If one of you tripped, you might just have a chance…

Assuming that you both have the same amount of adrenaline running through your veins, if you chased yourself you would never catch yourself.  You would never get any closer or farther away.

That would be frustrating.

Pillars Cut in the Palace Style

“There are few actions you will ever take that have more of the stuff of history in them. A woman with her sleeves rolled up and flour on her hands is one of the most gorgeous stabilities in the world. Don’t let your family miss the sight.”

From The Supper of the Lamb, by Robert Farrar Capon  (page 153)

There Is No Right Side Up

I found this nifty animation at Futility Closet.

Just In Case

If you ever want to buy me some paper (which is a great present for me, by the way), I love those ruled notebooks from Moleskine.  And I love pens that require ink cartridges.

At the Testing Point

I’ve been thinking a lot about courage lately.  I’m not a very courageous person;  in fact, I am afraid of lots of things.  There are various verses and quotes and ideas that I keep in the front of my mind, for just those times when I come face-to-face with fear.  Here’s one of my favorites:

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty or mercy which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful until it became risky. –C.S. Lewis

I originally read it on Rev. George Grant’s weblog.

Happy Valentine’s Day, mes amis!

Robert Farrar Capon

“I wish you well. May your table be graced with lovely women and good men. May you drink well enough to drown the envy of youth in the satisfactions of maturity. May your men wear their weight with pride, secure in the knowledge that they have at last become considerable. May they rejoice that they will never again be taken for callow, black-haired boys. And your women? Ah! Women are like cheese strudels. When first baked, they are crisp and fresh on the outside, but the filling is unsettled and indigestible; in age, the crust may not be so lovely, but the filling comes at last into its own. May you relish them indeed. May we all sit long enough for reserve to give way to ribaldry and for gallantry to grow upon us. May there be singing at the table before the night is done, and old, broad jokes to fling at the stars and tell them we are men . . . The road to Heaven does not run from the world but through it.”

From The Supper of the Lamb, page 180

Borrowed from someone else’s blog, since I don’t have the book myself yet.

When “Honeybear” Just Isn’t Enough

Today in class we briefly talked of Saint Valentin- the day for lovers, they call it here.  It’s not for passing out paper hearts to your classmates, or giving candy to your mother;  it’s all about chocolates, flowers, and fancy restaurants.  There are quite a few ways to call your sweetheart “sweetheart” here in France, and many of them are names of animals.  I put together a list for your entertainment:

For women:

Ma biche

Ma poussin

Ma puce

Ma caille

Ma chère

Ma belle

For men:

Mon loup

Mon ours

Mon cher

For both men and women:

Mon cœur

Mon amour

Mon canard

Mon chaton

Mon trésor

Mon petit cœur en sucre

My least favorite is probably mon chou!

Psalm 116

I love the Lord, because he has heard
my voice and my pleas for mercy.
Because he inclined his ear to me,
therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
The snares of death encompassed me;
the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
I suffered distress and anguish.
Then I called on the name of the Lord:
“O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!”

Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
our God is merciful.
The Lord preserves the simple;
when I was brought low, he saved me.
Return, O my soul, to your rest;
for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

For you have delivered my soul from death,
my eyes from tears,
my feet from stumbling;
I will walk before the Lord
in the land of the living.

I believed, even when I spoke,
“I am greatly afflicted”;
I said in my alarm,
“All mankind are liars.”

What shall I render to the Lord
for all his benefits to me?
I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the Lord,
I will pay my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people.

Precious in the sight of the Lord
is the death of his saints.
O Lord, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the son of your maidservant.
You have loosed my bonds.
I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving
and call on the name of the Lord.
I will pay my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people,
in the courts of the house of the Lord,
in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord!

Dorothy L. Sayers (for Alexander)

Evidently, if you have a question about literature, you should just go ahead and ask me.  I have so much fun researching, and I learn all sorts of things that I never knew before!  This time I researched half for myself, since I wanted to read a particular essay of DLS’ again.  Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find the full text of “Why Work?” online- yet.  I did find some quotes from it, though:

The habit of thinking about work as something one does to make money is so ingrained in us that we can scarcely imagine what a revolutionary change it would be to think about it instead in terms of work done. To do so would mean taking the attitude of mind we reserve for our unpaid work–our hobbies, our leisure interests, the things we make and do for pleasure–and making that the standard of all our judgments about things and people. We should ask of an enterprise, not “will it pay?” but “is it good?”; of a man, not “what does he make?” but “what is his work worth?”; of goods, not “can we induce people to buy them? but “are they useful things well made?”; of employment, not “how much a week?” but “will it exercise my faculties to the utmost?” And shareholders in–let us say–brewing companies, would astonish the directorate by arising at shareholders’ meetings and demanding to know, not merely where the profits go or what dividends are to be paid, not even merely whether workers’ wages are sufficient and the conditions of labor satisfactory, but loudly and with a proper sense of personal responsibility” “What goes into the beer?” (pp. 98-99).

I found that quote in the archives of this blog.  Here’s the other quote the blogger posted.

I also found the text of Sayers’ essay on education, “The Lost Tools of Learning”, which is very good.

She wrote a bit of poetry (a bit of everything, really), but I hadn’t read any before today.  A couple of her poems struck me right off: “Desdichado”, “Christus Dionysus”, and “Epiphany Hymn”.  They can be read here, along with the rest of the verses she wrote in her book Catholic Tales and Christian Songs.

And now I’m off to continue my search…