On To the Important Subject of Mushrooms

As Chesterton once said that every subject was worthy of notice. Or something like that. I noticed that Dave Beresford believes this, as well. His latest column ("The Flying Inn" --dangerously close to another columnist's title of "The Flying Stars" don't you think?) was all about mushrooms.

Now, my opinion on mushrooms is that: I never pick them, I never cook them, I will on occasion eat them (if served by a relative whose feelings might be hurt if I refuse), however, I cannot get this one sentence my husband once uttered out of my mind when I think about mushrooms.

What did he say, you ask?

"Why should I eat fungus?" he said.

It *IS* amazing that some fungus can, indeed, be eaten. And even more amazing is the process by which man discovered that some fungus could be eaten. There must be "mushroom martyrs" out there, people who have given their lives to the discovery of poisonous mushrooms, so that we, who live in the present, could not eat those, but the other ones that are not poisonous.

Dave's experience shows that if you do pick and eat mushrooms, you have to know what you are doing. Since it is not a goal in life of mine to become a mushroom expert, I leave that to others, and try as best I can to avoid fungus.

I think mushrooms deserve a poem, any takers? Maybe even a Clerihew?

A New Book from Our Mr. Ahlquist

Dale Ahlquist has been busy, it seems. A new book is coming soon. Keep alert!

And now, back to our magazine

The first article from the latest issue of Gilbert I want to discuss is the wonderful and inspirational story by Robert Moore-Jumonville in his highly unlikely column titled, Jogging with Chesterton. I think the essence of it is that Robert thinks Chestertonian thoughts as he jogs, not that he envisions Chesterton jogging with him.

Robert's article is about how he was able to join a soccer game (called football everywhere but in the US) in the Czech Republic, and then he recalls two other occassions in which this type of international conversation (or dance, as he metaphorically speaks of in his column) happened.

I really liked that image of people playing ball together, despite the inability to "communicate" on the speaking level.

It reminded me of a time I was in Germany and it started to snow these huge, gorgeous, Kodak-moment snowflakes. Everything was getting covered with a layer of white, and it was stunning. I happened to be walking along a path in a tiny little town called Garmisch alone, except for the hundreds of locals also walking (they walk a lot more there than we do here, I noticed). An older lady sort of caught up to me and smiled. I smiled back. She turned her head to the sky, where it was the kind of sky that looks like the start of a Star Wars movie, just white points falling from nowhere coming at you, and the whole thing means "infinity" when you look at it, and she said something in German, like "Dies ist schön, ya?" and I said "Ya" and I felt connected with all of mankind for just a second. (I don't speak much German, but knew schön meant beautiful.)

Music connects people, too. Dancing can be done without a translator. Art, when beautiful, needs no translation.

Did anyone read Robert's article and want to comment?

Someone in Pakistan Likes G.K. Chesterton

I think this is so amazing, to find an essay of Chesterton's reprinted in a Pakistani newspaper. Link on title above.

Great exerpt:

The last few decades have been marked by a special cultivation of the romance of the future. We seem to have made up our minds to misunderstand what has happened; and we turn, with a sort of relief, to stating what will happen... which is (apparently) much easier. The modern man no longer presents the memoirs of his great grandfather; but is engaged in writing a detailed and authoritative biography of his great-grandson. Instead of trembling before the specters of the dead, we shudder abjectly under the shadow of the babe unborn. This spirit is apparent everywhere, even to the creation of a form of futurist romance. Sir Walter Scott stands at the dawn of the nineteenth century for the novel of the past; Mr HG Wells stands at the dawn of the twentieth century for the novel of the future. The old story, we know, was supposed to begin: “Late on a winter’s evening two horsemen might have been seen....” The new story has to begin: “Late on a winter’s evening two aviators will be seen....” The movement is not without its elements of charm; there is something spirited, if eccentric, in the sight of so many people fighting over again the fights that have not yet happened; of people still glowing with the memory of tomorrow morning. A man in advance of the age is a familiar phrase enough. An age in advance of the age is really rather odd.

People still glowing with the memory of tomorrow morning...I like that phrase. I've got to see if I can work it into some speech somewhere.

Rumors and Common Knowledge

Just to correct all of the information out there, it has come to my attention that Frances Blogg Chesterton had brown hair. Not red. Brown. As in Father Brown.

Thank you.

Evidence provided upon request.

The Mysterious "Amber" Project

This post will explain all I know of "Amber." And I'm sure I don't know everything, so anyone who knows more, please post a comment.

AMBER is the name of a project that started years ago. It is the American Chesterton Society's attempt to get everything Chesterton wrote in electronic searchable format. There is a person in our group, a member of our society, so devoted to this work that he took two years of his life and spent them scanning and coding the works of Chesterton. They are now in an electronic format, but as of yet, unavailable to the public. I suppose all it would take is some monetary contributions, which can be made at the American Chesterton Society with the specification "AMBER Project" so your contribution can be directed to that work, if this is something you are interested in helping with.

Now many of the works of Chesterton's are on line. His work, for the most part, is in the public domain, and there are sources, such as Project Gutenberg, where many public domain works, including Chesterton's, can be found.

The beauty of AMBER is this: it is entirely searchable, and referencable (probably not a real word). What I mean is, that at Project Gutenberg, you may be able to search a single book, such as Orthodoxy, on a word that you are looking for quotes on, such as "Education" or "Catholic" or "Liberty", for example. Or, if you half remember a quote, you can search on the phrase you recall, such as "meaning of man" or whatever, and see if it is in that particular work.

With AMBER, you can search ALL the works of Chesterton for those same terms or phrases, and, once the quote is found, AMBER will give you the book and page number where it can be found.

In terms of references, and as a writer I can tell you this, this AMBER is invaluable for research and references. You would not have to go to the library, find a particular edition of a Chesterton book, and search through it to find out what page the particular quote is actually on. AMBER would help you with that.

I have used the AMBER service, by e-mailing the ACS (or using the "Quotemeister" service at hte ACS web page) and it is truly and really helpful.

I would love to see this project made public. This would involve (and those who know, help me out here) either a) making the information available in some sort of format such as CD-rom or DVD (however, I believe the sheer volume of information makes this impractical, as it would take MANY Cd's or many DVD's) or b) putting it all on-line, which I would believe would take money to 1. purchase a domain name 2. have a server that could store that much information and 3. pay someone to maintain the whole thing.

And the name AMBER, as Anon posted in the comments of the previous post, comes from the Greek name for electricity. I used to think it was some sort of mysterious acronym such as "Associated Manuscripts By Educated Rebels" or something meaningful like that. But it doesn't.

Any more questions about AMBER?

The Need for Confession

Hat tip: Tom

Well, if people can't go to the real thing, they sometimes try to make things up. Which is what these people (link above) are doing with confession. I always find is amusing when people say they'd be too embarrassed to confess to a priest, but the same people would have no trouble sending their deepest, darkest secrets to an anonymous blogger.

I'm not sure how Chesterton ties in with this, but I'll just say this: he converted.

Politicians

A Chestertonian I know (I won't mention any names) has this quote at the end of his e-mails about how sad it is how few politicians are hanged. It's a GKC quote.

What is it about our political system that brings out the worst in people?

We have primary elections going on next Tuesday, so of course our community is in the last throes of campaigning, and it's getting ugly.

It is so ugly, we have two pro-life Republicans fighting over which is really more pro-life.

But then after they had that argument, it degraded into mud-slinging.

Some people seem to enter into politics for the good and noble reasons of helping mankind.
And then they seem to gradually become degraded by the PACs and lobbyists around them. Some don't, but so many do. I think it's the money which corrupts them. Maybe it would corrupt me, too, if I were in that situation. I like money as much as the next person, and maybe I'd be persuaded to vote a certain way if only my family were financially secure for life. Money is a big temptation. Perhaps the biggest. After all, even Jesus says something about God vs. money.

The politican I'd like to vote for is the one who seems stronger than I to resist the call of the temptation of money. I'd like to vote for the person who would always try to do what is right, good, noble, true and most helpful to mankind.

Let me know if you find that politician.

Traveling with Gilbert

I'll be traveling the next few weeks, so blogging may be intermittent depending on the local internet service.
Meanwhile, be good and polite here as always.

I'll be taking a number of books with me, not all Chesterton's. Lord of the Rings, The Poet and the Lunatics, and a Collected Volume of Illustrated London News articles are coming. That doesn't necessarily mean I'll get a lot of reading done. I usually think I'm going to have a lot of free time traveling, and then somehow, I get caught up in...well....traveling!

What to wear to the Chesterton conference

Read the play: Magic

A reader has sent me a wonderful resource for many of Chesterton's works on the internet, scanned copies of his books, but with the ability to be searchable.

The main page is here and if you put in Chesterton's name, you can see all kinds of things there. They operate in a new (for me) format called DjVu, however, I downloaded it (free) and it works quite nicely.

Things We Can't Do

I was reading an interview with Pope Benedict the other day, and the reporter was asking him why the church was always so negative, don't do this, don't do that. It was good because I know I get asked a lot of goofy questions about my faith, and it's nice to know I'm not the only one. :-)

Chesterton must have been asked this, too.

"A vast amount of nonsense is talked against negative and destructive things. The silliest sort of progressive complains of negative morality, and compares it unfavourably with positive morality. The silliest sort of conservative complains of destructive reform and compares it unfavourably with constructive reform. Both the progressive and the conservative entirely neglect to consider the very meaning of the words "yes" and "no". To give the answer "yes" to one question is to imply the answer "no" to another question; and to desire the construction of something is to desire the destruction of whatever prevents its construction. This is particularly plain in the fuss about "negative morality," or what may be described as the campaign against the Ten Commandments. The truth is, of course, that the curtness of the Commandments is an evidence, not of the gloom and narrowness of a religion, but, on the contrary, of its liberality and humanity. It is shorter to state the things forbidden than the things permitted; precisely because most things are permitted, and only a few things are forbidden. An optimist who insisted on a purely positive morality would have to begin (supposing he knew where to begin) by telling a man that he might pick dandelions on a common, and go on for months before he came to the fact that he might throw pebbles into the sea; and then resume his untiring efforts by issuing a general permission to sneeze, to make snowballs, to blow bubbles, to play marbles, to make toy aeroplanes, to travel on Tooting trams, and everything else he could think of, without ever coming to an end. In comparison with this positive morality, the Ten Commandments rather shine in that brevity which is the soul of wit. It is better to tell a man not to steal than to try to tell him the thousand things that he can enjoy without stealing; especially as he can generally be pretty well trusted to enjoy them.
[GKC, ILN Jan 3, 1920 CW32:17-18]

Good News

The Jan/Feb issue of Gilbert is in the mail, so watch for it (we're getting closer and closer to being on time, yee-haw). Then when it arrives, we'll see what topics are most worthy of discussion here.

Meanwhile, in other good news, spring is moving north. If you are interested in following migrations an such, there is a great website called Journey North where you can follow robins, hummingbirds, bald eagles, whales and other such creatures as they make their spring journeys north.

Frances (Blogg) Chesterton

What do we really know about her?

He loved her, that's for sure. She was five years older than him, that's interesting.
What tidbits do you have? I'm interested in knowing more about the woman Chesterton loved.

Smoking Cigars and Drinking Wine

It seems to me as if smoking cigars and drinking wine seem to go with Chesterton.

And I used to think (about the cigars, not the wine) that we *know* better than to smoke these days.

However, cigar smokers are such nice people, sensible people, such Chestertonian people, I had to think a bit. And I forgave them their cigars, especially since I knew it was not a regular habit, just an irregular habit.

Then, this past weekend, I was reading an old essay of Father Richard John Neuhaus's.
It's on-line here. And here is an excerpt:

"In his best-selling book, How We Die, Sherwin Nuland says we all die from the same cause: lack of oxygen to the brain. A thousand circumstances can contribute to that end, and innumerable, and often unknown, factors can contribute to each of those thousand circumstances. But the fact remains that-with or without cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs-the mortality rate is and will continue to be 100 percent. Understandably, people have a hard time accepting that. This is not a brief for adopting habits that are injurious to one's health and general well-being. There is a moral obligation to be a good steward of the physical self. But we should stop invoking statistics in a way that suggests we would naturally live forever unless "killed" by one bad habit or another."

Which I found interesting.
What is also interesting is that Father Neuhaus enjoys cigars and Dewar's (not wine, but in the same food group). He's obviously a Chestertonian.

Post Modern Genius

I was just reading an article in Touchstone Magazine (it's an old issue, with my memory, the articles are all new again! October, 2005) in which the author (David Mills) writes a brilliant explanation of the Post Modern Mind. Here's part:

"If you talk to the Everyday Postmodernist long enough, you will feel as if you are speaking to two people inhabiting the same body. But, and this is the crucial point for our purposes, you cannot get him to recognize the contradiction, must less defend it. He hops from certainty to relativism and back. His philosophy requires no more of him, and justifies him in doing no more.

"The genius of this sort of idea is that it protects its devotees from rational challenge. They cannot easily be corrected, and worse, feel this to be a virtue, especially open-mindedness and tolerance. But it is a dangerous point of view, one of those false philosophies likely to increase misery and vice, and it is, unless I miss my guess, the way most of our friends, neighbors, and co-workers think."

I think Mr. Mills is a Chestertonian.
And I think he's right.
This is WHY I am a Chestertonian (at least at a Chestertonian discussion, everyone will agree to use REASON as a basis for argument) and why my family and friends are, for the most part, yet unconverted. The Everyday Postmodernist sounds so wise and accepting, so tolerant and non-judgemental, doesn't he?

Common Sense

The Dems want to revisit Katrina and make sure everyone knows what a bad job everyone (who is not a Dem) did during the emergency.
The tone of their sqawking leaves me questioning the honesty of their re-evaluation efforts.

What I find problematic about this is that for one, is was a hurricaine, right? This is categorized as an emergency. An unusual occurrance. A storm vastly worse than most storms. How can anyone be prepared, really, for that?

I want every Dem who is ready to condemn the government's actions who did not go to New Orleans to feed the poor or find shelter for the homeless to step forward. The Dem who has perfectly handled every emergency situation ever in his life can be the first to cast a stone.

What is Reason?

Father Brown and Flambeau have this discussion in The Blue Cross about reason, and Father Brown says, "Reason is always reasonable." Flambeau argues that perhaps somewhere out in the infinite universe, perhaps there is a place where reason isn't reasonable.

This is where Father Brown knows that Flambeau isn't a priest, because he states this belief.

Nowadays, I am not so sure you could make that kind of judgement about a priest not being a priest because of his understanding of the word "reason."

Anyway, this led me to wonder, what is reason?