Oatmeal cookies

This is the next in my cookie series. Not holiday cookies, per se, but I bought raisins and, by God, raisins shall be used.  The recipe is at the end.

First, we establish that my cookie dough is usually not done by Kitchen-Aid but by hand mixing with a wooden spoon.    This butter had been removed from the fridge about one hour earlier but it was still not room temperature, so I got a bit of a workout as I creamed it.

 Sugars and spices and all sorts of nice stuff.

 OK, butter and sugars (with spices) are creamed.

 Now the eggs.  Notice that I am doubling the recipe, which is why you see two eggs instead of the one called for in the recipe below.

Next honey is added.  Interesting, yes?

 

The flour. It is followed by the oats, which I thought I had photographed, but evidently I did not.

The raisins (homage to my Central Valley roots).

And here is the dough, ready to be refrigerated for an hour before dropping onto the baking sheets.

These humble cookies may seem old-fashioned, but their signature oatmeal cookie flavor and soft/chewy texture never go out of style.

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup brown sugar, to taste
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• heaping 1/2 teaspoon salt*
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 3/4 cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour or 100% White Whole Wheat Flour
• 1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oats
• 1 1/2 cups raisins (golden or regular), or currants
• *If you use salted butter, reduce salt to 1/2 level teaspoon.

Directions

1. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets.
2. Beat together the butter, sugars, spices, salt, baking soda, and vanilla, mixing until smooth.
3. Beat in the egg, then the honey.
4. Stir in the flour, then the oats, then the raisins.
5. Cover the dough, and refrigerate it for 1 to 2 hours, until it's thoroughly chilled.
   
   Note: To save time, you can freeze unbaked cookies for 1 hour, rather than refrigerating the dough; see step 6, below.
6. Drop the chilled dough by generous tablespoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheet; a tablespoon cookie scoop works well here. The cookies will spread, so leave 2" or so between them.
   
   If the dough hasn't been chilled, place the pans of shaped cookies in the freezer for 1 hour.
7. Just before baking, preheat the oven to 375°F.
8. Bake the cookies for 10 minutes, until they're barely beginning to brown. Reverse the pans (top to bottom, bottom to top) midway through baking. If the cookies have been frozen, bake them for 14 minutes.
9. Remove the cookies from the oven, and cool right on the pan; or transfer to a rack if you need the pan for the next batch.
10. Yield: about 26 cookies.

This recipe comes from the folks at King Arthur Flour.

I will post a photo of my finished product on Facebook later.
--the BB

Toasty coconut macaroons

Remember, if you click on the photo you can enlarge it.

Once you have toasted the coconut, the rest of this is beyond easy.  The cookies are almost nothing but egg whites, sugar, and toasted coconut.  Fun to dip in chocolate also.

Below are the ones that have just come out of the oven.

Happy baking!

--the BB

Pepparkakor

Mrs. Londquist’s Pepparkakor

(Swedish Pepper Cookies)

1 Cup melted butter

1-1/4  Cup sugar (white or brown)

Cream butter and sugar together.

1/2 Cup sour cream

1-1/2  Cups light molasses

1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Mix together in a very large bowl and add the butter & sugar mixture.

1/4 teaspoon cloves

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

8 Cups flour

Mix dry ingredients together then add to wet ingredients.  Mix thoroughly.

Roll to 1/8 inch thickness on floured board.  Cut.

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 15 minutes.

This recipe makes a lot of cookies.  You may keep the dough in the refrigerator and roll out and bake some at a time.  It takes a bit of work to make the cold dough malleable but if it gets too warm it does not handle well either.  If it is too crumbly, I apply a bit of melted butter and knead repeatedly.  Practice, and lots of sprinkling with flour.

They are best made around Thanksgiving, stored in an airtight container, and served at Christmas.  We love making holes in some of them and hanging them on the Christmas tree.  Those hanging on the tree will be perfectly edible when Epiphany arrives.

Biscotti di meliga

Lemon-Cornmeal Cookies

Biscotti di meliga

(Piedmont)

1 Cup fine-ground cornmeal

3/4 Cup 00 flour (all-purpose will work fine)

10 Tbsp. butter, diced

3/4 Cup sugar

2 large egg yolks

2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Grated zest of 1 large lemon

Salt

Preheat oven to 350º.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a food processor, combine the cornmeal, flour, and butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse sand.  Add the sugar, egg yolks, vanilla, lemon zest, and salt and process until just combined.  Turn the dough out on a work surface and knead it for 1 to 2 minutes.  The dough will be dense and sticky.

Working in batches, put the dough in a cookie press and press out simple one-part shapes onto the prepared baking sheets.  Alternately put flattened teaspoon-sized mounds of dough on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for about 7 minutes, depending on the thickness of your cookies, until just lightly golden at the edges.  Let cool to room temperature on the parchment paper or wire racks. (If you try to remove them from the parchment paper before they are cool, they may crumble.)  The cookies can be stored in an airtight container for several weeks.

Yield: 2-3 dozen

Notes: I did not have the more finely ground cornmeal available.  Find it if you can, but regular will work.  You might want to use the food processor to grind it a bit finer.  I shaped small balls and got four dozen out of the recipe.

--the BB

Apelsinkakor (Orange Cookies) - updated

This is one of my favorite cookies for the holiday season.  The recipe comes from a Swedish-American cookbook.

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Orange Cookies

Apelsinkakor

1/2 Cup butter

1 Cup sugar

1 egg

grated rind of 2 oranges

1/2 Cup chopped nuts

2-1/2 Cups sifted all-purpose flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 Cup pieces of nuts

A.   Cream butter; add sugar and cream until light.  Beat in egg.  Add orange rind and chopped nuts.

B.    Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.  Add to first mixture and mix well.  Chill several hours or overnight.

C.    Roll out to 1/8 inch thickness and cut with 1-3/4 inch cookie cutter.  Arrange on ungreased cookie sheets.  Press a piece of nut on each cookie.

D.   Bake at 375º for 8 to 10 minutes.

Yield: 8 dozen

Note: one may also treat these like ice-box (refrigerated) cookies.  I find this easier.  Form rolls of the dough, wrap in wax paper, then plastic wrap or aluminum foil, and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.  Take them out of the refrigerator and slice thinly.  Proceed to bake.

Dry climate note: flour in New Mexico is very dry.  I doubled the recipe tonight but used only 4.5 cups of flour instead of 5.0.  This gave me a much more malleable dough than I have often had in the past.

My preferred method of making most cookie dough: a wooden spoon and the bowl I inherited from Grandmother Strid.  It is so much more involved and satisfying.
Creaming the butter.

Creaming the sugar with the butter.

 Butter and sugar nicely ready for the next step.

 Add eggs (this is a double recipe I am making, hence: two eggs instead of one).

 A beautiful batter is forming.

 Add chopped nuts and orange zest.

 The dry ingredients have been added.  This is the stage where I move from the wooden spoon to my own hands.  The warmth of my hands helps the butter to hold the rest together and blend.  I tried to take a photo of my gloved hand about to plunge into the dough but it evidently did not take.

Here a portion of the dough is rolled up into a log and wrapped in waxed paper.  Tomorrow I will take the logs out of the fridge, slice them, and bake cookies!

The following photos were not in the original post.  Taken today (Christmas morning).

Slicing the log into cookies. (It is not safe to eat raw cookie dough with eggs in the mixture so we do NOT recommend it.  Just don't tell anyone this is one of the best tasting doughs around.)

 Ready for the oven.  I am sorry I did not appreciate baking parchment much earlier in my life.  Wonderful stuff.

And here is the end result of a double recipe.  When fully cooled they are very crisp and might last in an airtight container were I not around to nibble on them.

--the BB

Una cosa ho chiesto al Signore

I went into my library and pulled from the shelf Volume One of The Liturgy of the Hours, read the Psalms and Canticles appointed for Evening Prayer on Wednesday of Advent 1, and the Readings.

Given that I pretty much abandoned this practice a few years ago, this may or may not be remarkable.  Let us allow it to be whatever it is without labels.

Following through on the vineyard theme from the Vineyard Song in Isaiah 5, here is a portion of the Chartres windows depicting the harvesting of grapes and trampling of wine.

    5   One thing have I asked of the LORD;

        one thing I seek; *

          that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
               all the days of my life;

    6   To behold the fair beauty of the LORD *

          and to seek him in his temple.

                                        Psalm 27, BCP


These are some interesting verses and I am framing them with scenes from Chartres Cathedral.  The photo above is one I took in May 2014; the one below from the internet.

When I was about forty years younger, these verses spoke of my sense of vocation to priesthood.  With Chartres in mind, it is easy enough to get rather sentimental about it.  The reality, of course, is more one of roof repairs, bad sound systems, problems with heating in winter and cooling in summer, landscaping, access, signage, and all the other attendant challenges of a house of worship.  I am not even listing the challenges of life in a faith community. Not very romantic.

Nowadays, in fact, I rarely enter a church building.  I do so mostly to attend concerts.  Many concerts touch my spiritual core quite deeply.  The inner fire that believes in Grace and in Uncreated Light and an Ultimate Reality we name as Love--this breaks through when certain texts and sonorities combine.  I tend to weep at a majority of the concerts of the Santa Fe Desert Chorale.

As I read the verses from Psalm 27 this evening they struck me as intriguing vestiges of my past.  So what abides?  Is there a greater truth or reality here that can still speak to me?

For starters I would affirm, as many do, that all Creation is the Temple of the Lord. The Universe is sacred, an incarnation of the Holy.  The Earth is sacred.  Sign me up as a Celtic Christian or a happy pagan here; it works for me.  I do not discount houses of worship.  Just because I claim that they are not the Church but where the Church meets does not mean I think they are unnecessary.  For humans to form community, they need to gather.  Baptism and Eucharist may occur outdoors but as concrete material events they must take place in specific places.  The inward and spiritual graces of sacraments cannot be separated from the outward visible signs.  Christianity is a faith of Incarnation, a faith rooted in time, space, and matter.

I am too much of an aesthetic personality to dismiss sacred spaces.  They may be as humble as a grove or sacred well or as lofty as, well, Chartres Cathedral.  Endowing a sacred space with honest material and visual beauty does not offend my sense that we should be about caring for human needs (and not merely human, for we live within a web of life and must also care for the planet).  I refuse to play the game of saying A negates B and we must choose one or the other.

My sense of the presence of God, however, has slipped the tether of specific places.  As Helen Colman reminded us many times, "Every meal is Eucharist."  As Christ rises from the waters of Jordan he fills all things with blessing.  The world does not become blessed because I bring it into the walls of a church or pronounce a traditional formula.  It is already blessed by divine choice, by divine action, by eternal divine love.  All I can do is recognize that prior blessing, that prior reality of existence that is everywhere filled with grace.  If I, in my priestly role, pronounce a blessing I am only articulating what by grace already is true.

I have long believed, and often repeated, that there is only one place.  It is deep within the Heart of God, the eternally loving heart, the lance-pierced heart.  All of time and space is ever and always there.  So no matter where I am, I am always in the presence of the fair beauty of the Lord.  I cannot stray outside that beloved place, nor can anyone.

This belief--a stance that is metaphorical, poetic, mystical--sustains me and helps me not fret.  Like a child I pray, each night, that God will bless folks but I believe that is already God's will and action.  I just want to align myself with it and with those I love.  I don't pray for anyone's salvation or worry about it.  For me, salvation, however it is to be understood, is a given by grace.  Neither faith nor works will make it happen, nor will the lack thereof hinder it.  Yes, I am a universalist.  So sue me.  The gates of the New Jerusalem are open by day and by night; never closed.  Enter if you will.  The Spirit and the Bride say, Come!

What does this have to do with Advent?  I am quite uncertain.

8 December 1990, Grace Cathedral, San Francisco - a newly ordained priest sets the Table.  Next Tuesday will be the 25th anniversary of that moment.

December 2013, San Gabriel Episcopal Church, Corrales NM - the last Mass I celebrated.

I don't mind being, as I put it, "very retired" from formal public ministry. Even so, it is a very real part of who I am.  No sudden insights or conclusions this evening.  I am simply sharing some bits and pieces.

--the BB

Geography blogging returns

I used to have a recurring feature on geography, focusing mostly on areas of the world that are less familiar to the average citizen of the USA.  Sometimes that included myself in spite of my fondness for geography.

As a student of history, I have to pay attention to geography.  As I read or listen to lectures, it is immensely useful to have a sense of location.  Additionally, as citizens of the world we should all know this stuff.

In recent months I have listened to lectures on late antiquity and the middle ages.  I am currently taking Russian courses at the University of New Mexico (along with survey of Italian literature).  It dawned on me that I am woefully forgetful of geography in the areas pictured above.  So I am sharing a look at Eastern Europe for us all to absorb.

The maps in this post come from the Nations Online Project and they grant permission to use them for educational purposes.

The map below is from the Danube River Project.

 

I post it as something of a confession.  Listening to lectures that discuss migrations and barbarians crossing the Danube to enter the Roman Empire, I realized I was a bit hazy on "the beautiful blue Danube."  Really embarrassing, actually, given my studies in the period from the late Roman Republic through the Renaissance and Reformation eras.  So here we can all get a glimpse of its extent.  My discomfort can be transformed into a learning moment for us all.

This post is cursory since I am not adding much further information but I believe it would be nice to restore the geography blogging posts.

--the BB

A Great Thanksgiving

Since Eucharistic Prayers are known as "The Great Thanksgiving," I celebrate Thanksgiving Day 2015 by sharing this with you.  It is one of the prayers used at St Cuthbert's Episcopal Church, Oakland, California, when Bishop Swing gave me leeway.  Yes, my liturgical friends, it is long. It is meant to lead us into meditation and probably works better as meditation than as corporate liturgy.

This prayer does express my own spirituality.

EUCHARISTIC PRAYER OF CREATION

Presider          The Lord be with you.

People             And also with you.

Presider          Lift up your hearts.

People             We lift them to the Lord.

Presider          Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

People             It is right to give God thanks and praise.

Presider 

You alone are Holy, Creator of all things.

From eternal silence your Word burst forth—

uttering worlds into being,

shattering the void and blazing forth 

into the shapeless heavens.

Surging in the wet darkness of heaving chaos

the heartbeat of your love sets all things in motion.

Your dazzling glory showers being on this new creation

that is yours yet emerges as Other.

Your Spirit tends and nurtures,

shapes, calls forth, and quickens all things,

teasing endless possibilities 

from the riches of your passionate joy.

The dancing immensities honor you;

the rhythms of birth and death bless you;

the crashing surf and winging bird chant your praises;

the blood coursing in our bodies 

and the wind rising in our throats

combine to sing your goodness,

as we join the music of the spheres 

and the exultation of the heavenly hosts,

glorifying your Name in the endless chorus:

Presider and People

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,

heaven and earth are full of your glory.

  Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

  Hosanna in the highest.

The Presider continues

Boundless Giver and Faithful Lover,

you make us in your sacred image,

planting in our mortal frame 

the spark of Uncreated Light

that no darkness may quench,

setting each of us on our path toward You,

who are our Beginning, Journey, and End.

You call to us without ceasing, 

and have blessed the human race

with those whose ears are open 

and whose tongues are free

to speak your Word.

Luring us toward the fullness of life 

and the joy of your freedom,

you draw us, as you have drawn our ancestors,

toward the unknown place and the unhoped future,

lest we perish in the bondage of our failures and fears.

Speaking within time the Word beyond time

and joining yourself forever to your creation,

you became one with us in Jesus the Christ,

taking our flesh through Mary,

daughter of Eve and mother of believers.

In him you proclaim your love,

your faithfulness, forgiveness, and compassion,

offering them freely to all without exception.

We and you are joined in Jesus, 

offering ourselves and all creation to you, 

Maker of all things, for healing and blessing

through your transforming Spirit.

In his death you embrace death and every evil

that life and goodness may prevail.

In his rising you triumph, 

drawing all creation once more

into the dance of endless joy and life that cannot end.

With human hands Jesus took bread before his death,

blessing you as he offered it, broke it, 

shared it with his friends,

and said, “Take, eat:

This is my Body, which is given for you.

Do this for the remembrance of me.”

With human hands he raise the cup,

gave thanks, and shared once more, saying,

“Drink this, all of you:

This is my Blood of the new Covenant,

which is poured out for you and for all

for the forgiveness of sins.

Whenever you drink it,

do this for the remembrance of me.”

By human hands he was betrayed

 

and his hands were stretched upon the cross.

Raised again that we might rise with him,

he reaches out with the same hands, now pierced,

to reassure us that he, our Life, now lives.

All

Giver of Life, with your gifts and our toil

this bread and wine are now offered,

as we remember your never-ceasing love 

and faithful self-offering,

especially in Jesus’ life and ministry,

dying and rising, presence and promise.

Presider

By your Spirit and Creative Word 

make the bread and cup

Life for us and the world, 

the Body and Blood of Jesus.

Bestow your Spirit once more upon us,

continuing your work in us 

and raising us to new life in you,

that we who have been united to Christ

may be transfigured like him to show forth your glory.

Unite us with Cuthbert and all your saints

that we may share in the life of those who love you

and taste the blessings of the merciful and the just.

Presider and People

Through Christ and with Christ and in Christ,

by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,

we worship you our God and Creator

in voices of unending praise.

Blessed are you now and for ever.  AMEN.

 The prayer is my own composition and I freely grant permission to make use of it with credit given.  Thank you.

--the BB

Mot i out paines et ahans

Aigues Mortes, France

The title of this post is line 1638 of Béroul's Le Roman de Tristan, a 12th century French poem of the earlier tale from Cornwall that recounts the passion and trials of Tristan and Yseut. My friends on Facebook know that I recently read the English version of Joseph Bédier's compilation of the Tristan cycle and went to two performances of Tristan & Yseult at the Aux Dog Theatre here in Albuquerque, their adaptation with permission of the Kneehigh Players' drama on this theme.  "Kneehigh Theatre is an international touring theatre company founded by Mike Shepherd and based in Cornwall, England." A Cornish company presenting an originally Cornish tale so that it speaks to contemporary audiences, even winding by proxy through Albuquerque, seems to bring it all full circle.

Coming full circle, or spiraling back, is the germ of this post.  I am no longer middle-aged (my 70th birthday gallops toward me), but I am a medievalist.  It seems this is an important assertion to make at this point in my life.  Let me share some background for this statement.

In autumn 1967 I spent a semester abroad in France, living for two months with the Urvoy family.  I was blessed to do some traveling with them.  One place we visited was Aigues Mortes, pictured above.  The fortified city was built by Louis IX (San Luis Rey de Francia) and his son.  It is from this town that St Louis departed for the Seventh and Eighth Crusades.  We also visited St-Guilhem-le-Desert, where St Guilhem of Gellone built a monastery.  There were other sites we saw as well, but I believe those visits created some vital link between me and a period of history that is often ignored.

A great deal of classical education in the Western centers of higher learning has traditionally focused on the classics.  British university education seemed to operate from the supposition that a man (yes, male) who was steeped in Greek and Latin literature would be well equipped to govern whatever post of the empire needed governing.  Many of us have at least some sense of the Greece of Athens and its competition in Sparta and Persia, of late republican Rome and the rise of the Caesars.  We speak of the Fall of Rome in the fifth century and then it gets mushy until the Renaissance.  Feudalism, chivalry, and crusades float around in there and we use the terribly misleading term "Dark Ages," as though all knowledge, art, and civilization had vanished for centuries.

For Protestants in the USA, church history seems to have an immense gap between the last-written books of the New Testament and Martin Luther.  My love-hate relationship with the Roman Catholic Church fostered in me a desire to know more about the intervening years.  I never became a Roman Catholic, though I will wear the title "Catholic" quite happily (and you are encouraged to make that an upper-case C).  I seemed to become more curious about this period while in Baptist seminary and audited a course at my alma mater, Pomona College, on "Paris 1200."  It was a rich inter-disciplinary exploration of a period and place in history in terms of politics, sociology, education, religion, science, arts, and literature.  By then I was hooked.

 The Baptism of Clovis

I graduated from seminary and went to UCLA to begin a doctoral program in early and medieval church history.  My historical focus was ample enough.  I especially enjoy the millennium from about 100 BCE to 900 CE, but I could hang in until at least the fall of Constantinople, 29 May 1453.  After two years of classwork, for which I remain grateful, it became evident that I do not have the right character for original research or for burrowing into something to the point that only three people on the planet can really understand what I am doing.  So I dropped out and never became a professor of church history.  What I became, and remain, is a sort of "academic manqué," someone who never wants to stop learning and teaching but never teaches (or at least has not yet) in the context of an educational institution. I like popularizing knowledge, making it available to people and helping myself and others see the relevance of the rich traditions we have inherited.

At UCLA I took an awesome survey of church history with Dr Gerhard Ladner, of blessed memory, a true old-school European gentleman, top-notch scholar, and gracious instructor.  I studied historical sources (manuscripts, numismatics, archaeology, etc.), hagiography, Old French language and literature, Reformation history (yes, I dabbled that late).  For my hagiography course--which treats the lives of saints--I explored the triple strand around Guilhem, mentioned above.  There was an historical duke of Aquitaine of that name.  There is a character in the chansons de geste known as Guillaume d'Orange, one of Charlemagne's great warriors, who helped drive back the Saracens.  There is St Guilhem who renounced his worldly power and became a Benedictine monk.  These three strands overlap and untangling them and sifting out our modern ideal of "who he really was and what really happened," is tricky indeed.  Myself, I just enjoy all three layers and I have invoked the intercessions of Guilhem many times.  A few years ago I felt moved to write an icon and wondered which saint it should be.  Since I had no icons of Guilhem, I chose him.  Or he chose me.  As it turned out, the paper from the hagiography class surfaced and his feast day arrived as I was in the process of writing the icon.  It hangs at the head of my stairs and I feel he still watches over me.  In my bedroom is a tacky plastic crucifix on a simple wood cross that I purchased at St-Guilhem-le-Desert.  It hangs over the door.

The death of Roland

I have read the Chanson de Roland at least twice (in Old French with help from modern French translation) and I have read some of the cycle of William of Orange. I have retained a shelf of books about (or in) medieval French throughout the four decades since dropping out of UCLA.  That is how I could lay my hands on a copy of Béroul's Tristan so easily.  It was published in 1972 and I had to have purchased it no later than 1974.  A week ago I opened it up to discover that I had to cut open the pages.  Been a while since I had to do that!

Through The Great Courses I have listened to a number of lectures over the past few years.  They are awesome while driving.  I have listened to lectures on the Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, Greek tragedy, Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World, Great Minds of the Eastern Intellectual Tradition, four different series on  Shakespeare, the material around King Arthur, Dante's Divine Comedy (twice), Late Antiquity, Russian Literature, and currently "Medieval Europe: Crisis and Renewal" (covering roughly 1300-1500).  There have been a few others and I have several more waiting to be listened to.

The material from late antiquity and the middle ages has pointed me to the several shelves of books in my library, including those in Old French.  I have wanted to read or reread these volumes before shuffling off this mortal coil, and perhaps the time to do is in the immediate future.  UNM sometimes offers courses in the Graal tradition and other medieval topics.  I wonder what I might tempt them to do.

Incipit of Mark's Gospel,

Lindisfarne Gospels

As vicar of St Cuthbert's in Oakland, I could not wait to visit Durham and various parts of Northumberland associated with Cuthbert and other saints during the Northumbrian flowering of sanctity and artistic creativity in the 7th-9th centuries.  I got to visit Saxon and Norman churches, historic sites, pray at the tombs of Cuthbert and Bede, and see the Lindisfarne Gospels in the British Library.  Cuthbert, like Guilhem, has touched my life on many occasions.  By the way, when Bill and I were in Florence I came across a relic of Guilhem.  If I did not know Latin, I may have missed it.

Why have I composed this lengthy narration?  Because so much that touched my life when I was 15-28 years old seems to be touching my life again.  I am back in school, taking six units every semester at UNM.  My goal was to beef up knowledge of languages I only knew slightly (Italian, Russian, German) and essentially enjoy coursework in languages and literature. Now I am wondering about a return to French, my undergraduate major, exploring works again from the perspective of an elder instead of as a youth. (I forgot to mention earlier that when I started at Pomona my desire was to major in comparative literature; the chair and embodiment of that field retired shortly after I arrived so I switched to French.)

In my senior years I find myself returning to passions I have had all my life.  These were MY passions, not goals set by others or that I set in the illusion that I was doing right by others.  It is about allowing my authentic self to flower. Who knows, I may even find a niche or two in which to teach.

In case you were wondering (please say you were): Mot i out paines et ahans = He had many pains and sorrows.

Sant Guilhem, Sancte Cuthberte, Sancte Beda, orate pro me.

--the BB

The complexities of free speech

The overly publicized battle going on in Rowan County, Kentucky, over the granting of marriage licenses has glutted social media and news outlets until we are all sick of hearing about county clerk Kim Davis and her refusal to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples, in spite of the Supreme Court ruling in Oberfell and a judge's direct orders to issue lawful licenses.  Facebook friends have pleaded with us all to stop posting about her.  FB posts do not allow much room for reflection, so I would like to make my comments here.

Kim Davis is a flash in the pan.  Her time in headlines will pass.  In the large scheme of things she does not matter as much as the hoopla would lead us to think.  She is, however, a focal point in the immediate issues of equal justice under the law and religious freedom.  I believe she has been manipulated and used by fund-raising zealots (legal counsel and right-wing religious groups) and by politicians (most notably by Huckabee and Cruz).  She has also been willing to take a very public stance and be used symbolically, and I see her thus as both victim and culpable.

In a world where clever graphics become popular memes on social media she is glorified and vilified with equal fervor by the opposing camps.  It is easy to be facile and snarky and outright vicious.
When her marital history became widely known she was seen as a hypocrite since she became pregnant by husband three while still married to husband one, #2 adopted the children, then she divorced him and married husband three, and later remarried husband two. From the outside, this clearly undercuts any stance she takes on upholding a biblical view of marriage.  From within her context, however, all this happened before she "came to Jesus," and is a past of which she has presumably repented.  God does not hold it against her and neither should we.  Some of the rigidity of her current position can be seen as a, possibly desperate, attempt to demonstrate her commitment to a higher standard than the one she failed to meet in the past.  This would be her sincere attempt to demonstrate her new-found faith.  I think we need to set aside the criticism of hypocrisy on this point. In any case, it is irrelevant to her current actions and issues of law and justice.

My friend Jay has called upon us all, and on me, to remember that she is a child of God.  Name-calling is not a good way to honor the image of God in other people.  He is right.  If you press me, I will even say that I believe Dick Cheney is a child of God, though the bile I have poured upon him would not lead anyone to think I believe that.  When it comes to comments I make on this blog or on Facebook, I admit that I do not hold myself to a high standard.  When I see behavior or comments that I deem despicable, I unleash that nasty tongue (and keyboard).  My usual targets are politicians and religious conservatives. Since I do not cut Pat Robertson or Ted Cruz or Dick Cheney any slack, I am not going to cut Kim Davis any slack either.  She is no less nor any more a child of God than they are.

Kim sees herself as standing up for God's authority as opposed the human authority.  The state is not asking her to change her views, but it is demanding that she perform her civil function, which involves the issuance of legal documents, including marriage licenses.  When she invokes God's authority she is, as would be true of any of us, invoking her understanding of her deity's authority.  Other Christians invoke God as they celebrate marriage between same-sex couples. She does not have a universal standard here, but it is seen as clear and firm in the religious tradition to which she now adheres.  When she refuses to issue legal marriage licenses, she is acting not as a representative of God, which is not her job, but as a representative of the state.  As an agent of the state, she is intentionally depriving citizens of their legal right.  She may not believe it is their right, but she is not entitled to enforce her beliefs on other citizens.  That becomes an establishment of (her brand of) religion and an act of state oppression of a minority.

The furor over "religious freedom" that currently roils the social and political scene in the United States of America is fired by the decades-long, tenacious efforts of dominionists and their sympathizers to turn this nation into a theocracy.  They are relentless in repeating the lie that this was founded as, or ever was, a Christian nation. That Christianity has had profound impact on the history and ethos of the country is true.  That the Bible or the Ten Commandments are the basis of our founding documents is demonstrably false.  This nation was shaped by Enlightenment principles such as consent of the governed and social contract.  Much of the European colonization here was driven by the desire to flee established religion in Great Britain.  Baptists, Quakers, Puritans, and Roman Catholics came here to be free of the Church of England.  Each group would be leery of any other group becoming established and they were keenly aware that "Christianity" means many things to differing groups that fall under its umbrella. The USA became a workable society in which no religion was established and all could practice their beliefs freely.  We are still growing into that ideal, as we are into all the ideals of the nation.

To insist that religious believers NOT impose their beliefs and practices on others is not religious persecution.  It is a guarantee of the freedom of us all.  By refusing to issue legal marriage licenses to citizens who are by law entitled to them, Kim Davis is not only violating the rights of others, she is acting oppressively in the name of the state.  If she feels she cannot do her job without violating her conscience, then she should conscientiously resign and let someone who can and will perform the office of county clerk do so. But she is not entitled to enforce her religious beliefs on others.

I wish I had a shorthand term for "self-rightous religiously oppressive agent of the state."  That would be more precise and rise above terms like hateful beyotch and worse. I believe she is a willing and willful actor in this drama and we have a right to hold her accountable. I am going to opt for "theocratic oppressor."  Not a victim, not a martyr, not a hero, not a saint, no more a sinner than anyone, but definitely an oppressor.

My novels of Mídhris involve the conflict between oppressive power and redemptive love. Caesar versus Christ, if you will.  My perception of Kim Davis is that she has currently sided with Caesar, an irony I am certain she would not appreciate.

I started with a title about free speech.  This essay is an attempt not only to clarify issues as I see them but to push back against a "censorship from the left." When I exercise my right of free speech I am, as we all are, subject to push back from others. The dialogue continues.

--the BB