tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13886862122584426882024-03-05T07:24:15.481-05:00Writing TruthWriting truth in many different genres from novels, to poetry, to book reviews. . .Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger154125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388686212258442688.post-7519961164485921332019-10-14T15:10:00.002-04:002019-10-14T16:19:22.230-04:00A Review: A Week in the Life of a Greco-Roman Woman by Holly Beers<br />
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The book is well organized by the 7 days of the week so I
could see from the start that the Greco-Roman woman was actually going to live
a week in my presence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love history
and more information always helps me to visualize the setting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The book begins with a prologue where the Ephesian
woman Anthia is assisting her friend who is giving birth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not what I wanted to read in the morning just
after breakfast!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But this leads to
Wednesday where we follow her activities in the agora, at home, and
elsewhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It reads almost like a novel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Life is difficult with too little food but
abundant water that freely flows from Roman sources, but there’s no punching a
time card and much time for conversation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Wives, however were treated like slaves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They were punished for infractions and expected to be obedient to their
husbands and possibly also male members of their household.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many women were far younger than their
husbands and the average life expectancy was less than half of what we expect
in our society, 40’s for men, thirties for women.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The book contains helpful boxed descriptions
of cultural practices as well as photos of items and buildings of that time.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The author presents her material in a more entertaining way
than reading a textbook, but most importantly she expends some effort on not imposing
her American culture or views on her subject. As a result, I was able to do the
same, but not without profound sadness for the way Greco-Roman women were
treated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, I also experienced gratitude
for my own 21<sup>st</sup> century American culture that almost gives Caucasian
women equal status with men.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Anthia is a
real Ephesian 1<sup>st</sup> century woman who lives in a culture that is
vastly different from ours, but which bears similarities to our immigrant
culture:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>families living together in a
small area, sharing food, all members looking for work to keep rent paid and food
on the table, performing manual labor, and living hand to mouth with no other
support.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The book follows Anthia’s daily tasks as well as problems
she experiences with her pregnancy, sometimes abruptly skipping from one scene
to another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s a lot about
pregnancy and it appears to be the predominant thought and function of
women.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Anthia’s ventures into the
Agora (rarely without being accompanied by her husband in the first half of the
book, often alone in the 2<sup>nd</sup> half) she catches snatches of Paul’s
(the Apostle) debates and wonders about what she hears.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She also hears about him through bits of
conversation on the streets, in the baths, and witnesses Paul’s handkerchief
healing a neighbor boy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Halfway through
the book there is less about pregnancy and we’re given a glimpse into the state
of Roman society and the difference Jesus made in societal relations.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The book reads like a novel with historical notes, although sometimes
the information is given in the text through thought or dialogue. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, the writing was poor and contained wrong
words, anachronistic words, and problems with sentence construction. The
anachronisms include the name “Andrew” (should be Andreas) which stood out as
not being like the other Greek or Roman names.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Paul (should be Paulus) has a “mantra” (an 18<sup>th</sup> century Sanskrit
word.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Other words also don’t fit the
time period, such as “kin.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The author
has braziers “sitting next to each other” as though they were people, “emitting
both light and the delicious smel [<i>sic</i>] of cooking meat.” Brazier is an English
word, so why not use one of the Latin words <i>arulam or caminum</i>?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Other Latin/Greek words are used and
explained.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Later, we find “gawkers were
sitting on animals.”<o:p></o:p></div>
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Even the healing prayer Anthia experiences is not like the contemporaneous
encounters in the Gospels and Acts where a person is healed when Jesus, Paul,
Peter, or others listen to the Spirit and obey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>e.g. “Rise, take up your mat, and
walk”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather, the women in this book pray
by “imploring Jesus to heal her. . . <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and
agreed to continue to pray for her.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
1<sup>st</sup> century Ephesian church was not so far removed from the time of
Acts and the Gospels that it would have done things differently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, this imploring appears to be what
people of the time did to idols, imploring those gods, such as Artemis, to
change their situation.<o:p></o:p></div>
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All in all, the book presents an uneven and somewhat tedious
experience (I was so bored by the halfway point that I stopped reading it for a
week). Biblical scenes are presented with color and insight, but there are
awkward sentences, overused words, wrong words, and anachronistic words.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are all things that could be fixed and
since I have read a pre-publication copy, I hope they are remedied.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The book would be better as non-fiction or as a well-written novel. The combination of both simply does not work.<o:p></o:p><br />
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NOTE: A much better written book (which, at this time, I have not completed reading) is <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Week-Life-Corinth-Ben-Witherington/dp/0830839623/ref=sr_1_33?crid=13S77NVAZ677Y&keywords=ben+witherington+iii&qid=1571084310&sprefix=ben+with%2Caps%2C145&sr=8-33" target="_blank">A Week In The Life of Corinth by Ben Witherington III. </a><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388686212258442688.post-8851097973236678772019-09-15T18:50:00.000-04:002019-09-15T18:55:13.590-04:00He Calls Me Friend: The Healing Power of Friendship In a Lonely Word<br />
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I had never before read anything written by John Perkins and
only heard him mentioned tangentially in a Switchfoot song, “The Sound” (“John
Perkins said it right, Love is the final fight”).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He Calls Me Friend is a retrospective of John
Perkins’ life, stories relating to aspects of friendship, and quotes from songs
and books. John Perkins follows the lives of Abraham, Moses, and David and uses
their examples to show how being a friend of God gives us insight to being
friends with others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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The 2<sup>nd</sup> part of the book concentrates on Jesus
and what it means for men (and women) to have and be friends, to invite people
into our lives to be friends, to have friends who fill the place of brothers
and sisters, and to be friends to the end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Jesus shows us what it means to be friends with prostitutes, thieves,
and the outsider, to be friends with those who are not like us. John Perkins
calls us to task.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead of seeing a
group of people and keeping away from them, we are to see individuals created
in the image of God and befriend them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We need to make space to get to know those who are not like us.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The 3rd section of the book involves friendship with the
Holy Spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Holy Spirit is the
personal presence of God within us so that we can know God. “. . . [T]he Holy
Spirit uses circumstances in our lives to cause us to cry out to God and to
seek His will and His purposes. He makes us desperate for God’s will in our
lives.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He uses our senses and affects us in a way that cannot be forgotten.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
reconciles disparate people and gives us boldness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Indeed, the fruit of the Spirit is one fruit in different
aspects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All of these aspects are part
of our friendship with the Holy Spirit and are part of what we need to be friends
with others:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The final part of the book is Friendship with Others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such friendship may be based on mutual need.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It can cross cultural and ethnic lines as
well as economic strata.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But friendship
can also be mentoring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A mentor friend
can draw us into deeper friendship, nurture us, and speak when they see us
heading in a wrong direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They can
teach us and encourage and love us. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
we can be teachers, encouragers, and lovers, also. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We are challenged to make friends with others, to pursue
them, to focus on being a friend rather than having friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Forgive and don’t give up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John Perkins says that any friend can be a
better friend if we don’t give up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Friendship means being with people, spending time just talking or
attending events.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Friendship means
participating in activities together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Being a friend bears fruit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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This book is an encouraging word to anyone who wants friends
or wants to take friendship deeper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s
short and easy to read.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words,
this is a book for everyone.<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388686212258442688.post-3533757312063467052019-03-04T08:47:00.000-05:002019-03-04T08:47:47.121-05:00Placemaker--A Review<br />
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Placemaker by
Christie Purifoy<o:p></o:p></div>
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A Review<o:p></o:p></div>
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When I first received this book, I was prepared to read
something about a place like Annie Dillard’s Tinker Creek, Wendell Berry’s Port
William, or Madeleine L’Engle’s Crosswick. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This book is not like those. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Placemaker is a coming of age memoir or
journal in the format of 12 stream-of-consciousness chapters based on the
author’s observations and readings about homes, trees, and gardens found in
places where the author has lived. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
chapters encompass specific homes in which she lived, trees she encountered and
identified after reading tree books, and gardens and their noted designers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a fellow tree lover, I enjoyed reading of
her awakening to the value of specific types of deciduous trees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As someone who loves houses, I also
appreciated her excitement following the purchase of her first home, a condo in
Chicago, and final home, Maplehurst, and the challenges she experienced after
purchasing that 19<sup>th</sup> century house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The author writes of using the places we are in to make a difference in
the lives of others, and the changes such places might make in us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the book, she intertwines her life at
Maplehurst with her life at the earlier places she has lived.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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If I had not promised to review Placemaker, I probably would
have stopped reading after the first couple of chapters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I found it difficult to relate to this woman
who can move from place to place with no thought of the financial cost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A woman who in daily living, is never ready
to explode, never ready to tear her hair out, never ready to curl up into a
little ball and quit, and whose children never drive her to distraction, never
make messes, never interfere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Had I
known what I know now, I would have begun reading at Chapter 8 and skipped the
earlier chapters.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The chapters move forward and backward in time from Maplehurst,
back to her Texas origins, to Virginia, to Chicago, to Florida, and back to
Maplehurst, but not in a linear manner or even a circular manner, but a
haphazard manner—at least to this reader.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The author would write about Chicago for instance, then Maplehurst, then
Chicago, then Maplehurst, then Chicago and so on, back and forth and perhaps
even mentioning another city/state in the same chapter leaving me confused
about time and location.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An additional
confusion is when the author mentions, merely mentions, burying “acorns in the
ground with her son” (acorns that never grew), thus alluding to a death that I
assumed I would learn more about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Fortunately,
the death never occurs).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And like that
death or the buried acorns there are thoughts that are either left unformed or
based on false premises. These thoughts might be interesting if explored, but
they are tossed out and discarded.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Toward
the end when someone does die, the imagery (the decedent’s boots standing near
the door, his laundered shirts folded in the laundry basket) starts to bring
the emotion of loss alive, but then the scene shifts elsewhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That episode is confusing because it’s the
first time we hear about siblings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s
almost as if the author is afraid to do more than mention her family and explore
her own emotions, perhaps because she is afraid of hurting herself or
others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Yes, we don’t want to hurt others, but being
too safe forfeits communication and names can always be changed.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I picked up a book by another author (Rachel
Devenish Ford) at about the same time I was writing this review.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The other author’s writing sang to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The other author self-published, had much less
education, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and no writer’s group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She didn’t have a PhD, but she had emotion in
spades.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her life, her husband’s life,
her children’s lives and how they affected her were spread all over the
pages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Placemaker barely touches on the
greatest moments of the author’s life (marriage, childbirth, church life, home
ownership) and the greatest people in her life (husband, children, parents,
siblings).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In one of the later chapters
she mentions Elena’s babysitter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought
perhaps Elena was a neighbor, but it bothered me that I did not know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I skipped back through the pages and
discovered that Elena was the author’s daughter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So little was written about her children that
I did not know their names or the name of her husband or even the author’s name.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The names of Rachel Devinish’s three children
are cemented in my mind (Kai, Kenya, Alif), along with her name Rachel (Rach)
and her husband’s Chinua.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I still cannot
remember the names of Christie Purifoy’s children with the exception of
Elena.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or her husband. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the most part, the carefully composed set of
12 chapters in Placemaker left the author’s feelings buried and never touched
my emotions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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The author has read books about trees and tries out those
authors’ ideas on us when she personifies the ground, the land.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For her (and an author she read), the land
both dreams and desires like a sentient being. She learns that the land where
she lives cannot accept some plants; Some plants won’t thrive there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
does that mean that the land may “still yearn for the forests that sheltered
indigenous tribes and greeted European colonists”? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps, there is more to the land than its pH,
minerals, and constitution (sand, gravel, clay, climate). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But your flowers, vegetables, and trees will
do better if you use science to determine varieties and culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Palm trees will not survive winters in
Pennsylvania and tulips will not bloom in the tropics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even while the author thinks the land may
yearn for forests, she still admires and discusses cultivated gardens near
Maplehurst, Chicago, and elsewhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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At Maplehurst, the house needs repairs. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is falling apart, literally. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both an insurance examiner and her own
observations tell her that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what
does this author do?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She ignores the imminent destruction of her
prized home and focuses on the outdoors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Hardly a responsible action, but she does make the repairs by the end. <o:p></o:p></div>
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From her Pennsylvanian perch the author writes that “the
wilderness is a place without paths.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
author loves gardens, so maybe she has never hiked in a forest where she would
have encountered animal paths, paths left by perennial streams, or short paths delineated
by fallen timbers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The author’s point is
that without paths we are doomed to wander aimlessly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, are we?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Doesn’t God always direct?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And in
the Pennsylvania wilderness, even in the absence of paths, there are streams to
follow and streams invariably lead to roads. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hikers know what to do when lost in the
wilderness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The author does not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, in her aimless wandering, she relates
how she wandered into a job with a nun who regaled her with stories about
dogwood and red bud trees using several pages to relate this information. I’m
convinced that the wilderness section is merely a device to explain the job
where she learns to put towels at the foot of guest beds, ponders red bud trees,
and works in an area unrelated to her degrees in literature. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Chapter 3 (Saucer Magnolia) brought the most cohesive
writing so far.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“The wilderness is not
necessarily a desolate place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It has its
own unique beauty, and that beauty is enough. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It does not need us. It does not require our
participation. . . [T]ime in the wilderness is a gift. . . This is the place we
go to listen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the wilderness, we are
given the opportunity to lay down the burden of our desire to make and remake
so that when some other place invites our participation and our creative
efforts, we are ready to offer those things with humility.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So now the book begins to draw us in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To take us through a time of waiting. . .
waiting for the author to find her home place, waiting for her to find her
vocation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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This is a book that does get better with age. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Chapter 8 (Crepe Myrtle and Chestnut) the
author recognizes the value of things forgotten, things in the past, and
becomes excited when she discovers an old chestnut beam in a falling-down shed
on their property.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She envisioned it
going on to become the beam in a barn, to live on and represent what came
before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that’s what we all should
do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we live in a place, we should not
just use it, but also respect it. We should respect the work done by the
original builder and the others who have preceded us, but do our part to leave
it better for those who follow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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The old and the lost should not always be replaced with
new.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The builder of my vacation rental
used salvage items, from the matched glass-paneled doors in the loft to the
massive basement staircase.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’ve
continued that expression with a turn of the century bathroom door, and 1930’s
oak cupboards in a kitchen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some things
need to be saved lest they be forever lost.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The author highlights the American Chestnut trees which were wiped out
in the early 1900’s through a virus brought from Japan. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love trees, but had never given a thought to
the almost extinct American Chestnut.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
was once commonly used for snacking, baking, and building.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The author’s description motivated me to do a
little research and I found that one mature tree may still exist in Ohio, but
it has no other American Chestnut to pollinate it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let’s support the current efforts to save endangered
trees and plants from their various predators, and to use salvaged materials in
our homes so that the old can be preserved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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As the book continues, the author speaks of the value of
decay as she ferments vegetables.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s
a quality I’ve seen on spring hikes—spring when the first green shoots appear,
yet the trail is splotched with decay from fallen branches and moldy bark where
melting snow and ice and massive spring rains swell the creeks leaving more
moldy detritus along the way. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
encourage decay in the woods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When a
tree falls, my handyman urges me to let him cut it and use it for
firewood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But fallen trees are a way the
forest is nourished.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lichens grow,
beautiful, smooth, and orange.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Small
animals use the hollow trunk for shelter. Beetles attack the bark and branches.
While the smaller branches and twigs trap fallen leaves creating more hiding
places for the forest fauna.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In time,
the tree will break down and nourish the soil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even standing dead trees are places for owls and other birds and animals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In our city house, we cut them down so as not
to inconvenience our neighbors, but at the forest house we can let nature do
its work. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After a tree falls, the author
spends an amount equivalent to the price of a good used car to have a long row
of silver maples lining her drive pruned to preserve them and prevent their decay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are times when decay is desired and
times when it must be stopped.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The book concludes by showing that we must not wait until
everything is perfect to invite others into our lives through meals and sharing
space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can help bring healing through
our acts of kindness and hospitality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And finally, the author returns for a visit to her Chicago neighborhood for
the 20<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the church she was part of and which (at the
end of the book) we now learn meant so much to her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We feel the fear that she experienced when
she stares up at condo she lived in while pursuing her PhD.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She experiences so much fear that she cannot
even step inside to visit an old friend. This was the place where she finished
her PhD, had her first two children, and was the first home she and her husband
purchased and renovated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She remembers
the cost, the effort, and the reward.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She reconnects with people she knew.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She conquers her fear and is enriched.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The end of the book should have been the model for the beginning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If only it had been.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was provided a free copy of this book for the purposes of
review.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was not required to write a
positive review.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388686212258442688.post-49852447805387187922018-12-27T08:35:00.001-05:002018-12-27T08:35:08.741-05:00A Portrait of Loneliness<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Silvia trundled home in her little car. There was a new and unexplained rattle from the engine and the choke didn't seem to be working properly. Her gate, with the name <i>Roskenwyn</i> painted upon it, stood open. A pretentious name, she always thought, for such a small and ordinary house, but that was what it had been called when she and Tom bought it, and they had never got around to thinking up anything better.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
She parked outside her door, collected her handbag off the seat, and went indoors. The cramped hallway seemed deathly quiet. She looked for letters, forgetting that the postman had already passed, leaving none for her. She dropped her handbag at the foot of the stairs. The silence pressed upon her, a physical thing. Silence, stirred only by the slow ticking of the clock on the upstairs landing. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
She went across the hall and into her sitting room, an apartment so small that there was room only for a sofa and a couple of armchairs and desk with bookshelves over it. In the grate lay the dusty ashes of a fire, although she had not lit one for days.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
She found a cigarette and lit it, and stooped to switch on the television, she punched the buttons to change channels, was bored by everything, and switched it off. After the moment's burst meaningless voices, silence pressed in on her again. It was only eight o'clock. She could not, reasonably, go to bed for at least two hours. She thought of pouring herself a drink, but already had had two with Even and Gerald, and it was best to be careful with alcohol. Supper, then? But she felt no healthy pang of hunger, no inclination to eat.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
A glass door stood open, leading out into her garden. She threw the half-smoked cigarette into the empty fireplace and went out of doors, stooping to pick up a pair of scissors from a wooden basket. Now, with the sun nearly gone, the lawn lay dark with long shadows. She crossed the grass towards her rosebed, began aimlessly to snip off a few dead heads.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
A wayward briar became entangled in the hem of her dress, snagging the material. Impatient, angry, she jerked it free, but in her clumsiness caught her thumb on on a jagged thorn. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
She gave a little cry of pain, holding up her hand to inspect the damage. From the tiny agonizing wound blood swelled. A dot of blood, a bead, a trickle. She watched its progress, a miniature scarlet river, flowing down into the palm of her hand.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
As though in sympathy, tears welled in her eyes, brimmed, overflowed. She stood there in the gloomy twilight, numbed by the misery of loneliness, bleeding, and weeping for herself.</blockquote>
<br />
From Voices in Summer by Rosamunde Pilcher.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
</blockquote>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388686212258442688.post-76072461537710854212018-11-05T06:54:00.003-05:002018-11-05T07:02:58.719-05:0014 Things I Wish I’d Known Before I Broke My Knee<br />
<h1 align="center" style="text-align: center;">
</h1>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->It’s never wise to go downstairs quickly or run
downstairs—you may break a bone and 2 ligaments.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->The operating room looks like something out of
Star Trek, yes that’s right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://www.startrek.com/database_article/star-trek-the-original-series-synopsis" target="_blank">Star Trek, not Star Wars</a>.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->When the doctor asks if you want physical
therapy, you might want to say “no” and simply google <a href="https://orthoinfo.aaos.org/en/staying-healthy/knee-exercises/" target="_blank">the exercises associated with the injury</a>. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Muscle strength may decline <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/03/well/live/preventing-muscle-loss-among-the-elderly.html" target="_blank">after age 40 and alsowhen you are inactive</a>, find a way to exercise both your upper and lower body—<a href="https://www.lifetime.life/" target="_blank">maybe a gym</a>.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->When your physical therapist tells you that you can
walk over grassy fields and packed earth paths, ask if he’s consulted the
doctor.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->When your physical therapist tells you that you
don’t need <a href="https://www.amazon.com/ACE-Stabilizers-Americas-Satisfaction-Guarantee/dp/B005YU8TBI/ref=sr_1_4_s_it?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1541418407&sr=1-4&keywords=ace%2Bknee%2Bbrace&th=1" target="_blank">a brace</a>, get one anyway.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">7.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Stretching <a href="https://www.wikihow.com/Relax-Like-a-Cat" target="_blank">like a cat</a> may be better than the stretches
prescribed by the physical therapist.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">8.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->When something other than your knee hurts, you
need a <a href="http://tmc-ua.com/" target="_blank">massage therapist,</a> not a physical therapist.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">9.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->When your physical therapist tells you that you
cannot quit, quit anyway.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">10.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->You should not exercise after seeing the massage
therapist—it is too painful.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">11.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->You must not exercise <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090507164405.htm" target="_blank">before seeing the massage therapist</a>—the massage becomes useless and the muscles ache for days (instead of
removing lactic acid and increasing blood flow, the lactic acid remains and
blood flow diminishes with the massage after exercise).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">12.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->If the massage causes excruciating pain, you
should find another massage therapist.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">13.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->It will take a long time to get back to easy
hiking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Keep working at it, persevere, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou-p_RDUbB4" target="_blank">keep moving</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">14.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Find friends and therapists who are encouragers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Find them and hold on to their words of
encouragement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Forget the discouraging
words in your brain. <o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388686212258442688.post-43070606910769221722018-08-17T17:34:00.000-04:002018-08-18T07:51:16.207-04:00Three-Part Invention: a review of A Light So Lovely<br />
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Madeleine L’Engle made an impression on me when I read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Wrinkle in Time</i> and the Austin novels
as a child and young adult.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The books showed
a loving family and gave me hope for the future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I grew older, I read her Crosswicks
Journals, her adult novels, her other books, and the remainder of the later
published Time series.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In all of them I
found a hope that included neither the stringent boundaries, the black and
white world, or the rigid structure of church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Nor did it include the lack of structure present in my home with an alcoholic
parent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>L’Engle brought me hope and
freedom and was someone I went back to time and again to regain my perspective
and maintain my faith.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As you can discern, I have been a long‐time admirer of L’Engle:
the woman who had a lonely childhood, who lost her father while she was still a
teenager, who had an alcoholic son, and a less than satisfying marriage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But L’Engle was more than the sum of her life
experiences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She became to me an icon:
an open door through which I could glimpse a wider world, breathe a breath of
fresh air, and walk back into communion with Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like a gentle masseuse she took my twisted
thoughts and stroked and pulled <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>them
into a place where I could experience real life and love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She taught me to appreciate both my strengths
and my weaknesses.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Light So Lovely: The
Spiritual Legacy of Madeleine L’Engle </i>by Sarah Arthur is a work of one part
biography, one part anecdotes, and one part analysis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The author has themed and divided the book
into chapters based on the life and works of Madeleine L’Engle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In each chapter the author shares some of her
own life (as a writer, a book judge, a mother, a former youth pastor), gives us
a brief partial biography of L’Engle, and relates interviews with writers who
have met L’Engle (either in person or through her writings) and have been
influenced and motivated by her, and traces L’Engle’s developing faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The book focuses on L’Engle’s appreciation of
paradox in the areas of icon and iconoclast, creation and evolution, faith and science,
fact and fiction, sacred and secular, and scripture or nothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each paradox is a chapter and there is much
here to stimulate thought and discussion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Indeed, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Light So Lovely</i> stimulated
me to reread some of L’Engle’s works.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The book’s title comes from <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>L’Engle’s book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art</i> where she wrote: “We
draw people to Christ, not by loudly discrediting what they believe, but by
showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to
know the source of it.”<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
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L’Engle strove to be an icon, to show us that light so
lovely, to draw us into a wider world and new ways of thinking much as the children
in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Chronicles of Narnia </i>by C.S.
Lewis left a dark world at war and were drawn through a wardrobe into the wider
and brighter world of Narnia. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Icons are
a means to an end, but idols are the end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Icons can come and go and be imperfect with strengths and weaknesses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Idols must be kept at a distance because we don’t
want our knowledge of their weaknesses to tarnish our vision. Icons open our
view. Idols diminish it. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>L’Engle was no idol.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather, she was an icon from whose books I could
always return with a renewed and enlarged vision. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She was both an icon and a mentor to me and
the others who benefitted from her works.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For those of us who have loved L’Engle and her works, this book
renews our acquaintance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For those who have
never met her or who have read none or few of her works, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Light So Lovely</i> is an introduction to L’Engle’s ways of thinking,
her life, and the body of her work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As
it has done for me, I hope it encourages others to dig into L’Engle’s work and hopefully
keep it in print for generations to come. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff9ee; color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , "utopia" , "palatino linotype" , "palatino" , serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span style="background: rgb(255 , 249 , 238); color: #222222; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14px;">I received this book free through a book review program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.</span></div>
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388686212258442688.post-68514804163444411372017-10-16T12:46:00.002-04:002017-10-16T12:46:42.006-04:00Ordering Your Private World: A Review<div align="center" class="MsoTitle" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvNsHGZE74Z5QuOoN19J7hkNUmASheCxRqym8-Z163dOUW-hVtFYlLmhTzBLJ0TJwUSlivEmt80Y7L4EqQvf_XJv7BKg_Y4ZMQ5mCzMm24DRzOuG0wf3yIOj-vI9D26aFyXSTFH0pTArXW/s1600/586px-Schreibtisch.2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="586" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvNsHGZE74Z5QuOoN19J7hkNUmASheCxRqym8-Z163dOUW-hVtFYlLmhTzBLJ0TJwUSlivEmt80Y7L4EqQvf_XJv7BKg_Y4ZMQ5mCzMm24DRzOuG0wf3yIOj-vI9D26aFyXSTFH0pTArXW/s320/586px-Schreibtisch.2.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">I had never desired to read </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Ordering Your Private World</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> by Gordon MacDonald when I first saw
its title in 1984.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Perhaps that was
because I don’t like taking orders.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Or
maybe because I have little order in my life. You might think I live in chaos if
you surveyed my desk or any other flat surface in my home. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Or it may have been because I believed that my
private world was in order or, even if it wasn’t, I had no ability to bring
such order.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Or perhaps I likened this
book to another book on organization I had purchased which I could not bring
myself to read past the first chapter, and finally discarded.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">In 2017, however, I noted the words “Revised
and Updated” above the title and decided to give </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">Ordering Your Private World</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;"> a chance, harboring the faint hope that
perhaps even I could have order in my life or at least in my life’s private
world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">From the beginning, the Authors Note encouraged me
with these words: “I am still challenged—every day!—by the notion of ordering
my private world.” So, Gordon MacDonald who
wrote about bringing order to our private world did not even have his own
private world in order many years later.
It’s both encouraging to know that organization is a problem for a
successful person, but also discouraging to realize that after all these time,
he is still challenged by the effort. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">The Preface provides additional discouragement. The author is married, has children, and one
day suddenly realizes that his professional life, family life, and spiritual
life are in shambles and he has no ready answers. His natural talents and gifts enabled him to
do well in his profession, but they had masked the reality that his spiritual
life was weak and shallow. He suffered a complete breakdown. And then Jesus said to him, “Now you know
what it’s like to live out of an empty soul.”
To live. Out of an empty soul. Isn’t that a bit like kicking someone when
they’re down? But we must remember that
Jesus didn’t say “Yay, Peter!” when Peter walked on the water. Instead, when Peter feared he would drown,
Jesus reached out a hand and said “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” Is Jesus reaching out a hand to you in this
book? Maybe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">I plowed ahead into the first chapters because having order in our private world is important. What do we do with
our souls? How do we exercise soul
care? Body care is relatively
simple. We eat right, exercise, and
sleep an appropriate number of hours.
But what about our soulish part?
What about that undefined space where God’s Spirit resides? What do we do about that? As I listen to acorns drop and the squirrels
rustling aside the fallen leaves to search for them and plant them, I wonder
how we find and nourish our souls during our own dark nights and cold
days. Here’s what the author found: If our private world is weak, we become empty
shells, rotten nuts. Like the squirrels
in autumn, we must formulate a plan to find the best nuts and secure those in a
cache for leaner times. It requires work
in advance of the need, and quality rather than quantity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">Our plan must be wide.
No squirrel concentrates only on one tree. We must take direction from those wiser than
us: from the Bible and Biblical mentors.
We must maintain control of our passions and gifts or we will become
self-centered in an uncontrolled pursuit of more, more adulation, more
high-level connections, more, more, more.
We will rush after the goal rather than paying attention to the process
and see people only as a means to our end.
We will discover disloyalty everywhere and nurture our anger rather than
giving it to God. Indeed, we may become
so busy hurrying after what is of little worth, that we have no time or desire to
play and or to exercise spiritual activities.
Sound like anyone you know? A
prime example from the Bible is King Saul.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">Saul begins as a warrior king who spirals
downward. Like Saul, when we pursue our
passions above all else, we forget that we are called out ones, people with a
purpose that is larger than ourselves and which supersedes our passions. We know the One who called us and do not assume
ownership of either our work or the people we work with. Called people know when to move forward and
when to fall back and release. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">According to the author, how do we implement our called-out
purpose? Control our time—like Jesus we must know when to pray, when to act,
when to sleep (yes, even sleep can be a soulish activity, for in that sleep,
what dreams may come!), and to understand our limits. Like John the Baptist we cannot hold onto a
position forever. At some point we will
be called to release our activity, our calling, just as John released his
crowds, his disciples, and his reputation to Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">How do we control time? According to the author, if we do not control
our time, we become disorganized, feel poorly about our work, and lack intimacy
with God. How did Jesus do it? He understood his purpose, his mission. Jesus understood his limits as a human being,
and a man, and a Jew in a time of Roman occupation. He listened and observed. He worked within His limits and within His
culture. And he made time to be with a
few important people (his disciples). Who
are the people who are important to you?
Do you make time for them? Listen
to them? Who are you spending the most
time with? Maybe it’s time for a change.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">How do we change? Recognize that unmanaged time flows
toward our weaknesses and we spend time doing thing that are not helpful. And because we are not managing our time,
someone else may mange it for us—we may be unduly influenced by dominant
people. When we fail to manage time, we
end up putting out fires and neglecting what we really need to do. Our
unmanaged time is used to bring us immediate gratification and not for what is
most important. Time is best managed
when it is budgeted far in advance. If
an activity is set for a certain date, all that precedes that activity can be
accomplished in the most effective manner.
But, if we try to be consistently spontaneous, we will invariably forget
something important.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">However, even if we do everything right, there may
come that dark night of the soul, that desert experience that leaves us adrift in
a lake of sand. Jesus made a point of
spending time in deserted places. What
happens there? Our senses are
heightened. Away from noise and the call
of the ordinary, we can experience the extraordinary. We may be able to hear God more clearly. We may view life from a different
perspective. We learn dependence. And in the bleakest of desert times, we are
accorded freedom to hear thoughts that lead us in a new direction, that give us
a different plan, that help us prepare. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">And here’s my main quibble with <i>Ordering Your Private World</i>: the book is disorganized. I don’t know if it’s because new material was
added without rewriting the old material, but it is most evident in my outline
as I search back and forth for topics that fit together. This was one difficult book to follow. So far, this review has taken you through the
first seven of 15 chapters. The final
eight chapters deal with spiritual disciplines such as endurance, mindfulness,
silence, solitude, reflection, meditation, prayer, friendship, and rest. Only Chapter 13 on prayer was one into which
I could sink my teeth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">Prayer is difficult.
Gordon MacDonald asks “Why do we have trouble praying?” Yes, why?
It should be second nature for those of us who carry God’s spirit within
us, but it’s not. Gordon MacDonald has the answers and if we
absorb these and let them work in us, we will realize that prayer is a vital necessity
for ordering our private world. Yes,
worship and intercession feel unnatural.
They are not part of everyday life in America. Nor is it normal to worship what we cannot
see and to intercede with One we cannot physically encounter. When we pray, we act contrary to our culture
and it creates a dissonance within us—a dissonance that may keep us from
prayer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">Praying exposes our weaknesses. Even as we proclaim our dependence on God, we
tacitly declare our independence and self-sufficiency. We are Americans, after all. We overcome, we endure, we succeed. We are DIYers. At some point, however, we have to learn that
we cannot do everything, that we are not as strong as we think we are, and that
we lose relationship with others when we do not ask them to help us and with
God when we don’t depend on Him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">And perhaps, prayer seems irrelevant when no matter
how much we pray, or how little, the results or don’t happen anyway. We have become fatalists. We see prayer as only a means to an end
result. But prayer is not about getting
results. Prayer is aligning our
thoughts, motives, and desires, indeed our whole selves, with God so that we
may participate in his work in the world.
We pray to seek His will, not to impose our own on Him. But just as we struggle for independence wouldn’t
we like a world fashioned after our own passions? Indeed, this is the very struggle we have in prayer. Not my will, but Thine. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">And once we have, but how feebly, prayed to the point
where we are aligned with God’s will, then, and only then, notes Gordon
MacDonald can we effectively intercede for another in prayer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">Ordering
Your Private World</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;"> was a useful book to read for time
management and an overview of spiritual disciplines. For an in-depth ordered view of the
disciplines, I recommend <i>Celebration of Discipline:
The Path To Spiritual Growth</i> by Richard J. Foster. <i>Ordering
Your Private World</i> also made me more mindful about how I use time. Recognizing that unmanaged time flows toward
my passions causes me think twice before I perform any activity. Is it useful?
Will it bring improvement? Or am
I just doing what I like doing to the excess?
And what about you? You must
recognize your own times of maximum effectiveness and have criteria for time
usage. Ask yourself, does it advance a
cause, is it useful for others, is it helpful to your Christian life? Will it bring you closer to God? Will it allow you to rest, relax, or
play? Take the best from multiple good
choices. And, when you are able, budget time far in advance so you can
effectively use the intervening time to efficiently prepare for the future
event. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">A wise presenter once told me
that if his audience took only one new idea, tool, or perspective from his
talk, he felt that he had done a good job with his topic. <i>Ordering
Your Private World</i> is a tool to use to step out and begin your exploration
of time management and spiritual disciplines.
Anyone can take away at least one new idea, tool, or perspective from
this book. Or your time may be better spent reading the Bible and paying
attention to how Jesus lived, reading a good business book (perhaps the classic
<i>7 Habits of Highly Effective People </i>by
Steven R. Covey), finding a good personal time management book, and reading <i>Celebration of Discipline</i> provides keen insight into the spiritual disciplines and why they are important.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: rgb(255, 249, 238); color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, serif;">I received this book free through a book review program. I was not
required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR,
Part 255.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388686212258442688.post-84556451231857270542017-02-23T10:40:00.001-05:002017-02-23T10:40:35.279-05:00Leaving Room for Revelation<p><font size="4" face="Tahoma">Some time ago, a friend explained that she didn’t agree with a particular interpretation of the book of Genesis in the Bible because “it’s <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9en4icNUTnYKQr6564IX-A-TlcC3W2eXLclJGu5iq1z31-lSNCKb-Nx228WWZM1ikZenlL5WG7dyrXPmmT7jzfXAb6iwD3GXtY6CHCeySmhRYhAqlcoFY8aqxQPUi1YzQL0osXLs7wm4d/s1600-h/708px-Illuminated.bible.closeup%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="708px-Illuminated.bible.closeup" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="708px-Illuminated.bible.closeup" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJfsf0LgLNz23PWPKa8DyCf3o8tIL1wHi0khquK_D8WsXW6CCaF4zKP1SWexVsndbrKZX_-vUpOBtxbMpC-VDWubcQgC-WC8dzhvRHyLM9YIkzZgA40Kz2rUrh6u91mg9hoQWEMnGGxo4O/?imgmax=800" width="314" align="right" height="272"></a>history.” And for her that concluded it. “It’s history,” means that what we have is a set of linear facts, nothing more. And though I love my friend, in this she is wrong, wrong because for the Christian (which she is) the Bible is far more than history, or poetry, or songs, or letters; the Bible is revelation, and not just any revelation but the revelation of the living God and as such, it is living and active and sharper than a double-edged sword.</font></p> <p><font size="4" face="Tahoma">When we say one thing is nothing more, i.e. a woman is nothing more than a sexual object; an immigrant is only drain on society; a person on welfare simply lazy; then we set the worth of that person and we become no more than slave masters putting a value on something, someone, who is priceless. We want to think we are civilized, but underneath we all wish to enslave that we might have the greater power.</font></p> <p><font size="4" face="Tahoma">But, I don’t really think that was my friend’s intent. No, her desire was to protect, to keep close what she feels is eroding, to hold onto something good and decent. But, in doing so, she is falling into the camp of the atheist. As the great atheist Thomas Paine stated:</font></p> <blockquote> <p><font size="4" face="Tahoma">As to the bible, whether true or fabulous, it is a history, and history is not revelation. If Solomon had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines, and if Samson slept in Delilah’s lap, and she cut his hair off, the relation of those things is mere history, that needed no revelation from heaven to tell it; neither does it need any revelation to tell us that Samson was a fool for his pains, and Solomon too.</font></p></blockquote> <p><font size="4" face="Tahoma">Yes, in diminishing the scope of the Bible, we also diminish its revelator and without the Revelator the Bible really is nothing more than a book of ancient history, poetry, and letters. </font></p> <p><font size="4" face="Tahoma">But what if we say that the Bible is more than history. What if we say that there are multiple ways to read the first couple of books of Genesis. What if the book of Genesis is both a history and a book showing God’s original temple on earth. What would it mean if God actually took the stuff of earth, molded it and shaped it to make it fit for Himself and for the crown of his creation: human beings? What would it mean if that original pattern was God vision casting, creating His theocracy? What if both this interpretation and the factual (historical) creation and something else beside are all true? What if we looked at the words with all the creativity imbued by God? What if we looked at them with all our academic prowess? What if we looked at the Bible as a complete book (yet, more than a book) where the first and last books echoed across time? </font></p> <p><font size="4" face="Tahoma">If we think about the Bible in the way that ancient cultures did (and some current cultures that are not so westernized) we would have a decidedly more exciting and accurate experience. They did not believe that you must settle for just one thing (history) but could hold various interpretations in thoughtful ambiguity. </font></p> <p><font size="4" face="Tahoma">So what do we settle for. Will we allow revelation to color our reading? Or do we settle for black and white. thus taking the Bible prisoner for our own intents? </font></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388686212258442688.post-50750569431838577682017-01-05T08:53:00.001-05:002017-01-05T08:53:27.479-05:00Temple Policeman! Temple Policeman!<p><font size="4">I recently read a novel and its sequels (<em>Finding Nouf, City of Veil, Kingdom of Strangers,</em> by Zoe Ferraris). The location is Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and its desert environs. What fascinated me was the Morality Police who could arrest a woman for driving a car, not walking behind the man she was with, not wearing appropriate covering clothing, and various other offenses by both men</font><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhImxpMOLluInJFb1ixY2DUtk6WL4CczIMgcWirJls20tLlg59YjKbP1hfRIP17emZ5oD2_3GYe7vK-LRI8jrgcjYR-P6eqDQinnATFWeEfMfOIvk3JCPOGsdhFdrTKeaEF9-YlQkrBcrVG/s1600-h/Gold_and_Silver_Jewelry_in_Downtown_Jeddah_%2525283343317802%252529%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><font size="4"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkVS0cy0sYwvFoJKpPQIA0cVhCC9Cz-SYuedoSdq3zp-rTMRRBSIzjZ77sWXF5JfR6mFCZm46kvmPR1P4WMcaUiu47Xe0e6wu7_3zjmaqp0aHbFSaLmNYv0CuhoSNtHf5qKyhvWiNtKYqZ/s1600-h/Gold_and_Silver_Jewelry_in_Downtown_Jeddah_%25283343317802%2529%255B4%255D"><img title="Gold_and_Silver_Jewelry_in_Downtown_Jeddah_(3343317802)" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="Gold_and_Silver_Jewelry_in_Downtown_Jeddah_(3343317802)" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdp9ja-X1opfSn57cl_V9UWxfzclZ9Fw0ABMAdHAfRN5pD3qJJ5ejhvEhe1_WX0-HXZssfpnAFROkHLvI93_HhjXQnVUt0KoOvXPIY0ZBi4OqQOUWFfyrcL3yUa2y2v0xUVzPM52h2d_de/?imgmax=800" width="296" align="right" height="458"></a></font></a><font size="4"> and women who would be publicly shamed (and worse)for such actions. <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2008/aug/05/entertainment/et-ferraris5">[Zoe Ferraris was told to cover her hands with gloves and wear socks because she was so white.]</a></font></p> <p><font size="4">This differs little from the 1st Century Pharisees in Israel who sometimes went around looking for “sins” to uncover. (unwashed hands before eating, working on the Sabbath, and the like). </font></p> <p><font size="4">I recently discovered a certain Christian denomination (and I’m sure there are others) that refuses to allow into membership people who drink alcoholic beverages or smoke. For those who, as it says in Colossians 2, still "submit to regulations, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch" and I would add: do not drink, do not smoke, do not dance, do not, do not, do not. . . Colossians reminds us that these are only human commands and only appear to promote piety, "but they are of no value in checking self-indulgence." Christians should certainly remind their alcoholic friends not to drink, their drug-addicted friends drug to stay away from drugs, and their technology addicted friends to leave their cell phones behind. But, to exclude people from the congregation on the basis of personal habits is not something that Jesus ever practiced. He was highly inclusive, making the best wine for a neighbor’s wedding at Cana, socializing with the enemy, the thief (tax collector), and sharing life with both the religious and irreligious, the wealthy and the poor, the educated and the uneducated. So, instead of being Temple Policemen, Colossians 3 says Christians are to get rid of slander, abusive language, and lies, and not practice greed, fornication, and impurity, but instead to practice "compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience" and, not the least, forgiveness and love. </font></p> <p><font size="4">Once we start being Temple Policeman, we are just like the Taliban, the Morality Police in Saudi Arabia, or any other repressive society. So let's get rid of any inclination we have to be Temple Policemen or Morality Police. As Christians, we are to walk in love and forgiveness, humility (there, but for the grace of God, go I) and kindness. </font> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>Picture of Saudi Woman trying on jewelry by Nouf Kinani (Gold and Silver Jewelry in Downtown Jeddah) [CC BY 2.0 (<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)]</a>, via Wikimedia Commons</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388686212258442688.post-82212690137939134762016-12-15T08:39:00.001-05:002016-12-15T08:39:47.389-05:00Conspiracy of Silence by Ronie Kendig<p><font size="4">A Review</font> <p><font size="4">I requested to review this latest book by Ronie Kendig because I have enjoyed her previous military thrillers. Each of those featured a special forces fighter with great skill, but relational/emotional problems, who finds himself on a perilous mission with civilians to protect. Among those civilians is a woman who eventually will become the love interest. I had hoped that this novel would be similar to those with lots of action, and in the basics, it was. However, the convoluted plot left confusion that was not part of her other novels.</font> <p><font size="4"><em>Conspiracy of Silence</em> is a military thriller along the lines of Tom Clancy or Lee Childs, with an emotionally distraught soldier sent out after an assassin. However, this novel adds archaeology and two archaeologists, references to the Bible, a certain Biblical event, and the supernatural all thrown into the mix. Yes, think of <em>Raiders of the Lost Ark</em>. Ah, but if only it was another “Raiders!” Raiders had one Ark, one hero pursuing the Ark, and one love interest. In <em>Conspiracy of Silence</em> we also have one hero and one love interest, but we also have one assassin, four censers (containers for burning incense), and three pages (leaves) from the Aleppo Codex, a bound 10<sup>th</sup> century C.E. manuscript of the Hebrew Bible, originally kept in Aleppo, Syria, but later parts to parts of it were transferred to Israel. This book does not explain the Aleppo Codex until late in the story and in the appendix, however you can find information on Wikipedia. </font> <p><font size="4">In any event, at about the same time an American official is assassinated in England and our hero is tasked to eliminate the assassin, one of the archaeologists unearths a missing page from the Aleppo Codex and three censers, and somehow unleashes a plague which can be stopped only if all four censers are located and reunited along with several pages from the Aleppo Codex. This is where the novel loses its vision and lost this reader. A reader by definition must suspend their disbelief in the reality of the situation in order to become immersed in the world of the novelist. But when the novel loses its vision, the reader also loses theirs. If it had remained a novel about the search for and destruction of an assassin, it could have followed an interesting path and ended with a struggle between the protagonist and the antagonist in which the protagonist emerges bloody, but victorious. In other words, a classic hero novel.</font> <p><font size="4">But <em>Conspiracy of Silence</em> introduces a subplot which did not work. The subplot includes the theft of the censers, a plague introduced by the censers (how does that happen?), a need to find the censers and read certain marks on pages from the Aleppo Codex, which were located in different parts of the world, and the introduction of seemingly supernatural characters and situations. And, with the addition of this subplot, many more words (409 pages) than the author had in her prior novels. </font> <p><font size="4">The plot bogged down for me and my mind started questioning. How does a woman wrap her arms around her waist? Why do several team members smirk? Why is the team travelling with two archaeologists, putting two civilians at risk? Why does one archeologist who is skilled in martial arts never use this skill? Why does such a virulent plague only kill about a dozen people? Why is The Frenchman inserted like a super-hero? Why does one member of a covert team that had worked together on previous projects and who is very close to the team leader, why does this man have contacts and knowledge that are new to the team leader and that he refuses to disclose to the team leader? Why does the team need pages from the Aleppo Codex when they could consult any modern text of the Hebrew Bible and find the same information? Some of these questions are answered; most are not.</font> <p><font size="4">I also took issue with the author comparing the Masons to a terrorist organization. I don’t know her personal experiences with the Masons, but in a cursory search I found no evidence of their involvement in anything but charitable work. She could have easily compared the terrorist organization in her novel to the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS, or any other multi-national terrorist organizations.</font> <p><font size="4">Those issues aside, the novel does have plenty of perilous situations where our hero can shine. Yes, after a chapter that made me question the novel’s integrity, the following chapters have a real chase for information from a contact inside the religious establishment and an assassin that pops up in unexpected places. In fact, the second half of the novel picks up nicely with only a few pauses as the team resumes its search for the assassin and a way to stop the plague, experiencing secret tunnels, confusing messages, chases, shootouts, flaming arrows, explosions, an abduction, and everything you’d want in a thriller. There are only a few confusing blips—when the team leader thinks he is chasing down mace and the lack of any role for The Frenchman. All in all, it’s a satisfactory ending with tension-filled final scenes. If you skip over the confusing parts with the censers and Codex, you have ably written military thriller will give you hours of pleasure. </font> <p><font size="4">This novel was provided for me at no charge by the publisher for purposes of review. I was not required to write a positive review.</font></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388686212258442688.post-45405044074675119732016-11-11T13:13:00.001-05:002016-11-11T13:13:13.008-05:00The Shattered Vigil by Patrick Carr<p><b>A REVIEW</b> <p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I don’t read fantasy. Not for me the aliens and half-man half-beast beings. I want no eggplant suns rising over lemonade seas. Yes, I can take a few hobbits, but some race must resemble human at least in the way humans act and reason. This Patrick Carr novel is one of a very few fantasy novels that I enjoyed completely. The author adeptly weaves a tale replete with blue skies, green trees, and people that look and act like you and I might if we were in the same circumstances. The society feels somewhat medieval with horses for transportation, swords and knives for weapons. But the city looks more like Rome with its classed society, more than medieval towns with a local ruler and farmers and trades people living inside a walled community. However, as in modern times this culture boasts libraries and an efficient means of long distance communication (though restricted mostly to rulers and priests). The novel’s world comprises two major divisions: the Darkwater (an unexplored land of war and legend) and the known world where our protagonist and his friends live and travel. The kings and the four churches vie for the peoples’ allegiance along with another unknown entity. The churches each hold a different view of Aer, their god. The inhabitants of the known world are imbued by Aer, with. . . well it might be well to quote The Exordium of the Liturgy at this point.</font> <p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The six charisms of Aer are these:</font> <p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For the body, beauty and craft</font> <p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For the soul, sum and parts</font> <p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For the spirit, helps and devotion</font> <p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font> <p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The nine talents of man are these:</font> <p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Language, logic, space, rhythm,</font> <p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">motion, nature, self, others, and all</font> <p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font> <p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The four temperaments of creation are these:</font> <p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Impulse, passion, observation, and thought</font> <p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font> <p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Within the charisms of Aer, the talents of man,</font> <p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">and the temperaments imbued in creation </font> <p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">are found understanding and wisdom. Know and learn.</font> <p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font> <p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The charisms, or gifts, are limited in number. Those people who possess them generally gain wealth. The gifts are highly sought and highly treasured. They are most often handed down within a family, from one person to another, by the laying on of hands. The characters are real, questioning their destinies and their decisions.</font> <p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Our hero Willet Dura received his gift unexpectedly in the first novel in this series, The Shock of Night. Willet is a former student of the priesthood, a soldier who fought in the land of the Darkwater, who alone among the fighters returned to live in the land of his birth, and to live a somewhat normal life. Willet is a reeve (detective) for the Kingdom of Collum. He examines murder scenes, interviews witnesses, and places guilt. This novel begins after an incident in which Willet acquires a gift, and a battle which changes the course of his life and the lives of others in his community, both described in The Shock of Night, the first novel in this series, which should be read prior to The Shattered Vigil.</font> <p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What was missing from The Shattered Vigil? I would have liked fuller descriptions of the places in the novel. The author paints his landscapes with a broad brush but I would like a fuller description of the sights, sounds, and odors of the environment. I am thinking of The Lord of the Rings because in some way I was reminded of those books when reading The Shattered Vigil. Where Tolkien described a multi-layer forest, Carr leaves us with a few trees. There are plenty of places where the action can rest and description begin. That is my only quibble. Give me a little more description to go along with the almost breathless non-stop action and political intrigue.</font> <p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Without telling you anything to destroy your enjoyment of The Shattered Vigil (or The Shock of Night), I can tell you that this novel works on several levels. First, it lets you see that good characters do not always do good, and bad characters can sometimes be life savers. Next, it explores issues that relate to our lives today, issues such as church-state relationships, political maneuvering, the appropriate use of gifts and talents, how evil functions, and others. And this is the type of novel I like: one that makes me consider and reconsider attitudes and perspectives that I may have to adjust. Just what might happen if church and state get too chummy? To what lengths might spiritual gifts be exercised? Is it ever right to do wrong from a good motive? Is it right to do good from a bad motive? What powers should people have over others? Is the right and honorable thing, really the correct action? Are there times when we should be less open and truthful? And it challenges us to consider the wider ramifications of our actions. Could we save a life or change a life for better or worse by our action or inaction?</font> <p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Finally, The Shattered Vigil leaves you wanting more, needing more. You need more time to ponder the line between the people in the known world and those in Darkwater. Will those in the known world survive? What would it mean to survive? Would they become evil? And what will happen to Willet and his comrades? Will they survive? Or will they succumb to the Darkwater? Is survival even possible with the tools of their enemy arrayed against them? I guess we’ll all have to wait for the next book in the series.</font> <p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">NOTE: While reading the prepublication version of this novel, which was provided for me at no charge solely for purposes of review, I noticed several major errors that should have been corrected. I also logged onto Amazon prior to writing this review and found that the Kindle edition was already being sold. It is my hope that these errors were corrected prior to the Kindle edition being released.</font></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388686212258442688.post-19012583897813735542016-10-19T09:50:00.001-04:002016-10-19T09:50:07.687-04:00WHAT IS TRUTH?<p><font size="4" face="Tahoma">Pontious Pilate, sitting as judge, heard Jesus say “The reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUGsZcJxZCk7E7hgtthIRAz9uNxQWy-RY7ckggbwJZqIuTwRhN2Jrf5fIyBBP8ECoyz3oZCtp8IlMR2Y9cjjo9Eo657s71i4Q46n3IvOEZ5q8q_P0ZwIGYf_4XNk3PbzahneVLjwYRUWYh/s1600-h/Way_to_Akiba_secret_area%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img title="Way_to_Akiba_secret_area" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="Way_to_Akiba_secret_area" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwAULBahSdXsNG6qLFIpEDPNWPdCzF2f2sM06VUCShN2Bx5evaYiT8y00cO3FYe7GfD7lVJzeT-0VsXEG3RQv5MBitufnyrNEUKqGfbmqmkuXHXlhcsMtmVhvBQYeQPpQrbiOhML3_WmLQ/?imgmax=800" width="189" align="right" height="244"></a>the truth.” Pilate’s response? “What is truth?” His response summed up the world of the judge with the words of the jaded, the one who has heard it all, all the lies, the half truths, and so many truthful witnesses giving very different descriptions. That was in the 1st century A.D. In the 21st century, the question is still the same: What is truth? Police detectives ask it, as they sift witness statements and physical evidence. Each witness may portray a different truth. Politicians claim to have the truth? Do they? We think we know the truth based on our own education and experiences. Do we?</font> <p><font size="4" face="Tahoma">The truths we see may run contrary to the truths others see, and we assume they are wrong. But what if they are right, and we are wrong? What if we both are wrong? Could we be wrong? What if, like witnesses to an accident, who see a red car, a black car, a dark green car, with a woman driver, a man driver, a man with a mustache and glasses, a man without a mustache or glasses, a passenger, no passenger, a tinted windshield, one with no tint, what if, like those witnesses we see only part of what is true. What do we really know? What have we actually observed? Who knows the truth? </font> <p><font size="4" face="Tahoma">If if we are completely and sincerely honest to the best of our ability we are still going to be caught out someday. Yes, we will be wrong. So, where is the truth?</font> <p><font size="4" face="Tahoma">Jesus said it. “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” If we want to know the truth we must know the One who is the truth. We can be wise, we can demonstrate our wisdom, but unless we are honest with ourselves all we may be able to say for sure is that we saw a dark car. We can be sure of only one thing. And if that one thing is truth, it’s the most important thing. So where do you find your truth? Is it with yourself, you parents, your classmates, your teachers? Sure, they will all have some of the truth but which bits are the right ones? Jesus is the only one who has all the pieces. He is the one who embodies truth. He’s the only completely reliable teacher, and He’s the only one who can teach you the truth, show you the truth, and be the truth in your life.</font> <p><font size="4" face="Tahoma">The Apostle Paul said it well when he said that some want wisdom and some want signs but he would teach only Christ. If it’s truth you’re after, it’s Jesus. If it’s life you’re after, it’s Jesus. If it’s a way you’re after, it’s still Jesus. There no way, no life, and no truth without Jesus. And there you have it.</font> <p><font size="4" face="Tahoma"></font> </p> <p><font size="1" face="Tahoma">Photo By Stéfan Le Dû from Nantes, France [CC BY-SA 2.0 (</font><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]"><font size="1" face="Tahoma">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]</font></a><font size="1" face="Tahoma">, via Wikimedia Commons</font></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388686212258442688.post-2046814517637818822016-04-05T13:55:00.001-04:002016-04-05T13:55:10.132-04:00Landlords and Tenants and their Circumstances<p> </p> <p><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Evicted-Poverty-Profit-American-City/dp/0553447432/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=">EVICTED by Matthew Desmond</a> </b> <p>I was drawn to <i>Evicted</i> by my own circumstances. I had made friends with a poor family living about an hour away. We hosted their daughter’s 18<sup>th</sup> birthday party and invited her to live with us while she attended school. When they were losing their <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjaX32js4KTBkmEoy0M60kMpjLD674P1hon73aFqTBR8TYVPz-3Olmorx-Jgq7qt2PTXyu9t8U7XyayRv5ahH2A-B2pW8u_BRLwvBZP3l1xq1oGFmBoTJ088mf6Ss0hWdw-JDPvHBP69rK/s1600-h/9780553447439%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img title="9780553447439" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="9780553447439" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwbeZpxxZff3NSt7itSihCl4NvrYyN0Qc8YaXsNso_PU8lzVNqSn5imz8DkRuLu16hRFA05mGvwybcRxDXkcPKpm0H_zlD6oSzXEqIW6oAuSpc0ZrJ4SbOc7vPyHGQ_JLXIo-a0WC6k0qV/?imgmax=800" width="167" align="right" height="244"></a>home through financial ignorance (they thought they could pay ahead and then stop paying for a while), I offered to sell them a property which I was preparing to rent—to sell it to them on land contract because they had bad credit: no bank accounts, no credit cards. In the back of my mind I carried the idea that everyone should be given the opportunity to own their own home. After all, isn’t that the American dream? What this family lacked in financial stability, they had in friendship. There was nothing they would not do to help me, going out of the way to find a part for one of my appliances, offering to mow my lawn, not asking for anything at all in return. I believed that I could give them the means to improve their lives financially, to learn how to make regular payments, to gain an asset, and ultimately to qualify for a bank loan. <p>My assumptions were that someone acquiring ownership in a home would improve the home. I also assumed that a friend would make regular monthly payments and would follow through on everything they promised to do. Both of these assumptions proved false. After about 5 months, the payments stopped. I gave them more time—a few months and then confronted them. They told me about a work injury and hung their heads in shame. I gave them even more time and told them that I would not throw them out because of an unforeseen injury. Now, 20 missed payments later and a trashed house, I must do something, but how can I throw out a mother and three minor children? Even though I no longer trust the mother (who is now divorcing the father), what about the children who have not only lost the stability of a two-parent household but now might lose their friends, their teachers, their coaches, and their school? What might an eviction cost them? It sickened me to think of evicting these children whose birthdays I had celebrated, baseball performances I had cheered, and who had cut and colored my hair. Their mother cleaned my vacation rental in the area and their father performed carpentry and other work for me. I had an entanglement that is far more complex than the ordinary landlord/tenant relationship. <p>The stress of my decision convinced me to read and review the book <i>Evicted</i>. Maybe it would give me a different perspective. Maybe it would help me understand people who seem so irresponsible and uncaring. Maybe it would help me find other options. <p>The book was not as I expected from a major publisher. Cheap paper and large print do not create a pleasant reading experience. I only hope that the copy I have is not the final version. However as bad as the paper felt, I quickly forgot it when I encountered the real people within the book, landlords trying to make a living and provide for Milwaukee’s poor and tenants who take measures that seem reasonable only to themselves. This is an ethnography, a book relating a culture through the eyes of the people within it. <p><i>EVICTED</i> follows the stores of 2 landlords and several tenants in a poor section of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. One landlord, a former elementary school teacher buys distressed properties and with her husband fixes them well enough to rent to the poorest of the poor. She and her husband work full time on their properties and bring in about $10,000/month. When a tenant fell behind, she said, “I guess I got to stop feeling sorry for these people because nobody is feeling sorry for me. Last time I checked, the [county treasurer, loan officer, electric company] still wanted their money.” My feelings exactly. Doesn’t my tenant realize that I have bills to pay? The other landlord profiled in <i>EVICTED</i> owned a trailer park and had hired a manager and office helper to rent the trailers, handle repairs, and collect rents. This is not part of my experience and as I read about the drug dealers renting in the trailer park, it was as though I was peering into an alternate reality. I simply could not relate to someone whose only interest was achieving the highest return on his property with no concern for the quality of his tenants or his properties, or what extreme measures were taken to collect rent. Still, it was an education to see the lengths to which he went to get cash in hand from a defaulting tenant. The author rented from him and could not even get this landlord to supply him with hot water. That’s my definition of a slumlord. <p>All of the tenants were low income, but shared little else in common. Most of them were desperate to provide for their children. Some of the tenants were on drugs; others would not touch drugs, and still others were recreational marijuana users. These were people who could not plan for the future, who simply spent each day trying to survive. Those who made paying rent a priority often had little left to live on, and found themselves scrimping on food, medications, and clothing. <p>And the landlords? One had the time (and money) for week-long island vacations, but found herself scrimping the last week of the month—a week before the rents would roll in. Some landlords would not rent to people of color, people with children, or people who had even a single eviction on their record. <i>Evicted</i> shows us the landlord using self-help means to collect rent: knocking on doors the day welfare checks arrive, showing up at odd hours with hands out, asking for money, going to court and working out a settlement . . . or not, and then the sheriff and moving company walk in, empty the house of all items down to the ice cube trays, leaving a pile at the curb, or in storage where the tenants’ treasured belongings remain in rented storage space until redeemed, or more likely, until rent goes unpaid and the things are sold or discarded. <p>Landlords get tired—tired of handling evictions, tired of fixing broken plumbing and appliances. Tired of physically knocking on doors to collect rent. Tired of tenants who make empty promises to pay in full when their income tax refund comes in, or from money borrowed from a tapped out relative, or when they receive their welfare check. These promises are recycled in various forms at various times by various tenants trying to stay in their homes. Landlords hear them at the eviction hearing where the tenants try one last time to convince the landlords to give them more time. <p>The tenants are tired, too, and overwhelmed. Instead of fixing a constantly clogged kitchen sink, they just ignore it, throwing old clothes on the floor to soak up the overflow. They close the kitchen door and do dishes in the bathroom, until that sink clogs. The heat fails and they turn on stove burners. The toilet fails and they go in a bucket and empty it into the trash. The refrigerator fails and they live on McDonalds. When children’s services comes calling, they purchase cheap half-working appliances just to keep their children. Why do they do this? To avoid any contact with the landlord to whom they owe money. And no, this is not the heart of Appalachia, this is Milwaukee, Wisconsin a major metropolitan area. <p>In Milwaukee, as in every American city, we see families forced to endure sub-standard housing, living in shelters, searching for the elusive “home.” This book isn’t even about home ownership, but about the ability to have a safe and stable housing situation. Ownership is too far away from many people to be even a glimmer in their minds, but a safe and stable living situation is their desired goal. They scramble to find rent by begging, borrowing, and stealing, selling drugs, and even their own bodies. The author allows us to peer into their world and see “solutions” that are not working and the desperate search for housing. <p>I had never considered the author’s idea, statistically supported, that neighborhoods have a life of their own which can be fragile. We in the “burbs” enfold ourselves in subdivisions where houses and yards look similar and we have our “standards.” But inner city neighborhoods are formed from people who have a common interest. When people remain in a neighborhood and get to know their neighbors, they can band together for the safety of their homes and children. One man in the book was struggling to raise his two teenage sons in a stable environment. He was a double amputee but was unable to obtain Social Security disability payments. He survived on welfare payments, with next to nothing left over after his rent payment. Despite his circumstances, his place was where the neighborhood teenagers would come to hang out in safety, play cards, and talk about growing up. He was a stabilizing influence on his block. When people are shunted in and out of a neighborhood through eviction (or foreclosure) the neighborhoods become unstable and unsafe. Drug users and sellers move in, gangs are formed, and crimes increase. Stable neighborhoods, where people can move in and out freely and are not evicted or otherwise forced out of their homes, are safer and make the entire community safer. The author believes that decent housing should be a basic right afforded to all people for the common good. <p>The current system is broken. That’s clear. No one can survive in northern winters and no one should have to survive without a safe place to lay their heads. Landlords cannot give away rental property. They should and must make money from their investments. And tenants are not all the same. Some will treat property well and even improve its value. Others will allow their children to run wild, tattooing hardwood doors and trim with ball point pens, tearing doors from their hinges, smashing holes in the drywall. Discouraged tenants live in squalor and disgruntled landlords give up performing more than make-do repairs and just go after the money. <p>The solution offered by the author, vouchers or rent subsidies, does not currently work because landlords can and do raise the rent above what is customary in the locale simply because the voucher authority sets high rent caps. In many cases, access to vouchers are limited—many poor cannot get them and the program sets standards for the housing which might exceed a landlord’s improvement budget, especially in older homes. The author’s solution would require universal vouchers for every family below a certain income level, less onerous requirements for landlords to accept the vouchers, and a demand that all landlords accept vouchers. But who will fund this? It’s been successful in England and the Netherlands, but those are small countries. Is some legislator in the United States willing to try? Or could there be a better solution? <p>Something must be done. I’m almost persuaded to leave the rental market due to the stress of broken relationships and a trashed property that I put so much time, energy, and money into making beautiful and up to code. On the other hand, my erstwhile friend and her three children need a safe place to stay. Maybe the electric companies have the right solution. The poor can pay drastically lower utility bills through a program that gives them an incentive to make regular on-time payments. For each payment (at about 10% of income), the remainder of what they would owe each month is forgiven and they have a percentage of their payment applied to past debt. But how many of the poor keep up the utility payments? The utility company has an out. They can turn off their service. Landlords’ only recourse is to convince a defaulting tenant to move or to evict them. And there is no evidence that the utilities have success with their program. If someone will not pay rent for more than a few months, perhaps they will also stop paying for their utilities. Maybe we landlords can come up with something better for tenants who fall behind. I don’t know what that may be, but private solutions are often better than ones provided by the state. Just look at public housing. <p>This book was provided to me free for an unbiased review. I received this book from <a href="http://www.BloggingForBooks.org">Blogging for Books</a> for this review. <p>Want to read more? For current information on the US rental market: <a href="http://www.jchs.harvard.edu/americas-rental-housing">http://www.jchs.harvard.edu/americas-rental-housing</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388686212258442688.post-29075546182262513942015-12-31T10:44:00.001-05:002015-12-31T10:44:38.159-05:00DELIGHTING IN GOD<h1 align="center"><font size="4">DELIGHTING IN GOD</font></h1> <h1 align="center"><font size="4">By A. W. Tozer</font></h1> <p><font size="4">I first stumbled on A. W. Tozer (1897-1963) a few years ago when I was engulfed in a dark night of the soul, a several-year period when I felt completely disconnected from God and <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKPP57SAt5jziAwFwOHGadahirkm_LMv_l1tHrNwc_rm7pAwW18XyR4yEwpjeGcPdbqXKnQavDaihO4DHbWz0CHBj2wrdI5QsnSPkBLN18L-ppdE6-lUJVNf3ZfYz8tajSCDcoVmQyGHDq/?imgmax=800"><img title="P-12" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="P-12" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilqlh-KXAaLsJfUvBL7MFprlfNPfpSXd6ZAzTjbS1FWCPJForq7Pq8ZzzoElsWfAQy3r3uH5JnKTYIOseGBgzn7epCEh-_SsmYzYGJxorfIz9cw0ZZAbDwJL5OowQMOsI_5Qm_9uJiY1cy/?imgmax=800" width="337" align="right" height="268"></a>desperately searched for some means to get back to a time of sweet communion and freedom. Something about the title of his book, <i>The Knowledge of the Holy,</i> convinced me to read it and I was hooked. It was exactly what I needed and brought light into that dark place. I read it twice, just to absorb it all. It brought my heart to its figurative knees whether I was reading in a waiting room or on my sofa.</font> <p><font size="4">Now I am in another not-quite-so-dark place and <i>Delighting in God</i> was billed as a follow-up to <i>The Knowledge of the Holy</i>. <i>Delighting in God</i>’s chapters are short enough to be read devotionally and each begins with a prayer of preparation and ends with a hymn, most from the 18<sup>th</sup> and 19<sup>th</sup> centuries. The 18 short chapters may be pondered and stretched into a 3-week devotional. But the book’s own purpose is clearly stated in Chapter 5: “to be faithful to point out” the problems with the evangelical church. And there went any hope I had for an uplifting sequel to <i>The Knowledge of the Holy</i>. However, as I continued to read I found myself both comforted and convicted.</font> <p><font size="4">The primary theme of the book is passion for God which we regain by contemplating God in all his aspects, beginning with the basics of how we know Him and why we may have an inadequate perception of Him, followed by expositions His attributes. Tozer also explores our limitations and the problems that occur when we hold a wrong or inadequate perception of God. He explains what it means to our lives to have a proper view God’s transcendence, His perfection, grace, mercy, and goodness.</font> <p><font size="4">I have been a Christian for more than 40 years. A new Christian has no problem with passion for God, but as time passes and life becomes difficult we all may come to a place of common humanity where our minds and hearts become skewed, crooked, warped and unable to receive from God. It is at such times that books like <i>The Knowledge of the Holy </i>and <i>Delighting in God</i> come along and untwist our hearts and minds so they are positioned once again to properly appreciate and delight in God. </font> <p><font size="4">This book was compiled and edited by James L. Snyder from audio recordings left by Tozer. It certainly does have the feel of an authentic Tozer for that I commend him. I was furnished a copy of <i>Delighting in God</i> free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.</font>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388686212258442688.post-87665248095992631152015-09-23T12:52:00.001-04:002015-09-23T12:52:21.259-04:00Word Meanings<p>Much of the following is from the preface to Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis. Any sentence quoted came from that book. I have been on a Lewis kick, reading and rereading all that he wrote. </p> <p>Like Lewis, I want words to have an exact meaning; not just mean what anything thinks they mean. I don’t want them diluted or expanded. let’s just call a spade a <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOMM__TEmat0_KsrQY6MjMb9aB8QNOvvkAeI5cnR-wkQv_1jtbOy0mRWLSdOCXd2tQelfxFE4fFFOr5VqIWdN-DQ_Bp0LvurfigO-i4orxVyl0IsJQZIyQ5UQtpYlUG56XCb47cg1HqO_Q/s1600-h/256px-CSLewisPlaque%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img title="256px-CSLewisPlaque" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="256px-CSLewisPlaque" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf8ZholBFANFaZtE2416RMZANJbNWdai2gI_fCeDfzwWhGL0rHxyf3tilrTlgECbrnFuo60baDKlziQ5se978tBB6I0-PyGXSzk3f1ilLYDxY4EqJIZiXmVgrF6KNi2ZmB3af1rDB-LNpj/?imgmax=800" width="244" align="right" height="163"></a>spade and let a word mean what it was supposed to mean. Lewis points out in his preface that the world “Gentleman” once meant man who was a landowner. It had only that one definition. But people started deciding that “Gentleman” had characteristics other than landownership and they formulated what those characteristics ought to be. For example, to them, Gentleman meant kind. So an unkind person was not a Gentleman. Then Gentleman meant nice, and when it finally resolved, Gentleman meant only a person that the speaker liked. There already were terms for nice and kind people. Nice. Kind. It was not necessary to dilute the term Gentleman so it meant nothing anymore. </p> <p>In the same manner, Christian has been diluted. “The name <em>Christians</em> was first given at Antioch (Acts 11:26) to ‘the disciples’, to those who accepted the teaching of the apostles. If we refine or spiritualize “Christian” then the word is no good to anyone. If we spiritualize it we can say that Christians have no right to determine who is or who is not close to God. If we refine it, non-believers will call anyone who is good (or bad or bigoted or . . . ) a Christian. But it is no refinement because we already have words for good, bad, and bigoted. So the word Christian is ruined because it means nothing or we can go back to the original meaning and say that a Christian is one who accepts the teaching of the Apostles, that is the New Testament.</p> <p>That leaves it wide open denominationally and all we can really say is that someone is a good Christian, if they live lives worthy of the Apostles’ teaching or a bad Christian if they accept the Apostles’ teaching, but live unworthy lives.</p> <p>Let’s keep the word Christian to its original meaning. A clear meaning. An undiluted meaning. A good word.</p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388686212258442688.post-46431659728832528152015-09-08T08:13:00.001-04:002015-09-08T12:16:06.341-04:00New Earth or Why I want the Windows Open<p><font size="3"></font> </p> <p><font size="3">The TV weather forecaster has been predicting 90 degree days for the past </font><font size="3">week. As a result, we have had the windows closed and the air conditioning on.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9-xj38Xe3y_wt07f92ctXYlsqTaBZtqOXV22CjCZhRwUvDtvZQFjU6AMQaUUNkFGWWr-burQM4OqLOXJ6lTd_ZssymwpPKYg3-QvqAe0VZJ94GvhLSfTN_XczGmDX8ATnmt2UVmgHg9_9/s1600-h/tree%252520for%252520blogger%252520bkgd%252520%252528768x1024%252529%25255B5%25255D.jpg"><img title="tree for blogger bkgd (768x1024)" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" border="0" alt="tree for blogger bkgd (768x1024)" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLWVlLHDsBewBcM82DL8iivSZ6Qr_acuvFChPjQs9lw2zOJQnU-5kDao6xXFpDT2itbsd3dId-S2SmUI25wZZUVSQKRzIQExYtS9alRXGdotZP6ClpWf0W0KS-vxsg-siXKOvfkgiAhtgl/?imgmax=800" width="184" align="right" height="244"></a> </font></p> <p><font size="3">When windows and doors are closed, it’s ethereally quiet. I don’t hear the crickets, frogs, birds, squirrels, or the wind in the trees. I don’t hear the automobiles with squealing breaks or trucks’ rumbling engines. I don’t hear neighbors’ cars starting and pulling away or their children’s voices protesting. Silence reigns with intermittent thunders of airplanes and helicopters, and the quiet hums from my computer and the refrigerator. It seems lonely and sad—like death--a body surrounded by glass and timber—coffined--where outside, somewhere, a hostile but desperately desired world awaits. </font></p> <p><font size="3">This morning, standing at the kitchen sink, which no longer even drips, drips, drips because the faucet is new, I realized that I was being given a foretaste of the new heaven and earth where the Holy One himself will be our light, a light without heat, a temperature fit—as we seem currently unfit to survive hot humid days and cold winter nights--for our perfect enjoyment. Then the windows will be flung open for us and the sound of birds, crickets, all the animals and insects will meet our ears, far clearer and sweeter than we perceive them now. The shouts and cries of our neighbors will be music. Though now we see through dim eyes and clouded glass, then we will see face to face, truly see colors beyond compare, a green bower greener than green, a bluer than blue sky. Although we cannot perceive it now, save in glimpses from a kitchen sink, our real home, our true abode awaits. Even so, Come Lord Jesus!</font></p> <p><font size="3"></font></p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388686212258442688.post-4879552037280367652015-08-31T09:35:00.001-04:002015-08-31T09:35:18.994-04:00GOING BACK<a title="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abraham_Lincoln_Letter_to_Mr._Brayman_September_23,_1854_-_NARA_-_192847.jpg" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abraham_Lincoln_Letter_to_Mr._Brayman_September_23,_1854_-_NARA_-_192847.jpg"><img title="Abraham_Lincoln_Letter_to_Mr._Brayman_September_23,_1854_-_NARA_-_192847" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="Abraham_Lincoln_Letter_to_Mr._Brayman_September_23,_1854_-_NARA_-_192847" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHWEqchQuuo70x83mvmQl8Q-rVc21klr3VGUbXdIE8J_3TFpgm8VJgh5WIfbYhRYCeo0XO1kCuFUIimqoCEKgdmfayScXGyjGppLoYJZ9mZ4iu0it__T30ZIzEUGBCYTMUVCWTsadh5e-C/?imgmax=800" width="192" align="right" height="244"></a> <p> </p> <p>I am a technology freak. I have an excess of electronic paraphernalia. I thought these things consumed too much of my life until we took in a young adult roomer. Between the iPhone and the iPad and Netflix, we barely saw her. She would come home, disappear in her room and barely emerge to eat or drink. And then it happened. Our roomer ran out of money and failed to pay her cell phone bill. Her service was cut off. No phone calls, no text, no normal communication with her friends and family. She fell into a funk.</p> <p>And now I digress. I have been reading the voluminous correspondence of C. S. Lewis, some of it mundane, much of it personal, theological, interesting. At the same time, the former owner of my vacation rental <a href="http://wreneagle.com/" target="_blank">Wren Eagle Retreat</a> sent me a letter about tree falling on a neighbor’s vehicles and his own health problems. I had emailed him once with a question about the property but he never responded. Now we are carrying on correspondence as our letters pass back and forth once a week or so. Other people have received letter from me now that C. S. Lewis has shown me what a letter may be: an insight into daily life (when he wrote to his brother away at war), or a sharing of knowledge and thought. Although at times I feel like an intruder to his privacy, nonetheless I have made myself his recipient and taken his advice about novels to read and considered ideas he, himself, was pondering.</p> <p>Now my technological gadgets seem more a distraction than a delight. I’ll continue reading on my Kindle, but there’s something about the hand pressing into a pen and moving that pen across blank paper to form symbols with meaning. I can underline, press harder, and write larger all with more ease than doing it on a computer. And if I misspell, so what? My recipient will understand. </p> <p>And our roomer who no longer has access to phone and text? She may just have to learn to write letters, address envelopes, and stick on stamps. Would that be so bad? Would it be so bad for her to write with thought rather than dashing off a text message? Would it hurt her to have to live with the tension of waiting for a response for days or a week or not at all? I have begun turning off my cell phone when I go to bed and not answering it when I am driving or involved in something that takes my entire concentration. What do you think? Might it be time to jettison the short text messages, tweets, and Facebook posts. To restrict ones own phone time—remembering that once there was no phone access to your life when you were not at home or in your office or at a public phone booth. What have we lost? What should be regained?</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>Attribution for picture of letter:</p> <p><a title="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abraham_Lincoln_Letter_to_Mr._Brayman_September_23,_1854_-_NARA_-_192847.jpg" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abraham_Lincoln_Letter_to_Mr._Brayman_September_23,_1854_-_NARA_-_192847.jpg">https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abraham_Lincoln_Letter_to_Mr._Brayman_September_23,_1854_-_NARA_-_192847.jpg</a></p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388686212258442688.post-60228706928396130872015-04-02T08:42:00.001-04:002015-04-02T08:43:06.704-04:00Sense and Sensibility: Redefining Marriage<p><font size="4">What is repugnant to you? Killing animals? Whipping children or <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg85R79OT5f9trv3c8Ai7kgUbVDsBT3Kec5gIDPT7kQ_EA1pDW4PdIvz3qegLUFJip77_PE3HCmtzccIqPX78uTXP0E515vcSAcPCpxeCovRh8vn_hzu2rQujuKSNXXtL5HPdNRBrD6O6c5/s1600-h/En_brud_p%2525C3%2525A5_norr._Fritz_von_Dardel%25252C_1830-40-tal_-_Nordiska_Museet_-_NMA.0037706%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="En_brud_på_norr._Fritz_von_Dardel,_1830-40-tal_-_Nordiska_Museet_-_NMA.0037706" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="En_brud_på_norr._Fritz_von_Dardel,_1830-40-tal_-_Nordiska_Museet_-_NMA.0037706" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNEzw2slU8v1O3sd79qE9-1lCAzHbFBQDlrJPtIh2JFnOwP336WUOHsPFss1wjPJGeXKZ9IEWhVaZeRRUnA1HylEs6_1v987B9gvlOUnVXnPPy268kkuA-lqgd18EuJ9oyAT-5NF2WnjYV/?imgmax=800" width="309" align="right" height="220"></a>animals? Torture? For me, reading or seeing anything having to do with defection makes me sick. As a result, I do not include that act or anything relating to it (synonyms, descriptions, etc.) in even my fictional writing. </font></p> <p><font size="4">And yet, people complain when a business will not serve a potential client or customer who wants the business to create something (pastries, party favors, invitations, photographs and videography, a musical mix, etc.) for an activity which the business owner knows will lead to something that violates their beliefs. The opening of a sex shop, a gambling facility, or something similar might violate the tenents held by a business owner—such an enterprise would damage their own soul should they use their creative energies to further it.</font></p> <p><font size="4">When does a person’s conscience and soul take precedence over the rights of others? No one’s art is truly unique. I can find any number of bakeries, printers, photographers and videographers who are not bound by conscience. </font></p> <p><font size="4">When I was practicing photography, I was asked to photograph my ex-fiancé's wedding. Stupidly, I agreed. I have no idea what quality of photographs resulted because I pulled the film out of the camera, flung it at him after the wedding, and told him I was done. I know he would have gotten better results if he had hired someone else.</font></p> <p><font size="4">When someone walks into a store and asks for invitations, pastries, photographic services and the like, they must know that if their project would violate the conscience and sensibilities of the business owner then the outcome would be less than favorable. You may not force someone to violate their conscience for something that is any less than life threating. </font></p> <p><font size="4">And yet, homosexual couples are trying to legally force small business owners to provide creative services for celebrations which those owners cannot in good conscience provide good service. Are they doing this thoughtlessly, selfishly, or to prove a point. I really think it is the latter. </font></p> <p><font size="4">Let’s talk about the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. Some people falsely believe that it requires everyone to be treated equally—that everyone is equal. However, our founders were not blind. They could see that individuals were not equal in life. Some were strong, some weak, some poor, some rich, some sickly, some healthy. What the Equal Protection Clause says is that the laws of the land must be equally enforced. You don’ t have one law for the rich (e.g. they can pay their way out of mandatory military service) and one for the poor (they must serve and be killed). You don’t have one law for people of European descent (they can live as free people) and another law for people of African descent (they can be treated like property). <font size="4">Equal protection under the law does not mean that everyone gets served. Remember “No shoes, no shirt, no service?” </font></font></p> <p><font size="4">Now, lets address one of my pet peeves—redefinitions. I have already used one word in this essay that has been redefined as a misspelling of tenant—a renter. I’m sure you can find that word. There’s a song from the musical, Oklahoma, with the line “I am as bright and as gay as a daisy in May.” The redefinition is obvious to anyone who has enjoyed that musical. And then there’s the redefinition of “baby.” Or maybe I should call it the shifting definition. When is a baby a baby? Only when it’s born. What expectant mother does not exclaim, “I am having a baby!” It’s a baby to her when she knows she’s pregnant. “We’re having a baby,” she says. It’s a fetus to those who don’t want it to be a baby. And now marriage is taking on a definition change, not a shift. Marriage has always been the state of a relationship between a man and a woman that separated it from all other relationships. Everyone everywhere at all times recognized that definition. Now some want the definition to change so that marriage can be between any two persons of legal age. But once it’s changed, it no longer holds its original meaning. It means nothing. Just like “gay” once meant frivolously happy. That meaning is completely gone. “Gay” now means homosexual. The meaning has completely changed. </font></p> <p><font size="4">I don’t think it’s a good thing to mess with meaning. And certainly not if the word has existed with a strong meaning for hundreds of years (marry was first coined in the 1300’s but synonyms have been used almost since the beginning of time). Don’t let people change the meaning. Marriage is not a word invented or a law promulgated by the government. Yes, the government can protect the people getting married by keeping close relatives from marrying, and requiring tests for diseases that would adversely affect the couple if they married. But government may not redefine words to mean something that they never meant. Not now, not ever. </font></p> <p><font size="4">The word tenent disappeared, it has been changed to tenet—a strongly held belief or principal. Gay can disappear. I liked it, but it was not a terribly important word. Marriage must not be made to disappear. It is a very important word with an inherent meaning that may not be displaced or redefined. </font></p> <p><font size="4">A <a href="http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/04/01/after-indiana-pizzeria-said-they-wouldnt-cater-gay-weddings-the-backlash-was-so-extreme-it-may-not-be-safe-to-re-open/">pizza restaurant in Indiana</a> is losing business because they said they would not cater a homosexual “wedding.” They would serve anyone who comes into their restaurant. But they drew the line at catering an event that strove to redefine marriage. </font></p> <p><font size="4">Can marriage be redefined? Yes, we have redefined other things. But the question remains, just because we can, should we? </font></p> <p><font size="4">We must never redefine words that function to sustain societies. And that’s what marriage does. </font></p> <p><font size="4"> </font></p> <p><font size="4"></font> </p> <p><font size="4"></font> </p> <p><font size="4"> </font></p> <p><font size="4"></font> </p> <p><font size="4"></font> </p> <p><font size="4"></font> </p> <p><font size="4"></font> </p> <p> </p> <p><font size="4"></font> </p> <p><font size="4"></font> </p> <p><font size="4"></font></p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388686212258442688.post-48671815484197935732015-03-28T09:34:00.001-04:002016-08-09T05:52:00.973-04:00The Dream<br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">It was a worm, slimy and gray, unmoving. Curling around nothing, <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVxiwimV_zwHp5gZdYe3mFpqXKW-hj9xL8-QECfN5eXQNkSt6DL8v0RKCP7NfzW5Iv6nlCvrTzJqsocnXqLKy3vAp25aj4OLLaLZAR1z1lDO0qSrF2xd6l2gXO8_v-VzewjH368Z1zzQwZ/s1600-h/slug%25255B7%25255D.jpg"><img align="right" alt="slug" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG80xWg2GDsqId6U_o7cKs7YFWK6tRENdemiBE8KXnGKqhaydfO5tNjNnihJytkqy_dOapkyo4TY-1WhP2PlVhGs08hMkMAqn1xqBP0PoWvBl4CvdfkZzqEK9u5wyzAX8xY5AdcnfAFXg9/?imgmax=800" height="140" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; float: right; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="slug" width="43" /></a>slithering across the smooth surface. Suddenly from above dropped a small, segmented, smooth caterpillar with black spots symmetrically situated along its length.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTa_JXMeW2rexk4TAcnaa6Fdp4dMDMeKnpFLrkr5b56y71Mp6SLBz_6vXEKAN1YUeuI9XJ6Isi2v2Iu3mWHL89wgrxfvT3jU9Fv55vvpPpVBJvW8TYgckKVz7mhXzG9ZsdgHF-oVAph6kE/s1600-h/red%252520worm%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img align="left" alt="red worm" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCDDJIseqmD3LU03p0lnNVelU4esu1SaX5rTgK-EZypQiTczV6NeuWN59fJ8aEgt7eskt1VfHNoT1Gg1JFYkjnCEH2g3XvprDctnP1J04Y9EjolnxldVIKzr8F9TkxsY66xg0gfnskI4Yr/?imgmax=800" height="66" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; float: left; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="red worm" width="70" /></a>The worm surrounded that caterpillar and sucked it in, glowing red along its length shining into the void around it. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">“Get it off me! Get it off!” </span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">I looked up to see that red worm laying on his bald head. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">The next moment that worm was in the sink basin, in a small amount of water contained <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFDpFWriOXU_dKu16iIsa9PB-DWgT2-G3oTVCpfHGQCj6fG6whzTR8NcnW7vTwNmlCypsCtNLtvlr_ONvptwmx83x3KGfmuoJ4cQelxsegs7UJzKzhxiYYF38k2UyGCtu-ywOoyJpco0-3/s1600-h/Kitchen_sink_drain%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img align="right" alt="Kitchen_sink_drain" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVgBExY5L9_LunEh0xF6R6dZaeNREzv3Vr68BirNfgTRRVMccnItYNlj7k2KRy0iU7qis_Duniuat0GUnKEPE-LLksWq4BcA4Ll0sOi6F5t1U8mJNaQ-jONvCt2-t2WHAhv_COcnJqVS4I/?imgmax=800" height="40" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; display: inline; float: right; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="Kitchen_sink_drain" width="50" /></a>in the sink stopper. I watched it wiggle and squirm, not at all dismayed and certainly not destroyed by finding itself in water. It did not die, but it must die. It must be destroyed.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">I grabbed a piece of bread, dumped the contents of the stopper into it, folded it and ate it.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">This dream, what does it mean?</span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK2arGqKlm2rZOwNcy5fFIaisQ_jTMm1ztX4vzhfFO-WR6oZsNsMsQFCv3VU52jIIhWSeViw2GFsHHBa6CKsx6G1mLkb16qa04BkQJMYVugrKjxNRUGRBKVA-whMa45JSXSnR2xAtDwc7Q/s1600-h/Slices_of_bread%25255B4%25255D.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img align="right" alt="Slices_of_bread" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRl4Nzw7pAD2ffgsG0koBFHJKVcc8i0KU0nAnTCbVtWiKoGTRYK3cWf-wn06YlP9N_lf31j1JKXKpguLn1JrIJQHTr_UfubgEESjRiLAcy9lLoMhCJJoB0gxwPbV8MkpF8AMXIZ7yX9sI6/?imgmax=800" height="67" style="background-image: none; border-color: -moz-use-text-color; border-style: none; border-width: 0px; display: inline; float: right; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" title="Slices_of_bread" width="86" /></a><br />
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Note: I have not been thinking about worms or slugs or anything slimy. My night time reading has to do with Japanese/Chinese relations prior to the 2nd World War on the Island of Penang in Malaysia. <br />
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Sink Stopper photo by Stilfehler (Own work) [GFDL (<a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)">http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)</a> or CC BY-SA 3.0 (<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]</a>, via Wikimedia Commons<br />
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Bread slices By Daniel Sone (Photographer) [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia CommonsUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388686212258442688.post-6697864338119763562015-03-27T08:02:00.001-04:002015-03-27T17:58:12.010-04:00When Is 20% Not Enough or Shower Shelf Alternatives?<p><font size="4"></font> </p> <p><font size="4"></font> </p> <p><font size="4">I’m not talking about the emails for enlarging part of your body or solving a problem you didn’t know you had. No, these are legitimate offers <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqAN9h7jQKaOLd1Ov3Nf99q68IJd-QVZaFbk2OFFvKd6jxfph4Z5RJBBWYptnRvKTA7OQoNgNDyi_biUjFRRX7V0Sn77JcTNPkY2_l_7XyhWaxDJfW5WUiS9pHRN8YPB-zfSxB0Bz-hBMG/s1600-h/Shower-Towel%25255B2%25255D.jpg"><img title="Shower-Towel" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="Shower-Towel" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiukK1WjXj-S3NmskuFZtjuzMUWV8ifOA-qg6QnLxdn_2u2LEoBfIpnPjUc19T6oJbEzirmr6qQQixyt7kh50ZQzcbZuMkoBPcVJrM_c-L-GC_JwKiz6GUfkPrDu8hWhOoxF4wPY27bAcwk/?imgmax=800" width="244" align="right" height="139"></a>from brick and mortar stores. For years I had been using one of these offers to solve a problem: no shelves in the shower. Yes, it’s a big problem, no place to put the soap or shampoo or conditioner bottle which we always purchase in the largest size. So they end up on the floor.</font></p> <p><font size="4">We started with the 20% off coupon from the store and bought something that need to be assembled and stretched from the ceiling to the floor of the shower. It was steel coated with something to resemble oil rubbed bronze. It lasted for a few years and then began to crumble, leaving bits of rusted metal at our feet. </font></p> <p><font size="4">When it finally collapsed, I again used the 20% off coupon and purchased one that wouldn’t rust—aluminum. The problem was that even though it didn’t rust, it wasn’t sturdy enough. When the last shelf broke off, I took my 20% off coupon in hand preparing to do it again at the brick and mortar store.</font></p> <p><font size="4">However, life got in the way, my trip was put off, and we stumbled over the bottles on the shower floor as I wondered whether it was even worth buying another shower pole. Time passed. Soap disappeared more quickly from laying in water on the shower floor. I needed to buy more soap and by now I was sure that any pole would work. </font></p> <p><font size="4">I picked up soap at a local store and then went to their limited aisle of bath and shower accessories. There is saw it! A suction cup shelf sporting four suction cups and certainly large enough for shampoo, conditioner, and soap. At under $10, it was certainly worth a try. No more $50 shower poles at 20% off! </font></p> <p><font size="4">And yet, the brick and mortar store keeps sending me 20% off coupons. Sometimes waiting awhile for inspiration to strike is worth more than 20%. My impulse to make a 20% off purchase, would have cost more, taken up more space, and eventually rusted or fallen apart. The simpler solution took more time, more thought, but result in a better outcome.</font></p> <p><font size="4">What might you save if you took a little more time? If you hit Delete? If you considered alternatives, searched for alternatives? Might you hit upon a better solution, one you’d never before conceived? I did. </font></p> <p><font size="4"></font> </p> <p><font size="4"></font> Photo: By dbfrom1kb1 (Amy) (Flickr) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]</a>, via Wikimedia Commons</p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388686212258442688.post-88747004797562745332015-02-20T07:59:00.001-05:002015-02-20T07:59:27.295-05:00Best Whole Wheat Bread<p> </p> <p><font size="4">This is a little (just a little?) off topic. I have spent time modifying my<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib9mTGOmEdrbHafGrMGnVY90QHIJSK0rWFSWas6ukL-Q7hklMYd5o2-UNQIkQFhSRAwhxR9SfhX72k2MykNwoXjhE7rKGCTIuJI7uR6RQv1rFpI8WhjluGoaUrjH_KcFOC8LYtBGOyxXoO/s1600-h/20150220_073652%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="20150220_073652" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="20150220_073652" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVsVekPWSA17Jg-3JCBt-c4ONvs4A7jhm6na7yJfEtmZveH-chPzGsKJSXKQJv8dcbJchu1bI9nqoS-24CWj-HeyszPLz4AaLr6wD7S3WLmlmTIiZtZp6tOUXYYJD6MyNyavsB2tEkDQDy/?imgmax=800" width="205" align="right" height="369"></a> favorite bread recipe so that it is entirely whole grain. It makes 2 regular sized loaves. Here’s how you make it.</font></p> <p><font size="4"></font> </p> <p><font size="4">Start with:</font></p> <ul> <li><font size="4">4 cups of Whole Wheat Flour</font></li> <li><font size="4">2 packages or (1 T + 1.5 t yeast)</font></li> <li><font size="4">3 T vital wheat gluten</font></li></ul> <p><font size="4">Mix these together until well-blended.</font></p> <p><font size="4">Run your tap water and measure until it is 120 degrees (if it is not that hot, microwave the water until it is.</font></p> <p><font size="4">In large measuring cup or bowl, mix together:</font></p> <ul> <li><font size="4">3.25 c. hot water</font></li> <li><font size="4">1/2 c. honey (wild honey tastes the best)</font></li> <li><font size="4">1 T vegetable oil</font></li></ul> <p><font size="4">Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until just blended. I use a Kitchen Aid mixer with dough hook, but you can mix by hand. Put one more cup of flour on top to keep it warm, but do not mix in. Let the mixture sit at room temperature for 10 minutes or more. After the 10 minutes have elapsed, mix in the dry flour and gradually add 2-3 more cups of flour. You want the dough moist and not forming into a ball. </font></p> <p><font size="4">When it is moist but stiff enough to form, form it into a ball and then knead it a few times. Form it into a ball again. Spray a large bowl with cooking oil and roll the ball in the oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and put in a warm place to raise. You do not want the volume to double. If you are using the quick yeast it will take about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes at the proofing temperature of my Bosch oven. It will take longer at cooler temperatures. </font></p> <p><font size="4">When it has risen, it will be almost twice as big as it was before and be filled with air. Punch it down, divide it in half. Take each half and form it into a cylinder and put in pre-oiled 9 x 5 loaf pan. (If your pans are smaller you will use a smaller amount, but the dough should come up about 3/4 of the way on the pan.) In the pan, punch it down again until it is filling all parts of the pan.</font></p> <p><font size="4">Put the pans in a warm place, cover with oiled plastic, and let rise until the bread is about 1 inch above the top of the pan. Then raise the oven temperature to 375. Brush or spray the top of the bread with water to make a nice crust, and bake for 45 minutes or until the internal temperature is 120 degrees. (I recommend an instant read thermometer like the Thermo Pop or Thermo Pen). </font></p> <p><font size="4">Remove from oven and let cool in pans 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool on a rack.</font></p> <p><font size="4">Spread with butter and enjoy!</font></p> <p><font size="4"></font></p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388686212258442688.post-31509298780876900782015-02-06T07:31:00.001-05:002015-02-06T07:34:18.600-05:00Goals, Goals, Goals and A Snippet<h4> </h4> <p><font size="3">This year I finally found the impetus to begin writing again due to a beautifully <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQugNjH1HhJUMwmPtppfsWJVpqznG92tcvh0iFq-W8o1zILDY6G5M-r9kAa-bvVLgtUV1NJFLLMHMBHHZFTIEk2QrhNzqanv6-jcp47Ed99ZT8Ju5Syx5vyB9aX8iicn1_MNNXZUSJb71V/s1600-h/Bethlehem%2525201800%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><img title="Bethlehem 1800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="Bethlehem 1800" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidkKGxNzMrUHNrDECXO7hOD-Zk7ov5sLGS9dCVsM3lZ5ffcteDpQP2AMB4Zy9_U4m6W9n23_LptvJyaWbftI5IUYZPmpEK4sOZJxVlaznHuoDS13QWx6pnBqDD6izoB-UjcD_H7YPQPEss/?imgmax=800" width="240" align="right" height="181"></a>written memoir of an author’s year in Rome (Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr). Unlike that memoir, my historical fiction psychological thriller series (Eli’s Scrolls) takes place in the ancient Near East, in today's nations of Jordan, Israel, and Syria. So, here's a snippet, in fact two paragraphs, to celebrate the 2nd month of the year, plus 5 sentences for the 5th day of the month. The beginning of the first chapter of Eli's Scrolls: Book 1: The Search. </font> <blockquote> <p><em><strong><font size="3">The night was darker than the coals of a long dead fire. He had never seen a night like this one. In the past, there had been times when the moon and stars had been cloud-blotted, but there were always sounds: cricket chirps, a fire’s crackle, sheep’s baa’s. In the deepest quiet of the night the wind would whisper and tickle his ears. But this night was different. There were no sounds, no stirrings, nothing at all. Without any memory of arriving there, he thought he must be deep in some ancient cave. He knelt and groped for the feel of anything, pebbles, dirt, a puddle, a twig, but wherever he reached he grasped only air. He shivered, hugged himself, and tried not to panic. He struggled to breathe normally as he pushed against the ground, a surface like smooth rock, flat and slick like nothing he had ever felt. He stood, tremulous, and slid his feet forward ten paces without feeling a single ridge or undulation. He reached for anything, hands grasping, reaching to the front, now to the side—but felt nothing. Another ten, paces and he reached again. How long could he go on like this: finding nothing, feeling nothing?</font></strong></em></p></blockquote> <blockquote> <p><em><strong><font size="3">He strained to feel, to see, to hear, even the whiff of a breeze, the spark of a star, the gentle sounds of sleeping sheep. He had no sense of direction or purpose, but on and on he strode, grasping, reaching from one side to the other, hoping only for the brush of a feather, a point of light, a sound in this night beyond all nights. On and on he went. But for Eli there was no illumination, no rumble of thunder, no stars above. Into the silence he cried out the ancient words, “Baruch atah Adonai Elohenu Melech H’Olam. Hineni. hineni” Over and over he entreated the One whom he longed to know. “Blessed are You Our Lord, King of the World. I am here. I am here.” His feet faltered as he dragged himself onward. He listened to his own breath whistling and wheezing, and he flung it toward the heavens until his voice became hoarse. He sank to his knees, his face bowed. “Baruch atah Adonai Elohenu. Hineni, hineni” he whimpered, flattening himself, and retreating into his own darkness until he was no longer conscious of the surface beneath him. The darkness concealed him. In it, he ceased to exist.</font></strong></em></p></blockquote> <blockquote> <p><em><strong><font size="3">Suddenly, he felt his shoulder shaking under a weight and in that instant thoughts of Yahweh flittered through him and as quickly disappeared. He grabbed the weight, finding it warm and soft,—an arm, rolled onto his back, and dragging the weight with him clutched it close to his chest in the split second before a large body plummeted onto his torso and threatened to suffocate him. </font></strong></em></p> <p><em><strong><font size="3">“Watch it, Eli!” Ben yelled.</font></strong></em> <p><em><strong><font size="3">Ben. Eli struggled and pushed away hearing his reed mat crackle beneath him, and rolled onto the ground.</font></strong></em> <p><strong><em></em></strong> </p></blockquote> <p>WIPpet Friday is a weekly blog hop where authors post snippets from their current Works in Progress. The Christian Fiction Edition is hosted by <a href="http://www.alanaterry.com/blog">Alana Terry</a> and <a href="http://www.hallee.bridgemanfamily.com/">Hallie Bridgeman</a>.</p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388686212258442688.post-3443373872663662252015-01-07T09:25:00.001-05:002015-01-07T09:25:01.329-05:00Darkness and Light<p><font size="4"></font> </p> <p><font size="4">I was recently enlightened to write again by a memoir I read. <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Merope.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Merope.jpg"><img title="Merope" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="Merope" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWg9KQIGQfVk_SNapOGH0EAeHuCklH9rRGo-WmRtbH8CIKXrXhvKXzhz7dWlpJ4AjPoTkgmNdHY4sBaIoWdf9YIKhy-tLsRi5t31lOg4tXnmKNHLehXnRbgnE8t8vLCB8W9M7Evvi5K7EQ/?imgmax=800" width="244" align="right" height="186"></a>Something about darkness in a scene the author described lit a spark. I realized that light and darkness (especially in our dark days of winter) are significant to everything we do and everything I write. If nothing is hidden, there is nothing to be discovered; If everything is disclosed mystery vanishes.</font></p> <p><font size="4">I have an almost excessively bright reading light I inherited from my mother. I think she purchased it because the stand looked cool. She had a real eye for design. She never used it for reading or any other task lighting so the original bulb is still in it. And that bulb is a little scary. CAUTION! it warns. . . RISK OF EXPOSURE TO ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION. I dread having to replace that bulb or leaving it alone with children. </font><font size="4">Nevertheless, it shows me every jot and every tittle on every page, the fingerprints on my Kindle, and the dust and cat hair everywhere.</font></p> <p><font size="4">But, what if we lived in a land of darkness where Jesus provided the light. And what if that light was both risky and revealing. And what if that light was both partial and full. What if it was a light full of paradox and promise?</font></p> <p><font size="4">The memoir I read earlier this year prompted me to remember what happens when the light comes on. All of a sudden our attention is redirected from the indistinct shapes of gloom to a point of clarity. </font></p> <p><font size="4">And now that we’ve seen the light and know where to look, what about the darkness? Why only a point of light? Why not a light that casts it beam everywhere on everything. Why not display the evil in the world so that it can be destroyed. Why not burn through the walls of drug houses, sex houses, murder houses, theft houses so everyone can see the evil? Why not expose everything? </font></p> <p><font size="4">Exposing evil generally leads to a better outcome. That’s what the Fourth Estate--the news organizations—are supposed to do in our day. The missing women in Chillicothe, OH have been highlighted, but we don’t know what happened before they disappeared or died. Why do we see in part but not in whole? </font></p> <p><font size="4">What would it take to wipe out the evil around us? God promises to do that in the end, but what about today? What about slavery and the evil people who enslave others on drugs?</font></p> <p><font size="4"><font color="#c0504d">And now a digression. I recently read an article (really a commentary on a book) in </font><a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/suffer-the-children/201203/why-french-kids-dont-have-adhd"><font color="#c0504d">Psychology Today</font></a><font color="#c0504d"> that posits that fewer children are diagnosed with and taking drugs for ADHD in France than in the USA. The theory is that French people raise their children in families with a frame and structure that makes the kids feel secure. They know that have 4 definite meal times and they are not allowed food in between. They know that the have set hours and duties. Christians have that also: we have the frame and structure of God’s way of living. Other frames and structures are sweet but inadequate.</font></font></p> <blockquote> <p><font color="#c0504d" size="4">My hope is built on nothing less</font></p> <p><font color="#c0504d" size="4">Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;</font></p> <p><font color="#c0504d" size="4">I dare not trust the sweetest frame,</font></p> <p><font color="#c0504d" size="4">But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.</font></p> <p><font size="4"><font color="#c0504d">--</font><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL9S5EnUDWI"><font color="#c0504d">The Solid Rock</font></a><font color="#c0504d"> </font></font></p></blockquote> <p><font size="4">So, we need the light, but the darkness is comfort and protection, mystery and paradox. My prayer for the year is that all would turn toward the light that is Jesus and that evil deeds done in darkness would be exposed, everything lost would be found, and that all might be able to live freely in Jesus’ frame. </font><font size="4"></font></p> <p><font size="4"></font> </p> <p>Star picture "Merope" by Henryk Kowalewski - <a href="http://www.ccd.neostrada.pl/HTM/Merope.htm">http://www.ccd.neostrada.pl/HTM/Merope.htm</a>. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Merope.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Merope.jpg</p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388686212258442688.post-27651170896651902782014-06-10T07:36:00.002-04:002014-06-10T07:41:42.792-04:00Just Say No To Sex<span style="font-size: large;">Yesterday I listened to <a href="http://wosu.org/2012/news/2014/06/09/preventing-sexual-assault-goal-new-ohio-state-campaign-1/" target="_blank">a news report on WOSU radio</a>. Ohio universities are taking measures to stop campus rape. All good, right? "Consent is Sexy." That's the slogan. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I thought back to the stresses of my own college days. The coursework was difficult--nothing like high school. I had to navigate new methods of study. I had to find my place in the campus social scene. I had to discover where I belonged in that society and where my future was heading. Tough stuff for an 18 year old. And I--armed with close friends, good study habits, a knowledge that sex outside marriage was wrong, and a natural curiosity--did not always steer my course well. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">You'd think that my alma mater OSU (or is it THE OSU?) would try to make things easier, wouldn't you? But this is how the coordinator of Ohio State's Sexual Violence Education program described the campaign. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: georgia, serif; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Students really need to recognize and understand the different facets of consent, the different layers of consent, and how to properly look for consensual or nonconsensual situations they may see around them."</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">Sounds like a course description, doesn't it?</span> <span style="font-size: large;">They have taken something so incredibly simple to express (Say no until you are married) and believing that if, and only if, students can "recognize and understand the different facets of consent, the different layers of consent," then students will act with maturity and wisdom and stop cavorting like cats in heat.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Is OSU <i>still</i> an educational institution? Traditionally such institutions, especially those with residence halls have stood <i>in loco parentis, </i>in the place of the parents<i>. </i>How difficult would it be for OSU and other universities to say, "We stand in the place of good parents and as good parents we are telling you, "No sex."" </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">But, that won't happen. Why? Not practicing sex before marriage is healthier, mentally, emotionally, and physically. The students won't contract sexually transmitted diseases, saving heath care costs and future agony. They will suffer after break-ups, but not to the extent as if they had sex. Sex binds people in a dangerous manner unless a long term commitment (marriage) is involved. And breaking up after a sexual encounter makes other romantic relationships more difficult. Do these universities try to prevent these problems No. They are telling our young adults, get involved in pre-marital sex, practice same sex interaction, but by all means, make sure that that you recognize the layers and facets of consent. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">WOSU had their soap box; This is mine. Let me know what you think.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Photo by Michael Barera (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons</span><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1388686212258442688.post-20478662681225372372014-04-04T08:28:00.001-04:002014-04-04T08:28:39.332-04:00Ragamuffin Movie<div class="wlWriterHeaderFooter" style="float:none; margin:0px; padding:4px 0px 4px 0px;"><iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://solitruthwriting.blogspot.com/2014/04/ragamuffin-movie.html" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border:none; width:450px; height:80px"></iframe></div><h6> <p></h6> <p><font size="4">Ragamuffin is a movie for everyone—for everyone that has felt a hunger for more. </font><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-lBibz8v9IxE/Uz6lZAZyxnI/AAAAAAAAB1Y/sO3P3kXuz6o/s1600-h/1780160_758440657508100_2024441550_o%25255B3%25255D.jpg"><font size="4"><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-lBibz8v9IxE/Uz6lZAZyxnI/AAAAAAAAB1g/YiU2zK0M3xo/s1600-h/1780160_758440657508100_2024441550_o%25255B4%25255D.jpg"><img title="1780160_758440657508100_2024441550_o" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" border="0" alt="1780160_758440657508100_2024441550_o" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-Ra4VE1fb-mw/Uz6la-6KemI/AAAAAAAAB1Q/qNVbx-5gm78/1780160_758440657508100_2024441550_o_thumb%25255B2%25255D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="452" align="right" height="284"></a></font></a><font size="4">The film is based on the life of Rich Mullins a musician who died at a fairly young age. I saw Rich in concert in the 1970’s or 80’s and he was one of the few musicians who moved me to the point where I purchased almost everything he produced. The film’s writer, director, and actors ably aided me in identifying with places and situations in Rich’s life. The lead actor impressed me with his ability to capture Rich's mannerisms and style of speech. As someone with a degree in film, I found it well directed and well edited. Some of the minor actors appeared wooden, but they did not detract from the overall feeling of the film. The theme of this sometimes coming-of-age film dealt with universal (and Rich's) issues of father hunger, hearing God, and growth. Interestingly, my husband, who likes only action movies, was as riveted as I was. The approximately 2.5 hours sped by. The cameos with Brennan Manning were an honor to his life and ministry. I have urged my friends to see this movie because it has something for the generations who never seen or heard </font><a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rich-Mullins/112544462093039"><font size="4">Rich Mullins</font></a><font size="4"> or </font><a href="https://www.facebook.com/brennanmanningfans"><font size="4">Brennan Manning</font></a><font size="4">. <br></font></p> <p><font size="4">Note: for those with a sensitivity to swearing, there are a few well-placed and appropriate "damns", but no other words of that sort.</font></p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0