THE TINY CABIN

A social worker from a big city in Massachusetts recently transferred to the mountains of Tennessee and was on her first tour of her new territory when she came upon the tiniest cabin she had ever seen in her life.

Intrigued, she went up and knocked on the door.

"Anybody home?" she asked.

"Yep," came a kid's voice through the door.

"Is your father there?" asked the social worker.

"Pa? Nope, he left afore Ma came in," said the kid.

"Well, is your mother there?" persisted the social worker.

"Ma? Nope, she left just afore I got here," said the kid.

"But," protested the social worker, "are you never together as a family?"

"Sure, but not here," said the kid through the door. "This is the outhouse!"

Don't blame me. Blame Doug.

PRAYER FOR THOSE AFFECTED BY TORNADOES IN THE SOUTHEAST

From the website of the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama:

Loving Father of all,

We humbly pray you to look graciously upon our hurts and heartaches, and especially upon those in the greatest need in this time of trouble. Grant that we may put our whole trust and confidence in your mercy; bind us together in mutual love and service, and make us instruments of your healing and peace, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And we all say, "Amen!"

If you would like to help:

Checks should be sent to the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama, Carpenter House, at 521 20th Street North, Birmingham, Alabama 35203. Contributions may also be made online through the diocesan website by clicking the “Make an Electronic Contribution” button.

Or you may help with a donation to Episcopal Relief and Development. The national office is supporting the dioceses of Alabama, Atlanta and East Tennessee as they begin their efforts to help with recovery from the devastation from the tornadoes.

Thanks to Ann for sending the prayer.

I TAKE IT ALL BACK...

...the snark about the royal wedding. I just finished watching the entire ceremony in Westminster Abbey, uninterrupted, no fits and starts, no commentary. It was beautiful. The Anglican liturgy, the music, the sermon, the prayer composed by the royal pair, the Abbey, the deportment of the bride and groom, all of it was too lovely for words.

And, Leonardo, the Queen's dress was, too, mellow yellow in the softer lighting in the Abbey. I first saw the dress in bright sunlight on the balcony of Buckingham Palace in one of my earlier, disjointed viewings of the celebration.

In the scenes showing the trees decorating the Abbey, as the camera zoomed closer to the gorgeous Gothic stained glass window, the setting seemed to be the outdoors. The pans of the architectural elements of the Abbey and the shots from on high were breathtaking.

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!

Photo by John Stillwell/AFP/Getty Images

SEE DOUG'S ART! SEE DOUG'S STUDIO!

"Orpheus" by Doug Blanchard

From Doug aka Counterlight:

Dear Friends,

I will participating in the Artists Alliance Open Studios, together with the CSV Center, part of the New Museum's Festival of Ideas for the New City. The event will take place Saturday May 7 from 5 - 9PM, and Sunday, May 8 from 12 - 6PM at the CSV Center, 107 Suffolk, at the corner of Suffolk and Rivington on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The nearest subway station is Delancey-Essex on the F, M, J, and Z lines. (My emphasis)

My studio will be open to all, as will the studios of scores of other artists in the building. This will be our 15th annual open studio event.

I hope to see you there.

http://aai-nyc.org/

--Doug Blanchard

Pictured above is one of my favorites of Doug's paintings. Details of the painting may be seen here.

Doug's "Gay Passion of Christ" series is now featured, along with commentary by Kittredge Cherry and passages from Scripture, at the Jesus in Love Blog during the Lenten and Easter season.

Last time I was in New York, Doug promised to take me to his studio to show me his etchings, but he never did. We lingered too long at lunch after church with his friends from St Luke in the Fields.

ADS YOU WON'T SEE TODAY

The ad above was published in Life magazine in 1943. It's genuine, one of a series of six that the Cannon Towel Co. placed on the inside back cover of Life during 1943 and 1944.

We subscribed to the magazine at the time, and even as a child of nine and ten, I enjoyed reading Life and looking at the pictures. I must have seen the ad, but I don't remember. Here's a link to another of the ads. Ebay has more. The picture above is the most "graphic" of the ads I've seen.

I read what I could of the description, and the picture shows Pacific Islander boys demonstrating to the GIs how to bathe safely in crocodile-infested waters using nets to keep the crocs out. There you have it. Cannon towels - "Durable for the duration".

Thanks to Lapin for the picture.

UPDATE ON GÖRAN

From Md.Hasibul Hassan Habib:

He needs to stay in hospital more 1 or 2 weeks more. pray for him.

Yes, please continue to pray for Göran.

Thanks to Ann Fontaine for letting me know.

THE ROYAL WEDDING

THE VOWS



The language of the Church of England liturgy of the marriage vows is beautiful. In the splendid surroundings of Westminster Abbey, the ceremony was, indeed, impressive. The Archbishop of Canterbury's vestments were on the splendid side, too. Lapin informs me that the maker is Watts & Co. Unfortunately, the archbishop had hat hair when he removed his mitre.

THE BALCONY KISS



Kate looked lovely. Her dress and veil, designed by Sarah Burton of British designer Andrew McQueen's fashion house, were traditional, simple (for a royal bride), and beautiful. William looked....colorful. Queen Elizabeth, whom I admire for performing her duties with grace and dignity, wore an outfit the color of which I can only describe as ghastly yellow. Ow! My eyes! Sorry about the sour note, but that was my reaction. Further sour note: Camilla's hat looked as if it were swallowing her. What is it with the mostly unattractive hats worn by the ladies?

I've not seen the entire coverage of the royal wedding, only these two videos. I'll watch Barbara Walters wrap-up on "60 Minutes" this evening at a more reasonable hour.

The best commentary on the wedding so far is Fr Christian's on-the-scene live-blogging of the event at GAFCON, which starts here.

PRAY FOR THE PEOPLE OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES

From Yahoo News:

Firefighters searched one splintered pile after another for survivors Thursday, combing the remains of houses and neighborhoods pulverized by the nation's deadliest tornado outbreak in almost four decades. At least 290 people were killed across six states — more than two-thirds of them in Alabama, where large cities bore the half-mile-wide scars the twisters left behind.

The death toll from Wednesday's storms seems out of a bygone era, before Doppler radar and pinpoint satellite forecasts were around to warn communities of severe weather. Residents were told the tornadoes were coming up to 24 minutes ahead of time, but they were just too wide, too powerful and too locked onto populated areas to avoid a horrifying body count.

"These were the most intense super-cell thunderstorms that I think anybody who was out there forecasting has ever seen," said meteorologist Greg Carbin at the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla.

I was at a meeting for most of the evening, and I had no idea such loss of life and devastation had taken place. Lord have mercy!

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks prayer in response to natural disaster. (Edited)

Adon ha-olamim, Sovereign of the universe,

We join our prayers to the prayers of others, for the victims of the the tornadoes in the Southeast, which have brought destruction and disaster to many lives.

Almighty God, we pray You, send healing to the injured, comfort to the bereaved, and news to those who sit and wait. May You be with those who even now are engaged in the work of rescue. May You send Your strength to those who are striving to heal the injured, give shelter to the homeless, and bring food and water to those in need. May You bless the work of their hands, and may they merit to save lives.

Almighty God, we recognise how small we are, and how powerless in the face of nature when its full power is unleashed. Therefore, open our hearts in prayer and our hands in generosity, so that our words may bring comfort and our gifts bring aid. Be with us now and with all humanity as we strive to mend what has been injured and rebuild what has been destroyed.

Ken Yehi Ratzon, ve-nomar Amen.
May it be Your will, and let us say Amen.

From Beliefnet.

UPDATE: If you'd like to help, Episcopal Relief and Development is working with churches and dioceses in the areas affected. I know from past experience with hurricanes that the Salvation Army is quite often amongst the first of the large organizations on the spot to give help.

PLEASE PRAY FOR GÖRAN

From Jane Redmont at Facebook:

Friends of Göran Koch-Swahne: Göran was away from FB for 10-12 days. Turns out he was in hospital w/ combination of very bad flu & double(-sided) pneumonia. He lost 12 kilos & he was already pretty skinny to begin with. Spoke w/him via msg last night but now he has been taken back to hospital early this a.m. It doesn't sound good. Please send prayers & healing thoughts.

Göran is quite thin. 12 kilos is a lot of weight loss for him.

O God, the strength of the weak and the comfort of sufferers: Mercifully accept our prayers, and grant to your servant Göran the help of your power, that his sickness may be turned into health, and our sorrow into joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Thanks to susan s. for letting me know.

WAR - WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?

From ABCNews:

An Afghan Air Corps pilot, angered by an argument with nine American trainers at Kabul airport, pulled a gun on the Americans, disarmed them and methodically killed them, officials said today.

The shooter then apparently shot and killed himself.

The Afghan military said the gunman was a 20 year veteran of the Afghan Air Corps who had gotten in an argument with the American trainers during a meeting in a conference room at the Afghan Air Force headquarters.
....

The dead included eight U.S military personnel and one American contractor. Five Afghan soldiers were also injured in the shooting, said Bahader.

It was the deadliest incident so far of an Afghan ally turning against his coalition partners, officials said. This is the seventh time this year that coalition soldiers or Afghan security forces have been killed by either members of the Afghan security force or insurgents impersonating them.

What the hell is the goal of the US and its coalition partners in Afghanistan? We are engaged in a war seemingly without end at great expense in lives and money. The British tried to get control of Afghanistan and failed. The Russians tried and failed, at the expense of the collapse of their empire. Why can't we learn from history? We should have destroyed the Taliban's training camps after the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center and then left the country.

Here we are 10 years later having lost 2436 lives, probably not counting those mentioned above, with numbers more wounded, and having spent a total of $455.4 billion, and what have we gained?