My Favorite of the Greatest Uses of Trash Talk in the History of War

It's #4 in the countdown from 10 to 1 but it was my favorite in this fascinating piece from Cracked.com (as always, language warning).

After maxing out his army's tech tree and throwing his enormous weight around in the Third Sacred War, Philip turned his eye toward the oiled abs of Sparta. So, in 346 B.C., he decided he would do a little smack-talking of his own to the Spartans:

"You are advised to submit without further delay, for if I bring my army on your land, I will destroy your farms, slay your people and raze your city."


The Spartans answered ...

The Quote:

"If."

As in, "That's the only relevant word in all your tough talk."

The Aftermath:

Sure enough, it never happened. Both Philip II and his son Alexander ended up spending the remainder of their military careers fighting as far away from Sparta as humanly possible.

Making a Private Journey in Public: Reviewing "The Way"

I have been intrigued by pilgrims walking the thousand-year-old El Camino de Santiago (Way of St. James) ever since reading author Robert Ward's experiences walking it in Virgin Trails: A Secular Pilgrimage.

I came away with a healthy respect for the physical accomplishment of walking almost 500 miles (800 kilometers) over mountains and across plains from the French Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. Also, there was the attraction of that rarity — the idea of investing full attention on God for a month or so — which seemed like a romantic deed still available in modern times.

I probably will never get the chance to take that pilgrimage. It has just been one of those things that made me perk up my ears when El Camino comes up. Surprisingly, it comes up much more than you'd think, if you read the right blogs.

When I received the invitation to prescreen Emilio Estevez's new film, The Way, about a bereft father walking the Way of St. James, my ongoing interest in El Camino was a large factor in my attendance. If I can't get there any other way, the wonder of film can take me. Also, with Estevez and his father, Martin Sheen, involved it seemed to me as if there were less chance of this being a sappy, trite story ... which is what I fear any time I am tapped to prescreen a movie. (They see "Happy Catholic" and "Christian movie" is what they think ... which often leaves the story behind at expense of pounding the pulpit ... but I digress ...).

I was pleased to find a solid little indie film with gorgeous cinematography and a simple but engaging story.

Martin Sheen plays Tom, who travels to a town in the French Pyrenees to identify the remains of his estranged son who was killed while walking El Camino de Santiago. Ruing his lack of connection, overcome by his grief, Tom decides to walk the Camino for his son, leaving handfuls of ashes at shrines along the way.

As he goes, Tom acquires three unwanted companions, each of whom have their own hidden reasons. Estivez, who wrote the script, readily admits to being inspired by The Wizard of Oz but in truth one could compare The Way to any story that is based around a journey with a misfit group of comrades. This storytelling device is well known and for good reason. In watching the people rub against each other's pet peeves and tread unwittingly on their hidden secrets, we learn about them on a deeper level. We know the device because it is also the story of our own lives as we do the same to those around us. It is how we are made:  to journey through life both alone and in company.

The story was told in an understated way for the most part. Characters didn't preach sermons at one another and several revelations were very touching in what they showed of regret in choosing the wrong way. The acting was good also and although I am used to seeing Martin Sheen's familiar style, I was moved to tears when his character shrank at entering the morgue, saw his son's face, and later spread the ashes at the first shrine. For those whom this sort of thing concerns: none of the pilgrims identify themselves as practicing Christians so occasional swearing, drug use, and the like are able to be looked on simply as secular behavior. There were a few moments that struck me as false such as the first encounter with Jack the writer where his Irish eloquence about "the road" was so over the top that I winced. However, there were not many of those moments compared to the others that I enjoyed.

As I said before, this is a solid little indie movie and I recommend it. In fact, since I watched it from the third row of the theater, I plan on renting the DVD when it comes out and watching again when my eyes aren't crossed on the close ups. It is simply gorgeous, if nothing else, and I found the simple story inspirational.

MILD SPOILER & PONDERING ABOUT STORY
Despite recommending the movie, I was pondering what made The Way a "little indie movie" versus something like The King's Speech which also has a simple and inspirational story but seems more complete. The Way seemed to lack a layer or two of complexity that would have made a more well-rounded story.

My husband, Tom, (my date for the movie) became intrigued by El Camino and began looking up what he could find about it. He surprised me by saying that the filmmakers didn't tell the entire story in telling that when you show your filled Camino passport at the end of the pilgrimage you receive a certificate. Making the pilgrimage for religious reasons has historically earned a plenary indulgence* and that is still true today. Also those who state they made the pilgrimage for religious reasons receive the Latin version of the certificate.

Tom said that he thought the filmmakers missed an opportunity by omitting these details. How much more powerful, he asked, would it have been if when Sheen's character had the official change the name on his Camino certificate to his son's name if the indulgence had been explained then? It would have gone far in speaking about Sheen's attitude shift and his reconciliation with his son as a result of the journey. And it would have spoken to hope for life after death.

During the question-and-answer period following the film, Estevez said that he was "open" about faith. He hadn't made up his mind but bore no ill will to any specific faith. That openness, translated into this movie, seemed to take away a bit from the focus it could have had if he had been willing to take a firmer stand and push all the way to defining the conclusion more. The film is not afraid to show religious symbolism as, indeed, it could not be considering the subject. If only they had been a bit more willing to put the necessary firmness into the message.

As it was, we were left questioning the point and emotional impact of Tom's throwing the rest of the ashes into the ocean. It seemed an unnecessary coda, although I very much liked the final scene that followed it.


*The Handbook of Indulgences states that a plenary indulgence is granted to the faithful who perform the works listed below. This means the full remission of all temporal punishment (time spent in purgatory) due to sin in one's entire lifetime up to that point. Plenary indulgences can also be requested of Our Lord for the deceased. (source)

Another Conversion That Began at Mass

Much to my surprise the Mass was entirely focused on Jesus Christ as the Second Person of the Trinity. I heard more Scripture read than I had ever heard in any Protestant church. I heard a 15 minute sermon on the Gospel reading. We said the Our Father together. We confessed our sins together. We prayed for the Church, the government, the needy, the lost and our selves. We remembered members of the Church who had died. We sang hymns. We kneeled. We stood. We made the sign of the Cross. We shook hands with each other and said, "Peace be with you." It was a corporate affair.

The fact that the Church has always understood the New Testament idea that Baptism was incorporation into Christ's Body, the Church, had always been something I admired about the Catholic Church. It made sense of why so much of the Mass was said out aloud, and acted out together. We were the Body of Christ. It wasn't just about me.

From Why I'm Catholic where you'll find many more conversion stories.

Snapshot: Gentle Leader Headcollars

Oh my goodness, I wish we'd have been using Gentle Leaders before now. It would have saved so much wear and tear on my arm and our Boxers' necks as we struggled vainly to get them to stop lunging, heel, and not yank us off our feet every time a squirrel ran by. The Gentle Leader really does make them behave. Even when Wash lunged after a jogging woman the other morning, his lunges were so consciously gentle that tugging him back was almost effortless.

This isn't our Boxer, but you can see how it fits easily around the nose. This photo doesn't show it but they can pant, drink, carry a ball (or in our dogs' cases, sticks).

Simply amazing.

Beautiful Blood - A Moving Conversion Story

My brother was going to take me to Mass the next day. I hadn’t been to Mass since the 3rd grade when I went to Catholic school. My friends and I would sit in the back and get in trouble for giggling and putting our feet on the kneelers. Other than that, I remember hating it. Now, I knew that I was going to go back, and I might hate it again. But if all of this was true, I would be stuck going to Mass every week. I would have to go to boring, lifeless Mass instead of the church I loved.

So that night, I locked myself in the bathroom (the only place to be alone in a college dorm), and prayed. I asked God to either show me where the Catholic schema broke down, or else to show me why Catholicism was beautiful. I told him I was terrified of it being true because it still seemed so dark, ugly, and lifeless to me. I prayed: “God, if this is from you it has to be beautiful… so please, if it is from you, show me how it is beautiful.”

I wasn’t really that hopeful.

Of course, all conversion stories are moving and Daughter of Glory's is a beautiful one about Christ speaking through the Mass. (Via The Crescat.)

This story may strike me particularly because Tom and I were asked to help with our parish's RCIA classes which begin tonight. In thinking about tonight, I hearkened back to my own attendance back in 2000 and my expectations which were simply that I'd learn the rules and go through the rigamarole required. Rather a workmanlike approach really. Not lacking hope, but not expecting much either.

It turned out to be a much more spiritual journey than I would have expected. Of course.

So I think also of the people who will attend the first class tonight. Are they eager? Wary? Confused? Any of those emotions and more will probably be just below the surface. The great thing is that God will answer them. One way or another, if they are honestly seeking, He will be there.

Scott says, "Potato." Julie says, "Potahto." Discussing "Contact" on A Good Story is Hard to Find.

We don't call the whole thing off but we do come to a distinct parting of the ways in our opinions about "Contact," starring Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey (never seen so rarely without a shirt as here).

Get it all at A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast.

Snapshot: Time to Revive Home Ec

A year later, my father’s job took our family to Wales, where I attended, for a few months, a large school in a mid-size industrial city. There, students brought ingredients from home and learned to follow recipes, some simple and some not-so-simple, eventually making vegetable soups and meat and potato pies from scratch. It was the first time I had ever really cooked anything. I remember that it was fun, and with an instructor standing by, it wasn’t hard. Those were deeply empowering lessons, ones that stuck with me when I first started cooking for myself in earnest after college.

I knew a lot about cooking when I took Home Ec back in the 9th grade. But I didn't know anything about sewing, budgeting, planning a project, or the many other things that I learned in that class. I look at my children's friends and almost all of them don't know a thing about cooking. Or a lot of those other things.

This New York Times article focuses more than I'd like on obesity as a reason to revive Home Ec, although it is not without reason. I'm just sayin' there are a lot of other reasons to bring it back.

6 Things You Won't Believe Animals Do Just Like Us

But now that scientists know that parrots have signature calls, a few questions come up, like: Who gets to decide the signature call that's given to each parrot chick? Is it the parrots themselves who decide what they should be called, thus making it an innate characteristic? Is some sort of alpha parrot handing out identifying sounds? In order to answer all these questions, researchers at Cornell University filmed parrots in the wild of Venezuela, along with their newborn chicks, to see exactly when and how a parrot got its name.

What the scientists found was that it was not the parrot newborns who got to choose their signature calls. Instead, it was the proud parrot parents who gave each chick its name. Much like a human, the adult parrot will choose a name for its young soon after it's born. Each parrot, though, may tweak its own signature call as it grows older, elongating a whistle here or shortening a chirp there, essentially giving itself a nickname.

Cracked.com (obligatory language warning) delivers six astounding examples of behavior that you thought was limited to human beings. I'm hard pressed for a favorite since all of them are so incredible that I bored our household by going on and on about them. I'm torn between the whales' pop songs and the little chimps playing with dolls. Go read it yourself.

Book Review: Holy Women by Pope Benedict XVI

When Juliana [St. Juliana of Cornillon] was sixteen she had her first vision which recurred subsequently several times during her Eucharistic adoration. Her vision presented the moon in its full splendor, crossed diametrically by a dark stripe. The Lord made her understand the meaning of what had appeared to her. The moon symbolized the life of the Church on earth, the opaque line, on the other hand, represented the absence of a liturgical feast for whose institution Juliana was asked to plead effectively: namely, a feast in which believers would be able to adore the Eucharist so as to increase in faith, to advance in the practice of the virtues and to make reparation for offenses to the Most Holy Sacrament.

This eventually became the Solemnity of Corpus Christi.

I don't remember ever hearing of St. Juliana and you'd think I would if I had since my given name is Julianne.

Thank goodness for Holy Women to give me a vivid sampling of the many ways female saints have contributed to the Church.

Pope Benedict is renowned as a scholar and theologian. I repeatedly see people say that he writes on such an intellectual level that he is difficult to understand. However, the Pope's homilies must be easy to understand since they are delivered to all sorts of people. It is these homilies in which he often speaks most directly about what it means to be a regular Christian in search of God.

Benedict's homily series about seventeen female saints is collected for our meditation in Holy Women. Although we may think of saints as being too holy to understand, no group of people could disprove that idea more than these women. From St. Gertrude the Great to St. Therese of Lisieux, from abbesses to holy housewives to queens, Benedict gives us history that shows how God works through all sorts of people, in all sorts of times.

As always, Benedict's greatest gift in this writing is when he brings us face-to-face with our own similarities to these saintly women. I found personal inspiration in St. Elizabeth of Hungary who influenced her husband, the nation they ruled, and everyone she encountered (except for scheming relatives ...) by her charity and personal service.

Elizabeth's marriage was profoundly happy: she helped her husband to raise his human qualities to a supernatural level and he, in exchange, stood up for his wife's generosity tothe poor and for her religious practices. Increasingly admired for his wife's great faith, Ludwig said to her, referring to her attention to the poor, "Dear Elizabeth, it is Christ whom you have cleansed, nourished, and cared for" — a clear witness to how faith and love of God and neighbor strengthen family life and deepen ever more the matrimonial union.

Recommended reading for every person who says that the Church keeps women down.

Thank you, Pope Benedict!

This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Holy Women. They are also a great source for a Catechism of the Catholic Church or a Catholic Bible.

If Terry Pratchett Looks in the Mirror, Does He See Granny Weatherwax?

There is a very interesting debate raging at the moment about the nature of sin, for example,” said Oats.

“And what do they think? Against it, are they?” said Granny Weatherwax.

“It’s not as simple as that. It’s not a black and white issue. There are so many shades of gray.”

“Nope.”

“Pardon?”

“There’s no grays, only white that’s got grubby. I’m surprised you don’t know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.

“It’s a lot more complicated than that –”

“No. It ain’t. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they’re getting worried that they won’t like the truth. People as things, that’s where it starts.”

“Oh, I’m sure there are worse crimes –”

“But they starts with thinking about people as things …”

The Anchoress takes one of my favorite quotes from a Terry Pratchett book and reflects on Pratchett's atheism, early onset Alzheimer's and support for assisted suicide.

Anticipating his own end, Pratchett has said, ‘I intend, before the endgame looms, to die sitting in a chair in my own garden with a glass of brandy in my hand and Thomas Tallis on the iPod.”

Pratchett might be surprised at what she finds in the light of Granny Weatherwax's philosophy. Read it at First Things.

Early Reaction to "A People of Hope: Archbishop Timothy Dolan in Conversation with John L. Allen"

I have an advance copy of the uncorrected proof and A People of Hope is dynamite. I am not to publish a review until November which is when it is published.

What I will say is that it is a Q & A series between John L. Allen and Archbishop Timothy Dolan. Allen wanted a way to show the good side of the Catholic Church that the media rarely covers. His encounters with Dolan left him feeling that this man puts a warm human face on the Church's public figure ... and does it from a position of sincerity and honesty. In a sense this book is like the Ratzinger Report which gave people insight into Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict) many years ago.

I was dipping into it here and there among the questions, which are grouped by topic (my favorite chapter title: Pelvic Issues). As far as I can tell, since I've been jumping around, Allen asks all the hard questions and Dolan answers with absolute transparency. I already admired Dolan and find this does nothing to diminish that admiration of him as "real." I am now beginning to read it in order and it continues to impress.

Actually, what I have found is that it reversed my usual reading pattern. Usually I turn to fiction to break up the nonfiction I'm reading. However, right now I'm reading Declare by Tim Powers for A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast. It is rather heavy and dark, though better than I remember it from when I stopped reading about a third of the way through a few years ago. (That's the great thing about being "assigned" to read a book ... it forces you to power past the discouraging parts and find that it is a great book despite your early misgivings.)  Anyway, when I can't take it any more, I pick up A People of Hope. Even though many of the topics under discussion are contentious ones, Dolan's optimism is refreshing and a picker-upper for me.

This is another book that I'm going to keep on hand for helping with our parish's RCIA classes. Dolan's way of answering is so honest and truthful that I can't help but think it will be very useful in building a good foundation for being equally honest in turn to those who ask me for clarification, especially on touchy issues.

Movie Driveby: Iron Man 2, Contact, Adaptation

This is just the quick reaction to our weekend viewing ...

• Iron Man 2
  Two things redeemed this movie from being a complete waste of time (and, truth be told, it was those things which made Hannah push us to watch it): performances by Sam Rockwell as the nerd super-villain and Mickey Rourke as the Russian spit-in-your-eye-and-laugh-while-I'm-dying villain. Dang those actors are good! The rest was self-indulgent twaddle and a waste of money and talent.
  
  
• Contact
  Searching for life in outer space and getting a call back; starring Jodie Foster and Matthew McConaughey. I'll discuss this on A Good Story is Hard to Find so don't want to say much here ... except I am trying to think of kind ways in which the Texas Chainsaw (as my friend Scott Nehring has nicknamed me), can discuss it. Although it did bring to mind some great conversation points about faith, creation, science, and so forth, so that works out all right.
  
  
• Adaptation
  Charlie Kaufman wrote a script about his experience adapting The Orchid Thief into a screenplay. This is Kaufman's meta-film, highly praised and recommended to me many times. We were reminded that Nicholas Cage is a great actor when he wants to be. The end scene almost blew my head open as the culimation of the perfection that was this movie ... I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry at how great it was. Though it seems to drag as you approach the halfway point, that is where it suddenly picks up and turns into an entirely different beast and you realize how the setup in the first half was necessary to the inspired insanity of the second half. Not for everyone, but if you like an intellectual look at movies, then this is brilliant.

Before there was Fiddler, there was Tevye ...

This looks wonderful. Via Strange Herring, which you should also be keeping your eye on.

Weekend Joke

Via The Deacon's Bench. This one just cracked me up.

Anglican priest to his wife who’d just spent a fortune on a dress – ”Why did you spend so much, I’ve told you that whenever you feel tempted you should say “Get behind me Satan”

“I did” said his wife.

“What happened then?” said the priest?

“He told me it looked lovely from the back.”

As we go into a long weekend ... what's going on ...

A few updates about family stuff.

Tom's mother came through surgery with flying colors. Tom went to see her last night and she's busy pushing for someone to take her home. So that means she's feeling good and we're glad to hear it!

Rose got home from Chicago yesterday! YAY!

Today, she and I will pick up some flowers and head up to the hospital to keep Tom's mom company for a while.

Eventually, she'll begin job hunting in Los Angeles, but not until she's had a nice, long vacation of a couple of months (or gets bored ... whichever comes first).

We're still in a drought, with temperatures over 100. However, hopeful weather forecasters keep promising that we'll dip down into the upper 90s over the weekend. I've got my fingers crossed!

Hannah is loving her new job as an arborist. She turned in her resignation for her part-time job as an assistant vet tech so that she can have extra time to study for the arborist test. We think this is a great idea as it will allow her to really focus and also be available to possible clients every weekday.

Tom and I ... we're happy. Happy at work, happy with our family, happy with our lives. You can't ask for better than that.

And, we're grateful, of course. God is good.

Have a great weekend everyone! I'll be back on Tuesday! (Although I have a weekend joke that will pop up tomorrow.)

Listen My Son: St. Benedict for Fathers

All those devotionals I mentioned and yet I didn't have this one.

Luckily Joseph at Zombie Parent's Guide reviews it for us. Plus, he's the target market! A father! Perfect ...

Snapshot: Ruby-throated Hummingbirds

Male

A few nights ago we were eating dinner and Hannah suddenly said, "Look! Next to the Christmas lights!"

(We leave our tiny, colored Christmas lights lining our patio roof and windows year-round, lending a festive, Mexican-restaurant feel, especially when they go on after dark.)

Hovering and darting around the unlit lights were two Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. They were a male and female, looking like flying jewels. The male came close enough to the patio window that I got a vivid impression of his ruby throat. Soon enough, they headed off to check out the Crepe Myrtles. I don't know if they could feed on them but at least Crepe Myrtles have the virtue of being real flowering plants.

Female

Then this morning, I stopped on my morning walk to see what some squawking Blue Jays were going on about. I never figured it out, but out of that same tree there zipped a hummingbird which darted over my head to join two others in mid-air. They buzzed out of sight, I assume in the direction of Mexico which is where most of them are migrating to at this time of year.

It was a real treat both times because I never think to put a feeder out and most of them must stick to other wayfares than our yard and street.

Both images are from Wikipedia.

I'm Hopelessly Devoted ... to Devotionals

As we discover in my latest A Free Mind column at Patheos.com. Presented for your consideration, a gaggle of devotionals that I can highly recommend.

Saint Paul by Pope Benedict

Saint Paul by Pope Benedict XVI
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As with many of the other collections of Pope Benedict's homilies, these are brilliant for simply explaining many basic concepts of the faith through the lens of the great people who have gone before us. In this case, of course, it is St. Paul and his conversion, life, and letters (which became much of the New Testament). Benedict keeps our personal involvement by continually relating all this to each reader and our struggles to live a Christian life in modern days. Being as this is about Paul, these homilies are a bit denser than some others (such as holy women, for example), but Pope Benedict is an expert at making them understandable and accessible.

A Little Princess - reread

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A perennial favorite and one that I reread for the Elements of Faith book club.

It is always interesting to reread a childhood favorite from the vantage point of many years later. The story is just as wonderful as I'd remembered, the writing right and evocative, the characters fully fleshed out with a few deft phrases and through their telling actions. What I didn't remember was Burnett's humorous way of describing things. It is not obviously funny but when reading the couple of sentences about Ermengarde's feelings about her father, I laughed. This book was written by children but surely can be enjoyed by any adult who enjoys a good story.

Sara Crewe reminds us that the true definition of being a princess is not to enjoy privilege but to be as gracious and stalwart in word, action, and intention as any dedicated soldier. That is a reminder we can all do with no matter what age we are.