Creating, collecting, and sharing thoughts and ideas. And learning along the way.
Our neighborhood fire-station. This picture was taken earlier this month, but the blue skies we had today could easily have rivalled the ones seen here. Here’s bidding farewell to Daylight-Savings-Time today, btw. Bye-bye long days, welcome long nights!
Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.
– Mae West (1893-1980)
Who was Robin Hood? Well, if you think you know, you might want to check all that good trivia–about the outlaw who robs the rich and gives to the poor–at the door for now. Because this Robin is a little more complex than that. For starters, he has the last name of Longstride, and is actually an archer in King Richard‘s army fighting in the Crusades, and has just the right amount of kindness and cunning in devising a plan to get back to England in one piece, return the crown of the dead king to the queen mother, track down the father of a dying man that he’d promised to look up when he returns, and long story short, fall in the love with the widow Marion, marry her, and the rest as they say, is history.
Well, that’s the short of it, of course, but the long of it is truly a lengthy tale that takes a lot of detours to establish the essential point of the making of an outlaw. This is the grand backstory, if you will, of how the legend of Robin Hood came to be made, and while many of the well-known characters such as Friar Tuck and Little John remain, the story of how they all become Robin Hood’s merry men is quite a fun and fascinating one.
Ridley Scott, the director, is known for his grand landscapes, and it doesn’t take too much effort to reminisce about the similarities between the story, the set, and even the characters in this movie to bear somewhat of a resemblance to those in another movie by the same director, titled Gladiator. (I’m a little late in getting to this one, I know, and for the record, this movie came out last summer, i.e., the summer of 2010).
A little belabored at times, but engaging nonetheless, I give this movie high marks for its entertainment value. Cate Blanchett, by the way, is terrific in her role as Marion, and the actor who plays King John embodies the qualities of dastardliness and ignominious traits with near-perfection. Also, the fun that is poked at the French is subtle in some parts and blatant in others. Of course, they’d be serving soup in the middle of the battle– isn’t that how it’s supposed to be everywhere?!
Good for all your popcorn-making needs!
Goes with both rice and rotis.
A Psalm of Life by Henry Wadworth Longfellow
Tell me not in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou are, to dust thou returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each tomorrow
Find us farther than today.
Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.
In the world’s broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!
Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, – act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o’erhead!
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sand of time;
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us then be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
Justin Sullivan / Getty ImagesIt’s a good thing there’s an ocean between myself and the people I unfriend! Article follows:
A recent house fire at the Iowa home of Jim and Nikki Rasmussen has been traced to an unlikely source: an un-friending on Facebook.
According to the Des Moines Register, the Rasmussen family homestead went up in smoke in the early morning hours of Oct. 27. The fire department suspected arson and when the family was asked by investigators if anyone would want to harm the family. Both husband and wife agreed there was only one suspect: Jen Harris. Detectives have since arrested Jennifer Christine Harris, 30, of Des Moines, on a charge of first-degree arson.
The friendship of Nikki Rasmussen and Harris apparently hit a rough patch while the former friends were planning a party via Facebook. When the big event went bust with many declined e-vites, Harris allegedly held Rasmussen accountable, and according to news reports, posted some unsavory items on her Facebook wall. In this modern age, Rasmussen exacted her revenge with a few clicks of the mouse and de-friended Harris. This affront was too much for Harris who took her anger offline and allegedly torched the family’s garage, melting the siding clean off the home.
The Associated Press says that the fire destroyed a detached garage and damaged the home of the Rasmussens, but caused no injuries. Harris is being held in the Polk County Jail on $100,000 bond.
Click Here For Today’s Reading
EZEKIEL 14:12-16:41; HEBREWS 7:18-28; PSALM 106:1-12; PROVERBS 27:4-6
Ezekiel’s commission from the Lord continues, and we learn that Jerusalem’s judgement is inescapable. This is what the Lord says to Ezekiel: 21 “…How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem my four dreadful judgments—sword and famine and wild beasts and plague—to kill its men and their animals! 22 Yet there will be some survivors—sons and daughters who will be brought out of it. They will come to you, and when you see their conduct and their actions, you will be consoled regarding the disaster I have brought on Jerusalem—every disaster I have brought on it. 23 You will be consoled when you see their conduct and their actions, for you will know that I have done nothing in it without cause, declares the Sovereign LORD.”
The wrath of God burns strong against Jerusalem, and she is described as a useless vine. This is what the Lord says: 6 “…As I have given the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest as fuel for the fire, so will I treat the people living in Jerusalem. 7 I will set my face against them. Although they have come out of the fire, the fire will yet consume them. And when I set my face against them, you will know that I am the LORD. 8 I will make the land desolate because they have been unfaithful, declares the Sovereign LORD.” If this sounds terrible, the next analogy of Jerusalem as the adulterous wife and prostitute is no better. The wrath of God is unabated, and these are the words of the Lord: 35 “‘Therefore, you prostitute, hear the word of the LORD! 36 This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Because you poured out your lust and exposed your naked body in your promiscuity with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols, and because you gave them your children’s blood, 37 therefore I am going to gather all your lovers, with whom you found pleasure, those you loved as well as those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and will strip you in front of them, and they will see you stark naked. 38 I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and who shed blood; I will bring on you the blood vengeance of my wrath and jealous anger. 39 Then I will deliver you into the hands of your lovers, and they will tear down your mounds and destroy your lofty shrines. They will strip you of your clothes and take your fine jewelry and leave you stark naked. 40 They will bring a mob against you, who will stone you and hack you to pieces with their swords. 41 They will burn down your houses and inflict punishment on you in the sight of many women. I will put a stop to your prostitution, and you will no longer pay your lovers. Turning now to our reading of the book of Hebrews, we find the writer speaking of a “better hope” and a “better covenant” that is made available to all in the person of Jesus Christ. While the old covenant through the Mosaic Law was entirely unattainable, the new covenant through this new plan of salvation was completely attainable, and in full measure– to both Jew and non-Jew, at that. The writer has been quite detailed so far in offering up an argument for the more perfect and permanent nature of the priesthood in Christ Jesus, and he does so yet again in these lines: 23 Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; 24 but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. The writer goes on to make the case for this supernatural priest in the person of Jesus in this way: 26 Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. 27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever. This was indeed a radical concept for the Jews of the day to reconcile themselves to. Having been accustomed to approaching a priest in the Temple who would offer up a sacrifice on their behalf for an atonement of sins, here was something entirely different. The writer of Hebrews was pointing to Jesus as being both the priest and the sacrifice all in one. This was a new covenant between God and man that allowed for anyone at all to approach the Almighty so long as they entered through the intercession of Jesus Christ. This is most certainly a more abstract concept to wrap one’s mind around. There’s no physical priest, alright. There’s no physical sacrifice, okay. And if you take it one step further, there’s really no need for a physical temple, even. Paul has already openly written about the body being the temple of God, and now the writer of this book, Hebrews, is writing about the ultimate priest and the ultimate sacrifice. All this is a new faith, a new construct, a new way of life. And the newly-made believers, i.e., the Jews of the day who have embraced the idea of Jesus Christ as the long-awaited Messiah to also be the savior of this world are being urged to to accept these new truths, and live them out– day in and day out. What a concept! If I were a first-century Jew, I know I might have also struggled with these new views! We turn now to our reading of the psalms, and find in Psalm 106, the psalmist reminiscing about his ancestors and their rebellious ways. The purpose of this exercise is to demonstrate a contriteness, and to offer up thanksgiving and praise to the Almighty for his many mercies over generations. David, the psalmist, says: 6 We have sinned, even as our ancestors did;4 Anger is cruel and fury overwhelming,
but who can stand before jealousy?
5 Better is open rebuke
than hidden love.
6 Wounds from a friend can be trusted,
but an enemy multiplies kisses.
