A Bible That Is Falling Apart

There is a saying: "A Bible that is falling apart usually belongs to someone who isn't."
I think that whoever came up with that saying was wise to include the word usually.
There are some people who, although they possess a well-worn
Bible, are still falling apart.  (Please do not think that I am judging them; I myself came very close to falling apart years
ago during a time I will not blog about.)
Someone might have an old, worn, falling-apart, inherited Bible that stays on a shelf, unread.  In fact, all the Bibles he or she owns go unread.  Perhaps that person isn't actually falling apart,
but he or she is, in my opinion, missing out on a great deal of consolation and strengthening.
On the other hand, some people who constantly read the Bible are still falling apart; they see only the admonitions and the passages about sin, and Hell, and so they despair.
But much more often, thank God, a Bible that is falling apart does belong to someone who isn't.

I'll end this post by saying,"A Bible that is falling apart should be rebound."

Post 2 On A Book About Clubs

This, as the heading indicates, is my second post about "Ladies, Please Come To Order," by Peggy Cameron King. 
In the chapter called "Rub-a-dub-dub, What Name for the Club?" the author writes (or should I say, wrote, to be perfectly accurate?)
"Nowadays most people belong to something anonymous..... But your club is special and should have a more descriptive title. One of the first decisions will be regarding the suffix which might be Association, Auxiliary, Circle, Federation, Group, Guild, League, Unit, or anything else that implies a union of congenial personalities."
 I agree that these are all good suffixes, and there are others just as good, for example, Society.  (I belong to the Betsy-Tacy Society.)
This is the part I do NOT agree with:
"It seems too bad to fall back on the standard Club."
Sorry, but I don't see anything wrong with calling a club a CLUB, in fact, it often sounds better than the other suffixes, good as they may be.  Try replacing the word CLUB in  Book Club or Garden Club.  It doesn't work, at least in my opinion.  
 Then again, one  could give a Card Club a tongue-in-cheek name, such as Card Spade, Card Heart, or Card Diamond.

Post One Of Two on A Book About Clubs

I recently borrowed "Ladies, Please Come To Order," by Peggy Cameron King, (published in 1968) from openlibrary.org. It won't be on my book list, however, because I don't intend to finish it.  I found certain parts too annoying.
This paragraph in the chapter called "A Very Select Membership"  especially irritated me. (My responses, which I wish I could have made directly to the author, are in blue.
"Girls who are in poor health you can class as bad risks just as insurance companies do. They always use the excuse "I'm under the doctor's care" to get out of any little demands you may make of them, 
 They are not making excuses; they are stating a fact.   Many of them are glad to do what they can, and those who can't exert themselves too much physically may come up with some excellent ideas that the more able-bodied members can carry out. Besides, there are many clubs whose members just meet to talk about a chosen subject.
and no matter what the menu is, it doesn't agree with them. 
 Is it that difficult to provide something they can eat? 
 Perhaps you should admit a few as a humanitarian gesture
So the able-bodied members can feel good about themselves?
 although I can't think of any good reason for exposing the club to their ailments."
Poor health isn't always contagious. 

I also wish that I could ask the author if she even thought about how her unkind her statements sound,  and how they might make someone in poor health feel.  Perhaps, though, she didn't mean to be unkind; she may simply have been trying to be funny.   If so, she laid an egg as far as I'm concerned.

New England Sunday, 1840s

In "The Story of A Bad Boy", Thomas Bailey Aldrich gives a rather grim description of how Sunday was observed when he was a boy.  I'll just share this little bit:

"People who were prosperous and natural and happy on Saturday became the most rueful of human beings in the brief space of twelve hours. I don't think there was any hypocrisy in this. It was merely the old Puritan austerity cropping out once a week. Many of these people were pure Christians every day in the seven -- excepting the seventh. Then they were decorous and solemn to the verge of moroseness. I should not like to be misunderstood on this point. Sunday is a blessed day, and therefore it should not be made a gloomy one. It is the Lord's day, and I do believe that cheerful hearts and faces are not unpleasant in His sight."

Of course, I agree with him!  

Something I'd Like To Share

I don't drive, due to my perceptual disability and poor co-ordination, but I'd like to share a prayer from Thyra Ferre Bjorn's book, "Mama's Way."

"Father,

     Help me to drive so I won't endanger others,

 and others to drive so they won't endanger me.
 And take the wheel and drive with me, so I can

 feel completely protected."

I think that, if I were able to drive, I would offer that prayer before starting out.  At least, I hope I would.

Facebook post from Dion

I just have to share this message Dion posted on  Facebook.  It fits my Gratitude Attitude game

perfectly.

Dion

To be grateful is to recognize the Love of God in everything He has given us - and He has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of His love & grace.
Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder. For the grateful person is a happy person, not by hearsay but by experience. And that is what makes all the difference.”

A quote about Sunday Books

This is a quote from part of a sentence in Louisa May Alcott's Rose in Bloom.

"yawning over the dull books kept for Sunday reading."

Well, anyone who has been following this blog knows
how I feel about dull books on Sunday. 
Of course, I dislike dull books on ANY day!

Joy To The World!!!

I'd just like to take a moment to wish everyone a very blessed

Christmas, and to share some pictures from my Rosary Art Collection.
And to quote from a book I read every December 24th:
God bless us, every one!

Connecting a Picture and a Quote

I always connect this Garth Williams illustration from Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder with these words from Walden, by Henry David Thoreau:
"I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion."
If Laura Ingalls, at the age she was in the picture, had heard that quotation, I'm sure she would have agreed perfectly!

Quote From "Clergy For Choice"

It is with great nausea that I present this quote from Clergy For Choice. "We believe that human life is holy. That’s why we believe in your right to choose to be a parent or not."
And now, a quote from Mark Twain:

The difference between these two quotes: Mark Twain was being humorous. There is nothing remotely funny about the quote from Clergy For Choice.

Joy To The World!!!

I'd just like to take a moment to wish everyone a very blessed
Christmas, and to share some pictures from my Rosary Art Collection.
And to quote from a book I read every December 24th:
God bless us, every one!

Here are two quotes about grammar, or rather, about the love of grammar.

"I loved grammar and argued with my teachers over the way words were used in sentences. I nearly memorized my grammar book>"
Jesse Stuart in "To Teach, To Love," and "Beyond Dark Hills."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


"You ain't sayin' you like grammar?”
“Are you nuts? I hate it,” said Herbie stoutly.
To confess his guilty pleasure in the machinery of language would have been as bad as admitting a taste for opium; in fact, Lennie would have been much readier to forgive the opium.
Herman Wouk in "The City Boy," also known as "City Boy: The Adventures of Herbie Bookbinder."

I know exactly, and I mean exactly how the real-life Jesse Stuart and the fictional Herbie Bookbinder felt. I, too, loved grammar when I was in school. In fact, I've started buying, online, used copies of the books I studied in my junior high school and high school English classes. (I did a Google search, using phrases from paragraphs I remember from those books. I loved those paragraphs!)
Besides, I am reasonably certain that I knew more about grammar back then than I do now.

Asher Lev and Matisse

This post is adapted from a post in one of my old blogs.
Quote from "My Name Is Asher Lev", by Chaim Potok: "His art is not enjoyable. He is not Matisse." That was my introduction to Henri Matisse, whose art I find extremely enjoyable.
I love it when a book leads me to something new, and that seems to happen fairly often.