Saint John the Nice

Finally, a saint for the theology of our population of aging Directors of Religious Education, et al.

First, let me say that I do not belong to any organized religion.  I'm a Roman Catholic.  Actually, Mrs. Crowndot says I'm an Irish Catholic infiltrating the Roman Catholic Church.  Let me assure you, the organization that appears as Catholic is surface organization.  Not far underneath is not so much popes as populi.  Authors of best-selling novels of mystery-conspiracy-romantic-politics may be expert in drawing the organizational chart from the Vatican on down.  But to simplify, here's the real Catholic organizational chart: 

At the top:  the triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Underneath:  Everybody, "Catholic" or not.  Sorry, that's just the way it is. 

Anyway, the reason I'm more an Irish as opposed to Roman Catholic is my frequent lack of respect for the workings past and present of other parts of the organizational chart that are theologically on the same level as me. 

Today, 27 April 2014, there is a certain hubbub taking place in Rome.  About nine time zones ahead of me.  They canonized Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II.  To speak with greater precision: "828  By canonizing some of the faithful, i.e., by solemnly proclaiming that they practiced
heroic virtue and lived in fidelity to God's grace, the Church recognizes the power of the
Spirit of holiness within her and sustains the hope of believers by proposing the saints to
them as models and intercessors." (Catechism of the Catholic Church)  The Church doesn't "make saints" -- God by grace actualizes the life of faith.  So today the Church didn't make two popes into saints; the Church publicly recognizes their sanctity. 

Why bother to make a big public ceremony about it?  Why not leave it to the populi?  I think the reason is that Jesus didn't call us sheep for no reason.  The people benefit from some direction indicating that we'd be better off having a devotion to a holy man like JPII than a "holy man" like Rasputin or some such.  In other words, the title of Saint means the Church is not going to stand in the way of your particular devotion.  But neither is the Church really in the business of promoting particular devotions. 

But that's background.  What I came to talk about is Pope Saint John XXIII. 

Specifically, WTF, Holy Spirit?  Seriously.  We're watering down the canonization of Pope Saint John Paul II The Great by working in on the same day a guy whose claim to fame was that a.) he opened a can of worms (Second Vatican Council) and b.) he was nice?

This is like the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame deciding they were going to induct a Henry Aaron (no steroids in those home runs, dude) and Bill "Between-the-Legs" Buckner on the same day.  I mean, yes, technically Aaron and Buckner were in the same league.  But they weren't really "In the Same League" -- and neither are JPII and JXXIII.  Compare the scope of encyclicals from the one to the other, just as a for-instance. 

But here's what I wanted to say:  squishy theology always loved John XXIII because he opened through Vatican II an opportunity for communist-inspired social justice, ecumenism, etc., the gist of which is that we don't need forgiveness as much as we need to just be nice to each other and feel good about ourselves.  I do not believe John XXIII would ever have agreed with most of the icky revisionists -- but neither was he known for stolid defense of the truth, unfortunately. 

This is being written hastily on Sunday morning 27 April 2014.  This is of course not intended to be definitive as much as personally revelatory.  Perhaps to my shame.  There goes my cause for canonization! 

Like you need to know one more thing that bugs me...

Buttons on web sites that say "Login" or even "Log-In" (and then, when you're leaving, they say "Logout").

There may be a noun "login" as in, "Jeez, I forgot my login for Yahoo."  Whether spell check likes it or not. 

I'm pretty sure there is no correct context for a hyphenated version.

And I can't think of a single plausible excuse for nouning "logout".  Since, like, they don't ask you for a personal verifier to get out of their system, do they?  (Unless... a prison web site? -- "One bad decision may have brought you here, but it is much, much more difficult to leave, bwa-ha-ha-ha!!!")

So, HTML geeks, listen up!  Make your buttons two words:  "Log In" and "Log Out".

Thank you.  Like you'd listen to me anyway... 

I'm always chasing . . .

The Judy Garland song goes:

   I'm always chasing rainbows
   Watching clouds drifting by
   My schemes are just like all my dreams
   Ending in the sky ...

But this time of year at work I'm more like:

I'm always chasing SPIDERS
Watching cobwebs drifting by
My long-pole duster is a spiderweb buster
but dirt ends up in my eyes . . . 

- - -

It doesn't matter whether I kill the spiders or catch and release outside.  In either case, they will be back in a week.  The ceiling in the parts room bathroom is a spider video game re-spawn point.

It's Lenin's Birthday!

22 April.  

Yeah, the commie Lenin.  That's why it has become freakin' "Earth Day" -- a step toward normalization of the celebration of the day, I guess. 

Lenin.  As in Marxism-Leninism. 

And everything he stood for.  Ally of Trotsky, fergodsake. 

"Father of Modern Genocide" -- that would be a good historical tag line for this monster. 

Every time I hear something about freakin' "Earth Day" I see Lenin's pinched little face.  Filthy little wax dummy.  Ick. 

Lenin puts the "V. I. L." in the "EVIL" of history.

New Insight on Irony

Last Sunday.  At Mass.  Having a panic attack during the recitation of the 23rd Psalm. 

"Beside restful waters He leads me..."

Can't breathe. Pulse racing. Can't breathe. Palms sweaty.

"He refreshes my soul."

Aaack!  Hyperventilating now.  Hold your breath.  Hold your breath.

"Surely goodness and mercy... "

OMG, OMG, OMG.

"And I will dwell in the house of the Lord..."

Wow.  Well.  That was exciting. 

Afternoon run in the hills

If you keep visiting the same places, you see things.  The same place is not the same day to day, month to month, year to year. 

Seasons change. 

Migratory birds come and go.

And sometimes, you just see something you've never seen before.

That is a very bad photo.  But it shows two white pelicans on the left, a turkey vulture in the center, and two red-tail hawks -- all riding the same air current about 400 feet above the trail.  Pelicans, clockwise; hawks counter-clockwise.

So what else did I see? 

I don't know who is the cause of this sign.  In a good wet year (not this year!) I think the California Newt (Taricha torosa) is out crossing roads to get to vernal pools and streams in September.  So for one thing, this is the wrong time of year for newt crossings (I think?).  For another thing, this spot is on an outside curve of the road, not at the inside curve of the arroyo where (if there were water) there would be a concentration of newts (at whatever the newts think is the right time to go all amphibian).  So:  strange naturalist/environmentalist behavior here. 

We may have seen this hillside before in these pages.  Adobe clay sliding and crumbling (depending on season and wet year / dry year) over the sandstone cliff supports blue dicks, poppies, grasses -- and later on, a variety of thorny, thistley things.

It was a lovely post-equinoctial day with little wind and lots of sunshine.  6.4 "Long, Slow" miles.  Sunday is the end of my "running week".  (I'm a Monday-start sort of guy really.  Theology aside, the weekend is the Week End.)  So it was a nice end to the Running Week as well. 

There are things to see -- if you only look

Like lichens.

Sometimes you have to look at the small things.

Such color, such texture!