Three times a day Automotive News arrives by email. AM Newscast with Jennifer Vuong, Daily Newsletter, and PM Newscast with Tom Worobec. Yesterday’s newsletter carried an article saying automobile designers are copying each other’s designs, whatever is popular, because there is nothing new to be done. Apparently cars have reached their zenith. My memory is of the day the new 1948 Buick came out. My brochure may be in my trunk upstairs. The slogan was “When better automobiles are built, Buick will build them,” and it was as much creed for me at age twelve as the Nicene. The cars were magnificent, especially the Super and the Roadmaster.  In our family 1948 was time for a new car, and my mother and I were rooting for a 1948 Buick Super sedan. My father went to Nelson Chevrolet-Buick and got prices, which are written by various models in my brochure. To me the 1948 Buick was the ultimate in motorcars, the most beautiful and perfect machine under the sun, and no further improvement...

Monday in Holy Week Almighty God, whose dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we (I) , walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Monday 51:1-18(19-20) v 69:1-23 Jer. 12:1-16 Phil. 3:1-14 John 12:9-19 Anyone who is of a mind to keep Holy Week spiritually day by day will find it readily available and easy using the Book of Common Prayer. A suitable devotional prayer, the collect for each day, is found at pages 220-221, and the lessons for each day of Holy Week are found in the Daily Office Lectionary at page 956, copied above. The top line names the psalms for the day, on the left is the psalm for morning, on the right the psalm for evening. The collects are meant for use in corporate worship, but simply ch...

In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe of C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, one of the four Pevensie children, Edmund, a selfish and bratty boy, enters Narnia on a cold, snowy winter day, and has a chance encounter with Queen Jadis the White Witch. The Witch (the Satan figure in the story) beguiles Edmund with her delicious hot cocoa and Turkish delight candy and tells him she needs a boy to be Prince of Narnia and he will be King of Narnia when she dies. Her aim, unbeknownst to Edmund, is to get all four children together and kill them so they cannot fulfill an old prophecy in which she is overthrown and four humans, sons of Adam and daughters of Eve, ascend the throne of Narnia and rule in Aslan’s name. Already angry at his brother and sisters, Edmund takes the bait and becomes a traitor. He agrees to bring his brother and sisters to Jadis. Later when tormented by the Witch, he realizes he has made a deadly mistake and repents. Of course, Jadis is a pretender: not the Witch, but ...

Circle me, Lord Keep protection near And danger afar Circle me, Lord Keep hope within Keep doubt without Circle me, Lord Keep light near And darkness afar Circle me, Lord Keep peace within Keep evil out My high school years were blessed by playing in the Bay High Hundred Piece Million Dollar Marching Band as Orin Whitley called us. Mr. Whitley did not suffer fools or tardiness gladly, especially being late to Thursday night band practice. He constantly told us to “leave home fifteen minutes early so if you have a flat tire you’ll still be on time.” It became a habit, second nature. Arriving early then, sitting in a pew at First Presbyterian Church yesterday afternoon and waiting to begin our rehearsal for this evening’s wedding of Melanie and Jonathan, I thumbed through the well worn red leather Book of Common Prayer that has served me well for over a quarter century. Pages fell open to “Holy Baptism” where permanently affixed is one of my cherished little treasures, a card that ...

"Always be as kind as you can,  for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle." Where this quotation came from who knows, but it showed up in an email and seems right and good.  On a counter in Battin Hall there is a box of lenten mite boxes folded flat. You take one, fold it into a box, punch out the little slot in top, and each day of Lent you put a coin in, the money collected being designated for a good work, I think this year to Episcopal Relief and Development’s Japan Earthquake Response Fund. In my day, on Easter the children came up in the entry procession with both hands full. Their fistful of flowers to decorate the cross was in one hand and their mite box in the other hand. Both were stuffed into a large cross up front, made to hold flowers and mite boxes. A heavy mite box was a sure sign of a faithful Lent. Two pennies and a dollar stuffed in on the way to church on Easter morning was a sure sign of slackness! Lent is not the only mite box. Begun in 1889 and sp...

No blog post this morning, too absorbed in things going on in life and not able to focus elsewhere. It’s a time of distress on several levels, including never expecting to see my mother in the state she’s in, broken and crushed and begging “Help me” though we are giving the best help we know, yet still “Help me, please help me.” μὴ γένοιτο. She was in Gulf Coast Medical Center three nights, getting the best and kindest care imaginable. Yesterday afternoon, thanks to Celia, she was transported from hospital to Community Heath & Rehabilitation Center out U.S. 231 at Transmitter Road. It seems first class and I am confident it will be. We expect her to be there four to six weeks for physical therapy, then Plan A is for her to come home where we will have extra help for her probably round the clock. This is not the way one would wish life to come to be, μὴ γένοιτο. But all of us deal with life as it is, not life as we would have it be. Peace today. TW

5 Let the same mind be in you that was  in Christ Jesus,  6 who, though he was in the form of God,    did not regard equality with God    as something to be exploited,  7 but emptied himself,    taking the form of a slave,    being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, 8  he humbled himself    and became obedient to the point of death—    even death on a cross.  9 Therefore God also highly exalted him    and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus    every knee should bend,    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  11 and every tongue should confess    that Jesus Christ is Lord,    to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:5-11 NRSV) The second lesson for Palm Sunday is Paul’s famous and belov...