| #1247 |
[04 Nov 2009|12:30pm] |
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"Some people are making such thorough preparations for a rainy day that they completely miss today's sunshine."
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| #1246: The Memory Keeper's Daughter |
[16 Oct 2009|05:46pm] |
... is a book that I would not recommend to anyone. However, it did have a moment that made me laugh - though I do not know if I would laugh again reading it afresh.
"I like Pittsburgh," Phoebe said. "My mother says it has a lot of stairs, but I like it."
"I might move there," Paul said. "What do you think?"
"That would be nice," Phoebe said. "You could come to my wedding." Then she sighed. "A wedding costs a lot of money. It's not fair."
Paul nodded. It wasn't fair, no. None of it was fair. Not the challenges Phoebe faced in a world that didn't welcome her, not the relative ease of his own life, not what their father had done-none of it. He suddenly, urgently, wanted to give Phoebe any wedding she wanted. Or at least a cake. It would be such a small gesture against everything else.
"You could elope," he suggested.
Phoebe considered this, turning a green plastic bracelet on her wrist. "No," she said. "We wouldn't have a cake."
The things I dislike.
-the unnecessary wordiness. We already know all the unfair things that Phoebe faces. If Edwards just told us that Paul was thinking about how unfair it was, I'm sure we would have known just what that meant.
-somehow, the wife is extolled. Her husband was demonised for one single impulsive sin while she, who keeps on choosing to sin, is glorified. He sinned once, and regretted it and did all he could to repent, even if the magnitude was extensive. She sinned, found she liked it, and kept doing it. And we're supposed to like her more?
-Rosemary was clearly introduced solely as a plot driver. I loved her, but Edwards did not create her to exist unto herself. This makes me sad and feel like Rosemary's been ripped off. How can such a prominent and catalystic character appear just to disappear a few chapters later? It seems to me that Edwards isn't making some commentary about how such significant people in life often aren't around for long: instead, it seems to me that in a story that she's put so much effort into making round, she's given us a flat Rosemary.
-And then she killed David! Why?!!?!??! I liked him!!! I'll tell you why. Cause she wanted to have Mrs. Adultery run off with a new man because Edwards herself didn't forgive David >=[
Okay, maybe I'm getting a bit over-passionate about this. But I was certainly upset when David died. He was the only character I *really* liked.
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| #1245: Inertia and Lewis |
[16 Oct 2009|05:08pm] |
Okay, so I really should be working right now, but I'm not feeling the kick in the bum of my conscience yet so... I'm not going to.
I've been thinking about C.S. Lewis (as per usual) and how, when TLTW&TH was recently made into a movie, the director said something along the lines of "I don't see it as a Christian allegory ... it's just a good adventure story" or something lke that.
Too bad for him that the author disagrees, or would have were he still alive. You all know I read a lot of Lewis's stuff. And he quite frequently speaks of TLTW&TH when referring to the writing process, as originally it was simply a number of images that occured to him. At this point, he says, there was nothing Christian about them... but then the story came together, and the implication is that this is when the Christian allegory came in.
When Lewis is so harsh on those who write for the sake of writing and not to glorify God, so intent that a man is Christian first and author second, so vehement that literature must be reflective thereof - it is ridiculous to suggest that he was simply writing a good adventure story. Especially when taken in context of the rest of the Narnia series and circumstances (the children allegorical of different types of faith, Aslan as creator, as saviour, and finally the Narnia heaven) and even Lewis's other fiction (The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, his space trilogy etc) - how can one think the Christian allegory was not deliberate?
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| #1244: Dawkins? Are you serious? |
[15 Oct 2009|05:22pm] |
The other night I was a bit frustrated. A friend of mine (extremist atheist, self-admitted) has recently been complaining about how moronic Christians are. And he made an offhand comment that reading "The God Delusion" hasn't been helping.
Somebody suggested, simply, that he should read the bible before he presumes to comment on it. And his response was "I have read the bible. It's great fiction."
All I have to say to that is... Well, I have read The God Delusion. And Dawkins is great at proving strawmen wrong.
Harlequin sent me this link today. It's interesting... http://www.faithinterface.com.au/apologetics/an-open-letter-to-skeptics-and-atheists
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| #1243 |
[12 Oct 2009|02:37pm] |
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Why do I just always want to sleep?
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| #1242 |
[01 Oct 2009|08:23pm] |
I read a confusing article by none other than Kate Conolly today (who I believe I have heard described as trying to hijack German history as her own) which wasn't all too keen to give it's sources. However I then went on to find a good debunk of it that just reminds me why I dislike popular journalism:
http://cumecclesia.blogspot.com/2008/10/archaeologists-dig-up-dirt-on-luther.html
German archaeologists have stoked controversy by unearthing evidence that Reformation leader Martin Luther lived well and did not die as a pauper as commonly believed. [Who ever thought that? We all know he lived in a big house (the old Wittenberg Augustinian monastery), had tons of kids (whom he presumably fed well enough), ate well (just look at the portraits of the "young Luther" as a monk compared the "late Luther" after Katie had been feeding him for 20 years!), and enjoyed a beer as much if not better than the next bloke.]
The Taipei Times [Taipei??? You've got to be joking. Wasn't there a source for this story closer to home? Nb. The byline in the Taipei Times says the story comes from the Guardian in London.]reports German scientists have reconstructed a detailed picture of the domestic life of Martin Luther by trawling through his household waste uncovered during archeological digs on sites where he used to live.
Beer tankards, grains of corn, cooking pots, his wife's wedding band and even his toilet are among the finds dug up during the five year project in the three places in Germany he spent his life. [Yep, well, those items would pretty well sum up his domestic and health life... But that all seems pretty normal to me... not evidence of being "flush with cash".]
But the Protestant Church in Wittenberg has called "religiously irrelevant" the evidence that the peace loving family used to throw dead cats into the rubbish bin [what else do you do with a dead cat?] and that the nails Luther used to secure his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg - which led to his excommunication from the Catholic Church and launched the reformation - were in fact drawing pins [Um? They found the NAILS he used to post the 95 Theses? That might just start a Lutheran relic frenzy! Anyway, I guess if the Church door was the local notice board, the "nails" could be called "pins" - but you would still need a hammer to get them into the thick oak!].
"We've been able to reconstruct whole chapters of his life's history," said Harald Meller, one of the main researchers. [Good for them. Not as if we were short on info though.]
Protestants from around the world were expected to flock to an exhibition at the history museum in Halle, where the best of the discoveries are to go on display starting on Friday. [Like I said - the new collection will rival those of the Elector's at the Castle Church on All Saints Day 1517. Listen out for the sound of a Luther's ghost hammering drawing pins into the notice board of the Halle Museum...]
Despite the widespread belief that Luther lived in poverty, evidence suggests he was a well fed man, weighing a hefty 150 kilograms when he died in 1546 at the age of 63. [Have these guys never heard the German saying "As fat as Martin Luther"?]
The most extensive research carried out at the family home in Wittenberg showed that Luther wrote his celebrated texts with goose quills under lamps lit by animal fat, in a heated room, which overlooked the River Elbe. [When he wasn't in the Wartburg Castle throwing inkpots or down at the printers shop correcting providing material as quick as the printer could print it.]
It debunks something of the Luther myth to know he wrote the 95 theses on a stone toilet, which was dug up in 2004. [Que? He wrote them on a stone toilet? It takes some imagination to picture him then using drawing pins to fix the stone toilet to the Wittenberg Church door... I think what they mean is that in 2004 the stone dunny in the Luther home was dug up, and that LUTHER was on this toilet when he wrote the 95 Theses. And to correct even THAT story, we need to point out that Luther said he was on the toilet when he realised his principle of JUSTIFICATION, NOT when he composed the 95 Theses. Good grief, journalists garble stories some times...]
The comments are good and I do like them.
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| #1241 |
[01 Oct 2009|11:17am] |
1 Corinthians 6:3-10
We put no stumbling-block in anyone's path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonour, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as imposters; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
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| #1240 |
[01 Oct 2009|10:58am] |
So I didn't update yesterday. There were a million things I was going to write about: complaints, giggles, my response to complaints. But I didn't. Maybe it's better; I was feeling a little fiery yesterday and probably wouldn't have given much a fair treatment.
I was saddened yesterday when I saw the facebook profile of a girl whom I don't know. She was a Christian, and had two status messages (total) about Jesus. And people were incredibly rude to her - not getting their point out rude, but tearing her down rude. Some people were just cynical, which was dumb but acceptable I guess, but after one person had ripped into her another was all "yeah you go..." like it was some sort of sport or something. On the second status message there was a girl saying "stop with all this jesus crap it's getting annoying nobody cares" because, you know, clearly we're not allowed to say what we want in our status messages.
Why is the girl friends with people like this? And a further question: if they dislike Christ and Christianity so much, why are they friends with a Christian on facebook? I do not understand. I have extremist atheist facebook friends who will post their views, and I will post my views, and we're civil enough to not try and argue it out over facebook. What's going on?
One of the comments was along the lines of "yeah thanks Jesus for all the starving children in the world", a sentiment shared by the Jesus All About Lies campaign. I've been trying tofollow that campaign as it claims to promote reason but mostly it's advocates just whinge about the advertisements, rather than show the supposed flaws in Christianity they claim to. But I have a response to that criticism, regardless of whether anyone will hear it, and a call to action:
Jesus showed time and time again, whilst he was on earth, that he is more concerned with eternal matters (purity, salvation) than temporal matters (sickness, poverty). Of course those things matter, and they have been matters that God has left US to be caretakers of since before Jesus was born - so how does it make sense to blame Jesus for it?
If anybody wants to complain about the starving children in the world: well, I ask, are you doing anything about it? If so, great! Why not try to get more people on board? It will be much more productive than whinging. And if you aren't doing anything about it - how can you dare to blame someone else for a situation you're doing nothing to fix?
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| #1239 |
[29 Sep 2009|05:38pm] |
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I think the most hurtful answer to "Sorry for being in your way" is "That's okay". Especially when the verdict's not out on just how, exactly, you were in the way.
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| #1238: From the journal that isn't all about boys... |
[29 Sep 2009|12:07pm] |
From 'The Parthenon and the Optative':
Of course we meet many people who explain to us that they would have been great readers of poetry if it had not been 'spoiled for them' at school by 'doing' it for examinations of the old kind. It is theoretically possible. Perhaps they would by now have been saints if no one had ever examined them in Scripture. Perhaps they would have been strategists or heroes if they had never been put into the school O.T.C. It may be so: but why should we believe that it is? We have only their word for it; and how do they know?
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| #1237: It's funny how my numbers end up all over the place... |
[28 Sep 2009|01:52pm] |
From 'On the Reading of Old Books':
I believe that many who find that 'nothing happens' when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would fing that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand.
Eyeuch! A pipe in their teeth? Well, as if that doesn't restrict the reading of theology to men! I would like to believe that this is quite an accidental implication, however.
I've been making a fair dint in my to-read list lately. Schmucks to assignments. I'll worry about them later ^_^
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| #1134 |
[26 Sep 2009|07:47pm] |
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"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you; that is the principal difference between a dog and a man."
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| #1135 |
[24 Sep 2009|05:30pm] |
43. Christians are to be taught that he who gives to the poor or lends to the
needy does a better deed than he who buys indulgences.
-Luther
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| #1134 |
[24 Sep 2009|09:51am] |
Starting reading another collection of C.S. Lewis essays this morning, and just had a few quotes I wanted to share. I have to say, I'm so glad to be done reading Max Lucado and back to C.S. Lewis. That was a long haul.
From 'Christianity and Literature':
... an author should never conceive himself as bringing into existence beauty or wisdom which did not exist before, but simply and solely as trying to embody in terms of his own art some reflection of eternal Beauty and wisdom.
And;
The real frivolity, the solemn vacuity, is all with those who make literature a self-existent thing to be valued for its own sake.
As with most Lewis essays, I found a lot to think about in this one. I definitely prefer the essay format to the devotional format. Maybe it's because Lewis likes getting people to think about things and re-evaluate things and to question what they take for granted, whereas Lucado just wants to get you thinking about God. Well, I already do that.
In conclusion: good stuff.
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| #1132 |
[21 Sep 2009|11:12pm] |
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Harlequin thinks that Zac Efron is too good for Vanessa Hudgens. Kawaii ne.
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| #1131: My tummy feels all funny |
[21 Sep 2009|07:38pm] |
Now there were a million things I was planning on updating about. Little humourous insights, things like that.
But this one will take the ball.
I've just received an invitation to join Golden Key, an international, elitist (I think) society that can only be joined by invitation. It boasts previous members like Bill Cosby and Ronald Reagan.
I don't know how significant this is, nor how easy it is to gain membership. But it feels significant.
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| #1130 |
[18 Sep 2009|12:36pm] |
Wah! So I am bad and do not update enough like I say I will. Just like I make all these pretences that I'm a wonderful university student and then I don't study for exams or do essays until the night before they're due... like every other university student really, ne?
In terms of reading, though, it's been going well. I'm trying to get through Behind the Moon. It's a pretty good book, though the POV is more than a little too jumpy for my liking. I guess that's a liberty you have with longer pieces.
I'm a little left without anything to do because my lecture for this afternoon has been cancelled. Kanashii ne. What can you do. Other than get bored and feel like there's nothing to do.
Have had some late night chats. About religion and stuff. And some struggles. But it's good to talk about religion and stuff. I want them to know that I love God. my prayers lately haven't been "may this person become a Christian.." ... bleh! ... just "may they know that I love you". Works better for me I think. I don't get the cop out of waiting for a miracle. I don't get any false expectations.
I don't really know what to talk about. That's the curse with journalling.
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| #1129: Eh? |
[15 Sep 2009|09:35pm] |
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music |
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Tim reading the bible. Good stuff. |
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I have the Brothers Grimm book here. Why can't that be my next read?
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