Thursday, October 27, 2011
More Light
Last weekend, T and I went to Columbus where he experienced the basic degrees of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. He entered the gentle craft shortly after his graduation from high school, and before he left for the Marine Corps. While he was home on convalescence leave after the second tour to Afghanistan, he and Danny Meenach, an old friend of the family, were made Mark Masters and initiated into the mysteries of the Holy Royal Arch. And now he joins so many others as a Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret. Exquisite and self-important titles apart, the higher degrees of the Royal Craft are designed to transmit those lessons of responsible manhood which are so often not passed on in society in any age. Personal responsibility, dedication to God, high minded citizenship, commitment to your own beliefs and principles while tolerating and understanding those of other people, and the brotherhood of man, are all taught in the higher degrees. While the French degrees of the Scottish Rite tend to be a bit more emotive and radical than the stately experiences of the British degrees of Mark Master and Royal Arch, they are every bit as profound, and their Gallican flavour stirs the soul to great ideas and greater deeds. It is good to go with my son to a place where good men gather to learn more about being better. The feel of an all male lodge is different from other venues for the transmission of values I have known. It is more primal, and more visceral in some ways. I am glad to be able to pass on to my son what I received from my father. In spite of creaking knees and failing memory, growing older has its own set of blessings that I could never have known as a younger man. For such blessings I am eternally thankful.
Musings on Tomorrow's Shoot
The terriers are wrestling on the couch, and the night is late. Tomorrow begins early, and much of this evening has been spent in preparation for the day. It will be the third pheasant shoot of the season, and Tristan's first since his return from the war. Chuck will be by with Fat Leo the Labrador shortly after breakfast, and we will drive to Buckeye Pheasants, just west of Dayton, and Tristan will drive up from the university to meet us there. He has asked me to bring his grandfather's Model Twelve pump and the Uplander double, both in 16 gauge (his deceased grandfather's gauge of choice.) It will be interesting to see which gun he hunts with tomorrow. He handles a pump very well, but very agressively, like a Marine infantryman on patrol. The double by comparison is more of a gentleman's gun, slower and more deliberate. I often wonder how much the fleet stays with him, and his choice tomorrow might indicate where his heart truly resides. If he is anything like my dad, his grandfather, the fleet will never be far from his thoughts, even as the years make him more and more of a civilian. It is so very good to have him home at last.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Back In The Saddle Again
It seems like years since I've posted anything. Amidst my complete disinterest in technology, I forgot how to access my blogspot account. But now I am back again. Any time I am faced with technology, I seem to hear far off in the distance, a faint voice chanting "One ring to rule them all! One ring to rule them all! One ring to rule them all!"
Not that much has changed since I last posted, but my attitudes seem to be changing a bit. Beating cancer on a couple of occasions has a way of helping one to see how unimportant and insignificant most things we worry about really are. Tristan's wounds in Afghanistan (from which he is completely recovered) remind me that most of the other problems in my life were just minor background noise. And the knowledge that my particular positions in the Episcopal Church's late unpleasantness have been determined to be the loser, even though I continue to hold them vigorously, has been extremely liberating. Perhaps like that old Jacobite clansman who happened to be abroad on business during the '45, and who therefore survived the Hanoverian ascendancy, I am now free to be a bit odd but not much of a threat to anyone. I can toast who and what I like, and be a bit quirky (but not too quirky) without fear of imprisonment or exile. Such powerlessness is not necessarily a bad thing.
Perhaps it is from such a position that true holiness is to be found. Once we realize that we exercise no control, we are free to acknowledge with our hearts, as well as with our heads, that God is in control. I am free to pray the old prayers with the old rubrics to my heart's content, in the knowledge that living for Christ is all that remains. And that is not a bad feeling. I daresay it might be a good thing to wish it for all of my friends.
In any event, I am back, and I hope that these disorganized ramblings might be of some hope or encouragement to some fellow traveler somewhere in the blogosphere. May God bless us all with peace as we wind our ways to heaven.
In Christ,
Bill+
Not that much has changed since I last posted, but my attitudes seem to be changing a bit. Beating cancer on a couple of occasions has a way of helping one to see how unimportant and insignificant most things we worry about really are. Tristan's wounds in Afghanistan (from which he is completely recovered) remind me that most of the other problems in my life were just minor background noise. And the knowledge that my particular positions in the Episcopal Church's late unpleasantness have been determined to be the loser, even though I continue to hold them vigorously, has been extremely liberating. Perhaps like that old Jacobite clansman who happened to be abroad on business during the '45, and who therefore survived the Hanoverian ascendancy, I am now free to be a bit odd but not much of a threat to anyone. I can toast who and what I like, and be a bit quirky (but not too quirky) without fear of imprisonment or exile. Such powerlessness is not necessarily a bad thing.
Perhaps it is from such a position that true holiness is to be found. Once we realize that we exercise no control, we are free to acknowledge with our hearts, as well as with our heads, that God is in control. I am free to pray the old prayers with the old rubrics to my heart's content, in the knowledge that living for Christ is all that remains. And that is not a bad feeling. I daresay it might be a good thing to wish it for all of my friends.
In any event, I am back, and I hope that these disorganized ramblings might be of some hope or encouragement to some fellow traveler somewhere in the blogosphere. May God bless us all with peace as we wind our ways to heaven.
In Christ,
Bill+
Monday, June 20, 2011
"We must cultivate our garden." with apologies to Voltaire
Rector’s Rambling July 2011
Weeding seems to consume most of my July every year. As I was crawling along on all fours earlier this week, it occurred to me that life is a lot like weeding the garden, and so I offer these few mid-summer reflections:
1. CIVILIZATION IS LIKE A WELL WEEDED GARDEN, IT USUALLY DISAPPEARS BY DEGREES, NOT IN ONE CATASTROPHIC EVENT. I recently attended a funeral ( or was it a graduation, the story is the same) where people were dressed in ways that could only be described as grungy, and where general behavior failed to lend the proper dignity to the occasion. I don’t remember waking up one morning and seeing large numbers of people in torn jeans or tee shirts without proper undergarments at what had once been considered formal, or at least “dress up” functions. Neither do I remember getting up one morning and seeing three foot specimens of Queen Ann’s Lace growing in my runner beans. It happened by degrees because we stopped doing the little things which show respect to other people and lend dignity to special occasions. Perhaps if we all started with small things, like saying “please” and “thank you,” we could at least get back to business casual or better as a way of showing respect for special days and special people.
2. PEOPLE TEND TO VALUE THINGS THEY HAVE TO WORK FOR. Peas are a precious commodity to me. They are probably one of the most labour intensive crops in my garden. I generally share tomatoes, and green beans, and even my glorious Yukon gold potatoes; but almost never my peas. They involve too much work to think that someone might leave a few on the plate at the end of a meal. It is easy to take things for granted if we don’t work hard for them- things like our church, our town, and our friendships. It would be a better world, a more invested world, if we all looked at our schedules and determined to work hard, even sacrificially, in one area of our community life which impacts others in a meaningful way.
3. SOMETIMES, YOU HAVE TO LET A BIT OF THE BAD GROW ALONGSIDE THE GOOD. The aforementioned peas are a case in point. Garden peas have very shallow root systems. Pulling up deep rooted perennial weeds in the vicinity of peas often uproots the pea plant as well. Sometimes it is better to trim the weed that the pea plant might live. It is the same with people whom God has not finished with quite yet. (I think that includes all of us!) A little patience and a willingness to tolerate mixed results in the short term can bring real blessings in the end.
4. EVEN WHEN I WORK HARD, THINGS DON’T ALWAYS WORK OUT THE WAY I HAD HOPED THEY WOULD. I weeded faithfully this year, built trellises, and purchased good seed. The first two plantings of beans, and the first planting of peas still rotted in the ground from too much rain. And so I tilled and planted again. Like is a lot like that. Sometimes our plans don’t work out, but persistence and hard work generally pay off. Life is filled with “unforeseen occurrences” but the general principles remain the same. If we love God and those among whom he has placed us (even the ones we don’t like), if we work hard and in harmony with the principles of God revealed in Nature and the Bible, we are much more likely to have a good life than if we try another method.
5. THERE WILL ALWAYS BE ANOTHER WEED THIS SIDE OF HEAVEN. I started pulling weeds in March and will stop about the end of February. So in life there will always be another aggravation, another sinful failure, another temptation, another problem, another issue, another person who refuses to be helpful just because that’s the way they are. But we who eat the Flesh of God, we who drink His Blood, we who are Signed by the Cross and Marked as Christ’s own forever, know that God’s grace is sufficient for the work at hand, and that one day we will reign with Him in glory.
6. AMEN, AND AMEN!
Sincerely,
Bill+
Weeding seems to consume most of my July every year. As I was crawling along on all fours earlier this week, it occurred to me that life is a lot like weeding the garden, and so I offer these few mid-summer reflections:
1. CIVILIZATION IS LIKE A WELL WEEDED GARDEN, IT USUALLY DISAPPEARS BY DEGREES, NOT IN ONE CATASTROPHIC EVENT. I recently attended a funeral ( or was it a graduation, the story is the same) where people were dressed in ways that could only be described as grungy, and where general behavior failed to lend the proper dignity to the occasion. I don’t remember waking up one morning and seeing large numbers of people in torn jeans or tee shirts without proper undergarments at what had once been considered formal, or at least “dress up” functions. Neither do I remember getting up one morning and seeing three foot specimens of Queen Ann’s Lace growing in my runner beans. It happened by degrees because we stopped doing the little things which show respect to other people and lend dignity to special occasions. Perhaps if we all started with small things, like saying “please” and “thank you,” we could at least get back to business casual or better as a way of showing respect for special days and special people.
2. PEOPLE TEND TO VALUE THINGS THEY HAVE TO WORK FOR. Peas are a precious commodity to me. They are probably one of the most labour intensive crops in my garden. I generally share tomatoes, and green beans, and even my glorious Yukon gold potatoes; but almost never my peas. They involve too much work to think that someone might leave a few on the plate at the end of a meal. It is easy to take things for granted if we don’t work hard for them- things like our church, our town, and our friendships. It would be a better world, a more invested world, if we all looked at our schedules and determined to work hard, even sacrificially, in one area of our community life which impacts others in a meaningful way.
3. SOMETIMES, YOU HAVE TO LET A BIT OF THE BAD GROW ALONGSIDE THE GOOD. The aforementioned peas are a case in point. Garden peas have very shallow root systems. Pulling up deep rooted perennial weeds in the vicinity of peas often uproots the pea plant as well. Sometimes it is better to trim the weed that the pea plant might live. It is the same with people whom God has not finished with quite yet. (I think that includes all of us!) A little patience and a willingness to tolerate mixed results in the short term can bring real blessings in the end.
4. EVEN WHEN I WORK HARD, THINGS DON’T ALWAYS WORK OUT THE WAY I HAD HOPED THEY WOULD. I weeded faithfully this year, built trellises, and purchased good seed. The first two plantings of beans, and the first planting of peas still rotted in the ground from too much rain. And so I tilled and planted again. Like is a lot like that. Sometimes our plans don’t work out, but persistence and hard work generally pay off. Life is filled with “unforeseen occurrences” but the general principles remain the same. If we love God and those among whom he has placed us (even the ones we don’t like), if we work hard and in harmony with the principles of God revealed in Nature and the Bible, we are much more likely to have a good life than if we try another method.
5. THERE WILL ALWAYS BE ANOTHER WEED THIS SIDE OF HEAVEN. I started pulling weeds in March and will stop about the end of February. So in life there will always be another aggravation, another sinful failure, another temptation, another problem, another issue, another person who refuses to be helpful just because that’s the way they are. But we who eat the Flesh of God, we who drink His Blood, we who are Signed by the Cross and Marked as Christ’s own forever, know that God’s grace is sufficient for the work at hand, and that one day we will reign with Him in glory.
6. AMEN, AND AMEN!
Sincerely,
Bill+
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