Lagniappe: I didn't know this was a dream of mine until I read it ...

In the future, when Joss Whedon and I are best friends and hanging out together in my tree fort, I hope Neil Gaiman comes over too. Because then the three of us will all play Settlers of Catan together. And I will win, because I'm really great at Settlers of Catan. But I will also be very gracious about it, and apologize for putting the bandit on Gaiman's wheat twice in a row.

Then we will make smores, and I will toast a marshmallow with such deftness and perfection that they will be amazed and realize I am kinda cool. Then we will talk about Battlestar Galactica, and which Doctor is our favorite, and we will tell ghost stories late into the night.

From Patrick Rothfuss's Goodread's review of
The Ocean At The End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Except in my dream we will be playing Pillars of Eternity. Which I am enjoying the heck out of, by the way. Anyway, other than that, exactly the same dream.

Our Bollywood Summer: English Vinglish, 3 Idiots

Last year at this time we were working our way through James Bond films. This year we have inadvertently fallen down a Bollywood rabbit hole. Here are the latest of our explorations.

The story of a woman who does not know English and is made to feel insecure by her family and society at large. Circumstances make her determined to overcome this insecurity, master the language, and teach the world a lesson on the way to becoming a self assured and confident woman.

We discovered English Vinglish after reading earlier this year about Sridevi's untimely accidental death. I'd been trying to get my hands on the library's one dvd for some time but it was always checked out. I remain impressed that the Dallas library consistently has these generally unheard of films.

It was a sweet and enjoyable family film. It was a bit uneven and there are the requisite musical numbers which didn't grab me but overall we liked it. One of the unexpected insights, since this was made purely for an Indian audience, is that it shows us just how immigrating to America is viewed by Indians.

We liked it even more when we read that the writer/director's own mother had a pickle business in her home and he was embarrassed of her lack of English. This is his apology to her. Sridevi was wonderful. We didn't realize this film signaled her return after a brief retirement and that she was such a favorite that there are other famous Indian actors featured who wanted to be included because they were such fans.

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

Hannah and Rose discuss it in episode 32 of An American's Guide to Bollywood podcast.

In the tradition of “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” comes this refreshing comedy about a rebellious prankster with a crafty mind and a heart of gold. Rascal. Joker. Dreamer. Genius… You’ve never met a college student quite like “Rancho.” From the moment he arrives at India’s most prestigious university, Rancho’s outlandish schemes turn the campus upside down—along with the lives of his two newfound best friends. Together, they make life miserable for “Virus,” the school’s uptight and heartless dean. But when Rancho catches the eye of the dean’s sexy daughter, Virus sets his sights on flunking out the “3 idiots” once and for all.

I don't remember what path led us to this film except that when we saw Steven Spielberg quoted as loving it we added it to our list.

Enthusiasm waned when we saw the description which sounded like Animal House. A 3 hour long Animal House.

But then we saw it was the highest grossing Indian movie ever when it came out. Courage returned.

Then we saw the movie poster. And we really wondered what we were letting ourselves in for. Coming across Big in Bollywood, a documentary following the American-born Indian cast member, bolstered Tom and Rose's courage. I hadn't seen it but went along for the 3 Idiots ride.

It was something like a cross between Animal House (without the extreme crudeness) and Dead Poet Society. With some song and dance numbers thrown in because it is Bollywood, so of course. And it was surprisingly charming a lot of the time. Uneven but we weren't sorry we watched it. We didn't expect it to tackle very serious themes (that's the Dead Poet Society part) but it was done quite sensitively.

There wasn't a problem getting this from the library since there are nine copies in circulation (nine!), five of which are checked out as I write.

Overall enjoyable as long as you are willing to go along for the ride. And the dance number with the umbrellas is adorable.

We were interested to find that the star Amir Khan is a huge star who has never had a flop and whose films consistently are award winning blockbusters. I hadn't realized he was the star of Lagaan which we enjoyed many years ago. It is on Netflix now and since Rose hasn't seen it we'll probably watch that soon.

UPDATE
On a second viewing we enjoyed this a lot more than the first time. It was the third Indian movie we'd seen so we'd never come across a masala movie. And this is one of the king of the masala films. So go ahead and try it out. Just don't do it before you've seen more than two other Indian films.

Rating — for advanced viewers. (You've got to be willing to let this one wash over you, enjoying the ride for what it is ... and that means you've got to have seen enough other Indian movies to not worry when it mashes several genres together in odd ways — that's called a "masala movie" by the way)

Well Said: Holding up Scripture to the light and seeing the spray of refracted color

The reintroduction of fairy tales to my redeemed imagination helped me to see the Maker, his Word, and the abounding human (but sometimes Spirit-commandeered) tales as interconnected. It was like holding the intricate crystal of Scripture up to the light, seeing it lovely and complete, then discovering on the sidewalk a spray of refracted colors. The colors aren’t Scripture, nor are they the light behind it. Rather, they’re an expression of the truth, born of the light beyond, framed by the prism of revelation, and given expression on solid ground. My final days in college were spent studying the books of Ezekiel and James in class, writing song lyrics in the margins of my syllabi, and reading, at last, The Lord of the Rings, that exquisite spray of refracted light. ...

... Tolkien and Lewis, both in their own way, lifted me out of this world to show me a thundering beauty, and when I read the last sentence and came tumbling back to earth, I could still hear the peal. I hear it to this day.

God allowed the stories to lift the veil on the imaginary world to show me the real world behind it—which ended up being, in the end, the one I was already in. Tolkien and Lewis held the fabric of Narnia or Middle-earth in one hand and clutched ours in the other, building a bridge so we could set out for perilous realms and return safely with some of the beauty we found there. The ache we feel when we read about Frodo’s voyage from the Grey Havens, the ache we feel when Lucy hears the thump of solid wood at the back of the wardrobe is telling us that yes, there’s another world. But the stories that awaken us are meant to awaken us not only to the reality to come but to this world and its expectant glory.

Andrew Peterson, The Integrated Imagination: Fantasy in the Real World

Yes.

Yes, yes, yes.

As I've said, and tried to lure you into these three days, do go read it all. Even if you don't thrill to fantasy or reading, there is some part of your world which God uses to draw you closer, to enrich the world you inhabit right now. It's a beautiful way to live and this piece articulates it so well.

Worth a Thousand Words: Public Feast

Public Feast, Remo Savisaar

Hannah and Rose discuss women with guns, orderlies with authority, and why you shouldn’t let the patients near knives in the asylum.

They didn't need to say "written by men" ... I'd already picked up on that one. What a stinker! And what fun for Hannah and Rose to do their seductive dance of destruction and grind it into the dirt.

Listen as they discuss Sucker Punch at More is More, the bad movie podcast.

Blogging Around: Cool Cardinal-Elect, Gay Weddings and Cakes, and "Aid in Living" for Terminal Patients

Pakistan's Cardinal-Elect Overwhelmed by Reaction Over His Elevation
It is all positive and coming from all segments of society.

“The reaction here is overwhelming. There has been a steady stream of visitors since the announcement came,” Archbishop Coutts told the Register May 30 from his office over the telephone.

Apart from enthusiastic Christians, Archbishop Coutts said, the well-wishers included the Muslim mayor of Karachi; government ministers; leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami, a leading Muslim organization; and leaders of Hindus and other segments of society.

National Catholic Register

I myself was interested to see all the countries with new cardinals and to read more about the situation that Cardinal Coutts faces. I was even more arrested by his photo. Are we sure they are not simply reacting to the fact that the new cardinal is the coolest looking Church official I've ever seen? It's the sunglasses. He should always wear them.


Could a Catholic Bake a Cake for a Gay Wedding?
Jen Fitz starts us off with looking at what Catholics believe about marriage and then takes us through how that affects our actions.

Now here’s where it gets sticky. Because we believe all these things about marriage we also affirm that a wedding ceremony is a public, formal statement of one’s beliefs about marriage. In other words, whether anyone likes it or not, for a Catholic, a wedding is a statement of faith (or no faith as the case may be). Furthermore, every guest at a wedding is technically a witness to that wedding, and if a witness then someone who affirms the statement of faith that is being made.

When you go to a gay wedding therefore, you are not only affirming gay sex. You are also affirming their belief about marriage (which contradicts the Catholic beliefs about marriage) and therefore openly, publicly and formally denying your Catholic faith.

Therefore, a Catholic could not possibly attend a same sex wedding. That doesn’t mean that one has to be nasty about it. One can be civil and wish the homosexuals happiness and send them best wishes, but explain why you can’t attend the wedding. People decline invitations to weddings all the time, and once one’s beliefs are explained, any tolerant person will agree to disagree, and if they have any kind of humanity, and if they love you, they will respect you for holding to your beliefs in a tolerant manner.

But could the Catholic provide a cake or flowers for the wedding?

For the answer to that question, read it all!


Life Is a Gift, Even With a Terminal Illness

Stephanie Packer’s lungs are hardening, but she has not lost her voice.

The 37-year-old Catholic mother of four living in Orange County, California, has outlived her prognosis of terminal scleroderma by five years. She has just outlived California’s assisted-suicide law, and her health insurer’s subsequent offer to end her life with a $1.20 copay, by three years. ...

The Catholic woman wants people to know assisted suicide devalues the lives of people who are approaching the end of life. She said what people with terminal illnesses and their caregivers need are society’s compassion and loving holistic support. They do not need “aid in dying,” but “aid in living,” and they can teach important lessons to those who accompany them to the end.

Stephanie Packer's message is a vital one for our society and her testimony is inspirational. For one thing, she is so obviously joyful, even through her pain. Her efforts on behalf of the terminally ill, the legal case, and a question and answer session are all included in the article.

Well Said: "I feasted on the meat of the Bible for four years."

A little more from Andrew Peterson's piece, The Integrated Imagination, which I quoted from yesterday. Just because it resonates so well with my own experience. We feel his delight in the Bible coming through these words. Truly the Word is honey t the tongue!

The Bible became fascinating for the first time since I had read Revelation at church camp to see how imminent was the apocalypse in order to gauge my remaining party time. Now I read it because it felt alive. ... And you know what? It worked. During the first few weeks of Bible college the story of the Old Testament lit up my imagination with stories of battle, espionage, love triangles, deception, failure, heroism, and the promise of redemption; mine was an imagination well-prepared for the invasion of the Gospel story. The soil had been fertilized in my youth with a hundred tales that had taken root and grown but had born no fruit; those old stories withered, then decayed and composted, readying the ground for the life-giving seeds that were coming.

I feasted on the meat of the Bible for four years. ... I no longer felt that awful lack of purpose, which is, I suppose, a lack of hope. Now there were songs to be written. There were concerts to play. I wanted to tell people this story that had changed me, and through the lens of all my newfound hope, the world and every person I met seemed to shimmer with God’s presence. I read commentaries, I read every class syllabus, I read the Bible, I read papers. I was eating meat, meat, meat, and more meat.

Worth a Thousand Words: Dublin Streets — A Vendor of Books

Walter Osborne, Dublin Streets — A Vendor of Books

Worth a Thousand Words: Solar eruptions

Thierry Legault, Solar eruption on July 13 and 14, 2005

It's been unseasonably warm, even for Texas, so I felt a natural affinity with these solar flares.

I discovered Thierry Legault in a Wall Street Journal article several years ago. He very graciously gave me permission to share his wonderful photography here. Click through and enjoy all his images. They are superb.

Well Said: Fantasy, Christ, and the Integrated Imagination

Not once did I suspect in all my sketching and reading and aching to enter the stories I read that Jesus was calling to me through them. Jesus was mostly an idea. There was church, the life I was supposed to long for, and then there was the life I actually longed for. You see, I was the victim of what I call, “imaginational segregation.” On one hand there was my compulsion to be a Christian—a cultural and familial paradigm that I happily ascribed to and had little reason to resist—and on the other I nurtured a mostly secret affection for what were, more or less, fairy tales. ...

But that morning when I was nineteen on the hillside in East Tennessee, things were different. Life itself—the one I was actually living—for once outshone the life I had yearned for. The Maker of this beautiful, broken world ambushed me. He had lain in wait for the perfect moment to spring: the perfect song at the perfect hour of the day, the contrition of my hungry heart, the intricate staging of the beauty that had led me to that dewy lawn, and his holy, brooding spirit draped over the valley like a mist. “Drink,” he told me, “and thirst no more.”

I’m not saying this was my actual conversion, but it was a salient moment that perhaps marked the end of a season of struggle. When the shadows cast by my disappointment and self-hatred were banished by the light of the forgiveness, the acceptance, and the infinite affection of Christ, I could see the world around me for the miracle it was.

Andrew Peterson, The Integrated Imagination: Fantasy in the Real World

This is a really beautiful conversion story. Andrew Peterson found the world he longed for in fantasy, was called from it by God, and then, in that surprising way God has, was shown fantasy that pulled both together. Yes, of course, we're talking about J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.

Do go read it all. It is a thrill for those of us who love books and then found Christ ... and then found Him again in the books we love so well. Via Brandywine Books.

The Strangest Way by Robert Barron

Strangest Way by Robert E. Barron

Is Christianity a bland, domesticated religion, unthreatening and easy to grasp? Or is it the most exotic, unexpected, and uncanny of religious paths? For the mystics and saints -- and for Robert Barron who discovered Christianity through them -- it is surely the strangest way. "At its very center, " writes Barron, "is a God who comes after us with a reckless abandon, breaking open his own heart in love in order to include us in the rhythm of his own life." What could be more compelling?

I'd been wanting to read this for a while so was glad when Scott chose it for an upcoming Good Story podcast episode. This was written in 2002 when Robert Barron was a priest, before he really came to wide-spread Catholic fame as an online presence. It is like Barron in a nutshell — engaging, conversational, explaining to believers how to live that "strangest way" of the cross in our everyday lives.

Barron takes three pieces of literature and uses them as guides to each of the three paths necessary for a fully engaged Christian life. Brideshead Revisited launches the discussion of Finding the Center, Dante's Purgatorio takes us through Knowing You're a Sinner, and Flannery O'Connor's The Violent Bear It Away engages us in Realizing Your Life is Not About You. Each path is woven through with a tapestry of philosophy, culture, and pop culture that deepen the conversation. Several practices for each path are recommended at the end of each section and these have their own rich discussions.

I found the book inspiring and enlightening. I have read and recommended several of Bishop Barron's books before but I'd say this is the key one of those I've read. Highly recommended.

Worth a Thousand Words: Lick!

Lick! by Remo Savisaar

Weekend Joke: Periodic Table 450 B.C.

An old cartoon but this joke never gets old to me. 
Again, thanks to Doug Savage for this cartoon. Which completely cracks me up.

Well Said: Advice

I always advise people never to give advice.

P.G. Wodehouse

Worth a Thousand Words: The Young Eastern Woman

Friedrich von Amerling, The Young Eastern Woman

Alabama BBQ Chicken (with White BBQ Sauce)

I wondered what a mayonnaise-based sauce could possibly add to chicken and now I know. A really delicious twist! I could see making chicken salad with the leftovers, I really could. Get it at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

What I've Been Reading: Cool & Lam, Rogues & Villains, Dorothy Day, Lewis Devotional

Double or Quits by A.A. Fair

While tracking down jewels stolen from a prominent doctor's safe, Donald Lam and Bertha Cool encounter a suspicious death, lies, a custody battle and blackmail, and conflict with an insurance company over a double indemnity clause in an insurance policy.

Where have Cool & Lam been all my life? What an inspired combination for a detective agency and a great mystery with which to meet them!

I read four short stories in a row by Earle Stanley Gardner (A.A. Fair's real name) in the Big Book of Rogues and Villains. I'd never taken a cotton to Perry Mason but these featured rogues that sent me looking for more such characters. Luckily I came across Cool & Lam with big, bad tempered Bertha Cool and half-pint, clever, attractive Donald Lam. I will be reading all I can find, which won't be many as I'll have to scour used book stores for them. Not many are in reprint.

They are a sheer pleasure to read, trust me on this.

The Big Book of Rogues and Villains by Otto Penzler

Edgar Award-winning editor Otto Penzler's new anthology brings together the most cunning, ruthless, and brilliant criminals in mystery fiction, for the biggest compendium of bad guys (and girls) ever assembled.

I love these sorts of stories which for me were greatly enhanced by the fact that most of the stories are about rogues or about villains who are being foiled. I also really appreciate Otto Penzler's skill in selecting and organizing this sort of collection, especially when enhanced by his brief biographies of the author before each tale. Highly recommended, though for late night reading one might want the Kindle version as it is indeed a very big book for reading in bed.


The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist by Dorothy Day

This inspiring and fascinating memoir, subtitled, “The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist,” The Long Loneliness is the late Dorothy Day’s compelling autobiographical testament to her life of social activism and her spiritual pilgrimage.

I felt about this very much as I felt about St. Therese of Lisieux's Story of a Soul — I liked half of it a lot. In Therese's case I liked the last half, in Dorothy Day's case I liked the first half. It told a lot about her life and the conditions of the time in which she grew up, which were really interesting and put her into a lot of context. She seems to have had an inborn desire to seek God, which I relate to, which she couldn't escape no matter what her living conditions. In the last half she spent a lot of time on personalities's stories which I didn't care about which accounts for my disinterest in that section. I much prefer On Pilgrimage for a look at daily life with Dorothy Day, especially since it is a journal account going over about a year.

However, it was definitely worth reading once and I'm glad I did.


The Business of Heaven: Daily Readings from C. S. Lewis

In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis’s famous devil derides the Christian year as “The Same Old Thing.” To combat this, Walter Hooper has drawn from Lewis’s vast bibliography, accumulating short meditations that correspond to each day of the Christian calendar. Hooper has chosen passages that emphasize Lewis’ illuminatingly matter-of-fact approach to religion. In addition to providing food for thought, these bite-sized excerpts facilitate a yearlong journey towards achieving the joy that Lewis wrote is “the serious business of heaven.”

This is a really excellent devotional. Carefully selected excerpts of C.S. Lewis's work are organized around the liturgical year. A little C.S. Lewis every day is a great way to stay focused on the realities of Christian life.

Worth a Thousand Words: At the Seaside

At the Seaside, Edward B. Gordon

Well Said: Heaven is a banquet and life is a banquet, too.

We cannot love God unless we love each other, and to love we must know each other. We know Him in the breaking of bread, and we know each other in the breaking of bread, and we are not alone anymore. Heaven is a banquet and life is a banquet, too, even with a crust, where there is companionship.

Dorothy Day, The Long Loneliness

Weekend Joke: Too Darn Hot

As George got out of the shower he said to his wife, “Honey, it’s too darned hot to wear clothes today, what do you think the neighbors will say if I mow the lawn naked?”

“That I married you for your money.”