The Arrow's Path

After a hard summer of CPE and an even harder week of sleeping in, playing computer games, and watching classic horror flicks, the Archer has put out Gone Fishin' BlogSign. There's a great little place on Cherokee Lake near Bean Station, TN. Provided of course that Katrina does not wash me out, I will be at Cardnal Cove with my fishing rods, frying pan, and a dobie or two. I Shall Return...at some point.

This week's Shameless Dobie Pic 

Since Kyle is moving to Oxford, (England not Mississippi,)I thought he might like to watch this video blurb from the BBC. Its an interesting take from the exciting people who brought you blood pudding on the American phenomenon of MegaChurches. Apparently they also mortgage houses for lost pet rewards...

I found this interesting article on the Newsweek website. Its about spirituality in America. You might give it a looksee.

The week: How the World was Made (From Myths of the Cherokee , compiled by James Mooney) How The World Was Made The earth is a great island floating in a sea of water, and suspended at each of the four cardinal points by a cord hanging down from the sky vault, which is of solid rock. When the world grows old and worn out, the people will die and the cords will break and let the earth sink down into the ocean, and all will be water again. The Indians are afraid of this. When all was water, the animals were above in Gälûñ'lätï, beyond the arch; but it was very much crowded, and they were wanting more room. They wondered what was below the water, and at last Dâyuni'sï, "Beaver's Grandchild," the little Water-beetle, offered to go and see if it could learn. It darted in every direction over the surface of the water, but could find no firm place to rest. Then it dived to the bottom and came up with some soft mud, which began to grow and spread on every side until it b...

Here is this week's Shameless Dobie Pic (tm) 

That as they say is that...CPE is officially over. And not a moment too soon. We were all about to kill each other or at least assasinate the supervisor. But we ended in style, going out for barbeque at Calhoun's on the River . Here Endeth the Reading Thanks be to God

Due to the unfortunate spamming advertisements (and there was a doozy earlier) that I have been getting as comments, I have changed the comment option to only people registered with blogspot. Sorry for any inconvenience, I had hoped not to have to do this, as I do get very insightful anonymous comments. However, due to the rampant rash of spamvertisement, I feel like I have no choice.

I have been doing some research, trying to track down some Cherokee myths I remember my grandmother telling me when I was a boy. I finally found some of the ones I remember in a book entitled the Myths of the Cherokee (indeed a novel title). Most are fairly short, good blog length. If people are interested in reading them, I may include some more on my blog here periodically. I also added some links to the Cherokee nation and some other general purpose Cherokee links. I do not think any of them are overtly political in nature, but occasionally political stuff does pop up on those sites. I avoid politics on this blog, so just be warned. Without further adieu, this is one of my favorite stories when I was little... The Unseen Helpers Ganogwioeoñ, a war chief of the Seneca, led a party against the Cherokee. When they came near the first town he left his men outside p. 360 and went in alone. At the first house he found an old woman and her granddaughter. They did not see him, and he went i...

I have been attending St James' parish in Knoxville over the summer, time permitting. My great aunt and her daughter attend there. They have one of the best choirs I have ever heard in an Episcopal Church, and the 8AM service uses Rite I with the fixed side altar, which makes me happy. An interesting phenomenon I noticed when I moved out of the South was when I am in the South, I am a high church hooligan. I always thought I was high church until I moved to Nebraska. I asked the rector of St. James this morning if they ever used incense...you would have thought I had asked if they sacrificed kittens or something. When I am out of the South, I apparently morph into the John Calvin "Low Church"award winning Seaburian/hooligan. Go Figure... Speaking of high church incense, I ordered some incense from Holy Cross monastery that came this week, and its high quality. I recommend it, and I included a link in my Religious Institutions section. Surf over for your monastic fix. Mon...

Old joke: where do 160 pounds of dobies sit? Anywhere they want!

Well, the final week of CPE is about to begin...This has been about the longest summer of my life. I thought it would never end. But such is the nature of CPE I suppose.

Chaplain: Hello, I'm the chaplain...I hear from the nurse you were having a rough night. Mr. X: I have an abcess on my right buttock. Chaplain: Wow, that must be scary. Mr. X: Yeah, I think I have butt cancer. Chaplain: I'm no doctor, but I am pretty sure muscles cannot get cancer. Mr. X: Really? Thank you, Jesus! I'm healed from butt cancer! Take that, Oral Roberts!

One of the members of my CPE group was ordained a Catholic priest prior to Vatican II. He left the priesthood to get married around 1970. So, we have been bantering in Latin a bit. I had a bit of an idea for my blog: Latin Lessons of the Week. We will see if this is something that my readers might be interested in. Lesson I: Understanding the Latin Case System English has essentially 3 case systems because it is totally dependent on prepositions and word order. Latin uses 7 cases, 5 of which are major and the other 2 minor. The majors are: Nominative, Genitive, Datative, Accusative, and Ablative. Vocative and Locative are the two minors, which I will dispense with for now. Nominative : Like in English, the nominative is used to express the subject of the sentence or any noun that agrees with the subject. For example: 'The Archer is writing a blog' or 'The loser is Miami. Archer and Miami are in the nominative case. Genitive : This case in Latin is used to limit the noun or ...

Here is an interesting article from the Church of England newspaper. I found it of interest... An old man with a long, grey beard and pointy hat stands on a stepladder in the town square, haranguing the crowds. Is he some kind of lunatic? No – or at least, perhaps not. He’s the Wizard, regarded by critics as a ‘living work of art’ and officially recognized as ‘national wizard’ by the Prime Minister of New Zealand. Despite having been born and raised in England, the Wizard has successfully become one of New Zealand’s most recognizable and beloved figures, and his lectures – delivered outside the cathedral in Christchurch – are always popular attractions. When not preaching his idiosyncratic politics or casting rain spells (something that would no doubt infuriate Agobard of Lyons), the Wizard is devoted – and, indeed, charged by the government – to devising ‘a new and improved universe which puts New Zealand on top of the world both physically and metaphysically’. The most well-known man...

Woo Hoo! I have finished my last overnight on-call as a CPE chaplain...and I went out with a bang. I had screaming patients, rejects from the Cocke County cock fight, and a disgruntled Vietnam Vet with post traumatic stress disorder. Fun fun, you say. Sleep, sleep, I say. 36 hours and counting. I'm too old for this...

I have an friend of mine who is an Antiochian Orthodox minister now up at a mission in Johnson City, TN. They are interesting folks, and its been a while since I went to such a liturgy, but Father Michael's church's website has an interesting 12 things to expect from an orthodox liturgy which I thought was quite interesting. For those interested in ecumenism and eastern liturgy, you might give this a look see. Also is an interesting dialog between an Orthodox and an Evangelical (welcome to the buckle of the Bible belt) which I found amusing. I make no warrant on either theologies espoused, but its worth the time. Why do I have such weird friends?

Well, my three week CPE marathon finally ended yesterday. I was on call for 2 weekends straight, so I have essentially had 1 day off in the last 18 days. I am beginning to think CPE is a church sponsored sweat shop for seminarians, but be that as it may. In any event, I went fishing today because there is but a fine line between fishing and napping on the lakeshore. As I was sitting there between catches, I had a notepad and wrote down some ruminations about fishing: 1. The root name of "trout" goes back to an ancient Germanic root 'trauz,' which means to bite. 2. "Some people dwelling near the sea affirm that of all the creatures living, the fish is the quickest of hearing..." -Aristotle 3. "Someone just back of you while fishing is as bad as someone looking over your shoulder while you write a letter to your girl..." -Ernest Hemingway 4. That having been said, Pan fried fish should be crispy and golden on the outside and moist and juicy on the ...

Dobie Pic of the Week 

Here is a interesting and somewhat provocative article by the chair of the philosophy department at the University of Tennessee. He came and spoke to my CPE group about such notions and Euthanasia and a right to die. I did not agree with much of anything the man said, but here is the article: http://web.utk.edu/~jhardwig/RightTime.htm Please let me know what you think of this. I'd love to hear some outside feedback.