November 17th Meeting to Feature "The Honor of Israel Gow"

Why not join us for our November meeting where we will be enjoying a viewing of Chesterton's Father Brown story, "The Honor of Israel Gow?"

From a guy named Geoff Prewett's web site:

The Honor of Israel Gow: The death of a nobleman is investigated by Father Brown and the now private investigator Flambeau. The piles of snuff, candles with no sticks, and the manuscripts with the name of God removed are not dark evil, but merely Israel Gow, who was promised all the gold in the house taking only and exactly what he was given.

Chesterton's Lecture at St. Peter Parish a Success

Last night Mr. G. K. Chesterton presented a lecture on Darwin. The lecture was presented at Chillicothe's St. Peter Parish Hall. About 35 people were in attendance. Mr. Chesterton noted that this was his third visit to America. He further noted that had Prohibition not been repealed he would not have returned to the United States. Mr. Chesterton is not a teetotaler. Although he has quipped that "We should thank God for beer and Burgundy by not drinking too much of them." While I can't recall that he specifically mentioned it, some of Mr. Chesterton's views on teetotalism may be found in his 1914 book, The Flying Inn. Mr. Chesterton gave the audience an insight to his early childhood, speaking fondly of his father, mother and siblings. He especially recalled his father's building him a toy theater and tellling amazing fairy tales.

While I can't recall all of Mr. Chesterton's statements made during the course of his lecture, here are a few of those that strike me as most memorable:

"Misers get up early in the morning; and burglars, I am informed, get up the night before."

"Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around."

"I would give a woman not more rights, but more privileges. Instead of sending her to seek such freedom as notoriously prevails in banks and factories, I would design specially a house in which she can be free."

"A modern vegetarian is also a teetotaler, yet there is no obvious connection between consuming vegetables and not consuming fermented vegetables. A drunkard, when lifted laboriously out of the gutter, might well be heard huskily to plead that he had fallen there through excessive devotion to a vegetable diet."

"Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die."

"Never let a quarrel get in the way of a good argument."

As you can see from the quotations, Mr. Chesterton departed from his prepared Darwinian Lecture notes quite frequently. At one point in the lecture he actually reclined on a sofa and spoke about drawing on the ceiling.

At the conclusion of his lecture, Mr. Chesterton answered question from the audience. All in all, a wonderful evening!

Above: Mr. Chesterton chats with members of the audience after his lecture.

See G. K. Chesterton on Friday, April 9, 2010

March 17 Meeting

It was a beautiful summer-like evening last night. Folks were sitting at the tables outside of Schlegel's. A photographer was taking pictures of a couple seated at one of the tables. I took it as an ill omen. Folks would be out playing in their yards or relaxing on their porches and not driving into Chillicothe to talk about Chesterton at Schlegel's. In fact, after waiting for only five minutes after the 7 pm start time, with no one other than me and Andrew (who was working and is the guy on the right in the picture) attending, I was about to leave the Coffee House and attend choir practice at St. Peter's. At 7:05, the member with the longest drive, Tim Binkley (the guy on the left in the picture), walked in the door. Tim drives down from Columbus, after work, to attend the meetings, and then has to drive about 50 miles to Lancaster, OH, to get home.

So, Tim and I discussed several things. Tim mentioned that he had tried to generate some interest in Chesterton at the Lancaster Catholic schools, and the public library, to no avail. I mentioned that when I requested that the Chillicothe Library allow me to post a notice of the Chillicothe Chesterton Society, my request was rejected. However, on a very positive note, The Chillicothe Gazette ran a very nice article on our up-coming one-man shows. For that, we are very grateful.

We then talked a bit about Kevin O'Brien's The Theater of The Word, Incorporated and Chuck Chalberg's History on Stage. Tim said he planned to attend both events. Since I had brought along the nine new Belloc books I recently bought, we talked a bit about Belloc and, of course, ChesterBelloc. Tim had not heard that term. Now he's heard of it. The hour flew by and before we knew it, the meeting was over. We both hope that the up-coming presentations will generate a little more interest in our Society. It would be nice to have a couple more folks join in our conversations.

Watch The Apostle of Common Sense on Your Computer

I finally was able to watch The Apostle of Common Sense on Sunday night at 9 p.m. on my computer. Fantastic. We recently gave up our satellite dish and went to a regular antenna. It's much easier on the budget! Here's the link for EWTN, the Eternal Word Television Network, the network which carries The Apostle of Common Sense. The Apostle of Common Sense is also shown on EWTN at 2 p.m. on Fridays.