Soul Mosaic

In the course of reading the June 2008 Vanity Fair article about Robert F. Kennedy, “The Last Good Campaign,” I came across two Thurstons.

The first is the author of the book excerpted in that magazine article, Thurston Clarke.

The book is:
The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and 82 Days That Inspired America.

A few quotes from the book, give a good sample of the flavor of the book and the man:

1) RFK asked a friend if she thought he was crazy to run for president. He told her “my brother thinks I’m crazy. He doesn’t like this….but then we’re two different people. We don’t hear the same music.” He told another friend: “I can’t be a hypocrite anymore.”

2) “The only kind of sense that Kennedy’s decision made was moral sense. By charging that the tactics being employed by the Johnson administration in Vietnam were immoral, and that the war had inflicted grave wounds on the national soul, he had made it impossible for himself to support Johnson while maintaining his honor. Forced to choose, Kennedy chose honor.”

3) “He would run on issues his brother had seldom raised and in a manner his brother would have found undignified.”

4) And lastly- when a group of Kennedy press corps members were having a meal in the Kansas City airport, reporter Jimmy Breslin asked them if Kennedy has the stuff to go all the way.

The prophetic reply by John J. Lindsay:

“Yes, of course he has the stuff to go all the way…But he’s not going to go all the way. The reason is that somebody is going to shoot him. I know it and you know it. Just as sure as we’re sitting here somebody is going to shoot him. He’s out there now waiting for him…And, please God, I don’t think we’ll have a country, after it.”

In some ways, I think that comment was right. Something changed in 1968. To me, it’s never felt right since. Maybe it was the people who came to power after that. I often felt that the word “power” was their motivator. Honor, maybe not. Except for Jimmy Carter. A skewered presidency, an honorable man. I often wondered if the behind-the-scenes powers at the top of our government didn’t set that man up to fail…. For 40 years I’ve watched government with a sense of despair, cynicism, distrust, and dread. Until now. Perhaps now, 40 years later, in another vibrant young candidate who speaks to a similar hope for something better in this country, there is chance for a fundamental change?

I am trying to root out the source of my Photoshop problem crashing, and am testing something before going to the onerous task of taking it off the computer and reloading. So with any luck, here’s a couple closeup pics of the wharf details on my New England seascape painting :

The water has since had more details of foam and surf added, and I’ve added reflections in the water since then as well, of the rowboat, ladders and building. The painting itself is almost done as I’ve moved forward, finishing the waves, surf, foam, and front rocks. The rocks now have black and green algae coating, wave spray, small seashells, barnacles and blue mussels. Still some front details to go yet, but getting close.

Anyway, since this test worked, I am hoping it was the folder the pictures were in that was the problem and not Photoshop  per se. I’ll try some other pics soon, including some I have of the map of my Under the Pier town. Stay tuned.

Books. They are my life. I buy them over clothes. If I didn’t need clothes, I’d only buy books.

Sometimes, I even buy the same book twice. That’s when I know I really liked a book or that it really is valuable, because I’ll buy it the second time impressed by something about it, even as I forget I already have it at home.

I had another one of those moments last night when I picked up a book on the clearance table at Barnes and Noble. I got home and found, I already had it. Now in my defense, this book had a different cover and different publisher – one of their reprint books – so it wasn’t until I got home and compared it to the reference book already on my shelf, that I realized it was the same book.

Hence, a trip back this morning to get my money back. Just as well, I figured. “Allowance money” is precious and maybe just as well to retrieve that allowance if only to have a little extra cash in the wallet. Now that of course, holds true as long as I can make it out of Barnes and Noble without buying anything else with the returned money. But I was determined. I got my cash, and turned, never even venturing into the store, just walked straight ahead.

Only about 10 yards from the door, my eye returned to this month’s Vanity Fair magazine on the stand by the register – Robert Kennedy on the cover. I had to stop. I was only 13 when he was shot and killed, but it tore my heart up. I should note it was not a “crush” kind of thing, but more this sense of despair and fear for the world because someone we needed, someone that maybe could mend this violent broken country, was taken.

Yes, I know. As a young man, he was also a brash, arrogant, condescending man who made enemies by the barrelful, and wasn’t necessarily interested in Civil Rights or other lofty things. But there was the Bobby Kennedy, the one after Nov 22 1963. The heartbroken, anguished, sorrowful man who I suspect never quite recovered from his brother’s death. The man who walked through the ghettos and maybe had a more open heart to the suffering of others, because of his own. The man who could walk into the middle of angry crowds the night Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, a rare white man in the crowd, who spoke to the crowd, not as a politician, but as a human being who knew pain, who had lost someone he loved, and so, a human being who understood rage, fear, confusion and despair.

I saw a newsclip recently of an interview he did with Dick Cavett and I was awed and appalled. Awed because I never realized at 13, but did at 52, what a soft-spoken, dignified, eloquent, intelligent, and soulful speaker he was. How dignified, intellectual, and introspective their discourse was. And I was appalled because today when you hear an interview with a politician, it’s usually a sound bite, and has a harshness and …almost crass quality to it, that was absent in that earlier conversation. I don’t know what he’d feel today if he watched our news.

So flooded with all these emotions, that still very strong sense of loss and despair that I remembered as I rode my bike for hours on those June days in 1968, I bought Vanity Fair. I still had some money left as I turned to walk out the door. Had a nice interchange with the lady behind the counter, then strode quicker this time, toward that door.

Six yards from the door, my eye caught a tiny little book on a rack: Magnetic Wisdom – Love is Patient, Love is Kind: The Book of Devotion, by Jessica Callahan

I immediately noted that that seemed like one of those soulful things I always love to pick up, often find useful in my life, sometimes can help others with, and frequently find things in them to blog about. But no, I was going to walk out that door with that remaining allowance money in my pocket.

Four yards from the door, I halted. So, the Universe maybe put something there I was supposed to use…a synchronicity moment, and …I was going to turn my back on the Universe’s request so I could hang onto my allowance money for…. ? For what?

At those moments, I know that familiar tug in my gut. That place inside of me where I know I am being called. I heard the request. Without another fight, I turned and picked up the book. I thought, okay, just a bunch of mushy love quotes. I’ll flip through this, prove it’s fluff and not useful, and leave.

The very first quote finished me off:

“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur the abhorrence of myself.” Frederick Douglass – abolitionist.

That had such power….I just knew I was being asked to share it. Still resisting, but recognizing a greater force was at work, I walked slowly back to the woman at the register. Just before I handed it to her I turned it over. If I had any doubt I was to get the book, there was Mother Teresa on the back cover:

“Spread love everywhere you go…Be the living expression of God’s kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting.”

I surrendered. This book obviously had soul and substance. Even if I was the only one to benefit or hear it, I knew I needed it.

As I handed it to the lady behind the counter, for whatever reason, I felt compelled to share the Frederick Douglass quote with her. I don’t think it was because she was Black and so was he, I think it was her eyes, her age, close to my own, something that just said, share it with her…she would like it. So I pointed it out to her.

She stopped dead and read slowly. I could see her drinking in the words, soaking them up. She looked at me and said, “I believe there are no coincidences in life. I believe that everything happens for a reason. You were supposed to share this with me.”

I couldn’t even respond. I stared at her and could feel my mouth drop open. I mean, I believe those things too, but something about seeing one of those moments unfold so totally bluntly in front of your eyes makes the hair on the back of your head stand up. If you ever need proof that God still exists and still speaks through us, just have one of those moments. You’ll never doubt it again.

I watched her as she struggled to memorize it. I said, “write it down, I’m not in a hurry.” At first she resisted, saying she could remember it. Then she stopped and said, ‘Is there another one of these books there?” Unfortunately there wasn’t, but I reminded her she had the ISBN. She’d had to look it up to get the price for me. She nodded and then she stopped again. Picking up a pen she asked if I minded…said maybe she wouldn’t remember it after all, and she needed to remember it. So she wrote it down. And said she would get herself a copy.

When I pointed to the Mother Teresa quote, she almost stopped again, then just shook her head and said, “yes, I have to buy this.”

So, I was unable to walk out of the store with my allowance money intact. I couldn’t make it past those front racks. But frankly, I wasn’t supposed to. In fact, I wouldn’t have put it past God to prompt me last night to notice that book that I bought, then realized I had to return. THAT was how He got me back in the store this morning…to see Bobby Kennedy’s anguished face staring out from the newstand…to see “Love is Patient, Love is Kind.”

When one of those moments hits you, that nagging undeniable quiet voice from within, my only suggestion is – listen to the voice, forget the allowance.

Trying to get caught up on some things here as I was sick a few days last week and this past weekend. Hence, somewhat quiet on my blog front. On the mend, so I’ll be getting back on track soon.

The two pregnant female fiddler crabs are doing well. Scarlett O’Hara pretty much lives in the water filter and Melanie Hamilton has sequestered herself in the live rock. Admiral Byrd, with no ladies to wave at, has taken to his cave and engineering exploits. We noticed that he dug himself a tunnel and side door exit out of his fake rock cave…?remodeling before his next attempt to entice the ladies? Since they’re unavailable at the moment, I guess it’s as good a time as any for his home projects.

Given my respiratory bug and the fact I have to move my son home in a couple days from college, I decided not to do anything heroic this time yet to raise the babies. Since Melanie Hamilton is now in the loop for pregnancies along with Scarlett, I figure I’ll have ample time to try again. In the meantime, I am dropping food pellets in the spare tank now and then as a means to get the nitrogen cycle jump-started in there even though there are no critters currently in residence. I’ll let you know how my “critter-less nitrogen cycling” attempt goes.

I have made great progress on the New England seascape, which is almost done. I’m now done to small details in the right front corner, things like blue mussels, barnacles, rockweed strands, sea lettuce, a broken horseshoe crab shell, and of course, I’ll need to place a small hermit crab. I’ll be getting more photos soon but still working on the :Photoshop crashing problem. Argh….

In the meantime, a friend recommended this blog, an artist who tries to post an artwork a day. She works in a variety of media and her goal is to use the artwork a day as exercises to increase her productivity. In any event, it’s a neat blog, so I thought I’d pass it on. The name is:

Ashley Kesling: An Artwork A Day

Enjoy!

A little something this morning for everyone from artists and history buffs to geeks:

That old stone pier and red building in my New England seascape are based on the red wood building and historic stone pier in Rockport, MA, north of Boston.

For those of you who would like to see the actual pier and building, as well as the story behind it, including how the building was rebuilt after a storm washed it out to sea in 1978, just click the link: Rockport pier.

For a shot of the pier complete with Christmas wreath, click here.

And for those of you history buffs or geeks, click here to read an article from Harper’s Bazaar published in the late 1800s about the building of a rock breakwater in Rockport’s harbor a mile or so from the pier and the harbor. The article has all kinds of great techie details about the different ways to build a breakwater, the Rockport Granite Company and its pier, and how this particular breakwater in Sandy Bay was built. It also shows that whether in the 1800s or present day, anytime something new is introduced into an area, people will always question whether the change will be a benefit or a threat to their land, quality of life, and livelihood.

I am an old movie fanatic….not the “old movies” you find on American Movie Classics now, which considers “old” to be circa 1970 or 1980. No, I mean the REAL old movies…things from the 1930s and 1940s. The black and white, often simplistic, maybe even sappy, Polyanna ones. The ones with people with blind faith moving cheerfully toward their dreams in spite of the fact their dreams are impossible, implausable, and any logical person wouldn’t even try.

And of course, they reach their dreams. And sometimes along the way, they are often assisted by people society would never imagine them to associate with.

I mean take the movie, Come to the Stable. Now, yes, even though it’s fiction, I like the movie as it’s set in Bethlehem CT and I’ve walked those rolling hills. Anyway, in the movie, two nuns show up from France after World War II to build a children’s hospital in Connecticut, a way of thanking God that their hospital in France was spared by an advancing American Army. They come to Bethlehem, CT, to the home of a poor religious artist, intent on building this hospital….except they have no place to stay, no friends, and no money. But those are small details. Over the course of the movie, they are taken in by the artist, others from their order arrive to help them raise funds for the hospital, and the two nuns find themselves helped by everyone from rich jaded Hollywood types to underworld gangsters. The nuns’ simple cheerful faith seems to sooner or later melt the heart of everyone who crosses their path. The gangster even donates his land for their hospital. Really hard to believe right? Nobody in their right mind ever writes a screenplay as sappy as that right?

And nuns associating with gangsters, and seeing only the good hearts in those tough guys? I mean, it’s about as unbelievable as thinking somebody like Jesus would hang out with prostitutes or have dinner with tax collectors and other rejects of society? Oops. Sorry. Guess Jesus did do that, huh?

Well, you know, a small secret. Deep down inside, in spite of living in this modern realistic world, I really love a movie that all the critics would hate, something where people set out to do good, the impossible, with smiles on their faces, as they move through obstacle after obstacle, overcoming them with love and faith, never losing the smiles on their faces. People who have a dream and cheerily go after it, oblivious to the fact that in reality, they should fail. In their faith, it just never seems to occur to them.

Are there people out there like that? Maybe. Maybe not. But another secret. I wish there were….and deep in my heart, I really think those kinds of people have the really right idea, and the key to happiness.

So what’s the big deal if the story line IS simple, happy to sappy, and based on too many coincidences that would only happen if a miracle occurred? Maybe that’s the point. Maybe sometimes in this overly realistic, edgy world, miracles really can and do occur, if we believe. Maybe we need the tonic of one of these movies. Maybe there is something about faith, and believing that the unbelievable CAN happen, that can make a difference in our lives. And maybe we really do need to be reminded that even people society rejects DO have good hearts and our current world needs them.

Now, sure. There’s a few spots I fast forward through. Just not into the love song Hugh Marlowe sings. And….I will note that there is one drawback to old movies….and old Nancy Drew books. There is no getting around seeing a visual portrayal of how society in the 1940s treated certain segments of society, for example, blacks. It is uncomfortable to watch that and wonder how people could have thought that was okay. But maybe that’s not such a bad “discomfort” either….maybe that’s a reminder that if people then could be so mistaken in their thinking, is it possible we are wrong in our thinking about something now? Are there places in our advanced modern world where prejudices exist and we just haven’t noticed because we’re so used to operating on autopilot or social norms that we never stop to question our own behaviors?

So, whenever I need something to remind me that the impossible is possible, that everyone is worthy, and that unrealistically happy miraculous outcomes due to blind faith can happen, I dig out Come to the Stable.

Oh, and by the way….if you think the movie is so unrealistic….There is an order of nuns, a cloistered Benedictine order of nuns at the Abbey of Regina Laudis, an abbey in Bethlehem, CT….started in 1947. Hmmm. And it was started by Mother Benedict, a nun from France, who came to America with another nun, a friend of hers who had saved her from the Gestapo. Mother Benedict decided to come to America after World War II to create a monastic community as way of saying thanks for God’s help. Their abbey in France had been liberated from the Germans by General George S. Patton’s 3rd Army. The selfless sacrifice shown by many of Patton’s men inspired Mother Benedict to do something in return, hence, her journey to America.

She arrived in Bethlehem CT and ….lived with a local artist, was joined by some of the other sisters to raise money for their dream….and they received a donation of some land for their abbey from a local industrialist……. So, miracles don’t happen in modern days????? For the full story, go to the Abbey of Regina Laudis’ website, and read the page on that abbey’s history.

If you think only strange people who can’t make it in the “real” world live in cloistered monastic communities, consider that the Prioress there is the former film star from the 60s, Dolores Hart, and the Subprioress was an attorney in Hartford, elected to the State House of Representatives, and served in the legislature for 7 years. These are accomplished women who CHOOSE to serve this way. If you ever are in the area and want a real treat, stop by on a Sunday afternoon to listen to their Vesper service of Gregorian Chants in their rustic chapel.

Regarding the movie, I’m apparently I’m not alone in my thoughts. Some comments from IMDB and Amazon.com:

Comment on Come to the Stable from IMDB (Internet Movie Database) :

Clare’s Catholic Valentine, 6 August 2005

During the late 1940s Clare Booth Luce, wife of Henry Luce of the Luce Publications, noted playwright, Republican Congresswoman had a celebrated conversion to Catholicism courtesy of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen. There’s nothing like the zeal of the newly converted so this screenplay was written to show how God does move in mysterious ways for the believers.

What’s hard to believe is that the same author of The Women actually wrote Come to the Stable. But it’s true and Luce is a skilled writer and she fashioned a very easy to take tale of two nuns over from France trying to build a children’s hospital in memory of the kids they couldn’t save in World War II.

The two nuns are played by Loretta Young and Celeste Holm. There was no doubt that Young would be one of the three leads. Loretta Young, Irene Dunne and Rosalind Russell were three of the leading female Catholic lay people in the country at that time. I’m sure all were approached with this film.

Young and Holm were both recent Oscar winners, for The Farmer’s Daughter and Gentlemen’s Agreement and both were nominated for Best Actress here. Both lost the big sweepstakes to Olivia DeHavilland who was also a recent winner for To Each His Own. Strange are the ways of the Academy voters. Elsa Lanchester was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her role as the religious artist who offers the nuns shelter and lodging during their quest. Lanchester is her usual charming, but off the wall self in her part.

In today’s audience some may find all the happy coincidences a bit much. But then again that is precisely the point of the film, that God will help those who help themselves.

One other thing. Some very rough and irreligious people contribute to the sister’s endeavor and I think the message there is that on occasion, man can rise above just looking out for himself and think of the human race at large.

From Amazon.com’s entry for Come to the Stable, this review:

By	Simon Davis – See all my reviews

Loretta Young, one of Hollywood’s most respected actresses had one of her greatest roles as the assured and determined Sister Margaret in Twentieth Century Fox’s 1949 “Come to the Stable” a beautiful story of two women’s determination and sheer belief in the rightness of what they are seeking in their work for others. Loretta Young, a staunch catholic in real life is one of those rare actresses in a league with the likes of Ingrid Bergman, Deborah Kerr and Audrey Hepburn , that seem totally convincing as nuns whether it be in their displays of humility in portraying their characters or just by the total immersion that they undergo when taking on the nun role.

“Come to the Stable” tells a very simple but extremely moving story based on a short story by Clare Booth Luce, of the journey that two nuns, one American and one french, make to fulfill a solemn vow made during World War 2. Resulting from the fact that through prayer to St. Jude, the Patron Saint of lost causes, their hospital was spared destruction by the advancing forces the two make a vow to return to America to set up a similiar hospital for young infants in Bethlehem, Connecticut where they have learnt of a woman who paints very beautiful religious paintings. After finding the right place atop a serene hill with perfect views of the town the nuns with very little money, very few propects and with a strong unquestioning faith proceed to achieve everything that has become their lifes work. Their journey from a hopeless situation with no funds to build the hospital or obtain the land, to one that inspires others to get involved to achieve the dream of the new hospital makes for inspirational viewing and puts across the strong message of the basic good of all people if you only take the time to look for it. In their drive to fulfill their aim the nun’s encounter some interesting characters who’s lives they alter in very positive ways. Miss Potts played by Elsa Lancaster in a wonderful performance is a lonely spinister who loves to paint and finds her whole life turned upside down by the unexpected arrival of the nuns on her door step. She for the first time finds a real purpose to her existence as she involves herself totally in the plans of Sister Margaret and Sister Scholastica (Celeste Holm). In their search for land to build the church on the sisters find themselves travelling to New York where they encounter small time con man Luigi Rossi who after hearing their story not only gives them a sizable donation but also the deed to the land with the promise that a commerative stained glass window will be installed in memory of his son who was lost in the war not far from where the sisters nursed in Northern France. His transformation from a small time hood to a man with a conscience is only one of the miracles that the nuns work in their dealings with others. Hugh Marlowe plays the nuns new and indeed quite unhappy neighbour Robert Mason who despite being against the idea of a hospital literally in his backyard finds himself helping the nuns and in a crucial situation where the nuns find themselves short of financing for their repayments, chips in and ensures the sisters dream becomes a reality.

Directed with a sentimental but sure hand by veteran director Henry Koster who was responsible for such diverse efforts as “Harvey”, “Flower Drum Song”‘ and “The Robe”, the representation of what strong belief can do to achieve great things either big or small in ones life is always the central theme of “Come to the Stable”. Loretta Young as Sister Margaret was an inspirational choice as the lead in a role originally intended for Irene Dunne. She is everything a nun should be, strong, gracious, determined, and a firm believer in the basic good in man. Her’s is a superb performance which quite rightly received an Academy Award Nomination for Best Actress. Equally honoured is the beautifully unplayed performance of Celeste Holm in the role of French nun Sister Scholastica, Sister Margaret’s helper who in a comical moment reveals herself in a past life to have been a top class French tennis player in a scene where she is forced to play in full nun’s habit for high stakes, namely a large badly needed donation to the building fund!

Such beautifully put together films as “Come to the Stable” often make me wonder what Hollywood is really doing nowadays as such delicate themes as guiding faith and divine providence, would not be able to be made nowadays what with the harsh reality of most modern screenplays. I never fail to be touched by this story or by the wonderful performance by Loretta Young in the lead. It is a heart warming viewing experience for anyone who has ever had avow to fulfill or a dream to pursue. Watch this film and be inpired as I always am to try and fulfill my dreams while enjoying an terrific excursion back to movie making as it used to be.

For any of you under the weather, nothing like homemade chicken soup. Here’s my recipe, something my husband and I cobbled together using bits and pieces of two recipes in the book: 1001 Delicious Soups & Stews, 2nd ed., Edited by Sue Spitler with Linda R. Yoakam, M.S., R.D. The two recipes are on pp. 284-5, Chicken Noodle Soup and Country Chicken-Noodle Soup. We adjusted things to suit our own preferences. It’s not quick – but it’s worth the effort:

HOME-MADE CHICKEN SOUP:

Part I: Stock

1 whole broiler or stewing chicken (about 4 lbs.), cut up
4 quarts water
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. dried marjoram
1 small onion, cut up

Heat to boiling, then reduce heat and simmer until chicken is tender, about 1 hour.

Remove from heat.

Scoop out the chicken pieces and set aside.

Strain the broth, removing and discarding the boiled onions, used bay leaf, and any chicken skin or bones.

At this point, if you are in a hurry, just go directly to Part II. However, I prefer to put the strained broth in the refrigerator overnight, and I do the same with the plate of chicken pieces. I find it easier to remove the chicken meat from the bones and skin the next morning when the chicken is cold, not to mention you avoid burning your fingers. Also, refrigerating the broth allows as much dissolved fat as possible to solidify on the broth’s surface. The next morning I just scoop the fat off the broth’s surface. I just don’t like fat.

Part II: Finishing the Soup

Remove all meat from the chicken bones. Discard skin and bones. Shred the meat into small chunks and set aside.

Slice up 3 cups of carrots and 4 cups of celery (including some leaves)

Dice up  ½ onions (Omit this step if you hate onions (like me), or add more if you prefer)

Saute the carrots, celery, and onions in 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil in the bottom of the soup pot, until tender. About 5-7 minutes

Add to the sautéed vegetables in the pot:
the strained chicken broth and the shredded chicken pieces
1 tsp. dried marjoram
¼ cup diced parsley
splash of dry sherry (optional)

Bring this mixture to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until chicken and vegetables are tender, about 15-20 minutes.

Next, return soup to a boil and add about ½ lb. of egg noodles or angel hair pasta nests, crumbled.

Cook 3-7 minutes at boil, depending on the size of the noodles.

Season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve.

Well, with a title like that, you just have to see what’s going on, right?

Between allergies and viruses, some cold got me. So it’s a day on the couch watching movies, something I do infrequently. I will need to get back up and running soon as I have too many fun and interesting things to do, like finish painting the seascape I’m painting, figuring out why Photoshop keeps crashing and preventing me from getting more pictures up on my blog, and finishing the blog piece I have started for my book, Under the Pier, about commercial fishing. I haven’t forgotten that one, just a temporary reprieve to feed the soul with my oil painting.

Besides, I need to get going so I can do the oil paintings of the diner – one interior, one exterior – and for those projects, I will photograph the whole process, from beginning sketches, through picture completion.

I already have more pics of the seascape I’m finishing, the painting, Uncertainty, and for my book, Under the Pier, some shots of a map I made of the town area, and the diner blueprint. As soon as my geek dude husband can figure out how to fix Photoshop on my computer, I’ll get those posted, so stay tuned.

Fiddler crab pregnancies. Yes. TWO pregnancies. BOTH Scarlett O’Hara AND Melanie Hamilton are pregnant !!!!  This is Melanie’s first. I have been feeling under the weather and slow to get the spare tank ready. So I need to get moving on the “fishless cycling” for re-establishing the nitrogen cycle in that tank and also making sure the salinity is “brackish.” We’ll see if I can’t succeed in getting those babies to make it to adulthood yet. Again, stay tuned for an update….I knew something was up when BOTH females started hanging out in the water filter. It seems that something about the water currents going through that filter, appeals to pregnant female fiddlers. Probably reminds them of the water currents needed to send their babies off into the world…..

Today’s movie lineup is geared toward restoring body and soul and hence, quite varied. Given I feel less than powerful, that’s always a sign I need to be reminded of the power of “drive” so I will start with the movie, Patton. To balance that out, I will follow that up with the 1949 movie, Come to the Stable, (will someone PLEASE tell the movie’s owner to PLEASE put it on DVD already!!!!). It’s about two nuns trying to build a children’s hospital in the hills of western Connecticut and starring Loretta Young, Celeste Holm, Hugh Marlowe, and Elsa Lanchester, one of my favorites for providing equal doses of humor and blind faith. Also on tap, Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves in The Lake House, a love story of soulmates that also touches on the power of faith while waiting, and weaves in literary giant, Jane Austen’s novel, Persuasion. Last will be Professor Elizabeth Vandiver, in one of the Teaching Company’s college course on DVD: Classical Mythology.

So it will be a varied day, with much food for the spirit. On tap as food for the body: home-made chicken soup. I made the stock yesterday, and finished it off this morning. I’ll provide the recipe in today’s gift, for anyone else out there who’s under the weather and in need of good homemade soup to kill off a cold! Enjoy.

Oh, and lastly, a favorite part of the movie, Patton, one of the more introspective moments that reveals Patton’s more sensitive, soulful and literary sides, an excerpt from a poem he wrote about reincarnation and his being in soldier many many times over the centuries. Enjoy!

‘Through the travail of ages,
midst the pomp and toils of war,
have I fought and strove and perished,
countless times among the stars.
As if through a glass and darkly,
the age old strife I see,
when I fought in many guises and many names,
but always me.”

Excerpt of a poem by General George S. Patton, from the movie, Patton.