Mass Etiquette

Pax et bonum

More On Dieting (sort of)

Earlier this week I noted I have begun a diet with a goal of losing 30 pounds, and that I was cutting out sweets of various forms except on Sundays and for special events.

So far, I've lost 3 pounds, and I have been able to avoid all those sweet temptations.

Good.

Another "diet" I've undertaken is reducing the number of books I own. I started this a couple of years ago when I instituted a rule that I had to get rid of two books for every new book I acquired. Then when I retired I got more serious - I've donated more than 1,000 books over the last four years, including more than 100 this year so far.

But then, I also keep acquiring books, just not to the scale I did so before.

The most recent additions are:

Tolkien: Man and Myth by Joseph Pearce

The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful by Joseph Pearce

The Father's Tale by Michael O'Brien

The Sabbatical by Michael O'Brien

Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset 

Light reading? I think not! They total more than 3000 pages, with two of the books topping 1,000 pages.

Yikes. 

I've always enjoyed Pearce and his takes, and I just finished a biography of Tolkien, so I wanted more.

I've also enjoyed Michael O'Brien, so his books were a natural.

As for Undset, I have read only one work by her, but Kristin keeps showing up on lists of recommended books, so ... 

Of course, I already have several books on my "To Read" shelf. 

Hey, at least none of them are diet books!

Pax et bonum

Health and Weight

Recently, I've begun to notice more and more signs of the effects of aging.

Some of those signs are related to thing over which I have little or no control. After all, I am getting older!

But there are areas over which I do have some control.

I'm overweight. This morning, I weighed 216.2 pounds. At 6', I should weigh in the 180's. That gives me a BMI at the upper end of "overweight". (I used to be "obese", so this is at least an improvement.)

I'm very sedentary.

I have a chronic sweet tooth. Too many candies, cookies, pastries, ice cream, etc. Two years ago my physical indicated I was pre-diabetic. I cut back a little on my sugar consumption, and dropped down below the pre-diabetic line, but I'm still close to it.

Therefore ... I need to lose about 30 pounds. And I need to even more drastically reduce my sugar consumption.

I will be dieting over the next few months. I'd like to see me lose about a pound a week. If I do lose about a pound a week, I should hit my target by next April or May.

I need to do more exercise. Not sure yet what that will involve, but light weights will be part of it.

As for sugar, I've already stopped putting sugar in my coffee, but I need to go much further. From now on I will allow myself treats only on Sunday or on special occasions. No more getting a candy bar at the store, or noshing on candy or cookies between meals. 

Losing weight will also help with my back and knee problems.

One saint sometimes identified as the Patron Saint of Dieters (and those with stomach ailments) is St. Charles Borromeo. I need to learn more about him, and to pray to him more for help. I found this prayer online: 

Prayer to St. Charles Borromeo

O St. Charles, you are invoked as

the patron of all those who suffer

with stomach ailments and obesity.

You are also called upon as a helper

for all those attempting to diet and lose weight.

Please intercede for me today

and help me to control

my desires and compulsions,

so that I may fix my appetite

on the glory of heaven.

Amen.

Pax et bonum

Kamala Dinosaur Meme

Pax et bonum

I Am Going Home (Song)

Earlier this year I attended a great concert by The Tannahill Weavers, a Scottish band I've long liked. I owned several of their albums before the concert, but, of course, they had some for sale at the venue. I bought a couple that I did not already own.

On one of the albums I found their cover of a song by Billy Connolly, "Oh No."

It has a lively tune as the Weavers played it, and I was enjoying it ... until I listened to the words.

Yikes.

It's another one of those songs about a man declaring he's leaving home and his woman. He tells her he doesn't care if her heart is grieving, she can have the home but he's going to hit to road. And he tells her again and again not to say "oh no."

The song annoyed me. I thought at first maybe I'd use the tune to write a song opposed to the message of this one. But I thought that might lead to copyright issues.

Then I thought I'd just write an original song in response. But as I mulled over what approach to take I suddenly remembered a song that I'd partly written years before called "I Am Going Home"

I had a basic tune, a refrain, and a couple of verses already. I revised them a little, and added a couple of new verses. This is the result:

I've been here before

I've been there before

I've been everywhere and more

and now I'm going home

I am going home, Lord

I am going home.

I am going home

'cause that's where I belong.

I've done a little of this.

I've done a little of that

I've done more than I should have done,

and now I'm going home.

I am going home, Lord

I am going home.

I am going home

'cause that's where I belong.

I've worked from dawn to dusk,

I've worked the whole nith through.

I have worked the live ong day,

and now I'm going home.

I am going home, Lord

I am going home.

I am going home

'cause that's where I belong.

I've seen some pretty women,

all around the world,

but none of them's as pretty

as the one that waits back home.

I am going home, Lord

I am going home.

I am going home

'cause that's where I belong.

I've sung this song before

you know I'll sing it again,

but let me say once more

that I am going home.  

I am going home, Lord

I am going home.

I am going home

'cause that's where I belong.

Pax et bonum

Culling and Collating

I have been in the process of downsizing by donating books to the library, to my former schools, and to the parish for its ongoing "Treasures" room (kind of a continual rummage sale to support the parish). Last year, for example, I donated 329 books. Since I started donating at the time of my retirement four years ago the total is about 1,000 books!

I'm now going through boxes of books I had in storage in the crawl space, and picking out books to donate. I found a lot of Thomas Merton books that I'll never read/reread,  for example, so they will soon be heading out the door.

As part of the process I'm also collecting related books scattered across multiple book cases or in boxes stored in closets or the crawl space. I now have one bookcase dedicated to G. K. Chesterton, C. S.  Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams. That bookcase features works by them, biographies and autobiographies, and studies of them and their works.

Right now, the tally by author:

Chesterton - 72 

Lewis - 40 

Tolkien - 10 

Williams - 11

There was no more room in that bookcase for friends and followers, so I've dedicated a shelf to Hilaire Belloc (5 books), Joseph Pearce (17), and multiple titles by Dale Ahlquist. 

Next to my bed, meanwhile, are two small bookcases dedicated to Charles Dickens (13), Haiku poetry (30), and collections of favorite poets such as Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Seamus Heaney, Dante, and Edward Lear (15).

The culling and collating continues.    

Pax et bonum

T. S. Eliot Clerihew

T. S. Eliot

was not appreciated by the proletariat.

"Those new-fangled poems kinda bore us.

He writes like he's sittin' with an open thesaurus."

Pax et bonum