An Occasional Thought or Photo

For many years one of my holiday traditions is to make bourbon balls.  I always get requests for the recipe, so here it is, adapted from "A Cooking Affair" by Jan Bertoglio and Jo Le Hudson, 1984, p. 286. Steve's Famous Balls 5 dozen vanilla wafers (a typical 11 oz box contains about 7 dozen vanilla wafers) 1 cup pecans 6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips 1/2 cup sugar 3 tablespoons light corn syrup 1/2 to 3/4 cup bourbon (you can guess which end of the spectrum I end up on) Using a food processor, crush the vanilla wafers in batches yielding 2 1/2 cups of finely crushed cookie crumbs.  Finely chop the pecans in the food processor; then, combine the crushed wafers and chopped pecans in a large bowl. Melt chocolate chips in the top of a double boiler.  Remove from heat and stir in sugar and corn syrup.  Blend the bourbon into the chocolate mixture, stirring until well-combined.  Add the bourbon-chocolate mixture to the crushed wafers and ...

Moment for Stewardship delivered October 28, 2018, at First Presbyterian Church, Urbana, Illinois Immediate family excepted, I don’t consider myself a big hugger.  So, imagine my surprise when at the last PrideFest as I was standing by our booth handing our rainbow stickers, a young person approached and asked for a hug.  I obliged as best I could.  A few more people approached for the same, and then before you know it, yet another person wanted a hug. Finally, I realized that I was standing under a sign hung by Cindy Ottemann that read, “Free Hugs!” I stayed put for a while and was asked for a few more hugs.  These were good hugs, not awkward man hugs.  Rather with each person I felt the intensity of their hug and tried to match it with an equal and opposite reaction: Newton’s third law of hugging.  Hugs, good hugs, are not given, but are shared.  There is no giver, no recipient, just a joint affirmation of each other’s presence.  I guess I...

It arrived midday on a Wednesday, suddenly appearing as if dropped off in bulk.  I examined the hideous mass and estimated its volume at eight cubic yards.  It was dark, mysterious, smelling of ancient days.  Though this neighborhood hales itself as Old Farm, this mass reached back further in time with the notes of earth and decay.   As I circled this phenomena, steam rose from its center, a type of exhale; a warmth emanating from its heart in contrast with the cool, spring breeze.  It was exerting its presence.  Though an old one, it was becoming known. I was concerned not only for the appearance of this mass but also for its impact, considerably impairing my ability to extract my horseless carriage from its stall.  Being a man of action I knew something must be done, and it must be done by me.  As one eats the elephant one bite at a time and walks a mile one step at a time, I began a long and laborious endeavor.  With square shov...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's The Divine Comedy .  At the end of Purgatory , Dante declared he was ready to rise to the stars.  In the opening canto of Volume 3: Paradise , he does so.  Standing with Beatrice in Earthly Paradise, he observes her staring intensely into the sun, the divine light.  Her gaze inspired him to do the same.  As light shining downward causes a reflection back up, he felt himself transformed.  Something was happening. Whether it was the last created part of me alone that rose, O Sovereign Love, You know Whose light it was that lifted me. Dante did not sprout wings and fly on his own.  He was lifted.  He heard the music of the spheres of heaven, and he saw the sphere of fire which in Dante's worldview separated the earth and air from the heavens.  Every experience fed his eagerness and curiosity.  Pursuit of the divine light leads to a greater, deeper pursuit.  I can imagine Dante accel...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's The Divine Comedy . It's time for Dante to graduate in Canto 33 of Purgatory , the end of this volume.  He has but one task left: to drink from the other sacred stream, the Enoё which restores the memory and strength from his good deeds, first mentioned by Matelda in Canto 28.  Beatrice explains his need of this second stream. Then she to me: "It is my wish that you from now on free yourself from fear and shame, and cease to speak like someone in a dream." These words follow Dante's timid attempts to overcome his on-going inability to speak to Beatrice.  He is still overwhelmed even after his confession and washing in Lethe, though he has no guilt to cause shame.  He needs the confidence of his own virtues restored to have the boldness to interact with Beatrice. As representing Divine Wisdom, Beatrice is still beyond Dante's limits of human comprehension. She explains the allegory of the pageant witnessed...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's The Divine Comedy . Dante finally gets to gaze fully into the face of Beatrice at the start of Canto 32 of Purgatory .  He has waited ten years for this moment.  The experience consumes his whole being to the point of concern of some of the assembled heavenly beings. I was bereft of every other sense. My eyes, walled in by barrier of high indifference, were drawn to her holy smile-- they were entranced by her familiar spell. ... "He should not look so hard!" I heard them say. The concern by the maidens representing virtues was not an over-obsession on Dante's part.  It was not romance or lust.  It was preparedness.  Dante's thoughts were pure, reigned in by the barrier of high indifference.  But like looking at the sun, the virtuous maidens feared Dante would become blinded by the radiance of the divine wisdom represented by Beatrice.  Indeed, it takes a while for his eyes to adjust. The res...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's The Divine Comedy . Beatrice continues her schooling of Dante in Canto 31 of Purgatory .  In the previous canto, her accusations were in the third person as she addressed the heavenly court.  Now she has turned directly to Dante.  "He" becomes "you."  As the reader, he becomes me.  She is pushing Dante to confession. "speak now, is this not true?  Speak!  You must seal with your confession this grave charge I make!" Dante began weeping in the Canto 30.  He has expressed he remorse, but he has yet to expressly admit his faults to others.  Dante finally gives a weak "yes", but Beatrice urges him to elaborate. "...what pitfalls did you find.... And what appealed to you, what did you find so promising in all those other things that made you feel obliged to spend your time in courting them?"... Beatrice's beauty was Dante's inspiration to pursue Beauty while she was ...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's The Divine Comedy . As many horror movies promise that there will be blood, Canto 30 of Purgatory promises that there will be tears, and delivers on that promise.  The grand procession has stopped across from Dante, but the show is not over.  One hundred angels appear above the chariot, begin to sing, and drop a cascade of flowers, "a rain of flowers", in the air above the chariot.  Through this veil of flowers, Beatrice appears, emerging from the chariot.  Dante turns to express his excitement to Virgil, but Virgil is gone.  Beatrice represents the wisdom of God.  Virgil, as the keeper of human wisdom, is no longer relevant and is inferior.  Dante now only needs to look at divine wisdom. The larger than life grand scale seems ridiculous; it continues the overkill from the previous canto.  Neither Hollywood nor Trump could have designed a grander entrance.  Yet as Beatrice represents Go...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's The Divine Comedy . Canto 29 of Purgatory is all pomp and circumstance.  All the stops are pulled out for Dante and his companions.  He is is walking upstream parallel to Matelda each on their respective banks when she beckons his attention. "My brother, look and listen." The rest of the canto is the arrival of a magnificent procession:  seven radiant candlesticks, twenty-four elders, four six-winged creatures, a chariot led by a griffin with three ladies to the right and four to the left, with seven men following.  Each member of the procession is described in terms of superlatives.  Translator Mark Musa provides the representation of each member:  the seven candlesticks are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit; the twenty-four elders are the books of the Old Testament; the four creatures symbolize the four gospels; the chariot is the church and the griffin, the dual nature of Christ; the three ladies are th...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's The Divine Comedy . Dante is on his own in Canto 28 of Purgatory .  Virgil and Statius are still present, but silent.  Dante is choosing his own path, and only late in the canto is it revealed that Virgil and Statius are following him.  Virgil told Dante at the end of the last canto that his is now his own guide, and he should follow his own instincts. Doing so, Dante is exploring the Earthly Paradise, the Garden of Eden.  Dante the author is creating an interesting nested symmetry here.  The travelers have undergone a long journey only to arrive at the mythical birthplace of humankind.  At another level, Dante began his journey in Canto 1 of Inferno in a dark wood, unclear of how he arrived.  He now describes his exploring of Eden similarly. By now, although my steps were slow, I found myself so deep within the ancient wood I could not see the place where I came in. and suddenly, I saw blockin...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's The Divine Comedy . After skirting the flames of the seventh terrace for the past two cantos, Dante, Virgil, and Statius hit a roadblock in Canto 27 of Purgatory .  They encounter a new wall of flames, a final act of purification; the only way to proceed is through the flames.  An angel states, "Holy souls, no farther can you go without first suffering fire.  So, enter now, and be not deaf to what is sung beyond." Virgil has to take three approaches to convince Dante to walk into the fire.  First, he provides assurance from harm based on past experiences and reason. ...O my dear son, there may be pain here, but there is no death. Remember all your memories! If I took care of you when we rode Geryon, shall I do less when we are nearer God? Believe me when I say that if you spent a thousand years within the fire's heart, it would not singe a single hair of yours. It's a bit like coaxing med...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's The Divine Comedy . In Canto 26 of Purgatory , Dante, Virgil, and Statius are still teetering on the edge of the seventh terrace, the Terrace of the Lustful, trying not to get burned by the fire nor fall off the ledge as they navigate their way around the mountain.  Virgil's warning to Dante is both literal and figurative. ...we were walking at the ledge's edge in single file--my good guide telling me from time to time: "I warn you now, take heed!"... Virgil is echoing a similar warning in the previous canto.  Dante the author (and hence Virgil) see the temptation to surrender to physical desire very real and ever-present.  Like the terrace of the Proud, the souls here are too numerous to count.  Dante encounters a poet Guido Guinizelli who comments, ...Should you want to know our names, I do not know them all, and if I did, there still would not be time. Dante the author also sees his profession as po...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's The Divine Comedy . Dante becomes more timid in Canto 25 of Purgatory .  In Canto 24, Dante began almost boasting of his ability to walk and talk with Forese without inhibiting conversation or progress.  In today's canto, Dante doubts himself again.  Maybe it is because Forese was his friend, and he is much less comfortable asking questions of his guides Virgil and Statius.  Maybe it is because he and Forese were walking side-by-side on an open path.  The setting has changed. so did we make our entrance through the gap and, separated by that narrow space, in single file, we started climbing stairs. Some paths induce solitude and discourage conversation.  Walking on pine needles on a narrow path in a lush forest makes talking seem inappropriate.  When the trail opens up onto a broad meadow, it's time to regroup and talk. The narrow path has the muting effect on Dante. ...my longing to inquire ...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's The Divine Comedy . Canto 24 in Purgatory continues with the emphasis on time exhibited in the previous canto.  Dante begins by justifying his conversation with Forese. Talking did not slow down our walk, nor did walking our talk: conversing, on we sped like ships enjoying favorable winds. After his many stops and starts, it seems Dante is proving to the reader than he can walk and talk at the same time.  His investment of time with Forese, his departed colleague, is not hampering his real goal of ascending.  Dante is honoring Forese with the extended conversation.  Canto 24 is one of the few cantos in which Virgil is silent.  Dante has moved his focus from his guide to his friend.  There is even a reluctance to end the scene and a wish for a second meeting. ...Forese let the holy flock rush by him while he still kept step with me as he inquired, "When shall we meet again?" "How long my life ...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's The Divine Comedy . It's about time, Canto 23 in Purgatory , and how we spend it.  Dante is staring up at a magical tree that it in their path when, my more than father called to me: "Dear son, come with me now; the time allotted us ought to be spend more profitably." Dante frequently expresses his dependence on Virgil, yet also talks have having to leave him at some point since Virgil can take him only so far on the path to Paradise.  It is a bittersweet comment, yet Dante knows that he cannot spend all of his time with Virgil. A group of skin-and-bones shades pass the travelers.  The shades are singing from Psalm 51, "Open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise."  These are the shades of the Gluttonous, lamenting of their pour use of time (and of their mouths) while on earth.  One of the shades, Forese, notices that Dante is still human and exclaims, What grace has been bestowed on me! It...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's The Divine Comedy . The newfound relationship between Virgil and Statius is center stage in Canto 22 of Purgatory .  The angel brushing off another of Dante's P's and the group's ascendance to the sixth terrace are just side comments.  The focus is on Virgil and Statius with Dante following from behind ease-dropping on their conversation. Virgil is surprised that Statius was guilty of avarice from what he has heard about the Roman poet from others.  Statius points out Virgil's error. Appearances will often, it is true, give rise to false assumptions, when the truth to be revealed is hidden from our eyes. ... In truth, I had no part in Avarice; in fact, too little!  The sin I purged below, thousands of months, was Prodigality. Virgil's own warnings in his writing caused Statius to shun greed.  He went to the other extreme instead, spending too liberally, exhausting his own personal wealth in careles...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's The Divine Comedy . Canto 21 of Purgatory opens with some drama.  At then end of Canto 20, Dante and Virgil feel the mount tremble and hear a tremendous but joyous shout.  Now Dante is still wondering what has happened "when suddenly ... a shade appeared!"  Dante couches the experience in two scenes with Christ.  He expresses his desire to know what was going on as analogous to the woman at the well with Jesus. The natural thirst which nothing satisfies except that water begged for long ago by the poor woman of Samaria tormented me... Dante likens the appearance of the shade the the appearance of Jesus to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.  As Jesus provided guidance and instruction to the woman and the two travelers, so will the shade with Dante and Virgil, not revealing his identity until later: the Latin poet Statius. Statius, though, gets off on a rocky foot.  When Virgil introduces himsel...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's The Divine Comedy . Dante and Virgil continue their path around the fifth terrace of avarice in Canto 20 of Purgatory .  Dante leaves behind Pope Adrian and declares avarice as the most common sin among the faithful.  Three times in the canto Dante mentions how difficult it is to find a path to walk among all of the souls lying face down on the ground; it's just too crowded.  There are two loud curses at Greed, one by the narrator and one by the highlighted soul of this canto, the French monarch Hugh Capet. Dante reminds the reader of the beast encountered in the opening canto of The Divine Comedy blocking the pilgrim's way up the mountain. God damn you, ageless She-Wolf, you whose greed, whose never-sated appetite, has claimed more victims than all other beasts of prey! Hugh Capet laments Greed's hold on his descendants. O Avarice, what more harm can you do? You have so fascinated all my heirs, they have no...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's The Divine Comedy . Canto 19 of Purgatory is centered on restlessness.  The canto opens with a disturbing dream of the Pilgrim.  He's sees a Siren, first hideous then transformed, who compels him to stay with her until Virgil again exposes her hideousness, and Dante awakes from his dream.  The dream haunts Dante as they finish their time in the Terrace of the Slothful, ascend, and begin their path on the fifth terrace.  Dante is so preoccupied that the appearance of the angel showing them the way is barely recognized.  Virgil explains that the sorceress in his dream represented the sins of the next three levels in purgatory:  Avarice, Gluttony, and Lust.  Even though Dante "escaped" his dream, he seems bothered by its mere appearance in his mind. While I could feel good that I have avoided an act of selfishness, I can still be restless and troubled by the desire to be selfish.  Self-awareness of tend...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's The Divine Comedy . Canto 18 in Purgatory  seems taken from an academic setting.  Virgil and Dante sit immobilized in the dark on the Terrace of the Slothful engaged in deep thoughts.  Virgil had just completed his description of the levels of purgatory at the end of the previous canto. When he had brought his lecture to an end, the lofty scholar looked into my face, searching to see if I seemed satisfied. While they cannot move, they are not slothful.  The travelers use their time wisely to discuss fundamental concepts.  I remember serious discussions like these when I was in college, but why did I leave those behind?  The diploma did not answer all of life's questions.  For the first thousand years of Christianity, heated debates were held not just by scholars but among lay people regarding the nature of the Trinity and the nature of Christ.  Are those questions seriously undertaken outside of...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's The Divine Comedy . Canto 17 of Purgatory is the midpoint of this middle volume, so thus the midpoint of The Divine Comedy .  This journey which began is a dark wood is now in a dense cloud of smoke; multiple times Dante has shown that the path to light is littered with periods of darkness.  It can be like driving in the early morning on the Blue Ridge Parkway, ascending in light only to be enveloped by fog once your reach the top, driving somewhat blinded, until the fog begins to lift.  The reward is a stunning view. The cloud clears for Dante as well, and he immediately receives visions of the fate of the Wrathful.  Symmetric with the early visions of the examples of the Meek, the visions occur before and after the cloud of the wrath.  It is a narrative reminder of the blindness caused by wrath making me inaccessible to receive wisdom or guidance.  Dante's instructive visions, while they do not require site,...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's The Divine Comedy . At the end of Canto 15 of Purgatory Virgil and Dante are enveloped in a dense cloud of smoke as the reach the next terrace, the Terrace of the Wrathful.  Canto 16 is set wholly in the midst of this dense, acrid smoke representing the blindness of wrath.  Dante hears the voices sing Agnus Dei , Lamb of God, which ends in a request to grant us peace, the opposite of wrath. The travelers encounter Marco of Lombard.  Unlike the souls encountered among the Proud or the Envious, Marco must be fairly far along in his penance of wrath.  He describes little of his life on earth to explain his presence on this terrace. I knew about the world, I loved that good at which men now no longer aim their bows. He pursued valor and virtue but fears no one follows that path today.  Maybe within his statement that he knew about the world there's a deeper story.  Dante sees this as an opening to ask Marco ...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's The Divine Comedy . In Canto 15 of Purgatory , Dante moves from blindness to light through both literal and figurative reflection.  The blindness comes quickly. But suddenly I felt my brow forced down by light far brighter than I sensed before; my mind was stunned by what it did not know . He will continued to be stunned throughout the canto.  Dante first assumes the brightness is the reflection of the late afternoon sun off some surface even to the point of reminding the reader that the angle of reflection is equal to the angle of incidence.  Virgil, though, explains that it is a heavenly being inviting them to ascend.  He tells Dante that what he cannot see now will become visible in time. Not long from now, a sight like this will prove to be no burden, but a joy as great as Nature has prepared your soul to feel. Goodness juxtaposed against shortcomings can be hard or really just embarrassing to...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's The Divine Comedy . The awkwardness of Canto 13 bleeds over into Canto 14 in Purgatory .  The canto opens with dialogue between two yet-to-be-named souls wondering about Dante.  When faced with an unexpected visitor, they like me are quick to ask another before confronting the newcomer directly.  The soul's inquiry to Dante includes a bit of irony considering the Envious have their eyes sewn shut. "...please tell where you are from and who you are.  The grace that God has given you fills us with awe, for this is something never seen before." Dante gives a very round about answer describing his homeland without naming it directly.  This does not go unnoticed by the souls.  I have described my home as "near Chicago" to people outside the US.  It is an easy way to deflect a probing question requiring little expansion.  Everyone has heard of Chicago.  I've answered the question.  To say...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's The Divine Comedy . As my title indicates, Canto 13 in Purgatory has an awkward feel to it.  Dante and Virgil arrive on the next level of purgatory which leads Virgil in an elaborate decision process of whether to go left or right, calling upon Natural Reason to be his guide.  It is an overly dramatic depiction of a crap shoot. Virgil recovers, identifying their location as the circle of the Envious after hearing three quick admonitions for charity. ...The Envious this circle scourges--that is why the whip used hear is fashioned from the cords of love. The opposing virtue to the sin Envy is Charity or love for others.  Indeed, how can I have love for others if I also resent the success of others, or even relish their downfall.  When I look at celebrities and politicians, it is easy to revel in the fall of the mighty, and the mightier the better.  I may justify this reaction by citing abuse of position or i...

A daily reflection during Lent on Dante's The Divine Comedy . Now in Canto 12 of Purgatory , Dante and Virgil have left the prideful souls behind.  The impact on Dante is clear. I stood up straight to walk the way man should, but, though my body was erect, my thoughts were bowed and shrunken to humility. Dante is lost in thought three times in this canto.  Each time Virgil has to point out something new to him, to get him to move on.  Virgil tells Dante to leave Oderisi behind, to examine the lessons carved into the stone on which there were walking, and finally to look up to see an approaching angel.  Left to his own devices, Dante would remain lost in thought.  Virgil calls him to move, to see, and finally to receive.  While being lost in thought can be clarifying and therapeutic, it can also cause inaction, blindness, and missed opportunity. The lessons on pride continue for Dante as he examines thirteen exquisite carvings on the stone path...