Blog by-the-Sea

Dead Sea Scrolls Video

There is a video about the upcoming San Diego Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit, and about the history of the Dead Sea Scrolls, available to download on the museum website here.  Scheduled to run from June 29 to December 31, the San Diego exhibit is expected to be the biggest Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit ever, including some things that have not been shown before.

A Civil War Song and Story for Memorial Day

Memorial Day (Remembrance Day):

This post includes a song and a story from the southern U.S. at the end of the American Civil War, thought by some to be the origin of today's remembrance of those who died in U.S. wars, Memorial Day. 

Here is a short explanation of the history of Memorial Day, keeping in mind that about 35% of those who pass this blog are from other countries.

Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day, a day when people placed flowers on soldiers' graves.  While our Veteran's Day originated in Armistice Day, at the end of World War I, Memorial Day originated in the southern states at the end of the U.S. Civil War. Both holidays originated in grieving the dead rather than celebrating a victory.  There is an earlier post on this blog about World War I from last year's Veterans/Armistice Day (Requiem for the Fallen Soldiers). While Armistice Day (Veteran's Day in the U.S.) is called "Poppy Day" in South Africa and Malta, poppies are associated with Memorial Day in the U.S.

Memorial Day now remembers all Americans who died in wars, not just the Civil War.  Since the 1950's, American flags have been placed on the graves in American military cemeteries on Memorial Day.  The holiday is moved to a Monday or Friday to make a 3-day week-end, and it has become a day for the beach, a picnic or a barbecue, marking the beginning of summer and the end of the school year.   As such, the original meaning is often forgotten.

Where the military meaning is observed, perhaps especially since World War II and the Korean War, the holiday has been combined sometimes with political support or opposition to a particular war.  Those who remember World War II or the Korean War often combine it with their support for the U.S. military, while Viet Nam veterans and anti-war protesters have sometimes used the day to remember their opposition.  In their origin, neither Memorial Day nor Veterans Day had to do with support for a particular war effort itself, or for a particular foreign policy.  Rather, both originated in wars associated with great numbers of losses and great grief.

Of course, there is a movement toward a return to the original meaning of Memorial Day as a day of remembrance for those who died.  As U.S. troops have died recently in Iraq, including those from Camp Pendleton near here, this post remembers their sacrifices and the sacrifices of their loved ones.  A tribute to them does not necessarily imply support for either side of the present U.S. controversy.  Rather, it celebrates the values of honor, duty, and self-sacrifice, and it remembers those who have grieved past losses, and those who grieve today.

A Civil War Song from the Origins of "Remembrance Day":

The following song remembers the southern wives and loved ones placing flowers on the graves of men who died in battle in the South, near the end, and after the South lost that war to the North, at the origin of Memorial Day:

Kneel Where Our Loves Are Sleeping
by Mrs. L. Nella Sweet, 1867

Kneel where our loves are sleeping,
Dear ones loved in days gone by,
Here we bow in holy revrence,
Our bosoms heave the heart-felt sigh,
They fell like brave men, true as steel,
And pour'd their blood like rain,
We feel we owe them all we have,
And can but kneel and weep again.

Kneel where our loves are sleeping,
They lost, but still were good and true,
Our fathers, brothers, fell still fighting,
We weep, tis all that we can do.

Here we find our noble dead,
Their spirits soar'd to Him above,
Rest they now about his throne,
For God is mercy, God is love,
Then let us pray that we may live
As pure and good as they have been,
That dying, we may ask of Him,
To ope the gate and let us in.

Kneel where our loves are sleeping,
They lost, but still were good and true,
Our fathers, brothers, fell still fighting,
We weep, tis all that we can do.

Source: Historic American Sheet Music from Duke University.

A Civil War Story:

My grandmother was a southern old lady, as I knew her, who was born around the turn of the last century when her father was 60 years old.  As a young man, he had fought for the South in the Civil War, and he had told her about it when she was a little girl growing up in the Deep South.

I had difficulty listening to my grandmother's stories when I was an undergrad at Berkeley in the early 1970's.  Her view of America's wars was so different from mine, and her view of the Civil War in particular was different from mine.  I had come to love the writing of Abraham Lincoln and had a great respect for Martin Luther King, Jr.  My favorite novelist was Henry James, who had two younger brothers who served as officers with the black regiments of Massachusetts in that war.  My loyalties were with the North.  I could not easily relate then to my grandmother, one of those old southern ladies in the Daughters of the Confederacy, who still remembered my family's southern Civil War heritage.

Over the years, I came to appreciate my great-grandfather who had fought for the wrong side in America's most deadly war.  It is not an easy thing to do, to appreciate the sacrifices made by those who fought in combat for what I do not think was a moral or worthy cause.  However, their values gave priority to honor, country, duty and self-sacrifice for what they believed was the good of their country.  Those values are worth remembering.

My grandmother still had my great grandfather's discharge certificate from the Confederate Army, which she kept hidden in the back of a picture frame.  She showed it to me one day, and told me having it had made it easy for her to prove her Civil War ancestry to get into the Daughters of the Confederacy.  Her sister, who was in the Daughters of the American Revolution, had had a more difficult time proving her ancestry.

My great grandfather was very young when he volunteered for the Confederate Army.  He was shot during one of the battles, and he told my grandmother about his time at an infirmary.  It was not what we, today, would think of as an infirmary.  It was just a place to stay until they were able to walk home, or until someone from their family came looking for them to take them home.  There was no one there for medical assistance except two nuns and a medic to do those things for the wounded soldiers that the nuns could not do.  The two nuns had rolled him up in a blanket and carried him off of the battle field to the nearby infirmary, where he stayed until he was able to get home.

Although he was a Baptist, for the rest of his life, my great grandfather showed honor to nuns whenever he saw them.  He did not see many nuns in Mississippi, where my grandmother grew up.  My grandmother remembered her first trip with her father to a "big city" -- Biloxi -- when she was a little girl.  There, for the first time in her life, she saw nuns, in their heavy long habits, early in the 20th century.  Her father went over to talk to them, as he always spoke to nuns whenever he saw them.  My grandmother said she was afraid they would "swish me away in their skirts."

The story was told that way, in the late 20th century, in a tape that one of my cousins made of my grandmother's stories of the Old South.  She also described the first time she saw an automobile, the first time she saw a flush toilet, and so forth.  It may have been told that way, in part, because I had Catholic cousins, her Catholic great grandchildren.  I did not remember hearing much about the nuns before, although I had heard my grandmother's civil war stories and my father's World War II stories so much as a small child that it was not until my first American History class in elementary school that I knew which of those two wars had come first.

War is a complicated matter, to say the obvious.  Separating the value of duty and self-sacrifice from the value of a particular war is a complicated matter.  Memorial Day remembers the sacrifice made and the loss of loved ones in wartime.  This post has been an expression of that remembrance, with respect for those who died and for those who mourn their loss.

Philippe Boutry: Truth and History

Here is an English translation of portions of Philippe Boutry's lecture this morning at Notre Dame Cathedral of Paris, part of the second in a series of Lenten lectures, which can be viewed online at KTO French Catholic television.  This translation is of those portions included in  a transcription published in La-Croix.  For an overview and schedule of the series, see this earlier post.  Read to the end for a discussion of forgiveness and the love of God who reconciles man to Himself:

The second section of the Lenten Conferences at Notre Dame de Paris. Philippe Boutry and Father Gerard Pelletier compare their viewpoints on the topic "To make memory: Truth and History"

Extracts from Philippe Boutry, Historian:

"History and memory seem at first glance to be two concepts very close to each other, connected so to speak; it is, however, important to clearly distinguish them. . . .  Memory makes history possible and provides it with its material; history, in turn, nourishes memory, guarantees its exactitude, confers on it an intelligibility, gives it a form, and, as far as possible, a meaning.

Memory and history thus maintain particularly close connections; and yet, they do not coincide. . . .  Memory is fuller than history: there are human societies whose history is little known, even unknown; but there are no human societies without memory.  Furthermore, memory more broadly solicits the capacities of the human being; it does not belong only to the register of intelligence, but also to that of affectivity and feeling; it integrates the whole of an actual experience.  History, on its part, is more intimately linked to its own forms of construction and expression: in its sources, in narration and writing; it has acquired  in the flow of centuries, critical methods and a scientific aim.  Memory and history can thus diverge, can sometimes even enter into conflict. . . .

History is rooted in memory; and that is what confers on it, since the Highest Antiquity, its raison d'être and its legitimacy within the erudition of humanity. . . .  In that sense, history almost seems to merge with memory which gave birth to it and nourished it: The memory of men and women, transmitted from generation to generation, within the family, of a group or of society; the memory of origins and times bygone, doings and heroes, collective events and great men; the memory of places and spaces through which great works of the past are inscribed in experiential time.

A Concern for Preservation of Its Cultural Capital.

. . . If the 19th century had been the century of history, and particularly national history, but cared very imperfectly about conservation, the 20th century tended to make sacred the concept of ‘heritage’ out of a concern for preservation of its cultural capital not free from ideological or tourist aims . . . Notre Dame Cathedral of Paris, where we are joined together today, owes no doubt more, in several of its parts, to the architect Viollet-le-Duc, who restored it following the Revolution, than to its medieval architects; and "to restore a building", wrote the latter, "is not to maintain it, repair it or to remake it; it is to restore it to a whole state which never could have existed at any given time". . .  On the other hand, the heritage thus preserved only confirms one weak part of the memory and history of men. . . .  Memory, from then on, to perpetuate itself, imposes recourse on history.

History and memory could not thus merge.  There are initially cases in which memory proves to be stronger than history because it proceeds from a transmission which is not only written but oral, from a tradition which is not only erudite but collective. . . .  It is the collective tradition of the first Christian communities which allowed the drafting of the four Gospels, not, to be strictly accurate, as historical documents, but as testimony of the faith shared by the first disciples of Christ in the heart of the history . . . .

Closer to us, there are episodes of History, re-transcribed in an official account, sometimes sweetened or impaired, emptied of their substance and of their lived reality, that the tenacious and living memory of the people gradually contributed to re-seize, revise, check and revivify. . . .

History, in That Sense, Purifies Memory.

More numerous today, nonetheless, are . . .  cases in which it is memory which tries to press hard on history, to control the work of historians, and which would like to prohibit them from inquiring freely, exploring files, checking the facts and confronting realities, representations and memories.  A memory without history threatens us, worthy of the world of George Orwell’s “1984,” in which "day by day, and almost minute after minute, the past was updated," regularly modified to better correspond to the issues of the present; and this memory without history causes a strong concern among all those for whom history has in it a demand for truth.

The "memorial laws" that, despite all warnings, multiply politics today to satisfy the sensibility, convictions or interests of the most diverse special interest groups, all tend, whatever one says about them, to substitute an official truth, together with penal sanctions, for the complexity of historical situations, and to set up in official law what should only follow research and debate, as if it were not in truth and by truth that an authentic memory could bear witness and make sense for the present.

History indeed is inhabited by a demand for truth; and it is perhaps through that demand that the historian can reach, at the same time, an ultimate meaning, to the extent and within the limits of its own discipline. . . .   The demand for truth, which is – or should be - that of the historian, thus implies a work on oneself which depends, in its way, on an asceticism.  History, in that sense, purifies memory, identifies the sources and measures their reliability, restores places, dates, texts and facts in their exactitude and their integrity and endeavors to confer upon them an intelligibility which is neither that of the actors, nor dictated by the dominant ideology, nor moved by its own passions. . . .

Forgiveness asked, and forgiveness given, purify the memory and transcend history; they introduce one into an order of reality that depends, according to the convictions of each, upon trust in man’s capacity to overcome his past or faith in a God who is love and who reconciles man with Himself.  It is to this ultimate truth that memory and history yield.

Beowulf on Ice and on You Tube

Apparently not everybody takes the Dark Ages seriously.  Heidi Duckler's College Dance Theater performed Beowulf on Ice Friday night in Van Nuys, in what the L.A. Times called "a one-act ice show that turned out to be a martial arts epic."  A full-evening project, 'My Beowulf," is reportedly planned for next year.

Meanwhile, Dr. Carmen Butcher has another You Tube video, this time reading Beowulf in Old English and commenting more seriously on the epic:

Nicholas Sarkozy: Viewing the Past with Hope and Self-Confidence

During the past week or so, I have been reading and writing about Church history in Europe from the fourth to twelfth centuries (see).  That was prompted by some blog posts by English atheistic philosopher/blogger AC Grayling, who depicted Christianity as the cause of the Dark Ages, as slowing scientific and cultural progress.

I was thus interested in some words about self-doubt within the rewriting of Europe's past, in a speech given February 7 by French presidential candidate Nicholas Sarkozy  (my translation):

"France doubts itself, its identity, its future.  To love France is first of all to give it back hope, it is first of all to give it confidence in itself. . . .

"The European dream needs the Mediterranean dream.  It diminished when the dream burst that once had sent the knights from all of Europe onto the roads of the East, the dream that attracted towards the south so many emperors of the Holy Empire and so many kings of France, the dream that was the dream of Bonaparte in Egypt, of Napoleon III in Algeria, of Lyautey in Morocco.  That dream that was not so much a dream of conquest as a dream of civilization.

"Let us stop blackening the past. The Occident sinned for a long time by arrogance and ignorance.  Many crimes and injustices were committed.  But the majority of those who left for the South were neither monsters nor exploiters. . . . One can disapprove of colonization with the values which are ours today.  But one must respect the men and women of goodwill who meant, in good faith, to work beneficially for an ideal of civilization in which they believed. . . . I want to say to all the proponents of repentance who rewrite history and who judge the men of yesterday without concern for  the conditions in which they lived, nor for what they endured -- I want to say to them: By what right do you judge them?  I want to say to them: By what right do you ask sons to repent for the sins of their fathers, which their fathers often committed only in your imagination?  I want to say to them: Were you never moved by the voice of Camus, speaking for those who were going to have to leave the land of their childhood?  'Passionately I loved this land where I was born, I drew from it all that I am, and I never severed my friendship with any of the men who live there, of whatever race they may be.  Although I knew and shared miseries, which were not lacking, it remained for me the land of happiness, energy and creation.'"

Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday

January 15 is the birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a U.S. national holiday. 

Richard John Neuhaus, at First Things: On the Square, has new thoughts, memories and links.  Neuhaus marched with King and knew him personally during the last 3 years of his life.  Neuhaus' October 2002 essay, "Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr." is truly a "must read" for an understanding of King's life and spirituality.

Stanford University has online a collection of King's early sermons, published in book form as A Knock at Midnight.  Audio versions of the sermons are also available on that site.

From last year's post on this blog: About Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

World History as a Marvelous Symphony that God Has Composed

Papa Ratzinger Forum has a translation of the Pope's address after a performance by the Berlin Philharmonia Quartet on November 18.  Catholic News Agency has an article about the performance and the Pope's address.  An excerpt from Papa Ratzinger Forum:

"In effect, we can imagine the history of the world as a marvelous symphony that God has composed and whose execution He Himself leads as a wise orchestra conductor. Even if to us, the score may often seem complex and difficult, He knows it from the first to the last note.

"We are not called on to take the baton into our hands, much less to change the music according to our taste. But we are called, each in his place and according to his capacity, to collaborate with the great Master in executing his stupendous masterpiece. And in the course of its execution, we would also be given gradually to understand the great design of the Divine score."

New Book Links on Medieval History

At the very bottom of the sidebar, I have added links to some of the excellent books on medieval history by French medievalists and theologians.  They include a book on St. Thomas Aquinas by Father Jean-Pierre Torrell, O.P., a new book by the great French medievalist Pierre Riché, an award winning, detailed biography on St. Bernard of Clairvaux by medievalist Pierre Aubé, and books by theologian/historians Jean LeClercq, Henri Marrou, and Henri de Lubac.  It also includes Pierre Riché's survey of the great developments in the history of Western Europe around the year 1000 (including church, state, music, women, monks, bishops, and art of that era), and a recent translation of Boethius's Treatise on Music (a book that was very influential on the medieval study of music, which I do not think is available in English translation).

For English language books, there are already many links in bibliographies provided at the bottom of the short biographies (see the "biographies" category in the sidebar).  There is also a Library Thing link in the sidebar, with links to more than 30 books that may be of interest to people who are thinking of becoming Catholic.

Toward Accuracy in History Textbooks

In an L.A. Times Op-Ed opinion today, Diane Ravitch argues that California should change its rules that presently pressure the state Board of Education toward accepting a politically correct version of history in text books.  The article, captioned "PC Textbooks Full of Skewed History", Ravitch describes the history taught in California's public schools as "inaccurate and dishonest".  She advocates a change to the present system.  Ravitch is a historian of education at New York University who formerly served on a committee to revise California's history curriculum.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

"The state's social-content guidelines should be abolished. They put the state Board of Education into the absurd position of deciding which facts are historically accurate and which should be included or excluded, a responsibility for which it is manifestly unqualified. The guidelines are an open invitation to interest groups to politicize textbooks.

"Telling publishers that their books must instill pride only guarantees a phony version of feel-good history. Publishers, as a result, bend over backward to be positive, whether writing about the genocidal reign of Mao Tse-tung (presumably to avoid offending his admirers) or the unequal treatment of women in Islamic societies (to avoid offending Muslims)."