virga - wisps of precipitation which evaporate before reaching the ground
(I suppose I should've worked it so that my 500th post was something more significant, but then again, that includes six that I started but never finished, so there's still time to do something for my 500th published post. Or not.)
Monday, October 31, 2011
Sunday, October 30, 2011
A covered bridge, to . . . ?
This afternoon with my grown daughter was a really precious time.
Character?
It isn't what we think or feel, but it is the choices we make, including those to redirect our thoughts and feelings. I started to suggest that those are simply brain chemistry, but maybe that's true of our choices, too. At any rate, I believe our character lies in our choices, our decisions to do what the person we aspire to be would do, to live as the best-version-of-ourselves even when some part of us might want to choose another direction. It isn't the disregarding of our thoughts and feelings, but putting them into their proper context. It is choosing to be a loving person, doing what is best for the ones we love rather than what we think will bring us pleasure or satisfaction.
That all sounds harsh, though. It is loving ourselves enough to be molded or grown into a better person. It is doing what we think is right not out of sheer, imposed discipline, but because what we desire more is to be the person we know we're growing into, ultimately the very presence of Christ in the world through submission to the Father's will in the grace and power of the Holy Spirit.
That all sounds harsh, though. It is loving ourselves enough to be molded or grown into a better person. It is doing what we think is right not out of sheer, imposed discipline, but because what we desire more is to be the person we know we're growing into, ultimately the very presence of Christ in the world through submission to the Father's will in the grace and power of the Holy Spirit.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Today's words
The first comes to my attention not from the Merriam-Webster site (though the definition is from there) but from 9 Chickweed Lane, which has become one of my guilty comic pleasures:
cloaca - the common chamber into which the intestinal and urogenital tracts discharge especially in monotreme mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and elasmobranch fishes; also : a comparable chamber of an invertebrate
Apparently it is also a synonym for "sewer." (No, not a person who sews.)
Oh, and:
monotreme - any of an order (Monotremata) of egg-laying mammals comprising the platypuses and echidnas (from the Greek for one hole)
which of course brings us:
echidna - a spiny-coated toothless burrowing nocturnal monotreme mammal (Tachyglossus aculeatus) of Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea that has a long extensible tongue and long heavy claws and that feeds chiefly on ants; also : a related mammal (Zaglossus bruijni) of New Guinea having a longer snout and shorter spines
None of these is likely to make its way into my working vocabulary. And with apologies to any readers who may have encountered this before I had a chance to flesh it out.
cloaca - the common chamber into which the intestinal and urogenital tracts discharge especially in monotreme mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and elasmobranch fishes; also : a comparable chamber of an invertebrate
Apparently it is also a synonym for "sewer." (No, not a person who sews.)
Oh, and:
monotreme - any of an order (Monotremata) of egg-laying mammals comprising the platypuses and echidnas (from the Greek for one hole)
which of course brings us:
echidna - a spiny-coated toothless burrowing nocturnal monotreme mammal (Tachyglossus aculeatus) of Australia, Tasmania, and New Guinea that has a long extensible tongue and long heavy claws and that feeds chiefly on ants; also : a related mammal (Zaglossus bruijni) of New Guinea having a longer snout and shorter spines
None of these is likely to make its way into my working vocabulary. And with apologies to any readers who may have encountered this before I had a chance to flesh it out.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Today's word
Catachresis - Use of the wrong word for the context
You'd think this word would be in my vocabulary already. Also, not to be confused with "catechesis."
You'd think this word would be in my vocabulary already. Also, not to be confused with "catechesis."
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
God is too busy
I often see or hear people express thoughts along these lines: "If there's a God, that entity has far more significant things to be concerned with than X."
Such people have either failed to consider all the implications of omnipotency and omnisciency, or they've concluded that since God hasn't fixed A, B, or C that there can't really be any such thing as an omnipotent, omniscient, all-loving God.
Since there is ample room in such a God's attention span for your immediate concerns, the only remaining issue is whether God exists or not. Since we can't know, since we must take God's existence as an element of faith supported by our interpretation of the evidence we encounter, we may as well put our every need before God in addition to doing what we think is best about things. After all, there is no evidence of God that some people won't insist on poking holes through, just as there is no event that some people won't interpret as evidence of God.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Today's word . . .
. . . and a second creepy subject for my blog today:
pediculous - lice infested
And let's not forget its relatives: pediculosis (a lice infection), pedicular (of or relating to lice), pediculoid (resembling or related to the common louse or lice), and pediculicide (an agent that kills lice). I think we can safely ignore Pediculid (a specific type of louse of the family Pediculidae) if we're not entomologists.
Definitely TMI
Okay, here's a minor annoyance, especially in comparison with what people I love have been up against lately, but it's mine and it's gross and I'm going to write about it anyway. I've warned you twice now right here up front not to read this, so any disgusting images it may leave in your imagination are no longer my responsibility. I've been looking for a chance to vent about this since yesterday afternoon, and have had my thoughts rightly elsewhere, but now I'm going to let loose:
I just hate it when I start getting intestinal rumblings somewhere when I don't have the luxury of just releasing the flatus that's causing it, so the pressure keeps building up until I'm out of the restrictive environment, but then it becomes apparent that I still can't release because there's more than simply gas in the, er, evacuation path, so I make my way hurriedly to a commode where I ungird myself and quickly sit in anticipation of the relief that is finally so near, and relax my sphincter, only the solid fecal matter present in my rectum intestinum is propelled so forcefully by the pressure of the flatus behind it that it becomes a projectile into the water in the commode, which then splashes disgustingly all over, well, all of my downward facing anatomy, covering my nether parts with the water laden with all of the bacteria accumulated from the waste of however many people have used this fixture since it was last disinfected - an especially disconcerting thought when I've been forced to use a public facility; after all, this never seems to happen at home where it would be more convenient - which then remains on the skin of my private parts until I become certain that I'm not going to need to repeat the process of wiping it off due to another similar expulsion; the eventual cleaning up of the disgusting mess requires a copious amount of toilet tissue and makes me wish that the custom of the bidet was more widespread in our culture as I always feel still contaminated and germ-laden, and I must then hug the bacteria to myself by re-girding with my clothes, after which I can wash my hands but usually not my loins.
Ugh.
I just hate it when I start getting intestinal rumblings somewhere when I don't have the luxury of just releasing the flatus that's causing it, so the pressure keeps building up until I'm out of the restrictive environment, but then it becomes apparent that I still can't release because there's more than simply gas in the, er, evacuation path, so I make my way hurriedly to a commode where I ungird myself and quickly sit in anticipation of the relief that is finally so near, and relax my sphincter, only the solid fecal matter present in my rectum intestinum is propelled so forcefully by the pressure of the flatus behind it that it becomes a projectile into the water in the commode, which then splashes disgustingly all over, well, all of my downward facing anatomy, covering my nether parts with the water laden with all of the bacteria accumulated from the waste of however many people have used this fixture since it was last disinfected - an especially disconcerting thought when I've been forced to use a public facility; after all, this never seems to happen at home where it would be more convenient - which then remains on the skin of my private parts until I become certain that I'm not going to need to repeat the process of wiping it off due to another similar expulsion; the eventual cleaning up of the disgusting mess requires a copious amount of toilet tissue and makes me wish that the custom of the bidet was more widespread in our culture as I always feel still contaminated and germ-laden, and I must then hug the bacteria to myself by re-girding with my clothes, after which I can wash my hands but usually not my loins.
Ugh.
Monday, October 24, 2011
I must praise God
I have only discovered one way to keep my balance in life: I must praise God.
When I feel distant or alienated from people I love, it's usually because I have lost track of the treasure they are for me. I must praise God, and thank him for putting them in my life.
When I feel overwhelmed at work and unable to appreciate my job, it's usually because I've lost sight of the blessings both of meaningful work in its own right and the way it provides for what my family needs. Sometimes it is also because I am getting an inordinately inflated opinion of my value. I may also become fearful of the future because of job uncertainty. In all these cases I must praise God for his consistent providence, including the gifts he has given me, that he works through to provide for us and and for my coworkers. And I must prayerfully trust him to open doors to a new workplace if that is his will for me.
When I feel dissatisfied with my home, car, or any other material thing in or missing from my life, it's usually because I have become too focused on the physical world and its offerings wonderful and distracting. It is so easy to become materialistic! I must praise God, and again thank him for giving me every thing that is good for me and for keeping me from things which are not.
When I feel overwhelmed by the challenges before me, it is undoubtedly because I've forgotten that I'm not supposed to be handling them on my own. I'm yoked to the Lord, who does the work through the people and resources he has placed into my life. I must praise God and thank him for providing a way for me, even when I cannot see it clearly.
When I doubt the Lord's presence, I often find it is because I have let my mind become full of worldly ways of looking at things. The ways I interpret and respond to the things that happen to me are rooted in whatever viewpoint I have planted myself in. I must praise God and plant myself in his present reality, and echo the prayer of the father whose son was possessed by a spirit, "I do believe; help my unbelief," and remember that God meets me wherever I am in my faith.
It isn't that I'm not supposed to do anything else about any of the above, but that I must do whatever else I should do in the context of praising God. In fact, I posit that I cannot properly ascertain what else I should do until after I have given God his proper place in my life and in this situation.
(Every now and then I am inspired to write something that I'm concerned others might interpret as a lecture for them. This being one of those posts, let me underscore that this is merely a reminder for me. If the shoe fits the reader, too, well, praise God: both that need and our awareness of it are good things!)
When I feel distant or alienated from people I love, it's usually because I have lost track of the treasure they are for me. I must praise God, and thank him for putting them in my life.
When I feel overwhelmed at work and unable to appreciate my job, it's usually because I've lost sight of the blessings both of meaningful work in its own right and the way it provides for what my family needs. Sometimes it is also because I am getting an inordinately inflated opinion of my value. I may also become fearful of the future because of job uncertainty. In all these cases I must praise God for his consistent providence, including the gifts he has given me, that he works through to provide for us and and for my coworkers. And I must prayerfully trust him to open doors to a new workplace if that is his will for me.
When I feel dissatisfied with my home, car, or any other material thing in or missing from my life, it's usually because I have become too focused on the physical world and its offerings wonderful and distracting. It is so easy to become materialistic! I must praise God, and again thank him for giving me every thing that is good for me and for keeping me from things which are not.
When I feel overwhelmed by the challenges before me, it is undoubtedly because I've forgotten that I'm not supposed to be handling them on my own. I'm yoked to the Lord, who does the work through the people and resources he has placed into my life. I must praise God and thank him for providing a way for me, even when I cannot see it clearly.
When I doubt the Lord's presence, I often find it is because I have let my mind become full of worldly ways of looking at things. The ways I interpret and respond to the things that happen to me are rooted in whatever viewpoint I have planted myself in. I must praise God and plant myself in his present reality, and echo the prayer of the father whose son was possessed by a spirit, "I do believe; help my unbelief," and remember that God meets me wherever I am in my faith.
It isn't that I'm not supposed to do anything else about any of the above, but that I must do whatever else I should do in the context of praising God. In fact, I posit that I cannot properly ascertain what else I should do until after I have given God his proper place in my life and in this situation.
(Every now and then I am inspired to write something that I'm concerned others might interpret as a lecture for them. This being one of those posts, let me underscore that this is merely a reminder for me. If the shoe fits the reader, too, well, praise God: both that need and our awareness of it are good things!)
Sunday, October 23, 2011
The girl I fell in love with
It was so weird and wonderful ("Oh Bennie, she's really keen!"). As we lay in bed last night, I suddenly, somehow found myself laying next to someone I hadn't been in touch with for years. Instead of my 50-ish wife, I was with my high school sweetheart! I don't know how the years melted away so magically, but I held my hand against my girlfriend's cheek and caressed and hugged her, suddenly very in contact with the fervor of our youth. It wasn't a moment of sexual intimacy, just an appreciation of how we really still are the same people - and yet very different ones - from the kids who first fell so deeply in adolescent love over 35 years ago.
I didn't get a chance to express any of that before she told me I was being silly. But it was still a very special moment.
I didn't get a chance to express any of that before she told me I was being silly. But it was still a very special moment.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Remembering Mom
Edited/expanded from FB post:
Ten years ago, as the country was still dealing with the confusing and frightening aftermath of a tragic attack, I bid farewell to someone who made all the difference for me. She embraced every challenge of raising a son and daughter with minimal help - and often great hindrance - from the men who should have been a strengthening influence on us. She saw me through every crisis in the first four decades of my life, always offering her perspective freely when asked but, in my adulthood at least, never forcing it on me. She taught me how to face my challenges head on, how to embrace others in spite of their hurtful decisions without abandoning myself, and how commited love applied and tended in the right way can coax a breathtaking rose out what seems nothing but manure. She did all these things in the only way that really matters: by her example.
I'll never forget moving my young family from Maryland to my first duty assignment in Biloxi, MS. I was in a six-month tech school, and the Air Force wouldn't move the family until I reached my first permanent base. It seemed like forever to a young groom who'd only been married for a few months, and especially for a bride who was caring for two young children without really knowing how to! I arranged to rent a truck, and a fellow new airman from Delaware was to fly home that same holiday weekend and help me drive back with our stuff. His flight didn't work out, somehow. Mom, seeing the quandary I was in, just agreed to help me drive down, without my even asking her. We stopped at her then-boyfriend's place in Georgia - though it's suburbia now, it was out in the sticks back then! - and, as we were stopped by the roadside looking over the map to figure out how to get there from the highway (she'd always gone from the other direction, and never at night), I remember our nervous response as we were visited by one of north Georgia's finest! We slept for just a few hours and got back on the road to Biloxi, where my friends helped us unload the truck. We then drove another two hours to deliver mom to the airport in New Orleans and drop off the truck. After scoping out where the rental needed to be returned, we drove to the airport, only to discover too late that the truck couldn't make it under the clearance of the airport arrival or departure area. So in the middle of a typical Gulf Coast afternoon squall, there was mom getting drenched in the middle of an intersection, directing traffic so I could get that truck turned around. She had to walk into the airport and catch her flight while I returned the truck, getting drenched myself on the hitchhike/walk back to the airport, where I dried my shirt a bit using on one of the hand dryers in the restroom before catching the shuttle back to Keesler. We laughed often and heartily over that story over the next twenty years, and I've missed being able to share it with her for the last decade.
I love and miss you, Mom, beyond telling. Pray for us.
Ten years ago, as the country was still dealing with the confusing and frightening aftermath of a tragic attack, I bid farewell to someone who made all the difference for me. She embraced every challenge of raising a son and daughter with minimal help - and often great hindrance - from the men who should have been a strengthening influence on us. She saw me through every crisis in the first four decades of my life, always offering her perspective freely when asked but, in my adulthood at least, never forcing it on me. She taught me how to face my challenges head on, how to embrace others in spite of their hurtful decisions without abandoning myself, and how commited love applied and tended in the right way can coax a breathtaking rose out what seems nothing but manure. She did all these things in the only way that really matters: by her example.
I'll never forget moving my young family from Maryland to my first duty assignment in Biloxi, MS. I was in a six-month tech school, and the Air Force wouldn't move the family until I reached my first permanent base. It seemed like forever to a young groom who'd only been married for a few months, and especially for a bride who was caring for two young children without really knowing how to! I arranged to rent a truck, and a fellow new airman from Delaware was to fly home that same holiday weekend and help me drive back with our stuff. His flight didn't work out, somehow. Mom, seeing the quandary I was in, just agreed to help me drive down, without my even asking her. We stopped at her then-boyfriend's place in Georgia - though it's suburbia now, it was out in the sticks back then! - and, as we were stopped by the roadside looking over the map to figure out how to get there from the highway (she'd always gone from the other direction, and never at night), I remember our nervous response as we were visited by one of north Georgia's finest! We slept for just a few hours and got back on the road to Biloxi, where my friends helped us unload the truck. We then drove another two hours to deliver mom to the airport in New Orleans and drop off the truck. After scoping out where the rental needed to be returned, we drove to the airport, only to discover too late that the truck couldn't make it under the clearance of the airport arrival or departure area. So in the middle of a typical Gulf Coast afternoon squall, there was mom getting drenched in the middle of an intersection, directing traffic so I could get that truck turned around. She had to walk into the airport and catch her flight while I returned the truck, getting drenched myself on the hitchhike/walk back to the airport, where I dried my shirt a bit using on one of the hand dryers in the restroom before catching the shuttle back to Keesler. We laughed often and heartily over that story over the next twenty years, and I've missed being able to share it with her for the last decade.
I love and miss you, Mom, beyond telling. Pray for us.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
I yam what I yam
The original, first-person form of "it is what it is" wasn't nearly so annoying as that phrase has become. Maybe its context made it more palatable.
A comic strip today reminds me of how I wonder, sometimes, whether everyone longs for characteristics which aren't theirs, or if it's just a relative smattering of us. I suspect it's a pretty large majority, yet also guess there's no point in belaboring that further with a list of traits that I wish were mine.
A comic strip today reminds me of how I wonder, sometimes, whether everyone longs for characteristics which aren't theirs, or if it's just a relative smattering of us. I suspect it's a pretty large majority, yet also guess there's no point in belaboring that further with a list of traits that I wish were mine.
Today's words
The first I'd likely have guessed if I'd seen the word before the definition, especially in context, but it's still a new word for me. The suspected etymology of the second is interesting:
Circumlunar - revolving about or surrounding the moon
Bumbershoot - umbrella
Circumlunar - revolving about or surrounding the moon
Bumbershoot - umbrella
Monday, October 17, 2011
Downside, upside
Being around so many people I love and miss over the pass few days has been wonderful, but has also served to remind me of the holes left in my life by their absence. I awoke this morning acutely aware of these and others who are not so present to me any more.
But I was soon aware that I had my attention in the wrong place again. Each of these dear ones is bound to me by the love of God in the Holy Spirit, and immediately on recalling that truth my heart felt an inrush of God's presence, lifting me up, returning my thoughts to the knowledge that each relationship serves the greater purpose of bringing us ever closer to Him. We are bound up together in Christ, and no amount of time and distance can ever truly separate us!
I've been recalling you and lifting you up before the Lord this morning, dear loved ones past and present, that you too may find yourself touched by infinite love this day.
But I was soon aware that I had my attention in the wrong place again. Each of these dear ones is bound to me by the love of God in the Holy Spirit, and immediately on recalling that truth my heart felt an inrush of God's presence, lifting me up, returning my thoughts to the knowledge that each relationship serves the greater purpose of bringing us ever closer to Him. We are bound up together in Christ, and no amount of time and distance can ever truly separate us!
I've been recalling you and lifting you up before the Lord this morning, dear loved ones past and present, that you too may find yourself touched by infinite love this day.
New word
From Friday's WOTD:
Hendiadys - the expression of an idea by the use of usually two independent words connected by and (as nice and warm)
This is one I will probably tend to forget, as I'm getting old and forgetful.
Hendiadys - the expression of an idea by the use of usually two independent words connected by and (as nice and warm)
This is one I will probably tend to forget, as I'm getting old and forgetful.
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
:/
I find I can't really write about what's on my mind. I just hope this sense of ennui and malaise is merely my traditional autumn mood. I need to get my eyes outward more consistently . . .
Today's words
Cockaigne - an imaginary land of great luxury and ease
I kind of knew this because of The Joy of Cooking, in which the authors use it in the name of recipes they feel are particularly noteworthy. But I'd forgotten it.
Ruritanian - of, relating to, or having the characteristics of an imaginary place of high romance
Ruritania first appears about 6 centuries after Cockaigne.
I kind of knew this because of The Joy of Cooking, in which the authors use it in the name of recipes they feel are particularly noteworthy. But I'd forgotten it.
Ruritanian - of, relating to, or having the characteristics of an imaginary place of high romance
Ruritania first appears about 6 centuries after Cockaigne.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Today's word
No new WOTDs over the weekend, but this from one of the weekend's puzzles:
Corroborant: having an invigorating effect - used of a medicine
Why they're throwing in archaic terms is beyond me . . .
Corroborant: having an invigorating effect - used of a medicine
Why they're throwing in archaic terms is beyond me . . .
Friday, October 07, 2011
Today's words
Widdershins - in a left-handed, wrong, or contrary direction; counterclockwise
Deasil - clockwise
Deasil - clockwise
Thursday, October 06, 2011
Wednesday, October 05, 2011
O God, Beyond All Praising
By request the choir is pulling out this song we haven't done in ten years for this weekend's liturgy. I love the song, and especially resonated with this part of the third verse:
. . . And whether our tomorrows
be filled with good or ill,
we'll triumph though our sorrows
and rise to bless you still:
to marvel at your beauty
and glory in your ways . . .
. . . And whether our tomorrows
be filled with good or ill,
we'll triumph though our sorrows
and rise to bless you still:
to marvel at your beauty
and glory in your ways . . .
Today's word
Actually, this isn't a word I didn't know, just one I've always (evidently) mispronounced:
Pathos - 1. an element in experience or in artistic representation evoking pity or compassion. 2. an emotion of sympathetic pity.
I don't know that I've ever said it aloud, but I've always mentally prounounced it as path-ose rather than pay-thahss.
Also, I was pretty frustrated by today's review word, seeing as I sent them a spelling correction about it because the WOTD link didn't match the spelling of the word it pointed to: preprandial.
Pathos - 1. an element in experience or in artistic representation evoking pity or compassion. 2. an emotion of sympathetic pity.
I don't know that I've ever said it aloud, but I've always mentally prounounced it as path-ose rather than pay-thahss.
Also, I was pretty frustrated by today's review word, seeing as I sent them a spelling correction about it because the WOTD link didn't match the spelling of the word it pointed to: preprandial.
Tuesday, October 04, 2011
Today's words
Hamartia - fatal flaw
Polyglot - adj. 1. speaking or writing several languages. 2. containing matter in several languages. noun. 1. one who is polyglot. 2. a book containing the same text in several languages. 3. a mixture or confusion of languages or nomenclatures.
Polyglot - adj. 1. speaking or writing several languages. 2. containing matter in several languages. noun. 1. one who is polyglot. 2. a book containing the same text in several languages. 3. a mixture or confusion of languages or nomenclatures.
Monday, October 03, 2011
Baking a cake
My way: choose a recipe that looks tempting and make it from scratch.
Your way: buy a boxed mix and a container of frosting.
What is wrong with me? Why do I insist on thinking that my way is better? Or, more to the point, why do I disdain yours?
Your way: buy a boxed mix and a container of frosting.
What is wrong with me? Why do I insist on thinking that my way is better? Or, more to the point, why do I disdain yours?
Today's words
Can't believe I didn't record anything from the WOTD while we were gone. Must've been too busy enjoying time with our grandchildren!
Corrade - to wear or crumble away by abrasion
Factitious - 1. produced by humans rather than by natural forces. 2. not natural or genuine : artificial
Moiety - one of two equal parts
Baksheesh - payment (such as a tip or bribe) to expedite service
Climacteric - 1. a major turning point or critical stage 2. male or female menopause 3. the marked and sudden rise in the respiratory rate of fruit just prior to full ripening
(I didn't know that fruit respired, per se, but I suppose that makes sense.)
Corrade - to wear or crumble away by abrasion
Factitious - 1. produced by humans rather than by natural forces. 2. not natural or genuine : artificial
Moiety - one of two equal parts
Baksheesh - payment (such as a tip or bribe) to expedite service
Climacteric - 1. a major turning point or critical stage 2. male or female menopause 3. the marked and sudden rise in the respiratory rate of fruit just prior to full ripening
(I didn't know that fruit respired, per se, but I suppose that makes sense.)
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