Some of you who read this blog may also read my bud Jim’s blog as well. Just in case you don’t let me say that Jim posted a link to a thought-provoking blog entry by Wasp Jerky. Wasp Jerky makes a very persuasive argument in just a few words (and a few more links) as to whom we should really be afraid of when it comes to our war on terrorism.
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“The grace of God means something like this: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn’t have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It’s for you I created the universe. I love you. There’s only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you’ll reach out and take it. Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too.”
- Frederich Buechner
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This is just a friendly reminder to everyone out there who uses a lapel mike. Please remember to turn it off when you go to the restroom. This is something that one CNN reporter apparently forgot to do, and unfortunately she insults her sister-in-law before the anchor person cuts her off. I would not want to be in her shoes come next family gathering time.
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Here are the results of a quiz I found on www.tickle.com (I believe). It was all about discerning what kind of job or profession one should pursue.
Will, the right jobs for you would allow you to be Creative and Analytical
With your skills, you could be earning up to $83,000 per year.
You’re a visionary in many people’s eyes – able to think outside of the box to come up with your own solutions. You’re creative not necessarily in the artistic sense, but because you can expand your mind to do things differently from others.
It might take a while for colleagues to recognize and reward for your entrepreneurial spirit and abilities. That could be because they envy you, or because they find your ideas slightly rebellious – willing to go against the current.
All in all, you make it hard for people to pigeon hole you. That is why you, more than others, need a job that allows you to play to your strengths, break out of the mold, and truly excel.
If anyone know where I can find I job like the one listed above, please let me know. I’d even settle for something earning just $60,000 a year : )
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Many of you may know this already, but I thought I’d share it with the readers of this blog. On Monday afternoon, August 28th, Terri Gross interviewed Barbara Brown Taylor on her program Fresh Air on NPR. Taylor is a former Episcopalian minister, and I have read many of her books. In her new book, Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith, she describes her decision to leave the parish ministry after almost 20 years as a minister in a local church. I plan to read this as soon as I can afford to get a copy of it.
The interview covers topics ranging from the reasons she left parish ministry to the current issues facing the Episcopal church, in which she is ordained. I found both the questions Gross asked and the answers Taylor gave both illuminating and thought provoking. Taylor is a gifted preacher, and in fact she was named one of the 12 most effective preachers in the English-speaking world by Baylor University. She now teaches religion at Piedmont College in Georgia and is an editor-at-large and columnist for The Christian Century.
If you would like to hear this interview, Just click here.
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Back in April, I saw the movie V for Vendetta shortly after its release. I thoroughly enjoyed the film, especially Natalie Portman’s character. Hugo Weaving of The Lord of the Rings (Elrond) and The Matrix (Agent Smith) also stars in the film, though we never actually see his face, as he plays the mysterious and masked V, a man who is attempting to take revenge upon some of those people who have wronged him in the past. Other stars in the film include Stephen Fry, John Hurt and Rupert Graves.
This last week I watched the film again on DVD, and I was struck by one of the overwhelming themes of the movie. I am not talking about the obvious connections between the world in which V and Evey (Portman) live and the current situation in Great Britain and America. No, I am referring to the issue of overcoming fear that is central to the development of Evey’s character. While I am loath to say much more about this so as not to give away any plot points, I will say that is in enduring torture and solitary confinement that Evey grows into more a fully human person. Portman has been quoted as saying, “Through her imprisonment [Evey] learns to face her fear, and overcoming that fear is important for her own integrity.” Portman, who was required to shave her head on camera, does a fine job throughout the film, even though at times her accent slips a bit. There is also in the film (as there is in The Shawshank Redemption) a scene in which Evey symbolically undergoes a “baptism” of sorts in the falling rain.
The movie id worth worthing and I give it 8 out 10 stars.
I did not watch all of the Emmy Awards last night, although I was lucky enough, between my channel and web surfing, to see three awards given out to a small film that certainly deserved to be recognized. I have reviewed The Girl in the Cafe previously, and hopefully now that it has received such honor, HBO will place it on their schedule more often. Just in case you missed it, the awards Girl received were:
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A MINISERIES OR A MOVIE………. Kelly MacDonald, The Girl In The Caf
A Word to Husbands
To keep your marriage brimming
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you’re wrong, admit it;
Whenever you’re right, shut up.
Ogden Nash
Reflection On A Wicked World
Purity
Is obscurity.
Ogden Nash
I Didn’t Go To Church Today
I didn’t go to church today,
I trust the Lord to understand.
The surf was swirling blue and white,
The children swirling on the sand.
He knows, He knows how brief my stay,
How brief this spell of summer weather,
He knows when I am said and done
We’ll have plenty of time together.
Ogden Nash
Old Men
People expect old men to die,
They do not really mourn old men.
Old men are different. People look
At them with eyes that wonder when
Ample make this bed.
by Emily Dickinson
Ample make this bed.
Make this bed with awe;
In it wait till judgment break
Excellent and fair.
Be its mattress straight,
Be its pillow round;
Let no sunrise’ yellow noise
Interrupt this ground.
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The poem from Elizabeth Bishop is from The Complete Poems, which can be had for under $10.00 on amazon.com. A whole smorgasbord of Levertov books can also be found here. As evidenced by the poems below, both authors are worth reading and their books worthy of purchase. I encourage you to do so.
Living
The fire in leaf and grass
so green it seems
each summer the last summer.
The wind blowing, the leaves
shivering in the sun,
each day the last day.
A red salamander
so cold and so
easy to catch, dreamily
moves his delicate feet
and long tail. I hold
my hand open for him to go.
Each minute the last minute.
Denise Levertov
The Ache of Marriage
The ache of marriage:
thigh and tongue, beloved,
are heavy with it,
it throbs in the teeth
We look for communion
and are turned away, beloved,
each and each
It is leviathan and we
in its belly
looking for joy, some joy
not to be known outside it
two by two in the ark of
the ache of it.
Denise Levertov
One Art
The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.
–Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
Elizabeth Bishop
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