Conventional Wisdom — not what you think it is

I remember being dumbfounded recently when learning that "conventional wisdom" was an invented phrase that specifically means what I always thought it did ... rather than what it is often put forward as meaning, which is "true wisdom."

The following excerpt is heavily edited to get at the essence but I can highly recommend the entire chapter.

Just as truth ultimately serves to create a consensus, so in the short run does acceptability. Ideas come to be organized around what the community as a whole or particular audiences find acceptable.

Numerous factors contribute to the acceptability of ideas. To a large extent, of course, we associate truth with convenience—with what most closely accords with self-interest and personal well-being or promises best to avoid awkward effort or unwelcome dislocation of life. ... But perhaps most important of all, people approve most of what they best understand. ... Therefore we adhere, as though to a raft, to those ideas which represent our understanding.

Because familiarity is such an important test of acceptability, the acceptable ideas have great stability. They are highly predictable. It will be convenient to have a name for the ideas which are esteemed at any time for their acceptability, and it should be a term that emphasizes this predictability. I shall refer to these ideas henceforth as the Conventional Wisdom. [...]

The enemy of conventional wisdom is not ideas but the march of events. As I have noted, the conventional wisdom accommodates itself not to the world that it is meant to interpret, but to the audience's view of the world. Since the latter remains with the comfortable and the familiar, while the world moves on, the conventional wisdom is always in danger of obsolescence. [...]

Ideas need to be tested by their ability, in combination with events, to overcome inertia and resistance. This inertia and resistance the conventional wisdom provides.

John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society

Moonlight in South Texas

Julian Onderdonk, "Moonlight in South Texas," 1912.

Julian Onderdonk was an impressionist who became known as "the father of Texas painting." Find out more at Traces of Texas.

Gangubai Kathiawadi

Mafia Queen.

Duped and sold to a brothel, a young woman fearlessly reclaims her power, using underworld connections to preside over the world she was once a pawn in.

This isn't usually the sort of movie that would interest me but I'm a sucker for director Sanjay Leela Bhansali. This one doesn't disappoint. It is a fascinating look at a young woman sold into prostitution who rises  to run the whole brothel district containing 4,000 women. She does this by both her intelligence and force of personality and the novel idea of protecting the women from the worst depredations of their trade. The story is based on one of the chapters of the nonfiction book, The Mafia Queens of Mumbai.

I've always liked actress Alia Bhatt but have never seen her in a role like this where she exhibits what a wide range she has. Sometimes beautiful and feminine, sometimes swaggering mannishly, sometimes every inch the steely business woman/madam.

Bhansali's films are known for their beauty. Despite this being set in the brothel district of Mumbai, there are still recognizable touches of the director's trademark beauty to be found. The scenes where Gangu is allowing herself to be attracted to the young tailor and the dances showed that familiar style. I appreciated that we are shown the awful life of a prostitute without having to see the details.

Catholics may be interested in a section, based on historical fact, where a Catholic school near the brothel area begins a campaign to clean up the area without any plan for how the 4,000 inhabitants would be able to live. As Catholics we suddenly woke up to the idea that there should have been Christians working to help those in the less fortunate area all along. 

As is usually the case with Indian movies, this would have benefited from being about 45 minutes shorter. The last half hour in particular was much too long and preachy. Despite being in sympathy with the message — the people who sell girls into prostitution and the people who buy their services get off scot-free while the victims are the ones who suffer — I didn't need it told to me in three ways.

Nevertheless, it is a movie that we've been talking about ever since we saw it and is well worth your time. 

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

Lagniappe: Charles Dickens' and the Boffins' Railway Accident

On Friday the Ninth of June in the present year, Mr. and Mrs. Boffin (in their manuscript dress of receiving Mr. and Mrs. Lammle at breakfast) were on the South-Eastern Railway with me, in a terribly destructive accident. When I had done what I could to help others, I climbed back into my carriage—nearly turned over a viaduct, and caught aslant upon the turn—to extricate the worthy couple. They were much soiled, but otherwise unhurt. [...] I remember with devout thankfulness that I can never be much nearer parting company with my readers for ever than I was then, until there shall be written against my life, the two words with which I have this day closed this book:—THE END.

Charles Dickens, postscript Our Mutual Friend

Thanks to my interest in weird fiction I have heard the story many times of Dickens' close brush with death in that railway accident. It is often told when reading or referring to Dickens' short story The Signalman, which was a favorite of H.P. Lovecraft and makes it into many weird fiction and ghost story collections. It directly shows the effects of that accident upon Dickens' writing.

Many people on the train were killed or injured so we are not only lucky the manuscript was unhurt but that Dickens was able to finish the book. Perhaps that is why he sent every chapter of Edwin Drood directly to the publisher as soon as he finished it. It didn't stop the book from being only half finished upon Dickens' death, but I can imagine the relief it was to him that someone was keeping it safe as he progressed.

The Happiness of the Moment

The Happiness of the Moment, Edward B. Gordon

 The artist says:

There is not a large selection of bars and restaurants here (at least in my opinion) but it can happen that a complete stranger invites you to a bottle of beer on the banks of the river, after work. Sitting under the delicate leaves of the robinia, looking at the river passing by, admiring the golden light of the sunset, the beer tastes particularly wonderful.

Who is My Neighbor?

Using the very same conscience we have been talking about for the past few days, our scholar of the law in Sunday's Gospel reading nails the right answer with no problem. Here's the reading and then I've got a couple of bits of commentary that were fruitful for me.

There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said,
"Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Jesus said to him, "What is written in the law?
How do you read it?"
He said in reply,
"You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your being,
with all your strength,
and with all your mind,
and your neighbor as yourself."
He replied to him, "You have answered correctly;
do this and you will live."

But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus,
"And who is my neighbor?"
Jesus replied,
"A man fell victim to robbers
as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho.
They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.
A priest happened to be going down that road,
but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
Likewise a Levite came to the place,
and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.
But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him
was moved with compassion at the sight.
He approached the victim,
poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them.
Then he lifted him up on his own animal,
took him to an inn, and cared for him.
The next day he took out two silver coins
and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction,
'Take care of him.
If you spend more than what I have given you,
I shall repay you on my way back.'
Which of these three, in your opinion,
was neighbor to the robbers' victim?"
He answered, "The one who treated him with mercy."
Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

Lk 10:25-37

This is one of the most famous parables, thorougly studied and commented upon over the ages. I'm used to hearing many takes on it. However, these snippets from some commentaries struck me with force this time.

Instead of giving the lawyer the answer he demanded, Jesus' answer demands from the lawyer his answer to the question: Are you a good neighbor? He must answer the question now, instead of asking it, and he must answer it in his deeds, not just his thoughts and his words. ... Jesus' answer ["Go and do likewise"] does not tell us who to pin the label of "neighbor" on but tells us to pin it on ourselves by our actions.

Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul, Cycle C

Clearly the scholar is the illustration of what we've been thinking about from the first reading in Deuteronomy. He knows what is good and what is evil. It is in his heart and he listens. Of course, then Jesus tells him go to and do it, which is the necessary step in being the good neighbor. Don't just think about it, but act on it.

In Conversation with God has more on this beginning with someone who I've never heard anyone dwell up on in a homily, the victim.

This is my neighbour: he is a man, any man whoever who has need of me. Our Lord makes no specific reference to race, friendship or blood connections. Our neighbour is anyone who is close to us and has need of help. Nothing is said of his country, or of his background or social condition: homo quidam, just a man, a human being.

If Jesus answered the question instead of, in classic rabinnical style, turning the question around to the scholar, this is what he would have said. In asking his question, he is answering it. Everyone is our neighbor. I knew that, but because parable goes on to focus on the good Samaritan in such detail, it never struck me with such force as this last Sunday.

So what does the "go and do likewise" mean? It is spelled out. When the need is recognized we should act.

Firstly, he went up to him. This is the first thing to be done whenever we encounter misfortune or need; we have to get up close, we cannot just observe the situation from a distance. The Samaritan next did what had to be done: he took care of him. The charity Our Lord asks of us is shown in deeds; it consists in doing whatever needs to be done in each individual case.

God places our neighbour, and his needs, along the road of our life. Love is always ready to do whatever the immediate situation demands. It may not be anything particularly heroic or difficult; indeed what is called for is very often something small and simple: This love is not something reserved for important matters, but must be exercised above all in the ordinary circumstances of daily life (Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et spes).

Our Lady's Child

‘Marienkind’ (Our Lady’s Child; or, Mary’s Child)
Heinrich Lefler and Joseph Urban

I discovered these artists at Lines and Colors where there are more images and some fascinating information.

Rosaline's Curse by Katharine Campbell

Rosaline's ex-fiancé is a god.

At least, that's what he claims to be. He could be a purple gnome for all Rosaline cares, she just wants him out of her life.

Unfortunately, his presence is the result of a curse she brought upon herself when she stole the sacred relics of Ilona the Godslayer.

Since the ill-advised theft, her luck changed for the worse in several ways. Her brother died, she was betrothed to that awful swine, and put into an enchanted sleep for almost eight hundred years. To add insult to injury, her fiancé was somehow still alive when she woke up.

It seems the only way to turn her luck around and get rid of her evil ex, is to return the relics she stole.

Unfortunately, a lot changed while she was in that enchanted sleep. For one thing, everyone now spends most of their time staring at the magic rectangles they keep in their pockets. For another thing, moving human bones across international borders requires a permit.

If Rosaline is to return the relics and break her curse, she has to learn to navigate this new and remarkable world of paperwork and machines.

Luckily, she gets a little help from a friend.

Mark Reid is working toward a master's degree in forensic anthropology. His near-perfect life is turned upside down when what he thinks is a perfectly preserved eight-hundred-year-old corpse turns out to be a princess who is still very much alive.

Now, he must help her integrate into the modern world while somehow convincing her that this holy quest to return the relics she stole is a bad idea.

I've read many takes on Sleeping Beauty but this is the first where she awakes in 2017. Rosaline is a product of her times in some ways such as moral and cultural codes. But, she's surprisingly adventurous and ready to embrace opportunities and challenges that might daunt a modern person tossed 800 years into the future. I love the way her character is written - just the right blend of old and new that is true to her personality.

Rosaline's Curse is a sequel of sorts to Love, Treachery, and Other Terrors. This is mainly apparent in the two evil fairies who put her into the long sleep in the first place. They were causing all sorts of havoc to Rosaline's ancestors in the first book. Luckily, the book can function as a stand alone since the missing pieces have to be explained to the modern people helping Rosaline.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The quest was fun, Rosaline's adaptation was skillfully handled, the romance was well done between two very different people, and it was funny.

Bouquet

Bouquet, Duane Keiser

Sulla collina di bos'n (On Bos'n Hill)

Edmund Tarbell, sulla collina di bos'n

Obeying Our Consciences

Yesterday, we looked at the first reading from Sunday which I am reprinting below just to make things easy. Today we're building on that by hearing from Peter Kreeft.

Moses said to the people:
"If only you would heed the voice of the LORD, your God,
and keep his commandments and statutes
that are written in this book of the law,
when you return to the LORD, your God,
with all your heart and all your soul.

"For this command that I enjoin on you today
is not too mysterious and remote for you.
It is not up in the sky, that you should say,
'Who will go up in the sky to get it for us
and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?'
Nor is it across the sea, that you should say,
'Who will cross the sea to get it for us
and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?'
No, it is something very near to you,
already in your mouths and in your hearts;
you have only to carry it out."

Dt 30:10-14

Peter Kreeft looks at what we do in order to be able to ignore God's will. I have a feeling this may be as familiar to you as it is to me.

This reading shows that Moses is truly a great psychologist. ... The Ten Commandments are clear. It's our own wills that are not clear. They are divided. one part wants to play God and say, "My will be done."The second part wants to obey God and say, "Thy will be done." So what do we do? To justify our weak and divided wills, we pretend that it's God's will that's unclear. We "nuance" the Commandments; we pretend they are unclear and difficult to understand because we find them difficult for our rebellious wills to obey. ... God undercuts that rationalization by giving us conscience. Deep down, if we are honest, we all know very well what we should do and what we should not do 99 percent of the time. ...

Of course, we have to be honest with our conscience. We can easily ignore it, silence it, cloud it, or make compromises with it. We have to be uncompromisingly honest and always ask, What is the truth? What is the true good? That's the first duty our conscience tells us we have: to honestly seek the truth, will the truth, and want to know the truth about what we should and should not do. And then to obey it. ...

We all know—even the most skeptical and unbelieving moral relativist clearly knows— that we must obey our conscience. You will never meet anyone who says it's ok to deliberately disobey your own conscience. We all know it; we just don't do it.

Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul, Cycle C

Tomorrow we're going to take a quick look at the Gospel reading from Sunday, one of the most famous of all parables, The Good Samaritan.

Still Life with Irises and Blue Jar

Still Life with Irises and Blue Jar, Edmund Tarbell

Not Fairy Tales But Real Life!

Moses said to the people:
"If only you would heed the voice of the LORD, your God,
and keep his commandments and statutes
that are written in this book of the law,
when you return to the LORD, your God,
with all your heart and all your soul.

"For this command that I enjoin on you today
is not too mysterious and remote for you.
It is not up in the sky, that you should say,
'Who will go up in the sky to get it for us
and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?'
Nor is it across the sea, that you should say,
'Who will cross the sea to get it for us
and tell us of it, that we may carry it out?'
No, it is something very near to you,
already in your mouths and in your hearts;
you have only to carry it out."

Dt 30:10-14

This was the first reading for Sunday. As I was listening, I was struck by the similarity to fairy tales where the hero is sent on a quest. Often it is to win the hand of a bride or to gain treasure, but there are usually three tasks that are in far away, unimaginable lands. When I heard, "Who will go up in the sky to get it for us" and "Who will cross the sea to get it for us" that fairy tale mythology popped into my head.

I was in awe. Indeed returning to God with our whole heart and soul is very close. Everyone can do it. We've all got built in translators so we know already what to do. God made it as easy as humanly possible to get close to him. It isn't a fairy tale, it isn't any of the tales of the gods that would have been familiar to the Hebrews from the Egyptians. It is real life and much simpler than that.

Now, whether or not it is easy to do is another matter. Tomorrow, I will have what Peter Kreeft says on that topic.

Sweet Tooth

 

Sweet Tooth, Remo Savisaar

What is different when we travel

Jess was always sociable when he traveled. He always used to say that sun, moon, and stars were the same everywhere and only the people were different and if you didn't get to know them you'd as well have stayed home and milked the cows.

Jessamyn West, The Friendly Persuasion

Selfie: Leonardo da Vinci

Self-portrait in red chalk - Leonardo da Vinci
via WikiPaintings

I was looking at all the beautiful art da Vinci created and then came upon this self-portrait which I found captivating.

He did a lot of sketches, many of which I also liked, but for some reason none of them captured my imagination the way this one did. I think it is the combination of the serious face, almost grim, with the softness of beard and drawing medium.

Selfie: Marc Chagall

Self-Portrait, Marc Chagall, 1914 (from Olga's Art Gallery)

Prayer for a Busy Day

What kind of an interior life can a mother of three children have who is doing all her own work on a farm with wood fires to tend and water to pump? Or the grandmother either?

[...]

How to lift the heart to God, our first beginning and last end, except to say with the soldier about to go into battle — "Lord, I'll have no time to think of Thee but do Thou think of me."

Dorothy Day, On Pilgrimage

Within those ellipses (...) Day gave a summary of all her activities on the farm with her daughter. Oy veh!

You don't have to be a mother with little ones to occasionally look at the day ahead and foretell so much activity that just keeping on track is a chore, much less hoping for any spare time to feel the presence of God. I love that prayer for that very reason.

A Movie You Might Have Missed #68: Colossal

It's been 11 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.

All she could do was save the world.

Gloria is an out-of-work party girl forced to leave her life in New York City, and move back home. When reports surface that a giant creature is destroying Seoul, she gradually comes to the realization that she is somehow connected to this phenomenon.

Impossible to describe without spoiling, this is one of my favorite movies this year. Halfway through it suddenly becomes something different than you signed on for in a way that is disturbing, revelatory, and — by the end — ultimately completely satisfying.

Scott Danielson and I discussed this on episode 169 of A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast.

The Truth and Beauty: How the Lives and Works of England's Greatest Poets Point the Way to a Deeper Understanding of the Words of Jesus by Andrew Klavan

Beauty descends from God into nature, but there it would perish and does except when a Man appreciates it with worship and thus as it were sends it back to God: so that through his consciousness what descended ascends again and the perfect circle is made." — C.S. Lewis, letter to Arthur Greaves

As I read this book it occurred to me that it described the process of Andrew Klavan discovering what Lewis describes above and then fleshing it out using examples from poetry and other written art. He never references the quote but it has long been one of my favorites. Along the way we get the lives of some of the poets and then Klavan's own deeper dive into the Gospels.

I picked this up from the library on the strength of the enthusiastic comments from The Literary Life podcast folks who were working their way through it. I agreed with them as I read the first half and don't think they'd gotten to Klavan's commentary on the Gospels yet which I occasionally found problematic. I myself sometimes found Klavan's Gospel interpretations to be uncomfortably far afield from my own understanding. I haven't gone to the trouble of learning Greek, as Klavan did, but I have read a wide number of commentaries from people who knew the Greek themselves. That is a fairly small quibble though.

This is a book that opens your eyes to the power of art, nature, and our own imaginations in finding and furthering our personal friendship with Christ. That's the part that spoke to me. I read it in two days and it definitely is a book I'll reread.

Selfie: Albrecht Durer

Self Portrait at Twenty-Eight, Albrecht Durer

It is the last of his three painted self-portraits. Art historians consider it the most personal, iconic and complex of his self-portraits.[1] The self-portrait is most remarkable because of its resemblance to many earlier representations of Christ. Art historians note the similarities with the conventions of religious painting, including its symmetry, dark tones and the manner in which the artist directly confronts the viewer and raises his hands to the middle of his chest as if in the act of blessing.

Read more at the Wikipedia page. I love Durer's paintings but never realized that he himself was so good looking. I think I might actually prefer this self-portrait from when he was twenty-six. The outfit is great, am I right?

Self Portrait at Twenty-Six, Albrecht Durer

Selfie and Noir: Chandler and Rembrandt

Rembrandt van Rijn, Self Portrait with Two Circles

They had Rembrandt on the calendar that year, a rather smeary self-portrait due to imperfectly registered color plate. It showed him holding a smeared palette with a dirty thumb and wearing a tam-o’-shanter which wasn’t any too clean either. His other hand held a brush poised in the air, as if he might be going to do a little work after a while, if somebody made a down payment. His face was aging, saggy, full of the disgust of life and the thickening effects of liquor. But it had a hard cheerfulness that I liked, and the eyes were as bright as drops of dew.

Raymond Chandler, Farewell My Lovely

I don't know if this is the portrait Philip Marlowe was looking at because I discovered that Rembrandt did over a hundred self-portraits in his lifetime. But this expression is the one that came to mind when I read that paragraph. "Hard cheerfulness" is the perfect description.

Why do you not speak in tongues?

As individual men who received the Holy Spirit in those days could speak in all kinds of tongues, so today the Church, united by the Holy Spirit, speaks in the language of every people.

Therefore if somebody should say to one of us, “You have received the Holy Spirit, why do you not speak in tongues?” his reply should be, “I do indeed speak in the tongues of all men, because I belong to the body of Christ, that is, the Church, and she speaks all languages. What else did the presence of the Holy Spirit indicate at Pentecost, except that God’s Church was to speak in the language of every people?

Sixth century African author, sermon excerpt

I love that this question was being asked as far back as the sixth century and it is still brought up today. What a good answer I have now thanks to that African author!

Selfie: At the Dressing Table

Zinaida Serebriakova (1884–1967)
At the Dressing-Table (the self-portrait).

I'd never heard of Zinaida Serebriakova until Charley Parker at Lines and Colors included her charming self portrait in his continuing series of old fashioned "selfies." I love this charming self portrait with her sweet yet knowing expression, the clutter of her dressing table, and the way the candlesticks blend into the picture "frame."

A Movie You Might Have Missed #67: The Founder

It's been 11 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.

He took someone else's idea
and America ate it up.

The Founder is the story of Ray Kroc, a salesman who turned two brothers’ innovative  restaurant, McDonald’s, into one of the biggest restaurant businesses in the world with a combination of ambition, persistence, and ruthlessness.

This normally isn't the sort of movie I feature as "a movie you might have missed." It's got a big star, a director who's done movies people know (The Blind Side, Saving Mr. Banks), and is about an American institution. And yet I'm continually surprised to find that so few people have heard of it.

We enjoyed it a lot both as a biopic and as a business movie. Make no mistake, it has a very definite point of view. If you check History vs Hollywood, as I like to do after watching any movie "based on a true story, you will see where the creators made story choices to enhance the points they were interested in discussing. The movie as a whole leaves you pondering innovation in its many forms and what it means "to invent" something.

Also, I defy anyone to watch this and not come away wanting a burger and fries. Maybe with a milkshake on the side.

Henry James and Chocolate Peppermint Cake

Henry James has remarked that there are two different types of intellectual pleasure‚ the pleasure of recognition and the pleasure of discovery. Of course he took five pages to say it, but that was the idea. Chocolate-peppermint cake embodies both pleasures: the surprise of finding that something lurks in the chocolate ambush and the pleasure of recognizing that it is actually a peppermint.

Louise Andrews Kent, Mrs. Appleyard's Kitchen

I love both Mrs. Appleyard's Year and Mrs. Appleyard's Kitchen so much. They have the homey quality that makes good comfort reading along with the clever humor that surprises you with its intelligence.

Worth a Thousand Words: Bernini Self-Portrait

Self Portrait as a Young Man, Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Unexpected Tales From A to Z by Robert Wenson

This charming and clever collection of tales is perfect for family snuggling. The stories all stand on their own and are just the right length for bedtime reading. Young readers will enjoy Robert Wenson's sweeping imagination, which takes them from old New Orleans (Esme and the Eloquent Eggplant) to the fictional kingdom of Perinnia (Reynard and the Robotic Robberies), to ancient Greece (Xenophon and the Xanthios Xiphios), to all around the whole world (Yolanda and the Yak Yoghurt). Along the way are daring escapes, dastardly villains, settings historical and fantastic, and an assortment of resourceful and brave young heroes and heroines. Sarah Neville's illustrations provide just the right flourish for each tale.

The above description is from Brendan Hodge's review which he is particularly suited to give since the stories in the book were written over the past few years for his children. Imagine being lucky enough to receive one of these stories in the mail!  This is like the sort of magical experience that sets up the beginning of an adventure in a children's book. What a treat that must have been for the Hodge children.

I found these light, funny stories very appealing and not just for children. They are just a few pages long, featuring quick-witted children who must overcome unlikely, whimsical predicaments, often with equally unlikely solutions. The titles give you a sense of the range but not of the author's comic imagination: Alexandra and the Argumentative Alligator, Hendrik and the Horrible Hollyhocks, Neville and the Negligent Neanderthal, and Yolanda and the Yak Yoghurt.

Anyone who has a sense of whimsy will enjoy these stories as much as I did. They were particularly good for my own bedtime reading as one or two were just the thing to prepare me for sleep with a smile on my face.

The Kindle price is inexpensive and it is well formatted with the charming illustrations well displayed. I also picked up a print version because when my grandson is old enough I know he'll enjoy these imaginative, charming stories as much as I do.

Brendan features one of the stories in his review and I urge you to sample it. It is simply delightful as, of course, are all the stories in the book. Then buy the book and read my favorite, Sarah and the Stranded Saturnians. This is going on my Best of 2022 list. Highly recommended.

Note: the author has been diagnosed with cancer. Please keep him in your prayers.

Selfie — painter James Tissot

Self Portrait, James Tissot

 I remember when it broke on me like a lightning bolt that we weren't the first people to think of selfies. Painters have been doing them for some time. I love this one of one of my favorites, James Tissot. He looks very jaunty.

On the Thames

On the Thames, James Tissot

This is what I call boating with style!

Cup of Honey

Cup of Honey, Konstantin Makovsky

 I know that when John the Baptist ate locusts and wild honey, it was not delivered by an elegant lady like this. But the honey made it seem a good picture for today.

Fireworks in Japan

Fireworks in Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, Koichi_Hayakawa

 Be sure to click the photo so you can see it full size. It is really stunning.

Discover a complete gymnasium for the soul

In the book of Psalms there is profit for all, with healing power for our salvation. There is instruction from history, teaching from the law, prediction from prophecy, chastisement from denunciation, persuasion from moral teaching. All who read it may find the cure for their own individual failings. All with eyes to see can discover in it a complete gymnasium for the soul, a stadium of the virtues, equipped for every kind of exercise; it is for each to choose the kind he judges but to help him gain the prize.

Saint Ambrose, Explanations of the Psalms

It is as if the book of Psalms is a condensation of the scripture in the elements that Ambrose describes above.

A Movie You Might Have Missed #66 : Loving

It's been 11 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.

They didn't want to change the world.

They just wanted to live their lives.

Loving tells the true story of Richard and Mildred Loving (Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga), an interracial couple who married and then spent the next nine years fighting for the right to live as a family in their home state of Virginia. Their civil rights case, Loving v. Virginia, went to the Supreme Court, whose 1967 decision in their favor changed marriage in the United States forever.

This is a deep, rich telling of a wonderful story without feeling the need to embellish the facts. It is a bit slow, as many reviewers mentioned, and the director knows how to use silence and long shots, so you have to settle in for the long view.

However, as my husband said, by the end you've been given a picture of their devotion and marriage, not just the court case (which is honestly certainly not center stage). And you know just what winning that court case means in the real lives of real people.

Your word is like a garden, Lord

Your Word is like a garden, Lord,
with flowers bright and fair;
and everyone who seeks may pluck
a lovely cluster there.
Your Word is like a deep, deep mine;
and jewels rich and rare
are hidden in its mighty depths
for every searcher there.

Your Word is like a starry host;
a thousand rays of light
are seen to guide the traveler,
and make his pathway bright.
Your Word is like an armory,
where soldiers may repair,
and find, for life’s long battle day,
all needful weapons there.

O may I love your precious Word,
may I explore the mine,
may I its fragrant flowers glean,
may light upon me shine.
O may I find my armor there,
your Word my trusty sword;
I’ll learn to fight with every foe
the battle of the Lord.

Edwin Hodder

I can't remember now where I found this to copy into my quote journal. It's a bit sentimental but I lean toward that with these old hymns. I don't even know the tune. I just know that I love the imagery.

Life becomes literature ...

In the end, life becomes literature,and literature has meaning because life has meaning. ...

The world has told us that all our truths are merely stories, but this man who walks with us on the road to Emmaus, he told us that all our stories are really truths — truths in human form, which is the form of beauty, which is the form divine, which is his form, the form of the Word made flesh.

Andrew Klavan, The Truth and Beauty

Amen to that!

Worth a Thousand Words: Jupiter's Great Red Spot

Jupiter's Great Red Spot, NASA

(March 1, 1979) As Voyager 1 flew by Jupiter, it captured this photo of the Great Red Spot. The Great Red Spot is an anti-cyclonic (high- pressure) storm on Jupiter that can be likened to the worst hurricanes on Earth. An ancient storm, it is so large that three Earths could fit inside it. This photo, and others of Jupiter, allowed scientists to see different colors in clouds around the Great Red Spot which imply that the clouds swirl around the spot (going counter-clockwise) at varying altitudes. The Great Red Spot had been observed from Earth for hundreds of years, yet never before with this clarity and closeness (objects as small as six hundred kilometers can be seen).

A Movie You Might Have Missed #65: The Interrupters

It's been 11 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.

Every City Needs Its Heroes

The Interrupters tells the moving and surprising stories of three Violence Interrupters who try to protect their Chicago communities from the violence they themselves once employed. Shot over the course of a year, The Interrupters captures a period in Chicago when it became a national symbol for the violence in our cities.

It's funny, when I was watching this it seemed like a long two hours. But since it finished we haven't stopped talking about it. I realized that it needed to move at a fairly slow pace so that we understood all the nuances of the lives of the people living in an atmosphere of continual violence ... and the work of the people who interrupt, slow down conflicts long enough to help more of them come out the other end alive.

Powerful and, as I realized by my joy in seeing some people doing well in the Epilogue, moving.

Baseball Players Practicing

"Baseball Players Practicing, 1875, Thomas Eakins.
Courtesy of the Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art.
Via Wikipedia

There are some modern teams who have old-fashioned uniforms. I always wondered why they didn't look more "authentic" until I saw this and realized the new ones are tighter, don't have big belts, and ... most important of all ... the players don't have handlebar mustaches!

Lent and Easter, Life Now and in Heaven

Because there are these two periods of time — the one that is now is, beset with the trials and troubles of this life, and the other yet to come, a life of everlasting serenity and joy — we are given two liturgical seasons, one before Easter and the other after. The season before Easter signifies the troubles in which we live here and now, while the time after Easter which we are celebrating at present signifies the happiness that will be ours in the future. What we commemorate before Easter is what we experience in this life; what we celebrate after Easter points to something we do not yet possess. That is why we keep the first season with fasting and prayer; but now the fast is over and we devote the present season to praise. Such is the meaning of the Alleluia we sing.

St. Augustine, a discourse on the psalms

Easter is over although we have a few more joyous special celebrations coming — Corpus Christi Sunday, The Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Immaculate Heart of Mary. These are the moments to remember what Augustine says above, that our celebration is just a foretaste of what awaits us after this life.

Two Laughing Girls

Two Laughing Girls, Pere Borrell del Caso

 These girls are just adorable. The icing on the cake is trompe l'oeil which fools your eye into thinking that the subject is breaking out of the painting into the real world. 

In this case, the girl in front seems to be leaning out of the frame while the girl behind her is pointing with her hand out of the frame. It is a delight.

The Gulf of Trieste

The Gulf of Trieste by Pietro Fragiacomo, c. early 1900s.

Confession — opening to grace

Let those who perform works of penance learn from the words of the prophet with what dispositions they must do so, with what zeal, with what spirit, with what purpose, with what inward compunction they must do so, with what zeal, with what spirit with what purpose, with what inward compunction, with what change of heart: "Look, Yahweh, I am in distress! My inmost being is in ferment; my heart turns over inside me.

So too did the people of Nineveh mourn, and they were spared the destruction of their city (see Jonah 3); so great is the remedial efficacy of penance, that God seems to change his decree because of it. It is, therefore, withing your power also to escape his punishment. He wants only that you place your hope in him, he wants only that you appeal to his mercy. If you ... are unwilling to grant pardon to your neighbor unless hea sks for it, do you think that, without your asking for forgiveness, God will forgive you?

Let us then mourn for a time, that we may rejoice for eternity. Let us fear the Lord; let us prepare to meet him, confessing our sins; let us correct our failings and make amends for our transgressions, lest of us too it should be said: "The faithful have vanished from the land: there is no one honest left" (Mi 7:2)

Why do you fear to confess your sins to the Lord who is so good? "Confess your sins," He bids you, "so that you may be justified." The grace of justification is offered you, while you are still guilty of sin; for he is justified who voluntarily confesses that he has sinned. ... The Lord knows all things, but he waits for your confession, not in order to punish but in order to forgive.

St. Ambrose,
via The New Jerusalem Bible (Saints Devotional Edition)

Saint Ambrose here is considering the words of Micah 7:18, "What god can compare with you for pardoning guilt and for overlooking crime? He does not harbor anger for ever, since he delights in showing faithful love." 

Micah, of course, is speaking to the Lord God, praising his lover and forgiveness. When we mourn our shortfalls, these are heartening, inspiring words, especially if we've fallen away from a close relationship with God. This is the time to bare one's soul and come back into a loving relationship who is like the father from the parable of the prodigal son — just waiting with open arms for us to come home.

Events of the past find their spiritual fulfillment in your journey today

The ark of the covenant led the people of God across the Jordan. The priests and the Levites halted, and the waters, as though out of reverence to the ministers of God, stopped flowing. They piled up in a single mass, thus allowing the people of God to cross in safety. ...

You must not think that these events belong only to the past, and that you who now hear the account of them do not experience anything of the kind. It is in you that they all find their spiritual fulfillment. You have recently abandoned the darkness of idolatry, and you now desire to come and hear the divine law. This is your departure from Egypt. When you became a catechumen and began to obey the laws of the Church, you passed through the Red Sea; now at the various stops in the desert, you give time every day to hear the law of God and to see the face of Moses unveiled by the glory of God. But once you come to the baptismal font ... then, through the ministry of the priests, you will cross the Jordan and enter the promised land. There Moses will hand you over to Jesus, and He himself will be your guide on your new journey.

Origen, priest, homily on Joshua

This is such a great connection of our spiritual lives with the actual events of the past. All are connected in salvation history to lead us to Jesus.

In the Evening

In the Evening, Edward B. Gordon
The colors of the setting sun reflected in one of the many canals in Berlin.

‘The place where God would be’ - After prenatal diagnosis, parents find support in Catholic ministry

“I was alone and sitting with the medical team,” Jane told The Pillar.

“They confirmed that baby Emmi had anencephaly and said that she would not survive after birth - if she even made it that far.”

“It was as if a part of me had died right then and there,” she said. “The rest of that day, needless to say, was full of crying and weeping. It was the most painful thing my heart had ever felt. I fell asleep crying that evening.”

But in that painful experience, Jane says also encountered God’s love, in part through the support she received from Be Not Afraid, a Catholic non-profit organization supporting parents whose child has received a prenatal diagnosis.

Jane’s doctor offered her a list of resources that included Be Not Afraid (BNA). She connected with the organization, which helped her family “navigate a lot of those decisions we would have to make.”

Members of Be Not Afraid (BNA) offered Jane’s family resources, education, and even gifts unique to their situation.

“They were truly a God-send, showing us that we were not alone.”

Here's a fascinating and inspiring article from The Pillar about a unique ministry that offers grief ministry for parents whose unborn child has been diagnosed with a fatal illness. It's an indepth piece which made me wish there was such a ministry in Dallas. 

Here's a bit more and then go read the whole thing.

Medical professionals who are not Catholic or even pro-life have responded positively to the work of BNA, she said, because they see the positive effect the ministry has on parents as they navigate a very challenging and painful situation.

“We have had doctors who come out of the delivery room and cry and say that the birth plan was amazing.”

In some cases, medical professionals think carrying a baby to term will lead to a horrible event, she continued. These professionals encounter the option of a person choosing “to love their baby enough to give them time, or love their baby [enough] to accept their baby with a disability, however long that baby’s life will be.”

“We introduce them to sacrificial love.”

Tawny Owl

Tawny Owl, Remo Savisaar

The School of Athens

The School of Athens, Raphael

 Here's a little something to go along with the commentary about choosing our teachers wisely.

The importance of the teacher as model

First, Jesus stresses the importance of the role of a teacher as model. With few exceptions, students do not surpass their teacher in knowledge and virtue. Therefore, if the teacher is vicious to begin with, there is little hope for the followers. This outght to be instructive for those of us in Western culture where we often follow the principles taught by famous teachers (Spinoza, Darwin, Freud, Descartes, Machiavelli, Rousseau, Marx, etc.) who were perverse and ignoble in their personal lives. How can we expect society as a whole to be elevated by the doctrines of men who themselves were so unsuccessful as human beings?

John Bergsma, Word of the Lord Year C,
commenting on Luke 6:39-45

John Bergsma is commenting on Luke 6:39-45 when Jesus says, "No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit." I think we're seeing the fruit of the teachers that Bergsma mentions. We're confused, have the wrong goals, and can't see the solid ground beneath our feet.

Psalm 33 — The Sovereignty of God

When you are gathered together with people who are righteous and upright of life, wing with them Psalm 33.

Athanasius, On the Interpretation of the Psalms

I love the way this psalm begins, telling everyone to to rejoice, sing, and play instruments. One translation says "shout for joy." Another says "skillfully play with joyful chant." Anyway you look at it, this makes me think of a loud, joyful procession of call and response, of everyone joining in as loudly as they can. Again, I think of the joyful celebrations of song and dance from my beloved Indian movies.

This psalm of praise is about much more than God's reflection in creation, but I was really struck by verse 6 (NIV):

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
their starry host by the breath of his mouth.

I'll never forget the many times I have looked up at the night sky and been reduced to tears by the beauty, grandeur, and mystery of the stars overhead. That's hard to do when you live in a big city like I do, but I remember the last time I was at my sister's house in Florida. They live in a spot where you can get complete darkness despite the houses around them and a casual glance at the sky left me rooted to the spot for a long time. My heart was so full of joy at God's goodness to his. After all, He made the world beautiful because he loves us. When I think of the power, creativity, and intelligence it took for that creation, I am overawed. 

That brings me back to the rest of the psalm. If God can do that, can't we trust him to keep his word? The psalmist considers God's character and his interactions with us to show why we may trust God even if we might have to wait for his help. The key is to wait hopefully, with trust.

Van Gogh's Starry Night Over the Rhône
Van Gogh in a letter to Theo after having painted Starry Night Over the Rhône,
confessing to a "tremendous need for, shall I say the word—for religion—
so I go outside at night to paint the stars."

 

I'm going to let Basil the Great develop the idea of how nature lets us see the invisible God through visible things. I particularly love the way he won't hear of "accidental" development for nature or of "bad mishaps" in people's lives. This is not being able to see with God's foresight.

33:4 All God's Work

The Providence of God. Basil the Great. "If you see the heavens," he says, "and the order in them," they are a guide to faith, for through themselves they show the Craftsman; and, if you see the orderly arrangement about the earth, again through these things also your faith in God is increased. In fact, it is not by acquiring knowledge of God with our carnal eyes that we believe in him, but by the power of the mind we have perceived the invisible God through visible things. Therefore, "all his works are done with faithfulness." Even if you consider the stone, it also possesses a certain proof of the power of its Maker. likewise, if you consider the ant or the gnat or the bee. Frequently in the smallest objects the wisdom of the creator shines forth. He who unfolded the heavens and poured out the boundless expanses of the seas, he it is who hollowed out the very delicate sting of the bee like a tube, so that through it the poison might be poured out. Therefore "all his works are done with faithfulness." Do not say, "This happened by chance" and "that occurred accidentally." Nothing is casual, nothing indeterminate, nothing happens at random, nothing among things that exist is caused by chance. And do not say, "It is a bad mishap," or "it is an evil hour." these are the words of the untaught. "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? (Mt. 10:29) And yet not one of them will fall" (Mt. 10:29) without the divine will. How many are the hairs of your head? Not one of them will be forgotten. (Cf. Mt. 10:30) Do you see the divine eye, how none of the least trifles escapes its glance?  Homilies on the Psalms.

An index of psalm posts is here.

Sharmaji Namkeen (Mr. Sharma's Savoury Snacks)

After being laid off from the company he has worked for his entire life, 58-year-old Sharmaji (Mr. Sharma) struggles with retirement. The one unique hobby he has is his excellent cooking but his sons laugh at his idea of setting up a snack shop. Then a friend sets him up as a cook for a kitty party [what we in America might call a hen party]. A bunch of merry women rekindle in Sharma, a passion for cooking and chutzpah in general, that help him find his true calling.

This was a fun, sweet movie of the kind that Hollywood doesn't make anymore. It has familiar beats because this is a familiar theme in American movies and tv. However, the themes of family and friends are really well done. There are humorous points that I liked a lot. The whole scene in the jail is one I really enjoyed.

One point that I was really curious about was that star Rishi Kapoor died while before filming was complete. As his son, Ranbir Kapoor — also a famous Bollywood actor,  explains in a brief clip at the beginning, they decided to honor his memory by finishing the movie. Paresh Rawal filled in and I was in awe of the way they were able to use a second actor so seamlessly in the uncompleted parts of the movie. In fact, most of the time a switch went unnoticed because we were busy watching the movie. 

It isn't a big movie but it is thoroughly enjoyable and a delightful change of pace. Sometimes that's just what we need.

For an excellent, comprehensive review read this one from Access Bollywood.

In a Roman Osteria

In a Roman Osteria, 1866, Carl Bloch

 I love the expressions on everyone's faces.

An Elegantly Dressed Copyist at the Louvre

Louis Béroud - An Elegantly Dressed Copyist at the Louvr

Via Gandalf's Gallery where we learn:

Copying was an essential part of any 19th century artist’s education and the Musée du Louvre, unlike most academies and ateliers, was open to both men and women who studied its many masterpieces. Here, a woman in blue paints at an easel positioned in front of Leonardo’s monumental painting of the so-called Virgin of the Rocks. Sitting on a stool with a protective tarp beneath her, she raises her right arm, touching her paintbrush to the surface of the canvas, her left hand resting on her hip, and a ready rag spills out of the box of supplies open on a stool to her left. Almost all of the copyists in Béroud’s scenes are women who enjoyed access to the museum as amateur painters.

Christ and His Mother Studying the Scriptures

Christ and His Mother Studying the Scriptures, Henry Ossawa Tanner

Today I am in Houston attending the funeral of my godmother (my husband's Aunt C.B.). She died a while ago but the way things are these days, nothing worked out until now for our final goodbye.

This painting seemed appropriate because, with much trepidation, while I was still in RCIA she sent me Rome Sweet Home by Scott and Kimberly Hahn. I read it and was much moved. When I looked for something else Scott Hahn had written, I picked up A Father Who Keeps His Promises. 

It was formative for me in how I looked at scripture and salvation history in the Bible. Like Saint Augustine, I had thought the Bible to be a lot of simple stories that didn't always hang together. Thanks to Aunt C.B.'s early gift I was led to a deep appreciation of scripture that is part of who I am as a Catholic.

A Movie You Might Have Missed #64: Train to Busan

It's been 11 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.

Soo-an: Dad, you only care about yourself. That's why mommy left.

He's forgotten her birthday, he's forgotten to show up at school for her special song, but Seok Woo is going to make sure his little daughter safely gets from Seoul to Busan to visit her mother, his ex-wife. It's just their bad luck that a zombie virus breaks out while they're on the train. The passengers must fight for their families and their lives against the zombies.

We loved this basic zombie movie with the clever twist of NOT staying on a train but clearly having to BE on a train to get to Busan, where there might be a safe haven ... we hope. It was more thoughtful than the average zombie movie. (Is there such a thing as an average zombie movie these days? Oh, right, World War Z. That was very average.)

I especially appreciated the family themes as echoed through all the characters we really come to know ... from young love through fatherhood and old age. And it isn't afraid to look at how an extended struggle might turn survivors against each other as they trade common decency and humanity for personal security.

No wonder it made $85 million. A solid story, well told.

Scott and I discussed this in episode 244 of A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast.

Starlink

Small flowers shine everywhere now on the ground and in the bushes.
Like the stars in the sky, only on earth, and during the day.
Edward B. Gordon