A Movie You Might Have Missed #4 - Serenity

It's been 10 years since I began this series highlighting movies I wished more people knew about. I'm rerunning it from the beginning because I still think these are movies you might have missed.

4. Serenity

Is it a western? Yes. Is it sci-fi? Yes. 500 years in the future, society is a mixture of "core" planets with all the luxuries and those on "the rim" where life is more like living in a old time Western. The Alliance, the totalitarian government, controls everything in the core and would like to exert the same control over all the planets.

Simon and River Tam are on the run from The Alliance. They take refuge on a spaceship whose crew will do anything, legal or illegal, to keep fed and in the air. As a survivor from the losing side in the recent civil war, the ship's captain, Mal Reynolds, doesn't mind going against the authorities but has to rethink his decision when the Alliance sends an assassin to track River down. What follows is a fantastic, fast moving adventure crackling with wit. It is also one that examines what different men choose to put their faith in, how strong that belief is, and what it means to live an unexamined life. (My complete review is here.)

Catherine of Siena

Catherine of Siena by Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale,
from her "Golden Book of Famous Women", published in 1919.
Via J.R.'s Art Place

A Poem About Fire Ought to Burn

It is the crowning virtue of a work of art, as it is of a man, that it should be an example of its own doctrine, an incarnation of its own main symbol. A poem about fire ought to burn. A poem about a brook ought to flow. A poem about childhood ought not just to tell about children but ought to be like a child itself, as are the best of Blake's Songs of Innocence.

Harold C. Goddard, The Meaning of Shakespeare

Listen Up - The Episodic Table of Elements

The Episodic Table of Elements is a science-history podcast exploring the culture and chemistry behind every element on the periodic table. Explore wild tales of scientific adventure that stretch back to the beginning of time itself. We’re traveling the periodic table in order of increasing atomic number: Episode 1 is hydrogen, episode 2 is helium, and so on.

The episodes for this podcast range from 12 to 25 minutes each and that was almost a deal-breaker for me. 25 minutes about a scientific element? Booooring!

But not so. As it turns out these are wonderfully told stories that begin with an element and then follow it to surprising places. For example, the hydrogen episode looks at the development of balloonists, zeppelins, and ends up with the Hubble Telescope's first clear image of The Pillars of Creation. It ends with links to where you can do an experiment to get the element for yourself.

This is science in the way we all wish we could learn it, with engaging delivery and interesting stories.

The website is here. The iTunes link is here.

View of the Thames and The Six Jolly Fellowship Porters

Jacques Matthias Schenker - View of the Thames [1885]
Via Gandalf's Gallery, some rights reserved

Did anyone else flash on Our Mutual Friend?

The Six Jolly Fellowship Porters, already mentioned as a tavern of a dropsical appearance, had long settled down into a state of hale infirmity. In its whole constitution it had not a straight floor, and hardly a straight line; but it had outlasted, and clearly would yet outlast, many a better-trimmed building, many a sprucer public-house. Externally, it was a narrow lopsided wooden jumble of corpulent windows heaped one upon another as you might heap as many toppling oranges, with a crazy wooden verandah impending over the water; indeed the whole house, inclusive of the complaining flag-staff on the roof, impended over the water, but seemed to have got into the condition of a faint-hearted diver who has paused so long on the brink that he will never go in at all.

This description applies to the river-frontage of the Six Jolly Fellowship Porters. The back of the establishment, though the chief entrance was there, so contracted that it merely represented in its connexion with the front, the handle of a flat iron set upright on its broadest end. This handle stood at the bottom of a wilderness of court and alley: which wilderness pressed so hard and close upon the Six Jolly Fellowship Porters as to leave the hostelry not an inch of ground beyond its door. For this reason, in combination with the fact that the house was all but afloat at high water, when the Porters had a family wash the linen subjected to that operation might usually be seen drying on lines stretched across the reception-rooms and bed-chambers.

Chapter 6

Gospel of Matthew: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets."

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place."

Matthew, 5:17-18

Maybe I've always loved this explanation from Jesus because I like to think of the people saying, "Now we can live a new way. No more of the 10 commandments!" Every time I see something that reminds me people acted just the way we do today, it makes me smile.

I've also got a real love of the Old Testament and I hate it when people say that the Old Testament God was mean while New Testament Jesus is nice and loving. I hear this a surprising amount, many times from a particular priest during homilies which finally led to a conversation afterwards.

Because Old Testament or New — God is the same. Three persons but one God and one essence. Also, that means that people haven't been reading their Old Testament very well. Yes, there are a lot of examples of the way ancient people settled things which doesn't match our ideas of justice or mercy very well. But all through out, God is saying the same thing over and over.

That is part of why Jesus follows the Beatitudes, which are so revolutionary sounding, with the reminder above. He's connecting the weight and meaning of his lawgiving ("I say to you...") with what came before.

Below are a few examples of Old Testament mercy that might sound familiar. There are many more examples, but these will give you a sample.

Moses and the Ten Commandments
±1600 - ±1624, Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht, Netherlands

• Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your own people. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD. — Leviticus 19:18
• But the poor will inherit the earth, will delight in great prosperity. — Psalm 37:11
• If your enemies are hungry, give them food to eat, if thirsty, give something to drink; For live coals you will heap on their heads, and the LORD will vindicate you. — Proverbs 25: 21-22
• It is good for a person, when young, to bear the yoke, To sit alone and in silence, when its weight lies heavy, To put one’s mouth in the dust—there may yet be hope—To offer one’s cheek to be struck, to be filled with disgrace. — Lamentations 3:27-31

Bible verses are from The New American Bible, Revised Edition. This series first ran in 2008. I'm refreshing it as I go.

Unexpected Meeting in January

Unexpected Meeting in January, Remo Savisaar

Writers and the states of their souls

All good writers express the state of their souls, even (as occurs in some cases of very good writers) if it is a state of damnation.

G.K. Chesterton, Appreciations and Criticisms 

of the Works of Charles Dickens

A Movie You Might Have Missed #3: The Castle

It's been 10 years since I began this series highlighting movies I wished more people knew about. I'm rerunning it from the beginning because I still think these are movies you might have missed.

3. The Castle
(Australia)

An understated comedy about a man whose home truly is his castle. Any normal person would jump at the chance to sell his property when the local airport wants to buy, as it sits at the end of an airport runway and directly under gigantic power lines. However, this man fights in court for the right to keep his home.

The father's unconditional love and approval for every person in his family is reciprocated by each of them. Watching the local news the father turns to his daughter, the only family member with a "college degree" (from hairdresser school), and tells her that they have "ripping bodies" but their hair really could use fixing up to be like hers. Needless to say, the daughter's hair is horrendous but her pleased and loving reaction underscores the family's complete happiness. If they think about the outside world at all it is to be sorry that the world doesn't have a share in their contentment and "riches". If more families were like this one then the world would be a better place. This movie is rated "R" for language.

Green Gown

Childe Hassam, Green Gown

Separating Eggs

This recipe is certainly silly. It says to separate two eggs, but it doesn't say how far to separate them.

Gracie Allen

A Perfect Popcorn Movie — War

Top agent Major Kabir is the head of a team hunting terrorists. Khalid is the eager, new recruit who must overcome the stigma of a father who was a traitor. When Kabir suddenly goes rogue, Khalid is the student who knows him best so it becomes his job to track Kabir down and try to stop him.

This movie pairs Bollywood veteran star Hrithik Roshan with up-and-coming Tiger Shroff. The result is a wonderfully entertaining Borne/Mission Impossible/Bond style action thriller accented with Bollywood masala. There's a good dose of patriotism for Mother India, an actual mother who is as loyal a patriot as you're ever going to find, and plenty of dancing.

If you want an action thriller with a lot of over the top lines, big in Bollywood acting, and two top male stars in exotic locations doing impossible stunts ... then this is your movie. We really enjoyed it, including my 85 year old mother who laughed through a lot of it (as we did too - over the top, remember?) and said she never needed to watch another action movie. "This one captured the essence of all of them," she said.

Rating — Introduction to Bollywood (come on in, the water's fine!)

Hannah and Rose discuss this in episode 41 of An American's Guide to Bollywood podcast.

Cliff Near Fecamp

Claude Monet, Cliff Near Fecamp
via Arts Everyday Living

It is not true to say that Mr. Reeder had ever engaged a secretary.

it is not true to say that Mr. Reeder had ever engaged a secretary. It was Miss Gillette who engaged him. By one of those odd coincidences which are unacceptable to the lovers of fiction but which occur in everyday life, she arrived at Mr. Reeder's office on the day and at the hour he was expecting a temporary typist. For some reason the agency lady did not arrive or, if she did, was interviewed by Miss Gillette who, fulfilling the practise of the young queen bee, destroyed her rival in the nicest possible sense.

Edgar Wallace, Red Aces

Figaro Dream

Jean Béraud, Figaro Dream
via Gandalf's Gallery, some rights reserved

Rice Noodles and Chopsticks

Duane Keiser, Package of Rice Noodles and Chopsticks

Gospel of Matthew: No Room for "Righteous" Anger

Matthew 5:20-21

I have come across many Christians who feel that righteous anger is justified by Jesus' anger at the moneylenders in the temple ... and that their own anger is equally righteous. I, myself, certainly have struggled with the impulse to nurture my own anger because it is justifiable. "Hey, I'm right! That makes it ok!"

However, this bit of the gospel from Matthew, as examined by George Martin, surely should give us all pause before we give ourselves permission to be angry. Or even to sling around a mild insult.

Jesus Speaks Near the Treasury, James Tissot

22 But I say to you: the I is emphatic; Jesus is proclaiming something on his own authority. Not only murderers but also whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. At issue is consciously harbored anger, not an unbidden and passing emotion. Deliberate anger can lead to murder; by prohibiting anger Jesus eliminates a source of murder. But what about when we think we have cause to be angry? Jesus does not seem to leave room for "righteous anger," which is often really "self-righteous anger," anger we wish to justify. Jesus' condemnation of anger is sweeping and covers whoever is angry. Matthew's first readers would have understood the word brother to mean a member of the church. For Christians to be angry with each other impairs the mission of the church to be the light of the world, which requires behaving in a way that leads others to glorify God (5:14, 16).

Jesus takes up verbal expressions of anger: and whoever says to his brother, "Raqa" will be answerable to the Sanhedrin. The Aramic word raqa is roughly equivalent to "blockhead" -- an insult, but not the worst thing someone can be called. Those who hurl this insult will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, which was the highest Jewish executive and judicial council. Similarly, whoever says, "You fool," will be liable to fiery Gehenna. The expression you fool is equivalent to raqa, not a worse insult, yet those who call another a fool will end up in fiery Gehenna. Some Jewish writings used Gehenna (the Hinnom Valley on the south and west sides of Jerusalem) as a symbol of punishment in the age to come. Jesus' words might be paraphrased in modern terms as, "A disciple who insults another disciple will be hauled before the Supreme Court in this life and go to hell in the next." Jesus seems to be exaggerating to make the point that abusive speech is a far more serious matter than one might think. (See 7:3-5 for another example of Jesus using exaggeration to make a point.)

Quote is from Bringing the Gospel of Matthew to Life by George Martin. This series first ran in 2008. I'm refreshing it as I go.

Singham

Dirty Harry meets Bollywood. Singham is a righteous policeman from a small village who takes on the biggest criminal in Goa.

This movie is ridiculously entertaining. I've seen this three times and it remains entertaining each time.  Ajay Devgn carries it all off with style. This movie added "tight slap" and "Welcome to Goa" to our household vocab.

This was, however, the first Indian movie I saw that made me realize just how deeply different the base cultural values can be between America and India. The ending is a troubling one for Americans as we see that our ideas of vengeance and revenge are in some ways very different from ones Indians celebrate. This has since been reinforced by other movies but this was the eye opener.

Regardless, Rohit Shetty (and team) know how to direct well choreographed fight scenes and over the top action that are tons of fun.

Rating — for viewers with medium Indian film experience. (It's not rocket science, but without any cultural background at all you might feel kind of lost.)

ALSO 

Scott and I discuss it at A Good Story is Hard to Find.

Hannah and Rose discuss it as part of their cop movie series at An American's Guide to Bollywood.

An essential strength of America — transforming immigrant millions into self-confident citizens

The ability of America, led by New York, to transform immigrant millions, most of whom arrived penniless and frightened, into self-confident citizens, wealth-creators and social and cultural assets, was the essential strength of the expanding republic, which had now been doing the same for its own people for the best part of three centuries. As the culture of the New World became more complex, so more exciting combinations of talent—indeed genius—became feasible.

Paul Johnson,

A History of the American People

A Little Bit of Sun

A Little Bit of Sun, Remo Savisaar

The Catholic Faith of Kobe Bryant

I'm not a basketball fan but even I was shocked by Kobe Bryant's sudden death and the equally tragic death of his daughter and all the other passengers on the helicopter.

I had a more pleasant shock when I read he was a practicing Catholic who would attend weekday Mass and that he credited a priest with helping save his marriage.

Describing his fear of being sent to prison for a crime he believed he had not committed, Bryant told GQ that “The one thing that really helped me during that process—I’m Catholic, I grew up Catholic, my kids are Catholic—was talking to a priest.”

“It was actually kind of funny: He looks at me and says, ’Did you do it?’ And I say, ’Of course not.’ Then he asks, ’Do you have a good lawyer?’ And I’m like, ’Uh, yeah, he’s phenomenal.’ So then he just said, ’Let it go. Move on. God’s not going to give you anything you can’t handle, and it’s in his hands now. This is something you can’t control. So let it go.’ And that was the turning point,” Bryant said.

Read the whole story at Catholic News Agency.

Give them eternal rest, O Lord,

and may your light shine on them forever.

A Movie You Might Have Missed #2: Monsoon Wedding

It's been 10 years since I began this series highlighting movies I wished more people knew about. I'm rerunning it from the beginning because I still think these are movies you might have missed.

Monsoon Wedding

India

A large, Westernized, upper middle class Indian family is gathering for a wedding in a movie that includes Bollywood-ish singing, dancing, and romance. What may be unexpected are the strong messages about family love, protection of the innocent from sexual predators, doing the right thing and telling the truth no matter what it costs you.

 I love this movie but Tom is the one who added it to this list which tells you that it has a wider range than one might expect. The "R" rating is for the language, mostly that of the Wedding Event Coordinator and his help.

(A full review is here.)

Charlotte, Lady Milnes

Charlotte, Lady Milnes (1788-1792). Artist - George Romney.
Via Books and Art

God creates for a reason

Tollkien saw natural things freighted with the depth of meaning that all things possess, being rooted in the mind of God. God does not create things simply to fill up space. God creates for a reason, and the ultimate reason for his creation is love. Each thing, and especially each living thing, is a word, a symbol, a revelation. Each is a note, or a theme, in some great music. At any rate, it is more than itself: that is, more than the thing most people see when they look at it.

Stratford Caldecott,

The Power of the Ring

The Cat

Henriette Ronner-Knip, The Cat
via Arts Everyday Living

The fruits of the Holy Spirit and fruit as something to be enjoyed

The fruits of the Holy Spirit are the result of the virtues. To put it more poetically, the virtues are the blossoms on the tree of life, which we see in springtime, and the fruits are what come from these flowers at the time of ripeness. [...]

Interestingly enough for those who thought morality was all about gritting one's teeth and getting on with something unpleasant, tradition associates [the fruits] with the experience of delight. A "fruit" that we pluck from a tree, ripe and delicious, is something to be enjoyed, and the person who unselfconsciously possesses these fruits is a person who is able to take pleasure in life. His day-to-day existence is filled with happiness and pleasure. When we lack these characteristics we are resltless, discontented, morose and unhappy. That is a sign that something is wrong with us.

Stratford Caldecott,

Fruits of the Holy Spirit

Gospel of Matthew: Each Temptation Building on the Previous One

Matthew 4:1-11

All of the devil's temptations are adapted based on Christ's answers. Each one is an attempt to divert Jesus from suffering and obedience.

I can't recall specifically where I learned that Jesus' refusals are all given in quotations from the Book of Deuteronomy. His tests resemble those of Israel when they were wandering in the desert. So his triumph over temptation is in direct contrast to the failures of the Jewish people in the wilderness. This is something that the Jews of Jesus' time would have picked up on right away.

Of course, for us the three lessons of the temptations are the basic ones we struggle with always. Who do we trust? And who do we worship? Do we put ourselves or God first?

As a side note, I especially like Jesus' expression in the engraving below. He is serene in his knowledge, in his power, in who he is.

Christ is tempted by Satan.
Engraved drawing by Jacob de Wit after Peter Paul Rubens.

The focus [of the first temptation] is on the identity and power of Jesus. ... The temptation is not really about food but about turning Jesus away from the difficult road that the Father wills for his Son (26:39). His mission is not to serve himself by exploiting his divine prerogatives but to serve others by a life of heroic sacrifice (20:28).

Jesus responds with the words of Deut. 8:3: "One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the word of God." The statement is a short lesson on God's priorities for our lives, teaching us that physical needs are not our greatest needs.

[...]

Immediately one notices how the tempter adjusts himself to the one being tempted. Jesus has quoted the Bible to express his commitment to live by God's word, and so the devil turns to the Bible to press his second attack. ...

The second temptation is essentially a challenge to the trustworthiness of God. Satan wants Jesus to subject his Father's promises to verification. ...

Jesus strikes back with words from Deut. 6:16: "You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test. The original context of this passage is the rebellion of the exodus generation in the wilderness [at Massah where] ... some demanded God give proof of his presence among them.

[...]

Jesus has refused the offer to serve himself rather than his mission from, the Father and has declined the challenge to test the Father's goodwill. Now he is asked to repudiate the Father altogether by surrendering himself to the lordship of Satan, the "ruler of this world" (John 12:31).

Still Jesus remains unmoved. He responds, "Get away, Satan!" and drives the devil off with the words of Deut. 6:13: "The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve." The context of the quotation is instructive, for it prohibits the worship of "other gods" (Deut. 6:14). Bowing before Satan would be an act of idolatry, and Jesus will have no part of it.

Quote is from Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture: The Gospel of Matthew by Curtis Mitch and Edward Sri. This series first ran in 2008. I'm refreshing it as I go.

Colorful Night in the Forest

Colorful Night in the Forest, Remo Savisaar

Human ecology is inseparable from environmental ecology

For both popes [John Paul II and Benedict XVI], in fact "human ecology" in inseparable from environmental ecology, because respect for ourselves, for our sexuality, and for human life in all its stages and manifestations, is the manifestation of a respect for nature as such, which has been created in divine Wisdom: The book of nature is one and indivisible. It takes in not ony the environment, but also life, sexuality, marriage, family, social relations: in a word, integral human development. Our duties toward the environment are linked to our duties toward the human person, considered in himself and in relation to others. It would be wrong to uphold one set of duties while trampling on the other.

Stratford Caldecott,
Radiance of Being

Christopher Tolkien: A Hobbit Amongst the Urukhai

Well, there you are a hobbit amongst the Urukhai. Keep up your hobbitry in your heart, and think that all stories feel like that when you are in them. You are inside a very great story!

J.R.R. Tolkien in a letter to his son Christopher
during the Second World War

Christopher Tolkien died last week after devoting much of his life to curating, editing, and writing about his father's work. What a service he has done for mankind over his lifetime. Eternal peace grant him, O Lord.

Young Italian Woman Praying

Young Italian Woman Praying by Moritz Calisch
via Books and Art

The Chiefs, the Super Bowl, and Me

The last time the Chiefs were in the Super Bowl I remember watching it with my family in our little red house near Kansas City. My dad called every play of the game just as they ran it.

Yesterday Mom and I watched the Chiefs win the playoffs, the day after what would have been Dad's 86th birthday. That victory unleashed our memories and turned the victory into something personal.

It is wonderfully unreal that she and I will be watching them in the Super Bowl together again.

A Movie You Might Have Missed #1: Mostly Martha

It's been 10 years since I began this series highlighting movies I wished more people knew about. I'm rerunning it from the beginning because I still think these are movies you might have missed.

Mostly Martha

Germany

Martha is a chef who has a great deal of discipline, an obsession with food although she never seems to eat, and little joy in her life. When her sister dies, Martha is forced into facing unknown situations after her orphaned niece comes to live with her. Then a new chef is added to the staff and Martha's loss of control seems complete. Suddenly Martha's life is no longer under control at all with the expected growth of character resulting.

This is a slow and deliberate movie but the acting and dialogue are great and a lot of the scenes are very funny. Naturally, as this is about a chef, it is a major "foodie" film. Mostly Martha is a German movie with subtitles but don't let that scare you. Actually we liked listening to the German and picking out words that were almost the same as in English ... but that's the kind of thing our family does for fun.

Do not be fooled by the American remake: No Reservations. It completely messes up the last third of the movie.

The ends and the means

We will never have peace in the world until men everywhere recognize that the ends are not cut off from the means, because the means represent the ideal in the making, and the end in process. Ultimately you can't reach good ends through evil means, because the means represent the seed and the end represents the tree.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

via The Radiance of Being by Stratford Caldecott

Music Lesson

Music Lesson by Shirataki Ikunosuke

Why truth is stranger than fiction

"Do you believe that truth is stranger than fiction?"

"Truth must of necessity be stranger than fiction," said Basil placidly. "For fiction is the creation of the human mind, and therefore is congenial to it."

G.K. Chesterton, Club of Queer Trades

That absolutely never occurred to me. Brilliant.

Tea

Tea by Harrison Fisher, 1908
via Illustration History

Gospel of Matthew: Being Tempted Through Our Gifts

Matthew 4:1-11

I'm always struck by the fact that after baptism, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tested. Mark uses the word "drove" which is what always comes to my mind, but Matthew, interestingly, says led. I like the idea that Jesus is obediently following step-by-step the big plan of what God has in mind.

It only recently occurred to me that this story has to come to us from Jesus in the way that he told it to his apostles. Otherwise no one would have known about it.

One of the things I like best about this story is that Jesus faces his trials in a very human way. He is the Son of God — as his baptism just made clear — and yet he wins the battle as a man. So we can do it too.

William Barclay points this out while making some other good points about temptation which are good for our own reflection in times when we're struggling against making the wrong choices.

Christ in the Wilderness by Ivan Kramskoy, 1872

We must always remember that again and again we are tempted through our gifts. The person who is gifted with charm will be tempted to use that charm "to get away with anything." The person who is gifted with the power of words to produce glib excuses to justify his own conduct. The person with a vivid and sensitive imagination will undergo agonies of temptation that a more stolid person will never experience. The person with great gifts of mind will be tempted to use these gifts for himself and not for others, to become the master and not the servant of men. It is the grim fact of temptation that it is just where we are strongest that we must be forever on the watch.

(v) No one can ever read this story without remembering that its source must have been Jesus himself. In the wilderness he was alone. No one was with him when this struggle was being fought out. And we know about it only because Jesus himself must have told his men about it. It is Jesus telling us his own spiritual autobiography.

We must always approach this story with a unique and special reverence, for in it Jesus is laying bare his inmost heart and soul. He is telling men what he went through. It is the most sacred of all stories, for in it Jesus is saying to us that he can help others who are tempted because he himself was tempted. He draws the veil from his own struggles to help us in our struggle.

Quote is from Daily Study Bible Series: The Gospel of Matthew by William Barclay. This series first ran in 2008. I'm refreshing it as I go.

Valuable truth revealed in a collar stud

The revolt of Matter against Man (which I believe to exist) has now been reduced to a singular condition. It is the small things rather than the large things which make war against us and, I may add, beat us. The bones of the last mammoth have long ago decayed, a mighty wreck; the tempests no longer devour our navies, nor the mountains with hearts of fire heap hell over our cities. But we are engaged in a bitter and eternal war with small things; chiefly with microbes and with collar studs. The stud with which I was engaged (on fierce and equal terms) as I made the above reflections, was one which I was trying to introduce into my shirt collar when a loud knock came at the door.

[...]

I had already subdued the stud, thereby proclaiming that the image of God has supremacy over all matters (a valuable truth), and throwing on my dress-coat and waistcoat, hurried into the drawing-room.

G.K. Chesterton, The Club of Queer Trades

Learned Advice

Learned Advice, Ludwig Deutsch
via Gandalf's Gallery, some rights reserved

Be sure to swing by the link for the fascinating commentary at Gandalf's Gallery.

We are tied together in the single garment of destiny

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.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

via Stratford Caldecott, The Radiance of Being

Styled Ear-Tufts

Styled Ear-Tufts, Remo Savisaar

Give 2 Hours, Once a Year, for Life

If your area has a local March for Life, please consider going.

It doesn't take much time, especially when you consider that this may be the only physical action you take against abortion all year. (Not counting kneeling in prayer, that is.)

In Dallas, there are a variety of events for you to attend.

You will be participating in the one thing that the general public, the media, and government understand.

Numbers.

Your mere presence will help show that more people care about all phases of life than most people realize.

If everyone in Dallas/Fort Worth attended who really believed killing the unborn is wrong, I think the streets would be clogged for hours. The media, who generally ignores the thousands who attend here each year, would be unable to ignore those numbers.

We all have our reasons to stay home.

I understand. Every single year I battle the reasonable rationalizations that spring to mind. But those rationalizations are not really true a lot of the time. In my case, they always boil down to:

• It's inconvenient.
• I might get embarrassed.
• I don't like that music (now I'm clutching at straws).
• I'd rather be doing something else (anything else).

So, I'll just say it. I'm lazy, easily embarrassed, snobbish, and selfish. Welcome to my inner life.

But I can't get away from the truth of what Jesus tells me about how I'm being judged in the end.

‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’ (Matthew 25:40)

Considering Mary's situation when she said, "Yes" to bearing Christ for us, I feel as if I can't ignore these littlest ones among us and their parents who are being lied to by everyone else in our society. Who need someone to stand up for them and tell the truth.

One of the things I like about the march is that this is my chance to simply "be there." Simply taking this walk lets my presence count without having to achieve another thing. There's a symbolism about that I like. A connection with the unborn whose value is in "being."

That's worth two hours, once a year.

==============

Here is the schedule for the North Texas March for Life  which is this Saturday, January 18.

Meet Tammie Jo Shults, American Hero Twice Over

I expected to read an inspiring story of heroism. And I did. But I didn't expect this:

Shults says her own composure that day was a result of both her training and her spiritual life.

“I had that isolated moment in time, and I did think that was going to be the day I met my maker,” she says. “That headlong rush to that cliff of ‘What if’ stopped short at that thought, and I realized I wouldn’t be meeting a stranger. That really gave me a calm.”

A great story from Texas Highways. Read it here.

To talk on top of a flying hill

Basil Grant and I were talking one day in what is perhaps the most perfect place for talking on earth—the top of a tolerably deserted tramcar. To talk on the top of a hill is superb, but to talk on the top of a flying hill is a fairy tale.

G.K. Chesterton, The Club of Queer Trades

I now want to ride on top of a double decker bus.

Casual Acquaintance

Casual Acquaintance by Karin Jurick

microShifts by Gary Jansen

This book encourages you to take a look at a few things you might take for granted and consider making small, simple, and incremental changes—something that I like to call MicroShifts—that over time can lead to radical transformation in your mind, body, and soul. ...

This book is about practical spiritual transformation. ... As St. Ignatius taught, the spiritual life isn't something separate from everyday life: it is everything and everyone. Which means that even minor changes that you make to your exterior life can have an important impact on your deeper, inner life. And vice versa.

This is a little book, as befits the topic of making little changes to effect transformation. It might be the perfect book for the New Year since this is when we all have something in the back of our minds that we'd like to change, even if it is only getting up when the alarm goes off instead of hitting snooze.

Author Gary Jansen gives examples from his own life, popular culture, and the Bible, along with tips and prompts to help you start shifting your own life into a better path. I particularly enjoyed his chapters "Learn From Your Enemies" and "Be Brave Enough to Have No Opinion." Sometimes we have big changes thrust upon us (a new baby, moving to a new city for a job) but most of the time life is made up of small habits and routines. MicroShifts is the perfect book for recognizing how effective change really works in our lives.

Piling houses on top of each other, front doors and all.

There is something entirely Gargantuan in the idea of economising space by piling houses on top of each other, front doors and all. And in the chaos and complexity of those perpendicular streets anything may dwell or happen, and it is in one of them, I believe, that the inquirer may find the offices of the Club of Queer Trades.

G.K. Chesterton, The Club of Queer Trades

I recently reread this short story collection and really loved the little ways that Chesterton stood things on their heads - as he was famous for doing. He begins at the beginning by doing that very thing as we see above.

Le pont de l'Europe

Le pont de l'Europe, 1889, Louis Anquetin

American Catholic History Podcast

American Catholic History finds the hidden gems and compelling stories of Catholic Americans who have contributed to their nation by virtue of their faith over the past three centuries. In less than 10 minutes per episode, American Catholic History will introduce you to the amazing men and women who came to these American shores and were born here and contributed in ways both great and small, celebrated and unheralded.

I just discovered this podcast and have really been enjoying it. The topics range from people (Frank Capra, James Longstreet, Babe Ruth) to places (Loretto Staircase, St. Mary's in Galveston) to events (Annie Moore as the first immigrant to pass through the gates of Ellis Island). At about 10 minutes per episode it is short enough to fit into any schedule.

Get it at SQPN or iTunes.

For the Life of the World by Alexander Schmemann

A Christian is the one who, wherever he looks, finds Christ and rejoices in him. And this joy transforms all his human plans and programs, decisions and actions, making all his mission the sacrament of the world's return to him who is the life of the world.

This book was literally pressed into my hands by my spiritual director and I read it slowly it over several months. The author was an Eastern Orthodox priest but any Christian can get a great deal of insight and inspiration from this wonderful book. He looks at the connection between daily life and the sacraments and liturgy of the church. As a result, we are repeatedly drawn into fresh realizations about how present God is in everyday life ... and how connected that is with the liturgy.

I realize that doesn't make it sound very exciting. But it is. Chalk it up to my inability to properly describe this book which gave me some revelatory moments. This is lengthy but gives a sense of the book.

Man is a hungry being. But he is hungry for God. Behind all the hunger of our life is God. All desire is finally a desire for Him. To be sure, man is not the only hungry being. All that exists lives by "eating." The whole creation depends on food. But the unique position of man in the universe is that he alone is to bless God for the food and the life he receives from him. He alone is to respond to God's blessing with his blessing. ...

Centuries of secularism have failed to transform eating into something strictly utilitarian. Food is still treated with reverence. A meal is still a rite—the last "natural sacrament" of family and friendship, of life that is more than "eating" and "drinking." To eat is still something more than to maintain bodily functions. People may not understand what that "something more" is, but they nonetheless desire to celebrate it. They are still hungry and thirsty for sacramental life.

It is not accidental, therefore, that the biblical story of the Fall is centered again on food. Man ate the forbidden fruit. The fruit of that one tree, whatever else it may signify, was unlike every other fruit in the Garden: it was not offered as a gift to Man. Not given, not blessed by God, it was food whose eating was condemned to be communion with itself alone, and not with God. It is the image of the world loved for itself, and eating it is the image of life understood as an end in itself.

This is one of the most inspirational books I've ever read. I may just begin again at the beginning.

Bishop Robert Barron on The Two Popes

The new and much-ballyhooed Netflix film The Two Popes should, by rights, be called The One Pope, for it presents a fairly nuanced, textured and sympathetic portrait of Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis) and a complete caricature of Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI). This imbalance fatally undermines the movie, whose purpose, it seems, is to show that old, grumpy, legalistic Benedict finds his spiritual bearings through the ministrations of friendly, forward-looking Francis. But such a thematic trajectory ultimately does violence to both figures, and turns what could have been a supremely interesting character study into a predictable and tedious apologia for the film-maker’s preferred version of Catholicism.

That we are dealing with a caricature of Ratzinger becomes clear when, in the opening minutes of the film, the Bavarian cardinal is presented as ambitiously plotting to secure his election as pope in 2005. On at least three occasions, the real Cardinal Ratzinger begged John Paul II to allow him to retire from his position as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and to take up a life of study and prayer.

Bishop Robert Barron's review of The Two Popes,

Catholic Herald

I haven't seen The Two Popes because all the other reviews I read gave me the clues to what Bishop Barron spells out. Barron's review looks at the missed opportunities that would have made this a more accurate film and also a film that honestly let people see both popes.

The Magi

The Magi by J.C. Leyendecker, magazine illustration from 1900
via J.R.'s Art Place

Best of Rereading and Rewatching — 2019

How long's it been since you reread or rewatched these? Pardner, that's too long.

My top picks from last year. In no particular order.

Sita Sings the Blues

A creative delight. The Indian story of The Ramayana told three ways,
all from Rama's wife's point of view ... the titular Sita.
(My review here.)

The Lunchbox

Mistaken lunch deliveries connect a young housewife and a widower
when they send each other notes in the lunchbox.

Lootera

Loosely based on an O'Henry story. With redemption in the end.

(My review here.)

Lagaan

Peasants versus the Raj in an epic cricket match.
Charming and a celebration of the human spirit.

(My review here.)

The Curse of Chalion

by Lois McMaster Bujold

A bedraggled, galley ship survivor is caught, despite his best efforts to the contrary,
in the middle of royal intrigue. Plus getting errands from the gods.  
(My review here.)

Paladin of Souls

by Lois McMaster Bujold

Sequel to Curse of Chalion, from Ista's point of view. Maybe even better than the first book.

(More here.)

The Killer Angels

by Michael Shaara

Simply amazing in communicating the humanity, flaws, errors, and brotherhood of these men fighting at Gettysburg ... and the tragedy of the battle.
(My review here.)

Andrea Vernon and the Corporation for Ultrahuman Protection

by Alexander C. Kane

Mixing the workplace, romance, and superheroes. Andrea sees all the action from behind-the-scenes at a corporation which manages their contracts and assignments. Which is very funny indeed.
(My review here.)

Mockingbird

by Walter Tevis

In the 25th century robots do all the work and no one can read. Paul has discovered how to read and this changes everything. There's no way to really describe this book well. Read my review and then read it for yourself.
(My review here.)

Best of 2019—Books

In 10 words or less, my top 10 picks from the over 160 books I read last year. You may find old books here but if they're on this list, then they were new to me! In no particular order.

Bollywood Kitchen

by Sri Rao

Home-cooked easy Indian meals paired with Bollywood films. 
(My review here.)

Bollywood: The Films! The Songs! The Stars!

DK Publishing

Stellar look at Bollywood history, background, and new movie resource.
(My review here.)

The Bayeaux Tapestry

by Lucien Musset

Full-colour reproduction of entire Tapestry with a detailed commentary.
(My review here.)

Lent

fantasy by Jo Walton

Priest Girolamo can see demons and cast them into Hell.
(My review here.)

Letter to a Suffering Church

(A Bishop Speaks on the Sexual Abuse Crisis )
by Bishop Robert Barron

Encourages Catholics to fight for the Church to be true to Christ.
(My review here.)

My Plain Jane

by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows

Funny, inventive, light, alternative history of Jane Eyre. With ghosts.

(My review.)

The Light of Christ

by Thomas Joseph White

A good dose of philosophy with your Catholic faith.
(My reviews here.)

Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God

(Retracing the Ramayana Through India )
by Jonah Blank

Retelling the Ramayana and linking it to Indian culture/history. 

(My full review)

The Last Dance

 by Martin L. Shoemaker

Investigating mutiny charges against captain of Martian spaceship. Heinlein-esque sf.
(My review here.)

The Pioneers

(The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West)
by David McCullough

Back when the West was Ohio. Interesting, inspiring, proud to be American.

 (More info here.)

Best of 2019 — Movies

In 10 words or less, my top 10 picks from the over 130 movies we watched last year. As always, the movies may be old, but my viewing was brand new in 2019. In no particular order.

Kahaani

Hollywood would be proud to make a thriller like this.
(My review here.)

Fan

Shah Rukh Khan plays his own stalker. Nail biting thriller.
(My review here.)

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

(A Match Made By God)

Solid comedy and sweet look at true love and marriage.
(My review here.)

Eega (Fly)

Heartwarming, thrilling story of a man reincarnated as a fly
so he can protect his love and take vengeance on his murderer.
(C'mon, no one can sum that up in 10 words).

(My review here.)

Piku

Crazy family's road trip from Delhi to Calcutta in a taxi.
(My review here.)

Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse

Genius animation—Spidermen from different universes in one great adventure.

Padmaavat

Epic interpretation of epic poem.
(My review here.)

Dor

Two women's lives become intertwined by unlikely, dire circumstances.
(My review here.)

Fighting With My Family

Funny, quirky, and thoughtful coming-of-age sports movie.
(My review here.)

Ram-Leela

Romeo and Juliet — Bollywood style.
(My review here.)

Anne of Green Gables on SFFaudio

Anne of Green Gables isn't science fiction or fantasy. So it seems like an unlikely combination until you realize that Jesse and Maissa are from Canada ... and are digging into their literary roots. Plus there is always Anne's fantastical imagination to consider! Evan and I came along for the ride. A fun discussion - get it here.

Jesse Tree — Day 23: O God With Us

The O Antiphons are Magnificat antiphons sung or recited at Vespers from December 17-23. Each antiphon is a name of Christ, one of his attributes mentioned in Scripture.

   

Day 22: O King of the Gentiles

Symbols: tablets of stone, chalice and host

Mosaic from the apse of Saint Sophia, the Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Washington DC.
taken by Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P., some rights reserved

Isaiah 7:10-14; 33:22
Romans 8:20-24
John 1:1-18

O Emmanuel, our king and our lawgiver,
the hope of the nations and their Saviour:
Come and save us, O Lord our God.