Archive for January, 2010

Over Christmas I finally joined the Richard III Society – a group dedicated to correcting his reputation.

Maybe it’s because my own husband’s reputation is being attacked. But it was something I cared about for a long time. Over the years I’ve read a number of books about Richard III – Josephine Tey’s Daughter of Time among them (if you like mystery novels, it’s a great one). He appears to have been a good man. Nothing like Shakespeare portrayed him.

History is written by the winners and the Tudors were notoriously twisted (just think of Henry VIII and Bloody Mary). Their history blames some amazing things on Richard. It seems to me that you can tell more about the man he was by looking at the actions we know were really his – he passed the most enlightened laws on record for the Fifteenth Century:

Laws in English: so the common people could understand their own laws (they had been written in Latin)
Blind Justice: On the first day of his reign, Richard instructed judges and lawyers to dispense justice without regard to a person’s rank, wealth or power.
Presumption of Innocence: He made it illegal to seize a man’s property before he was convicted of the crime. And he instituted bail so that those accused of a crime  would be free until trial. “The law shall cease to be an instrument of oppression and extortion.”
Jury System: He reformed the jury system with protections against bribery and tainted verdicts, and declared that anyone who serves on a jury should be of good repute and must own property in the shire.
Clear Title: He instituted Clear Title so sellers couldn’t sell the same property multiple times.

I don’t really think that my joining the Society will correct history. But it’s important to do – not just believe.

It’s the same with faith in Christ. We say we believe, but if we don’t actually step out and stand on that belief, is it real? If our choices and actions don’t come from that belief, is it real? It’s when we believe and do that we  grow. That we become more like Jesus.

If someone were to look back to judge our reputation, what would they see? What kind of person would they judge us to be? It’s something to think about …

You hear stories of cats waking up their people when there’s a fire and other things like that. But I never gave it much thought until yesterday. We have a courageous cat.

Muff was afraid of the vacuum monster. As soon as I got out the cleaning supplies she would run and hide as far away as she could get. In fact all I had to do was start picking up her toys and she would run.

Lilly is afraid, too. But she deals with it very differently.

She’s obviously afraid. She crouches in a corner – preferably a high corner – and doesn’t take her eyes off it. But, yesterday, I noticed that she doesn’t leave. In fact she follows me from room to room.

I was trying to figure out why she would do that. If she’s afraid, why not go somewhere else? Discretion is the better part of valor after all!

Then it occurred to me that she must be protecting me. She follows me from room to room – she doesn’t leave and hide in rooms I go to – she’s not there when I get there. She comes in after me and the monster.

Could she really be keeping watch? Making sure I’m alright? The way cats think is always surprising, but I’m amazed that she would think it through that way.

She’s a gem!

PS: on the petting front – she has decided that she likes it! In fact when we come home she’ll go up on her hind legs (like a meerkat) to reach our hands! Makes you feel like something special!

I keep hearing about “conservatives” hating Avatar. I don’t know if that’s politically correct for “christian” or not. But I wonder at the anger of these people. I don’t really understand it.

There is a native population in tune with nature (reminiscent of the Indians). There are mercenaries willing to destroy a planet’s eco-system to provide what their dying planet needs (reminiscent of our global warming debates and colonialism). The powerful throughout history really don’t have a great track record – is some kind of guilt coming out as anger? What would make these writers/commentators take it so personally – as if it were a personal attack on them?

Anyway – all the things they focus on are peripheral – none of the angry remarks touch on what the movie is about. Makes me wonder if they’re uncomfortable with it.

They ignore the beautiful story of a broken, empty person finding himself and becoming whole.  It was wonderful. It was inspiring. It was encouraging. What more can you ask from a movie?