Social Justice À la BO
August 9, 2010 Leave a comment
The Audacity of Hope. Now I am beginning to see what this means for me. Only those who voted for and/or donated to Obama receive a bailout. It was my audacity to vote otherwise.
Scheherazade
August 8, 2010 Leave a comment
Ever since high school I have enjoyed listening to the colorful Russian music of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. His Oriental themed symphonic suite, Scheherazade, has four movements:
1. The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship
2. The Kalendar Prince
3. The Young Princess and the Young Princess
4. The Festival at Baghdad. The Sea. The Ship Goes to Pieces on a Rock Surmounted by a Bronze Warrior
Rimsky-Korsakov’s brief introduction to the piece:
The Sultan Schariar, convinced that all women are false and faithless, vowed to put to death each of his wives after the first nuptial night. But the Sultana Sheherazade saved her life by entertaining her lord with fascinating tales, told seriatim, for a thousand and one nights. The Sultan, consumed with curiosity, postponed from day to day the execution of his wife, and finally repudiated his bloody vow entirely.
Here is the beginning of Scheherazade . The massive sounding notes heard at the beginning of Scheherazade represent the Sultan and then comes the enchanting and sensuous violin solo- Scheherazade (almost a minute into the piece). She’ll entice you!!
From the liner notes of the my Seraphim CD:
“The music of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov is, in the orchestra, what Technicolor and Dolby stereo sound are in the movies – more of everything that delights the senses.”
I recommend buying a CD of Scheherazade and listening to the entire suite. Buy a disc that also contains Rimsky-Korsakov’s Russian Easter Overture. На здоровье! (To our health!)
Down Home Salivation
August 4, 2010 Leave a comment
I am not from the south. I may have lived there, though, during a past incarnation (perhaps as Laurel Hand, Eudora Welty’s The Optimist’s Daughter). This may explain why I thoroughly enjoy southern cooking. I can’t get enough of southern fried chicken, corn bread, collard greens, smoked ham, hoppin’ John, hush puppies, Frogmore stew, Louisiana shrimp and grits, North Carolina Barbeque, Mississippi mud pies, sweet corn, sweet potato pone and sweet tea. Sweet Home Alabama! Sweet Jesus, have mercy! Sweet Bye and Bye! Sweet potato pie in the sky!
Now that I am reincarnated as a Midwestern girl I regularly dine on pot roast, mashed potatoes and gravy and sweet corn on the cob. But, more than ever, I find that I have a mighty hankering for southern comfort food. Sadly, though, I live in a suburban area surrounded with fast food and fashion food restaurants. None of the good ‘stuff’ can be found out here (when I do find it, it doesn’t taste the same to me). Can someone wrestle me up some Southern cooking, some Low Country food, some Creole food, some sausage and biscuits? Help! I’m dying here. I am going crazy for trying… Lord, have mercy!
A. W. TOZER
August 4, 2010 Leave a comment
A.W. Tozer, quotes:
“To be right with God has often meant to be in trouble with men.”
“In almost everything that touches our everyday life on earth, God is pleased when we’re pleased. He wills that we be as free as birds to soar and sing our maker’s praise without anxiety.”
“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”
“It will be a new day for us when we put away false notions and foolish fears and allow the Holy Spirit to fellowship with us as intimately as He wants to do, to talk to us as Christ talked to His disciples by the sea of Galilee. After that there can be no more loneliness, only the glory of the never-failing Presence.”
A Clean Home Is A Happy Home!
July 30, 2010 Leave a comment
I can’t wait to get home from work. I want to start cleaning and drinking my V8! I feel pretty, already!
(I love it when roles are so…Spic and Span!)
Faith Is A Time Machine
July 25, 2010 Leave a comment
By faith:
-Abel offered God a better sacrifice
Abel was commended as a righteous man;
Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.
-Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death.
-Noah built an ark to save his family; Noah condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
-Abraham obeyed and went; he made his home in the promised land. Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father.
(Now all these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised)
Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice.
-Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.
-Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons.
-Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt.
-Moses’ parents …were not afraid of the king’s edict. Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. Moses chose to be mistreated. Moses regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt. Moses left Egypt; he persevered because he saw Him who is invisible. Moses kept the Passover.
-The people passed through the Red Sea.
-The walls of Jericho fell.
-The prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.
-Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised;
-There are those who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; Their weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.
-Women received back their dead, raised to life again.
-Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection.
-Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison.
-They were stoned;
-They were sawed in two;
-They were put to death by the sword.
-They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them.
-They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.
God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
Faith is a time machine…I am a time traveler. There is a great cloud of witnesses to these facts.
Cindy Wity 