And Bless Us All With Peace

We now of fleets and armies vaunt,
And ships and men prepare;
But men like Moses most we want,
To save the state by prayer.

Yet, Lord, we hope thou hast prepared
A hidden few today;
(The nation’s secret strength and guard)
To weep, and mourn, and pray.

O hear their prayers and grant us aid,
Bid war and discord cease;
Heal the sad breach which sin has made,
And bless us all with peace.

John Newton
Feb. 12, 1778

Week-end

I love week-ends. Always have. Basically, my body clock operates on an academic schedule; I mean, an elementary school schedule. I'm ready for week-ends at about 3 on Fridays; I'm ready for a break in mid-Fall and mid-Spring; I think everyone has a 2 week break at Christmas and everyone should have the summer off! That's just how I think and order my life.

So, week-ends rarely disappoint. This one was no exception. Nice Friday night at home; great day out on Saturday with Corky (dinner, movie, bookstores!); and Sunday was great: good service at church with an added surprise of getting to spend the afternoon with Hope, Josh, LEX and my "theology son", Nic. Lex feels bad with his little stuffy nose so I got to hold him and comfort him a lot. A perfect day for a grandmother!

By the way...I've been having lots of thought lately about getting to make cupcakes for Lex! (So, I gave him a little bite of cake icing today....grandmothers can do that!)

Let's Hear This One More Time

Shout All Over God's Heaven

Mahalia. Undisputed Queen. Some of my earliest memories are of seeing her on her television show late at night. At Christmas I was drawn to her rendition of "Sweet Little Jesus Boy" more than anything else on the "Treasury of Christmas" boxed set. This clip is from the Newport Jazz Festival.

The sad story is that even though she was viewed as the Queen, appearing at Newport and touring Europe, her death was escalated by bladder trouble which she contracted as a result of driving long periods of time while touring looking for "colored" restrooms.No wonder she sang "Everybody talkin' 'bout heaven ain't goin.'"

Watch this and you'll understand me better. Better yet, watch this and you'll hear pure soul, pure gospel

At The Movies

Amazing Grace is the story of William Wilburforce's fight to have the British slave-trade abolished. The film also depicts the influence of John Newton and his hymn "Amazing Grace". Newton was a slave trader who had a dramatic conversion during a storm at sea and became a pastor and hymn writer. The song "Amazing Grace" is perhaps the most well known hymn in the world and has been recorded by the likes of Pete Seeger, Aretha Franklin and Judy Collins and was sung by Arlo Guthrie at Woodstock. While on the "trail of tears", the Cherokee were not always able to give their dead a full burial. Instead, the singing of "Amazing Grace" had to suffice. Since then, "Amazing Grace" is often considered the Cherokee National Anthem.

The film is premiering at theaters throughout the US on February 23, the 200th anniversary of the date slavery was abolished in England. The Amazing Change Campaign to end the slave trade in the world today is being launched to coincide with the release of the film.

Wilberforce 2007

There are more slaves in the world today than were seized from Africa in four decades of trans-atlantic slave trade. Sign the petition in honor of William Wilberforce and the abolition of slavery (February 23, 1807) in England.

Nostalgia

For some reason I waxed nostalgiac tonight and began to think about my childhood, which was very happy and "tvland" like: mom, dad, me, my sister, ranch house in a subdivision. My sister and I played outside a lot, going barefoot as soon as it was acceptable (sometime in May?), rode bikes through the neighborhood, made mud pies, tried to sell lemonade/kool-aid to the neighbors. When it was too cool outside, we played indoors with baby dolls or Barbies. As soon as the Sears Wish Book arrived in the Fall, we began picking out the toys we wanted for Christmas. We were always prepared for the reference work, of course, because we had faithfully watched Saturday morning cartoons and had seen all the ads.

One of the things I was reflecting on today was how dangerous some of the toys were. For instance, my sister had a Viewmaster Projector that became incredibly hot when in use. The most dangerous toy that we owned would have to be the Mattel Thingmaker, used for making both Creepy Crawlers and Creeple People. The Thingmaker was basically a hotplate, in which you placed metal casts of insects or lizards, filled with Plastigoop. The Thingmaker would cook the cast until the Creepy Crawlers were dry and rubbery. The metal cast was lifted out with a metal tong. You see the danger here: hotplate, hot cast, hot plastic. Creeple People were made the same way but you were actually forming body parts (arms, feet, heads) for troll-like beings. The body parts fit onto a no. 2 pencil. How bizarre! Bugs, earthworms, trolls, spiders all being cooked-up in a hotplate on the kitchen table.

Another toy which I remembered was the "Give-a-Show Projector" which promised hours of movie enjoyment but delivered maybe moments of mild amusement. The "movie" or "film" was actually a rectangular frame which was pushed slowly through the projector. I remember having to gather the family in the bathroom (the only room with no window) in order to have enough darkness so that we could have a night at the movies. The lens of the projector had to be moved in and out frequently for focusing purposes. This toy was made by Kenner. In my opinion, and I invite your response, Kenner, Hasbro, and even Ideal could never hold a candle to Mattel.