Cosmic Hilarity & The Galactic Gourmet

Posted on July 7, 2011 by Virginia

Irish author James White dished up more than just cosmic fun in his Sector General series where aliens of all varieties (human DBDG classification inclusive) interact in a massive 384 level Hospital space station located on the Galactic rim. I just finished reading these brilliantly conceived books – all 12 of them – during a bout of kidney stones that caused high frequency close encounters of the commode for several weeks (indecisive kidney stones ≠ good for their immediate universe- ME!)

The Galactic Gourmet caught my eye in our local library during an emergency stockpile visit (many book piles at home are of the ‘you must think as you read’ variety – not the most conducive to pain mgt!) I had not heard of James White, but liked the description of Gurronsevas, a massive, 6-legged, elephant-likeTralthan chef who takes on the ultimate challenge as Sector General’s new Chief Dietician: making hospital food palatable.

As the former star chef at the galaxy’s premier inter-species luxury hotel, Gurronsevas must adapt to the insanely chaotic life at Sector General and prove himself to entities-in-charge (Chief Psychologist Major O’Mara thinks G. is in over it’s culinarily capable appendages while Monitor Corps Hospital Administrator Col. Skempton, after a series of well-meaning-but-catastrophic ‘accidents,’ wants Gurronsevas gone, gone, GONE!)

How Gurronsevas redeems himself while hidden away from Col. Skempton on an emergency mission of the Ambulance ship Rhabwar, with friendly help from able crew Dr. Prilicla, Pathologist Murchinson, Dr. Danalta, and Charge Nurse Naydrad is inspiring … and absolutely HILARIOUS! I laughed so hard I cried (not from the kidney stones) and kept on laughing to the end of the book.

This is Book #9 of the series. I thoroughly enjoyed going back to the first book- Hospital Station- & reading through to the last page of Final Contact (Book 12.)  The first six books feature trainee Doctor Conway, an earth-human DBDG who muddles his way through inter-species surgical challenges, interstellar ‘police actions’ and planetary plagues up the hospital hierarchy ladder to Senior Diagnostician.  The Genocidal Healer (Book #8) deals with slightly heavier issues – redemption for Tarlan Surgeon Capt. Liorien who, after demanding the death penalty for himself for professional negligence, must find his way personally & professionally – it is my favorite of the series.

If you are looking for summer holiday reading, check these out & enjoy some delightful medicine for your ailments: cosmic hilarity at Sector General!

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Henri Nouwen: Bread for the Journey

Posted on July 6, 2011 by Virginia

As a longtime Henri Nouwen groupie, I have treasured his inspirational words of faith in so many of his books (!) but this daily devotional has provided particularly rich insights. I read several dailies every morning, after doing a major rotation shuffle each January (this year’s stack includes Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Oscar Romero, Catherine Doherty, Fulton Sheen, Padre Pio, Oswald Chambers & Daily Strength for Daily Needs.) Henri Nouwen’s Bread for the Journey, however, has remained in the daily reading pile every year since the ’90s. My tattered copy has weathered international living (conflict zones inclusive), altho I was pleased to find a tiny edition in Nairobi easy to tuck away for rural travel…

What makes this daily devotional so inspirational?  I guess after so many years of reading the same pages, it’s amazing to see previously underlined passages in a new light and then find un-highlighted words jump off the page, straight to mind and heart.  Henri Nouwen’s publishers asked him to select texts from his previous works for a daybook, but he jumped on the idea to write new ones.  So he bought beautifully crafted blank museum books – five – and gradually filled them by hand with 367 reflections covering prayer, solitude, silence, faith, the Word, sacrament, and most importantly as Nouwen writes in the introduction, “about Jesus, the center of my faith.”

“…Words can offer perspective, insight, understanding, and vision… bring consolation, comfort encouragment and hope…Words can reconcile, unite, forgive and heal…Words can carry love on their wings…When our words become flesh in our own lives and the lives of others, we can change the world. Jesus is the word made flesh. In Him speaking & acting were one.”  (from 22 June)

After teaching theology at Yale and Harvard Divinity Schools, this brilliant Dutch priest spent many years at L’Arche Daybreak in Toronto where he lived in community with people with developmental disabilities until his death in 1996.  As Henri Nouwen spoke and acted from a heart of faith, may his words continue to bring consolation, hope and inspiration so that our speaking & acting may be one…

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Touched by the Hand of God…

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Virginia

Sitting under Michelangelo’s Creation in the Sistine Chapel has got to be one of the most inspiring experiences of my life.  Visiting the Vatican Museum in November of 2009, we were so blessed with no lines (at 10:00 a.m. I told my travel buddy, ‘we can do the Chapel, the Raphaels – 2 hrs max.’ NINE hours later, we had a hard time leaving!)

Watching the “The Agony & the Ecstasy” with Charlton Heston & Rex Herrison a month before the trip provided a bit of welcomed context. (We still joke around the house, “when will you make an end?”… “when I am finished…”) Michelangelo is prodded along by Pope JuliusII; sometimes quite forcefully. In my favorite scene, Pope Julius (who regularly leads troops in battles to protect the church,) sneaks a peak at the ceiling and can’t get over how Michelangelo sees the face of God as a loving Creator.  Great movie re: art, faith & inspiration…

Back to the Sistine Chapel…since we had plenty of time, after getting quite a neck cramp, I whipped out my journal & jotted down inspirited thoughts..

The Creation…  Touched by the Hand of God: Touched by the Love of God …Naked we come into the world: Naked we stand before God our Creator

It seemed as if God was saying,

Receive My love anew, to BE My love anew…

 Open your heart, beloved child, and receive My love anew. 

Let Me create in you a New thing…

Beloved, Beautiful Child.

Trust Me and do NOT be afraid – (I’ve been in this creation business a long time!)

Now I try to pray this each day – that God would pour out His love anew in the heart of this clay pot, that I might BE His love anew. Not an easy task, to be sure (that’s why this prayer gets repeated LOTS!) Guess we can also ask for grace, joy, peace & wisdom anew, too.  God has an infinite store!

grace, peace & Inspired Art

Virginia

Posted in Life (in general), MOVIES !!, Sunday-ish Reflections | 3 Comments

The Patriot & The 4th of July

Posted on July 4, 2011 by Virginia

My brother and I saw this movie on the 4th of July,2000 while on holiday in Prince Edward Island, Canada. Since the Canadians ‘confederated’ their way out of British bondage (& they’re still on good Commonwealth terms with the UK), the theater-goers’ reactions were not so favorable given how the British are portrayed in this Revolutionary war epic (burning churches & killing children!) My brother & I, however, cheered on Mel Gibson as his character Benjamin Martin morphed from a neutral-sit-on-the-farmer’s-fence-father into THE PATRIOT.

Since then I’ve watched this movie on every 4th of july or close to the date (working overseas July 4th is not a holiday so I often celebrated by watching this & eating American Dorito chips when they could be found!) Viewing it again yesterday,  I’m still inspired by the whole ‘stay the course’ theme – through victory, defeat, death and sacrifice against what look like insurmountable odds, patriots like Benjamin Martin prevailed to lead the fledgling colonies into freedom and…the United States of America.

Heath Ledger (may he R.I.P.) gave an outstanding performance as Gabriel Martin, Benjamin Martin’s oldest son, who enlists early into the Continental army. The story weaves fiction with fact as General Cornwallis takes South Carolina and local militias are called up to fight. Tom Wilkinson plays a convincingly arrogant Cornwallis, while Peter Woodward is great as his always-complimentary sidekick, General O’Hara.  The “bad-guy-loudly-boo” award goes to Jason Isaacs who portrays British Col. Tavington, a ruthless Dragoons calvary officer who employs extremely ‘ungentlemanly’ tactics.  (Jason Isaacs tends to get the ‘boo’ award often!)

Some of my favorite lines  are from Chris Cooper as Continental Col. Harry Burwell. (after a disasterous battle – “who’s in charge?” … “I am…I think.”) After Benjamin suffers incredible loss and wants to leave, Col. Harry challenges him: “You’re wrong Benjamin, you matter to your men, and to others as well. Your victories and… and your losses, are shared by more then you know. Stay with us. Stay the course!”

There’s a love story (2, actually), family values (Benjamin is a widower with SEVEN children), faith (Rene Auberjonois as Pastor Oliver, “sometimes a shepherd has to fight off the wolves”), a wedding, lots of historical settings…and a bit of violence (this is a Mel Gibson movie, afterall) including the cannonball-off-with-his-head & gory ‘hack-a-soldier-to-bits-with-tomahawk scenes.  Rated R – not for children – but this is one of the few ‘R’ movies (in my opinion) that has an extremely high inspiration factor.

On this 4th of July, may you STAY THE COURSE wherever you might be & to my fellow & fellow-ette Americans, may we never forget the sacrifices of those who went before us (including the French who came to our rescue at Yorktown!)

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Chariots of Fire

Posted on July 3, 2011 by Virginia

This is one of my all-time FAVORITE movies! Excellent cast, settings, story, music – it’s the kind of movie I watch again and again and again and never cease to be inspired. As a ‘2-miler’ in high school track, I found the runners’ struggles and achievements to be extra motivational, but they are just as inspiring applied to the ‘race’ of life, faith and our daily challenges.

This movie beautifully documents the stories of two athletes – Scottsman Eric Liddell and Cambridge student Harold Abrahams – who ran for Great Britain in the 1924 Paris Olympics. Played by Ian Charleson, Liddell is the China-born son of missionaries who runs as an extension of his faith. When his faith is challenged by running a 100-meter qualifying heat on Sunday, he stands fast.  Abrahams, played by Ben Cross, struggles with his Jewish heritage, using his track wins as a way to combat prejudice and ‘run them all off their feet.’

There’s a love story (“I’ve never seen anyone so smitten”), politics (“go cap in hand to the Frogs? Unthinkable…”), protocols (“you may wish to show off your new finery…”), friendships (Aubrey & Harold…), the pursuit of excellence (“I run to win!”), faith (“God made me fast…and when I run, I feel His pleasure”), LOTS of running, and an incredibly beautiful musical soundtrack by Vangelis…

This movie won a pile of Oscars in 1981, including Best Picture. If you have not seen this– it’s amazing.

If you are interested to learn more of Eric Liddell, he died during WWII in a Japanese internment camp while serving as a missionary to China. There’s an excellent biography by David McCasland entitled Eric Liddell: Pure Gold.  During the Olympics in China a few years ago, NBC spotlighted Liddell as he is the only non-Chinese athletes to have a monument in his honor.

Posted in MOVIES !! | 2 Comments

Inspiration…

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Virginia

….TO INSPIRE

to provide the embers of creativity – to educate – to reflect – to ACT

What inspires us??   Art, beauty, the lives of those who have gone before us…FAITH

inspire us to believe, to hope, to act…

Have you ever been up against it and suddenly a scene from a movie flashes across your mind?  This happens often to me  – scenes like Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire, “God made me fast for a reason. When I run, I feel His pleasure..” or after Harold Abrahams loses to Liddell,  he lashes out at Sybil, “I don’t run to take beatings!” But she responds: “If you don’t run, you can’t win!”  Or there’s Donald Sutherland – Oddball – in Kelly’s Heroes: “don’t hit me with them negative waves…”  Or there’s Mel Gibson in the Patriot waving the flag – “stay the course..” or that last breath in Braveheart :FREEDOM…

Or you see a great movie about someone who did something amazing (like William Wilberforce & the abolition of the slave trade  in Amazing Grace) and it inspires you to look around at the current injustices of our day… (Human Trafficking comes to mind).. and do something.

Books (good ones anyway) have a way of staying around in our minds & hearts …they can also inspire us to learn more,  do more, be more of who we’re meant to be and what we’re meant to do.  Sometimes there just lots of fun – a way to add hilarity in our daily lives or lift our spirits when challenges loom too heavily upon us. (My tattered Calvin & Hobbs collection has weathered several international conflict zones…along with the Far Side!)

Then, there’s MUSIC that inspires our beings to soar…lifts our spirits joyfully.. helps set a reflective mood, or works out our frustrations with a good exercise/dance groove.

So….I’m starting this blog to share views & reviews of what has inspired ME, in the hopes that maybe these books, movies, music & more might inspire YOU.

grace, peace & INSPIRATION  – Virginia

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