The Three Greates Cinematic Love Stories (of those I have seen)

Many people would consider a great love story one where a couple falls in love, undergoes misunderstandings, tragedy, and/or hardships, (possibly being separated) and then come together and get married: TheEend. (Alternately, i.e. Romeo and Juliet, death separates the lovers.)

But “the end” is the beginning of the love story. That is why I believe the greatest love stories involve couples who are already married.

My three picks: The Scarlett Pimpernel (1934 Leslie Howard, Merle Oberon); Random Harvest (1942 Ronald Coleman, Greer Garson); and Make Way for Tomorrow (1937 Victor Moore, Beulah Bondi).

The first two I wrote about in this very context 11 years ago in this space: http://bethunecatholic.blogspot.com/2005/01/love-stories.html

The last I mentioned briefly about just a year ago.

We watched Make Way for Tomorrow again last night. Orson Welles said about it: “Oh my God, that’s the saddest movie ever made! It would make a stone cry!”

It is the story of a couple married for 50 years who have fallen on hard times and have to go live “temporarily”, but separately 300 miles apart, with two of their children. Of course all things temporary become permanent if there is no plan.

Near the end, they reunite for a few hours and go on a date-reliving the happiness and failures of their 50 years of marriage. The “date” is captivating.

One particularly memorial reminisce is when Bark (the husband) recalls that Lucy (his wife) chose him over another she had been dating. The other became a banker and had foreclosed on their house at the beginning of the movie. Bark says, “He got my house, but I got his girl.”

One of the best scenes of acting I have ever watched without dialog occurs at the end, performed by Beulah Bondi – who was in her 40’s at the time playing a 70 year-old woman.

It was reissued on DVD a few years ago. We borrowed it from the library. Roger Ebert gives it a 4/4. The Criterion Collection calls it: "one of the great unsung Hollywood masterpieces". The director of MWfT,  Leo McCarey, won his first Oscar that same year for The Awful Truth (Cary Grant, Irene Dunne). However, he commented that he got the Oscar for the wrong movie. I agree. 

Do see it.

Oremus pro invicem!

Couldn't say it better myself

This voting guide is an invaluable source of reasoning and mirrors my thoughts exactly.


Here are a couple of the gems included:

When people use variants of the “lesser of two evils” argument, keep in mind that this is only a partial statement of the actual principle of reason. The actual principle is, “If one cannot avoid doing one of two acts, from both of which will follow an evil effect, one is obligated to choose the lesser of the two evils.”  Note that the premise here, which is fundamental to the entire principle, is that you cannot avoid doing one of the two acts. For this to apply in the context of an election, you would have to be constrained to only choose one of two candidates and have no other option – you must vote and you must vote for one of the only two candidates presented to you. Is this the actual case in our elections?

AND

Your actual responsibility in an election is to vote for the candidate or position you think should win. What you vote for represents what you choose regardless of the outcome. You are not to blame for the votes of others.

I urge you to read the whole thing.

Oremus pro invicem!

Green Tint

Mrs. Curley asked me to buy some Bennings Green Tint squash seeds-not knowing what it was. So when I started picking them, no one knew what they were (I don't label my rows). We had to google it.

Here are the funny guys. Raw, they taste great! We'll see in an hour or so how they tasted cooked.

Oremus pro invicem!

Sweet!

We have been eating sweet corn with supper for a few days now. Today we picked all that was ready and put up 8+ quarts of blanched corn. There is nothing like eating sweet corn on the day it was picked. I could never get tired of it.

 

Here is Connor today, taking delight in what he sees as he husks the first ear.

 

 

It seems quite unpenitential that we are having more tonight with tuna/egg salad.

 

If the rain keeps coming, sweet corn should remain on the menu most of the summer as I staggered my plantings. I even have a small batch that could theoretically be harvested in September. But all this is being overly optimistic.

But for now .... joy!

Oremus pro invicem!

Updated: The nature of male and female

Update: I have written to both of my US Senators (Graham and Scott) regarding the FY17 NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act), which I believe is up for a vote in the Senate later this week. It contains a provision requiring our daughters to register for selective service. I have urged them to reject any amendment to this effect and/or the entire bill if it contains this provision.

****

As with the authors of this piece at Crisis Magazine I haven't read much, if anything, about this in the Catholic press (however, maybe I am reading in the wrong places?).

 

Some time ago, (I can't find it) I wrote in this space about my responsibility to my daughters if they were a) required to register for the draft, and b) if the draft was actually instituted. What if (a) happens - which appears likely, but (b) never happens? What then?

 

I think (b) is not going to happen unless we are attacked. The American people are okay with foreign military adventures of dubious merit when we are using an all-volunteer armed service. However, if their sons (and daughters) are being drafted for these ventures, I think many in congress will be running scared.

 

However, I am finding my predictions are more wrong than right in recent years (That could never happen! yet it does with alarming regularity.) So maybe I am all wet.

 

The last few years have done nothing if not demonstrate how confused man is about the nature of male and female. Things that seem (are) so obvious from observation, science, and personal experience are the subject to mass confusion.  The Emperor's new clothes?

 

Oremus pro invicem!

In and Up; Here and Gone (Updated)

Update: Regarding my final comment below about the presidential election, I feel the way this guy thinks , excepting the last two paragraphs. (And by the way, we are eating our sweet corn!)

So we finally planted the sweet sorghum this morning. The peanuts are in and up. The pumpkins are in and up. We will be picking at least a dozen ears of sweet corn for supper on Saturday. Still picking peas, broccoli and spinach, although these three are petering out fast.
 

God is good to us. We've had plenty of rain and just enough sun to plow and plant.

 

It just turned to hotter this week. While we've had a few 90 degree days, it was still getting cool at night. But with this week, the coolness has ended. Too bad. I have 2-3 hogs to put down and would rather have done it before this turn of weather. Oh well, we will still get it down.

 

Matthew, the seminarian, was here for a week before going back to Texas to work at a Catholic summer camp.

 

Connor (NE Catholic) has been here for 2 weeks. He's been working hard helping me get this place in shape for the summer and next fall. He will be heading back North for work at the college for the summer in a couple weeks. He is a counselor at the high school summer program at NCC.

 

Nicholas (Wyoming) came home last weekend after a 10-day mission trip in Nicaragua. He will be here for almost 2 months before heading back to Wyoming to work for the summer. Nick helps lead the freshman outdoor trips at WCC.

 

So we are enjoying having, playing and working with the boys while they are home.

 

We are fostering a young boy this summer, so it really is a full house once again - for a while.

 

I meant to link to this several weeks ago, because it is so telling and true. I don't need to comment; it speaks for itself.

 

Finally-what about this election coming up? Maybe The Constitution Party? Of course I still have some bumper stickers left from the '012 campaign:).

Oremus pro invicem!

Goings on ...

So, the peanuts are planted. Hoping to plant sorghum and pumpkins in the next week.

 

We are harvesting peas, spinach, Swiss chard, lettuce. I think we will be picking corn in a couple weeks.

 

We inherited about 20 chickens in eggs this week, so supplement our 3-year old 1/2 dozen layers who are definitely on the downside of laying.

 

Our game hen hatched a small clutch, so meat birds are on the way.

 

I am back to work teaching Physics for the summer session at York Tech. I had 10 days off and visited my mother in Massachusetts and picked up number 2 son (Northeast Catholic College) for his final summer college break. He will be with us for a few weeks before heading back north to work.

 

I listened to (via www.Librivox.org ) The Black Arrow and The Master of Ballantrae both by Robert Louis Stevenson on the trip North. Right now I am listening to The Spy by James Fenimore Cooper.

 

Number 3 son (seminarian) is with us for only one week before he goes to work a Catholic summer camp in Texas for the rest of the summer.

 

Number 1 son (Wyoming Catholic) is on mission trip, building a church in Nicaragua and will be home for a month or two for his final summer college break.

 

Oremus pro invicem!

 

 

Peanuts

We didn't plant peanuts last year due to a perceived lack of manpower. But this year we are attempting it. The past few days we have been harrowing and plowing the small plot where the peanuts will go. I think one more session with the horse and we can have it done. (Because he doesn't plow much, the horse is out of shape and thus we need to work him slowly.)

 

 

 Oremus pro invicem!

 

 

  

Sam's pigs

Sam farrowed today, and it was a long process. Her first was born around noon. The last around 4:15 PM.

She had 14 born alive and 5 dead. Will have to see if she can handle the 14. In the past she has had trouble managing that many. But we will see.

Here she is:

 

It has been an exciting day! We started plowing the field for peanuts, and Old Man did just fine. A grand litter of piglets, rain over the weekend (bringing up beans, and squash, and etc.)  Thank God for His bounty!

 

Oremus pro invicem!

Finally!

Polly dropped her pigs sometime last night. They all take after their daddy.

 

Oremus pro invicem!

Uncertainty

I teach Physics as an adjunct at a "local" technical college. Last night I showed 2.5 minutes of a video in which Newtonian gravitation is maligned in favor of Einstein's bending space.

 

Of course I am teaching Newtonian Physics. It called to mind a recent quote I had never read before which I found at the Northeast Catholic Student Blog:

...Werner Heisenberg, who begins his work by saying: “Science is made by men, a self-evident fact that is far too often forgotten.”

 

It is an interesting quote, especially noting (ironically) it is by the author of the Uncertainty Principle - (that a particle's position and momentum can not known be simultaneously-or that the more closely you know the position, the less accurately you know the momentum.)

 

In any event, what followed in the last lecture of the semester, was the most interesting one as we discussed how scientific theories, even accepted ones, change as we acquire new knowledge; going through Ptolemy to Copernicus and Galileo, etc.

 

Oremus pro invicem!

The work weekend on the homestead

Got a lot done this weekend. Friday it was drizzling so I decide to put in our tomato plants. No sooner were we started then it started to rain hard. No matter. We were already wet.

We tilled up the patch where the cantaloupes will go. We cultivated the corn. We tilled another garden section where pigs and turkeys used to live. This will be our main summer garden.

I picked and ate our first two pea pods of the spring.

And ... we finished building a small, temporary pen among some tree-killing vines and relocated the runt from the last litter there (picture below). She will eat the greenery and dig out the roots of these vines. When I took this picture, some 4 hours after the move, she had already put a noticeable dent in the vines. Sometime soon she will then hit the bbq pit, being about 110-120 pounds. We have a good feel for her weight because we carried her from her old pen to her new digs. (Well I use the term "we" sort of loosely. A friend and son Thomas did most of the lifting while I "organized".)

Oremus pro invicem!

Communism and Freedom

I noted below that I have read The Soul and the Wire from The Gulag. Now I am back to reading the rest of Part III of the same, which I had put off to read Part IV. Reading about the women in the work camps has to be one of the most depressing things I have ever read. The total loss of humanity that these women experienced may not be the worst atrocity in history, but it is still most difficult to read.

************

My children are reading Animal Farm together (school) and listening in, I think it surely relates to what is happening today or at least what may be starting to happen in our own "land of the free" country. Our freedom to speak and even think about what we believe is surely going the way of the wild buffalo.

************

Related in a way is this article  about some comments Ted Cruz made about who should legislate same-sex adoption. Not particularly to pick on Ted Cruz, but the article addresses the conservative/libertarian notion that only states (as opposed to the Federal government) should legislate moral issues. Here is the essence of the article:

Cruz may take for granted that states have rights to legislate on every issue. He and his followers might disagree with such a characterization, but if the legalization of homosexual adoption of children is not outside the authority of individual states, then one cannot possibly know what else is. One should seriously question the idea that states contain within themselves some innate right to weigh-in on every issue. Questions relating to the Natural Law should be considered outside the scope and competency of state legislatures, at least in a non-defensive sense. In other words, states only have the duty to defend the Natural Law, not make positive laws to destroy it.

For example, most reasonable people would agree that states should outlaw rape, while at the same time agree that they do not have the right to legalize murder. States have the duty to use their power to defend these moral concepts, but not to violate them.

 All things to consider .....

Oremus pro invicem!

Pigs are coming!

We have 3 litters of pigs due in the next few weeks. Polly is first-due any day now as you can see.

 

 
 

Thor (below) is the sire. Becky (not shown) is due in a few weeks. We are interested in seeing the coloring in the offspring. Often the boar's coloring will dominate, but sometimes you can get red piglets with the white stripe. We will know in a few days.

Sam (right) is due 26 April. The sire is Red who we sold some weeks ago. This will be the last litter Sam gives us as she isn’t that great of a mother. She drops 10-12 piglets consistently, but only weans ½ dozen.

Oremus pro invicem!

I was just thinking ...

... that I hadn't seen anything from Anthony Esolen in a while, but then this appears; setting things straight .....

No, there is no comparison. Rock stars are far more important than pastry bakers, in the same way that school principals are more important than parents, inside traders are more important than truck drivers, journalists are more important than people who read books to find the truth, and politicians are more important than everybody. They are more important because they hold the hammer.

Oremus pro invicem!

Repent!

From The Gulag .... (Solzhenitsyn)

Here is a rewarding and inexhaustible direction for your thoughts: Reconsider all your previous life. Remember everything you did that was bad and shameful and take thought-can't you possibly correct it now?

Yes, you have been imprisoned for nothing. You have nothing to repent of before the state and its laws.

But..... before your own conscience?

I don't have the Gulag for a purgation on earth. Is it a pity or a blessing when considering eternity?

Oremus pro invicem!

Does anyone else think this first statement is strange?

For example, would you think potatoes come from anywhere else? a laboratory????

Is this a ploy to make you think they are healthy? (Whether they are or not, you can see the made it to my table!)

I remember that my son Nick used to make some really good potato chips. Too bad they grow up and go to college. It would be nice if they were ours and not God's and we could just keep them.

But back to potatoes. We don't grow them usually because we can buy them so cheaply - sometimes 50 lbs for $8 at the farmers market.

Oremus pro invicem!

In passing (literally)

Sometimes you feel a special kinship with something or someone you really no nothing about …..

One day a week I usually travel to Lexington, SC for one of my several jobs. As I pass through Lugoff, I always see a middle-aged woman (Funny how “middle-age” gets older as one does. I would say I am middle-aged and yet I am surely past this point by some years. I don’t really expect to reach 104 + a few years. And surely this woman is 5-15 years older than I, but I digress….) walking to or from a job (I suppose). I pass her about the same spot every time, but can tell if I am running late (or early) by where I pass her. I can also estimate the weather by her attire.

I usually wave, but have never have seen her see my wave. But in some sense, I feel an acquaintance with her. If one morning she is absent, I will wonder if she is sick, retired, or on vacation.

I venture we should feel at least the same kinship with everyone we see or meet-greeting their Guardian Angels as we pass.

Oremus pro invicem!

The result is what counts!

Am reading The Soul and the Barbed Wire from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago.

In some sense, yes, it is the result than counts, ultimately - whether we have run the race faithfully and reached our eternal reward.

 

In daily life however, we need to make sure that "the result" is aimed towards the ultimate result discussed above or is directed at an earthly goal-and oh how we can get lost from the true direction!

 

What should the result be, for example, our little homestead? Is it the neatest garden? The most productive garden? The fattest hogs? The sweetest corn? The creamiest milk?

 

If these are the results that count, this homestead has failed!

Oremus pro invicem!

Best Laid Plans ....

C.S. Lewis writes (via Marcus Grodi):

 

The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one's 'own' or 'real life'. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one's real life-the life God is sending one day by day; what one calls one's 'real life' is a phantom of one's own imagination.

 

Of course this has always been precisely one of my greatest struggles. I live by "the plan", thrive by "the plan" - only it is always my plan - not God's.

 

Since being married (read into this what you will!) I am getting slowly better (day by day, decade by decade) at being able to deviate from the "the plan" without throwing a fit.

 

But still I struggle - some of those struggles being recorded in these spaces.

 

Homestead life is also a good leveler. You can never plan for the pigs getting out, for instance.

Oremus pro invicem!

Hooray!

After countless (actually, I counted them) $, and countless hours, and two years, we have finally been licensed by SC for foster care.

Oremus pro invicem!

Backpacking Log

So, son Thomas and I went backpacking/camping this weekend up to Jones Gap State Park. I hadn't been there in over 12-14 years. Thomas had never been there.

 

We left here early on Friday and returned Saturday afternoon. We got to Jones Gap at 11:00 AM and headed into the woods at 11:45 AM .

 

We arrived at the campsite at 12:15 PM. After setting up camp, including a new 1-man tent for Thomas, in which we both were determined to sleep, we left for a hike.

 

Jones Gap trail (5.3 miles) runs along the Middle Saluda River. There are several falls along the trail or on spurs. We had already backpacked in 1.1 miles, so we decide to walk the rest of the trail and back.

 



Thomas at Jones Gap Falls



We went up to see Jones Gap Falls on a spur. The we stopped for 30 minutes or so at a rock formation in the river. We soaked our feet (coooooooold water); Thomas waded around.

 



Then we took off again. Just shy of the 4 mile mark I took a spill. Not hurt, but somehow this spill started a blister on one of my toes. Instead of chancing it, we turned around at 4 miles and got back to camp. (3:45 PM)

 

We gathered some firewood and got a fire going. For supper I wrapped a potato in foil and tossed it in the coals. I grilled some fish fillets. When the fillets were 80% done and I figured the potato was about done also, I removed both from the heat. I cut up the potato, the fish, and added okra in a saucepan. With a bit of water, salt and pepper, I put the mixture back on the fire til it boiled for a bit.

 

Then we ate.

Me at Jones Gap Falls

 

It is good that we were very hungry! Not even the amount of salt and pepper I put on could make it good. But it was hearty and we ate it all.

 

After supper we played cards, prayed the rosary, and talked. Retired at 9:30.

 

We both squeezed into the tent. It rained cats and dogs from 2:00 to 2:30 AM.  When we rose, we decided that instead of coaxing a fire with all the wet would and kindling (which we COULD do if we had a mind to), we would break camp and find some breakfast back in civilization.

 

Just part of the scenary!

 We were in the car heading out by 9:00 AM. Great trip.

Oremus pro invicem!

Exclusion

I have been planning an upcoming backpacking trip with my son at a state park. In order to make a campsite reservation, (unless making it for less than 24 hours in advance) I had to make the reservation online with a credit card.

It occurred to me that this is an entry barrier to some (many?) who either don’t have internet access or, more likely, a credit card.

Now, there may be a way around this (I didn’t spend the time to explore all avenues), but on the face of it, here is a case of government efficiency (is there such a thing?) excluding a class of citizens.

**************************

Thinking of exclusionary policies, I have been musing a bit on immigration policy. I don’t contest the right of a nation from protecting and/or controlling its borders for at least some reasons.

On the other hand, we have historically contested the right of the American Indians to protect their borders. Because we were more numerous and had better technology, we consistently drove them off their land, made treaties giving them other land, and repeatedly broke those treaties to take their land again.

I am not so naïve to think the situations heretofore mentioned have don’t have nuances, especially regarding lands of plenty and justice, but in generality, this is something to ponder when considering immigration policy today.

Might makes right? Or is it Manifest Destiny-or these days: American Exceptionalism - that we don’t have to respect borders, lands and treaties because we are God’s people? But others (I guess those who aren't God's people?) need to respect our borders, lands and treaties?

We are able (potentially at least) to stop immigration from Latin America with our technology, but how is the Latin immigrant seeking a better life and/or freedom (at least to the limited extent the USA offers) different from the earlier settlers and pioneers?

No doubt we have a right and duty to our citizens to exclude violent invaders, criminals, and terrorists. This goes to controlling our borders. How about the others? Have we really run out of room and resources?

An economic situation where food and jobs are scarce enough for US citizens may justify limits to immigration, but is this even real? Note that in the recent poor economic downturn the net flow of peoples was to Mexico, rather than to the US.

I have written as if all these things are simple, yet I understand they are not. Not everything is considered in my analysis. It is just something to consider among all the other factors.

Oremus pro invicem!

Some years ago, my then 90+ year old neighbor, told me how the generation after his became enamored of "things" and so left the farm for the city.

I read similar sentiments in Marcus Grodi's Life From Our Land:

As long as they (the rural family - JC) lived untouched by the obsession of the outside world for lesser material goods, the simple contented farm family lived happily, content with their food, drink, clothing, shelter, and the spiritual enrichment of their local parish.

 

However, when the simplicity of the rural farm family was shattered by the lure of the city, when farm children were lured away to work in factories, or to train in college for leadership roles in factories, trading houses or investment firms, not for the procurement of more bodily goods or spiritual enrichment, but for "wealth and what it will buy" their lives became limitlessly driven.

 

There is a lot in here. But first, I remind myself of my post below where Pope Benedict (in Spes Salvi) notes that technology and progress are good with virtuous guidance.

Secondly, rural life can be hard. There is no sugar-coating this.

But, I will say this: the satisfaction I gain from a day or a week of hard work on the farm is totally different than the satisfaction I get when I complete a patent case and submit an invoice. I am not sure, but I think the difference is that on the farm the thing I have worked for is direct. In other words, I planted a vegetable garden and that food will be on my table. (as opposed to, I wrote a patent and got money so we could go to the store and buy food to put on the table.)

The connection between the work and the result is definite (as opposed to: the money could be spent on anything).

 

I think this may be something worth exploring more.

 

It is not simply instant gratification as the work you do may take months to harvest.

 

It may be that man was meant both for intellectual labor and manual labor, yet most of us get so little of the manual these days.

 

It may be that our work, whether intellectual labor or manual is meant to have a definite connection with the fruits of the labor and not an indirect or remote connection.

 

Something to ponder on. Maybe someone will write a book on it, and I can find out what the answers are....

 

Oremus pro invicem!

 

Homestead update

Corn is up! Peas and radishes have been up.

Unexpected rain Monday night.

Still waiting for the Swiss chard, spinach and broccoli to come up.

Spinach plants not looking so hot.

Broccoli plants doing okay.

More corn to plant as well as other things. Seems like not enough time, but we'll make it.

Oremus pro invicem!

Who wrote these lines?

I hesitate to post this, but it struck me. I am not taking sides, as I am not on a side. I am no theologian. I don't usually go around trying to explain what this Pope "really said" or "really meant". I can be upset at times. Sometimes I am confused.

 

All that being said, sometimes this Pope says some good things too. Very good things. But some can't separate the confusing from the good. I usually don't try to parse these things publically.

 

And sometimes I read things in other places. For example, I have heard choruses of criticism of Pope Francis for making statements very much like the following:

 

Jesus identifies himself with those in need, with the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and those in prison. “As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40). Love of God and love of neighbour have become one: in the least of the brethren we find Jesus himself, and in Jesus we find God.

 

.....

 

Love of God and love of neighbour are thus inseparable, they form a single commandment.

However, both of these are from Deus Caritas Est (Pope Benedict XVI).

Oremus pro invicem!

Just had a great week with "my" seminarian and 3 others. Here are 3 of the 4 here, just before departing. We need many young men like these who are open to God's will.

 

 

Godspeed to them on their trip back to seminary and in their larger (and longer) journey!

 

Oremus pro invicem!

I've heard the story before (heard it again last night in a new light): on October 2, 1928, while in prayer St. Josemaria Escriva "saw" Opus Dei.

I have always wondered if this was a mystical experience, a visionary experience, or simply an idea or inspiration which came in prayer.

The last has always seemed impossible to me-but now I am not so sure.

Action should always be rooted in prayer (I read point in The Way not too long ago making this very point.)

So if you do spend this time with our Lord daily and inspiration comes, you need to act upon it. I did that once .... I did that once...

That is the (one of many) difference(s) between myself and the saint. I recall some inspirations from prayer, but my response has been, "I am not the man to do this!"; "I can't do this by myself."; "This is a good idea for someone else to try."

But I forget: God did communicate to someone else-He talked to me! And wants a leap of faith. He wants us to rely on Him-He doesn't leave us out in the cold on our own.

It is good it is Lent ....

*****************************

 

I did take a leap of faith in one thing: I planted sweet corn this week. I planted this early once before and was richly rewarded.

 

Corn can take a light frost, but not a heavy frost. The problem with waiting until April is that the rain here usually quits around the first of June, which leaves the critical weeks for corn dry. Year after year we lose much of the crop to lack of rain.

 

However, if you plant early and there is no hard frost, you may get the best looking and tasting, and bountiful sweet corn.

 

************************

Finally, finished The Deerslayer. Such an enjoyable saga.

 

Oremus pro invicem!

"God's First Book"

If you have every spent much time looking at  Wyoming Catholic College you might be familiar with the phrase and concept of "studying God's first book".

 

I think I have found what should be their cornerstone book with regard to this saying.

 

Here's a short excerpt from The Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper:

 

My edication has been altogether in the woods; the only book I read, or care about reading, is the one which God has opened afore all his creatur's in the noble forests, broad lakes, rolling rivers, blue skies, and the winds and tempests, and sunshine, and other glorious marvels of the land! This book I can read, and I find it full of wisdom and knowledge. (Hawkeye to Judith in The Deerslayer, Chapter 24)

Now Hawkeye is surely no Catholic, but just as surely identifies himself as a Christian and exhibits many Christian virtues.

 

Oremus pro invicem!

 

 

Pick the guy who doesn't care ...

So I have seen parts of some of the debates. I have read the literature in the mail. I have seen cuts of speeches by various candidates here and there.

 

Here is my (long sought and highly paid for) impressions. To almost every candidate running, the most important issue is themselves-whether they can be elected or not.

 

The exception would seem to be Bernie Sanders. I don't think he cares whether he is elected or not as long as the problems are fixed.

 

Bernie Sanders also seems to be the only candidate that has a clue to what our problems are as a nation. Of course his solutions are not nearly mine, but he should get some points for recognizing some of the problems which are so hidden from the minds of all the others.

 

That being said, his stands on life issues and marriage are so abhorrent, one couldn't vote for him in a general election, even if one could hold their nose on the socialism.

 

We are in a sorry state when the only guy running worthy of the presidency is a Socialist from Vermont. (Nothing against Vermont, I have very fond memories of summers in Vermont at Opus Dei camps during my high school years.)

 

Oremus pro invicem!

 

 

Reading and working

I am just about finished Les Miserables (actually reading it.) (Ho, hum).

 

I am listening to The Deerslayer (James Fenimore Cooper). Makes me want to get into the woods.

 

For Christmas, another book I received was Life From Our Land by Marcus Grodi. So far, pretty interesting, but not what I expected and not the book I would have written.

 

I am re-reading Pope Benedict's Encyclical Deus Caritas Est. I read it some years ago, but I am older now and may get more out of it.

 

Yesterday we planted broccoli, early peas, spinach, Swiss chard, and radishes. A good start ....

 

We also finally sold Red, our old boar. He is going to 3 sows, so should be happy and busy.

Oremus pro invicem!

Saturday

It has been too long since I had such a full day of physical labor (not withstanding my blog's masthead). I shoveled manure into the pickup; spread it on the garden area; trimmed some fruit trees; tilled most of the early spring garden; broke for lunch. After the midday, Thomas and I went over to the neighbors and cut and split wood for a few hours. We hustled back to the house just in time to pick up the girls to go to confession.

Full day, but full of blessings. I was sore Sunday morning, but in a good way.

Oremus pro invicem!

Note a new link on the sidebar: Northeast Catholic College blog . I think there are a couple posts by a relative of mine.....

 

Oremus pro invicem!

Life and party

Here's piece well worth your time to contemplate during this political season: pro-life or anti-abortion .

Here's a question: I unexpectedly missed the Republican primary in SC last week because I went on retreat. The Democratic primary is tomorrow. Other than not wanting to be seen locally in line at a Democratic primary, is there any reason I shouldn't go and vote against HC?

Oremus pro invicem!

Spes Salvi & progress

I came across the following statement in an article in the February IEEE Spectrum Magazine. The article was on setting (technology) targets, but the context matters not:

Terrorism, chaotic climates, cyberweapons, mysterious diseases, vanishing species: The list of fixable perils grows longer with each year. Technologies of abundance altered our existence but came at a cost that is only now being more accurately counted. This tension-between the glories of our engineered lives and the price to be paid for them-is the essential drama of our times.

Now I might add to the list of terrors (note some listed are man-made, others are not), and I might dispute that “the tension …  is the essential drama of our times”. The essential drama of our times, as in all times, is that between man and God.

But this statement from an engineering magazine reminded me of some things I read and meditated on in Spes Salvi.

Pope Benedict notes about Karl Marx: “His real error is materialism: man is not merely the product of economic conditions.” And commenting on Bacon, Benedict writes: “Man can never be redeemed simply from the outside.” (both from PP 21)

Both statements make a lie that any particular lifestyle (other than one that is intrinsically evil) or particular possessions (or lack thereof) make a man intrinsically closer or farther from God.

Pope Benedict goes on to note that a pessimist (I forget his name) defined progress as simply “the slingshot to the atom bomb.”

Benedict notes (now I am paraphrasing) that progress and technology build on itself from generation to generation. The right use of development of technology and progress is dependent on these being guided by virtuous men. The problem is when it is not guided by the virtuous. (I recall that one of the Founding Fathers noted that our Constitution would only work for a virtuous people – a warning for us to be sure.)

However, virtue is not like technology. Virtue does not build (necessarily) from generation to generation. Sure, we have the shoulders of Augustine, Aquinas, and all the Church Fathers, saints, and holy men and women to stand on, but the virtue is chosen (or not) to be acquired anew with each man.

One of our problems (paraphrasing from Pope Benedict again) is that temporal hopes are fulfilled (targets met in the engineer’s realm) and leave us wanting-so the search goes on-progress marches, not counting the cost.

But our world, which reverences science and technology, has not yet learned the lesson. Technology and progress not guided by the virtuous and for the common good-the common good in one sense being that man can concentrate on salvation of souls - truly leaves use to pay the price for the glories of our “progress.”

Note, that the solution is not simply to go back to the slingshot or to a Luddite farm as “Man can never be redeemed simply from the outside”, but to acquire virtue and sanctity in whatever our circumstances are and to live the gospel with our lives and speech.

Oremus pro invicem!

Lonesome Pines and Robert Hugh Benson

Listened to The Trail of the Lonesome Pine last week by John Fox. I had seen the 1936 movie with Fred McMurray and Henry Fonda. The movie only resembled the book in spirit-not so much in content.

 

Am now listening to The Dawn of All by Robert Hugh Benson. If one recalls, Robert Hugh Benson wrote The Lord of the World which is a favorite of Pope Francis. Many years ago, it was recommended to me and I read it. I said "eh". Just a few years ago I was prompted to read it again due to some strong recommendations. I did and said, "eh".

 

RHB writes The Dawn of All as some thought The Lord of the World too depressing or pessimistic. The Dawn of All gives an alternate future (set in 1973!)

 

I am about halfway through. At this point I am saying, "eh".

 

Now, RHB also wrote (as I mentioned somewhere below) The Friendship of Christ. This one I would highly recommend. I finished it during this past weekend's retreat. (My one negative comment on the book has nothing to do however, with content. Content is most important, but presentation does effect the reader also. I would say, the publisher needs a good layout man.)

 

It is hard to give some sample quotes: it is the whole context and insight which the author has to the spiritual life and its problems and progress.

 

Oremus pro invicem!

Retreat

So I went on a 3-day Opus Dei silent retreat in GA this past weekend. My first silent retreat in some 14 years and my first Opus Dei retreat in probably 36 years.

It was very needed and inspiring. I am hoping I can keep my resolutions and there will be some fruits.

But to the humor .....

My roommate was a young guy. The 2nd day of the retreat he came up to me and whispered: "I forgot to bring shampoo. Would you have any?"

Now, I don't often post hatless pictures of myself, but generally the sides of my head are either shaved or very closely cropped to match my very bald skull.

I looked at this young man and tried very hard not to smile too hard and just shook my head, no.

The funniest part of it all was that I had forgotten to bring a bar of soap. I was using my shaving cream for soap in the shower. I told him of my own forgetfulness and mentioned he was free to borrow my shaving cream! (He declined.)

Oremus pro invicem!

48

From Spes Salvi (48) on praying for the faithful departed:

And for that there is no need to convert earthly time into God's time: in the communion of souls simple terrestrial time is superseded. It is never too late to touch the heart of another, nor is it ever in vain.

SC Republican Primary

So the SC primary is on Saturday. The robo-calls and pollsters constantly calling (it is really harassment!) will be over in a couple of days.

Our mailbox has been bombarded with these huge color postcards which alternately detail the virtues and proposed polices of the candidates or are directed at showing the hypocrisy of another candidate – of course behind the anonymous wall of a PAC.

Just as one example of the messages one candidate is championing is the flat tax. Now, the flat tax may be a nice thing, but it has been on the lips of presidential candidates since Jack Kemp ran (if not before) many years ago. It has never gained any traction in the US Congress.

My question is this: the real power for changing tax law is in the US Congress. If these members of the US Congress who are running for president haven’t been able to pass a flat tax (just to pick on one of the proposals) while they were/are in Congress, why would I think they can do it as President?

Sure, the presidency has the bully pulpit, but really …..?

Oremus pro invicem!

Presidential politics

The SC GOP primary is coming up, so I guess it is time to pay attention. Previously, I didn't know who would be left, so I didn't get invested with anyone.

Today, Ted Cruz is speaking in Camden (20 miles down the road). Ben Carson will be in Lancaster (30 miles in the other direction.)

Trump has been in Rock Hill where I teach, numerous times over the past weeks. I won't see any of them. The only times I went to see presidential candidates was Alan Keyes and Pat Buchanan - way back.

Leaving aside Carson (who I believe is fading fast), I am not sure there is more than a toothpick's difference between Bush, Cruz, Rubio, and Kasich.

So, what to do?

Here's what I think the best scenario for the country is:

Trump and Sanders both with the most delegates, but not enough to clinch the nomination. In both conventions, the party regulars nominate the establishment candidate (Rubio v Clinton?). People are angry get angry at the parties ignoring their will, and real political upheaval takes place.

I don't know the outcome, but it couldn't be much worse than the two parties we have now.

That all being said, no way I can ever vote for Trump. Which of the others will get my support?-who knows at this point, but I am not sure it matters.

Oremus pro invicem!

Antonin Scalia - May he rest in peace!

Update: I saw this today among his "most quotable" and can't help myself from posting it:

"What is a 'moderate' interpretation of the text? Halfway between what it really means and what you'd like it to mean?"

At his best, proclaiming the truth from the folly of others: From Obergefell dissent:

I write separately to call attention to this Court’s threat to American democracy. The substance of today’s decree is not of immense personal importance to me. The law can recognize as marriage whatever sexual attachments and living arrangements it wishes, and can accord them favorable civil consequences, from tax treatment to rights of inheritance.

 

Those civil consequences—and the public approval that conferring the name of marriage evidences—can perhaps have adverse social effects, but no more adverse than the effects of many other controversial laws. So it is not of special importance to me what the law says about marriage. It is of overwhelming importance, however, who it is that rules me. Today’s decree says that my Ruler, and the Ruler of 320 million Americans coast-to-coast, is a majority of the nine lawyers on the Supreme Court. The opinion in these cases is the furthest extension in fact— and the furthest extension one can even imagine—of the Court’s claimed power to create “liberties” that the Constitution and its Amendments neglect to mention. This practice of constitutional revision by an unelected committee of nine, always accompanied (as it is today) by extravagant praise of liberty, robs the People of the most important liberty they asserted in the Declaration of Independence and won in the Revolution of 1776: the freedom to govern themselves.  ......

 

This is a naked judicial claim to legislative—indeed, super-legislative—power; a claim fundamentally at odds with our system of government. Except as limited by a constitutional prohibition agreed to by the People, the States are free to adopt whatever laws they like, even those that offend the esteemed Justices’ “reasoned judgment.” A system of government that makes the People subordinate to a committee of nine unelected lawyers does not deserve to be called a democracy.

 

Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine, et lux perpetua luceat eis. Requiescant in pace. Amen. — Eternal rest grant to them O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.

Harper Lee

I wasn't ever the greatest fan of To Kill a Mocking Bird, but I read it in school and thought Gregory Peck had to be the best casting choice for Atticus possible.

 

When I heard that Go Set a Watchman was being published, I figured I should read it. Then the reviews came. So much disappointment-that colorblind, progressive Atticus Finch may have some racism in him. The disappointment with the character translated into panning the entire book.

 

I note that the book was actually written years ago, so I would expect the culture and attitudes of the time to be portrayed and not be rewritten with today's attitudes.

 

So, I had to read it (or listen to it.) Which I did this week. I wasn't pleased with the few instances of blaspheming in the final sections. I too was surprised-at least at first- in the 'real' Atticus Finch, but on reflection I don't think it is inconsistent with the Atticus Finch of To Kill. 

 

The narrator is Scout, but I think the real hero of the novel is her Uncle Jack, who tries to reconcile the attitudes of Atticus with the history. Uncle Jack could possibly be the real voice of Harper Lee in the novel.

 

Without further comment of my own (as this has been explored on this site before), I will say that Uncle Jack makes the comment and tries to make the case that race was only incidental to the war between the states and the civil rights upheavals of the 50's and 60's. The real issue in both cases was liberty, the right of community to govern itself, states rights, and the rest.

 

It was interesting and well-written, and effective at getting one to think in terms outside of today's culture and attitudes. One may not like characters or the political voice, but that is outside the scope whether it is decent literature.

 

Oremus pro invicem!

Listening to a Fr. Francis Finn S.J. book from Librivox.org this morning on my way to a remote work site. Here are the two things I heard and need to meditate on:

“and the rich He sends away empty” Luke 1:53

 And from St. Ignatius:

Take Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and possess. Thou hast given all to me. To Thee, O lord, I return it. All is Thine, dispose of it wholly according to Thy will. Give me Thy love and thy grace, for this is sufficient for me.

Oremus pro invicem!

Mrs. Curley and I went to a rare movie the other night. Even more rare, the movie we wanted to see was only showing in 3D. However, we bought the tickets and enjoyed the show (more on that later.) I thought they were undercharging based on the board, but didn't mention it. However, the kids looked at the movie stub as it was going in the waste when we got home and noticed we were given the Senior discount. I really don't mind saving money, the kids thought it hilarious. The box office didn't ask us, so I have no guilt.

 

The movie, The Finest Hours, was based on a 1952 Coast Guard rescue off the coast of New England. It was done well; suspenseful and entertaining. It wasn't the best movie I ever saw, and would have rather seen it at the $2.50 theater in Hartsville, but we had a good time and ate a lot of popcorn (only REAL reason to go to a movie in the theater!)

 

As far as the 3D went, I don't think any experience was enhanced by having it in 3D- just a pain to wear glasses over glasses.

This is it, as Lent is just around the corner.

Oremus pro invicem!

Slavery is with us today - what is it?

Anthony Esolen answers the question here.

Oremus pro invicem!

Practical Distributism

I found this site: Practical Distributism and share it with you now (and on the sidebar). Some good articles here especially if you are interested in how Distributism is different from Capitalism and Socialism, and how it may work in practice-both small and large scale. Enjoy!

Oremus pro invicem!

The Blockade Runners

Just finished listening to The Blockade Runners by Jules Verne courtesy of www.Librivox.org. First, a hat tip to the reader. I have listened to him on several other novels, most recently one by Louis L’Amour, and, by chance, he is from Simpsonville, SC.

About the book: it is short and takes place around 1862 (written in 1864). The basic plot concerns a ship which plans to run the Federal blockade of Charleston, SC in order to deliver arms and return with much-needed cotton to the British Isles.

What most fascinated me was the attitude about the conflict (the war between the states, the war of Northern aggression, or the Civil War-depending on your persuasion.) The main protagonist, the ship’s captain, believed the war was about slavery-though, at least initially, he was partial to the Confederate cause, but not a fan of slavery . Recall the author was French and the protagonist was British.

It is always interesting to get outside perspectives on this. Recall that a year or two ago I read Chesterton’s (Cecil’s) America (my commentary here) . Of course Chesterton's view was more nuanced and presented a history of the country leading to the conflict. Things are always more complicated than they seem.

****************

Here’s an observation for those who listen to books frequently. Why is it that women readers can easily give voice to a male character in the book without sounding ridiculous, but a man reader cannot do the same for a female character in the book.

In the present book I am listening to (a Max Brand western), the male reader does the sensible thing. When reading the dialogue of a female character, he doesn’t try to sound female; he simply changes his inflection slightly as he does with each character.

(BTW – in my view Max Brand westerns don’t hold much of a candle to Louis L’Amour.)

Oremus pro invicem!

Swarms

It won’t happened overnight, but the day is coming when you will simply say to a swarm of robots, ‘Okay, go and perform this mission’. … “Think about standing in a swarm of a million mosquito-sized robots and getting them to go somewhere or to execute a particular task ……”

This isn’t a conversation from Marvel’s Ant-Man movie. This comes from Horizons the Georgia Tech Research quarterly publication.

Another article in the same issue describes complex objects that fold or assemble themselves. They are manufactured of layers with different temperature sensitivities. Generally they would be “printed” flat. When heat is applied they change shape and assemble themselves. Manufacturing needs workers less and less, just like the jobless recovery from the present recession.

Oremus pro invicem!

Coming late to the party ...

I am finally reading Pope Benedict’s Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi. This passage jumped out at me yesterday:

This is precisely the point made, for example, by Saint Ambrose, one of the Church Fathers, in the funeral discourse for his deceased brother Satyrus: “Death was not part of nature; it became part of nature. God did not decree death from the beginning; he prescribed it as a remedy. Human life, because of sin ... began to experience the burden of wretchedness in unremitting labour and unbearable sorrow. There had to be a limit to its evils; death had to restore what life had forfeited. Without the assistance of grace, immortality is more of a burden than a blessing”. A little earlier, Ambrose had said: “Death is, then, no cause for mourning, for it is the cause of mankind's salvation”.

I have never thought of death like this before. I am glad I am reading it now (in the 2^nd half of my life) instead of reading it and forgetting about it (in my youth.)

Also, I didn’t know St. Augustine wrote an extended letter on prayer. I have to get this.

Finally, just received a late Christmas present (shipped to the wrong address): Robert Hugh Benson’s The Friendship of Christ. Will start on it soon.

Oremus pro invicem!