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Saturday, August 04, 2012

Wednesday, July 04, 2012

Tony Blair on Americans and America ~


Americans can be all that the rest of the world sometimes accuses them of: brash, loud, insular, obsessive and heavy-handed. But America is great for a reason. It is looked up to, despite all the criticism, for a reason. There is a nobility in the American character that has been developed over the centuries, derived in part, no doubt, from the frontier spirit, from the waves of migration that form the stock, from the circumstance of independence, from the Civil war, from a myriad of historical facts and coincidences. But it is there.

That nobility isn't about being nicer, better or more successful than anyone else. It is a feeling about the country. It is a devotion to the American ideal that at a certain point transcends class, race, religion or upbringing. That ideal is about values: freedom, the rule of law, democracy. It is also about the way you achieve it: on merit, by your own efforts and hard work. but it is most of all that in striving for and protecting that ideal, you as an individual take second place to the interests of the nation as a whole. it is what makes its soldiers give their lives in sacrifice. It is what brings every variety of American, from the lowest to the highest, to their feet when "The Star Spangled Banner" is played. Of course the ideal is not always met—that is obvious. But it is always striven for.

Time Magazine— September 13, 2010

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Praying Problem ~






Why not consciously make a prayer out of all those pieces I practice on the piano?

Friday, June 08, 2012

Who He is Not ~

That is not my God who looks after a Chosen People and has no concern for the rest of mankind.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

May Altar ~

Come to think of it: Back in the 3rd grade I used to steal flowers from people's front gardens on the way to school to put them on the classroom May Altar . . . and never gave it a thought.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Lawn ~

Decided not to cut the first grass and look what happened . . .

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Constancy ~

. . . and even if I would betray You, You know that I still love You.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Thomas Merton ~


Last night I had this funny dream: I was beside Merton in a choir stall and he was bent down low over a tape recorder and started to play a tape of a hundred children voices laughing lightheartedly. All the other monks started laughing, too. Merton looked up at me with a knavish smile on his face. Someone said: That's Merton again, up to another one of his tricks.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

De diligendo Deo ~

At every corner of the day I am waylaid by things that distract me from You.

Friday, April 06, 2012

On Waking ~

6:30 a.m.: It is dark outside. I lie in bed listening to the birds singing the Divine Office outside: Lauds.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Meaning ~

The Wise Old Monk said: "He will get at you with things that make you struggle: an insuperable problem, a divorce, cancer, a loss . . . That will make you return to Him, where you belong".

Friday, March 16, 2012

Open Mine Eyes ~







Despite all my neglect, He lets spring come again to greet me at my window.

Wednesday, March 07, 2012

Morning News Report ~

In North Carolina Edward Cantrell, 36, a soldier, wrapped a blanket around himself and ran into the burning house to save his two daughters, 4 and 6.

He and his daughters perished in the flames.

Thursday, March 01, 2012

Earthbound ~

Even when in complete solitude the banal concerns of each passing hour keep me from rising aloft to You.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Thérèse of Lisieux


When she found out about a lady lavishing little attentions on her husband she wrote:

"Let it never be said that a woman in the world did more for her husband than I for my Beloved."

Friday, January 20, 2012

Wannsee Conference ~ January 20, 1942


As if for a routine business meeting 15 high ranking Nazis met in this house to finalize plans for the "Endlösung", the deportation and extermination of all European Jews, the monstrous crime that anticipated the murder of 11 million human beings.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Winter Darkness ~

Jupiter hangs over the neighbor's roof and the oncoming planes on their approach to the Zurich's airport skirt around it like winter fireflies.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Those Who Sacrificed ~

Was I reading correctly, that the remains of hundreds of Air Force personnel had been dumped into a Virginia landfill?

Sunday, December 04, 2011

Remnants of WW II ~




Forty-five thousand people evacuated today in the city of Koblenz on the Rhine.
In the shallow water of the river [no rain in months] bombs have been uncovered from World War II. They are hoping to defuse them today.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

22 November 1963 ~


There were these special few who consoled me that day forty-eight years ago when the President was shot.

Friday, November 18, 2011

Siege of Leningrad ~ 1941 - 1944


When the German Wehrmacht blockaded the city for two and a half years thousands of people starved to death.

Scenerio: I was out on the street today and picked something up that looked like sugar. I sucked on its sweetness the whole way home. On arriving there I took it out and saw it was just a pebble.

Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Grande Chartreuse ~


Possible scenario:

After 45 years in this Carthusian monastery spent in contemplation and loving piety, Alzheimer's disease sets in and he changes. He begins to hate the habit he wears and refuses to don it, he stops singing the office and going to chapter and remains pouting in his cell, and the last thing he wants is to bother himself with the things of God.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Know Thyself ~

Often times I put my head in my hand and ask myself how You could put up with my wavering for all theses years.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Up To Date ~

I try to imagine Jesus jumping into a Toyota van and winging down to the Lake of Genesereth for a happening.

Saturday, October 08, 2011

House of God ~

While visiting a church last week somebody stole our digital camera.

Friday, September 30, 2011

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Now That is Service! ~


Here in Germany they deliver the morning paper right into the mail box.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Learning Humility ~

How it hurts to think back fifty years and remember clearly all the stupid faux pas one has made.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

General Petraeus ~

I liked one of his lines about fighting in asymetrical combat: "a soldier has to be comfortable in chaos".

Friday, August 19, 2011

Time Passing ~

Spotted the red tinge at the top of the maple tree--first saddening signs of autumn.

Thursday, August 04, 2011

Happy Birthday ~

We uncorked a bottle of champagne and lifted our glasses and wished President Obama a Happy 50th Birthday.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Wise Old Monk ~

Understand this, he said: it is not what you do, what you achieve. I is what you are.