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how to keep a diary

Testing one tw three

Facebook knows all about you

LINK

actually I avoid facebook: Full of my liberal and conservative friends with two minute hates, and all my pious Pinoy relatives posting I love Jesus stuff.

I mainly go there to check photos.

and google plus? Full of advertisements and places suggesting  you join them.

stories stories

Today, the neighbors across the street buried their sister. She was only 46 and had chest pain but by the time they got her to the hospital, she had no pulse. In relating the story, her sister showed me the lab and the bill for the medicines: Two vials of adrenalin. At that point, I figured that they were trying to get her heart restarted, and indeed a relative said she was essentially dead when she arrived.

so young. Yet no children. I didn't get the story of her life, but a few years ago she was convicted of selling drugs and sent to jail for a year, which suggests not much of a crime. So what brought her to do such a thing? Was she once in love? Did she find no happness in her work? Such things are too personal for me to ask (especially an upset family, who speak English only a little better than I understand Tagalog).

Her mother was staying with family in Japan (presumably her daughter worked there) and it took her a week to come down. So for the last week, every evening they held the wake....visitors on and off all day and in the evening they had music: a quartet and singer and/or a kareoke machine. I went over the first day with Joy to give them a gift, but we didn't visit every day as is the custom.

But I haven't slept well all week, with the sad music and singing every night (our bedroom faces the street).

Luckily after two days, the dogs stopped barking at the noise, so at least we could sleep a little better, but the music and situation has made me a bit depressed.

So this afternoon we went to the funeral: lots of people there (and two other funerals in the cemetary, so lots of traffic and crowds). The band played at the gravesite and the family wept, at which point I got dizzy from the heat and asked Joy if we could leave, which we did.

Not much we can do to help, and I am remembering her and the family in my prayers.

One of the problems with being retired is that little things bring up memories of horrible things I have seen in my years of practicing medicine.

So this is not, alas, the first early death maybe due to drugs, that I have seen, but it is the first I have seen here in the Philippines.



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two short stories I ran across in the past day:

This one, from Diplomad, is about his work in a consulate when he is called in the middle of the night to check on an American in trouble, possibly dead, in a locked hotel room.

Again, a sad and somewhat quirky story.

and this one, is about snotty doctors who misjudge their "foreign" patients.

Ah yes. I've seen a lot of that...and a lot of our Native American patients in the US had to put up with that type of prejudgement. 

Gay causing trouble again

I always read Mrs Gay Caswell's blog complaining about how the Bureaucracy in Canada is persecuting her and her fellow First Nation Christians, and how her people have to put up with drug pushers protected by big shots.

 I don't know if her complaints are real, but a lot of the problems she complains about is similar to that I had to confront as a doctor on a Minnesota reservation.... A couple years ago, she got sued for naming names of a drug pusher/big shot, and had to take her blog down. She is still fighting the case. So she has now started a youtube post.


 


Wonder if free speech will be allowed? This is Canada, not the US, and as Mark Steyn found out, libel and non Pc speech is taken seriously there.

Caussade on line

Those who haven't read Caussade's Abandonment to Divine Providence can find it on this site, both pdf and mp3


they have links to Spes Salvi and prayers too...

Sympathy for the devil

I have had it up to here with self righteous professional religious folks who are dissing the average American who is happy--who dares to be happy--- that Osama Ben Laden, who arranged the killing of thousands and inspired the murder of tens of thousands, has finally met justice.

Oh, it looks bad when Americans rejoice, say these people. Oh, it's against international law, say others. Christ said turn the other cheek and to forgive, say even more.

Time out.

They are mistaking personal revenge/vendetta and personal forgiveness with justice, which is meted out by the state.

And they are implying that when the state uses necessary force to stop a criminal, that somehow it makes those doing this as guilty as someone who kills the innocent.

Time out.

So I am happy that the Dalai Lama notes the difference:

As a human being, Bin Laden may have deserved compassion and even forgiveness, the Dalai Lama said in answer to a question about the assassination of the Al Qaeda leader. But, he said, "Forgiveness doesn't mean forget what happened. … If something is serious and it is necessary to take counter-measures, you have to take counter-measures."

Heh. Imagine that: A religious leader with common sense.

Bah humbug

I don't really admire Thomas Merton for various reasons, but he's big among the pious contemplatives and the radical left part of Christianity.

But if you like his stuff, you can download some of his books at HathiTrust Digital Library.



Why don't I like him? Because he fathered a child by a "lower class" woman in England, before he found Jesus..This post says the child, a girl, was thought to have been killed in the Blitz...how convenient for Merton, who felt guilty about it, but never seemed to think getting his hands dirty and working for filthy lucre so that he could send money to support her might be the right thing to do. Yet he is a hero to the left, since he backed all the PC causes, including pacifism during the second world war. He didn't want to kill, he says. Fine, but he didn't risk his life helping refugess or any other dangerous alternative service either, so one suspects his pacifism was skin deep: save his own skin deep.



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and then you have the Anchoress asking "Are you happy"...

A good question. Are you happy? If you are, why? And if you are not, what might make you happy? And how much of what you are feeling — happy, or unhappy — is related to how aware you are of the blessings you have in your life....Life can be hard, disappointing, full of struggles. But Abraham Lincoln supposedly said that most folks are “as happy as they make up their minds to be” and to an extent, I endorse that.

yes. Want to be happy? Go take your prozac, or get some meth from the local pusher.

My problem? the word "happiness" suggests chance (e.g. happenstance). It has connotations of your mood, not how good you are or what you do. And in American society it means you have lots of toys.

Maybe a better question would be: Are you joyful? Are you content?

As for her happy nuns, as my sainted mother used to say when we would listen to the nuns praying each evening when we worked at an African mission: "Yes, they lament all the things they gave up, but I know a lot of housewives with a couple young kids who would love to have a quiet hour of prayer each evening"...

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Don't mind me: a local pastor (of my stepson) is holding a wedding here tonite (we have a hall that we rent out sometimes). That means an hour sermon before anyone eats.

Tell you the truth, the way the protestant pastors in the Philippines use any party to give a long sermon to a captive audience (often that has pious but easy going Catholics in it) makes me annoyed.

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But Uncle Orson lifted my mood.

Who is Uncle Orson? most sci fi readers know Orson Scott Card as the author of Ender series of books.

And after blasting the stupid prose of modern day poetry (of which I agree) he posts this sonnet from the 1940's.

I think that God is proud of those who bear

A sorrow bravely -- proud indeed of them

Who walk straight through the dark to find Him there

And kneel in faith to touch His garment's hem.

Oh, proud of them who lift their heads to shake

Away the tears from eyes that have grown dim,

Who tighten quivering lips and turn to take

The only road they know that leads to Him.

How proud He must be of them -- He who knows

All sorrow, and how hard grief is to bear!

I think He sees them coming, and He goes

With outstretched arms and hands to meet them there,

And with a look, a touch on hand or head,

Each finds his hurt heart strangely comforted.

he discusses National Poetry month:

During poetry month, let's celebrate poems like these -- poems that are actually talking to real people with reallives, poems that are offered to us as a gift, as a blessing in our lives.

and he includes several poems such as this one written during World War II....

God, make me brave for life,

Oh, braver than this!

Let me straighten after pain

As a tree straightens after the rain,

Shining and lovely again.

God, make me brave for life,

Much braver than this!

As the blown grass lifts let me rise

From sorrow with quiet eyes,

Knowing thy way is wise.

God, make me brave. Life brings

Such blinding things.

Help me to keep my sight,

Help me to see aright,

That out of the dark comes light.

he then goes on to comment:

Without forcing you to sit through a long disquisition on poetic form and diction, let me simply point out that this poem consists of naturally flowing language. It is never forced and twisted into jarring syntax in order to fit the meter. It is so masterfully composed that the apt words seem to have fallen into their perfectly ordered places quite naturally.

So why isn't a poem like this one respected today? Why aren't poets in writing programs in universities encouraged to learn the skills that this poet has so completely mastered?

Let me answer the first question: There is zero chance that a poem that simply takes Christian faith for granted, and which has as its purpose the comfort of believers in the face of death and loss, can be treated with anything but disdain in most modern university literature programs. Atheism is such an intolerant religion.

And student poets aren't taught to write like this because (a) it's hard and few can master it, and (b) it's not "experimental" but "traditional," and everyone knows that only "revolutionary" art is worth paying attention to, even if the "revolution" is a century old and all the "revolutionaries" are imitating each other and communicating with nobody and haven't had a new idea in a century.

go to his post and read all these poem, and check out the modern poetry website he is now editing.

cat item of the day

according to the BBC, the Pope blessed the cat of the Birmingham oratory.

well, what else would you expect from a man whose cat "wrote" his biography?



he also reportedly blessed their bomb detecting dogs.

after all, dogs believe in transubstantiation.

Happy Birthday, Mama Mary

We almost missed the holy day: September 8, the birthday of the virgin Mary.

Here in the Philippines, the rejoicing that so few lives were lost in a superferry accident lightens the daily news report of disasters, scandals, and corruption.

And I rejoice because my husband's health is good.

So why worry?

One worries about the state of belief in the world.

Our family is pious, but our children are protestants (although my step daughter is taking instructions to convert to Catholicism...her mother was a rabid anti catholic).

Yet the laxness of the church in the US is worrisome. And here in the Philippines? I can't judge: I am not fluent. But most of the "pious" middle class are Protestant: hard working, honest, and snobs, whereas the poor are Catholic, easy going, and with a deep love of Mama Mary.

Yes the piety is there, despite all the problems and corruption.

A seer from Europe once predicted that the "reign of the Immaculate heart" (i.e. the revival of faith before the end times, after the present day apostasy) would start in the Philippines.

The diaspora of Pinoys since that prediction was made suggests there might be some truth to this.

In the US, Obama has surrounded himself with those who hate "white people" but what he really means is working class people of all races who object to the demagogary of "we'll take care of you" bossy elites whose agenda is to control how people live.

The left in the US is no longer the liberal that I once believed in. They hate, they do not build up. Reverend Write gave speeches of hate whitey (not on things like don't steal, don't commit adultary or honor your father and mother) and Obama's green czar who just resigned rejoiced at the LA riots as an uprising of the oppressed, not noticing the rioters were gang members burning down the stores of the hard working Korean immigrants who knew more about poverty than any of them.

Freedom to live one's own life is important in the US, and a dictatorship of do gooders is not what the working class want, but solidarity and family.

Here in the Philippines, however, those who defend the poor against the strong are often killed. The rich have the guns, and can do what they want.

If the meek will inherit the earth, it won't be the proud leftists of America who despise the poor and working class who want to live their own lives, but those here who actually know and love ordinary folks.

if this doesn't seem to have much to do with Mama Mary, well, she did say that when God chose her, it was an example of how God exalts the lowly...

How does one forgive the unforgivable?

On Mary TV they have a video of a survivor of the Ruwandan holocaust.

as it communicates to our video archive.

Windows Media - High Bandwidth
http://godsdelight.org/archive/media/immaculee.wmv

QuickTime .mp4 - Download 345MB ( video iPod / iPhone )
http://godsdelight.org/archive/media/immaculee.mp4

Christmas in Asia

I posted a version of this at Bloggernews. I will add comments here, in blue...

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December 24th, 2007 by Nancy Reyes

The headlines on the BBC report:

Millions celebrate Christmas Day

People queued to enter the grotto under the Church of the Nativity Scenes in Bethlehem

Millions of Christians around the world are marking Christmas Day - the traditional day of Christ’s birth.

The article then goes on to discuss the fact that pilgrims are again visiting Bethlehem.

The problem?

The word “Millions”…

Yup. No bias at the BBC, folks, just those "nutters" to use Tony Blair's expression to describe how the UKPress approaches anyone who even hints at a serious belief in God.

The last time I looked, there were 2.1 Billion Christians in the world. A few minor sects don’t celebrate Christmas, and some Orthodox still use the Julian Calender, but that still leaves well over a billion Christians who do celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25th.

So my question to the BBC: Are you religiously challenged or Mathematically challenged?

The answer is both...and they are snobs. You see, they not only look down their noses at religious "nutters" but don't really think Asians or Africans are serious about Christianity.

Presumably both, since recent polls indicate that the UK is increasingly deChristianized, with more Catholics than Anglicans attending church weekly.

All the articles blame the increase in Catholics on all those Eastern Europeans living in the UK...guess they don't see the Pinoys like my cousins who work there...Of course, given the liberal bishops in the Catholic church, it's amazing that the fall away in Catholic church attendence isn't worse.

However, there is a growing Christian church in Asia that has it’s own customs, and many others have adopted the cheerful secular version of the holiday, with Santa Claus and gift giving.

Here in the Philippines, we attended midnight Mass, with a choir in traditional Filipino garb singing hymns in English and Tagalog.

The story of Mary and Joseph is much more believable here in the provinces, where children are still welcome but people are poor and identify with a family unable to find shelter during their travels.
We had the “live” Nativity scene, with first Mary and Joseph, then the baby, then the shepherds, and finally the three kings arriving during the service.

In today’s world, it would be travelers to find work, or to flee a nearby disaster finding refuge in a side room or garage but who survived with help from nearby neighbors, both rich and poor, giving gifts.

The Philippines has a majority Christian population, but there are Christians in other Asian countries that also tend to be ignored by the world press.

In a case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing, the BBC has an article on their front page discusses the underground Christians in China…this story is about Protestant Christians who refuse to join the state operated church but prefer to worship in homes. It also discusses the only printing press in China that is allowed to publish Bibles: 41 million so far.

The “official” number of Christians is 16 million, but some feel that 40 million is a closer estimate. China has both church run and “underground” Christian churches: Catholic and Protestant, so numbers are vague.

And those belonging to the underground churches risk arrest: there have been quite a few bishops, priests and pastors arrested and jailed in recent years..the BBC article dares to suggest some become Christian to better get visas to leave China, but of course this would only be true for those belonging to the official churches...

China also has over 200 million who follow other religions, mainly Buddhism. Yet like many other countries with few Christians, the secular Christmas is becoming popular.

Some in China are trying to fight against the holiday by stressing traditional values, but a Photo montage from ChinaDaily, and shows a choir in Hefei, East China.

The ChinaDaily has a photo montage here of mainly secular celebrations of the holidays, including SantaClaus in Syria and Tehran. Hmmm…

I thought it was ironic that their most Christian photo was from China...but the photo montage included Santas in Tehran and Syria, yet the US ally Saudi Arabia forbids any hints of Christian belief. No news on the press about this, or that many Pinoys take "holidays" in Dubai or Kuwait so they can go to church....

Christians outside of the Philippines still celebrate the religious aspect of the season, but the secular holiday with Santa is gaining popularity in other countries.

Japan, with a tiny Christian population, has embraced the secular holiday, but it is less celebrated in Korea, despite that country’s larger Christian population.

I found hardly any stories about Christmas on the English Korean websites, and both the stories I found were about the Santa type celebrations. Where are the Christians, or does the large Presbyterian influence make Christmas a minor holiday?

So the Santa Man is spreading in Asia, and is quite visible, but with less publicity so is the story of the homeless child whose parents took shelter with the animals but whose birth was greeted by angels.

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Films

Yup.
Another day, another Anti Christian film

French producer Philippe Rebboah says Spears is a great choice to play the pregnant virgin who gives birth on Christmas Eve. The film entitled Sweet Baby Jesus is a satirical retelling of the nativity story.

Of course, Brittney hasn't accepted the contract, and this "producer" (of two films) has made the announcement already....meaning he needs publicity and used her name to hype it.

There are good films out there, but when it comes to religion--or even simple PG films with a pro family theme, there is a dearth of good films. Barbara Nicolosi sniffs at "Christian" films like the sleeper hit "Bella": yet the fact that Bella is a hit suggests a large untapped audience that would come out to see good films. In the meanwhile, we are stuck watching reruns of Ratatoulle and Enchanted.

However, for those who would like to hit the religious audience, I could suggest some interesting books that might make films or tv series. Nicolosi might prefer something more ethereal, but if you want to make money, try one of these:

1) "Tumbleweed": about a social worker promoting racial justice in the 1940's. Her biography starts with the word "sex"...(she is telling off a rich lady who criticized Harlem prostitutes). Eddie Doherty, a thrice married debonaire reporter and screenwriter falls in love with her while doing a story. He could be played by Richard Gere. Catherine could be played by any enthusiastic blond actress with a big bosum (sorry, Meryl).

2). Father Albert Braun he got a DSC in WWI, and while working with the Apache he volunteered to go with the NMNG...and ended up at Bataan (and received a SilverStar). His last days were spent working with the homeless in Phoenix...in a wheelchair.

3) The Mitford Books. We've had alcoholic priests and weirdo ministers, so it would be nice to have a "normal" priest in a movie or TV series....and, being Episcopalian, he has a love interest...

4). If we were going into R rated movied, one of Father Greeley's romance novels would be a good movie. There must be a reason the Cardinal Sins hasn't been made into a movie...

Gift item for travelers

traveling

I am visiting relatives in the states...

Everyday they watch a show on remodeling and getting rid of junk, but the basement is so full of junk that I can't find some of my junk that I sent for storage.
why do we keep stuff?
A lot of the stuff has memories that transcend the actual article.
I know who gave x to me, or where I was when I got it.
So our "stuff" is actually a way of counting our past.
In some ways better than photographs,since each object has a story behind it.

Uh oh....

But my main blog is G rated.

So much for being "religious"...

Audiobooks

Right now I am downloading Jane Eyre.

Earlier I downloaded Anne of Green Gables from the same free library, and am listening to it on my mp3 player, mainly at night when I go to sleep.

It is almost as if I am slowly having 40 years of medicine lifted from my spirit...I try to pray, and all I get is attacks and accusations of things I did wrong...not just sins but social faux pas or things I did that were good but stupid or rejected.

So it soothes me to read the old fashioned novels where women had grace, something that I never had.

I also found the Mitford series here in used bookstores. I left my series at home or gave it away when I came overseas, mainly bringing the heavy history or classics with me. The first year I was here, there were few books unless I went to the next town (no one here reads ) but now both the stationary store and the local mall have "used" books, that is books that were given back to used book stores. All are used but good condition, and mostly they are "best seller" types from two to three years ago.

But sometimes you find a gem. I just reread "I heard the owl call my name" which I love (I worked with Indians, although not the coastal tribes). Today I gave it to Joy's cousin who is a nun and going to the Visayas to teach catechism. They are Visayans, but now that Joy has married she has a lot of her family up here.

Another book I gave her is one of my two copies of Poustina. I love Catherine Doherty, but the best books on her are the ones by her husband Eddie...

I would love his book on her "Tumble weed" to be made into a movie.

Anne of Green Gables

Right now I am on an "Anne of Green Gables" kick...

I read the book as a young girl, but actually it was not my favorite (I was a Nancy Drew type).

Years later, when I had adopted my boys, I saw it on PBS and taped the TV show. And ironically my macho boys loved it. Probably because they were adopted as older children (at age 10 and 14) and had a lot of problems with adjustment.

When I moved to the Philippines, I brought a lot of my books, copied my CDs onto my hard drive, and brought the few DVD's I had bought. All my VCR tapes had to be left behind: They were incompatible with the different TV here. But when I arrived, I found DVD players here played both VCD and DVD. I had brought my LOTR and my few DVDs that I had bought to watch on my computer, I missed my classic films. Ironically, you can get new movies downtown from the street vendors within a week of their opening in Manila, but not oldies. And Amazon etc won't let you down load. So to get classic films, I had to go to Bittorrant.

One film I ran across looking for something else was Anne of Green Gables. And again my granddaughter here loved it.

Ironically, from what I've read of the author, her aunt was much harsher than the ones in the book.

But as Nora Ephron once wrote: I prefer stories because I can be in charge of what happens.

And then I found that there is a podcast of the book HERE.

Prayer poems by Padraic

And so at last,
Impelled by need,
I took my tired body
And I took my troubled mind
And I sat before my King.

“Don’t speak a word”, He said.
“No prayers and no petitions.
Do not even think a thought!
For I already know your deepest needs.
Just lay your heart upon My heart,
That I may rest in you
And you in Me.
It pleases Me you trust Me so
To act in silence
On your soul:
My power of Love
To make you whole.”

Nostalgia tune of the day

headsup from Nostagia Manila...