an odd Mardi Gras memory for you

From George Augustus Sala's America Revisited, 1883

"It was about ten minutes past nine when the Carnival began to boom in the form of a most tremendous clamour of brass bands. Shawm and pipe, psaltry, and ophicleides blown louder than ever; cymbal and triangles, and especially that very old friend of mine, the Big Drummer. He came along in the light of torches, drubbing away at the parchment as though for dear life. Last night he wore a splendid military uniform, and had on his shoulders epaulettes of red worsted as bright and big as prize tomatoes. But I was aware of him many years ago, when he wore a leopard skin mantle and a brazen Roman helmet, with a white plume. I was aware of him when he was in the service of a travelling dentist, when he administered a thundering whack to the drum simultaneously with the extraction by his patron of a patient's tooth. The whack drowned the patient's yell of agony."

Xanadu Community Church

Alright - so Charles Dickens, by creating the character Ebeneezer Scrooge, gave the church in England a mirror with which to see how hideously deformed its visage had become.

So - can you think of a similar instance in which an author has done the same for the church here in America? I know it wasn't Orson Welles' conscious intent - but I think the character Charles Foster Kane - Citizen Kane - is a good nominee. The movie's autopsy of the blighted soul of one sold into slavery to the sole values of personal peace and affluency is powerful preaching indeed.

What do you say - other nominees?

The Curse of King Midas

In 1685 England's King Charles II died from kidney failure having inhaled excessive amounts of toxic mercury vapors. Alchemy can be a deadly obsession. Only the truly obsessed would devote millions of man hours and dollars in the pursuit of transmuting base and common metals into precious ones. Alchemy is all but a dead science today - people know they can't meddle with magnesium and make gold, tinker with zinc and make silver, or alter aluminum and make platinum. Sadly, however, spiritual alchemy is alive and well and has millions chasing the mechanical rabbit around the track. Christians are desperate for faith, hope, and love - just not desperate enough to mine them. They'd much rather try and make faith out of the abundance of their inclinations and hope out of the abundance of their daydreams and love out of the abundance of their blessings. Gold is valuable because it is rare - I'm afraid the same is true for Christianity's precious metals.

Happy Valentines Day!

Love is always worth celebrating. But does saying so betray a lonesome experience? Perhaps. It's more likely the evidence of a slavish concern to secure the unpitiful good opinion of the erotic class. Whatever the case - I have no idea why I've known so much love in my life.

The Accidental Blogger

It's been said that he who would pun would pick a pocket. Well a purloiner of pantaloons I'd rather be than a pedantic . . . ah never mind - I hate puns. I really do.