Log24

Countin’ Flowers on the Wall

Today, the birthday of Bob Keeshan (aka Captain Kangaroo), seems an appropriate day to meditate on religious issues.

The death of minimalist artist Fred Sandback on June 23, coupled with my vitriolic attack on Christianity of that same date, suggest that I should give some recognition to defenders of that bizarre religion.

Two of Christianity’s most able defenders are singer Martina McBride and professor of English Gerald McDaniel.

McBride has stated loudly and clearly her conviction that

“Love’s the only house big enough for all the pain in the world.”

I may be mistaken, but this sounds to me like a profession of faith in the Christian church.

McDaniel’s Cultural Calendar includes many items of Christian interest (saints’ days, etc.) but also includes a greater variety of general cultural history than any other online calendar I know of.  Like all Christian documents, it displays little regard for the truth (dates are often wrong), but its heart seems to be in the right place.  Most important, in light of McBride’s persuasive song lyric, is the fact that McDaniel’s calendar — and therefore, perhaps, his church — does seem to be big enough — at least in principle — for some of the pain in the world, as well as some of the joy.  Unfortunately, the church has much less room for truth than for emotion.

For emotion, see McBride’s album of that title.  For some thoughts on truth, see McBride’s fellow country singer, Patty Loveless (whom I greatly prefer to McBride).

The above reflection was prompted by McDaniel’s having a written a document that includes both of the following items for June 27:

• TV’s Captain Kangaroo, Bob Keeshan, was born on this day in 1927. He was also Clarabelle the Clown on Howdy Doody.
  
• On this day in 1928, an American expatriate bookseller, Sylvia Beach, and her companion Adrienne Monnier, had a dinner party to which they invited James Joyce and Scott Fitzgerald. It was held at her flat above her bookstore Shakespeare & Company….

These two items appear to have been placed by McDaniel in the right date slot.  (Christians may sometimes have the right values, but should never be trusted to have their facts straight.)