Month: August 2007

  • Sweet Land


    "It's a poem, not a documentary."
    Ali Selim, writer and director

    If you like Wendell Berry, you'll like Sweet Land.

    If you like Andrew Wyeth, you'll like Sweet Land.

    If you want to show how sexy it can be not to touch, watch Sweet Land.

    There's a mail-order bride, Inge, who arrives in Minnesota in 1920 carrying a Victrola. She is prevented from marrying her husband-to-be because she is German.  The story is told in a double flashback, from 2004 to 1968 to 1920.

    Stark, spare, simple, poignant, economical, lush, slow, subtle, gorgeous, sweet, lyrical, sad, funny.....lovely!

    I must own this film.  I might even buy the soundtrack.

    (Thank you to sweet Valeri and dear Rachel for the urgent summons to watch this.)

    Note: I recommend watching this with subtitles.  Inge speaks German and Norwegian and, although neither is translated, the subtitles distinguish this.  Olaf understands Norwegian, but not German; knowing which she is tells you what he understands.  The movie is very slow.  This movie is as opposite the Bourne movies as one can be.  If you like action, this one's not for you.


  • The Imagination of Men, Young and Old



    The Young Cavalry Man
    Augustus Edward Mulready
    Bridgeman Art Library

    ~     ~     ~     ~ 

    Funny Quote from Vanity Fair

    Lord Tapeworm inherited no little portion of the family gallantry, and it was his happy belief that almost every woman upon whom he himself cast friendly eyes was in love with him.  He left Emmy under the persuasion that she was slain by his wit and attractions and went home to his lodgings to write a pretty little note to her.

    She was not fascinated, only puzzled by his grinning, his simpering, his scented cambric handkerchief, and his high-heeled lacquered boots.  She did not understand one half the compliments which he paid. She had never in her small experience with mankind met a professional ladies' man, as yet, and looked upon my lord as something curious, rather than pleasant.  And if she did not admire, certainly wondered at him.

    as transcribed from Librivox recording, chapter 63
    ~ William Makepeace Thackery

  • Kitchen Project - Silver and Linens


    Ironing     is a bit like cooking.
    You can certainly live without doing it,
    but you occasionally suspect that
    the time you save isn't worth
    what you sacrifice.
    What you give up is this:
    a small, but indelible act of grace.

    ~ Monica Nassif in Laundry, The Spirit of Keeping Home



    The fact that you are a Christian should show
    in some practical area of a growing
    creativity and sensitivity to beauty,
    rather than in a gradual drying up of creativity,
    and a blindness to ugliness.

    ~  Edith Schaeffer in The Hidden Art of Homemaking

    It is scarcely surprising then, that so many people
    imagine housekeeping to be boring,
    frustrating, repetitive, unintelligent drudgery.
    I cannot agree.
    Each of its regular routines brings satisfaction
    when it is completed    . These routines echo the rhythm of life,
    and the housekeeping rhythm is the rhythm of the body.
    You get satisfaction not only from the sense of order,
    cleanliness, freshness, peace and plenty restored,
    but from the knowledge that you yourself
    and those you care about are going to enjoy these benefits.

    ~ Cheryl Mendelson in Home Comforts

    Baking bread, weaving cloth, putting up preserves,
    teaching and singing to children,
    must have been far more nourishing
    than being the family chauffeur or shopping at super-markets,
    or doing housework with mechanical aids.
    The art and craft of housework has diminished;
    much of the time-consuming drudgery--
    despite modern advertising to the contrary-remains.
    In housework, as in the rest of life,
    the curtain of mechanization has come down
    between the mind and the hand.

    ~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh  in Gift from the Sea

    Ideas inspired from these authors,
    which have been percolating for some time,
    are coming to fruition.

    My tall son emptied the cupboard above the fridge -
    a tottering pile of tarnished silver.
    As I polished each piece I thought of ways
    to incorporate these beautiful wedding gifts
    into our life more regularly beginning now.

    My favorite piece is this bread plate.
    This month I'm baking the communion bread for our church.
    This Lord's Day I will put the loaves on silver plates.

    I found cloth napkins in four (!) different cupboards and drawers.
    Using the container principle, I found a large basket to hold them.
    I touched them all up and folded them uniformly.

    Lost treasures (birthday placemat) were uncovered.

    A table runner from Ecuador, never used. Aren't the colors magnificent?

    With boys grown and gone, I have room in our guest room closet to hang the tablecloths ...

    ...leaving room in this cupboard for my basket of napkins and runners.

    Drudgery?  Are you kidding?  Glory!!
    It's amazing
    how invigorating,
    how liberating,
     how energizing
     clean can be.

    Thank you, Lord!