As I make my rounds through the blogosphere, I keep seeing references to....SUMMER. And beach trips. And hot weather. And I'm thinking, it just doesn't feel like summer; in fact, to me it feels like it's barely spring. I feel like I am in some sort of time warp.
Yes, it's the end of May. And I live in a tourist area that was inundated this past weekend with folks starting summer. But it's barely warm--it's only been above 70 a couple of days. And the leaves just came out. And the water won't be warm enough to swim in until....well, it never will be for me, but last time I checked the paper (last week) the water temp was a chill 53F. Brrrr.
Besides the weather not feeling like summer, this is the first year in more than 20 years that I haven't been on an academic schedule either as a student or as a teacher. So there's been no rush of papers and exams to signal the end of a semester, no extended break, no plans for summer school. Yes, the Kid will be out of school in a few weeks, and things will slow down at church a bit, but I'm still missing some of my familiar signals.
So I'm trying to adjust to the idea that it is, in fact, summer. And it promises to be a full one. The Kid will finish his first year of high school in a couple of weeks. Lovely Daughter #2 will be married in 3 1/2 weeks. Lovely Daughter #1 will be heading back to Korea. Elder Son will begin his new coaching job at Formerly-an-animal-name-University. The Kid and I will explore the local beaches, and maybe take in some baseball games. I will actually take some vacation time, and not just stay at home. Perhaps there will even be some blogger meet-ups!
Now if it would just warm up a bit....
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Monday, May 29, 2006
Memorial Day
Our parish has many retired folks, and a sprinkling of WWII veterans. For them, understandably, Memorial Day is an important holiday. It's a long standing tradition for one of our veterans to bring the American flag to the front of the church and wave it while the congregation sings "America the Beautiful" at the end of the service. The man who did this today is an 83 year old (still going strong--I want to be old like he is!) who flew in B17s during WWII and was shot down over Germany and spent time in a German POW camp. He is a wonderful guy--great story teller, warm, friendly, interested in all the kids. His presence makes this ritual all the more meaningful for the congregation.
But I have to admit, I have a hard time with it. I don't think national flags belong in church, and I don't think nationalism has a place in church, either. I realize that I have many advantages, many rights and privileges that come from being an American, but I am not particularly proud of the way this country has acted--in Iraq, in the so-called war on terrorism, in the way civil liberties seem to be evaporating, in the way the environment continues to be desecrated for the sake of cheap oil and unlimited use of it--I could go on and on. And I'm not proud of the arrogance that often accompanies shows of patriotism. The United States has much to answer for.
I hold today's flag waver in high regard, and I respect his feelings about his war service. I'm not sure war is ever justified,and I don't want to glorify war but does that mean we shouldn't honor those who fought in the past?
Today because I was afraid my face would give away my very mixed and mostly negative feelings about the flag-waving, I concentrated on the words of "America the Beautiful" and one part caught my attention:
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
Oh that we would pay more attention to mending our flaws, and showing self-control. And would that we use our laws to uphold liberty and not undermine it, as the current administration seems to be doing.
But I have to admit, I have a hard time with it. I don't think national flags belong in church, and I don't think nationalism has a place in church, either. I realize that I have many advantages, many rights and privileges that come from being an American, but I am not particularly proud of the way this country has acted--in Iraq, in the so-called war on terrorism, in the way civil liberties seem to be evaporating, in the way the environment continues to be desecrated for the sake of cheap oil and unlimited use of it--I could go on and on. And I'm not proud of the arrogance that often accompanies shows of patriotism. The United States has much to answer for.
I hold today's flag waver in high regard, and I respect his feelings about his war service. I'm not sure war is ever justified,and I don't want to glorify war but does that mean we shouldn't honor those who fought in the past?
Today because I was afraid my face would give away my very mixed and mostly negative feelings about the flag-waving, I concentrated on the words of "America the Beautiful" and one part caught my attention:
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!
Oh that we would pay more attention to mending our flaws, and showing self-control. And would that we use our laws to uphold liberty and not undermine it, as the current administration seems to be doing.
Friday, May 19, 2006
Early Morning Visitors
The one thing I love most about where I live now is the birds. In the morning the air is full of the music of birdssong--the melodies surround you. This morning after I drove the Kid to school (because he missed the bus yet again) I stopped to fill the bird feeders and listen the the birdsong. After replenishing the oranges and grape jelly in the oriole feeder I glanced up at a large tree behind the stone wall and notices something orange on the branch. As I watched, a squirrel scampered up the tree and out onto the branch--to retrieve the orange that he had apparently stolen from the oriolde feeder last night and left on the branch til later. I quickly went inside and grabbed my camera:
I've been trying to get a picture of the orioles, so I stood quietly in the back yard midway between the feeders. It was calm and peaceful and here is some of what I saw:
I can't seem to get a really good oriole picture. The orange is brilliant, much brighter than a robin. Twice they have flown by the door when I was looking out and they were just beautiful.
I've been trying to get a picture of the orioles, so I stood quietly in the back yard midway between the feeders. It was calm and peaceful and here is some of what I saw:
I can't seem to get a really good oriole picture. The orange is brilliant, much brighter than a robin. Twice they have flown by the door when I was looking out and they were just beautiful.
Monday, May 15, 2006
In My Yard
I had just finished filling the bird feeders and was inside looking out the kitchen window when I spied this:Two geese and three goslings. Luckily the camera was right there. I snuck out the back door and followed them back across the yard as they ambled back toward the pond.
Lo, what light through yonder window breaks?
Could it be....gasp!....the sun?
I'm sure it's just a temporary aberration, but I'll enjoy it while I can. We haven't had as much rainfall as some parts of New England, but it has been consistently cloudy, gloomy, and wet for more days than I care to count. And more of the same forecast for tonight and beyond.
Time to fill the bird feeders while I can....
I'm sure it's just a temporary aberration, but I'll enjoy it while I can. We haven't had as much rainfall as some parts of New England, but it has been consistently cloudy, gloomy, and wet for more days than I care to count. And more of the same forecast for tonight and beyond.
Time to fill the bird feeders while I can....
Monday, May 01, 2006
Random Bits of Monday
Today was a day off....my days off used to be Thursday and Friday (Saturday and Sunday being clergy work days) but for many reasons, Thursday wasn't working out to be a good day to be off, so now I'm taking Monday and Friday. I give up having two days in a row, but I still think it is a good move...Monday was never a very productive day in the office, and it feels good to be off after Sunday, which is invariably a crazy busy day.
Friday I wasted most of the day doing nothing. That would've been okay if I'd felt relaxed at the end of it, but I didn't--I just felt irritated with myself for not accomplishing anything, so I tried to be more productive today. And I managed to:
--call HP about my almost new printer that prints gorgeous pictures but won't print documents for anything. With very little conversation they agreed to send me a new printer, and it will be here tomorrow!
--make an eye appointment for the Kid whose eyes are alarmingly bad--even with his glasses he can't see lots of things I can see.
--confirm the Kid's camp registration after trying to cancel it last week--he is, shall we say, a bit ambivalent about going. A friend yesterday convinced him he had to go, and there's no turning back now! It's just one week of sleep-over camp, and I know he'll have a good time once he gets there.
--mail a shower gift for my daughter's bridal shower coming up on Saturday that I am not able to attend because of work. I am notorious about not mailing things on time, so this is good thing.
--go to the "bird store" and lay out big bucks for a couple of new bird feeders. In the last month the squirrels and grackles have destroyed all four of my feeders. So I sprang for two that are supposedly squirrel and grackle proof. We'll see. And I bought a feeder designed for Baltimore Orioles (the bird, not the team). I've never seen an Oriole, but they frequent this part of the country, and now, apparently, is the time to attract them.
--read through some liturgical notes from seminary to help me plan two weddings and a baptism coming up.
--completely blow my top when I found out that not only did the Kid get an abysmally low grade in algebra, but also he failed to give me his report card for more than two weeks (and when I asked about it over the weekend told me it hadn't come out yet). Can we say GROUNDED?
And in the larger world, I've been listening off and on to reports on demonstrations by immigrants today (Ianqui has a post on one such demonstration in NYC). The fact that some businesses (like Tyson and Perdue meat packing plants) shut down because of threatened employee absenteeism speaks volumes about the role immigrants (legal and illegal) play in our economy. NYC would not be the only place that would shut down without the hard work of immigrants.
Phantom wrote eloquently about her grandparents who came to the United States just before restrictive immigration policies were put into effect--policies that helped doom hundreds of thousands of European Jews. Even though I learned about the Holocaust in school as a child, I never learned about the US immigration policies that kept Jews attempting to escape Europe out of the US until I was teaching History of Psychology. In a good example of how social science can be badly misguided, psychologists played a role in immigration policy by pushing the notion of eugenics, and the notion (completely false) that immigrants from eastern and southern Europe were of inferior intelligence. If we allowed such inferior types in the country, so the reasoning went, and if they reproduced at a higher rate than people with more superior pedigrees, it would spell doom for the US. Of course, no one openly endorses eugenics these days, but sadly and scarily, I hear hints of the same sort of thinking when I hear laments about how our culture is threatened by large numbers of immigrants. Phantom hits the nail on the head when she says, "The best way to limit immigration [if you are worried about it] is to work to end poverty, war, and suffering wherever they are found." I would add that most of us are descended from immigrants, and that it was immigrants who built this country. I'm more than a little embarrassed and disturbed by the anti-immigrant attitude that is in the air these days.
Friday I wasted most of the day doing nothing. That would've been okay if I'd felt relaxed at the end of it, but I didn't--I just felt irritated with myself for not accomplishing anything, so I tried to be more productive today. And I managed to:
--call HP about my almost new printer that prints gorgeous pictures but won't print documents for anything. With very little conversation they agreed to send me a new printer, and it will be here tomorrow!
--make an eye appointment for the Kid whose eyes are alarmingly bad--even with his glasses he can't see lots of things I can see.
--confirm the Kid's camp registration after trying to cancel it last week--he is, shall we say, a bit ambivalent about going. A friend yesterday convinced him he had to go, and there's no turning back now! It's just one week of sleep-over camp, and I know he'll have a good time once he gets there.
--mail a shower gift for my daughter's bridal shower coming up on Saturday that I am not able to attend because of work. I am notorious about not mailing things on time, so this is good thing.
--go to the "bird store" and lay out big bucks for a couple of new bird feeders. In the last month the squirrels and grackles have destroyed all four of my feeders. So I sprang for two that are supposedly squirrel and grackle proof. We'll see. And I bought a feeder designed for Baltimore Orioles (the bird, not the team). I've never seen an Oriole, but they frequent this part of the country, and now, apparently, is the time to attract them.
--read through some liturgical notes from seminary to help me plan two weddings and a baptism coming up.
--completely blow my top when I found out that not only did the Kid get an abysmally low grade in algebra, but also he failed to give me his report card for more than two weeks (and when I asked about it over the weekend told me it hadn't come out yet). Can we say GROUNDED?
And in the larger world, I've been listening off and on to reports on demonstrations by immigrants today (Ianqui has a post on one such demonstration in NYC). The fact that some businesses (like Tyson and Perdue meat packing plants) shut down because of threatened employee absenteeism speaks volumes about the role immigrants (legal and illegal) play in our economy. NYC would not be the only place that would shut down without the hard work of immigrants.
Phantom wrote eloquently about her grandparents who came to the United States just before restrictive immigration policies were put into effect--policies that helped doom hundreds of thousands of European Jews. Even though I learned about the Holocaust in school as a child, I never learned about the US immigration policies that kept Jews attempting to escape Europe out of the US until I was teaching History of Psychology. In a good example of how social science can be badly misguided, psychologists played a role in immigration policy by pushing the notion of eugenics, and the notion (completely false) that immigrants from eastern and southern Europe were of inferior intelligence. If we allowed such inferior types in the country, so the reasoning went, and if they reproduced at a higher rate than people with more superior pedigrees, it would spell doom for the US. Of course, no one openly endorses eugenics these days, but sadly and scarily, I hear hints of the same sort of thinking when I hear laments about how our culture is threatened by large numbers of immigrants. Phantom hits the nail on the head when she says, "The best way to limit immigration [if you are worried about it] is to work to end poverty, war, and suffering wherever they are found." I would add that most of us are descended from immigrants, and that it was immigrants who built this country. I'm more than a little embarrassed and disturbed by the anti-immigrant attitude that is in the air these days.
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