Luther's Deer Leg

It Was Irresistible. I Had to Say It.

2012-02-12T23:11:00.001-08:00

The late afternoon temp was barely in the 30s and the wind was brutal; it was a good day for a free cup of coffee to take to work with me.

I stopped in at the Starbucks on Timberlake in Lynchburg with my empty coffee-bean bag. For that I get a free "tall" cup of coffee and I thought I'd go for Starbucks' new blonde roast. (It's mild but still robust and it doesn't taste burned; try it!) In fact, I thought I'd have two cups to go, paying for one. $1.78 for what's essentially a 24 oz. coffee is still a value.

That's the setup. Now the conversation.

Me: Can I get a free cup with this empty?

Barista: Sure, a free tall. What can I get you?

Me: I'd like a blonde with room for cream, and I'd like a second one that I'll pay.

Barista: Two tall blondes, coming right up.

Me: Two tall blondes ... I never thought I'd be asking for two tall blondes, much less getting what I ask for.

Barista: I you think about it, you're getting two tall blondes for the price of one!

Me: Yeah, two tall, hot blondes. I like it!

Ms. Littleton's 23 Things: Thing #7

2012-02-12T19:10:00.000-08:00

I'm totally flattered that someone finds my Flickr site awesome. Great for my self-esteem!

Ms. Littleton's 23 Things: Thing #7: I thought flickr was a really good website. I had already browsed it for thing 5 or thing 6, I believe, I can't remember which one. I think ...

Three Thoughts on Holy Baptism . . .

2012-02-10T14:54:00.001-08:00

These are excerpts of three Facebook posts I wrote that say a lot about my theology of Holy Baptism, which I hope is well within orthodoxy:

I.
What I tell my adulto-baptist friends: There ain't no water baptism, there ain't no paedo-baptism, there ain't no believer's baptism. There's only one baptism and the Scriptures call it -- guess what? -- baptism. Whether it's done to babies, kids or adults, it's all the same baptism. Oh, and to the prissy, fussy types I say there ain't no "christening," only baptism, in which we kill whoever's being baptized and raise him or her in Christ to new life. It's a tough pill to swallow, but it's also glorious. . . .

II.
Walt, what you described as christening I've heard called "dedication." I think it's interesting how adulto-baptist parents are eager to dedicate their child to God, but seem unwilling or unable to give, in faith, their child entirely to God in Holy Baptism. In my world, "christening" seems to be used pretty exclusively by higher-caste folk -- Episcopalians, Presbyterians, UCCers, some few RCs -- who, in my opinion, think the word and concept of baptism are too coarse for their darling little (screaming, squalling, self-centered) little baby and look instead on "christening" as a naming ceremony that coincidentally involves baptism: "What did you think of little Chauncey's christening, my dear? Wasn't it horrid that thing about sin parson threw in there? The bloodies were good and spicy, though."

III.
From the stooppidd "dedication" link Pr. Snyder offered. Awful! Totally awful! Witness: "God honors their purity and until they understand the meaning of salvation and personal sin, water is not administered. Few argue the purity of a newborn child." I will argue it! "Purity," my you-know-what. A noted Anglican archbishop once said, "Show me two babies in a crib with one ball, and I'll show you original sin." A knowledgeable Anglican he.

Peeves . . .

2012-02-08T09:04:00.001-08:00

"Libations" when you mean "drinks," especially when you think "libations" makes alcohol at your event a little more acceptable to the teetotalers. As in "Immediately following the ETSU/North Florida men's basketball game on February 11, the Buccaneer Athletic Scholarship Association (BASA) will be hosting the Buccaneer Bash starting at 6 p.m. inside the Millennium Centre ballroom. Join BASA members and ETSU fans for a night of live and silent auctions, food, libations and fun.

Peeves . . .

2012-02-06T19:05:00.001-08:00

Why are all website makeovers "much needed"? Why are all heavy readers "voracious"? And why are all fishermen (or anglers) "avid"?

Thanks for 50K Views

2012-01-25T15:57:00.001-08:00

2012.01.14 50K Views, a photo by nosduhmj on Flickr.

A belated thank-you for 50,000 views on Jan. 14, 2012. Aerial of downtown Jacksonville, Fla., and the St. Johns River in July 2003. Jack and I engaged a pilot and a plane for a one-hour ride around North Florida way back when. Some day I'll afford to do it again.

Brian Lowry's Kind Reply to My Response

2012-01-25T00:52:00.001-08:00

Thank you for the thoughtful

response. And as I think I

stated, much of entertainment

is inherently conservative

-- nuclear families, cute kids,

etc. But you fleshed out the

point much better than I did.


I guess I should thank

Cal for classing

up my readership.

Click here for link to 
original article 
in Variety magazine

Brian Lowry
media columnist/

chief TV critic
Variety

Please note new email:

brian.lowry@variety.com

My response to "Passion play isn't easy: Religion takes the field""

2012-01-24T10:40:00.001-08:00

Dear Mr. Brian Lowry, critic for Variety magazine,

I didn't see any spot available for comments on your Jan. 21 Variety column – "Passion play isn't easy: Religion takes the field" Click here for the link to the Variety magazine article – so I'm sending you an email. I read your column, and appreciated it, because of a reefer from Cal Thomas' Facebook post. I hope you'll indulge me.

Hollywood has been producing "Christian" movies for years without knowing it, though they've been tougher to come by in the past 20 years. I'm not talking about the DeMille extravaganzas, but quiet, excellent movies with "Christian" themes: movies like "Places in the Heart," "Tender Mercies," "To Kill a Mockingbird."

None of these was billed as a Christian movie, but all have sensibilities that draw Christian audiences – and all without the apparent Hollywood self-consciousness and embarrassment about making something that's treacly, mentions Jesus, extols virginity or chastity, or leans too heavily, or at least too plainly, on the other Cardinal Virtues. (Note that a couple of these screenplays were written or adapted by Horton Foote, and all have roots in the South. Let me also, just because it always has affected me, take some space to mention the Lord's Supper scene in "Places in the Heart" – a tableau that evokes the Communion of Saints as well as any I've seen and stirs me with all sorts of growing-up memories.)

Or consider perhaps the Coen movie "O Brother Where Art Thou?" – a movie by Jews, based on a book by some old, blind Greek guy who lived 1,000 years before Jesus and on the other side of the Mediterranean. The T-Bone Burnett music was inspiring, the plot had biblical themes, and someone's view of baptismal regeneration (whether accidental of on purpose) was very, very pleasing to this Lutheran viewer.

And of course there are those movies, like "The Apostle," that had the money and clout of a very powerful, very respected, very rich and Christian-inspired actor, producer of director like Robert Duvall (who was in some of these Foote movies over the years).

Finally, while being not-Hollywood, there is the occasional excellent foreign film, like "Babette's Feast" (probably my favorite movie ever) that touches Christian hearts. Hollywood has been known to adapt these, sometimes well.

None of these movies beats viewers over their heads with warnings of hell and demands for conversion; not featured are people disappearing and empty cars careening on the freeways. What they do have is themes – sin (or "mistake-making"), judgment (or moments of truth and conviction) and redemption. They have experiences of grace, self-sacrifice. Some, like "O Brother," ooze metaphor. And they are complex and sometimes ambiguous in their conclusions (hey, guess what? – some Christians have brains).

And not all of them are G-rated. But not one of them smirks in the least at Christians, when they are portrayed, or ridicules their religion, their faith.

At bottom, Christians are just like moviegoers: They want to be entertained and they generally don't want to be ridiculed or thought of as stupid (and many of the cloddish "Christian" films – some Kirk Cameron vehicles – are as stupid as many Hollywood films, so it's not just institutional Hollywood). We're not looking necessarily, or even at all, for overt portrayals of Christians. We aren't always looking for heavy messages, or climactic separations of sheep and goats. No, we just want our ticket's-worth; we want to be satisfyingly entertained.

Thanks for your time,

John Hudson
Troutville, Va.

What copy editors are for . . .

2011-11-29T17:07:00.001-08:00

A section of an editorial in Wednesday's (Nov. 30, 2011) Daily Progress in Charlottesville, Va., read, "and opinions flew about like pin oak leaves in the autumn breeze."

Why did the author of a perfectly good editorial have to use as his similic* foil one of the few deciduous trees that holds onto its (brown, dessicated, dead) leaves throught the fall and winter? In the city of Thomas Jefferson and the always grammatical University of Virgina, one must be careful.

And this is what copy editors are for.

* In the nature of a simile (my coinage)

Apologetics Link

2011-10-11T14:17:00.001-07:00

http://apprising.org/

John M. Hudson
Troutville, Virginia

Talkin' Southern, No. 1

2011-08-10T15:08:00.001-07:00

For some of us, Democrats may be icky, but there's still never an "ic" on the end of "Democrat" (at least not when referring to the party).

2011.06.25 40K Views

2011-06-26T13:50:00.001-07:00

2011.06.25 40K Views, a photo by nosduhmj on Flickr.

Thanks for 40,000 views on Flickr as of June 25, 2011. Funeral for Col. John S. Hudson, USMC Ret., Monday, June 14, 2010, at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia. Died July 7, 2009, in Atlantic Beach, Florida. Semper fi, Dad. (E. Houston Lynch photo.)

Honored to be on The Big Blogroll O' Vark®™©

2011-06-02T21:25:00.000-07:00

Just got a note from Orycteropus Afer over at Aardvark Valley that I have been listed on his Big Blogroll O' Vark®™©

I am most honored, and in response I promise that a) I shall post more to Luther's Deer Leg and 2) I shall be more intentionally Lutheran, or at least that my posts will, I hope, exude Lutheranness. Lutheranity? Lutherality? Whatever, I am honored.

II. So, tell me again why you aren't going to church . . . Caveats

2011-06-02T20:55:00.000-07:00

In the previous post a wrote a small litany of credentials to try to establish myself on the Christian continuum as someone who's pretty serious and perhaps even spiritually mature -- a meat instead of milk Christian.

I must be clear, however, that I reject the third use of the law in the Reformed sense (because I'm not Reformed) that it shows that I'm somehow advancing in my Christian walk and that I am somehow less vulnerable to the fiery darts of the enemy and to my own sin and temptations.

I once offended another Christian by characterizing the walk in faith as being much like that of an alcoholic in recovery or a "dry drunk": We should not forget that even the mighty can and may fall, that the Old Adam is not dead in us but only wounded, at least on this side of the grave, and we shouldn't be too proud.

So my "accomplishments" in theology and piety, etc., serve merely to position myself in the way that the world tends to see "accomplishment" and I realize that all that doesn't mean a whole lot to God except insofar as it might honor him.

In other words, I know I ain't all that.

I. So, tell me again why you aren't going to church . . .

2011-06-02T20:23:00.000-07:00

For a reason that is a mystery to me, I decided on New Year's Eve, Jan. 31, 1977, a Saturday night, that in the morning, a Sunday, New Year's Day, I would attend church. Then, to deepen the mystery, I resolved that I would attend church each Sunday morning in the coming year. It's the only New Year's resolution I have ever kept, and actually I kept it every Sunday for the next seven or eight years. (A logical progression of such a resolution is that on Sunday, April 23, 1978, a Sunday in the Easter season, I was baptized and confirmed; I was 24.)

I met in church the woman who would become my wife. My deepest adult friendships were formed in the church. Worship in the church was at the center of my family's life. We were happy to go, even looked forward to it, Sunday by Sunday. Over the years, we belonged to four churches together, and each change of church was brought about by a move to a new community. We believed that our church should be part of our community. I drank deep of theology. I still drink deeply. I taught Sunday school. Linda was a member of the choir of whatever congregation we happened to belong to. I was an assisting minister at worship. We participated in the cursillo movement for a number of years. We observed the liturgical year, not because it was cute or eccentric but because we appreciated its rhythms and we connected with the seasonal rounds of Bible lessons and hymns and prayers. We were connected to the Lord's Table. I appreciated a good sermon. All in all, I guess we'd have been considered pretty well formed Christians.

Now I struggle. Linda first stopped going to church maybe three years ago. I tapered off a few months after her. Lately I have joined a new congregation. I needed to be connected. I joined alone. But I'm hardly a regular churchgoer anymore.

After all the years of habit, and having imbibed deeply of church culture and koinonia, and, especially, having partaken as many times as I have of the means of grace, why, suddenly, am I a "backslider"? The mystery is as great as the "coming to myself" of over 30 years ago. 'Tis a topic worth examining, if I can do it honestly.

"The unexamined life is not worth living." Plato, quoting Socrates.

Classy

2011-01-14T10:19:00.001-08:00

Darlene (cat) throws up under the dining room table and Brunie (doggy) trots over and eats it. Darlene vomits again, and Brunie goes and eats it. Darlene vomits again and this time Brunie does not eat it. I guess she's full.

Clown names . . .

2011-01-13T10:11:00.001-08:00

I think "Nipples" would be a good name for a clown. Think about it: "Ladies and Gentleman, Nipples the clown!" Makes you giggle, doesn't it?

A Few Thoughts on Freedom

2010-11-28T20:45:00.001-08:00

There is something to the sense of obligation that does indeed feel binding, enslaving, down-weighing. Obligation is the downside of commitment. See also "duty." I admit that I do tire of it. Ask me what first comes to mind when I think of retirement and it's "no responsibility." Second is "sleeping in." Third is "doing what I feel like, what I choose." I'm looking forward to it.

Who went and made Lauer campaign ethics czar?

2010-10-27T18:48:00.000-07:00

Matt Lauer is not the only self-professed journalist to try to impose on others what he thinks are his better ethics. What I want to know is, who asked him?

Lauer, a host of NBC's "Today," was the moderator earlier this week to a debate or forum (or whatever) between the (two major) California gubernatorial candidates. The site was a California "women's conference" (read "liberal women's conference," and reactions from the audience bear me out; it was a lot like watching "The View"). The campaign between Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman has become increasingly hard fought, even bitter. Brown has called Whitman a "whore" (in the political sense, but a whore all the same). I'm sure Whitman has gotten her licks in.

In his usual namby-pamby, Rodney King mood, moderator Lauer beseeched the two candidates, "Could we get the two of you to promise not to run anymore negative [he did not define "negative," natch] campaign commercials?" Brown, the Democrat man, said something like, "Well, I'd sure be willing to try," and got big cheers from the audience. Whitman, the Republican woman (and probably the only Republican woman) at the women's conference, said she would be glad to, but not at the expense of the truth or the issues. Big grumbles, boos and hisses all around.

The responses were totally predictable. But the main question remains, "Who is Matt Lauer to issue such a 'challenge' in the first place?" Put another way, "Why does it seem to be the supposed guardians of free speech who often seem to want to limit it?" because Lauer is hardly the first to decry "negative campaigning."

Piling On: My Little NPR Rant . . .

2010-10-22T11:43:00.001-07:00

Gee, I have to "register" to get on the NPR ombudsperson's site to comment? Well, I knew that because I've been commenting for years, but now I wonder if Geo. Soros' people might come after me. Anyway, I will be happy to explain why to your local affiliate when I do not renew my pledge. I'm a daily journalist and so I understand that I "give up" some (most?) of my free speech rights in deference to my customers. Juan was NOT ID'd with NPR. He was following the rules. His contract was no secret to NPR. I don't think he crossed the line, and, wonder of wonders, the man is (was?) a known liberal. Watch out, Mara Liassen (sp?); you're in MoveOn's crosshairs. And now, NPR, will you follow your own standards vis a vis Nina Totenberg? (AIDS humor, ha ha.) And perhaps your CEO should resign for slandering Williams AND the mentally ill. Heck, better yet, why not drop your govt. funding so you can be independently liberal? Fox has proved that fairness (along with conservative commentary) makes money hand over fist. Why not NPR? or PBS? or Air America? or MSNBC? Maybe the liberal drumbeat will prove commercially attractive. Nah.

There are many ways, but only one best way

2010-10-14T12:12:00.000-07:00

Deep thoughts:

We've all been instructed to follow the road signs as we travel along life's way. I took a right turn at this one -- it's in Sullivan County, Tenn., near the Bristol Motor Speedway -- and though it was not a through street, it was a very well kept, very pretty and pleasant street that I think I could be very happy on. But then I had to turn around at the cul-de-sac and head for work. (Well, actually I had to turn around and hurry to a place where I could punch out a quick blog post before I went to work.)

I'm all about metaphors, but I'm also all about the plain sense of things, and the message I received through the radio embedded in my tooth right then was plain -- as plain as the tinfoil hat on my head: "You only think you're domesticated, pal. You're still a barbarian, and you need to listen better to the one God gave you too civilize you."

And her name just happens to be . . .

Yes, I helped win a Pulitzer Prize . . . No, really! I did!

2010-10-12T17:32:00.000-07:00

The real medal is solid gold. Mine's bronze, but it's golden to me. "Underfoot, out of reach" was the name of the series about rich deposits of natural gas right underfoot in Southwest Va., and how millions of dollars in profits have been locked in a state-run escrow, out of reach of rightful recipients.

At least that's the publisher's opinion, so from now on I'm going to take a little more ownership of that prize. I did, after all, design a lot of those pages over the run of the series. Reread the already heavily edited stories. Tweaked the preconceived headlines. Proofed the pages. Asked a few cogent questions. Ran many a followup as new laws took shape in the Virginia General Assembly.

But now I have prize-winning proof! Just as Tin Man has a heart on a chain, and Scarecrow has a diploma, I now have my very own 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service Journalism medal.

The soon-to-depart publisher visited folks in the newsroom today one by one to say thanks and to give each a little bronze replica Pulitzer medal of a paperweight size, mounted on a little slab of polished marble. Classy memento, very classy guy. Makes me proud. And I will most certainly miss Carl Esposito as he and I both move on.

Why is John a Lutheran?

2010-09-22T12:31:00.000-07:00

Why is John a Lutheran? Posted recently to Lutheranism101.org. Yes, I really can write a (nearly) Twitter-length confession.

Going Postal with a really big razor blade (or "USPS Seppuku")

2010-09-22T12:11:00.000-07:00

If anyone comes into a post office with one of these, run. Very. Fast. Don't. Yell. Banzai.

The last of Col. Jack Hudson's Mariniana is making its final port of call for this present generation. My mother is downsizing probably for the last time, and in the latest shipment, besides the pretty, girly stuff like the Lismore and the Wedgwood and a cherry-mahogany hutch for Linda, came the "fake Renoir" and the manly things for me -- steel statuette of the Marine Corps Memorial with a bag of Iwo Jima sand tapped into the bottom, the silver and Waterford pen-and-ink set from my dad's fellow officers in Ireland at his hail and farewell in 1943, and "the letter-opener" -- which is what dad said it would be good for.

The Japanese thought it was better for things else, like beheading and gutting and such. Of people. On the battlefield. Or just on oneself if one were having a family-shame and bad-self-esteem day.

Actually, all I can is mythologize on this cute little slicer you see above. I know two things: It's war loot that my father liberated from some dead Japanese soldier in Iwo Jima or Okinawa or China, the entire package is 18 1/2 inches to 2 feet long, and even though many people brag that this or that thing is "razor sharp," this little sword really is rrrrrrrrrrazor sharp. And it's teeny, tiny, pointy, stick-you-like-a-pig-bleed-you sharp, too. And the weight of the package is heavy, and 7/8s steel, 1/8 wood.

Wait, that's four things. Well, you're not going to argue with me, are you? I have the sword.

Next. I have a letter-opener; now I need pen and ink.
And remember that every Sept. 19 is International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Dad's Mamaluke Sword . . .

2010-09-20T23:07:00.000-07:00

My father's saber, which has seen better days. I need to clean it up.

I never got to see Dad wear his Mamaluke sword enough to learn the intricacies of attaching it and the scabbard to the Sam Browne belt. It was never on display, but kept as close to perfectly shiny as possible in the dark of a soft leather case in the murky rear of a closet, ready for use when rarely needed. I never saw him give commands with it, but I'm sure he had snap and assurance. In later years, but before I got it perhaps 20 years ago, its mission was strictly peacetime and convivial: cutting cakes at Marine Corps Birthday balls, and Dad, usually the senior officer at offbase events, by age and retirement if not by rank, use it to help cut the first slice, which is presented to the youngest officer present.

Today, the saber is on tarnished display. I am not proud of the way I've treated it, though I mean to respect to its former owner. It's just an impossible bear to keep such a bear of a polish job shiny, especially when it leans on the stone hearth of a gas-burning fireplace. Someplace better someday, perhaps, though not likely in this house-with-no-walls.

And yes, the handle is real ivory (still legal and available "back then").

Coming next: My new "letter opener."

Welcome the North American Lutheran Church!

2010-08-27T18:35:00.000-07:00

I must confess that I do like this very much. Many faithful people have stuck their necks out for this. I applaud them and may become, if it's God's will, part of them. The North American Lutheran Church.

My Summary of 'The Shack'

2010-08-23T16:35:00.001-07:00

Herewith a summary of "The Shack." I finally got around to it, and I surely enjoyed it a lot, lot more than I did "The Fountainhead," which I punished myself with this summer. (I'm now further punishing myself with "Atlas Shrugged," and a I also recently forced myself to read a very sad, confused memoir -- "At Home at the Heart of Appalachia" -- by a man who left urban intellectual life and returned to live in Appalachian West Virginia in his middle age. It's been a serious summer.)

So here's my snapshot of "The Shack." I hope there are no spoilers:

General evaluation? Mixed feelings. Hard for me to evaluate. Will have to give it another read.

What's it about? A man's healing encounter with the Holy and Most Blessed Trinity, One God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, after a life-shattering event.

Would I recommend it? Yes. It's nothing to be afraid of. It's not polytheistic. It's nor overly modalistic. It's not unitarian. It falls easily into the realm of Christian fantasy. It's not too stilted. It's not namby-pamby, treacly or too carefully Pollyannish.

Good for kids, teens, youths, young adults? I don't think so. It deals with graphic subjects (serial killing, kidnapping and sexual molestation), the emotional responses are at times visceral, it has tragic loss and it demands a reader with a certain number of years and a certain amount of experience of loss to best relate to it.

Good parts: Didn't have to force myself to read. It moved very quickly and it was not long. It treated a very complex subject with humor and with dignity and reverence. It was plainly fictional; whatever heresy was in there had to be in there for the sake of propelling the story; this was not systematic theology.

Bad parts: Conventional plot device to end the story without too much suspension of belief. Didn't like the story-within-a-story; wasn't sure why the author didn't have the courage or didn't exercise the imagination to go first person or at least try some other POV.

Surprise: How Papa became a "man" figure at a pivotal point because that's what the protagonist needed for the difficult journey he was about to take.

Credibility issues: Dishonest complicity with a deputy to make up a cover story on how he found his daughter. (Also, how they covered it up was not explained to the reader, or else I don't recall.)

Possible sequel: I'd like to know more about the reconciliation between the father and the murderer. Did it happen? Where was Trinitarian love in that?

Best theological moment: Author did a good job of illustrating the intimacy within the Trinity of the three persons.

Theological disappointments: Author did a good job of showing the distinction of persons but didn't do too well in illustrating their oneness and their "likeness"/"sameness"/"equality." Didn't handle theodicy very well; I didn't find Jesus' or Papa's explanation of the lessening of the little girl's fear very satisfying; however, theodicy isn't something I've had a big problem with so far in my own life, so maybe all those "Why does God let these things happen or else he must be an ogre" arguments just bore me; I'm fairly comfortable with the fact that I'm a sinner (of a redeemed sort), that the world and the creation are broken by the fall, and some things are just beyond our power to understand.

Personal disappointment: I would have liked getting to know Suraya (the "Holy Spirit") better.

Refreshing things: Not too preachy. De-emphasized decision theology and emphasized God's sovereignty and grace, but without going hyper-Reformed. It fell well within my Lutheran comfort zone.

These are my gut reactions. It ain't a classic. It's no "Pilgrim's Progress." But at least it's in American English and I'm not slogging through C.S. Lewis.

What a clusterbomb . . . Can anything else go wrong?

2010-07-22T11:49:00.000-07:00

Well, a lot, really. But the week has has its frustrations: Big debut ruined by hardware failure, then OS failure, then phone failure when I hit Bristol for the week, then two must-have tires, and a wheel rim that had to be bent back in shape (well, as good as we could get it because money was running out). Yes, life is worse in Somalia, and no, I haven't been losing sleep, but networking for free in McD's, while a handy accoutrement to modern life, doesn't cut it for blogging bandwidth. So here are some more Marines as a teaser. Semper Gumby (Semper Flexibilis), as they say in the Corps. Adapt, Improvise, Overcome. Stay tuned!

Photo by Mike Williamson of part of company-sized honor element and Marine Band for the Old Man. (I'll level it off when I get back on the Mac.)

O Muse, Sing to Me! Arrrrrrgh!

2010-07-18T23:53:00.000-07:00

Repurposing a blog is one very huge pain in the you-know-what -- especially when it didn't have a whole lot of purpose to begin with!

Well, I have purpose now.

My father's funeral over a month ago had a huge impact on me. I learned lessons about love, about grief and sadness, about the love of Christ, about loyalty, beauty, liturgy, mortality, memory, eternity and the Communion of Saints.I also found relief. I'll be writing about those. Promise. Meantime, I'm posting a picture of the stern colonel as inspiration.

On the racks and available at Amazon; buy it!

2010-07-16T11:07:00.001-07:00

Well, the book on Doc is finally out, and it's good, and they did a good job with my photo. Buy it.

http://www.facebook.com/jmhudson?v=wall&story_fbid=110642158986163

And here's the book's endplate:

Now I can breathe again. Whew!

2010-01-19T20:28:00.001-08:00

OK, I have a kid who would benefit enormously from "free" health insurance. But when He "ages out" of our plan, we'll be happy to help him find some way to get it -- without a government dole.

http://www.boston.com/news/special/politics/2010/senate/results.html

Happy Martin Luther King Day!

2010-01-18T19:34:00.001-08:00

Happy Martin Luther King Day!

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I've linked this from the Rev. Paul McCain's Cyberbrethren blog because it best expresses my sentiments about MLK Day. If you think this is a dumb holiday, then maybe you need a different skin color and a few slaves in your family tree.

The Consensus of Purer Antiquity and Lutheranism

2010-01-15T17:36:00.001-08:00

The Consensus of Purer Antiquity and Lutheranism

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Aldous Huxley and Mike Wallace . . .

2009-12-12T18:04:00.001-08:00

http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/multimedia/video/2008/wallace/huxley_aldous.html

Gee, Is It Really a Right? I Mean, Fundamentally?

2009-09-03T15:11:00.000-07:00

This status suddenly is popping up on the Facebook pages of all my lib friends:

"No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick. If you agree, please post this as your status today."

Gee, will I go to hell if I don't change my status and send this to 25 of my friends?

So I've changed my status thusly:

"Somewhere along the way, some came to believe that "'affordable' (or free), quality health care" for all, citizen and non-citizen alike, is a heaven-granted right that's buried somewhere in the U.S. Constitution. How came this to be, and why at this moment? Seriously. And I'm staking no position here."

RIP Luther Martin Elvis Hudson

2008-11-13T09:18:00.000-08:00

I've not posted to this blog since I created it, chiefly out of sadness, partially from laziness, greatly because I don't have anything that I think is important to say. I'll address only the sadness: Luther, this blog's namesake, lost his duel with a pickup truck on June 11, 2006, and in my grief I put him ignominiously in a garbage bag and dropped him in a hole up by the road and then covered him and the hole with lots of large rocks. Thus endeth Luther Martin Elvis Hudson, my first dog in 30+ years and still, more than 3 years later, a hole in my life.

More later.

Why "Luther's Deer Leg"?

2005-02-28T12:08:00.000-08:00

Welcome to "Luther's Deer Leg." I'll have a lot to say about our dog, Luther, here, so it seems appropriate to name this blog for him and for the deer leg that he has buried, dug up, reburied and carried about for the past three months. Sometimes the leg is left lying in the front yard. Sometimes it's left in the driveway. Luther likes to carry it about; he trots with it locked in his tiny jaws of death. He carries it with his head held high. He's proud of his trophy -- and he doesn't want to drag it, since it's heavy to begin with. Luther likes to gnaw on it, of course, and after he has gnawed and slobbered and gotten it good and nasty, he like to rub his face all over it. Then he rolls on it. He rolls and rolls. He stinks. He loves it.

So, Luther and I welcome you to "Luther's Deer Leg." What will you find here? You'll find self-indulgent musings from Luther's dad, of course. You'll also find encomiums to Luther, cairn terrier extraordinaire, laird of LutherLand, lead dog of West Botetourt.

Stay tuned.

John, Luther's dad