STORY OF THE DAY - LAUGHTER & DIGESTION

There are only 2 things I take seriously, 
my aunt said once. Laughter & my 
digestion. I'm too old to bother with 
more than that. 

From StoryPeople.

Good one.

WARM MILK

In a convent in Ireland, the 98-year-old Mother Superior  lay dying. The nuns gathered around her bed trying to make her last  journey comfortable. They tried giving her warm milk to drink but she refused it. One of the nuns took the glass back to the kitchen. Then,  remembering a bottle of Irish Whiskey that had been received as a gift  the previous Christmas, she opened it and poured a generous amount into the warm milk. Back at  Mother Superior's bed, they held the glass to her lips. The frail nun  drank a little, then a little more and before they knew it, she had  finished the whole glass down to the last drop. As her  eyes brightened, the nuns thought it would be a good opportunity to  have one last talk with their spiritual leader. "Mother,"  the nuns asked earnestly, "Please give us some of your wisdom before  you leave us." She  raised herself up in bed on one elbow, looked at them and said: "Don't sell that cow." Thanks to Ann.

PAY ATTENTION NOW, LOUISIANA!

Click on the map for the larger view.

The energy and fishing industries along the Gulf of Mexico must begin now to adapt to the effects of climate change, including rising sea levels, more intense hurricanes, loss of coastal wetlands, and the biological effects of warmer water temperatures, according to a report released at a news conference Wednesday by three Louisiana State University scientists.

The report is sobering, indeed, and not just for Louisiana, but also for its message on how climate change will affect energy resources in the rest of the country.  A good many politicians and citizens in the state, and in the country, for that matter, do not believe that the practices of humans affect the climate of the earth, but rather that global warming is due to nature taking her course and will soon reverse on its own.  How much the cautions and warnings will be heeded in Louisiana is an open question because of the widespread suspicion of science.  I don't have much hope that the powers will take action as a result of the report.

The number of oil and gas platforms in the hurricane-prone area of Gulf of Mexico is astonishing, and to ride the single, fragile connection to Port Fourchon and the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port on the portions of Highway 1 that have not been elevated is to bear witness to the extreme vulnerability of the entryway for a major source of energy imports.

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH - "SHARED GOVERNANCE"

SHARED GOVERNANCE EXAMINES THEOLOGY, HISTORY of EPISCOPAL POLITY

Essays are tools for “education, reflection” on how Church’s governance evolved

 Shared Governance: The Polity of The Episcopal Church, a collection of essays on the history and theology of church governance by the House of Deputies Special Study Committee on Church Governance and Polity is now available from Church Publishing.

“The collection is intended specifically as an educational and reflection tool for Deputies to the General Convention, and offers a number of insights particularly geared to their work,” said the Rev. Tobias Haller, who chaired the committee, which was appointed by Bonnie Anderson, President of the House of Deputies, after the 2009 General Convention. “However, any Episcopalian wanting to be better informed about how and why our church came to function in the way it does will find the essays helpful.”

The book focuses particular attention on the history and structure of the two Houses of the General Convention and how they interact; the role of the Presiding Bishop and the President of the House of Deputies and how their offices have evolved; and the role of the Executive Council, which carries out the work of the church between sessions of General Convention.

Haller said the collection dispels “some of the prevailing mythology concerning the origins and practice of our shared governance.”

"I want to thank the House of Deputies special committee for creating this remarkable resource," said Anderson, who is serving her second term as President of the House of Deputies. "Our polity distributes authority among all church members, whether lay or ordained, at every level, in the parish, the diocese, the provinces and at General Convention. It is a great gift, and one I hope the church will always safeguard and treasure.”

A copy of the book has been mailed to every deputy to next month’s General Convention, and to every diocesan bishop. It is also available through Church Publishing’s website.

“One of the things I am most committed to for Church Publishing is our role in facilitating the dialog within the Episcopal Church,” said Nancy Bryan, editorial director of Church Publishing. “How do we help people talk to each other, share ideas and collaborate and come to a clearer sense of the church’s call and mission and vocation? For me Shared Governance is a piece of that dialog.”

H/T to Jim Naughton

Canticle Communications

jim@canticlecommunications.com

www.canticlecommunications.com

NOTE: Although I am not a deputy to GC, nor will I be attending the convention this year, I plan to purchase a copy of the book simply to help me understand how The Episcopal Church functions beyond the level of the parish.

MY CONTRIBUTION TO THE DIAMOND JUBILELE CELEBRATION

When Grandpère and I visited England for the first time in 1982, we had the great pleasure of attending the Trooping the Colour parade in honor of the Official Birthday of the reigning monarch, when Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth still rode her horse, Burmese, in the parade. As we were lined up waiting, just before the parade began, a light rain began to fall.  We asked a couple nearby if the parade would be cancelled.  The English woman replied, "Indeed not!  We would be very upset if the parade was cancelled."  And not long after, there came Her Majesty, riding in the light rain, looking not the least bit dismayed.  The year before, in 1981, a man fired blank shots at the Queen during the parade, frightening Burmese, but HM quickly brought the horse under control.  I realize my story has not much to do with the Diamond Jubilee Celebration, but it does demonstrate the Queen's pluck and devotion to duty which have been evident time and again over the 6o years of her reign.

The photo is not mine, although I have a picture somewhere, hidden away in my multitude of photo albums, not all of which are labeled. 
  

MOVE THE DEER CROSSING

The newspaper ad has been around on Facebook, but not here at Wounded Bird, where I like to do my part to prevent deer from being wounded or killed by cars.

UPDATE:  susan s., says rather than an ad, the picture shows a short letter.  I think she's right.

A MAN I KNOW AND MY TATTOO

The other day I ran into an acquaintance in the supermarket, and he appeared rather cold and unfriendly.  I've known him for a long time, and I was puzzled about the coolness, so I chalked it up to the fact that he was with his long-time girlfriend.  The man was a single father for many years after his wife left him, and he cared for his children admirably.  Both children are now married and on their own.  A few years ago, he began to go around with  a nice woman, but when he told me about her, he went to great pains to assure me that they were "just good friends".  He's a loyal Catholic fella, and he cannot marry again in the church unless he gets an annulment.  It doesn't matter at all to me if the two are friends or lovers.  In fact, I rather hope they are lovers; he deserves it after what his ex-wife did to him.

But I digress.  A few days after I saw the man, Grandpère ran into him, and he said, "Tom, let me ask you something.  Is that a tattoo on June's ankle?"  GP answered, "Yes."  It seems the man was somewhat in shock at the sight of my tattoo, which was why he seemed unfriendly.  All right, then.

I had the tattoo done after Hurricane Katrina, when I went a little crazy about my beloved city of New Orleans and its people following the devastating flood that resulted from the breach of the federal levee system.  GP and I visited relatives in Kansas City not long after, and my nephew and his wife, who adore New Orleans, had just had fleur-de-lis tattoos done.  The flower is one of the symbols of NO, referring to its French history.  I told them that for several years, I had wanted a small tattoo, but I'd never really known what design I wanted nor had nerve enough to actually do it.  A small fleur-de-lis seemed like a splendid idea, but still I hesitated.  My nephew and his wife urged me on, "Do it!  Do it!";  I asked GP what he thought, and he said the decision was all mine.  Sooo I had the tattoo done, and, several years later, put my fellow citizen in shock.

I assume that anyone who takes the trouble to read this silly, all-about-me post will be curious to see the tattoo, so the picture is below.  Please disregard the varicose veins.

ME AND THE PALOMINO

Not Joyce - a palomino from the internet

My friend Georgianne posted pictures of her handsome palomino, Eddie, on Facebook, which reminded me that way back in the day, I had a boyfriend who owned horses.  I rode his beautiful palomino quarter horse named Joyce.  On our first ride on the West Bank of levee of the Mississippi River, Joyce sensed that I was uncertain and began to run up and down the levee...not straight ahead, but up and down the slope of the levee, which is rather steep in the vicinity of Gretna in Jefferson Parish.  I panicked, and my boyfriend had to ride to the rescue, just like in the westerns, and take the reins.  Picture me on the horse above, running up and down the levee.  I learned a good lesson from Joyce that day.  Take the reins, and at least act as though you're in charge.  Joyce was very well-trained; it was the rider who needed to learn.  I never became truly confident on a horse, which, as you know, is a large creature, as I always suspected the horse knew she/he had the upper hand - er - hoof.

My boyfriend rode Joyce in Mardi Gras parades with a group of members of a quarter horse club.  On occasion, she'd rear up on her hind legs in the excitement, giving the crowd a splendid display, but with my boyfriend praying that he could hang on, which he always did.  Joyce rode in quarter-mile races and participated in barrel races, calf roping, and other cowboy activities.  After the boyfriend and I broke up, I missed the Sunday afternoon rides and tried the horses at Audubon Park, but it was not the same, and I stopped riding.  Joyce spoiled me for rental horses.  When we traveled in the West, we sometimes took trail rides in the mountains, and, in addition to my worries about controlling the horse, there was the added worry that the horse would stumble and fall off the mountain trail. 

Remember Trigger, Roy Rogers' horse?  Palomino supreme.

SHAME ON YOU!

Think Progress reports:

The Daily Advertiser, a Gannett-owned paper serving central Louisiana, is standing by its decision to run an advertisement today in which a far-right extremist group suggests that President Obama and Democrats are conspiring to murder Catholics and Christians.

Publisher Karen J. Lincoln and the other deciders at the newspaper judged the ad shown below not to include "blatantly false, overly offensive or otherwise inappropriate content" for its market.

For shame!  As a citizen of the State of Louisiana, I am offended, ashamed, mortified beyond description that a newspaper would permit such an ad, no matter the market.

GOOD POPE JOHN

As I was reading Evening Prayer at The Daily Office, I scrolled down and saw the picture below, which brought a broad smile to my face.

What a lovely man.  I knew very little about John XXIII when he was elected pope, except that he was old and was widely expected to be a place-holder until the next pope, a younger man, would be elected. 

On 25 December 1958, he became the first pope since 1870 to make pastoral visits in his Diocese of Rome, when he visited children infected with polio at the Bambino Gesù Hospital and then visited Santo Spirito Hospital. The following day he visited Rome's Regina Coeli prison, where he told the inmates: "You could not come to me, so I came to you." These acts created a sensation, and he wrote in his diary:

...great astonishment in the Roman, Italian and international press. I was hemmed in on all sides: authorities, photographers, prisoners, wardens...

His frequent habit of sneaking out of the Vatican late at night to walk the streets of the city of Rome earned him the nickname "Johnny Walker", a pun on the whisky brand name.

What hope and excitement in the church about our new pope who wanted to "throw open the windows" after the long reign of the austere Pius XII, who was the only pope that many of us had known.  Good Pope John electrified the Roman Catholic Church and the world when he called for Vatican Council II. 

Collect of the Day: John XXIII, Bishop of Rome, 1963

Lord of all truth and peace, you raised up your bishop John to be servant of the servants of God and gave him wisdom to call for the work of renewing your Church: Grant that, following his example, we may reach out to other Christians to clasp them with the love of your Son, and labor throughout the nations of the world to kindle a desire for justice and peace; through Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The canonization of John XXIII is pending in the Roman Catholic Church.