America and space

In America there is more space where nobody is than where anybody is — that is what makes America what it is.

Gertrude Stein

That certainly struck me with great force when we were driving on our vacation.

Braniff stewardesses in the 1960s

Braniff stewardesses in the 1960s, via Traces of Texas

Braniff stewardesses in the 1960s. They are wearing uniforms designed by Italian fashion designer Emilio Pucci, best known for geometric prints in a kaleidoscope of colors. I kind of wish air travel still had this sense of whimsy about it. It's become such a drudgery. Braniff, of course, was based in Dallas.

That makes any flight more fun!

Butterflies

Sarah Paxton Ball Dodson, Butterflies

Marsh Harrier

Marsh Harrier, Remo Savisaar

I don't know how Remo Savisaar gets such stunning photos, I just know that he does it over and over. It's always hard to choose which to share here.

Do yourself a favor and go to his blog to see all the other gorgeous photos he's taken.

This Diwali — Thugs Of Hindostan (Updated)

As any regular readers are well aware, we're really into Bollywood movies at our house. In addition to the fun of finding a whole new sort of movie experience, we recently realized that we've gradually been educated more about Indian culture and attitudes. (All are reviewed under the Bollywood link above.)

• Ek Tha Tiger taught us that the Indians feel about Pakistan the way we felt about the USSR in James Bond movies.
• Chak De! India taught us that the Indians struggle to put national unity above regional identity.
• English Vinglish showed us how Indians felt about the American immigration experience. And about the importance placed on speaking English in India.
• Aiyyaa (not reviewed) gave us a glimpse of the Hindi ideas of Tamil culture.
• Dhoom 3 showed us that no villain is worse than a bank. Ever.

Recently Rose began looking into top grossing Indian films to supplement her Top 100 Bollywood movies list from which we'd been drawing. This is when we realized that Diwali (the Hindu festival of lights, which is a national holiday) is the time to release your big blockbusters. So many trailers have "This Diwali!" as the release time.

And, luckily, this Diwali (early November) is coming a movie for which I've been waiting. Yes, we've finally come that far. We can eagerly anticipate movie openings.

The director of Tashan and Dhoom 3 teamed with  some of our favorite stars, Aamir Khan and Katrina Kaif, to give us what looks like an amazing historical romp set in the time of the Raj. I know I've never seen Aamir Khan looking like this (the rascally scoundrel).

Check out the trailer (it has captions, in case they don't come on automatically).

Thugs Of Hindostan - Official Trailer

Amitabh Bachchan | Aamir Khan | Katrina Kaif

Set in 1795, the film follows a band of Thugs led by Khudabaksh Azaad, who aspires to free Hindostan (the Indian subcontinent) from the rule of the expanding British East India Company. Alarmed, British commander John Clive sends a small-time Thug from Awadh, Firangi Mallah, to infiltrate and counter the threat.

This may wind up being the first Indian movie we actually go to a theater to watch! There are some theaters north of us with a large Indian community where English subtitled films can be seen. Can't wait!

UPDATE
We did go see this at the theater and enjoyed it enormously. It was a big spectacle and we loved it.

 Hannah and Rose discussed it in episode 39 of An American's Guide to Bollywood podcast.

Café Américain

Café Américain, Edward B. Gordon

One can never wrestle enough with God if one does so out of pure regard for the truth.

It seemed to me certain, and I still think so today, that one can never wrestle enough with God if one does so out of pure regard for the truth. Christ likes us to prefer truth to him because, before being Christ, he is truth. If one turns aside from him to go toward the truth, one will not go far before falling into his arms.

Simone Weil

I love that phrase, "falling into his arms." This resonates with me particularly since I found God by wondering what the truth was. And I fell into his arms thanks to that pursuit.

Night's Bright Darkness by Sally Read

In the spring of 2010 Sally Read was heralded as one of the bright young writers of the British poetry scene. Feminist, atheist and deeply anti-Catholic, she was writing a book about women's reproduction and sexuality when, during her research, she spoke with a Catholic priest. That mysterious encounter led Sally on a dramatic journey of spiritual quest and discovery which ended up at the Vatican itself, where she was received into the Catholic Church in December of that year.

Read confronts head on the burning question for God that every true Christian harbors: What do you want me to do? In an age of increasing secularism, and in the wake of disillusionment with the Catholic Church following disclosures of abuse, the book takes us to the core of what the Church is all about: Christ and the yearning to be near him.

This was my book club's recent selection. About halfway through I was not sure if I liked Read herself very much but I was sure that I liked her unutterable honesty. She was aggressive and argumentative and irrepressibly attached to extreme progressive thinking. We've all either been her or met her. What I loved was her searing honesty about herself and her conversion. I can forgive almost anything of such an honest person. By the end, as happens with us all if we allow God His way, Read has become someone who is both changed and more herself in a way she never was before.

It was interesting being a convert and reading this. I recognized moments so specifically from my own journey and yet, of course, they were completely foreign because they were shaped to Sally Read's soul and not my own. It made them all the more inspiring for me.

Moved me to the point of tears several times and has helped me on my own journey at this point. Definitely recommended.

Gingersnaps

A recipe for classic crisp, spicy gingersnaps truly worthy of the "snap" in their name. These are the ones I make every Christmas. Simple and delicious.

The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings by Philip Zaleski and Carol Zaleski

A stirring group biography of the Inklings, the Oxford writing club featuring J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis is the twentieth century’s most widely read Christian writer and J.R.R. Tolkien its most beloved mythmaker. For three decades, they and their closest associates formed a literary club known as the Inklings, which met weekly in Lewis’s Oxford rooms and in nearby pubs. They discussed literature, religion, and ideas; read aloud from works in progress; took philosophical rambles in woods and fields; gave one another companionship and criticism; and, in the process, rewrote the cultural history of modern times.

Romantics who scorned rebellion, fantasists who prized reality, wartime writers who believed in hope, Christians with cosmic reach, the Inklings sought to revitalize literature and faith in the twentieth century's darkest years--and did so in dazzling style.

I've read enough about Tolkien, Lewis, and the Inklings that I resisted this behemoth of a book until now. What hooked me was that the authors delve into both their faith and their literary works more deeply than the other things I've read. I read slowly, just picking it up here and there, and it was oh so satisfying.

One of the things I especially liked was that it humanized and made likable some of the characters who came off as one dimensional in other biographies. For example, Lewis's father always seemed an unfeeling fellow who continually made Lewis miserable. In this book we see excerpts of letters between the father and Warnie, Lewis's much loved brother, where both are worried about some activity of Lewis's. So we get another angle. The same goes for Edith Tolkien who I've simply seen written about as miserable and unfulfilled as a person. That angle is not ignored, but we also see the Tolkien couple's devotion to each other and the good things she got from her marriage to J.R.R. Lewis's wife Joy and their relationship gets similarly balanced treatment.

I'd say that this is the only book you need if you are interested in biographies of Tolkien and Lewis, or simply interested in the Inklings. It is superb and superior to any other books I've read on these subjects.

We're Back!

And we had a wonderful time exploring the Old and New South in Charleston, Savannah, Muscle Shoals, and points en route.

I will share more later ... am diving back into "real life" today and paddling hard to keep my head above water!

Road Trip — Charleston

Source

I've always heard it is one of America's most beautiful cities. And I love Revolutionary history, which Charleston abounds in. This year we put off traveling, hoping crowds would lessen when school began. We didn't count on hurricane season, but it seems as if Charleston got off fairly easy. So we're going to find out for ourselves.

You know how it is — we love a road trip. So we're driving.

There is something about seeing the land change as you drive by. About meeting the different people on the way, hearing new accents, seeing food specialties change. You understand the country a little differently.

That slow evolution also is reflected on the people traveling, as Tom and I have found. Listening to music or audiobooks, letting silence fill the car, watching miles slip away - these are all conducive to reflections that we just don't have time for in regular life. We may never have the time to develop the thoughts, much less carry them through into conversation. Long hours in the car lend themselves to such things.

So we embrace the simple road trip. I get my knitting, we pick out audiobooks and podcasts, pack up the cocktail kit for our evenings, and hit the road. Plus, you have the chance for side trips which indulge at least one person's special interests. And we've got one of those planned ... Muscle Shoals style. Maybe we'll also swing down to Savannah, Tom being interested in Revolutionary ports (hey any excuse, right?)

More on all that once we return, in about a week. There will be a few planned posts popping up here for some of my favorite feast days.

The Whole Business of Life, The Only Road to Love and Peace

[Obedience] appears to me more and more the whole business of life, the only road to love and peace — the cross and the crown in one ... What indeed can we imagine Heaven to be but unimpeded obedience. I think this is one of the causes of our love of inanimate nature, that in it we see things which unswervingly carry out the will of their Creator, and are therefore wholly beautiful: and through their kind of obedience is infinitely lower than ours, yet the degree is so much more perfect ...

C.S. Lewis, letter to Alan Griffiths

Dunlin

Dunlin, Remo Savisaar

Deviant Rising by Alexander Barnes and Christopher Preiman

The Helix was created to revolutionize the way we communicate. But even the purest of intentions can spawn terrible evil.

This wasn’t what Lithia had in mind when she decided to run away from home. Her ship was not meant to carry a fugitive wanted in two galaxies, or the stowaways running from a war that wasn’t hers. She just wanted to live a quiet, peaceful life alongside her brother. But now she knows too much about The Helix, the secret hidden deep within it, and what it would mean for all humankind if she walked away.

Deviant Rising is a solid space opera with big ideas, likable characters, and plenty of action.

The Helix is a universal communications system which everyone in the future is as addicted to as we are addicted to the internet. And what's not to like? It connects with your brain, feeding all the info you need on demand. At least that's how the people of the United Planets of Earth (UPE) feel about it. Out on the Frontier, well, that's a different story. They're pretty independent and not crazy about the UPE's edict that they hook up to the Helix.

And so a rebellion begins.

There's more to it than that, of course. Star Wars style, this tale is told through the eyes of several people who are unconnected to any big doings of government, politics, or power. Or so they think. I mentioned Star Wars and we do meet some familiar character types with motivations that are similar. But the feel I had more was of Firefly, with stubborn people on the fringes of society doing what they must to scratch along and, if necessary, make things right.

I really enjoyed this future San Francisco with the rich people living high up in full sunlight and the poor stuck at the bottom in the Undercity where no light ever penetrates. What a novel idea for establishing privilege and caste. I also enjoyed the Archer's Agony setting, with the story of how the dead ships docking just became part of the structure. That sounds just about right for a frontier culture without lots of resources.

There's a big cast of characters, including my favorites:  a cyborg-assassin with a conscience (we love to love those bad boys, right?) and a naturally gifted engineer who's never happier than when he gets his hands on an engine to fix (like Kaylee from Firefly). They are part of three different plots that come together (natch) into one fast paced story.

In a lot of ways it made me think of my favorite Robert Heinlein stories, the "juveniles" which didn't dumb it down but gave us plenty of action to go with the ideas.

A lot of fun and I hope there is a sequel though this is a stand alone novel.

Loyola Kids Book of Catholic Signs & Symbols by Amy Welborn

For centuries people learned about the Christian faith through paintings, sculptures, objects, and gestures. Simple images still convey deep messages if we learn how to see and understand them. Award-winning children’s author Amy Welborn has created a friendly and fascinating sourcebook on the signs and symbols of the Catholic faith.

I can't praise this book highly enough.

I originally was interested in this book so I could recommend it to young mothers I know. However, looking through it, I realized I have someone much closer who is going to be interested. My daughter, Rose, is helping teach religious education to fifth graders this year (that's Sunday School for any Protestants reading).

She's well catechized but it's been a long time, if ever, since she's had to make complex concepts simple without being dumbed down, interesting without being obvious. This book is the perfect resource for those needs. It doesn't only explain the basics, but gives broader context for other encounters the reader might have.

For example, after covering John the Baptist's symbols, we get a little art appreciation also:

John appears in some portraits of the baby Jesus and his mother. You know the other child is John because, even in these pictures, the little child is dressed in camel's hair and holds a staff or a lamb! The artist does not mean that the baby John was present at Jesus' birth. The image of the two babies reminds us that John's holy purpose was to share the Good News of Jesus, the Lamb of God.

Which is a nice reminder that knowing about the symbols is fine, but finding them in your church, art, and around the house are how they provide a lived experience of faith

While Rose and I randomly flipped pages we were impressed time and again by the beautiful simplicity with which Amy Welborn explained not only the symbols but the deeper messages to be taken away.

Reading about the Burning Bush in the Old Testament section, we learn:

As a sign, so the people would trust Moses and know it was God who had called him, God revealed his name from the bush: I am who I am. This means that God has not been created—God is existence.

Beautifully put. The children have an explanation to ponder. It is followed by a bit of insight to fall like a seed into young hearts:

When we see the symbol of the burning bush, we remember God's love, always ready to save. We remember that he called Moses and gave him the strength and grace to help others. And we remember how great God is, and we thank him for the gift of life—all that was, all that is, and all that is to come.

These things aren't bad for us to be reminded of either, so the benefits go to both the teacher/parent and child.

This is a book which I will give to my goddaughter (and grandchildren when they come along) when she is old enough to understand it. Which won't be that long from now!

Addendum:
For adults wanting more, I recommend Signs and Mysteries: Revealing Ancient Christian Symbols by Mike Aquilina. Really wonderful.

Morgens in Holland

Morgens in Holland, Edward B. Gordon

Like a Marriage Retreat in a Book: Reviewing For Better, For Worse, For God

I first reviewed this book in 2009, but still recommend it a lot, especially to people who can't make it to the Beyond Cana retreat. So I thought I'd rerun the review since it's been a good, long time since then.

... becoming one flesh means more than a physical union. Genesis says that God created man and woman to become one body. The Hebrew word for body or "flesh," refers to the physical body for sure, but it encompasses much more. Body includes the whole person: body, mind, and spirit. We're called to be united with our spouse physically, emotionally, and spiritually while retaining our unique individuality. God's design for this partnership is that it nurtures our lives and in so doing gives life to the world.

Men Are from Mars and Women Are from Venus--John Gray and his publishers picked a great title for his bestselling book on marriage. It has become a popular shorthand way of saying that men and women are profoundly different. They are so different that it often seems they live on different planets.

In addition to the obvious anatomical differences, men and women are "wired" differently in their communication styles, emotional makeup, and sexual responses. You and your spouse differ as individuals. Your temperaments are different. You come into marriage with dissimilar expectations, desires, hopes and approaches to problem solving. And while you don't really live on different planets, you come from different places. You were raised in different families. Your family of origin gave you ideas about marriage, child rearing, sex roles, and family values that are different from your spouse's. Some marriage experts say that incompatibility was never a valid reaon for divorce becuase all couples are incompatible to some extent.

Creating an "us" in the face of these differences is a challenging dimension of the vocation of marriage. to become "one," partners must understand the many ways in which they differ from each other and recognize how their differences can work in their favor in terms of their partnership. They also need to learn to manage these differences without hurting each other.

First, becoming an "us" is a realistic goal. The differences between men and women are great, but the desire to achieve unity is even greater. Men and women deeply desire each other; most men and women want to share their lives with a partner of the opposite sex. ... If God created us this way, we can be assured that he gives us the grace to achieve the union we desire.

Second, the work of becoming an "us" is spiritual work, and it requires spiritual disciplines, as already mentioned. Each vocation has its distinctive challenges, and becoming one with a particular other person for life is the unique challenge of marriage; the spiritual disciplines of marriage are the tools we use to achieve it. The disciplines we practice within marriage may seem mundane, such as counting to ten before returning an angry response, or waiting patiently for a spouse who is slow, but they accomplish something remarkable. They allow us to live in communion with someone who feels, perceives, reacts, responds, and loves differently from us.

Living in communion is holy because the conjugal life both mirrors and provides the world with an experience of belonging and acceptance God desires with us. Like the "communion" we experience in the sacraments of the Eucharist, marriage can provide the opportunity to "be one in Christ," the goal for all baptized believers.

Someone who has attended one of the Beyond Cana marriage enrichment retreats that Tom and I help to present may recognize many, if not all, of the principles above. Members of the presentation team definitely will. After working on these retreats for several years, I can tell you that I was blown away by Mary Jo Pederson's book. She consistently took the concepts that Tom and I have learned and practiced in that retreat and expanded upon them in knowledgeable, practical, spiritual, and even humorous ways.

If I included all the pieces that I read aloud to Tom, only to hear him say, "Wow. That is so true. This author is really good!" then we'd be here all day. This is the book I will be buying for newly weds, friends who wish they could make it to a retreat, and for our girls when they are getting married. It can't replace a retreat but it surely is a good supplement and a great grounding in reality for any married couple. Highest recommendations on this one.

Afternoon with Wyeth, Belinda Del Pesco

Afternoon with Wyeth, Belinda Del Pesco

I really like N.C. Wyeth's illustrations, as you may recall. I was interested to see that one of his children, Andrew, grew up to be a famous artist. Check out Belinda's post where she talks a little about her admiration for Andrew and recommends a bio.

A delightful confection from Bollywood: Barfi!

Let's get this out of the way up front. "Barfi" brings up a really unfortunate word association for Americans. Perhaps it will help to know that Barfi is a popular confection in India and that applies very well to the title character whose nickname it is.

Barfi is a magical fairy tale of a film, somewhat like an Indian-style Amelie.  We see four timelines, a rarity for Indian movies, chronicling a romance, a crime spree (of sorts), life in the big city with a childhood friend, and present day. Naturally, these timelines are all interwoven and in learning about Barfi's life, we learn about the people in it and how he touched them all.

The writer/director has a light touch and a love for silent films since he managed to work in a number of classic comedy routines. Although there is a lot of music it is all done as for a Western movie, over the action. Ranbir Kapoor, as Barfi, does a good job conveying these routines and, in fact, essentially portraying a silent character whose eloquent, creative body language makes up for the fact that he's a deaf-mute.

The first half was very slow and could have had at least half an hour cut with no problem. But I'd gladly watch the part after Intermission a dozen more times. The magic definitely outweighs the slow beginning. Definitely recommended.

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

Hannah and Rose discuss Barfi in episode 56 of An American's Guide to Bollywood podcast.