The challenge that we face today is to make it one in terms of brotherhood….
Through our scientific and technological genius, we have made of this world a neighborhood and yet we have not had the ethical commitment to make of it a brotherhood. But somehow, and in some way, we have got to do this. We must all learn to live together as brothers or we will all perish together as fools. We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the way God’s universe is made; this is the way it is structured.
Source: A Knock at Midnight: Inspiration From the Great Sermons of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Second Sunday of Epiphany
By Helen Mallicoat
I was regretting the past
and fearing the future.
Suddenly my Lord was speaking:
My name is I AM.
When you live in the past,
with its mistakes and regrets,
it is hard. I am not there.
My name is not I Was.
When you live in the future,
with its problems and fears,
it is hard. I am not there.
My name is not I Will Be.
When you live in this moment,
it is not hard. I am here.
My name is I AM.
Source: Found in The Silence of Unknowing by Terence Grant
on Inward/Outward.
Kim over at Connexions posted a "Decalogue" of Bushisms. Here are my favorite Bush Classics...
“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”Read the whole list here.
“I heard somebody say, ‘Where’s (Nelson) Mandela?’ Well, Mandela’s dead. Because Saddam killed all the Mandelas.”
I admit to being a pack rat, even with saved posts on my Bloglines page. Back in October 2006, Mike at Waving or Drowning? posted the following quote from A.W. Tozer. I said "Ouch" when I first read it. I say it again today as I finally get around to posting it. It is truly an affliction to the comfortable.
The amount of loafing practiced by the average Christian in spiritual things would ruin a concert pianist if he allowed himself to do the same thing in the field of music. The idle puttering around that we see in church circles would end the career of a big league pitcher in one week. No scientist could solve his exacting problem if he took as little interest in it as the rank and file of Christians take in the art of being holy. The nation whose soldiers were as soft and undisciplined as the soldiers of the churches would be conquered by the first enemy that attacked it. Triumphs are not won by men in easy chairs.
A.W. Tozer, We Travel an Appointed Way
Back on election day Bob Carlton on his blog The Corner, posted the following drawing with the title: As of today, American leadership is no longer one color. In three days the promise will be reality.
Exciting!
From Jessica at Indexed a card that could be titled- Check Your Age at the Door....
Some good news for a change:
Study Results say: Drinking coffee reduces risk of Alzheimer'sWhich brings me to one of my favorite quotes about my favorite drink:"
Coffee, the sober drink, the mighty nourishment of the brain, which unlike other spirits, heightens purity and lucidity; coffee, which clears the clouds of the imagination and their gloomy weight; which illuminates the reality of things suddenly with the flash of truth."
- Jules Michelet,
"Love is all you need," or so said Lennon and McCartney in one of the Beatles's hits. Two movies we saw recently were built on that very premise.
The first is the current Oscar possibility, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (IMDB, Tomatometer= 72%). Based on the idea from an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story it shows us what happens when Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) is born old and progressively gets younger. A great cast including Cate Blanchett, Julia Ormond, Tilda Swinton, and Taraji P. Henson come into (and out of) Benjamin's life as he goes from the end of WW I at his birth to Hurricane Katrina approaching New Orleans.
Through the wonders of computer graphics we watch Brad Pitt grow young while learning how to live and love. We see the heartbreak of loss and the promise of hope. We rejoice in that bittersweet moment when the aging Cate Blanchett and the de-aging Brad Pitt realize the significance about in the middle when in their 40s. We see what love can do when decisions have to be made at different points in life.
Pitt is excellent, as expected. So are Swinton and Blanchett. Henson is remarkable as Queenie, Benjamin's surrogate mother- an African-American running a nursing home. The underlying theme of aging played against Pitt's reversal of the arrow of time is poignant when the nursing home residents refer to Benjamin as "one of us." The cross-racial divide is closed as well.
But in the end it is love, motherly, fatherly, marital, friendship and sexual that propels the movie along. In the end it may very well be that "all you need is love" in order to get through this life, in either direction.
Which brings me to the second film we saw. The 2007 Across the Universe (IMDB, Tomatometer= 54%) is a double-edged love story starring Jim Sturgess and Evan Rachel Wood. The one story is the love the director, Julie Taymor, and the producers have for the music, culture, and iconography of the music of the Beatles. This is a musical built around that soundtrack. The other love story is the one to be expected from the plot, which, while fairly predictable, is still more than you expect to find.
The movie takes place against the back-drop of the 60s with the anti-war protests, hippie and music culture, and substance use. The songs are sung by the people in the movie (including Bono and Joe Cocker as well as the characters). It is not a Beatles soundtrack but often an interpretation of one. "Getting by with a little help from my friends" is an extended campus party. "I want to hold your hand" is a sad song of unrequited love.
The movie was not all that well received by critics at its release. But I tend to agree with my favorite critic, Roger Ebert, who gave this four stars in a really interesting review. (Link.) One of his money quotes:
The beauty is in the execution. The experience of the movie is joyous. I don't even want to know about anybody who complains they aren't hearing "the real Beatles." Fred Astaire wasn't Cole Porter, either. These songs are now more than 40 years old, some of them, and are timeless, and hearing these unexpected talents singing them (yes, and Bono, Izzard and Cocker, too) only underlines their astonishing quality.To which I say Amen! Rent the movie and just enjoy it. Look for the subtle and not so subtle Beatles references, then go to IMDB trivia for the movie and see what you missed.
As of 1:00 pm today we are at 2 1/2 days below zero (F). This morning's low was -24 degrees F. with a wind chill of 51 below that I can only call "evil." It looks like we might have around another 24 hours left before the temps rise above zero to a forecast high on Friday of +7 (F). All schools in the area were closed today due to the cold. That doesn't happen very often!
(BTW, in case you were wondering- and you probably weren't- the last time we were above freezing was around 11:00 am on Dec. 29. It should happen again on Tuesday or Wednesday.)
This has been a cold winter!
From this morning's Weather Service "Hazardous Weather" statement:
ONE OF THE COLDEST AIRMASSES OF THE DECADE WILL POUR INTO THE AREA TODAY...AND BECOME ENTRENCHED OVER THE AREA TONIGHT.So far, as of 11:00 am on Wednesday we have been below Zero (F) for 34 hours. Today's high was this morning and is dropping. No relief until Friday when it will warm up to +6 (F). A change is forecast for the weekend.
Watching TV and reading some other places I find there is quite a fury rising wanting to prosecute Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld for war crimes and other criminal acts such as torture. It is quite a question to ask. It has incredible repercussions.
On one side is the idea that such action will make a clear statement to the world that we do have a certain moral position that we are willing to uphold.
On the other side, which Obama/Biden seem to be taking, is the feeling that we need to move on- look to the future, not the past.
(This of course does not take into account those who believe Bush et al. were within legal rights to do what they did.)
Don't be surprised if the Senate confirmation hearings of the Attorney-General Designate don't land on this issue. It could be quite a show.
I must admit to mixed feelings. And my reasoning goes back to Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon before Nixon was even indicted for anything wrong. Ford took a great deal of political heat for his stance and it may even have been a significant factor in his loss to Jimmy Carter in 1976. Ford always believed that he did the right thing for the country. We were a battered nation, internally. The whole Watergate mess coming on top of the Vietnam War debacle, mixed in with assassinations and many other things now relegated to distant memory had turned our national psyche into a case study of social PTSD.
Ford felt that a trial of a former president of the United States would do more harm than good. It would stir up dirt and anger and feelings galore. It was better, he reasoned, to pardon Nixon and put it behind us.
I have a feeling he was right. History seems to have shown that anger and a desire for revenge against the "I-am-not-a-crook" crook would probably have been counter-productive and would have only served to further divide the nation even more than it continued to be. It was a brave political act on Ford's part and may have been the right one.
President-elect Obama is in a similar situation. He is trying to bring the nation together. He is trying to build a bigger tent for more people to be able to work together for the best interests of the country. He will do controversial things. The decision to have Rick Warren pray at the inauguration was one. (Not a move I support.) So, probably, may be the one to have Gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson pray on Sunday. (Good move, by the way.) Obama is trying to enfold many different people and perspectives into his plans is admirable.
He may very well have to ignore Bush et. al''s crimes. He may have to decide whether the nation's healing is based on getting even with Bush et. al. for what they have done to the Constitution and our armed forces and our world-wide street cred. Or is it based on forgiveness and righting what was done wrong. There are many arguments on this one. It will not be an easy choice.
I hope he makes the right one, which, unfortunately as in the Ford-Nixon pardon may not be known for another 30 years.
Last evening when I went to bed around 10:30 the temperature was 7 degrees F. Around 1:00 am according to the weather service record it was 0 degrees. This morning when I woke up it was -14 F. Right now (11:00 am-ish) it is -11.
Just thought I would make any polar bears jealous of our warm weather.
We can only look ahead to a hot and humid 30 degrees F by Sunday.
Well, the awards season got a big kick-off last night with the Golden Globes. While they are fun they are not always good indicators of what's to come with the Academy Awards. From all I've been reading, it seemed like the winners were often what one would expect. Some movies were obviously left out of the nominations, or at least not given the attention they deserve, the two most notable being Milk which had only one nomination for Sean Penn and Gran Torino which was only nominated for Best Song. In any case here were last night's winners...
Slumdog Millionaire
Simon Beaufoy, Best Screenplay
A. R. Rahman, Best Score
Danny Boyle, Best Director
Best Picture, Drama
>>This is my film to see for the weekend. Everything I read indicates that it is as good as the Golden Globes think it is. The Indie Star of the year.
The Wrestler
Bruce Springsteen, Best Original Song
Mickey Rourke, Best Actor, Drama
>>Mickey Rourke playing a Mickey Rourke-like character. It's the kind of thing that makes one feel good. Sean Penn, Clint Eastwood and Leonardo DeCaprio better watch out.
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Best Picture, Comedy or Musical
>>Woody Allen, and an all-star cast. Too bad comedies don't do well in the Oscars.
The Reader
Kate Winslet, Best Supporting Actress
>>The Holocaust Drama. Should be a Best Picture nominee. Kate Winslet at her best- as usual.
Wall-E
Outstanding Animated Feature
>>No brainer!! It is #1 on a number of Top Ten lists.
Happy-Go-Lucky
Sally Hawkins, Best Actress, Comedy or Musical
>>I know nothing about this one. Slightly off the radar.
The Dark Knight
Heath Ledger, Best Supporting Actor
>>Another no-brainer. The nostalgia vote AND great acting!
Waltz With Bashir (Israel)
Best Foreign Language Film
>>Good timing and, from all I read a stunning achievement.
In Bruges
Colin Farrell, Best Actor, Musical or Comedy
Revolutionary Road
Kate Winslet, Best Actress, Drama
>>Kate, again. Even she was surprised.
The Academy Awards nominations will be announced in 10 days. We shall see.
Side Note: Saw Gran Torino over the weekend. Top grosser for the weekend. Eastwood's best opening ever. It is quite a movie. Top quality!!! Review later.
January 12 - Led Zeppelin I, an album considered by many to be one of the first in the heavy metal genre, is released.Of course we didn't know at the time that something new was being born. Led Zeppelin was a Supergroup with some amazing musicians. No one realized the implications of this loud, power-music. Looking back is still the best way to see the musical earthquake that started on that January day.
I just want to live this stuff out!
But I waste too much time trying to understand.
And my ducks aren't in a row
And I need to do something first.
I just want to live this stuff out!
The liberated life of giving myself away
But I am just too scared.
And I have to go to work.
I just want to live this stuff out!
But I am not educated enough
And my formula is not just right.
If only I understood you better before I took my first step!
I just want to live this stuff out!
And shout from the rooftops that you exist
But I can't muster up the courage to do so.
It's really because I am too busy.
You say follow me,
And I want to, I think.
But on my terms where I can dictate
Just how much of this stuff I live out.
--John Santic
I continue to be bothered by the whole economy thing. It seemed like a guilt-inducing bit of news that gee, whiz, we mean nasty consumers aren't doing our part to help the economy. We should just have bought more and more at Christmas. And the way of giving us a tax stimulus rebate now is to just decrease our withholding. That way we are more likely to spend it instead of putting the One Big Check into a savings account.
Then the Burnside Writer's Blog posted this highly apt quote from Wendell Berry. It says it well, as would be expected from Berry:
The idea of the current crop of "conservatives" - that government can cater to greed and leave charity to volunteers - is vicious and it can't work. The "liberal" idea - that the failures of a greedy and wasteful economy can be effectively patched by government services and regulations - is also hopeless. There is no way to get a good result from an economy that institutionalizes greed as an honorable motive and excuses waste and destruction as "acceptable costs."
- Wendell Berry in a 2005 interview with Preservation Magazine
from (The Customer is) Not Always Right:
Customer: “There seems to be a problem with my ATM card. I can’t get any money out.”
Me: “Hold on, let me check your account…you only have $3.35 in your bank account.”
Customer: “Ok, so how do we fix that?”
I'm sorry, but after all that I realize that I have to disagree with Barack Obama. I know what he's trying to do, but he's wrong about Rick Warren offering the invocation.It was the hatred submersed under the guise of morals and religion that helped kill Harvey Milk. It is right to attempt to be President to all the people. It is not right to give voice to hatred and prejudice. We wouldn't do it for a racist or anti-Semite who can give- what to them is as clear an expression of logic and support for their untenable position. This does not take away from Warren's accomplishments in other areas and his "Purpose-Driven" style. But the position on gay rights is very dangerous. There are other ways for Obama to be the President of all the people. To put Warren in the Inaugural spotlight is not one of them.
BARRYAnglicized form of the Irish name Bairre, which is a diminutive of FIONNBHARR. It is also used as an Anglicized form of BEARACH. (Fionnbharr: Means "fair hair", derived from Gaelic fionn "white, fair" and barr "head". Saint Fionnbharr of Cork was a 6th-century bishop who supposedly performed miraculous cures. The Barry Islands off Wales were named for him.)Just thought you'd like to know.
When I first saw this picture this afternoon I didn't want to lose it. It is one of those historic moments that you don't see very often. Usually only at a state funeral or the like. It is a very elite group of people and the addition of the first African-American to the list is still astounding.
An old Jewish story tells of a rabbi who asked his disciples, "How do you know when the night is giving way and the morning is coming?"
One of the disciples stood and said, "Teacher, won't you know that night is fading when, through the dim light, you can see an animal and recognize whether it is a sheep or a dog?"
The rabbi answered, "No."
"Rabbi," asked another. "Won't you know that the dawn is coming when you can see clearly enough to distinguish whether a tree is a fig or an olive?"
"No," responded the teacher. "You'll know that the night has passed when you can look at any man and any woman and discern that you are looking at a brother or a sister. Until you can see with that clarity, the night will always be with us."
Harvey Milk was the first openly Gay man elected to a significant position as a supervisor in San Francisco in the late 70s. That was the era of in-the-streets Gay activism still less than 10 years after the Stonewall Riot in Greenwich Village kicked open a lot of doors. Milk, along with San Francisco mayor Moscone was assassinated by former supervisor Dan White.
That's the plot of this top-quality film, Milk starring Sean Penn as Milk, Josh Brolin as White, James Franco as Milk's lover, and Emile Hirsch as Cleve Jones. But the plot in this case is just a structure on which to build a story. In essence it is a snapshot of the 1970-78 era. In Milk we see the movement's shift from secret sex to open activism. We see the willingness to begin to step outside the Gay community for support and to stand up and be counted. We see what may have been the peak of excitement and frenzy and hope before AIDS came crashing in only a few years later.
The acting is excellent. The story and everything about the movie is Academy Award quality. You will be confronted by the Gay lifestyle. After years of Gay men playing straight (from Rock Hudson to Neal Patrick Harris) here we have straight men playing Gay. Brokeback Mountain got a lot of publicity for its Gay love story. But that was a story that could have been straight or Gay. It was star-struck love. This is a different story. This is about being Gay today, though set in 1978. Current political trends don't look all that different than they did then. It is also about the power of political activism.
But thanks to Harvey Milk and now this movie it is not 1978 we are reminded that the times are different and we can make a difference. More to come on that later in the week, but when you get the chance see this movie.
Grace, she takes the blameComing from God, yes, it does change the world. In fact it goes against all the ideas of God that we so dearly cling to- a God out to get us. A God who expects us to DO something in order to be loved. No- that is not the God that came to walk among us after being born in those humble quarters of a stable back behind the Inn.
She covers the shame
Removes the stain
It could be her name
Grace...
It's a name for a girl
It's also a thought that changed the world
And when she walks on the streetOutside of karma? Karma?-- the effects of a person's actions that determine their destiny?? --our "action" or "doing" that have eternal impact on us and our world?? --whatever one does, says, or thinks is a karma? No. Grace is far beyond destiny or the outcome of our actions. Grace is the work of God's actions which change our destiny into God's desires.
You can hear the strings
Grace finds goodness in everything
Grace, she's got the walk
Not on a ramp or on chalk
She's got the time to talk
She travels outside of karma, karma
She travels outside... of karma
When she goes to work, you can hear the stringsStrings? Yes, and trumpets and angels wings. Let the shepherds tell what they saw and heard. Let the world know. Grace is born.
Grace finds beauty in everything
What once was hurtLike we human beings? Like what was once dead in sin? What was ignored and left out and oppressed? Yes. Again and again, YES! Why do we find it so hard to accept? Why do we spend so much time and energy explaining- and explaining away- the power of Grace? We are so not gracefilled and graceful. And yet....
What once was friction
What left a mark
No longer stings...
Because Grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things
Grace finds beauty in everythingEven you, and even me. Thank God for Grace!
Several times in the past few days someone had a quote to share from that world famous and much maligned author, Anonymous. As I often am, I was intrigued by what else she/he had said that was documented. I went to The Quotation Page and found a few that struck me as deep, profound, and just plain fun to me.
The first two sound like good advice, even if I have trouble achieving their perfection.
A closed mind is a good thing to lose.The next one just sounded like something that reminded me of why some people seek help- myself included at times in my past.
A closed mouth gathers no feet.
A good scare is worth more to a man than good advice.Sometimes Mr/Ms A. is able to capture the essence of the world around us. A quick pithy saying that makes you smile, and then in mid-smile a light goes on.
Time is that quality of nature which keeps events from happening all at once. Lately it doesn't seem to be working.At other times I don't even pretend to understand. It just sounds like something that should make sense. Like...
God is not dead but alive and well and working on a much less ambitious project.And finally, Old A. has known such wide acclaim it makes this last quote almost superfluous, or true. Sort of.
Write a wise saying and your name will live forever.
Here's how it goes....
The price of gas went way up, so people stopped driving as much. Even as the gas prices tanked (sorry, couldn't avoid it) we didn't go back to our previous habits.
That's good. Many were worried that the price drop would send us back out on the roads and reverse the hopeful trend that we will learn better oil-use habits.
But it turns out that this is bad- for taxes. As we have driven less there are fewer gallons of gas sold. That means fewer tax dollars are collected.
So they want to raise gas taxes or there won't be enough money available to fix roads and bridges.
Which will raise the price of gas again. Which, according to the law of supply and demand or something or other, will mean that we will drive less.
Which is good. Except that tax receipts will decrease.....
You got the message. Which, as many understand it, will in reality be a very good thing for the long term decline in our oil needs. Maybe, finally, we will once and for all cut our gas usage and perhaps push Detroit to have better fuel efficiency. It may be painful in the transition, but our grandchildren may thank us.
January 1, 1958: Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance.
Yes, I am old enough to remember. No one knew what it meant for sure. All I understood as a 10-year old 5th grader was that there was something about a revolution. The troops led by Che Guevara then entered Havana on Jan. 4 followed by Castro on January 6. The US government recognized the Castro government on January 7.
The rest is a sad and difficult history.
How odd that Castro is still alive today, the last of the Cold War era leaders still alive and in some semblance of power. He has been an odd constant in history for a very long time which means that it is hard to guess what might happen when he is finally gone. Perhaps some significant change will occur with the new Obama administration.
