fire & ashes

Any true Southerner knows how azaleas are supposed to be and look. Unvaryingly, when my mother saw azalea bushes that were trimmed and shaped, she would spit out contemptuously, "That's like Yankees." And it was not intended as a compliment.

First the Russians start another World War, and now it looks like we have been overrun with Yankees. OMG, and in our own front yard, yet!

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Lent. Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, our fast season of forty days before Easter, not counting Sundays, we say Sundays are \"IN Lent" not "OF Lent" - - because "all Sundays are a feast of our Lord Jesus Christ" meaning that steak and chocolate ice cream are okay on Sundays during Lent.

We are a liturgical church, and my view is that if we really meant it when we said that (i.e., that Sundays are feast days, you don't have to keep your Lenten fast on Sundays), we would shift colors for Sundays, changing Lenten purple, violet, or drab to white for the day. But we aren't that confident that it's okay to grill steaks after church on Sundays during Lent.

You see, you are what you show, your truth is what people observe about you, not what you proclaim.

For example, the gospel for today, Ash Wednesday:

Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.

And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 KJV)

Did you hear what it says? "wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast" yet all my life, from Cove School days when Roman Catholics came to school on Ash Wednesday with their foreheads smudged, and now Episcopalians as well, everybody goes about all morning with their face smudged with ash, why? To show, "I went to Ash Wednesday Mass this morning" even though the gospel says "wash your face"

So, there we are!

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Breakfast this morning: half dozen, eight or ten raw oysters, cold, salty ones, each onto a saltine cracker, and a cup of hot & black from my latest coffee club excellence.

My Lenten discipline: I have seven new books to read about our saturation bombing of German cities during World War Two. I'm into them, having started all six, nearly finished with one, and well into two more - -

maybe I'll gain a bit of humility from it, maybe not. Yes, Germany and Germans are our friends and allies now; nevertheless, all the same, still and anyway, so far, I do not share the popular outrage about our trying to bomb to extinction a nation of Volk who depravedly orchestrated the Holocaust and who went to war to expand their dominion across Europe, cruelly decimating native populations in their path.

My problem is My Lai, which makes me realize that it is not "them" it's "us". At any event, I'm working on better understanding those on the other side.

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So, do you think we'll have rain?