Brother Large

Yesterday, Brother Smith brought Brother Large with him to speak at church. Brother Large is 84 years old and 5'4". But, as he says, he could be 5'1", so he is "large". He has a large heart, anyway. And he is in good shape.

When I started playing the prelude music, he came over and stood by me, watching my hands in fascination, as if it were a miracle that I could play the organ. And I guess it really is, when you think about it: all those parts of the body and mind working together. It was no concert performance. I wasn't even using foot pedals.
or natural pipes. Still, it reminded me to be grateful for the marvelous abilities that we have as human beings.

He spoke on the theme, "Behold, what I the Lord have done". More miracles.

Brother Smith reminded us of ways we should be thinking about others as Christmas approaches, and repeated a famous quotation which I need to remember:

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift. That's why they call it THE PRESENT.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

(emphasis Brother Smith's)

After our meetings were over, Brother Large gave all the women who were sitting in the room a brotherly kiss on the forehead. We all appreciated this little token of brotherly love on the Sunday before Christmas.

Christmas Eve Update: speaking of marvelous abililities . . .

Looking for Rudolph

Ready for a few bits of fun? Via Tim Blair: This dog gives us an idea what our Dotty might have been like before David brought her home, already an old lady. This dog also reminds us of the exuberance of our dear, departed Snickers. Snickers started out as an ugly adolescent, but turned into a handsome adult Queensland/Black Lab mix, a black and white negative image of a Dalmatian, with a little more fur, and a white tip on his tail. We considered sending him to Civil Engineering school, as he enthusiastically dug tunnels in the sand, with only the tip of his tail showing. When too exhausted, he would come into the garage to rest for a few minutes, then leap back out to continue digging. He had full faith that he could dig faster than any gopher or ground squirrel.

Snickers loved to romp like the dog in the video on runs through the fields, but he was surprised at the squishy ground at the bottom of an almost-empty canal. In his only encounter with snow, he took great joy at biting snowflakes. He would have loved a deep snowfall.

We have never had a cat like the happy Australian one in this video. Though our little princess-cat Darla will play with a trickle of water from the bathroom faucet. She still likes to sleep in the bathroom sink, but doesn't get much chance to do so anymore, with Maggie the Warrior Queen and Troy the Giant Dog limiting her indoor time. And to add insult to injury, the little half-starved Chihuahua adopted by our neighbors (young men with no clue how to care for a dog) has decided to take over one of the heated kitty boxes - the one on our porch. Even though I set up one for him on the neighbors' porch. Incidentally, if anyone needs a quiet little black Chihuahua with big ears, he is available. He likes other animals but is a little slow to trust new men. We are over our legal limit for dogs (we fudge by having 2 lots).

My favorite of the adored, but seriously annoyed, Japanese cats pictured at the link to this post is the froggy cat.

One commenter speculated that these cats are looking daggers because, "I think they’re actually the species that invented style."

Remember these rules (from the Japanese site) for dressing cats:

1. You need to dress a cat. And you will say to a cat together with a family. "It has changed just for a moment". [ "it being very dear" or ] You will pass pleasant one time.

2. If a family and a cat become fortunate, you will take a commemorative photo! Therefore, please photo your cat lovelily with much trouble.

3. If it finishes taking a photograph, you will make it remove clothes from a cat immediately. You will say then, without forgetting the language of gratitude to a cat. "-- be flooded -- a way -- good -- having done one's best -- ! -- "

4. And if you want your cat to look like a Beloved, Merry Rudolph, Also remember . . .

I think I'll stick to a few kitty and doggy treats to make our pets feel loved this Christmas.

Confucius: "morals and art will deteriorate"

“If language is not correct . . . . . . morals and art will deteriorate":

Many years ago I went through an art exhibition at a glitzy mall in Newport Beach. I remember two of the art exhibits. One was a model wearing one of those iconic French Maid outfits - the short black, form-fitting dress with the little white apron and cap. But the model (perhaps the artist) was a rather tall man who also wore black tights, some really ugly black and white gym shoes and a gas mask. The other memorable exhibit featured wall hangings which exploited the various textures and colors of lint removed from clothes dryers.

I think there was some sort of environmental message intended by both of these art pieces, but I'm not sure what it was.

There are at this moment in history a lot of "artists" on the Left delivering political messages through "art". Relatively few on the Right, most of them
satirists pointing out rhetorical or other excesses on the Left. Moe Lane compares Australian Green protesters (dignified by American standards) to performance art. I can imagine myself in the audience. He says
about the second photo in this post:

". . . it looks for all the world like a snapshot of a particularly boring and pretentious piece of performance art. You know the kind that I’m talking about; one featuring three or four people moving about and talking aimlessly while atonal, yet annoying, stringed instruments play in the background. You’re there because your S.O.’s friend is involved with the production, and you have been promised that the party afterward will not be dull - so you spend the time trying to decipher the program, which reads like it was translated from German to English via Academic Marxist, with a quick stopover at Martian. You suspect that it has gained in the translation; meanwhile, up on the stage someone has just waved a broomstick at a man wearing a cow suit, which apparently has something to do with the Falkland Islands War.

It is about that time that you grimly conclude that the party afterward will be dull."

Hyperbole on the part of Australian Greens has reduced the tendency of the general population to pay attention to the Global Warming Issue. Particularly since the Australian contribution to greenhouse gasses is so tiny compared to, say, China's growing emissions. But the Greens still have the attention of the news media - just like in America. This may be one reason why political "performance art" gets more and more extreme while serious, fact-based discussions of issues go unnoticed.

Confucius and Clarity of Language

Confucius said:

“If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is meant, then what must be done remains undone; if this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate; if justice goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion.

Hence there must be no arbitrariness in what is said. This matters above everything.”

The translation above makes me wonder how the end of a sentence is indicated in Chinese. That's some first sentence. We're really not used to long sentences these days. I put in a paragraph separation just to make the quote easier to get through.

The piece from which this quote was taken makes some over-broad statements about government spending. But it includes some really good points about how people have been misled about government money. Click on the link at the bottom of the page for comments from readers which reveal some of the ways government involvement tends to make everything more expensive while sometimes making stuff seem "free". David could tell many similar stories. Money from government allows corrupt or astonishingly inefficient systems - public or private - to survive much longer than they would if they had to earn their own money.

Dr. Helen has some interesting advice concerning how teachers can help their students think critically and clearly understand some of the ways propaganda works:

" . . . in my opinion, it is not your job to decide the politics of the students in your class, it is your job to expose them to the critical thinking skills that will help them make informed decisions and back them up in a reasoned way. This is what is sorely lacking in our present educational system."

Did you know that there was a Propaganda Game ? Some non-PC books for kids would also help provide some balance to the liberal mindset which filters down from our higher education system.

Looking Forward to Christmas

After Sister Cox spoke about Thanksgiving on November 30, Brother Cox spoke about looking forward to Christmas. He described a simple notebook his father had made with scriptures to be read daily as Christmas approached. Something like the Catholic tradition of Advent, but designed for his own family. I think this is a fine way to transition from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

Here's an explanation of Advent for non-Catholics by The Anchoress. Some of the ritual aspects of a Catholic Advent don't do much for me, but you don't have to be Catholic to appreciate and adopt some of the ideas behind Advent:

"A star is shining brightly.
A people are moving toward the places from whence they came.
A young woman is great with child.
Wise men are lifting their eyes to heaven, and wondering.

The place of our own origin, from whence we came, beckons
and sends a flare, and One who is All in All will come - in love,
and breathtaking humility - to show us the way back to the Creator.
We are great with expectation.
We raise our heads from the wilderness of our lives, and look about,
and wonder. And hope."

In a later post, she says, "If everyone would just sit down and watch this video of Cecilia Bartoli’s super-human vocal virtuosity…we would all be humbled and awestruck at what God has created in human beings…and there would be no war, because we would all understand that we have within us something divine - a spark. In Bartoli’s case, perhaps a Roman Candle!"

That's sort of how I think about Bach's mind when I hear this performance of Sleepers Awake, written, like most of Bach's music, "to the glory of God".

Wachet auf! ruft uns die Stimme
der Wachter sehr hoch auf der Zinne.
Wach auf, du Stadt Jerusalem.

Wake, awake, for night is flying,
The watchmen on the heights are crying.
Awake, Jerusalem, arise.

Echoes of Thanksgiving

Sometimes, it is hard for me to let go of Thanksgiving, a holiday which I think we sometimes put aside too quickly. Maybe it's O.K. to take some of the spirit of Thanksgiving into the Christmas season.

On November 30, Sister Cox talked in church about the Pilgrims and their thankful attitude for blessings small and great - from 5 kernels of corn per day per person during the first winter to greater bounty later on. Her talk reminded me of something The Anchoress (a Catholic blogger) said about Thanksgiving:

". . . it is the humble, ordinary things - the things we take for granted, that give us mobility, opportunity, self-sufficiency, expression - we rarely think to be grateful for those things.

I realized once, while at prayer, that real joy and contentment in life is not possible - cannot be possible - without real gratitude. Unless you really KNOW what you have, how can you appreciate it, and if you do not appreciate your life how can you be joyful?

I used to volunteer at a local hospital, visiting patients, seeing what they needed, praying with them if they wanted that, and I ended up working particularly with those coming back from brain injuries. One day I realized…I can dress myself, I can feed myself. I can stir my cup of coffee and raise it to my lips, all by myself. My hand does not shake; I do not need someone to raise the cup for me, or slip a straw into it. I do not need anyone to wipe my lips for me.

I do not have to wait for someone to come to me and guess my need, before my thirst is quenched.

It was a revelation to me, to consider how ungrateful I had been for those things. They are not little things. They are everything, as any of the patients I had visited would have told me.

There is much to be grateful for, in every life - even in those lives which we think of as “lacking” in quality - if one person loves us or treats us with kindness and dignity, we are blessed.

I thank my God for all good things, and even for the things and circumstances that do not always immediately seem to fall into the category of 'good.' I trust. I hope. I believe. I thank."

Thanksgiving to Christmas music:

The surprising history of the hymn, We Gather Together. More on this hymn and Dutch history and religious freedom.

Here's a simple, contemporary version of Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Different from the full choir and orchestra version we've come to love.

Corn-free rice pilaf for a crowd

Again this year, Ken, bless his heart, bought a complete, prepared Thanksgiving dinner for us to serve. And, as usual, none of the dishes, even the pre-cooked turkey, were free of corn products. I did fine on the extra mashed potatoes, green beans and cranberry sauce we fixed, since we had a second turkey later in the day. But this demonstrated once again how few prepared foods are corn-free.

I made rice pilaf last night for the Branch Social. I didn't have the energy to make pozole (which I can't eat anyway) and wanted to prepared something easy. It's nice to have a box or two in the pantry for times like this. Directions here.