Friday Not Quite Morning
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Friday Not Quite Morning
Thu, 21/07/11 – 15:26 | One Comment

I remember this view, looking up and back at the ghosts of congregants from the early 1900s, and my own ghosts from the last years of that century. Convergence and a little synchronicity.

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Two women log onto Facebook. One woman turns to the other and says…

Submitted by LizzieAndJane on Sunday, 28 September 2008No Comment
Jane     September 22 at 2:09pm
So there’s this really fun Facebook app that puts Oscar Wilde quotes on your profile (in my case, in the boxes tab of my profile) and I thought you would enjoy… (it’s great to have literate friends on FB, LOL)
Oscar
What is termed Sin is an essential element of progress. Without it the world would stagnate, or grow old, or become colorless. By its curiosity Sin increases the experience of the race. 

Brought to you by Facebook app: Oscar Wilde Quotes   http://apps.facebook.com/oscarwildequotes/

Lizzie     September 22 at 4:07pm
Love it! (though I still have enough Catholic-girl in me to feel a tinge of heartburn over Oscar Wilde on sin). Thanks so much for the recommendation! I think we probably ought to waste a little time playing some Scrabble too.I can’t remember now if we were in Mrs. Leventhal or Mrs. Green’s English class together (10th or 11th grade) Either way, I guess it’s fair to say our literary journeys share some of the same roots–no?
-Lizzie
Jane      September 22 at 6:28pm
I also have a really great Shakespearean Insult Generator,I shall insult you asap.
http://apps.facebook.com/shakespeareinsult/?ref=ts
I had both Leventhal and Green. They both saved me in different ways.
Sorry about the sin quote, I can find another… (I used to have a great one up on my profile about gossip, that was a hoot!)
I took a class on Wilde at UMass, it was one of my most fun classes EVER.
Glad if I can provide some amusement that is not political. Lit fun is far more my forte…

Lizzie     September 22 at 9:00pm
You’re fun! Lit geeks rule.  I’ve been out of the high school classroom long enough that my Shakespearean insult memory has slipped–all I could think of when you mentioned the insult generator was "Away, you mouldy rogue!" I must sharpen my dulled wit. My favorites were all the ones with "damned" in them–since Elizabethan pronunciation gave such a nice iambic-pentameter lilt to the insults.      My oldest daughter H is a complete Wilde enthusiast–I’ll have to send her the link for the app too.   

I really loved Mrs. Green. I still remember her mentioning during some novel discussion that the bras during her coming-of-age years were like iron lungs. (Why do I remember that, and why in the world did it come up???) Doing the lit magazine with her was great fun.

(You do remember we worked on that lit mag together, right? — Jane)

I admire your political savvy and passion–I am a waffling soul looking for balance in a Virginian sea of red. Ollie North lives a couple of miles from me and still has many ardent admirers in these parts….and fundamentalist bastion Patrick Henry College was across the street before we moved to the other side of town. Oh, the stories I could tell–they would curl your Democrat toes.

Time to get ready for tomorrow–I enjoyed chatting.

Lizzie     September 27 at 9:14am
I know that McCain/Obama debate will address social issues too–I guess it’s hard for me not to concentrate on the Veep candidates in that area. I think the area where you and I probably have the most agreement thus far is our suspicion of Palin. I kinda like McCain for lots of reasons, but I don’t think he’s long for this world. Palin is just the sort of anti-intellectual unintrospective, black-and-white-thinking, high-powered Evangelical that I’ve come to know well from my 15-year pilgrimage through all different kinds of churches. I keep in touch with one of my History profs from UVA–a guy who’s an outspoken conservative Republican. Here’s how he put it in an email to me: (He put into words pretty much what was nagging at me…)

Outspoken Conservative Republican History Prof
"I told a liberal friend in New York that Republican women were bionic and that Palin had my vote, but that was just to get under his skin. I think McCain’s coice of Palin is close to the most irresponsible decision I have ever seen. Put it this way. He is not well; one of my colleagues, with a history of skin cancer, asked his dermatologist how McCain looked to him, and the answer was not reassuring. McCain may be very sick, with lots carved out of him already. Palin is not visibly qualified to be president, which means that, should she become president, every villain in the world would test her.
Fearing that she would be seen as a meek woman, she would overreact and we would wind up in a war. That’s my fear. I’m tired to GOP screw ups on foreign policy (Putin waxing Bush over Georgia), and will sit out the election. (Note: I have not even gotten to Palin’s relgious right egregiousness)." 

Lizzie

Eager to know your thoughts…

Jane     September 28 at 12:57pm
More frightening than her getting us into a war for the above stated (and very valid) reasons is Palin’s particular brand of scary christianity – whatever happens, she could call it "God’s Will"… Anything happens to McCain, well it was God’s will that she be president, God wouldn’t put an unprepared person in the White House, would He? Scares the shit out of me, to be honest.
Plus her Assembly of God leanings mean she probably believes in "End Times" and even more probably believes we are in them. So let’s blow up the middle east to bring back Jesus!
(I am sorry if that is offensive to you, I’m taking a guess it’s okay to say that to you…Let me know otherwise and I’ll take on another scary aspect of Scary Sarah)
And of course there is the whole reproductive rights, and educating people about reproductive options (or how not to reproduce, and I’m not talking about abstinence here…). She is not a stupid woman, couldn’t have made if from the PTA to Governor if she was. I believe many people underestimate her.
<steps off soap box>

Lizzie     September 28 at 2:41pm
None of what you said is offensive to me, Jane. Assembly-of-God-type eschatological thinking scares me too. There is such a long story I could go into (I’ll try to restrain myself) regarding the churches that curiosity, anger over my own upbringing, and misguided idealism have led me to "try out." Sigh. Two years ago I left a super-conservative (all right, I’ll just say it–fundamentalist) Southern Baptist Church that I’d been in for 7 years. It’s a complicated frog-in-the-kettle tale–but I got to the place where their black-and-white, navel-gazing, self-congratulatory thinking scared me so much that I had a panic attack in the parking lot one Sunday morning and could not make myself go back.      I have to say that, if I were from a Jewish background, I would find these folks and their eschatology particularly disturbing. You’re probably well aware of the reasons fundamentalist Christians "love" Jews so very much.   

Palin is NOT a stupid woman–you’re right. Sarracuda is a smart, chic go-getter with conviction and boundless energy. Some of my non-churchgoing friends find it strange that I am as anxious about Palin as I am. But here’s the way I see it: I’m not a stupid person either–and I was charmed by some people who were an awful lot like her. They speak one language out in the secular world, but in church it’s all about how they need everyone’s prayers in their battle against the evildoers. The goal being to take this on-its-last-legs world back for Jesus before He comes to grab the saved and rain destruction on everyone else. (And, by the way, why bother being environmentally responsible–it’s all right about to burn anyway….)

Can you tell you hit a nerve? Sorry if that’s TMI–hard for me to separate it all out when the subject of an Assemblies-of-God vice-presidential candidate comes up.

If you’re interested in the ‘framing story" that Christians of this ilk carry around with them, you might enjoy reading God’s Harvard by Hanna Rosin, an Israeli-born Religion editor for the Washington Post. (All about the ethos and students of Patrick Henry College). I just finished it–parts of it dealt with people I’ve known personally over the years.

Jane     September 28 at 3:21pm
Not TMI at all. Religious searching fascinates me. I was raised very Reform Jewish, and "found" Conservative Judaism in my 20’s. At the synagogue my father’s grandfather helped found, and build, in Hoboken. Very conservative as far as liturgy and ritual was concerned, but very young, and egalitarian. (with both a female rabbi and president, we called it "estrogenarian"…) My father joked about fleeing that place only to wind up back there with me on Yom Kippur…
So I get the quest. I am still searching. Still not so much believing, as wanting to find my place socially and culturally, perhaps historically as well. Comfort from ritual and practice, more so than belief and faith. 
We could have some very interesting political and religion chats, you and I.

I’m looking forward to it…
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