Get A New Roof, Go Fishing

It's building season here at the Missions, and part of that means new roofs on churches. So I tore myself away from the cut and thrust of US Presidential Race 2016 to see how the work was getting on. It was getting on just fine, in fact the crew were finishing up.

"Good work!" I told the Boss of the roofers and he told me it was all done bar the clean-up. We talked about the job for a little while and the helpful weather. Far better to be roofing in the mild springlike Texan winters than in, say, August. No fun to be up on a roof in 100++ degree temperatures. 

Someone's photo of Calgary from Scotchman's Hill

"Oh, we'd be here in August too," he assured me, and I'm sure they would. I told him about the Calgary roofers I know, up on the tall buildings in sub, subzero temperatures. "Cold!" the reverse of Texas but maybe harder. I respect that job.

Then we shook hands and he thanked me for the business and I headed for home, detouring by the lake for a bit of bank fishing. I cast away with a white shad crankbait and didn't catch anything, but it was fun trying. 

It was also fun to look at the limestone banks of the lake, with its fossilized wood, shells and vegetation frozen in stone, as though they'd been churned together in a great cataclysm. I reflected on that and the several "extinction events" that have overtaken life on earth. How was it possible, in the face of global die-offs, for life to reassert itself so abundantly? 

Metaphors for civilization and US democracy notwithstanding, I headed for home and meetings with yet more roofers, house painters and "tree service."

Mind how you go,

LSP

Texas Country

In a bold attempt to escape the intense political drama that is daily life in modern America, I drove out to visit the flock. That took me to a ranch, with trees. Those of you who understand the reality of Texas' bucolic Mesquite groves will know how pleasant that is.

I shot at a pig there once, from a moving Gator, and missed.

Heart of Oak,

LSP

Megyn Kelly Wins Iowa Caucus!

In a shocking head-to-head breakneck race, TV superstar body celebrity, Megyn Kelly, has won the Iowa caucus by a few slim percentage points.

Kelly won 28% of the vote as opposed to also-ran, Trump, who got a losing 25%. Trump told the world that he's "honored" to come in as the Loser, in second place to Megyn.

America waits with bated breath as the GOP candidates psych up for New Hampshire. Will Megyn "The Body" Kelly win, or will someone else? 

Let the ballots decide!

LSP

Less Government? Yes Please.

According to recent polls, a sturdy 25% of Federal employees will leave if Trump becomes President. But where will they go, Sweden?

Yes please.

LSP

Annual Meeting

One of the great benefits of being an Anglican in North America is that you get to have Annual Parish Meetings. I have two, doubling the benefit, and at today's meeting a churchman turned up with venison sausage. Rifle to table and thank you very much.

You see, there's a lot to be said for annual meetings in the country.

God bless,

LSP

Monster Gas Cloud Heads Towards Earth

A massive cloud of hot gas is heading towards earth and an inevitable collision with our galaxy. Known as Episcopal Bishops Respond to Primates (EBRP) or the "Curry Cloud" for short, the huge gas cloud is thought to have originated close to home.

Curry

“Our galaxy is recycling its gas through clouds, the Curry Cloud being one example, and will form stars in different places than before,” said a spokesperson for the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.

Budde

While astronomers are still attempting to explain why the cloud moved away from our galaxy in the first place, evidence from the Hubble telescope indicates that it has a high sulfur content. Some even theorize that the immense cloud of gas was caused by "dark matter."

Brookhart

According to an an astronomer with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, “There are theoretical calculations suggesting that a dark matter satellite could capture gas as it passes through the Milky Way disk and that may be the amazing circumstance we are witnessing.”

Bruno

The Curry Cloud has been poetically described by stargazing boffins as "what goes up must come down."

Whalon

Mysterious radio signals emanating from the hurtling cloud of superheated gas are currently under investigation, but Ufologists may be in for a disappointment. "It's just gas," said one expert, "really, really hot gas."

Reeves

The Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) was unavailable for comment.

LSP

Get Back!

All too soon the retreat was over and everyone drove off into the metrosprawl to their various destinations. You need a retreat after that drive, so I spent the night in Dallas before heading back to the rural idyll that is The Compound.

What did I gain in the few days away at Montserrat retreat house? A new-found appreciation for the rule of St. Benedict, Chesterton, and a significant dose of humility mixed with contrition. All very good things, as was the company of fellow clergy and the opportunity to worship together.

It was good, too, to step away from the news for a short time, but I couldn't help noticing that a 17 year old Danish woman is going to be punished for fighting off a "refugee" with pepper spray. The message seems pretty clear; women of Europe, don't you dare defend yourselves against your new Islamic overlords. 

So where's the feminist outrage? That seems to be in inverse proportion to the number of Germans purchasing firearms. Or, to put it another way, there isn't any.

Make of this what you will,

LSP

The Old Boot

Some call her The Old Boot, others are less flattering, but one thing's for sure, Hillary Clinton seems to live a charmed life that's above the law. Here's Chesterton on the phenomenon.

"But the idea of punishing a public man as a public enemy has, for good or evil, become an impossibility. And the idea of taking away the private wealth of a public man is equally inconceivable, especially if he is a really wealthy man... But at least it is certain that modern government makes life for the governing classes safer; and never before in the whole history of the world has it been so safe a business to govern." (On the Pillory)

I'm hoping that Hillary will prove to be the exception to this rule.

Cheers,

LSP 

The Crimes of England

What were the crimes of England? According to G.K. Chesterton, writing in 1915, they were mostly to do with England siding with Prussia. This bias towards Germany, going back at least to the days of Frederick the Great, helped cause the Napoleonic conflict, barbarism against the Irish, the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 and the then unfolding horrors of World War I. Nothing quite like a bold call, thank you GKC.

With the caveat that "a little Chesterton can go a long way" and whether you agree with him or not, he writes with a bravado that can be startling. Here he is on "the idea of the Citizen."

The idea of the Citizen is that his individual human nature shall be constantly and creatively active in altering the State. The Germans are right in regarding the idea as dangerously revolutionary. Every Citizen is a revolution. That is, he destroys, devours and adapts his environment to the extent of his own thought or conscience.

Every Citizen is a revolution? There are times when GKC is like a charge, a very clever, quick-footed and amusing charge, but a charge nonetheless.

I love that,

LSP

Rule of St. Benedict

We've been hearing addresses on the Rule of St. Benedict at this retreat, and they're very helpful. Good job, retreat conductor. Benedict lived at the end of the 5th century and pretty much founded monasticism in the West. Some even say that he rescued Western civilization and I'd be inclined to agree.

Speaking of the end of civilization, Donald Trump is boycotting Fox, and whatever else you care to say about the billionaire presidential hopeful, he's certainly shaking things up. I'll leave you with this blast against the neocons from ZeroHedge,

Blinded by hubris, enthralled by the possibilities of unlimited power, the neocons – and their liberal internationalist doppelgangers on the other side of the political spectrum – didn’t see the nationalist backlash coming.

That points to a curious lack of vision on their part.  What would Benedict say? I'll wager he'd counsel humility, a virtue that's in notoriously short supply.

God bless,

LSP

Retreat!

We're advancing in a different direction, which means getting on I35E and driving to Montserrat Retreat House for the annual diocesan clergy retreat. You need a retreat after that drive, I tell you.

I was hoping for some quiet fishing off Montserrat's pier but it's underwater. Well, there's no telling where, when and how The Weather will strike in its vicious no-holds-barred war on humanity. Just look at New York, all that tax money and they still got hit by several feet of Climate Change.

So maybe there won't be any fishing, but there will be some Chesterton, The Crimes of England. I'm looking forward to that.

More anon, as the story unfolds.

LSP

Little Fur

My sister inherited a coat, Big Fur. She had it tailored down. Now it's Little Fur.

Don't confuse Big Fur and its smaller descendant with anything that went on at a pop concert in California.

That is all.

LSP