Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving I sat to think about just what i have to be thankful for because I've been bitter about what we haven't had the last year here in new York city. The story is a long one, and most of you know it already - the evil doctor who doesn't keep her word in a single matter and, perhaps worse, has the social manners of gnats, has broken promise after promise regarding Mark's salary, his benefits, housing and furniture time and time again, including a Willimas Sonoma kitchen packed away in boxes in Los Angles Two fabulous Kitchen-Aid Mixers, one in Brushed stainless Steel and the 6 quart in Chrome, an $1600.00 Italian ice cream maker, my Duallit toaster, our sterling, and Herend,Wedgwood, Buccelatti, All Clad all over in every shape and size and Wustoff knives out the ying-yang! not a piece of it here, though.

Nevertheless, after a morning drive about Manhattan and watching the rain pour down, we came across a beautiful Episcopal Church, saved from the great fire of New York in 1801(?), corner stone laid in 1750 and finished and consecrated in 1799. Oh, and we have George, our old Bimmer, in working shape and in need of only some final primping and polishing - but over-all good. And I'm terribly grateful for our dear new kittens, M. Bouvier, 6 months, male and Mlle. Athenais Sophie, female, 12 months old. These two darlings are our blue velvet fur balls, turning to smoke or dusk or dove in various lights - full of vigor and love.

And my daughter, Joy Belin, a fine and wonderful young woman, whom I deeply love - despite her threats of feeding me only gruel in my old age. A wise young woman with a good mind and the ability to learn to be whomever she chooses.

But, last and most important I have my dearest husband, my spouse; a gentleman and a rogue in the best meanings of both those words, and I love him!!! I LOVE HIM!!! Mark, my Mark, has given to me everything I ever lost or never had, from childhood memories to conjugal bliss to the sharing of the mind - yes, in this man I have found my truest dearest love That one Love for all time, in all places before all men and God. A proud and holy love that honors each other and Jesus and that, that is what I am giving thanks for this year. I still have, even without a WWS kitchen my family and the HOME that family makes for me - and I for them..

Joy Belin & Tigger

Change

I heard a quote today which reminds me that the truth of loving someone is the process of a life's work, and that our love does not alter because of circumstances of age, health or the strings cut by Fate.

"We have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night."

Perceval Press

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.

-Edward R. Murrow

The Perceval Press is a small independent publishing house owned and operated by the renowned actor Viggo Mortensen. His publishing is not diluted by the dictates of a large corporation intent on selling books but is presented from the depth of his own beliefs. Who can help but admire such a commitment, even if you do not agree with what he prints.

However, his views of the politics of the Catholic vote are my own. While the article below is speaking of Britain it is the same here in the United States. And it is not simply in regards to education and subsidizing inequality. It is folly to vote morals and ethics designed for one group of believers as a dictate for all persons. The recent loss of Habeus Corpus in the United States, instituted by Mr. Bush out of a misplaced belief that we must remove individual rights to protect ourselves collectively, and the deliberate press by Rome into the political arena of the United States, in the most ardent attack on the founding principle of our Nation - the truth that the separation of Church and State is fundamental to our religious freedom, it seems almost an afterthought to be concerned about Chruch schools accepting public funds and then refusing to comply with our laws of non-discrimination in hiring and access. The Catholic Church has aligned itself with the Fundamentalist Christian Right in an attempt to control the laws of our country with an assault on our personal freedoms and our independence from religious governance. We are not a Theocracy but a Democracy. Christian Fundamentalism's intentions to create a government of Christian teaching will bring the downfall of America as a haven of political freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and governance by the whole people, not the few. America stands at a crossroad as never before, a misstep now will bring a fall into totalitarian government inconceivable to most of us and 'Freedom' will be only a word which rings hollow. God's Word was never intended to be Secular Law - its very intent is that one chooses God of ones own Free Will, not because of the coercion of the State. If we as Christians, and Catholics, cannot convince by our own example, what right have we to demand compliance by law? Vote not the dogma of your Church, but the conscience of your mind and heart, and remember that freedom taken from one of us, just one of us, is freedom denied us all.

The title of this Blog will take you to the homepage of Perceval Press.

I know. But I do not approve.
And I am not resigned.

- Edna St. Vincent Millay

An eye can threaten like a loaded and leveled gun, or it can insult like hissing or kicking; or, in its altered mood, by beams of kindness, it can make the heart dance for joy.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Faith, hope and chicanery
The capitulation to the Catholic vote is a step further on the dangerous road to intolerance

Martin Samuel
October 31, 2006, © The Times

THEY DO NOT teach about Ludwig Kaas in schools these days. A footnote in history, at best. Born Trier 1881, died Rome 1952, German priest and politician, canon of the cathedral of St Peter, leader of the Catholic Centre Party, voted for and was instrumental in the creation of a Nazi dictatorship led by Adolf Hitler in 1933. Sorry? That last bit? Well, there is the funny thing. These footnote guys turn out to be pretty important once you delve into the details.

Hitler did not seize power or take power or any of those verbs we are taught that imply some unstoppable show of strength. He passed a Bill, the Enabling Act, supported by 441 of 647 members of the Reichstag, only 288 of whom were National Socialists. As Hitler needed a two thirds majority to achieve totalitarian power and all the Social Democrats that were not in hiding, in prison or dead voted against him, without the support of the Catholic Centre Party he would barely have been able to govern, let alone dictate; which is where Kaas came in. He persuaded his party to vote with Hitler on a law that effectively dissolved democracy in Germany and paved the road to the death camps. And guess what he got in return? Faith schools. Kaas received a guarantee that respected the liberty of the Catholic Church and its involvement in the fields of education, schooling and culture. To win Catholic support, Hitler cut a deal. Much as our own Government did last week. . . .

Read all at Perceval Press: Simply click the title of this Blog to take you there...