It's mid-February so what I'm reading is IRS pubs as I prepare to do our taxes. Ugh! I hate this. And I miss Donald Booker whom we could really trust to do it for us. Now we TurboTax. When I was growing up Mother always served salmon croquettes (she made hers with Post Toasties) with canned tomatoes and store-bought (vs. the homemade we took for granted) cookies when she worked on taxes.
It's an election year so what I'm reading is information in the hope of making an informed choice in the primary elections. Early voting begins today so I'm hoping to have my endorsements before the weekend so we can VOTE! One source of good information is the League of Women Voters with links to the party sites. I agree with the Chronicle's endorsements of Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Bill White for gubernatorial candidates.
We're also having a colder than usual winter so instead of working in my yard I'm browsing seed catalogs and websites. Houston isn't Pennsylvania, California, or Virginia--it isn't even Dallas--so don't expect general garden books to work. I get my gardening advice Kathy Huber's garden site at The Houston Chronicle but there are a couple of books I also recommend:
River Oaks Garden Club: A Garden Book for Houston and the Gulf Coast which is unfortunately out-of-print although used copies are available and so much the better since this book is going to be more at home in your garden than on a shelf. Its circle of the year and monthly lists of what to plant and what is in bloom are much needed.
Cathey, H. Marc & Bellamy, Linda: Heat-Zone Gardening. How to choose plants that thrive in your region's warmest weather is most useful because it's a colder than usual February but July & August will be HOT!.
I was invited to read and comment on two works by friends:
McGrgor, Keith: The Beacon. I was privileged to have a pre-production read of Keith's newest play. Visit his webiste: ravenwriters.com
Becker, Joseph Peter is completing his Ph.D. thesis. He has done some really fascinating work on grace. His thesis deals with a short section of Corinthians but it has implications for all scripture and for the life of believers. I told Joe that "this changes everything." One of the things it has changed is my view of Pauline scripture. As my theology has grown increasingly "feminist" I have found Paul to be a "thorn in my side." No more. I cannot wait until Joe's work becomes more generally available. I have not read a book that more changed my understanding since Dallas Willard's The Divine Conspiracy.
Non-fiction:
Eugene Peterson's Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places. A conversation in spiritual theology is still on my Kindle and I am finishing up and rebrowsing this book which I highly recommend.
Foster, Thomas C.: How to Read Novels Like a Professor. A jaunty exploration of the world's favorite litereary form. New York: Harper, 2008. David finished and passed this one on to me which is proving almost but not quite as delightful and informative as this author's previous book How to Read Literature... I highly recommend this book to students who are preparing to attend college.
Austen, Jane: Emma. Kindle. The recent PBS programs remind me that it's time to re-read Miss Austen.
Bedside Books:
Mabie, Hamilton Wright: Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know. Doubleday, 1905. Project Gutenberg. Kindle. I'm reading one or two a week. I forget how frightening some of these stories are. I'm pretty sure that I would not choose to read them to a young child. Let's rate them PG.
Paulson, Beth: Wild Raspberries. 2008 I'm prolonging the pleasure from this delightful poet. Previous books are The Company of Trees and The Truth about Thunder.
Merrill, Nan C.: Psalms for Praying: an invitation to wholeness. New York/London: Continuum, 2006. This reworking of the Psalms emphasizes "God is love..." It is by no means an accurate translation but it is a response to the timeless text and gives a fresh voice to psalmic prayer. I am only allowing myself a psalm or two at a time hoping to make the book last through Easter.
SEASONS:
Whitaker, Evelyn: Laddie. We finished our discussion of the 19th Century woman novelist as theologian. My introduction and downloadable .pdf of Laddie with my annotations are available at my domain: evelynwhitakerlibrary.org/
16 February 2010
03 February 2010
Lightnin' Strike
1972-1973. Astrodome. Cheap seats, just left of center field. During mid-week Astros games, five bucks got us into the game and bought Cokes and hotdogs for supper, maybe popcorn or candy if there was a promotion like "ladies' night" or two-for-one dogs. Some nights we took home change. We lived in Smith Square and walked to the game--didn't even have to pay parking.
The size of the crowd in that section varied from every seat filled to a dozen or so regulars. Sometimes there were Little League teams, fresh faced kids from the suburbs of Sharpstown and Westbury. Some nights brought the player and band parents from Yates or Worthing High Schools. Men just back from working the off-shore rigs and contruction workers crowded in on nights when beer was cheap. On those nights it could get a bit rough but by and large it was a congenial crowd--we all loved the game.
When we were lucky and the section wasn't too crowded, a black man (Negro had just passed from polite use, and Afro-American had yet to be introduced) in a slouch hat and somewhat garish jacket sat with a guitar. The guitar was a thing of beauty.
Before the game and during lulls in the action, he played 12-bar blues with licks and progressions, and frequently a sustained bass. Sometimes he sang or kinda hummed. It was unlike any music I had ever heard and I loved it.
Sometimes he seemed to be just fooling around, free and loose. Sometimes I thought he was composing a new song. Come the 7th inning, he always had a mini-concert which I thought would have been well worth a cover charge that was more than double what the grad student with the working wife had budgeted for the evening. Baseball and blues. It just doesn't get any better.
One night, flush with both gratitude and a little cash, DMP offered to buy him a hotdog and Coke and he said, "Make it a beer." My tee-totaling, church of Christer paused for a beat (during which the man did some pretty fancy drumming on the guitar case) and then said, "You got it."
When we asked his name, he said, "My mamma named me Sam; most folks calls me Lightnin." Although we didn't know it at the time we had met Houston blues legend, Lightnin' Hopkins.
We spent the next few years with the U.S. Army in Maryland and when we came back to Houston rarely attended Astros games except with friends. We seldom sat in the cheap seats, having grown prosperous and less rich.
I did continue to see Sam out and about, now and then. At Herman Park Zoo a couple of times. Very often at DMP's slow-pitch softball games for church or work teams when they played week night games at parks in the UH or TSU neighborhoods. He'd be sitting at the top of the bleachers if there were any--on a picnic bench or railing or car bumper otherwise--with his guitar. The man either loved a ball game or just liked to be playing a crowd. I ran into him at a bus stop now and then.
The last couple of times I saw him was early in the 1980s. He looked unwell. He was playing the blues in hospital lobbies at the Texas Medical Center. There is no unacknowledged pain in the blues; nonetheless there is something joyous and hopeful in that music.
Listen to Lightnin' Hopkins on youtube.com
I chose this rendition of Cotton because I like the photos and because the songs I remember best were those that evoked my childhood growing up on the farm. It was common ground. "I never felt more like singin' the blues."
Yesterday's Houston Chronicle had an article about a proposed marker in honor of Lightnin' Hopkins on Dowling Street near the popular club which charged a cover to hear my friend play. Sam was quite famous and not the poor old man I thought him to be, one of my "angels unaware."
The size of the crowd in that section varied from every seat filled to a dozen or so regulars. Sometimes there were Little League teams, fresh faced kids from the suburbs of Sharpstown and Westbury. Some nights brought the player and band parents from Yates or Worthing High Schools. Men just back from working the off-shore rigs and contruction workers crowded in on nights when beer was cheap. On those nights it could get a bit rough but by and large it was a congenial crowd--we all loved the game.
When we were lucky and the section wasn't too crowded, a black man (Negro had just passed from polite use, and Afro-American had yet to be introduced) in a slouch hat and somewhat garish jacket sat with a guitar. The guitar was a thing of beauty.
Before the game and during lulls in the action, he played 12-bar blues with licks and progressions, and frequently a sustained bass. Sometimes he sang or kinda hummed. It was unlike any music I had ever heard and I loved it.
Sometimes he seemed to be just fooling around, free and loose. Sometimes I thought he was composing a new song. Come the 7th inning, he always had a mini-concert which I thought would have been well worth a cover charge that was more than double what the grad student with the working wife had budgeted for the evening. Baseball and blues. It just doesn't get any better.
One night, flush with both gratitude and a little cash, DMP offered to buy him a hotdog and Coke and he said, "Make it a beer." My tee-totaling, church of Christer paused for a beat (during which the man did some pretty fancy drumming on the guitar case) and then said, "You got it."
When we asked his name, he said, "My mamma named me Sam; most folks calls me Lightnin." Although we didn't know it at the time we had met Houston blues legend, Lightnin' Hopkins.
We spent the next few years with the U.S. Army in Maryland and when we came back to Houston rarely attended Astros games except with friends. We seldom sat in the cheap seats, having grown prosperous and less rich.
I did continue to see Sam out and about, now and then. At Herman Park Zoo a couple of times. Very often at DMP's slow-pitch softball games for church or work teams when they played week night games at parks in the UH or TSU neighborhoods. He'd be sitting at the top of the bleachers if there were any--on a picnic bench or railing or car bumper otherwise--with his guitar. The man either loved a ball game or just liked to be playing a crowd. I ran into him at a bus stop now and then.
The last couple of times I saw him was early in the 1980s. He looked unwell. He was playing the blues in hospital lobbies at the Texas Medical Center. There is no unacknowledged pain in the blues; nonetheless there is something joyous and hopeful in that music.
Listen to Lightnin' Hopkins on youtube.com
I chose this rendition of Cotton because I like the photos and because the songs I remember best were those that evoked my childhood growing up on the farm. It was common ground. "I never felt more like singin' the blues."
Yesterday's Houston Chronicle had an article about a proposed marker in honor of Lightnin' Hopkins on Dowling Street near the popular club which charged a cover to hear my friend play. Sam was quite famous and not the poor old man I thought him to be, one of my "angels unaware."
25 January 2010
Happiness, Church, and How to Find a Good Book
When I was an undergrad someone told me (in a sneering, snobbish tone) that "serious readers don't read Reader's Digest." I said and still say, "Fie!" expressing mild disgust, disapprobation, and annonyance (Dictionary.com) at such an idea. The world is full of books and a serious reader needs all the help she can get to find the good ones.
I've read and mostly enjoyed Reader's Digest since I was a very young child. I've had the current issue (Feb) in hand to fill odd moments for the last couple of days and found an item of interest. On page 16 there is an article about Joy citing the work of Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert author of Stumbling on Happiness. You may also have seen his NOVA series: This Emotional Life.
I've visited
http://www.amazon.com/Stumbling-Happiness-Daniel-Gilbert/dp/1400077427/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1
and downloaded a sample onto my Kindle--it's like a bookstore in my hand. When I next walk through a book store (real or virtual) I'll browse this title and give it the librarian's read: title page & catalog info, author bio if any, table of contents, introduction unless it's too long and a page or two here and there, maybe scan the index. I may decide to buy it but probably not; the world is full of books and a serious reader must save money as well as time.
Reading and bookstores and libraries make me happy, but perhaps the sneering snob is correct and I'm not a "serious reader" but a mere hunter/gatherer of books.
I'm intrigued by Daniel Gilbert's ideas. At least in the Reader's Digest version he offers this advice on how to be happy:
Returning to Daniel Gilbert: "Churchgoers are happier than non-church goers, but not for the reasons people expect... it's not the religion part... It's the going-to-church part. It's the holding hands and singing. It's the knowing-folks-who-would-bring-you-soup-if-you-got-sick part. Odds seem to me pretty good that you could also get all the benefits out of a really tight stamp-collecting club." I agree that a community of caring is important to happiness and a defining aspect of church but it is only one aspect. Church is far superior to any club, no matter how "tight." At least my church is. Like a family, it is multi-generational--I mentor and am mentored throughout my life. It lets me keep in touch with the edges of life, with the very young and the very old. Like an ideal community, it is racially, ethnicly, economicly, socially, and culturally diverse--it expands my world. Most clubs are based on a shared interest; a church is based on a shared interest and a shared life. It, in fact, incorporates all six of the items on the above list: it is a commiment to God and to one another; it offers pleasure (that holding hands and singing thing) that happens reliably and changes lives; it offers comfort and hope and encouragement and tools to hang in there; it is a church; it provides countless opportunities to give time, money, and self; and it offers experiences and discourages materialism. A club may give happiness; a good church is a well-spring of joy.
Serendipity: last night the needs of one of our church members required DMP & I to forego the happiness of play-off football and Masterpiece Theater's Emma. Today when I checked out Daniel Gilbert's NOVA series, I find that I can watch the first episode of Emma at
http://video.pbs.org/video/1390621799/
Yes! I'm happy!
I've read and mostly enjoyed Reader's Digest since I was a very young child. I've had the current issue (Feb) in hand to fill odd moments for the last couple of days and found an item of interest. On page 16 there is an article about Joy citing the work of Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert author of Stumbling on Happiness. You may also have seen his NOVA series: This Emotional Life.
I've visited
http://www.amazon.com/Stumbling-Happiness-Daniel-Gilbert/dp/1400077427/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1
and downloaded a sample onto my Kindle--it's like a bookstore in my hand. When I next walk through a book store (real or virtual) I'll browse this title and give it the librarian's read: title page & catalog info, author bio if any, table of contents, introduction unless it's too long and a page or two here and there, maybe scan the index. I may decide to buy it but probably not; the world is full of books and a serious reader must save money as well as time.
Reading and bookstores and libraries make me happy, but perhaps the sneering snob is correct and I'm not a "serious reader" but a mere hunter/gatherer of books.
I'm intrigued by Daniel Gilbert's ideas. At least in the Reader's Digest version he offers this advice on how to be happy:
- commitment "isn't just a sign of love; it's a cause of love."
- little things "pleasure that happens reliably... every day...changes your life."
- hang in there "Let time do what time does well."
- go to church (or somewhere) and I'll have a comment on that a bit later
- give to others
- invest in experiences not things
Returning to Daniel Gilbert: "Churchgoers are happier than non-church goers, but not for the reasons people expect... it's not the religion part... It's the going-to-church part. It's the holding hands and singing. It's the knowing-folks-who-would-bring-you-soup-if-you-got-sick part. Odds seem to me pretty good that you could also get all the benefits out of a really tight stamp-collecting club." I agree that a community of caring is important to happiness and a defining aspect of church but it is only one aspect. Church is far superior to any club, no matter how "tight." At least my church is. Like a family, it is multi-generational--I mentor and am mentored throughout my life. It lets me keep in touch with the edges of life, with the very young and the very old. Like an ideal community, it is racially, ethnicly, economicly, socially, and culturally diverse--it expands my world. Most clubs are based on a shared interest; a church is based on a shared interest and a shared life. It, in fact, incorporates all six of the items on the above list: it is a commiment to God and to one another; it offers pleasure (that holding hands and singing thing) that happens reliably and changes lives; it offers comfort and hope and encouragement and tools to hang in there; it is a church; it provides countless opportunities to give time, money, and self; and it offers experiences and discourages materialism. A club may give happiness; a good church is a well-spring of joy.
Serendipity: last night the needs of one of our church members required DMP & I to forego the happiness of play-off football and Masterpiece Theater's Emma. Today when I checked out Daniel Gilbert's NOVA series, I find that I can watch the first episode of Emma at
http://video.pbs.org/video/1390621799/
Yes! I'm happy!
19 January 2010
Vote! Step One: Register
Vote! If you intend to vote in the Texas primaries on March 2nd you must register no later than February 1st. You can download a registration form using a link on the FAQ page.
http://votexas.org/stepone_registerby.html
http://votexas.org/stepone_registerby.html
06 January 2010
What I'm Reading...
Today is Epiphany, Twelfth Night, which celebrates my favorite aspect of the Christmas story: wisdom and power bow down before mystery and vulnerability and offer gifts of wealth, worship, and sacrifice. Our tree remains since it's still drinking water and its needles are still soft and its fragrance fresh but eventually I will have to take it down. It's not surprising that I'm still reading Christmas notes, newsletters, gift books, post-holiday sale catalogs, and catching up on periodicals.
I have been reminded of why I bother subscribing to and reading The Economist as I have greatly enjoyed the holiday double issue, dated December 19th 2009-January 1st 2010. Of particular note were articles on violin-making, the virtues of pessimism, too many chains (religious freedom), the Harry Potter economy, hedonism & claret, dark matter rumors, language, joys of dirt, network effects (techonology and newpapers), an interesting book review (Wade, Nicholoas: The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures. Penguin Press.), and comments on an exhibition on human identity and on the vampire lit phenom.
I also read all the fine print at http://www.medicare.gov/ as I gathered information and helped people enroll in Medicare Part D Prescripiton Drug Plans.
My daily Bible reading this year will be from http://www.pcusa.org/lectionary/
Fiction:
Mabie, Hamilton Wright: Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know. Doubleday, 1905. Project Gutenberg. Kindle. Beatrix Potter got me started so I'll be nibbling children's lit for a bit.
Numeroff, Laura & Bond, Felicia: If You Take a Mouse to the Movies. Harper-Collins, 2009. The latest addition to the charming series that both DMP and I enjoy. We love to share the "if you give" books with children who come to visit. This edition is a gift from Sonya and includes a CD and sheet music and cookie recipes and family activities. What fun! http://www.mousecookiebooks.com/
Willems, Mo: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! New York: Hyperion, 2003. Caldecott Honor Book. Another gift from Sonya. A clever little book that teaches a young child how to say "no." I'll be adding this book to the children's collection in the church library.
Poetry:
Paulson, Beth: Wild Raspberries. 2008 Another gift from David because "she seems to speak what you feel" and this Ouray, CO poet is one of my favorites. Previous books are The Company of Trees and The Truth about Thunder.
Bedside Book:
Merrill, Nan C.: Psalms for Praying: an invitation to wholeness. New York/London: Continuum, 2006. This reworking of the Psalms emphasizes "God is love..." It is by no means an accurate translation but it is a response to the timeless text and gives a fresh voice to psalmic prayer. Highly recommended!
Peterson, Eugene H.: Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places: A conversation in spiritual theology. Kindle. I've lingered in the section on Eucharist and hospitality, fascinated with the discussion of Dom Gregory Dix: The Shape of the Liturgy (1941) which notes four verbs: take, bless, break, and give. In fact, I'm probably going to read that section again.
SEASONS:
Whitaker, Evelyn: Laddie. We continue our discussion of the 19th Century woman novelist as theologian.
I have been reminded of why I bother subscribing to and reading The Economist as I have greatly enjoyed the holiday double issue, dated December 19th 2009-January 1st 2010. Of particular note were articles on violin-making, the virtues of pessimism, too many chains (religious freedom), the Harry Potter economy, hedonism & claret, dark matter rumors, language, joys of dirt, network effects (techonology and newpapers), an interesting book review (Wade, Nicholoas: The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures. Penguin Press.), and comments on an exhibition on human identity and on the vampire lit phenom.
I also read all the fine print at http://www.medicare.gov/ as I gathered information and helped people enroll in Medicare Part D Prescripiton Drug Plans.
My daily Bible reading this year will be from http://www.pcusa.org/lectionary/
Fiction:
Mabie, Hamilton Wright: Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know. Doubleday, 1905. Project Gutenberg. Kindle. Beatrix Potter got me started so I'll be nibbling children's lit for a bit.
Numeroff, Laura & Bond, Felicia: If You Take a Mouse to the Movies. Harper-Collins, 2009. The latest addition to the charming series that both DMP and I enjoy. We love to share the "if you give" books with children who come to visit. This edition is a gift from Sonya and includes a CD and sheet music and cookie recipes and family activities. What fun! http://www.mousecookiebooks.com/
Willems, Mo: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! New York: Hyperion, 2003. Caldecott Honor Book. Another gift from Sonya. A clever little book that teaches a young child how to say "no." I'll be adding this book to the children's collection in the church library.
Poetry:
Paulson, Beth: Wild Raspberries. 2008 Another gift from David because "she seems to speak what you feel" and this Ouray, CO poet is one of my favorites. Previous books are The Company of Trees and The Truth about Thunder.
Bedside Book:
Merrill, Nan C.: Psalms for Praying: an invitation to wholeness. New York/London: Continuum, 2006. This reworking of the Psalms emphasizes "God is love..." It is by no means an accurate translation but it is a response to the timeless text and gives a fresh voice to psalmic prayer. Highly recommended!
Peterson, Eugene H.: Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places: A conversation in spiritual theology. Kindle. I've lingered in the section on Eucharist and hospitality, fascinated with the discussion of Dom Gregory Dix: The Shape of the Liturgy (1941) which notes four verbs: take, bless, break, and give. In fact, I'm probably going to read that section again.
SEASONS:
Whitaker, Evelyn: Laddie. We continue our discussion of the 19th Century woman novelist as theologian.
14 December 2009
Christmas cards
I love Christmas! I love the story of the birth of Jesus, the celebration of light coming to the world in the darkest season of the year, a time set aside for the greeting of family and friends. Gifts are not my big focus although I enjoy wrapping gifts a lot. I love the feasts, the gathering around tables and all the seasonal goodies: cookies, spiced cider, egg nog, fruit cakes, gingrbread.... For me, it's not Christmas without a tree--a real one that fills the house with the scent of fir. Maybe most of all, I love the cards. Yes, I even love the infamous Christmas letters. I want to see pictures. (I'm always just a bit miffed when my friends send pics of "the cutest children/grandkids in the world" and don't include one of themselves. They are afterall the friends we know and love.) Pictured are 18 of the cards that David & I have sent through the years.
I used to have one of every card we had sent since our marriage in 1971, but the mice-in-the-attic disaster of a few years ago caused me to lose some of the earliest. I noticed patterns: the earliest cards were cardinals, then we went through a spell of Christmas trees decorated with birds and wild life, then there are all the rabbit cards from the house bunny years. Wise men have been a frequent motif. David always wants blue cards; I want deep red and gold.
A decade or so ago when my arthritis made it difficult to write, we began to order our cards pre-printed and used the computer to print lables. For the past 5 years at least, we have ordered our cards from cardsdirect.com and we get to choose the verse as well as the design. In early September we selected our custom verse, scriptures from Hosea and Isaiah: May you obtain joy and gladness and may sorrow & sighing flee away. Arise! Shine! The Light has come.
Our Christmas letter is written and I've started the mailing process. The average household sends about 30 cards; we ordered 125. We'll have cards left-over if I run out of time or I'll have to send left-overs from previous years if I keep thinking of people to add and find the time to act on my thoughts. No matter how many cards make it into the mailbox, we'll always feel like we missed someone we really want to wish, Merry Christmas & God bless you in the coming year.
I used to have one of every card we had sent since our marriage in 1971, but the mice-in-the-attic disaster of a few years ago caused me to lose some of the earliest. I noticed patterns: the earliest cards were cardinals, then we went through a spell of Christmas trees decorated with birds and wild life, then there are all the rabbit cards from the house bunny years. Wise men have been a frequent motif. David always wants blue cards; I want deep red and gold.
A decade or so ago when my arthritis made it difficult to write, we began to order our cards pre-printed and used the computer to print lables. For the past 5 years at least, we have ordered our cards from cardsdirect.com and we get to choose the verse as well as the design. In early September we selected our custom verse, scriptures from Hosea and Isaiah: May you obtain joy and gladness and may sorrow & sighing flee away. Arise! Shine! The Light has come.
Our Christmas letter is written and I've started the mailing process. The average household sends about 30 cards; we ordered 125. We'll have cards left-over if I run out of time or I'll have to send left-overs from previous years if I keep thinking of people to add and find the time to act on my thoughts. No matter how many cards make it into the mailbox, we'll always feel like we missed someone we really want to wish, Merry Christmas & God bless you in the coming year.
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