captainsblog | Short subjects (Reply)

Lots to remember about today, not much time or energy to say it all.

Church: main message was about looking within ourselves, rather than to creeds or catechisms or other hearsay, for what we believe in. Toward that end, Rich recounted, essentially, this same story:

Nicolo Paganini, in the early 1800’s was one of the world’s most famous violinists. In one of his many public concerts, he walked onto the stage before a large crowd only to realize at that moment that he had the wrong violin. He was horrified, but it was too late for him to do anything about his mistake.

In his frustration, he attacked the music with a passion that he had never before displayed. In an effort to make up for the shortcomings of the instrument he held, he abandoned all caution in his performance. After the concert the critics and audience said it was the best concert of his entire career.

Afterward, when questioned about using a violin that belonged to another person, he said, “Today I learned the most important lesson in my life. I once believed the music was in the violin. Today I learned that it was in me."

Several times, Rich asked us if we were ready to answer the question, from our individual points of view, of who Jesus is today. I'm not sure I can, but I'm damned sure I can tell who he isn't. He's not the inspiration behind that hideous video, or of that so-called "minister" promoting the video on September 11th that led to the death of four of our diplomatic personnel in the waning hours of that day. Nor would He be the least bit pleased that Mitt Romney felt the need to policitize that occurrence by referring to a low-level embassy call for peace and reason as an attempt to "sympathize with those who waged the attacks”- a neat trick, since the "attacks" hadn't even occurred at the time of the embassy statement that Mittens shot down before aiming.

Many people have referred to that presser as Romney's "In what respect, Charlie?" moment- the one which, four years ago almost to the day, virtually assured that McCain/Palin would go down in flames. If it weren't for the still-raging campaign of voter suppression by Republican state governments, I'd say this moment caused similar damage. Even so, I'm making sure that everyone I know gets registered, gets ID, and gets to the polls in November.

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BBC to the rescue this weekend:) With typically nothing else to watch of a Mercun persuasion, I scored both the current Doctor episode and the return of QI. Eleanor joined me for the latter, and it was marvelous fun seeing Stephen and Alan and Bill and two other guests ejaculating all over the telly:)

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Da Bills won their home opener, looking almost as good this week as they looked bad last week. This generally ensures that the local business community will be in a good mood tomorrow.

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I spent way too much time the past two days in the general vicinity of our toilet. While this wasn't at all fun, it wasn't nearly as bad as you might think. (Suffice it, there's a reason I went to law school rather than becoming a journeyman plumber, which generally pays better.)