#John Knowles Paine

[onenakedfarmer]

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John Knowles Paine SYMPHONY NO. 2

Zubin Mehta New York Philharmobic

[qwesty-030]

wonderfully and beautifully said!

im fr about to go literary analysis mode again

i really agree with you about his leg being more than just a leg. he relies on his legs for sports ofc and sports was something Finny incredibly loved with all his life. but after that tree incident, all of his life dreams and hopes disappeared.

one of my favorite quotes of the book is when Gene compares Finny’s cast leg to an anchor he has to drag with every step he takes. like a heavy chained ball strapped to his leg.

“…sweat was running like oil from Finny’s face, and when he paused involuntary tremors shook his hands and arms. The leg in its cast was like a sea anchor dragged behind”

his broken leg literally AND figuratively drags him down. i believe thats why finny started to to rely or co-depend on gene to fulfill everything he couldn’t do

thats why he made Gene do sports

“Listen, pal, if I can’t play sports, you’re going to play them for me,”

that’s why he made Gene train for the olympics

“You’re going to be the big star now,” in an optimistic tone, and then added with some embarrassment, “You can fill any gaps or anything.” He slapped me on the back, “Get over there and chin yourself a few dozen times.

“Did I ever tell you,” he began in a husky tone…that I used to be aiming for the Olympics?… Now I’m not sure, not a hundred per cent sure I’ll be completely, you know, in shape by 1944. So I’m going to coach you for them instead.”

and that’s also why he isolates Gene from all this war talk. not only does Finny want Gene to do sports for him, but they also must have mindset and the same ideology. to become one

“How do you expect to be an athlete if you smoke like a forest fire?”

He drew me increasingly away from the Butt Room crowd… and all other friends, into a world…where there was no war at all, just Phineas and me alone among all the people of the world, training for the Olympics of 1944

so it just makes sense when Gene says

Phineas had thought of me as an extension of himself.

okay now that i’m rereading parts of the book, there are so many instances that make this co-dependent relationship really evident. And these quotes are just for Finny alone 😭😭 . Imagine how many more there are for Gene. Gene and Finny rely and complete each other but like in a really bad way 💀💀 (but ig could also be seen in a good way too if you think it like a opposite attracts kind of thing)

It’s just how Finny copes with his broken leg. He knows he’s stuck with it and he knows that he’s practically nothing and cannot do anything. and him not being able enlist further enforces this cruel reality

so ofc the only way to escape this reality is to use your ✨ IMAGINATION ✨ bc confrontation is SCARY and accepting the truth HURTS. it’s just so much easier avoiding the problem to temporarily ease the pain. SEE HOW GENE AND FINNY NEVER REALLY TALK ABOUT THE TREE INCIDENT UNTIL THE TRIAL IN CH.12???? broadening this subject a bit more, i think all the boys at devon struggle with this problem given how most waited to be drafted. which is reasonable bc they’re basically signing their lives away.

It takes time for the painful truth to fully assimilate into a person’s mind.

In a way, (if you think Gene deliberately pushed Finny off the tree), it’s as if Gene achieved what he wanted. To make Finny nothing just like him. they are both equals now.

but thats a theory for another time

“The whole world is on a Funny Farm now. But it’s only the fat old men who get the joke.”

“And you.”

“Yes, and me.”

“What makes you so special? Why should you get it and all the rest of us be in the dark?”

The momentum of the argument abruptly broke from his control. His face froze. “Because I’ve suffered,” he burst out.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

reading updates: august 2024

the good news is that I did a lot of reading this month, the bad news is that honestly? I think that my birthday month has had the biggest percentage of literary letdowns, duds, and outright bullshit than any other month of this year so far.

but at least there's plenty to talk about, so let's get going!

Unlearning Shame: How We Can Reject Self-Blame Culture and Reclaim Our Power (Devon Price, 2024) - uh oh gamers, we're starting on a doozy! I've enjoyed both of Price's previous books very much, but with Unlearning Shame I couldn't help but feel like I couldn't quite shake the feeling that I wasn't getting what I had signed on for. the issue, I think, could be corrected by an adjustment to the title, which seems to be promising a very broad tackling of the concept of shame and is therefore making some pretty big promises. in reality, the book is much more narrowly focused than that, interested primarily in the shame that arises in the activism-minded when they feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of awful things in the world and their perceived inability to do anything about it. fairly early on Price introduces an apparently relatable anecdote about himself and a friend having mutual breakdowns in a grocery store because they were both so paralyzed by the conundrum of trying to buy the most ethical groceries possible, and I realized this book was maybe not really for me or my particular experiences with shame. I think this book will be really helpful for a lot of people for sure, would love to pass it on to a lot of my freshmen, but overall it did not live up to the expectations I brought to the party.

A Separate Peace (John Knowles, 1959) - so I wanted to reread this because someone on here sent me an ask about, I don't know, my favorite required high school reading or whatever, and I said it was A Separate Peace but then I realized it's been over a decade since I read the book and I had to go see if it still actually held up. and god, does it EVER. this is such a brutal and heartbreaking novel, beginning in the last carefree summer that best friends and roommates Gene and Finny will experience before their final year at their boys' private school and their seemingly inevitable draft into WW2. although Gene is seethingly jealous of Finny's seemingly effortless charisma, popularity, confidence, and athletic prowess, the two boys are also inseparable - until a tragic injury changes the course of Finny's life forever. this book is a mess of unspoken pain, from the looming end of innocence on a global scale to the intimate ache of loving your best friend so, so much and having no healthy way to express it because you're a repressed little rich boy in the 1940s.

Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea (Rita Chang-Eppig, 2023) - Chang-Eppig's debut novel follows the career of Chinese pirate Shek Yeung, also known as Zheng Yi Sao, immediately following the death of her husband, fearsome pirate Sheng Yi. you've probably seen a post or two about her floating around on this very hellsite, calling her a pirate queen and accompanied by this image:

Chang-Eppig isn't interested in portraying Shek Yeung as any kind of heroine or feminist icon; over and over again it's acknowledged that she's simply a woman who has survived massive hardships and will do whatever she needs to do to survive. manipulation? spying? extortion? torture? murder? you name it, she's done it, and she does not feel remorse. while the novel wasn't a knockout for me either in terms of plot or prose, it's nice to see an entry into the trend of "retelling" stories from history and mythology centered on women that isn't determined to justify every step a maligned woman ever made. Shek Yeung is what she is, and her story makes for a gritty, bloody adventure.

Victim (Andrew Boryga, 2024) - this book is pure sleazeball fun; if you've ever wondered what I consider a romp, this is it. Victim follows our manipulative king Javi Perez as he builds a writing career for himself by turning in one essay after another about racial discrimination that he never really experienced, inventing stories of hardship caused by racism and poverty from his college application essay to his school newspaper to the story that finally brings the whole lie crashing down when he stretches the truth too far. the novel is written like Javi's apology in the wake of getting #canceled, and while I do sometimes feel that this premise makes some of the writing seem a bit implausible (why would you admit that!!!) it's a fun setup for a scandal that would have been a bloodbath on the twitter of old. come get your mess!!!

Bad Girls (Camila Sosa Villada, trans. Kit Maude, 2022) - this is my first time reading Sosa Villada's work but OH BOY, do I need to seek out more. this is a skinty little novel following a dramatized account of the travesti (or transgender) women who live and sell sex in Córdoba, Argentina. the women build an unsteady but beautiful and magic-infused family under the protection of the ancient Auntie Encarna. the protagonist (who is named Camila Sosa Villada, no relation I'm sure) watches as her unconventional family grows, changes, and frays over time, struggling to find ways to stay afloat in a world that see them as disposable. Sosa Villada's turns of phrase are brilliant and searing, and she weaves fantastical elements so nimbly into her narrative that it's utterly believable to see women becoming animals and courting headless men in the streets of a modern city. strongly recommend for fans of Kai Cheng Thom's Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars.

Talkin' Up to the White Woman: Indigenous Women and Feminism (Aileen Morteon-Robinson, 2000) - this book serves as a scathing literature review indicting Australia's white women anthropologists and feminist scholars for the ways in which they've dehumanized and discredited Aboriginal women, stripping them of the right to be authorities of their own experiences and barring them from a white-centered feminist movement. Moreton-Robinson's account is excellent, contrasting the wok of white women academics with the accounts of Aboriginal women to reveal exactly how massive the disparities in understanding are. as a USAmerican previously aware of Australia's colonial history but unfamiliar with the specifics, it was jarring to discover exactly how similar the mechanism of colonial violence are between my country and Australia, with countless genocidal parallels to be drawn. one particular highlight of the book comes via my purchase of a 20th anniversary edition, which includes a new post-script by Moreton-Robinson in which she dissects and responds to various criticisms of the book at its time of release, taking several critics to task for the belittling tone they used to describe her work and the tools white feminists use to absolve themselves of blame in the face of critique from women of color. fascinating and thorough articulation of Moreton-Robinson's point, and deservedly blistering. I love when academics call each other out by name.

The End of Love: Racism, Sexism, and the Death of Romance (Sabrina Strings, 2024) - so the thing about this book is that there are really good PARTS. Strings is still an excellent historical writer, and I found a lot to appreciate in, for instance, the segments on the history of Black American pimp culture and the analysis of Playboy and Helen Gurley Brown's Sex and the Single Girl. the more personal segments, where Strings contorts herself to fit her own failed relationships into the narrative she's building, are decidedly less consistent in their quality, with some feeling like they would have been better off staying between Strings and her therapist. there's a long and convoluted digression about Sex and the City, and a strange anecdote towards the end in which String recounts a phone call with a friend's college-aged son who, String believes, was masturbating during the call. a yucky experience, to be certain, but I'm not sure it justifies Strings filing a police report against the youth and his mother, who she accuses of having groomed her on the son's behalf. she also casually drops in the same chapter that she considers herself pansexual because she's attracted to trans men in addition to cis men? idk man!!! this book was so uneven that I found myself genuinely questioning whether Strings' first book, Fearing the Black Body, is actually as excellent as I remember it being. I'm pretty sure it is, but god it sucks to get shaken so hard that you have to wonder!

The Diary of a Teenage Girl: An Account in Words and Pictures (Phoebe Gloeckner, 2002) - another book that I had to read for class, years ago! I read Diary of a Teenage Girl in one of my gender and women's studies classes in my undergrad, for a class with a title along the lines of Girlhood Stories in Fiction and Film. Gloeckner's novel (though heavily informed by her own life, she insists that it's a work of fiction) sees its young protagonist, Minnie, navigating a great deal of sex, alcohol, drugs in 1970s San Francisco. I started thinking about the book because I was listening to a trio of episodes of You're Wrong About in which Carmen Maria Machado guests to talk about the pervasive sham that is Go Ask Alice (great series, check it out) and I started thinking about Diary, which is so much less preachy and didactic and is, you know, actually drawn from a real teenage girl's diary, unlike Go Ask Alice, and lacking Alice's preachy didacticism. as a diary based on a real diary this book is largely lacking in any particular plot (the most consistent through line is Minnie's ongoing and tumultuous sexual relationship with her mother's 35 year old boyfriend), but if that's not a turn off then you'll find yourself rooting for Minnie to find her way all the way to the uncertain but ultimately optimistic conclusion.

One and Done (Frederick Smith, 2024) - okay, so. this is a romance novel that I picked up because I saw a review talking about how it's an incredibly realistic depiction of working at a university. now that's obviously an insane thing to look for in a romance novel, but I like romances, ESPECIALLY gay romances, and I work at a university, so I figured sure, I'll bite. spoiler alert: it's not great. I posted some examples of the prose here, and even if the two protagonists talked like actual human beings it wouldn't make up for the stale-ass plot or devastating lack of chemistry they have going for them. more like One and Glad to Be Done With This Book That Isn't Very Good, am I right, ladies?

Seduced (Virginia Henley, 1994) - guys, I'm gonna be so fucking real with you. this is the most batshit novel I've ever read, period, let alone the most batshit romance novel. this book was the winner of a poll I ran on patreon last month in which my wicked patreonites got to nominate romance novels of their choosing for my next reading project and voted amongst themselves to crown a winner, and against all odds and my own light attempts to sway the voters, Seduced won it all. this book has everything: a historical setting, a bold young lady disguising herself as her own brother, wildly unchecked orientalism, a murderous cousin, high society scandal, and some of the most torturous sex scenes I've ever encountered in my life. truly this write-up cannot do justice to what I have experienced; I've already promised by patreonites that I'll have to do a little youtube live in order to fully express the extent of my dissatisfaction.

and that was the month of August, babey!!!

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

Okay, so continuing my Red Dead Redemption 2/Sons of Anarchy comparison (I’m only up to chapter 3 of RDR2 so this is subject to change):

1) Dutch Van Der Linde is Clay Morrow. They are the leaders who are growing increasingly erratic.

2) By default, Molly O’Shea is Gemma Teller. I guess the one thing they have in common is being a pain in everyone’s ass.

3) John Marston and Abigail Roberts are Jax Teller and Tara Knowles. John and Jax are the protagonists/irresponsible criminals who want to be family men. Abigail and Tara are focused on protecting their children. And since I played the first game, both couples are trying to leave the criminal life.

4) Arthur Morgan is a loose combination of Chibs Telford and Opie Winston. They’re the closest to a brother figure to John/Jax and they’re the second-in-command of the team. Arthur also has Opie’s bad luck with romance. (Hmm…I guess Arthur could also be Bobby Munson as well for these reasons)

5) Hosea Matthews is Piney Winston. They’re the old guys who keep questioning Dutch/Clay’s authority.

6) Micah Bell is sorta kinda Tig Trager. They’re the weird, aggressive guys who seem to get on the rest of the team’s nerve. But I like Tig, whereas Micah is annoying lol.

7) Kieran Duffy is Juice Ortiz. They’re the perpetual outsiders since they went against the team.

8) Sean MacGuire is Kip 'Half-Sack' Epps. They’re the little shits who are trying to prove themselves and the gangs treat as the youngest brother.

9) Leopold Strauss is Bobby Munson. This is solely because both men handle the finances of the gangs. For a comparison that’s closer to the character’s personality…maybe Charles Smith? Or Javier Escuella?

10) Sadie Adler doesn’t have anyone I can really compare to but if I had to choose, she could also be Opie Winston. She has Opie’s burning desire for revenge after losing their spouse.

11) The O’Driscolls are the Mayans MC. They’re the rival gang that isn’t so different from the main gang.

Also, just to emphasize how RDR2 is secretly a Western Sons of Anarchy, here are the lyrics to SOA’s opening:

Riding through this world all alone

God takes your soul, you're on your own

The crow flies straight, a perfect line

On the Devil's Bed until you die

Gotta raise some hell, 'fore they take you down

Gotta live this life

Gotta look this world in the eye

Gotta live this life until you die

[camisoledadparis]

THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … November 21

Transgender Day Of Remembrance (since 1999) set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice (transphobia). The event is held on November 20, founded by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, to honor Rita Hester, whose murder in 1998 kicked off the "Remembering Our Dead" web project and a San Francisco, California candlelight vigil in 1999. Since then, the event has grown to encompass memorials in hundreds of cities around the world.

1873 – Daniel Gregory Mason, American composer, born (d.1953); Mason came from a long line of notable American musicians, including his father Henry Mason. He studied under John Knowles Paine at Harvard University from 1891 to 1895, continuing his studies with George Chadwick and Goetschius. In 1894 he published his Opus 1, a set of keyboard waltzes, but soon after began writing on music for his primary career. He became a lecturer at Columbia University in 1905, where he would remain until his retirement in 1942, successively being awarded the positions of assistant professor (1910), MacDowell professor (1929) and head of the music department (1929-1940). He was the lover of composer-pianist John Powell.

1883 – Edwin August (d.1964) was an American actor, director and screenwriter of the silent era. He appeared in 152 films between 1909 and 1947. He also directed 52 films between 1912 and 1919. He co-founded Eaco Films in 1914.

Edwin was born Edwin August Phillip von der Butz in St. Louis, Missouri, to August and Sarah Butz. He was educated at the Christian Brothers College.

He began working with Biograph Studios in New York as early as 1908 and moved to Hollywood with that company in 1910. He starred in several films by D. W. Griffith, who was also with the company, and continued to work well into the 1930s as a writer and director.

In 1916, he entered his name as a candidate for President of the United States, and spoke out against censorship in cinema. The candidate wasn't taken very seriously, and perhaps that wasn't the point. He didn't like the road that his industry was going down, and wanted to voice his opinion in the hope of change.

A co-star, Blanche Sweet, would later bluntly state: "He was a homo." He owned a chicken ranch at 648 South Figueroa in Hollywood and was friends with gay silent film star J. Warren Kerrigan and most likely Kerrigan's long time partner James Vincent.

Edwin passed away from cerebral metastatic disease on March 4, 1964 at the Motion Picture County Hospital in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles County, California.

1916 – James Pope-Hennessy (d.1974) was a British biographer and travel writer.

James Pope-Hennessy was born in London on 20 November 1916, the younger son of Ladislaus Pope-Hennessy, a soldier from County Cork, Ireland, and his wife, Una, the daughter of Arthur Birch, Lieutenant-Governor of Ceylon. He was the younger of two sons; his elder brother, John Pope-Hennessy, was an English art historian, museum director and writer of note. James came from a close-knit Catholic family and was educated at Downside School and at Balliol College, Oxford, but generally showed a lack of interest in formal education and did not enjoy his time at either Downside or Oxford.

Largely owing to his mother's influence, he decided to become a writer and left Oxford in 1937 without taking a degree. He went to work for the Catholic publishers Sheed and Ward as an editorial assistant. While working at the company's offices, in Paternoster Row in London, he worked on his first book, London Fabric (1939), for which he was awarded the Hawthornden Prize. During this period, he was involved in a circle of notable literary figures including Harold Nicolson, Raymond Mortimer and James Lees-Milne.

He left the publishers in 1938 when his mother found him a job as private secretary to Hubert Young, the Governor of Trinidad. Although his time abroad provided the material for his later West Indian Summer (1943), he disliked both the West Indies and the atmosphere of Government House. The outbreak of the Second World War gave him an excuse to return to Britain, where he enlisted as a private in an anti-aircraft battery under the command of Sir Victor Cazalet. Rising through the ranks, he was transferred to military intelligence, given a commission and spent the latter part of the war as a member of the British army staff at Washington.

Pope-Hennessy enjoyed his time in the United States and made many friends there. After the end of the war he wrote an account of his experiences in America. On his return to London in 1945 he shared a flat with the British intelligence officer Guy Burgess, who later defected to the Soviet Union. He had a brief spell as the literary editor of The Spectator between 1947 and 1949, before he decided to travel to France and write Aspects of Provence, which was published in 1952.

He would eventually establish himself as one of the leading biographers of his time; his first effort in this direction being a two-volume biography of Monckton Milnes that appeared in 1949 under the titles The Years of Promise and The Flight of Youth. This was followed by further biographies of the Earl of Crewe and of Queen Mary, for which he was created Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1960. He also wrote a life of his grandfather, the colonial governor John Pope Hennessy, under the title Verandah (adapted as a documentary for BBC Television under the title "Strange Excellency", 1964), followed by an account of the Atlantic slave traffickers, Sins of the Fathers (1967).

In 1970, he took out Irish citizenship and went to live at Banagher in County Offaly, and during the next few years produced authoritative biographies of both Anthony Trollope and Robert Louis Stevenson. Trollope himself had chosen James' grandfather, John Pope Hennessy, as the basis for the character Phineas Finn in his novel of the same name. Robert Louis Stevenson was published posthumously and without revision in 1974. He became a popular figure in Banagher, evidenced by the fact that he was asked to adjudicate at a local beauty pageant and the horse fair, the oldest in Ireland. On being given a large advance he returned to London in 1974 to begin work on his next subject, Noël Coward.

Despite being a successful professional writer, Pope-Hennessy was careless with money. He suffered a series of financial crises and often relied on the goodwill of friends to get him by. A homosexual, he was a heavy drinker and frequented back-street bars and shady pubs where he mixed with a rough crowd, associations that eventually contributed to his death when he was brutally murdered on 25 January 1974 in his London flat by three young men. He had been sexually acquainted with one of them.

1941 – Oliver Sipple, the man who saved President Gerald Ford's life, was born today.

Sara Jane Moore attempted to assassinate U.S. President Gerald Ford outside the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, just seventeen days after Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme had also tried to kill the president. Moore was forty feet away from Ford when she fired a single shot at him. The bullet missed the President because bystander Oliver Sipple grabbed Moore's arm and then pulled her to the ground, using his hand to keep the gun from firing a second time. Sipple said at the time: "I saw [her gun] pointed out there and I grabbed for it. I lunged and grabbed the woman's arm and the gun went off." The single shot which Moore did manage to fire from her .38-caliber revolver ricocheted off the entrance to the hotel and slightly injured a bystander.

Sipple goes for the gun.

Sipple, a decorated Marine and Vietnam War veteran, was immediately commended by the police and the Secret Service for his action at the scene. The news media portrayed Sipple as a hero but would eventually report on his outing by Harvey Milk and other San-Francisco gay activists. Though he was known to be Gay by various fellow members of the gay community, Sipple had not made this public, and his sexual orientation was a secret from his family. He asked the press to keep his sexuality off the record, making it clear that neither his mother nor his employer had knowledge of his orientation; however, his request was not complied with.

The national spotlight was on him immediately, and Milk responded. While discussing whether the truth about Sipple's sexuality should be disclosed, Milk told a friend: "It's too good an opportunity. For once we can show that Gays do heroic things, not just all that ca-ca about molesting children and hanging out in bathrooms." Milk contacted the newspaper.

Several days later Herb Caen, a columnist at The San Francisco Chronicle, exposed Sipple as a Gay man and a friend of Milk. Sipple was besieged by reporters, as was his family. His mother, a staunch Baptist in Detroit, refused to speak to him. Although he had been involved with the Gay community for years, even participating in Gay Pride events, Sipple sued the Chronicle for invasion of privacy. President Ford sent Sipple a note of thanks for saving his life. Milk said that Sipple's sexual orientation was the reason he received only a note, rather than an invitation to the White House.

Sipple filed a $15 million invasion of privacy suit against Caen, seven named newspapers, and a number of unnamed publishers, for publishing the disclosures. The Superior Court in San Francisco dismissed the suit, and Sipple continued his legal battle until May 1984, when a state court of appeals held that Sipple had indeed become news, and that his sexual orientation was part of the story.

According to a 2006 article in The Washington Post, Sipple went through a period of estrangement with his parents, but the family later reconciled with his sexual orientation. Sipple's brother, George, told the newspaper, "(Our parents) accepted it. That was all. They didn't like it, but they still accepted. He was welcomed. Only thing was: Don't bring a lot of your friends."

Sipple's mental and physical health sharply declined over the years. He drank heavily, gained weight to 300 lb (140 kg), was fitted with a pacemaker, became paranoid and suicidal. On February 2, 1989, he was found dead in his bed, at the age of forty-seven. Earlier that day, Sipple had visited a friend and said he had been turned away by the Veterans Administration hospital where he went concerning his difficulty in breathing. His $334 per month apartment near San Francisco's Tenderloin District was found with many newspaper clippings of his actions on the fateful September afternoon in 1975. His most prized possession was the framed letter from the White House.

Sipple held no ill will toward Milk, and remained in contact with him. The incident brought him so much attention that, later in life, while drinking, he would regret grabbing Moore's gun. Sipple, who was wounded in the head in Vietnam, was also diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic according to the coroner's report.

Sipple's funeral was attended by 30 people, and he was buried in Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, California. A letter addressed to the friends of Oliver Sipple was on display for a short period after his death at one of his favorite hangouts, the New Belle Saloon:

"Mrs. Ford and I express our deepest sympathy in this time of sorrow involving your friend's passing..." President Gerald Ford, February, 1989

In a 2001 interview with columnist Deb Price, Ford disputed the claim that Sipple was treated differently because of his sexual orientation, saying: "As far as I was concerned, I had done the right thing and the matter was ended. I didn't learn until sometime later — I can't remember when — he was Gay. I don't know where anyone got the crazy idea I was prejudiced and wanted to exclude Gays."

1990 – A London judge convicted 14 gay men of committing criminal assaults upon themselves because of their participation in S&M. All 14 receive prison sentences.

1998 – John Geddes Lawrence and Tyrone Garner of Texas were ordered to pay fines of $125 each after being arrested for having sex in their home. The couple refused to pay and announced they would challenge the Texas sodomy law - initiating what became known as the historic "Lawrence vs Texas" Supreme Court decision which decriminalized homosexual sex.

[sassmar]

ten books to know me

ohhhh tysm for the tag molly @mblematic my beloved !! <3<3 this looks so fun except that now. you will all know what created my twisted brain ah well. alas!

the outsiders by s.e. hinton haha had to start with this one! read the outsiders for the first time at like 11/12 yrs old and it was truly truly formative! PONYBOY! SODAPOP! johnny and dally!! also it's quite gay.

a separate peace by john knowles continuing with the themes of male friendship, homoerotic subtext, and books i read in middle school that fundamentally altered my brain chemistry and turned me into the freak i am today or whatever.

lord of the flies by william golding look i know the ~*~mOrAL*~*`! is arguably misanthropic/malthusian/whatever but also. forget about that. it is very gay thats all that matters. and it is ANOTHER book that i first read in middle school and then immediately reread like at least three more times bc it made me absolutely feral. also . . . . . . sucks to your assmar!!

stoner by john williams :) this one has nothing to do with weed (it is about sad academics) and also i did not read it until my twenties but. i did write like forty-five pages about why it is secretly gay! (also it is starkly beautiful and very heart-rending, i do love a book that digs around in my organs and squeezes mercilessly like a toddler playing with slime.)

the waves by virginia woolf finally a book that isnt gay JUST KIDDING it is in fact also a lil gay but mostly it's just fucking beautiful. possibly the most beautiful novel i've ever read idk, hard to say and its not a quick read but like. read it for the first time in high school and have returned to it a number of times since then and. her prose my GOD. its a novel but also a poem, just a very long love poem to .... everything ....

fun home by alison bechdel technically it's a gRapHiC nOvEL and i only read it for the first time about a year ago but. have reread it since and it continues to haunt me istg this memoir is STUNNING the most gorgeous graphic novel & most gorgeous memoir i have ever ever encountered. an actually brilliant piece of literature in every right. makes me sob. (also, yes, it is very gay.)

the heart is a lonely hunter by carson mccullers well i HAD to include carson mccullers on the list dear god!! also so formative...read this book for the first time in high school, have returned to it a number of times since. it is. truly beautiful !!!!!! what else can i say <3.

who's afraid of virginia woolf by edward albee this is in fact a PLAY (!!) also an amazing movie but. i have read the play many many times it is SO funny, SO smart, SO painful. who needs whips when you and yr partner are. mentally torturing each other for sport. another one i read for the first time as a teen so again.... rather formative.

lolita by vladimir nabokov all right well honestly i read this for the first time in high school and enjoyed it, especially part one, thought it was smart n funny n that part two was kinda all over the place but still yknow overall felt positively about it. BUT. gave it a reread last year and jesus CHRIST i was just like !! i missed SO much !! it is not only so goddamn beautiful but SO much more complex and brilliant than i ever picked up on as a teenager my god. the prose is like the most intricate beautiful renaissance painting and the plot is like the most infuriatingly complicated game of CHESS but. it's ?? the product of a genuinely brilliant mind ?? idek but i will probably read this book at least five more times before i die its just. wow.

the raven cycle by maggie stiefvater HAHA copied you molly !!!!!! :) :) devil emoji etc. thought about choosing a book of poetry or just something else Literary but like, i recognize this list is already pretty full of Boring Classic Literature and such so i guess i can loosen my corset or whatever and say. these goddamn ya books. SPECIFICALLY the dream thieves (you are so right!) but also just the series generally jfc. i thought i hated ya but these books have changed me and everything i thought i knew about myself ....... maggie writes such poetic sentences...... "his exposed shoulder was raw and beautiful as a corpse" JESUS FUCKING !! only just read these like six months ago or something but they have utterly rewired my brain chemistry and maybe shifted the entire trajectory of my life so. i cannot. i cannot even. <3

oh shit i forgot to tag ppl um @billsfangearring @forlorngarden @shipsnsails @everythingbutcoldfire @colgatebluemintygel @perverse-idyll no pressure whatsoever xx

[skinnyscottishbloke]

Fanmix game! List three songs you associate with either your blorbo or your otp, then pass this on to three other people!

Oooh this is fun! So the only 2 shipper playlists I ever made were for John and Sherlock (BBC Sherlock) and Nick and Charlie (Heartstopper). So let’s cheat a little and do 2 songs for each : )

Johnlock #1

Haven't we met?

You're some kind of beautiful stranger

You could be good for me

I have a taste for danger

If I'm smart then I'll run away

But I'm not so I guess I'll stay

Heaven forbid

I take my chance on a beautiful stranger

I mean, if this doesn’t scream John in ep 1 where he chases Sherlock all around London and literally KILLS A MAN for him within 24 hrs of their meeting, idk what does

Johnlock #2

Love, I don't like to see so much pain

So much wasted and this moment keeps slipping away

I get so tired working so hard for our survival

I look to the time with you to keep me awake and alive

And all my instincts they return

And the grand facade, so soon will burn

Without a noise, without my pride

I reach out from the inside

In your eyes (your eyes, your eyes)

In your eyes

In your eyes

The light, the heat (in your eyes)

I am complete (in your eyes)

I see the doorway

To a thousand churches (in your eyes)

The resolution (in your eyes)

Of all the fruitless searches

GOD this song is just so so perfect for them - it shows the pining and sacrifices and misunderstandings that make up their relationship but ends on a happy and content note (which is how I end the show, fuck you Moftiss)

Ok now for Nick and Charlie. Guh the Heartstopper soundtrack is so so perfect already, it’s hard to add to it (but I totally did haha).

Narlie #1

I wanna twirl you 'round the kitchen

Don't worry 'bout no dirty dishes

Not tryna do nothing ambitious, yeah

I just wanna dance with you

Let's act like we're just on vacation

Put Frank Sinatra on rotation

We're taking off like on a spaceship, yeah

I'm just catching vibes with you (vibes with you)

This song is just so sweet and innocent and fun and screams young love and just being happy hanging out together, which is 100% them

Narlie #2

Catch me overthinking

Looking for the reasons why

I'm getting so tired

I feel like I'm falling

But I'd like to fall in love instead

Ain't nothing better than that

And I try to keep it together

I don't want to lose it again

I need you now to get me out of my head

'Cause baby when we touch

It's like the whole world stops

And I wish I knew what it is you do

'Cause when you say my name

Woah, I can't explain

And I wish I knew what it is you do

What you do to me

Not only is this song a BOP, but it fully addresses Charlie’s feelings of anxiety and overthinking (and Nick’s also). The whole song is them finding love and growing together it’s just perfect. I can’t wait for s02 so I can add more awesome tunes to the collection : )

Also, if you want both playlists…here you go

Johnlock playlist

Narlie playlist

Thanks for stopping by!! xx

[opera-ghosts]

OTD in Music History: Notable American pianist and composer Amy Beach nee Cheney (1867 – 1944) is born in New Hampshire. A historically important musical pioneer, Beach was the first successful American female composer of large-scale “classical” music – her “Gaelic Symphony,” premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1896, was the first symphony ever composed and published by an American woman. Against the odds, Beach managed to become one of the most respected and acclaimed American composers of her era. The only female member of the so-called “Second New England School” (alongside such noted American composers as John Knowles Paine, Arthur Foote, George Chadwick, Edward MacDowell, George Whiting, and Horatio Parker), Beach’s writing is primarily in a lush Romantic idiom, although in some of her later works she experimented with more “exotic” or “advanced” harmonies and compositional techniques. PICTURED: A portrait photograph showing the middle-aged Beach, which she signed for a fan. The signature here reads "Mrs. H.H.A. Beach" because, in 1885, Beach married Dr. Henry Harris Aubrey Beach (1843–1910), a prominent Boston surgeon, Harvard lecturer, and amateur singer twenty-four years her senior (Beach was just eighteen on her wedding day). In accordance with the customs and expectations of that era, she thereafter used the name "Mrs. H.H.A. Beach" for all professional purposes. In her own private correspondence, however, she continued to regularly use her given first name. An interesting example (coming in the form of correspondence with another notable American feminist and arts philanthropist) can be seen here:

[daimonclub]

Quotes and aphorisms on gratitude

Quotes and aphorisms on gratitude Quotes and aphorisms on gratitude, a collection of ideas to recognize emotions to express appreciation for what is important for living together gratefully. Gratitude is the sign of noble souls. Aesop Nothing more detestable does the earth produce than an ungrateful man. Decimus Magnus Ausonius Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. Melody Beattie Gratitude is a humble emotion. It expresses itself... not for the gifts of this day only, but for the day itself; not for what we believe will be ours in the future, but for the bounty of the past Faith Baldwin As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. John F. Kennedy He is not rich that possesses much, but he that covets no more; and he is not poor that enjoys little, but he that wants too much. Francis Beaumont Gratitude is the most exquisite form of courtesy. Jacques Maritain A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves. Henry Ward Beecher Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul. Henry Ward Beecher Next to ingratitude the most painful thing to bear is gratitude. Henry Ward Beecher Grant us brotherhood, not only for this day but for all our years - a brotherhood not of words but of acts and deeds. Stephen Vincent Benet Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others. Marcus Tullius Cicero Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that thankfulness is indeed a virtue. William John Bennett Whatever I am offered in devotion with a pure heart -- a leaf, a flower, fruit, or water -- I accept with joy. Bhagavad Gita You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough. William Blake There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a quiet joy. Ralph H. Blum Be glad today. Tomorrow may bring tears. Be brave today. The darkest night will pass. And golden rays will usher in the dawn. Sarah Knowles Bolton Because gratification of a desire leads to the temporary stilling of the mind and the experience of the peaceful, joyful self, it's no wonder that we get hooked on thinking that happiness comes from the satisfaction of desires. This is the meaning of the old adage, 'Joy is not in things; it is in us.' Joan Borysenko Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind. Lionel Hampton Importunity is a condition of prayer. We are to press the matter, not with vain repetitions, but with urgent repetitions. We repeat, not to count the times, but to gain the prayer. We cannot quit praying because heart and soul are in it. We pray "with all perseverance." We hang to our prayers because by them we live. We press our pleas because we must have them, or die. E.M. Bounds It is only when the whole heart is gripped with the passion of prayer that the life-giving fire descends, for none but the earnest man gets access to the ear of God. E.M. Bounds When one has a grateful heart, life is so beautiful. Roy Bennett For me, every hour is grace. And I feel gratitude in my heart each time I can meet someone and look at his or her smile. Elie Wiesel There is neither encouragement nor room in Bible religion for feeble desires, listless efforts, lazy attitudes; all must be strenuous, urgent, ardent. Flamed desires, impassioned, unwearied insistence delight heaven. God would have His children incorrigibly in earnest and persistently bold in their efforts. Heaven is too busy to listen to half-hearted prayers or to respond to pop-calls. Our whole being must be in our praying. E.M. Bounds I am grateful for what I am and have. My thanksgiving is perpetual. Henry David Thoreau I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. G.K. Chesterton To say prayers in a decent, delicate way is not heavy work. But to pray really, to pray till hell feels the ponderous stroke, to pray till the iron gates of difficulty are opened, till the mountains of obstacles are removed, till the mists are exhaled and the clouds are lifted, and the sunshine of a cloudless day brightens - this is hard work, but it is God's work, and man's best labor. E.M. Bounds Gratitude is the ability to experience life as a gift. It liberates us from the prison of self-preoccupation. John Ortberg Grace is available for each of us every day -- our spiritual daily bread -- but we've got to remember to ask for it with a grateful heart and not worry about whether there will be enough for tomorrow. Sarah Ban Breathnach Let's choose today to quench our thirst for the "good life" we thinks others lead by acknowledging the good that already exists in our lives. We can then offer the universe the gift of our grateful hearts. Sarah Ban Breathnach Whatever we are waiting for -- peace of mind, contentment, grace, the inner awareness of simple abundance -- it will surely come to us, but only when we are ready to receive it with an open and grateful heart. Sarah Ban Breathnach Cold prayers shall never have any warm answers. Thomas B. Brooks Look, as a painted man is no man, and as painted fire is no fire, so a cold prayer is no prayer. Thomas B. Brooks If you want an accounting of your worth, count your friends. Merry Browne This race is never grateful: from the first, One fills their cup at supper with pure wine, Which back they give at cross-time on a sponge, In bitter vinegar. Elizabeth Barrett Browning Gratitude to benefactors is a well-recognized virtue, and to express it in some form or other, however imperfectly, is a duty to ourselves as well as to those who have helped us. Frederick Douglass What if, today, we were grateful for everything. Charlie Brown Wear gratitude like a cloak, and it will feed every corner of your life. Rumi Gratitude helps you to grow and expand; gratitude brings you and laughter into your life and into the lives of all those around you. Eileen Caddy Remember that not to be happy is not to be grateful. Elizabeth Carter Leave off wishing to deserve any thanks from anyone, thinking that anyone can ever become grateful. Galius Valerius Catullus He who receives a good turn should never forget it; he who does one should never remember it. He who receives a benefit should never forget it; he who bestows it should never remember it. Pierre Cbarron Non-cooks think it's silly to invest two hours' work in two minutes' enjoyment; but if cooking is evanescent, so is the ballet. Julia Child Feeling grateful or appreciative of someone or something in your life actually attracts more of the things that you appreciate and value into your life. Northrup Christiane No one who achieves success does so without the help of others. The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude. Alfred North Whitehead There is no quality I would rather have, and be thought to have, than gratitude. For it is not only the greatest virtue, but is the mother of all the rest. Marcus T. Cicero In ordinary life, we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich. Dietrich Bonhoeffer If a fellow isn't thankful for what he's got, he isn't likely to be thankful for what he's going to get. Frank A. Clark All good things of this world are no further good than as they are of use; and whatever we may heap up to give others, we enjoy only as much as we can make useful to ourselves and others, and no more. Daniel Defoe To remind a man of the good turns you have done him is very much like a reproach. Demosthenes Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some. Charles Dickens Glee! The great storm is over! Emily Dickinson There is no better excess in the world than the excess of gratitude. Jean de La Bruyère Deficiency motivation doesn't work. It will lead to a lifelong pursuit of try to fix me. Learn to appreciate what you have and where and who you are. Wayne Dyer Gratitude is a twofold love -- love coming to visit us, and love running out to greet a welcome guest. Henry Van Dyke Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others. Cicero Just because you like my stuff doesn't mean I owe you anything. Bob Dylan If the only prayer you say in your whole life is "Thank you," that would suffice. Meister Eckhart I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and new. Ralph Waldo Emerson Sufficiency's enough for men of sense. Euripides Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for. Epicurus Maybe the only thing worse than having to give gratitude constantly is having to accept it. William Faulkner Gratitude opens the door to the power, the wisdom, the creativity of the universe. You open the door through gratitude. Deepak Chopra Gratitude is one of the least articulate of the emotions, especially when it is deep. Felix Frankfurter Most people return small favors, acknowledge medium ones and repay greater ones -- with ingratitude. Benjamin Franklin When befriended, remember it; when you befriend, forget it. Benjamin Franklin Eaten bread is soon forgotten. Thomas Fuller Express gratitude for the greatness of small things. Richie Norton The more you practice the art of thankfulness, the more you have to be thankful for. Norman Vincent Peale Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse. Henry Van Dyke To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven. Johannes A. Gaertner Gratitude is a powerful catalyst for happiness. It’s the spark that lights a fire of joy in your soul. Amy Collette Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive. Edward Gibbon That's the trouble with directors. Always biting the hand that lays the golden egg. Samuel Goldwyn That's the trouble with directors. Always biting the hand that lays the golden egg. Samuel Goldwyn If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share. W. Clement Stone Every dog has its day, but it's not every dog that knows when he's having it. Winifred Gordon Hope has a good memory, gratitude a bad one. Baltasar Gracian Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity … it makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow. Melody Beattie For today and its blessings, I owe the world an attitude of gratitude. Clarence E. Hodges Of all the people in the world, those who want the most are those who have the most. David Grayson After my mother's death, I began to see her as she had really been.... It was less like losing someone than discovering someone. Nancy Hale Gratitude is one of those things that cannot be bought. It must be born with men, or else all the obligations in the world will not create it. Edward F. Halifax It is not only blessed to give thanks; it is also of vital importance to our prayer life in general. If we have noted the Lord's answers to our prayers and thanked Him for what we have received of Him, then it becomes easier for us, and we get more courage, to pray for more. 0. Hallesby When the world is so complicated, the simple gift of friendship is within all of our hands. Maria Shriver It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness. Charles Spurgeon Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. Marcel Proust Jesus is moved to happiness every time He sees that you appreciate what He has done for you. Grip His pierced hand and say to Him, "I thank Thee, Savior, because Thou hast died for me." Thank Him likewise for all the other blessings He has showered upon you from day to day. It brings joy to Jesus. 0. Hallesby The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest. William Blake ‘Thank you’ is the best prayer that anyone could say. Alice Walker Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance. Eckhart Tolle I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new. Ralph Waldo Emerson We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives. John F. Kennedy When we succeed in truly thanking God, we feel good at heart. The reason is that we have been created to give glory to God, now and forever more. And every time we do so, we feel that we are in harmony with His plans and purposes for our lives. Then we are truly in our element. That is why it is so blessed. 0. Hallesby It’s a funny thing about life, once you begin to take note of the things you are grateful for, you begin to lose sight of the things that you lack. Germany Kent Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. Melody Beattie How few are our real wants, and how easy is it to satisfy them! Our imaginary ones are boundless and insatiable. Julius Charles Hare Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough. Oprah Winfrey Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind. Lionel Hampton Gratitude will shift you to a higher frequency, and you will attract much better things. Rhonda Byrne The public have neither shame or gratitude. William Hazlitt Find gratitude in the little things and your well of gratitude will never run dry. Antonia Montoya The past with its pleasures, its rewards, its foolishness, its punishments, is there for each of us forever, and it should be. Lillian Hellman True thanksgiving means that we need to thank God for what He has done for us, and not to tell Him what we have done for Him. George R. Hendrick Thou who has given so much to me, give one thing more: a grateful heart. George Herbert Who covets more is evermore a slave. Robert Herrick Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other. Randy Pausch Enough is as good as a feast. John Heywood There is satiety in all things, in sleep, and love-making, in the loveliness of singing and the innocent dance. Homer Let him who has enough wish for nothing more. Horace To stand on one leg and prove God's existence is a very different thing from going down on one's knees and thanking him. Soren Kierkegaard Every professional athlete owes a debt of gratitude to the fans and management, and pays an installment every time he plays. He should never miss a payment. Bobby Hull The average man is rich enough when he has a little more than he has got. Dean William R. Inge There must be fired affections before our prayers will go up. William Jenkyn A harbor, even if it is a little harbor, is a good thing.... It takes something from the world, and has something to give in return. Sarah Orne Jewett Bounty always receives part of its value from the manner in which it is bestowed. Samuel Johnson There are minds so impatient of inferiority that their gratitude is a species of revenge, and they return benefits, not because recompense is a pleasure, but because obligation is a pain. Samuel Johnson Cultivate the habit of being grateful for every good thing that comes to you, and to give thanks continuously. And because all things have contributed to your advancement, you should include all things in your gratitude. Ralph Waldo Emerson So much has been given to me; I have no time to ponder over that which has been denied. Helen Keller I've had an exciting life; I married for love and got a little money along with it. Rose F. Kennedy Gratitude is a useless word. You will find it in a dictionary but not in life. Francois De La Rochefoucauld In most of mankind gratitude is merely a secret hope of further favors. Francois De La Rochefoucauld Do you realize what this means? The fact of being alive... I still find it staggering that I am here at all. Christopher Leach One is never fortunate or as unfortunate as one imagines. Francois De La Rochefoucauld The gratitude of most men is nothing more than a secret desire of receiving even greater benefits. Francois De La Rochefoucauld There is a certain kind of lively gratitude that not only releases us fro benefits we received, but also becomes a return payment to our friend that makes them become indebted to us. Francois De La Rochefoucauld Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. Melody Beattie Too great a hurry to discharge an obligation is a kind of ingratitude. Francois De La Rochefoucauld We find very few ungrateful people when we are able to confer favors. Francois De La Rochefoucauld My gratitude for good writing is unbounded; I'm grateful for it the way I'm grateful for the ocean. Anne Lamott Man needs so little... yet he begins wanting so much. Louis L'Amour We think that we suffer from ingratitude, while in reality we suffer from self-love. Walter Savage Landor Too much is unwholesome. Georg C. Lichtenberg One can get just as much exultation in losing oneself in a little thing as in a big thing. It is nice to think how one can be recklessly lost in a daisy. Anne Morrow Lindbergh Gratitude is a divine emotion: it fills the heart, but not to bursting; it warms it, but not to fever. Charlotte Brontë One can never pay in gratitude; one can only pay "in kind" somewhere else in life. Anne Morrow Lindbergh How those holy men of old could storm the battlements above! When there was no way to look but up, they lifted up their eyes to God who made the hills, with unshakable confidence. Herbert Lockyer Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do that day, which must be done, whether you like it or not. James Russell Lowell Were a man to order his life by the rules of true reason, a frugal substance joined to a contented mind is for him great riches. Lucretius Gratitude is the most exquisite form of courtesy. Jacques Maritain Let me burn out for God... prayer is the great thing. Oh, that I may be a man of prayer! Henry Martyn What you have become is the price you paid to get what you used to want. Mignon McLaughlin Fortunate are the people whose roots are deep. Agnes Meyer Nothing purchased can come close to the renewed sense of gratitude for having family and friends. Courtland Milloy There is so much in the world for us all if we only have the eyes to see it, and the heart to love it, and the hand to gather it to ourselves so much everywhere in which to delight, and for which to be thankful. Lucy Maud Montgomery I look back on my life like a good day's work; it was done and I am satisfied with it. Grandma Moses Let us thank God heartily as often as we pray that we have His Spirit in us to teach us to pray. Thanksgiving will draw our hearts out to God and keep us engaged with Him; it will take our attention from ourselves and give the Spirit room in our hearts. Andrew Murray Nothing will content him who is not content with a little. Greek Proverb Swift gratitude is the sweetest. Greek Proverb Reflect that life like every other blessing, derives its value from its use alone. Samuel Johnson Swift gratitude is the sweetest. Greek Proverb When you consider everything we have is a gift from God, it's amazing how little gratitude we show. Giving to others is such a small way to say thank you. Charles L. Overby Gratitude - the meanest and most sniveling attribute in the world. Read the full article

[dfroza]

A link to my personal reading of the Scriptures

for the 25th of july 2024 with a paired chapter from each Testament (the First & the New Covenant) of the Bible

[the letter of Titus, chapter 1 • the book of Numbers, chapter 28]

along with Today’s reading from the ancient books of Proverbs and Psalms with Proverbs 25 and Psalm 25 coinciding with the day of the month, accompanied by Psalm 36 for the 36th day of Astronomical Summer, and Psalm 57 for day 207 of the year (with the consummate book of 150 Psalms in its 2nd revolution this year)

A post by John Parsons:

There is a secret and unsettling temptation to regard God as a sort of “Santa Claus” figure who rewards those who have been “nice” but withholds his blessing from the “naughty”... God helps the “good” but punishes the bad. An implication of this assumption is that God blesses the worthy, so if our prayers and petitions seemingly go unanswered, we tend to blame ourselves for being unworthy or unfaithful... We may then try to bargain with God by promising to change and to turn ourselves into better people. “If you will help me, then I will reciprocate by doing good.” We reason that if we do good to others, then God will do good to us. This idea translates the notion that “God helps those who help themselves.” We trust in the “law of karma” as the means for spiritual cause and effect.

Karma or “merit based” theology fails us, however, whenever bad things happen to good people, such as when a young child dies from an incurable illness. In such tragic cases people tend to look “beneath” appearances and posit hidden factors designed to deny or to appease the pain of the moment. Thus certain forms of Hinduism, for example, ascribe the suffering of innocent people to bad actions done in a previous life, while the “holier-than-thou” types (such as Job’s friends) would persist that hidden sin was ultimately the cause for the suffering...

Yeshua said “If you ask anything in my name, I will do it” (John 14:14), though it is important that we do not lapse into “magical thinking” when we hear these words. God is not some cosmic “genie in a bottle” that we can conjure up (through our religious rituals, our promises, etc.) to meet our needs but is a loving Heavenly Father who cares for our ultimate good.

“If you ask anything” therefore does not stand as an unqualified promise, and indeed, we often do not get what we want because we are not asking in the Name of Yeshua, that is, according to his vision, direction and will. “This is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him” (1 John 5:14-15).

But this becomes a point of testing for us. What if we have prayed earnestly for God to do something to help but the help does not come to pass? What if we have prayed with utmost urgency for the healing of a loved one but they die? What if we suffer from painful illness, or get divorced, or lose our jobs -- even though we have prayed to God for the very opposite? This is a serious matter that needs to be considered, for if we assume that God only gives to the worthy and disregards the faithless, then we will be tempted to despair and question whether we “really” believe, after all... Questioning whether you “really” believe leads to nagging questions about whether you “really, really” believe, ad infinitum (see James 1:3-8).

The will of God is to exercise faith in Yeshua as the healer of your life: “This is the work of God (τὸ ἔργον τοῦ θεοῦ), that you believe in the one whom he has sent" (John 6:29). The work of God is the miracle of faith, and true faith surrenders everything in trust to God’s will. “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:9-10). This is the beginning of the “Disciples’ prayer.”

“Faith is the foundation (i.e., ὑπόστασις: the "substance," reality, underlying essence, etc.) of hope, the conviction of the unseen... “By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, and was not found, because God had taken him; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would draw near must believe that he exists and rewards (μισθαποδότης) those who seek him” (Heb. 11:1,5-6). At first glance these verses may seem to support a theology of karma, but it is important to see that the conditions to be known by God are given by God himself in the impartation of the gift of faith (Eph. 2:8-10; Rom. 4:16; John 4:10; Exod. 33:19). The reward here is that of truly knowing God - being “translated” from the realm of death and despair to “walking with God” in realm of the Spirit, as the life of Enoch demonstrated.

Note that God is pleased when we seek his Presence, that is, when we look past the ephemera and ambiguity of the phenomenal world for the truth about spiritual reality (2 Cor. 4:18). For our part, faith resolves to confession (ὁμολογέω), that is, aligning our perspective and focus to agree with the revelation and message of divine truth and verbally declaring our conviction. We must say that we believe, and affirm it with all our heart (see Rom. 10:9). As it says, "I will make Your faithfulness known with my mouth" (Psalm 89:1). Even in times of testing, and particularly at such times, we trust God is in control of all that happens to us, both the good and the bad. “The trial of your faith is more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire” (1 Pet. 1:7). As Job confessed: יְהוָה נָתַן וַיהוָה לָקָח יְהִי שֵׁם יְהוָה מְבֹרָךְ - "the LORD has given and the LORD has taken away: may the Name of the LORD be blessed (Job 1:21).

Whenever we encounter tribulation, or experience some crisis of faith, let us reaffirm aloud: "I believe in God’s promise..." Physically expressing our faith is itself an act of faith, and this encourages us to trust in God’s healing reward even in the present struggle or darkness. Amen. “Seek the LORD and His strength; ask for His Presence at all times” (Psalm 105:4).

[ Hebrew for Christians ]

========

Psalm 105:4 reading:

https://hebrew4christians.com/Blessings/Blessing_Cards/psalm105-4-jjp.mp3

Hebrew page:

https://hebrew4christians.com/Blessings/Blessing_Cards/psalm105-4-lesson.pdf

7.24.24 • Facebook

from Today’s email by Israel365

Today’s message (Days of Praise) from the Institute for Creation Research

[landrysg]

Have you heard Mass today?

John Knowles Paine (1839 - 1906), Mass in D minor, Op.10 (1866)

[themusiccornerlistening]

Amy Beach was born in Henniker, NH on September 5th, 1867.  A child prodigy from the tender age of one, Amy was able to sing 40 sings by memory and by age two sing perfectly in harmony.  Music lay deep within her.  She began formal piano lessons with her mother at the age of 6 and also studied with Carl Baermann (a student of Franz Liszt).  At the age of 14 she studied composition with Junius W. Hill for one year.  She fervently studied composition on her own for years.    

Her “Romance for Violin and Piano, Op. 23” swept me away unexpectedly.  The melodic turns so invitingly pull in different directions.  The opening theme gently resurfaces for a most splendid and delicious return.  This piece is so exquisite, I would just love to hear it live.  I recommend listening to Maria Loudenitch on violin accompanied by Kenny Broberg on YouTube. 

“Dreaming, Op. 13, No. 3” is played so tenderly by pianist, Evgenia Nekrasova it is like listening to a cloud if it could sing.  She is chasing this beautiful cloud through the sky as she so gracefully demonstrates the most exemplary technique and sensitivity right to the very last note.  Breathtaking!

Beach’s “Gaelic Symphony in E Minor” and “Mass in E flat Major” are perfect for an afternoon of listening and certainly will not disappoint. 

In 1896, after the premiere of Beach’s “Gaelic Symphony,”  George Whitefield Chadwick praised her work, inviting her to become a member of the “Second New England School” including; Horatio Parker, John Knowles Paine, Arthur Foote and Edward MacDowell, which they collectively came to be known as “The Boston Six.” What a beautiful moment in time for Beach and those gentlemen to become one. 

In 1944, Amy passed away from heart failure at the age of 77.  Let us keep her legacy alive by listening.  Take some time throughout your week and pick one piece.  Make a hot cup of tea and push play.   If you are “tech challenged” and would like my assistance with finding our weekly listening, please email me at musicwam@yahoo.com.  You can also find me on Facebook.  Candice Bellinger.       

[twistednuns]

February 2023

Though your destination is not yet clear / You can trust the promise of this opening; / Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning / That is at one with your life's desire. / Awaken your spirit to adventure; / Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk; / Soon you will home in a new rhythm, / For your soul senses the world that awaits you. - JOHN O'DONOHUE

Solange Knowles' loft / interview for Apartamento.

24 hours of meditation. Which isn't all that much for 3 months (okay, more than 100 days by now) but imagining doing it all in one sitting is pretty cool. This whole "don't break the chain" thing just helps me to keep going so I haven't missed a day so far.

Petting the goats with Dorie. Talking to the birds. Matcha Latte, no sugar. Cheesecake with poppyseeds. Sketching. A quick escape due to overstimulation. Shopping. Ending up with a sports top as yellow as egg yolk. A yoga pad. And amaretti morbidi. Then we played three rounds of pool in a studio with starry, sparkly glitter walls. I pulled my coolest move and Do took a picture. She couldn't laugh after her wisdom teeth surgery so I taught her to hold up a finger each time she wanted to smile. Her stern face had made me feel too insecure.

Baking orange muffins with Lena and Sash. Grating the zest. Juicing. I'd arrived with a big basket full of art supplies so we just sat round the dining table for a few hours, painting. It felt like art therapy. I noticed how still I become. I can't really talk when I'm in the zone. I loved my results and the swirly, colourful technique I came up with that day. Afterwards we stole some of Christian's espresso and whiskey cheese and had patatas bravas for dinner. I drove Sash home and we talked about going on a little holiday together the following week.

The court employee telling me I could just give my brother a written mandate and immediately escape from here. Liberating.

Therapy. Twelve more gifted extension minutes. Sometimes it feels like she actually enjoys talking to me. She even wrote down the movie I'd mentioned, Girl, Interrupted, perhaps because I'd said that I see myself as the Angelina Jolie character in this story. Unsuccessful shopping. Dinner and (unsuccessful) pub quiz with Margit.

Another heartwarming short story by Robin Sloan. I simply adore this writer and his manifold hobbies and niche interests.

I decided to check out the pub quiz at the local Irish pub on my own. I just wanted to sit at the bar and hear the questions - but I noticed someone playing alone and asked him if I could support him! So we played together and talked about or lives and travels. I'm just kinda proud that I chatted up a random stranger and it was ok - nobody laughed at me or rudely refused to talk to me. All these fears and insecurities, the worst case scenarios I act out in my head... that's what's actually torturing me. Doing the thing rarely is. Fuck anxiety.

My tears left a beautiful salt stain on the black laptop.

Getting a chest massage. I've been having so many stress symptoms in this area, a lot of pain and tension... so this was just a really good idea.

Surviving two consecutive yoga classes. Interestingly, Vinyasa was easier for me than Moon Hatha because we had to hold difficult positions for a very long time. You know it's tough when you wanna kill your instructor for saying things like we stay here for five more breath cycles... Uh, the aggression. The theme that evening was digestion - both physical and emotional. And one of the ladies applied tiger balm to everyone's neck and give us a tiny massage! / Very chill Saturday Yin yoga, mostly with my eyes closed. But my knee is mad at me not and has started to hurt again.

A new business idea. I wanna open my very own "Heilanstalt". Something like a yoga centre with all kinds of classes and courses that are beneficial for a person's wellbeing and mental healt. Art classes, mediation, breathwork, seminars and lectures... a few therapy animals here and there. Everyone keeps saying that this would basically just be like continuing my mum's mission and I don't know how I feel about that.

Making giant eggplant/halloumi burgers for breakfast (and dinner). I even caramelised onions and bought mayo.

Vintage shopping at Hab&Gut (even though I wished for a regular clothing size once again, it's so sad to leave cool items at the store because they just don't fit you). Finding a very cool dark green trench coat... not sure if I should get it? But the other day I bought a cool zigzag blouse in my favourite colours and a brand new green fake fur jacket. I hope it'll keep me warm in Iceland.

Lena and Sash visited me for brunch and I made pancakes and tropical porridge for everyone. Then we walked to the city centre and got fancy chocolates (pistachio nougat) and cheeses (truffle pecorino and Mimolette). On our way home we stopped at the vegan café (where I wrote something magically uplifting in the toilet guestbook) and I managed to be back in time for yoga.

Reactivating my Netflix account for a Sunday on the sofa. I devoured all the available snacks and watched the new season of You. After the fifth episode I noticed disappointed that the second part won't be published until March.

Finding out that my mum's coins and jewellery are worth more than her car. Nice.

My magic wand broke on Valentine's Day. Just stopped working. Zap. I don't know why this is a good thing. Hm, probably because I find it very funny. The irony, eh?

Watching the entire second season of Kärlek & Anarki in one go. The Skandinavian fashion and design are excellent. Also, I'm not sure what kind of lover I want more: A femme fatale who just won the Nobel prize for literature or a young IT guy who's telling me what to do via post-it notes.

I finally finished writing my reviews for 2021 and 2022. Phew.

Journalling on the train to Merano. Looking out the window, seeing the mountains come closer. Listening to The Sugarcubes/Sykurmolarnir, Björk's old band (Sash told me about them; I really appreciate her cool taste - she keeps showing me new and interesting things). Björk has been a recurring theme ever since I bought a tote bag with her portrait in a feminist bookstore in Mexico City. She was mentioned in the book I'm reading. And in Bologna, I even saw a bus with an advertisement for her upcoming Cornucopia tour (I really wanna go).

Deep Talk over pizza and red wine in a vinoteca in Italy. We talked about my writing, lists, my dead mum.

The weather in Italy was so mild and sunny, almost like spring. I wanted to go outside without a jacket, hop on my imaginary Vespa and meet friends for Apéro.

Stucco clay. I love the warm atmosphere it gives a room.

The thermal pools in Merano. Jiggling all we got in a narrow infinity pool, checking our reflection in a glass wall. Falling asleep in the resting area. Sauna. Hot and cold salt water outside.

Losing my phone. Finding it again.

Leaning back in an armchair after meditation. Looking out the window behind me, the light hitting my face. Sunshine, a pretty apartment. Life is better than I tend to think.

Finding Ich bin dein Mensch in ARD Mediathek. I really liked the movie and Maren Eggert's acting/character.

A scenic trail up the hills surrounding Merano. A lovely view, meeting lizards and the grumpiest cat. I love the contrast of the palm trees in the sunshine against the snow covered mountains in the distance.

Italians call their train lines pop and rock. When I saw this I thought... hm, there should be jazz too, right? And indeed, one our way to Florence I actually saw a jazz train. Amusing.

Espresso con fior di latte - what a revelation. We also tried it with zabaione and vanilla custard with pine nuts.

Ice cream with salty roasted pistachios at Cremeria Santo Stefano in Bologna. Caffè Bianco was amazing, too.

Ordering a bunch of delicious Tigelle, a Pignoletto and a Green Spritz. I love finding new food and drinks I've never tasted before.

The beautiful wall art in that Brazilian Fusion restaurant we found by chance. I think the restaurant was in an old church and our table must have been in the altar room.

Staying at a super old-school hotel with chandeliers and velvet sofas. Carpet everywhere. Luggage carts and page boys. Opulent breakfast buffet.

My hunch for interesting exhibitions. I keep finding cool spots like that Spanish video installation in an old church in Bologna and the Gucci Archetypes gallery in Florence.

The Neptune statue at Piazza della Signoria. Surprisingly good butt.

Truffle Tagliolini. Just pasta, butter and fresh truffle. Delicious.

Visiting a cheese dairy in Parma where they make Parmigiano Reggiano. Mattia talked us through all the steps of cheesemaking and I fed and petted a few of the cows. I learned that they have surprisingly long tongues. And that these days a lot of Indian families are working in Italian dairies to take care of the cows (apparently because they treat the animals so much better since cows are sacred in India...) We bought half a kilo of 50-month old cheese to take home. I love it when the old cheese has already formed lots of little crystals.

We had a whole train compartment in first class to ourselves on the way from Bologna to Munich and folded out all the seats. We ended up with a comfy lounge area, ate all the snacks and actually fell asleep a few times in the dim light. When we stopped at Brennero for a while I woke up, it was warm and dark and I noticed some eerie sounds coming from the train. Very musical. Felt special.

And in general: Having a room all to myself. A cinema, a lane at the swimming pool, a sauna, a train compartment... I'm always so happy when that happens.

I guess 2023 is the year I'm turning into a sauna person. I used to hate it but the other day I sat through two "events" (someone pours water and aromatic oils on the hot stones to create more heat and steam) and kinda get the appeal. They even give you extras like honey for your face or cold towels. There's music and the guy fans the hot air all around you. I love jumping into the ice cold pond afterwards and when I get out my skin prickles. Or I pour a bucket of ice water over my head. I shouldn't be surprised. I mean... I'm a Taurus and I've always loved water so why wouldn't I like a place like that. Warmth, falling asleep in a pillow nest, getting coffee and snacks, back to the sauna - sounds like me.

Trying a new Frank smoothie that tastes like Almighurt with marzipan and poppy seeds. Yum.

Free dolmades in my veggie kebab.

My therapist managed to sign me up for long-term therapy. 36 more sessions. Which is a good thing. Therapy is my hobby. AND she realised today that I didn't believe I could be cured. That I'm convinced I'm too broken. But she said I could be fixed! Healed! I just need to learn a few lessons I missed when I was a kid. Sounds promising.

Dopamine Nation was such an interesting read. I learned about the pleasure/pain balance so I'm seriously considering a dopamine fast now.

Learning many interesting things in Iceland. That they're running hot water pipes under the tarmac to melt the snow and ice (everything runs on geothermal energy). And the astronauts on the Apollo mission did their training for the moon on Iceland's lava fields. It's THAT otherworldly. And there are auroras on Jupiter! I loved learning about the science behind auroras in the planetarium.

And I actually saw a pretty spectacular Aurora Borealis one night. A moment later, the dude next to me got down on his knees and proposed to his girlfriend (she said yes).

The Icelandic countryside was amazing. We saw seals, a whale spine, ponies. All the waterfalls. A geysir. Lava fields, mountains and rivers. Cliffs, elf stones, black lava beaches. A crater lake and a large fissure between the Eurasian and American tectonic plates.

More random joy: Vintage stores. Taking pictures on rainbow street. Cool art. Writing postcards. Walking through an artificial ice cave. A super friendly feline Reykjavík resident. Zooming around on e-scooters for the first time. Discovering a tiny thermal foot bath during a walk to the lighthouse. Lounging in the warm water at SkyLagoon.

[lesser-known-composers]

John Knowles Paine - (Poseidon and Amphitrite - An Ocean Fantasy)

Performed by The Ulster Orchestra Conducted by JoAnn Falletta

[ondasyletras]

John Knowles Paine - Symphony No.2 in A-major, Op.34 "Im frühling" (1879)

[oconnormusicstudio]

January 9 ~ On This Day in Music

January 9 ~ On This Day in Music

.  1839 ~ John Knowles Paine, first American-born composer to achieve fame for large-scale orchestral music. . 1880 First performance of Nikolai Andreyevich Rimski-Korsakov’s opera May Night in St. Petersburg . 1898 ~ Gracie Fields (Grace Stansfield), Comedienne, singer . 1899 ~ Russian pianist and composer Alexander Nikolayevich Tcherepnin was born in St. Petersburg. . 1902 ~ Sir Rudolf Bing,…