I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation
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Hoist By His Own Inner Retard
Mrs. Orr reported that when she let Jinx outside this morning, he was full of zest: bounding around, leaping, grinning, eager to get outside. I got up shortly after she did and after pouring a cup of coffee, I went to see if Jinx was ready to come inside and eat his breakfast. He was, and he trotted through the door and into the dining room. And that’s when it hit me. “Could you come here a sec? I think I smell something.” I called to my wife. She poked her head around the door. “Oh, no,” she said. Skunk. Majorly. Ah, hell. This is going to be a very…
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I, Too, Want To Encourage Brandon To Go
You’ll probably never again see me recommend a television show, but in this instance, I must. Last night’s opening monologue on Tucker Carlson’s show was gold. The mockery was so thick you could spackle with it. It was as if Tucker asked The Babylon Bee to write his teleprompter notes. This is perhaps the best way to address what’s going on in this world. The devil cannot tolerate being laughed at. ~ S.K. Orr
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Young October
And now September has flown away with the hummingbirds, leaving the young and quiet October as sentry to my observed life. We haven’t yet had our first frost, but the mornings are damp and chilly, and I’ve resumed wearing a hat on my morning rambles with the spotted menace. The spider webs are visible on many plants and structures, dew-decked and glistening like ice wheels. The wildflowers are dying back slowly; this morning Jinx and I passed between rows of late chicory, the vivid blue a contrast to the murky air around us. The leaves on the trees are slowly turning. I’m growing a tiny oak tree in a flowerpot…
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Free Stu Scheller!
When Jinx and I stepped outside Sunday morning into the mist, I saw a funnel spider’s web in the grass. It was one of the larger ones I’ve seen in a while, big as a plate and perfectly situated. I knelt down as best I could in the grass and examined the structure. How many hours did it take to build? How successful was it in trapping food for its builder? All those little struts and girders and beams and buttresses and studs and strips and joists…all from the body of the one who erected it and then retreated back into the funnel to await that trembling signal of live…
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First Day of Fall
The summer is gone, and it will never return. Until next year. But that summer will not be the same as this one was, and nothing is ever the same, but there is nothing new under the sun, whether a summer sun or a winter one, and the full moon waters the earth with its silver light tonight. Silver light tonight. Mrs. Orr and I sat and talked for a long time about the forces that are prodding this country and this world down certain paths. It’s difficult to talk about these things, but it has ever been difficult to deliberately choose to defy evil. Hamlet defied augury; Mrs. Orr…
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Squinting Towards Armageddon
“I can, with one eye squinted, take it all as a blessing.” ~ Flannery O’Connor Before I set down the day’s thoughts, I want to express my humble gratitude for the many warm and supportive comments I received on my most recent post (the most comments I’ve ever received, in fact!). When I say “humble gratitude,” I mean exactly that. I am grateful for the kindness, but I am also humbled by the display from you, my readers who mean more to me than you can know. I also wanted to say that I’m somewhat chagrined after re-reading the post, which I had composed at the end of a weary…
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A Catholic Christian
Jinx and I walked this morning under the coverlet of humidity that has parked itself over these mountains and announced that it will not be leaving anytime soon. The crickets and locusts rasped on in a steady note from the damp fronds of green in all directions, and we both walked more slowly than usual. I saw in my missal that today is the feast day of Saint Augustine, the revered Doctor of the Church. I prayed for family members as I walked, and I thought on the sorry things that mar the days in this age. While evil overtakes the Western world, the Roman Catholic Church has paralleled the…
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No Warmth, No Comfort
Dorothy Day reveals in her autobiography, The Long Loneliness, that she craved the deep faith and the spiritual discipline she observed among the poor and the immigrants with whom she lived in New York City during her young years as a radical socialist. Many a morning after sitting all night in taverns or coming from balls at Webster Hall, I went to an early morning Mass at St. Joseph’s Church on Sixth Avenue and knelt in the back of the church, not knowing what was going on at the altar, but warmed and comforted by the lights and silence, the kneeling people and the atmosphere of worship. People have so…
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Full Moon Across the Field
The almanac tells me that the hummingbirds will begin their annual southward migration this Tuesday. This starts of course in the northern climes where the air begins to cool earlier, and works it way south. We should have a few more weeks to enjoy the little wonders. A little female whom I’ve named Missy has been very busy at the feeder next to our back porch. She defends her turf with ferocity, and when she perches, she drinks deeply and deliberately. Then she zooms off to the woods where I presume her nest is hidden. What I wouldn’t give to be able to peek inside and see the little Tic…
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A Briefness
Two acquaintances of mine have died within the past week. One of them died of the China virus, according to the doctors. The other one was killed when he misjudged and turned into the path of an oncoming car. Not wearing a seatbelt, he was ejected from his vehicle and thrown against the unforgiving surface of a suburban street, and he died enroute to hospital. The alleged covidtality and I spoke on the phone a week before his death. His final words to me were, “Goddammit, SK, I don’t understand it. They tell me I’ve got the Covid, but I had both of those damn shots. How in hell can…