Wonder

I went in with a couple of other moms and some of Becky's fellow AHG Patriots for a fun visit to the Renwick Art Gallery.  They have an exhibit entitled Wonder.  GO SEE IT!

Seven artists tried to create a work of art that would convey the feeling of wonder.  They had quotes defining and describing wonder by such folks as Aristotle, St. Albert the Great and St. Augustine!  I didn't watch many of the little movies that abounded, but two things struck me as being elements of creating wonder:  1) overwhelming 'visual field'   The one movie I did watch, which was actually very dull and technical, described how the artist wanted to create a visual field that would awe the viewer.  So BIG was a part of this exhibit.  Each piece of art was huge.  2) the artist took some unexpected element and used it very cleverly, so that one looked at that commonplace element in a whole new light.  In the first exhibit, the common element is sticks!  Just wooden sticks you'd find in your yard or on a walk through wooded area.

Upon stepping into the first room, my very first thought was hobbit houses!  These photos don't do this justice.  This was a huge room filled with these structures.  It was like walking into a fairy tale.

This photos are out of order, but I am running out of time to play with this blog entry!  So they'll have to be out of order!

This looked just like weird caverns in a fantasy novel.

Or maybe weird termite mounds

Becky; this shows you the scale of these things.

Yes, these mounds are made up of millions of index cards!

Below is what might be my favorite exhibit.  This was an artistic rendering of the tsunami that hit Asia a few years ago.  The rug is a huge reproduction of the seismic map showing the extent of the earthquake.  The netting above showed the waves.  Lying on the rug looking up, you felt like you were under the sea looking up at fishing nets.  The lighting changed constantly making the nets seem to change shape and move.  It was awesome!

The girls looking up at the nets.

Wide shot that doesn't quite convey how huge this was.

The rug was amazing!

The breathtakingly beautiful netting hanging from the ceiling.

I can't believe I only have one photo of the rainbow room (as I called it).  This was really the second exhibit after the hobbit houses.  These were hundred of colored threads strung in an arch.  It was amazing to look at.  A real optical illusion that you could walk through!

These little kids were so awestruck.  I think they were with their grandmother.

I don't have photos of the amazing chandelier,  The river of pale green glass marbles, The amazing hanging glass art, the room that was full of gorgeous designs made from insects.  Yes, insects!  Becky was totally creeped out.  There was only one exhibit that didn't awe me.  It was made from tires and was smelly (I don't like the smell of rubber) and dark.  There was also an amazing life size tree carved out of little bits of wood.

Anyway, if you can, I highly recommend seeing this.  It won't take long to go through, but you'll want to linger a long time.  It is good for all ages from very young to very old.  It will be at the Renwick through the summer.

A to Z April Challenge - Theme Reveal

I've decided to join in on the A to Z April Challenge.   I've never done this before and in fact had never heard about it until Robin at 52 Books mentioned it.  There are well over a 1000 people signed up to take on this challenge.  Wow!  Everyone gets to pick their own theme.  The rule is you have to blog in that theme with each post featuring the letter of the day.  We get Sundays off but all the other 26 days count, hence the A to Z thing.

Well since I like to read and since I like being Catholic, I think I will blog about Catholic reading.  Not every book will be directly Catholic but either the book or the author will work well within the Catholic worldview.

We are encouraged to visit other bloggers who are participating as well, but wow that is a honking lot of blogs!  So I am picking out 5 to follow, just cuz they appealed to me as I waded through the very, very long list of people participating.

My Two Blessings - this is Robin of 52 Books fame, only it's her other blog.

At the Farm - just cuz farm blogs always appeal to me.  In another life I'd be a country girl.

Brits in the U.S A. - I'm rather an Anglophile, plus this person seems to live in my state!

Travel with Archie - this looks like a fun travel blog.  Even though I love being home, I also like to travel too!

The Squirrel Nutwork - ok so this was the last blog on the list, but I also love the title and this blogger lives near me.    I love the nature around here, so I love photos that feature how pretty this area is.

Have His Carcase - Book 10

Have His Carcase is the next Lord Peter Wimsey mystery and the second book that features Harriet Vane.

It's been about two years since Harriet's court trial where she was found not guilty of poisoning her lover, with the help of Lord Peter Wimsey who fell in love with her.  He's still in love with her but she can't deal with it all.  She is messed up about love and feels horribly indebted to Lord Peter which makes her intensely uncomfortable.  She's hiking through a beach town on a vacation when she comes across a dead body; a young, bearded man whose throat has been slit.  Lord Peter hears about it and flies to the beachside resort town of Wilvercombe.  Together they do some great sleuthing and you can see that they are meant for each other but Harriet is the only one who doesn't realize it.  Poor Lord Peter.  Or as he put it, "damn this being in love business!"

First of all, did you know that carcase is the British spelling for carcass?  Yep.  I still don't get the title though, I think it must be a quote from something and I just didn't pick up on it.  Almost every chapter (though not all) opens with a quote from Death's Jest Book by Thomas Beddoes.  Perhaps the title is from that.

This was a reread and while I didn't remember much, I did remember the clincher clue that resolved the problem of the time of death.  I found this mystery a fun read but the ending unsatisfactory.  It simply and very abruptly ends.  I felt like the author just suddenly got sick of writing and it and said, that's it!  I'm done!

While I am enjoying rereading or reading for the first time all the Lord Peter Wimsey books, I think I'll take a breather and read a variety of some other books before I move on to the next one.

For more book reviews, go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

Happy Easter! In Art

The older depictions seem to emphasize the majesty of Christ.  While the more modern generally focus more on the human reaction and emotions.

Fra Angelico

Albert Durer

This decorates a church somewhere in Italy.  I can't find where I found it!

Mary Magdalene

This is sort of 1920s looking.

Mary stood outside the tomb weeping.

Just before she utters Rabboni!

John and Peter race to the tomb.  Eugene Burnand

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Hyperlink signature

I am just experimenting with making a hyperlink signature, per advice from the A2 Z challenge folks.

Faith

Household Diary

Things Happening Here - Holy Thursday 2016

The guy who picks up our compost accidentally knocked over our big stone mailbox.  It was his first day on the job.  He was shaking like a leaf when he came and told me.  I am a softy and didn't call his office. I didn't want him fired.   I myself have backed into things (like someone's mailbox where I shattered my back windshield!).  Just last week I ran over a curb and scraped the side of my car. . . . Anyway, Rick broke up the remaining hunk of stone and we've had this pile of rubble sitting in the front of our house.  Hopefully, today our lawn mowing crew is going to remove it.  That will be nice!  The stone mailbox has a story behind it.  Somehow we got mixed up with this guy who had an enormous sob story about how his wife had MS and then had been hit by a car and how he really needed money.  Our stone front stoop and sidewalk needed work and he said that's the kind of thing he did.  So he did that (actually it was his brother in law who came and did it) and it looked nice, so he kept showing up asking us if we had anymore work to do.  So we kind of made up a job.  Down the street someone had a mailbox that I'd always admired, also made from stone (you know a stone column with a mailbox on the top).  So I said can you build us one of those?  He said yes.  Well, he made one, but it wasn't nearly as nice (this time the brother in law wasn't along).  He swore up and down that he had put an 8 foot footer in to stabilize it.  Well, the reason why it tipped over so easily when the guy hit it with his truck is that there was nothing grounding it.  It was bound to tip over one of these days!  So that guy was a liar.

Anyway, I should have before and after photos but I don't. . .

Josh didn't get the supervising job he interviewed for.  Except then the guy they did offer the job to turned it down and went to work at some other place.  So now Josh is back in the running.

Seano is loving his music class at the community college.  He got a 100% on the midterm!

We got to pet sit Hannah's new puppy on Tuesday.  Hannah was going into DC to figure out the big field trip she is planning for her class.  Puppy only had one little accident.  She got along well with Tillie, but the cats were completely freaked out by her.  She is the cutest little frantic bundle of joy and energy you ever saw.  And no I don't have a photo!

We've been dealing with trying to get our guest back into school.  I am learning a lot about the bus system around here, crisis pregnancy centers (they are wonderful!), and many other things besides.  Life is really hard when you are a destitute single mother, it turns out. . .

Since my guy Rubio is no longer in the race, I've lost any interest in politics.  Completely disgusted by my fellow humans right now.  (well, not all, but most!).  Except I did like Paul Ryan's speech on the state of politics.  There are still some high minded folks out there who actually want to accomplish good things.  It is very hard not to despair with all the terrorism and Trumpism going on right now.  But despairing is a sin, so. . . Easter!

I love the Holy Thursday Mass and am looking forward to it tonight.  Will comes home tomorrow night.  For some reason all my Jewish in laws are coming over on Holy Saturday for lunch.  I am letting Rick plan the lunch menu since he did the inviting!  When to dye eggs???  We are planning on the vigil Mass at 8:30 Saturday night.  Easter dinner is going to be lamb chops, roasted potatoes, tabouli salad and Will is making mushroom crepes.  I think I need something more as well. . .a salad and maybe some asparagus.   Dessert is going to be angel food cake with whipped cream and strawberries.  Easter breakfast will be Easter eggs, chicken sausage, cinnamon rolls and fruit salad.  I can't wait to drink a full octane cup of coffee!  Though I think it was really good for me to cut way back on caffeine.  I had hardly any headaches all during Lent.  I had a not very bad one yesterday morning and a slight one this a.m.  I think though, those are maybe pollen related.  So low caffeine is good for me.

Yesterday, I sat down and figured out the rest of the school year.  It looks like we are going to be one of those year round people.  We've just been going soooo slowly with some subjects.  Sean will have to do Chemistry all summer.  Becky will have to do math all summer and we won't finish our Latin book until the end of June.

We finished reading Demosthenes from Plutarch's Lives.  I don't know how much the kids actually learned.  I am hoping something stuck but, in truth, they are not thrilled about it.  However, I am.  I am glad we are doing a little bit of Plutarch anyways.  It makes me feel very classical schoolish. After Easter we are on to Cicero!

I am getting excited about starting up my Master's.  I keep planning to enroll for summer.  Just as soon as I remember what my username and password were. . . .

Othello

Avery Brooks and Patrick Page, great duo!

We went to see Othello presented by the Shakespeare Theatre Company.  It was really disappointing.  A very expensive disappointment.

Over the years we've seen several Shakespeare Theatre Co. productions and all have been impressive.  I've seen Julius Caesar twice, Macbeth, The Tempest, The Taming of the Shrew, The Persians (Aeschylus).  Rick took the kids to see Hamlet there.  All of these were stellar productions, so this is the first time we've been underwhelmed.

I saw their Othello back in the 2005-2006 season.  It starred Patrick Page as Iago and Avery Brooks as Othello and it totally blew me away.  If love is willing the good of the other, Iago is pure hate, scheming to destroy Othello, ostensibly because he's been overlooked for a promotion but also because he suspects Othello has cuckolded him with his wife Amelia.  As we get to know Amelia as the play moves on, we realize this is just Iago's own crazy insecurity.  He's looking for reasons to hate and this has made him paranoid.

Alas, this production just didn't cut it on so many levels.  Let me count the ways:

The set was just weird.  The actors are wearing uniforms from maybe some sinister communist regime?  Stalinist?  Mao?  I couldn't quite place them.  But why?  The background had 4 great big turbine looking wheels or fans, connoting some kind of war machine or factory?  Again, couldn't quite tell.  The stage was bare except for some military looking barrels and some camp chairs.  But for some strange reason, after they leave Venice and go to their battle camp in Cyprus, a large tapestry is dropped down over the turbine wheels.  This is ornate and reminiscent of the Renaissance with a great lion, I guess symbolizing Venice, holding a book with some words in Latin 'Pax tibi mar. . . . 'It did not fit with anything else on the set and I have no idea what it was trying to convey.  So the set designer gets an F.    Also the music they played at times, mostly drums introducing a new scene, was loud and out of place.  It was jarring rather than contributing to the atmosphere of the play.

The acting was just not up to regular standards.  Iago . . . I just couldn't get his motivation at all.  The actor just couldn't project the character well enough.  I felt like I was watching a not very good college production.  As for the actor who played Othello, he had his moments where it seemed he was just about to really deliver and then he just didn't.  One thing that was weird was that the characters all seems to kind of shift accents.  One minute they sounded very flatly American and then they'd sound kind of Irish or in the case of Othello, kind of Indian.  I think Desdemona was the only one that wasn't switch-hitting with accents.  The supporting characters weren't bad however.

Now, I don't know Othello all that well.  I've never actually read it.  I saw it that one time before and I've read excerpts.  But I do know the line when Othello says that he'd rather be a toad living on the vapor of a dungeon, so I was waiting for that line and the actor flubbed it!!  He flubbed it!  That made me wonder how many other times he was flubbing lines?  There was just an incoherence to the presentation of the characters that was kind of baffling.

One way you know the actors don't have control is when the audience starts laughing at things that aren't supposed to be funny.  This kept happening.  People were twittering at things, so it really didn't build the sense of tragedy that is supposed to be building.  I know Shakespeare does put in some comic relief, but this wasn't it.  It was just poor delivery and poor staging.  At one point Othello kicks one of the chairs in anger and it went hurtling across the stage straight at Amelia who deftly stopped it with her foot.  It was like a sight gag but incredibly out of place.

The other weird, weird thing was how Othello was portrayed.  Usually a black man plays him.  It becomes very obvious why because over and over again Shakespeare refers to his being black.  Now he is also called the Moor, of course.  In this production they had a Pakistani actor (who is not dark skinned at all; in fact he has a bright and shining white bald head!  He looked very white from the audience!) who is actually Muslim playing him.  This could be a neat twist, but it wasn't done well at all.  In fact, to me, this was another example of people trying to be politically correct and actually doing the reverse by reinforcing stereotypes!  So when Othello, at the beginning of the play, is acting normally and is just recently happily married he's in his military uniform, but as he slowly goes crazy with jealously, they suddenly switch to him wearing eastern/Muslim type robes.  Right before he murders Desdemona, the actor is praying to Allah!  Or at least he is bowing as if in prayer.  it sure looks like it.  Is that really the image they wanted to portray?  Weird.

We saw A Midsummer Night's Dream at the American Shakespeare Company last fall and it was the best performance of Shakespeare I have ever had the privilege to attend.  That coupled with the powerful and nuanced execution of the Page/Brooks Othello back in 2005 . . . well, maybe my standards were too high.  My kids hated this production.  They couldn't wait to get out of there.  Hopefully, they've had enough exposure to great Shakespeare that they are not completely turned off.  We paid a pretty penny for these tickets, too.  Not worth it.

Unfortunately, these two just don't deliver.

Subverted - Book 9

Subverted; How I Helped the Sexual Revolution hijack the Woman's Movement by Sue Ellen Browder.  The author was a journalist in the 1970s and on for Cosmopolitan Magazine.  She knew Helen Gurley Brown personally and was very familiar with all that was going on in the background of the feminist movement.  She recounts the modern movement beginning with Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique.  Browder was all on board with women having equal pay for equal rights and other things that really were unfair and needed changing.  But she saw how maneuvering in the background were really misguided and even evil people who spun the immoral and oppressive characteristics of the sexual revolution into the woman's movement, basically objectify and hurting women in the name of freedom.  She saw how crazy and twisted Helen Gurley Brown was; how evil Larry Lader was, how unstable Betty Friedan was.  These people, and others,  had an unholy lasting impact on our culture to its great detriment.

Browder tells her own story too.  How she grew up in a small mid-western town.  She couldn't wait to get out of it.  All the glossy magazines her mother subscribed to inspired her.  She was going to get into that glamorous world.  She studied journalism at the University of Missouri where she also met her husband, Walter.  She and Walter had the same dreams.  They drove to New York City.  They were going to make it big.  Life didn't quite turn out as they planned.  At times they lived in comfort on the periphery of the heady high journalistic society of New York.  But as writing was an unstable source of income that would dry up at times, they also had periods of real financial insecurities.   They had two children but during one of these difficult times money-wise, they also had an abortion.  This haunted them for decades after.

Browder got an up close look and indeed, participated willingly in the deceptive world of Cosmo magazine.  She saw the disrespect for women and the manipulation that went on every day there.  She kept trying to justify it to herself.  At times she tried to distance herself from it.  The hypocrisy of the culture made her look elsewhere to answer life's deeper questions.  She had a solid marriage with Walter and that also made her question the culture of swinging, sexual freedom, divorce, abortion and contraception.  For years and years though she didn't know how to process it all.  Little things helped though.  She learned from a physicist that life is about systems cooperating together, not atomized individuals competing ruthlessly with each other.  This idea of system comforted the author.  It rang true.  She knew intimacy and devotion in her marriage and motherhood.  She knew that was real.  The other worldview rang hollow and false.

Finally, after many years, Browder winds up converting to Catholicism.  In this she finally finds peace.  Profound, life-changing peace that she had never known before.

This is a gripping book.  Because of the mood I was in at the time, I found it depressing midway, so I stopped reading it for a while.  When I picked it up again, though, I got right back into it and wound up not being able to put it down again.  The ending is extremely powerful and made me cry.

A definite two thumbs up!  For more book reviews, go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

Exodus

Rembrandt's The Ten Commandments

I finished reading the Book of Exodus yesterday.  While I was familiar with all the stories concerning Moses, I had never focused on all the instructions on the building of the Tabernacle and the Tent of Meeting at the end of the book.  The instructions are actually given twice, the first time in a bit more detail, but the second set of instructions is still pretty detailed as well.

Lots of yarn of violet, purple and scarlet, lots of acacia wood and everything plated in gold.  Lots of specific instructions on how everything from decorations to robes are to be constructed.  I found it rather interesting.  It made me think how people back then really knew how to do hard things, like find and smelt metal and weave gorgeous curtains.  And for people who had been in slavery and had to run before they could even let their bread rise, they certainly seemed to have a lot of gold and precious/semi-precious stones with them that they could freely contribute to make a beautiful home for the tablets of stone, the manna and the rod.

And I finally found out why Michelangelo put horns on Moses' head.  Moses' face was radiant when talking to God.  Apparently the word for horns and the word for radiant is spelled the same in Hebrew.

Now on to Leviticus!

Five Red Herrings - Book 8

Dorothy L. Sayers, you let me down!  I needed a book to divert myself from all the ugliness out there. I stopped reading one book because it was too depressing, and I got Five Red Herrings to read instead.  But this mystery was a real slog for me, by far my least favorite.  I have only persevered in reading it because 1) I kept hoping it would click and suddenly get better and 2) I have resolved to read or reread all the Lord Peter Wimsey books in chronological order.

The book starts out well enough.  We are in the  picturesque Scottish countryside, where everyone either dabbles in painting and/or fishing with a little bit of golf on the side.  I don't know how everyone actually makes a living, they seem only to be hobbyists.  Lord Peter seems to know the society here and be casual friends with everyone.  There is one of the clique whom everyone despises and he gets murdered.  There are six men who are suspected of murdering him, each one with some kind of an alibi.

The problem for me was that I couldn't tell any of the six men apart.  I kept confusing who they were.  They weren't distinguished enough in character for me to keep them clear in my mind.  There was an awful lot of confusing information about bicycles and train time tables and exactly how they punched tickets in Scotland as opposed to England, and how far one village was from another and this road and that road, etc.  I wanted maps and illustrations to keep things clear.  There are a whole lot of things that are indeed red herrings that Sayers throws at us.  And in fact she is very coy because she knows the lynchpin clue that everything hangs on but she deigns not to tell us.  She says to the reader, but you know what I am talking about, and then coyly moves on.  I always think that sort of thing is rather a cheap device.

The other thing was all the thick Scottish dialect one has to plow through.  And she introduces not one, not two, but three new local detectives.  This, along with other colorful, dialect-speaking characters.  It was just too unwieldy for me.  No one seems very distinctive here, even Lord Peter 's personality seems to flatten out somewhat.

I am glad I read it because I do want to read all of the series, but for the first time I didn't really enjoy it.

For more books reviews, go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

Rubio

This is how a principled conservative deals with protesters:

This press conference shows how great Marco Rubio is.  Intelligent, principled, honest.

Republicans, you are so blind!

More Political Musings

I've always been in a weird place politically.  Back when I 'identified' as Democrat, it was an uneasy identification because I have always been pro-life.  This is an automatic alienator if you are really pro-life.  (A lot of people are pro-life in name only, but really they don't have any political will to try to decrease the number of abortions or anything like that.)   The party's growing obsession with abortion rights got to a point for me where I could no longer vote Democratic.  Then I took to 3rd party voting because I still couldn't stand conservatives.  I thought they hated the poor and loved huge corporations.  And frankly I still think there is a significant minority portion of Republicans who are like that.  But then through further thinking I decided that my make or break issues were being pro-life and pro-constitution.   The Constitution is not living (read: malleable to be interpreted to serve whatever the current political trend is) but rather a blueprint for the PROCESS that guards us from fanaticism and power grabs.  So you have to do things the slow way by rule of law, which is frustrating for those who want things NOW. No government is perfect, but this one has been pretty good and has guided and sustained us even through a bloody civil war.  And everyone needs to remember that our country underwent a horrible crisis, with millions killed.  And this could happen again.  If you study history the usual state for humans is tyranny and oppression.  The USA has been a shining little bubble of civilization that I believe we have come to take for granted.

And the Constitution survived because we can amend it.  But amendments are best done via legislation and not by a Supreme Court loosely and creatively interpreting things.  We need judges who judge and don't legislate from the bench.  Just as I am a small 'o' orthodox Catholic, I am an orthodox Constitutionalist.  Also, Democrats really have changed since the time I came to voting age.  Back then you could admire them for their stand on First Amendment rights (remember with the ACLU represented the KKK?  It would never happen now because the left no longer believes in free speech).  And as for Freedom of Religion, Obama is suing the Little Sisters of the Poor for freaking sake!  When there are corporations who get a pass at having to provide for the same thing they are being taken to court over!!!  There is now such a hostility to religion due to abortion and same sex marriage.  Think of Indiana reiterating a 1st amendment right that any citizen who remembered their 8th grade civics would have thought a no brainer, but all these powerful corporations and celebrities put economic pressure on the state in a kind of internet lynch mob.  That's just one of many example of the breakdown we are witnessing.

Then we have the arrival of Trump, bringing out all that is bad in a certain type of disaffected voter.  A guy who opened strip clubs, runs casinos, scams, bankruptcies, brags about sleeping with married women, etc and you have people whom we thought were faithful Christians believing all the glib things he's selling them.  Like Obama, somehow he is the perfect idol that folks are projecting all their hopes and anger on.  I remember thinking that when Obama was being elected and everyone treated him like a rock star and you couldn't escape his face.  It was on bumperstickers.  I kept thinking:  we are Americans!  We don't put faces on our bumperstickers!  Especially faces that are done in the artistic style of Stalinist USSR!!!  That freaked me out!  Now we Trump having supporters take Hitler Youth type pledges to him at huge rallies.  It has gone one terrifying step further!!!  My country!

So we have fascism coming from both sides.  Fascism is cool now.  And last night's rally/protest is the perfect illustration of this.  Trump says horrible things and people still think he is a great guy.  He says horrible fascist things over and over again.  Sometimes he seems to try to rein himself in but then inevitably he says another outrageous thing again.   But then, on the other hand, you have protestors who think that because they don't like him, he shouldn't be able to speak.  That's not the way to stop him!  Both sides are bullying. All that does is make the other side dig in even more.  The truth is people would rather feel self-righteous and watch their country burn than rely on the principles that made this country a beacon of hope (however imperfect!).  Everyone has forgotten their fellow citizens have inherent dignity.

I think talk radio and the internet and too many pundits spouting off has made for increasingly polarized views where people rage at each other without thinking of the cost.  We have lost our moral bearings, both right and left.  We are too busy being proud and judgmental.  Me included.

I like principled conservatism because to me that is the only place where people really believe the words of the Declaration of Independence.  We believe in inalienable rights given to us by our Creator, the right to LIFE, LIBERTY and the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS.  I think principled conservatives are the most consistent (not that they don't err and need to be put back on the right track at times).  I think a lot of the Republican party has abandoned these ideas.  The Republican party is a problem because it is a uneasy alliance between a lot of people who identify as not Democrats.  Some identify as fiscal conservatives, some are Libertarians, some are social conservatives, some are rightwing nut jobs, some romanticize the agrarian, pioneer past, some are Neocons, etc.

And in a way I have found Republicans to be more open to discussion.  They criticize themselves the most!  They think they are having informed dialogue but unfortunately often they are, as my husband sees is, forming circular firing squads and shooting each other down.  I think that is part of the problem with the rise of Trump.  Republicans are not into regulation (except when they are not and are protectionists!).  They thought the free market of ideas in their party would work things out.  That's why Trump wasn't taken seriously at first.  They figured the voters would weed him out.  So it is sort of due to conservative idealism that he made his rise.

Also, open primaries . .  because a lot of people who didn't have the best interest of the party at heart, voted in these.  Bad idea.  I am thinking if we have to have political parties (and I think they are inevitable) then we should have political parties.  And independents like me either have to **** or get off the pot and register as such OR they have to sit out the primary season and just vote in the general election.  The Republicans gave up a lot of control to the detriment of their party.

I also think a lot of people think a brokered convention is some terrible disrespectful-to-voters last resort, but it isn't.  Abraham Lincoln was nominated in a brokered convention.  That is how the Republican party started!!!

Finally, (and I rambling now, I realize) people need to learn that our leaders can be both principled and open to healthy compromise that gets things done, giving the most people, most of what they want.  Our whole system depends on us all being able to work together, in spite of our differences.  That is the ethic we need to elevate here.  We need to negotiate, to find common ground, to address each other with respect, to see how we can move forward in a way that benefits the most.  Obama had an initial veneer that promised he would do this, but that quickly faded.  He has further inflamed this intransigent culture.  This is one reason why I really don't like Ted Cruz.  I don't think he is capable of leading such a divided nation.  I think he'll just be the flip side of Obama.

Dayenu!

I am counting my blessings.

1.  My life:  I have food, water, shelter, clothing, security and lots of intellectual stimulation.  I also have a loving spouse and children.  Really, I could end here!  Dayenu!
2.  The weather has been lovely this week and the daffodils are blooming.  Dayenu!
3.  My oldest three children, all working, love their jobs.  H loves being a special ed teacher, W loves that he is getting paying musician jobs (not quite self supporting, but getting there), J loves his job and has been super enthusiastic with writing his resume.  He did an EXCELLENT job.  I love that this boy who was so unenthusiastic about school, loves work.  Dayenu!
4.  This week I have a friend sending me photos of her trip to Rome and Albania.  It is so nice to check my email and see how much fun she is having and how interesting her trip is.  Dayenu!
5.  I discovered Morning Glory radio on EWTN live streaming. Dayenu!
6.  Bluegrass Country radio exists!  Dayenu!
7.  It's Lent and that means Easter is coming.  I've always liked Lent and Easter more than Advent and Christmas.  They just seem more meaningful and less commercial.  I always feel like I am growing spiritually during this season.  Dayenu!
8.  I am in middle of a wonderful retreat at my parish that I am loving.  Dayenu!
9.  I watched the MSNBC Town Hall with Rubio and the debate last night and I still think Rubio is the best of the bunch.  He may not win (though I am still praying!  If he wins Florida and there is a brokered convention - I know, not much of a chance) but at least there is an optimistic voice of reason out there.  Not all conservatives are buffoons! Dayenu!
10.  Rick showed me this hysterical spoof.  Oh my goodness.  So funny! Dayenu!

I just want to apologize

To Marco Rubio and everybody.  I forgot that whenever I finally settle on a candidate I kind of like (he isn't perfect, but I don't know why he had to live up to really high standards when other people get a YUGE pass on having any standards at all), they get defeated.  I am a jinx.  This has happened almost every time in my voting life.  I am so not in sync with the mob.

If  (when?) Trump becomes president and he has his loyal minions herd all who signed the Never Trump petition into a stadium to be machine-gunned down, I will proudly go to my Maker, holding my husband's hand.  I only hope at least a couple of my kids have been overlooked and can get out to work actively in the underground movement.

Republicans are so stupid.  Republicans are traitors.  Republicans are crazy.  Nominating Trump is the equivalent of the guy who goes nuts and shoots his wife and kids before he kills himself.  This is what listening to godless, nasty, hate mongering does to your soul.  Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, shock jocks, Brietbart, Fox News, and I'll include CNN who has provided Trump with obsessive coverage 24/7 for months, - I hold you all responsible (hand in hand with our celebrity-driven culture that glorifies everything opposed to virtue) for the demise of this once great nation.

Screw the Constitution!  Let's all chant it together.  Because when the Dems get into office that is exactly what they want to do.  Nothing can get in the way of their mob-driven agenda.  We have fascism coming at us from both sides.

I know Ted Cruz still has a chance, but do you really think he can win?  He just strikes me as a polarizing, unlikable, underhanded, mean kind of person.  We've already had 8 years with one of the most divisive presidents ever.  And before that there was Bush . . . can we really take 4 more years of this kind of thing?    Don't answer that.  (I don't know who I am writing to anyway, my 57 followers?)

Anyway, enough.  I will go about my own business, trying to forgive (hard!) and do small things with great love.  Just as soon as I get over my snit here.

I've been reading the book of Exodus.  The phrase 'stiff-necked people' keeps popping up.  We are all of us a stiff-necked people.  God just lead the Israelites out of slavery.  He's leading them through the desert and they go and build a Golden Calf.  We are stupid and stiff-necked.  Pearls before swine and all that.

God have mercy on us!

What's Happening

This is also happening!

• The biggest change is that we are hosting a young mother and little baby who fell on hard times.  She's living in our basement for the time being.  She's a lovely woman and her baby is darling.  I have to admit it is a bit of a strain but I keep hearing Will quote Mother Teresa:  give from your poverty.  I don't have financial poverty.  Instead I have the poverty of affluenza and all the complexities of that syndrome.
• S went to visit Will up in Boston for this week.  I don't know what to do with myself!  I didn't realize how much energy I employed every day interacting with S!  I love him so much but he is high maintenance!  I am feeling a sort of empty nest syndrome, even though I have B here still and of course J.  J doesn't really count because between work and school, he is hardly ever home.  And when he is home, he holes up in his room most of the time.
• To make things seem even weirder and emptier, Rick went away on a business trip.
• School with B is strange too because we do a lot of stuff together with S, so that's on hold this week.  
• Another change is that I am not teaching Latin this week at the co-op.  This is the week the students take the National Latin Exam.  Someone else will proctor the exam.  This is good because my sister made an appointment with an attorney on Thursday.  So we are going to talk about a better way to handle our guardianship of our youngest sister.  I wish Rick were home to advise me.
• I've joined twitter but only to eavesdrop on others.  I don't see myself tweeting much.  Mostly I follow the Rubio campaign.  I've decided I like him best of the bunch.  And it turns out that Rubio people are incredibly nice and intelligent so I am highly enjoying the eavesdropping!
• J is doing so well.  He got made a permanent (instead of seasonal) employee of the marina in October.  And now a supervisor position has just opened up.  He is working on his resume so he can try for the job.  School just doesn't motivate him, but work does.  His immediate boss said that he has a good chance but because he doesn't have that much experience, he can't guarantee he'll get the job.  So we'll wait and see.  I asked J:  do you think you are a good worker? And he said back to me with full confidence (which isn't usual for him!) I am an excellent worker.  So we'll see.  I am praying.

Strong Poison - Book 7

I am still on my Dorothy L. Sayers kick and I am so enjoying it.  Right now with the world the way it is, these mysteries are proving a great and absorbing distraction from things!

Strong Poison is the book where we first meet Harriet Vane.  She's on trial for murdering her ex-lover.  I don't know why Lord Peter Wimsey is watching the trial, except maybe it is part of his hobby of sleuthing, but he falls in love with Harriet pretty much at first sight, before he ever talks to her even.  He is convinced in his soul that she is innocent and he is determined to find out who the real murderer is.

The first trial ends in a mistrial because it just so happens that Lord Peter's assistant, Miss Climpson is on the jury and she just isn't convinced.  Lord Peter has about a month to dig up new evidence that would exonerate his beloved before the new trial starts.

We learn a lot about arsenic poisoning in this book.  We also learn a lot about Spiritualism.  Miss Climpson goes sleuthing to find a will and has to do much inveigling to get it which includes befriending a nurse who is enamored with seances.  Miss Climpson now runs 'The Cattery' for Lord Peter which is a group of useful women (secretarial mostly) who can do a little snooping for him when he needs it.  Among the women of The Cattery is the intrepid Miss Murchison who does some essential and nerve wracking sneaking around for Wimsey.

The Dowager makes a brief appearance or two, as do Lord Peter's sister and his brother the Duke.  Bunter and Inspector Charles Parker are of course also present.  We even have a revisitation of the romance between Parker and Peter's sister that started in Clouds of Witness.

What a fun, well written and clever novel.  Two thumbs up!

For more book reviews go to Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks.

Never Trump

I know it probably won't do a damn bit of good, but it feels good anyway to officially say out loud to the interweb, NEVER TRUMP!

So if you want to sign the petition, here's the link.

Easy Lentil Stew

I bought some Trader Joe's Lentils and decided I was going to try to make soup out of it.

So this is what I did (it turned out delicious!):

Chopped up 1/2 yellow onion

A dollop of chopped garlic from my big jar of chopped garlic

2 carrots and 1 parsnip washed and chopped

3 stalks of celery chopped

I softened the veggies in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, stirring them around the pot until they were getting tender and just before the onions started to brown.

Then I added one can of chopped Italian tomatoes

1 package of lentils

1 carton of vegetable broth

a bay leaf

I simmer and stirred for about 50 minutes or so.    It came out so delicious!