A Reason to Disobey

"XI." by Wendell Berry

Though he was ill and in pain,
in disobedience to the instruction he
would have received if he had asked,
the old man got up from his bed,
dressed, and went to the barn.
The bare branches of winter had emerged
through the last leaf-colors of fall,
the loveliest of all, browns and yellows
delicate and nameless in the gray light
and the sifting rain. He put feed
in the troughs for eighteen ewe lambs,
sent the dog for them, and she
brought them. They came eager
to their feed, and he who felt
their hunger was by their feeding
eased. From no place in the time
of present places, within no boundary
nameable in human thought,
they had gathered once again,
the shepherd, his sheep, and his dog
with all the known and the unknown
round about to the heavens' limit.
Was this his stubbornness or bravado?
No. Only an ordinary act
of profoundest intimacy in a day
that might have been better. Still
the world persisted in its beauty,
he in his gratitude, and for this
he had most earnestly prayed.

I love pie!

Have I ever mentioned my huge weakness for pie? Huge. Specifically fruit pies: apple, cherry, peach, blackberry and even blueberry--oh, and cobbler. Cobbler is also delectable.

Today is my 3 day mark of working in the real world. I've survived my new job 3 days. I have 2 more days and then I will have survived a week.

That is why I am eating pie. Well, that, and my Aunt Nancy makes the best fruit pies ever. They're also healthy, due to a sufficient lack of over-sugarizing it, so the guilt-factor is way, way down.

I don't have a lot to say on the subject of work, seeing as I've only had 3 days of it, but it is going to be hard and a lot of work and I think I'm going to like it a lot. One of my first assignments includes interviewing every member of the Ohio Statehouse legislature (99 Reps, 33 Senators), all of whom are up for re-election in the fall minus half the Senate, as well as the Governor. Next year is a Budget year too, so this is going to be a ruthless next few months.

I'm staying with my cousin and her family this week until I move into my apartment this weekend. I get to play with her 7 month baby, which makes me so happy. I love babies. I helped raise all my siblings, spent the last 3 years with the 5 Siegels kids and now I'm going to feel baby deprived for a while since my cousins are moving to GA in 3 weeks, where my cousin's husband is going to practice medicine (he specializes in ENT). I'm reading 3 books right now, which is a little naughty, only because I am trying to read sequentially, but I think multi-reading (a form of multi-tasking) is a habit I picked up in college, and not easily broken. I haven't been writing as much as I've wanted, but I only graduated 3 weeks ago and they've all been a blur. I have been writing letters, though, and thank you notes. I do love writing letters and look forward to writing lots this summer.

My June is booked, as of today. My cousins are coming to Columbus the first weekend; I go to training for Buckeye with Laura (the other journalist hired) the second week with the other reporters from the other 49 state-based think tanks; Michigan the third week for a Hillsdale friend's wedding (Cara, who used to coach soccer with me!); home the fourth week for Muff's Shakespeare performance on Friday and a triple party on Saturday (Mike's high school graduation party, my graduation party and my parents' 25th wedding anniversary party).

I went to a luncheon today where my boss was the keynote speaker and all I can think about is how much work I'm going to be doing and how needed my work is to help turn around Ohio. Perhaps that over exaggerates my importance in the scheme of things, but I like knowing I'll be helping contribute to an accountability in government and a chipping away at an ignorance too many constituents (myself readily included) have about state and local politics, as well as help make much needed reformations. If Ohio does not increase anything in the budget next year, for example, at this point, we'll still be 8 million dollars in debt even before we've started spending more money. That makes me a little sick to my stomach.

Here's to eating pie!

Paddy Murphy!

This is Paddy Murphy week at Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE). Paddy Murphy was a bootlegger and an SAE who was gunned down by one of Al Capone's men, who was also and SAE and who Murphy gave the secret SAE handshake as he was dying. Realizing that he had killed a brother, this week was set up to commemorate brotherhood. It's a week filled with fun, shenanigans and drinking. My Dad and all my uncles are SAEs and Paddy Murphy has always held a legend-like status in my home. This week, I had the opportunity to experience a little bit of it myself. It was awesome (!!!).

There are currently 8 grand kids on my mom's side in college. Of those 8, two are girls (my sister and I) and of the six boys, four go to UC and all four are SAEs. The only reason I would ever want to be a boy is that I could be an SAE. I would be a very different person, but I would love it so much. It was really fun to be at a huge college party after spending four years at a tiny college with decent but smaller fraternity parties. Although that definitely was not my scene in college, I did have friends I would stop by the frats for; it's different having family at a house though. It's been so terrific these past few days sharing the SAE party scene with my cousins, especially Tommy, and knowing that my Dad and uncles and Mom and aunts all spent time at the house and in the area I was in and around. That's a neat part of going to a school like UC.

Here's the Paddy Murphy song:


(Have I mentioned how much I love being Irish?)

Dad's birthday today! Big Five-Oh. Mom, Muffy, Kato and I are taking him out to lunch and then my cousin Andrew's rehearsal dinner that night. We're throwing him a surprise lunch tomorrow before my cousin's wedding Saturday night. I've been packing this week. Dad and I went through the list of everything I'll need and what I'll be taking from home. I move into my new apartment next weekend, which is still a little surreal.

Another Hillsdale couple got engaged this week though, so more evidence that people are growing up all around me! It was interesting being at the party tonight because all I could think was, I'm happy to be here, but I am done with college. At SAE, I talked and laughed lots, met people and had a great time, but didn't even sip the many beers offered to me because I didn't intend to stay long. I love alcohol, but I don't need it and I don't always want it. Even last year, I don't think I would have felt this way. It's actually a great feeling, saying no to beer.

And that's how I showed my respect for Paddy Murphy!

I think I am going to have to make Thursday poems an event on my Google Calender

You will forgive me for being so tardy on my weekly poems because this week's is so good. I found it recently and absolutely adore it. Don't be surprised if I post it again in the future, it's simply too glorious not to keep sharing with people.

"Sea-Fever" by John Masefield

I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

Elation and Encyclicals

I found this really great encyclical by Pope St. Pius X, delivered in September of 1907: PASCENDI DOMINICI GREGIS - "On the Doctrines of the Modernists"

one of my favorite parts:
And so they audaciously charge the Church both with taking the wrong road from inability to distinguish the religious and moral sense of formulas from their surface meaning, and with clinging tenaciously and vainly to meaningless formulas whilst religion is allowed to go to ruin. Blind that they are, and leaders of the blind, inflated with a boastful science, they have reached that pitch of folly where they pervert the eternal concept of truth and the true nature of the religious sentiment; with that new system of theirs they are seen to be under the sway of a blind and unchecked passion for novelty, thinking not at all of finding some solid foundation of truth, but despising the holy and apostolic traditions, they embrace other vain, futile, uncertain doctrines, condemned by the Church, on which, in the height of their vanity, they think they can rest and maintain truth itself.

After reading this encyclical, I would not be surprised at all if Eric Voegelin had read it as well. Another Voegelin-esque, "don't immanentize the eschaton" encyclical is Pope Benedict XVI's "Spe Salvi," in which he begins,

SPE SALVI facti sumus”—in hope we were saved, says Saint Paul to the Romans, and likewise to us (Rom 8:24). According to the Christian faith, “redemption”—salvation—is not simply a given. Redemption is offered to us in the sense that we have been given hope, trustworthy hope, by virtue of which we can face our present: the present, even if it is arduous, can be lived and accepted if it leads towards a goal, if we can be sure of this goal, and if this goal is great enough to justify the effort of the journey. Now the question immediately arises: what sort of hope could ever justify the statement that, on the basis of that hope and simply because it exists, we are redeemed? And what sort of certainty is involved here?

The encyclical is well-written and beautiful--and, of course, you've got to love all the mentions of the logos! :)

Currently reading 'Father Elijah: An Apocalypse' by Michael D. O'Brien, as recommended by my good friend and new co-EIC of the Hillsdale Forum, Anna Williams. Anna and Matt Cole are taking over the paper next year. I am very pleased with the transfer.

At home: puppy is perpetually by my side, which is wonderful. I'm organizing and re-organizing; packing and re-packing; planning without a ready plan, and preparing for my move in two weeks. I start work in less than one, though, so I need to get this all sorted now. Megan put in "The Lion King" today and I felt so old when the voice-over said, "Coming Soon in Videocassette!" Dad and I are going car shopping tomorrow; I also get to drive Marianne to school tomorrow. She's in exams right now.

Life continues wonderful! I am glad to be home with my family.