The greater part of our happiness, or misery, depends upon our dispositions and not upon our circumstances - Martha Washington

  Mainline Florida: Link to Mainline Florida. Clapton’s version.

I am making more use of links, music and visual. Click on them and then you might have a second link to search. Some locations, such as YouTube generate revenue for your "free" viewing by running ads, so be patient. On occasion there is a "skip ad" button. Sometimes it will load and start when you go there, sometimes you need to click on the white arrow in the red box.

I hope you enjoy the updates to my art and life as presented in this blog. IF you don't like the political stuff and don't want to receive future blogs just say so, no hard feelings. So far, only five have taken me up on the offer. With that in mind, remember: BELOW THE FOLD is where (most) of the controversial stuff is placed. Sometimes stuff is a hybrid, say humor and political. Nevertheless, I do this blog for me, it clears my mind and then I do it to share stuff I think is interesting, fun, needed to be considered, etc. I like, also, the feedback I receive, either on a specific article or the concept in general. Right now there are about 70 of you who receive this directly. Claude

ART:

Remember that you can click on to enlarge and then return to this page. All copyright protections apply. 

Lakes Park 6x4” oil on board

Also in Lakes Park, a lock to stabilize water levels, oil on  12x9” wrapped canvas

12x9” oil on wrapped canvas, from photo I took of Peace River

FLORIDA:

One I took looking toward Captiva

I use it for my laptop screen

Morning walk

LISTENING:

He wrote it, she sang the best cover, so Here is the LINK to My Opening Farewell with Bonnie Raitt and Jackson Browne

Now Here is the Link to my favorite version by Alison Krauss          Remember you can hit the “skip ad” button.

A lady stands before an open window
Staring so far away
She can almost feel the southern wind blow
Almost touching her restless day

She turns from her window to me
Sad smile her apology
Sad eyes reaching to the door

Daylight loses to another evening
And still she spares me the word, "Goodbye"
And sits alone beside me fighting her feelings
Struggles to speak, but in the end can only cry

Suddenly it's so hard to find
The sound of the words to speak her troubled mind
So I'm offering these to her as if to be kind
There's a train every day leaving either way
There's a world, you know
There's a way to go
And you'll soon be gone, that's just as well
This is my opening farewell

A child's drawings left there on the table
And a woman's silk lying on the floor
And I would keep them here if I were able
And lock her safe behind this open door

But suddenly it's so clear to me
That I'd asked her to see what she may never see
And now my kind words find their way back to me
There's a train every day leaving either way
There's a world, you know
You got a way's to go
And I'll soon believe, it's just as well
This is my opening farewell

Songwriters: Browne Jackson

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Also listened to

Greenfields: The Gibb brothers song book, Barry singing duets.

Finding Dory: The soundtrack is another Thomas Newman work. I find his scores so peaceful.

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HUMOR:

INSTAGRAM link for a funny trick

It will redirect you to Instagram but you can return to this page.

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Jen Fulwiler…mother of 6, new comedian:

Comedy is so good for the spiritual life because comedy is predicated on humility. And humility is such a critical hub virtue. 

There are a lot of quotes about how pride is the most dangerous thing for the spiritual life, because it makes us think we don’t need God, that we’re so great, that our ego is central to everything. If you think about it: When you’re in a very prideful state, you can’t laugh; you’re too full of yourself to laugh. And laughter reminds us that we can laugh at this, because God is in charge, and God has things under control. And if God didn’t exist, and the weight of the whole world rests on our shoulders, then nothing’s funny: The world is too dire; and it’s too serious; and there’s no hope. 

And that spirit of laughter reminds us that we’re so small in the grand scheme of things, and God has got all of this under control. And that is why we can laugh. And when we laugh, we remember that.

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Unfortunately, I had a chain saw in my hand…

                               And I pressed the button 😳

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Those NFL fans on Tweeter can be SO cruel…

I FIND THIS INTERESTING:

SAINT OF THE DAY  On July 2, the Church celebrates the life and work of St. Otto. He was born in 1060 in Swabia, and died on June 30, 1139. He was the Bishop of Bamberg, an indefatigable evangelizer, and the apostle of the Pomeranians.  BEST QUALITY -  you can spell his name forward or backwards 😇

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My US Rep

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Bishop Barron points out…

MATTHEW 16:13–19  Friends, today’s Gospel spells out the importance of Peter’s confession. For it is upon this inspired confession that the Church is built. Not, mind you, on popular opinion, which is shifting and indecisive, and not on personal holiness, which is all too rare. It is built upon the inspired authority of Peter—and I say, "Thank God!" We make this troubling and extraordinary claim that it is through a special charism of the Spirit that Peter and his successors govern the Church. Now, I realize that I have many Protestant readers and that this text has been, between Catholics and Protestants, a stumbling block. Let me clarify what is and is not at stake here. What is the focus of Peter’s confession? It has to do with who Jesus is. This is the rock upon which the Church is built. We don’t say for a moment that all of Peter’s practical decisions are right, that everything he says is right. But we are saying that he is right about who Jesus is: a man who is also the Son of the living God. And this is the source and ground of the whole operation.

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Pastoral incoherence                       This link heads to a full article touching on what is going on in the Catholic Church right now, a lay group who has been taught mush for 50 years, so it is no surprise you have “leaders” like Biden and Pelosi who think they can not only do whatever they think is good for them, but to shout it from the highest mountain top.

Some excerpts, but first think about our country and the world…there are now more than male and female, its ok for a man to let another man stick some thing up his something, two women can “marry” and have a baby (who was never given the chance to say yes to that mess), that a girl can interrupt the living child inside her so she can continue her education, or her guy can make her do it, and on and on. This discussion needs to carry over to the rest of society, not just the Catholic Church. 

“The pastoral life of the Church is succinctly described in Acts 2:42: “They devoted themselves to the teaching of the Apostles and to the communal life (communio), to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers.”  The fraternal sharing in those elements of the Gospel constitutes the “holy communion” that is the Church without which there can be no “Holy Communion” at Mass.

The Church Fathers often reflected on the intricate nature of the communio sanctorum.  In Latin, sanctorum means either “of the holy ones” or “of the holy things.”  So, the communion of the “holy things” (shared belief, life, sacraments, and worship) is both the foundation and expression of the communion of the “holy ones.”  Reception of the Body of Christ in Holy Communion is a sign and means of sharing his life and teaching as members of his Body and Bride, the Church, which is the Communion of Saints.

The problem facing us regarding Eucharistic Coherence is that the faithful have for more than fifty years received openly contradictory presentations of “the teachings of the apostles” without pastoral correction from the bishops.  This is true of preaching, spiritual guidance, catechesis, Catholic education, marital preparation, and seminary formation.

The result is chaos.” …

“…Why, then, should septua- and octogenarians today, like President Biden and Speaker of the House Pelosi, think there is an incompatibility between their voting record and the reception of Holy Communion?  Why should any Catholic believe that Eucharistic coherence requires conformity to the life of Christ in accordance with the Gospel authentically proclaimed by the Church?

In this context, episcopal statements about the Eucharist won’t change many hearts and minds.  Malformed Catholics, including clergy, will continue to act on the false notion of conscience they were taught.”

*Image: The Cardinal’s Nap by Léo Herrmann, c. 1900 [private collection]

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The Arabs are not the Palestinians’ friends, in my opinion.

Forgetting good?

Sick People category: 

All-Star Game:

ESPN: “All your baseball cards came to life”: That night, 50 years ago, when 22 Hall of Farmers played in an All-Star game for the ages.

This is the LINK to the article…

Sample of what you will read: Eventually, 22 players and managers from that game would make it to Cooperstown, 17 would win an MVP and seven would earn a Cy Young, making this night perhaps the greatest collection of talent ever assembled on one field at one time in the history of baseball.

"I was in awe,'' Torre said. "I was leading the league in hitting, but I was still overwhelmed."

No other All-Star Game has featured 20 Hall of Fame players. Let all the names on this field on this one night sink in: Rod Carew, Brooks Robinson, Luis Aparicio, Frank Robinson, Carl Yastrzemski, Reggie Jackson, Al Kaline, Harmon Killebrew, Jim Palmer, Johnny Bench, Willie McCovey, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Willie Stargell, Lou Brock, Ron Santo, Tom Seaver, Steve Carlton, Ferguson Jenkins, Juan Marichal and Roberto Clemente, who would sadly be there for the final time. The managers, the Orioles' Earl Weaver and the Reds' Sparky Anderson, are also in the Hall of Fame.

BELOW THE FOLD: WARNING:

Republicans, however, can’t question election “results”? 

ELECTION CHAOS IN NYC  Election officials in New York City have retracted previous vote totals in the Democratic primary for mayor after discovering that 135,000 test ballots were inadvertently included in the count. The mishap occurred on New York's first attempt on ranked choice voting. With no candidate as the first choice of more than 50% of voters, a computer tabulated ballots in a series of rounds that worked like an instant run-off election.

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And you don’t think there is something VERY wrong in our country right now? TRANSGENDER & PRISON  The Women's Liberation Front is accusing Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-CA, of violating the constitutional rights of incarcerated women by allowing men who identify as women into their living quarters. Lauren Adams, a spokeswoman for the group, said: “We are working with a woman who was punched in the face so hard by a new transfer that she couldn’t chew for three days. He was taken away and released back in a different yard with no restrictions. He was her cellmate. She had to sleep with him.” California currently has 273 transfer requests, of which 266 are people housed at male institutions requesting to be transferred to a female institution. 

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Bishop Barron link RE: Bishop Barron: True dialogue impossible if Catholic Dems won’t protect babies who survive abortion

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Athlete So Oppressed By America That She's Representing America In The Olympics

June 28th, 2021 - BabylonBee.com

EUGENE, OR—In a move many are hailing as both "stunning" and "brave", hammer-throwing athlete Gwen Berry turned her back on the flag as the national anthem played after she qualified to represent America in the Olympics.

"America stinks, and it has oppressed me my entire life," said Berry. "My qualification for the U.S. Olympic team is just another example of the long string of systemic injustices I have suffered at the hand of systemic white systems of Western cis-patriarchal oppression and the systems of hetero Christian male dominance and the... what was I talking about? Oh yeah-- America stinks and I'm oppressed!"

Berry says she hopes to share her inspiring message with young girls of color everywhere-- that they will never belong in America, be happy in America, or be free in America due to the color of their skin.

"I am disgusted with myself for representing this racist country in the Olympic games, but it was my only option since China doesn't really let black athletes compete. I look forward to the universal acclaim, Nike endorsement deals, and vast riches that are coming my way! Yay me! Also, did I mention I'm oppressed?"

Nike has applauded Berry's bravery and has offered her a $327 million endorsement deal and her own line of Uyghur-made clothing.


Thank you Babylon Bee for saying what the NYT, WaPo, News-Press, USA Today, won’t. 😅

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Healthcare…