Mastoid (Drinking Cup)

Mastoid (Drinking Cup), 500-480 BC, Athens
via the Art Institute of Chicago

This cup was shaped to fit easily in the drinkers hand, and was likely used as part of the Greek symposium. Much like modern academic symposiums, in which people discuss a topic of common interest, debunking old theories and putting forth new hypotheses; the men of ancient Athens regularly got together in private homes to exchange ideas. Afterward the participants might continue the conversation, discussing their impressions in greater detail or simply socializing over a drink. As the evening progressed, participants engaged in other pleasures, including games, performances, and sex. Wine played a major role in fueling these evenings, and as such the myriad vessels used in the symposium often paid homage to drink.

Here, the god of wine Dionysos rides astride a donkey. Before and behind him satyrs - the gods half man half goat companions - are visually aroused by the scene; while a Maenad - their female counterpart - leads the procession while strumming a lyre. The background of this scene is decorated with winding vines, enforcing the themes of wine, revelry and music.

Art Institute of Chicago

Sometimes History Yells

History does not always repeat itself. Sometimes it just yells, "Can't you remember anything I told you?" and lets fly with a club.

John W. Campbell Jr.

That's why I have so many headaches!

A Movie You Might Have Missed #12 — Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

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

Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

 

Anyone who enjoyed the Wallace and Gromit shorts will enjoy this. Their British sense of humor and timing ... so funny.

Billed as "the world's first vegetarian horror movie," this finds Wallace and Gromit running a pest control service to help the villagers who want to grow prize-winning produce for their annual vegetable competition.

Loaded with ingenious Rube Goldberg inventions, spoofs of old monster movies and classic movies, and their trademark sight gags, this is a treasure for all ages.

Waves Breaking

Claude Monet, Waves Breaking

Your Enemy

Remember that your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes. This may leave you an opening to become his friend.

Robert A. Heinlein

Bluebonnets, Mason County, Texas

Bluebonnets, Jason Merlo Photography

Talents

Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.

Henry Van Dyke

This is often less elegantly said as "Perfect is the enemy of good." I like this version better.

Rereading — Lectio Divina Bible Study: Learning to Pray in Scripture - Stephen J. Binz

I'm rereading this by virtue of using it for afternoon prayer. It's so good I decided to rerun the review I wrote way back in 2013 when I first read it.

As I have mentioned before, Stephen Binz is a passionate advocate of Lectio Divina, the ancient practice of studying and praying using Scripture.

Focusing on different topics such as the Creed, the Mass, the Sacraments, or Prayer, Binz shows where they are found in the Bible, gives context for full appreciation, and helps readers learn about deeper prayer as found in the steps of lecto divina: Listening, understanding, reflecting, praying, and acting.

I have used many Bible studies, but Learning to Pray in Scripture is one of my favorites. Binz shows different sorts of prayers by moving through the Bible to show the various characters who employ them under different circumstances. I felt as if I grew to understand each particular person whose prayers were highlighted. This is only natural after considering them at length, but it is partly the result by Binz's thoughtful commentary and prompting questions.

Binz often brought up points of view that had never occurred to me, such as the comment below that prayer doesn't have to be theologically correct. I'd never thought about such a thing before and it made me wonder if I was a bit too "correct" in trying to speak to God "properly" rather than just trying to have an honest conversation, no matter where it led us.

I also really appreciated the overview of prayer which covered forms of Biblical prayer and how to use them today, the disposition to cultivate for prayer, and the characteristics of prayer as seen in the lives of Israel's heroes, ancient prophets, Jesus' life, and more. Suddenly I was thinking about prayer and how to converse with God in a whole new way.

I can't praise Binz's prayer prompts highly enough. All too often, such prompts are simple and surface level. Worse, they often don't relate to my own life or needs. His cut to the heart of our relationship with God and always leave me pondering and talking to God. That's really a rare reaction for me when reading such prompts, as I said.

The snippets below just scrape the surface in the treasures that are found within this book. All Scripture is quoted completely in the book so you need no other references, although I didn't include it below.

Abraham's Intercessory Prayer for Sodom
Genesis 18:16-33

Listening
In establishing the covenant, God had promised to make Abraham a blessing to all the peoples of the earth. This bold prayer of intercession teaches us what it means to pray humbly but confidently in the context of a covenantal relationship with God. We have the same opportunity to intercede before God for the people of the world.

Understanding
… Abraham first chooses the number fifty as his bartering figure: save the city on behalf of fifty righteous people. He purposely chose a low number, thinking that in the typical haggling style of the Middle East, God would choose a much higher number, and then they would eventually meet somewhere in the middle. But Abraham's strategy is undone by god's immediate acceptance of his offer. Lowering the offer to forty-five, forty, thirty, twenty, and finally ten, Abraham discovers that God is far more merciful than he had imagined.

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

The Prophet's Prayer of Lament for Israel
Isaiah 63:15-64:12

Reflecting
Since prayer is conversational and emotional, it does not have to be theologically correct. What are some of the outrageous questions and statements found in this prayer? In what ways to these kinds of utterances enrich my prayer?

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The Prayers of Christian Believers
Acts 1:12-14 / Acts 4:23-31

Acting
Like the early Christians in Jerusalem, continue letting the words you pray become the life you live.

• Rather than ask God to spare them from hardship, the early Christians prayed only for the courage to face it and to keep on speaking God's word with boldness. For what purpose do I need to pray for boldness? What can I do today to claim the strength and courage God offers to me?

A Terrific Review from a Demanding Reader : "Davis knows how to dress scholarship in casual clothes"

Patrick O'Hannigan and I have known each other for many years, both through this blog and over at Good Reads. I know he's not always easy to please, so that made me very pleased with his review of Thus Sayeth the Lord. It's coming out in actual print — woohoo! — next Monday.

Slide on over to Amazon for all of Patrick's review (as well as others) and order your own copy. Here's a bit of Patrick's.

Emotional intelligence and biblical scholarship wrapped into one package can be intimidating, but here they are not, because Davis is patrolling the scriptural outfield. This book presents brief, insightful examinations of people like Moses, Deborah, and Elijah. It also draws practical moral advice from each of their stories. It's great stuff.

On the Terrace

On the Terrace, (in Algiers), Anders Zorn

Ah, Miss Harriet ...

Ah Miss Harriet, it would do us no harm to remember oftener than we do, that vices are sometimes only virtues carried to excess.

Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son

That can be a path from pure justice to including mercy.

A Movie You Might Have Missed #11: Payback

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

11. Payback

Porter knows his worth.

$70,000.

That is the amount that his erstwhile partner, who now works for the syndicate, stole after double crossing and leaving him for dead. And that is the amount Porter wants back. No more, no less. He will do whatever it takes to get it.

So begins the grittiest movie I have ever seen Mel Gibson in. Porter is the anti-heroes' "hero" so to speak, a guy who has only one goal and only one redeeming quality, which is his love for Rosie, the requisite hooker with a heart of gold. I suppose he actually could have two redeeming qualities, the second being his stubborn determination to take only the money that was stolen from him. (My full review here.)

Catching Truth in Our Net

In life and art both, as it seems to me, we are always trying to catch in our net of successive moments something that is not successive ... I think it is sometimes done — or very, very nearly done — in stories. I believe the effort to be well worth making.

C.S. Lewis, On Stories

Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

Inari Jizo

Inari at Takayama Inari Shrine Aomori, by Keey
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

I loved these statues which looked like dogs with napkins tied around their neck. I discovered they are actually foxes with bibs around their necks. They are Japanese deity statues and the bibs signify different purposes.

You may read about Jizo here and the bibs here. As for the fox,

The fox, symbolizing both benevolence and malevolence, is sometimes identified with the messenger of Inari, and statues of foxes are found in great numbers both inside and outside shrines dedicated to the rice god.

Encyclopedia Britannica

Pan Bagnat (Provençal Tuna Sandwich)

I grew up with a version of this sandwich which my parents made regularly in the summertime. We loved it. Loaded with different ingredients, bathed in a vinaigrette (the title means "bathed bread"), weighted down and left for all the flavors to meld — it was the perfect summer meal.

So I was intrigued when Cooks Illustrated had their own version and tried it out last weekend. I loved this version too. Get it at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

Solitude

Hans Thoma, Solitude
via Arts Everyday Living

Rereading: Mrs. Appleyard's Year (and Mrs. Appleyard's Kitchen) by Louise Andrews Kent

My current bedtime reading - again. Gentle, funny, and perfect for nodding off. Here's my original review from years ago:

I know, I know. This looks like the lamest old book ever. Yet after enjoying the clever, gentle humor of the commentary in Mrs. Appleyard's Kitchen (see below) I was intrigued enough to find a cheap copy of this book. Truth to tell, I was thinking it might be good to read to my mother-in-law (she suffers from slight dementia and so far Cheaper By the Dozen is our favorite to share together on my visits).

At any rate, as I was looking through this I found myself continually pulled into the story and laughing. Louise Andrews Kent pays us the compliment of not underestimating our intelligence. The imagined life of the Italian family living in the hedges (prompted by a gardener's unpleasant joke) or Mrs. Appleyard's defense of her family to a British aunt allow us to enter a world long gone but to realize that people were still the same then as now.

I have been waiting for at least a month to read this on Forgotten Classics and am excited that Mrs. Appleyard's time to shine has finally come. Pull up your rocking chair on the porch, have a glass of lemonade and rock in the cool breeze as we follow Mrs. Appleyard through her year.

Note: I read Mrs. Appleyard's Year over a year at my Forgotten Classics podcast. Pull up your rocking chair on the porch, have a glass of lemonade and rock in the breeze as we follow Mrs. Appleyard through her year. Listen here.

This is the book that led me to Mrs. Appleyard's Year. It is an absolutely delightful "forgotten classic" that I discovered in my parent's basement. Hilarious and intentionally so ... Mom and I kept picking it up and reading each other snippets all day ... and laughing our heads off. It is a cookbook but each recipe deserves reading because they are larded with small stories, humorous comments, and personality ... somewhat in the same way as the recipes in The Best Cook in the World. It often winds up on my bedstand for nighttime reading.

Modern Man and "The Old Days"

I find that the uneducated Englishman is an almost total sceptic about history. ... To us the present has always appeared as one section in a huge continuous process. In his mind the present occupies almost the whole field of vision. Beyond it, isolated from it, and quite unimportant, is something called "the old days"—a small, comic jungle in which highwaymen, Queen Elizabeth, knights-in-armor, etc. wander about. Then (strangest of all) beyond the old days comes a picture of "primitive man." He is "science," not "history," and is therefore felt to be much more real than the old days. In other words, the prehistoric is much more believed in than the historic.

C.S. Lewis, Christian Apologetics essay

This still rings true which does account for the rising inability to understand "context" of people's writings and actions in "The Old Days" which do not conform to modern thinking. On only one action deemed inappropriate may great men and women be judged to be evil. All because they are not in the days we live in ourselves.

Mt. Fuji seen from Mt.Takabocchyama Nagano

Mt. Fuji seen from Mt.Takabocchyama Nagano, taken by Koichi_Hayakawa.
Via Calligraphy in the view, (Licensed under CC BY 4.0)

This photograph is featured at FIND/47: Japan's hidden visual delights.

Japan is home to 47 prefectures offering 47 distinct experiences shaped by the natural scenery, historical architecture, and local traditions unique to each region.

Even after a dozen visits, there will still be more that you have yet to see.

FIND/47 offers a dynamic visual platform for discovering aspects of Japan you didn't even know you were looking for.

There is some stunning photography there and I will definitely be sharing some of it from time to time.

Rereading — The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall

Vish Puri, Most Private Investigator, does what is needful to solve his cases. They usually involve investigating prospective brides and grooms for arranged marriages, but there are also big, serious cases. Such is the main problem in this book where Puri has to save a crusading lawyer's reputation while discovering what happened to the missing servant the lawyer is rumored to have murdered.

A judiciously quirky Indian detective (meaning realistic) and his operatives are highlighted, as well as his Mummy who sets out to solve a mystery that her son does not take seriously. This was an enjoyable "cozy" sort of mystery, like a trip to India. Rereading it seven years after the last time (for A Good Story podcast #63), I am struck by just how realistically regular Indian life is portrayed. I say that after watching so many Indian films in the last couple of years that I noticed tons of authentic details that slid past me in previous readings.

Ultimately, this was a classic mystery in many ways and yet it still managed to fool me. Extremely well done and gave a bird's-eye view of India without needing tons of info-dumps. Highly recommended. (P.S. I am a big fan of his Mummy-Ji.)