Tuesday, October 2, 2012
"SEPTEMBER 29th, A PENDING AS IF"
September 29th, A Pending As IfMarthe is a new online friend who wrote the poem above and graciously gave me permission to publish her work here on Wounded Bird. The poem is truly fine writing - so beautiful and so perfect for the season. Of course, the words resonate for me in a very personal way as you see if you read the words beneath the title of my blog.
The chill begins, the softer bright
of shorter days, the slow adjustment
of chattering wings long last flight
toward the heat of promised love
as if instinct could be memory
of steady guidance from above.
Wiser ones than I know it’s true,
“faith is living as if in great hope”,
from seasons dark springs life anew;
objective harsh reality
counsels rational despair to seek
something more, One we cannot see.
Into the light some call fading
launched a flare of words, once desperate,
of the loneliness of wading
in the run-off of others’ hope,
in the wake of lives that matter;
did they not care? Or think the rope
coiled at their feet was there for show
but not for rescue of the flailing
ones comfort shuns and cannot know
if the illusion is to be
maintained that optimism alone
can change the course of history.
As if – imagination’s gift,
and one last line of poetry,
a ribbon cast into the rift
between what is and what might be,
if only as if could be enough –
leaves flame, fall, mute to gravity.
(Marthe G. Walsh - September 2012)
The photo is not the most beautiful of autumn foliage pictures, but it is mine. Here in south Louisiana, we do not generally have much leaf color because the first frost often comes too late in the season after the leaves have begun to fall from the trees. A couple of years ago the weather and the stars aligned just right to produce the colorful tree in front of our neighbor's house.
Marthe's two collections of poetry are available at Lulu.
TAKE THAT NEWHOUSE!
 |
| New Orleans edition of The Advocate |
The newspaper pictured above lay in our driveway yesterday morning. The management of the Baton Rouge Advocate stepped into the breach when Newhouse's Advance Publications decided to publish the paper edition of the venerable New Orleans Times-Picayune only three days a week starting October 1. The Baton Rouge paper, which is also venerable, will cover New Orleans news seven days a week in an edition that will be sold at newsstands and delivered to homes and businesses in New Orleans and the surrounding areas. The Advocate hired former members of the TP staff who had been dismissed by Advance to run the New Orleans bureau and will continue with its thorough coverage of state politics in the new edition. The response from people in greater NO and nearby parishes who wish to subscribe has been overwhelming, so much so, that the paper had to hire a call service to help handle requests for subscriptions.
Of course, it's not the same as having the Times-Picayune, which I read nearly my entire life since learning to read the funnies, and I'm still in mourning, but I'm very grateful for daily coverage of NO in a paper version. Soon after half the staff was fired, we cancelled our subscription to the TP, for the paper very soon became a shell of itself.
To mark the launch of the New Orleans edition, The Advocate is rolling out an advertising campaign across the Crescent City that will involve print, TV, radio and billboards.I wish The Advocate every success in its endeavor to give us a daily newspaper which covers the New Orleans area.
“We hope to get as many subscribers as possible,” [David] Manship [[publisher] said.
The Advocate’s coverage and staffing in New Orleans will get “bigger and better” as more subscribers get the newspaper.
Monday, October 1, 2012
MORE ON NO WHITE SMOKE
No easy task. So it must be important to make sure the candidates for the Archbishop of Canterbury are at the top of their game and picked in the most representative and transparent way possible, right? Wrong.In his column in The Independent Jerome Taylor explores not only the process of choosing the Archbishop of Canterbury but also the implications of the choice not only for the Church of England but for the Anglican Communion. The process seems strange to us in the Episcopal Church, for we elect our Presiding Bishop in a more democratic and less secretive process.
The method for choosing Dr Rowan Williams’ replacement is as arcane and archaic as it was in the time of Henry VIII. A secretive committee meets at a secretive location to discuss a never-made-public list. Two names are given to the Prime Minister who hands them over to the Queen. You can’t apply for the job and anyone who suggests too publicly that they want it, usually doesn’t get it.
With respect to the Anglican Communion, perhaps it's time to open the office of Primus inter pares to primates of other member churches in the Communion for a term of a set number of years, lasting not as long as the present Archbishop of Canterbury served in the role. Such an arrangement would relieve the archbishop of the onerous duty of playing the added role of leader of the Communion for his (for now) entire term of office.
And now perhaps I should move on to another subject. I have to say that to focus for a spell on the selection of the Archbishop of Canterbury was a welcome relief to the seemingly everlasting campaign season here in the US. On to the debates!
UPDATE: I should have noted that the position of Archbishop of Canterbury is not restricted to an Englishman, but the candidate must be a citizen of one of
Sunday, September 30, 2012
IRAN'S NUKE ACCORDING TO BIBI
Did anyone in the audience at the UN laugh out loud? How could they contain themselves upon seeing Netanyahu show a bomb right out of a Looney Tunes cartoon? My first thought was of Wile E. Cayote.
The Israeli Likud Party’s cover story for why it wants to draw the United States into a war with Iran makes no real sense. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been predicting an Iranian nuclear bomb since 1992 (a time when Iran had no nuclear program at all), and he has been wrong for 15 years in a row. Minister of Defense Ehud Barak and other Israeli officials have said publicly that Iran has not decided to go for a nuclear weapon. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has given more than one fatwa or formal religious ruling that making and stockpiling nuclear weapons are forbidden in Islamic law. Netanyahu is in a position similar to that of someone who wants to argue that Pope Benedict XVI secretly has a condom factory operating in the Vatican.Bibi makes the case for war with Iran on the same bases that he made the case for war in Iraq. By changing only one letter in the name of the country and using pretty much the same pattern of lies and misinformation which were successful in persuading Cheney/Bush to launch a war in Iraq, Bibi's script promoting an attack on Iran was written. Check out the 2002 video of Bibi's testimony before Congress, explaining the dangers of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, which were later proved to be non-existent.
Check out the winners of the caption contest of the photo above at The New Yorker.
STILL NO WHITE SMOKE
Thinking Anglicans has many more links to articles on the Crown Nominations Commission's efforts to complete the task of choosing the next Archbishop of Canterbury.The panel choosing the next archbishop of Canterbury is rumoured to be deadlocked after meeting in secrecy for three days last week.
The lack of a clear winner so far has led to speculation that the original frontrunner, the archbishop of York, John Sentamu, has divided the Crown Nominations Commission, and that he may even be out of the race.
Reports indicated that the 16-strong panel may also have ruled out the bishop of London, the Rt Rev Richard Chartres.
It is understood the panel will be holding a further session, indicating it has been unable to agree on a candidate.
....
Other frontrunners in contention are the bishop of Durham, Justin Welby, and the bishop of Norwich, Graham James.
From the comments at Thinking Anglicans;
If stalemate or deadlock really has resulted at the last meeting of the CNC - then why not have a period of interregnum in order to reflect thoughtfully and prayerfully on who should succeed the saintly Rowan? After all - in a bid to economise many dioceses seems to positively encourage long interregnums in parishes - often of two years or more - in order to save on stipends. That is unless the benefice becomes a "House for Duty" parish - as the number of these former livings seem to grow by the week in the advert columns of the Church Times. Now, there's a thought - why not a "Palace (or two) for Duty" for the next ABC?Heh heh.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - ETERNAL LIFE
If you are a blogger and do not believe in eternal life, then you must never have hit publish by mistake and had to delete a post. The post remains alive and visible in Google Reader forever and ever. Amen.
STORY OF THE DAY - 'SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER'
Still in his Saturday Night Fever stage, because afterFrom StoryPeople.
all these years in corporate, it was the last time he can
remember when he really felt alive.
Friday, September 28, 2012
NO WHITE SMOKE YET
According to Ruth Gledhill in the Times:
The body responsible for choosing the next Archbishop of Canterbury has failed to agree who should be the successor to Dr Rowan Williams.
Despite a three day session, aided by prayers invoked on Twitter with the hashtage #prayforthecnc, the 16-member committee has been unable to decide on who should take on the job that the present incumbent today implied was “impossible”.
SHE WAS MEAN TO ME
“I think we have a very clear path to victory, and apparently Claire McCaskill thinks we do, too, because she was very aggressive at the debate, which was quite different than it was when she ran against Jim Talent,” Akin said. “She had a confidence and was much more ladylike (in 2006), but in the debate on Friday she came out swinging, and I think that’s because she feels threatened.”This is the same Todd Akin who said women rarely become pregnant from "legitimate rape".
So. According to Akin, Sen. Claire McCaskill is aggressive and unladylike. Sounds to me as if Akin is the one who feels threatened. Poor baby. A good many Republicans urged Akin to drop out of the race after his "legitimate rape" comments and allow another Republican to replace him, but he didn't. Now some Republicans are, once again, rallying round.
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