tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75128693384048050142024-03-13T08:44:56.931-07:00Gladsome LightsThings that I like, or make, or think about, with thanks to God.GretchenJoannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13641677400029070452noreply@blogger.comBlogger710125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512869338404805014.post-38078711531344732532014-03-31T21:38:00.000-07:002015-01-30T17:44:15.647-08:00My blog has moved!This blog has moved to my new WordPress account here: <a href="http://www.gretchenjoanna.com/">www.gretchenjoanna.com</a>. You may have ended up on the old site because I tried to comment on a Blogger blog that doesn't let me sign in with any profile other than my Google account. Arrghh.<br />
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Please update my URL in your lists and feeds. Thanks!<br />
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- Gretchen Joanna GretchenJoannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13641677400029070452noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512869338404805014.post-74858306360264897972014-03-27T13:36:00.000-07:002014-03-27T13:36:06.053-07:00On the value of philosophy.<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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Suppose that a great commotion arises in the street about something, let us say a lamp-post, which many influential persons desire to pull down. A grey-clad monk, who is the spirit of the Middle Ages, is approached upon the matter, and begins to say, in the arid manner of the Schoolmen, “Let us first of all consider, my brethren, the value of Light. If Light be in itself good --”<br />
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At this point he is somewhat excusably knocked down. All the people make a rush for the lamp-post, the lamp-post is down in ten minutes, and they go about congratulating each other on their unmediaeval practicality. But as things go on they do not work out so easily.<br />
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Some people have pulled the lamp-post down because they wanted the electric light; some because they wanted old iron; some because they wanted darkness, because their deeds were evil. Some thought it not enough of a lamp-post, some too much; some acted because they wanted to smash municipal machinery; some because they wanted to smash something. And there is war in the streets, no man knowing whom he strikes.<br />
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So, gradually and inevitably, to-day, to-morrow, or the next day, there comes back the conviction that the monk was right after all, and that all depends on what is the philosophy of Light. Only what we might have discussed under the gas-lamp, we now must discuss in the dark.<br /><br />-- G.K. Chesterton in <i>Heretics</i></blockquote>
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Linking up to <a href="http://www.amongstlovelythings.com/p/weekends-with-chesterton.html#.UzSIhYU26LF" target="_blank">Weekends With Chesterton</a>, hosted by <a href="http://www.betterthaneden.com/2014/03/pardoning-unpardonable-weekends-with.html" target="_blank">Mary</a> this week.GretchenJoannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13641677400029070452noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512869338404805014.post-9648987069839792082014-03-23T14:15:00.001-07:002014-03-23T14:15:53.809-07:00green and blue coastal views<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ih03Qilcg1I/Uy5iDcinnUI/AAAAAAAAHiY/ZYPmsvSQieQ/s1600/sand+moonstone+beach+cambria+14.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ih03Qilcg1I/Uy5iDcinnUI/AAAAAAAAHiY/ZYPmsvSQieQ/s1600/sand+moonstone+beach+cambria+14.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a>As I mentioned in my last post, we took a short trip down to California's Central Coast - which we were amused to hear referred to as The North Coast, by those evidently oriented not to the whole state, but to Los Angeles...?<br />
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While anticipating the getaway, which was all my dear husband's idea, I started thinking about the edges of the oceans, and how they give us a certain perspective. If you sit or stand on the shore and look seaward, you have all those millions of people behind you, and before you a vastness of water and sky to soothe the eyes and mind, and to make you think. Why don't we all constantly gravitate to the coastlands so that we can be philosophers? It must be because we have so many worthy things we are called to DO.<br />
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Part of me wants to philosophize in this post, about a score of ideas and realities that are connected in a fascinating way. I could even write a short book for me to read about the ramblings of my mind over the last week, stimulated as it was by books and movies and history and theology that all seemed to relate to our trip.<br />
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But I will restrain myself, because I had my time sitting by the shore
and now that I'm back inland I need to get on with other things. I won't want to take the time to read that book anyway, so I'll just make this a simple chronological report.<br />
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It was at Paso Robles on Hwy 101 that we cut over toward the coast, and the hills began to be greener, with even <i>greener </i>fields of newly-sprouted Something scattered here and there. The farms! Of course we have lots of farms in our county, too, but south of us they grow lots of different things and it does my heart good to see it. Thank you, Lord, for sending the rain to green-up the hills that will soon be golden -- and brown -- again.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-02eUHMXhXfU/Uy5ftH_7WmI/AAAAAAAAHho/k4g7ycKUbuc/s1600/balcony+view+cambria.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-02eUHMXhXfU/Uy5ftH_7WmI/AAAAAAAAHho/k4g7ycKUbuc/s1600/balcony+view+cambria.JPG" height="241" width="320" /></a><br />
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Our hotel room in Cambria had a lovely view from the balcony, not just of the ocean, but also of the lush gardens on the property, with some of those favorite plants that I only see when away from home, like proteas and our beloved Pride of Madeira.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UmcMK2fcU9E/Uy5gm7StaCI/AAAAAAAAHiA/X7S2QvifznY/s1600/pride+of+Madeira+cambria+14.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UmcMK2fcU9E/Uy5gm7StaCI/AAAAAAAAHiA/X7S2QvifznY/s1600/pride+of+Madeira+cambria+14.jpg" height="320" width="280" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pride of Madeira</td></tr>
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The latter is one that we enjoyed many times on wedding anniversary trips we've taken, because it blooms in March. This time I told Mr. Glad that we might consider it "Our Flower."<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aC4H4zJca7g/Uy5hDDSj3xI/AAAAAAAAHiI/lHVHKh41D0Q/s1600/protea+cambria+3-14.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aC4H4zJca7g/Uy5hDDSj3xI/AAAAAAAAHiI/lHVHKh41D0Q/s1600/protea+cambria+3-14.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">a protea</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KU2LcMXsuuI/Uy5ff7H-UpI/AAAAAAAAHhY/V9KuxwCfDLk/s1600/Cambria+town+14.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KU2LcMXsuuI/Uy5ff7H-UpI/AAAAAAAAHhY/V9KuxwCfDLk/s1600/Cambria+town+14.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">town of Cambria from the boardwalk</td></tr>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RMTBUd6G_6s/Uy5gZlQhCfI/AAAAAAAAHh4/k49Efz4TB9M/s1600/ground+squirrel+moonstone+beach+cambria.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RMTBUd6G_6s/Uy5gZlQhCfI/AAAAAAAAHh4/k49Efz4TB9M/s1600/ground+squirrel+moonstone+beach+cambria.jpg" height="236" width="320" /></a><br />
As soon as we brought in our bags we set off on the boardwalk along the long strand of Moonstone Beach, which appears to have a population of thousands of ground squirrels living under it. They popped up on one side or another every few feet to say hello and beg demurely.<br />
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Many benches sit along the boardwalk, too, providing places for philosophers to gaze out at the great beyond. Some had extra, very personalized signs and plaques, screwed into them.<br />
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Down below we scrambled on the rocks and found crabs and snails and seaweed in the cracks and tidepools.<br />
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All the salt water stands in stark contrast to the drought that is especially bad on the California coast. At our very nice restaurant in Cambria they charged us for water with dinner! Just 30 cents for a bottle, but enough to draw attention to the problem and prevent the waste of all those glasses of water that diners might ignore. <br />
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When we left Cambria we drove south and stopped near the town of Harmony to try out the Harmony Headlands trail that cuts through a swath of farmland to link up with coastal bluffs. We could smell the sagey-beachy scent that let us know the ocean was just over the hill, but we never seemed to be reaching a place from which to get even a distant view of it, so we eventually gave up and turned back. On the way back to the car this snake slithered off the edge of the trail. When I followed him into the field he froze and posed.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--v5gwhmd-0Q/Uy5bH6aaJaI/AAAAAAAAHhM/pw9cb4W9zb4/s1600/succulents+cayucos+3-14.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--v5gwhmd-0Q/Uy5bH6aaJaI/AAAAAAAAHhM/pw9cb4W9zb4/s1600/succulents+cayucos+3-14.JPG" height="331" width="400" /></a>Neither of us had ever been to the town of Cayucos, which was our next stop. We liked this place a lot, with its casual and less touristy flavor. It used to be a shipping hub in the late 1800's, and it's close enough to San Luis Opbispo and the college of "Cal Poly" that there were lots of students in town, and surfers to watch as we relaxed on the sand near the old pier.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cayucos from the pier</td></tr>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kB2tZjxCUlo/Uy5ZmVaLALI/AAAAAAAAHg0/S7PEJdaQzLk/s1600/seal+pup+cayucos+3-14.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kB2tZjxCUlo/Uy5ZmVaLALI/AAAAAAAAHg0/S7PEJdaQzLk/s1600/seal+pup+cayucos+3-14.JPG" height="297" width="400" /></a></div>
At one end of the beach a woman drew in the sand with her foot, to draw attention to a seal pup that was lying like a lump near the shore. I did think it <i>was</i> a lumpy rock, until I saw her circle.<br />
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She was also standing guard against dogs who had been bothering the animal that she said was malnourished and waiting for the marine mammal rescue people to come. When a group of school children approached, the pup lifted its head long enough for me to snap a picture.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AGLQ3oY4ZBM/Uy5UlyxN1oI/AAAAAAAAHgY/4mZtqBcABRY/s1600/P1090210restarea+crystal+springs+3-14.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AGLQ3oY4ZBM/Uy5UlyxN1oI/AAAAAAAAHgY/4mZtqBcABRY/s1600/P1090210restarea+crystal+springs+3-14.JPG" height="400" width="268" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">blue ceanothus, cistus, and CA poppies</td></tr>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XJwnKZOdpgk/Uy5U7GlN28I/AAAAAAAAHgg/zjyIESY6LQ0/s1600/P1090216cistus+Crystal+Springs.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XJwnKZOdpgk/Uy5U7GlN28I/AAAAAAAAHgg/zjyIESY6LQ0/s1600/P1090216cistus+Crystal+Springs.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a> <br />
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Later in the week on our way home I got in more close-up views of some favorite Spring-y color combinations -- at a highway rest area!<br />
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My tangible souvenirs were three, two rocks and a piece of sea glass, my material Gifts From the Sea. As to non-material and most valuable things gained....I'll be meditating a long time on that realm of Beauty.<br />
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GretchenJoannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13641677400029070452noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512869338404805014.post-69670316106117992432014-03-17T19:19:00.000-07:002014-03-17T19:19:09.899-07:00The Tide in the RiverA short verse stuck in my mind over 20 years ago, and has been playing there off and on out of a proper context. I'm pretty sure it came to me in a book of poems for children, and somewhere along the way I incorrectly connected it with Longfellow; when recently I searched around online for a while I found that the author is <a href="http://www.booksforkeeps.co.uk/issue/100/childrens-books/articles/other-articles/remembering-eleanor-farjeon">Eleanor Farjeon</a>.<br />
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Only once that I can remember did the meaning fit with the situation, when I was with my dear husband on a short getaway to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We were staying in the company town of Scotia in way-northern California, where the sawmill is built near the Eel River.<br />
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After dinner we walked in the dark around the village of Rio Dell close by, and on our way back to the hotel stopped on the bridge to lean over the rail; we listened to the quiet flowing noise and could barely make out the stream down below. Here was the right time and place, and the verse very nimbly popped into my mind, and I recited:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><span style="color: #134f5c;">The tide in the river,</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #134f5c;">The tide in the river,</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #134f5c;">The tide in the river runs deep.</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #134f5c;">I saw a shiver</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #134f5c;">Pass over the river</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #134f5c;">As the tide turned in its sleep.</span></b></blockquote>
<span style="color: #134f5c;"> --Eleanor Farejon</span></blockquote>
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Now we're celebrating that blessed day once more, but we're driving to California's Central Coast this time for our little vacation, to the town of Cambria where we spent part of our honeymoon and which we haven't visited since. Maybe we'll go to the beach this time. Let me see, do I know any beach-y verse I could get ready?GretchenJoannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13641677400029070452noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512869338404805014.post-86873758811202791902014-03-15T23:41:00.000-07:002014-03-15T23:41:52.928-07:00defeat of the bogey<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]-->Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon. <br />
― G.K. Chesterton, <i>Tremendous Trifles</i></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i> Linking up to <a href="http://www.amongstlovelythings.com/p/weekends-with-chesterton.html#.UyNjoIU26LF" target="_blank">Weekends With Chesterton</a></i></span>GretchenJoannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13641677400029070452noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512869338404805014.post-37160589617527872852014-03-14T09:10:00.001-07:002014-03-14T09:10:59.336-07:00a breathing<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">The End of Sleep </span><br /><br />The eyes are about to open.<br /> Through fog, Sleep crosses the great water—<br /> See how it sails in the little boat?<br /> Slowly, such a long journey,<br /> Bits of light<br /> Catch colors in the mirrored hull.<br /> Beneath the glassy surface, a glimpse<br /> Of your dreams: the lake, the boat, with you<br /> In it. Now a shadow<br /> Falls over you: above the surface,<br /> The figure of Sleep<br /> Has leaned over its boat.<br /> Hear Sleep's feet plop in the shallows—<br /> It pulls the boat to shore. <br /><br /> -- Elizabeth Twiddy</blockquote>
</blockquote>
This morning as I neared the shore of full consciousness, what I saw through the fog was myself, getting dressed and going to church for a Presanctified Liturgy. I was full of happy anticipation. Then I pulled the blinds open and was surprised to see, not the sunny and warm skies of the last few days, but thick and cold white fog.<br /><br />I've read many people who say they love the fog, and I thought of them right away, wondering why I couldn't be like them. Then I remembered the foggy days of my childhood when in the winter the damp cold would settle over California's Central Valley like a perverse blanket. Not your normal blanket that makes you cozy, but something more like a conduit of chill. My fifth-grade teacher Mrs. Wicks, who came from South Dakota, said she was never so miserable in the dry winters of her youth as she was in our "temperate" weather that froze her to the bone.<br /><br />The natural and normal tule fog that emerges from the ground after the first winter rains became a dangerous foe once I learned to drive and became aware of all the car crashes on the highways that are a frequent accompaniment to the season. I became familiar with the stiff neck you get peering intently through the wall of white trying not to run into something.<br />
<br />
But this morning in March, all of that is far behind me, and for the Valley-dwellers it is likely passed as well by this time of year. So I thought I would look for a poem by one of those fog-lovers. The fog that's outside my window is still a little too cold for my old bones to thoroughly enjoy, but I'm working on it. After all, it's another part of our earthly home that is filled with the breath of God.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">The Breathing</span><br /> <br /> An absolute<br /> patience.<br /> Trees stand<br /> up to their knees in<br /> fog. The fog<br /> slowly flows<br /> uphill.<br /> White<br /> cobwebs, the grass <br /> leaning where deer <br /> have looked for apples.<br /> The woods<br /> from brook to where<br /> the top of the hill looks<br /> over the fog send up<br /> not one bird.<br /> So absolute, it is<br /> no other than<br /> happiness itself, a breathing<br /> too quiet to hear. <br /> <br /> ~ Denise Levertov</blockquote>
</blockquote>
GretchenJoannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13641677400029070452noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512869338404805014.post-55768352027931025282014-03-12T21:29:00.000-07:002014-03-12T21:29:55.535-07:00Pressing on to the wasteland.<i>Another good quote for Lent, thanks to s-p at <a href="http://pithlessthoughts.blogspot.com/2009/11/malcolm-muggeridge-quote.html">Pithless Thoughts</a> (posted a while back), from a Malcolm Muggeridge essay on life at the end of the last century. It seems to me still applicable in the 21st, as he describes how direly we need the Savior:</i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bFuEFuBsU3E/UyEzzrgzhAI/AAAAAAAAHfo/vrxQRKQtdQE/s1600/malcolm-muggeridge1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bFuEFuBsU3E/UyEzzrgzhAI/AAAAAAAAHfo/vrxQRKQtdQE/s1600/malcolm-muggeridge1.jpg" /></a><blockquote>
As the astronauts soar into the vast eternities of space, on earth the garbage piles higher, as the groves of academe extend their domain, their alumni’s arms reach lower, as the phallic cult spreads, so does impotence. In great wealth, great poverty; in health, sickness, in numbers, deception. Gorging, left hungry; sedated, left restless; telling all, hiding all; in flesh united, forever separate. So we press on through the valley of abundance that leads to the wasteland of satiety, passing through the gardens of fantasy; seeking happiness ever more ardently, and finding despair ever more surely.</blockquote>
</blockquote>
GretchenJoannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13641677400029070452noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512869338404805014.post-89953892760286610162014-03-10T08:33:00.000-07:002014-03-10T08:33:11.245-07:00On the ground with the White Horse.<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]-->Last week <a href="http://garnergoingson.wordpress.com/2014/03/02/ballad-of-the-white-horse/" target="_blank">The Garners posted</a> about G.K. Chesterton's <i>Ballad of the White Horse</i>, which caused me to dig out my cassette tapes of the author reading his own poem -- how thrilling! Too bad they were made from a scratchy recording so that it's very hard to appreciate the poem itself. Still, the directness of the connection to the very voice and person of the poet mean a lot to me.<br />
<br />
What made me interested in the <i>Ballad</i> in the first place was taking a trip to Britain with daughter Pippin nine years ago. We both very much wanted to see White Horse Hill in Uffington while we were there, and we found it quite empty of any other humans the day we visited. We hiked up the hill to the chalk art that is thought to be 2,000 to 3,000 years old, and wandered around the horse's anatomy. We couldn't pull ourselves away. I just could not get over -- here it is again -- the earthy material link to ancient peoples and the mysteries of their culture and history. <br />
<br />
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One thing we share with the ancient people who carved the trenches of this design is human nature, the gifts of the Creator who made us in His image, glorious even in a tarnished condition. The horse reveals the creative aspect of that image, and Chesterton's ballad shows his own artistry while it tells a human and Christian tale set in King Alfred's day. The imagery in this stanza, which I think pertinent to the Lenten season, illuminates another aspect of our humanity that we share with our ancestors: the impulse to stand before God in worship, fighting with the desire to <i>be</i> God:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Pride juggles with her toppling towers, <br />
<br />
They strike the sun and cease, <br />
<br />
But the firm feet of humility <br />
<br />
They grip the ground like trees. </blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
-G.K. Chesterton, <i>The Ballad of the White Horse</i></blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
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Thinking again about this world history and my history, I want to revisit the horse vicariously, by means of the poem slightly more removed from the poet than my old cassettes. So I just ordered <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0898708907/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=" target="_blank">this edition</a> of the book, which I think is the one I bought two copies of in the past for gifts. The American Chesterton Society will be sending me <a href="http://www.chesterton.org/store/#!/~/product/category=447372&id=1545114" target="_blank">this CD</a>, read by Aidan Mackey, who sounds as though he is very likely, once I put that disk in the player, to send me right back to England and White Horse Hill.<br />
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Linking up to <a href="http://www.amongstlovelythings.com/p/weekends-with-chesterton.html#.UxzlPIXAiLE" target="_blank">Weekends With Chesterton</a>GretchenJoannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13641677400029070452noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512869338404805014.post-13848376165202335212014-03-08T18:54:00.000-08:002014-03-09T12:50:32.091-07:00Things that might - and did - happen in March.<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-irGDW3QHbEY/UxvRyiwSq0I/AAAAAAAAHeQ/r1Tn7Qqwkrk/s1600/Sumo+mandarin.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-irGDW3QHbEY/UxvRyiwSq0I/AAAAAAAAHeQ/r1Tn7Qqwkrk/s1600/Sumo+mandarin.jpg" height="294" width="320" /></a>1 - My sister might send us a box of mandarins from California's Central Valley. She and her husband grow these very fancy <i>Dekopons</i>, as they are known in Japan, under the label Sumo. You aren't likely to see many of them in our U.S. stores for a while, but I just read that in Japan they already have Dekopon chewing gum.<br />
<br />
They are awfully good, large and seedless and easy to peel, with a taste that reminds me of the fruits that we children gorged on from our father's trees many decades ago, and which I still will savor if I get down there at the right time of year.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-icwygqh5bco/UxvR2BCX0LI/AAAAAAAAHeY/RbGw0JYQyRs/s1600/beans+soaked.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-icwygqh5bco/UxvR2BCX0LI/AAAAAAAAHeY/RbGw0JYQyRs/s1600/beans+soaked.JPG" height="150" width="200" /></a>2 - I might decide to make a giant pot of vegetable and bean soup to last us through Lent and beyond. This is the Bean Soup Mix after soaking all night. The small brown beans are Tepary beans I bought at a farmers' market years ago; I found them in the pantry and threw them into the lot.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yHeKScHrZvA/UxvRjGYe-dI/AAAAAAAAHeI/3oVdiHg7MZI/s1600/Romanesco+cauliflower.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yHeKScHrZvA/UxvRjGYe-dI/AAAAAAAAHeI/3oVdiHg7MZI/s1600/Romanesco+cauliflower.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a><br />
3 - My CSA box might contain a pale green and spikey cauliflower, which they call Romanesco. I chopped it up put it into the soup, so I don't know if it tastes any different from the usual cauliflower. But it looks interesting.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o8XWvSANMFM/UxvSXa7aeoI/AAAAAAAAHek/ElCcEfeMtRg/s1600/sweet+olive+branches+14.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o8XWvSANMFM/UxvSXa7aeoI/AAAAAAAAHek/ElCcEfeMtRg/s1600/sweet+olive+branches+14.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a>4 - The osmanthus might bloom, so that when I come up the sidewalk to the front door I swoon over its sweetness, and decide to cut some branches to bring inside.<br />
<br />
It's warm enough now that I felt safe sticking two of my old orchids out on the patio; the only one that bloomed I put in the garage. I've gotten so used to them, I might buy a blooming plant to have in the house if Costco is still selling them.<br />
<br />
All these things DID happen. I'm loving Lent and Spring.<br />
<br />GretchenJoannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13641677400029070452noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512869338404805014.post-90030652680936668212014-03-06T09:15:00.002-08:002014-03-06T09:15:29.383-08:00the satisfaction of prideThis poem would have been perfect for the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee, but I don't want to wait another year to post it. Anyway, something on pride is very fitting for Lent.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">The Seven Deadly Sins </span><br />
<br />
Forget about the other six, says Pride.<br />
They’re only using you.<br />
Admittedly, Lust is a looker,<br />
but you can do better.<br />
<br />
And why do they keep bringing us<br />
to this cheesy dive?<br />
The food’s so bad that even Gluttony<br />
can’t finish his meal.<br />
<br />
Notice how Avarice <br />
keeps refilling his glass<br />
whenever he thinks we’re not looking,<br />
while Envy eyes your plate.<br />
<br />
Hell, we’re not even done, and Anger<br />
is already arguing about the bill.<br />
I’m the only one who <br />
ever leaves a decent tip.<br />
<br />
Let them all go, the losers!<br />
It’s a relief to see Sloth’s <br />
fat ass go out the door. <br />
But stick around. I have a story<br />
<br />
that not everyone appreciates—<br />
about the special satisfaction<br />
of staying on board as the last<br />
grubby lifeboat pushes away.<br />
<br />
-- Dana Gioia </blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<br />
Published in <i>First Things</i> Aug/Sept 2010 GretchenJoannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13641677400029070452noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512869338404805014.post-71418686586075383252014-03-04T21:12:00.000-08:002014-03-04T21:12:49.629-08:00Challenge the great Liar.<div class="post-header">
</div>
<i>Often I don't have the words or confidence to write about Orthodox spirituality, so today I am just going to quote Fr. Schmemann, whose books
have helped me so much.</i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
...fasting is the only means by which man recovers his true spiritual
nature. It is not a theoretical but truly a practical challenge to the
great Liar who managed to convince us that we depend on bread alone and
built all human knowledge, science, and existence on that lie. Fasting
is a denunciation of that lie and also proof that it is a lie....<br />
....<br />
Let us understand ...that what the Church wants us to do during Lent is
to seek the enrichment of our spiritual and intellectual inner world,
to read and to meditate upon those things which are most likely to help
us recover that inner world and its joy. Of that joy, of the true
vocation of man, the one that is fulfilled inside and not outside, the
'modern world' gives us no taste today; yet without it, without the
understanding of Lent as a journey into the depth of our humanity, Lent
loses its meaning.<br />
<br />
from <i>Great Lent</i> by Father Alexander Schmemann</blockquote>
</blockquote>
GretchenJoannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13641677400029070452noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512869338404805014.post-22505839110333668962014-03-01T22:10:00.000-08:002014-03-01T22:10:02.764-08:00getting at the heart of our humanity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This Sunday is Forgiveness Sunday, the last day before Great Lent in the Orthodox Church. During Lent we pray more, give alms, forgive everyone, and generally try to focus on spiritual things and prepare our hearts to receive the grace of the Resurrection of Christ. And of course we fast. We remember the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. This connection is explained well in many articles, one of which I read this week on the blog <a href="http://onbehalfofall.org/fasting-according-to-the-scriptures/" target="_blank">On Behalf of All</a>. Here are a few excerpts:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The spiritual discipline of fasting is something that has been part of the religious life of man since the very beginning. In the Paradise of Eden, the Lord commanded Adam: “From every tree that is in the paradise you may eat for food, but from the tree for knowing good and evil, you will not eat from it. And on whichever day you eat from it, you will surely die” (Gen. 2:16-17).<br />....<br /> Adam was meant to abstain; he was meant to fast. He was meant to say “no” to his own desires, so the he could say “yes” to God. We don’t fast in order to “merit” anything from the Lord, but rather to become like God, imitating Christ in his 40-day struggle in the wilderness. And when Christ was tempted by Satan (as all those who are engaged in Christian fasting will experience), his reliance upon both prayer and the promises of God were enough to sustain him.<br />.... <br /> When the apostle tells the Galatians, “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” (Gal. 5:16-17), he shows us yet again that we are “at war” with our own flesh or desires; the “lust of the flesh.” In order to be spiritually renewed as a Christian (and into a true human being, as Christ), one must strive to place the importance of that which is eternal over the temporal desires and passions that tempt us (and which Satan and his minions use to tempt us). <br /> The purpose of fasting is not dieting or carnal in nature, but rather gets to the heart of what it means to be truly human. Our relationship with the Father was distorted in the Garden, and only through true spiritual renewal—such as can be experienced through the ascetic discipline of fasting, coupled with both prayer and almsgiving—can one “grow” to become greater than one’s flesh.</blockquote>
</blockquote>
Read the whole article <a href="http://onbehalfofall.org/fasting-according-to-the-scriptures/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
East and West will celebrate Easter on the same date this year, so I know many of you will be beginning your labors just a couple of days later than I, on Ash Wednesday. I pray the Lord will strengthen us all and bring us with joy to Pascha!<br />
GretchenJoannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13641677400029070452noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512869338404805014.post-75107523795068109912014-02-28T08:24:00.001-08:002014-02-28T08:24:58.012-08:00RFC drinks in graces.<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
It was St. Thomas, I think, who pointed out a long time ago that if God wanted to get rid of the universe, He would not have to do anything; He would have to stop doing something. Wine is -- the fruit of the vine stands in act, outside of nothing -- because it is His very present pleasure to have it so. The creative act is contemporary, intimate, and immediate to each part, parcel and period of the world.<br />
...The bloom of yeast lies upon the grapeskins year after year because He likes it; C<span style="font-size: xx-small;">6</span>H<span style="font-size: xx-small;">12</span>O<span style="font-size: xx-small;">6</span>=2C<span style="font-size: xx-small;">2</span>H<span style="font-size: xx-small;">5</span>OH+CO<span style="font-size: xx-small;">2</span> is a dependable process because, every September, He says, That was nice; do it again.<br />
Let us pause and drink to that.</blockquote>
</blockquote>
Robert Farrar Capon knows well that there are people who will not drink to anything, because they are teetotalers. He's writing this chapter on "Water in Excelsis," in the book <i>The Supper of the Lamb</i>, about a God Who delights in his creation, and he is not sympathetic to what he sees as a mistaken attitude: "Only the ungrateful or the purblind can fail to see that sugar in the grape and yeast on the skins is a divine idea, not a human one."<br />
<br />
And as for what he calls The Woman's Christian Temperance Union's version of The Lord's Supper, only about 100 years old and lacking completely what Holy Scripture and church tradition prescribe as the proper drink, he does not shrink back from engaging its adherents in argument, particularly the ones who think that the Greek word for <i>wine</i> in the Gospels meant something other than <i>wine</i>.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The commentator cited, as I recall, <i>grape juice </i>for one meaning, and<i> raisin paste</i> for another. He inclined, ultimately, toward the latter.<br />
I suppose such people are blessed with reverent minds which prevent them from drawing irreverent conclusions. I myself, however, could never resist the temptation to read raisin paste for wine in the story of the Miracle of Cana. "When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made raisin paste...he said unto the bridegroom, 'Every man at the beginning doth set forth good raisin paste, and when men have well drunk [eaten? -- the text is no doubt corrupt], then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good raisin paste until now.'" Does it not whet your appetite for the critical <i>opera</i> <i>omnia</i> of such an author, where he will freely have at the length and breadth of Scripture? Can you not see his promised land flowing with peanut butter and jelly; his apocalypse, in which the great whore Babylon is given the cup of the ginger ale of the fierceness of the wrath of God?</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2y9ukKmiw6g/UxAviNENENI/AAAAAAAAHdo/c5AwqKiKGkg/s1600/RFC+w+wine.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2y9ukKmiw6g/UxAviNENENI/AAAAAAAAHdo/c5AwqKiKGkg/s1600/RFC+w+wine.jpeg" /></a>Capon has a different argument with secularists, and it is over their classifying wine as an alcoholic beverage, when the author knows it as a class in itself, far removed from the hard liquor that is often used to ill effect, and which he tells us is "for strong souls after great dinners<i></i>." Capon:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
With wine at hand, the good man concerns himself, not with getting drunk, but with drinking in all the natural delectabilities of wine: taste, color, bouquet; its manifold graces; the way it complements food and enhances conversation; and its sovereign power to turn evenings into occasions, to lift eating beyond nourishment to conviviality, and to bring the race, for a few hours at least, to that happy state where men are wise and women beautiful, and even one's children begin to look promising.</blockquote>
</blockquote>
I admit I am inspired by RFC's eager receptivity to God's gifts. What little appreciation I've had for wine as a beverage has been slow in developing, and I let my husband be in charge of that aspect of our dining. But wine in the chalice of Holy Communion has always seemed to me the obvious choice in obedience to Christ's teaching.<br />
<br />
This chapter contains more and expanded theologizing about the secular and the sacred, using wine and the making of wine as a demonstration of the goodness and delight of God. I am still musing on much of this and hope to ramble on here again, sharing with you the infectious loves of Robert Farrar Capon.<br />
<br />
Other posts in this series are: <br />
<a href="http://gretchenjoanna.blogspot.com/2014/02/rfc-is-man-we-need.html" target="_blank">RFC is the man we need.</a><br />
<a href="http://gretchenjoanna.blogspot.com/2014/02/rfc-begins-with-meat.html" target="_blank">RFC begins with the meat.</a><br />
<a href="http://gretchenjoanna.blogspot.com/2014/02/rfc-considers-blood-and-sacrifice.html" target="_blank">RFC considers blood and sacrifice.</a><br />
<a href="http://gretchenjoanna.blogspot.com/2014/02/rfc-makes-one-of-natures-marvels.html" target="_blank">RFC makes one of nature's marvels.</a><br />
<a href="http://gretchenjoanna.blogspot.com/2014/02/rfc-for-butter-week.html" target="_blank">RFC for Butter Week </a>GretchenJoannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13641677400029070452noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512869338404805014.post-65031765168130730672014-02-27T00:07:00.002-08:002014-03-04T10:14:55.283-08:00a little dancing sister<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<![endif]--><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m4_A5eZiTKM/Uw7bGXPuszI/AAAAAAAAHcU/01-_yAdxzSk/s1600/cape+blanco+sedum+2-1014.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m4_A5eZiTKM/Uw7bGXPuszI/AAAAAAAAHcU/01-_yAdxzSk/s1600/cape+blanco+sedum+2-1014.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a><span style="color: #274e13;"><b>...Nature is not our mother: Nature is our sister. We can be proud of her beauty, since we have the same father; but she has no authority over us; we have to admire, but not to imitate. This gives to the typically Christian pleasure in this earth a strange touch of lightness that is almost frivolity. Nature was a solemn mother to the worshipers of Isis and Cybele. Nature was a solemn mother to Wordsworth or to Emerson. But Nature is not solemn to Francis of Assisi or to George Herbert. To St. Francis, Nature is a sister, and even a younger sister: a little, dancing sister, to be laughed at as well as loved.</b></span></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<span style="color: #274e13;"><b> ― G.K. Chesterton, <i>Orthodoxy</i></b></span></blockquote>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oxabsyD9A-k/Uw7cSsx_JTI/AAAAAAAAHc0/uuFrvorcYZg/s1600/pea-crowding+weed+2-14.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oxabsyD9A-k/Uw7cSsx_JTI/AAAAAAAAHc0/uuFrvorcYZg/s1600/pea-crowding+weed+2-14.jpg" height="182" width="320" /></a>I've been enjoying my little sister in the garden this week. It started with a long weeding session, during which I rescued the sweet peas from a weed of which I don't know the name. Does one of you know it?<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TiUQsm9708Q/Uw7cw1NIldI/AAAAAAAAHc8/GQ0LMwsV3mg/s1600/pea-crowding+weeds+2-14+2.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TiUQsm9708Q/Uw7cw1NIldI/AAAAAAAAHc8/GQ0LMwsV3mg/s1600/pea-crowding+weeds+2-14+2.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a> <br />
It's been growing taller than the peas, and even though I made some nice trellising for them, they have been confused by these weeds and are trying to climb on them instead.<br />
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The green and trailing weed is also flowering before the sweet peas bloom, and is not in any way an unpleasant weed to deal with.<br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--IWDPqpbr1A/Uw7bbVhZhfI/AAAAAAAAHcg/f8VgzN_Y8TU/s1600/oxalis+in+violets+2-2014.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a> <br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-34hgyUBgNUw/Uw7dQgOal_I/AAAAAAAAHdM/xAv70g66_Kg/s1600/weed+scattery+2-14.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-34hgyUBgNUw/Uw7dQgOal_I/AAAAAAAAHdM/xAv70g66_Kg/s1600/weed+scattery+2-14.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a>How about this weed? Maybe someone can tell me its real name. We call it The Scattery Weed, because before the seeds are obviously ripe, when the plant still looks small and innocent, it waits with secret menace for the gardener to stroll by and brush it with her shoe or hand, then !!explosion!! of seeds in a several-foot radius. <br />
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I probably shouldn't use the word <i>menace</i> when talking about my little sister. In this case she is only doing what is in her nature, and doing a good job of bearing many children for next year's springtime.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--IWDPqpbr1A/Uw7bbVhZhfI/AAAAAAAAHcg/f8VgzN_Y8TU/s1600/oxalis+in+violets+2-2014.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--IWDPqpbr1A/Uw7bbVhZhfI/AAAAAAAAHcg/f8VgzN_Y8TU/s1600/oxalis+in+violets+2-2014.jpg" height="258" width="320" /></a><br />
I found more signs of spring while I was out there, like this oxalis blooming among the violets... <br />
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<i><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_6WvPs-4Dbg/Uw7bcG_tN7I/AAAAAAAAHck/C6s4qvoRkPI/s1600/emitter+with+violets+and+plum+blossoms+2014.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-_6WvPs-4Dbg/Uw7bcG_tN7I/AAAAAAAAHck/C6s4qvoRkPI/s1600/emitter+with+violets+and+plum+blossoms+2014.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></i></div>
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...plum blossoms decorating violets, and the violets springing up tall to decorate an irrigation head.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-blcueWz6Eco/Uw7bk-5EKdI/AAAAAAAAHcs/q5e2ooMt-jI/s1600/field+of+fallen+manzanita+blooms.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-blcueWz6Eco/Uw7bk-5EKdI/AAAAAAAAHcs/q5e2ooMt-jI/s1600/field+of+fallen+manzanita+blooms.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-suHcLf3ia8s/Uw7c2uj10oI/AAAAAAAAHdE/6d7S5xNxqOo/s1600/snowdrops+2014.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-suHcLf3ia8s/Uw7c2uj10oI/AAAAAAAAHdE/6d7S5xNxqOo/s1600/snowdrops+2014.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a>Above is a field of manzanita blossoms fallen from the bush to make way for berries, and hanging over them are snowdrops, truly looking like little sisters dancing in their pretty spring petticoats. <br />
<br />
I finished my garden work just ahead of the steady rain we've been getting today. God is watering the earth and sending His rain "on the just and the unjust." Thank You, Lord!<br />
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Linking up to <a href="http://www.amongstlovelythings.com/p/weekends-with-chesterton.html#.Uw7w9IXAiLE" target="_blank">Weekends With Chesterton</a>.<br />
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<i> </i>GretchenJoannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13641677400029070452noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512869338404805014.post-50302347192400660412014-02-25T22:09:00.001-08:002014-02-25T22:09:08.807-08:00Kinds of Poetry - Tolkien vs. Jackson<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="color: #134f5c;">Jackson apparently thinks the characters Tolkien gives us are too simply good to be fully believable to modern audiences, and so he feels obligated to "complicate" them, to give them internal conflicts other than the ones they actually have, in the hopes that we will better be able to relate to them.</span></i></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0dls_VqcO8k/UwVZuGGCChI/AAAAAAAAHbQ/D9EEofNfJIM/s1600/Faramir.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0dls_VqcO8k/UwVZuGGCChI/AAAAAAAAHbQ/D9EEofNfJIM/s1600/Faramir.jpg" height="320" width="227" /></a>I'm quoting from <a href="http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=26-06-014-v">this article</a> in the Nov/Dec 2013 <i>Touchstone Magazine,</i> in which Donald T. Williams explains how literature, while delighting us with its art, is more powerful than history or philosophy to nurture our moral vision, or to corrupt us with false images. <br />
<br />
With the help of quotes from Sir Philip Sidney, who wrote <i>Apology for Poetry</i> in the sixteenth century, he shows how "Tolkien was very consciously and deliberately following the literary tradition that flows down to us from Sidney through Dr. Johnson and C. S. Lewis."<br />
<br />
Peter Jackson the filmmaker seems to be flowing in a different stream. But he is an artist, and of course will impart his own soul to his work. I wouldn't expect him to give us <i>The Rings</i>, because that has already been done, and he is not J.R.R. Tolkien. But it is unfortunate that he has changed things to the degree and in the directions he has. Williams points out specific ways in which the characters who inspired us in the books disappoint us in the movies, and makes these general remarks:<br />
<div style="background-color: white; border: medium none; color: black; overflow: hidden; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="color: #134f5c;">By this process of negative moral transformation, in other words, we
reach the place where beloved characters are unrecognizable to Tolkien's
fans, and those fans feel betrayed. And they are right to feel so,
though mostly they do not understand why. It is because the difference
between the books and the movies is not just one of necessary adaptation
to a different medium. It is that the author consciously followed the
Sidneyan tradition while the adaptor is either ignorant of it or doesn't
understand it or has rejected it.</span></i></blockquote>
</blockquote>
</div>
Read the whole article <a href="http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=26-06-014-v" target="_blank">here</a>. <br />
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GretchenJoannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13641677400029070452noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512869338404805014.post-57928480690932073672014-02-24T08:05:00.000-08:002014-02-24T08:05:09.278-08:00RFC for Butter WeekPlease don't try Roger Farrar Capon's baklava recipe. He describes it as "french-fried," and yes, it does involved a large quantity of <i>oil</i> ! which I declare a horrid perversion of the spirit of baklava. This is the first thing I have found in <i>The Supper of the Lamb</i> that has so disappointed and surprised me. I guess no one can be perfect.<br />
<br />
But the perfect baklava recipe does exist, simplicity itself for method; and for taste, the divine melding of flavors, of which that of Butter is central. It is the one used in my parish to make umpteen sheet pans of baklava every year for festivals and celebratory meals, and I will eventually make it at home and share the recipe here.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6kI5qByXRYA/UwrcH1RphxI/AAAAAAAAHbw/NhH5abLji9k/s1600/baklava+2010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6kI5qByXRYA/UwrcH1RphxI/AAAAAAAAHbw/NhH5abLji9k/s1600/baklava+2010.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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As I write, we Orthodox Christians are in the midst of what is sometimes called Butter Week, the week before Lent properly begins, and the last in which we eat dairy products (but start fasting from meat). The perfect time to tell about Capon's attitude toward butter, which I am very sympathetic to. For example, at the end of a section on sauces he shares:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
One last secret. There is almost no sauce that will not be improved by having a lump of butter whisked into it the moment before it is served. In addition to what it does for the flavor, it provides the sauce itself with a patina, a sheen which delights the eye even before the palate begins to judge. It is an embellishment not lightly to be forgone. Dishes should come to the table vested, robed. <i>Don Giovanni</i> is marvelous any way you can get to hear it. But given a choice between seeing it performed full dress, or on a bare stage with the cast in T shirts and sneakers, no rational man would hesitate. A great sauce deserves a great finish. Whatever you do, therefore, don't omit the final grace -- the loving pat of butter.</blockquote>
</blockquote>
Those last words remind me of my grandmother, who showed this kind of love in her kitchen and to those she fed, including herself, and she lived healthily and on her own past the age of 100. I can still picture her standing by the stove and tucking fat pats of butter into the slits she had made in our baked potatoes just before taking them to the dining table.<br />
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Capon considers bread and butter, or cheese, to be basic ferial (everyday) food for those meals that one is keeping simple and light, for the sake of being able to enjoy real feasting less often. I'll write more on that principle later. In contrast to bread and butter, we have what RFC calls "the epitome of baking": pastry. He gives a lot of time and great detail to teaching us how to make puff pastry and Danish pastry, which must be made with butter, of course. I personally am not interested in this kind of cooking at my stage of life, and am happy to eat my butter in a hundred places other than pastry. Capon explains further that butter<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
...is
not, in any except the merely technical sense of the word, grease. It
melts at the temperature of the tongue, and consequently goes down as
easily as cream. (You do not like to drink cream? I am sorry. Let us
agree to disagree and get on with it.) Any man who cannot tell the
difference between butter and margarine has callouses on the inside of his
mouth...Butter is a substance in its own right, justified by its own
delectability, not by its contributory services. It is a unique and
solid sauce; it is apt to more dishes than anything in the world, and it
is, like all the greatest sauces, worthy of being eaten plain. </blockquote>
</blockquote>
Besides pastry, there are many recipes at the back of the book that feature this blessed food, including what look to be very nice cakes and cookies. I think all of us have plenty of that kind of recipe already, and if you don't, just look on my own Recipes and Vague Instructions page on this blog. I wholeheartedly agree with RFC that butter "glorifies almost everything it touches."<br />
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<br />
<br />
Other posts in this series are: <br />
<a href="http://gretchenjoanna.blogspot.com/2014/02/rfc-is-man-we-need.html" target="_blank">RFC is the man we need.</a><br />
<a href="http://gretchenjoanna.blogspot.com/2014/02/rfc-begins-with-meat.html" target="_blank">RFC begins with the meat.</a><br />
<a href="http://gretchenjoanna.blogspot.com/2014/02/rfc-considers-blood-and-sacrifice.html" target="_blank">RFC considers blood and sacrifice.</a><br />
<a href="http://gretchenjoanna.blogspot.com/2014/02/rfc-makes-one-of-natures-marvels.html" target="_blank">RFC makes one of nature's marvels.</a>GretchenJoannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13641677400029070452noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512869338404805014.post-74663693580124712512014-02-22T22:22:00.000-08:002014-02-23T21:11:32.896-08:00Let them believe.<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">It is assumed that the skeptic has no bias; <br />whereas he has an obvious bias in favor of skepticism.<br /><br />That is the one eternal education: <br />to be sure enough that something is true<br />that you dare to tell it to a child.<br /><br />-- G.K. Chesterton</span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br />
These quotes having to do with teaching and learning remind me of something I read years ago when we were in the middle of our 21 years of homeschooling. It was in John Senior's book <i>The Restoration of Christian Culture</i>, which I had borrowed and still don't own, so it may be that I am not remembering it exactly right. I'd love it if any of you know enough to correct me or just articulate more clearly what I am trying to get at.<br />
<br />
Dr. Senior warned parents against teaching children what modern educators call "critical thinking," because it would turn them into skeptics and take away the simplicity of their childhood. They need to be taught to believe, rather than to doubt, and to have their joy and love for the world nurtured. If we teach them to be skeptics we are guilty of stunting their souls.<br />
<br />
I thought about these things when I read an article by Ken Myers that was published last summer in Touchstone, titled "Trinity & Modernity" (unfortunately not available online). In it he introduces us to the book <i>The One, the Three and the Many: God, Creation and the Culture of Modernity</i> by Colin Gunton, and Myers discusses the fragmentation of current culture and thought, and the necessity of Trinitarian faith and the Body of Christ if we are to be saved from "modernity's fatal confusion."<br />
<br />
His introductory paragraphs are what I want to share here, about our universal Christian story.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We have been told that to be postmodern is to approach metanarratives -- the Big Stories that explain Life, the Universe, and Everything -- with incredulity. Of course, this raises the question of whether or not this definition of the postmodern temperament is itself a metanarrative... <br />
<br />
...I do detect among most younger people a yawning indifference to efforts to explain history or theology or ethics or art in terms of grand and arching chronologies or chronicles. I suspect their minds and hearts have been colonized by thousands of what [Jean-François] Lyotard called <i>petit récits</i>, small amounts of highly particular and often idiosyncratic episodes, all blithely disconnected from any framework, all resistant to organization in any structure of meaning. Perpetual exposure to a numbing torrent of bewildering bursts of narrativish fragments -- increasingly in fewer than 140 characters -- leaves little time or mental space for attending to connections and causality. <br />
<br />
I remain unrepentantly pre-modern in my love of metanarratives. If the gospel has any power, it is only because it tells a great story that explains all things. It is a very particular story and it makes universal claims, which make both card-carrying moderns and postmoderns nervous. It was foolishness to the Greeks as well.</blockquote>
</blockquote>
This fragmentation and lack of understanding was a problem even in Chesterton's day, but certainly it's worse in more recent decades, with the giving over of education to a woefully pragmatic vision (Perhaps we do have a metanarrative: Do Whatever You Have To, To Get a Good Job.) and the gazillion bits of information and "communication" of the computer age.<br />
<br />
I always had Truth to tell to my children, because I knew at heart that Christ was the "yea and amen to all the promises of God," and God was the Creator and upholder of everything. But in my experience the Protestant Evangelical world lacked cohesion, and certainly the continuity with the history faith that would make it a true metanarrative. <br />
<br />
It was incomplete, fragments that could not explain Everything, and I am sorry that I couldn't tell my young children the Big Story that I am learning now, now that I am coming to know Christ<i> and</i> His Church. In The Church we have Christ the Head of the body. They go together, and can't really convey the faith any other way. Christ comes to us in His Church, "the fullness of Him that filleth all in all."<br />
<br />
The intellectual focus of the West -- which even we in the Eastern Orthodox Church breathe in the air of the modern world -- seems to make it hard for me to avoid skepticism in myself. I can't see that anything but prayer and sacrament can keep my heart tender and trusting. Let's pray for the children, too, that they might be saved from the spirit of the age.<br />
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Linking up to <a href="http://www.amongstlovelythings.com/p/weekends-with-chesterton.html#.UwrULYXAiLF" target="_blank">Weekends with Chesterton</a>GretchenJoannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13641677400029070452noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512869338404805014.post-61016159523727944322014-02-19T12:19:00.000-08:002014-02-19T12:19:59.782-08:00RFC makes one of nature's marvels.In the chapter titled "Living Water" in <i>The</i> <i>Supper of the Lamb</i>, in which we learn how to make Brown Stock and White Stock, Robert Farrar Capon continues, "...you are now ready for the really astonishing part of the exercise." It's the lead-in to another of the recipes that are scattered throughout the first two-thirds of <i>The Supper of the Lamb</i>, with more of them concentrated in the recipe section at the back.<br />
<br />
Many of the recipes seem a little outdated now, but I doubt I'd have taken to the foods featured in <i>Supper</i> even in 1969 when it was first published, because I was just learning to live on my own and to eat rice and vegetables. Our ferial eating in those days was sparser of meat and wine than RFC could have imagined, and <i>Diet for a Small Planet</i> was the go-to cookbook. It would be another ten or fifteen years before I bought my first leg of lamb.<br />
<br />
Nowadays I am well supplied with recipes for most everything I could possibly want to cook, but Capon's next suggestion sounds so strange and appealing that I think I will have to try it eventually. If I had to choose between meat and butter, two foods at the top of my list of culinary loves, I guess I'm just sensible enough to choose meat, and when RFC tells me I can capture its "heart and soul" in my kitchen, I can't resist his encouragement to create something of which he also claims, "...you will find yourself whittling off little pieces to dissolve on your tongue at odd times of the day."<br />
<br />
I'll just give you the whole recipe here, because though we no doubt can find a version online, I naturally like the style of this one. It will be my last "meaty" post on this book, because in my church we are beginning our Lenten fast from meat very soon, and it's time for me to turn the page.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #783f04;"><b>HOMEMADE MEAT GLAZE</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #783f04;">(Meat Extract)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="color: #783f04;">Take the strainerful of bones and scraps [from which you have made the stock] and put them back into the stockpot. Add any scraps of meat you have around: poultry, pork, veal -- even leftover hamburger -- just stay away from lamb and ham. Meat extract can, of course, be made from the used bones alone, but anything that brings more natural gelatin to the pot is welcome. Cover everything deeply with cold water, <i>adding no salt at all</i>, and boil for two or three hours more.</span><br />
<span style="color: #783f04;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #783f04;">That done, strain once again, this time into a large saucepan. Discard the bones. (They have been worked to death. Even the dog will look down his nose at them now.)</span><br />
<span style="color: #783f04;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #783f04;">Boil the contents of the pan hard, skimming the froth from the top now and then, until the liquid is drastically reduced. When it is down to about a pint, transfer it to a smaller pan and boil on, over slightly reduced heat. Continue boiling until it reaches the consistency of a thick, blackish-brown syrup (half a cup, give or take a little). Pour this into a heatproof jar, cool, and refrigerate.</span><br />
<span style="color: #783f04;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #783f04;">You now have, perhaps for the first time in your life, real meat extract -- one of nature's marvels. It is, of course, highly concentrated gelatin, but it has been imbued with the heart and soul of meat. Its taste is beautiful. Moreover, in spite of the fact that no speck of salt went into all those quarts of water the second time around, it is salted to perfection. Its consistency is, admittedly, a little forbidding; It is not unlike a young and tender shoe heel. Refrigerated, it will keep in this state for weeks; but, obligingly enough, it melts at the temperature of the mouth. If you are any lover of food at all, you will find yourself whittling off little pieces to dissolve on your tongue at odd times of the day.</span><br />
<span style="color: #783f04;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #783f04;">Use it ad lib. Its general effect is to give a sauce soul and substance without overpowering the proper flavor of the dish. Experiment. It improves almost anything. A tablespoonful melted in warm Hollandaise imparts a certain roundness and resonance to what is sometimes an excessively light and lemony sauce. A piece dropped on top of a hot fried egg (plus a dash of Tabasco, if you are up to it) is delightful. And in the form of <a href="http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Colbert-Butter" target="_blank">Colbert Butter</a>, it is the perfect accompaniment to steaks, chops, fish, or poultry -- not to mention a piece of matzoh at three in the afternoon.</span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
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<br />GretchenJoannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13641677400029070452noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512869338404805014.post-41968028621752087862014-02-17T15:01:00.001-08:002014-02-17T15:03:03.032-08:00fanciful semblance of decency<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
THERE are many who insist on all that was dark or gross or negligent in the conditions of early barbarism, so that modern civilization may for one wild moment take on a fanciful semblance of decency. But old things have to be made very black indeed, if modern things are not to look blacker.<br />
<br />
~G.K. Chesterton in <i>Generally Speaking</i>, 1929</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<i><br /></i>
<i><br /></i>
<br />
linking up to <a href="http://www.amongstlovelythings.com/2014/02/some-chestertonian-motivation.html#.UwKTrYXAiLE" target="_blank">Weekends with Chesterton</a> GretchenJoannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13641677400029070452noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512869338404805014.post-78666008882569236772014-02-16T15:43:00.001-08:002014-02-16T15:43:36.769-08:00RFC considers blood and sacrifice.<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I owe you something more, however -- something darker -- on the subject of meat: The minor leads inexorably to the monumental. Lamb has set our feet in a large room indeed. Man not only dines: he also kills and sacrifices. The room in which he relishes the animal orders lies between slaughterhouse and temple. There are death's heads at each end of the table of the world. </blockquote>
</blockquote>
In <i>The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection</i> Robert Farrar Capon introduces what is perhaps the most poetic chapter with this paragraph. He explores our human proclivity to hunting and butchering and the Jewish temple sacrifices in a long poem that I mostly didn't have the patience for, though I liked its division into sections named for the categories of the car game:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Animal, Vegetable, Mineral; <br />
Testing the textures of creation,<br />
savoring the styles of its coinherence.</blockquote>
</blockquote>
After describing the neat and clean Mineral parts of our world, he moves on to the Vegetable, "the kingdom of seed, birth, life....And for the first time,/ the reek of death." But<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KY9hR9ijj7c/UvSG7n4vM0I/AAAAAAAAHXI/uhSPY6Cl17E/s1600/P1000376+leeks.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KY9hR9ijj7c/UvSG7n4vM0I/AAAAAAAAHXI/uhSPY6Cl17E/s1600/P1000376+leeks.JPG" height="200" width="150" /></a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Onions die quietly,<br />
Cabbages shed no blood;<br />
All plants forgive:<br />
By the waters that comprise them<br />
They wash man's hands<br />
And let him walk away.</blockquote>
</blockquote>
Eating vegetables is so innocent. But Capon doesn't want to ignore the reality of our place as carnivores, so he unapologetically moves on to the Animal kingdom<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
each man owning the honest interchange by which he steals his livelihood; each woman's hand intimate with the crack of wrung neck and severed spine....</blockquote>
</blockquote>
It is not possible or even desirable to distill the writer's poem into a fully satisfying theology, but I wanted my readers to know that he does satisfy himself with the mysteries of God's plan of salvation, of which the temple sacrifices were a foreshadowing of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The world awaits<br />
The unimaginable union<br />
By which the Lion lifts Himself Lamb slain<br />
And, Priest and Victim,<br />
Brings<br />
The City<br />
Home.</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<br />
Other posts in this series are: <br />
<a href="http://gretchenjoanna.blogspot.com/2014/02/rfc-is-man-we-need.html" target="_blank">RFC is the man we need.</a><br />
<a href="http://gretchenjoanna.blogspot.com/2014/02/rfc-begins-with-meat.html" target="_blank">RFC begins with the meat.</a>GretchenJoannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13641677400029070452noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512869338404805014.post-82354665005326108102014-02-15T13:43:00.000-08:002014-02-15T13:43:13.290-08:00always looking for someone to devour<!--[if !mso]>
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In a Valentine's Day e-mail letter, <i>Touchstone Magazine</i> editor James Kushiner comments on the news from Belgium. After the general greeting for the day, here is the rest of the letter:</div>
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...we live in time when the love of many has grown cold. How else to explain what has happened in the West? Most have heard that Belgium <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001R-cE8J4NGXyL9V67Hp0HAQ-m990Fqt7vD7R2BOBAU_FEDNxzmtRiUgmSBadLULaXPZ__3iUgKJsh96Z0CpehjdCGt2BpjUVW1Ucu0-59rtjo74p66jTnmpZk7MZ8lOlM9pQdd5Askm_552x7DTwm3UhYjpRfKXDU1qPjPN1cQD0XFbacqyHa9r6dEvvz2fR2yonD9jK5qxWtIQ52yoSKHsOshT4QqjTZZXVPHnrpPK8Zlsj02oxMlIVPDVi2uBPcApSctj3jolRJjsVhxfAZfVv1dQk6bubu&c=FyUFajupe8-AOqa_cYRj-K0n5YJ4fSIui96NdkU2F82ZyMz_M2_svw==&ch=62h2ryRWDeaLPFQemGQx6MJThETdM6EDb9C11Pe4io2GwWWEBsfDQw==">has passed a law</a> allowing the 'euthanization' of children. With their kind permission, of course. We wish we did not have live in such times. But we do. <br /><br /> Many have seen such things coming, for decades. But warnings, debates, arguments have been to no avail. Books will continue to be written on why it has come to this and how to argue against the slide down the slippery slope (is there any doubt that this slide has been going on?). <br /> <br /> Maybe it's time to recognize that one cannot argue rationally with a demonic spirit. In the United States, some 55,000,000 children in utero have been murdered under the inspiration of this spirit--over the past 41 years, a biblical generation of death in the wilderness. There is no Promised Land waiting for this unrepentant generation. We've been killing children without their permission already. Now, Belgium wants to kill adolescents if they are persuaded it would be better for them to go to sleep and never wake up.<br /> <br /> I write to name this as the spirit of iniquity that it is. I am reminded of a scene in one of the greatest American films, The Night of the Hunter. Two young children, John and Pearl, are running for their lives from a deranged and murderous false preacher, Harry Powell (played by Robert Mitchum). Escaping down the Ohio River, the exhausted children spend part of a night in a barn, but they are awakened by the approaching sounds of Powell on horseback. John says to his sister, "Don't he ever sleep?" </blockquote>
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Exactly. The devil stalking in our midst is a ravenous adversary, always looking for someone to devour. He does not sleep. And his staunch ally, Molech, has devoured little children since biblical times.<br /> <br /> The Lord Jesus Christ, to whom all authority in heaven and on earth belongs, has said, "Woe to them who cause these little ones to stumble. It would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened to his neck and be cast into the depths of the sea." Woe to the nation that does these things. One does not have to be a prophet to see this. God will not be mocked. <br /> <br /> In the film, a courageous witness to the Lord delivers the children from death. She is a magnificent heroine, played by Lillian Gish. She loves truly, without fear, with courageous compassion. We must continue to shine the light, like the magnificent witness Valentine.</blockquote>
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GretchenJoannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13641677400029070452noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512869338404805014.post-16945705151097255082014-02-13T23:28:00.000-08:002014-02-13T23:28:19.312-08:00wintertime loves<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4fpMUP84T5o/Uv2apwzPFHI/AAAAAAAAHaQ/yv901KgzItM/s1600/my+rock+Castle+Cr+Sac+R+2-14.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4fpMUP84T5o/Uv2apwzPFHI/AAAAAAAAHaQ/yv901KgzItM/s1600/my+rock+Castle+Cr+Sac+R+2-14.JPG" height="400" width="300" /></a><br />
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We in the arid parts of the West have been exulting in rain the last week or so. It's so comforting and even glorious to wake in the night and hear the rain still coming down. Then to wake in the morning and see it is still falling. We had puddles in the back yard! Thank you, Lord!<br />
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Mr. Glad and I do live in northern California, but daughter Pippin lives even farther north in the state, and we drove there early this week for a short visit. Often February is a very snowy month at her place, but this year they've had more dry weather and rain than snow, and even the rain stopped while we were there, so we could get outdoors easily for work and recreation.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KEmf_nGQ96k/Uv2Rg0bb9RI/AAAAAAAAHYk/tDTX_H_Jamw/s1600/old+apple+tree+prune+2-14.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KEmf_nGQ96k/Uv2Rg0bb9RI/AAAAAAAAHYk/tDTX_H_Jamw/s1600/old+apple+tree+prune+2-14.jpg" height="400" width="287" /></a><br />
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One day we made a family project out of pruning old apple trees that Pippin and The Professor are trying to revive from years of neglect. I floated back and forth between lopping branches and swinging the kids.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6KMaQ3AiOXI/Uv2bUn6186I/AAAAAAAAHag/Kl2vo3bbooU/s1600/kids+swing+2-14.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6KMaQ3AiOXI/Uv2bUn6186I/AAAAAAAAHag/Kl2vo3bbooU/s1600/kids+swing+2-14.jpg" height="400" width="308" /></a><br />
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I would get Scout and Ivy going and then run over to take a picture of the adults on ladders.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ozOXZkqSM-0/Uv2Td1p0cqI/AAAAAAAAHZE/JgiDab011vc/s1600/moss+on+tree+Sac+R+2-14.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ozOXZkqSM-0/Uv2Td1p0cqI/AAAAAAAAHZE/JgiDab011vc/s1600/moss+on+tree+Sac+R+2-14.JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a><br />
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Another day we took a short trip to Castle Crags State Park and walked a trail alongside the Sacramento River. Considering the dryness of this year, I was amazed at the thick moss and ferns.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5EKNo6xkjO0/Uv2ZZhf-OgI/AAAAAAAAHZ8/lBez8ck4c64/s1600/Port+Orford+Cedar+Sac+R+2-14.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5EKNo6xkjO0/Uv2ZZhf-OgI/AAAAAAAAHZ8/lBez8ck4c64/s1600/Port+Orford+Cedar+Sac+R+2-14.jpg" height="320" width="256" /></a><br />
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Port Orford Cedars like to grow next to rivers.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LSJV_2qbW2o/Uv2ZGIxoODI/AAAAAAAAHZ0/c7TSlp6fJJM/s1600/Sac+R+2-14+sun+on+water.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LSJV_2qbW2o/Uv2ZGIxoODI/AAAAAAAAHZ0/c7TSlp6fJJM/s1600/Sac+R+2-14+sun+on+water.JPG" height="640" width="480" /></a></div>
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A pale green, almost white lichen grew on rocks and tree stumps.</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rEILTtTZ1D8/Uv2TwHm6jYI/AAAAAAAAHZM/62RMzLeOVMk/s1600/pale+green+lichen+rock+Sac+R+2-14.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rEILTtTZ1D8/Uv2TwHm6jYI/AAAAAAAAHZM/62RMzLeOVMk/s1600/pale+green+lichen+rock+Sac+R+2-14.JPG" height="300" width="400" /> </a></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-n0Tw12I1iGE/Uv2UKtXKCQI/AAAAAAAAHZU/gvLh6lu-Yf8/s1600/yews+by+Sacramento+R+Dunsmuir.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-n0Tw12I1iGE/Uv2UKtXKCQI/AAAAAAAAHZU/gvLh6lu-Yf8/s1600/yews+by+Sacramento+R+Dunsmuir.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">yew trees on the riverbank</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-V17CdziL3Q8/Uv2Y71j4HuI/AAAAAAAAHZs/617MZZBdPQM/s1600/Scout+Sac+R+2-14.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-V17CdziL3Q8/Uv2Y71j4HuI/AAAAAAAAHZs/617MZZBdPQM/s1600/Scout+Sac+R+2-14.JPG" height="287" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Grandson in orange jacket</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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Everything was wet from the recent rains, and many times our feet slipped on the invisible mosses -- or was it algae? -- growing on wooden bridges or river rocks. <br /><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XzgjFAcQC2g/Uv2YDnKSvsI/AAAAAAAAHZg/Zp3WQSECRWc/s1600/Ivy+rocks+2+Sac+R+2-14.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XzgjFAcQC2g/Uv2YDnKSvsI/AAAAAAAAHZg/Zp3WQSECRWc/s1600/Ivy+rocks+2+Sac+R+2-14.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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Ivy practiced throwing pebbles into the river, and once she got the hang of it she did not want to do anything else. The supply of rocks was endless. <br />
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We went to the confluence of Castle Creek (in the foreground below) and the Sacramento River, from which you can get great views of the jagged rocks above, called the Castle Crags. They are high enough that the recent precipitation there was in the form of snow, and some was still unmelted and visible.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WPcFbGXFLk8/Uv2Zo7CkDTI/AAAAAAAAHaE/oJE2umj_TN8/s1600/confl+Castle+Cr+Sac+R+2-14.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WPcFbGXFLk8/Uv2Zo7CkDTI/AAAAAAAAHaE/oJE2umj_TN8/s1600/confl+Castle+Cr+Sac+R+2-14.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4fpMUP84T5o/Uv2apwzPFHI/AAAAAAAAHaQ/yv901KgzItM/s1600/my+rock+Castle+Cr+Sac+R+2-14.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div>
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My dear husband showed me this large and artsy rock, which you can also see in the photo at the very top of this post, in its original setting. I wanted to take it home. It was a little too heavy for me to carry, so The Professor hauled it back to the car. It came with us on our journey home and is now living by our house. Mr. Glad classified it as a confluitic rock.<br />
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Winter days are short enough that at the end of our busy days there was plenty of time for cozy gatherings in the kitchen or by the wood stove. I read many books to the children. Scout's current favorite, which I read about on a blog before Christmas and gave to him, is <i>Bumblebee at Apple Tree Lane</i>, and we read it several times. Ivy likes <i>The Little Fur Family</i> best right now.<br />
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We danced to the children's favorite recordings, and also listened to bird calls on the <i>Stokes Field Guide to Bird Songs</i> CD. After ten minutes of loons and other waterfowl, Ivy must have deduced that those bird songs were some kind of dance music, too, and she started twisting and prancing around.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zj4N0WisJLI/Uv2QMBN2I3I/AAAAAAAAHYI/Es8abLpY72I/s1600/2-14+cut+peppernuts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zj4N0WisJLI/Uv2QMBN2I3I/AAAAAAAAHYI/Es8abLpY72I/s1600/2-14+cut+peppernuts.jpg" height="223" width="320" /></a>Hot soup is what you need on a winter's night, so Pippin and I learned how to make French Onion Soup, using the recipe in <i>The New Best Recipe: All-New Edition</i> by Cook's Illustrated Magazine. The secret that the Cook's testers learned is that red onions give the best flavor. Our result was sooo good.<br />
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And cookies! Pippin had some dough left in the freezer from her Christmas Peppernuts, the recipe that I concocted a long time ago but haven't made for years. We like our nuts to be nut-<i>sized</i>, so we always cut the frozen dough into little cubes and bake them long enough that they come out crispy. Next Christmas I'll give the recipe. <br />
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But for now, since I do love cookies, they make a good ending to my story </div>
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of a wintry family visit that was warm and sweet. </div>
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<br />GretchenJoannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13641677400029070452noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512869338404805014.post-83736278714285556842014-02-12T21:58:00.000-08:002014-02-12T21:58:30.062-08:00RFC begins with the meat.The book into which I am dipping to give you several tastes is <i>Supper of the Lamb</i> by Robert Farrar Capon. The title refers on one level to the four meals he will show us how to make, for eight people at each sitting, out of one leg of lamb. As I said in my first post, it's not these recipes that most interested me about the book, but they form the loose structure around which the author gathers all his personality and wisdom.<br />
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He tells us that "Lamb for Eight Persons Four Times is not simply a recipe. It is a way of life." A way that has us deliberately creating leftovers so that for most suppers we can use little bits of our meat and make it go a long way. I have a lot of experience with this kind of cooking, and I appreciate Capon's undergirding philosophy, that there are times to feast, and they are not every day.<br />
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He has a term for the everyday:<i> ferial</i> eating. I found in the dictionary that it's a church term for a weekday on which no feast is celebrated. Capon's first principle for this ordinary type of eating is: Never serve anybody a whole anything. Because "appetite rises to meet food supply," and we just don't need to eat large amounts every day. <br />
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Every dish in the ferial cuisine, however, provides a double or treble delight: Not only is the body nourished and the palate pleased, the mind is intrigued by the triumph of ingenuity over scarcity -- by the making of slight materials into a considerable matter.</blockquote>
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I have to admit that in the days when our feasts were rare, it was easier for us all to stay slim and healthy. For several years now, cooking for only two people, I've probably been serving way too many whole items, and I also have so many leftovers from which to create more yummy meals that I hardly have enough cold storage for them. The type of lifestyle where the cook shops nearly every day and prepares what is fresh in the shops in that season seems to be what I should aim for.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FgV5vPGsn54/UvRbczAJqTI/AAAAAAAAHWo/g2-nBGVzsIY/s1600/ferial+eating.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FgV5vPGsn54/UvRbczAJqTI/AAAAAAAAHWo/g2-nBGVzsIY/s1600/ferial+eating.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a>Still, I very much appreciate that Capon introduces us early on to his idea of the creative and resourceful cook, who knows how to season and sauce her humble food so that it's often more interesting and delectable as the festal roast.<br />
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Just tonight my man and I enjoyed for the second time (as I'd ended up with a big potful) a soup that was made according to these methods, using the leftover lamb roast from Christmas as well as the leftover liquid it was cooked in, which included a good amount of wine, with rosemary and garlic. Not too much meat was left, but I added some lentils and vegetables, and Mr. Glad could not help feeling it quite unfair that he should be eating such amazing food when so many people never get stuff like this. (The stew in the photo is from a previous and different <i>ferial</i> meal.)<br />
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Our author chef carves his (large) leg of lamb into parts to make first a stew, and then three other ferial meals, including a casserole with spinach, a stir-fry, and a soup. His recipe for stew includes an injunction against flouring the meat before browning it:<br />
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...it is the point at which nine tenths of the stews in the world go wrong. The trouble is that few cooks realize how long it takes to brown meat thoroughly....People who flour their meat and brown it in butter are entitled to their religion....I think it fair to note, however, that such people have never gotten around to browning meat. All they have done is darkened some butter and scorched a little flour. The meat inside remains untouched. Accordingly, their stews never know the savor of the true burnt offering; in their haste they settle for the dubious pleasure of eating charred wheat.</blockquote>
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Unfortunately my mother taught me to flour my meat and it was only a few years ago that I learned better. RFC also gives advice about liquid: <br />
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A word about the liquid itself. Unless you are physically prevented from doing so, always use stock or wine, especially in a ferial stew. We are working here with an admitted minimum of meat. To add water to it is to strain it, to demand of it a cruel exertion, to have it arrive at the table worn out with overwork. This is no festal dish with enough meat in it to make meals for a week. This is a poor dish, whose meat is to be pitied and spared. Accordingly, any liquid that goes into it should be of a charitable and kindly sort...which knows how much more blessed it is to give than to receive. Stock then; not water. And, no matter what else, wine. A gallon of good California red in the kitchen closet will do more for your cooking than all the books in the world.</blockquote>
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Capon has more opinions about wine, and the philosophy of meat-eating, "little invisible spooks" (Can you guess what those might be??), and the "higher session" of The Supper of the Lamb, and that is why I need a few more posts to share my gleanings. Coming soon!<br />
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The first post in this series is <a href="http://gretchenjoanna.blogspot.com/2014/02/rfc-is-man-we-need.html" target="_blank">RFC is the man you need.</a><br />
<br />GretchenJoannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13641677400029070452noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512869338404805014.post-86711647983781745632014-02-09T12:58:00.001-08:002014-02-09T12:58:25.767-08:00The Publican and the Pharisee<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />GretchenJoannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13641677400029070452noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7512869338404805014.post-46309949217369889692014-02-07T19:42:00.000-08:002014-02-07T19:42:47.386-08:00RFC is the man we need.<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-92-Fez05oRQ/UvMO3D-YoeI/AAAAAAAAHWY/7DRZVDbB9vs/s1600/Capon+Supper+of+the+Lamb+book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-92-Fez05oRQ/UvMO3D-YoeI/AAAAAAAAHWY/7DRZVDbB9vs/s1600/Capon+Supper+of+the+Lamb+book.jpg" /></a>A few months ago I read <i>The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection</i> by Robert Farrar Capon, and knew before I'd got halfway through the book that I'd want to write a series of posts on this man's extraordinary perspective. But then the Nativity Fast arrived, and it was unhelpful during that period to focus on food and its delights, so I put off the project until the new year, which for me seems to have begun in earnest only this month.<br />
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At the speed I customarily do anything, if I begin now I still won't finish before Lent has arrived, but I am going to start anyway. For me the recipes and food itself are not the main thing in Capon's book, and there are parts that tie in very well with transcendent aspects of food and even with fasting.<br />
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His thoughts and words are often so charming in themselves, I might not always have anything to add to the quotes I share. But the topics collaborate with a couple of other books that I find very provocative as well, so I'm hoping to bring more writers into the discussion. In the blog titles I will refer to Robert Farrar Capon as RFC so as to make room there for words other than his long name. <br />
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Though the first chapter starts right off with a list of ingredients, for me the recipes included in the book serve primarily to illustrate and demonstrate the author's philosophy and love. He was an Episcopal priest who wrote other books as well, but this is the first one I have met, and I just now discovered that he died last fall, probably when I was just coming to the end of <i>The Supper of the Lamb.</i><br />
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Also in the first chapter, he answers critics who might disregard him because he is not a professional cook, by pointing out that<i> amateur</i> is not exactly the same thing as <i>non-professional</i>. And he clarifies here at the outset that he is, more than anything, a Lover:<br />
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The world may or may not need another cookbook, but it needs all the lovers -- amateurs -- it can get. It is a gorgeous old place, full of clownish graces and beautiful drolleries, and it has enough textures, tastes, and smells to keep us intrigued for more time than we have. Unfortunately, however, our response to its loveliness is not always delight: It is, far more often than it should be, boredom. And that is not only odd, it is tragic; for boredom is not neutral -- It is the fertilizing principle of unloveliness.<br />
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In such a situation, the amateur -- the lover, the man who thinks heedlessness a sin and boredom a heresy -- is just the man you need.</blockquote>
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And I ask you, with an intro like that, how can I not love him? GretchenJoannahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13641677400029070452noreply@blogger.com11