The Faithful Traveler: Exploring the California Missions

"San Carlos Borromeo Mission" by Jsweida - Own work.
Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Diana and David von Glahn, the husband-and-wife team behind the travel series, The Faithful Traveler, which broadcasts on EWTN, are turning to Kickstarter to raise funds for their latest series, Exploring the California Missions.

The 10-13 episode travel series will look at the history and Catholic tradition behind all 21 California Missions, and will be produced in time for the canonization of Bl. Junipero Serra.

With just 45 days to fund the project and six months to get it ready for broadcast, the producers are hopeful that potential funders will support their efforts to tell the story behind the Missions.

There is hardly a more romantic and Catholic part of U.S. history than the California missions. Diana and David would be the perfect guides.

They've got wonderful photos and information up at Kickstarter, where you may contribute to their series.

Worth a Thousand Words: Gorilla, Gorilla

Gorilla, Gorilla - Western lowland
taken by Valerie, ucumari photography
Some rights reserved

Well Said: More to Read Than We Can Read

We all have a lot more to read than we can read and a lot more to do than we can do. Still, one of the things I learned from Mom is this: Reading isn't the opposite of doing; it's the opposite of dying.

Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club

Well Said: Not Before God

There's a thing in The Dark is Rising, the Christmas one, which is definitely the best of them, where Will does magic in a church, and the vicar asks about the magic crosses and they say they're before Christ, and he says, "But not before God. ... In children's books with magic everything is always very black and white though not of course in Tolkien. But "not before God" made me think.

Jo Walton, Among Others

I came across The Dark is Rising before realizing it was part of a series, in fact the second in a series. I liked it so much that I then tried the first book which I didn't like as well. This quote and Jo Walton's use of it makes me want to reread it.

Floridian Adventures in Health - UPDATED

Mom's happy home time lasted three days before the exact chain of events happened that sent her to the hospital last time.

This time I was with her all day and had the dubious pleasure of calling 911 (my poor sis did it the first time). There are few things as surreal as standing in a darkened bedroom, groping for health details of your mother, while six large men are running heart monitors, barking code to each other, and (in turn) all asking very similar questions.

I did ride in the front seat of the ambulance to the hospital with a very calendar-worthy young EMT who was also very polite and conversational.

We've had various other experiences in the hospital, including discovering the world's worst doctor, and delving into the depths of the health care system to find out how to fire one's doctor when the system says you have to keep him until you go home.

God bless patient care advocates is all I can say!

Needless to say I have extended my stay for another week.

UPDATE
Mom's definitely on the upswing. All it took was a doctor who'd actually come by to see her, listen, and then order tests to begin figuring things out. Crazy, right?

Gone to Florida - UPDATED

I'm off to visit Mom in the hospital and give some relief to my sister who's been bearing the brunt of keeping an eye on things.

I'll check in when I can ... and I ask for your prayers.

Thank you!

UPDATE
Huzzah! Mom is home! She has health problems that will need vigilance but nothing that can't be managed with a regular lifestyle, so we are very blessed.

Thank you so much for all your prayers!

The Ancient Path by John Michael Talbot and Mike Aquilina

The Ancient Path: Old Lessons from the Church Fathers for a New Life Today by John Michael Talbot and Mike Aquilina

John Michael Talbot tells the story of how the Church Fathers deeply influenced his spiritual, professional and personal life. Coming to the Christian faith as a young man during the turbulent 1960s, he soon grew a fond of the Church Fathers, including St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, St. Augustine and Gregory the Great and found guidance, reassurance and wisdom on his path to Jesus.

“The First Epistle of Saint Peter,” writes Talbot, “tells us that we are ‘a spiritual temple built of living stones.’ The early Church Fathers represent the first rows built upon the foundation of the Apostles. And that sacred building project continues throughout history to our time today. But it rests on the Fathers. It depends on them.”

C.S. Lewis famously wrote that “A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading.” John Michael Talbot could testify to the truth of that statement. He wasn't atheist but reading the Church Fathers pushed him from a Protestant path into one that he never could have predicted. The Ancient Path tells how Talbot's life and work were shaped by his encounters with those ancient writings.

It is a story with an unusual trajectory that you'll either find fascinating or odd. In this it echoes that of the Church Fathers themselves who have often earned those same adjectives because they were following an internal logic, God's logic, that was difficult to see from the outside. You get a good dose of Talbot's life as he founds a monastic community, marries, becomes a musician, etc. You get an even bigger dose of the Church Fathers and their influence on his internal growth. This means it also spills over into topics like prayer, liturgy, community life, environmentalism and more. As we read about Talbot's life we also are led to consider those topics in our own lives.

It's a good mixture and a good way to remind us how applicable the Church Fathers' lessons are to modern life, to our lives, wherever we are and whatever we do.

The Drop Box - mark your calendars, reserve your tickets now

The Drop Box

South Korean Pastor Lee Jong-rak's uses a drop box – built like a depository – to accept unwanted babies who would otherwise be abandoned to die.

I just saw a screening of this documentary last night. It is powerful and moving.

It is also showing only during March 3-5 at selected theaters.

I'm bursting to tell you more but I can't publish a review until the last week of February

I can, however, give you a heads up so you can buy your tickets now. Don't miss this one.

See the trailer and buy tickets here.

Read an interview with the director here, where perhaps the most powerful statement about the film is that it changed his own life.

I actually became a Christian while making the film so my hope and prayer would be that first and foremost, moviegoers would be able to experience God’s adopting love as a Father because that’s what changed my life. Additionally, I think people will be impacted by the film’s emphasis on the value and importance of all human life.

UPDATED: Prayers Please for My Mother

She had to go to the hospital yesterday and they're waiting for her system to settle down from dehydration, etc. so they can analyze her health and what caused this current crisis.

Any prayers would be much appreciated.

UPDATE
Thank you so much for the prayers. It turns out that Mom had a heart attack.

I'm heading to Florida, hopefully to keep her company during a quick recovery.

Your prayers are very much appreciated!

Side note: I noticed that once I got the news and knew I'd be leaving town I had three priorities: 1) What books to take; 2) What movies to take; 3) What audiobooks to take?

Clothes, luggage, flight reservations ... I eventually get around to them. After the serious packing.

Worth a Thousand Words: Waxwing

Waxwing
taken by Remo Savisaar

I just love Waxwings. Their clear gray contrasts so perfectly with the bright red accents, and all of it goes well with the bright red berries they love to eat. There is nothing so fascinating as seeing a large flock descend on a bush and denude it of fruit within 10 minutes.

We always called these Cedar Waxwings. I looked them up and saw that they are much more colorful than this bird which was labeled as a Bohemian Waxwing.

Well Said: Satan and Scars

Satan may appear in many disguises, and at the end of the world will appear as a benefactor and philanthropist — but Satan never has and never will appear with scars.

Fulton Sheen, Life of Christ

The Resurrected Christ keeps his scars. He shows his hands and side to Thomas to feel. I've thought about that before but never in relation to what Sheen says above. It resonates in my life because of how often I try to avoid giving of myself that might inconvenience me, or in other words ... leave a scar.

Worth a Thousand Words: The Quack

Gerrit Dou, The Quack, 1652

I love these crowd scenes because their reactions usually tell us a lot about both the main subject, in this case The Quack, and about the people themselves. I came across a good commentary on this painting which takes that further.

In this witty visual narrative about deception, the individuals in the crowd provide a visual commentary about the quack’s work. Like the hunter, he preys upon the vulnerable, just as the pickpocket preys upon the gaping woman, and the child baits the small bird. Like the pancake seller, the quack trades in truths that are "half-baked" (in Dutch, " raw or uncooked"); her act of cleaning the child seems a scatological comment on the quality of the quack’s productions. ...

There's a lot more to find out so do check the link.

Well Said: Pretend

I find it works best to suppose just one thing. Pretend you are a ghost, or Pretend your chemistry set works magic, or Pretend this dog is the Dog Star. Then I go on to explore the implications of this supposition. Quite often, I am totally surprised by the result.

Diana Wynne Jones, The Children in the Wood

This is a wonderful bit of advice for any fiction writers out there. It is also something I've begun keeping in mind when I'm reading. Quite often the books I don't like are Pretending about too many things or they have forgotten to explore the implications (and just sit around pretending without doing anything). One is chaotic and the other is dull.

Movie Review: Spare Parts

Spare Parts 2015 ★★★½

Starring George Lopez, Marisa Tomei, Jaime Lee Curtis

How four underdogs from the mean streets of Phoenix took on the best from M.I.T. in the national underwater bot championship.

That's the tagline from the Wired article, La Vida Robot, that brought these four kids to national attention. Don't go read that article until you've seen the movie though because when this movie says "based on a true story" they aren't kidding. This movie hews surprisingly close to the real story.

Oscar, Luis, Christian, and Lorenzo are brought together for very different reasons to form their high school's robot club. They'd never seen an ocean, had no funds, and would be going up against top schools from all over the country. Teacher and club sponsor Frank Cameron (George Lopez) has his own problems, beginning with the reason he left a lucrative engineering career to teach in an underfunded school. He cares nothing for the club and is not very encouraging about their chances but as they all gradually connect he becomes a true mentor.

Along the way we meet the plucky, slightly wacky principal (Jaime Lee Curtis) and the savvy computer teacher (Marisa Tomei) who makes Frank invest his whole self in teaching. These stars are what initially attracted me to the film and Tomei in particular reminded us of what good acting can be done with seemingly little effort. The acting was good all round, in fact, with George Lopez being the only weak link and showing a fairly limited range. Luckily the story really centers on the young men and those actors were engaging and invested us in the story. Until the story is set up the it feels a bit like a TV movie but once the tale is in full swing the movie blossoms into life and loses any stiffness.

Spare Parts also provided insights into Hispanic life. The kids are all undocumented Mexican-Americans. The many ways being "without papers" injects itself into each person's life were eye opening to me. Illegal immigration is a flash point and I almost didn't mention this detail because of that. But it was a fact of life for the real kids in this story and to leave it out of the movie would have been to serve up something bland to the audience. The fact is that the kids aren't debating politics or economics here. They are simply trying to live their lives as best as possible under difficult conditions that occasionally arise. That is how the movie treats it. It is not a soap box by any means.

We know the overall outline of the story as we enter the theater. Determination and ingenuity can surmount incredible odds. The kids become their best selves by rising above what is not provided by an overtaxed school system and what is denied by a system where it is easy to get lost in the cracks. But just because a story is recognizable doesn't mean it is not worth seeing, especially since this one hews so close to the truth. We are given these stories so they remind us that we ourselves can overcome adversity, even when we can't see the path ahead of us.

Spare Parts is a heart-warming family film that not only families will find well worth watching.

Worth a Thousand Words: A Country Scene

Taken by Scott D. Danielson

Well Said: Death, Be Not Proud

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;
For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow
Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,
Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,
And soonest our best men with thee do go,
Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.
Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,
And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,
And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well
And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?
One short sleep past, we wake eternally
And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

John Donne (1572–1631)

I'd often heard the line "Death, be not proud" tossed off but I'd never read the poem. In context, it is very powerful. I especially like "From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow". It reminds me of what a natural process death is. That might sound perverse or silly of me to have lost that connection but I had. And it was nice to have it restored, especially with Donne's further reminder that death has no power over us ultimately.

I Like Michael Keaton Now More Than Ever

His Golden Globe acceptance speech was humble, touching, and honest. I don't watch a lot of speeches, especially from awards ceremonies but this is worth seeing.

Via Deacon Greg Kandra at The Deacon's Bench.

Worth a Thousand Words: Ice Patterns

Ice Patterns
taken by Remo Savisaar

Weekend Joke: For Jenny and Other Librarians

Many thanks to Doug Savage for allowing me to share this.

Worth a Thousand Words: Basket of Fruit

Basket of Fruit, Caravaggio

I am not usually a fan of still life paintings but this one has something that draws me to it. Must be the Caravaggio factor.

Via Lines & Colors where there are interesting detail close ups and more information.

Worth a Thousand Words: The Winter's Tale

Himmapaan, Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale,
Act V, Scene III (clockwise from left: Perdita, Leontes, Hermione and Paulina).

Northanger Abbey on SFFaudio

I know, a fantasy and science fiction audiobook podcast does seem like a funny place to find Northanger Abbey. But where there's a will (and a funny book about gothic novels), there's a way. Jesse Willis and I discuss this lesser-known classic by Jane Austen at SFFaudio.

These Just In: Interesting Books for the New Year

Two devotionals arrived in a very timely fashion on New Year's Eve. Obviously I haven't had a chance to use either but they are both very appealing to my love of the saints and interest in the desert fathers.

A Daily Catholic Moment: Ten Minutes a Day Alone With God by Peter Celano

Simple, straightforward, and Catholic are the adjectives that might best describe this book of wisdom and spiritual practice. For each day you will find a verse or two from Holy Scripture, followed by a reflection from one of the great saints or writers of the Church and then a short prayer or intention.

Daily inspirations from the saints include Athanasius, Catherine of Siena, Francis of Assisi ... Great writers, poets and theologians past and present include Dr. Benet Tvedten OSB, Enzo Bianchi, G.K. Chesterton, Dorothy Day ...

It's interesting that compiler Peter Celano used a variety of different translations for scripture. I think that might make me look up different translations to see how they compare. That's a good thing in my book.

Here's a sample:

MAY 1

I will proclaim your name to my brethren;
in the assembly I will praise you.
— Psalm 22:23 (NAB)

"I have said that St. Francis deliberately did not see the wood for the trees. It is even more true that he deliberately did not see the mob for the men. What distinguishes this very genuine democrat from any mere demagogue is that he never either deceived or was deceived by the illusion of mass-suggestion. Whatever his taste in monsters, he never saw before him a many-headed beast. He only saw the image of God multiplied but never monotonous."—G. K. Chesterton

Help me today to see every person in the image of You.

A Little Daily Wisdom from the Early Church by Bernard Bangley

Following Christ’s example, many early Christians around the Mediterranean retreated to the desert for contemplation. These were ordinary men and women with a strong spiritual awareness. By the fourth century thousands had endured the rigors of desert survival. While they accepted visitors, they preferred long hours of solitude and quiet. They were not prolific writers. Instead, people jotted down the things they said. These sayings and anecdotes ultimately became parts of written collections. A Little Daily Wisdom from the Early Church gathers the best of this material, expressing it in clear, modern English. Each brief insight becomes a nugget for our own daily meditation throughout a year. With this book we can experience spiritual growth in our own quiet corner of this busy world.

Here's a sample:

6 MAY

The Lord is in his holy temple;

let all the earth keep silence before him!

Habakkuk 2:20

An Egyptian hermit said, "If you desire a spiritual pilgrimage, begin by closing your mouth."

Keep silence before the Lord.

The following two books look very interesting after a quick review of their introductions. Both are somewhat intellectual and I won't be getting through them in a hurry. However, they seem balanced and I wanted to let you know about them. The publisher description accompanies each.

Heaven Can Wait: Purgatory in Catholic Devotional and Popular Culture by Diana Walsh Pasulka

After purgatory was officially defined by the Catholic Church in the thirteenth century, its location became a topic of heated debate and philosophical speculation: Was purgatory located on the earth, or within it? Were its fires real or figurative?

Diana Walsh Pasulka offers a groundbreaking historical exploration of spatial and material concepts of purgatory, beginning with scholastic theologians William of Auvergne and Thomas Aquinas, who wrote about the location of purgatory and questioned whether its torments were physical or solely spiritual. In the same period, writers of devotional literature located purgatory within the earth, near hell, and even in Ireland. In the early modern era, a counter-movement of theologians downplayed purgatory's spatial dimensions, preferring to depict it in abstract terms--a view strengthened during the French Enlightenment, when references to purgatory as a terrestrial location or a place of real fire were ridiculed by anti-Catholic polemicists and discouraged by the Church.

The debate surrounding purgatory's materiality has never ended: even today members of post-millennial ''purgatory apostolates'' maintain that purgatory is an actual, physical place. Heaven Can Wait provides crucial insight into the theological problem of purgatory's materiality (or lack thereof) over the past seven hundred years.

Mary in Scripture, Liturgy, and the Catholic Tradition by René Laurentin

Examines the invigorating presence of Mary in the mystery of the redemption that is the heart of the life of the church. The author contemplates her presence in the course of Scripture, human and ecclesial history, the church fathers, the mystics, and others.

Blogging Around: The Family Edition

Two quick links to stories that are all about the Incarnation (remember we're not done with Christmas yet) because they are about family: the art of marriage and the many loving ways mothers and babies connect.

Master of the Winking Eyes,
Madonna and Child, ca. 1450

Did the Virgin Mary Tickle the Baby Jesus?

This was sent to me by the Reningers and how well they know me! I mentioned last week our priest's meditation on holding baby Jesus. This Dominicana blog post, prompted by the Picturing Mary exhibit, continues to expand our answers to Jesus' question, "Who do you say I am?" Be sure to read it all.

Happily, Pisano and the Master of the Winking Eyes have discovered and shared with us the divine intoxication of God’s true humanity in Jesus Christ, and how radically complete and all-the-way-down that is. When the Word was made flesh, he really became like us in all things but sin; and even then, he took on our sinful nature without suffering its moral brokenness in order to purify, heal, and elevate it, so that through his life, death, and resurrection, every good thing humans do can be a place where they meet Christ. That means that Jesus is as human as it gets: he got exhausted, took naps (although he had nowhere to lay his head), took baths, trimmed his beard, learned to walk and talk, and, as little babies are wont to do, squealed and squirmed with joy during mother-son playtime.

Complementarity of Men and Women as a Pas de Deux of Marriage

A New York Times piece about ballet prompted The Anchoress's thoughts toward complementarity in marriage. Too often we think about the differences between the sexes as something to overcome or battle, like a mountain to conquer together in marriage.  Reading about it in ballet terms shifts our focus to one of completing each other to create something better and new. Beautiful.

This Marina Harss piece is about partnerships in dance, of course, and yet it makes a point about complementarity that, when used with regards to traditional marriage, often inspires a sneer: men and women are different, and they have very different strengths, which allow them to do very different things; those strengths complement each other, permitting each to reach their greatest potentiality and self-expression. She relies on the gentle strength of his lift to help her achieve moments of transcendent, heart-stopping beauty. He gets to share, with his own subdued steadiness, and together they create something, and its totality is a composition of wonder.

Outside of the ballet, a man and woman, partnered, become a similar unit of awesome creation. Within a personal partnership (let’s call it a marriage) there exists a need for different types, different strengths, skills and instincts, and specific roles — with trained and measured responsibilities necessary in order to create that which transcends. One lifts, the other extends; one is the centering pole about which the other may fly and turn and reach, until both are raised to something new.

Weekend Joke: Question

Many thanks to xkcd for allowing me to share this!

2015 Book Challenge (and some movies) - UPDATED

UPDATE - END OF 2015
I wound up getting distracted from a lot of these about halfway through the year. The movies list was especially ignored. Yet, I am glad for this list because it did give me direction and I read books I might have missed otherwise.

==========

I was really delighted to get an email recently from a couple who follow along on my book challenges. They actually have read some of the books that I myself am reading.

This is power indeed! I will try to always use it for good and not evil. Therefore, rest assured that no Dostoevsky will enter these portals again!

You can find my 2014 Book Challenge here, with the results recorded. Overall it was very rewarding with only a few duds in the batch and I actually read most of the books on my list.

As before I'm carrying a few books over. And I may not get through all these. It isn't an assignment but a way to keep from getting distracted from these goals.

FICTION

1. Don Quixote
   I thought I'd read this last year but did what I have done twice before: read the first adventure, put it down "for a little while" and never picked it up again. I have the audiobook narrated by Simon Vance, thanks to the library, and will give this a try that way since audio has opened up so many good books to me which I couldn't get through otherwise.
   REACTION: even with an audiobook I only got through 20 chapters before feeling as if every adventure was a repeat of the one before. More or less. On the other hand, I did get through 20 chapters. I'm willing to admit this is a classic for good reason. Those reasons will just have to remain hidden from me as I'm giving up and moving on.
   
2. The House of Seven Gables
   I love his short stories and enjoyed The Scarlet Letter. Let's see what this lesser known novel is like.
   READ IT: loved this book which is so different from The Scarlet Letter. It almost is like a shorter Dickens novel with the oddball characters and descriptive passages.
3. North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell
   I was intrigued because Rose enjoyed this book and Heather Ordover did it last year at CraftLit. However, I wasn't crazy about the narrator and having seen that Juliet Stevenson has a reading at Audible (voice of Jane Austen, audiobook narrator extraordinaire) I thought I'd mosey along at my own pace.
   
4. Philip K. Dick
   I'm not sure which book I'll choose but I enjoyed The Galactic Pot-Healer so much when I read it a few years ago that I thought I'd try another.
   
5. Poetry
   I'm not sure why I've suddenly gotten interested in poetry but I am going to find a basic classic poetry anthology and read a poem aloud every day. We'll see how that works out.
   
   (Just to clarify I have never cared about poetry and so have ignored it most of my life. I know about the fog on little cat feet and the road less taken, as well as the man who wasn't there ... but that's about the extent of it. Any recommendations to read T.S. Eliot are going to have to wait until I can tell Tennyson from Wordsworth.)
   
   READ IT: 101 Classic Poems edited by Roy Cook - love this book and my poem a day. In fact, I love it so much I'm rereading it, a poem per day.

NONFICTION

1. Art - A New History by Paul Johnson
   I've been taking my time and enjoying this greatly but really would like to finish this book. 2015 is the year! It will happen!
   REACTION: It took me three years but I finished it! What a wonderful book! It is one I could easily see myself leisurely rereading. The intertwining of history outside of the art world made it really come alive and it has come to mind in a variety of contexts since I began reading it. It really enriched my worldview.
2. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien
   It is interesting just how often I am helped in everyday life by The Hobbit, believe it or not. I want to know Tolkien's thoughts in his own words now instead of just reading his fiction.
   REACTION: I really enjoyed the personal letters. Unfortunately there weren't nearly as many of those as I'd have liked. Most of the letters had to do with answering questions about The Lord of the Rings. At the time this book came out that was probably a good choice. People hadn't minded Tolkien's letters for information and no books were available which summed up a lot of that info for us. However, now there is a lot of that information out there and so I eventually wound up skipping over those letters. I'll probably never reread this (as opposed to my feelings about The Habit of Being) but I'm glad to have read them once.
3. Churchill: The Power of Words
   Tom read this and really liked it, except for a few speeches here and there. I'd like to read it but if I don't put it on this list it will never happen.
   ABANDONED: NOT because of the book but because I picked up the audio version of Boris Johnson's The Churchill Factor. That covered Churchill's life and used enough of his speeches that I have had enough Churchill for now. It was a really entertaining way to learn more about that great man. Perhaps some other time for this one.
4. Through a Night of Horrors: Voices from the 1900 Galveston Storm
   Another one that Tom read which I'd like to read. Tom's grandmother survived the great storm when she was 6 and so he's got a natural interest in the event. Flipping through it I was caught up in the immediacy of the voices as the story unfolded via letters, diary entries, and interviews.
5. The King's Good Servant But God's First: The Life and Writings of St. Thomas More by James Monti
   I've been wanting to read about St. Thomas More's life and his writings. This looks tailor-made!

REREAD

For no other reason than I enjoyed them the first time round but want to see if they stand up to rereading.

1. The Making of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman
   REACTION: I loved this book just as much as the first time I read it. I couldn't put it down and read it obsessively until I finished it in a few days. Highly recommended.
2. The Soul of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman—decided I didn't want to reread this after all. One Ruhlman this year was enough.
3. Cruel Beauty

MOVIES

I see that I didn't challenge myself last year. The results - without a list I didn't challenge myself much. So let's queue that baby up again.

1. Sophie Scholl - The Final Days
2. Laura
   REACTION We loved this classic noir film, especially the hard boiled detective investigating the murder.
   

   Mark McPherson: When a dame gets killed, she doesn't worry about how she looks.
   Waldo Lydecker: Will you stop calling her a dame?

3. Deliver Us From Evil
4. Tsotsi
5. City of God
6. The Exorcism of Emily Rose
7. Rashomon
8. Cloud Atlas

2014 Book Awards, Part 2

More awards which should speak for themselves. (Links go to reviews.)

DON'T HATE ME BECAUSE I'M BEAUTIFUL

• S.

A HECKUVA GOOD TIME

• Pretty Good Number One
• Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

IN MY HEAD, EVERY DAY

• A Song for Nagasaki
• The Smile of a Ragpicker
• Jane Austen's books

NOW IT MAKES SENSE!

• Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial?
• The Narnia Code
• Planet Narnia
• A Jane Austen Education

DEBUTANTE OF THE YEAR

• Ancillary Justice
• The Martian

TILT YOUR HEAD LIKE THIS

• David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

THE YEAR OF:

• Jane Austen
• C.S. Lewis
• Japanese Catholics

This one I'll explain. The Japanese Catholics and Jane Austen served to make me regularly mindful that I must be mindful of how I treat others. 

Meanwhile, I not only read C.S. Lewis's space trilogy, but began working my way through audiobooks of his theological writing. I'd read Mere Christianity recently but never his other nonfiction. These not only served as practical devotionals but also overlapped with Jane Austen and the Japanese Catholics in how I lived and, interestingly, how I understood the other books in my ken.

It's not a combination I'd have known to choose but one that I am sincerely grateful I fell into. I guess God not only looks out for fools but for those grabbing books at random off of shelves.

2014 Book Awards, Part 1

Rather than take my usual "defined in 10 words" route, these book awards should be self-explanatory. (Links go to my reviews.)

MARRY ME

• The Rosie Project
• Cruel Beauty

IT'S NOT YOU, IT'S ME

• Les Miserables

WORTH BEING CRUSHED IN BED

• The Source

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE? 

• Nancie McDermott
• Jane Austen

WHY DID I WAIT SO LONG TO READ THIS?

• C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength

THE END OF THE AFFAIR

• New Watch

More tomorrow!

Worth a Thousand Words: Snow in Germany

Snow in Germany
taken by my brother

This is one of those times when a picture really is worth a thousand words. It conveys a sense of cold, beauty, and winter more tangible than any translation into language.

Blogging Around: The "It's Still Christmas" Edition

We had a really wonderful Christmas, beginning the Saturday before when Rose came home from L.A. to make our joy complete. We entered into a whirlwind of family parties, food, games, and nonstop talking.

Rose has returned to California but in the Catholic liturgical year the Christmas season continues. Here are a few interesting stories to keep us all in the mood.

Nine Reasons Analog Games Are Awesome

The Art of Manliness blog reminds us that board games, card games and the like aren't just for Christmas. It's too easy to fall into playing computer games and watching movies together for entertainment without realizing that we lose a lot of human interaction ... and fun ... by not playing regular games together.

The Good Lord Needs Drama In His Life Too

I swing by The Rhino Times every Thursday to read Orson Scott Card's column, Uncle Orson Reviews Everything. This week I saw Scott D. Yost's piece about Christmas and spiritual warfare. It's a good 'un so be sure you read it all.

... spiritual war is like any other war: We’re all in it together, and we all have to be on high alert, not just for ourselves, but also for those around us. And, especially when it comes to your close friends and family, you really have to always watch out for each other and keep an eye out for when they’re under attack. And sometimes that means you have to give cover fire, or tackle them into a foxhole, or drag them out of harm’s way, and it means that sometimes they have to do that for you.

That’s exactly why God gave us all this almost magical ability to detect, to feel, to know, when our friends or family members are in trouble, even if we’re not around them or talking to them. That’s why, when you have a weak moment, and you need help, the doorbell rings, and it’s your best friend stopping by unexpectedly with a six-pack of beer, just to talk. Or why, at that very moment, your phone rings and it’s someone close to you you haven’t seen in a long time who suddenly got the urge to call you. We have that ability so that we can help protect each other.

Pittsburgh Hospital Sends Christmas Babies Home in Stockings

The Deacon's Bench has the story and the adorable photo.

Celebrating Our First Christmas with Alzheimer’s Disease: Laughter Allowed

A touching story rooted in deep Catholic faith. Via Sticking the Corners.

I cannot count the things that have been moved to the strangest places. ... She has hair curlers that keep vanishing. I have found them in the garage, in the refrigerator, and under the kitchen sink. We had been searching for them and when I found them in the refrigerator I said loudly, “Here they are.”

She was standing nearby and turned to see me lifting the bag from next to the milk. I quickly asked, “Can I use these for curly fries?” I began to laugh and she shook her head and smiled. I gave her a hug, opened the freezer door and tossed the curlers in. “They are not frozen enough,” I said. She began to laugh and so did I and, although shrouded in a dark moment, we laughed our way into the brightness of a new moment.

Favorite Movies of 2014

My favorite movies seen in 2014 with descriptions in 10 words or less. In the approximate order in which I saw them. Links are to reviews.

• Much Ado About Nothing (Joss Whedon, director)
  If all Shakespeare movies were like this, I'd love Shakespeare.
  
  
• Gravity
  Gravity. Not mentioned once in the movie. But integral.
  
  
• Captain Phillips
  Intense. Just remember to breathe.
  
  
• I Confess
  We should all have a priest as good as this.
  
  
• Mud
  Where I learned to not hate Matthew McConaughey.
  
  
• The Guard
  Directed by a McDonagh. Which means clever, humorous, and nuanced.
  
  
• Calvary
  Not for the faint-of-heart. But simply astounding.
  
  
• Spinning Plates
  It's not what you cook. It's why.
  
  
• That Guy ... Who Was in That Thing
  16 faces you recognize but can't name. 16 fascinating stories of Hollywood.
  
  
• Halloween
  It defined a genre. And deservedly so.
  
  
• Mama
  A supernatural thriller I didn't want to love, but couldn't resist.

Worth a Thousand Words: Schumann's Tagesbar

Schumann's Tagesbar in Munich
by Edward B. Gordon

I've said many a time that I love paintings which include modern jobs. Photographs tell one sort of story but it will be lovely for future generations to have paintings which portray our modern age. No one does that better than Edward G. Gordon.

Blogging Around: The Christmas Edition

Via Arts Everyday Living where there is interesting
 information about Dickens and his most famous story

A CHRISTMAS CAROL AT CRAFTLIT
Heather Ordover is sharing a book from her premium feed which she calls "audiobooks with benefits." You get her interesting and insightful commentary before and after the chapters (staves) are read aloud. It really enriches the understanding of the story. The CraftLit iTunes feed has these or you can pick them up here:

• A Christmas Carol 1
• A Christmas Carol 2
• A Christmas Carol 3

SANTA PREPARES YOU FOR BELIEF

... Santa doesn't prepare you for disillusionment—he prepares you for belief. He's a kind of training-wheel Jesus, presenting aspects of faith in a manner that kids can handle.

"If the Santa story is a type of the Jesus story, [it] persists because the Jesus story is true," Dr. Edie wrote."It is true because it reveals that all life ultimately comes to us as a gift. It is true in proclaiming that the receiving of this gift occurs in the sharing of it. It is true in its testimony to the powers above...as benevolent, close at hand, and definitely not us."

In other words, Santa is like a stage set. At a certain point, it is rolled away, revealing a story still more impossible to believe, where the sun shines, the trees glisten, and the presents patiently wait beneath theJohnston's tree.

Rich Cohen, WSJ essay Learning That There's No Santa Taught Me to Believe

I never understood the idea that finding out there was no Santa taught you to distrust grown ups or religion or anything. Perhaps that was because my parents steadfastly denied any claims that they were Santa until we were old enough to let it go ourselves. I was fairly old as such things go before that happened. And then being let in on the secret and allowed to participate in giving that joy to my younger siblings made it a sacred trust. That's why I like this piece which I found a bit meandering in the middle but which brought it home in style.

PAPA PANOV'S SPECIAL CHRISTMAS BY LEO TOLSTOY
I came across this story after having a big success reading The Gift of the Magi to my mother-in-law whose on-again, off-again dementia made it difficult to connect with during visits. She stopped gazing into the air, met my eyes intently for the duration of the tale, and asked me to read to her again when it was done.

Buoyed by my success I went looking for other such simple tales to read. It didn't take long to find Papa Panov's Special Christmas which intrigued me because of the famous author. It quickly became one of our favorite stories and was the last one I read to her before she died.

So it touched me when I saw that The Christmas Stocking podcast is featuring a reading. You don't have to listen. You can read it at Google Books.

THE SNOWMAN 
Joseph Susanka offers us a holiday special: the Oscar-nominated, BAFTA-winning version of Raymond Briggs’ “The Snowman.”

Worth a Thousand Words: Fellas of the Baltic Seas

Fellas of the Baltic Seas
taken by Remo Savisaar

How does Remo Savisaar get these shots? He is a genius at nature photography.

Movie Review: Unbroken

Unbroken (2014)

★★★★½

A chronicle of the life of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner who was taken prisoner by Japanese forces during World War II.

This remarkable story takes us through Louis Zamperini's life as a juvenile delinquent, championship runner, and after his plane is shot down in the Pacific during WWII. We learn the source and inspiration of the determination that helps him survive harrowing experiences.

The result is a powerful film which left me pondering the effects of war on both captors and captives, not just in WWII but in every conflict. The situations and lessons are as old as time.

Faith is shown and discussed briefly in the first half of the film but never with a heavy hand. Indeed, much of the last half depended on subtle imagery for us to see the Christ-like parallels being drawn. I applaud director Angelina Jolie for including an element that many would have chosen to eliminate, but which was so important to Zamperini's life.

It is beautifully photographed and directed with great restraint. I saw a review disdainfully mentioning that Jolie was determined to keep the rating PG13. I applaud her decision as working within those guidelines kept the majority of violence offscreen in the creative style of some of our most classic movies. That restraint also was evident in a brief but beautifully effective scene that reminded us of the cost of war to the civilian population.

Jack O'Connell as Louis Zamperini and Miyavi as "The Bird" give masterful performances in their adversarial relationship in the POW camp. Once again, this is where Jolie's restraint pays off. Again and again I expected, even longed for, the movie to take a "Hollywood" plot turn. Just as repeatedly I was answered with the unvarnished truth of how the events really happened.

My one complaint is that it is difficult to follow Zamperini's internal journey in the last third of the film. He has no buddy to chat with, no unguarded utterances to clue us in. Jolie does draw our attention to his gaze, with his fixed attention often giving clues. But we could have done with more help in that regard.

There was a teenage boy next to me at the screening. Early on he leaned forward in his seat, cross-legged, tensely alert. He watched the entire movie that way, leaning back only when it was finished and saying, "Awesome!"

Yes.

Worth a Thousand Words: Young Girl with a Bouquet of Tulips

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Young Girl with a Bouquet of Tulips, c. 1878
via Arts Everyday Living

Isn't it interesting that everything in this painting is fairly ethereal except the hat which is much more realistically drawn? And it is the hat that made me love this painting.

Worth a Thousand Words: Decorated Alley

Decorated Alley
by Remo Savisaar

Be sure to click through the link and look at this in full size. Simply superb.

"He thought he was being called. I thought he was being brainwashed"

A fascinating snippet of a sister's insight over what priesthood can do for the right man at Humans of New York.

In which we race for silver skates, play with trolls, and put our finger in the dike.

Chapter 2 of Heidi's Alp by Christina Hardyment is up at Forgotten Classics.

Worth a Thousand Words: Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates

Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates. Mary Mapes Dodge. Illustrated by George Wharton Edwards.
via Books and Art

I've been reading the second chapter of Heidi's Alp for Forgotten Classics. They're in Holland and following Hans Brinker's trail. Having read so much about that story, I just couldn't resist this when I saw it pop up.

The War on Christmas is over. Jesus won.

I couldn't resist stealing that from The Washington Post. Talk about grabbing your attention.

It's a perfect way to sum up the new Pew Research Center survey about Americans and Christmas.

That's the implication of a new Pew Research Center survey that finds nearly three-quarters of Americans -- 73 percent -- believe that Jesus was literally born to a virgin. This is especially surprising when you consider that only one third of Americans say that the Bible is the word of God and should be understood literally.

[...]

Another sign that the War on Christmas is over: 72 percent of Americans say nativity scenes should be allowed on government property. 44 percent say nativity scenes should be allowed even if symbols from other religious faiths are prohibited. Only one in five Americans say nativity scenes shouldn't be allowed on government property at all.

In other words, the squeaky wheel was getting all the media coverage while the rest of us were quietly celebrating Christmas because we believe in it.

Read the whole story and find links to the survey results here.

Weekend Joke: Don't Believe

Again, many thanks to Doug Savage for allowing me to share his humor here.

Worth a Thousand Words: Staplehurst Rail Crash

Staplehurst rail crash, 1865, Engraving in Illustrated London News
via Wikipedia

Naturally, I found this picture captivating after reading more about Charles Dickens' experience. The poor man lost his voice for two weeks and his son said he never really recovered from the shock. He died five years to the day after the accident.

Here's an interesting account of Dickens and the accident. A bit to whet your appetite:

The scene was covered with corpses and injured bodies. One young passenger, Mr. Dickenson, later recalled how it was the urging and assistance of Charles Dickens that ultimately helped to free him from a pile of twisted wreckage. Another passenger would later recall how Dickens, with his hat full of water, was "running about with it and doing his best to revive and comfort every poor creature he met who had sustained serious injury."

Worth a Thousand Words: Bill Elliot Swing Orchestra

By the brilliant Belinda Del Pesco who has more to say about this if you click through to her post.

Early Reaction - Unbroken

Unbroken (2014)

★★★★½

I was unaware of this movie until receiving the preview invitation. Which may make the film's marketers weep, but there you have it.

However, I was interested in the fact that the book was written by Laura Hillenbrand, author of Seabiscuit. I enjoyed the movie made from that book. Was this story as good?

I was interested in seeing Domhnall Gleeson, who I first noticed simply because he was Brendon Gleeson's son but whose talent I admired a lot in Calvary.

I was interested in seeing how Angelina Jolie did as a director. We've got those who've done it well like Clint Eastwood and those who can't really pull it off like George Clooney. I had no sense of where she would fall on this scale.

Let's just say this. Angelina Jolie is no George Clooney. And I mean that in the best possible way. World class is what I'd say.

The movie is fantastic and shouldn't be missed.

(I'll do a more complete review when the film opens or when I get the green light from the promoters.)

Worth a Thousand Words: Haystacks at Giverny

Haystacks at Giverny, Claude Monet, 1884
via Wikipedia

I remember seeing a row of Monet's haystacks at the Chicago Art Institute. Standing far back gave the best vantage point. I was fascinated by the schoolchildren sitting before the paintings, sketching their own copies of the art. And by a parent who was painstakingly taking each child in turn, having them move to the back of the room. He pointed out how the painting was better far away, while listing a few things the artist had to keep in mind when being so close to the canvas and painting the scene. Lucky kids! (Whether they realized it or not at the time.)

Review: Father Robert Barron's Priest, Prophet, King

It took a while for my review copy of Priest, Prophet, King to come. And then it took a while for me to watch it. However, once we began we binge-watched all six episodes.

Partly it was because we enjoy Father Barron's style. And this was like a really good Bible study taking us through Biblical history so we really understood how Jesus's fulfilled his titles of "priest, prophet, and king."

Partly it was because we couldn't figure out how he was going to get from "here" to "there." "Here" being Old Testament priests, etc., and "there" being the new evangelization.

Of course, he pulled it off. By the time we finished the sixth episode we had plenty of food for thought. We talked about it the rest of the evening and the next morning.

What's the format? Father Barron gives a series of six connected talks to an audience. Each is around 20 minutes long. This isn't as dull as it sounds because they intercut shots of masterpieces for illustration. This could have been released also in an audio format and I think I'd have gotten just as much from it. However, the video undoubtedly encourages group participation and discussion (there's a study workbook and leadership guide, though I haven't seen those). It did for us.

Was it worthwhile? Yes. Many of the concepts and information presented may be new to viewers and will be eye opening in how they understand Christ. Although we were familiar with a fair amount of it already, Father Barron connected everything in a way that engaged us, made us think, and even had us stopping the dvd mid-episode sometimes to discuss things.

Did it change our lives? Yes and no.

Why no?
Because, as my husband said while we were watching, "The new evangelization is really the old evangelization. It's just that everyone forgot to do it lately."

I myself am always wondering why I can't stick to a resolution to not bring up my Catholic faith. You wouldn't think you'd have to make such resolutions but time and again God's in the conversation. At the grocery store, at my movie group, on my nonreligious podcast. With believers and nonbelievers. All the time. He just ... comes up. I can't help it. And we help with various ministries at our parish as well as a few independent projects. So, as I say, we're already evangelizing just by the way we live our lives.

Why yes?
Father Barron gave us new ways to think about our own culture and where we fit in it as Catholics. Especially valuable and thought provoking were his discussions of:

• The rose window imagery of ordering life
• The devil as scattering, as dis-integration
• Sin as wrongly oriented worship with focus on pleasure, wealth, power, and honor
• Living in a society of accusers
• Rene Girard's ideas about scapegoats and society

These are points resonated so strongly that they've been the focus through which we've discussed local news, politics, and personal relationships in our own lives. It has been very clarifying in a lot of cases.

Do I recommend it? Yes. Definitely yes. 

This is something that will benefit every American Catholic, no matter how involved they are, no matter how well they understand the Bible, no matter how well they feel they have a handle on living their faith.

I'm passing my copy on to our pastor. Hopefully it will be studied in our parish soon.

He was just a humble student in Hobbit Studies at the University of Chicago ...

No one who gets a postgraduate degree in Hobbit Studies ever imagines they’ll be sued by the Estate of J.R.R. Tolkien. I certainly didn’t expect to wind up in court against Christopher Tolkien and his lawyers, like Frodo Baggins facing down the Nazgûl on Weathertop. Little did I know I was heading into a legal and scholarly Midgewater when I wrote and published The Lord of the Rings: A New English Translation.

As anyone who’s read the appendices to The Lord of the Rings knows, both it and The Hobbit are Tolkien’s translations from the so-called “Red Book of Westmarch,” an ancient manuscript written in Late Vulgar Adûni. How Tolkien came to possess the Red Book is a mystery, and the Tolkien Estate has never allowed other scholars access to it.

[...]

I decided to stop feeling sorry for myself and put my research skills to work on my defense. Unfortunately, the case law was sparse. The only similar case I found was The Estate of S. Morgenstern v. William Goldman over the latter’s abridged version of The Princess Bride. It was settled out of court. There was also Lemony Snicket’s lawsuit against Daniel Handler over Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography, though the court ruled that a pseudonym may not sue his own author, no matter how delightfully wicked and meta that would be.

How I Defeated the Tolkien Estate. So funny I read it twice. Enjoy!

Well Said: Through a Spider's Eyes

For years we were taught that a spider spins a new web every day and that certain threads are covered with a sticky substance to catch its lunch. The spider only puts the substance on certain strands so it can move easily and quickly across the web and not get stuck.

That was our vision of the spider and the web until a few years ago when Catherine Craig, an evolutionary ecologist at Yale, wondered if we had been operating under the wrong point of view. We looked at the web as people, but we never looked at the web as if we were insects—the spider’s prey. Insects have a different system of vision than us, and different from spiders. Insects see a different spectrum of light. Scientists decided for the first time to study the web using the insect’s ocular system.
What they found was amazing.

Insects could not see the web at all. The strands vanished, except for the parts of the web that were coated with the sticky stuff. They caught and reflected the sunlight. The scientists were taken aback when they saw that the spiders were not leaving some strands uncoated so they could navigate their webs.
They left them uncoated because they were painting—with sunlight!

The strands that had sticky stuff, when hit by the sun, when viewed through the ocular system and light spectrum visible to an insect, took on the outline of flower petals with the body of the spider in the center of the web becoming the pistil of the flower. It was not science. It was art. And perhaps something more.

A spider has different eyes than an insect. It sees a different world. It is painting something it doesn’t know, that it can’t see, and can only comprehend for itself as a potential dinner. It recreates this painting over and over again. If the spider succeeds and creates the illusion of a flower, she’ll catch a moth and will live. If not—she dies. So the finer artist survives.

Stephen Tobolowsky

What a continual mystery and wonderment creation is. It is discoveries like this that stretch my mind, delight my soul, and make me connect with God in a whole new way.

Still Swingin' at Christmas with Duke Ellington's Nutcracker Suite

Like every family, we've got our standard Christmas albums that begin rotation around this time of year. Admittedly I put it off at least until the middle of  December but if I don't get Christmas music going by then I wind up in a distinctly Grinchy mood by the time the big day rolls around.

As I pointed out a few years ago, our rotation leans heavily on Ella Fitzgerald, the Rat Pack, New Orleans, and Bing Crosby. Never discounting our possible all time favorite, Ringo Starr.

Every year we pick up a new Christmas cd and this weekend we picked a winner that is already livening our house. Last year I had discovered Gordon Vernick's Jazz Insights on iTunes. Poking through past episodes I was intrigued to hear his two-part special on Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's take on the Nutcracker Suite. Swingin' ain't the word for it.

The Nutcracker Suite is some of Tom's favorite Christmas music and he also loves the Duke so I don't know why it took me this long to remember to look for it.

It is simply terrific. I don't know how they did it but this solid jazz take keeps the original classic front and center while still managing to be unique in its own right.

Weekend Joke: Han Solo in the Confessional

Han: “Forgive me, father, I have sinned. My last confession was before I did the Kessel run in under 12 parsecs.”

Priest: “But parsecs are a measure of distance, not time.”

Han: “What?”

Priest: “Never mind. What do you need to confess?”

Han: “I shot first.”

There are more Star Wars confessions at Acts of the Apostasy and they are all hilarious.

For those who want more, The Curt Jester provides.