A Carpe Diem Snapshot:
I've been meaning to blog about these tiles for quite a while and, since it's the birthday of funnyman Steve Martin today, it's the perfect occasion. That will require a bit of an explanation, I hear you say. Here it is: these tiles are in the entry hall of my parents' house, which has a staircase that leads to the basement. That basement held a playroom and children's library when I was little, which meant I spent a lot of time there and, when climbing back up those stairs, the tiles were at my eye level. I remember studying them intently during my "wonder years" between ages 4-9. Sometime during those years, my oldest sister, a big fan of Steve Martin, rented the movie that made Martin famous, "The Jerk". In that movie, which we watched in the basement, there is a scene in which Martin's character loses all his wealth and belongings and has to choose "just one thing" to take with him. I remember nothing else about that movie other than Martin's character repeatedly saying, "I need just this one thing." Probably this made an impression on me because the family home burned down about eight months before I was born and all was lost. I was, and am still now, the only one in the family who lacks any memory of the old house and all the family heirlooms that it contained. The last thing my Mom did as she ran to the new brick addition that was being built onto the old house was to shut the steel door between the two. The firemen couldn't save the old wooden house, so they concentrated their waterpower on the area between the old and new structures, the area that is now the orange-painted entry hall, with the orange painted sliding steel door, with the orange floor tiles (Incidentally, orange has always been one of my favorite colors). After watching that movie, I climbed the stairs and looked again at the tiles. I remember wondering, "What would be my one thing to take out of the house if it burned down?" At the time, I chose to hypothetically save my very ragged doll, Jenny, probably because the thought of trying to choose just one single object was too overwhelming a decision, as it was for Martin's character. To this day, I associate these tiles with my small self, contemplating the tiles and tragic loss, Steve Martin's style of humor, and the unavoidable reality that "you can't take it with you."
"Again, amen, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth
about anything for which they are to pray,
it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father.
For where two or three are gathered together in my name,
there am I in the midst of them.”
Bishop Barron's Gospel reflections today.
Sanctoral: The Memorial of St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe (1894-1941) is universally celebrated by the Church today. St. Maximilian was born in Zdunska Wola, Poland as Raymond Kolbe. He consecrated himself to the Lord in the Franciscan Order. Filled with love for the Virgin, he founded the Militia of the Immaculate Mary and, with his preaching and writing, undertook an intense apostolic mission in Europe and Asia. Imprisoned in Auschwitz during the Second World War, he offered himself in exchange for the father of a large family who was to be executed. He was given a lethal injection when he failed to die fast enough from starvation in the concentration camp and died on August 14, 1941. Pope St. John Paul II proclaimed him the "Patron Saint of Our Difficult Century."
Human: 1040--King Duncan I of Scotland killed in battle against his first cousin and rival Macbeth (not murdered in his sleep as in Shakespeare's play). The latter does succeed him as King; President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act– 1935; President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill signed an eight point agreement known as the Atlantic Charter– 1941; 1945 V-J Day, the Empire of Japan surrenders unconditionally to the Allies, ending World War II (August 15 in Japan and other countries depending on the time zone); 1947 Pakistan gains independence from the United Kingdom; 1980 17,000 workers go on strike at Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland, marking the beginning of the Solidarity movement
The Writer's Almanac today.
Natural: 1281 During Kublai Khan's second Mongol invasion of Japan, his invading Chinese fleet of 3,500 vessels disappears in a typhoon near the Japanese coast; U.S. satellite Explorer VI transmitted the first picture of Earth from space– 1959; The biggest blackout in U.S. history, affecting some 50 million people, engulfed New York City, Albany, Hartford, Toronto, Ottawa, Detroit, Cleveland and Ontario– 2003
Italian: Fuso (melted / exhausted)
English: insularity
The noun insularity refers to the quality of being isolated or detached. In fact, the word is based on the Latin word insula, for "island." The phrase "no man is an island" means that no one can be completely separate from others.
Quote: “The Cross is the school of love.” --St. Maximilian Kolbe
Etc.: Short video on the history of the Mongol empire to put Kublai Khan, the grandson of Ghengis Khan, in the timeline of events.
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