Shrove Tuesday
For a lot of reasons I'm going all in on the 40 days.
Used to be, giving things up for Lent meant I'd suspend consumption of some things that were bad for me. Say, desserts. And I'd backslide a lot.
My Mom had a wonderfully tailored approach. She'd give up smoking in the car.
But I've had friends point out that there is supposed to be an element of sacrifice here, not just an excuse to diet or self-improve. And I agree with that, especially today, right now. The events, the changes, the risks, the choices keep flying at me from all directions and I need to focus, hunker down, and figure out how to balance out the reality of 60 years under my belt. And use the mechanic of giving up something that matters.
So I'm going to give up the Internet.
Like Mom, tailored: still there for emails, legal research, reservations, and driving directions. But not news, blogs, Wikipedia, or the links people send along. And not Strays.
Back on Easter Sunday, hunting eggs.
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
Monday, March 07, 2011
Remarkable
I attended an Evensong service last night, and it was just brilliant. Mostly sung, by the choir, even the Apostle's Creed. We - the handful that of congregants was there, in a Church near where I live - spoke only a few prayers, but they were the way up on the top of my list. The Lord's Prayer, at first said by the congregation, later choir-sung (without the doxology at the end, which I often omit - it's how we spoke it in boarding school.) And a general confession that I really love, from my childhood, with this:
****************************************************
We have left undone those things which we ought to have done;
And we have done those things which we ought not to have done;
And there is no health in us.
But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders.
***************************************
Just knocks me out. Is it some kind of masochism? I don't think so. Incredibly honest, say I.
I attended an Evensong service last night, and it was just brilliant. Mostly sung, by the choir, even the Apostle's Creed. We - the handful that of congregants was there, in a Church near where I live - spoke only a few prayers, but they were the way up on the top of my list. The Lord's Prayer, at first said by the congregation, later choir-sung (without the doxology at the end, which I often omit - it's how we spoke it in boarding school.) And a general confession that I really love, from my childhood, with this:
****************************************************
We have left undone those things which we ought to have done;
And we have done those things which we ought not to have done;
And there is no health in us.
But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders.
***************************************
Just knocks me out. Is it some kind of masochism? I don't think so. Incredibly honest, say I.
Saturday, March 05, 2011
Tyrants
I guess at this point we are waiting around to see if Ghaddafi can be brutal enough to survive. Let's not forgot that Detestable 20th Century Dictators Nos. 2 and 3 - Mao and Stalin - died in their beds. (I will always give No. 1 status to the half-eunuch who sought the Final Solution.)
But Ghaddifi has a pompous, unbending ridiculousness to him that has in the past proved fatal - I'm thinking, Mussolini, with whom G has some historical links. And Ceausescu - and, coming out of his hidey hole - Saddam. Those three, all dead at the hands of their people.
The liberalizing dictators, on the other hand, don't seem to be able to hand onto power but do hang on their scalps. Marcos and the Shah. Mubarak and the dude in Tunisia.
The elephant in the room - the blue whale in the room - is the royal family in Saudi Arabia. They won't shut down the Internet, or use tear gas, or shoot rubber bullets, in order to stop protestors. The Saudis will hang them. It'll put this Administration in a really tough position, but BHO won't be dumb enough to side with the opposition there. He won't. He won't?
I guess at this point we are waiting around to see if Ghaddafi can be brutal enough to survive. Let's not forgot that Detestable 20th Century Dictators Nos. 2 and 3 - Mao and Stalin - died in their beds. (I will always give No. 1 status to the half-eunuch who sought the Final Solution.)
But Ghaddifi has a pompous, unbending ridiculousness to him that has in the past proved fatal - I'm thinking, Mussolini, with whom G has some historical links. And Ceausescu - and, coming out of his hidey hole - Saddam. Those three, all dead at the hands of their people.
The liberalizing dictators, on the other hand, don't seem to be able to hand onto power but do hang on their scalps. Marcos and the Shah. Mubarak and the dude in Tunisia.
The elephant in the room - the blue whale in the room - is the royal family in Saudi Arabia. They won't shut down the Internet, or use tear gas, or shoot rubber bullets, in order to stop protestors. The Saudis will hang them. It'll put this Administration in a really tough position, but BHO won't be dumb enough to side with the opposition there. He won't. He won't?
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