Okay In Small Doses

Years ago, I came across a selected collection of poetry by Stevie Smith. I enjoyed her quirky style, literary allusions, and dark humor. I felt as if I’d found a kindred spirit.

I later read a couple of her poetry collections, not just the selected ones in that volume I read long ago.

The dark humor, religious confusion, and obsession with death began to wear on me. I read a brief biography of her and found that she was indeed a troubled soul who dealt with illness and depression, and who even suffered a nervous breakdown. The shadows apparently continued to haunt her until the end of her life in 1971.

It’s not surprising that Sylvia Plath, who tragically committed suicide, apparently appreciated Smith’s poetry.

The darkness of some of her poetry began to cast a pall on my spirit. I too have struggled in the past with depression. I too have had struggles with faith. I learned that there are certain things and people I have to avoid, or with which I have to limit my contact. So I avoided reading more of her until recently.

I just finished another collection of hers, The Frog Prince and Other Poems. More of the same. Poems I enjoyed. Other poems that had me sadly shaking my head. One of the last poems was “Why do I …

Why do I think of Death as a friend?
It is because he is a scatterer
He scatters the human frame
The nerviness and the great pain
Throws it on the fresh fresh air
And now it is nowhere
Only sweet Death does this
Sweet Death, kind Death,
Of all the gods you are best.

Yes, I do have a dark and quirky sense of humor. I also think about death. But I also now have a much stronger faith that helps me to see and appreciate all the beauty in the world, and that views death as simply a step on the path to eternal life, not as an escape.

After finishing Smith’s book, I scribbled a clerihew - admittedly not a great one, but one that expresses my reactions.

Stevie Smith
left us with,
even long after her final breath,
poem after poem filled with dark humor and death.

I think I need to pray for her soul. I hope she is at peace.

I also think I need to read a writer who nourishes my soul. A little J.R. R. Tolkien perhaps!

Pax et bonum

The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses Grant In War And Peace by H. W. Brands

I just finished The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses Grant In War And Peace by H. W. Brands. It is the first book of the year, and it is also fulfills one of my reading goals - a secular biography.

It was a great read.

As a Civil War buff, I had known some of the information about Grant as a general. I knew less about him as a person and as a President. This book filled in the gaps. I now appreciate Grant the man more than I did before.

Brands did a good and fair job of showing Grant's strengths and flaws. I was particularly intrigued by the accounts of his presidency. Grant was right about rights of former slaves, fair treatment of Native Americans, and the need for Civil Service reform. Where he failed was not due to his intentions, but due to his lack of political experience and lack of judgement at times about the people he appointed to various offices. There was plenty of corruption during his administration, but none of it involved him.

I also appreciated how Brands described the political climate and violence, and the individuals with whom Grant had to work political. Many of those individuals were far less fair, ethical, and honest than Grant. All the lying, the corruption, character assassination, and violence perpetrated by his opposition reminds me of the political climate today.

I highly recommend this book.

Pax et bonum

Good Dog!

I recently read an article about a study that found walking helps to slow cognitive decline.

According to a paper published in Nature Medicine, researchers found that greater physical activity is linked to a slower rate of cognitive decline. And one of the activities they measured was steps.

They found that those who average between 3,000 and 5,000 steps per day delayed cognitive decline by an average of three years, and those who walk 5,000-7,000 steps per day delay it by an average of seven years.

Now since retiring I am a relatively sedentary type - I spend a lot of time sitting while I read and write - I do walk daily.

In large part because of my dog.

Gubbio (yes, inspired by the story of St. Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio) and I go walking three times a day. I walk him first thing in the morning, around noon, and then just before dinner.

I once counted the number of steps I walk with him. In the winter, when it’s cold, snowy, and slippery, the total per day is about 3,000. When the weather gets warmer we go on longer walks, getting in between 5,000 and 6,000 steps. And those totals don’t include the steps I take with my other activities.

But the bulk of my stepping is with Gubbio. He is saving my brain!

Good dog.

Pax et bonum

More About That Kangaroo

In a previous post, I mentioned how I discovered music through an old novelty song, "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport."

What prompted that memory was attending a members' showcase concert by the local folksinging society to which I belong. Of the five performers, I am friends with three, so despite the cold and snow my wife and I happily went. It was a great show.

Just before the concert started, I was talking with one of the friends, and she turned to one of the organizers and said I should perform at a future concert! He said that would be fine. Ulp. 

She was only half joking. After she performed, she said I really should think about it.

While I have played and sung regularly at church and for my Fraternity, i have not performed in a folk setting in years! But the idea got me thinking.

One of the songs I used to perform was Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport. I thought of the story behind the significance of the song for for me. It would be one of the songs I would consider if I did play for a members' showcase.

Each performer does six or seven songs. I started thinking about what songs I might do.

Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport

Bottle Of Wine

I Am Going Home (original)

Hey! Hey! Hey! I'm Gonna Live Til The Day I Die (original)

Oh Sinner Man 

Get Up And Go 

Never Ending Song Of Love

Walking Down The Line 

They'd all be possibilities. Maybe Pete Seeger's version of "Old Time Religion"? Perhaps "There's a Place In The World For A Gambler"? "The Swimming Song"? 

There might be a few more I'd consider. 

It would be nice to perform again. 

Pax et bonum

Read in 2025: The Tally

I began the year with certain reading goals:

60-70 works, 15,000 pages
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, and Have His Carcase - by Dorothy Sayers
A Dickens novel (Little Dorrit or Our Mutual Friend)
Lord of the Rings (reread)
Kristin Lavransdatter
Apologia Pro Vita Sua (reread)
Bio/Study of Newman
The Poet and the Lunatics (Chesterton)
Some Mystery novels
Some Encyclicals

With one day to go, I'm not likely to finish another work, so here is the tally for 2025:2025 -  76 Books - Page Count -  17,312 pages

Tolkien’s Faith: A Spiritual Biography by Holly Ordway

The Sermons of the Cure of Ars

John Henry Newman: Snapdragon in the Wall by Joyce Sugg

Apologia Pro Vita Sua by St. John Henry Cardinal Newman

The Epistle of Barnabas

The Epistle to Diognetus

The Didache

Letter to the Corinthians - Clement of Rome

Simplicity by John Michael Talbot with Dan O’Neill

Peace on Earth (Pacem In Terris) - Pope St. John XXIII

Christianity and Social Progress (Mater et Magistra) by Pope St. John XXIII

The Redeemer of Man (Redemptor Hominis) by Pope St. John Paul II

St. Thomas More by E. E. Reynolds

Catherine of Siena by Sigrid Undset

God’s Troubadour: The Story of Saint Francis of Assisi by Sophie Jewett

The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius

The Real Story: Understanding the Big Picture of the Bible by Edward Sri and Curtis Martin

33 Days to Eucharistic Glory

Set All Afire (St. Francis Xavier) by Louis de Wohl

Because God is Real by Peter J. Kreeft

The Poet and the Lunatics by G. K. Chesterton

The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton

Descent Into Hell by Charles Williams

Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset 

     The Wreath by Sigrid Undset 

     The Wife by Sigrid Undset 

     The Cross by Sigrid Undset 

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene

Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

     The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

      The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien

      The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien

Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Fool Of New York City by Michael D. O’Brien

Father Malachy’s Miracle by Bruce Marshall

The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers  

Have His Carcase by Dorothy Sayers

Murder in the Lincoln White House by C. M. Gleason

Murder at the Capitol by C. M. Gleason

The Vanishing Woman by Fiorella De Maria

See No Evil by Fiorella De Maria

Death of a Scholar by Fiorella De Maria

Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie

A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie

Rough Cider by Peter Lovesey

The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett

The Holy Thief by Ellis Peters

Dead Man’s Ransom by Ellis Peters

The Surprise by G. K. Chesterton

The Judgement of Dr. Johnson by G. K. Chesterton  

No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre

Medea by Euripides

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne  

John the Balladeer by Manly Wade Wellman

The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells

The Food of the Gods by H. G. Wells

In the Days of the Comet by H. G. Wells

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Selected Poems

The Life and Zen Haiku Poetry of Santoka Taneda by Sumita Oyama (translated by William

        Scott Wilson

A Good Time Was Had By All by Stevie Smith

Tender Only To One by Stevie Smith

Mother, What Is Man? by Stevie Smith

Harold’s Leap by Stevie Smith

Not Waving But Drowning by Stevie Smith

Haiku selected and edited by Peter Washington

Ginko Gold anthology

Christmas Presence: Twelve Gifts That Were More Than They Seemed 

     edited by Gregory F. Augustine Pierce

Christmas Curiosities: Odd, Dark, and Forgotten Christmas by John Grossman

The Autobiography of Santa Claus by Jeff Guinn

Making the Best of What’s Left by Judith Viorst

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt

Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-50 by Susan Campbell Bartoletti  

John Adams by David McCullough

The usual eclectic mix. I read more works and pages than I had planned. Some good reads. Some clunkers.

I'm now up to 597 works read since I started keeping count in 2013.

Pax et bonum

About That Kangaroo

As a young child, I lived in a home where there was little to no music. My mother was hearing impaired, and my father was painfully tone deaf.

Then one day my father and I went fishing. As we were driving to a favorite fishing site, my father turned on the radio.

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Suddenly a novelty song that was popular at that time came on.

“Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport.”

I listened, transfixed.

It was in that moment that I discovered music.

From that moment on I began listening to the radio, and eventually got a record player and began acquiring records.

Later, when I learned how to play guitar, I learned that song. It was one of the first songs I performed back in my coffee house days.

Yeah, I know the man behind the song, Rolf Harris, later ran afoul of the law for sexually-related offences, was convicted, and went to prison. I also know the original version of the song contained a lyric that racially incentive. But that verse got eliminated, and I certainly don’t include it.

But hey, the song remains. And I will continue to perform it.

Even if they tan me hide.

Pax et bonum

2026 Reading Goals

I had a good reading year in 2025, meeting all my goals. Time to set the goals for 2026.

60-70 works, 15,000 pages
A biography/autobiography of a saint
A book about a saint
A secular biography
At least two documents of Vatican II
Several spiritual works
A book by G. K. Chesterton I have not yet read
A book about G. K. Chesterton
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil by J. R. R. Tolkien
A book by C. S. Lewis, possibly a reread.
A book by Charles Dickens I have not yet read (Our Mutual Friend?)
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
A book by Michael O'Brien
A book by Dostoevsky (The Possessed?)
At least one history book
Several mysteries
Several poetry collections
Several plays

Pax et bonum