Tuesday, September 24, 2013

the black cat has begun the habit...

Well the black cat has begun the habit of calling in at unpredictable night hours. Last night she came by at 2 am with very urgent meows to be let in for some friskees. Once fed and a short nap decided I must awake and let her out at half past three deciding that pawing the windows (to save the screens I had to shut the windows not from the cold but from the cat) which alerted my half alert mind to snap awake once again and let the cat out. Then at 5 am before I could successfully drift either into dream or nightmare, at an hour that precedes the sun, I must rise again at the urgent pleas at my window. Evidently there wasn't enough mice or meadow voles or sleepy sparrows to feed her---she must have more friskees---what is in those little nuggets that makes them more delectable than steak tips I don't know. So I have relegated my next days to living off of hardly a wink, even the slightest flickering of an eyelash of REM.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Stricter gun laws...

Not only do we need stricter gun laws but also knife laws, baseball bat laws, stone laws (remember stones in the Old Testament were quite deadly), hammer laws, nail-gun laws, poison laws (arsenic and cyanide licenses needed), gravity laws (for bridges and high-rises)...

a good morning

After catechism class a few of us spent a good morning of hiking in the glorious woods where the tupelo are already turning red, a red that is almost religious in its intensity.

Monday, September 16, 2013

Beauty Pageants and Culture

I remember what C.S. Lewis said about the state of our culture. It is similar to what you're saying Ching. Again I would argue that it is the sexualizing of so much of our culture---you see it even in something like dance in figure skating competition where the girls are dressed quite seductively. Innocence is being eroded at younger and younger ages. A shame.

Beauty Pageants

There is legitimate viewing of beauty, i.e., traditional art, a man pursuing a woman, etc.---but all goodness can be perverted and I see both your points. It is not as the feminist say that looking upon a woman in appreciating her beauty, ipso facto, somehow devalues her---that is an ideological fallacy---but by the same token now everything has been sexualized and that is the real problem.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

this morning

This morning to the east there was a hole in the thick clouds where the gray water met the gray sky and the hole held the sun like a halo.

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

A Jury Duty Film?

At jury duty this morning we watched a film. It was supposed to be an introduction on jury duty but instead it was a film about diversity. One particular part irked me: there was a substantial point that women weren't allowed on juries until 1950 well after the first African American man was. But they neglected to give any reason but the insinuation that misogynist men just wanted all the power for themselves. They neglected to say that a possible reason might have been that women had already long been jurors and judges in their own homes for millennia and couldn't be bothered with the more mundane affairs of the State. It was in the home that the important work was done.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

the power of romance

I took her thinking she was homeless and looking for some hospitality. But I think the power of romance is just too much for anything like solitary confinement with only a guitar strap lashed to the doorknob. But she is now free and I guess I think that I'm glad she has the world before her. God looks after the sparrows and the lilies. I bet his perview includes black cats.

The Black Cat Saga

Well, the saga continues. When I arrived last night she was waiting for me. I let her in and soon discovered that one of the principle reasons for choosing my house was that Max, a male cat, lived across the street. Midnight (as I have tentatively called her) wanted to get out in a very bad way. Climbing the walls (literally, where I'll have to do a little spackling repair to the wall leading to a high window) and seeking to claw her way through the screens---I ended up around 4 am---she was quite anxious about Max---to lash the bathroom door shut with a guitar strap which was all I could find at 4 am. I suppose I could have let her out but I wanted to protect her from being an unwed mother---well, she eventually quieted down at sunrise. I had planned on taking her with collar and leash to the park on this beautiful morning but she would have nothing to do with that---she wriggled out of the collar as deftly as a feline Houdini and bound off for parts unknown. I wonder if the solitary confinement will keep her from returning tonight. We'll see.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Semipalmated plovers

Semipalmated plovers (Charadrius semipalmatus) out at the cove north of Fort Sewell. The markings: black eyes, black ring around neck, black tip of tail feathers, off-white eye ring, black beak---stalking the beach for worms and finding them. Where did they get the idea for worms? How do they know where they are? Which was the first to try this delicacy? Was there some Host that introduced them to such a cuisine?

Waking to the Howl of a Black Cat

Two nights ago I woke at 2 am to the howl of a black cat at my window. I got up, let the cat in, and wondered just what this midnight feline was all about: was she homeless, simply wondering who lived in this little house, or was looking for some friskees? The next night she came back to the window and again she was welcome to this humble hostel. I must confess it was great joy to have an animal in the house again after years since my dogs have gone.

She's a beautiful cat. Black as ink. Crows are blonde compared with her. Her black pupils show the apertures are wide open. She must see at night like the best of eyes see in perfect daylight.