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.

VOTE! Houston Run-Off

Let one of those jingle bells be a reminder of the run-off election. Early voting is underway now. My endorsements in this race go to:



ANISE PARKER for Mayor of Houston because she is the better qualified candidate with the background, experience, and independence to do the job. Hubby said he was voting Locke in the main election but changed his mind and like me voted for Ray Morales. Locke's tax returns raised issues that concern us. As we have learned just how strong the influence of the Houston Sports Authority is with this candidate and because the one thing Houston needs least is yet another stadium burden, it's easy for both of us to go with Anise, a Rice alumna. As her campaign brochure said, "What's wrong with sensible?"


We don't live in District A or F, so I don't get to vote for City Council in those races but I urge those who can to consider Al Hoang in District F because I like his concerns for Southwest Houston and the infrastructure.


Stephen C. Costello, Houston Council at-large position 1, had my vote in the main election and easily retains it for the run-off since he is the qualified candidate in this race. He is a civil engineer with the background to decide Houston's most important issues: infrastructure, flooding, environmental and he also has the experience to handle the business end of the city.

Sue Lovell, Houston Council at-large position 2, is doing a good job. She had my vote in the main election and will have it in the run-off.

Jack Christie, Houston Council at-large position 5, had my vote in the main election and retains it based on his concerns and views regarding recycling, environment, and infrastructure which align well with mine. He gets a boost because the incumbent opponent has sometimes irritated me greatly with ill-considered statements.

M.J. Kahn, City Controller, gets my reluctant vote because he is the only choice left in the race who may be qualified to do the job. If his opponent cannot manage his own finances, I can't trust him with my city.

Anna Eastman, HISD Trustee District I, was my choice in the main and remains so in the runoff. This may be the rare race that has two acceptable candidates.

Early voting continues through Tuesday, December 8. Election Day is Saturday December 12. Early voting locations and election day polling places and other information is available at: http://www.harrisvotes.com/

What I'm Reading...

Fiction:

Barrie, James M.: What Every Woman Knows. (1906) Project Gutenberg. Kindle. We watched Finding Neverland (Netflix) and the movie prompted me to review Barrie's life and browse a couple of his books. (It's a good movie but it does play fast & loose with the facts.) I don't remember having read this particular play before. Clever, fun and I think it would stage rather well.

Potter, Beatrix: The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter. Project Gutenberg. Kindle. We watched Miss Potter (Netflix) and so I'm reading bedtime stories.

Richmond, Grace S.: Red Pepper Burns.
Richmond, Grace S.: Mrs. Red Pepper. (1913)
Richmond, Grace S.: Red Pepper's Patients. (1919) Project Gutenberg. Kindle. I read these books as a child and have read them at least once more as an adult. The stories are about a doctor in the early 20th Century. What stricks me about these books on this reading is the frequent mention of drug addiction. These writers are part of the "living clean" movement: fresh air, exercise, don't drink.

Palmer, William J.: The Detective and Mr. Dickens. A Secret Victorian Journal Attributed to Wilkie Collins, Dicovered and Edited by... New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990. The author is/was English prof at Purdue. He writes a compelling story set in the dark underbelly of London at night . The sinful pleasures of male Victorian life are the primary plot device. Every woman in this book is a prostitute or a pander or a victim. As one would expect given the sub-title, several scenes are quite graphic and push into pornography. In real life (as opposed to his life in this novel) Collins had arthritis and a laudanum/opium addiction. Needed to see Dr. Red Pepper Burns.

Bedside Book:

Peterson, Eugene H.: Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places: A conversation in spiritual theology. Kindle. I continue my slow exploration, reading and re-reading, of issues of salvation and the relationship between Exodus and Mark.

SEASONS:

Whitaker, Evelyn: Laddie. We are exploring the 19th Century woman novelist as theologian.

Veterans' Day. A love story...

Today is Veterans Day. Daddy still calls it Armistice Day, remembering "the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" of 1918 marking the cease fire on the Western Front of WWI. His father, Pvt. Zach Carter Cummings, Co. D 39th Infantry 4th Division, was marching toward the sound of the guns when over the hill he heard the silence of peace. Instead of fighting in the bloody trenches of France, his war experience was with an occupation force in Germany. Here is a photo of my grandfather, taken "on the Rhine River Germany April 1919."

And a photo of the girl he left behind him, Miss Oma Calahan, in Farmersville, Texas. She wrote on the back of this photo: "I wasn't mad when this was made. I was just facing the sun." This photo was made in the autumn of 1918 and was one of those she sent to him in a letter.

For family and others who would like a bit more of the story, I've transcribed and linked three of my grandfather's letters:

1. in late October as he sailed for Europe
2. on November 19 at the edge of the battlefield in France
3. on November 28 from Germany

at my domain: http://www.evelynwhitakerlibrary.org/blog_the_life_i_read/id9.html

And as she always does on this date Mother recited a poem:
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_2/mccrae.html

Autumn Leaves of Grass

My favorite season has always been autumn. Morning cool. The last of the garden. Harvest. I'll never forget driving over a hilltop in the Poconos and seeing a child-gone-crazy-with-the-Crayolas landscape. During my childhood, the family often made an October drive to the mountains of New Mexico to look at the aspens and to gather apples. David & I vacation with the Colorado colors.

It's commonly said that Texas doesn't have seasons but like much that is commonly said that's incorrect. Our deciduous trees are turning now although they are out-numbered by evergreen live oaks and pine and magnolias and tropicals--Houston truly is the emerald city. When we make our Christmas road trip across Texas there is often great color; we're all just too busy looking at Christmas lights to notice. It's like the robins which in Houston are not a sign of spring but of winter. Each place has seasons of its own but one must have eyes to see.

As I've been driving across Texas from the Gulf Coast to the Hill Country, I've enjoyed being back in touch with the seasons. What I've seen on the most recent trips are the autumn grasses which are truly as lovely as the wildflowers of spring.

There is great variety and diversity of grass--tall, short, straight, stiff, plumed, lacy. This photo is pink-haired grass waving in a row at pavement's edge but the colors are limitless: green, chartreuse, gold, brown, black, red, maroon, orange, purple, aubergine, silver, copper. Grass in fields, grass in roadside clumps, grass in swaths of self-sown sweeping waves. Seed time and harvest. A festival of grass.

I, of course, named this post for Walt Whitman's famous poem:

http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1764.html

But in looking for that link, I found this poem by Brian Patten:

http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/998.html

Mighty is our LORD and great in power

whose wisdom is beyond all telling...

Sing a song of thanksgiving to the LORD...

who clothes the hills with grass.

Psalm 147: 5,7,8

What I'm reading...

September is always a very busy month for me and this year the busyness lingers into October. A trip to Clifton, a family wedding, Colorado vacation, a trip to Clifton, David's surgery, church library, church chairs, another trip to Clifton... Yikes! who has time to read. I do. The crazier things get the more I need words, words, words to keep me sane.

Vacation reading:
Poole, Ernest: His Second Wife. Kindle. Project Gutenberg. Originally published in 1918. Having enjoyed his Pulitzer Prize winning novel, His Family, I gave this author who is new to me another chance. Another good read by an author I plan to read again. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Poole

Showalter, Elaine: A Jury of Her Peers. American Women Writers from Anne Bradstreet to Annie Proulx. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009. Kindle. This compelling book by the author of A Literature of their Own sabotaged my vacation fiction binge. I've spent the last month reading and chasing rabbits e.g. women authors I've read and those I haven't and I was surprised at the number in both categories. I've got more reading to do than I'll have time to do it. What struck me most was how time and again a woman writer was "silenced as much by her activity in a repressive political movement as by her domestic life." And, I wonder if feminism is not at least to some extent yet another repressive political movement. Women who celebrate heterosexual marriage and motherhood (certainly in the late Victorian era and I suspect in other past eras and the present) are still silenced by women as well as by men with the label "sentimentalist." Surely some of those writers have something of interest to say and a few at least say it well. But then I have a hobbyhorse: http://evelynwhitakerlibrary.org/

Fiction:
Kelley, Jacqueline: The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2009. Recommended by my friend, Cathey R. This coming-of-age book focuses on a young girl and her grandfather, interweaving rural Texas in the early 20th Century with Darwin. This a wonderful story beautifully told. Must reading for anyone (of any age, of any gender) who enjoys good fiction. I found it even more delightful as a break from and continuation of the study of Showalter.

Smith, Alexander McCall: Friends, Lovers, Chocolate. New York: Pantheon Press, 2005. Cathey R. passed on this book from her collection as part of the thank you for the border collie puppy adventure. I had read and enjoyed The No. 1 Ladies' Dectective Agency and at least one other book in this author's series. This is the 2nd book in the Sunday Pholosophy Club series and the first that I've read of that series. It stood alone very well and was more to my tastes; probably due to the Edinburgh, Scotland setting. Good light ready with a thought provoking phrase now and then.

Bedside Book:
Peterson, Eugene H.: Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places. A conversation in spiritual theology. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2005. Kindle. Yes, a Kindle book works at bedside if I remember to keep the battery charged. I plan to linger with the book for quite a while. It is dense and rich in food for thought. I have long loved the introduction to John's Gospel and his presentation of Christ--the Word, the Logos, the creative speaking of God. Peterson is building on and expanding my appreciation of this text and helping me see application in my own life.

Seasons:
Johnson, Elizabeth A.: She Who Is: the Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse. New York: The Crossroads Publishing Co., 1992, 2002, 2003. This month we are discussing the Chapter 1. Introduction: Speaking rightly of God and Chapter 6. Classical Theology.

Family wedding photoshop

Just as I did, my niece selected the Saturday of Labor Day weekend for her wedding date. We made the trip to Clifton to chauffeur my parents to Fort Worth for the wedding. I took lots of photos and have played around with Adobe PhotoShop. All sides of our family have lots of blue eyes so all the red-eye needed fixing. All the auto-fix tools are helpful. I've found that cropping often improves a photo. I've also played around some with lighting and managed to recover a couple of shots where there wasn't any flash. I retouched a number of photos to remove a blemish here and there. Sometimes something in the background (a light switch or a sign for the restroom or just an inconvenient person or clutter ) messes up a really lovely shot.

Here are a couple of examples:

Note the messy background in the bride's dressing room. A black skirt is visible in the mirror but I've "erased" it from the background; the hanger is still visible.

Crop it and voila! a bridal portrait.

Everyone loved the way that V. looked at P. in this shot as they bid their wedding guests Aloha! before leaving for their Hawaiian honey moon. Too bad about the crowd of people and the cluttered background.

Crop it! Still we have the frowning man coming between them and the background clutter. Use the tools to erase the man and to reproduce the flowers in the head band and lei to fill in the area. Then add sparkle effects to conceal my amateur workmanship.

And never overlook the potential in changing to black and white.

My, how weddings and brides have changed!

Compare one of my bridal photos with those of niece V.

I'm the old-fashioned bride with my matron of honor, ACE.

And, remember, with PhotoShop every photo may be something less than the truth.

What I'm reading...

Not much. I've made another trip to visit parents in Clifton. Road music: Best of the Righteous Brothers, Yanni In My Time, Schumann Symphonies Nos. 2 & 4, and Juilio Inglesias Tango. That list is almost a definition of eclectic. Miss Mandy Whitepaws, my sheltie, is in love with Juilio and found several of the Righteous Brothers' vocals intriguing. It was a good trip.

But it was not a break from the church library. I spent a lot of time looking at the Highsmith catalog making lists of furnishings and supplies. When I got home I prepared a budget for the coming year. I spent all day yesterday on-line making purchases from Highsmith and from Amazon, http://www.abebooks.com, and http://www.biblio.com. [If you're looking for a rare out-of-print book, give them a try. My first choice is biblio.com because I like the way they manage the orders from a plethora of independent booksellers.] I was really fortunate--or should I say blessed?--to find all but one of the thirty-three books that had to be replaced. Hurricane Ike destroyed four dozen or so others but I elected not to replace them. Given the state of the church library after the storm, the losses were really far fewer than I'd expected.
Other than catalogs I've been reading:

Fiction:
Poole, Ernest: His Family. New York: MacMillan, 1917. Project Gutenberg. Kindle, free download from http://manybooks.net/. The first winner of the Pulitzer Prize for literature. A beautifully crafted story of the interior life and family relationships of a man as he nears the end of his life. In New York at a time of transition (early 20th Century), his three daughters encounter their father, their family, each other, and themselves as three graces, if you will. What does it mean to be woman in the Modern world? How does a woman decide issues of career, marriage, motherhood? Poole examines issues of education, urbanization, war and conscience, and eternal life. A delightful read that is also thought provoking. FICTION 20th CENTURY PULITZER NEW YORK MODERNISM FEMINISIM

Chairside Nibbles:
mostly Kindle sampling for an upcoming reading binge

Bedside Book:
I was slow to make a new selection so I read Gerard Manley Hopkins and finally memorized

That Nature Is a Heraclitian Fire and the Comfort of the Resurrection.

CLOUD-PUFFBALL, torn tufts, tossed pillows flaunt forth, then chevy on an air-

built thoroughfare: heaven-roysterers, in gay-gangs they throng; they glitter in marches.

Down roughcast, down dazzling whitewash, wherever an elm arches,

Shivelights and shadowtackle in long lashes lace, lance, and pair.

Delightfully the bright wind boisterous ropes, wrestles, beats earth bare

Of yestertempest's creases; in pool and rut peel parches

Squandering ooze to squeezed dough, crust, dust; stanches, starches

Squadroned masks and manmarks treadmire toil there

Footfretted in it. Million-fuelèd, nature's bonfire burns on.

But quench her bonniest, dearest to her, her clearest-selvèd spark

Man, how fast his firedint, his mark on mind, is gone!

Both are in an unfathomable, all is in an enormous dark

Drowned. O pity and indig nation! Manshape, that shone

Sheer off, disseveral, a star, death blots black out; nor mark

Is any of him at all so stark

But vastness blurs and time beats level. Enough! the Resurrection,

A heart's-clarion! Away grief's gasping, joyless days, dejection.

Across my foundering deck shone

A beacon, an eternal beam. Flesh fade, and mortal trash

Fall to the residuary worm; world's wildfire, leave but ash:

In a flash, at a trumpet crash,

I am all at once what Christ is, since he was what I am, and

This Jack, joke, poor potsherd, patch, matchwood, immortal diamond,

Is immortal diamond.

Peterson, Eugene H.: Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places. A conversation in spiritual theology. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 2005. Kindle. Can a Kindle book work as bedside reading? Just started but it promises to be informative and inspirational. I remain grateful to Peterson for his Psalms study, How do I answer the God who speaks to me?

SEASONS:
Linn, Dennis; Linn, Sheila Fabricant; Linn, Matthew: Good Goats: healing our image of God. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1994. vi, 101 p. Next month will finish this book and after our last group discussion I liked this book much better.

Stranger than fiction

We enjoyed a rare movie night at home; we don't make good use of our Netflix subscription. Watched Stranger than Fiction selected purely because Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman are such a superb actors and they do not disappoint. We don't really like Will Ferrell but he was perfectly cast in this movie. Queen Latifah was a delight also. An excellent movie! David said, "It's funny but the three movies that I've found most thought-provoking were all comedies: Joe and the Volcano, Groundhog Day, and now Stranger than Fiction."

I've looked at more books (and done less reading) this past week than in any other week of my life since I've been unpacking and reshelving the church library as we finally get to move back after Hurricane Ike and all the repairs. About 6000 books in 45 or so hours. I was pleased that the damages were much less than I anticipated. I was delighted to come across some of the very lovely books that I had forgotten about and to realize that our church library is really a very strong collection.
I hope folks know that David and I didn't really skip the work day since we've had a number of workdays already the past couple of weeks and we got there at 7:30 a.m. this morning to finish the library and clear the table so that SEASONS could meet there this morning. It was a good session. It's wonderful to have a circle of sisters who truly nurture one another.

What I'm reading...

Still working on my annual review of medical literature re. scleroderma.

Doing some reading about the kidney and its various disorders.


Still catching up on my periodicals:

From Much ado about nothing, The Economist, Vol. 392, No. 8639, July 11th, 2009. A book review of Nothing: A very short introduction by Frank Close, Oxford U. Press, 2009. "Does anything remain when everything is taken away?... Big Bang... Where did all this stuff come from? Science says that it came from quantum fluctuations in the void.... Mr. Close surveys 3,000 years of thinking to arrive at the modern solution... The answer is nothing." I like both physics and metaphysics so I'll probably take a closer look at this book which is due out in the USA next month. Based on the review, the modern solution of nothingness closely approaches the Zen solution. In my reading and practice (which is no longer Zen) I've found those unexplained "quantum fluctuations in the void" to be a less poetic way to phrase the Judeo-Christian solution, "In the beginning, the Spirit of God moved across the face of the deep." The answer is not nothing" but rather The One out whose being {I AM} flows all that has being.


Fiction:

Fforde, Jasper: Thursday Next First among Sequels. New York: Penguin, 2007. Not the first sequel but the fifth book in this delightful series: The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, Something Rotten, First Among Sequels. {There is also a companion series, The Nursery Crime series which I do not read: The Big Over Easy, The Fourth Bear.} Quote, p.52: "Reading, I had learned, was as creative a process as writing, sometimes more so. When we read of the dying rays of the setting sun or the boom and swish of the incoming tide, we should reserve as much praise for ourselves as for the author. After all, the reader is doing all the work--the writer might have died long ago."

Schweizer, Mark: The Diva Wore Diamonds: a liturgical mystery. Hopkinsville KY: St. James Music Press, 2009. 159 p. illustrator: Jim Hunt. Hip, hip, hooray! The slipcase didn't mean the end of the series. This is the seventh book featuring an Episcopal choir director who is also a small town chief of police and a wanna be writer who channels Raymond Chandler... The usual delightful read and a good laugh when I needed one. The series in order: The Alto Wore Tweed, The Baritone Wore Chiffon, The Tenor Wore Tapshoes, The Soprano wore Falsettos, The Bass Wore Scales, The Mezzo Wore Mink. Visit the link, not only for the liturgical mysteries but also because St. James Music Press is a serious press offering really superb church music and you can listen to practically everything in their catalog. http://www.sjmpbooks.com/ MYSTERY EPISCOPAL CHURCH POLITICS SMALL TOWN ROMANCE 21st Century

Bedside Book, just finished and have not yet selected another:

Andreach, Robert J.: Studies in Structure: Stages in the spiritual life in four modern authors: Gerarad Manley Hopkins, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Hart Crane. London: Burns & Oates, 1964, Fordham University Press. This is an exceedingly odd book; it is less literary criticism and more an analysis of stages in spirituality in the works of these authors referring to Dante, St. Augustine, and St. John of the Cross as sources. I enjoyed this fresh viewpoint and I enjoyed revisiting those writers which I rarely read voluntarily e.g. Joyce and Crane. During my college years, when I was first reading Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, I threw the book across the room {A real no-no for a librarian.} in disgust at what I thought was "really screwed up color imagery." Andreach explains that Joyce has consciously "inverted" the stages of spiritual life. At least now I understand why I have never liked Joyce nor Crane nor really most of the Modern writers. Quote from section on Hart Crane, p. 118: "The more he seeks among the particulars of a debased society, the more his spiritual consciousness in diminished."

Chairside Nibbles:

Patten, Robert L.: George Cruikshank's Life, Times, and Art. Volume1: 1792-1835. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1992. Kindle BIOGRAPHY ARTIST ILLUSTRATOR 18th Century 19th Century 20th Century This award winning biography by one of my English literature professors from Rice University is proving a most enjoyable re-read. One of Patten's strong points as a professor was rooting the literature in the history, the sociology, and the culture of the time, He offers rich details in a very readable frame. With my new interest in book illustration it is even more interesting to me now than it was on my first reading some years ago. Since I'm spending much time in my chair of late, this reading may take quite a long while.

SEASONS:

Linn, Dennis; Linn, Sheila Fabricant; Linn, Matthew: Good Goats: healing our image of God. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1994. vi, 101 p. I'm finding the Linns to be difficult authors. I agree with most of their conclusions but I find their arguments to be shallow and repetitive. Their attack in this month's reading was on St. Anselm's view of the atonement struck me as a bit insulting to both Anselm and God. I am, as always, enjoying the discussion with the circle of sisters. FEMININITY OF GOD JUDGEMENT DAY HELL DOCTRINE 20th Century

Anselm of Canterbury who in the Preface to the Proslogion wrote, "I have written the little work that follows... in the role of one who strives to raise his mind to the contemplation of God and one who seeks to understand what he believes.
I acknowledge, Lord, and I give thanks that you have created your image in me, so that I may remember you, think of you, love you. But this image is so obliterated and worn away by wickedness, it is so obscured by the smoke of sins, that it cannot do what it was created to do, unless you renew and reform it. I am not attempting, O Lord, to penetrate your loftiness, for I cannot begin to match my understanding with it, but I desire in some measure to understand your truth, which my heart believes and loves. For I do not seek to understand in order that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this too I believe, that "unless I believe, I shall not understand." (Isa. 7:9) . " For more information visit these links: http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/141.html

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/anselm-intro.html

Fly me to the moon...

Yesterday the world remembered "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

The date is also an important one in my personal history.

I was home following my sophomore year at Rice. My sister and I attended a summer session at Texas Tech: she, to jump start her college career since she was targeting graduation in three years rather than four; I, to take a history course for my teaching certification and to make up the math class I'd failed to pass. {Matrix algebra. At Rice it was the standard 1st semester 200-level course. At Tech it was a 400-level course taken by math majors and graduate students. A red-headed guy from my section at Rice also repeated the course at Tech. He and I got lots of negative attention for blowing the curve and we each took a 4.0 back for our transcripts. At least in summer school, the Tech course covered the part of the course I had understood; I had a good solid "B" after the first exam at Rice before it all fell apart. The Tech course never got past that point; everything I hadn't gotten the first time around was in Appendix Two which we never looked at in that summer course. The best thing I learned from my semester at Tech was that I really hadn't suddenly turned dumb. It helped me relax and start learning not for grade points but for the sheer joy of learning. But, I digress...}

Shift work at David's summer job in Houston gave him a four day weekend about once a month. So on the momentous day in history he drove clear across Texas to see me. It was his first visit to my family's farm. He was driving up the caprock between Ralls and Floydada and listening to the car radio just as the men first stepped on the moon. I had one eye on the T.V. and one eye on the road, looking for a cloud of dust that might indicate David's arrival. That night, he and I sat up late watching reruns of the moonwalk, holding hands, and talking. {There might have been a kiss or two... "fly me to the moon... in other words... hold my hand..." But, I digress...}

Which is how it came to be David, rather than my brother, asleep on the sofa bed in the living room when my mother walked in about 6:30 a.m., picked up the pair of jeans at the foot of the bed, and threw them on the sleeper,

"Get up, you lazy bones! It's past daylight; time you were in the field."

She jumped about six feet when a bass voice replied,

"Good morning, Mrs. Cummings."

On his second visit, the line from our one bathroom to the septic tank collapsed and David ended up digging about the front yard with my daddy and my brother.

And he married me anyway. Must have been true love.

Everything old is new again! At least the pipes...

Our house is 50+ years old, almost as old as we are. Now and then it requires some major maintenance. Most recently, we had noted excessive rust coming out the water pipes. After some investigation, it was clear that we needed to consider repiping the house. An expensive repair and one that can be disruptive, if not destructive. With a remodelled kitchen and a newly redecorated bath, we didn't wish to tear into the walls. Earlier this month TDT Plumbing used the ACE DuraFlo system to "make everything old, new again." It was an interesting project.

I documented the project on my website:

http://evelynwhitakerlibrary.org/id54.html

More information from TDT Plumbing, Houston, TX

http://tdtplumbing.com/whyaceduraflo.html

The clear pipe demo of the epoxy fill:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftMec3HW5Xw

Note the importance of capitalization in the title of this post:

the pipes are new; the Pipes are just another day older.

A poet and a one-man band...

I spent the last couple of weeks driving across Texas to visit my parents, to take them to see doctors, to meet David so he could bring Mandy, our sheltie, home with him while I made a long drive back "home." Actually, Houston has been "home" for decades but the home of my childhood was on the south plains of the Texas Panhandle. Floyd County. Once there, there were other drives:

• to Plainview to visit with my mother's nephew, James, and his family
• to South Plains, the farming community where I grew up for the Calahan family (my paternal grandmother, Oma's family) reunion, to the church where my great grandmother was a charter member and where I worshipped for my first 18 years
• to "down below the Cap" a long circle drive from Floydada through South Plains to Quitique and Turkey and back via the Flomot cut and Cedar Hill
• to Lockney to see the shell of the high school that burned
• to the cemetery to visit graves of family & friends

The country was green but most of the crops are very, very late. Saw lots of birds and a couple of cotton-tailed rabbits. And a rainbow. Got to see a summer "norther" and smell rain and see lightening. Didn't take many pictures. This one is from the real estate agent's site where the Pigg Ranch is listed for sale. It's the part of the world where we used to cut our "cedars" for Christmas when I was a child.

We had planned to eat supper at the Sportman's Cafe in Quitaque (once owned by the Pigg family) but when we got there it was not like we remembered. New owners. Passing years. So we drove to Turkey past the Midway theater (which I think is a still operational drive-in movie theater) and ate some of the best authentic Mexican food ever at Galvan's restaurant. (Thank you, cousin Dee, for the suggestion.)


When driving alone, I listened to The Best of Simon & Garfunkel who have only improved with the passing years. Great poetry and songs that the voices shared. Hence the title of this post.


But the other band I remembered is Bob Wills and the Light Crust Dough Boys. When my mother was a very small child, they stopped at the place in Leon County late one night for "coffee with Mama & Papa Wieland." Bob woke up the sleeping girl and said, "See, didn't I tell ya' baby Dorthy has the bluest eyes in the world." Many decades later in the late 1950s or 60s, I heard his brothers, Johnnie Lee and Luther J., pick guitar, fiddle and sing at a family gathering on a Sunday afternoon. As nearly as I can remember "Mammy Wills" was sister to the mother of Thomas Wilson who married Ellen, my mother's older sister.

"Deep in the heart of Texas, Bob Wills if still the king."

A link with more info: http://www.turkeytexas.net/

The other part of the trip was the baptism on Father's Day of our little Joy. She wore the dress her mother had worn but her feet were too big for the shoes. So her mother painted her toenails. Such pretty little pink toenails and when any one said "toes" she kicked and kicked.


My mother has always loved to hold a baby's feet.
















Four generations:

Great Granddaddy Kendall,

Grandmother "Tweetie" Zacha,

Daddy Josh,

brother & sister, TNT

What I'm reading...

Information:

I've begun working on the annual review of medical literature re. scleroderma.

Still reading gardening books as I plan new plantings along the back fence. I rather like the trumpet vine that has come back and the hummingbirds and butterflies love it so I think it stays even if it is orange. Yes, it may eventually destroy the fence but the last one lasted more than 20 years vines and all. Since the gas company is putting in a new remote readable electronic meter I may even let part of the jungle return. Right now I'm feeling blue: plumbago, aganpanthus, wax myrtle... But I can't plant in a drought so I'll wait until Fall.

Fiction:

Novik, Naomi: His Majeysty's Dragon. 2006
Novik, Naomi: Throne of Jade. 2006
Novik, Naomi: Black Powder War. 2006
Novik, Naomi: Empire of Ivory. 2007
Novik, Naomi: Victory of Eagles. 2008
The Temeraire Series. New York: Ballantine Books. Kindle. It was a huge mistake to download the free copy of what proved to be the first of series. I got hooked on this story about dragons and the Napoleonic Wars. The writing is superb and the story is compelling. Novik speaks to lots of social conditions and philosophical ideas. I was reminded of David's favorites--the Horatio Hornblower books by C.S. Forester and the Richard Sharp novels by Bernard Cornwell. Kinda fun but really a complete waste of time that I could have spent more productively. FICTION FANTASY BRITISH NAVY DRAGONS 21st Century

Bedside Book:

Andreach, Robert J.: Studies in Structure: Stages in the spiritural life in four modern authors: Gerarad Manley Hopkins, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Hart Crane. London: Burns & Oates, 1964, Fordham University Press. Now I understand why I never liked James Joyce. This is an exceedingly odd book. It is less literary cricticism and more an analysis of stages in spirituality.

Chairside Nibbles:

catching up on newspapers and periodicals


Patten, Robert L.: George Cruikshank's Life, Times, and Art. Volume1: 1792-1835. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1992. Kindle BIOGRAPHY ARTIST ILLUSTRATOR 18th Century 19th Century 20th Century This award winning biography by one of my English literature professors from Rice University is proving a most enjoyable re-read. One of Patten's strong points as a professor was rooting the literature in the history, the sociology, and the culture of the time, He offers rich details in a very readable frame. With my new interest in book illustration it is even more interesting to me now than it was on my first reading some years ago.

SEASONS:

Linn, Dennis; Linn, Sheila Fabricant; Linn, Matthew: Good Goats: helaing our image of God. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1994. vi, 101 p. FEMINITY OF GOD JUDGEMENT DAY HELL DOCTRINE 20th Century

What I'm reading...

Information:

I've done a review of information about frontal temporal lobe dementia.

I'm reading gardening books as I plan new plantings along the back fence. The overgrown ligustrum hedge was cut down to facilitate the replacement of the fence blown down by Hurricane Ike. I've removed the jungle of honeysuckle, bramble, elderberry, trumpet vine and who knows what else. I'm also spending a lot of time watering grass.

Fiction:

Sansom C. J.: Dissolution: a novel of Tudor England. New York: Penguin Press, 2003. Introducing Mathew Shardlake and featuring a cameo appearanced by Thomas Cromwell. This book came highly recommended by the staff at Houston's Murder by the Book which is the perfect bookstore. I don't read mysteries but since I'd read and enjoyed Ellis Peters' Cadfael series, the staff assured me I'd want to read Dissolution and since David already owned it the book, I read it. Mathew Shardlake is a hunchback and I heard echos of John Halifax, Gentleman. An interesting book, reasonably well written but much darker than the Peters books. FICTION MYSTERY 21st Century

Cram, Mildred: Forever. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1944. Original copyright 1934. I found this novella at an estate sale. The book jacket notes "a love that was stronger than life and stronger than death." The author was a popular novelist and movie writer. Among her credits is An Affair to Remember. Notes on her extensive film career may be found at the internet movie data base: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0186118/
This writer is not listed in Wikkipedia nor at U. Penn's Celebration of Women Writers. So someone has some work to do. Maybe me on a less busy day. FICTION ROMANCE MOVIES LIFE&DEATH 20th Century

Bedside Book:

Andreach, Robert J.: Studies in Structure: Stages in the spiritural life in four modern authors: Gerarad Manley Hopkins, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Hart Crane. London: Burns & Oates, 1964, Fordham University Press. Now I understand why I never liked James Joyce.

Chairside Nibbles:

Yonge, Charolotte M. (ed.): Gold Dust: a collection of golden counsels for the santification of daily life. New York: Thomas Whittkaer n.d.. 165 p. DEVOTION 19th Century

Kindle:

Patten, Robert L.: George Cruikshank's Life, Times, and Art. Volume1: 1792-1835. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1992. BIOGRAPHY ARTIST ILLUSTRATOR 18th Century 19th Century 20th Century This award winning biography by one of my English literature professors from Rice University is proving a most enjoyable re-read. One of Patten's strong points as a professor was rooting the literature in the history, the sociology, and the culture of the time, He offers rich details in a very readable frame. With my new interest in book illustration it is even more interesting to me now than it was on my first reading some years ago.


SEASONS:

Linn, Dennis; Linn, Sheila Fabricant; Linn, Matthew: Good Goats: helaing our image of God. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1994. vi, 101 p. FEMINITY OF GOD JUDGEMENT DAY HELL DOCTRINE 20th Century

Of course... even when I'm not reading...

I'm reading. I always read the newspaper, The Houston Chronicle. How I still miss the long-gone Houston Post. Oh, how I miss the Chronicle from the time when it was a real newspaper instead of a mournful shadow of itself.

The mail periodically brings, well, periodicals: The Economist, Reader's Digest, National Geographic, Consumer Reports, Texas Highways, Texas Parks and Wildlife, a plethora of home decorating mags, and the public relations publications of Adubon Society, Houston Zoo, Houston Museum of Natural Science, Nature Conservancy and para-church pubs.

The latest addition to this list is our Christmas gift from our god-daughter, Holly: Mental Floss where knowledge junkies get their fix, an entertaining, kooky, fun, and thoroughly delightful read which David and I both enjoy and highly recommend:
http://www.mentalfloss.com/

And, of course, I seldom miss my daily devotions.

"Of course," just as my great grandmother, Mama Calahan, said to my sister and me, "Of course, I know you girls completed your morning devotions long ago, but Mrs. M_ and I enjoyed a late start to our morning and hoped you wouldn't mind joining us for ours. It's so nice to have good, young voices to read and sing for us."

Of course, neither of us had given a single thought to ever doing any morning devotions although I think we have often done so since. For me morning devotions are now an "of course" just as they were for my great grandmother. This year my devotional readings are coming from two sources:

1. Jowett, John Henry: My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year. New York Chicago: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1924. Project Gutenberg. Kindle. Each day's reading is a short commentary on a scripture reference which I'm incongruously reading in the Amplified Bible, the Lockman Foundation's Kindle edition.
2. For a number of years now, my daily Bible readings have been taken from a lectoinary. This year I'm using the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops with readings from the New American Bible. I'm posting a link to today's reading. http://www.usccb.org/nab/today.shtml

Now, that LadyBird is happily jumping up on Cathey's kitchen counters and that Rice Owls Baseball's hiatus was followed by an out-of-town series before returning to Reckling Park and that most of my post-funeral correspondence has been attended to... I had time for a Fiction Binge:

Braeme, Charolotte M.: Dora Thorne. Project Gutenberg. Kindle. Braeme's (1836-1884) last name is correctly spelled "Brame" but often spelled variously including "Braem" and her pseudonym for U.S. published books is Bertha C. Clay. She was the author of Grandma Wieland's "now that's a story" Married in Name Only. Grandma's other book for which I'm still searching was titled, Wed and Parted. I read Dora Thorne because it is the best known book of an author associated with Miss Toosey's Mission as part of evelynwhitakerlibrary.org. I recently had an email from her great great great niece. FICTION ROMANCE 19th Century

Whyte-Melville, G. J.: Kate Coventry. An autobiography. T. Nelson and Sons, 1909. Project Gutenberg. Kindle. I read this book about a year ago but somehow never noted it in my journal so this is a second reading. An amusing story and an excellent depiction of "the new woman." There is a good deal on horsemanship (or horsewomanship) and fox and stag hunting. FICTION ROMANCE 19th Century HORSE HUNTING WOMEN'S FRIENDSHIPS COUSINS FAMILY NOTE CALAHAN WIELAND

Bye-Bye, Birdie

Lady Bird, the border collie puppy, came to visit on Good Friday and went home on April 30th. She grew from a 12-week old puppy (terrible two's in human years) to almost 16-weeks (a tweenager) and was either terribly sweet or horrid most of the time. It was an experience for all of us. Her last couple of days were near perfect. Mandy was willing to play with the pup and it was fun to watch them play herding games but I'm the only one who misses her at all. Mandy's reaction was to show me the kennel and ask if she could have the uneaten puppy chow. Cathey had a lovely trip to Ireland and I can tell I'm going to have to follow in her footsteps one day.

And the gods laugh...

Ever state a firm fact about what you do or don't do and the next thing you know...

The time I best remember is the Christmas card I sent to everyone I know that included this phrase: "No white Christmas for us, instead we'll plant tulips." Well, that year it snowed. In Houston. It snowed a lot in Galveston and on Christmas morning we played on a snowy beach at sunrise.

That's our Mandy, a sheltie, chasing snowballs.

Snow!

And a dog to play with!

What fun!

And now I'm always dreaming of a White Christmas.

Well, it's happened again.

In a previous post "What I'm Reading" I said that nothing ever keeps me from reading. And the gods laugh at my presumption in making "ever" statements. Turns out that a border collie puppy can indeed keep me from reading. I cannot wait for Cathey to get back from Ireland and take LadyBird to her forever home so that Mandy, David and I can enjoy our quiet, peaceful, dull home and life.

Added a link to a previous post

I've added a link to a YouTube video posted by niece BK of my mother singing to her great-granddaughter. The original post was dated 10 March.

What I'm Reading...

A trip out of town and the IRS have kept me from posting in a timely manner but nothing ever keeps me from reading. This post is just the update to my reading list.

I'm reading a lot of material on how to raise and train a puppy since I'll be baby sitting a border collie puppy while Cathey goes to Ireland in search of Celtic spirituality.

I'm reading a bit about estates and probate and checklists for dealing with death.

Fiction Binge:

Hill, Grace Livingston: The Girl form Montana. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1922 by J.B. Lippincott Company. Project Gutenberg. Kindle. A fleeing girl, a lady by instinct, a true gentleman, and a long journey on horseback to Philadelphia. What becomes of all the girls/ladies who are not heiresses? This book has a comprehensive listing of titles by Grace Livinston Hill and several titles by Ruth Livingston Hill. FICTION ROMANCE 20th Century

Hill Lutz, Grace Livingston: The Witness. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, copyright 1917 by Harper Brothers. Project Gutenberg. Kindle. Dedicated to her mother: Marcia Macdonald Livingston. A men's college story based on the bibilical account of the stoning of Stephen in Acts. The far-reaching influence of a faithful life, faithful parents, and the calling of a preacher. Two constrasting women, good and evil.. FICTION ROMANCE RELIGION 20th Century

Hill Lutz, Grace Livingston: The Mystery of Mary. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, copyright 1910 by J.B. Lippincott Company. Project Gutenberg. Kindle. A fleeing lady, a true gentleman, and a lot of bother about hats. FICTION ROMANCE 20th Century

Bedside Book:

Mariani, Paul L.: Gerard Manley Hopkins: A life. New York: Viking, the Penguin Group, 2008. 496 p. includes index BIOGRAPHY POETS CATHOLIC OXFORD 19th Century 21st Century Hopkins has been my favorite poet since I discovered him during my freshman year at Rice University. I like Marianni's writing very much; superb shaping of excerpts from poems, journals, letters into a very readable text. Not "one of the best," without doubt the best account of Hopkins life I have read. A gift from David on my 60th birthday.

Chairside Nibbles:

Yonge, Charolotte M. (ed.): Gold Dust: a collection of golden counsels for the sanctification of daily life. New York: Thomas Whittkaer n.d.. 165 p. DEVOTION 19th Century



Patten, Robert L.: George Cruikshank's Life, Times, and Art. Volume1: 1792-1835. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1992. Kindle. BIOGRAPHY ARTIST ILLUSTRATOR 18th Century 19th Century 20th Century This award winning biography by one of my English literature professors from Rice University is proving a most enjoyable re-read. One of Patten's strong points as a professor was rooting the literature in the history, the sociology, and the culture of the time, He offers rich details in a very readable frame. With my new interest in book illustration it is even more interesting to me now than it was on my first reading some years ago.


SEASONS:

Linn, Dennis; Linn, Sheila Fabricant; Linn, Matthew: Good Goats: healing our image of God. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1994. vi, 101 p. FEMINITY OF GOD JUDGEMENT DAY HELL DOCTRINE 20th Century

Poetry in life and death

Charles David Pipes, my dear father-in-law, died Saturday 28 March. The link below will take you to a tribute page at my domain where you may read the obituary that Steve Sandifer presented at his funeral and download a .pdf slide show, the tribute to his life that was on view at the visitation.

http://evelynwhitakerlibrary.org/id52.html

What I'm thinking about today is the comfort that poetry brings to our lives. At the service we were comforted by some biblical poetry--Psalm 42,Psalm 121, Psalm 127, Psalm--and by some hymns, which are really poetry set to music--Take Time to Be Holy, Whispering Hope, and Rock of Ages--and by two poems which had been a part of Charles' life.

The first, Thanatopsis, by William Cullen Bryant, Charles had learned as a school boy. {David and I remember learning it also. I wonder, do students still memorize poetry? Do they still memorize this poem?} David was surprised to find his father already knew the poem and could quote it by memory. The last nine verses were a sort of motto for Charles and he often quoted them. In fact he had quoted them at least once during that last week of his life. The words were a comfort to him as he faced death with the faith he had lived:

So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan which moves
To that mysterious realm where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon; but, sustain'd and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave,
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

http://www.poetry-archive.com/b/thanatopsis.html

The second, High Flight by John Gillespie Magee, Jr., Charles had framed on his office wall and, after his retirement, in the guest bedroom where some of his other Air Force souvenirs were displayed.

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

I took an Alumni College course at Rice once that was titled How Poetry Saved My Life. I know it has certainly more than once saved mine.

Meditation: sweet gum buds

Hurricane Ike toppled the young sweet gum tree in our back yard. The moment the storm passed, we pulled it back to vertical and staked it in hope that new roots would form and that Spring would bring bare branches back to life. As winter days grew longer and warmer, we watched and hoped. Was there any life in those bare branches?

Several weeks ago buds began to swell and the vigil became one of eager expectation. Friday was the first day of Spring and I spent it tending my neglected garden. In the morning, the sweet gum’s buds were hard, tight, closed. Each hour’s warmth and light worked upon the buds, growing them fat and long and coloring their tips blood red. Shortly after noon, the first tiny leaf unfolded and unfurled, followed quickly by others. By Sunday morning the tree was covered with leaves growing large and more numerous by the moment. My tree is green and growing. Hallelujah!

On my knees in a garden, I realize that for a long winter I have been a bare branch; I have been hard and tight and closed. Suddenly I am in prayer, fervently wanting to be opened, unfolded, unfurled. In eager expectation I am tempted to rush toward renewed life, to shout “Hallelujah!” I am tempted to hurry Easter, but resurrection life, like a budding branch, cannot be rushed.
So I will spend a short season in waiting; I will take time to repent, to be rooted and grounded anew, to become slowly and fully aware of the warmth and light that Christ brings to the world. I will remember the shouts of praise that turned in a week to betrayal and a cross. I will count the cost of the love that rolled the stone from the tomb.

Oh, Lord, come Easter in me and once more I will be green and growing.

What I'm Reading

Fiction Binge:

Schweizer, Mark: The Mezzo Wore Mink: a liturgical mystery. Hopkinsville KY: St. James Music Press, 2008. 191 p. illustrator: Jim Hunt. I don't read mysteries but I do make exceptions. Schweizer's six books featuring an Episopal choir director who is also a small town chief of police and a wanna be writer who channels Raymond Chandler... Well, what more can I say. Laugh out loud funny! Unfortunately the slip case issued with this book probably marks the end of the series. Perfect for a cold, rainy day. Read every word including the added material and adverts on the frontis. This is one you'll either lover or hate. The series in order: The Alto Wore Tweed, The Baritone Wore Chiffon, The Tenor Wore Tapshoes, The Soprano wore Falsettos, The Bass Wore Scales, The Mezzo Wore Mink. MYSTERY EPISCOPAL CHURCH POLITICS SMALL TOWN ROMANCE 20th Century

Rolls, Elizabeth: His Lady Mistress. free download link from Kindle Daily Post, Tue. March 10, 2009 in celebration of Harlquin's 60th anniversary. This is a Harlequin Historical Romance, "a bodice ripper." ROMANCE HARLEQUIN ORCZY Several decades ago I was badly addicted to paperback romances; since I could read the shorter ones in under 2.5 hours, I read about 3 each and every week. I eventually tired of the genre as I do all formulaic ficition. Since I've been studying a lot of 19th and early 20th Century novels written by women, I found this reading of a current romance novel quite interesting. Except for the mandatory three erotic scenes in the 21st Century version and the diminishment of vocabulary and syntax, this novel is much the same as the earliest romance novels. I wonder if Rolls use of "Blakeney" is a conscious allusion to Emmuska Orczy's Pimpernel.

Bedside Book:

Mariani, Paul L.: Gerard Manley Hopkins: A life. New York: Viking, the Penguin Group, 2008. 496 p. includes index BIOGRAPHY POETS CATHOLIC OXFORD 19th Century 21st Century Hopkins has been my favorite poet since I discovered him during my freshman year at Rice Univerisity. I like Marianni's writing very much; superb shaping of excerpts from poems, journals, letters into a very readable text. One of the best accounts of Hopkins life I have read. A gift from David on my 60th brithday.

Chairside Nibbles:

Yonge, Charolotte M. (ed.): Gold Dust: a collection of golden counsels for the santification of daily life. New York: Thomas Whittaker n.d.. 165 p. DEVOTION 19th Century

Kindle:

Radcliffe, Ann: The Mysteries of Udolpho. A Project Gutenberg Book first published in 1794. This is the book everyone is reading and talking about in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. FICTION 18th Century

Kindle:

Patten, Robert L.: George Cruikshank's Life, Times, and Art. Volume1: 1792-1835. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1992. BIOGRAPHY ARTIST ILLUSTRATOR 18th Century 19th Century 20th Century This award winning biography by one of my English literature professors from Rice University is proving a most enjoyable re-read. One of Patten's strong points as a professor was rooting the literature in the history, the sociology, and the culture of the time, He offers rich details in a very readable frame. With my new interest in book illustration it is even more interesting to me now than it was on my first reading some years ago.

Family Note: Lullabies of Joy

My nephew and his wife have blessed my family with a new baby who is a great joy to us all. My sister melts in tender sweetness toward her granddaughter as she did toward her grandson. Aunt B makes photo collages. Her daddy teaches the family to admire her tiny muscles. Her big brother adores his baby sister and pauses to kiss her head whenever he rushes past in pursuit of a 5-year old's important business. We all admire her large, long-fingered hands and dream of her career as a pianist... or a basketball player. And the family speaks of past, present, and future with gratitude. What a thing of wonder! A precious bundle of joy wrapped in love and hope and faith.

When I talked to my mother on the telephone following her first visit with the baby, her voice was full of joy. She sounded decades younger than her 82 years. As she recounted holding the baby, she relived the experience. She sang the lullabies she had sung to the baby and I heard again the mother's voice of my childhood. What a gift of joy for a woman of sixty years--to hear her mother sing lullabies!

Niece BK posted a video of my Mother singing to our bundle of Joy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slClpgxhdic

My brother and sister and I grew up with a mother who sang--say any word and she knew a song. She literally sang and danced around the kitchen. And she read to us; she read poetry to us. Long before I could make sense of the words, I learned the rhythms of Longfellow's Hiawatha.

Richer than I you never can be
I had a mother who read to me.

Read Strickland Gillilan's poem, The Reading Mother at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strickland_Gillilan

Dynamic Bibliography

After several years of working in solitude, I'm enjoying a small academic community with a trio of doctoral candidates in English literature. Last week I enjoyed a cup of coffee and a visit with BD (Rice U) at the lovely Brochstein Pavilion. Having mentioned an article that I thought would be of interest, I sent her a link to the citation:

Spurlock, John C. & Magistro, Cynthia A.: “Dreams never to be realized”: emotional culture and the phenomenology of emotion. J. Social History, Vol. 28, No.2, Winter, 1994
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/%22Dreams+never+to+be+realized%22%3a+emotional+culture+and+the...-a016350993

Spurlock & Magistro (psychology) have published some rather interesting work on the development of women’s emotional consciousness, their societal roles, and the history of gender equality.

This article concerns the diary of Gladys Bell, (early 1900s) and note number 42 mentions Laddie by Evelyn Whitaker as describing the Victorian ideal of manhood. However, when I first came across this article in early 2004 the author of Laddie was listed as anonymous. Now the author is identified and is linked to the Wikki article which I wrote and edit now and then.

Bibliographies and footnotes are no longer static. WOW! (this is the sort of thing that really excites a librarian) Even an old citation can be corrected and expanded and the web of knowledge grows. It's nice to play a small part in the weaving.

Should you wish to view that description of ideal manhood from Laddie, on-line versions are available from Google digitization (descriptions of Dr. Carter on Chapter 2, pages 20 ff. and pages 64-67 where he confesses his momentary weakness to the ideal Victorian woman, and again during hospital rounds page 81 ff.) and from archive.org both of which are linked from the digitized titles page at http://www.evelynwhitakerlibrary.org/

Naming the Blog: Read Lead

I have been blog-lurking for some time and have decided that now is the time to provide a blog where others can lurk. I've decided on a literary blog in part to answer the requests I get from friends and family for lists of books I am reading and have read.

For the present, this blog mirrors the one hosted by my own domain evelynwhitakerlibrary.org and after some experience I'll decide if it has enough data transfer capability to continue there. Does anyone reading care to offer an opinion?

Naming the blog was easier than expected.
I love word play. As a young child following my mother's finger in the hymnal, I discovered homonyms--"faithful loving serivice, too, to Him belongs." And I already knew that 2 was spelled "two."

I have always been fascinated by the verb "to read" which is spelled the same but pronounced differently for present and past tenses and the reader determines the tense in part by context. And, of course, the presence tense rhymes with "lead" although it past tense of "lead" is unpredictably "led" more like "breed" and "bred." Oh! English where similar words follow an entirely different set of rules. {English is both the richest language and one of the most difficult.}

I have long known and often stated that I have lived not only through my own experiences but through the experiences of others in the books I've read. So naming the blog in a couple of couplets:

the life I lead
is the life I read;
the life I led
is the life I read.

For additional reading lists, book notes, Hopkins and Psalms bibliographies, and more than you ever wanted to know about a certain late Victorian author who published anonymously, VISIT:

http://www.evelynwhitakerlibrary.org/blog_the_life_i_read/