As I Was Saying Before the Red Truck Wine...

I got a catalog in the mail for continuing education. But when I read the big ad on the back from a woman teaching "spirituality" I had to post it here. Mind you, she collects $49.00 from people to come listen to this P.O.S. for two and a half hours. I really must get a schtick like this going on the side. And I quote:

"The year 2008 beckons us with the shifts of consciousness that started in 1987 during the harmonic convergence. We individually and collectively came into awareness that our state of mind was undermining not only our personal growth and spiritual development; it was working against the well-being of all that exists. In 1987, a select few chose to set in motion a new beginning. The birth of consciousness that encompassesd the "we" rather than the "me" that ruled humankind for thousands of years began.

Known as Lightworkers, they called upon all who remembered the power of thought and the law of attraction to demonstrate thought to allow them to rise above and move beyond. Get past fear-based consciousness and see that everyday is a new beginning, a chance to start something new. The year 2008 is the awakening and the beginning of living from our heart."

I am not making any of this up! The person who thought up this amazing con job lists her profession as a "medical intuitive." And I bet poor souls will flock to this type of jive. Amazing. Absolutely amazing!

The tile man removed the mirror and discovered this old wallpaper from the 70ies. It explains much about boomer mindset.

Still Clicking

It's still about the visuals here for me--not the verbal. More pictures of the beautiful fog, oaks and today--buzzards gathering.

Photo Paradise

In spite of the rains and storms I feel I have landed in camera Disneyland! Too much writing last time--this time just some of the gorgeous scenery we now enjoy.

I don't know why the underlining showed up but that's just how things go sometimes!

Being Cross Over a Crucifix

What are the artistic boundaries for a crucifix? Can a crucifix be made 'beautiful'? Ought a crucifix even try and appear 'beautiful'? I know the old "felix culpa" bit and even understand it some--but I don't like it. Crucifixion is ugly and trying to make it something else can only distort belief.

I visited the Catholic church near where we are staying. The setting is beautiful and the many clear windows in the church bring the outside in. That may or may not be a good thing for worship--unless one is a Druid--but the "crucifix" that dominates the sanctuary is pretty insulting. I know this has been a controversial ornament for years but really--a Bolshoi Jesus??? Don't give me all those silly stories about how this Jesus is reaching down from the Cross to pull us up--forget it! He was on that Cross alone. And he didn't look like Nureyev while he was suffering. I post these pictures to show how screwed up people can get when they are more concerned with being "cutting edge" than with fostering prayer. I find it offensive because this "crucifix" tells a lie, not the Truth. And there has certainly been enough lying going on in the Church that every trace of it ought to be pointed out, exposed, light shone on it and then throw it on the heap to be burned.

What else does one expect to find in a Catholic church? What about a statue of Mary? (And NO! Catholics don't pray to statues or worship statues) What did I find in this church? Some faux folk kinder art that is supposed to be the Theotokos. It looked like a Hindu goddess or some ancient Mayan doll. How in the world can something that is so identified with a type of religion that Christianity has been the Good News to overcome be the style in which Mary is portrayed? Another insult to the believer. But to voice disapproval is to risk being called 'non-inclusive' or western chauvinist. I call it for what it is: another attempt by non-believing clerics and committees to undermine the beauty of art when it is used to lift the soul to God.

I would laugh at how ridiculous it all looked if it weren't so sad.

Who can blot out the Cross, which th’instrument

Of God, dew’d on me in the Sacrament?

Who can deny me power, and liberty

To stretch mine arms, and mine own Cross to be?

Swim, and at every stroke, thou art thy Cross;

The Mast and yard make one, where seas do toss;

Look down, thou spiest out Crosses in small things;

Look up, thou seest birds rais’d on crossed wings;

All the Globes frame, and spheres, is nothing else

But the Meridians crossing Parallels.

Material Crosses then, good physic bee,

But yet spiritual have chief dignity.

These for extracted chemic medicine serve,

And cure much better, and as well preserve;

Then are you your own physic, or need none,

When Still’d, or purg’d by tribulation.

For when that Cross ungrudg’d, unto you sticks,

Then are you to your self, a Crucifix.

As perchance, Carvers do not faces make,

But that away, which hid them there, do take;

Let Crosses, so, take what hid Christ in thee,

And be his image, or not his, but he.

John Donne

Black-eyed peas

2008--the number does nothing for me. It's not snappy, it's not easily worked into a rhyming poem. Okay--it would do alright in a high school football cheer but that's about the end of its literary use. I've always had an emotional reaction to the ten digits. (Yes, I count zero because I've felt sorry for it.) But I've never really "liked" eight. Fours are fine. Nine has been a personal favorite for decades. I've felt protective of twos and sixes. Sevens strike me as rather tacky and ones are the unseen children. Three is also on my list of "friendly" numbers. But I have never cared for eights. At least 2008 has the solid feeling of two steady, even numbers keeping the two loose-cannon zeroes contained. But that's about all I can say about this year. Actually, I've never cared for any of the years since the Millenium and I didn't like that 2000 one bit. It will make the dates on my headstone look so untidy as well as make the math more difficult for a stranger to figure out how old I was when I died. OKAY! Enough of the fruitcake meanderings.

I have my good luck black-eyed peas simmering on the stove. I've tweaked the old family recipe a bit over the years so that now New Years Day begins my year with the rare feeling of GUILT! I seldom feel guilt over anything--but when I start putting carrots in the peas I sense stirrings in the family plot in Texas. And when I add the celery I can start to hear murmurings of long-dead grandmothers who are looking over my shoulder in the kitchen. But the real bone-shaker is when I add herbes de Province to the Crock pot. I imagine aprons being flipped over heads in a time-honored gesture of despair. And they thought I'd ruined the whole mess of peas just by using a yellow onion instead of a purple one! Sorry, Grandmothers--this will be a delicious meal and I'll think of you fondly. I know you would toss that apron when I open the box of Marie Callendar Corn bread mix instead of heating up the bacon grease in the iron skillet in the oven before pouring in my own "real" batter. And yes, yours was better! But times and digits change and we have to put up with it. So we will enjoy this odd tradition and have our "good luck peas" on the first day of the year. I pray for an uneventful year.