‘Tis The Season….

14 Thursday Dec 2017

Posted by in Catholic Life, Classical Music, Family

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I have a love/hate relation with Christmas. Painful memories. Fond memories. I remember my father had to leave one year the day after Christmas to do a year-end audit in Birmingham, Alabama. I just wanted him to stay, probably not as much as he wanted to stay. Nowhere nearly as much as he did.  Christmases with my children. And thanks to divorce, Christmas without them.

And then there is the Holy Mass for the Solemnity of the Incarnation. I have been to Midnight Masses, and Christmas Day Masses. The serenity I associate with the Mass is profound. The silences between the chanted portions of the Masses are equally as moving as the chants.  And the Gloria is exquisite.  If one is lucky enough to be at a Mass where The Credo is chanted (the Missa Angeles especially), it is especially moving. He became Man and dwelt among us. The Incarnation will always be a Mystery. There are things we will never figure out. Mysteries.

Other music is also singularly special.  Händel’s Messiah, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Brittain’s Ceremony of Carols. Then there is the exquisite Marian Anthem, for the season,  Alma Redemptoris Mater, the simple tone Gregorian Chant.

Most importantly Christmas is the orange in the toe of my hand-knitted Christmas stocking. Because St Nicholas remembers that for the longest time, an orange, a simple orange, for Heaven’s sake, was something special.

Love/Hate. Loss of family, Presence of Our Lord, the perfunctory acts of charity, birds taking Mylar “icicles”  building their nests.

It’s a jumble. A delicious jumble.

Snow

09 Saturday Dec 2017

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There’s no Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye. It’s just been snowing in Richmond since mid-afternoon. It rarely snows this early in the season. I imagine the local TV guys are going nuts. The local snow coverage makes the JFK assassination story look like a supermarket opening,

But it is beautiful. I am watching the Virtual Railcam LLC webcam view of Ashland near Richmond. It is a picture book small town longitudinally bisected by double railroad tracks. We all agree Ashland is a nice place. And it looks great in the snow at Christmas with the Christmas lights and all.

I haven’t been away today. I fixed tonight’s chicken vegetable soup out of what was on hand. And the cornbread too.

I might start to worry if it doesn’t let up by tomorrow afternoon. But the value of snow around here is the opportunity to sit back and reflect. It is at most a three or four day inconvenience.  Here in Richmond, the go-to snow removal guy is called Mr Sun.

23:36. EST. 7. XII. 2017

08 Friday Dec 2017

Posted by in Catholic Life, Exercise/ Fitness

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Here I am at the end of a day. After a five day respite, I went swimming again. I had no idea how much I missed it. I put on six pounds in six days. Don’t ask how. But the appetite  seems to ramp up when I am idle. Today I swam 2500 meters. During the swimming respite, I had 2 leaf raking sessions in those 5 days.  My  back was in agony for about twenty four hours post raking session. Aleve© helped some. Still I thought I had screwed up my back in another place different from the fusion site of two years ago.

Live and learn. Work out at least five days a week. I re-learned that old rule.

I went to the Vigil Mass for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. It was a very reverent Mass in English. Father Tony M is a good priest.  I think he loves his vocation. I told him about my elder son’s autism. He seemed genuinely touched that I shared this news with him.

Now I am sitting recollecting my day, waiting for the chick movie on Lifetime Channel to end.  All in all, not a bad day.

Twice Blessed

07 Thursday Dec 2017

Posted by in Autism Spectrum Disorders

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I have known for the longest time that my younger adopted son, now 29, has Asperger’s Syndrome, a condition on the Autism Spectrum. Today I was talking with my elder son, age 41, from an earlier marriage. He said, “Did you know I was autistic?” 

No. 

It has taken about 6 hours to wrap my head around this. But that diagnosis explains so much of his behavior. He is a high-functioning autistic, who has hidden much of his condition. Basically I am relieved, more than anything else. 

And OK.

Brush With Greatness

02 Saturday Dec 2017

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My friend John on his previously mentioned cycling excursion took photos of the house where Mother Maybelle Carter and her family lived while she performed in Richmond on The Old Dominion Barn Dance on WRNL-AM 910. This was 70 years ago.

I did not know this. Maybelle Carter was the mother of June Carter Cash

“Shazzam”

02 Saturday Dec 2017

Posted by in Futurism, Smartphones, Uncategorized

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I got a text from a long time friend just as I was sitting down to the huevos rancheros I ordered for brunch at my friendly neighborhood trendy restaurant.

He was on a weekend bicycling excursion to where we call The Center Of The Universe, Ashland,Virginia. Virtual Railcam LLC has a camera placed there, so that trainspotters like me can watch rail traffic at home. (Amtrak’s Northbound Silver Star #92 just passed by.)

He texted to let me know he just bought a cookie and would be riding by the webcam. I have known John since sixth grade. We were roommates our First Year at the University of Virginia. We live in the same town and communicate almost daily.  Fifty-plus year continuing friendships are remarkable these days, but  I could not have imagined receiving a text from him, then seeing him wave at me in a live image on a tiny handheld computer fifty four years ago.

Breath-taking. 

The larger point I want to make is that assumptions we have about progress are being outpaced by that actual progress itself. We still cling to Nineteenth and Twentieth Century ideas about the world and exercise little scepticism about them. Malthusian ideas about population growth and food supply were advanced before mechanization, plant genetics, and animal breeding revolutionized agricultural productivity. Think about that.

Do we face a technological utopia or dis-topia? I don’t know. But our visions of the future say more about us today than they do about what tomorrow has in store.

Why Am I Awake?

02 Saturday Dec 2017

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Most of you know I go to Nocturnal Eucharistic Adoration on First Fridays. (It’s a Catholic tradition). I choose my Holy Hour between 4 and 5 AM. That means I’m groggy and half-awake for most of  Saturday morning. All in all, it’s not a bad feeling, compelled, to just sit, watch the world, and be with my thoughts.  The contemplation of Holy Hour transfers from Our Lord to the world at large.

I could think about my frustrations, how I’m not getting what I want, such as sex, time with my adult children, and why the Culture isn’t acting the Way I Want It To Act.

Big Parenthetical Aside Coming

(Ironic, isn’t it, that no matter what our values and opinions are, we think our set of values and opinions are the only ones that bring true happiness to people. That assumes that happiness is our primary purpose in life. I will leave that question of what our purpose is open for now)

Rather than dwell on frustration, appreciation is far more worthy pursuit. Friendship. Beauty. Love. For example, a friend brought her dog to AA yesterday. Seeing that dog made me happy. I totally get how therapy dogs can be beneficial.

I just read where two of my blogosphere friends met for the first time. I’m glad, and I wish I could have been there too.

Tidying Up. 

25 Saturday Nov 2017

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I don’t know why I fight doing housework. I rather enjoy it once I get in the swing. I spent about 90 minutes tidying up the kitchen and downstairs bathroom. The downstairs smells nice, lavender, lemon verbena fragrances. 

I am actually tired now. A nap is forthcoming. 

More later, maybe.