Halloween and quothiness

I hope everyone had a good Halloween! I spent mine at a Harry Potter party with a company of college friends. There were about a dozen of us, all dressed as different characters. Harry and Ginny were there, in Quidditch uniforms, and Hermione and Neville and Ron and some of the other Weasleys. A professor came as Dumbledore, and his wife dressed as Professor Sprout. There were Rowena Ravenclaw and Fleur Delacour and Lily Evans (Potter). And I was Snape. We had a great time: there was a trivia contest and a movie, and plenty of nerdy discussion and merriment.

We had an excellent lecture in chapel last week about All Saints' Day, and its importance as a Christian holiday, celebrating the church itself: the saints present and past--the company of believers we live among and the cloud of witnesses that fights with us. I wish I had time to write more about it.

Meantime, there are a couple of quotes that struck me this week. This one was in the chapel service: "Perfection, in a Christian sense, means becoming mature enough to give ourselves to others." That's from Kathleen Norris, 20th century poet and Benedictine oblate. While looking up that quote I found several others from Kathleen Norris that were good, among them: "Just the knowledge that a good book is awaiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier." I think I shall have to read some of her writings.

I also liked this quote from the photographer Gary Monroe: "One must have an appetite for failure. Ninety-nine percent of my photographs are near misses. I don't make photographs for recognition. I make them for my edification."