Friday Five: I Ask for Help

Thanks to Martha Spong over at RevGalBlog Pals, our instructions: 

So, for this Friday Five, please list four ways you have been helped when you didn't want to ask for it and one way you had a chance to help that meant a lot to you.


This one comes awfully close to the bone, for me.


1.  A little past midway in my seminary years (the MDiv was a three-year course but it took me seven years to complete, part-time), one of my faculty advisors gave me the task of setting my Learning Goals for the year ahead.  "EH?" I said.  "Learning Goals?  What means 'Learning Goals'?  Not understanding.  Passing courses, yes.  But YOU set Learning Goals, I meet them."  She wouldn't have it.  Finally she set one for me.  "I want you to LEARN how to ASK FOR HELP WHEN YOU NEED IT."  Further resistance on my part.  "But it's WRONG to ask for help.  I'm supposed to do MY OWN WORK. (Besides, who'd help me?  Ha.  Nobody, is who)..."  So I was helped in the first instance by being TOLD to learn to ask for help.


2.  In the meantime, I was struggling with my tax return.  Actually, staring paralyzed at it.  I had always filled out my own tax return.  But in that particular year, I had to report a Capital Gain, and I had NO idea how to do it...I knew I was owed a rebate, so there was no problem about late payment.  But the weeks rolled by...and about October, one night, lying awake fretting, I remembered that one of my seminary classmates was a Chartered Accountant.  "ah"  I said, "I'll bet HE knows what to do with a Capital Gain.  I shall ASK for HELP."  So expecting to be yelled at for Not Knowing How, I asked.  "Yes,"  he said.  "MMM-hmmm," he said.  "Give me your papers," he said.  And that was the end of the problem, right there.  No yelling.  No scorn.  Just "MMM-hmmmm" and a nice welcome rebate cheque in due course.  Amazing.


3.  Casting a lot farther back -- I remember the summer before I started university, at the lake with a group of other young folks, splashing around in the water just off the end of the dock, I -- non-swimmer -- stepped into a deep spot and couldn't find my footing again.  (I recall it now, vividly, when I see those information features about "Drowning Doesn't Look Like Drowning.")  I was struggling but not saying anything, when one of the girls about six feet away asked quietly, "Are you in trouble?"  I managed to nod my head, and without any fuss she had me into the shallow water in an instant...  "No problem," she said.


4.  This last week I was confronting a funeral in the parish where I'm doing interim ministry.  At one point it looked to me as though I was responsible not just for officiating and preaching and pastoral care but also for organizing (and possibly preparing!!!) the post-funeral lunch (70 people), and the funeral leaflet, which was complex (with reluctant, unfamiliar computers and unreliable internet)...and then all in one day the parish lunch-committee reported in (returned from vacation): "We're on it" -- and the funeral family announced, "We're making the leaflet, tell us what should be in it."  And there I was, free and clear to do what I DID know how to do.  The most wonderful feeling, when somebody else just comes and cheerfully TAKES AWAY a task you don't know how to tackle.


Times when I have been helpful.  Hmm---well, I was visiting an older parishioner whose divorce settlement had not been particularly generous although her (ex)husband was very affluent...she was expressing her worry about making ends meet on what she was allowed; and I enquired about a detail of the allocation of pension benefits...and encouraged her to consult her lawyer again -- it turned out he had missed a provision that was a matter of law, NOT negotiation; her income was substantially improved and she was also paid a big chunk of "back pay" -- she seemed to think that was pretty helpful!!!

Facing the Void...

Our friend Sally, over at RevGalBlogPals, offers us this, today:

I have been pondering this Friday Five over and over in my mind, but I am coming up with nothing, so I am wondering; what do you do when you feel empty of all creativity and unable to make/do anything? This is a completely open question, the only rule is name 5 things that fill/ inspire you:

so here goes...

1. Extra sleep -- to a point -- often in the last 20 years the problem has been simple, brute fatigue.

2. Physical exercise, of which walking is probably prime favorite.

3. Fiction, especially classic children's fiction; or mystery series; or people like Nevil Shute (although there's nobody like Nevil Shute); or Dickens, or Austen.

4. Something mindless and minor, like ironing, or polishing silver (Memo to self: tomorrow, take down and wash all the 'copper' moulds and pans on the kitchen grid)

5. (and this is the prime remedy) -- Go see a movie...it never seems to fail, I come out just snapping and crackling with ideas and imagination.

It has been Some Kind of Day here at Tether's End...a nice peaceable, doable schedule and nothing too alarming--and then the phone rang--and it was the Daughter Unit, who had just been tentatively diagnosed with pre-eclampsia and was awaiting further tests. And all the internal sirens start up...

Warmest thanks to all of you who sent such Sustaining and Comforting e-mails. I am happy to say that by late afternoon she was safe at home and everything that could have been, and had been, measured was now just where it should be. But in view of the scare -- a spike in blood pressure and protein detected where no protein should be -- she'll be closely monitored at home for the duration of the pregnancy. Such relief...

And somewhere in the midst of the panic and its aftermath, I absorbed the message that Beloved Milkman, the very last one in Prairie Metropolis, will make his final delivery next Friday. And I spent a very productive couple of hours with Gratifying Theological Student, mapping out a paper on the Anglican theology of Christian Initiation...our targeted lunch place was mysteriously closed so we went elsewhere, and in the Sturm und Drang over Chorus's diagnosis, I wolfed down a whole steak sandwich before even remembering that it IS Lent, after all. Miserere me, Domine.

After coming home, made 1-800 phone calls and sorted out a credit card tangle; and betook myself to the bank, early evening, and did things with retirement-money.

Tomorrow, which is also a day, heavy-duty house-cleaning.

Five A-ha moments on a Friday....or maybe only three...

kathrynzj over at RevGalBlogPals has given us a different kind of Friday Five today:

In the midst of the holiday season I had one of those moments where a path suddenly was made clear - A-ha! This experience has prompted me to wonder what some of your A-ha moments may be.

They can be mundane - a realization that you like/don't like a certain food or that you really look good in that color you never had the guts to try. They can be sacred - a way to better pace your day clicks into place or finally a devotion or meditation practice that really works for you. They can be profound - the moment you realized he/she was the one (or wasn't)or the moment you realized where your deepest passion could meet the world's greatest need.

Please tell us - what are five (more or less) of your 'A-ha' moments. Where have you had a moment of clarity?

Well, here's hoping "clarity" includes Primal Panic...

1. The moment I knew I could read, I guess -- I remember it...I was five, and my mother had taught me my alphabet. Sitting at the breakfast table I asked her what "C" said; she told me, "C says KUH" (approximately), and I said, "then this says ... CORN FLAKES." It was a distinct physical sensation in my head--something like the feeling of a run in a stocking. Same thing happened over and over, the year I studied Hebrew.

2. The moment I first realized I was pregnant -- had been travelling and lost track of the calendar, and felt Less Than Great for a few days before I suddenly counted on my fingers, and "well, well, well."

3. Probably the first time I ever consciously wondered, "Maybe I could do SOMETHING, in the church?" The thought was so terrifying I thought I had better pay attention and pursue it. (So here I am, 22 years later, still wondering whether "I could do something in the church"...)

...there are a couple more, but they're in the "unbloggable" category, I think. Interesting to reflect that most, not all, are under the heading of desperately extreme stress experiences.

the Friday Five

kathrynzj asks us, this morning:

For today's Friday Five please tell us 5 things you like to do with friends. Are they local - do you hit a favorite coffee shop or nail salon? What about the friends who come in from out of town? Do you have a restaurant or museum you like to show off?

Well, this is a pretty easy five -- I think!

1. EAT. Almost anything, anywhere: here at home, there at their home, or OUT. (Not so much, DRINK, although there is a special asterisked category for "things with little umbrellas in them" while "seated in the shade at the wide end of a Big White Boat")

2. WALK. Even when much of the walk is more of a Determined Sequential Lurch, than a relaxed stroll.

3. TALK. IRL or in any of the variety of media that offer themselves (often combined with 1 or 2, above).

4. TRAVEL. On the road through favourite landscapes (viz. Pointy Bits of this and adjacent provinces, and elsewhere) -- or by other modes, see previous remarks about Big White Boats.

5. WORK (if all else fails and resistance proves useless)...this includes subcategories "COOK" and "KNIT" and a miscellany of other tasks.

most of these are stackable, one way or another, either sequentially or simultaneously.

And there you have it!

the Friday Five

It's that time of year when the only new things on television are music/dance competitions (the 21st century answer to variety shows?). Yes, it's the season of reruns.

This week the clock turned back to last fall and the Glee kids went back to school and still got "slushied," and Michael hired his nephew on The Office, which was not something even he would be likely to repeat.

In honor of this annual Time Warp, please share five things worth a repeat. These could be books, movies, CDs, recipes, vacations, or even TV shows.

1. Television shows: How can any list not start with The West Wing? Great characters, great situations, and enough throw-away lines per episode to stock a whole season of any standard TV dramatic series. (Remember: "My God, King Lear is a good play..." -- "A verb would be good, sometime soon"...)

2. Books: Well -- I wish I could find a copy of Eric Mascall's Via Media; -- it can be downloaded from Google but only in the US of A, apparently.

3. Movies: A whole long list -- Song of the South--I missed one Very Anticipated showing of it the summer I turned six, because I woke up that morning with chicken pox...nearly broke my heart -- I should explain we were living in far northern British Columbia and a movie was a darn seldom thing, involving a projector and giant cans of film arriving by float plane from Juneau, very big deal indeed. But another great movie in that list was Carnegie Hall...and Kes, which is now available on DVD, worth seeing again.

4. Recipes: I wish I could recapture what one of my grandmothers used to do to a fried potato. And I wish I could recapture what the other grandmother could do with a chocolate cake, peppermint boiled frosting, and bitter chocolate topping...

5. Vacations: I would love to be going on a family driving vacation this summer... or taking a three-week trip to Italy with my children ... or planning to get on a big boat with a whole bunch of RevGals. Oh wait -- I am.

the Friday Five

Thanks to Mary Beth who started us off on this Friday Five:

So, thinking about allergies:

1. Do you experience any seasonal allergies? Are you allergic to anything else?

I'm vaguely snuffly in certain environments and am not sure specifically why... probably, reacting to DUST (certain amount of DUST in the atmosphere here much of the time). But my almost total freedom from allergies is a blessing -- I suspect it forms part of a continuum including my Systemic Unawareness and Oblivion of a lot of what is going on around me.

2. What kinds of symptoms do you experience during your allergic reactions?

I do have one "contact" allergy with annoying symptoms. Walnuts -- unless they're perfectly fresh, and without an actual tree on the property, when are they EVER perfectly fresh??? -- make my tongue sore. Pecans, thankfully, do not.

3. How do you manage your allergies? (ie: medication, avoidance, alternative therapies, etc)

It's largely a matter of avoidance. I was married for quite a long time to a man with multiple allergies, particularly hay fever; he lived on a little blue pill called "Pyribenzamine" which kept him from sneezing his head off but also left him totally non-reactive to insect bites, stings -- and intolerant of people (guess who) who DID react to mosquitoes, black flies, etc. I took one of his pyribenzamines, once. It made my ears ring for 24 hours.

4. What is the strangest allergy you've ever heard of?

Members of my family have produced allergic reactions (hives and swelling of face etc.) to the presence of a viral infection, such as a cold ... it's called Quincke's Oedema (aka Giant Hives)...(you could look it up). And some folks have urticaria -- hives -- in reaction to extreme cold. One of my children is allergic to mandarin oranges -- satsumas -- and related citrus -- so citrus blends like Five-Alive are right OUT.

5. How do you feel about school and social policies that ban peanuts and other allergens?

I'm not sure. A college classmate died at a banquet where the chicken had been fried in peanut oil (this is almost 50 years ago)... an episode that pretty much framed my thinking ever after. But it distresses me when children are implicitly encouraged to identify themselves with their allergic reactions...and beyond that, my thinking is pretty much unformed.

Royal Wedding Edition

With kathrynzj's help, here is a Royal Wedding Friday Five:

1) Will you be watching? If so, is this your first royal wedding?

Watching, oh my yes. I woke up at 1 a.m., but realized that the next three hours (Mountain Daylight Saving Time) would consist entirely of variations on "OH ITZHAK this is SEWWWW exciting" ~~ a family-cherished line from the Three Tenors' concert in L.A., years ago ~~ so went back to bed with the alarm set for 4, and was up in front of the TV with Nefertiti the Loyal Cat in time to see Catherine enter the Abbey. Watched, on the CBC, until they closed the doors to the balcony.

NOT my first royal wedding but maybe the first one I watched right through? We had a cassette tape of Charles and Diana's wedding, including the encouraging whispers of the Archbishop to the couple, which I found very touching.

I do remember watching the Coronation on television in '53, and for me, also it was almost the first television I saw. Also in the Abbey.

I paid attention to Charles and Diana's wedding out of identification with the couple -- this time around, it's all about the officiating, the preaching, and the music.

2) The bride has chosen as her wedding cake a fruitcake. Where do you stand on this pastry?

I am really sorry that so few of my contemporaries apparently have ever encountered GOOD fruitcake. (The criteria are: don't stint on the candied fruit and don't stint on the BOOZE.) From where I sit -- nothing else IS a wedding cake. Ideally, it should have been baked and set to "ripen" before Advent 2010 and even so it would be a bit "new" at this point. It's a confection more than a "cake" -- and it's concocted so as to last virtually forever without spoiling or going stale. I like other kinds of cake just fine thank you, qua cake, but not for Christmas and not for weddings. Too....flimsy.

3) The dress code for royal weddings has not seen the same sad decline as that for most other weddings. If you could design your own royal wedding hat, what color would it be and what special decoration would it feature?

I guess at this season of my life the hat would have to be red! With maybe a nice silk rose. But I have very poor luck trying to find a ready-made hat to fit the size 8 head I came equipped with.


4) Any chance the Archbishop of Canterbury is using a Sustainable Sermon (tip of the mitre to the Vicar of Hogsmeade)? What would you tell the couple were you offering the homily?

I was sorry not to hear +++Rowan preach, but it was interesting to hear +Richard. I thought he could have preached better with the material that he had -- which I liked, both the quotation from Catherine of Siena and the quotation from Chaucer, which was gently mischievous.

Probably, though, until all memory of The Princess Bride has evaporated, glittering prelates should not begin their sentences with the word "Marriage," even without a lisp.

I think I would have been more likely than his lordship was, to have drawn helpful analogies from baseball.

And I am fond of the theology and the language of the Book of Common Prayer...which repays mulling over in memory. I like the idea of children "Christianly and virtuously brought up." I like the idea of "amiable" wives. I like "troth" -- "either to other".

5) Believe it or not, kathrynzj is getting up early mostly to see the wedding dress. By the time this post is up, the world will have seen it. Did you like it?

Very much -- it FIT, hurray; and otherwise, I'm with Martha on this one, SLEEVES, oh thanks be to God. If it starts a trend AWAY from the strapless...it will be a great favour to one and all especially clergy who often have to stand one step above the couple, confronting more decolletage than is healthy (20 pounds of custard in a 10 pound basket...ewwww) And I liked the understated veil, understated bouquet, relatively abbreviated train, discreet tiara.

the Friday Five

Dorcas has given us this introduction to the Friday Five, over at RevGalBlogPals:

"Though I am from a non-liturgical denomination, I find myself longing for some of the expressions others of you may experience at this time of year. The same thing happens to me during Advent. At both times I am drawn to the symbolism of darkness becoming light, of longing turning to joy. One of my favorite things at this time of year used to be draping the wooden cross at the rear of our sanctuary with a dark purple velvet cloth and adding a crown of (ouch!) thorns--and what a lovely thing it was to see that same cross on Easter Sunday morning, draped in glowing white with a golden, jewel-studded crown added. Not being a pastor this year, I am missing some of the symbolism I always tried to employ. I may find a nearby Episcopalian or Lutheran congregation to visit at some point, actually.

Meanwhile, today I am asking for your thoughts on that movement from darkness to light. Tell us five ways in which you are anticipating, or your life is moving towards light, joy, hope--new things: new ideas, new hobbies, new people...and so on."

And here are mine

1. LIGHT -- just plan flat out candle-power. More light in the evenings, now at last more light in the mornings. A dawn worth waking up to see.

2. BIRDS -- There is a chickadee in my yard who has found two notes that please him, and bellows them early and late. I haven't seen robins yet, but their whooping and bragging is unmistakable. And the geese, bless them. They remind me of a long ago April a long way from where I am now (in every dimension)...stepping out into a lovely soft New England evening, I heard a tiny repeated sound...and there was a "VEE" labouring northward, so high in the sky they were at the limit of what I could see. [Pause while you picture the Rambler running up and down the sidewalk in short homesick bursts, crying ank-ank, ank-ank, ank-ank, don't leave me...well, no, not quite, but the impulse was there!]

3. GROWING GREEN The church garden at St. Curious is under the windows against the south wall. A lovely sun-trap. And there are all manner of bulb-things showing green -- and indomitable leaves from the hollyhocks, already as big as the palm of my hand. Poignant when we remember we can still have a killing frost any time in the next six weeks... And in the meantime I am confident that my tulips are reaching for the sky, and light, and air, against the south wall of Tether's End, here...in their "igloo greenhouse" where the neighbour has piled the snow from his driveway all winter. It is melting away from underneath.

4. and so here and elsewhere, WATER -- running water, everywhere, on the sidewalks, in the streets, in the lanes, in the ravines, in the creeks. The best sound ever.

5. SPRING CLEANING accelerating the thinning and purging of bookshelves, closets, file cabinets, sordid little caches of this, that, and the other, all over the house. In honour of spring, and in anticipation of ...

5A. DOG and a very new and different engagement with time, place, energy, activity. S/He's not even a pup yet, just a notion...but this year, for sure, for sure.

the Friday Five (it's Friday somewhere, I'm sure)

Kathrynzj has invited us to play this Friday Five this week.

What are some things you appreciate about the season of Lent? Perhaps you would share 5 of them with us. And for your bonus question feel free to share one thing you could do without.


1. I like the discipline (yes, that word) of Lent but think it should include more than just "the bridle" -- on the pattern of Dante's Purgatorio I need the whip (OK, OK, the quirt, then!) to push me forward as well as the bit to pull me back. So this year I'll be thinking about what phrases would work best in both functions.

2. Purple. I feel blessed that I have a custom made purple stole -- real violet purple, not the "grape-a-lade" red-purple...

3. And the season -- the lengthening daylight, especially in this seemingly interminable winter.

4. Holy Week done as high'n'solemn as they'll let me get away with...ideally, daily Eucharist, Maundy done with a meal and the Pedilavium and the stripping of the altar, Friday with solemn devotions, and the Great Vigil with as many readings as possible and as much darkness as possible, but this year, see point #3 above!!!

5. The opportunities in teaching the children in this solemn season without either trivializing everything or scaring them into nightmares. I like "serious explorations" with children, even quite little ones.

And what can I do without? rushing the season (chocolate easter eggs on Good Friday, for example), and jamming the season, multiplying extra-parochial services and observances like the re-affirmation of vows, for Pete's sake.

the Friday Five

...I think it's still Friday, briefly perhaps, somewhere in the Pacific just this side of the International Date Line!

Jan, over at RevGalBlogPals, has posted this:

I hope some of you received books for Christmas presents; I did and have been reading ever since. Then I discovered a new author from those recommendations that pop up on Amazon.com. Instead of buying those books, I've been checking them out at the library, which will not help Amazon's future recommendations for me at all.

So tell us what you're reading, what you would and would not recommend--five books or authors! And if you don't want to do that freestyle, here are some questions:

1. What books have you recently read? Tell us your opinion of them.
Life at the Bottom by Theodore Dalrymple, essays from the late 90's by an English psychiatrist practising in a slum hospital and a prison. He identifies and illustrates the pervasive self-deceptions and self-delusions that, in his view, have created and are sustaining a permanent under-class. The mindset he talks about is not just a local phenomenon. His comments on interactions between immigrant communities and the native underclass are stimulating. A bit of a rant, this one--but I'm in sympathy with it, or much of it. Also re-read, with great enjoyment, Metaphor and Memory by Cynthia Ozick. (She could have a fine howdy-do with Doc Dalrymple, come to think of it!) And P. D. James, Original Sin; great evocation of place, as always, and -- I thought -- a sharp recognition of the emotional climate of the post-religious society.

2. What books are awaiting your available time to be read? Peter Brown's big bio of St. Augustine. Essays by Emanuel Levinas. Buber's I and Thou --finally! Chittister and Williams, Uncommon Gratitudes. Williams, again -- Tokens of Trust.

3. Have any books been recently recommended? I have a great yen to read Paul Halliday's new book, Habeas Corpus, after the laudatory review in TLS. There has been so much reference to Saul Bellow in reviews I've seen recently, I think I might give him another try, after 40 years.

4. What genre of books are your favorite, along with some titles and/or authors you like best? I read mysteries for relaxation: Allingham, Burke (James Lee), P. D. James, Ngaio Marsh, Sayers, Dell Shannon, Josephine Tey. And biography. And literary criticism. And classic novels. (Austen rules!)

5. What have you read lately that you have a strong urge to recommend? (or to condemn?) If I read something that I have an urge to condemn, I don't finish it! Life grows short, too short for literary disappointment. But I will recommend one additional book that I'm in the midst of re-reading (after about 20 years): A Cry of Absence by Martin Marty. I read it originally, huddled in a corner on the floor of the university library...it spoke to me in the midst of marriage collapse (which is all I'm going to say about THAT)...it introduced me to Karl Rahner, and may have had something to do with flinging me into seminary studies; it identified my own spirituality to me, or so I thought. What is astonishing to me in the re-reading is how much of my very positive memory of the book is really memory of the construction I put upon it at the time. Anybody else have that experience? Of remembering a text you actually "made up out of your head"? Weird!

PS looked at other people's lists and was reminded that I am also re-reading cookbooks I've had for a while: most recently, the Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special. I don't know how long this has been on the shelf. I do know I've never before cooked anything from it. I must have bought it back when most suppers began with a great sullen lump of ground beef. Frozen. And everything else was an afterthought! But I've made 2 kinds of vegetable stock and converted the Roasted Vegetable one into cream-of-spinach and creamy carrot-sweet potato soups. Tastes change, I guess. They are good.

Friday Five, Winter Olympics Edition

1) Which of the Winter Olympic sports is your favorite to watch?

I enjoy watching almost anything in which I don't have an emotional stake in who wins...until after it is over...because I'm convinced I jinx figure skaters, hockey teams, etc. I like watching curling, see below, because at least in curling nobody is likely to sustain a life-threatening injury, unless of course Rink Rage takes over and the curlers start lobbing the curling rocks at each other overhand... It does seem though that most of the winter sports have as a prerequisite the desire to fling oneself headfirst into the abyss... that said, I get a huge kick out of ski jumping, where at least, mostly, they stay right way up...or intend to. I have a personal though small stake in four-man bobsled this time around as I actually taught one of the team drivers, everything he knows. About Jane Austen. It wasn't a great deal; even then he was booking weeks off to hurtle downhill in various exotic venues...

2) Some of the uniforms have attracted attention this year, such as the US Snowboarders' pseudo-flannel shirts and the Norwegian Curling team's -- ahem -- pants.


Who do you think had the best-looking uniforms?

I liked both those uniforms actually...but there were some that were truly quite beautiful -- was it the Koreans that had the beautiful snowflakes on their jackets in the opening ceremonies? Not too impressed about the "Bermuda" shorts, I must admit. And those toques generally are kind of disfiguring...the various devices for lessening drag were interesting especially in speed-skating. Then there are the figure-skating costumes, and that's "a-whole-nother story" as we say.


3) And Curling. Really? What's up with that?

TAKE NOTE RIGHT NOW, I will take no guff from anybody about the sport of curling. NONE. Especially not from any citizens whose national butts are about to be kicked by the Canucks. I mean really... this is lawn-bowling/boccie/petanque on ice. What could be more reasonable? And how can you not enjoy a sport in which respectable middle-aged ladies, on all fours, on ice, scream, HARDER HARDER HARDER YES YES YES???

4) Define Nordic Combined. Don't look it up. Take a guess if you must.

Ok, it's skiing. My guess is downhill and slalom; I don't know whether cross-country is included. Maybe jumping as well. What the heck.


(There will be a prize for the best answer, but be aware, this is a judged sport.)

5) If you could be a Winter Olympics Champion just by wishing for it, which sport would you choose for winning your Gold Medal?

oh heavens...not crazy about snow, ice, cold, or leaping into the void in any sense... but probably one of the forms of skiing.

whee!

And many thanks to I am Chorus who bestowed the lovely Kreativ Blogger award you see over to the right!

Here are the rules:

List 7 things that you love and then pass the award on to 7 people...tagging them and letting them know they won! You can copy the picture of the award and put it on your sideboard letting the whole wide world know you are KReATIV!

Seven things that I love:

1. Anglican chant!
2. My job! (TBTG)
3. Reading!
4. Italy! (ah, Roma...)
5. Putting together people and text...giving books to readers and readers to books!
6. Red meat!
7. Laughter!

And if you're reading this, please consider yourself tagged?

Meme, glorious meme...

I've been double-tagged for this one -- thank you Sisterfilms and Chorus -- so here we go!

Here are the rules:


1. List these rules on your blog.


2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog.

a. The first four schools I attended were the one-room variety, with total enrolment ranging from six pupils to about 30. Two of those schools had no indoor plumbing.

b. I hate competing, but I hate losing even more.

c. I remember learning to read from the Corn Flakes box when I was four years old.

d. I've sailed the Inside Passage route from Vancouver to Alaska three times, round trip -- on business, every time.

e. I have taught English Grammar and Composition to engineering students (and lived to tell about it).

f. I love to cook for BIG groups of people...25-40, say.

g. My best and happiest times are bringing people and text together. Almost any text, almost any people.

There! I'm not sure whether those are of interest, a-tall, but so it is; they're not actionable either so far as I can tell!


3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

All right now: I tag...

Shoeless Seminarian;
Knit One, Purl One, Preach One;
Kate Morningstar;
Snow on Roses;
Leave it lay where Jesus flang it;
Parish Perspectives;
Mercenary Presbyter.

Whew! Enjoy, friends!

***Mercy! It appears that this is Post #200!

The Friday Five

With this Sunday's gospel reading in mind, that wonderful revelation of Christ to the companions on the Emmaus road. I wonder where you might have been surprised by God's revelation recently.

So with no further waffle I offer you this week's Friday 5:

How has God revealed him/herself to you in a:

1. Book

Too many to list. "Book" would be where I look first, always, from the time I learned to read, which was a fair time ago. At the moment, it would be Anne Lamott, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith. More about that, below.

2.Film

Again, lots and lots...

3. Song

Whoops, I missed this one the first time through. How about that big fat unembarrassed C Major chord at the beginning of the 5th Piano Concerto (the "Emperor") by Beethoven? either that or Rhapsody in Blue...the piano arrangement (not that the fully orchestrated one isn't good too...)

4. Another person

This is a way-back, almost 60-year memory. My aunt and uncle used to drive from Ontario to the West Coast for a visit to both sets of grandparents -- every other year, since they couldn't make the round trip in the annual two-week allotted holiday. You do realize we are talking "back in the day," here? One summer when they arrived, my mother, my brother and I were already ensconced at Nana's. Nana lived about 3 miles from Crescent Beach, on Boundary Bay...Paradise Lost...and the Prime Hangable Offense in that household was to ask for ANYTHING. Anyway. Aunt and Uncle and two cousins arrived. And I contemplated them with wonderment. My aunt was beautiful and blonde and sassy, she smoked cigarettes and said "Damn," and yet the sky did not fall. And my uncle -- I know now he was decompressing from a solid week of pounding westward across the northern USA...was leaning on the kitchen counter with his arms folded...when he suddenly, without preamble, looked at me and said, "Aloo [baby name] -- have you got a bathing suit?" I remember thinking with AWE, "Oh he is going to take us to the beach without EVEN BEING ASKED." Which he did. Every single day. Rain and/or shine. We dug clams and chased little crabs in the tidal pools ... and swam, and dug, and all those good things. Without even being asked...it was all gold.

5. Creation

Mountains do it for me, because they're huge and I am not expected to do anything about them. Trees do it too...because they get on humbly and faithfully with the business of tree-ing, in spite of being "despitefully used."

Bonus answer: your choice- share something encouraging/ amazing/ humbling that has happened to you recently!

All right...Wednesday this week was kind of tough, ended up in a regional clergy meeting that began very well with an unusual degree of hospsitality, relaxation and camaraderie, prior to the arrival of two colleagues about whom I shall say nothing more at this time. I crept out early under a plea of having to prepare for a nursing-home communion service. Being WAY early for the service, I had time to detour through Small but Well-stocked Church Bookstore, where I bought the Anne Lamott I mentioned in #1. I drove to the nursing home and sat outside in the car in the sun, and read Anne Lamott and ate candied ginger until I felt human again and it was time for our service. You heard it here first: Anne Lamott, and candied ginger. Guaranteed to take the Bad Taste out of your mouth.

Friday Five...

Reflecting on how early Easter is, how early the switch to Daylight Saving Time has been, and how out of synch many of us are feeling as a result -- A fine Friday Five from Mother Laura over at RevGalBlogPals:

If you could travel to any historical time period, which would it be, and why?

I've seen some great answers in other Gals' posts -- maybe Bach's Leipzig, Mozart's Vienna...or Regency England; or the first 10 years of the twentieth century, here in North America (if we could skip "The Hard Winter of Ought-Six" (it's a Prairie Thing). My problem is I keep remembering all the things we DON'T have to contend with, things like preventable illnesses, that darkened those times and places, and I somehow wind up thinking that "right now" is the best yet!

2. What futuristic/science fiction development would you most like to see?

Teleportation would be nice so that we could see the people we love oftener without leaving obscene carbon footprints!

3. Which do you enjoy more: remembering the past, or dreaming for the future?

I find I remember my own past much more than I dream about the future; as somebody has already said, of course I have a lot more past than future at this point!

4. What do you find most memorable about this year's Lent?

Extreme cold temperatures, perhaps...

5. How will you spend your time during this upcoming Holy Week? What part do you look forward to most?

I celebrate an additional daytime Eucharist MTW, at different times of the day: noon on Monday, early evening on Tuesday, crack-of-dawn on Wednesday.
The regular ten a.m. Holy Communion on Thursday, and then supper, footwashing, last Eucharist, stripping the altar on Thursday evening.
Children's Way of the Cross on Friday morning (our teens may go downtown to walk the inner-city one); Solemn Devotions at noon on Friday, Daughter Unit singing the Reproaches. [for personal enrichment, Serious Concert Good Friday evening -- the Rachmaninoff All-Night Vespers, concert version, i.e. NOT all night, but plenty].
A "Benedictine Morning" on Holy Saturday during which the Sanctuary Guild will clean house with hourly prayer-breaks and a potluck lunch to conclude.
The Great Vigil at 8 o'clock. LOW POINT of the entire season will be, again, lighting the Easter Fire in the Sacred Barbeque, and trying to keep the paschal candle lit in the wind. There will be wind. Trust me. HIGH POINT probably of the entire season (up to that moment) will be Daughter Unit singing the Exsultet for the first time. Wild ringing of bells at the Gloria (we ask people to bring handbells, cowbells, sleighbells, ornamental bells, school bells, whatever they have at home, and "let'er rip")...

Easter Sunday morning, two services, and the choir will sing at both. In between the services they will have a nutritious and sustaining breakfast, washed down with mimosas. The Gospel Acclamation on Easter Sunday is the Hallelujah Chorus. Yes, that one. Yes, all of it. And at the second service, full of breakfast etc., (not to mention the mimosas) I can't begin to tell you how much ATTACK the choir brings to this moment. Trumpeters, too. That will, indeed, be quite toothsome; a serious contender for High Point.

Then a mid-afternoon communion service at a seniors' residence.

And -- proving that I am irrecoverably base and carnal and irreligious if not absolutely apostate -- the real high point of the week, I fear, will be consuming the Easter Ham with the family chez Daughter Unit and SIL Unit...and collapse.

The Friday Five...leap year edition!

It's Leap Day!! Whether you're one of the special few who have a birthday only once every four years, or simply confused by the extra day on the calendar, everyone is welcome to join in and play our Leap Year Friday Five.

Tell us about a time you:

1. Leapt before looked:

This is quite challenging because in general I DON'T LEAP. Not me. Risk-averse, in every way.
But I can remember one "leap" that I survived...back in the Year When Everything Fell Apart...I was told at the end of May (in a form letter) that there would be no teaching available for sessional instructors in the coming September--which meant I was out of a job. There was a hand-written PS on the letter from my boss saying, "I think I can find you one section to teach, perhaps." I went straight down the corridor and into his office without feeling the floor anywhere along the way, and said, as follows: "B, don't you tell me that I have no teaching next fall because I HAVE to have teaching next fall, and there's no two ways about that." And he looked at me mildly and said, "Close the door, and sit down, and tell me what's going on." So I did, and we had one of those break-through conversations that took us to "friends" in one fell swoop. (And there WAS enough teaching to keep us afloat, and the biopsies came back negative, and one way and another we got through THAT year...)

2. Leapt to a conclusion:

...actually I do this fairly frequently and it's nearly always the same conclusion: "Woe to Troy! It's all up with us! We're ALL DOOMED! DOOMED, I tell you!!!" Most tedious. The first time I did this, apparently, was when I was reading to myself The Three Little Pigs. My mother came into the room just as I flung the book into the corner, exclaiming, "He's eaten the first little pig, he's eaten the second little pig, he's just about to eat the third little pig, and I'm not reading this EATY BOOK any more!"

3. Took a Leap of Faith:

The year before I was ordained...after a very frustrating conversation about ministry...I betook myself to the local MCC shop "Ten Thousand Villages" and bought myself a set of five stoles from Thailand...at that point I had no date of ordination nor any assurance that there would ever be one. But something inside said, "Put your money where your mouth is, or where your hopes are." It was a happy and memorable encounter with the Mennonite volunteers too; as we concluded our business one of them said to me, "Now you go right up the street to your bishop's office, you walk in and slap these down on his desk and say, 'SEE? I'm ready!!'" THAT was too big a leap for me; but HER confidence was very affirming! And within six months...ordination was on the calendar, after all.

4. Took a literal Leap. Honestly, I cannot remember even one.

5. And finally, what might you be faced with leaping in the coming year?

Well, it's high time I leapt, gently, into an exercise program. And that will probably mean leaping into a swimming pool somewhere nearby. Or, of course, letting myself down into it gradually an inch at a time!

the name Meme

I was tagged for this meme by RevDrKate at Prairie Light. So here goes...

1. You have to post the rules before you give your answers.
2. You must list one fact about yourself beginning with each letter of your middle name. (If you don't have a middle name, use your maiden name or your mother's maiden name).
3. At the end of your blog post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name. (Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged.)

All right then. Rules are posted. So far so easy.

Middle names? Man, do I have middle names. Middle names are my middle name...oops, sorry!
Going to hedge just a little here. I have five names, and the third of them (also the third of my given or baptismal names) is the one I use, and that is a little uncomfortable; my maiden name is nine letters long, unh unh...so I'll use my second or middle given name -- which was also my mother's given name. A suitably muddle-headed Anglican compromise, I think.

A -- Anglican by the grace of God through two agencies -- the beauties of seventeenth century liturgy and devotional literature; the contrasting formlessness of the tradition I was born into
L -- Literate -- the printed word, the bound book...are my twin refuges, and have been for 60 years
I -- Introvert -- constitutionally! Painfully!
C -- Cautious, Cold, Captious, and Cranky -- too much of the time!
E -- Eldering -- accelerating, gently and gratefully, into an innocuous desuetude...I hope!

And I tag:

A -- Seeking Authentic Voice-- this is the best I can do here!
L -- Life and Times of a Preacher Mom
I -- I am Chorus
C -- Cheesehead in Paradise
E -- Exile's Return

Heavenly Friday Five

Thanks to Singing Owl for this week's Friday Five ...
What is your idea of a heavenly (i.e. wonderful and perfect):

1. Family get-together... All my brothers and all our families together eating and drinking and laughing and nobody spooked by anybody else, or on edge...with time to walk and time to play touch football and time to watch old movies (but not home movies)...if it were over Christmas, that would be so much the better.

2. Song or musical piece: as Garrison Keillor might say, "the Bach B Minor Mass with a good Anglican choir leaning into it like sled dogs crossing the tundra"...!!! Or the Allegri Miserere...or the "Hallelujah Chorus" with lots of ATTACK, and the trumpets in tune with the organ (and each other). Or Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue or Beethoven's Piano Concerto #5: the Emperor, on a really good piano...

3. Gift...I have no idea... My Dad gave me a red taffeta crinoline for Christmas when I was about 13, and that was pretty heavenly... gave me an instant rapport with Mammy in Gone With the Wind too!

4. You choose whatever you like-food, pair of shoes, vacation, house, or something else. Just tell us what it is and what a heavenly version of it would be.

Well then I would say a heavenly vacation...and it would be "back to Italy" with more time and more energy!

5. And for a serious moment, or what would you like your entrance into the next life to be like?
What, from your vantage point now, would make Heaven "heavenly?"
I would like to be able to look at the people whom I wanted to love me, and know that they did. I think I'll leave it at that. For the fuller version, see Dante Alighieri, passim.

the Book Meme, finally

With thanks to Mompriest and others who kept tagging me for this:

Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more.

OK: it's Good News: The Best Religion Writing in North America edited by Debra A. Wagner and published by Seabury in New York.

Find page 123:

Right, this is in an essay called "'King of Pop' More Like a 'God'" by David W. Reid, reprinted from Vital Theology.

Find the first 5 sentences. OK, done that!

Post the next three sentences. Here we go.

"'For somebody who has no limits, who is unwilling to hear the counsel of others where there ought to be boundaries and limits in life, all kinds of sexual transgressions become possible,' he said.
Indeed, sexual activity was evidence of the power of ancient gods. Such gods were unfaithful to their wives when married, came down to earth to have sex with mortals, crossed over traditional boundaries about available sex partners, and proved their godliness by suffering no consequences."

Tag five people. OK...I tag...
I'm Still Me

Fringe Dweller

Mom said nobody cares...

Musings

Gower Street

I hope I haven't tagged anybody who's played already!!! Enjoy!!

Oh Christmas Three, Oh Christmas Three

I was tagged for this by Yearning for God -- so here goes:

What are your three favorite Christmas songs and who sings them?
"Let It Snow" was the first song I ever sang, according to my mother...
"Once in Royal David's City" -- whoever sings it (not me, cuz I'll be crying) -- a nice English boy treble is good, though!
"Of the Father's Love Begotten" --sung by any good choir


What are your three favorite Christmas foods?
Marzipan on or off fruitcake
Plum pudding and hard sauce
The whole nine-yards Christmas dinner thing -- turkey and stuffing and spuds and gravy and sweet potatoes and brussels sprouts and tomato aspic and whatever else can find room on the table!
OR Canadian pea-meal back bacon, cut thick, for Christmas breakfast.

What are your three favorite Christmas movies?
Miracle on 34th Street--the original version
A Christmas Story
When we lived up north, the mining company brought in a movie to show as a treat after the school Christmas concert, which was short; total enrolment in the school = six of us. And what they chose was a kind of musical hodgepodge called Carnegie Hall. It had a plot, which was unnecessary and foolish, but it also had wonderful cameo appearances by Lily Pons, Rosa Ponselle, Jose Iturbi, Artur Rubinstein, and who-all else. For a very long time I thought that was about the acme of cinematic art.