I was going to write a very long blog post about Orthodoxy. Then I realized I can sum it up in a few paragraphs (not Orthodoxy, but my present thought).
I know very little about Orthodoxy. However, while barely scratching the surface I still feel able to defend what I believe. And to stand up for it's merit. I've never felt that before. The closest I got was being Anglican, and that time was chock-full of questions and doubts as well.
When I became Anglican, I starting to feel like I was occasionally able to hit the nail on the head about whole Christ is and what a Christian is and what the Church is and where I enter into all that. I didn't have something ancient to rely on. I had the shaky "because I really believe it in my heart!" to depend on. Folks, I haven't seen half the ugliness that can come "from the heart" that I'm sure some of you out there have, but I can say the human heart is a tricky place. Without God, it's a nightmare.
Even the things I knew have been clarified. I never understood the depth of the baptism of the Lord, and why it is so important. I know now, just from attending services during Theophany. No one pointed anything out to me. You can't miss it. If you miss it, your eyes are closed and your ears are covered! You can't be present in an Orthodox church and not learn. I feel like a toddler, saying, "What's that? What's that?"
And guess what, reader? When I find an answer, it's not, "Well, we do this because about fifty years ago we didn't like what so and so was doing or saying and now we do this...to combat what we disagreed with."
I'm ecstatic like a really annoying, over zealous convert. Unless you read this blog, you won't have to be subjected to it, though, I assure you. I'm quiet in person. Before wine.
30 January 2010
29 January 2010
Ice, baby.
Today in Memphis there is a bout of freezing rain, and sleet. I haven't seen the sleet but it has rained a little bit. All the schools are closed. Everyone is worried about groceries and extra propane heaters. It's 32 degrees, folks. The low is only 25.
I recall sitting, hopefully watching the news ticker in elementary school and hoping school would be off. School closings weren't often, even when you already had several feet of snow on the ground. I remember wearing snow pants and all the snow gear you can think of for the walk to school most mornings, after school was, as usual, open. There could be five feet of snow, and drifts much taller than my nine years, and school would go on. We'd build igloos and forts and snowmen on the playground at recess.
After living in the south for 4 years, snow is but a fond memory. We have an inch dusting here and there, and then of course the dreaded ice. I think about the way up North we would be a half mile off on the soccer field digging under drifts of snow...it's amazing no kid ever had the snow collapse on them and trap them. We'd get a group of kids together and roll colossal snow balls, and pile them on top of each other, then climb on them and jump off into drifts. And we weren't scared. We knew snow like that, it was like a part of our genes to understand it. You learned early how to dig out of a collapsed drift. Our families were hardy, red-cheeked...heck, frostbite was a byword. The boat welders in the factory north of my small hometown welded on, my dad and uncles and every other grown man I was aware of worked without ceasing at the Redman homes plant at the south end, no matter the weather.
I'm not trying to say at all that the South is full of ineffectuals that can't handle a little snow and ice. I really enjoy the South, and it's culture. It's manners, it's food, it's art, it's music...there is no denying it is unique and special in it's own right.
It is that ingrained culture, the same sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another that makes me smirk when going out in the "worst storm of the winter" is forbidden here. It's the culture of the north that is in my bones, it is every learned behavior I am speaking of, and the knowledge of it leaves me unable to concede that it's winter here. This is not the winter I was taught to respect because of it's mightiness. Winter weather in the north took over your life, shaped the way you lived for half of the year.
The ice is the terrible thing here. There is no snow to pack, so the ice takes over and it's largely invisible.
I think what I dislike about winter here is that it is sneaky, and subtle, but it still chills you to the bone.
I saw a sled for sale in the hardware store we pick up goat feed at, and pointed it out to the kids...they weren't quite sure what it was.
I recall sitting, hopefully watching the news ticker in elementary school and hoping school would be off. School closings weren't often, even when you already had several feet of snow on the ground. I remember wearing snow pants and all the snow gear you can think of for the walk to school most mornings, after school was, as usual, open. There could be five feet of snow, and drifts much taller than my nine years, and school would go on. We'd build igloos and forts and snowmen on the playground at recess.
After living in the south for 4 years, snow is but a fond memory. We have an inch dusting here and there, and then of course the dreaded ice. I think about the way up North we would be a half mile off on the soccer field digging under drifts of snow...it's amazing no kid ever had the snow collapse on them and trap them. We'd get a group of kids together and roll colossal snow balls, and pile them on top of each other, then climb on them and jump off into drifts. And we weren't scared. We knew snow like that, it was like a part of our genes to understand it. You learned early how to dig out of a collapsed drift. Our families were hardy, red-cheeked...heck, frostbite was a byword. The boat welders in the factory north of my small hometown welded on, my dad and uncles and every other grown man I was aware of worked without ceasing at the Redman homes plant at the south end, no matter the weather.
I'm not trying to say at all that the South is full of ineffectuals that can't handle a little snow and ice. I really enjoy the South, and it's culture. It's manners, it's food, it's art, it's music...there is no denying it is unique and special in it's own right.
It is that ingrained culture, the same sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another that makes me smirk when going out in the "worst storm of the winter" is forbidden here. It's the culture of the north that is in my bones, it is every learned behavior I am speaking of, and the knowledge of it leaves me unable to concede that it's winter here. This is not the winter I was taught to respect because of it's mightiness. Winter weather in the north took over your life, shaped the way you lived for half of the year.
The ice is the terrible thing here. There is no snow to pack, so the ice takes over and it's largely invisible.
I think what I dislike about winter here is that it is sneaky, and subtle, but it still chills you to the bone.
I saw a sled for sale in the hardware store we pick up goat feed at, and pointed it out to the kids...they weren't quite sure what it was.
22 January 2010
lovely
Found these images of some Orthodox church/monastery buildings when I was discussing with my eight-year-old son what a monk is. They are beautiful!20 January 2010
counsel
Our country is covered with the ice of materialism and of atheism, and we are all called to take part in their defeat. Only when this ice dissipates will we be able to find and enjoy once again that true earth which the apostolic ploughs cultivated, and which the blood of martyrs and the sweat of monastic Saints watered. Only then will the noetic sun warm the Greek soil, which will immediately sprout forth flowers in bloom and bear fruit, as before, to the glory of God.
-from Precious Vessels of the Holy Spirit, spec. the Counsels of Elder Amphilochios of Patmos
The book notes that noetic is a Greek word referring to man's intellect. The intellectual and ascetic depths of Orthodoxy are wonderful.
-from Precious Vessels of the Holy Spirit, spec. the Counsels of Elder Amphilochios of Patmos
The book notes that noetic is a Greek word referring to man's intellect. The intellectual and ascetic depths of Orthodoxy are wonderful.
16 January 2010
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