Wit & Whim

My third hymn. Probably my favorite that I've managed to this point. O Holy Ghost from Heaven Descend Ordination Deo Gracias O Holy Ghost from Heav’n Descend Anoint thy priest whom thou dost send Unto thy church thy chosen herd To preach in joy thy sacred word By Christ’s decree and in his stand Dispense his gifts at his command And pray the words which he has taught Proclaim the righteousness he bought Feed thou my sheep on holy bread Give them to drink the blood I shed Tend them with mercy care and love Prepare them for their home above And wash them with my holy name That cleansed from stain of sin and shame My pascal blood may mark their door That death’s dread angel passes o’er What ye shall bind that bound shall be What ye shall loose that shall be free Be bold and preach the law to sin That there the gospel enter in With strength from God the Father, Son And Holy Spirit Ever one Now therefore go disciples make Preach feed baptize and ne’er forsake Matthew 28, Matthew  18, Jo...

So, I've been writing a hymn every day. Jonathan challenged us to write hymns, and I used to write poetry every day when I was a younger man. I can also sing my way from judgement to easter without looking at the hymnal, so I have the benefit of the richness of all the saints who have written such a powerful body of hymns before me. Two words: Catherine Wink worth. The quality will vary, I wrote this one when I could not sleep one night this week, so it is a little rougher. Uphold Thy Church o Father Church militant (cause had to have Benaiah) Thaxted (on a goad from Emma) An Imprecatory Psalm of Insomnia  Uphold thy church o Father Preserve her gracious Lord Though all the earth despise her Establish Thou Thy word The world against her rages Confounds on every hand Sins wounds and evils wages With wrath against her fanned Yet thou hast granted pardon Get hence all earthly foes! Remembering the passion Of Jesus Christ your son Lord plant a new Benaiah A David in this world Send Joh...

 Part one of our Great Lutheran Hymnody Series Lord Revealed in Power at Cana Holy Matrimony Set to Helmsley 1 Lord revealed in power at Cana Turning water into wine Prayer and praises and hosanna Work again a holy sign Alleluia Alleluia alleluia One flesh made by grace divine 2 Male and female Thou created Them in bliss before the fall Of one substance separated Consummated and made whole Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Thus to worship at Thy call 3 Husbands love thy wives and nourish Her as Christ his holy bride Wives, submit, uphold, and cherish Let no trial thee divide Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia All thy cares to God confide 4 Life Thou givest in their union Breathed as into the dry bone Brought to font and to communion Guard them keep them as Thine own Alleluia Alleleluia Alleluia Let Thy will be in them done 5 Build O Lord this house and bless it Let them be of one accord Father, Son and Holy Spirit Comfort, peace, and grace afford Alleluia Alleluia Alleluia Found them in Thy holy ...

Everyone has a framework that they use for determining whether or not a law is good. They may not be conscious of it, or have thought through their heuristic, but like Brillat-Savarin, tell me what you eat, and I'll tell you where you stand on an issue and how you got there. For both American conservatives and progressives, the defining filter of the second half of the twentieth century right up to this moment is individualism. Self determination is the only good. The question then becomes one of utility: is the greatest threat to self-determination government overreach, or systems of power? The fed, or the corporate oligarch. One side says that a good law is one which does the least to impede the natural rights of the people. The other will say that the law needs to remove barriers to the enjoyment of human rights. Well, okay, they won't say those things, but that is back behind it. If you zoom out a little further, the one will believe that rights are negative; things you hav...

The most deeply troubling hot take I have seen increasingly from young couples, even from some people I care about, is that it is ultimately no business of anyone else whether or not one chooses to procreate. The decision to remain child free and do what is right for you is yours alone, and has no bearing on and is not the business of other people. Depending on what source you draw from, the average cost of raising a child is somewhere between 300Gs and half a million to adulthood. I think that number is a bit high, even at the low end, but I will let the experts be the experts. Although private school tuition will do its best to make a liar of me. So for my family with four beautiful little girls I will spend an extra decade of wages and countless hours of parental care to bring these children to maturity, and to raise them as contributing members of society. I will take fewer vacations. I will have fewer nice things. I will see far fewer nights of full sleep. Your end of the bargain ...

The masters of the world are born that way. Andrew Carnegie started as a bobbin boy--a poorly paid and often dangerous job. The kind of job that gets mentioned in the chapters between the triangle shirtwaist fire and Sacco and Vanzetti, but right before Upton Sinclair rides in on a white stallion. Perhaps not exactly the hunger games, but an unlikely place from which to become a notorious industrialist and philanthropist (I mean books, seriously, if he actually loved the people he would have given them healthcare).  Napoleon was a junior officer from a provincial backwater. His family were political dissidents, and thus he started his career with a dubious anti-connection: with doubts of his ultimate abject loyalty to the republic and the revolution. And yet he became the most formidable warrior king the world has ever seen. The greatest general since Sobutai. The greatest law giver since Hammurabi. The Corsican Ogre, deserving of the mythological appellation for his near supernatu...