Graces

In the clover

The groundhog is enjoying the clover in the jungle between the house and the barn. I can't mow it because there are large rocks and roots in the dirt. My string trimmer isn't strong enough to deal with the weeds that thrive there. Most of the plants are taller than my waist. I have a path to the feeders but that's it. I've asked my neighbor to think about plowing it for me. He's too busy for now. Maybe in fall, I hope. (Photo taken thru the window.)

Love our bishop!

Click to embiggen.

In defense of same-sex marriage

After decades of rising cohabitation, divorce and out-of-wedlock births posing a threat to traditional marriage, we should be delighted that gays and lesbians are trying so hard to prop it up.

That is the last line of Clarence Page's column in the Chicago Tribune on 17 June. Unfortunately bigots like Robbins and Eichelberger will probably tell you that the LGBTs caused this havoc.

A prejudiced fool

Listen to PA Senator Eichelberger make a fool of himself on the radio. For the life of me I can't understand how his reason functions as it doesn't seem to at all. He repeats and repeats fallacies that the bigots stress and refuses to listen. He seriously seems to believe that LGBTs do nothing for society. He needs to get a life and his constituents need to get rid of him. He is evil.

By the way, Eichelberger is NOT from western Pennsylvania. His district is in the south center of the state. To people from Philadelphia, Harrisburg is the center of the state and everything west of Harrisburg is western PA. Harrisburg is in Dauphin County. Eichelberger's district includes Bedford, Huntington, Blair and Fulton Counties as well as part of Mifflin County. Well, those are west of Harrisburg.

Local ugliness

is definitely NOT Working for a Better Pennsylvania. He is one of the sponsors of Senator Eichelberger's bill to insert bigotry and discrimination into the Pennsylvania Constitution by banning marriage equality.

He doesn't care if partners are not allowed to visit each other in the hospital. He doesn't care that the family of one of the partners can steal everything that is not in other partner's name when their family member dies. He doesn't believe that two people can love each other unless they are opposite sexed. He doesn't believe science. He believes that one class of Pennsylvania residents is somehow less than the rest and not entitled to his representation.

Bob Robbins seems to have bought into prejudice, particularly that preached by those who do not understand the message Jesus taught. I used to think he was a decent guy. Boy, was I wrong!

Senator Robbins should be supporting Senate Bill 935, the Marriage Equality Bill. Please tell him by calling or emailing or writing a good old fashioned letter. His information is on his website.

Friday cat blogging

Lines

CNBC is monitoring the lines at Apple Stores this morning. They seem amazed that people will line up waiting for an opening with a new product. I've stood in two opening lines - for Apple Stores themselves. It's fun. The people are friendly and interesting. Some are obvious nerds. Some seem normal. All bound by a preference for Apple's products. Maybe we're a cult?

Friday shuffle

1. PDQ Bach: 1712 Overture
2. Handel: Zadok, the Priest - Kings College Choir
3. The Tears of a Clown - Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
4. Callejon Del Muro (Minera) - Paco De Lucía
5. Anon: Romance from Jeux interdits - Pepe Romero
6. Byrd: Ave Verum Corpus - Westminster Choir
7. Were You There? - Rajaton
8. Donna - Ritchie Valens
9. Snoopy & the Red Baron - The Royal Guardsmen
10. The Ballad of the Green Berets - Sgt. Barry Sadler

YES!

On a secret committee to study homosexuality

The Episcopal Church bigwigs appointed an 8 person committee to study homosexuality but refused to say who is on the committee. Two participants were revealed in a Nashotah House publication. The others will probably eventually be named. There has been much angst over the entire matter. Secrecy is not the Episcopal way of doing things.

And why study homosexuality again? And again? And again? It is. It has been. It will be. Either we are all Godde's creation and loved or we deny what the Bible says about Godde. Jesus didn't say to pick and choose and exclude some over others. Jesus told his followers to love everyone and leave judgment to Godde.

Most of us are tired of this fight. The best way to study homosexuals is to know someone and learn that the homosexual lifestyle is as normal and boring as everyone else's. The way I confront someone who opposes gay marriage is to ask how someone else's marriage affects theirs. If the idea of gay sex is repulsive, don't do it. If it isn't an option, it is irrelevant in a person's life.

TEC needs to uphold baptismal vows and strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being. GC 2009 needs to get rid of every prejudicial aspect of past decisions. Barack Obama needs to suspend DOMA and DADT immediately and deal with the political fallout later.

Committees are not needed for either. Just, um, cojones.
Perhaps a study of prejudice should be initiated?

Me

"Would you drink out of a cup held by THIS woman?"

Friday cat blogging on Sunday

Tipper is a rather large cat...

What if...

What if people worried more about their own lives and allowed others to do the likewise? What if people stopped being preoccupied by how other people relate to each other in love? What if people stopped being preoccupied by what consenting adults do in the privacy of their bedrooms? What if people were able to walk a mile in someone else’s moccasins? What if people were able to accept a person as they relate to others rather than as they look or talk or believe? What if Christians were willing to do as their Jesus taught - love Godde, love each other, take care of each other and leave judgment to Godde?

In other words, what if those who claim to be “Christians” acted in ways that don't seem to be the opposite of what I believe the Bible says Jesus taught?

What if people ignored difference as long as being different doesn’t hurt someone else. Americans seem terrified of difference. Why? We avoid people who are blind or deaf or missing an arm or are otherwise physically different. We avoid people who don’t dress like we do. We avoid people of a different social class. We avoid people who have a different lifestyle. We avoid people others avoid.

What if people weren’t so quick to judge something or someone different as wrong? We are quick to judge others’ habits as wrong. We are quick to judge others’ beliefs as wrong. We are quick to judge others as wrong simply on appearance.

What if the people arriving for worship toward the end of the eucharist last week were told to not bother? There was no later service. I’m happy to say I didn’t think of them as “wrong” but I did wonder why they bothered. In their culture time seems to be relative. It is not my culture. Should I consider them wrong if they don’t exactly do what we do when we do it?

What if we all admitted we can't know exactly what is “right” in Godde's world anyhow?

Lost turtle

I almost hit this with the mower. She reminded me of Hildy. She is about the same size.

This is what she had to find her way thru to get to my driveway. As I said, I need help. Anyhow she was about 300 feet from water. I didn't see her leave but she did after I put the mower away. She didn't seem to deposit any eggs as the little hole was empty and dry. The mower and the cats probably traumatized her. Turtles have often laid eggs closer to the water. When I mow that area I should probably walk it first. One year I found dozens of turtlettes scurrying toward the water. The neighbor kids were little at the time and were fascinated. For some reason they didn't try to catch any of them.

Help wanted

Weeding help desperately needed. I thought I had dug up all the Asian lilies and given them to my neighbor. I guess I missed a few.

Prayers for Bonnie and family

Today The Three Legged Stool told us of the passing of Ed Spivey on 22 May 2009. Our hearts and prayers go out to Bonnie and those who share her love for Ed. Prayers also for Wolfie who surely misses him too.

The other hungry one

This one visits every evening and eats whatever the cats leave. S/He is quite bold and comes over to look in the kitchen.

St Barnabas, Monmouth Junction, NJ

The gal I stayed with in New Jersey is the organist at St Barnabas Episcopal Church. When my plans for church fell thru she asked me to sing tenor with her choir.

This was the first of ten young people confirmed during the service.

The parish has many members from Africa and various islands. The women wore beautiful, colorful dresses which I was unable to photograph successfully.
The Right Reverend Sylvestre Romero, Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of New Jersey, celebrated and preached.

LASHIR

Raanan Shefa's choir in Princeton, NJ

The New Brunswick Party

This was THE dessert last night. Fried pudding with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce. For more news about the party, go to Telling Secrets for now.

Friday cat blogging

Tzaki and Tipper

Becoming an Ubuntu people

Friday cat blogging

Breakfast this morning.

Discernment

How does a person "discern"? I find it easy to live with unanswered questions. Many people don't. I used to drive Mom crazy with questions and I'm sure plenty of others as well. Yesterday I asked some questions of an Episcopal priest. He hasn't answered yet. I wish I would have thought of using the word "discern".

He said, for him the Word of Godde (using my spelling) is Truth. For him Truth is of the utmost importance. Godde's Word is the Bible. I didn't ask which translation. He doesn't trust the APA - the topic addressed in his original message was the usual homosexuality - because it is too political. He apparently believes that only the Word of Godde in the Bible contains Truth without political implications. I asked if perhaps the men who chose the writings to include in the "official" Bible weren't also very political. I find it difficult to believe that a group of men who could have their control of the church wrested away by others would really listen to the Holy Spirit. How does one "discern" who is being political and who is responding to the Holy Spirit? Perhaps I'm too cynical?

Earlier I wondered about the difference between worshipping the Word of Godde and following the Word of Godde. For me it is an easy "discernment". I am curious to know why others are so tied to words and rules and what may be only the writings of men who had a good thing going and want(ed) to preserve their privileges. Yes, I believe that many of those/these men believe they were/are faithful to Godde and Jesus and were/are good people. I believe many of them try hard to be good servants and shepherds. I question how they "discern(ed)" they were/are so "right" to the exclusion of all others.

And how does one "discern" a call to the priesthood? What if many roadblocks are placed on the path? How does one "discern" whether the roadblocks are trial by fire or serious? What if everyone "discerns" one path for a candidate for ordination yet the person "discerns" and pursues something else in spite of roadblocks?

I'm afraid I don't have much love for "discernment". I do not believe that I am better at "discerning" than anyone else. Or that I am any more right or wrong than anyone else tho I wonder about people who use their Words of God to abuse, exclude or otherwise denigrate other people. I believe that those of us who take seriously the admonition to love everyone unconditionally, even when it seems impossible, have better, calmer, happier lives. That isn't "discernment". It is experience.

Culture without the Arts is dead

I do not like this jerky, sound bite, disjointed presentation that has become popular these days. No wonder our kids have attention problems. The message is important regardless of my irritations.

Arts and Citizenship from Pittsburgh Filmmakers on Vimeo.

Don't want to pay for health care

"My friend spent her last years suffering not only the pain of cancer but the indignity of having to worry about how she was going to pay her rent and feed her child. She was diagnosed with terminal cancer 2½ years ago, and was able to get Social Security disability payments only nine weeks ago."

Read it all here.

If there is one Christianist out there who wants to keep as many pennies as possible without helping anyone else except those s/he chooses, may I suggest s/he go read the Bible s/he worships, especially the things the Bible says Jesus taught. People without health care will bankrupt the system eventually as they flood hospital ERs then can't pay. And their illnesses are far more expensive than they would be with early intervention. This is not a Christian nation. It is a cruel collection of individuals who will donate huge sums to international disasters while allowing their neighbors to die.

This has been a nasty day.

But Sotomayor is a bright spot. Too bad the uglies are parading their venom all across the media. Ugh.

Thoughts on Sotomayor

Yes! Far more qualified than any of the sitting justices.

What do I think about what the antis are saying? See the post below. Pretty much the same folks at the root.

Thoughts on Prop 8

On second thought, I'd better not. Mom was right that I shouldn't say anything if I couldn't say something nice. I have nothing nice to say about Christianists.

Even and especially Jesus...

My Memorial Day 2009

This was my third year to march in the Memorial Day parade with Women in Black. It seemed to be an odd parade. One band - MASH - then lots of cars and firetrucks with some very loud cannon blasts or something - fortunately way ahead of us. Many of us carried 4 flags but there weren't nearly enough of us to carry all 193 flags - one for each soldier from Pennsylvania killed in the Iraq war.

After the parade I had a delightful lunch of tube steaks and macaroni salad with friends. He has three cats. This is Lexie. She has a brother Nicki I've never seen.

And this is Paz.

PT's portrait

After a brief absence, PuddyTat returned this morning so here is her portrait. I was getting very worried about her and was happy to see her in the annex - where she still is. She is not an early riser.

Rising above the crowd

The little yellow blooms lay close to the ground. Now more than 2 feet tall they are determined to blow away over everything else.

The Word of God

There is an interesting article in Church Times called "The Word is made of flesh and blood, not ink". For me it addresses the essence of much of the turmoil in Christianity today. What is the difference between the Bible being the Word of Godde and Jesus being the Word of Godde?

Are Christians to obey the rules set down in the Bible as dictated by Godde through the Holy Spirit? Or are Christians to follow what Jesus taught which is "Love Godde and love your neighbor"?

If our neighbor is doing something we believe is wrong, is it our duty to tell the person in order to "save" him or her? If so, what justification do we have for naming the sin? By what authority may we warn the neighbor? If the person continues in what we perceive as sin, should we walk away?

Or is it our duty to love all people unconditionally as Godde loves us? If so, what responsibility do we have toward and with the other?

Ambition

Tim's tail was twitching...

Friday cat blogging

Tommie

Tim (originally Timid)

Dude

Jellico

Supper with PuddyTat and Tom. She hasn't appeared yet today so she didn't get her mug here. The annex was tipped over this morning. She may have been in or on it and is still spooked.

Friday shuffle

1. Summer in the City - Lovin' Spoonful
2. Get Up John - Ricky Skaggs
3. Live Here With You - Dusty Springfield
4. PDQ Bach: Capriccio La Pucelle de New Orleans
5. We Shall Walk Through the Valley - Brunelle, Vocal Essence
6. Arlen: Out of This World - Chanticleer
7. Paulus: Mass for a Sacred Place, Sanctus - Cathedral Choral Society
8. Earth Angel - Penguins
9. Save the Last Dance for Me - Drifters
10. In Old Mexico - Tom Lehrer

Poison dry cat food

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- Franklin, Tennessee (May 21, 2009) -- Today, Nutro Products announced a voluntary recall of select varieties of NUTRO® NATURAL CHOICE® COMPLETE CARE® Dry Cat Foods and NUTRO® MAX® Cat Dry Foods with “Best If Used By Dates” between May 12, 2010 and August 22, 2010. The cat food is being voluntarily recalled in the United States and ten additional countries. This recall is due to incorrect levels of zinc and potassium in our finished product resulting from a production error by a US-based premix supplier.

Two mineral premixes were affected. One premix contained excessive levels of zinc and under-supplemented potassium. The second premix under-supplemented potassium. Both zinc and potassium are essential nutrients for cats and are added as nutritional supplements to NUTRO® dry cat food.

This issue was identified during an audit of our documentation from the supplier. An extensive review confirmed that only these two premixes were affected. This recall does not affect any NUTRO® dog food products, wet dog or cat food, or dog and cat treats.

Affected product was distributed to retail customers in all 50 states, as well as to customers in Canada, Mexico, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Israel. We are working with all of our distributors and retail customers, in both the US and internationally, to ensure that the recalled products are not on store shelves. These products should not be sold or distributed further.

Consumers who have purchased affected product should immediately discontinue feeding the product to their cats, and switch to another product with a balanced nutritional profile. While we have received no consumer complaints related to this issue, cat owners should monitor their cat for symptoms, including a reduction in appetite or refusal of food, weight loss, vomiting or diarrhea. If your cat is experiencing health issues or is pregnant, please contact your veterinarian.

Consumers who have purchased product affected by this voluntary recall should return it to their retailer for a full refund or exchange for another NUTRO® dry cat food product. Cat owners who have questions about the recall should call 1-800-833-5330 between the hours 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM CST, or visit www.nutroproducts. com.

Recalled Pet Food

The varieties of NUTRO® NATURAL CHOICE® COMPLETE CARE® Dry Cat Foods and NUTRO® MAX® Cat Dry Foods listed below with “Best If Used By Dates” between May 12, 2010 and August 22, 2010 are affected by this voluntary recall.

To see exactly what varieties of Nutro cat food is recalled go to Just Another Black Sheep.

Dear President Obama,

Dear President Obama,

Yet another excellent military person has been fired because he is gay. He is a highly decorated Air Force pilot, Lt Colonel Victor Fehrenbach, who is two years short of retirement. That is cruel and stupid. Firing those who speak languages needed in the Middle East is equally thoughtless. Firing military people who are functioning well in their positions simply because of their sexual orientation demonstrates that sex is more important than national security to those who make the rules.

Certain religious groups are saying that LGBT people are not created in God’s image and do not deserve the rights and responsibilities everyone else has. This is fear talking. Fear that LGBTs will somehow cause them harm is ridiculous, unfounded and destructive. If those who believe that this is a Christian nation actually followed what Jesus taught, we would not need unconstitutional laws such as DADT and DOMA.

When are you going to tell the military brass that they are simply prejudiced, wrong about lesbian and gay people in the armed services and harming our ability to protect the US? When will you order the suspension of "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell"?

Thank you for your prompt action to remove this serious flaw in our military preparedness.


cc: Sen. Arlen Specter, Sen. Robert Casey, Jr., Rep. Kathleen Dahlkamper

Five steps to being miserable

HT to Elizabeth.

Hallelujah! A new Liturgical Mystery!

Those of us who are devoted fans of Mark Schweizer's Liturgical Mysteries feared that the series had stopped after the first six were issued in a boxed set. Now today I went to St James Music Press Books to copy the URL for a blog comment. Lo and behold, there is a new mystery - The Diva Wore Diamonds. Oh joy, oh rapture. Can't wait.

This makes me sooooo angry

And yet more prayers requested

Please go to FranIAm's blog or Grandmère Mimi's blog for the latest additions to the prayer list. You'll have to scroll down a bit for those. Sorry, I'm lazy tonight.

Beating the Bounds on Rogation Sunday

After the service a group of Christ Church people braved a bitterly cold wind and beat the bounds of the church. We did not use boys and we didn't actually beat anything else.

We began on the steps with a prayer:
God of seed and growth and harvest, creator of need, creator of satisfaction, give us, we pray, our daily bread, sufficient and assured for all. Give us also, we pray, the bread of life, and we shall have a care to feed the hungry, and to seek for peace and justice in the world. Help us, then, to remember and to know that you are our life today and every day; you are the food we need, now and for ever. Amen.

We then walked to the first corner singing For the Beauty of the Earth (not us). At the first corner, Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 was read followed by a prayer:
God of creation, we thank you for the gift of the earth, and for the life which teems upon the land, in the waters, and in the air. Thank you for the wonder of life that you have entrusted to us in all its complexity, interconnectedness and biodiversity. Help us to conserve it well, use it sustainably, and endow it faithfully to our children's children.

We sang the first three verses to Canticle of the Sun (H86 406) on the way to the second corner. We then prayed:
Lord God, from your hand comes the mystery of life: the wonder of fertility, growth and harvest, and resistance to disease. We thank you for the gift of seed; bless the seeds we sow in our farms, allotments and gardens, that they may germinate well, flourish, and yield blessing to your children. Bless our efforts to feed others and ourselves.

We finished Canticle of the Sun as we walked up the alley and around the corner.
Lord God, from your hand comes all that nourishes life. We thank you for the gift of soil. Bless the soil in which our seeds are sown and our crops are planted; bless our efforts to use it well, to enrich it, and to sustain its fertility for the future.

We sang the first two verses of All Things Bright and Beautiful (very obviously not us) on the way to the final corner of the church property. Ezekiel 34:25-31 was read followed by:
Lord God, your rain is the most precious liquid on earth. We thank you for the gift of water. Bless our land and our crops with rain; bless our efforts to keep water unpolluted, to make it accessible, and to conserve it responsibly.
We finished All Things Bright and Beautiful on the way back to the church. The final prayer:
Almighty God, whose will it is that the earth and the sea should bear fruit in due season: bless the labors of those who work on land and sea, grant us a good harvest and the grace always to rejoice in your fatherly care; through Jesus Christ your Son, our Lord.

Inside we received the blessing then sang An Irish Blessing before the dismissal.