Heart thread - 03/01/2010

So many prayer requests this evening.

For my coworker Jennifer who collapsed three times this weekend and is in the hospital. They suspect pneumonia but are testing for everything.

For Mark suffering an outbreak of shingles.

For Diane's dad who is in the hospital with pneumonia.

For my niece Paula, facing a bout of diverticulitis.

For Jack, who will always be my father-in-law to me, who had stitches removed today following cancer surgery two weeks ago. The margins are all cancerous so there are severe limitations on what can be done.

For my coworker Tammy who is having a miserable time with her right eye following surgery.

For Jonathan and the Missus as they make a huge transition.

For the people of Chile and the people of Haiti, recovering from devastating earthquakes.

For Mark, who is still healing and has not posted in a month.

For those lacking shelter or heat in severe winter weather. For the youth of the reservations where suicide, already high, is increasing.

For Margaret and all the faithful who will stand in witness against the hatred of Westboro Baptist Church in Richmond tomorrow.

O Crucified Firstborn, you have surrounded us with sisters and brothers who share with us their joys, their wounds, and their deep concerns: In your merciful compassion grant that we, who do not pray for ourselves as we ought, may faithfully hold these in our heart with love as we stand before you; may your Spirit bear us together to the Father's throne where we may obtain such grace and healing as we need and be strengthened to praise and serve you all the days of our life; for the sake of your passionate love. Amen.

--the BB

Looking back

How To Make A Republican Tell The Truth
Posted by Plaid Adder
Added to homepage Mon Feb 28th 2005, 03:02 PM ET

I heard this from someone else over the weekend and it is brilliant:

It works just like the Salada Tea Bags lines, or that game people play with cookie fortunes, where you add the words "between the sheets" to make a meaningless platitude much more interesting.

All you have to do in order to make Republican domestic policies make sense is take their talking point and add the words "...if you're rich!"

For instance: "Privatizing social security makes a lot of sense...if you're rich!"

Or, "Our health care system is the best in the world...if you're rich!"

Or how about, "The economy under Bush is the strongest it's ever been...if you're rich!"

Just add three little words, and all of a sudden, these bastards are telling the truth.

It's most fun if you do it in a group with one person beginning the talking point and everyone else finishing it in unison. I think it coudl be productively adapted as a protest tactic for some of those Social Security meet-ups Santorum and friends are doing now, for instance.

Whee,

The Plaid Adder

NEWSWEEK: White House Slow to Read Signs in Port Sale; Congressional GOP Did Not Want to Explain Sale to Public
Senior White House Official Conceded to Not Knowing About Port Deal, Tells Rep. Peter King to 'Go Ahead' on Going Public

NEW YORK, Feb. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- For the past two campaign cycles, Karl Rove has successfully painted Democrats as soft on national security. The Dubai sale offered them a golden opportunity for payback, report Senior White House Correspondent Richard Wolffe and White House Correspondent Holly Bailey in the current issue of Newsweek. Dubai Ports World already works closely with the U.S., shutting down its commercial traffic whenever the Navy sails in. So when it first approached the Feds about a takeover in mid-October, there were no red flags. They finished their formal review in mid-January with no public fanfare and no extended inquiry, write Wolffe and Bailey who, in the March 6 issue (on newsstands Monday, February 27), reconstruct the events of the port sale and explain how an obscure maritime takeover turned into a political shipwreck.

The GOP leadership on Capitol Hill did not want to get stuck trying to explain the sale to a public anxious after hearing how little had been done to protect U.S. ports. The White House, meanwhile, was slow to read the signs, write Wolffe and Bailey. Nobody had tracked the bidding war for the venerable British ports company called the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. (known as P & O). And nobody noticed an Associated Press story-on the day of Cheney's hunting incident-that aired the security concerns of a small Miami port operator called Eller. A disgruntled partner of P & O, Eller feared that an Arab government takeover could trigger a political backlash that might jeopardize its business. Its lawyers approached the Feds but were brushed aside; the security review was long complete.

Rep. Peter King, the GOP chair of the House homeland security committee, called the White House to ask about the deal a few days after the AP story. A senior official told him not to worry, but conceded he didn't know about any investigation into the Dubai company. When King said he planned to go public, the White House official just shrugged and said, "Go ahead."

When the crisis came to a head, Bush ordered his staff to contact each cabinet secretary involved in reviewing the sale to make sure that everyone stood by the decision. Reassured, Bush called reporters to his conference room aboard Air Force One, where he suggested that critics were indulging in anti- Arab prejudice and promised to veto any legislation blocking the deal. Midweek, as he stepped off the plane in Ohio, the president was greeted by Rep. Steve Chabot. The congressman pressed into the president's hand a cartoon from that morning's Cincinnati Enquirer. It showed a grinning Arab emir spreading his arms over an American port. The caption read, "Relax, Homeland Security has everything under control."



Support the troops
by kos
Tue Feb 27, 2007 at 02:56:04 PM PST
Glad to see all those great "troop supporters" allowing this to happen.

Rushed by President Bush's decision to reinforce Baghdad with thousands more U.S. troops, two Army combat brigades are skipping their usual session at the Army's premier training range in California and instead are making final preparations at their home bases.

Some in Congress and others outside the Army are beginning to question the switch, which is not widely known. They wonder whether it means the Army is cutting corners in preparing soldiers for combat, since they are forgoing training in a desert setting that was designed specially to prepare them for the challenges of Iraq.

Cutting corners like this, in addition to sending them to Iraq without proper armor, is getting people killed. And all to save two weeks.
"Support the troops" indeed...
• Permalink



Walter Reed: Problem Solved
by BarbinMD
Wed Feb 28, 2007 at 07:27:39 AM PST
Reacting swiftly to the shameful treatment soldiers receive as out-patients at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center that was revealed last week in the Washington Post, the Pentagon has solved the problem:

Soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Medical Hold Unit say they have been told they will wake up at 6 a.m. every morning and have their rooms ready for inspection at 7 a.m., and that they must not speak to the media.

Collective punishment, institute a gag rule and the problems of neglect, bureaucracy and questionable disability ratings are gone.
And apparently operating under the policy of "better safe than sorry," and only days after the Pentagon arranged for journalists to be given a tour of the newly painted, cleaned and repaired Building 18:

They were also told they would be moving out of Building 18 to Building 14 within the next couple of weeks...It’s also located on the Walter Reed Campus, where reporters must be escorted by public affairs personnel. Building 18 is located just off campus and is easy to access.

And if all that doesn't take care of the shocking revelations about the disgraceful treatment given to wounded soldiers and their families at the "crown jewel of military medicine," a first sergeant has been relieved of duty.

• Permalink




Studies: immigrants raise wages; are more law-abiding
by kos
Wed Feb 28, 2007 at 09:07:34 AM PST
It sucks for the xenophobic wingnuts when their talking points are contradicted by the facts.

Two new studies by California researchers counter negative perceptions that immigrants increase crime and job competition, showing that they are incarcerated at far lower rates than native-born citizens and actually help boost their wages.
A study released Tuesday by the Public Policy Institute of California found that immigrants who arrived in the state between 1990 and 2004 increased wages for native workers by an average 4%.

UC Davis economist Giovanni Peri, who conducted the study, said the benefits were shared by all native-born workers, from high school dropouts to college graduates, because immigrants generally perform complementary rather than competitive work.
As immigrants filled lower-skilled jobs, they pushed natives up the economic ladder into employment that required more English or know-how of the U.S. system, he said […]

Another study released Monday by the Washington-based Immigration Policy Center showed that immigrant men ages 18 to 39 had an incarceration rate five times lower than native-born citizens in every ethnic group examined. Among men of Mexican descent, for instance, 0.7% of those foreign-born were incarcerated compared to 5.9% of native-born, according to the study, co-written by UC Irvine sociologist Ruben G. Rumbaut.

So they raise wages and are incarcerated at dramatically lower rates than native born Americans.
So why are we supposed to hate them so much?
• Permalink



Update [2007-2-28 14:44:58 by ePluribus Media]: The AP (via Santa Fe New Mexican) has a report on the Iglesias news conference today.

Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty told the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this month that most of the U.S. attorneys had been fired for "performance-related" reasons. But Iglesias said he called his news conference Wednesday to present evidence that's "demonstrably untrue" for his office.


Cheney and Bush are going to hate this book "3 Trillion Dollar War"
by testvet6778
Wed Feb 27, 2008 at 05:34:49 PM PST
There is in the Guardian tonight dated Feb 28,2008 an article about a book The Three Trillion Dollar War being released in the U.K. today written by Nobel Prize Winning Economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard Professor at the Kennedy School Linda Bilmes. She is the one who gave the report to Congress on the fact that taking care of the wounded soldiers alone from the Iraq war would be one trillion dollars. It seems as if they got more "curioser" and after being accused of being to "outlandish" in her estimates of the "true cost". Below is excerpts of the article but you need to go to the link and read the entire piece, it is well worth the time.



Bernanke ready to sacrifice average Americans to save Wall Street
by Chris in Paris · 2/27/2008 09:34:00 PM ET · Link

Gosh, thanks. While I appreciate the public arguing between Federal Reserve governors on the subject of whether to focus on inflation or Wall Street, it's discouraging to hear Bernanke so willingly point towards another Wall Street gift. During the Bush years, the middle class has been shafted and has not enjoyed the economic benefits that mostly helped the wealthiest Americans. There was no trickle down and they didn't even try to hide behind such false stories as they did during the Reagan years. They simply didn't give a damn.

Now all of the excesses of the Wall Street wet dream, where they were given full authority by Republicans do to pretty much any damned thing they liked, are crashing down. Suddenly, we're all supposed to jump and give Wall Street more free money so we can help them bounce back. Money isn't falling from the sky, it's leaving your wallet to bail these bums out. The same middle class who has footed the bill for Iraq, footed the tax cuts for the rich, more expensive health care, fewer benefits and payed the price for lack of traditional regulation, is being asked to sacrifice - again - so that Bernanke can help Wall Street dig out of the hole they put us in. We're in for a bumpy ride one way or another so let Wall Street fend for themselves and think about the middle class. Inflation and sagging wages are taking their toll, but don't tell that to Bernanke. He doesn't give a damn unless you are Wall Street.



Sen. Whitehouse Prepares the Nation for Torture Horrors
by buhdydharma
Fri Feb 27, 2009 at 02:40:07 PM PST
Senator Whitehouse is on both the Intelligence Committee and the Judiciary Committee. Thus he perhaps more than anyone else has access to ALL of the available information on the Bush Torture Network. Including the remaining pictures and videotapes from Abu Ghraib that were concealed from the public view. Pictures and videotapes that even Rumsfeld was shocked by, even though, as has become apparent since, he authorized them....or at least the programs that led to them.. Before he was implicated he had this to say...

What is shown on the photographs and videos from Abu Ghraib prison that the Pentagon has blocked from release? One clue: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Congress last year, after viewing a large cache of unreleased images, "I mean, I looked at them last night, and they're hard to believe." They show acts "that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhumane," he added.

A Republican Senator suggested the same day they contained scenes of "rape and murder." Rumsfeld then commented, "If these are released to the public, obviously it's going to make matters worse."

And that is only one of the horrifying aspects of what has occurred in the Bush Torture Network. Thus Senator Whitehouse's warning to the nation.

....

As we work toward a brighter future ahead, to days when jobs return to our cities, capital to our businesses, and security to our lives, we cannot set aside our responsibility to take an accounting of where we are, what was done, and what must now be repaired.

We also have to brace ourselves for the realistic possibility that as some of this conduct is exposed, we and the world will find it shameful, revolting. We may have to face the prospect of looking with horror at our own country's deeds. We are optimists, we Americans; we are proud of our country. Contrition comes hard to us.

But the path back from the dark side may lead us down some unfamiliar valleys of remorse and repugnance before we can return to the light. We may have to face our fellow Americans saying to us, "No, please, tell us that we did not do that, tell us that Americans did not do that" - and we will have to explain, somehow. This is no small thing, and not easy; this will not be comfortable or proud; but somehow it must be done.

IF the full story of the Bush Torture Network is ever told out loud, on televison, it will shock the nation...and perhaps even the jaded and inattentive conscience of a nation that has been buried under eight years of horror upon Bush horror. None worse than what was done to our fellow human beings, in our names.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/2/27/17407/9646/766/700982

Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood

Blessèd sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain, spirit of the garden,
Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still
Even among these rocks,
Our peace in His will
And even among these rocks
Sister, mother
And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea,
Suffer me not to be separated

And let my cry come unto Thee.
--T. S. Eliot, Ash Wednesday

This lady seems to be many women: Mary, a redeemed Eve, a fertility goddess, a nun. At least, I feel that she is all of these and more - not capable of being contained with one category or description.

Words like sister and mother claim kinship. We are related to her. We make our pleas to her.

"Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood."

I will allow that phrase to stand on its own without commentary.

"Teach us to care and not to care."

This makes me think of whole-hearted engagement combined with detachment from outcomes, a Buddhist way of engaging the world. We do what is needful and appropriate with no concern for the outcome, offering right action as its own reward.

Having come home to one's true self, finding God at the same time, we offer the prayer that this not be undone.

"Suffer me not to be separated" - from the Anima Christi (see below).

"And let my cry come unto Thee" - from Psalm 102:1 (Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come unto thee) - A standard versicle and response in the Western tradition.

Soul of Christ, sanctify me.
Body of Christ, save me.
Blood of Christ, inebriate me.
Water from the side of Christ, wash me.
Passion of Christ, strengthen me.
O Good Jesus, hear me.
Within Thy wounds hide me.
Suffer me not to be separated from thee.
From the malignant enemy defend me.
In the hour of my death call me.
And bid me come unto Thee,
That with all Thy saints,
I may praise thee
Forever and ever.
Amen.

--the BB

Terror and surrender - continued

Back in the dusty annals of history, when I was in Baptist seminary, bursting with excitement about new ways of seeing things and in love with theology yet still stuck in the dreaded closet, I had a dream. It came to mind as I did the last post and I think I really ought to share it.

It was one of those desperate nightmares. I was among the defenders of a walled city (I had been reading a lot of mediaeval history in those days). We were under attack. Everything was dark. The opposing side had, like its Goliath, a very dark, powerful monster that would annihilate our walls and destroy us. The beast dwarfed our city walls. Total terror. There was no imaginable hope.

Early in the dream, as best I can recall, I was just one among the defenders but when all was lost I cried out, "Open the gates!"

I surrendered myself and the city.

And we were not annihilated, or even attacked.

The monster turned out to be benign.

All was going to be well.

And I woke up.

It seemed then, and seems even more so now, that the monster I was terrified of was my sexuality. It only threatened if I tried to keep it at bay. Embraced it would be my friend. In surrender was grace.

The walled city was probably my "closet."

In the years that followed, I did not open my closet door. Someone else ripped it off the hinges for me. But I have never regretted letting go of the terrifying secret and learning all over to be the person God made me.

Of course, learning to be the persons God made us is a lifelong task that we face often. But it is so much better than trying to be anyone or anything else.

Grace to you all, and peace.

--the BB

Terrified and cannot surrender

Will the veiled sister between the slender
Yew trees pray for those who offend her
And are terrified and cannot surrender
And affirm before the world and deny between the rocks
In the last desert before the last blue rocks
The desert in the garden the garden in the desert
Of drouth, spitting from the mouth the withered apple-seed.
--T. S. Eliot, Ash Wednesday

I am struck today by the phrase in the header: the thought of those who are terrified and cannot surrender. This, I believe, is about surrendering to grace. To live in fear - of God, of one's failures, of one's limitations, of one's secret sins, of the world, of oneself - yet not be able to do the one saving thing - letting go - is a terrible place to be.

Will the veiled sister pray not only for those who "merit" her intercessions but also for those who offend her? Is there forgiveness for the sinner? Are there new beginnings for the worst offenders? Fresh starts for those abject in failure? What hope is there for those who know they have affirmed before the world and then, in the rocky place, have denied?

Peter, of course, reminds us that the answer for at least some of this is Yes.

The apple-seed associated (non-biblically) with our fall is withered. It is the Cross that will flower. We must move beyond our guilt and fear. God wants better for us.



--the BB

Prayer for all killed, injured, or dispossessed and all who are threatened by tsunami

A powerful 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck offshore of Chile this morning. Pacific coasts including all Hawaiian Islands are under emergency Tsunami warning. That means get the hell off the beach in those areas or any place near it. Experts indicate there is time for residents near vulnerable shores to proceed quickly but safely and calmly to higher ground:

....

USGS info page here. NYT has an excellent update page and livestream. See also additional discussion is going on in IndianaDemocrat's recommended diary.

--DarkSyde

Note that the entire Pacific Rim and all Pacific islands are on watch as a tsunami has begun to form.

Where shall the word be found?

Where shall the word be found, where will the word
Resound? Not here, there is not enough silence
Not on the sea or on the islands, not
On the mainland, in the desert or the rain land,
For those who walk in darkness
Both in the day time and in the night time
The right time and the right place are not here
No place of grace for those who avoid the face
No time to rejoice for those who walk among noise and deny the voice
--T. S. Eliot, Ash Wednesday

We seek and seek yet do not find.

Perhaps if we stopped seeking and were still.

If we stopped making noise and listened.

If we stopped directing our looking and simply beheld.

And he said, ‘Go and say to this people:
“Keep listening, but do not comprehend;
keep looking, but do not understand.”
Make the mind of this people dull,
and stop their ears,
and shut their eyes,
so that they may not look with their eyes,
and listen with their ears,
and comprehend with their minds,
and turn and be healed.’
--Isaiah 6:9-10

For those of us accustomed to urban environments it is so easy to walk through a multitude without meeting the eyes of a single person.

I spoke on the phone yesterday with someone who had moved to a rural area and had to explain to his son that in the country people wave and speak to strangers; that's just what they do.

What if just for a day we made a point of not "putting on a face to meet the faces"? If we drop our masks and meet the face of the other? If we set aside our surface judgments and labels and beheld? What might we see?

A particular curve of a jaw. The slight crookedness of a nose. The gradation in hair shades. Flecks of gold in someone's iris. The way she tilts her head when she ponders. The tension in his mouth. The gentle smile at the edge of eyes. Anxiety on a forehead. A wistful look. A universe behind someone's eyes.

The other.

The Other.

Or will tomorrow and the day after and the the day after that be the usual pretense, the usual hustle?

No place of grace for those who avoid the face
No time to rejoice for those who walk among noise and deny the voice

I commend to you all Laura's post with a poem by Yevgeny Yevtushenko. It merits the detour.

A snippet:

In any man who dies there dies with him
his first snow and kiss and fight.
It goes with him.

They are left books and bridges
and painted canvas and machinery.

Whose fate is to survive.
But what has gone is also not nothing:

by the rule of the game something has gone.
Not people die but worlds die in them.

The Word speaks.

May we STFU and listen.

And turn and be healed.

--the BB

Calling a spade a damned shovel

I love it when someone calls a lie what it is: a lie.

Maddow: What's going on here is a deliberate attempt on the part of Republicans to define nuclear down -- to conflate these two totally separate things to demonize the way that Democrats have to pass health reform right now. By calling it the nuclear option even though the nuclear option is a real thing in the Senate, and this isn't that -- it has nothing to do with that. Perhaps the reason that Republicans are so unwilling to call this what it is, reconciliation is because they have a really long record of using reconciliation.

h/t Heather Thursday at Crooks and Liars

--the BB

Hold the mofos accountable!

Pawlenty's Solution to HCR Costs: Just Let ERs Refuse Patients

Sigh. All this and the endless lies and disinformation.

--the BB

After work

Sandia Crest

This is what I see when I leave work each evening, though I see it filtered through trees and rarely walk up to the frontage road to capture a photo (as I did last night).

Here is a close-up for lovers of mountains (yes, you, Ralph), and lovers of Albuquerque.

I admit that I have tweaked contrast and a few other items so these pictures "pop" a bit more.

Enjoy.

--the BB

The Word within the world and for the world

If the lost word is lost, if the spent word is spent
If the unheard, unspoken
Word is unspoken, unheard;
Still is the unspoken word, the Word unheard,
The Word without a word, the Word within
The world and for the world;
And the light shone in darkness and
Against the Word the unstilled world still whirled
About the centre of the silent Word.

O my people, what have I done unto thee.
--T. S. Eliot, Ash Wednesday

Eliot takes us now to the prologue of the Fourth Gospel. At the heart of Eliot's conversion (the occasion of this poem) and of the pilgrimage of this poem lies the Word, the Logos/Λογος, the self-expression of God that is beyond all speech and which speaks all things into being.

And God said, Let there be light. And there was light.

Without him was not anything made that was made.

Heard or unheard, it nonetheless lies at the heart of creation and gives itself for the sake of creation.

The bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

This Word has pitched his tent among us (εσκηνωσεν εν ημιν), taking on flesh of our flesh (ο λογος σαρξ εγενετο), uniting creation to himself forever.

All creation centers on this Word, the cosmos whirling and dancing about the still center.

And how do we respond to the center of our being?

O my people, what have I done unto thee? is the question raised by the prophet Micah and forms the refrain of the Improperia, the Reproaches that are part of the Latin Rite for Good Friday. The Blue Book, trial usage that preceded the 1979 BCP, experimented with restoring them to the Episcopal Church but they did not make it into the BCP. It is easy to use them as a basis for Antisemitism. In fact, the first link I clicked on had an unpleasant comment along those lines. The point of the Reproaches, however, is to confront US with our hard-hearted responses to God's goodness.

Do we respond to God's eternal Yes with a resounding No?

Sadly, yes, we do.

There is still grace, and grace upon grace, but we need to face the reality of our unmindfulness, ingratitude, and frenzied efforts to have life and the universe on our own terms. Eliot thrusts this echo of the Reproaches into this litany of the Word to shock us back to mindfulness.

May we be mindful of the Word, the true Word by which all things exist, the eloquent, silent Word at the core of our being... and listen.

--the BB

Playing with telephoto

This is a shot I took just after work yesterday: a portion of the Sandias in the late afternoon light.

--the BB

Redeem the time, redeem the dream

Who walked between the violet and the violet
Who walked between
The various ranks of varied green
Going in white and blue, in Mary's colour,
Talking of trivial things
In ignorance and knowledge of eternal dolour
Who moved among the others as they walked,
Who then made strong the fountains and made fresh the springs

Made cool the dry rock and made firm the sand
In blue of larkspur, blue of Mary's colour,
Sovegna vos

Here are the years that walk between, bearing
Away the fiddles and the flutes, restoring
One who moves in the time between sleep and waking, wearing

White light folded, sheathing about her, folded.
The new years walk, restoring
Through a bright cloud of tears, the years, restoring
With a new verse the ancient rhyme. Redeem
The time. Redeem
The unread vision in the higher dream
While jewelled unicorns draw by the gilded hearse.

The silent sister veiled in white and blue
Between the yews, behind the garden god,
Whose flute is breathless, bent her head and signed but spoke no word

But the fountain sprang up and the bird sang down
Redeem the time, redeem the dream
The token of the word unheard, unspoken

Till the wind shake a thousand whispers from the yew

And after this our exile
--T. S. Eliot, Ash Wednesday

In our spiritual transformation we pass through times of penance, walking between violet and violet, and come to a paradise, a garden with various ranks of varied green. There are fountains and springs, the rocks are cool and the sand firm (desert transformed into a place of refreshment).

I love the phrase "restoring/ Through a bright cloud of tears." Years ago I read Alexander Schmemann's Great Lent and encountered there the phrase "bright sadness" and this "bright cloud of tears" brings that to mind. Schmemann writes that "On the one hand, a certain quiet sadness permeates the service: vestments are dark, the services are longer than usual and more monotonous, there is almost no movement." He goes on to say that "then we begin to realize that this very length and monotony are needed if we are to experience the secret and at first unnoticeable 'action' of the service in us. Little by little we begin to understand, or rather to feel, that this sadness is indeed 'bright,' that a mysterious transformation is about to take place in us. It is as if we were reaching a place to which the noises and the fuss of life, of the street, of all that which usually fills our days and even nights, have no access--a place where they have no power. All that which seemed so tremendously important to us as to fill our mind, that state of anxiety which has virtually become our second nature, disappear somewhere and we begin to feel free, light and happy. It is not the noisy and superficial happiness which comes and goes twenty times a day and is so fragile and fugitive; it is a deep happiness which comes not from a single and particular reason but from our soul having, in the words of Dostoevsky, touched 'another world.' And that which it has touched is made up of light and peace and joy, of an inexpressible trust."

In this might we experience "ignorance and knowledge of eternal dolour," a profound awareness of the world's ills and our own failures that is tempered by letting go of our anxiety and, perhaps most importantly, of our own self-centeredness? The great reality, after all, is not my sin but God's goodness. And it is not about ME but about all of us, all creation.

If I fear letting go, perhaps I can remind myself that the ancient rhyme I wish not to lose will be restored "with a new verse."

Redeem
The time. Redeem
The unread vision in the higher dream

....

Redeem the time, redeem the dream
The token of the word unheard, unspoken

We come to the silent word, or more properly, Word.

Beyond our exile, beyond our desert pilgrimage, beyond our violet season, is this: new life.

The Word that spoke creation into being is still speaking and creation continues.

--the BB

1000

02/22/10 DoD:
Marine Casualty Identified
Cpl. Gregory S. Stultz, 22, of Brazil, Ind., died Feb. 19 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Okinawa, Japan.

02/22/10 DoD:
Marine Casualty Identified
Lance Cpl. Joshua H. Birchfield, 24, of Westville, Ind., died Feb. 19 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Twentynine Palms, Calif.

02/20/10 DoD:
Marine Casualty Identified
Lance Cpl. Kielin T. Dunn, 19, of Chesapeake, Va., died Feb. 18 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

02/20/10 DoD:
Marine Casualty Identified
Sgt. Jeremy R. McQueary, 27, of Columbus, Ind., died Feb. 18 while supporting combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan. He was assigned to 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, N.C.

And the many others since I last posted at 972 fatalities.



And may light perpetual shine upon them.

4378

My apologies that I have not kept this feature up and adequately honored our fallen. May they rest in peace and rise in glory.

Heart thread - 02/22/2010 (new)

This evening let us remember Cathy. She wrote this to Mimi:

Mimi, this is nowt to do with your Lenten reflections, but could I please post a prayer request here? ... I have an interview tomorrow first thing for a six-month contract where I work (I am currently freelance). I wouldn't mind people's prayers for it, is the thing.

My friend Bruce is home from the hospital. There is no infection in the bone but the infection in his foot may take another four to six weeks of healing.

Mother Rhonda writes:

I just had a quick conversation with our dear deacon [Karly], and she and Gordon are on the way to the hospital for tests on his heart. Please keep them both in special prayers.

Tad continues to recuperate from surgery in both knees and could surely use some more prayers.

Jane R's mother continues to recover.

George also continues to recover from his bypass surgery.

Let us continue to remember those whose health or well-being are threatened by weather, especially those lacking shelter, or heat, or health care.

I am mindful especially of my indigenous sisters and brothers suffering from lack of heat. A netroots drive is on to provide them with fuel. I donated some a couple of weeks ago and hope I can donate a week's propane to a family this week. You can read about it here.

Let us also remember the people of Haiti and the ongoing need to heal and rebuild the nation.

Ed Hughes (not the Ed Hughes I know locally who is a member of St Michael and All Angels) died last Saturday. Many of my colleagues worked with him. He has two teenage sons, Greyson and Colton. May he rest in peace and rise in glory. May the boys and all who love him find comfort.


Fluffy/Eileen has a head cold.


The Diocese of Virginia could use some prayer. Props to Margaret for never forgetting the Gospel. Prayers for all those freshly crucified.

Thanks for prayers for me, though my situation is pretty tame. I am experiencing no pain in the tooth and see the dentist on Wednesday afternoon for assessment. I am sure this will mean a crown, and I am hoping it was one of the teeth they were planning to crown anyway. I did not have the heart to tell the friend who said on Facebook that now I will have a CROWN that, in fact, I already have two of them, which is why the corner of my smile in photos has a glint to it.

--the BB

Beyond hope and despair

At the first turning of the third stair
Was a slotted window bellied like the figs's fruit
And beyond the hawthorn blossom and a pasture scene
The broadbacked figure drest in blue and green
Enchanted the maytime with an antique flute.
Blown hair is sweet, brown hair over the mouth blown,
Lilac and brown hair;
Distraction, music of the flute, stops and steps of the mind
over the third stair,
Fading, fading; strength beyond hope and despair
Climbing the third stair.


Lord, I am not worthy
Lord, I am not worthy

but speak the word only.
--T. S. Eliot, Ash Wednesday

The speaker has ascended, whether Jacob's ladder or the ascent to Zion, and moved from the darkness he left below toward light. There is a window, shaped to suggest fecundity. There are blossoms and the colors of sky and greenery, music, blowing breezes to replace the fetid air below. Hope and despair are transcended and we hear the words uttered before receiving Holy Communion.

Lord, I am not worthy... but speak the word only.

We have come to a graced place, a graced state.

To get there we have let go, we have gone beyond death. We have relinquished hope and also despair. We have thrown ourselves upon God. Unworthy, we nonetheless are ready to receive the food of angels, the shared life of God, Godself.

--the BB

What a perky war criminal

Meet Jennifer Koester Hardy, a hitherto redacted and unknown author of the torture memos. She worked under John Yoo and did a lot of the drafting. Who would guess that behind this smiling face is a brain that promotes torture as a policy of the United States government.

The report makes clear that, despite apparently having been given the assignment almost at random, Koester played a more active role in the process of producing the memos than perhaps anyone else at DOJ, with the possible exception of Yoo. In July 2002, when Yoo and Koester went to the White House to brief then White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, and perhaps David Addington, Dick Cheney's top lawyer, on one memo, it was Koester, not Yoo, who orally summarized the memo's conclusions (p. 46). (None of the attendees offered any feedback at the meeting, Yoo told OPR.)

You can read about her here.

In the words of our friend Göran: "Another Nürnberg!"

Ship her to the Hague along with the boys. They should not be walking free.


--the BB

Heart thread - 02/22/3010

Catching up on prayers here. Some are specific to today, some go back a week or so.

A Happy and Blessed Anniversary to Nancy and Jeremy!

Happy Birthday to Stan!

For Bruce who is battling a nasty post-operative infection.

For Jack following mouth surgery.

For Lindy traveling to Shanghai.

Prayers for Sandy and those who love her. LJ writes:

Sandy, my canine companion of many years, appears to have had a stroke. This is at least her second, possibly her third.

For Molly the Wonder Dog (this is a very tardy request but prayer crosses time and space). Susankay asked a while back:

Please prayers for Molly the WonderDog -- she just had a long and bad seizure -- the first in almost two years. She is still freaked out and very sad.

For Mimi's daughter's family who had to say goodbye to Max, their beloved cocker spaniel.

For restoration of my tooth, the outer third of which broke off from its fillings this weekend.

For all those journeying through the wilderness - of Lent, of life, or of physical geography.

For the people of Haiti.

--the BB

I left them twisting, turning below;

At the first turning of the second stair
I turned and saw below
The same shape twisted on the banister
Under the vapour in the fetid air
Struggling with the devil of the stairs who wears
The deceitul face of hope and of despair.

At the second turning of the second stair
I left them twisting, turning below;
There were no more faces and the stair was dark,
Damp, jaggèd, like an old man's mouth drivelling, beyond repair,
Or the toothed gullet of an agèd shark.
--T. S. Eliot, Ash Wednesday

This section is one of those places I would rather not go. It is unpleasant. A dark place where nightmares seem to dwell. One I love has a damaged mouth. This passage makes me uncomfortable.

As Eliot writes of turnings of the stairs my memory flashes on the black carved banisters of the stairwell in Durham Castle, now a university dormitory where I spent two weeks in 1997. Then on to - how many movies? - where one looks down a stairwell while fleeing an often not-yet-identified pursuer. One sees hints and flashes and hears approaching steps. The threat is real.

Only this is a poem, not the cinema. We see:

The same shape twisted on the banister
Under the vapour in the fetid air
Struggling with the devil of the stairs who wears
The deceitul face of hope and of despair.

A shape, not defined yet described as twisted. Twisted how? There is a vapor, the air is fetid, the very atmosphere is repugnant and vaguely threatening. Is the twisted shape malevolent, some black-shrouded afreet (think ring wraith if you are a LOTR fan)?

No, it struggles with a demon, "with the devil of the stairs who wears/ The deceitful face of hope and despair."

What sort of demon is this which comes to us in contrary forms? Does it come as false hope (and genuine despair)? Does it represent two seemingly opposite postures, both of them likely to lead us astray? to entrap us? to hinder our ascent and drag us down?

The poet (and the soul?) does not cease to ascend but leaves the strugglers and the struggle behind. The faces of hope and despair are left behind. Perhaps all recognizable faces. All that is left is a shapeless maw - a dark but ultimately powerless mouth of hell? Something that still lurks below, waiting to take us in, yet we ascend.

--the BB

Why is this man walking free? - updated with h/t

Report: Bush Lawyer Said President Could Order Civilians to Be 'Massacred'

How is that for a headline? Michael Isikoff reported the following at Newsweek:

The chief author of the Bush administration's "torture memo" told Justice Department investigators that the president's war-making authority was so broad that he had the constitutional power to order a village to be "massacred," according to a report released Friday night by the Office of Professional Responsibility.

So I ask you: giving a president unlimited dictatorial powers violates both the letter and the spirit of the Constitution, no?

Then why, in the name of all that is holy (and the rule of law), has John Yoo not been disbarred for violating his oath to uphold the Constitution? Why is he allowed to teach at the University of California? The question of why is he not behind bars for war crimes is related to his justifications for torture, not this.

(All that is ignoring what a smug bastard he is.)

What is wrong with this nation?

When will the rule of law be restored to the United States?

I am just seeing the Bush Crime Regime being given one pass after another.

And I have a few words for the President:

Yo, Barry! Your oath to support, uphold, and defend the Constitution involves enforcing the laws. Laws have been broken. When the hell are you going to start enforcing? Why do you hamper your DOJ? Get with it. Or do you want to go down in history as yet one more sorry-ass lawbreaker? Just saying.

Update:
I forgot the h/t to ImpeachKingBushII

--the BB

Why I love where I live (an ongoing series)

Sandias at evening
(from the Costco parking lot)

Manzanos Mountains
(viewed from about 2 blocks north of my house
on the way home from brunch today)

Mountain panorama

--the BB

Love and the Rose

Some Bette and Wynonna for y'all:



--the BB

Where all loves end

Lady of silences
Calm and distressed
Torn and most whole
Rose of memory
Rose of forgetfulness
Exhausted and life-giving
Worried reposeful
The single Rose
Is now the Garden
Where all loves end
Terminate torment
Of love unsatisfied
The greater torment
Of love satisfied
End of the endless
Journey to no end
Conclusion of all that
Is inconclusible
Speech without word and
Word of no speech
Grace to the Mother
For the Garden
Where all love ends.
--T. S. Eliot, Ash Wednesday

I love the juxtaposition of contraries. It is an ancient rhetorical device, and an honorable one. It brings to mind Mme Virginia Crosby who taught French at Pomona College. In a course on French Renaissance Literature she started the semester by saying that one definition of art was a frame to contain contradictions. I liked that definition then and I like it now. That is certainly not all that can or should be said about what art is or is not, but it captures at least one great truth.

The most striking example in the Bible may well be Isaiah 45:7. In the Authorized Version (KJV) it reads thus: "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things." Later translations water this down into "weal and woe" but the word for evil means exactly that. It is possibly the most ambitiously monotheistic verse in the Bible. What we deem evil is also God's work. What other logical source can you posit?

Here it is in the Hebrew:
יֹוצֵ֥ר אֹור֙ וּבֹורֵ֣א חֹ֔שֶׁךְ עֹשֶׂ֥ה שָׁלֹ֖ום וּבֹ֣ורֵא רָ֑ע אֲנִ֥י יְהוָ֖ה עֹשֶׂ֥ה כָל־אֵֽלֶּה׃

Well, I do not intend to wrestle here with theodicy, but you can see that juxtaposition of contraries has an honorable heritage.

Orthodox liturgies revel in combining images that are seemingly contradictory. The Feast of the Theophany, for instance, refers repeatedly to fire going down into the water and the Romanos the Melodist builds his hymnody on the approach of the Unapproachable Light. The climax of the narrative in the Orthodox celebration is the moment when John the Forerunner, a mortal creature, does the unthinkable and touches the Creator in the flesh. The entire mystery of Incarnation is manifest and the ability of God to make happen what we declare cannot happen.

The Lady, the Rose, the Garden all participate in contradiction. If they did not, they would be inadequate to express totality.

This is mostly a problem for us children of the West. We are raised on either/or instead of on yin AND yang. We deem opposites to be mutually exclusive instead of complementary. Even the symbol of yin and yang calls this into question for in each half is found the seed of the other half, that small dot of the opposite shade.

Whether love is unsatisfied or satisfied (and that is the greater torment if it leaves us both sated and wanting, needing more), the speaker knows he can go no further. This is "where all loves end."

There he encounters "Speech without word and/ Word of no speech," the Logos that transcends all speaking yet is the expression by which and in which all things come into being. This Word, that communicates God's gracious will and saving power, is the end, the τελος, of love: its fulfillment.

Where life and love fail, there is the unexpected grace.

Under a juniper-tree the bones sang, scattered and shining
We are glad to be scattered, we did little good to each other,
Under a tree in the cool of day, with the blessing of sand,
Forgetting themselves and each other, united
In the quiet of the desert. This is the land which ye
Shall divide by lot. And neither division nor unity
Matters. This is the land. We have our inheritance.

"And neither division nor unity
Matters. This is the land. We have our inheritance."

Yin and Yang in constantly shifting relationship, always in dynamic balance, together constitute the whole, the Tao. There is neither division nor unity. (Echoes of the Chalcedonian definition!)

Beyond hope, beyond death, there is an inheritance. And we shall come into it.

--the BB

Smaller and dryer than the will

Because these wings are no longer wings to fly

But merely vans to beat the air

The air which is now thoroughly small and dry

Smaller and dryer than the will

Teach us to care and not to care

Teach us to sit still.
Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death

Pray for us now and at the hour of our death.
--T. S. Eliot, Ash Wednesday

The image of a shriveled will, small and dry, is striking. The sense of agency is diminished, as though the speaker’s sense of selfhood is failing.

How often do we experience our sense of self, of agency, as weak? Certainly in bouts of depression or periods when we are so beaten down by life that we no longer “have it in us.”

Clinging is vain. Trying to save ourselves, we lose ourselves (I have it on good authority). Yet letting go is difficult, whether we are feeling (illusorily) omnipotent or utterly helpless. We thus have a prayer: “Teach us to care and not to care/ Teach us to sit still.”

Engagement with detachment.

The balance in which we have not withdrawn from life yet we are free of compulsive attachment to outcomes. We do what we ought and must without allowing anxiety to consume us. We do not control outcomes but we must act in accordance with our nature and the imperatives toward justice and compassion.

And, as noted at the beginning of Lent, we must let go.

Teach us to sit still.

Lady, pray for us in the great death and also now in the countless moments of our little deaths.

--the BB

I signed

Several Senators called on Senator Reid to restore the public option to healthcare reform through reconciliation. Those few have grown to 18 signers and some more supporters.

I joined as a citizen signer tonight and sent e-mails to both my Senators, thanking Udall for joining and urging Bingaman to add his name.

--the BB

A thought or two

A faith community that is God-centered has got it right.* A faith community that is centered on us has got it seriously wrong. A faith community that is Bible-centered is outright idolatrous.

A corollary:
I don't care whether you believe in the Bible. The very concept is suspect (see above). John 3:16 does not conclude that "whosoever believeth in the Bible shall not perish but have everlasting life." Do you believe in God? Does the God in whom you believe love creation, including us?

If the answer to that last question is "No," then your deity is either uninteresting or repugnant.

If you do not believe in God, I probably have more in common with you than I do with those who put their trust in a book.

Πιστεύομεν εἰς ἔνα Θεὸν

*Assuming it is not so heavenly minded it is no earthly good, but that is not being God-centered.

--the BB

These matters that with myself I too much discuss

Because I know that time is always time
And place is always and only place
And what is actual is actual only for one time
And only for one place
I rejoice that things are as they are and
I renounce the blessèd face
And renounce the voice
Because I cannot hope to turn again
Consequently I rejoice, having to construct something
Upon which to rejoice

And pray to God to have mercy upon us
And pray that I may forget
These matters that with myself I too much discuss
Too much explain
Because I do not hope to turn again
Let these words answer
For what is done, not to be done again
May the judgement not be too heavy upon us
--T. S. Eliot, Ash Wednesday

I doubt that Eliot could be anything but Anglo-Catholic, writing as he does.

The incarnational specificity one encounters in words such as "what is actual is actual only for one time/ And only for one place" echoes, for me, the occasional and specific nature of Anglican theology. We are not known for great generalities and systematic thinking but for bringing all our resources to bear on a specific question, a particular instance, a pastoral issue that is anything but abstract. We want to talk about real lives, not eternal principles, though we are eager to know what eternal principles have to do with real lives. We prefer "both/and" but, when forced to choose, tend to go with real lives.

We care more about our endangered siblings in Uganda than we do about discussions of "norms."

I remember my high school biology teacher, Mr. Moore, who on weekends taught Sunday school in a Methodist church, trying to get us past a concept of biological ideals. When I studied zoology with him he told us that one does not take a murine specimen and ask: "Is this mouse correct?" It simply is, and your concepts of "mouseness" must take it into account. There is no abstract mouse (pace Plato), only specific mice from which we must make generalizations.

Back to Eliot:

There is a sense of acceptance when he writes "I rejoice that things are as they are" and I love that phrase but the line does not end there. We have the "and" hanging at the end of the line, much as γαρ hangs at the end of the final verse of Mark's Gospel. [Those who do not wrestle with the Greek text of the NT may ignore that reference.]

"...[A]nd/ I renounce the blessèd face/ And renounce the voice...."

Eliot is not ready to respond, to have his encounter with the divine (or its channels). This is a poem written after his own conversion and it describes a process and a transformation. It is about turning, about metanoia, though it begins with no hope of turning. The speaker in the poem rejoices in "having to construct something/ Upon which to rejoice." He has chosen to rely on his own resources, in spite of not hoping to turn again. A bravura posture? Making the best of something already named as hopeless?

And yet...

"And pray to Got to have mercy upon us...."

There is the plea for that which we cannot create from within ourselves alone.

In that is hope.

Note: someone else shares thoughts on this poem. I commend Matt's undergraduate paper found here.

--the BB

Ash Wednesday

Why should I mourn
The vanished power of the usual reign?
--Ash Wednesday by T. S. Eliot

Eliot's question brings to mind this passage from chapter 18 of the Apocalypse:

And the kings of the earth, who committed fornication and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning; they will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say,
‘Alas, alas, the great city,
Babylon, the mighty city!
For in one hour your judgement has come.’

And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo any more, cargo of gold, silver, jewels and pearls, fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet, all kinds of scented wood, all articles of ivory, all articles of costly wood, bronze, iron, and marble, cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, olive oil, choice flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, slaves—and human lives.
‘The fruit for which your soul longed
has gone from you,
and all your dainties and your splendour
are lost to you,
never to be found again!’
The merchants of these wares, who gained wealth from her, will stand far off, in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud,
‘Alas, alas, the great city,
clothed in fine linen,
in purple and scarlet,
adorned with gold,
with jewels, and with pearls!
For in one hour all this wealth has been laid waste!’

And all shipmasters and seafarers, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning,
‘What city was like the great city?’
And they threw dust on their heads, as they wept and mourned, crying out,
‘Alas, alas, the great city,
where all who had ships at sea
grew rich by her wealth!
For in one hour she has been laid waste.’

I notice they do not seem to be lamenting their perished beloved but rather what she did for them: their commerce, their wealth, their power, their prestige.

Is not this something like "the usual reign," the domination systems we erect to protect ourselves, enrich ourselves, create defenses in the chaos of life? If it were all stripped away would we mourn? Would we throw dust on our heads and weep and cry out?

For all its superficial splendor and brute power, does it merit lamentation?

Their is another reign, you know. God's reign.

Jesus was obsessed with it, possessed by it, heralded it and demonstrated it in all he did.

And there is change. There is transformation. There is a turning, even if we do not dare hope for it.

Consider chapter 21 of that same Apocalypse:

I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. People will bring into it the glory and the honour of the nations. But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practises abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Note the presence of the kings of the earth. Are not these the same "who committed fornication and lived in luxury with" that great whore, Babylon?

Now they bring their glory into the New Jerusalem.

We have moved from the earthly city of shame to the heavenly city of splendor.

And it is not their shame they bring to the new Jerusalem but THEIR glory.

What glory do these sinners have to bring to God's city? Evidently God thinks they have something to contribute. And the gates are not shut against them.

And so I have hope, though I often doubt that it is in me to turn again.

--the BB

Poetry for Lent

Because I do not hope to turn again
Because I do not hope
Because I do not hope to turn

Those are the opening lines of T. S. Eliot's poem Ash Wednesday. I propose to take this poem and the Four Quartets as my texts for meditation this Lent.

Sometimes the Bible passages, especially for a former Baptist (and a very pious one at that), are simply too familiar. More to the point, last year I found them altogether too problematic. The patriarchal, violent bent of the Bible drove me to distraction the last time I tried the discipline of commenting each day during a violet season. I could not allegorize away the horror. Thus I have chosen to do something else this time around.

We approach Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent with words of seeming despair. "Because I do not hope" = the etymological meaning of "despair," a falling away from hope.

It is a classic starting point of any cycle of spiritual growth: the purgative stage when we are stripped, when we must let go, when our illusions are torn from us and we are left naked and defenseless, disoriented, lost, not knowing the way forward or even if there is a way forward.

It is probably a good place to start Lent. It is not our cleverness or our piety or our worthwhile deeds that will bring us to Easter; it is the action of God.

--the BB

Howdy, howdy, Vatican City

I evidently just had my first visitor here from the Vatican City.

Welcome. This is a very personal site by an irascible Anglican who loves so very much of the Roman tradition but is, well, critical of officialdom whether in my church or yours or any church, for that matter. You are, all the same, welcome here. Blessings be upon you.

--the BB

Satan's spawn spews again

Why is Liz Cheney allowed to make shit up on the public media? As a commenter noted, "I know $10 crack whores with more integrity."

Another: "I like that "Former State Department Official". Hell, she was part of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. Her job was to help implement the raping of the Iraqi economy."

And the bottom line: "Right or wrong, Constitution, American Law, our Nation's honor, what the fuck ever, this monster's lone goal is to save that blood drenched, war profiting, coward ass mass murdering father of hers."

I wish the entire family would ooze back into hellmouth or wherever they came from and never be heard from again. Soulless scum.

Anyone worried that I'd forgotten how to get riled may now relax. Dick the dick and his lying bitch daughter will bring my blood to boil in an instant every time.

--the BB

Not brimming with outrage these days

Nor am I feeling very reflective. But I'm doing fine and enjoying this long weekend (federal holiday). Dear friends, the shortage of posts is me taking a breather.

--the BB