"LOST IN WONDERLAND"

From Throng:

A bent movie about a straight lawyer.

The Times of London cited barrister Rob Moodie for the most outrageous behaviour by a lawyer in 2006 after he represented himself in the New Zealand High Court dressed as Alice in Wonderland. He’s a straight bloke who likes to wear dresses. To some, he seems a freak, to others he’s a hero. Rob Moodie is an enigma to most. Until now. This film unravels the puzzle of a man who is above all an optimist, and a single minded battler for justice. Moodie’s extraordinary life, career and personality are examined in a documentary that’s as colourful as its subject matter.

At the age of 7, Moodie and his brother were separated from their family and became wards of the state, and he experienced such a sense of dislocation that he disappeared "down a rabbit hole" and had great difficulty establishing his identity.

He seems to have questioned gender roles from a very young age. If he did not actively resist it, then he at least questioned why boys and girls were expected to look and behave differently. Moodie talks wistfully about looking at a girl’s bright yellow ribbon, and wanting to wear one in his own hair. He recalls, “Girls were sugar and spice, and all things nice, boys were snips and snails and puppy dogs tails ... I asked why we had to be one or the other”. He wanted to embrace it all, whether it be dolls, diggers or dresses. And he formed a lifelong contempt for those who would say “no” - not from wisdom or fairness, but out of unquestioning conformity.

Moodie became a police detective, studied law, and became head of the police union.

The police were one of the most conservative groups in the country. Moodie dragged them kicking and screaming into the 20th century. And he did it wearing a kaftan and his wife's pearls.
....

At times of greatest stress in his life, Moodie says he always feels stronger when dressed as a woman.

The documentary is surely one that I'd like to see.

Read more at the link above.

Thanks to Lapin.

"PURPLE HAZE" - JOHNNY JONES AND THE KING CASUALS

I found the song over at MadPriest's place in his latest "With All Your Soul" podcast which you can download at iTunes. The details are over at OCICBW.

REMEMBERING THE FALLEN ON THE BEACH IN SANTA BARBARA

The pictures are taken at the beach in Santa Barbara right next to the pier.

There is a veterans group that started putting a cross and candle for every death in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The amazing thing is that they only do it on the weekends.

They put up this graveyard and take it down every weekend.

Guys sleep in the sand next to it and keep watch over it at night so nobody messes with it.

Every cross has the name, rank and D.O.B. and D.O.D. on it.

Very moving, very powerful??? so many young volunteers.

So many 30 to 40 year olds as well.

Amazing !

Prayer for our soldiers:

'Heavenly Father, hold our troops in Your loving hands Protect them as they protect us
Bless them and their families for the
selfless acts they perform for us in this our
time of need.
Amen.'

Thanks to Doug.

UPDATE FROM THE COMMENTS: Carlos said...

Those veterans comprise Chapter 54 of Veterans for Peace. They honor the fallen and advocate for getting the live ones out of Afghanistan.

Carlos J
Chief Petty Officer, USCG Ret.

PLEASE PRAY FOR PAUL (A.)

From Paul (A.)'s wife Catherine:

Home at last. Paul in hospital, 4 broken ribs, 1 punctured lung slipping down ice-glazed front steps this am. Other than that, he's fine.

Father of mercies, our help in time of need: We ask you to relieve Paul for whom we pray. Comfort him with a sense of your goodness, and give him patience as he heals from his injuries. Restore him to full health and strength, to your glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

UPDATE ON PAUL (A.):

Thanks for all the prayers. Your support is keeping our spirits up. He was able to sit up, feed himself, and then pass out from (we think) dehydration-related low blood pressure. Life is never dull with Paul (A.)!

Catherine (Mrs. Paul (A.)

"WITH THE PRIMATES"

From Bishop David Chillingworth, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, at his blog, Thinking Aloud:

You have probably been wondering why I haven’t got around to saying anything about the Primates’ Meeting. Well it was interesting – and exhausting – even though it didn’t involve any serious travel for me. Here I am with my Celtic companions, Archbishops Barry and Alan.

First of all, I found the opportunities of building contacts and making friends quite extraordinary. It makes a difference – if one is talking about blasphemy laws in Pakistan – to be sitting beside Bishop Samuel Azariah of the Church of Pakistan. Far off places suddenly become very close. And that’s what Communion is about.

Secondly, I felt keenly the disappointment of not being with those who had decided that they could not be part of the meeting. It was my first Primates’ Meeting. I felt the poorer for not hearing what they had to say and having the chance of discussing with them.

But it was still a good and worthwhile meeting. As the statements make clear, the Meeting spent much time clarifying the role of the Primates’ Meeting as one of the Instruments of Communion. It should not be a place where decisions are made for the Communion or for Provinces. It was clear that most of us come – as I do – from Provinces where decision-making is collegial and consultative within our autonomous provincial structure.

So when our College of Bishops meets next week, my colleagues will not expect me to bring back a series of decisions for implementation. But they will want me to share with them the best account I can give of how other Provinces are dealing with the same problems as we face. That won’t just be an account of how far-off places are doing – because through the Instruments of Communion we expect to respond to the feelings and the difficulties of other Provinces. As they respond to us. That’s what it means to be a Communion. (My emphasis)

And we all say, "Amen!"

I'M STILL ON SABBATICAL...

...from matters Anglican, but Paul Bagshaw, at Not the Same Stream, is not. His latest post titled "End Game" begins:

I am now confident that, at last, we have finally come to the beginning of the end of the schism in Anglicanism, though not in a way I had anticipated.

Enough to whet your appetite?

And if you look at the picture, which I lifted from Paul's blog, of the primates who attended the Primates' Meeting, you see that Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori does not put herself forward at picture-taking time. There she be, in the background, one woman amongst the men, but I believe she more than holds her own in the meetings.

KATO'S MURDER - RACHEL BRINGS IT ALL TOGETHER

H/T to Doug at Counterlight's Peculiars.

STORY OF THE DAY - DIFFERENT PLANS

I don't know how long I can do this, he
said. I think the universe has different
plans for me & we sat there in silence &
I thought to myself that this is the thing
we all come to & this is the thing we all
fight & if we are lucky enough to lose,
our lives become beautiful with mystery
again & I sat there silent because that is
not something that can be said.

Wow! This is deep. The story gives me a chill each time I read it - a good chill.

From StoryPeople.

SUPER BOWL

A man had 50 yard line tickets for the Super Bowl. As he sits down, a man comes down and asks if anyone is sitting in the seat next to him.

"No," he says, "The seat is empty."

"This is incredible," said the man. "Who in their right mind would have a seat like this for the Super Bowl, the biggest sporting event in the world, and not use it?"

He says, "Well, actually, the seat belongs to me. I was supposed to come with my wife, but she passed away. This is the first Super bowl we haven't been to together since we got married in 1967."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. That's terrible. But couldn't you find someone else-a friend or relative, or even a neighbor to take the seat?".

The man shakes his head.

"No, they're all at the funeral."

Sick, sick, sick. Don't blame me. Blame Doug.

AL SLEET, THE HIPPY DIPPY WEATHERMAN

PS: Inspired by this weather map.