Category Archives: Musings

Barbie

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As I am sure y’all know, the Barbie movie is out and it is exceeding box office sales well beyond expectations, and expectations were already pretty high. I have no comments or insights about the movie as I have  not seen it… and am not likely to watch it in theaters. When it streams? A friend and I have a general pre-watch classification system for movie. Barbie falls in the “streaming online, weather is terrible, I’m stuck inside, and why not” category.  But all that is neither here or there. This post is following the “breaking news” that Barbie’s pink is (a) not real world and (b) that her pink looks fake!  Seriously, there was an article in this morning’s news. Continue reading →

Earthen Vessels

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Today is the Feast of St. James and the first reading is one of my favorite passages from St. Paul: “We hold this treasure in earthen vessels” (2 Cor 4:7). It points out one of the great paradoxes of this life of discipleship: it leads to glory, but entails suffering along the way. What is this treasure? The context of Paul’s writing suggests three possibilities: Continue reading →

Regrets

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In today’s first reading we see the plan of the Lord to rescue, to liberate the tribes of Jacob from enslavement in Egypt. And everyone has regrets. Pharaoh is realizing the implications of letting the Israelites go – maybe he should have let them go into the desert for three days as Moses first requested (Exodus 3:18). Pharaoh believes he has made a foolish choice and regrets it even in the moment – and will regret it more as the events of the Exodus unfold. Continue reading →

An exercise in classical Latin

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Every once in a while you come across something that… well …. it just is. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is a song by the American rock band Nirvana. It is the opening track and lead single from the band’s second album, Nevermind (1991). The unexpected success of the song propelled Nevermind to the top of several albums charts at the start of 1992, an event often marked as the point when grunge entered the mainstream. It was met with wide critical acclaim, and described as an “anthem for apathetic kids” of Generation X. You can watch a video of the song here.  But some of you are asking, “What if this were re-recorded in Classical Latin?” Well wonder no longer. Smells Like Teen Spirit in Classical Latin.

All these years later

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There is a documentary on the acting career of Tom Hanks that I recently watched. He really has an impressive portfolio of movies covering a range of characters. As a result I have been re-watching some of his movies that I particularly enjoyed. Just last week I watched “Apollo 13,” the movie versions of events that unfolded on the seventh crewed-Apollo mission during the spring of 1970. While the launch was successful, the lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank in the service module failed two days into the mission. The crew instead looped around the Moon in a circumlunar trajectory and returned safely to Earth on April 17 – while the nation held its breath. Continue reading →

What am I to tell them?

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Today’s first reading continues the story of Moses’ encounter with God on Mt. Horeb. God has commanded Moses to return to the “scene of the crime,” – his own taking of a life and Pharaoh’s attempted infanticide. Moses asks a reasonable question, “When I go to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ if they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what am I to tell them?” (Ex 3:13). At this point God gave Moses His own personal name: “I AM WHO AM.” Then he added, “This is what you shall tell the children of Israel: I AM sent me to you.” (v.14). Continue reading →

The Burning Bush

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In the first reading for today we continue with the story of Moses who “was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian.” (Ex 3:1) Meanwhile “A long time passed, during which the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their bondage and cried out, and from their bondage their cry for help went up to God.” (Ex 2:23) And God called Moses to be the herald of God’s help to the people. Continue reading →

Lifting up the lowly

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In today’s first reading we continue the story of the infant Moses. Pharaoh’s first tactic to enslave the Israelites did not diminish their numbers. The follow-on tactic was to demand that the Hebrew midwives kill all Hebrew male babies (but not female babies, Ex 1:17) as they are born. Ironically, Pharaoh sees no threat from Israelite females, yet it is females (the midwives) who are the very ones who begin Pharaoh’s undoing. The midwives’ vocation from God is to preserve and protect life. Pharaoh demands that they deny their vocation and kill. In the Bible’s first act of civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance for the sake of justice, the midwives refuse to obey Pharaoh’s deathly command. They lie to the authorities, breaking the law for the sake of justice and life. They explain to Pharaoh that the Hebrew women just give birth too quickly before we can arrive (v.19). It is in this time frame that Moses is born. Continue reading →