Goodbye, 2011

O Lord,
Length of days does not profit me
except the days are passed in Thy presence,
in Thy service, to Thy glory.
Give me a grace that precedes, follows, guides,
sustains, sanctifies, aids every hour,
that I may not be one moment apart from Thee,
but may rely on Thy Spirit
to supply every thought,
speak in every word,
direct every step,
prosper every work,
build up every mote of faith,
and give me a desire
to show forth Thy praise;
testify Thy love,
advance Thy kingdom.

I launch my bark on the unknown waters of this year,
with Thee, O Father as my harbour,
Thee, O Son, at my helm,
Thee O Holy Spirit, filling my sails.
Guide me to heaven with my loins girt,
my lamp burning,
my ear open to Thy calls,
my heart full of love,
my soul free.

Give me Thy grace to sanctify me,
Thy comforts to cheer,
Thy wisdom to teach,
Thy right hand to guide,
Thy counsel to instruct,
Thy law to judge,
Thy presence to stabilize.
May Thy fear by my awe,
Thy triumphs my joy.

How's that for business?

Highlighting America's pragmatism from the beginning:

The first American painters were generally self-taught portrait or sign painters. Their work was flat, sharply outlined, and lacking in focal point. Portraiture was, not surprisingly, the most sought-after art form, since politics stressed respect for the individual. Itinerant limners, as early painters were called, painted faceless single or group portraits in the winter and, in spring, sought customers and filled in the blanks.

(The Annotated Mona Lisa p. 72)

Oh, the possibilities for today. Haha.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thou Great and Only Potentate,
Thou hast made summer and winter,
day and night;
each of these revolutions serves our welfare
and is full of Thy care and kindness.
Thy bounty is seen
in the relations that train us,
the laws that defend us,
the homes that shelter us,
the food that builds us,
the raiment that comforts us,
the continuance of our health, members, senses, understanding, memory, affection, will.
But as the stars fade before the rising sun,
Thou hast eclipsed all these benefits
in the wisdom and grace that purposed
redemption by Jesus Thy son.
Blessed be Thy mercy that laid help on
one that is mighty and willing,
one that is able to save to the uttermost.
Make us deeply sensible of our need of His saving grace,
of the blood that cleanses,
of the rest He has promised.
And impute to us that righteousness which
justifies the guilty,
gives them a title to eternal life,
and possession of the Spirit.
May we love the freeness of salvation,
and joy in its holiness;
Give us faith to grasp Thy promises,
that are our hope,
provide for every exigency,
and prevent every evil;
Keep our hearts from straying after forbidden pleasures;
May Thy will bind all our wishes;
Let us live out of the world as to its spirit, maxim, manners,
but live in it as the sphere of our action and usefulness;
May we be alive to every call of duty,
accepting without question
Thy determination of our circumstances and our service. 

The Valley of Vision - "Bounty"

Brilliant

Shakespearean Insults

Happy Reformation Day!

Post Tenebras Lux

2 things (photo edition)

1. Oh, America. No comment necessary.

2. I was at the library, and discovered they have Rob Bell's Love Wins. After reading for a while, I came across this:

Whoever thought to put a Ray Comfort tract in there is brilliant! hahahaha!

Going insane is busy work

It's been a while, and I miss this little forgotten blog. Here are my excuses for not writing on here -

• I got a job at my library. It is the best job ever. God is good to me.
• My usual load of self-inflicted, insanity-producing schoolwork. Somewhere along the road I decided to shake things up this year and do 2 history courses simultaneously, one being AP. Why, you ask? Why not? I answer. 
  
• I'm officially taking over the library at my church, now that I'm a hotshot working at a real library and all. The colleges are going to think I'M SO COOL!!!!
  
• Applying to college and every club in sight
  
• Cramming homework for our homeschool co-op the day it's due and then hijacking class conversations with rhapsodies of the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge. No, I'm not obsessed. (blinking eyes and twitching head)

But leaving such bleak business aside, guess what? I have found a new beloved author to adore! And who might that be?

P.G. Wodehouse!

I never gave the short story genre a second glance because it seemed impossible to weave a satisfying story together in 25 pages. And maybe that's true when it comes to the drama department, but not so with comedy. The plot of each story is hilariously brilliant, and from a historical standpoint, all the British slang from the late teens and early 20's is fun to read. After reading just one of these stories, you will forever live in awe of Jeeves the Butler.

Somehow Autumn snuck up and surprised me. Are those trees really changing? Reader, the best time of the year is upon us. Enter cornmazes, bonfires and mums. And Reformation Day. And Thanksgiving. And discounted Halloween candy.

Obsession

So today I discovered how to write a sonnet, and, being me, I wanted to try it out myself (mistake #1). After about a minute's deliberation of what to write about, it hit me - of course I was destined to start my poetic career by turning my favorite novel into a sonnet! (mistake # 2) After hours of grueling work trying find words that rhyme with "gallAHNT" and cursing iambic pentameter, I got so cracked up by what I created that I have decided to post it here for my your entertainment. (undoubtedly mistake # 3) So without further ado, I give you,

Sense and Sensibility Condensed into 14 Lines

To Devon came two sisters father-lost
   The first, of in-law's modest brother fond,
   Was wise and kind; the second, passion-toss'd,
   To be a true Romantic daily long'd.
The younger girl a pair of suitors gain'd:
   Laconic Col'nel and urbane gallant.
   The elder sister by a tale was pain'd -
   Her beau an ill engagement long had got.
The suave hero was found to be a rake -
   It nearly killed the jilted girl; meanwhile
   Shy Edward lost, for revok'd birthright's sake,
   His vain fiance to his brother's pile.
He wed Elinor at last - happy man -
   And Colonel Brandon won his Marianne.

Hahahahhahahaha!

Well howbout that...

Today, back in 79 AD, Mt. Vesuvius erupted. (Today must have been a dreadfully unlucky day for the Romans, because later, in 410, the city got sacked.) You know you're fascinated.

Acting up again in 1858

AAAND, in 1456, Gutenberg finished printing the first printed Bible. How cool is that?

On the importance of possessing a homeschooler in your neighborhood

With the school year just around the corner, a certain school-related story keeps emerging in my memory.

Several years ago, when I must have been in 6th or 7th grade, an unusual thing happened on an ordinary school day. (Assuming there are ordinary homeschooling days.) My mom was on the phone with my uncle while my sister and I were doing schoolwork in the living room. Important nota bene - "doing schoolwork" in the authoress's world - especially back then - involves equal parts of working on assignment and staring out window. I tell myself that the latter facilitates thinking, therefore improving the former.

Keep working? Look out window?

In one of my reveries, I noticed a guy walk up a side street and turn down ours. The first thing I noticed about him was that he seemed to appear out of nowhere. No mode of transportation - not even the bus which stops on the corner. He just appeared. Also unusual was his general mien. His clothes had seen better days and maybe could have used a spin in the washing machine. The one item he carried was a soda, presumably from McDonalds and huge enough to make Abby Sciuto proud. And then there was this odd bounce in his step which was slightly comic but also unsettling to watch. Overall, this mysterious character seemed out of place in my neighborhood, and naturally, I was fascinated.

I had pretty much forgotten about my schoolwork as soon as I saw this guy, and at that moment the sole purpose of my existence was to see where he would go. Imagine my surprise when he walked up to one of our neighbor's driveways. This particular neighbor - we'll call them the Smiths because I don't know how to spell their last name - is a very kind couple; the husband, for example, is always plowing out our driveway in the winter. Really nice people. What was this random guy doing at their house? I think this is where I told Mary to come look. As we watched him go up the driveway, we realized to our horror that he was going for their car. Just like that, he got it open, started it, and drove off. He didn't even seem to notice that the alarm was going off.

Disturbingly similar to our reaction

When it hit us what just happened, we started screaming bloody murder. SCREAMING. Mary ran off to the office to get my mom, who frantically got off the phone with our uncle. For a moment we sat there in confusion until we remembered that calling 911 is the standard procedure in these cases. After that was done, we went across the street to see what the Smith's neighbor had seen. Apparently she hadn't noticed anything, because she was rather shocked when we told her. Then she told us that the Smiths were on vacation that week. The nerve of this guy! 

After our minds began to clear, Faye, the neighbor, decided to call and tell the Smiths what happened. When it came to describing the perpetrator, she relied on my mom, who relied on Mary & I, for the description. It went something like this: "Patty's here and she says he looked sorta rough like a wanderer......kind of shabby......like a homeless guy. A....derelict. What? Really? Ohhh." As soon as she got off the phone, she explained the last part of the conversation.

This unscrupulous, creepy, homeless guy turned out to be Mrs. Smith's brother who had come for their car so he could pick them up at the airport. And my mom had just called him a derelict to his sister's face.

You'd better believe it

When we were walking home in shame, the cops finally pulled up. Great response time. Later that week, Mr. Smith, apparently in gratitude for our nosiness, gave us $10 in Culvers coupons. He had discovered the moral of the story: It pays to have homeschoolers living in your neighborhood.

I love this guy

Being a bit of an art history aficionado, I'll occasionally find myself staring at random pictures for extended amounts of time. It's almost never to admire the composition or the brilliance of the symbolism like someone who just called herself an "art history aficionado" ought to be doing. No, I'm usually just fascinated by what the people inside it are up to.

Marriage a la Mode is a series of paintings by the English artist William Hogarth ridiculing standard aristocratic marriages of the day. The second painting in the series shows a married couple the morning after an all-night party:

Notice that guy in the left-hand corner?

Is his facial expression not awesome? One look at him and you know exactly what he's thinking. How many times have we all felt the same way? You can't not sympathize with him. I just love it.

On the myth called 'Summer Vacation'

They say that long ago, in the mists of ancient history, a certain practice was widely observed in early western culture. The story goes that in the summer months, children would lay aside their school books and devote their summers to climbing trees, chasing the ice cream man, swimming in the lake (or if they were lucky, the pool), capturing fireflies, and reading the occasional adventure story when it rained. Of course, as in all myths, the long-established order had its adversaries and a hallmark of the time was the Olympian-v-Titan-esque battles between the children and their parents. These parents, armed with chores and schedules, were part of the school of philosophy that taught that "The unstructured life is not worth living." To this day, it isn't certain exactly who won, as archaeologists constantly unearth evidence  that supports both sides.

When I was little, I was one of the many who believed in this legend. Similar to the story of Santa Claus, it is taught by parents and teachers to children everywhere. And, like the Santa legend, when a child reaches a certain age he is subjected to the rude awakening that the story he has been told all his life by everyone he trusted was, in fact, a lie. Delaying this revelation until high school only makes it more painful.

Such has been my fate. My days are filled with extra studying, college visiting, transcript making, library organizing, and blog-neglecting. Hopefully the craziness will die down soon and I can start blogging a little more regularly again. I miss writing and the way it stretches my brain. However, I have started reading Knowing God and love it. There will probably be a related post forthcoming. :-)

Of the dread SAT and its aftermath - a rant

So on the 4th I took the SAT, and my brain, in reaction to the trauma it experienced in being forced to use solely its left side for 4.5 hours, revolted and allowed me the use of only the right side the following week. So pretty much all I did was sew, garden, and clean. (The operative word there being 'all'. Normally I like all three, but at the end of the week I felt like I was in a coma.)

Do you know how ego-trying it is to have to wait nearly a month to know how smart you are? It's only on the 23rd that I get to see not only whether I'm smarter than a 5th grader but also, more importantly, if I'm really as intelligent as I pretend I am. And then I guess finding out whether I'm eligible for scholarships is nice too.....

And don't for a second believe that you can trust your gut feeling on how you did. It is a lie. A nasty lie, a la Jeremiah 17:9. Maddie, who is much braver than I, took the ACT twice (aghh!!!) and said that on the last time, she felt like she did much better than she did on the first. But in the end, she got the same score. And take my own personal experience. Each time I'd practice a section - let's say math - I'd finish, feeling pretty confident and exclaiming like Napoleon Dynamite "It's sweet, it's awesome, it's, INCREDIBLE!" at my mental prowess, only to be faced with the stark reality that I got only half the problems right. Reader, it is an experience unmatched in disappointment.

Anyways, things are back to normal now that I can look at a book or my email without my brain shutting down. I'll just try to amuse myself with my blog in a desperate attempt to keep my sanity while waiting for next Thursday. IT CAN'T COME SOON ENOUGH. Pity me.

"Heresy Hunting"

I'm of the opinion that the best way to understand a false teaching is to read what the "culprit" himself has to say - not what his critics write about him. Sure, reading critiques of the former can be helpful, but I'm wary about trusting 3rd parties when it comes to these things. I want to see it for myself. So I decided to make a list of 12 books written by people ranging from those who I disagree with on a minor doctrinal issue to outright dangerous heretics. What have I read so far, you ask?

First, there was Mere Christianity. C.S. Lewis seems to be the most quoted Christian thinker of the 20th century, so of course most of the book was pretty good. What I didn't like was his cavalier approach to explaining the atonement ("Yeah, the whole thing does sound pretty dumb when you think of it, but hey, it works!") and the pattern of his reasoning skills melting down at the very hint of Calvinism. While I enjoyed looking at Christianity from a philosophical perspective, I'm not quite sure what I think of using that to introduce non-believers to what we believe. (The Bible says faith comes through the reading of the Word, and I barely remember seeing any Scripture in the book.)

Next was The Prayer of Jabez. It is the most mercenary book I've ever read. The message of the book? God is longing to give you all these assorted blessings, but can't because we won't ask for them!!!!! Here's the crowning glory of it all:

"In my experience, most Christians seem to pray solely for strength to endure temptations - for victory over the attacks of our raging adversary, Satan. Somehow we don't think to ask God to simply to keep us away from temptation and keep the devil at bay in our lives. But in the model prayer Jesus gave His followers, nearly a quarter of its fifty words ask for deliverance: "And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one" (Matt. 6:13). Nothing about spiritual insight or special powers. Not a word about confrontation. When was the last time you asked God to keep you away from temptation? In the same way that God wants you to ask for more blessing, more territory, and more power, He longs to hear you plead for safekeeping from evil. Without a temptation, we would not sin. Most of us face too many temptations - and therefore sin too often - because we don’t ask God to lead us away from temptation. We make a huge spiritual leap forward, therefore, when we begin to focus less on beating temptation and more on avoiding it."

asghdfgibsdfhbgripfgerpgiohwrtopghrtbgp

Moving on, the last book I finished was The Da Vinci Code. Honestly, I don't understand why every Christian author has found it his duty to write a refutation or two of this - it's just a mystery novel. It's fiction. Yeah, the parts elaborating the alleged Jesus-Mary Magdalene affair were pretty irritating, but I really don't think a secular novel - not a Christian ALLEGORY, like The Shack - is that dangerous to the church.

Finally, I'm currently reading 'Reformed' Is Not Enough by Doug Wilson. The Federal Vision camp is really confusing. So far, what strikes me is that they're obsessed with focusing on the church visible, at the expense of protecting the church invisible. Normally, I don't think I would really give too much attention to this group, as I'm not a Presbyterian, but you come across it a lot in the Christian classical homeschooling circle, so I wanted to be able to recognize it when I see it.

So maybe next I'll read The Purpose Driven Life, now that Warren and Piper are friends. How the heck did that happen?

I continue in existence

Lilacs & Apple (?) Blossoms from the backyard

The last month was rather crazy, so sorry for depriving you of the unmatched wit and profundity that has come to be such an attribute of this blog.....I decided to do the humane thing and post again before life begins to lose all meaning. [snort]

Right now I don't really feel like droning on and on about all the news-related things that have happened that I normally would have blogged about, so I will just list them here and say I was excited about them:

• The Royal Wedding (I might post an encomium on that wedding dress, ha)
• The demise of Bin Laden
• The rapture-that-gives-"secret"-a-whole-new-meaning-because-we-didn't-even-notice-it-happening
• Earth Day (haha, just threw that in there to see if you were paying attention)

My computer was broken for the past several weeks, so I was forced to find other ways to amuse myself rather than stalking people on Facebook or reading Wikipedia (or delighting you with my writing). I got a lot of reading done, and now live in horror of spending as much time on the computer as I used to. It's pathetic how much of your day you can waste on here. BLAH.

Sunday felt like an example of what God intended the Lord's Day to be like. I learned new things in Sunday School and the fellowship was great (as it always is), but what stood out most was the classic eerie feeling that the sermon was aimed directly at myself. (I love how God uses sermons to address something in our lives exactly when we need to hear it most.) Anyways, it was exactly like when Christian goes to the Palace Beautiful. I love my church.

Yesterday, I started planning out my school schedule for next year. It's rather sad and weird to think it's the last time I'll be doing that. I always looked at seniors as these adult, enlightened beings, so it seems wrong to think that's what I'll be this year as I am clearly neither of the two. Ha.

Hope you're having a great spring!

Jesus Lives

Jesus lives, and so shall I.

Death! thy sting is gone forever!
He who deigned for me to die,
Lives, the bands of death to sever.
He shall raise me from the dust:
Jesus is my Hope and Trust.

Jesus lives, and reigns supreme,
And, his kingdom still remaining,
I shall also be with him,
Ever living, ever reigning.
God has promised: be it must:
Jesus is my Hope and Trust.

Jesus lives, and by his grace,
Vict'ry o'er my passions giving,
I will cleanse my heart and ways,
Ever to his glory living.
Me he raises from the dust.
Jesus is my Hope and Trust.

Jesus lives, I know full well
Nought from him my heart can sever,
Life nor death nor powers of hell,
Joy nor grief, hence forth forever.
None of all his saints is lost;
Jesus is my Hope and Trust.

Jesus lives, and death is now
But my entrance into glory.
Courage, then, my soul, for thou
Hast a crown of life before thee;
Thou shalt find thy hopes were just;
Jesus is the Christian's Trust.

2764 Years

After completely embarrassing myself in excitement at the museum yesterday upon finding an ancient Roman wood panel painting (Yeah, slightly obsessed....actually, not even that. I'm gone all the way.), I might as well do it again today:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROME!!!!

"I hope my passion for Rome's past has not impaired my judgment; for I do honestly believe that no country has ever been greater or purer than ours or richer in good citizens and noble deeds...."

Livy

Spurgeon hits the nail right on the head

"There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of God's sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that Sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that Sovereignty overrules them, and that Sovereignty will sanctify them all. There is nothing for which the children ought more earnestly to contend than the doctrine of their Master over all creation - the Kingship of God over all the works of His own hands - the Throne of God and His right to sit upon that Throne.

"On the other hand, there is no doctrine more hated by worldlings, no truth of which they have made such a football, as the great, stupendous, but yet most certain doctrine of the Sovereignty of the infinite Jehovah. Men will allow God to be everywhere except on His throne. They will allow Him to be in His workshop to fashion worlds and make stars. They will allow Him to be in His almonry to dispense His alms and bestow His bounties. They will allow Him to sustain the earth and bear up the pillars thereof, or light the lamps of heaven, or rule the waves of the ever-moving ocean; but when God ascends His throne, His creatures then gnash their teeth. And we proclaim an enthroned God, and His right to do as He wills with His own, to dispose of His creatures as He thinks well, without consulting them in the matter; then it is that we are hissed and execrated, and then it is that men turn a deaf ear to us, for God on His throne is not the God they love. But it is God upon the throne that we love to preach. It is God upon His throne that we trust." (quoted in The Attributes of God by A.W. Pink)

Another Sunday blurb

One of the reasons why I love my pastor's sermons is that they inevitably get me thinking. Ok, so not always is it something that has directly to do with the topic, but it's always related. Anyways, lately we've been in the Upper Room Discourse, and the apostle Peter's been coming up. It hit me that I've always looked at him sort of as two different people. 

First, there's the Foot-in-Mouth Peter who unfailingly comes up with brilliant statements like this one during the Transfiguration: 

"Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah."

Then there's the Peter of Acts 2 who gives a stunning sermon ex tempore at Pentecost and goes on to write a couple books in the New Testament.

But what I find rather fascinating is the amount of time that elapses between these two different personalities: 50 days. There are only 7 weeks between Peter's denial of Christ to his sermon about Him in Acts 2. That's quite a transformation in such a short amount of time.

So of course it set me thinking, how could that happen? And then I arrived at the obvious conclusion - it was the Holy Spirit. I find that encouraging, because even though you don't see that kind of dramatic change happen too often anymore, it shows that if God can do that kind of a work in someone, He can help me in the tiniest problems I have. Which now brings me back to what the sermon today was really about - if we want to progress in sanctification, we need to rely on Christ.

Christ's death

As I was listening to my pastor's sermon this morning, something about Christ's death hit me. We all know of the classic Who Killed Christ? debates that went on (and still happen) through the centuries. Some point the finger at the Jews, citing all the passages where the Pharisees/Sanhedrin plotted His murder. Their opponents stand behind the fact that Pontius Pilate took the official charge of overseeing His torture and crucifixion. Well, both sides are right. And what I found interesting about that is its theological connection. God's causing both the Jews AND the Gentiles to be responsible for Christ's death highlights the universality of man's guilt. (Romans 3:23) Who knows what kind of weird heresies would have turned up had the Jews dealt with it amongst themselves, or vice-versa? (I can just see another "Pos" debate, this time concerning the Great Commission - "All means all except when we're talking about the race of people who killed Jesus....." {Now wouldn't that be quite the dilemma, considering Christians are the true ones responsible for Christ's death.}) All in all, it makes me appreciate the sovereignty of God even more.

On the evils of ammonia

Today, we met with some friends for a weekly science/speech/home ec. co-op. The three of us who are in chemistry do the experiments at the library, and this week we needed ammonia, which one of us brought, and then forgot to take home. ;-) Being the stunningly nice people that we are, we took it with us when we left. 

Now it is important to mention here that, as there wasn't any lid, the cover of the jug-o-ammonia has to be covered with tin foil. So, when we were turning into the Culvers parking lot to get some dinner (yeah, we're real classy), what do you know! the ammonia spilled. After the assorted shrieks and exclamations that followed, mom pulled into an obscure parking spot and rushed off to rinse out the carpet which had been hit, while I guarded the jug which had now been banished to sit on the piece of ice we parked on. So ignoring the cold of the ice coming through my thin shoes (so Oliver Twist-esque) and how awkward I must have looked - a random teen standing in a parking lot with a jug of a major ingredient in meth - I waited for mom to come back. She finally did, and we deemed waiting in line while inhaling the fumes not worth the brain damage, so we headed home. 

So while mom drove, I held the jug with my feet while avoiding the fumes by hanging my head out the window, sort of like a dog. (In 30 degree weather) Here, I was faced with a decision. I read on a blog a while back that, when in an irritating situation, you can either laugh or cry. Being more of a fan of the former, I started laughing......and laughing..... (Those fumes were getting strong there....) We eventually got home, evacuated the car, and consigned the ammonia to its fate on our front porch, where it is sitting now.

So there was really no point in writing this post, except that I found it entertaining and love the piece of advice I mentioned in the preceding paragraph. And to warn you against the evils of  traveling with ammonia, I guess.

Miscellanies # 3

My friend gave me this shirt a couple weeks ago. Is this not the greatest ever?

With all this drama in Libya, I'm seeing some posts on Facebook by people who are adamantly against America's getting involved, mentioning Bush's invasion of Iraq. It has me thinking. I'm not for our getting ourselves in the middle of every little skirmish that occurs around the world, but I definitely do not support Isolationism. I can't help but wonder whether WW2 would have ended differently - and many lives have been saved - if FDR hadn't waited so long to get involved.  Yeah, I'm not a fan of America meddling in everybody's business, but if we could prevent another Hitler or Stalin, might it worth it to get involved SOMETIMES?

It seems like all the Christian Blogosphere has been talking about in the past few weeks is Rob Bell's new book. I'm surprised that everybody's surprised. I mean, wouldn't you EXPECT a leader of the Emergent group to be a universalist? I'm just finding it to be incredibly underwhelming.

As Sense and Sensibility is my favorite book, I am so doing this.

I love this first question/answer of the Heidelberg Catechism:

Q. What is your only comfort in life and death?
A. That I am not my own,
but belong-
body and soul,
in life and in death,
to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.

Odyssey - books 1 & 2

As I was about to open my edition and start reading Book 1, I wondered to myself whether it was because of a nerdy 7th grade whim that the Odyssey was on my list of favorite books. But as soon as I read the first line, AH, everything that I love about this book came back to me. How could I have been so faithless? ;-)

Not cool with idolatry, but I understand why people paint pictures like this. Homer, you are so brilliant.

So we all know the story. The Trojan War has ended, and all the surviving Greek warriors have made their way home, except one. Enter hero Odysseus. The Odyssey opens 9 years after the end of the war, with the king of Ithaca nowhere in sight. Instead, his palace is overrun with cocky suitors vying for his wife, Penelope. His son, Telemachus, has arrived at adulthood and is thoroughly fed up with the aforesaid leeches. Apparently it's taken 9 years to get the oh-so-dynamic set of Olympian gods to notice all that trouble going on in Odysseus's family. So Athena steps in and takes charge of the situation, appearing to Telemachus and persuading him to sail to a neighboring city to search for any news of his father.

One of the things I love about Homer's poetry is how each character is named. Probably for the sake of meter, Homer always attaches an adjective to the person he's writing about. So, for instance, instead of boring old prosaic "Odysseus," we have "resourceful Odysseus." Get what I mean?  It sort of gives the narrative parts a little pizazz. My personal favorite is "rosy-fingered Dawn." I don't know why I get so much of a kick out of this.

This time around, I've already found two "themes" in the Odyssey to think about.

1. Greek mythology v. the True God. Reading the first two books today, I was struck with just how futile the members of the former are. They're pretty much just immortal humans with superpowers. They spend their days doing nothing really productive, unless you call carousing or messing up mortals' lives for entertainment a good use of time. It makes me think of Elijah's taunt to the Baal worshipers in 1 Kings 18:

   "It came about at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, "Call out with a loud voice, for he is a god; either he is occupied or gone aside, or is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and needs to be awakened." So they cried with a loud voice and cut themselves according to their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out on them. When midday was past, they raved until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice; but there was no voice, no one answered, and no one paid attention."

   I am so glad our God is one who cares about his people.
   
2. The family of Agamemnon. Don't let that weird looking name scare you. He's Helen of Troy's brother-in-law. This was quite the dysfunctional family. While he was gone fighting at Troy, his wife, Clytemnestra took a lover and the illicit pair decided to kill Agamemnon upon his arrival home. It all ended with their son killing Clytemnestra to avenge his father's death.
   
   I believe Homer mentions this family so much in the Odyssey to provide a parallel to that of Odysseus. Both families have a father returning home after a long war; both have a wife tempted to commit adultery; both have a son loyal to his father. Perhaps Homer is trying to set up some tension in the story - we, the readers, will be wondering the whole time whether Odysseus's family will end up in the same boat as that of Agamemnon's.

So, can you tell that I love this story yet? Until next week....

Traveling

Tomorrow, my sister and I are flying down to Florida to visit my aunt for a week. Not quite sure about everything the itinerary holds in store, but I do know that keywords such as "beach," "pool," and "Disney World" are involved. 

Excepting the unease I'm choosing to ignore which goes along with the idea of sitting in a chair 6 miles up in the sky for 2.5 hours, I'm looking forward to the trip. It's going to be really weird to go from 30 degrees in the morning to 75 in the evening. Oh the wonders of modern transportation.

I really like this picture...not sure why.
And it in no way relates to this post.

So anyways, no posts till the 8th. But I've had some ideas of things to write about, so maybe they'll turn up here when I get back. You were warned.

Oh, and today, I rediscovered this quote I had come across, and I liked it so much, I had to post it here: "Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; wisdom is humble that he knows no more." (William Cowper) Is that not awesome?

Religious hypocrisy

"There are bogus men of God just as there are bogus men of courage. And in the same way as we see that when their honor is put to the test the men of courage are not the ones who make the most noise, so the truly pious men of God, in whose footsteps we should follow, are not those who put on the biggest show."

"....just as I believe that if there are still heroes none should be more respected than those who sincerely believe in God, and that nothing on earth is finer or more noble than the sacred fervor of true faith, I also think that there is nothing more odious than a brazen show of spurious piety by shameless hypocrites and self-advertising Pharisees who strike sacrilegious, two-faced attitudes and unrestrainedly exploit and freely mock everything humankind holds most holy and most sacred; people who, putting their own interest first, turn faith into a profession and a commodity and set out to buy credit and public honors by rolling their hypocritical eyes and faking zeal. I mean the ones you see displaying spectacular fervor and turning the path to heavenly salvation into the road to earthly fortune." 

Moliere, Tartuffe

Miscellanies #2

Spring is coming.......

1. THE PACKERS WON THE SUPERBOWL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2. Maddie & I are going to be reading the Odyssey soon for the Junto. Get ready for half-mad ravings of admiration for it in the weeks to follow.

3. I got this book the other week at the library for $0.25. Epic win.

4. Today, I finished reading Dante's Purgatory. Not as good as Inferno, but it was interesting to read because I've never really given the place much attention (probably because I don't believe it exists...ha). As is pointed out in the notes of my book, there's no fire until the end, which is odd because I always thought the traditional Catholic view is that the place is a sort of furnace that burns away your remaining sin. Huh. Anyways, I really enjoy watching how Dante chose to arrange the respective "destinations" - examining his reasoning behind the books is really thought-provoking.
5. I hate the lame attempts at philosophy the makers of Dove chocolates put on their wrappers. Apparently, they've gotten desperate and have turned to asking others to contribute their  homemade profundities. So this is what I saw the other day:

"The heart is more deceitful than all else
And is desperately sick;
Who can understand it?"
Jeremiah 17:9

Blizzard

Cars are buried in snowdrifts, people are stranded in their houses, and friends in Texas are reporting sub-freezing temperatures. Yes, my dear readers, global warming is upon us.

After being summoned from my nice, WARM bed this morning, this is what greeted me when I looked out the kitchen window:

 

The awesome thing about this is that, when people heard there was a blizzard coming, they were like, "Cool. Hey, the Packers are going to the Superbowl." But if North Carolina was expecting 1 inch of snow, there'd be panic and all Walmarts would be raided for bread and milk. Hahaha.

Snow on the icicles

Blizzards are fun until you've been out shoveling in 20 degree weather with 20 mph. winds for an hour and a half. And that's after you've gotten 1/10 of your driveway done. Thank goodness for nice neighbors with snowblowers.

The patio table!

Last night, when we could hardly see out the window, we were pretty sure we saw a lightning flash. Is that possible in a blizzard? I will leave you with that profound thought. Stay warm!

Wives and Daughters - the rest of the book

So I finally decided to write another Junto post. I do cruel things to myself, like attempting to read 15 books at once (do not try this at home), convinced the earth cannot revolve another day if I don't finish each one by the end of the month. Fine literature such as Wives and Daughters often gets put on the back burner in the inevitable book-reading crises that occur when the 28th or 29th rolls around. So that, my dear readers, is my meager apology for forgetting to write another Junto post.

I suppose I ought to summarize what happened in the book.......but 500 pages worth of plot is not going to fit neatly into 2 or 3 little paragraphs. I'll give you the ADHD version here, and if you think I left too much out, go read Wikipedia:

• Mr Gibson gets married and his new wife is....ANNOYING. Molly and her new step-sister, Cynthia, become best friends. Cynthia is one of those memorable characters - charming but odd, worldly but impetuous, superficial but mysterious.
• Molly & Osborne and Roger become virtual brothers and sister. Osborne disappoints his family by neglecting his studies and going into debt. Mrs. Hamley becomes very sick and eventually dies.
• Roger becomes smitten with Cynthia and they get engaged. Roger travels to Africa for 2 years to do research and collect specimens. Molly finds out Osborne has secretly married a young Catholic Frenchwoman, who has just had a baby.
• Cynthia tells Molly that she's been engaged to another man, and creates a scandal in town when she breaks it off. She feels guilty about the whole thing, and breaks off her engagement to Roger too.
• Osborne dies suddenly from a heart problem, and his widow shows up at Hamley Hall. Mr. Hamley, despite his hatred of French and Catholics, accepts his daughter-in-law and grandson.
• Roger comes back, and Cynthia marries somebody she met in London. Roger falls in love with Molly.

Molly, Roger, and Mr. Hamley

 Here follow some random observations on the book.

Wives and Daughters really reminded me of Mansfield Park. They both have a good-natured, naive heroine who likes a nice-guy hero who is too stupid to realize it because he likes a less than upright woman. The aforesaid heroine spends most of the book pining for the hero, lamenting the unworthiness of her rival, until finally, in the second or third-to-last chapter, the hero awakens to the wonderful-ness of the heroine. Maybe some people like this kind of story, but I find it frustrating and dull. The whole time, I just want to shake the guy and make him see how much of an idiot he is. Wives and Daughters isn't as bad as Mansfield Park, however, so I was able to get over it most of the time.

Although some aren't excessively fond of Osborne,  I couldn't help being sympathetic towards him. Yeah, most of his problems are his own fault, but if his father hadn't been so narrow-minded, many of them could have been resolved. But still, he ought to have been brave and face his father. Doing the right thing is always worth the pain that it may cause.

I also found it ironic yet realistic how Osborne, who had been the "genius" of the family, ended up being overshadowed by the younger and slightly under appreciated Roger. How often are we so focused on what we perceive to be the greatness of one thing/person, while completely ignoring the equal worth of another?

All in all, Wives and Daughters wasn't a brilliantly thought-provoking book, but it was fun to read. I saw the movie a few years back, (which, alas, spoiled the plot for me) so I want to see it again and decide whether it was faithful to the book. I'll let you know what I find out.

I love the Canterbury Tales

There was a student out of Oxford town,
Indentured long to logic and the gown.
Lean as a rake the horse on which he sat,
And he himself was anything but fat,
But rather wore a hollow look and sad.
Threadbare the little outer-coat he had,
For he was still to get a benefice
And thoughts of worldly office were not his.
For he would rather have beside his bed
Twenty books arrayed in black or red
Of Aristotle and his philosophy
Than robes or fiddle or jocund psaltery.
Yet though he was philosopher, his coffer
Indeed but scanty store of gold could offer,
And any he could borrow from a friend
On books and learning straightway would he spend,
And make with prayer a constant offering
For those that helped him with his studying.
He gave to study all his care and heed,
Nor ever spoke a word beyond his need,
And that was said in form, respectfully,
And brief and quick and charged with meaning high.
Harmonious with virtue was his speech,
And gladly would he learn and gladly teach.

(General Prologue)

On Bunyan

I've been reading John Bunyan's autobiography. It's mostly from a spiritual standpoint, and one thing I found surprising was how long God worked on his heart before he was truly converted - something like 5 years! During that time, he sincerely wanted to understand how to be saved, but was constantly being assaulted by temptations and doubts. It made me think of Christian at the beginning of Pilgrim's Progress; undoubtedly Bunyan was drawing on his own experience while writing the book. I found myself readily sympathizing with him, because I remember (albeit after I was converted) a few years when I had my own painful struggles with assurance. I suppose all Christians can relate. We all have to walk through the Valley of Humiliation.

Another thing this made me think about was how Christians today unrealistically expect conversion to be this sudden, dramatic light-bulb experience. I know I used to think that way, which probably explains my astonishment at the length of time of Bunyan's conversion. I think of all the  over-zealous street preachers and conference speakers who pressure their listeners into saying "the prayer," regarding it as a magical incantation that guarantees one's way into heaven. From my reading and talking to people I know, I'm persuaded that God more often than not works out our salvation over a long period of time while we scarcely realize what's happening.

My favorite part of Pilgrims' Progress is when Christian stays at the Palace Beautiful. In the allegory, it's a picture of the weekly meeting of the church. The peaceful rest from his journey and the fellowship Christian enjoys with the inhabitants of the palace are a lovely portrayal of what the church visible is intended to be.

Christian arriving at the Palace Beautiful

"If I could possess the tinker's abilities to grip men's hearts, I would gladly give in exchange all my learning." - John Owen

"Prick him anywhere; and you will find that his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him. He cannot speak with out quoting a text, for his soul is full of the Word of God." - Charles Spurgeon

Happy New Year

Christian in Palace Beautiful

If I were reading this, my mind would go on auto-pilot because of the title. A bunch of the blogs I read (and it's always the most interesting ones) have been half-forgotten by their owners, but upon the arrival of 2011, at least half have been updated with a Happy-New-Year!-Sorry-for-being-a-bad-blogger-It-won't-happen-ever-ever-again post. And then there isn't another post until February. C'est la vie.

I will join the band of absent-minded bloggers in saying that there are some things I want to change though. Here follows my Blogging New Years Resolutions:

1. More book reviews. (Or at least to talk about what I'm reading) What's the point of reading if you can't share what you learn? Last year I made a goal to read 5 books a month, and am continuing it this year. And there's got to be SOMETHING interesting to write about in there.
2. A revamping of the Junto. Let's all say it together: The Junto fails. Maddie and I have been talking a lot about it, and have decided to try a new approach. Instead of randomly choosing books that look entertaining, we have decided to follow a list. Actually a book - Invitation to the Classics. I'm really excited about it!
3. Following through with what I plan to do here. Otherwise, I just look like an idiot......

I've pretty much given up on personal New Years resolutions. But I'll make an exception for this one of Jonathan Edwards: "Resolved, to strive to my utmost every week to be brought higher in religion, and to a higher exercise of grace, than I was the week before."

I hope your 2011 is a year grace-filled and God-centered.