I'm planning to post a poem each in day in Lent. Here's the first, for Ash Wednesday:
THOU art indeed just, Lord, if I contend
With thee; but, sir, so what I plead is just.
Why do sinners’ ways prosper? and why must
Disappointment all I endeavour end?
Wert thou my enemy, O thou my friend,
How wouldst thou worse, I wonder, than thou dost
Defeat, thwart me? Oh, the sots and thralls of lust
Do in spare hours more thrive than I that spend,
Sir, life upon thy cause. See, banks and brakes
Now leavèd how thick! lacèd they are again
With fretty chervil, look, and fresh wind shakes
Them; birds build—but not I build; no, but strain,
Time’s eunuch, and not breed one work that wakes.
Mine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain.
-Gerard Manley Hopkins
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Monday, January 2, 2012
God Pause
Starting today, through next Sunday, I'm the writer for the Luther Seminary God Pause daily devotions. Here's the link if you're interested: http://www.luthersem.edu/godpause/daily_view.aspx
Sunday, January 1, 2012
The New Year
This is the end of W.H. Auden's Christmas play, For the Time Being. A good one for the new year!
Well, so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree,
Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes --
Some have got broken -- and carrying them up to the attic.
The holly and the mistletoe must be taken down and burnt,
And the children got ready for school. There are enough
Left-overs to do, warmed-up, for the rest of the week --
Not that we have much appetite, having drunk such a lot,
Stayed up so late, attempted -- quite unsuccessfully --
To love all of our relatives, and in general
Grossly overestimated our powers. Once again
As in previous years we have seen the actual Vision and failed
To do more than entertain it as an agreeable
Possibility, once again we have sent Him away,
Begging though to remain His disobedient servant,
The promising child who cannot keep His word for long.
The Christmas Feast is already a fading memory,
And already the mind begins to be vaguely aware
Of an unpleasant whiff of apprehension at the thought
Of Lent and Good Friday which cannot, after all, now
Be very far off. But, for the time being, here we all are,
Back in the moderate Aristotelian city
Of darning and the Eight-Fifteen, where Euclid's geometry
And Newton's mechanics would account for our experience
And the kitchen table exists because I scrub it.
It seems to have shrunk during the holidays. The streets
Are much narrower than we remembered; we had forgotten
The office was as depressing as this. To those who have seen
The Child, however dimly, however incredulously,
The Time Being is, in a sense, the most trying time of all.
For the innocent children who whispered so excitedly
Outside the locked door where they knew the presents to be
Grew up when it opened. Now, recollecting that moment
We can repress the joy, but the guilt remains conscious;
Remembering the stable where for once in our lives
Everything became a You and nothing was an It.
And craving the sensation but ignoring the cause,
We look round for something, no matter what, to inhibit
Our self-reflection, and the obvious thing for that purpose
Would be some great suffering. So, once we have met the Son,
We are tempted ever after to pray to the Father;
"Lead us into temptation and evil for our sake."
They will come, all right, don't worry; probably in a form
That we do not expect, and certainly with a force
More dreadful than we can imagine. In the meantime
There are bills to be paid, machines to keep in repair,
Irregular verbs to learn, the Time Being to redeem
From insignificance. The happy morning is over,
The night of agony still to come; the time is noon:
When the Spirit must practice his scales of rejoicing
Without even a hostile audience, and the Soul endure
A silence that is neither for nor against her faith
That God's Will will be done, That, in spite of her prayers,
God will cheat no one, not even the world of its triumph.
Well, so that is that. Now we must dismantle the tree,
Putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes --
Some have got broken -- and carrying them up to the attic.
The holly and the mistletoe must be taken down and burnt,
And the children got ready for school. There are enough
Left-overs to do, warmed-up, for the rest of the week --
Not that we have much appetite, having drunk such a lot,
Stayed up so late, attempted -- quite unsuccessfully --
To love all of our relatives, and in general
Grossly overestimated our powers. Once again
As in previous years we have seen the actual Vision and failed
To do more than entertain it as an agreeable
Possibility, once again we have sent Him away,
Begging though to remain His disobedient servant,
The promising child who cannot keep His word for long.
The Christmas Feast is already a fading memory,
And already the mind begins to be vaguely aware
Of an unpleasant whiff of apprehension at the thought
Of Lent and Good Friday which cannot, after all, now
Be very far off. But, for the time being, here we all are,
Back in the moderate Aristotelian city
Of darning and the Eight-Fifteen, where Euclid's geometry
And Newton's mechanics would account for our experience
And the kitchen table exists because I scrub it.
It seems to have shrunk during the holidays. The streets
Are much narrower than we remembered; we had forgotten
The office was as depressing as this. To those who have seen
The Child, however dimly, however incredulously,
The Time Being is, in a sense, the most trying time of all.
For the innocent children who whispered so excitedly
Outside the locked door where they knew the presents to be
Grew up when it opened. Now, recollecting that moment
We can repress the joy, but the guilt remains conscious;
Remembering the stable where for once in our lives
Everything became a You and nothing was an It.
And craving the sensation but ignoring the cause,
We look round for something, no matter what, to inhibit
Our self-reflection, and the obvious thing for that purpose
Would be some great suffering. So, once we have met the Son,
We are tempted ever after to pray to the Father;
"Lead us into temptation and evil for our sake."
They will come, all right, don't worry; probably in a form
That we do not expect, and certainly with a force
More dreadful than we can imagine. In the meantime
There are bills to be paid, machines to keep in repair,
Irregular verbs to learn, the Time Being to redeem
From insignificance. The happy morning is over,
The night of agony still to come; the time is noon:
When the Spirit must practice his scales of rejoicing
Without even a hostile audience, and the Soul endure
A silence that is neither for nor against her faith
That God's Will will be done, That, in spite of her prayers,
God will cheat no one, not even the world of its triumph.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
More Bach and Wednesday Book(s)
The Sunday night concert of the Bach Cello Suites performed by Joshua Roman was amazing beyond any imagining. It was a quite remarkable tour de force just to do it in one concert, but musically and depth-wise it was incredible. He played 1 and 2, we had a 15 minute intermission and he played 3. Then there was a two-hour dinner break. Larry came and picked up me and our friends Lynn and John Williams and we went to Cafe Presse on 12th and Madison. (A great place if you're pining away for France!) The concert resumed with 4 and 5, again followed by a 15 minute intermission, and then 6. Although he must have been way tired (even for a 27-something) at the end, the whole performance was riveting. I realized in the middle of the 2nd that I had better move my head or my neck was going to freeze in place! We are very glad we were there for what will be remembered as one of those very special musical evenings. There are several young performers who are finding great meaning in playing Bach, and doing it beautifully. It was often considered the realm of the "mature" musician. But Mr. Roman certainly proved otherwise Sunday night. And Hilary Hahn is just the best for the unaccompanied violin pieces. And I particularly like Simone Dinnerstein's recording of the Goldberg Variations. They all have such great energy to bring to these profound and complex works. Mr. Bach would be very happy, I think. Maybe he is!
I am still reading my way through Phil Rickman's Merrily Watkins books - just can't help myself! They get better as he goes along. His historical stuff is so well researched that I also learn a lot as I go. I love novels where you learn things - then you feel just fine reading fiction. (I wouldn't need to learn things to do that.) Anyway, the good news on the fiction front generally is that Hilary Mantel's sequel to Wolf Hall is coming out in the Fall. Yippee! The title is Bring Up the Bodies. Sounds cheerful. But what a writer!
I did take a break from Merrily Watkins to read The Help. (Downloading ebooks for my Kindle from the library is way cool!) I thought I should read it because it has been so popular, but that also makes me skeptical. It was very good. It dealt with such painful topics with fluency and grace. And it is a great story. It was nice to learn that the author had similar experiences. But I think she could have told the story - or stories - even without that extra life foundation. I just heard of a book (non-fiction) about African-American women moving north after the Civil War. The title is The Warmth of Other Suns and sounds quite compelling. Do comment if you've read it or heard about it.
Tomorrow we can open our Advent calendars! If you don't have it, check out the Jacquie Lawson online version. All happens in London! Hooray!
I am still reading my way through Phil Rickman's Merrily Watkins books - just can't help myself! They get better as he goes along. His historical stuff is so well researched that I also learn a lot as I go. I love novels where you learn things - then you feel just fine reading fiction. (I wouldn't need to learn things to do that.) Anyway, the good news on the fiction front generally is that Hilary Mantel's sequel to Wolf Hall is coming out in the Fall. Yippee! The title is Bring Up the Bodies. Sounds cheerful. But what a writer!
I did take a break from Merrily Watkins to read The Help. (Downloading ebooks for my Kindle from the library is way cool!) I thought I should read it because it has been so popular, but that also makes me skeptical. It was very good. It dealt with such painful topics with fluency and grace. And it is a great story. It was nice to learn that the author had similar experiences. But I think she could have told the story - or stories - even without that extra life foundation. I just heard of a book (non-fiction) about African-American women moving north after the Civil War. The title is The Warmth of Other Suns and sounds quite compelling. Do comment if you've read it or heard about it.
Tomorrow we can open our Advent calendars! If you don't have it, check out the Jacquie Lawson online version. All happens in London! Hooray!
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Advent 1
Here it is the first Sunday in Advent. Seattle wears its normal Advent garb: rain, rain, rain. But the first candle is lit and we pray for Immanuel to be God-with-us once again.
At the end of worship at Phinney Ridge today we sang this verse:
Can it be that from our endings,
new beginnings you create?
Life from death, and from our rendings,
realms of wholeness generate?
Take our fears, then, Lord and turn them
into hopes for life anew:
With this light, and with our witness,
through us let the world see you.
-Dean W. Nelson
This is a nice Bach day as well. It started, as I have on this Sunday for 40+ years, with listening to Bach's Cantata 140: Wake, Awake, for Night is Flying. Now this afternoon I'm going with friends to hear all six of the cello suites. Joshua Roman, the young former principal cellist with the Seattle Symphony is doing them. He'll play three, then we get a break for dinner, then come back for the other three. It's a little too much Bach for Larry, so he'll come and join us for dinner.
Happy Advent!
At the end of worship at Phinney Ridge today we sang this verse:
Can it be that from our endings,
new beginnings you create?
Life from death, and from our rendings,
realms of wholeness generate?
Take our fears, then, Lord and turn them
into hopes for life anew:
With this light, and with our witness,
through us let the world see you.
-Dean W. Nelson
This is a nice Bach day as well. It started, as I have on this Sunday for 40+ years, with listening to Bach's Cantata 140: Wake, Awake, for Night is Flying. Now this afternoon I'm going with friends to hear all six of the cello suites. Joshua Roman, the young former principal cellist with the Seattle Symphony is doing them. He'll play three, then we get a break for dinner, then come back for the other three. It's a little too much Bach for Larry, so he'll come and join us for dinner.
Happy Advent!
Monday, September 19, 2011
Tofino
We're on the last day of a two-week stay in Tofino on the west coast of Vancouver Island. This is our 17th year staying at Chesterman Beach Bed and Breakfast. When we first came in 1995, it was a back-up plan to an earlier attempt to stay in another Vancouver Island town. We were looking for a remote ocean-side area, and it looked like somewhere around Barkley Sound would be ideal. Looking through Northwest Best Places (no internet searches or Trip Advisor then!), we saw an interesting lodge in Bamfield, on the south side of Barkley Sound. I tried calling a few times and got no response. Finally, shortly after Christmas, we got a call from the new owners of the place. He said that he and his partner had just bought it, they were doing some remodeling, and they hoped to be up and running by summer. And they were pretty sure they'd have food. Well, if you take a look at where Bamfield is - here's a link to a map: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl - we thought we might want to try something a little more secure in the food area. So, going back to Northwest Best Places, we checked out the other options. We read about Chesterman Beach Bed and Breakfast and thought it sounded pretty good. We called and made a reservation. For these 17 years now it has been our ideal vacation place.
This is the first B and B on Chesterman Beach. The original owner, Joan Dublanko, came to Tofino with a backpack from her home in Michigan in 1972 and stayed. She had various jobs, including commercial fishing. She was briefly married and had a daughter, Angela. She bought this property on Chesterman Beach - miles of beautiful, sandy beach - and first built a small house. This is now the Garden Cottage, and is where we are staying on this visit. She then built a house nearer the beach, eventually turning that into another guest accommodation (Ocean Breeze) and building on top of it for her own residence. In 1984 she started her B and B business. She added another building, a garage with another smaller accommodation off the top floor of the house. That's Lookout, and is the place where we normally stay. Lookout doesn't have a kitchen, so when we stay longer than a week we rent the cottage with a full kitchen.
In 2003 Joan sold the business to a couple from San Francisco, Todd Byrnes and Lynda Kaye. We were worried when Joan told us she would sell, fearing the place would change too much under new owners. But they have been just perfect, updating the facilities in character with the whole place. From the get-go they have been active and supportive members of the Tofino community, which we greatly appreciate. So it is still a delight to come here year after year.
This year Larry has been writing a book about the history of the Environmental Test Labs at Boeing where he worked for his career. We usually bring work and projects, and find this to be a fine place to do focused things like write. This trip I've been doing computer file clean-up (ugh) and totally immersing myself in Phil Rickman's Merrily Watkins novels. (See previous post.) Very dangerous books if you want to accomplish anything else!
We enjoy Tofino for still being a small fishing/timber/First Nations town, and the way those things have accommodated a burgeoning tourist industry. And there are lots of lovely places to eat - there is great cooking in Tofino! We always eat once at The Pointe, an excellent place at the upscale Wickanninish Inn. This year we've enjoyed Spotted Bear for breakfast, the really good food at the take-out Wildside Grill (owned and run by the two guys that catch the fish!), and the new Red Can Gourmet which has fab pizza and the best Nanaimo bars I've ever eaten! We collect Northwest Native art, and Tofino (especially the House of Himwitsa) has been a wonderful source for our collection.
Most times we've done hiking and kayaking and a boat trip or two, and sometimes golf at the Long Beach Golf Course with its deer and bear rules! We enjoy watching the loads of surfers on the beach (this is big surfing territory), and every day has at least one beach walk, whatever the weather. Sometimes we've coordinated our stay with the tide table to make sure we're here for very low tides so we can really explore the ocean life. We haven't been able to do that this year (one low tide was +6 feet!) but we enjoy the beach every day. Here's a beach sunset picture Larry took on this trip:
This is the first B and B on Chesterman Beach. The original owner, Joan Dublanko, came to Tofino with a backpack from her home in Michigan in 1972 and stayed. She had various jobs, including commercial fishing. She was briefly married and had a daughter, Angela. She bought this property on Chesterman Beach - miles of beautiful, sandy beach - and first built a small house. This is now the Garden Cottage, and is where we are staying on this visit. She then built a house nearer the beach, eventually turning that into another guest accommodation (Ocean Breeze) and building on top of it for her own residence. In 1984 she started her B and B business. She added another building, a garage with another smaller accommodation off the top floor of the house. That's Lookout, and is the place where we normally stay. Lookout doesn't have a kitchen, so when we stay longer than a week we rent the cottage with a full kitchen.
In 2003 Joan sold the business to a couple from San Francisco, Todd Byrnes and Lynda Kaye. We were worried when Joan told us she would sell, fearing the place would change too much under new owners. But they have been just perfect, updating the facilities in character with the whole place. From the get-go they have been active and supportive members of the Tofino community, which we greatly appreciate. So it is still a delight to come here year after year.
This year Larry has been writing a book about the history of the Environmental Test Labs at Boeing where he worked for his career. We usually bring work and projects, and find this to be a fine place to do focused things like write. This trip I've been doing computer file clean-up (ugh) and totally immersing myself in Phil Rickman's Merrily Watkins novels. (See previous post.) Very dangerous books if you want to accomplish anything else!
We enjoy Tofino for still being a small fishing/timber/First Nations town, and the way those things have accommodated a burgeoning tourist industry. And there are lots of lovely places to eat - there is great cooking in Tofino! We always eat once at The Pointe, an excellent place at the upscale Wickanninish Inn. This year we've enjoyed Spotted Bear for breakfast, the really good food at the take-out Wildside Grill (owned and run by the two guys that catch the fish!), and the new Red Can Gourmet which has fab pizza and the best Nanaimo bars I've ever eaten! We collect Northwest Native art, and Tofino (especially the House of Himwitsa) has been a wonderful source for our collection.
Most times we've done hiking and kayaking and a boat trip or two, and sometimes golf at the Long Beach Golf Course with its deer and bear rules! We enjoy watching the loads of surfers on the beach (this is big surfing territory), and every day has at least one beach walk, whatever the weather. Sometimes we've coordinated our stay with the tide table to make sure we're here for very low tides so we can really explore the ocean life. We haven't been able to do that this year (one low tide was +6 feet!) but we enjoy the beach every day. Here's a beach sunset picture Larry took on this trip:
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Starting Again
Well, it always seems as if I'm starting again on writing this blog. I promised myself I would do it on 1 September, and I'm glad to keep that promise, at least to myself!
I'll have to work backwards through the summer, with many things that made the season interesting: people, books, travel. This last Sunday night and Monday we were with our friends the Steebers at the home they are building in Leavenworth. It was a beautiful evening, with a lovely meal with other old Holden friends Ron and Nancy Vignec, Barb Rossing and Lauren Johnson, and Barb's youngest sister Mary, who is the mayor of Northfield, Minnesota! We sat out on the deck over a terrific dinner of lamb done on the grill, and had wonderful conversation about life and faith and church. Here's a picture from our time together:
On Monday Greg and Mary and I went tubing on the river, which was really fun! We got a bit wet, but it was well worth it. Here's a photo from our expotition:
The red and green paddles are frisbees. Works pretty well.
Larry had been to Holden to do some museum work. He went up last Wednesday. Pat went with him and they did a little hiking for a couple days. So the complicated car exchange went like this:
Pat brought the Checker to our house and rode over with Larry. Pat came out of Holden on Friday in time for his 20th high school reunion and for Nico's 4th birthday on Saturday. He drove the green van back to our house and took his car. On Sunday I drove over to Field's Point to pick up Larry, and we went to Leavenworth. We finally both arrived home on Monday evening. It was an action-packed and eventful few days!
I am currently reading the fourth novel in Phil Rickman's Merrily Watkins series. Merrily is an Anglican priest who is also the diocesan exorcist! The first novel, Wine of Angels, didn't really impress me very much, and I thought the Rev. Watkins was a bit "wet" as the English say. But the second volume, Midwinter of the Spirit hooked me, and I find the whole series quite engrossing. Although they are big books, they are quick reads with fast-paced story lines. The ecclesiastical stuff makes a lot of sense. It all takes place in Hereford near the Welsh border, and he uses real places and real stories of those places, which I like a lot. So I'd recommend these novels. The third is A Crown of Lights and the one I am currently reading is The Cure of Souls. Merrily also has a 16 year-old daughter, Jane, who is a very good character. After The Cure of Souls there are six more. They are not very easily available, although they are recent. Not many printings, I guess. I had hoped to pick up a few when we were in England in May, but even at Foyles they didn't have any, and the few they had had been ordered from America even though they were printed in England! The weird anomalies of book publishing. Rumor has it they are all about to be reprinted.
Speaking of England, I did pick a great new author there. The name is Nicola Upson, and her three mysteries are An Expert in Murder, Angel with Two Faces, and Two for Sorrow. These take place in the 1930's in England, and the protagonist is Josephine Tey (pen name of Elizabeth Mackintosh), most famous for her mystery The Daughter of Time. They are well done, although a touch pedantic at times. They are also based on real cases of the era, and the historical setting is excellent. I have always been interested in the women of that time (Dorothy L. Sayers being one), and these novels give another perspective in that context.
More coming up on the adventures of the summer! Happy September.
I'll have to work backwards through the summer, with many things that made the season interesting: people, books, travel. This last Sunday night and Monday we were with our friends the Steebers at the home they are building in Leavenworth. It was a beautiful evening, with a lovely meal with other old Holden friends Ron and Nancy Vignec, Barb Rossing and Lauren Johnson, and Barb's youngest sister Mary, who is the mayor of Northfield, Minnesota! We sat out on the deck over a terrific dinner of lamb done on the grill, and had wonderful conversation about life and faith and church. Here's a picture from our time together:
On Monday Greg and Mary and I went tubing on the river, which was really fun! We got a bit wet, but it was well worth it. Here's a photo from our expotition:
The red and green paddles are frisbees. Works pretty well.
Larry had been to Holden to do some museum work. He went up last Wednesday. Pat went with him and they did a little hiking for a couple days. So the complicated car exchange went like this:
Pat brought the Checker to our house and rode over with Larry. Pat came out of Holden on Friday in time for his 20th high school reunion and for Nico's 4th birthday on Saturday. He drove the green van back to our house and took his car. On Sunday I drove over to Field's Point to pick up Larry, and we went to Leavenworth. We finally both arrived home on Monday evening. It was an action-packed and eventful few days!
I am currently reading the fourth novel in Phil Rickman's Merrily Watkins series. Merrily is an Anglican priest who is also the diocesan exorcist! The first novel, Wine of Angels, didn't really impress me very much, and I thought the Rev. Watkins was a bit "wet" as the English say. But the second volume, Midwinter of the Spirit hooked me, and I find the whole series quite engrossing. Although they are big books, they are quick reads with fast-paced story lines. The ecclesiastical stuff makes a lot of sense. It all takes place in Hereford near the Welsh border, and he uses real places and real stories of those places, which I like a lot. So I'd recommend these novels. The third is A Crown of Lights and the one I am currently reading is The Cure of Souls. Merrily also has a 16 year-old daughter, Jane, who is a very good character. After The Cure of Souls there are six more. They are not very easily available, although they are recent. Not many printings, I guess. I had hoped to pick up a few when we were in England in May, but even at Foyles they didn't have any, and the few they had had been ordered from America even though they were printed in England! The weird anomalies of book publishing. Rumor has it they are all about to be reprinted.
Speaking of England, I did pick a great new author there. The name is Nicola Upson, and her three mysteries are An Expert in Murder, Angel with Two Faces, and Two for Sorrow. These take place in the 1930's in England, and the protagonist is Josephine Tey (pen name of Elizabeth Mackintosh), most famous for her mystery The Daughter of Time. They are well done, although a touch pedantic at times. They are also based on real cases of the era, and the historical setting is excellent. I have always been interested in the women of that time (Dorothy L. Sayers being one), and these novels give another perspective in that context.
More coming up on the adventures of the summer! Happy September.
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