All Purls. No Swine.
It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived. This is the quote attributed to General George S. Patton in his extemporaneous remarks at Boston’s Copely Plaza, on June 7, 1945. There’s no written record (on his part) of his saying such a thing,… Continue reading Quote of the Day: From ‘Old Blood and Guts’
During a British conference on comparative religions, experts from around the world were discussing whether any one belief was unique to the Christian faith. They began eliminating possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death. The debate went on for… Continue reading Amazing Grace–A Lenten Post
There aren't many iconic rock stars I recognize, let alone for whom I can identify a single "iconic" song. The list is endless, and includes such luminaries as Bruce Springsteen, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Guns N' Roses, Aerosmith (well done, Steven, if for nothing else than producing such a lovely Arwen), Prince, Lynard Skynard, Jimi… Continue reading RIP: Meat. Loaf.
He was the biggest--in every sense of the word--dog who's ever owned me. Big of size, big (well, reasonably big) of brain, big of spirit, but most of all, big of heart. Levi's long, and very good, run came to an end this morning. He'd been having increasing trouble hauling his 150lb frame to its… Continue reading Ave Atque Vale: The Greatest Pyrenees
https://youtu.be/WKu6HFrtpkM (Apologies for the rather tinny and reedy audio. Entirely my fault. It was a spontaneous reaction, emotion not a bit recollected in tranquility (h/t William Wordsworth). I used the voice recorder of my iPhone, and I was w-a-a-y in the back of the audience. I just wanted you to hear my neighbors and friends, children… Continue reading Hallelujah! Our Long, Dark, Winter Night is Over!
Before my husband, Mr. Right, died last year, he spent many years (probably well over a decade, now that I reflect on it with the benefit of hindsight) slowly succumbing to dementia. It's a cruel disease, as many of you know. But also looking back on it, and--indeed--since he died, I've found humor in some… Continue reading An Autocorrect Fail, or Just the Funniest Book Review Ever?
Well, TBPH, I didn’t sleep through it. I discovered, decades ago, that the reason I don’t get much sleep is not that I can’t get to sleep; it’s that I’m a very light sleeper, and everything wakes me up. So last night, I was unsurprised to be awoken at 2:30AM by a pack of yelping… Continue reading While I Was Sleeping: Death Comes to the Farm
These words were spoken by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, to the family members of those who perished on September 11, 2001. And I’ve often thought she must have been channeling C.S. Lewis at the time: To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken.… Continue reading “Grief is the price we pay for love”–Redux
Tom T. Hall died yesterday. While my contemporaries were listening to the addled, screeching, incoherent outpourings of the deranged, the dysfunctional, and the sex, drugs and rock-and-roll addicted contingent of my generation, I was here: https://youtu.be/pQAk-xYxvVo Don't like it? I don't really think I want to know you.
This morning on Ricochet, I responded to a comment by another member about the elevation of religious identity above all others in many third-world conflicts with the following words: The strategy of elevating religion over ethnicity as a means to consolidate loyalties (both internally and externally) that might otherwise divide among tribal or other cultural… Continue reading Tribes