On the merits of Charity

Faith, Hope and Charity. Three virtues.

The Overtly Religious boast of the first, and seem to have the second (though for what they hope, I am not certain, save that I seem not to share it).

But what of Charity? I have posted before on the need for works. On the actual demands Jesus made of his followers (love each other, love your neighbours, love your enemies, forgive those who wrong you and, most of all, help the poor).

So Digby (over at Hullabaloo) did me (and thee) the great favor of seeing what those with Vocal Vocations, and bully pulpits to the Faithful, have done to help those who suffered from the tsunami.

Not bloody much.

Most have not mentioned it at all (though Focus on the Family seems to have added a small squib, it's still less important than remembering them as the new year begins.

Some have gone so far as to thank God for His good works in killing so many perverts (it seems the Swedes are particularly egregious in this. One web site said,"Thank God for Tsunami & 2,000 dead Swedes!!!" asking, "How many tsunami-dead Swedes are fags and dykes?". Yes, it's Phelps, and he is a special case (and Lord, what have we done that You see the need to afflict us with him?, but rejoicing in the deaths of others seems to pass schadenfruede and move over to the range of sociopathic.

If I thought it would help, I'd quote 1 Cor. 13 to them, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal."

The rest of our trip, mostly

We left Seattle on a moisty morning, daylight let us see the things we slept through on the way up. The trip down was less easygoing. Not for the service, which was fine, nor for the pace (the train was running on time) but rather for the time of day.

The sun was gone before we got to Eugene, so we saw no elk, nor much snow. Linch, and dinner and then to bed. We woke, had breakfast (for which I wasn't all that hungry) and then packed up and got ready to leave the train in Oakland. With only 24 hours, and the timing of it, we almost felt rushed.

Maia's cousin picked us up, we headed to Sebastapol (where we were going to see her uncle, aunt, another cousin, and on the next day, her parents and sister), via Albany, where we spent some time with her gret aunt, at lunch at a Thai place (Bua Luang, if I recall aright), and then on to Sebastapol.

Glen, Maia's uncle has an acre of vines, and spends a fair bit of his retirement playing bass and jug in a couple of local bands. So we went to the Ace in the Hole (a bar/restaurant, run my Ace Cider. The cider isn't any better for being fresh, but they did have some decent beers.

The next day we went with Jennifer to the beach at Bedega Bay. It's a strange bay, and in the late light of the winter the strange ways of the waves and the low light are almost eldritch. There is a spit in the middle, and the water gets confused. They break far fro shore, and the little waves that come past those breaks (which can be dramatic spoutings in the middle of a small hump) just end, with a vertical pop. Like a string of fountains in a light show.

The next afternoon the four of us going to Humboldt left.

Michael's (Sola's boyfriend) family is non-conformist. The do not use commercial power. He, his mother and his sister have a a lot of food allergies, so the have goats (when they have too many kids, they have a roast) They heat with a wood stove, run a generator; and some solar, and store it in twelve volt batteries.

The nights are cosy. Soft yellow lights, from candles and a couple of twelve volt bulbs.

In the morning we had breakfast, swapped some family presents (Michael's mother ws given a frame, with internal sill for her bed's western window. A beautiful piece of Madrone, fallen on the property, and milled, cut and finished by her daughter and husband. She built the initial house, and it's been expanded, and rebuilt) Went for a walk and came back, in the rain, and got ready for the party/book exchange.

Boxing Day is Michael's birthday, so we had another party, celebrated Michael and Sola graduating from college, sat around and then went to bed and packed up to head south.

In the late afternoon the redwoods are dark, and still. Quite apart from the lack of angle for light to enter, the space is close. It had been raining so there was no sun, just the grey light the clouds pass. The rivers were high, straight banked with churning water. Nothing one would want to raft. Even where the bed was flat, and the water wide and slow, the water was muddy, the tributaries fast and foamy. Large trees had been undercut, and were wedged from bank to bank.

Another night in Sebastapol, and then a full truck (five people in the truck, all the gear in the bed (bags and tarps, because it was raining) and the difficulty of being so crowded and the less than swift travel of Maia's family. It was about midnight when we got home.

Three days of the house to ourselves, and then to L.A., to see friends for New Year's.

Pictures

Grab Bag

When you see this, it means I have sycled a few pictures into the folder. With 100mb total, and pictures of more than a meg apiece, I can't keep all of the up, which means I can find outside hosting, let links die, or I can post things here, and when people find them, well they won't always be the same.

And soon I'll start editing the images, so they won't be so ill composed. Right now you're getting, esp. the bird pictures, stuff that is shot at max length, so the framing is less than ideal.


Grab Bag