And On Amazon

Sons of No One, my first novel, is now available on Amazon.com. Search Matthew L. Butcher or by title. You can also purchase a copy directly--no middle man, though the price is the same--on www.createspace.com/3380000.

It's Out

My first novel, Sons of No One, is available at www.createspace.com/3380000 or soon on Amazon.com.

Not Long Now

It won't be long until my first novel, Sons of No One, is available for purchase. It's currently a self-published venture through the services of CreateSpace. When the book is actually available to buy, I'll let you all know.

To set a goal for myself (here, of all places, a dead blog), I'll state this publicly. Before I die, I would like to write a dozen novels, at least twice that many short stories, and a decently sized collection of poetry. As of right now, I have completed one novel, am working on a second, and have written four short stories that I've kept.

Looks like I have a lot of work to do.

Well, One More

So I'm not so finished here as I said. Take this as a one-off in memory of the patron saint of my ancestral homeland, Ireland. There can't be better last words. So says St. Patrick:

I bind unto myself today
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same
The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this today to me forever
By power of faith, Christ’s incarnation;
His baptism in Jordan river,
His death on Cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the spicèd tomb,
His riding up the heavenly way,
His coming at the day of doom
I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the power
Of the great love of cherubim;
The sweet ‘Well done’ in judgment hour,
The service of the seraphim,
Confessors’ faith, Apostles’ word,
The Patriarchs’ prayers, the prophets’ scrolls,
All good deeds done unto the Lord
And purity of virgin souls.

I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the star lit heaven,
The glorious sun’s life giving ray,
The whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free,
The whirling wind’s tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea
Around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need.
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, His shield to ward;
The word of God to give me speech,
His heavenly host to be my guard.

Against the demon snares of sin,
The vice that gives temptation force,
The natural lusts that war within,
The hostile men that mar my course;
Or few or many, far or nigh,
In every place and in all hours,
Against their fierce hostility
I bind to me these holy powers.

Against all Satan’s spells and wiles,
Against false words of heresy,
Against the knowledge that defiles,
Against the heart’s idolatry,
Against the wizard’s evil craft,
Against the death wound and the burning,
The choking wave, the poisoned shaft,
Protect me, Christ, till Thy returning.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the Name,
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.
By Whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.

Closing

Since I haven't updated in quite some time, and I doubt anyone checks this page anymore, I'm pretty sure that everyone's aware that I'm done blogging. The concept of putting up a kind of commentary on life available to everyone on the internet seems cool at first, but then if you're actually talking about your life, you realize that everyone can learn something personal about you. And for a guy like me who plays things pretty close to the vest, that's unsettling. So no more from me here. To anyone who bothered reading, thanks. Keep looking for some fiction by me.

It's A Whole New World, Virginia

While I realize that partisan politics is pretty much what runs the House of Delegates and therefore prevents anything at all ever getting done in the state legislature, and despair of having a decent choice for a governor to succeed Tim Kaine, let's take a look at where the Old Dominion stands now.

We used to be called the Buckle of the Bible Belt, not so much for religion (Pat Robertson's still here, but less influential to a certain point) but for staunchly right-wing politics. The Religious Right, both good and bad, was the controlling interest in Virginia. I can say good things about religion, and occasionally have to agree with conservative political positions. But the toxic marriage of fundamentalist Protestantism and the Republican party is not something I can ever really feel comfortable with. Not because I don't believe in Jesus (I do) and not because I hate Republicans (I don't). It's the confusing of the two that I can't deal with. Christianity and conservative politics are not one and the same. Nor are Christianity and liberal politics.

These days, there's a bit of a different story. Virginia elected Mark Warner as governor in 2001, his lieutenant governor, Tim Kaine, to the governor's seat in 2005, Jim Webb to the Senate in 2006, and Mark Warner (yes, the same one) to the Senate this year as well as coming in for the Obama column in the presidential election. Due to Governor Kaine's support for President Obama, Obama has named him as head of the DNC, a post to which Gov. Kaine has just been confirmed.

While the political victories I've mentioned have all been for the Democratic party, I think they're good for the commonwealth as well as the nation. It reflects an appreciation for what is best for both the people of Virginia and for the American public as a whole. Rather than retreat into knee-jerk right-wing politics prompted by fundamentalist religion, it appears that the people of Virginia have begun to consider another way. It remains to be seen whether or not there will be a conservative candidate to support that does not parrot the fundamentalist Right. I would very much like to see that, because such a conservative would realize that in being a political conservative, they are not speaking for God, but rather from a perspective on what they think is best for the commonwealth and the nation just as their liberal counterparts do. Religious liberals, and left-leaning moderates such as myself, must also take care not to conflate God with our politics.

We all seek to use morality to inform our political positions. Neither God nor morality has a political party.

Let's use this shift in Virginia's politics to create a space for dialogue. Clearly, a good portion of the people of this state are dissatisfied with what the right-wing establishment has been. Instead of looking at this piece of the populace as the enemy, or at the conservatives in the state as the enemy, let's all reason together to figure out how to get done what needs to get done in Virginia. I think that's why the people have started electing different folks to office. There's a sense that they are willing to do something other than block one another along partisan lines, and not just continue the same stale policies in a changed world, unlike the people we used to elect. Let's mirror that and actually try to live in community with one another.

And I hope the light rail from downtown Norfolk to the Virginia Beach oceanfront will work to unite the metro area in some kind of purpose. Like it or not, we are all in this together.

Kitsch We Can Believe In

The coolest site I've found in a long time: www.lileks.com. Be sure to check out the Institute of Official Cheer--lots of good stuff there. Also, the whole thing on American motels of yesterday kinda creeps me out, in that good way. Lots of those things from the postwar era were still hanging around when I was a kid, in the 80s. They were really freaky and decaying structures that had been supposedly "modern" a few decades prior, when my folks were young, and were kept meticulously clean and in close to original condition, but for the stains of cigarette smoke.

There were restaurants and rest stops, motels and gas stations. Old people congregated in them, mostly, and the few younger people too poor or otherwise unable to get the hell out of a town with nothing left in it but the past. The part that really kicks you in the chest is that there used to be something to stay in town for, but it's been downsized, outsourced, or otherwise eliminated to line the pockets of the people who run the town and others who don't even know where it is, but bankroll the rich that do live there, and screw the working class.

As a detached observer, I find that I am at the same time fascinated and horrified by the material culture of postwar America. It was something of a golden era insofar as the growth of the white middle class, but my family was spared that on both sides, by and large--we remained agricultural and working class (My own parents may have, much later, ascended into the lower echelons of the middle class, but just barely, and quite recently--I grew up mostly working class). There was so much money available, so much opportunity, at least for some, and we still live as if this were the norm rather than an anomaly restricted to a particular circumstance and era.

Certainly there are those of us who believe in progress in the current era--many of those who do are those like me, who voted in Barack Obama as well as other progressive politicians in the recent elections. But the inevitable march towards space-age perfection, independent of any vestige of the past, epitomized in so much postwar material culture?

I don't think so. The optimism is infectious; the aesthetics...not so much.