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Archive for the 'Jesus' Category
Posted in 2023 movies and television, Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Bible, Book Reviews, Catholic, Christian, Church, evangelization, Faith, fiction, history, Internet, Jesus, Joseph Dubruiel, Life, Michael Dubruiel, Movies, Music, television, tagged 2023 movies and television, Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, books, Catholic, Catholicism, faith, history, Michael Dubruiel, movies, Reading, saints on January 3, 2023|
The problem with the film adaptation of Dan Delillo's White Noise?
There's not enough of it.
White noise, that is.
Or spirituality for that matter, but we'll get to that in a minute.
DeLillo's book is (in part) about the landscape in which we postmoderns dwell, a landscape suffused with, well, white noise. A continual buzz of stimulation, information and entertainment that surrounds us, builds narratives and ultimately distract us from the issue that's tormenting us all: death.
In Baumbagh's film, while mostly watchable and entertaining in its own way – until the painful last third – we don't pick up on that, we don't sense that, we don't hear or see any of that. It's a mildly quirky suburban dramedy that resolves itself in near-sweetness, which the novel does not, at all. He captures the "white noise" of family life, but beyond that, no. There's really not much mystery here, and White Noise the novel is suffused with uncertainty and mystery. The most concrete example of this is the Toxic Event itself – its nature is never made clear or explicit in the novel, but in the film, oddly, it's explained (a collision). I think that's the movie's biggest mistake, by far.
(There are others: Both Gerwig and Driver are a bit too young, Gerwig especially. In the movie, the youngest child, Wilder, is the offspring of the oft-married Jack and Babette, but in the novel, none of the children are fully related to anyone else in the family, which is important – the family is thoroughly postmodern – a collection of individuals. In the novel, Babette doesn't appear in that last sequence of events.)
This isn't a film I want to write about as much as I want to chew over it with someone else who's seen it and also read the novel. There's just a lot to say, notions and insights that emerge when I consider, not what the film includes, but what it doesn't.
First off, please know that, um, I'd never read DeLillo before last week, when the coming film inspired me to check out the novel. It wasn't as long as I expected, and I thought I'd knock it off fairly quickly, but that didn't happen. It took me a good week to finish it, not because it's impenetrable or dauntingly complex, but because it's stuffed. I wouldn't say it's rich, either – just…stuffed.
And so I think this post will turn more on the novel than the film, with a bit of circling back at the end.
As I read White Noise I was put in mind of Walker Percy, and wondered if anyone had ever written comparing the two. A quick search didn't turn up much, but yes: the vaguely apocalyptic landscape, the fractured family, the puzzled male protagonist, and – this is important – the medicalization of soul problems. When you are taking pills to ward off your fear of death, seems like that's Percy territory.
Not surprisingly, I experienced White Noise (the novel) as not just a satire of contemporary American life, but also an exploration of spiritual presence and absence. Joshua Ferris lays it out quite well in this piece, so I'll quote him. At length.
White Noise begins and ends with a ritual. The first is the cavalcade of station wagons arriving for the new school year, which Jack describes as a spectacle—"a brilliant event, invariably"—and which he has not missed in 21 years. It ends with the communal nightly pilgrimage to the highway overpass where he, his family and his neighbors witness the exalted sunsets that might be a temporary result of fallout from the toxic spill or something permanently deserving of awe. "[W]e don't know whether we are watching in wonder or dread," he says, as if commenting upon the entire phenomenon of white noise itself. In the end, neither he nor Delillo provides an answer.
Between these two rituals, the attentive reader encounters the high priest of Hitler Studies who tries to both evade and master death through his submersion in a "larger-than-death" figure; the ascetic-visionary-guru Murray Jay Siskind; the fundamentalist Alfonse Stompanato who discusses pop culture with the "closed logic of a religious zealot, one who kills for his beliefs"; amulets and vestments, like Jack's copy of Mein Kampf, which he clutches to his chest at moments of discomfort, and his dark black glasses and heavy academic robe which bestow upon him "the dignity, significance and prestige" appropriate to priests; the rhetoric of exhortations as issued from some holy order found in Jack's command "May the days be aimless. Let the seasons drift. Do not advance the action according to a plan"; amulets like the visor Denise wears day and night and later the protective mask Steffie refuses to take off; glossolalia; invocations ("Dacron, Orlon, Lycra Spandex," "MasterCard, Visa, American Express"); the use of drugs, in this case not for ecstatic religious purposes but for death assuagement; numerology ("Is death odd-numbered?"); congregations, whether at the supermarket, on the overpass or in the classroom; superstitions ("It is the nature and pleasure of townspeople to distrust the city"); the miracle of Wilder's unharmed tricycle ride across the freeway; and many other customs, rites and rituals, not only that of Friday-night TV, but Jack's more "formal custom" afterwards of reading deeply into Hitler; the heavy visitation to the most photographed barn in America ("Being here is a kind of spiritual surrender… we've agreed to be part of a collective experience," Murray tells Jack, elevating a scene typically presented as a lament about the simulation's preeminence over the real—the photograph of the barn over the barn itself—to one of overt religious import that better explicates Josiah Royce than Jean Baudrillard), and finally Babette's very secular custom, conspicuously occurring in the otherwise inactive Congregational church, of teaching the elderly how to stand, sit and walk, later upgraded to eating and drinking.
This overwhelming litany of how Delillo fleshes out traditional religious elements in the post-Christian world of White Noise is not exhaustive. He has done nothing short of scuttling the entirety of established religious systems only to remake one, full of the same structures and accoutrements, out of the stuff of American cultural life, very often out of the same white noise that doubles in the book as the agent of death against which those structures and accoutrements are intended to protect. The protective devices of this new pseudo-religion meet with mixed success in giving comfort to Jack Gladney as he struggles with his death fears, but no matter. Their domain is not so one-dimensional as to provide only protective devices. They also reveal to him glimpses of greater meaning, of awe and of transcendence. Above all, they reveal that Delillo goes beyond cultural assessment in White Noise to show—if we didn't know it already from The Names—that he is a writer deeply, almost preternaturally attuned to the eternal human encounter with what constitutes the religious and the spiritual.
Yes, you're reading that having watched the film and wondering…what?
In another article (somewhere), I read about the character of Wilder, the youngest child in the family. Those of you who have only watched the film will find my description unrecognizable. What's in the film in general is very faithful the book – what makes the adaptation so unsatisfactory is what is left out, which is a lot of important elements: most of all, the sense of white noise and the spiritual ghosts, including what DeLillo gives us in Wilder.
In the movie, he's just a young child who is carted around and only speaks once, and whose presence, his mother says, makes her happy.
In the novel he's quite different. His silence is often commented upon – it is not clear whether his worldlessness is a choice or a disability. He does make noise, though – especially one day when he cries, weeps and wails from dawn to dusk. This is an important and lengthy interlude in the book. No one knows what to do. Wilder just cries and cries. They take him to the doctor. He keeps crying. But it's not just crying. It's a profound, deep keening – DeLillo uses the word – that his stepfather experiences, in part, as something profound with which he feels a desire to connect. In the midst of all the distracting white noise, here's a deeply human noise coming from a real place, and so Jack, being a human, and being a human who thinks about death, senses it comes from a place where he might find…something. "It might not be so terrible to have to listen to this a while longer," he thinks.
The family members' responses and interactions with Wilder are almost like those of worshippers to a holy presence in their midst – they take care of him, they fawn over him, they respond to him ritually (yes yes yes yes). And in the end, when Wilder mounts his tricycle and rides across all the lanes of the highway without being harmed, we sense that he is, indeed, something special – even if that specialness resides in his innocence and, in the midst of a world that fears and denies death, his fearlessness.
Baumbach either didn't understand or chose to ignore the spiritual implications of White Noise. It really is, as Ferris says, a book that invites us to look at and listen to the world around us and consider the possibility that we are still worshipping, we are still ritualizing, we still are looking for miracles and listening to sacred texts, and none of it seems to be helping.
I want to say something about the closing credits sequence. It's a long (8-minute) stylized dance routine, involving all the characters, in the, bright, gleaming A & P. In White Noise, the supermarket functions in the same way the village church would – a gathering place, a place to build community, to fill one's needs, to admire human ingenuity and creativity, but today, controlled and given, rather than evolved from who we are in an organic way. I suppose Baumbach conceived this sequence a way to communicate that. A supermarket scene closes out the novel, as well. But let's look at the difference:
In the novel, the last chapter is composed of three scenes: Wilder with his tricycle, the gathering to watch the sunset, and then the supermarket. But what happens in the store? Well, the shelves have been rearranged. People – especially older people – are confused.
The supermarket shelves have been rearranged. It happened one day without warning. There is agitation and panic in the aisles, dismay in the faces of older shoppers.[…]They scrutinize the small print on packages, wary of a second level of betrayal. The men scan for stamped dates, the women for ingredients. Many have trouble making out the words. Smeared print, ghost images. In the altered shelves, the ambient roar, in the plain and heartless fact of their decline, they try to work their way through confusion. But in the end it doesn't matter what they see or think they see. The terminals are equipped with holographic scanners, which decode the binary secret of every item, infallibly. This is the language of waves and radiation, or how the dead speak to the living. And this is where we wait together, regardless of our age, our carts stocked with brightly colored goods. A slowly moving line, satisfying, giving us time to glance at the tabloids in the racks. Everything we need that is not food or love is here in the tabloid racks. The tales of the supernatural and the extraterrestrial. The miracle vitamins, the cures for cancer, the remedies for obesity. The cults of the famous and the dead."
Highlights of Highlights
Posted in 2022 Books, 2022 Highlights, 2022 movies, Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Bible, Bible Study, blogging, Book Reviews, Catholic, Catholicism, Church, education, Eucharist, evangelization, Faith, Gospels, history, Instagram, Internet, Jesus, Joseph Dubruiel, Liturgy, Michael Dubruiel, Movies, prayer, Reading, sacraments, Saints, Spirituality, tagged 2022 Books, 2022 Highlights, 2022 movies, Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Catholic, Catholicism, faith, history, Michael Dubruiel, religion, saints, travel on January 2, 2023|
You know this is more for me than for you, right? It's a convenient way to "file" these things. So here they are, all in one place. Click on the images to get to the page.
2021 highlights here.
2022 Highlights: November & December
Posted in 2022 Highlights, Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Bible, Catholic, Catholicism, Christian, Church, Eucharist, evangelization, Faith, Gospels, Guanajuato 2022, history, Internet, Jesus, Joseph Dubruiel, Liturgy, Michael Dubruiel, Music, pilgrimage, prayer, pro-life, Religion, tagged 2022 Highlights, Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Catholic, Catholicism, faith, history, Michael Dubruiel, religion, saints, travel on January 1, 2023|
I did this last year (Here's one post, with links to all the others.) It's a way for me to sort through things, retrieve ideas that might work for longer pieces in other spaces, make me feel horrible about my terrible memory (did I write that?) and so on. I don't include posts on saints or travel here. The saints because I tend to re-run them, no apologies, and the travel posts because they are collected here. Gender-related posts here. Book and movie takes, as well as links to other monthly highlights, at the end of this post.
Several post-V2-music related posts (in prep for the Substack, which will revive from winter dormancy this Friday), some pre-Advent thoughts, and, in travel, summing up the Mexico trip and a Thanksgiving trip to Colorado.
All November posts here.
In December? Lots of movie, book and gender-related posts, as well as saints, Advent and Christmas. Go here for all of them. A couple of highlights below.
Anyway, my point of disagreement with Douthat has to do with his core notion – in this column at least – that Vatican II was about making the practice of Catholicism easier. Okay, he does qualify this:
The idea was not simply to make Catholicism easier, of course; the hope was that a truer Christianity would flourish once rote obedience diminished.
But then proceeds to point out that the results are what matter, not the stated intentions. I disagree. I think it's important to get the intentions right – as right as we can, given the fog of history.
And what were the intentions, if not just to "make it easier?" Too much for a mere blog post, but the core of it seemed to be a conviction that vibrant, authentic faith rooted in a free response to God's invitation – was impeded by legalistic language and practice, as well as by the accretion of tradition and an "outdated" human anthropology and medieval Eurocentricism, blah, blah, blah. Yes, there's even more – I would suggest the boredom, stupidity and loss of faith of religious professionals played more of a part than we like to admit – as well as other more complex, nuanced, factors, but when you read the documents and those that came afterwards, this is the clear, stated intention.
Everybody sing Allelu
Secondly, if you go to these videos and read the comments, you will read many, may fond memories people have of this music.
I don't necessarily have fond memories of this era's music, but I certainly do have memories. Listening to the podcast, I was shocked by how much I could just join right in on after not having sung any of it for decades.
Of my hands, I give…to you….Oh Lord….
Gonna Sing
As several have pointed out in the comments, as simplistic and even annoying as some of this early music was, a great deal of it was at least Scripture based. That core was forgotten at certain points – as we see below – but then picked up again by the St. Louis Jesuits who, even their detractors admit, wrote music rooted in Scripture texts.
Carnegie Hall, no less!
There are a number of striking, weird aspects to this corner of history, but one of the most pressing questions to me is why the course taken for the sake of lay "active participation" and the cause of restoring ancient forms completely ignored the Eastern liturgical tradition which involves a relatively high degree of possible lay participation, is musical (chanted) from beginning to end, and is, yes ancient.
Of course Latin churchmen still at that time undoubtedly harbored disdain for the East and since the agenda was centered on ModernNewProgressSignsoftheTimes I guess dudes in crowns chanting behind icon screens didn't exactly fit that model, but still.
One more road – one more – not taken. Tragically.
"The Christian is not afraid of the clock"
Hence the Christian is not afraid of the clock, nor is he in cunning complicity with it. The Christian life is not really a "victory over time" because time is not and cannot be a real antagonist. Of course, the Christian life is a victory over death: but it is a victory which accepts death and accepts the lapse of time that inevitably leads to death. But it does this in a full consciousness that death is in no sense a "triumph of time." For the Christian, time is no longer the devourer of all things. Christian worship is at peace with time because the lapse of time no longer concerns the Christian whose life is "hidden with Christ in God."
That's Thomas Merton, not me.
"O might the hilarious reign of love begin"
For most of human history, it hasn't been the full, satisfied college degree holder looking to scratch a vague itch of existential despair who's been hearing the Good News. It's been the peasant nursing constantly aching teeth, squinting to see through weakened eyes, middle-aged at thirty, working hard from dawn to dusk, remember dead children, hearing rumors of war, studying the skies, waiting and praying for rain, subject to the whims of human authorities.
From a friend who was also at that Mass, I learned that a parish near me had added a 7am Sunday Spanish Mass to the lineup. Since, due to old age I suppose, early morning Masses are starting to be my jam, I decided to check it out, not expecting a big crowd since the Sunday afternoon Spanish Mass was still in place.
The place was packed!
Singing the Law
This is a marvelous piece about the effect and importance of singing the Torah.
Although obviously from a Jewish context and perspective, it might be enlightening for any of us who think about prayer and liturgy, no matter what tradition.
Life indestructible
Be thoughtful, but not complicated
"I never leave the same."
January 2022 Highlights
February 2022 Highlights
March 2022 Highlights
April 2022 Highlights
May 2022 Highlights
June 2022 Highlights
July/August 2022 Highlights
September 2022 Highlights
October 2022 Highlights
November and December 2022 Highlights
Movies and Television of 2022
Posted in 2022 Highlights, Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Bible, Catholic, Catholicism, Christian, Church, education, Eucharist, evangelization, Gospels, history, Jesus, Joseph Dubruiel, Liturgy, Michael Dubruiel, pilgrimage, prayer, Religion, Saints, tagged 2022 Highlights, Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Catholic, Catholicism, faith, history, Michael Dubruiel, religion, saints, travel on January 1, 2023|
Lots more to share this month, with a big trip at the end – to Guanajuato, Mexico. Posts related to that trip here. All October posts here.
Imagine This – my trip to the "Future of the Catholic Literary Imagination" conference in Dallas at the end of September.
Expression, formulated
As has been noted by…everyone…the emphasis (and hope) was that by cracking things open, the core truths would be more accessible to a world that, to use a minor example, did not respond in the same way to, say, concepts of kingship that previous generations did, or could peak into galaxies that may not have been fashioned in seven literal days after all or examine the bones of ancestors who might not, after all, have had names.
Understanding how this concept – that there's a core of faith that can be expressed in diverse culturally-formed ways – was used and abused is a key to tracking the path that leads up to this synod.
I suppose the point on which much of it turns is the small step from: the core of faith might be expressed in a culturally-bound way to —> the core of faith is, because of its essentially mystery and the way humans live and communicate, always and necessarily expressed in culturally-bound ways, so…let's go for it.
Buildings Confining
What struck me, and not for the first time, was the sense in this liturgy that I was entering into something. That there was something present and real and solid in whose presence I had entered and was free to approach or not, from whatever place I was in. It was there yesterday, it would be there tomorrow. As a congregation, we responded to that presence in our own ways, speaking, chanting, silently. But it was always there, waiting.
Beavis' Spiritual Journey
Yeah, it's broad (but startlingly knowing) satire, but it's not a bad reminder, either: when someone has made the effort to ask you a question – even it's how do I get him to use his magic powers to help me score? – take a moment and mind the gap, as we say, between what you're hearing, what's really being asked – and whatever comfortable nonsense you're tempted to reflexively pull out of your answer bag first.
Not like the rest
It just seems to me that whenever we suggest that our self-proclaimed weirdness, our quirkiness, our tattoos, our use of language, our family size, our role as employed outside the home or working within it, our pop culture choices, our political views, and even – yes – even our self-identified sinfulness – makes us "different" from those others, and worth some kind of special attention, no matter how "humbly" it's articulated, what I hear, every time, is simply:
O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest….
Live-streamed Mass
Now, I love a good vintage travel account, so I thought I would take a look. One of the aspects I always dig into in these kinds of books is what the writer says about Catholic Things. I find that reading what contemporary travelers say about their encounters with Catholic popular traditions, liturgies, figures and cultures is illuminating, more helpful in regard to helping me understand Catholics of the past than many academic historical studies.
This author only mentions Catholic Things once, but it's fascinating. He has landed in Malta, and, as are all the other travelers, is required to quarantine for time before entering the country. The place of quarantine in the harbor there – as well as around the world at the time, was called a lazaretto. There's one, for example, outside of Philadelphia, built to protect the city from yellow fever.
Here's what he sees on Sunday…
Jesus Livingston Seagull
For decades I have thought, "Wow, I can't believe that was my sophomore religion text in a Catholic high school, crazy times, right?" but last night I transitioned fully to: I CANNOT BELIEVE THEY USED THIS AS A TEXT IN A CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL. WHAT THE HELL WAS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE.
Who were, I don't hesitate to say, very nice, well-meaning people. Most of them.
Peter Cetera's rock-n-roll Mass album
Historic Chinese Catholic Posters
2022 Highlights: July & August
Posted in 2022 Highlights, Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Bible, Catholic, Catholicism, Charleston, Church, education, Eucharist, evangelization, Gospels, history, Jesus, Joseph Dubruiel, Life, Liturgy, Michael Dubruiel, pilgrimage, prayer, Religion, Saints, tagged 2022 Highlights, Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Catholic, Catholicism, faith, history, Michael Dubruiel, religion, saints, travel on January 1, 2023|
Hahaha. I have no highlights for July.
Why no July highlights? I certainly posted – here are all the July posts, including those on books, movies, saints and gender issues – but beyond that most were travel related – the last chunk of the England/Scotland trip, then Nashville, then driving from Alabama to Wyoming, then at the end a couple of stops on the way to Charleston.
August saw travel as well – back to Charleston for a bit, and then a big solo driving trip to New Mexico and back.
But I did write about other matters in August. Here are all the August posts and then some highlights below.
A space opens up…what do you do?
Whether it be in terms of your career or personal life or just the day, what's the question you ask?
Is it What do I want to do? How can I follow my dreams today? What are my dreams, anyway?
Or is it…
What is my duty right now? What does love invite, call or even require me to do in this moment?
On not "living in the past"
And one of the points you hear being made about the current situation with the TLM is that it's a return to the days right after the promulgation of the current Mass, even the days (it is feared) before the establishment of groups like the FSSP, before the indult. It's an attempt to re-create a moment in time that occurred about forty years ago. It's a desperate attempt to reclaim a hope and a dream rooted, not in the present with all of its nuances and developments, but in a nostalgic vision of that immediate post-Vatican II era , when all seemed so simple and clear.
You know, those last decades of … the last century.
Revive This
But I did see and hear for myself how contentious the question was among Catholics. I had one fascinating evening where I went from one parish-related event to another and heard two completely different takes on the situation – one set of conversations assuming that the parish in question was moving too fast towards "normality" and as a consequence, these people would be attending another parish where there were more restrictions in place – and then an hour later, another conversation among many people from the same parish who were happy with minimal restrictions and would prefer none at all.
"Because it feels like they're not selling me a car"
I think my appreciation of it this time is directly due to other recent (as in over the past year or so) experiences I've had – recounted here – of super dramatic praying of the Eucharistic Prayer. I mean – just almost to the point of parody.
What are you doing? Why are you talking like that?
Well, I think the reason the presider in those cases is talking like that – which varied, but in general, amounted to drama – was because he knew he needed to communicate that this moment was special, and all of his formation and (importantly) the assumptions of the congregation in front of him led him to a point of assuming the burden of communicating that sacredness via his personal demeanor.
Kind of like….he's trying to sell us something.
Posted in 2022 Highlights, Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Bible, Catholic, Christian, Eucharist, evangelization, Gospels, history, Jesus, Joseph Dubruiel, Mass, Michael Dubruiel, pilgrimage, prayer, pro-life, Religion, sacraments, Spirituality, Travel, tagged 2022 Highlights, Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Catholic, Catholicism, faith, history, Michael Dubruiel, religion, saints, travel on January 1, 2023|
Lots of travel in June – to England and Scotland. Those posts are here.
All June posts here.
Garth, LARPing and the Spirit
There is a temptation, when considering these experiences – the ecstatic concerts (or sporting events), the immersive, interactive games and other kinds of role-playing experiences like cosplay on which people spend untold hours of their time and lots of money – and to think that religion is missing out, in a way. That feeling at the Garth concert? Do you ever get anything like that in church? What the larping and gaming and cosplaying experience adds to your life? Shouldn't church give that to you instead – or at least, also?
Questions which then can inspire church leaders to either condemn or – more likely these days – jump on bandwagons, something we've seen over and over (through history, not just recently) – taking what seems to grab people in the culture, baptizing it, hoping to bring that same kind of engagement, investment, and emotion to the Lord – where it properly belongs, right?
Maybe not. Maybe the better answer is to observe all of this – and whatever it is that people seem to feel connected to and inspired by – and ask questions instead.
What your Father sees in secret
So, when consumers of mass media and spiritual seekers and tourists virtually approach the online evanginfluencers expecting and demanding "openness" and "authenticity" and almost claiming a place in their role model's lives, they're putting them in a spot. Yes, it's a spot most of them have cleared out for themselves and settled in, happily, Patreon button at the ready, but everyone has a role to play here, everyone's responsible in their own way.
Keep saying we're one body in Christ, sure. Keep saying we take care of each other, that we're here to help each other to sainthood and holiness.
How is encouraging, expecting, and paying for another person to put their lives on public display as your spiritual food helping them?
Post-Roe
As I have said many times, I'm a student of social movements – my graduate work was focused on 19th century feminism and American Christianity – and I am no stranger to the ins and outs and evolution and fractures in any and all movements, including the pro-life movement. In any movement, you will always have disagreements on process, emphasis and goals. In the American pro-life movement, the serious disagreements have been centered on support of legislation and politicians: is supporting half-measures a sell-out or just realistic politics? And of course, a fundamental disagreement about process: should politics or culture be emphasized? You can trace these disagreements back decades.
But there's never been any disagreement that helping women and their children is central to the pro-life movement. And this is what is so annoying about those in the Catholic world who are busy declaring, Well, ackshually, pro-lifers (eew) you DO know that just because Roe is gone…that doesn't mean abortion is going to end tomorrow, RIGHT? Ackshually….you DO know that the REAL work starts now, right?
There's that at least
But do you know what else these homilies had in common, aside from being just good, substantive, practical and oh yes, under fifteen minutes long?
They were both written.
Oh, there were moments in which the homilist did a bit of improv and added a thought or two, but for the most part, both seem to have kept to what they had written.
I'll be honest. I've never heard an off-the-cuff homily that was worth a dime. I know that homilists can be all Oh, the Holy Spirit will guide me and it will be awesome…but real talk here. Most of the time, guys…it's not. The risk of meandering self-indulgence is super high if the homily isn't written down and presented pretty much exactly as planned.
Posted in 2022 Highlights, Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Bible, Bible Study, Catholic, Christian, Eucharist, evangelization, Faith, history, Jesus, Joseph Dubruiel, Life, Michael Dubruiel, Movies, Music, prayer, sacraments, Saints, tagged 2022 Highlights, Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Catholic, Catholicism, faith, history, Michael Dubruiel, religion, travel on January 1, 2023|
All May posts here.
But only say the word
Vocational discernment
It also strikes me that intense discernment of "vocation" in the world is a luxury good, an expression of privilege. And in the modern world of self-fulfillment, quite often twisted into a baptized version of privileged "life journey," and a way to avoid serving and meeting the needs of those right in front of us, right now.
There is a spiritually healthy way of talking about lay vocation in the world, I think, but it's not a way that centers on personal fulfillment. It challenges us to ask: "What does the world need? What do the people in this world need? How can I help? How must I help?"
"What is to prevent me from being baptized?"
I will add that there have always been actually pastoral pastors and ministers who have listened to seekers' and inquirers' stories in the mode of the apostle Philip. They have been open to the presence of the seeker on the road. They've taken the time to instruct and answer their questions. And when the Spirit moves, they don't hold up more and more hoops. They stop the chariot right there, and go find some water.
What do we do now?
So there's that.
But that's what we're here for, isn't it? Not just for our family members, but for everyone. This thing we call love takes different forms in various circumstances, but always at the heart of it, it seems to me, are two things: presence and self-gift. That's where the decision starts, the answer to the question begins.
Whatever you have, whatever you can give to who needs it at that moment…
…that's what you do now.
To fulfill our duties in ordinary life, letting the love of Christ live and grow in us, bringing Christ to each and every interaction whether it be washing dishes, conducting a meeting, comforting a child, hammering a nail?
To do that? Even those quiet, ordinary tasks are ways to be his witnesses to all nations.
There is great depth and richness in the imagery of sheep and shepherd, not reducible to simplistic allusions to gentleness and lambs, as appealing as that may be. It has profound historical resonance in relation to Israel and its kings. It is about intimacy and recognition and protection, for, if you think about it, the rod and staff of Psalm 23 are not decorative. They are for support, they are for warding off enemies. The critique of contemporary shepherds implicit in all of the Scripture readings is directed at their weakness and failure to protect the sheep.
Ascending the Catholic Ladder
Why the heavenly messengers challenge those of us still on earth, are you just standing here? He's told you what to do …move on and out and get going!
So it's an appropriate day, it seems, to talk about a unique way in which evangelists in the past took that challenge to heart and, instead of just sitting around wondering what to do – actually did something creative to share the Good News.
***Spoiler alert: it's a method that was eventually banned by bishops. Of course. ***
Posted in 2022 Highlights, Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, art, Catholic, Catholicism, Christian, Faith, Gospels, Internet, Jesus, Joseph Dubruiel, Michael Dubruiel, prayer, Reading, Saints, Spirituality, tagged 2022 Highlights, Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Catholic, Catholicism, faith, history, Michael Dubruiel, religion, saints, travel on December 31, 2022|
All April 2022 posts here.
Lots of history this month. The reason is that I'd been asked to do a presentation for our Cathedral adult education program on the Church in the Deep South, so why not share the wealth?
Here's a link to the slide element of the presentation – I think it should be accessible, but I'm sure someone will let me know if it's not.
So to live in the present, respectful of the past but not burdened by it? How?
That seems to me a key to spiritual wholeness, and how we treat the objects we inherit can be expressive of our inner disposition. The healthy place is neither casual dismissal or mournful clinging. The healthy place prioritizes the present, informed by, but not controlled by the past.
And when you shake loose, you might be surprised to find how faulty your understanding was all along.
I have a very hard time seeing how a persona-centered "outreach" can be squared with the Gospel call to humility.
Catherine of Siena's self-image
The saints are a varied lot. They are extroverts. Introverts. rich, poor, young, old. artists, queens. beggars. scholars, and doorkeepers. But all of them, Catherine included, embody authentic humility. Their sense of a life well-lived challenges mine. Success? Achievement? Opportunity? Talents? I some-times wonder how to navigate all of those values, especially as a disciple of Jesus. I'm here on earth right now. I'm willing and able. What am I supposed to do and how am I supposed to figure it out? In Catherine. I get a glimpse of another landscape, one not that far away after all, one peopled by those who know the truth of who they are, how precious and yet how small; who know their own weaknesses; and who know that God's infinite strength is as close as their own fiat.
Drawn from the Cathedral presentation:
Link to the slides.
Confessionario
Fray Pareja
The martyrs of Georgia and Florida
Fulton Sheen in Alabama
The Toad on the Host
Posted in 2022 Highlights, Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Bible, Bible Study, blogging, Catholic, Catholicism, Church, education, evangelization, Gospels, history, Internet, Jesus, Joseph Dubruiel, Liturgy, Loyola Press, Michael Dubruiel, Mission, Music, prayer, Religion, Saints, tagged 2022 Highlights, Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Catholic, Catholicism, faith, history, Michael Dubruiel, religion, saints, travel on December 30, 2022|
All February posts here.
Pitiable People
I got to church a little late, and left a little early as is my probably unfortunate habit these days. I was surprised because the church was more full than I'd seen it ages. The music was as mediocre as always, but the preaching was good and there were no narcissistic liturgical shenanigans. A crowd of teens sat in the front, I'm thinking at the end of a Confirmation retreat. A man in the back pew smiled and graciously made room for my latecoming self. A mentally disabled man limped past me after Communion. The deacon brought the Eucharist to an elderly woman in a wheelchair, and the mother in front of me pointed to the words of the Creed in her little boy's Magnifikid.
It is not easy to be a person, to be a human, to be a Catholic. I don't think it ever has been, and the institution and the people help sometimes and hurt quite a bit.
I don't know what to make of it all, and have not yet figured out how to say what I do make of it, but I think I do know that nothing begins until you open the door, take that uphill walk, find your place with the rest of the broken, no matter when you arrive, and try to listen.
Here's a thought
This is conjecture on my part, and I'm generally not a fan of conjecture or scene-construction when it comes to Jesus words and activities in the Gospels, but this simple possibility – that Jesus could have told similar stories and made similar points in many different contexts – might point to, for some of you, perhaps, a more helpful way to the presence of Jesus in the Gospels than the constant focus on intra-Gospel differences and authorial intention does.
Let truth and falsehood grapple
The assumption of certain narratives as normative, deviations as heresy and honest discussion and exploration of data, evidence and experience as a threat is not what I call progress.
Sell by
I'm thinking about this, not just because I happily stir-fried some asparagus the other day, but also because it's time to start thinking again about the Gallery of Regrettable Lenten Food and how much even home cooking has changed over the years, mostly thanks to access to higher quality ingredients – and also because I made salmon cakes last night. I've never made salmon cakes or loaf or croquettes in my life, but it was also a regular part of our menus growing up (not with fresh salmon, but with canned, of course) – and also because as I was making the slaw to go with the salmon cakes, I pulled out some powdered mustard and some celery seeds, saw they were from Kroger's, which meant they'd come from my parents' house, looked at the sell-by dates, saw they were….. 2004 and 2009 – since my parents died in 2001 and 2011, that was not surprising, and well, I guess it's time to toss them. Finally.
It's worth a read, always, and perhaps especially as we live in a time in which government and corporate solutions are not only proposed and suggested but mandated by our betters who assert that the evidence is sound and settled and who present it all with the highest confidence in their own expertise and the deepest contempt for their skeptics'…skepticism.
They do not badger us
Even with the post-Conciliar anxiety about "participation," I have always felt that one of the great strengths of the Catholic Mass has been the sense that we do, indeed, come as we are to this place, and that's okay. We are joyful and mourning, curious, doubtful, restless, fearful and content. God has gathered us here, and we trust that in the liturgy, in this point in space and time, he will meet us where we are, as we are. The liturgy – in its objective nature, its traditional formality and even its silence – gives us all room to celebrate, to grieve, to wonder, to praise, to drift.
The ways of Wordle
This entertains me because all three takes are very expressive of our respective personalities: Careful and usually accurate assessment of the landscape, then making a decision based on that; A willful determination not to be wrong, ever; and, er…hope something works, be glad when it does, but you know, whatever happens happens, so let's move on.
Wyoming Mission
Back to music. We've never been on the High Performance Road. But we've also been blessed because from the beginning, his excellent teacher has understood this kid, accepted his goals, made sure that if he changed his mind he had the tools to take those steps, but if he doesn't – well, even if you don't want to practice three hours a day and try for Julliard, you can still go deep into the music, play it beautifully, grow from the experience, and bring some of that beauty with whoever happens to be listening at the moment, whether it's the fifty parents and grandparents at the recital, or if it's the elderly woman and her daughter, walking quiet, steady laps around the church after their rosary while you practice in there.
I think I made her cry again.
And hopefully, all of this will bear fruit in that no matter where he goes, he'll always find a keyboard when his fingers start itching, and maybe even find others to jam with, not because there's a big audience to please or a scholarship on the line, and to certainly use his gifts for God's glory and the service of others when called to, but in the end, to sit at the piano, most of all, for the pure, absolute joy, in communion with that mystery in your own soul, expressed in musical language gifted to you by a riot of brilliant, quirky friends across time.
Posted in 2022 Highlights, Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Bible, Catholic, Catholicism, Church, education, evangelization, Faith, Gospels, history, Internet, Jesus, Joseph Dubruiel, love, Loyola Press, Mary, Mass, Michael Dubruiel, Morality, prayer, Spirituality, Writing, tagged 2022 Highlights, Amy Welborn, Amy Welborn's Books, Catholic, Catholicism, faith, history, Michael Dubruiel, religion, saints, travel on December 30, 2022|
I did this last year (Here's one post, with links to all the others.) It's a way for me to sort through things, retrieve ideas that might work for longer pieces in other spaces, make me feel horrible about my terrible memory (did I write that?) and so on. I don't include posts on saints or travel here. The saints because I tend to re-run them, no apologies, and the travel posts because they are collected here. Gender-related posts here. Book and movie takes at the end of this post.
All January posts here.
I'll knock off 2 or 3 a day until we're done. So let's go:
Wordle Wisdom
How radical.
To respect other people's time.
To understand the addictive nature of activities like this and just online life in general and not exploit it.
They Were Her Property
None of us are saints. None of our movements are pure. None of our "progress" comes without someone else, somewhere, paying a price.
I appreciated Jones-Rogers' work here – and am interested that her next project focuses on women's involvement in the slave trade – because I am up for anything that shakes the mythos that women are inherently kinder and more fair than men, and that "if women ran the world….."
Watch Yellowjackets and contemplate its popularity to see how much people actually buy that claptrap.
Medical Nemesis
I first encountered Illich early, as we like to say, in my homeschool journey. Reading Deschooling Society was an exhilarating confirmation of all of my intuitions about the mess that is modern education.
I later encountered more via the technology-contemplating newsletter of L.M. Sacasas, The Convivial Society – also deeply inspired by Illich.
Last week, I read Medical Nemesis – available in pdf form here. It had a similar effect.
If I could summarize both works, I'd say Illich's theme is: Institutional forces take over these needs – education and health care – in the name of justice, efficiency and the common good of society. What ends up happening, not surprisingly, is that the institutional definitions and processes become determinative and definitive with an ultimate net loss to human freedom and, paradoxically, the needs they claimed to address.
But do you gird your loins
There are a lot of ways we can say that the Second Vatican Council "failed," but it's always seemed to me that the greatest failure was that, unintentionally, the move to reform, which was offered as a way of equipping the Church to go into the world with more power and credibility, ended up severely handicapping that effort as "reform" became, unsurprisingly, decades of internal, inward-looking conversations and infighting.
Instead of the go out that's packed into every word of the Gospel, every breath of even just this Sunday's readings, we end up with: talk and fight about territory, role, organization and process.
Leave Us
I am always writing about today, this moment, the present. For the truth is that yes, Jesus has arrived in your district. At this moment. He's here. Healing, calling, inviting, challenging, sending.
The townspeople are watching, fearful. What are they afraid of? Why do they want Jesus to just depart?
What does this mean practically?
It will mean different things to different people, depending on where you are. Your temptations, the voices discouraging and fearful, will vary.
It can come from nothing more than life's responsibilities, distracting us from the goodness and grace of the present moment.
It might come from the walls we've put up ourselves – I'm undeserving, I'm too far gone, no way I can be changed, no way things can be different. These are the tombs, and this is where I live, chained.
Blessed Epiphany
One of the great puzzles to me about the past now almost seventy years is how those who make the biggest noise about a church from the ground up and sensus fidelium are not willing to critique an event that transformed the Church and was engineered from beginning to end, from the top down, and reflected the concerns of clerics and academics.
Certainly, the argument can be made that these clerics were acting on concerns emerging from engagement with the lived experience of the Church as a whole – that is obviously the stance we see in the motivation for the Council and its documents. Modernity, post-war crises, concerns about a detachment between professed faith, practice and everyday life among the laity were all real concerns.
But the jump from there to we know what's best rooted mainly in contemporary philosophical and theological trends and a total disregard for the psychological and spiritual impact of dramatic, rapid change is huge. And worth examining and critiquing.
Look at me!
One can argue – and probably correctly – that these religious cultures that developed these devotions were actually heavily clerical – that is, cultures in which the word of the ordained was law, wielded often with an authoritarian hand. Well, yes – and devotional life was the space in which the laity could operate, relatively free of that. My point: it's no different now. And in fact, the focus on the Mass (legitimately, yes) and the loss of popular devotional life intensifies that clerical focus. It may not be with such a heavy hand these days, but it's still there.
So yeah, fight clericalism: Throw yourself into those Works of Mercy, celebrate the feasts, make things for God's glory and then build a shrine, process to it with your friends, and keep the candles burning.


Clomid is the commonly referenced brand name for the drug clomiphene citrate. It is not an anabolic steroid, but a prescription drug generally prescribed to women as a fertility aid. This is due to the fact that clomiphene citrate shows a pronounced ability to stimulate ovulation. This is accomplished by blocking/minimizing the effects of estrogen in the body. To be more specific Clomid is chemically a synthetic estrogen with both agonist/antagonist properties, and is very similar in structure and action to Nolv*adex. In certain target tissues it can block the ability of estrogen to bind with its corresponding receptor. Its clinical use is therefore to oppose the negative feedback of estrogens on the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis, which enhances the release of LH and FSH. This of course can help to induce ovulation.
When used on plants, which is systemic, is slowly taken up by plant roots and slowly translocated up the plant via xylem tissue.
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5th:24/7 online after-sale service after you receive your parcel.
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President Clinton announced today that the Government was ending the fiscal year with a budget surplus of about $70 billion, the first since 1969 and the largest on record. ''It is a landmark achievement,'' he said.
But the President's celebration of the surplus did little to mask an untidy budget process that is unfolding on Capitol Hill and must be resolved in the next nine days, before Congress leaves town for the fall election campaigns.
Indeed, the surplus is contributing to the untidiness: both the Administration and Congressional Republicans have found the emergence of an extra pot of $70 billion or so -- the exact size will not be known until the Government makes a final accounting in a couple of weeks -- too tempting to ignore, especially in an election year. House Republicans would use part of the surplus to finance a tax cut, while the Administration has proposed billion of dollars in new spending.
Although a new fiscal year begins on Thursday, Congress has finished work on only 2 of the 13 spending bills needed to keep the Government running beyond tonight. As a result, Congress and the President have agreed to a stopgap measure to finance most of the Government through Oct. 9, a device used in 8 of the last 10 years to buy the two sides more time to resolve their differences.
The availability of a surplus, anticipated for months, once seemed to offer the nation the opportunity for a philosophical debate over its direction in a new era of plenty. But that debate has been truncated in the last several weeks by the drive on Capitol Hill to impeach the President over the Lewinsky scandal, and the budget process, surplus and all, has been all but lost in the shuffle.
Beyond that, Congress, reflecting a rift within the Republican Party, has not even passed a budget resolution this year. Instead, it is using last year's agreement, which does not project a surplus until 2002, as its spending guide.
''Here we are starting a new fiscal year, and the road map is still in dispute,'' Representative David Minge, a Minnesota Democrat who is a member of the House Budget Committee, said incredulously.
In place of a broader debate in the era of surplus is the horse-trading and philosophical standoffs over abortion issues that have characterized the endgame of every recent budget season.
The only consensus as the session draws to a close is ''to spend money and get out of town,'' said a discouraged Representative Tom Coburn, a conservative Republican from Oklahoma who wants Congress and the President to stay within the spending limits to which both agreed in the budget-balancing agreement last year.
Mr. Clinton has said for months, and reiterated today, that he wants to save all of the surplus to bolster the Social Security system for retiring baby boomers. At the same time, however, the Administration is seeking to spend $17 billion for ''emergencies'' that it did not calculate in its budget. These emergencies include peacekeeping in Bosnia, addressing the year 2000 computer bug, improving security at United States embassies around the world and providing disaster relief to American farmers.
Republicans say the Administration is dipping into the surplus to pay for these efforts. But Linda Ricci, a spokeswoman for the White House Office of Management and Budget, said that under budget rules, a lifting of spending limits to pay for emergencies was permitted and that the surplus was not being tapped. Republicans say this is a distinction without a real difference.
''When you spend the money, you reduce the surplus,'' said Senator Pete V. Domenici, the New Mexico Republican who heads the Senate Budget Committee and has strongly opposed the effort by House Republicans to spend part of the surplus on a tax cut. The House passed an $80 billion tax cut last week, but the Senate appears ready to kill it; if not, the President has promised a veto.
If anything, the projected surplus has deepened the rift within the Republican Party, separating further the deficit hawks devoted to staying within spending limits from the supply-side tax-cutters who say lower taxes would spur growth.
In any event, Republicans appear prepared to go along with most of the President's requests and spend at least $13 billion on the emergency programs. This despite some grousing over the apparently elastic definition of ''emergency,'' which provides for events like the year 2000 computer glitch and the Bosnia mission, both of them issues for some time.
The President today soft-pedaled his recent criticism of Congress but did urge Republicans to safeguard the surplus until Social Security was made secure.
With his ceremony today, the President was able to assume credit for the surplus, and he gave credit as well to Congressional Democrats who voted for his tax increase in 1993. This annoyed Republicans, who resent Mr. Clinton's ability to take credit that they feel belongs to them.
The increasingly sour atmosphere has only further hampered a budget process that was already largely stalled. Mr. Clinton's own proposals for child care and education programs were predicated on revenue from a tobacco bill that went nowhere. And the Administration has appeared so preoccupied with fending off the impeachment efforts that it has not seriously pushed a budget agenda. Nor have the Republicans stated clearly what issues they are prepared to hold firm on when they do finally negotiate with the Administration.


text:
Study Seeks to Treat Crohn's Disease's Effects on Growth, Bone Density
Jun	18 2015
Center for Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease
A review published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology notes "growth failure and impaired nutritional status" are seen in 65 to 85 percent of young CD patients.
A study published in the Journal of Clinical Endicronology & Metabolism shows a drug approved to treat Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis leads to "rapid improvements" in bone density and structure. This investigation, which was conducted by former and current Children's Hospital researchers, could offer Crohn's disease patients a treatment for the growth and bone issues associated with the condition.
The study was led by Mary B. Leonard, MD, MSCE, while its first author was Lindsay M. Griffin, MD. Both Drs. Leonard and Griffin — now at Stanford University and New York University, respectively — were previously at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where the bulk of the work was performed. CHOP's Robert N. Baldassano, MD, and Babette S. Zemel, PhD, also contributed to the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM) study.
A chronic bowel disease, Crohn's disease (CD) is marked by inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract that can lead to narrowed and blocked intestines and ulcers. According to the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America, CD affects "as many as 700,000 Americans," and is seen more often in adolescents aged 15 to 35 years.
In addition to its abdominal symptoms, CD is also associated with an impact on bone health and growth. A review published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology notes "growth failure and impaired nutritional status" are seen in 65 to 85 percent of young CD patients, and 15 to 40 percent of those patients "continue to suffer from growth deficiency through the course of their disease."
The current JCEM study investigated the effect the drug infliximab had on bone density and structure in a cohort of 74 patients aged 5 to 21 years. The researchers evaluated the patients over a twelve-month period, comparing the cohort's results to data from 650 healthy reference patients who took part in a larger study of bone health.
Infliximab works by blocking tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), a cell signaling protein (cytokine) that per the JCEM paper, "has direct adverse effects on bone metabolism and plays a pivotal role in CD pathogenesis." While previous studies had shown that infliximab treatment had an effect on CD patients' growth, the drug's "impact on bone modeling has not been established," the researchers write. They measured changes trabecular bone density and cortical area over the course of the 12-month infliximab treatment, hypothesizing it would improve both measures.
Dr. Leonard and colleagues found that the patients' height, body mass index, trabecular bone density, and cortical area all improved, with the data showing "rapid improvements in disease activity." In addition, the investigators found improvements were greater in younger patients, which suggests that "childhood provides a window of opportunity for recovery of trabecular and endocortical deficits."
"We believe this study is important because it is the first to show that blocking this inflammatory cytokine can reverse bone loss," said Dr. Leonard. "Children can regain bone structure, as well as density."
Though they caution that their study had limitations and that further research is needed, the researchers note "anti-TNF-α therapy during growth and development is associated with rapid improvements in trabecular [bone density] and cortical structure."
To read more, see the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. To learn more about inflammatory bowel disease care and research at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, visit the Center for Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
bone, bone density, clinical research, Crohn's disease, growth, infliximab

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Based in the Waikato, NZ, - Wendy Maree Collection ~ Designer wedding stationery, is here to put all our focus into designing your wedding invitations and stationery. We believe the design of your invitations should be of the highest standard. We cater for all your wedding stationery needs, invitations, RSVP cards, Information cards, Maps, Envelopes, place name cards, table numbers, menus, order of services, seating plans and much more. We have an 'Off the Shelf' collection range to choose from or if you can not find what you are looking for we have a 'Drawing Board' service for custom designs. Make yourself a cup of tea and take the time to browse our website. Wendy always loves a chat, so contact her any time.


chicklets, originally uploaded by amulya.
Wish I could wear that shade of red. And yes please see the little pigeon feather the finger points to - just because i tell you to.
refuse of civilization, originally uploaded by amulya.
yet another of mine, originally uploaded by amulya.
Been sick and sick and sick. For all those who liked what I paint, see how bad i can get.
Considering i spent the whole day in bed, down with fever, my commitment to this blog is something i'm proud of. My one and only soft toy... the only thing remaining. And i'm not looking to restock, if the meagre other one could even be called stock.
fantasy mode, originally uploaded by amulya.
gates of hell?, originally uploaded by amulya.
This sorta represents my mood for the week. It better be different next.
work debris, originally uploaded by amulya.
yup. m definitely in a funk.
night light, originally uploaded by amulya.
better camera... that is what i need. But no camera really works unless I manage to stop and take a picture, which so isn't possible in this traffic.
Shades of Orange, originally uploaded by amulya.
Reminds me of days in Oz when i'd be walking to work in brilliant weather, when the moon was full and low and orange, looking like I could just reach up and take it off the skies... when the breeze was pleasant and cool, and there was a hint of summer in the air, when the days were carefree and the thoughts weren't always painful... when it was fun to sit by the water, listening to the waves and smelling the salty breeze carrying barbeques held far away... and I knew it would be there when I returned home 5 hours later, not 8 like now... that there was still time to enjoy the night, unlike now when all I can think of is to sleep before the sun hits my window.
necessites of Life, originally uploaded by amulya.
A bluesy day. A bluesy picture.
BookMania, originally uploaded by amulya.
I went to cast off books today. To make some space, make some money and sell those horrible books i bought. All my life, I've believed in keeping the book, no matter how bad it was. But some of the books i recently bought were just not the sort I'd ever pick up to reread. Never. So I went and sold it off... and then they gave me a voucher for half the price... which I didn't think I'd redeem today. but you know, you never realise how many books you are buying.
A friend made an interesting comment to - "I buy books because they are the easiest things to find that fit"
More Birthday Cakes... Midnight cakes are a traditional now, aren't they? No matter where you are, what country, what boat or work or home.
Bluesy Booze, originally uploaded by amulya.
Woo Hoo 4 months down. This is getting surreal.


text:
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Most of this book is a superlatively good edition, with translation, full commentary, and fine photos, of an astonishing inscribed new Hellenistic Greek poem from the Uzunyuva district of Karian Mylasa (western Asia Minor), now Turkish Milas. Its 121 lines, which make it the second longest inscribed Greek poem known, are signed: 'Hyssaldomos son of Eirenaios made this poem'. The poem is very difficult, but important for students of Greek religion and poetry. Christian Marek and Emanuel Zingg deserve congratulations and gratitude for their labours and acumen. They never impose their opinions, but fair-mindedly explore almost every possibility. They have drawn on the expertise of fellow-scholars, notably the late Martin West.
The stone is damaged: the first two lines are illegible; only the first half of each of the next 83 or so lines survive; the rest are complete. Some difficulties stem from this: the poem is about help given by an anax ('lord'), whose identity was perhaps specified at the start. And maybe there was an introductory title-line with a more generically precise word than the bald 'poem'.
Letter-forms allow dating only within a wide margin (later 3 rd or early 2nd centuries BC). But on a Milesian inscription, a Hyssaldomos son of Eirenaios represents the [Mylas]eis in a treaty of ?185-0 BC, along with Apollonios son of Nysios. It is the combination of name and father's name that makes a link with our poet irresistible: if not actual identity, then a close relationship ('floating kindred'). The rival restoration of the 'ethnic' is [Ias]eis, from Karian Iasos, but the rare name Nysios is attested at both cities, and the new text tilts the balance in favour of Mylasa. If we accept actual identity (plausible), we have a fix on dating. The poet's own name is Karian not Greek. Herodotus mentions a Karian Hysseldomos (sic; surely a mere variant spelling). Another Hyssaldomos was father of the 4th-century Karian satrap Hekatomnos and grandfather of the satrap Maussollos.
The poem's metre is highly unusual for this period, catalectic tetrameters 'cholotrochaic' (closing spondee or trochee): ― ◡ ― × ― ◡ ― × || ― ◡ ― ◡ ― ― ×. Diction is erudite and recondite; it resembles that of another challenging poem often dated to the same era (190s BC): the Alexandra of the 'dark poet' Lykophron. The Alexandra is full of hapax legomena (words, often compound adjectives, found nowhere else in Greek); the new text has (12) seven such words, all compounds, two with Lykophronic resonances. And anchipous, 'treading close', previously classed as a Lykophronic hapax word, occurs in the new poem also (line 47). Coincidence, or a tribute to the recently available dark poem? Resemblances are not purely linguistic: both poems end with prayers for safety - a hymnic trait. Both poems are a generic mixture. The new one is partly an 'aretalogy' (praise of a god's powers) although, as the editors observe, that word is really a modern confection; and partly an epiphany narrative. The god-list (below) is paratactic and Hesiodic. For another similarity with Lykophron, see next para.
The new poem, summarized p. 68, begins with praise of the anax's powers, and proceeds to a narrative: a man called Pytheas (who may or may not share his name with an architect active in 4th-century Karia, and who may have been an army officer, line 9) was a prisoner on the acropolis of Karian Kindye, a town with its own miraculous Artemis. In moonlight, the anax intervenes. With the help of Artemis (named as his paredros or coadjutor, line 81), he puts the enemies to flight. This, then, is a military epiphany, and was to the advantage of a larger community than Pytheas and family. The anax is compared to: Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo, Hermes, Dionysos, Ares, Asklepios, Hephaistos; but of these males, only Zeus and Ares are named (and Aphrodite is 'Dione's child' later in the poem). So too Lykophron habitually refers to gods by periphrases or by more or less obscure epithets, but makes exceptions for precisely Zeus and Ares (and Hades, though usually as place not god). Of Hyssaldomos' eight, the 'odd god out' is non-Olympian Asklepios, Apollo's doctor son. This is perhaps explicable by the presence of healing sanctuaries in Karia, notably of Hemithea at Kastabos and of Asklepios and his son Podaleirios at Syrna. The narrative resumes with Pytheas' release, perhaps further help by Artemis, and a report of an appearance of the anax to Pytheas in a dream; the anax's encouragement and instructions are in direct speech. The whole concludes with an own-voice prayer by the poet; he signs off in the way we have seen.
The epiphany described by Hyssaldomos must be added to a long list of military epiphanies in Karia. Their striking frequency in that part of the world was noted by W. Kendrick Pritchett, who connected it to the reputation of Karian seers and diviners. Karia was, it seems, a spooky place. If, like the Roman general Labienus in 41 BC, you invaded a Karian sanctuary, you were liable to be terrified out of your wits by Zeus' thunder and lightning, and by the yelping of the unearthly hounds of the sinister Karian goddess Hekate. An inscription published in 1931 narrates this in lively prose.
The anax's identity is a nice problem; nearly 30 scrupulously honest pages are allotted to it. Gottmenschentum? Or should we opt for an Olympian or near-Olympian god, or a newer but nonetheless powerful deity? A deified or heroised human being (e.g. a city-founder) is in my opinion unlikely, whether what the editors charmingly call a 'vergöttlichter Guru' (111), or foreign king, or local ruler: Hekatomnos, Maussollos or later Olympichos. Hellenistic ruler-cult was capable of gushing flattery, but to attribute energetic epiphanic help to a long-dead satrap or pocket dynast and call him 'greatest of daimones or mortals' (line 119) is a gush too far ('or mortals' is polar expression: the editors hesitantly cite parallels). The Pergamene Attalid dynasty's founder, Philetairos, was honoured with posthumous cult for repelling the Kelts in battle, but that is not a helping epiphany of this sort. A later Attalid, king Eumenes II, also had cult, but did not stand over people in dreams. A rightly cautious discussion of historical context - piracy? inter-dynastic or petty inter-city wars? - is folded into the deified ruler section. The truth is, the poem shows no awareness of political developments in the wider Hellenistic world.
A proper god, then. But the gods listed by the poet are compared to the anax, and an entity cannot logically be compared to itself. This rules out Apollo, the god most often called anax without name, and the most obvious co-worker with Artemis, as when they shoot down Niobe's children in the Iliad. 'Hades the hateful' (Homer) is a non-starter. So a powerful non-Olympian is needed, and the editors spend half their 30 pages weighing up the case for Egyptian Sarapis. This distribution of attention hints at approval, but they withhold endorsement: Sarapis' expected paredros is Isis. It is hard to think of another suitable candidate. The Anatolian moon-god Mēn, phenomenally popular in post-Classical Asia Minor, and often called 'great', basileus, or tyrannos (two 'king' words), satisfies some requirements: he is a healer (cf. lines 99-101), moonlight shines (line 16, cf. 82), and Mēn is paired with Artemis (lunar in a fragment of Aeschylus' Wool-carders) on later inscriptions. Long-held dogmas about Mēn need revising in light of the most relevant volume (VB, Karia etc., 2013) of the Lexicon of Greek Personal Names, which assembles and dates the very many names formed from Mēn ('Mēnophoric' names, as they have been called), already studied provisionally by Robert Parker. In 1954, Louis Robert asserted that Mēn in Karia was worshipped only in places which were partially Karian or became so only late; and for Martin Nilsson, Mēn-worship was an 'ausgesprochener Sklavenkult'. But we now see that Karian, including Mylasan, parents in the mainstream had started to give their children Mēnophoric names by the time of our poem; and the sheer number of such citizen names in western Asia Minor generally weakens the slaves-only theory. On Rhodes - always more than merely geographically close to Karia - there were associations of Mēn-worshippers in the 2nd century BC; in one inscription they are cited in the same breath as an association of Sarapis-worshippers. By no means all will have been slaves, though some were no doubt resident foreigners (metics). But could so opaque a divinity as Mēn, never much of a civic institution anywhere and without dedications at this particular sacred find-spot, have staged a full-scale city-saving military epiphany, or spoken in dreams? That would be surprising, though another later inscription calls him epiphanēs, and it is equally true of Sarapis that he is not in Pritchett's list of military epiphanies. I do not press the Mēn suggestion far, but it is worth airing.
Two questions remain. First, irrespective of whether the poem was read or performed (82-85), how many of the not-very-highly-educated locals had more than the vaguest idea what it all meant? Such elite displays can be paralleled by recent finds of preposterously learned inscribed poems in remoter, wilder Afghanistan, but the worry remains. Second, where was our super-literate orator-poet educated? The nearest panhellenic cultural centre is Rhodes, and that is the best bet.
The remaining 83 pages present 118 other inscriptions, many new, all edited with the same care and skill as the poem, the prize exhibit. This is not the place for detailed treatment, but among the texts are mostly new 'Pachturkunden' (nos. 13-19); a new private dedication to Sarapis and Isis on behalf of the future Attalos II, brother of Eumenes II (no. 23); and the first Mylasan attestation of Apollo Delios (no. 17). This exciting book deserves to be widely read, reviewed, and applauded.


August 2011 | Larry Sherwood & Associates, Inc.
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Tags: Women's Preventive Services, Your Tax Dollars Well Spent!