Question

 How does the foreman on a jury get picked?  Do certain people have an aura of leadership?  Is it intelligence?  Alertness?  Poker face?

Just wondering. 

Whenever I am in a role where I am placed in the front of an audience, I look over the crowd of faces. I see some that look very attentive. Are they more intelligent than the others?  When the speaker tells a joke, they laugh out loud. Others don’t. Why?  Didn’t they get the joke—weren’t they listening—are they thinking about it—just naturally poker-faced?

What do you think?  

Culture is Important

 This is another Book Club recommendation, A Calamity of Souls by David Baldacci.  The calamity is the mix of morality between races.  This is set in the American South of the 1960's.  Segregation had just ended and is grudging, not accepted, but rather enforced by law.  People still automatically kept the same roles as before segregation ended.  Blacks automatically sat in the back of the bus, went into back doors, and didn't mix.

The story begins with a black man, Jerome, being arrested for the murder of his two white employers.  Immediately, the reader sees the language and treatment, the accused endures.  Jerome's mother-in-law asks Jack Lee to be his attorney.  They know each other and live in the same town, albeit different segregated neighborhoods.  

Jack knows he doesn't have the skill nor experience to win the case, but he was willing to give it his best.  In walks Desiree DuBose, a hot shot civil rights lawyer from Chicago.  Plus, she's black. Together they try to defend Jerome.

This book should be recommended reading for high school history/literature classes.  I was alive then and had forgotten how bad it really was.  It was bad, really bad.  Desiree stood up to all the vile harassment and hateful vitriol.  Besides the evil vibes, Jack's sister was killed, Jerome's wife was arrested, also, and all the families involved were traumatized.

The reader of course knows Jerome is being railroaded, but the story includes how the witnesses play out on the witness stand.  It seemed Jerome had no chance.  Reading their testimonies and Jack and Desiree's rebuttals sound convincing, but the jury is all white and not Jerome's peers.  

The ending is satisfactory

Autonomy

 My friend, who passed over five years ago, once had a discussion on "autonomy," with me.  At the time, I didn't understand her devotion to the word.  It seemed like unbridled anarchy.  What kind of world would we have if everyone believed as she did?  She believed in abortion, gay rights, even therians/otherkin rights. She divorced her husband and was in the midst of a robust love affair, when I first met her.

I could barely discuss, never mind argue with her.  She was smarter and more self-assured than I was. She was a science teacher, an artist, and a reiki master.  Unfortunately, she got cancer and chose to have doctor assisted suicide.  She was really suffering.

What could I do but pray for her?  And what to pray for?  

She came to mind, during this morning's gospel on Matthew 4: 1-11.  This is the gospel where Satan tempts Jesus in the desert.  My friend, I think would lean more towards the temptations, than towards Jesus' choices.  Jesus was following scripture.  She would have scoffed at scripture dictating His choices.  He should have been able to choose what He wanted.

But don't you think Jesus did choose what He wanted?  He wanted to obey Mosaic laws.  

Maybe she would choose what Jesus did.  I'll never know.

His temptations are so very human.  His first one was food.  After all, He had been fasting for 40 days.  I know that if my belly is full, I'm not hungry.  But if I haven't eaten in a while, I'm hungry and will grab whatever, good for me or not.

His second temptation was authority over His religion in Jerusalem.  Think that He was offered the job of pope over all Jews.  Didn't Satan know Who He was?  Why would He be tempted for something He could have, if He wanted?  Free will be damned.  

Lastly, was Lord over all the world.  His kingdom is not in this world.  Satan has it.  

Autonomy is tricky.  It sounds nice. The freedom to make your own choices.  But you need to know how your choice affects others.  You need to take into consideration the consequences.  

Maybe you need discernment, help, a guide, otherwise you probably make selfish, emotional decisions.  Perhaps, it is best to follow an ethical code--like religion.

                     If this image is under a copyright, please let me know and I will remove it. 

Dust

 Today is Ash Wednesday.  Ashes is what everything eventually will become.  Did you ever return to your childhood home?  Nothing is as you remembered.  Stores are renamed.  Movie theatres are gone.  Your favorite drug store where there was a soda fountain is missing.  Condominiums are everywhere.

Everything is changed or completely gone.  Reminds me of Ash Wednesday, "You are dust and to dust you will return."  Again, my mantra comes to mind, "All is passing, only God abiding."

This Lent I will work on my relationship with God and others, who are in His image.

Juvenile Thinking

 How does one mature in an immature environment?  My "cloistered brothers" were telling me that they feel sorry and don't know how to help the 18–25-year-olds, in prison.  How can they ever grow up in prison?  After they've served their time and go outside back home, how will they fit in?

Thinking about it, I don't know if they ever will.  They will always be that juvenile delinquent and think like one.  I say that because I had an experience that cements my opinion.  

When I was about 35-years-old, I took a class to obtain a real estate broker's license.  Sitting in the classroom, I found myself "checking" out the guys that entered the room.  After a bit, I stopped myself and asked, "What am I doing?  I am 35 years old, married, and the mother of three children!" 

Why was I thinking like that?  I think it was because the last time, I was in a classroom was when I was in college and would have been "checking out" the guys, as they entered the room.  Even though I was 35, I was thinking like I was 18.  

How in the world, could excons think any differently?  They would just pick up where they left off, before they became incarcerated.

God help them.

Reliving the Past

 The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark is a mystery, thriller, and a study in character development.  The gist of the story is that Olivia Dumont is a ghostwriter who needs money.  She is estranged from her father-- you will understand in the story.  Her father, Vincent, is a successful mystery thriller writer.  However, he has Lewy Body Dementia and needs to get a story out.

As a teen, Vincent survived a murder trauma in his family.  Consequently, the townspeople always thought he was guilty of murder.  The court system, however, said he was innocent.  However, a cloud always hung over his head.  Now that he is dying, he wants his side of the story to come out.

Fifty years ago, Vincent's brother and sister were murdered.  That night is revisited-- eventually relived in the story Olivia is writing. Olivia learns about each sibling through diaries, films, still photos, and interviews with the victim's friends.  At first, it seems that Vincent was guilty as hell.  However, a different side of each character is displayed, than public perception thinks. 

It is an interesting "who dun it."

Wind Phone

 What is a Wind Phone?  It is a device to give comfort to those who need it.  Usually, it is an old fashion rotary phone that isn't connected to anything. People symbolically call their deceased loved ones and converse with them.  Grieving people call whomever they want.  People say they feel solace.  There seems to be some kind of cosmic connection.  People who use these Wind Phones feel better, somehow.  

The story of the Wind Phone begins in Japan by Itaru Sasaki.  He missed his cousin who died of cancer.  He purchased a phone booth and installed an old phone that was not connected in it.  Whenever he missed his cousin, he went into the phone booth, lifted the phone receiver and talked into it.  He called this The Wind Phone.  The next year, 2011, an earthquake resulted in a tsunami the obliterated the coast of northern Japan.  Many people died and felt overwhelmed with grief.  Itaru Sasaki moved his phone booth to the devasted area with the most missing people.  He welcomed mourners to visit his Wind Phone to call to talk to their lost loved ones, hoping they would be comforted, somehow.  Some people said the Wind Phone did help them cope.

Don't knock it until you try it.  Here is a link to Wind Phones in the USA.  Map | My Wind Phone

Who would you call?

What would you talk about?

Where would you like to see a Wind Phone?

Discernment

"My cloistered brothers" are getting closer to the answer to "What do you expect to happen when you pray?".  We are reading Tomes Halik's Is God Absent?.  The discussion brought up the question.  We tied it to the Olympics, which is presently taking place.  We asked, "Is everybody praying to win?"

We decided asking God for things is like hoping magic happens.  Rather, our prayers should be contemplative, in trying to discern God's Will.  We should ask to understand God's plan for us. 

What Happens on the Island Stays on the Island

 The Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club by Martha Hall Kelly is a relaxing read.  Surprisingly easy because it actually is an historical novel with romance.  I always enjoy reading books with local venues.  Martha's Vineyard is a swim away (for good swimmers, not me) from Seacoast Blvd.  I judge the weather by looking at the island from the end of Seacoast Blvd.  Heat fog, rain, misty, or a clear day.

The story takes place in 1942.  There are soldiers all over the island practicing for "D" day.  Again, I can identify.  Right across from my beach, are remnants of a paved road on Washburn Island, because this island, also, was used for "D" day practice.    This island, I really can swim to, in fact just float across.  Washburn has my family's favorite beach.  It's not crowded.  You don't need a beach sticker.

The characters are the Smith family and their farm.  The women are left to tend to the property.  Briar, the teenager sees U Boats off their beach.  No one else does.  But she's correct.  A man from the U Boat swims ashore and Briar rescues him.  He wants to defect.  Briar takes him home and hides him.  They have seen what happens to German prisoners and they don't want that to happen to him.  

Briar's sister Cadence is a would-be-writer.  She falls for one of the soldiers on the island.  Grandma is ill and is in the hospital.  Bess is pregnant with the girls' brother baby.  Don't forget "Briar the Liar."  This is the family trying to hold onto the farm.

There's a couple of murders around them.  There's also a spy but who?

  Oh, the Book Club--it's a planning session for the girls and a few friends.  They plan to distribute books to the soldiers.  It isn't easy but they make a skinny book that is easy to carry and it's accepted.  They help with the farm, with whatever they can.

This is a time of confusion and sadness.  The story gave me pause for reflection.  I am happy to have been after the war.  Thank you, Daddy.

Spaghetti Pie

 What to do with leftover spaghetti?  I found a recipe for spaghetti pie and made it my own.  Here's the recipe.  First you need leftover spaghetti.  

a pie plate

about a pound of ground meat

half an onion chopped

1 glove of garlic chopped

3/4 tsp. oregano

salt to taste

pepper to taste

1 can crushed tomatoes

1/4 cup parsley

1/2 cup mozzarella

Spread the leftover spaghetti into the pie plate, going up the sides of the plate.  Cook the ground meat with salt, pepper, onion, garlic, and oregano.  When the meat is cooked add the tomatoes and stir.  Add parsley.  Taste.  Adjust with salt, pepper, as needed.  

Put the meat mixture in the pie plate, over the spaghetti.  Spread it evenly.  Sprinkle mozzarella liberally over the top.

Bake at 350 degree oven until the mozzarella is melted--about 20 minutes.  Enjoy

Curses Can Be Broken

 A friend of mine recommended Fairy Tale by Stephen King.  I tried it.  I found it odd that every time I was going to quit reading it, the story became interesting. As it came out to be, I read the entire book.  It is ridiculous, but it is a fairy tale and they are ridiculous.

The narrator is the main character.  Charlie Reade is likeable, strong, honest, and everything a hero should be.  Since Charlie's mother died, his father became a drunk.  Charlie prayed to God to have his father to stop drinking.  Being in a similar situation, I know praying to get someone else to change doesn't work.  Free will!  But Charlie made a bargain with God that if his father stopped drinking, Charlie would dedicate his life to doing good deeds.  Again, I know from experience, that making bargains with God results in outcomes that aren't what you want.  However, they are in a way.  I guess God is just smarter than us.

Anyway, back to the story of Charlie Reade. Charlie's good deed was helping a grouchy old man and his dog.  Through this man, Mr. Bowditch, Charlie finds gold (literally).  A hole in Mr. Bowditch's shed leads to another place and time.  Remember this is a fairy tale.

Charlie's adventures in this new land is the story.  They're hair raising, but this is not a scary Stephen King book.  I did not have nightmares.  I found how the two worlds, above and below the ground come together, interesting.  It was a different type of book for me, and Stephen King.

AI and Peace

 A board that I serve on wanted to change its meeting time.  We used a program called Genius, which is a scheduling program which recommends the best time slots for meetings.   There were about twenty of us.  We put in the times we would be available for meetings.  Genius did its computing.  

The result was that there were no times that everybody could attend.  But it listed some suggestions.  Actually, it was me that spoiled Genius' choice.  The time it picked was the time my walking group, walks. I reasoned that our meeting was only once a month; I could miss one Walk.  I also could just leave the group, or end the walker earlier, or just do a short walk--once a month.  Anyway, I capitulated.

That's not what I want to point out.  I was thinking that if AI can figure out a way to schedule meeting times to placate everyone, why couldn't we use AI to settle world-wide problems?  Every country could express their needs and ask AI to satisfy everyone.

Remember AI didn't actually satisfy all members of the board.  I had to capitulate.  The same probably would happen with countries.  Every country would have to agree to negotiate.  

Doesn't everyone desire peace?  Why wouldn't every country agree to abide by the negotiated agreements they devise?  

I can think of one, maybe two, reasons.  One, needs are not wants, and the countries need to see that.  Secondly, of course, the countries' leaders/negotiators, are human.  Errare humanum est.  

Ugh, another wrench in my plan.  Ephesians 6:12.

A Deliberate and Constant Remembrance

My previous post explained how I found this crucifix.  As I cleaned off all the dust, the corpus fell off.  I guess my sins put Jesus there, why am I having such angst nailing Him back?  You know what.  I'm going to glue him back.  I don't have those itsy-bitsy nails, anyway.  

Why don't I just leave Jesus off the cross and keep it that way--a cross.  I think it's because I need a reminder just how much Jesus loved me.  He loves me enough to suffer for me.  Thank you, Jesus, for loving me!

Don't Judge Me

 This morning, I knocked over my hairbrush.  I need my hairbrush.  It fell off the back of my dresser.  

Picture the back of my dresser.  We have lived in the house for forty-six years.  I have never dusted the back of my dresser.  Think what that means.  Dust galore!  

Since I need to brush my hair, I had to look behind my dresser and see where the hairbrush landed. As I retrieved the hairbrush, I saw my old cross.  I had forgotten about it.  I think it may have been my grandmother's.  She had one like it.  I actually have another, exactly the same.  Maybe that's why I never missed it.  Anyway, I retrieved it.  This is what this picture depicts.

There is a corpus (body) on this cross. As I was dusting it, the corpus fell off.  What now?  Nail Jesus back on?  

Meditate upon that thought.

Key Moments

 Marianne Budd is the female priest, who has served as the bishop of Washington DC since 20011, and is no stranger to controversial decisions.  In her homily for the 2025 prayer service for Donal Trump's inauguration, she stressed compassion and mercy toward the marginalized.  This did not sit well with the President and his cabinet.

When I saw that she had written a book on how to be brave, I bought it.  How We Learn to Be Brave, at first seemed to be just a memoir.  More into the book, she tells how other people stepped up, when the time called for it. 

This is a book that highlights how people when faced with certain key moments react: Jesus, Esther, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King, etc. They seemed to all be willing to take risks.  They didn't give up.  Not that they are always successful, but they persevere.  

We do not choose where we are in the human story,

only how we live in the time we are given.

Adult Fantasy

 If you liked

Princess Bride, I think you will like The Magician of Tiger Castle by Louis Sachar. This book is touted as Louis Sachar's first book for adults.  Think Princess Bride for adults.  It has a princess, a magician, tigers in the castle's moat, and other fantasy kingdom tales.  It's an easy read.  When my book club picks books for next year, this book is definitely one to read around the holidays, because we want easy, short books.

The story takes place around the 1500's, in a land that doesn't exist now.  It was somewhere between Italy, France, and Spain.  The princess is betrothed to a prince. However, the princess falls in love with a scribe.  The magician is called in to make a spell to change their minds.  The magician narrates the tale.  

I like the short chapters.  It's like flash fiction.  It is labeled adult because there are sexual innuendos, and a house of prostitution.  Sachar does it so tastefully that I don't think a young teen would get them. 

If you are not an old grouch, I think you will like this story.

The Tiger By the Tail

 You name it: fiction, mystery, thriller, war story, romance, political thriller, suspenseful novel.  Up Country by Nelson DeMille is all that, besides being a good story.  The main character is Paul Brenner, a retired Army detective.  He had just retired, when his former commander asked him to solve one more crime.  This is the plot.

During the Vietnam War, a wounded Vietnamese Cong was on the second floor, trying to remain quiet when he witnessed a terrible crime taking place, below him on the first floor, by the Americans.  This building had been bombed and there were gaps in the floor.  This Cong wrote what happened to his brother, also a Vietnamese soldier, who was killed.  The letter was found and kept as a souvenir by an American soldier.  Many years later, the American soldier decided to send the letter to the United Staes Army/Government, for historical value or whatever.  When the letter was translated the government realized that a crime had been committed and wanted the perpetrator punished. That's the assignment Paul Brenner was given and that's all the reader knows and understands, too.

Brenner has the name, and the Vietnamese village the witness came from.  That's all.  Brenner doesn't even know if the witness was still alive. If he's dead, that the end of the assignment.  If he isn't, Brenner needs to get a positive identification of the perpetrator.  

I think I enjoyed this book so much because I was alive and can identify (in a way) with the times.  I was a twenty-something year old, during the war, and was both anti-war, and very busy with career, marriage, and new family, to really understand what soldiers like Paul Brenner were going through.  I know less than a handful of people who were in the war.

1.  Joe spent the entire war as a dental hygienist, in Japan.

2.  Tom who was a typist in an office, there.

3.  A cribbage partner, who won't talk about it.

4.  A priest who led platoons and had a bounty on his head, as did other platoon leaders.  The witness of the South Vietnamese soldiers, fighting for their homeland, led him to the priesthood.  The soldiers were devout.  

I was not prepared for the descriptions of fighting in Up Country.  I also hesitate to recommend this book to one of my book clubs.  It is gory--too descriptive of the violence perpetrated during war. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the story. I learned, I laughed, I gagged, I cried, I blushed, and I sighed with relief when the crime was exposed.  I'll be thinking about UP Country, for a long time.

Expectations

 A few weeks ago, a "cloistered brother" asked what do you expect to happen, when you pray?  This book, Thirsting for Prayer by Jacques Philippe, has the answer.  It's a small book, only 152 pages.  It is divided into four parts.  They all address how to pray.  The introduction, however, answers my brother's question.  

When we pray, we expect our prayer to yield fruit.  The problem is, we want the kind of fruit we want.  If we are serious about prayer, we will encounter a relationship with God.  Our conversation will yield answers.  At the least, the supplicant will feel the strength and peace they need for their lives to bear fruit, as God desires, and they will understand that.

I did a lot of underlining in this book.  It contains some gems.

In prayer the soul is purified from sin, charity is nurtured, faith takes root, hope is strengthened,
the spirit gladdened.  In prayer the soul melts into tenderness, the heart is purified, the truth reveals 
itself, temptation is overcome, sadness is put to flight.  In prayer, the senses are renewed, lukewarmness vanishes, failing virtue is reinvigorated, the rust of vices is scoured away; and in the exchange,
there come forth living sparks, blazing desires of heaven, in which the flame of divine love burns.

That's what we expect to happen!

A Plum of a Story

 I picked up Plum Island by Nelson Demille, by mistake.  To me, Plum Island is across the Merrimack River and Salisbury Beach's black rocks.  As a child, my family often went there.  So when I saw a book written about Plum Island, I wanted to read it.

My Plum Island is known as a Wildlife refuge.  It's a state park.  I swam and fished there, also.  Demille's Plum Island is in New York, and not for people. It's a government animal disease research center.

However, the book did not disappoint.  The major character is a smart mouth detective, John Corey.  He is recuperating from being shot.  Across from his uncle's summer home is Plum Island.  Corey's neighbors worked there, until they were murdered.  The local sheriff asks for Corey's help.

While investigating, Corey meets two romantic prospects.  Beth is a detective, too.  Emma is a local historian that helps with the background.  John Corey is one horny male animal.  (I overlooked that aspect.) He does, however, start to fall in love with one of the ladies, until she is brutally murdered.  

The plot is a surprise because the purpose of the murder is not what anyone thought.  The story is fast paced.  It is good.

I've learned that John Corey is the protagonist in Demille's other books.  I'm looking forward to reading those.

On the Run

LECTIO:                                                   Matthew 2:1-12

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea,
in the days of King Herod, 
behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, 
“Where is the newborn king of the Jews?
We saw his star at its rising
and have come to do him homage.”
When King Herod heard this,
he was greatly troubled, 
and all Jerusalem with him.
Assembling all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, 
He inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.
They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, 
for thus it has been written through the prophet:
And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
since from you shall come a ruler,
who is to shepherd my people Israel.”
Then Herod called the magi secretly 
and ascertained from them the time of the star’s appearance.
He sent them to Bethlehem and said, 
“Go and search diligently for the child.
When you have found him, bring me word, 
that I too may go and do him homage.”
After their audience with the king they set out.
And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, 
until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.
They were overjoyed at seeing the star, 
and on entering the house
they saw the child with Mary his mother.
They prostrated themselves and did him homage.
Then they opened their treasures 
and offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, 
they departed for their country by another way.

STUDIUM:

Keep in mind, Jesus' bloodline.  As a son of David's line, He is thoroughly Jewish--Herod is not, and thereby a threat.  Also, this Gospel was written after the destruction of the temple.  For Matthew's audience, Jewish Christians, they would know that Jesus was the temple that was resurrected in three days. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19)

But the major character here is Herod and he is shown to be a scheming coward.  He lies to the Magi and orders all males under two to be killed.

Note how it was non-Jews who were among the first to honor Jesus.  God manifest Himself to all nations.

MEDITATIO:

Herod's plotting was for naught.  God's plans trump Satan's.  I have to always remember that.  Herod's plans were foiled but we can see that from the "get/go", Jesus was not welcomed and is going to have a hard time.

ORATIO:

Lord, may I always trust that You are in control.  Your love is for everybody-believers or not.  You came for all.

CONTEMPLATIO:

Lord, I trust in You.  You are God; I am not.

RESOLUTIO:

I must keep reminding myself that God is control.  He knows what He is doing.  Trust Him!

Secret recipes

 

What do you think?  I asked the chef for the recipe and she wouldn't give it to me.  I looked up recipes and made what I thought would approximate what I wanted.  No, it didn't.  I had made stewed tomatoes.  It was good, but not creamy tomato soup.

I am going to try this Martha Stewart recipe.  Someone commented to just use pasta sause instead of cans of tomatoes.  We'll see.  I'll do both and compare.