Words 5.2

 Words Twice a Week           5.2

If you are more into listening than reading, Words Twice a Week is available, along with other good stuff, as a podcast from St Paul’s Episcopal Church.  Click here.

Ok – I stand corrected: SuperOne does sell Twinkies, there was a “Hostess” display a couple of aisles down from the Little Debbie.  2-pks and 10 pks.

And, I know usually we do the days of the week in the Sunday version, but we missed it last year during the “email a day” experience, I didn’t want us to miss it this year – May 1, along with being May Day, is also celebrated in some traditions, especially Celtic ones, as Beltane.  Read through to the end and we’ll close with some of the Beltane Blessing!

Now, some thoughts on some of the lectionary texts -

Acts 8.26-40    Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch

+ this is not the disciple/apostle Philip whose day we just observed.  This is Philip, one of the seven deacons whom Stephen organized to care for the poor.  They scattered once Stephen was stoned, and began preaching and evangelizing far and wide.  In vs 4-13, Philip has amazed people in Samaria, including “Simon the Magician”, whom he apparently baptized. Now the angel of the Lord directs him elsewhere.  And in this story, it is clear that it is God/Spirit who is actually doing things, Philip does what he is told to do, but seems less impressive.

+ So this Ethiopian official was a eunuch.  We don’t hear much about eunuchs today.  Would he be in a somewhat similar situation to a “trans-persons” today?  I don’t know.

+ the chariot was just parked by the road?  The Spirit keeps prodding Philip along.

+ “How can I understand unless someone helps me?”  Who helps/has helped you?

+ “Here’s water, can I be baptized?”  Where did that idea come from?  Had Philip talked about believers getting baptized?  How would you have answered the fellow?  

+ Philip snatched away – so who is now going to help the Ethiopian?

+ the Good News breaking through barriers – religious, political, geographical.  What barriers does it face today?

Psalm 22.25-31

+ So this is the “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me…” psalm.

+ the title says “to the tune A Deer at Dawn”  Sounds like a pleasant tune, unless maybe the deer is getting hunted at dawn!

+ note vs 19-21 psalmist calls on God to save; vs 22-24 promises praise in the congregation, vs 25-31, the psalmist does praise God, “paying his vow”.  How do you think about this kind of bargaining with God?

+ in vs 21-22 the psalm moves “from plea to praise”.

+ vs 22-24 the family image, vs 25-26 the congregation, vs 27-31 all the world.  And note in vs 26 “the poor will eat”, in vs 29 “the rich will bow down” – is there is suggestion that those in the congregation tend towards poverty, those in the world tend towards wealth?  Would that still hold today?

+ one writer suggests vs 26 is describing a festive meal “with the last line a toast from a reveler intoxicated with wine and gratitude”!  When was the last time you were “intoxicated with gratitude”?

+ vs 29 ”those who are dying” – the past; vs 31 “people not yet born” – the future.

+ “to a people yet unborn” suggests a confidence in the future.  Do we have a confidence in the future, or not (politics breaking down, climate change, rise of extreme nationalism in different countries)?  What do we proclaim to the future?

+ “all the earth will remember” – does that mean all the people, or more than that?

+ particularly when paired with the psalm, the theme of universality stands out.  “God has dominion, rules over nations” – vs 28.  How is that working out?

+ the psalms are expressed in general terms so that each one can “individualize what is expressed”.  If you are caught up in the suffering themes of vs 1-21, how do you individualize them.  If you are caught up in the praise and rejoicing of 22-31, again, how do you individualize it?

1 John 4.7-21

+ Ok – hands up, who is getting a little tired of First John.  Kind of seems at first glance like a lot of platitudes.  

+ we remember John was addressing a community that may have been as polarized religiously as our culture is politically.

+ vs 7-12 about love

+ vs 13 reasons to know/trust that we abide in/with God – 1) the Spirit, 2) Jesus 

+ love is a commandment and a gift.  Mystery, paradox.

+ the place of fear in faith – how does that settle out for you?

+ our human capacity to love is derivative, not original.  But love comes from God even if we do not recognize/acknowledge it?

John 18.1-8

+ another “I am” statement.  How is vine/branches the same or different from shepherd/sheep?

+ remember this is part of Jesus’ final words to the disciples, his after “last supper” remarks. It’s a little contrived – and note that at the end of ch 14 Jesus says, “Let us be going” – these words are addressed to a moving, growing, elsewhere-oriented community.

+ pruning – individuals get pruned, congregations get pruned.  What has been pruned in your life? Can a person “self-prune”?  What would you prune away if you could?

+ one writer notes that this passage has a high density of the word “abide” – which is a significant word in the New Testament.

+ “Ask for whatever you wish…”  How do you think about that?

+ “We are called to the gracious experience of investing our lives in Jesus.”  Worth thinking about.

+ “fruit bearing” here is perhaps not so much of Paul’s “Fruits of the Spirit” idea as it is preaching and witnessing.

+ some (congregation, individuals) are cut away/removed, some are pruned.  Both are painful experiences, how does one know which is happening?  Craddock suggests “churches that move through hardship to greater commitment have been pruned; those who pull back for their own comfort and security have been removed.”  Individuals as well?

Then here’s a piece from Eberhard Arnold that came to my inbox this week.  It seemed to resonate with these passages.

It is a simple thing: joy in everything that lives. Anyone who can rejoice in life, in other people, in the fellowship of church community – anyone who feels joy in the mutual relationships of trust and inner fellowship – such a person experiences what love is. Anyone who cannot feel joy cannot live.… Only where there is joy do love and justice dwell. We need the spirit of joy to overcome the gloomy spirit of covetousness, the spirit of unjust mammon and its deadly hate. We can only have such joy if we have faith, and if we believe that the earth has a future.

Finally, here is a part of a Beltane blessing -

   Bless, O Threefold true and bountiful, Myself, my spouse, and my children,

   My tender children and their beloved mother at their head,

   On the fragrant plain, on the gay mountain sheiling,  (pasture with hut)

      On the fragrant plain, on the gay mountain sheiling…

   Everything within my dwelling, or in my possession, All kine and crops, all flocks and corn,

   From Hallows Eve to Beltane Eve, With goodly progress and gentle blessing,

   From sea to sea and every river mouth, From wave to wave, and base of waterfall.

   Bless everything and every one Of this little household by my side,

   Place the cross of Christ on us with the power of love,

   Till we see the land of joy,

      Till we see the land of joy...

That’s what I got for now -

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Words 4.25

 Words Twice a Week          4.25 

If you are more into listening than reading, Words Twice a Week is available, along with other good stuff, as a podcast from St Paul’s Episcopal Church.  Click here.

First a few issues to catch up with -

1) did anyone find Twinkies?  I couldn’t find them at SuperOne.  I didn’t ask, but there weren’t any in the Little Debbie display.  The internet says Walmart and Meijers have them, but I don’t usually shop there.

2) At first I thought someone was playing with me – the “stats” said there were something like 28 views for last week’s post.  Then I figured out it was probably me looking back through back issues for that quote from Buechner.  Had me going for a while!

3) For folks who enjoy following the church calendar through the year, here’s a webinar (tomorrow, Monday, at 3pmEDT) you might be interested in – Art and the Liturgical Year.  It’s free, but you have to register.  If you are going to do it and want to zoom for coffee after, let me know and I’ll set up a meeting!

4) If you want to be part of a workbook-type spiritual growth activity in May on money and the role it plays in our lives, here’s a link for more information.

Some of the days from the church calendar this week -

April 27  Christina Rossetti  (Actually this is apparently a “commemoration”, less significant than an actual “feast day”.)  She was a poet.  Love Came Down at Christmas and In the Bleak Midwinter are two of her poem that we sing as hymns.  And here’s a “Dear John” sort of poem.  Here’s a video of someone singing When I Am Dead, My Dearest, backed by a little chamber orchestra with some kind of interesting instruments!  It’s on youtube and you have to click through an ad or two – irritating.

April 27  Zita    an Italian saint, born around 1212, she was a faithful servant to the Fatinelli family in Lucca, even though she was at first reviled and abused.  One anecdote relates a story of Zita giving her own food or that of her master to the poor. On one morning, Zita left her chore of baking bread to tend to someone in need. Some of the other servants made sure the Fatinelli family was aware of what happened; when they went to investigate, they claimed to have found angels in the Fatinelli kitchen, baking the bread for her.  Some families bake a special loaf of bread for her day.  She is the patron saint of maids, domestic servants, waiters and waitresses.  Hey – waiters and waitresses are having a rough time these days – I guess we could order out for pickup and give the person who brings it out a tip!

April 30  Sarah Josepha Buell Hale  Ok, we remember her for writing __________ and for pushing the ______________ holiday.  Can you fill in the blanks without clicking the link?  A prestigious literary prize, the Sarah Josepha Hale Award, is named for her.  Notable winners of the Hale Award include Robert Frost in 1956, Ogden Nash in 1964, Elizabeth Yates in 1970, Arthur Miller in 1990, and Julia Alvarez in 2017.  Hale was further honored as the fourth in a series of historical bobblehead dolls created by the New Hampshire Historical Society and sold in their museum store in Concord, New Hampshire.  (apparently no longer available, at least not at the online store!)  And, did you know you can have a bobblehead made of yourself?  I didn’t.  $50-$150.  Probably too late for Mother’s Day.  Not sure that would be a good idea, anyway.

May 1  St Philip and St James 

A couple of guys who were disciples/apostles and that we really don’t know much about.  Philip brings Nathaniel to Jesus, asks Jesus how they could possibly feed 5,000, lets Andrew know that some Greeks want to see Jesus, and at the Last Supper asks Jesus to show them the Father.  So kind of like Thomas, he seems to ask leading questions that give Jesus a chance to explain and expound.  This James is also known as “James the Less” or familiarly as “Litttle Jimmy”!  The main question seems to be figuring out which of the other Jameses he is not!

And some of the days from the world/earth calendar -

April 26

+ Hitler’s forces bombed Guernica in 1937.  Picasso painted the picture.  The Tree of Gernika was/is an oak under which official things happened.  The first one was planted in the 14th century and lasted 450 years.  The tree's significance is illustrated by an event which occurred shortly after the Guernica bombings. When the Francoist troops took the town, the Tercio of Begoña, formed by Carlist volunteers from Biscay, put an armed guard around the tree to protect it against the Falangists, who had wanted to fell this symbol of Basque nationalism. (That’s from wikipedia - I have no idea who those various groups were.)  All in all, the town looks like a fairly pleasant place to be today.

+ Chernobyl meltdown in 1986.  Today you can fly over the site.  Or stay at the nearby Desyatka Hotel – 4 circles on Trip Advisor!

+ Frederick Law Olmsted was born in 1822.  He helped design Central Park in New York, and the grounds near Niagra Falls.  According to wikipedia, Olmsted was also known to oppose park projects on conservationist grounds. In 1891, Olmsted refused to develop a plan for Presque Isle Park in Marquette, Michigan, saying that it "should not be marred by the intrusion of artificial objects."  Good day to go round the Island!

April 27

+ Ralph Waldo Emerson died in 1882.  In October 1817, at age 14, Emerson went to Harvard College and was appointed freshman messenger for the president, requiring Emerson to fetch delinquent students and send messages to faculty.  By his senior year, Emerson decided to go by his middle name, Waldo.  He served as Class Poet and as was custom, he presented an original poem on Harvard's Class Day, a month before his official graduation on August 29, 1821, when he was 18.  He did not stand out as a student and graduated in the exact middle of his class of 59 people.  Just in time, here’s a May Day poem, but it does kind of go on forever.  Plan to spend much of the afternoon reading it if you are going to.

+ Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa.  He had voted for the first time in his life in the election.

+ Beethoven composed Fur Elise, apparently in 1810.  The music wasn’t discovered until 40 years after he died.  There are three candidates for “Elise” – check the website.  Listen here.

+ it’s also the birthday of our mixer.  Well, we bought it two years ago.  I was sorting through our file of instructions and owner’s manuals and there it was.  So – we could make whipped cream, or cookies, or ?????

April 28

+ a vaccine for yellow fever became available in 1932.

April 29

+ Duke Ellington was born in 1899.  He once said “I never had much interest in the piano until I realized that when I played a girl would appear and sit on my left and another on my right”. He played It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing, Mood Indigo, and many more. After playing in Stratford Ontario while the Festival was going on, he did an album Such Sweet Thunder based on works of Shakespeare.  Listen to a track from it here.  It’s also got a Sonnet for Caesar, and one for Sister Kate.  And a track for Lady Mac – if you’re feeling brave!  He wrote Come Sunday that we try to sing as a hymn.  And he still found time to play this little roadhouse in Michigamme!

April 30

+ Willie Nelson was born in 1933.  You can hear him sing How Great Thou Art.

+ Muddy Waters. “father of Chicago blues”, died in 1983.  He had his first introduction to music in church: "I used to belong to church. I was a good Baptist, singing in the church. So I got all of my good moaning and trembling going on for me right out of church," he recalled. By the time he was 17, he had purchased his first guitar. "I sold the last horse that we had. Made about fifteen dollars for him, gave my grandmother seven dollars and fifty cents, I kept seven-fifty and paid about two-fifty for that guitar. It was a Stella. The people ordered them from Sears-Roebuck in Chicago."  (wikipedia)  Hey – I had a Stella guitar.  I would say he got his mojo working.  Muddy Waters sang Rollin Stone, and editor Jann Wenner explained “The name of the magazine is Rolling Stone, which comes from an old saying: 'A Rolling Stone gathers no moss.' Muddy Waters used the name for a song he wrote; The Rolling Stones took their name from Muddy’s song, and 'Like A Rolling Stone' was the title of Bob Dylan’s first rock and roll record.”  

May 1

+ May Day – we used to hang may baskets on doorknobs early in the morning, ring the doorbell, and run away.  That was long years ago.

+ International Workers Day.  It began in 1886 with a general strike on May 1 in Chicago for an 8 hour workday.  On 4 May, in what came to be called The Haymarket Affair, the police acted to disperse a public assembly in support of the strike when an unidentified person threw a bomb. The police responded by firing on the workers. The event led to the deaths of seven police officers and at least thirty-eight civilians; sixty police officers were injured, as were one hundred and fifteen civilians. Hundreds of labour leaders and sympathizers were later rounded-up and four were executed by hanging, after a trial that was seen as a miscarriage of justice.  The following day on 5 May, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the state militia fired on a crowd of strikers killing seven, including a schoolboy and a man feeding chickens in his yard.  (wikipedia)

+ In the Catholic church it’s a Feast Day of Joseph the Worker

+ Antonin Dvorak died in 1904.  Here’s a link to his Symphony #9 (New World Symphony).  Deeply religious, he wrote as variety of works, including a Requiem, a mass, and a Te Deum.

+ The Empire State Building, tallest in the world at the time, opened in 1931.

May 2

+ Leonardo da Vinci died in 1519.  He did about everything – I guess you just have to click on the link.

That’s what I got for now….

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Words 4.22

 Words Twice a Week           4.22

If you are more into listening than reading, Words Twice a Week is available, along with other good stuff, as a podcast from St Paul’s Episcopal Church.  Click here.

A thought from Frederick Buechner for EarthDay – Ok, I give up.  This is really frustrating.  There was this nice piece from Frederick Buechner about how “The Environment” is such a lame word for what something that is really our mother as we are born and our home as we are buried.  Something like that.  But I can’t find it.  I think maybe I included it in one of these posts, but I skimmed through all the way to last Nov and didn’t find it.  Oh well.  Happy Earth Day.  Calls to mind a really nice song by Tom Chapin.  Here’s a link.  It’s off the Billy the Squid album.  Here’s a link to that song.

Some thoughts on some of the scripture lessons for Sunday, Fourth of Easter

Acts 4.5-12

+ So Peter and John healed/saved a man who was lame and Peter explained it to the crowds. That was last week’s lesson.  This upset the authorities and ended up with Peter and John being arrested.  So now Peter explains to the authorities.

+ Note that he uses some of the same ideas as with the crowd – “you killed Jesus; God raised him.”  Is this sharper because they are in fact the religious leaders/authorities?  Note there is no suggestion that they acted in ignorance, as there was with the crowd.

+ the power of names in the ancient world.  Where do we see the power of a name today? How did you get your name?  If you could choose a name, what would it be?  I did have a childhood friend who changed his name, but I guess I’m not really sure why.  Anyway, Peter (and Luke) say that in Jesus God has given us a name we can use to access the divine presence, perhaps the divine power?

+ Peter asks, “Are we being questioned for doing a good deed?  Like giving a bottle of water to someone standing in line to vote?  Or is there something else behind all this?”

+ and here is a question – what is it that disturbs the authorities?  Is it that Peter and John healed a man? Or is it that they are claiming the resurrection is real?  Note that the resurrection shifts the balance of power towards the believers and away from the authorities/leaders.  Does this seem like it might be a problem?

Psalm 23

+ have you memorized it?  Consciously or unconsciously?

+ 2 possible structures, not necessarily contradictory

   vs1-2  God as shepherd, vs3-4 life and dangers of a wanderer, vs5-6 God as host;

   vs1-4 God as shepherd in time of threat; vs5-6 security in the worshiping community

+ “shepherd” in ancient Israel could also refer to the king, who was to take care of the people. So the image is both pastoral and political.  Where do you see each theme in the psalm?

+ “I fear no evil for you are with me” echoes back “Fear not I am with you” (Is 43.5)

+ vs4-6  Life is ultimately good, secure, though with times of trouble.

1 John 3.16-24

+ in the scheme of the whole message, we shift from “avoiding sin” to “we should love each other”

+ True love is love in action.  “True love may be done but left unspoken, but it certainly is not spoken but left undone.”  What do you think – can love be done but left unspoken?

+ vs19-22  This just seems a little confused – one writer sums it up “the life of faith is not without dilemmas of conscience.”  

+ that we should believe in his name and love one another.  What does “believing in his name” mean to you?

John 10.11-18

+ vs1-10 is about shepherds, sheep, gates, strangers, thieves.

+ the good shepherd (as opposed to the hired hand) cares for the sheep, even at the cost of his own life.  When do we act like a good shepherd, when do we act like a hired hand?

+ and this just occurred to me – why doesn’t the “ph” sound like “f”?  Because it’s two different syllables?

+ the good shepherd lays down his life and takes it back for the good of the sheep.  The text does not glorify powerlessness, vulnerability, or self-sacrifice for their own sake, but always for the well being of the sheep.  Power and freedom are not inherently bad – the issue is always devotion to the well-being of others.  Being like Christ means giving the self in service, whatever that entails.  It might means using the gifts you have been given rather than simply enjoying them yourself, or ignoring them.  What gifts/skills do you have that could be employed for the well-being of others?  Is that happening?  Because of something within you or some external issue?

+ “one flock” – because there is one shepherd, not because we are all alike.  Who are other flocks like yours; who are other flocks different from yours?  How does that work out?

+ the sheep and the shepherd know each other.  How well do the sheep know each other?  Is that important?

+ “other sheep, flocks” – could be 1) the Gentiles, 2) other “denominations”, even in the early church, 3) future believers – you and me!

+ Jesus was free and obedient.  Ok – it’s a mystery, a paradox!  When, where do you experience freedom, when are you obedient?

+ vs18 – just another reminder, in John no one takes Jesus’ life from him, he lays it down, and takes it up (like his clothes at the footwashing event in John 13!) for the sheep.

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Words 4.18

 Words Twice a Week           4.18

If you are more into listening than reading, Words Twice a Week is available, along with other good stuff, as a podcast from St Paul’s Episcopal Church.  Click here.

This week’s challenge – write a poem resonating with Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (The Daffodils) about crocuses/croci.  Here’s the best I could do -   

  One mild afternoon it was early in spring

  taking a tour on the Memphis slow buses,

  we sat close together, our hearts they were touching,

  our bag full of bulbs one day to be crocuses.

  There on the corner of Third Street and Hawking -

  a park full of purple and yellow croci.

  It brought to my mind that time we went walking

  and skipping with coffee through downtown Lodi.

  Oh man – stuck inside of Memphis with those Lodi blues again!

Ok, on to 

Some days from the church calendar -

April 21  Anselm   He was an Italian Benedictine monk, abbot, philosopher and theologian of the Catholic Church, who held the office of Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109.  As archbishop, he defended the church's interests in England amid the Investiture Controversy. For his resistance to the English kings William II and Henry I, he was exiled twice: once from 1097 to 1100 and then from 1105 to 1107. 

April 22  John Muir and Hudson Stuck

Muir, born April 21, 1838, in a four-story stone house in Dunbar, East Lothian, Scotland, was noted for being an ecological thinker, political spokesman, and religious prophet, whose writings became a personal guide into nature for many people, making his name "almost ubiquitous" in the modern environmental consciousness. According to author William Anderson, Muir exemplified "the archetype of our oneness with the earth", while biographer Donald Worster says he believed his mission was "saving the American soul from total surrender to materialism".

Stuck was born in London (1863) and graduated from King's College London. He immigrated to the United States in 1885 and lived there for the rest of his life. After working as a cowboy and teacher for several years in Texas, he went to University of the South to study theology. After graduation, he was ordained as an Episcopal priest. Moving to Alaska in 1904, he served as Archdeacon of the Yukon, acting as a missionary for the church and a proponent of "muscular Christianity".  He co-led the first expedition to successfully climb Denali (Mount McKinley) in June 1913.  One of his books – Ten Thousand Miles with a Dogsled – is available at Peter White by inter-library loan.  Ascent of Denali is available at Thriftbooks for $5-$195.

April 23  Toyohiko Kagawa   born in 1883, he was a Japanese Protestant Christian pacifist, Christian reformer, and labour activist. Kagawa wrote, spoke, and worked at length on ways to employ Christian principles in the ordering of society and in cooperatives. His vocation to help the poor led him to live among them. He advocated for women's suffrage and promoted a peaceful foreign policy.  He promoted something he called “Brotherhood Economics” - advocating that the Christian Church, the cooperative movement, and the peace movement unite in a 'powerful working synthesis' to provide a workable alternative to capitalism, state socialism, and fascism.  After studying at Princeton, he encouraged farmers in Japan to plant trees to 1) control erosion, 2) provide food for humans, and 3) provide fodder for animals.  He said "I read in a book that a man called Christ went about doing good. It is very disconcerting to me that I am so easily satisfied with just going about."  He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1947 and 1948, and for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1954 and 1955.  Arthur Miller writes about hearing Kagawa give an evangelical lecture in Hill Auditorium at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, in 1935, and describes him as "a merchant of the sublime."  He died on April 23, 1960.  His last words to his family gathered around were “Please do your best for world peace and the church in Japan.”  

Here’s one of his prayers – interestingly it’s titled (in the UMC Hymnal) “For Our Country”.  I wonder which country he had in mind, if any particular one!

  O God, keep our whole country under your protection.

  Wipe out sin from this land; lift it up from the depths of sorrow, O Lord, our shining light.  

  Save us from deep grief and misfortune, Lord of all nations.

  Bless us with your wisdom, so that the poor may not be oppressed 

  and the rich may not be oppressors.  

  Make this a nation having no ruler except God, 

  a nation having no authority but that of Love.

April 25 – well, it’s a Sunday, so a Feast of the Lord, but otherwise it would be the day we remember St Mark.  We don’t really know who Mark was, or if he actually wrote the gospel with his name on it.  We do believe that it was the first gospel written, and that Matthew and Luke both had copies that they used when they wrote their gospels.  Some people think he  was the man who carried water to the house where the Last Supper took place (Mark 14:13), or the young man who ran away naked when Jesus was arrested (Mark 14:51).  Whatever -

Here’s the Collect from BCP for his day -

  Almighty God, by the hand of Mark the evangelist you have given to your Church the Gospel 

  of Jesus Christ the Son of God: We thank you for this witness, and pray that we may be 

  firmly grounded in its truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and 

  the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Old Testament reading for the feast of St Mark is Is 52.7-10  “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news…..”  Nice.

And some of the days from the earth/world calendar -

April 19

+ Charles Darwin died in 1882.

+ in 1987 The Simpsons began as a one minute segment of the Tracey Ullman show.  I would make some clever quip here, but instead I have to confess/admit that I have never watched an episode of The Simpsons.  I don’t think I ever saw a whole episode of the Tracey Ullmann Show either.  A lost midlife!

+ in 1775 the Battles of Lexington and Concord were the beginning of the Revolutionary War.  So that means it was last night that Paul Revere made his ride – “one if by land, two if by sea”.  And which was it?

April 20

+ 15 people died after being shot at Columbine High School in 1999.

+ in 2010 the DeepWater Horizon oil rig exploded and began spilling oil into the Gulf of Mexico.  It kept on spilling oil until September 19.

April 21

+ Mark Twain (Samuel Clements) died in 1910.  We think of him for Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn and a few other stories.  He was also intensely involved in copyright laws, wanting to preserve his assets for his descendants.  It was at the Library of Congress hearings that he first showed up in what became his “trademark” white suit.  Here’s a book about the suit and his later years.

+ The surgeon’s photo of the Loch Ness monster was taken in 1934.  I remember that from the “email a Day” adventure.

April 22

+ Earth Day – have plans?

+ fiber-optics was used for telephone transmissions for the first time in 1977.

+  Cervantes died on this day in 1616.  If you want to sing along with To Dream the Impossible Dream, here’s a link to Frank Sinatra on youtube.  If you scroll down you can sing with Luther Vandross or Gomer Pyle.  Or a variety of others.

April 23

+ Shakespeare died in 1616 and Wordsworth in 1850.  We think Shakespeare was maybe born on this day in 1564.  The record we have is that he was baptized on April 26.  If you are looking for a Shakespearean monologue to read or speak for today, here’s a list of 29 sorted out for men, women, teens, etc.  

+ In 2005, the first video was posted to youtube.  Me at the Zoo.

+ Kanellos Kanellopoulos, a Greek cyclist flew a human powered aircraft 72.4 mi from Crete to the Greek island of Santorini in 3 hours, 54 minutes, for the 1988 MIT Daedalus project. It was the longest human-powered flight in history.  So I guess I could maybe ride halfway to the Island and back?  

April 24

+ the Library of Congress was established in 1800.  Here’s a challenge for the week – find out if/how you can access the books there.

+ IBM introduced the personal computer in 1981.  I would guess that it is easier to access information using the PC than the LOC, but we’ll see what this week’s challenge brings.

+ Lucy Maud Montgomery died in 1942.  Why do we remember her? (without checking the link?)

+ 1129-1134  people died in a building collapse in Bangladesh in 2013.  Yes – they were making clothes for us to wear.

April 25

+ work started on the Suez Canal at Port Said in 1859.  I don’t know if this had to do with a shortage of garden gnomes or not!  It officially opened on Nov 17,1869.

+ DNA identified.  “On the positive side, this provided capacity to cure formerly incurable diseases and free prisoners wrongly accused of crimes.  On the negative side, it introduced the specter of an invasion of privacy, a prejudging of human potential, and genetic engineering of ‘superior’ people.” - W Paul Jones

Check back for an EarthDay Prayer. I'll post it as soon as I get it written

Ok, I am still struck by Thomas Berry's observation that if we grew up in a moonscape, we would have a different concept of God -

Creator God,

when we look at the beauty of all that you have made -

the clouds in the sky, the waves on the lakes and oceans,

the animals in the forest, the birds in the backyard,

the fish in the streams and rivers,

the neighbors next door -

we can't help but think of how much joy it must bring you.

Give us the grace to live in your world wisely and well,

for our sake, but also for yours.

That’s what I got for now….

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