thoughts from a lapsed Catholic

Patty Griffin is a singer, and songwriter.  I have not listened to her several albums to be familiar enough with her. Some of her songs have been covered by more popular female artists.  And those songs i am not very familiar with.  A handful of her songs are rooted in Catholic images, and largely they are not performed by others.  Griffin has called herself a lapsed Catholic. A lapsed Catholic is still a Catholic. I have not seen that adjective often paired with any other noun, except in a jesting manner. The lapsed Catholic does not reject God as much as he distances himself in some ways from God, or moreso organised practice of the faith, and the community of the faith; and often times he is pushed away by them.

Some years ago, i once heard on folk radio Mother of God. It haunted me immediately, it still does. [click] Griffin's œuvre  is filled with sad songs. Sometimes her singing voice is not clear and distinct, and her voice is not strong; but in this one it is clear.  The song is disjointed, and does not flow directly, the thought wanders, but so do minds. 

Several decades pass; first she is a subadult who protects her siblings from their mother. As soon as she becomes an adult she leaves. Much time passes. She is retired and old from attending to other old people. There is sadness, and melancholic longing. Solace and company is always with the Mother of God.

When I was little I'd stare at her picture
And talk to the mother of God
I swear sometimes I'd see her lips move
Like she was trying to say something to me ... 
... And I'm getting older and odd
I get up every morning with a black cup of coffee
And I talk to the mother of God

In Mary you're covered in roses she is with her Son Jesus, and she sees his Ascension/Departure. And Griffin sees Mary as as the universal Mother, who sees her other sons come, and then depart.

lyric from Moses:

I need Moses
To cross this sea of loneliness
Part this Red River of pain

The song that is hardest to decipher is Wild Old Dog.  [This sentenced replaced an earlier one, i used another search engine, and found a version easier to hear than the album's. (click)]

God is a wild, old dog
Someone left out on the highway

Abandonment, but who is it that abandons? and who is abandoned?  Why would a hound be called God?  Is the dog God?  There are more questions than answers here.

The Hound of Heaven is a longish poem by Francis Thompson. The Hound is God/Jesus chasing, pursuing the soul of man.  Man may want to flee, hide, escape; but God continues after him. God does this from love, love that does not abandon, does not quit. That love is enduring.

2026 Miscellany #10

♩ I hear the train a comin' 
It's rolling round the bend...♩  

First glimpse of Nickel Plate's 765 coming through the trees. This locomotive has made nearly visits to run through Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Its home base is Fort Wayne Indiana. Many people come out to see steam locomotives on the go. In Ohio, this summer this appearance was overshadowed by the first Ohio travel of Union Pacific's Big Boy 4014. I saw it in Lorain, and i may see it on its way back west in July.

♩ If you miss the train I'm on
You will know that I am gone
You can hear the whistle blow a hundred miles...♩ 

1954 Ford Crestline

school on the campus of St. John the Baptist Basilica Canton Ohio

bridge over Interstate 77, Canton

a retaining wall in the flats of Cuyahoga River Cleveland 

Posing with Greyhounds Democracy Edition

 Millions of freedom loving, and law respecting Americans have gathered to-day across the country [and outside the country] to demonstrate for the Constitution and Decency. They are against tyranny, sadism, corruption, evil being done under the fascist regime led by a traitorous, petty, sadistic, narcissistic, psychopath with dementia.

His Republican minions have flooded the news media with calumnious lies about the character of these peaceful assemblies and their attendees. Trump excels in lies, and projection.

Like all tyrants, he hates to be mocked, as does the Devil. Being shown as ridiculous burns him like water to Dorothy's wicked witch.

These exercisers of the First Amendment are having a good time within the gathering of their brothers and sisters.

We are all smiling [and laughing at the orange demon].

Karma is a greyhound ambassador of peace, and so is Perun.

To quote from the new song, “We’re the Frogs (Portland Peaceful Protest Anthem)”: We’re still here, still laughing, still dancing in the rain. They can spin their stories, but the truth remains the same". Okay, it didn't rain here this time, but the song is from the coastal northwest. It did rain the last No Kings in Parma.

Trump is a clown, but a real vile, disgusting, dangerous, demented, and diabolical clown.

Because deep down,
we are America.
And in America,
frogs can dance at protests
without expecting to be pepper-sprayed for it.

praise, orations, & lessons

I watched President's Carter state funeral, and was struck by a number of things. The song, 'Imagine', was performed. Reading Wikipedia, i was informed that it was also done at Mrs. Carter's funeral. The Carters, in travelling the world, had heard it many times in several countries. The melody is pleasant, it is a wistful song. Now the first line, 'Imagine there's no heaven', is problematic to people who play a rigidly, pious role.

foto from Wikipedia, in Central Park New York City

I remember a mass, in which the priest said he did not allow the song 'My way' used at a man's funeral. It was non-Christian. The way of Jesus was not the purview of the song. Imagine is to create a vision that exists only in the mind; it is a conjecture. The song speaks to an ideal state of community of all people having no quarrel or objection with all the people, a sort of utopia. Utopia is no place.

Now, the last episode of the third season of WKRP, a preacher wanted to be the censor for a radio station. This was April 1981. The actor, Richard Paul, was cast because of his resemblance to Jerry Falwell. Falwell, presented himself as jolly and polite while being pompous and deceptive. He created an organization similar to the goals of the teevee episode. Falwell was on teevee himself a lot during the 1980s. Ted Koppel of ABC had him on many nights, and allowed him to hold forth.

What was the problem. The actor said, "…sounds like communism…", and "…typical of the kind of secular liberal humanist point of view that gluts our airwaves". Two knee jerk responses that are catch-alls. Everything that they disapprove of is 'communism', and 'communism' is one hundred percent the enemy. This sort of political, and social view demands to have absolute censorship over all people, and all thought. The dreamers, who imagine in the song, want a better world with better people; they may strive thought, but they know it is not reachable. Those who would prohibit them, work actively to have that power.

Now, while living then, born again evangelicals were new terms to me. They were Baptist Protestants. Both Carter, and Falwell were in these categories, and they were southerners. Jimmy Carter ran for president in 1976, and in 1980. In 1976, those groups voted for Carter. In 1980, those groups voted against him, and he lost. What changed? President Biden gave a short, and pointed eulogy, "A white Southern Baptist who led us on civil rights". Biden praised Carter for his "character and faith". He alluded to the words of the Prophet Micah, which a previous eulogist directly quoted, "what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?".

Biden also said, "...We have an obligation...to stand up to what my dad used to say is the greatest sin of all: The abuse of power...". President Biden, as did others, were allowing the world evidence. Evidence to be heard, and to compare, the good use of power which Jimmy Carter used. That comparison also would be a lesson to the next president; but that portion of the attempt is in vain. Perhaps others would do so. There the message was sent out into the world.

2024 Miscellany #18 — & Xmas too

Greg Mankis. Total Eclipse. 2024. Cleveland.

 The second mural of public art in Cleveland that shows the eclipse. I talked to the painter earlier [click].

panther chameleon at Cleveland Botanical Gardens

Karma playtime

saw Marbles again

Timothy Schmalz. When I Was Sick (Matthew 25). Cleveland Clinic Lutheran Hospital.

Medusa [click previous appearance]

Say, who are the people in your neighborhood? The people that you meet each day. ~ Sesame Street

On Christmas day, on Christmas day...⁠On Christmas day in the morning.

Lovely, joyous serendipity, we were walking about Wade Oval Cleveland, and saw a man wearing a kilt. He began to play Christmas tunes, and then one about a dreidel. His wife was working at a nearby hospital in the 'n.i.c.u.'

Thomas & Karma

on a porch, on a side street

a camera sees

Marbles is eight, that is eight in dog years. He is a sweet animal. His guardian has had him a year, and named him after his way of walking. This Great Dane steps as if he was walking on marbles. Marbles has leg problems, he spent four years in a too small cage.

Scaffolding surrounds Cleveland's Silly Hall, Biden's improvement funds.

Say, who are the people in your neighborhood? The people that you meet each day. ~ Sesame Street

Actor at Akron Zoo, who will meet school children for an afternoon show.

The child and the Humboldt penguin, both find the other interesting at Akron Zoo.

red panda Akron

ram wizard, Akron Zoo

There is a General Motors stamping plant in Parma.

along Hough Avenue Cleveland

There is pride and anger in being Black in America. Everyone deserves a sense of pride in being a person. Anger comes when one's humanity is denied, or attacked. In urban America it is on display.

In front of an art gallery is this portrait of a black pawn. Can the viewer represent this for a Black American? In a chess game pawns are least valued, and least cried over. Bob Dylan wrote the song, "Only A Pawn In Their Game", about the assassination of Medgar Evers.

Behind the pawn, there is a wide mural. This is part of it, a stylized version of a faro. Egypt is in Africa, but it is not Black Africa.

Cleveland had race riots in 1966. When Los Angeles had riots in 1992, some people called it an uprising. Here in a revision of history the word uprising is used. This sign was unveiled a few days ago [5 September].

This sign is an acknowledgement after 58 years of an event that shaped the future of Cleveland. If it had not come then, over a particular event; then it would have came after another particular event. The tension had been building for a long time, and not just in Cleveland. It was nation wide. Civic boosters do not like to bring such events to mind. For those living around Cleveland at the time, they fully knew of the riots. There was a divide on how people felt, largely on the basis of one's race: vandalism or an explosion of frustration that still lingers. It has been almost fully the passing of two generations. Only now it is possible to speak cooly about it?

Trayvon Martin was a 17-year-old. He was shot dead by vigilante George Zimmerman on 26 February 2012. The system had no interest in the case, until it became public. The next year Zimmerman was acquitted. In between the matter was a cause célèbre between the races. Black males are killed at a unusually high rate, often by police. White people with conservative [euphemism] views reflexively support the killer. In this case, Zimmerman was not a law officer. Much of the black citizenry feel attacked by the system.

After the verdict, President Obama said, "...You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot I said that this could have been my son.  Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.  And when you think about why, in the African American community at least, there’s a lot of pain around what happened here, I think it’s important to recognize that the African American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn’t go away. ..."

Naturally, Obama was attacked for his comments. Republicans, racists, white people with perpetual grievances were on automatic pilot. Obama was subject to racism as supposedly the most powerful man in the world. The boy carrying canned ice tea, and a bag of candy resisted Zimmerman. Zimmerman shot him dead. Here on Hough, Martin is showed with his last purchase.

2024 Miscellany #13

Brendan Murphy. The sitting spaceman. 2024. Beachwood Ohio.

 "Hey Mr. Spaceman, won't you please take me along for a ride"

There are five sculptures on a medical center campus of a hospital system. Eleven more are expected. This one is carbon fiber with a topping of shiny chrome. It is to be remembered that the order of cosmonauts, and astronauts was: dog, chimp, man. The artist has made several spaceman sculptures, and the marker scribbles are his.

For centuries Merino sheep were a Spanish monopoly. Their wool is very fine and soft, and much prised. Currently on Simon Perkins farm in Akron there are seven pregnant ewes. Now on a completely different matter. When you have more than one ewe, you have ewes. There is no place for ya'll.

An arbor on Simon Perkins farm, Akron.

   carousel lion at Akron Zoo

Feeding the birds.

Sometimes, creatures are not interested.

Nigerian dwarf goat, American child

insurance salesman 

 She likes Frank Sinatra, and named them Jupiter, and Mars. Jupiter is a female.