Cape Cod is my summer home, although we love Maine, too.  In fact, this year's family vacation is in Denmark, Maine.  Richard Russo's novel, That Old Cape Magic puts the Cape and Maine as settings.  I loved reading and recognizing everything, although regrettably, Silver Lounge isn't there anymore, I do remember it well.

Russo introduces us to Jack's parents, who were constantly vying against each other and criticizing everything.  Later, he copies them unconsciously.  Jack's wife, Joy, had parents who placed family first.  Jack made fun of them.  

The story takes place between two weddings, their daughter's and her friends.  One if on the Cape and the other is in Maine.

Did I tell you that this novel has its humor?  Everyone is a cynic and sarcastic and at times, it's funny. For example, Jack's parents die and have requested that their ashes be scattered on the Cape.  So, for a good year, Jack carries their ashes in the trunk of his car.  One on one side of the trunk, and the other, on the other.  When he finally does scatter them, it's one on the Bay side, and the other on the ocean side.

Jack's mother is in his head, literally.  He can hear her sarcastic comments.  At times, he answers audibly.  But once the ashes are disposed of, the voice is quieter.

The story is OK, but the setting covers a lot of sins.

Joan fooling around.

 Joan fooling around.  My friend and I were visiting La Salette Shrine in Attleboro, MA.  We enjoyed ourselves.

Martyred While Praying

 Murdered during prayer.  This article relates how youth praying, in the Democratic Republic of Congo were killed.

At least 31 young people in Eucharistic adoration were killed late Sunday night during an attack on a Catholic church in Komanda, a town in the Democratic Republic of Congo's Ituri province. Local officials say the armed group responsible was the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamic State affiliate operating in Central Africa.

  Killed during praying fulfills my definition of martyr.  Lord, don't you see?  Have mercy on your children.

Hurtful Words

 Summerland by Elin Hilderbrand is a good summer novel.  It's about teen life on Nantucket Island.  A tragic accident ends the life of Penny, a twin.  The story is about how three families deal with this horror.  

Her mother and twin brother, Hobson, reminisce.  Her brother was riding in the passenger seat of the car that crashed.  He saw the look in Penny's face.  Was she trying to kill them all?  In the back seat were Penny's boyfriend, Jake, and friend, Demeter.

If she were intent on suicide, why?  Demeter felt guilty because she said something very upsetting to Penny.  Jake wonders why Penny would kill herself leaving Jake alone.  Hobson had to find out what made Penny suicidal.

To complicate matters, the twins' mother, Zoe, was in a relationship with Penny's boyfriend's father, Jordan.  Also, Demeter, although only 17 was grossly obese and a functioning alcoholic in trying to cope with her weight situation.

How everyone copes and heals is the story.  It's a page turner.  The reader is rooting for the characters.  It's a nice ending.

A Benedictine Presbyterian

Author Kathleen Norris should have a blog because her book, The Cloister Walk, is a collection of blog posts.  Her chapters may be long or short, mostly short.  They're her thoughts along her spiritual journey.  Although she chooses to be Presbyterian, she also chooses to be a Benedictine Oblate.  She taught at the Benedictine Abbey Schools and went to their abbey, for retreats.

I think this is like the many Franicans, I know.  They are professed Lay Domicans, but they feel attracted to Franciscan spirituality.  It works.

A few of my favorite quotes, from the book:

...poetry, like prayer is a dialogue with the sacred.

Psalm reading becomes a heartbeat.

Poetry's function is not to explain but to offer images and stories that resonate within our lives.

Doubt--the grace of poetic sensibility.

To say or sing the psalms aloud within a community is to recover religion as an oral tradition.

Communal prayer--when you don't feel like it, others pull you along.

Life is a matter of perspective.

What may be most valuable in myths is the depth of psychological truth that they contain.

Good liturgy is a living poem and ceremony is the key.

Ceremony and tradition can be food for the soul,

Grieving involves touch, seeing, listening to stories, and forgiveness.

There is no way to avoid not having your heart broken, when you visit the widow, bring food, tears, hugs, and the three year old looks up at you and says, "My daddy died."  You see and feel what the death of one person does to the world.

Yes, I see what the thoughts of Kathleen Norris does to me.  She is food for the soul.

Pray for Peace

 I thought it ironic that in my meditative reading this morning, Jerusalem is sought after as a city of peace.  Psalm 122 is a pilgrim's prayer traveling to Jerusalem.

For the peace of Jerusalem pray:

"Peace be to your homes!

May peace reign in your walls,

in your palaces, peace!"

For love of my brethren and friends

I say: "Peace upon you!"

For love of the house of the Lord

I will ask for your good.

The Gardener's Virtues

Something ate the entire head of my sunflowers.  Not just the petals--the whole flower bloom.  I don't think a deer could enter my garden with its fence.  Besides the sunflowers are in the last row, so the deer wouldn't be able to stretch over the fence.

     We have a groundhog living under my neighbor's shed.  But she's too fat to fit through the fence.  The rabbits are too fat, too.  Maybe a skinny rabbit.  Do squirrels eat sunflowers?  The squirrels around here are nasty.  They used to verbally abuse my late cat.  The squirrels recently made a hole in the porch screen to get at some food that was left on the table.

    Anway, I was surprised tonight when I was watering the garden that more sunflowers are growing on the plant.  How's that for encouraging hope?  When you think of it, just gardening is an act of faith.  

    Faith, hope and love are the gardener's virtues.  One would have to love gardening to keep at it.  So I guess the greatest virtue is love, after all.

Colors in Icons

 There was a time when the majority of people couldn't read.  There was no need to.  There were hardly any books.  The books that existed were too expensive.  The only way to share the Christian message was through pictures.  Hence, stained glass windows.

In Russia and Greece, that area of the world, they created Icons.  Over time, icons developed a symbolic language that carried a Christian message. There is a lot to them.  You have to study them to see everything.  It's called reading the icon. Making the icon is called writing. 

The background of icons is colored gold to symbolize heaven.  When Jesus is portrayed as a child He is often portrayed in white and gold as God, or green and or blue for his humanity.  However, as an adult, Jesus often wears a red inner robe as a sign of divinity.  Over this tunic is another robe of blue, worn as a sign of humanity. 

 

Mystery at the Library

 Mystery at the Library

Cast in Alphabetical Order: Pete Fascione, Faith Flaherty, Alice Judge, Helen Kelly, Bo Kinney, Bob O’Day, Violet Rovani, Steve Sherlock, Bill Wyllie

Setting:  Board Meeting of Friends of Franklin Library.  This library is in Franklin, MA and is arguably the oldest in the country.  This claim to fame is due to the Franklin Collection.  In 1790, the town requested a bell from Benjamin Franklin, because we named our town after him.  Instead, Franklin sent us 116 books, with a note saying “sense is preferable to sound.”

The library still has the books.  They are kept in an hermetically sealed show case. That is until the books were mysteriously stolen, one ill fated Sunday.

Scene 1

Narrator: We begin in the library conference room where the chairperson is 

Welcoming the new youth representative, Violet.

(Chair) Helen:  Take a seat anywhere, Violet.  We are very informal.       Everyone this is 

Violet, our new member, representing our Young People.

Everyone: Greeting Violet and each other.

Helen: I think we are all here, except for Bo and his emotional support dog, Iggy.  

Bill: He always comes late..

Steve: Yes, but he comes.  It’s his work, you know.

Helen: It’s one o’clock.  Let’s begin.  

Roll call: 

Pete Fascione, Faith Flaherty, Alice Judge, Helen Kelly, Bo Kinney, Bob    

O’Day, Violet Rovani, Steve Sherlock, Bill Wyllie

I have called this emergency meeting to inform you of a very distressing

Situation.

Everyone: Oh no.  The rumors are true.

Helen: Sunday afternoon, the town’s automated facilities management software 

malfunctioned and unlocked the doors.  Even though the building’s     electricity wasn’t on, people entered and roamed the halls, acting

like nothing was unusual. Not a single staff person was on duty.  

Families with young children came in and behaved as though playing 

games in the dark were normal. A group of people even conducted a meeting in this very room. How the word got out that the library was unlocked is a mystery, but a bigger mystery is the subject of this emergency meeting.  Some mischief making villainous miscreant broke into the sealed enclosure containing Ben Franklin’s books!

Everyone: (Audible gasps) “Oh no!!!”

Alice: Those books are our claim to fame.  Franklin donated them to the town 

and they were lended out.  Horace Mann, the famous educator, born in 

Franklin furthered his own education by reading these very same books.

Helen: The lock on the bookcase became unlocked and the books are gone!

Bob: Probably due to that same facilities management malfunction.

Narrator: The Friends of Franklin Library board broke into frenzied conversation, 

especially with the arrival of Bo and his emotional support dog, Iggy.

Scene 2

Narrator: The board convenes the next day.

Pete: What happened?

Helen: We received a ransom note.

Bill: How much do they want?

Helen: Well…it’s not really a ransom note.  It’s a note explaining that the books 

really not stolen.  They’re still in the library, somewhere.

Everyone: What!

Helen: Yes, they’re hidden here and there and everywhere, in the library.

Steve: You mean they’re still in the building?

Helen: yep.

Bo: Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle.  Sorry Iggy.

Helen: The note states that this is a scavenger hunt.

Everyone: What!

Narrator: Frenzied conversation again as we go into Scene 3.

Scene 3

Helen: Ugh.  I’m so upset.  Alice, you read it.

Alice: The first hint is, “Periodically, I am read?”

Bob: That’s a hint????

Bill: What does it mean?

Pete: That’s what a scavenger hunt is.  We get a hint and we have to figure out 

the answer.

Steve: How do we do that?

Bo: By thinking.  What is periodically read?  Periodically…periodically…

Violet: I know.  Magazines.  

Bob: Yes, magazines are periodicals!

Narrator: Everyone races to the magazine racks.

Alice: Look, there’s a Ben Franklin book!

Pete: Great!  Only 115 more to go.

Violet: There’s a piece of paper sticking out of the book.

Bo: What does it say?  

Violet: It’s the next hint.

Bo: Read it.

Violet: “I’m not used anymore, but I used to keep the building warm.”

Steve: The fireplace!

Narrator: Everyone runs to the fireplace in the Booksale Room.”

Bill: There on the mantle!

Helen: Look, 10 books!

Bob: 105 more books to go.

Narrator: And so it goes, bit by bit the scavenger hunt goes on and on to Scene 4.

Scene 4

Pete: Only 10 more books.

Bo: This hint is harder than the others.

Helen: “We look over our memorial endowment but never move.”

Bob: A statue, there’re no statues in the library.  Are there?

Steve: How about a picture?  There’re lots of those?

Alice: “We look over our memorial endowment.”  What endowment?

Violet: How about the library itself?

Pete: There’s a statue of Franklin, outside.  But he’s not looking over the library.

Steve: I still think a picture is our best bet.

Bill: What’s an endowment?

Bob: It usually is money, but it could be this very library.

Pete: Who gave the town the money to build the library?

Steve: J. G. Ray and Emily Ray.  And their portrait looks over the main entrance 

to the library.

Helen: You mean that humongous portrait of the Rays with their dogs?

Bo: Dogs?  Iggy will like that.

Steve: Yes, let’s look.

Narrator: Everyone rushes to the portrait.  

Alice: Of course.  It makes sense now.  We are in the Ray Memorial Library.

Violet: On the table, underneath the picture are the last of the 116 books.

Helen: Finally, we are finished.

Bo: What a relief!

Bill: Who would steal Franklin’s books and make up this scavenger hunt?

Bob: Yes, who?

Narrator:       Exactly.  Who?