HAUNTED BY THE HOLY GHOST

For Hero and Bea or Puck and Hermia, or Helena, or Bottom, or whoever the heck you are this week, and for us all, really: EVERYTHING MATTERS, IF ANYTHING MATTERS AT ALL

We cannot say,
“Only read the Scripture, do not look at me as an icon.”
Nobody gets that kind of free ride as a Christian.
You’re an icon whether you like it or not.
And there will be other images as well - either well done reflecting heaven itself - or poorly reflecting everything other than heaven.
But there will be icons.
God give us grace to rightly honor the windows to heaven He has opened for us, and to be a window to heaven for all who see us.

From "Bad Icons" @ "Glory to God for all things"

"...even badly marred images of Christ in other human beings can reveal the depth of the love of God if seen by the eyes of a saint."

We are badly marred images, and God knows, none of us are saints, so you might have to look a through all the cracks and scratches and smudges, and sometimes sift through the broken shards, but He is still there is us all. 
But don't stop looking for heaven, find better windows if you need to, but never stop looking for Him.  He is always closer than we know.
And we will try to allow Him to shine up these windows and let more of His light in.

God Believes In You

When you start to doubt that you exist, God believes in you
Confounded by the evidence, God believes in you
When your light burns so dim, when your chances seem so slim
And you swear you don't believe in him, God believes in you

When you rise up just to fall again, God believes in you
Deserted by your closest friends, God believes in you
When you're betrayed with a kiss, you turn your cheek to another fist
It dose not have to end like this, God believes in you

Oh everything matters if anything matters at all
Everything matters no matter how big, no matter how small
Oh God believes in you, God believes in you

When you're so ashamed that you could die, God believes in you
And you can't do right even though you try, God believes in you
Blessed are the ones who grieve, the ones who mourn, the ones who bleed
In sorrow you sow but in joy you reap, God believes in you

 

---

Pierce Pettis
From the album Everything Matters, © 1998

---

Creative writing, creative excuses, and the email than garnered me a 5 day extension on my already late manuscript plus an invitation to Open Mike Night at the Glen

On Jul 6, 2007, at 2:34 PM, Caitlin wrote:
Dear ISABELLA:

  We have not yet received your manuscript for the Glen Spiritual Writing Workshop.  Please send one hard-copy to our address below, and send your ‘soft-copy’ via email to [email protected] as soon as possible.  You will be sent all your classmates’ manuscripts by email, to print and bring with you to the workshop.

Thank you,

Caitlin
.
Luci Shaw Fellow
IMAGE/GLEN WORKSHOP
www.imagejournal.org

...............................................................................

From: Izzy
Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2007 3:20 PM
To: Caitlin

Subject: Re: Glen Manuscript

Dear Caitlin, and Miss Julie,(your blackmail won’t work, withholding my classmates manuscripts until I submit mine, won’t make me write any faster.   Nice try)

Here’s my excuse, I mean explanation as why my manuscript has not been  written, finished, edited, mailed.
We  had and unexpected trip, less than 12 notice  to travel to Tennessee, and just got back on Sunday.  Also, my mom went into a nursing home today (after 2 months in and out of hospitals and rehab).  My Mormon brother from Wyoming, who I haven’t seen for over a year has been in town, while my husband and I were having the worst fight in our 29 years of marriage (we both recently converted to different churches-I’t a replay of the 1054.  We could probably sell tickets to what life was like during the Great Schism (minus the blood and carnage, so far),  lots of theological shrapnel flying back and forth; my children are learning  new words like filioque, apostate, unitism, caeseropapism.
They are also learning who said what and who did or didn’t do  what at the 4th 5th and 6th ecumenical councils.
My Mormon brother thinks this is a great missionary opportunity to bring  peace, and restore us to the True Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  .I’ve been watching Big Love...no thanks.  I’ll keep kissing icons and he can keep his temple underwear.   He just left for home and I found another Book of Mormon strategically placed where I would be sure to find it.  Those books multiply like rabbits when he visits. The only reason I would open it would be to steal some ideas for my manuscript. At this point I would take dictation from angels with gold tablets to meet my page quota.
But I am working on it.  Like the writer in “Stranger than Fiction”, my Editor is living with me and keeping count on  how many words I write. (She just graduated from college, moved back home, has no job yet, except what I pay her  for Editing.  Her nickname is the Editor Predator, and she more than lives to the name.  There is more red than black on my drafts; and it didn’t help that she taught me how to make frozen margaritas this week.
My youngest daughter has just decided she likes a boy and started dating for the first time (she’s 20).  She’s not living at home, but calls on her cell phone (which got wet and didn’t work for awhile because she jumped into a lake to save a missing swimmer, who didn’t exist (she works at a summer camp and it was a surprise drill). All the while Mom is thinking the worst because the last she heard from “innocent”, and up until last week, man-hating daughter, she reportedly returned to her cabin late with her shirt inside out(with a reasonable plausable excuse).... it’s a Lutheran Camp...did I mention we recently left the Lutheran Church? and converted).

At camp there are no secrets and one big grapevine that reaches all the way back home to big sis, whose boyfriend also works at  the same camp as a lifeguard, and neither of them can keep a secret. And how could she keep this one when her  little sis, who is vegan-uber-nature-girl, and brags she could survive in the wilderness eating nothing but bark, berries, and cat-tails, and, if needed, can kill a squirrel by throwing sticks at it(seriously-she took a class), finally did something her  grandchildren are going to hear about (other than the tattoo, which they will be able to see on her aging sagging skin:  She stole away from camp for a whopping 10 minutes(nothing, not even hand holding allowed around the campers) and  tristed(trysted?) with new boyfriend(whose name is chalky-what kind of name is that???) in some poison ivy.

I don't know if will last.  His favorite movie is "The Promise", hers is "Fight Club". 
But they did go see agree to see "Transformers" together. Funny, though;she couldn't tell me what is was about.

He also eats meat, but she is trying to convert him (to veganism, not lutheranism).  He is a runner and there's some kind of deal if she runs 20 miles, he won't eat a hamburger that day.  I think she needs to get a better deal-he can only eat meat that he kills himself by throwing sticks at it while she runs along in case he only wounds it  She can chase it down and finish it off. 

 

Big Sis tells me everything and anything after the second margarita, and she knows I won’t tell. Actually she knows I will tell, even perfect strangers, but it doesn’t stop her.   I also found out that the little sis has managed to find and date the only asian-american who will probably never have a job because he  hates math and science and wants to be........are you ready for this.....a writer. (that is not racist, but irony-see below). He’s reported to be a Episcopalian Buddhist--yeah, I can see that happening. Camp Music director dates new catechist.  Did I mention we converted.

Friendship bracelets, campfires, flies as big as bats...romance is in the air. And she must be so irresistibly cute and artsy to a starry eyed writer,  playing kumbaya in four octaves on her ? thousand dollar violin at chapel.    I spent 5 years listening to her whine about how she practiced (she is a trained classical violinist, and Interlochen Grad, and was studying at the Chicago School for performing arts, but decided to drop out and now she plays in “a band”). She officially changed her performance major to music therapy(that fodder is just too easy, I’ll let it pass).  Anyway, a big reason, supposedly, was she could practice a zillion hours and still not play it as well as her good friend, a young girl from China who plays Paganini on a  12 dollar violin while watching reruns of Grey’s Anatomy.

Dear daughter blamed us, her parents, because her scandinavian viking DNA lacked the perfect pitch, and killer vibrato gene that apparently everyone born East of Helsinki gets gratis.
So she now plays acoustic violin backup for a couple of alternative/christian (take that any way you want) rock bands (which is exactly what she wanted to do anyway....she’s been playing gigs almost every weekend and has recorded on two CD’s    I haven’t heard Bach  since I converted, I did mention that I converted?.....so there is going to be some Bach in my writing..... I am writing my piece in fugue style.
But who knows, I may just  be having a fugue episode (consult DMS-III, abnormal psych diagnosis guide, if confused). My Editor is also a Psych Major....handy.

That’s my story......can this be half of my manuscript?

Kidding. I had to come up with something, and since the only pets I own are a hamster and a parakeet, saying the pet ate it is not an option, and it’s not true, (almost everything else is, though) ....I can’t plead sympathy because my Arthritis and Lupus are sleeping like babies od’ed  on qualudes (it’s really prednisone, and not nearly as much fun).
I will not sleep ( I don’t sleep anyway) until it’s done......I hope to email it to you no later than Monday.
I am writing about my conversion and I  the more days I that go by, the more interesting it may get.
Sorry about the spelling and grammar, I can’t show this to my Editor. She would Killllll me.
She made a note on my last draft....she claimed  I had written the longest sentence that she had ever read  in her life, and she has read Proust, so I was pretty proud of that.....I like creative punctuation, just stingy with periods

Very Sincerely and Sincerely working,

whatevernameiamusingthisweek

--------
There’s many a bestseller that could have been prevented by a good teacher.
Flannery O’Connor

Begin forwarded message:
From: “, Caitlin”
Date: July 12, 2007 6:28:09 PM EDT
To: Isabella
Cc: “ Julie” <
Subject: RE: Glen Manuscript

Dear Mrs. Isabella

            If I may be frank? this email made my day much cheerier. And I would be happy to accept it as a manuscript, but think that your Editor might be happier if I told you I won’t be sending out another batch of manuscripts until late Monday or Tuesday. So please, take your time, enjoy the process, and please send me what you create when you can, because I cannot wait to read it—stingy periods and all.

            All the Best,

                        Caitlin

----------------------

I have Bea's her permission, she read this.  She brought the boy home, rather he brought her home and only stayed ten minutes.  He was heading to Borders to get in line for the last Harry Potter book,  I don't think she's even read the first book.

What do they talk about??????

She took the blue right out of their cynical eyes...

For Bea: today,any day, every day.....do you know how amazing you are?


angel, originally uploaded by linus_lohoff.

"Tell the man who repairs the wings for angels
That one has fallen among the mortals on bleeker street
I lent a hand, she looked up at the steeples
As if to blame them for the pavement beneath her feet
She said, I never much liked flying, but the job requires trying
The hard part's avoiding buildings and concrete."

Ellis Paul
Angel in Manhattan

Vive la difference, Tales of Prince Vladimir, and the first quarter Ecumenical Report Card

While sitting at the breakfast table this morning, before going to Mass/Divine Liturgy,  I was finishing the post below (writing, not eating, because of the different fasting rule), and was listening to the Lecture recording on Eliot.  My husband was  eating his cereal, and caught the last 10 minutes of White's speaking about Little Gidding, the last quartet. He is describing how Eliot uses the falling of B-1 rockets raining down on London in WWII as an analogy for the descending fire of the Holy Spirit and that we are all destined to perish in fire, which, by our choice, can be a fire that purifies and leads to life, or a fire that consumes, and  ends in eternal death.  Not really fare for an early morning empty stomach.

Then he starts to giggle and I say "it's poetry, it's supposed to be dramatic......"  He replies he is not laughing at the lecture.  He hands me this: and says "this is more my kind of theology:

;-)

Balance.

The key to any good team.

-------------------------

Disclaimer: The Lecturer, Dr. David Allen White, an is an  excellent  Roman Catholic Literature Prof, and I found it at the Catholic site Keep The Faith. Lest you think the Orthodox are always serious and have no sense of humor, check here and here.  Or just keep hanging around HERE.

And the reason there is no post about the Feast Day of Saint Vladamir, is because I couldn't keep a straight face (and neither could Saint Vladamir, I'm sure) after reading 3 versions of his life and conversion:
Orthodox:Equal of the Apostles and Enlightener of the Russian Land;
Roman Catholic: But it must not be forgotten that when St. Vladimir had his people baptized, although of Greek rite, they were in union with the pope...this sort of “command baptism” is certainly not the ideal approach;
Evangelical: The Russian prince, a cruel and lustful playboy... Vladimir's conversion seems to have been real. He took a genuine interest in Christianity and gave evidence that his heart had changed. And he himself prayed over baptismal candidates.

I decided I wouldn't touch this one with a 10 foot pole (no pun intended).

God can laugh, we should tremble

_____________________________________

And with that: What you have all been wondering about:

Report Card on household Ecumenical Relations : Serious miscalculations in anticipated Learning Curve (Def2  the relationship  between the rate at which knowledge or a skill is learned and the time spent acquiring it).
Not surprised; but somewhat surprised at being surprised at how typically human we both are.  We always overestimate how merciful and forgiving we will be, forgetting that onl God's mercy and forgiveness can be quantified in advance, and it is infinite.
The only human mercy and forgiveness that can be quantified is what has been accomplished so far.
Back to Bea's old favorite Maxim: God is God and we are not

Dissonance between expectations of the everyday realities of our respective Faith Traditions: Not much.  Any surprised here would have been a surprise.

Regrets or Second thoughts: Not a single one.

Photography, Art, Beauty, Faith: Beating back the encroaching insanity of the world.

It is too, a monstrosity, for a tattoo; but it could have been worse:

but all is forgiven because she is my best  model; mostly because she doesn’t care a whit if there is a camera 3 inches from her nose; And she lets the camera fathom depths  she would not reveal to the human eye. That is not carte blanche for another tattoo.  

 

Getting Nowhere Faster-it's a Fine Art

Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that. Lewis Carroll The Red Queen, in Through the Looking-Glass, Photograph:flickr AuntieP

I'm a Lunatic

I am a Lunatic

I mean, this is not news, but I just wanted to get the confession out there,
before some one beat me to  it.**

**Found in the archives of unpublished posts, while my blog was BROKEN by Firebox update #456,894.

For awhile, the only way I could post anything that didn't contain the Book of Common Prayer's table on the calculation of Easter, was to use an older unpublished post and overwrite it.
It took awhile to figure this out. 
I was not blog fasting for Lent, I just didn't want every post illustrated with that indecpherable table.
BTW, I think that table alone explain much about the  current condition of the Anglican communion.  But that is another post.

Anyway, while looking through the old posts that I wrote and then thought better and did not publish, I found this short, sweet one from about a year ago.
I do not know what triggered the outburst.  I am not sure I need a particular reason to state the obvious.

Anyway, realize now, I should have published it,
because NOW, someone has beaten me to it.
I won't name names, but it was NATHAN.( Awaiting N.'s chorice of Shakespearan Pseudoname)
Oh, he may have danced around the specific term "lunatic", but his meaning was clear.

At least it wasn't someone who is planning on marrying into the family-MIKE, and I forgive you or laughing.

Evidence:Just a snippet from many epiphanies this weekend:

The conversation went something like this. No.  It went exactly like this:

BEA: My teacher says that I am extremely intelligent, but I sabotage myself by letting my neurosis get in the way.

NATHAN:  He's met your mom?

Actually, I think there is a "Bea's mom is a lunatic" fan-club, to hear her talk about it.

Someone put me out of my their misery **

I should be grateful for these free lessons in humility. 
Many people have to spend years with  spiritual directors sifting through their lives for the hidden bedrock of pride.
All I need is five minutes with one of my daughters.
zap!

I also think I racked up more homeschool  points in one conversation than has ever been recorded.  Who's got the record book this week? Emma?

In my defense, I don't think there is a difference between aliens and mutants. Therefor X-Men and Men in Black do belong in the same category.
Besides anything said on no hours sleep after a hatrick of attending Orthodox(east and west rite), Roman Catholic and Lutheran Easter/Pascha liturgies should not count against you, including this nonsensical post that belongs in the appendix of "through the looking-glass"

And I am publishing it because I don't want to have to read it again or have someone beat me to any scoops found within it.

BTW, the Firefox update also broke Typepad's spellcheck. Dreams do come true.

* *A figure of speech,

What king Henry II  should have added as a disclaimer when he said "Will no one rid me of the troublesome priest on me?"
BTW, guys, that comes Catholic Church history, too, just in case you write a song about it.  google it.

Before you comment, let me save you the trouble and say it for you because
I already have a long list of unpublished comments from you that I don't have the heart to delete.
Kind of like saving all your  papers and pictures from when you were young, and I only have so much storage space.

Blah blah blah that ship has sailed
blah blah this is a new angle
blah blah he does have a point
blah blah blah etc.

And now, more in keeping of the Season this Bright Monday:
For my Finnish Friends and Relatives: (even thought only one of you can actually read Fin):

Kristus nousi Kuolleista! Totisesti Nousi!

Christ est Ressuscité! En Vérité, Il est Ressuscité!

Thanks mom.

Just because I took the Picture, and it
makes me happy whenever I see them
together.

They call me stalkarazzi, but they love
the pictures.

It’s not everyone who can photograph a
concert with nothing but the isight camera
on her laptop and get the pictures published
on the band’s website.
I love the attribution they gave me: picture by “Bea’s mom”.

I got a story about them, too involving St. Francis.
It’s good.

ONE MEDICAL TEST I DIDN'T MIND

MEDICAL TEST

STARE INTO THE CAT’S EYES FOR 10 SECONDS…

…then scroll down….

NOW STARE AT THE DOGGY…

…then scroll down….

NOW STARE AT THIS DOGGY, TOO…

…then scroll down….

THANK YOU

YOUR CAT SCAN and LAB TESTS are now COMPLETE!

Sorry, couldn’t resist…we all need a good laugh sometimes!

Live simply; Love generously; Care deeply; Speak kindly; and Leave the rest to God!

h/t to Father Joe

'I was awake in bed, and I fell wide asleep:'

"'So snow comes after fire and even dragons have their ending!
I wish now only to be in my own arm-chair!'"

J R R Tolkien, The Hobbit

thoughts on traveling

Being among strangers, sometimes allows you to feel more at home than you can at home.  You have no past among them, and there is are free to be more open, more transparent, with those who have no reason to judge you by anything other than who you are at the present moment.  You are not trying to win back lost trusts, question  and weigh every word of those who have betrayed your trust,  Living, even is short spurts, where you feel free from the regrets and damage that you have caused to yourself and others in the past, memories or past grievences seem to fade.  and the future rarely enters your thoughts, because the you will not be carruing t any added baggage because you are outside of normal chronological time.  in a way knowing that if anything goes awry, you do not feel your future burdened by it.  knowing that you will walk away, not having to carry the baggage with you as just another brick added to the load of the past, that must be made up for in whatever future is left, prevents them from even becoming a burden

to realize this timelessness living is our actual state at all times, how differently life is.  We see through a glass dimly and dwell in this eternity through discipline and practice.

the results can be similar.

Living by Faith, Jesus did not say that the person who believes in Him, will have eternal life. What he said, rather was that the person who believes in him has eternal life.  have eternal life now, this very moment. To live in Christ means you live outside chronological time, free from the sting of death, fear of the grave. you are following Christ who freed us from the chains of fear that death brought, and our own useless striving to beat back death, and the sin that results.

to live out the life-death-resurrection

totally dependent on Grace restores us now, and we are living in God's Kingdom now.  We may be looking through a glass that doesn't provide us with every detail of what that means, but we are already living outside of chronological, earthly time.

I finally am getting a glimse for all the warnings about clinging to earthly things, and why there is such grave danger and stern warnings against storing up treasures here as one of the most overiding themes of the Gospel.

Seeing first hand in my life, how what seems the most innocent, harmless, attatchment, I am playing with the chains that Love gave everything to release me.  It's a dangerous game, and it'a roots lie in the same Great Lie that caused the Fall, that by choosing God, we might be losing out on somehing better.

As His children, everything good and perfect thing is already ours.  If we percieve any lack, it should drive us closer to Him.

I have fallen for the social justice, liberation gospel, and capitalism as original sin for the last time.  I have begun to dread Advent, the season of the Great Redistibution, when the rich finally get what's coming to them.  Advent is not about the vidication of the feminine, who, according to some sermons i have heard, that the incarnation accomplished through a poor, oppressed, unwedded slave girl, was just the beginning of God turning the social, political, on upside down.  The women, working closely with God, brought Salvation to humankind.

And Advent stories of telling Zacharias to shut up, and Joseph to get over himself and be grateful that he even has a backseat in the whole plan, are not only gross misinterpretation, but a differnt gospel all together.

My soul magnifies the Lord,
And my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.
For He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden,
For behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with His arm:
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has put down the mighty from their thrones,
and exalted those of low degree.
He has filled the hungry with good things;
and the rich He has sent empty away.
He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy;
As He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to His posterity forever.

When I pray this with Mary, it is all about what God is doing for us.
It might be wise to follow Mary and Magnify, give first place to God's mighty works, and prepare our hearts to receive whatever His hand offers.
I will leave it to God to decide who is proud, who is humble, who has faithfully loved and proclaimed Him, who is poor and who is poor, who is hungry, who is satisfies himself with things other than God.

What about the poor, the oppressed, those who suffer injustice?.
I think that if those who are Faithful to God do what has been commanded-to love God and love your neighbor, it will be done.
To see the incarnation as God finally coming to the aid of the poor and those who suffer at the hands of the unjust, well He sure took His time, and caused much needless suffering.  And if this represents an about face, that God finally took over the job because we have been such utter failures at it, then things should be looking up real soon.

Maybe it's because i have been living in my head, weighing, measuring, acting in predictable ways, because it easier than answering questions. It's not that what you are doing is wrong, but

 

Jesus did not say that the person who believes in Him, will have eternal life. What he said, rather was that the person who believes in him has eternal life

Being in a place where you have no past, gives you a chance to practice how freeing it is to live in Grace. Repentance begun, forgiveness accepted, all things new.  really believe that repenentance begun, and forgiveness accepted

It also was bizarre. 
What strange sights and goings on.  There is very little that can be called beyond the bounds of normal these days (at least out loud).
Last night I went to a small coffeehouse that featured several song writer/musicians.  Four musicians in all; one male, a female duo, and a solo female.  Of the four, only one didn't have facial hair.  You don't want to know; trust me.  I think that the GLBT organization is going to have to add a few more letters to their acronym.
And just to prove that this city may contain some time wrinkles, as well as wormholes, right here on ELCA headquarters home turf,  there is a ELCA congregation that still celebrates a pretty traditional LBW liturgy.  My daughter had to get to the M's in the Lutheran church yellow pages, but she found one, and is very happy there for now. 
I will be catching the early train for home in a few hours.  Sleep comes no easier here than at home.  And I have run out of distractions.  The dragon was entertaining, for awhile, but, as Bilbo says, they all have their ending.
But then again... you can never be sure about anything here.
When literary characters can  commit mutiny, jump out of books they have resided in for generations, rewrite their whole story, and even tell you the new version is even less true than the original,  you have left the solar system.
Good is wicked and wicked is good, and, with apologies to Kermit, it is now good to be green.  No forget that.  False start.  It's impossible to tell Good from Evil.  The green thing still stands.
  And if you happen to fall somewhere in the middle, not pure evil, or pure good, (which includes everyone not in a wild costume), you are afflicted with some strange brain malfunction, that turns you into an imbecile.  And  if there is enough bells and whistles, good singin', and a happy ending (which they had to commit double mutiny to pull off), the whole confusing mess is  so darn entertaining and well done, and even could garner a G rating, you just have you applaud.  But then you also hope whatever twisted message they just shot into your brain, was so incomprehensible, that no serious damage was done/
Other than that, how did you enjoy the play, Mrs. Lincoln.
Yes, it's a helluva town.

*"I was awake in bed, and I fell wide asleep:'
The Notion Club Paper'

J. R.R. Tolkien,

Update: Part 1

Late night pondering that make no sense, but will register as an update on the RSS feeds and prevent my friends and family from dumping my blog from the feed readers...
I apologize for all the emails, voice-mail, and phone messages, that I haven’t gotten around to returning. Whoever was banging on my door Friday around 4PM..... I hope you didn't go away mad.  And to the person who left me a message on my cell saying "someone called me and left this call back number, but they didn't leave a name"....sorry about that.
I have been trying. Really, I have.  I know I am behind on everything. I can't even remember all the things I have forgotten to do, but I am sure you all will let me know.
Back to trying to round up something for an update...
I started entries on:

The nature of True Conversion;

Why it would make sense for the Lutheran Church to offer a Latin Liturgy (and no, it's not to foster more diversity and attract Latin Americans);

Hamsters on a plane;

The either/or/and of praying to St. Michael for protection vs. carrying pepper spray;

The murky legal waters of tapping your own phone;

Snappy comebacks for occasions when a needle and syringe fall out of your purse in a public place;

My thought evolution from debating the ethics of declawing cats ending with  “yeah do it”, for revenge on the nasty little dickens, more that anything else;

The late and naive discovery that everything said about lawyers is well deserved;

And finally, a retro-review of A Clockwork Orange, the movie, which I should not be watching in this state of mind.

As of 2:49AM not a single one is anywhere near finished.

And they are not getting there tonight.

The last few brain cells blew when I opened the email confirmation for our overnight stay in Chicago next weekend.  I am not even looking at the price of the room.  Some things are best left to the imagination. 

It's the fine print at the bottom that is going keep me awake, trying to make a decision:

Additional Charges

Valet parking: 41.00/night   
Self parking: 38.00/night   

The term “ethical” comes to mind in considering this, but I am not quite sure how.

Dear absent editor,
Microsoft Word keeps telling me not to use these: ;
but it won't tell me why.
What's up with that.

*****************************

  `He's dreaming now,' said Tweedledee: `and what do you think he's dreaming about?'

  Alice said `Nobody can guess that.'

`Why, about YOU!' Tweedledee exclaimed, clapping his hands triumphantly. `And if he left off dreaming about you, where do you suppose you'd be?'

  `Where I am now, of course,' said Alice.

  `Not you!' Tweedledee retorted contemptuously. `You'd be nowhere. Why, you're only a sort of thing in his dream!'

  `If that there King was to wake,' added Tweedledum, `you'd go out--bang!--just like a candle!'

Last day at The Glen:Lessons From New Mexico. so far.......

-In New Mexico, they put chili peppers in everything, including pancakes.

-There is no such thing as a Lutheran artist; only ex-Lutheran, planning to be ex- Lutheran, or wishing you were ex-Lutheran artists.

                 exceptions: Lutheran Pastors from California

                 corollary: Never use the word 'sola" in a poem.
                
-You can still cry tears,even if you're  dehydrated.

-In the right hands, a Bob Dylan song can be as good as an hymn.
(Just kidding)

-A person who writes like Eugene Peterson, can preach  like an Augustine or a Chrysostom.
(Not kidding)

-It's never a good idea to use Dante's nine circles of Hell for an examination of conscience.

-before commenting on anything written, by an author, still living, check the name tag of the person you are talking to.  If they are not wearing one, best to shut up.

-referring to Jesus, as Mary's only Son, will get you a hasty note, correcting your mistake, scribbled in the margin of your essay, by your teacher, who is an ex-Lutheran.

-Never tell the ER triage nurse you are attending writer's conference called ' Love and Affliction; Art and Suffering.  They  think you are just looking for something to write about. 
Fainting seems to compound this opinion.  Are there writers who are that desperate?

-Never use the words "art" and "self expression", together, within a 100 feet of Barry Moser.
I won't tell you why, it's more fun to watch, so go ahead, try it out....

-If you get lost on a remote trail in the New Mexican mountains, and you happen to run into a retired FBI agent, you have not stumbled into an X files episode.
It's just God's  warped sense of humor, again.

-You are always going uphill or downhill in Santa Fe, even when you are not.  This applies existentially as well.

-any object that you set down, anywhere, for more than 5 seconds, may be filched by a member of the Mixed Media/ Collage class, and could show up in some artpiece at Saturday's exhibit.  I am still missing a shoe.

-Just because someone, who shall go unnamed, can maintain a 5000 book library catalog in his head, doesn't mean he can read a map.
He probably couldn't find his way out of the building without the exit signs. ;-)
(so what do you have to do to get God to cover for you with FBI agents?)

-being married 28 years does not diminish the utter loneliness you feel  when you return each night to an empty room.  5, 10, 100 phone calls don't help.

-God will not be mad if you don't care for the work of Thomas Kinkade, "Painter of Light
I would love to elaborate on that one, but I can't.

-in spite of what Flannery O'Connor says, you can never be "properly scarred" enough, or take enough "precautions', when it concerns writing.  I may never write "for real" again.

-If God really wants to get your attention, your sunk.

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There's much more, but I am tired and  I have to go to a concert right now........