Paris in the early morning

Perhaps the most perfect moment of the trip was finding myself on the Champs-Elysses as the semi haze of nighttime yielded to morning with hardly anyone on the avenue. The patesseries were just starting to stack their carts and shelves with bread and pastries; the streets were being washed; the Arc de Triomphe looked ready to bear another day's load of traffic, history, and visitors. This Paris, not the Louvre, the Musee d'Orsay, Notre Dame, or Montmatre, felt like Hemmingway's Paris in the '20s. This was surely my moment of Paris that will stay with me forever. Eventually the myth faded as I found the 24-hr pharmacy and the Alka-Seltzer that remedied the excesses of the previous night. Paris in the early morning: there's nothing quite like it.

Paris est merveilleux!

Paris est merveilleux. Nous avons un temps et un regard fantastiques en avant à notre visite prochaine au « la Ville de Lumières ».

Paris is marvellous. We have had the time of our lives and can't wait for our next visit to the 'City of Lights'.

The City of Lights

For nearly a year
It was a thought: "Ah, Paris. "
More when we return.

On this day. . .

We are frequently saturated with "On this day. . ." type of remembrances; we hear them on the radio and see them in the media with great regularity. I usually tune these out as nothing more than white noise but I do try to listen to the "On this day. . ." segment of 'Writer's Almanac'.

So, with out further ado, on this day in 1863, President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg address. I won't place the text here (many of you know I'm an ardent fan of the 16th President and his writings in particular) but I will post several links detailing information about the address.

Also, a recycled haiku for today:

I wish now we heard
Political discourse
Like Abraham Lincoln's.

The only known photograph of the President at the address
The 'official' website (check out the copyrights at the bottom)
A bit of modern-day technology humor related to the address
Ben's Guide for kids (wasn't he dead?)
NPR's excellent article

MaPo

Following the huge, unparalleled success of the 1964 live-action and animation adaptation of P.L. Travers' books, the Walt Disney Company named its manufacturing unit MAPO. The official description of this acronym was 'Manufacturing and Production Organization' but everyone knew it was short for Mary Poppins, the film that cemented the Disney company as 'it'.

40 years following, the wonderful folks (namely Randy Thornton) have reproduced 'it' with their new Mary Poppins Special Edition Soundtrack. For the first time, avid listeners have available to them parts of the underscore and rare views into the process of the storyline creation. In short, a real treat. It made my day.


How to make my day?
Mention Clint Eastwood? No, just
Say Mary Poppins!

Friday Night Fights

A veritable four-course heavyweight championship culinary event to be held at Fuller's house. Thanks go out to Oprah for providing the recipes.

Whenever I think
About Thanksgiving menus
I turn to Oprah?

Moving Right Along

The election aftermath has not been as gut-wrenching for me as it has been for my immediate family members. My wife and father-in-law have been way out of sorts and my SIL and BIL are considering a move to Canada. I keep telling them that if the nation survived Richard Nixon it will survive W2. It's not that bad.

I think I'll miss the blogs (especially this one and this one) more than anything else besides the disappearance of John Edwards from the national stage. Is it time to start looking for a mid-west family values friendly candidate for the Ds? If so, look no further. . .

Voting day blog

6:00am -- Alarm rings and radio comes on. News covers decision in SD to prevent Rs from following NAs to parking lots and recording license plate numbers. News also reports decision in OH to reverse 2 lower court rulings on Rs verifying residency. Back to sleep for 1/2 hour.
7:30am -- News, news, and more news. Finally decide on my candidate for IN governor. More bad news out of Iraq; will W go down as the next Teflon president if he wins today?
8:00am -- Head out to polling station. I live less than 1/3 mi from my precinct spot and can see cars already parked in the street. Looks like GOTV really worked this year.
8:15am -- Worked indeed! There must be 350 folks in Lincoln 11's polling station and only 3 voting machines to handle the turnout. One of the clerks implores people not to sign in and then not vote as it will cause the tallies to be incorrect. For the first time ever I wonder if my vote will count.
8:30am -- I see my MIL who left the house an hour and 1/2 earlier than I still in line. She still hasn't voted.
9:00am -- I've called my wife to inform her of the madness. I've also spoken to my family on the east coast. I wonder what it's like in the contested states!
9:30am -- Thinking I might need to cancel my lunch appt in 2 hours. Wish I'd brought my coffee with me.
9:45am -- Clerk again implores people not to sign in and then ditch. This is amazing. The lack of an internet connection is killing me.
10:00am -- The demographic has changed so much I can see the old guard cringing. I'd guess we're looking at a 45/55 D/R constituency. I should've been here at 6am.
10:15am -- Closing in on the 2 hour mark. Democracy 101 is in session and people are in a generally good mood. Folks with kids present are getting to know each other well; folks with physical conditions are sitting down. It seems like community has finally arrived in Lincoln 11. I'm dying to read today's Note.
10:30 -- 45 minutes to go. There's no way we'll know tonight we'll know who has won the White House or the Governor's mansion if others are suffering lines like this one. The polls close at 6pm but it will be 10pm or later before the lines empty out. I bet there's going to be at least 2 days before we know who the next president will be. I wonder how high the turnout will be. 10 million more voters this year? 15 million? Someone actually tried to start a wave. Are folks getting edgy or what?
10:45am -- My wife has arrived and I can see her on the far side of the hall. At least she brought her French language CDs and book. The kids in front and behind me can taste how close we are.
11:00 -- Voted. Off to lunch appt with a former colleague at PeopleSoft. He waited but half an hour to vote this morning.
12:15pm -- Made it to the office and finally got my news fix. Sentiment leaning towards Kerry but who knows? Time to get to work and lay off the news for a bit. Found an interesting site that predicts the electoral college.
1:30pm -- My dedication to work faltered early and have been back searching for news. More and more outlets, websites, and gut reactions say Kerry will win. Back to work for a bit.
2:30pm -- With cookie consumed and coffee in hand, listening to Brother Tavis who has Peter Jennings on to discuss how the networks will not make early calls as they did in 2000. Kerry continues to pull out his lucky charms (the 4-leaf clover from Iowa and his Red Sox cap for starters) and the mood continues to be leaning towards the Ds.
3:45pm -- Another break to check the news; not much has changed. Responded to a NY Times forum asking people to discuss their voting experiences today. Waiting for ATC to hit the airwaves at 4pm.
5:00pm -- Elation. Waiting for the TV news coverage to begin.
7:00pm -- Cautious elation.
8:00pm -- Still waiting for the call but the exit poll data is not holding up to the results. What the heck is going on?
9:00pm -- FL is not headed to Kerry. . .
10:00pm -- Have the public been duped? This thing's going to W; he's got the plurality and the EVs. What about the high turnout? Did the Rs do a better job at GOTV?
11:00pm -- Bush will return. Amazing. Hats off to Rove. He's a genius.
12:30am -- Nobody will call OH but stick a fork in this thing.
3:00am -- Woke up thinking about OH -- it's still not good.
6:30am -- What's the future of the D party? Who will represent in 2008?
8:00am -- Waiting for concession.
2:00pm -- Finit.

Candy Coma

Another Halloween come and gone; this is the first where our son might be susceptible to the condition known as 'candy coma'. It is amazing how quickly a child of three years can accumulate chocolate bars, dum-dums, smartees, and assorted other confectionaries. Compounding the issue are all of the 'aunties' who live on our street -- middle-aged women of color, and not, who love to dote on kids. My son has no idea how good he has it.

Moving on. . .
The issue of race has been a topic of conversation at our house this past week. While the election has spurned most of the discussion it helped to expose other conceptions of race in our combined household. Language can be so difficult when a term acceptable 30 years ago is no longer acceptable and carries with it a perjorative connotation. More on that later.

Prayers for Teresa and her upcoming surgery on Tuesday. (Radioactive plaque is an adjective-noun combination I've never uttered before.)

Made from toys at home
Was this year's costume for Hayes --
A construction guy.

Depressing

St. Paul, MN, home of the lovely Fitzgerald Theatre, must be one of the most depressing places on the face of the earth during late October. I cannot possibly imagine how hard it is to live here full time during the winter.

This is what I see:
Mackerel sky loaded with clouds
With no end in sight.

The DNC

Well; it's safe to say that hunting season has begun. I don't know about you, but it was exciting for me; perhaps it's a new era in politics, perhaps it's not but it is quite different from 2000. Democrats strong on defense? How long ago must we look back to find this? (Certainly Dukakis driving the tank doesn't count -- poor imitation of Snoopy.) Stronger at home, more respected in the world. It's a nice tag line and one I'm excited about.

Stick a fork in it.
The National Convention
For the Dems is done.

Kerry/Edwards

Death of Humanity

I've been struck, lately, by how living in today's modern urban cities can remove all vestiges of humanity from a person. It's a slippery slope; once you start turning a blind eye to the beggars and the unwanted it's not hard to start avoiding eye contact and then immediately raise your open hand and make the universal stop signal when people start to veer towards your path.  Regardless of the valid arguments one could make regarding how this attitude could promote safety (after all, people who prey on other people look for tell-tale signs that someone could be taken) it still remains antithetical to our Christian ideals. How can I honestly turn away from someone who, visibly distressed (and probably deranged), asks if I live in Chicago and then, when I say 'Sorry, buddy', goes off on a rant about not finding his way. How can I honestly say 'No' to the woman who is asking for change with her year-old child sleeping in her lap? How can I? It's easy -- that's the problem. As soon as you think of these persons as anything but that -- people -- it's all downhill. And, of course, there is absolutely no way to correlate this behavior with trying to bring about the Kingdom of God. I can't wait to get out of this city.

Audio Airport Haiku

One v. The Other

The demarcation line between my life and my job is the Prairie Avenue Bookshop located on South Wabash in Chicago, IL. This bookstore is on the orange line train that runs from Midway Airport to the Loop and back. Each Monday and Thursday I pass by this store and my concrete-sequential thoughts turn either to work, on Mondays, or to home, on Thursdays; these times and this place dictate the foci of my mind. Just like the tracks which the train requires to go somewhere, my mind needs this visual reminder in order to separate one from the other.

The bookstore is rather nondescript limestone, two-story building on an otherwise forgetful city block with framed windows that, at first glance, might appear soaped over to obscure what's inside. But, what's inside does count and when one gets past the exterior one is rewarded with sights completely unexpected. Rich wood, glittering steel and aluminum, vertical spaces, and a hushed ambiance present a different package altogether. So, what's more remarkable? That the two are seemingly diametrically opposed, or that it's an apt metaphor for my person?

What you see is not
One versus the other, No.
Not ying and not yang.

http://www.pabook.com/images/exterior-small.jpg

STOP THE PRESSES

Lyle Lovett, in concert, this Sunday night, June 24, 2004, at White River State Park. Tickets are 2-for-1 with a purchase price of $36.50. If interested, please let me know ASAP. . .

Fiction and Ministry but not Fictional Ministry

I finished three short stories by Alice Munro last night that just left me wanting more. These stories are some of the best I've read from her which is a wonderful thing to say because all of her work is delicious. Her stories are characterized by a clarity of intent and crisp dialogue; I highly recommend Alice Munro to everyone. As a devoted fan of the short-story genre she is one of my favorite authors. It's interesting to note that she, along with Margaret Atwood, another favorite of mine, are two of the best modern Canadian writers. There's something familiar and yet foreign in both of their works; perhaps that's the attraction.

Not meeting with the Body for the past two weeks has been a constant source of agitation for me this week. Matt's excellent jump into the breach brought about by our disparate and common conversations regarding financial support for Bill has caused a great deal of thinking for most of us, and I, too, am still working out my particular thoughts on having a 'paid staff member'. However, it's also important to remember what, if any, commitments we've made to Bill financially and discuss the ramifications of a change in support. More on this later. Can anyone tell me where IndyChurch north and west is meeting this week?

Untimely Demise

The unfortunate news came on Monday morning; Ralph Wiley, one of my favorite columnists, had passed at the age of 52 from a heart attack. Ralph's voice was not just unique but clear and prescient. He was able to speak of things that were just on the hazy edge of everyone else's knowledge. Ralph was widely known as a sports columnist but he also had a wide body of writing outside of that genre; his book, 'Why Black People Tend to Shout', was recommended to me and has been on my list of 'must reads' for more than two years now. The strange thing, though, is this: I thought of that book at least ten times this weekend and had two attempts at purchasing it aborted. Who's prescient now? I hope not me. (The follow-up to this is last night's envisioning of the dish before I went into the Chinese restaurant and having it come to my table when I thought I had expressly ordered something different. Circumstance -- that's all it is.) If you happen to come across one of Ralph's books, please pick it up and read it. Some folk just plain do not get what he had to say but fear not. It's worth the read. Anyway, the brain now has more mortality issues to sift through. It might be time to re-read Don DeLillo's 'White Noise'. This man is prescient, no doubt.

The flower beds are changing all over again in the Second City. The Magnificent Mile now has summer annuals and seasonal evergreens (they look so small and wispy I can't imagine they'll make it through the winter); impatiens are everywhere. (God knows I've a weak spot for them.) The marble sarcophaguses are now barren: the mulch is new but the plants are gone. I wonder what happened to them?

A voice taken now
That knew what was coming next.
The future is now?

Visual Explanations

I've been thinking, again, of purchasing one of Edward Tufte's critically acclaimed books on the display of information. Just the subtitle of this one is reason alone to read it: 'Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative'. Here's the link. What do I hope to learn? I'm not sure but I hope it will be wonderful to discover what's inside.

No 'church' this week due to diverging schedules; however, the lectionary has gained a lot of traction since last week and hopefully debate will take shape. Orthodox or Episcopalian? (The Catholic lectionary will probably not make the final cut due to readings from the Apocrypha. Why don't we have inserts?) That should be a fine discussion.

Hamlet, revisited

The Chicago Sun-Times street vendors have taken to wearing bright orange vests that have an insert where the morning's headline is vividly displayed. I'm sure it's billboard marketing akin to folks who wear sandwich boards for restaurants: why bother reading the menu when you can see the chef's special? What I find troubling, however, is that these signs are always of the 'murder most foul' variety which, I'm sure, is meant to entice the buyer to give away his 50 cents. I'd like to see the Sun-Times pass a moratorium on this type of advertising for just one week; I might purchase a paper.

Just like the weather, church is starting to heat up. A breakthrough of heirloom quality was made this weekend and should start to make the walk a bit uncomfortable again, yet far more rewarding in the long run. For IndyChurch N&W I think summer vacation is over before it even started.

'Toddler was murdered'
Read hawker's daily shirt sign.
How could you wear that?

Summer's End

Ah, at last; summer nears. This Memorial Day weekend brought with it the usual trappings of this lovely season: long car trips; beautiful misty mornings facing due east on Long Lake; the obligatory trip past the Cherry Hut to the Market Basket; cooking outdoors; fly-fishing. Absolutely wonderful. As I was contemplating the next trip to the lake house I began to think of those who have spent more summers at the lake in their past than those to come. In fact, as elderly family members slowly pass as I write and much, much younger ones just realizing what the lake holds in store for them I enter a new chapter in my understanding of death knowing God's grace is sufficient even for me.

Ah, at last. Summer.

Please look here for a very sensitive examination of Oregon's Death with Dignity law. A multimedia feature is to be found on the lower right hand side of the page.

The summer season
Brings with it understanding
That winter follows.