Friday, December 27, 2019

Signs of the Times (part 9) - Roaring 20's x 2

Saturday Evening Post/wikipedia.com

1920s

The Roaring Twenties.

A hundred year ago.

A wild time of changes.

Dress went from ankle length to mini-skirts.

Women got the vote.

People danced to upbeat music like The Charleston.

It was a decade of millionaires and moguls.

Stuff that made The Great Gatsby.





1920

The decade started on the tails of the First World War (1914-1918).

The decade ended that Black Tuesday in October of 1929 with the stock market crash.

Which triggered the Great Depression (1929-1939)

That ended with the Second World War (1939-1945)

Turned the world upside down.

Now it's...

2020

New century.

New millennium.

We're into...

The Roaring 20's x 2

What will this decade bring?

As Mark Twain has been given credit for this proverbial gem:

History doesn’t repeat itself  
but it often rhymes

Hang on, friends.

We're in for a wild ride.

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Previous Post in the series:

Signs of the Times (part 1) - Camping in the Parks (2012)

Signs of the Times (part 2) - Layaway (2012)




Signs of the Times (part 5) - Staycations (2013)

Signs of the Times (part 6) - Fear of Missing Out (2015)
 

Signs of the Times (Part 7) - Leap Second - the new Y2K? (2015)


Signs of the Times (part 8) - #JustPray  (2015)


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Thursday, November 28, 2019

Cats (part 5) - Christmas with a cat by a fireplace

Joy/everystockphoto.com

Thanksgiving is over...

Winter is coming...

Christmas is coming...

With all the hustle and bustle of the holidays from now until New Years 2020.



Time to catch our breaths. 
Chill. 
Watch feel good movies.

Sit by the fire side with a loved one. 
A beloved cat or dog. 

I wish all my readers the best for 2020.

Relax. 
Be in the moment. 
Be warm. 
Be safe.

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Previous posts in the series:
  
Cats (part 1) - Halloween and Cats (2016)

Cats (part 2) - Christmas and Cats (2016)



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Photo: Joy/everystockphoto.com

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

10C (part 1) - The Ten Commandments

Rembrandt - Moses with the Ten Commandments/ wikipedia.com

It was 1956 
and it was a very good year.

The year The Ten Commandments hit the silver screen. Starring Charlton Heston as Moses.

For it's time, the movie had wonderful special effects. Especially this, showing the finger of God writing in stone. AndHe spoke in King James English.





Much has been written about them. A few words as potent as an atom bomb. After 3000 years, they are as relevant then as now for making a better world.




Ironically, YouTube has been censoring the Ten Commandments with the lamest of excuses: Dennis Prager: YouTube censored my 10 Commandments video for ‘discussing murder’ 

Thus, the motivation of this new thread.

Introduction down, 10 more posts to follow.

So it begins.


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Related posts:

Google is Censoring the 10 Commandments (Jul 19, 2019)

Why PragerU 's 10 Commandments Video was Restricted 

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Sunday, September 29, 2019

Music (part 8) - Autumn


Maple Trees by Creek/wikipedia.com 



Autumn

Changing leaves. Harvest.  Fall colors.

And there's special music for this season.





Enjoy!


Winter is coming....


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Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Cats (part 4) - Enya, music, seasons, and cats

White Cat/wikipedia.com
Fall is coming.

Change of season. New rhythms.  Life goes on and on as expressed in song...


Every summer sun
Every winter evening
Every spring to come
Every autumn leaving
You don't need a reason
Let it all go on and on





There's something about this song with the fleeting scenes of a white cat.

The beauty. The mystery. The freedom. The wildness. Living in the moment.

And a cat that captures that spirit.


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Previous posts in the series:
  
Cats (part 1) - Halloween and Cats (2016)

Cats (part 2) - Christmas and Cats (2016)



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Thursday, July 11, 2019

Space (part 3): Apollo 11 Golden Anniversary

Aldrin Apollo 11/wikipedia.com


September 12, 1962

President John F Kennedy offered this vision for our country: Go to the moon!



"We choose to go to the moon," the president said.
"We choose to go to the moon in this decade
and do the other things,
not because they are easy,
but because they are hard,
because that goal will serve to organize
and measure the best of our energies and skills,
because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept,
one we are unwilling to postpone,
and one which we intend to win,
and the others, too."

Reference: JFK's 'Moon Speech' Still Resonates 50 Years Later

July 20, 1969

We aimed for the moon.
And before the end of the decade, 
we hit our target. 

Watch Restored Apollo 11 Moonwalk - Original NASA EVA Mission Video - Walking on the Moon below:




50 years ago...

Apollo11Bootprint/wikipedia.com
That's one small step for [a] man,
one giant leap for mankind
Neil Armstrong
  


For more information on Apollo 11:  Apollo 11 Mission Overview

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Other posts in the series:
  


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Photos: Aldrin Apollo 11/wikipedia.comApollo11Bootprint/wikipedia.com

Thursday, June 20, 2019

Music (part 7) - Summer

rapids/everystockphoto.com

Summer

And Vivaldi composed a piece for all seasons.

So here's to the season! Let there be music.



Enjoy!


For more information on this composer and this work, check out:

Antonio Vivaldi - BAROQUE COMPOSERS AND MUSICIANS

* The  Four Seasons - Work by Vivaldi  



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Photo: rapids/everystockphoto.com

Monday, May 27, 2019

Physics (part 6) - Eclipse 1919

wikipedia/1919eclipse

May 29, 1919

The day that made Einstein world-famous.

And it was on that day astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington experimentally confirmed Einstein's Theory of General Relativity.

After World War I, Eddington had secured an expedition to West Africa to observe the total solar eclipse. The results showed starlight was displaced along the sight line near the sun. Just as Einstein had predicted.

Spacetime lattice analogy/wikidpedia

So we could say--Eddington made Einstein famous. {Reference: The man who made Einstein world-famous}

 Check out the video below:




 A new paradigm shift for the new science of the 20th century. And the re-writing of many science books.

A hundred years ago. Goodbye Newton. Goodbye Euclid. And the rest is history.


Happy Relativity Centennial.


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Sunday, April 7, 2019

Faith (part 4) - Yuri Gagarin

Stamp 2011 Gagarin/wikipedia.com

April 12, 1961...

On that date in history, Russian cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, became the first man in space, as seen in this brief clip below:


And after this historic flight, it was reported he had said:

I flew into space,
but didn’t see God

No surprise at time. The former USSR was considered an atheistic country. Very hostile toward religion.

But this quote has later been disputed, as it originated from Nikita Khrushchev. Not Yuri Gagarin.
[reference: Did Yuri Gagarin Say He Didn’t See God in Space? ]

Even in an atheistic Soviet Union ...

Faith blossoms in unexpected places...

Yuri Gagarin was a Christian, a baptized member of the Russian Orthodox Church. No secret to his close friends. As one attested:

He always confessed God
whenever he was provoked,
no matter where he was.

[reference: Yuri Gagarin – went into space and found God! ]

The rest of the story is told here...



(reference: https://youtu.be/m4XvKmEV9Rk )

Commenting on his trip into space:

When I orbited the Earth in a spaceship,
 I saw for the first time 
how beautiful our planet is.

Mankind, let us preserve
and increase this beauty, 
and not destroy it!


Sadly, Yuri Gagarin perished in a jet crash, March 27 1968.  He did not live to see another First Man. The first man on the moon, July of 1969.

 Neil Armstrong

And Armstrong also passed from this earthly scene in August of 2012.

Now high above in the heavenlies,
both these first men

Yuri Gagarin...
Neil Armstrong...
 see God's face.

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Other posts in the series:

Faith (part 1) - Star Trek and Christianity (2016)


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Saturday, March 30, 2019

Music (part 6) - Pastoral and Spring

Colorful Spring Garden/wikipedia.com

It's Spring!

Winter has passed. And as the snow recedes, meadows and trees turn green, flowers bloom, and new life springs forth.

If I could express this change in season in music, it would be  Beethoven 's  Symphony No. 6  - which the master himself named

"Pastoral Symphony" 

Take a listen....



Enjoy the season! Enjoy the music!  

Enjoy Life!


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Previous posts in the series:
  
Music (part 2) - All You Need is Love (2016) 

Music (part 3) - Passover (2016)

Music (part 4) - Armed Forces Medley  (2016)

Music (part 5) - Over There : Remembering World War I  (2018)



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Photo: Colorful Spring Garden/wikipedia.com

Thursday, February 28, 2019

Biblia Files (part 9) - Song of Solomon and Keeping Mum

Kiss/everystockphoto.com

Song of Solomon

Also called Song of Songs. It's one of the books of poetry in the Old Testament.  Jews called it the Holy of Holies of Scripture and would not allow young men to read it until they were 30.  {reference: Dr. J. Vernon McGee :: Notes for Song of Solomon }

It's a Cinderella story for mature audiences.

A Shulamite girl is forced to work the vineyards and tend to the sheep. She's beautiful, yet sun-burnt from working outside. And has no time to tend to herself.

But she meets a shepherd. They fall in love. He goes away and promises to come back. When he returns for her, she discovers her shepherd is King Solomon.

They marry. She's brought to the palace. Where they're really into each other. And their passion is described with much poetry.

Keeping Mum?

I've never seen a movie that uses the Song of Solomon in a serious way. Except for this BBC dark comedy, Keeping Mum (2005). And the Song of Solomon is pivotal to turning the tide in the story.

The Reverend Walter Goodfellow is in a crisis. Losing his passion for the ministry as well as growing cold toward his wife Gloria. And Gloria is dangerously close to plunging into an affair with a real creep--who fancies not only her, but her daughter.

Then their housekeeper Grace Hawkins shows up in a Mary Poppins sort of way. Only darker.  And Grace has a method of fixing things--permanently.  Yet she turns the Reverend on to the Song of Solomon, as shown in the clip below:



And the Reverend sees his wife through a romantic lens of Solomon and comes to appreciate her for the blessing she is.

Here are the words:

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.
For thy love is better than wine.
His fruit was sweet to my taste.
His left hand is under my head,
and his right hand doth embrace me.

Behold, thou art fair, my love.
Behold, thou art fair.

Thy lips are like a thread of scarlet.
Thine eyes are as doves behind the veil.
And comely is thy mouth.

Thy two breasts are like fawns feeding among the lilies.
Thy navel is like a round goblet...
wherein no mingled wine is wanting.

Thy belly is like a heap of wheat,
set about with lilies.

Let thy breasts be as clusters on the vine.

And thy mouth like the best wine.
Open to me my dove,
for my head is filled with the drops of the night.

Come, my beloved,
let us see if the vine flourishes...
and the tender grapes appear...
and the pomegranates bud forth.

Let's hear it for Solomon, one of the heroes in this movie.

His timeless songs saved the marriage, rekindled passion, and got them through the crisis.

Indeed, Solomon was a very wise and passionate man.

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