Coolness

Calendars through all of AD!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

This Morning

So True

If the crowns of all the kingdoms of the empire were laid down at my feet in exchange for my books and my love of reading I would spurn them all.

-Francois Fenelon

"Do you think Friday unlucky?"

"No, I think Friday lucky," answered Gale. "All Christian people, whatever their lighter superstitions, have always thought Friday lucky. Otherwise they would have talked about Bad Friday instead of Good Friday."

and

Did they (certain tribes who worshiped various elements) not in fact sing more songs, and dance more dances, and drink wine with more real merriment? That was because they believed in evil. In evil spells, perhaps, in evil luck, in evil under all sorts of stupid and ignorant symbols; but still in something to be fought. They at least read things in black and white, and saw life as the battlefield it is. But you are unhappy because you disbelieve in evil, and think it philosophical to see everything in the same light of grey.

-both by G.K. Chesterton from The Poet and the Lunatics

If you follow the will of God, you know that in spite of all the terrible things that happen to you, you will never lose a final refuge. You know that the foundation of the world is love, so that even when no human being can or will help you, you may go on, trusting in the One that loves you.

-Pope Benedict XVI from Jesus of Nazareth

Good gracious, I've been neglecting this blog. I've been having an utterly marvelous time... the Wilderness, Washington DC, The Latin Convention, The Stations of the Cross... And those were only some of the major events. Well here are some pics, in a very hap-hazard fashion, to give you some idea (all though you can't get a very full one) of what life has been like.

The Stations of the Cross, put on by a group of homeschool teens which I recently became involved with. It was awesome.
The view from our hotel room in DC. I was, to say the least, pleased.
What my dad and I did with the snowbanks on either side of our driveway

My cousins and I at Mt. Vernon, overlooking the incredible view of the Patomic. You can have no idea of how awesome it was from this picture. Mt. Vernon was really incredible, hopefully I'll get a chance to post more fully on it.
Our group at the March for Life. 'Twas a combonation of Rock for Life and Pro-Life Wisconsin as you can probably see from the signs.

Your humble servant enjoying the beauty of the Fransiscan Monastery in DC.

I do not at the moment have any particularly iconic pictures of The Wilderness or of the Latin Convention. If I get ahold of some I will try to post them.

One other reason for the major neglect here was ChesterTeens. Believe it or not, I've been posting on it!!! Discussions and things, what fun, go take a look.

Tolkien and Beowulf

Well, we're having a discussion of Beowulf on Sunday. Due to a brief mention of Tolkien's interest in this book in a DVD lecture on Beowulf, we have been hunting "high and low" for more references and our search has not been fruitless. Although I have to warn anyone planning on browsing the indexes of Tolkien: Man and Myth, Letters to Tolkien and Tolkien: A Celebration, they are very distracting. With references such as Alice in Wonderland, Chesterton and The Ballad of the White Horse, it is virtually impossible to focus on the topic in hand. Following some of these references I learned that although, when he was younger, Tolkien was a big fan of the Ballad, later on he became critical. I found this bit from a letter to his son Christopher in 1944, quite fascinating:

Priscilla... has been wading through the Ballad of the White Horse for the last many nights; and my efforts to explain the obscurer parts to her convince me that it is not as good as I thought. The ending is absurd. The brilliant smash and glitter of the words and phrases (when they come off, and are not mere loud colors) cannot disguise the fact that G.K.C. knew nothing whatever about the "North", heathen or Christian.

I also learned that drumroll please C.S. Lewis knew much of the Ballad of the White Horse by heart! And that (this I heard in a different place) Tolkien had memorized all of Beowulf in Old English!

And actually, believe it or not, I did follow the Beowulf references as well. On page 89 of Tolkien: A Celebration I found this:

Tolkien's remarks in his classic essay Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics are the best I have seen on the 'Germanic' vision, but he considered Beowulf's author to be a Christian who was looking back at a heathen heroic past, and his theme, 'man at war with the hostile world, and his inevitable overthrow in Time' is one 'no Christian need despise.'

So anyways... just a few interesting tidbits, after the discussion I may very well have more

Judith of France By Margaret Leighton

On the reccomendation of Algernon and his sister I recently read two books, the titles of which are Judith of France and Journey for a Princess. They were both very good, although I am still unable to decide which I like better, and I shall hereby attempt to write a post about them. Judith of France first, Journey for a Princess, hopefully to follow soon.


Judith of France was the great-granddaughter of Charlemagne the Great. However that magnificent king's line is no longer great. The sons of Charlemagne now wage petty wars between themselves, and it is for this reason, and for the pursuit of wealth and prestige, that Judith's father arranges a marriage for her. Heartlessly, he betrothes high-spirited, still teenaged Judith to the sixty year old king of England, Aethulwulf. Already weighed down with this news, Judith is told by the Archbishop of Reims that it is his belief that she is irrevocably doomed to follow in the footsteps of her grandmother, that is to cause strife and even war; "father against son, brother against brother". Frightened, confused and disheartened she brings the story to her tutor, bringing about one of my favorite scenes, where the latter tells her in much better words then mine that no man's future is set in stone, that choices can and must be made and that, with God's help, she can do what is right. Vastly relieved, she makes a vow never to be the cause of strife between family or friends. This vow leads her to many tough decisions and, which shape her story into an unusual, thought-provoking and satisfying tale.
WARNING: due to Judith's vow the story contains some slightly mature content.

I've Been Tagged

A. Lynch tagged me for this meme. What fun!

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

"Of which he was the patron. I was there
From college visiting the son- the son
A Walter too with others of our set,"

(From Poems of Tennyson the poem is The Princess; A Medley)

I Tag:

All of the ChesterTeens.

D.C. March for Life Trip

I've been trying to think of a nice well-written opening to this post and, having utterly failed, I shall proceed to make my point in as few words as possible....

I'm in D.C.! Having no internet access readily available, I shall confine myself to a fairly short post, however, when I get back home I will try to write a long (or several) and probably boring post. So for now, I'm merely checking in and providing a brief list of our activities.

Scenery in Maryland and Virginia
Although I unfortunately have no pictures of the scenery through which we drove on the first couple of days, it was gorgeous. Thanks to the audio book "Mount Vernon Love Story", my mind was already in a revolutionary war mentality and the forests, hills and fields that surrounded us, under the light of a setting sun, made a perfect backdrop for imagining scenes from that time. It was incredibly easy to see a band of revolutionary soldiers walking through that field, or hiding in that wood, fighting on that hill. Unfortunately my writing skills are such that you can have no idea of how cool is was, unless you have gone there yourself.

Mt. Vernon


The Franciscan Monastery (in D.C.)

Bus Tour of the City

For an hour-long bus tour of the city, we joined our Pro-Life Wisconsin Group. Among other things, we saw the Iwo Jima statue and the Lincoln Memorial (we got to get off the bus and walk around at both places). Also, we saw the Ford Theatre (in passing) and the National Air Force Memorial.

Pro-Life Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception

Funny Story...

While ordering breakfast at a restaurant this morning, we ran into my mom's roommate from college! Surprisingly, she recognized ME because I look like my mom and she's probably seen me in Christmas photos. Wow!

The March for Life itself

It was cold, but it was also cool. We began with walking to a preparatory rally at which a number of people (including presidential candidate Ron Paul) gave brief speeches. Unfortunately, due to our distance from the stage and the many distractions by which we were surrounded, I was not able to listen properly to the speeches. Luckily, EWTN offers post-march replays of the rally, so I hope to see it later. Before many of the speeches were over, our group (Pro-Life Wisconsin) departed in order to get an early place in the march. After standing on the sidewalk for about an hour, the march finally began. During that time, we prayed the rosary and my cousin sang a lot of ridiculous songs. There were a lot of groups around us and our group was standing with Rock for Life (with which we have been doing many activities).

Many people chanted: "Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! Roe v. Wade has got to go!"

The number of people was astoundingly large. I've heard several different numbers on how many - somebody said half a million, somebody said a quarter of a million, somebody said 200,000, so I don't know, there were a lot! It was a somewhat squishy day in D.C. :)

The vast majority of them were young people - all very enthusiastic - smiling, jumping, chanting. It was fun being part of the group. I found it inspiring and hopeful, to put it mildly. Once we reached the Supreme Court, many people gathered around to hear testimonies of women and men (belonging to the group "Silent No More") who had had an abortion and since greatly regretted it. The stories were sad and bittersweet.

After that we went back to our motel room and rested. We were outside and on our feet for about five hours.

More details to be added later. I'm off to dinner...

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.


Happy Birthday Tolkien!