Epiphany

Let's see, it's Dec 31st and as best I can tell my Christmas Miracle arrived, such as it is. Nothing else has seemed to get thru to me this Holy Season. Don't forget that Miracles do Occur in the Strangest of Places.

I follow the blog of Real Live Preacher. As much as I'm going to be touched this Christmas, I was by his most recent post (Epiphany). The address is: http://www.reallivepreacher.com/node/652#comment It's a work of fiction (so I've been told) but I heartily recommend it to all.

KBON 101.1

I'm a Texan, born and bred, and am as proud of that fact as most any other in my life. But, I do love Louisiana, especially New Orleans and anywhere else South of IH 10 (i.e. Cajun Country), the land of the displaced Acadians from Nova Scotia as immortalized in Longfellow's Evangeline.

There's a great story behind their relocation and if you ever want to take a vacation and see an oft disregarded part of our country's heritage, travel the roads of the Bayou Country of South Louisiana, soaking up the beauty, culture and history of a separate and distinct group of Americans. It's worth the trip. Be sure and stop in St. Martinsville and see the Cajun Heritage Museum and read and listen to the story of the Acadian diaspora. It's a sad but beautiful tale from a very early part of our Country's history.

While on the story of South Louisana, they have a great little radio station there that webcasts all day long. KBON 101.1 (FM) broadcasting to Mamou, Eunice Ville Platte, Opelousas and Lafayette (et al), I love listening to them. They play pretty much a combination of Cajun, Zydeco, 50's & 60's Pop and Classic Country in a great mix, complete with occasional D.J. comments. It's just a great listen. Their URL is: http://www.kbon.com/ and the home page has a "click on" for live listening. I frequently have it playing in my office while I'm working. Matter of fact I'm listening at the moment, wishing I was there.

Hope all had a Merry First Day of Christmas and continue to have a Holy Christmas Season.

Aslan

Consider this a post just because I want to put something on the web and am out of "deep thoughts" to share at the moment.

I LOVE C. S. Lewis and his writing. Wife and I have been to see The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and came away well pleased. Thought the film was very good and followed the book almost to the letter. I went expecting to be disappointed. Fortunately, I had to look hard to find someplace to take exception with the production. Best I could do after watching was to determine that while "The Chronicles ..." are pretty clear to me in their Christian allegory; the film managed to keep away from the allegorical and just present a story about fantasy and magic, talking beasts and a land far away. So, I can criticize Hollywood again for their secular agenda and refusal to approach Christian thought with any real seriousness.

But, then after seeing the film I got to reading some of my older C. S. Lewis commentaries and found that Lewis' idea behind "Lion, Witch & Wardrobe" was sneaky. Seems he initially set out to write a fantasy for kids that weren't "of the Faith" with the idea that in later life they might remember the fairy tale from their youth and recognize Christ and His Passion, having heard a similar story in their youth. Yeah, Baby! The more I read about Lewis, the more respect I gain for his intellect (and it's considerable already). Thus, I commend the film to you or to anyone else. Forget the reviews that don't seem to get it. It's a great film with super production values and excellent acting. Special effects are believeable. All in all a worthwhile evening's entertainment.

Having said that, I'll close with one of my favorite quotations about Narnia:

“The best part was the very real Aslan. I have always been jealous of the Narnians, they get Him in the flesh and we didn’t. I want to dig my hands into His mane and feel the warmth of His breath on my face.”
“Of course, when I grew older, I understood their deeper meaning and with an almost childlike glee, realized that one day I would indeed go to Narnia.”

And to all who wander thru this Christmas, "I wish you all the Peace and Blessings this Holyday Season has to offer".

In need of a Christmas Miracle

Christmas is now a week away and I'm waaay off being in a "Christmas mood."

Having been around for approaching 3 score years (close, but "no cigar" yet), I've had time to develop many reasons to annually acquire a wee bit of the Christmas melancholy. Usually I can shake it but this year has seemed more difficult than others. The good news; however, is that come Christmas Eve, when I'm in Church at 11:00 pm for Midnight Mass, I will work through it and become again "right with my world", if only for a day or two until my Secular life rears its ugly head and I again take on my millstones and grindstones.

If that's the case, what's the purpose of this post? I'm not really sure, unless it's to ask my Sewanee Angel to see if they can't send me some sort of Christmas Miracle this year. I think it was George Jones who sang Miracles Occur in the Strangest of Places. Don't even know what kind of miracle I'm looking for; nothing elaborate for sure. It would just be nice (this year especially) to have proof that God knows I'm here and that He's watching over me.

In the mean time, in lieu of a "Merry Christmas", I wish y'all Peace; today and evermore.

101 Reasons to be Whiskeypalian

Lessons and Carols were GREAT!!! It was wonderful to get to see son and daughter and daughter-in-law and her family. It's been a year since we saw all the in-laws. We just didn't have enough time there. On top of that, our flight back home Sucked Big Time. Daughter was flying out of BNA to Lacrosse, WI two hours before we were flying to ACT thru DFW so we got up at 4:30 (AM) to drive back to BNA. Daughter was booked on Northwest and her flight was delayed for two hours. She finally left about the same time we did. I really miss the two hours extra sleep I could have gotten. On top of that, we flew American and had a serious headwind returning. Then commo went down at DFW's Tower so with minimal fuel we had to land in OK City to "gas up". That delayed us long enough to miss our connection and instead of arriving at 2:20 we hit town at 5:00 pm and missed a party we were looking forward to. Serious "Bummer!" Good news is that we were able to pickup the pups from the kennel before it closed. We really LOVE our dogs.

Was a heavy fog on The Mountain the entire time we were there, so we didn't get to enjoy the beauty of Sewanee; but did run to the Bookstore and found a couple of interesting books. One The Case for Christmas by Lee Strobel (more about it next post) and another called 101 Reasons to be Episcopalian compiled by Louie Crew. Really enjoyed reading the reasons but while they were sometimes outstanding; I was most impressed with the Forward and Introduction.

I offer the following thoughts, ascribed to Phyllis Tickle who wrote the Forward:

1. We are "self-deprecating"
2. We are persuaded by faith and not dogma.
3. We are "disturbed by beauty and made absurd by the passion of an holy aesthetic." And seek to attract those akin to us.
4. We are a bit contrary in our faithfulness.

And from Louie Crew, who compiled the reasons and wrote the Introduction:

1. We see our job as to welcome and befriend others, while we rely on the Holy Spirit to persuade.
2. We are ecstatic about our faith.
3. We are a thinking lot and when two of us are gathered, you will find at least two opinions and possibly (I would say probably) more.
4. We value our right to disagree, yet we all feed at the same table (and welcome each other to join us).
5. Many of us are here because it is safe to doubt and we can feel God's love even before we learn to love Him.
6. We don't dwell on our sins continually; having an Altar we can leave our sins there weekly (and weakly).
7. We believe God has a sense of humor and try not to take ourselves too seriously. If you don't believe that, just listen to the Whiskeypalian jokes that abound.
8. And finally, we're not proud of ourselves, but of God and His "Good News".

With that, I'll commend you to Mr. Crew's website: http://newark.rutgers.edu/~lcrew/365plus.html

Read what we have to say about ourselves and see what you think.

Lessons and Carols

Going to Sewanee this weekend for Lessons and Carols. It will be the first time back on the Domain since our son graduated ('01).

When we've been there in the past we've always taken a Sewanee Angel home with us. (For the unenlightened Sewanee is on a mountain top in the Cumberland Plateau. 10,000 acres of some of the most beautiful real estate you can imagine. It's called the Domain and legend has it that it is so beautiful and so close to God that Angels dwell there). Traditionally, when entering the Domain you 'tap the roof of your car' and release your Angel that you last took with you (again by tapping the roof of your car) when you exited Sewanee the previous time. They are supposed to watch over you and take care of you 'till you again return.

Guess in the past 4 years I've been kind of hard on the one I currently have watching over me. So, it's time to give the 'fella a rest. Hopefully, I'll get a well rested replacement to stand in his stead who can maybe give me a hand getting things back on an even keel.

Under any circumstance, I'll get to enjoy one of the most beautiful Services our Church offers. This Christmas more so than normal, I could use some more positive karma.

Pax, y'all