Peace Arena » Just life

Getting religion

Rena — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 05:33:15 +0000

I went to a Catholic High School, not because I had gone to Catholic grammar school (I didn’t) and not because I or my family was particularly religious (we weren’t), but because after attending public school the first year back in the continental U.S., I was afraid I wouldn’t live through another year of it, much less three more, so I begged to transfer to the school where there was a little more behavioral control in evidence (for context, this was the late 60s).

There were some good moments (studying Ayn Rand, Niemoller, Saint-Exupéry, et. al. with a very charismatic priest is a highlight, as was hearing the coolest brothers and sisters telling about their Summers spent on the nearby Catholic Worker Farm), there was some psychological torture (studying Latin with the most dull-witted and mind-numbing person in the hemisphere).

But by far the best was a religion class in 11th grade. What was cool about it was that we didn’t talk about religion, at least I don’t remember doing so, though surely we must have. What I remember was an engaging, vibrant, passionate sister who clearly loved life, teaching, people and who respected her students and wanted to enrich their minds and hear their ideas.

There were two classes that really stick out for me. In one, the nun wrote the lyrics for the Leonard Cohen song ‘Suzanne’ on the blackboard. We listened to the song, examined and talked about the words, listened again, explored meanings and possible motivations and outcomes. It was one of the most stunning classroom experiences I have ever had. I would say it was the most stunning, except for another, also with the same nun.

She had at the front of the room several pictures depicting Jesus Christ. I don’t remember all of them exactly, but basically, for the purposes of this story, and being descriptively accurate, you could say one was The Pieta, one was a manger scene, one was a closeup of a face with a crown of thorns, one was floating beautifully passionless on a post-ascension cloud and one was Christ of the Breadlines.

She asked us which image best represented our idea of Jesus. Most of my classmates had gone to Catholic School and lived in the little township in upstate New York their whole lives. Maybe that accounts for their responses, which were mostly split between the torture victim and the cloud-rider. Anyway, I was the only one who raised my hand for Christ of the Breadlines. The only one, and I was somewhat embarrassed by that, in the uncomfortable way you feel if you are singled out for undue praise. I thought I was making the obvious choice.

That moment really made me aware that I was different from the other students in ways I hadn’t realized before (and I was already plenty different). I was shocked by the choices made by my fellow students and kept trying to understand. Did their responses really reflect their thinking, or was something else at work? Sometimes I’d thing they were just playing mind games with the nun. Maybe they were refusing to give the answer she wanted because, well, they’d been mindfucked themselves by many a nun and wanted to make a point about their earlier Catholic education. Or maybe I was the only one naive enough to be mindfucked into giving Sister the answer she wanted (and yes, I think it’s a given what answer she was hoping for; see ‘Suzanne’ above).

I finally realized that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. And that’s when I “got” religion and stopped being a Christian. I realize that it’s possible that someone else, under the same circumstances, would make the opposite choice — in an alternate universe, maybe I’m the Pope. It took me many more years to come to realize I was or had at some point become an atheist, and to come to terms with that. But religion still fascinates me, like a lifelong research project, in the drastic/dramatic way it shapes people, and controls them, blinds them, and even sometimes enlightens and elevates them, and I still think if you read the New Testament, even the Cliff Notes version, and don’t come away seeing the Jesus depicted there (man, god, or literary character) as Christ of the Breadlines, there is something seriously wrong with your comprehension (it probably having been warped even more drastically by the many evils of dogma so that even religion isn’t “religious” anymore).

Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river
You can hear the boats go by
You can spend the night beside her
And you know that shes half crazy
But that’s why you want to be there
And she feeds you tea and oranges
That come all the way from China
And just when you mean to tell her
That you have no love to give her
Then she gets you on her wavelength
And she lets the river answer
That you’ve always been her lover
And you want to travel with her
And you want to travel blind
And you know that she will trust you
For you’ve touched her perfect body with your mind.

And Jesus was a sailor
When he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching
From his lonely wooden tower
And when he knew for certain
Only drowning men could see him
He said all men will be sailors then
Until the sea shall free them
But he himself was broken
Long before the sky would open
Forsaken, almost human
He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone
And you want to travel with him
And you want to travel blind
And you think maybe you’ll trust him
For he’s touched your perfect body with his mind.

Now Suzanne takes you hand
And she leads you to the river
She is wearing rags and feathers
From salvation army counters
And the sun pours down like honey
On our lady of the harbour
And she shows you where to look
Among the garbage and the flowers
There are heroes in the seaweed
There are children in the morning
They are leaning out for love
And they will lean that way forever
While Suzanne holds the mirror
And you want to travel with her
And you want to travel blind
And you know that she will trust you
For she’s touched your perfect body with her mind.

WordPress 3.0 upgrade, tweaks and prepping for blog future

Rena — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 20:59:05 +0000

I’ve upgraded to WordPress 3.0 (“Thelonious”) and plan to use its multisite feature. But first I want to do some housecleaning here and at the blogs I plan to merge from hither and yon into this single install (hallelujah!).

I’ve also got some changes planned for Peace Arena’s front page and menus. I’m going to focus less on the day to day blog (Ha! who am I kidding, I mean the month to month sporadic blog) and more on providing some resources and tools for my Oklahoma (and beyond) progressive community.

So, at the point when I can get some time to do this, Peace Arena will go down for maintenance until it’s done. This may be tonight, it may be two weeks from now — just giving a heads up now.

17 more discounted DVDs for my library

Rena — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 22:46:40 +0000

The Movie Gallery video chain is going out of business. So, was unable to talk myself out of going into the local store for their closing sale today. Here’s what I got:

Flow: How did a handful of corporations seal our water?
Enron: The smartest guys in the room
The U.S. vs John Lennon
Margaret Cho: Assassin
This So-Called Disaster (fiction film about rehearsing a Sam Shepard play — never heard of it, but doesn’t that sound like a horror movie? LOL)
The Real Dirt on Farmer John (“It ain’t easy being green” is the callout; sounds interesting)
Hotel Rwanda
What the bleep do we know? (someone I don’t care for was a big fan of this film, but I’ll try not to hold that against it.)
Jesus Camp
Frost/Nixon
Grey Gardens

Not shown in photo (cuz I missed a bag):

An Inconvenient Truth
Milk
Why We Fight
No End in Sight
Rush To War
Paper Clips

The last four I’m probably going to donate to the war and peace library maintained by the Oklahoma Center for Conscience.

By the way, per a flyer they gave me, moviegallery.com is now going to be a source for buying movies. Limited time promo code for 25% off with free shipping: 25PV

Hank Williams given special Pulitzer, Meryl Streep elected to Academy

Rena — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 06:48:16 +0000

Any ~~award~~ Special Citation for Hank Williams (Sr) doesn’t really need an explanation.

New York City, April 12 – The Pulitzer Prize Board has awarded a posthumous Special Citation to country music icon Hank Williams for his lifetime achievement as a musician, Columbia University announced today.
The citation praises Williams for “his craftsmanship as a songwriter who expressed universal feelings with poignant simplicity and played a pivotal role in transforming country music into a major musical and cultural force in American life.”

That the writer/singer of “Honky Tonkin’” and “Hey, Good Lookin’” would get an award like the Pulitzer once would have been sacrilege.

“The citation, above all, recognizes the lasting impact of Williams as a creative force that influenced a wide range of other musicians and performers,” said Sig Gissler, administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes. “At the same time, the award highlights the Board’s desire to broaden its Music Prize and recognize the full range of musical excellence that might not have been considered in the past.”

Shorter Gissler: “We used to be artsy fartsy snobs!”

My mother knew Williams in Montgomery in the late 30s, or knew of him, somewhat crossed paths. In her mid teens she played steel guitar (“Hawaiian guitar” back then) on a radio program and says he, a couple of years younger, hung out around the station, and at other music venues. She had no idea of his amazing talent, though. She can be a little snobby, I have to say, so she probably didn’t give him the time of day, much less a good listen. Who’s sorry now?

Also in opening-the-arts-to-the-lowly-masses news today, Meryl Streep was honored with a membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters. This is a pretty exclusive club and she’s the first artist elected solely for acting, and this is seen either as the collapse of culture, or the democratization of art, depending on your point of view.

The inductees [of the special category Streep's membership is in] demonstrate again how far the academy has changed from its frankly snobbish roots, when modernists, women, non-whites and Jews were not welcome and the presence of a “lowly” actress, even one as talented as Streep, might have set off mass resignations.

And the gate crashing continues.

Pistol packing pip-squeak

Rena — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:52:58 +0000

This is me, age 3 or 4, pretending to be Annie Oakley. So I wasn’t always anti-gun.

My big haul from Big Lots

Rena — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:41:28 +0000

Yesterday I went to Big Lots on an errand for my Mom. While there I of course perused their bargain bin of DVDs and books. Here’s what I got:

Courting Justice (memoir by hotshot attorney David Boies)

DVDs:

Casa de los Babys (John Sayles)
The Science of Sleep (Michael Gondry, who also wrote Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind which blew my mind)
Peaceful Warrior (based on Dan Millman’s iconic book)
Man on the Moon (the Andy Kaufman biopic starring Jim Carrey)
Chisolm: Unbought & Unbossed (looking forward to this; she’s a huge hero of mine)
The Ground Truth (soldiers speaking about the Iraq war and its impact on their lives)
Before Sunrise (by Richard Linklater, and one of my favorite films of all time; I have on cassette, but kind of worn out)
Day Zero (I’d never heard of this drama; says its about what happens to three young men when the draft is reinstated)
A Mighty Heart (the true story of the assassinated Wall Street Journal reporter David Pearl and his widow Mariane, based on her memoir and starring Angelina Jolie; I actually meant to see this but never did)
Man from Plains (Jonathan Demme’s profile of Jimmy Carter, in very eco-friendly packaging)

I started to get State and Main, another favorite film I already have on cassette, but talked myself out of it — which I kind of regret now. Such a great film.

All of the above were $3 each, except for A Mighty Heart, which was $5. Total cost of one bestseller book (in its original publication) and 10 either excellent or promising DVDs: $35

I did manage to force myself to pass up Gigli and Madonna’s Swept Away for only $3 each. It was hard, but my will prevailed!

Siskel and Ebert outtakes

Rena — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 06:17:39 +0000

Oh. My. God. This had me wiping tears off my cheeks AND my keyboard, it’s so hilarious. Maybe to fully appreciate it, you had to have watched them religiously for years like I did, enjoying the tension between the two movie lovers who couldn’t seem to agree on anything.

I often wondered what they talked about during the commercials, so to speak. Well, now we know.

By the time Gene Siskel died much too early, they really had bonded and loved each other, though maybe they didn’t say it, or recognize it until Gene was sick and the writing was on the wall. Roger Ebert has memorialized his partner and friend so beautifully since then, in a way we should all hope to be honored when we are gone.

Now Roger himself is ill, has lost his voice, but still writes and his real Voice rings pretty clear on issues beyond celluloid and art. He has stood strong to rant against the violations of our constitution, and the immorality of war. You can’t keep a spirit like that down.

That pair has brought me a lot of insight, pleasure and laughter over the years. These outtakes — biting, argumentative, silly, make me love those guys all the more.

Now I know how Obama felt on October 9

Rena — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:55:56 +0000

It’s embarrassing to be recognized for something you know you don’t deserve. Well, I’m in that boat at the moment. I just found out I was nominated for an Okie Blogger Award in the category of “Best Political Blog (Liberal Leaning).”

I can’t even tell you to vote for someone deserving, since voting ended on Sunday. The results will be announced on the 21st.

Here’s the letter I sent to the organizer:

I just found out that Peace Arena was nominated. It’s probably too late, but if I’d found out earlier I would have removed myself from contention. Not that I think I have a shot in hell of actually winning, but frankly I’m embarrassed to even be on such a list this year when my blogging has been so random and inconsistent. Others have worked really hard to be regular about posting, not to even address the quality of their work.

While I have to be flattered that I was nominated, and thank whoever did so, I have to assume they are making the judgment based on past years of my blog, NOT this year. I don’t expect the Okie Blog awards to adopt something akin to the old figure skating judging standards, where you get it based on some amorphous nod to history rather that what just happened in front of everyone’s lying eyes!

I hope the best blogger wins in all the categories, which this year will definitely and appropriately eliminate moi.

I’ll be posting this on my blog, just to document my mortification.

Today’s book haul

Rena — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 04:36:42 +0000

I went to Barnes and Noble today to buy a PHP tutorial.

Well, you know how it is. I also came home with:

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which I’ve been wanting to read since it came out and got rave reviews with J.D. Salinger mentioned repeatedly.
Mountains Beyond Mountains:The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World, a timely book about the physician-founder of the Haiti medical aid organization, Partners in Health
Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, about the key men who founded our nation, the brilliant but flawed Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, Madison, Hamilton and Burr.

These three were on the “Buy 2, Get the 3rd Free” table. How could I resist? I also got book from the $2 “Please get it out of our store” table, The Secret Life of Lobsters: How Fishermen and Scientists Are Unraveling the Mysteries of Our Favorite Crustacean.”

For the record

Rena — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 19:37:15 +0000

I am disassociating myself with Firedoglake.com.

Although I had an account on the site for commenting, I was never a regular reader and maybe posted once or twice; still, I feel a little dirty.

I have unsubscribed from their action e-list, and though there’s no way to delete the account on the site, I did create a filter that will send any messages to the email address listed there right into the trash.

I am also removing FDL from my blogroll. It’s “open seating” but I do have minimal standards. Unfortunately, Marcy Wheeler (aka emptywheel) will have to go too, since her otherwise excellent blog has its home there.

I’m not going to go into it; if you care, there’s Google.