Firstly, I have decided to hold a rare DC blognic. However, I determined it would be best for it to be at an undisclosed location and by invitation only. Who knows if there would be some counter blognic held?
Meanwhile, I met a group of serious pro-life activists last night for supper. Among our guests were Abby Johnson, depicted in the movie “Unplanned”.
Today, after a quiet start and writing for the Catholic Herald, I went over to the Trump Hotel to meet friends for lunch. On the way I greeted General Von Steuben, fellow Prussian.
You know this next place. The Dimocrats are trying to throw the resident out.
We’ll see POTUS tomorrow.
BTW… I had a shot at a pass to the Senate gallery today, but passed it up. Historic, yes, but would you want to listen to the Dems bloviate and just make stuff up? I’d rather listen to an incessant leaf blower.
Trump Hotel. The old Post Office. Quite the building.
After lunch we popped over to the Museum of American History. We mainly wanted to visit Julia Child’s Kitchen. I had seen it before, years ago.
Fun. And there was the real “Star Spangled Banner”. Too bad they only showed the first verse of the anthem!
On the way back to my digs.
Tonight there is a big pro-life do at the Occidental. I’m sure I’ll see lots of people I know.
Walking around town you see already hordes of young people here for the March from all over. I was stopped a few times with loud “Hey Father Z!”s for a brief chat. It is great to meet people and hear where they are from.
Heading home I walked along the side of the Hoover Building, Dept. of Commerce. I read this quote:
“Commerce defies every wind, outrides every tempest, invades every zone.”
In the talk I gave in Rome at the Summorum Pontificum conference, I used the image of market forces. We should not fear the successes of other groups. The success of one group, like a tide, raises all others. To use another analogy: this is not a zero sum game. This is not a finite pie which when cut up can serve only a limited number of slices. If I get one, you can’t that what I have. No. The pie grows. By interaction between our groups and cooperation, we cannot be defeated. We have to have holy commerce between our groups. We will invade every zone and outride every tempest and defy the winds that the enemy will blow against us.
Anyway, that was a quote from George Bancroft quondam Secretary of the Navy. He also wrote, however:
It never was a prosperous world
Since priests have interfer’d with temporal matters;
The custom of their ancestors they slight,
And change their shirts of hair for robes of gold;
Thus luxury and interest rule the church,
Whilst piety and conscience dwell in caves.
It seems that lofty Bancroft didn’t have the slightest idea what the time of day was, since Catholic clergy developed modern economics. (cf. School of Salamanca)
So, ignore that last part and stick to what I said.
UPDATE:
Tonight there was a cocktail party and talks sponsored by Solidarity HealthShare at the Occidental. Very nice. Here is a table where a Soviet operative handed off a plan to a journalist in 1962 which helped to avert problems during the Cuban missal crisis.
I was going to give the opening prayer at the meeting, but I wound up giving the final prayer and blessing. We prayed for everyone on the road coming to DC for the March, that God would protect them from spiritual and temporal harm. And, because we are in a time of war for life, and I reminded them that it is our fight because this is the time God wanted us to be born, we prayed also for the softening of the hearts of elected officials.
What impressed me was the chance to have a photo with a real hero. Dr. George Delgado has been pioneering a chemical abortion REVERSAL protocol.
I saw stats the other day about a drop in abortions over the last years. Those were, I learned, mostly surgical abortions. The number of chemical abortions, with drugs is another matter.
What happens when women take the first abortion pill and then change their minds? THERE IS A WAY TO SAVE THE CHILDREN. Dr. Delgado is on the forefront with his Steno Institute, named after Blessed Nicolas Steno, 17th century Danish scientist, physician and bishop.
I know about this because of my work with Heartbeat International, who has taken over the network of doctors who will prescribe the Abortion Reversal Protocol that Dr. Delgado developed. It has been really successful. This guy is a hero.
Father, comparing the Democratic harangue to “an incessant leaf blower” made my day.
How delightful it is that President Trump will be the first president ever to speak at the March for Life. My heart is full of gratitude for him, for such a man to be our president. His presidency has been so divisive, but not because of him but the irrational hatred people feel for him, people that I love dearly in my own family. And here he is, caring about the non-voting unborn, and really caring, not just lip service. God bless the day, him, you, and all there, as well as all the beautiful babies.
You can download pdf files of Design Quarterly 104 “Julia’s Kitchen” and the large poster of the kitchen at A Timeline of Design History (near the bottom of the page).
DQ 104 was written by Julia’s friend Bill Stump, co-designer of the Aeron Chair. These issues are normally available online only to people who have academic access to JSTOR. Printed copies often sell for over $100.
I’m visiting in March. Do you know of any church that celebrates the TLM in the area?
The one downtown is St Mary Mother of God. That’s where the Nellie Gray Mass takes place after the march each year. But they have the TLM every Sunday and other days all year. There are especially a number of parishes in the Diocese of Arlington in VA that celebrate TLM weekly. Check DC Latin Mass website: https://dclatinmass.com/
Barron Von Stueben’s statue is perhaps the very best statue in Washington, a city filled with sculpture.
Julia’s kitchen is one of the best places in America in any given era.
“Unite the Clans”-ers would benefit from knowing the when’s and where’s of your blog-niks!
March well!
God is too good to me. Four of my children (ages 25, 20, 17 and 16) chose to travel over 1000 miles to the March For Life this year. AMDG
Happy to be there today to march for life. I do think that life is winning.
(In addition to seeing the President, maybe I’ll even get a glimpse of Father Z somewhere.)
Interesting factoid: the kitchen and two huge pantries were in a home built by Josiah Royce when he taught at Harvard Divinity School a block away. He is the Unitarian theologian who created the construct of “beloved community” that was later popularised by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Did you learn the story of the banana bowl on the kitchen table? I don’t know if
I read it on an accession card or if I was told it by a neighbor who curated at the NMAH, or both. But happy to share if you don’t hear the “in-joke.”
Give our regards to Fr. Kevin Cusick, LCDR (Ret. USN). I’m sure he will be there! We miss him on Twitter.
Julia Childs. A woman who loved butter, cream, cigarettes, wine and, oh yeah. . . she was a spy in the OSS during WW2. What woman!
God bless the March for Life.
acardnal: batting a thousand as usual.
Julia Child’s first foray into cooking, years before she graduated Cordon Bleu in Paris, was for a 1943 OSS Emergency Rescue Equipment project. She was part of the team that developed a shark repellent for downed Allied pilots. It took over a 100 recipes (or maybe it was over a 100 different ingredients) before they got one that worked (not perfectly, but better than nothing). The winning recipe was a small cake that smelled like dead shark.
Garçon, I’ll have the omelette, s’il vous plaît.
Semper, thanks for that interesting tidbit.
Dr. Delgado, a million thank you’s. A million!
RAve, that’s wonderful, and well done, on your part.
I did not learn about the banana bowl. A good story, I take it?
The kitchen table was bought by the Childs during their time in Oslo (Paul’s last diplomatic post) and was moved to Cambridge thereafter. When dementia became too much to be handled at home any more in the late 1980’s, Paul moved to a nursing home in nearby Lexington, MA. Many, many times during filming her last two shows the table was moved out of the kitchen for filming. But importantly, no one ever turned it upside down until it arrived at the Smithsonian, whereupon it was discovered the underside at the end of the table where Paul sat to have his breakfast each morning featured a huge collage of Chiquita banana stickers. The plastic bananas are in honor of Paul Child.
Shots of the bowl on the table. Bananas within.
I liked the lighting effect, like late afternoon sun through leaves.
“…since Catholic clergy developed modern economics. (cf. School of Salamanca)”
Indeed Fr. Z.
If one is interested, see William Slattery’s “Heroism and Genius: How Catholic Priests Helped Build- And Can Help Rebuild- Western Civilization”. There’s a chapter on Free-market Economics, along with chapters on the Monks, Chivalry, Art and Music, and the Traditional Mass.
See also Thomas Woods’ “How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization” with chapters on Economics, Morality, International Law, Science, Art and Architecture, the University, and the Monks.
Semper Gumby: GREAT book, which I firmly endorse. It would be a good gift to priests, many of whom are in a serious morale morass right now.
Heroism and Genius: How Catholic Priests Helped Build—and Can Help Rebuild—Western Civilization
US HERE – UK HERE
Several more reading suggestions: Fr. Sirico “Defending the Free Market: The Moral Case for a Free Economy,” Samuel Gregg “Tea Party Catholic: The Catholic Case for Limited Government, a Free Economy, and Human Flourishing,” and Rodney Stark “The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success.”
The word “Capitalism” means different things to different people. Rodney Stark in his book means the free market, private property and entrepreneurship.
St. John Paul II had something to say about this:
“Man fulfils himself by using his intelligence and freedom. In so doing he utilizes the things of this world as objects and instruments and makes them his own. The foundation of the right to private initiative and ownership is to be found in this activity. By means of his work man commits himself, not only for his own sake but also for others and with others.”
So, economics has something to do not only with commerce but with morality.
St. John Paul II then asks a question, “Is capitalism a path to economic and civil progress?”:
“If by “capitalism” is meant an economic system which recognizes the fundamental and positive role of business, the market, private property and the resulting responsibility for the means of production, as well as free human creativity in the economic sector, then the answer is certainly in the affirmative, even though it would perhaps be more appropriate to speak of a “business economy”, “market economy” or simply “free economy”. But if by “capitalism” is meant a system in which freedom in the economic sector is not circumscribed within a strong juridical framework which places it at the service of human freedom in its totality, and which sees it as a particular aspect of that freedom, the core of which is ethical and religious, then the reply is certainly negative.”
Note the phrase “ethical and religious core.”
Socialists (whether Communists, National Socialists, Fascists, Socialists, Democratic Socialists, Progressives, etc.) violently oppose a Christian ethical and religious core. Christians believe that God is King, Socialists believe the State is King. Christian Socialists who believe both are merely providing aid and comfort to Socialism.
In practice, Socialism (in politics, education and entertainment) produces: class hatred, racial hatred, quack science, eco-worship, central planning, poverty, persecution, sexual confusion, failing schools, and soul-destroying propaganda.
Thomas Sowell, a Marine vet, author and economist, had something to say about that:
“Many of the seemingly compassionate policies promoted by the progressives in recent years — whether in economics or in education — have had outcomes the opposite of what was expected. One of the tragedies of our times is that so many people judge by rhetoric, rather than by results.”
[Excellent books.]