Archive | September 2004

Boredom

Sep20

One afternoon when I was seven I complained to him (my grandfather) of boredom, and he batted me hard on the head. He told me that I was never to use that term in his presence again, that if I was bored it was my fault and no one else’s. The obligation to amuse and instruct myself was entirely my own, and people who didn’t know that were childish people, to be avoided if possible. Certainly not to be trusted. That episode cured me of boredom forever –John Taylor Gatto

Wow! This is just what I am tempted to do when my children complain of being bored. On Saturday we had a”no-TV, no-computer” day, and my younger children, who have been watching too much TV lately, were almost beside themselves. They eventually settled into a rhythm of play and work, but it took a while. I must have more of these days and train my children “to amuse and instruct themselves.”
From the same excellent essay by Gatto:

Well-schooled kids have a low threshold for boredom; help your own to develop an inner life so that they’ll never be bored. Urge them to take on the serious material, the grown-up material, in history, literature, philosophy, music, art, economics, theology – all the stuff schoolteachers know well enough to avoid. Challenge your kids with plenty of solitude so that they can learn to enjoy their own company, to conduct inner dialogues. Well-schooled people are conditioned to dread being alone, and they seek constant companionship through the TV, the computer, the cell phone, and through shallow friendships quickly acquired and quickly abandoned. Your children should have a more meaningful life, and they can.

Response?

Sep20

Other than praying for her (which I’m doing), how would you respond to a young friend (college student) who said this:

There was a time in my life when I looked upon the world with optimism, when I believed in the intrinsic goodness of man and the infallibility of Christian faith, when I trusted the superior wisdom of my parents and the loyalty of friendship, when I was blissfully ignorant of the pain of emptiness and loneliness . . .

The implication in the rest of the post is that this student has “lost her faith” and is feeling pessimistic and hopeless about herself and her place in the world generally. I don’t believe she is suicidal–just cynical. Without knowing what’s led her to this place, what can I or anyone else say to encourage her and give her hope?

New to Me

Sep19

I thought I was the “picture book expert,” but in the past couple of weeks I’ve been introduced to two picture books with wonderful stories and illustrations–at church, of all places. The first book, The King at the Door by Brock Cole, tells the story of a king who’s disguised as a beggar. Only one person believes that the ragged old man is really the king and treats him with the proper respect and care. It’s out of print, but worth searching for.
The other book is also out of print, but a friend read it tonight at little tea party that we had for some 9-12 year old girls, including Brown Bear Daughter. I think the title is Mrs. Rosy Posy and the Fine China Plate by Robin Gunn, but I must have something wrong because I couldn’t find it on the internet by googling any combination of those words. Anyway, the book tells the story of a little girl who can’t go to a movie because her parents have said “no.” Mrs. Rosy Posy helps Natalie know how very special she is and how her parents love her enough to help her stay special and unstained–like a fine china plate.
I’m going to try to find a copy of both books to purchase before Christmas.

Join Me in Glad Adoration #4

Sep18

In Genesis, He’s the breath of life
In Exodus, the Passover Lamb
In Leviticus, He’s our High Priest
Numbers, The fire by night
Deuteronomy, He’s Moses’ voice
In Joshua, He is salvation’s choice

Judges, law giver
In Ruth, the kinsmen-redeemer
First and second Samuel, our trusted prophet
In Kings and Chronicles, He’s sovereign
Ezra, true and faithful scribe
Nehemiah, He’s the rebuilder of broken walls and lives

In Esther, He’s Mordecai’s courage
In Job, the timeless redeemer
In Psalms, He is our morning song
In Proverbs, wisdom’s cry
Ecclesiastes, the time and season
In the Song of Solomon, He is the lover’s dream

He is, He is, He is

In Isaiah, He’s the Prince of Peace
Jeremiah, the weeping prophet
In Lamentations, the cry for Israel
Ezekiel, He’s the call from sin
In Daniel, the stranger in the fire
In Hosea, He is forever faithful

In Joel, He’s the spirit’s power
In Amos, the arms that carry us
In Obadiah, He’s the Lord our Savior
In Jonah, He’s the great missionary
In Micah, the promise of peace
In Nahum, He is our strength and our shield

In Habakkuk and Zephaniah, He’s pleading for revival
In Haggai, He restores a lost heritage
In Zachariah, our fountain
In Malachi, He is the sun of righteousness rising with healing in His wings

He is, He is, He is

In Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, He is God, man, Messiah
In the Book of Acts, He is fire from heaven
In Romans, He’s the grace of God
In Corinthians, the power of love
In Galatians, He is freedom from the curse of sin

Ephesians, our glorious treasure
Philippians, the servant’s heart
In Colossians, He’s the Godhead Trinity
Thessalonians, our coming King
In Timothy, Titus, Philemon, He’s our mediator and our faithful pastor

In Hebrews, the everlasting covenant
In James, the one who heals the sick
In First and Second Peter, He is our shepherd
In John and in Jude, He’s the lover coming for His bride
In the Revelation, He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords

He is, He is, He is

The Prince of Peace
The Son of Man
The Lamb of God
The Great I Am
He’s the Alpha and Omega
Our God and our Savior
He is Jesus Christ the Lord
And when time is no more
He is
He is
—by Aaron Benward and Jeoffrey Benward

Thou shalt not steal

Sep18

I’m trying to wrap my brain around the ideas of copyright and intellectual property and the internet. Obviously, if I take someone else’s words and imply that that they are my thoughts and my words (plagiarism), I am at least lying, if not stealing. But what if I take your whole editorial or news article that is available on the internet, and I post it on my blog or website, attributing authorship to you? Is this plagiarism? No, I’m not claiming to have written what someone else wrote. Is it a violation of copyright? It would be if I posted a chapter of your (print) book, wouldn’t it? I don’t actually know how the copyright laws stand right now in this area. Then, there’s the matter of images. If an image is sitting on your site and I link to it in my post, I understand that I’m doing something rude having to do with “using up bandwidth”–whatever that means. But is it wrong to take your picture? How does anyone know what images are fair game and which are not? In the post below, I linked to a photograph of Billy Joel from the website of a major music company? Is this a problem? Is this huge company really worried about bandwidth? Or is that like stealing pencils from work–they’ll never miss it is no justification. Are photographs and paragraphs posted on the internet really private property anymore? When you put it on the internet, aren’t you saying, “Here, guys, I want to share this with the world?”
Then, again, if I posted a photo of myself or one of my family members, and someone took it and messed with it and sold it for profit somehow, I would feel definitely violated. I assume there are laws against this sort of thing. Are the laws enforceable? What if someone takes my words, messes with them a bit, and sells them? (Not that I’ve ever said anything profound enough to be stolen) What about lesson plans I find on the internet? I figure that if they’re on the net, again someone must have wanted someone else to get some benefit from them. Hoqwever, I may get ideas from lots of places–websites, books, other people–then put it all together and write my own book or curriculum. What if I post this conglomeration of ideas on the internet? Am I plagiarizing if I don’t even know where most of the ideas came from? I think the internet has made this whole area quite complicated, and I’m not sure where to draw the lines. And I haven’t even discussed “file-swapping”–mostly because I don’t really understand what the heck it is. Anybody out there got any ideas on this subject?

My two songs from iTunes this week

Sep17

Just the Way You Are by Billy Joel

Daniel by Elton John
I know Billy Joel is an atheist, and Elton John is a homos*xual. But I still like some of their songs.

I wasn’t raised Catholic, but I used to go to Mass with my friends, and I viewed the whole business as a lot of very enthralling hocus-pocus. There’s a guy hanging upon the wall in the church, nailed to a cross and dripping blood, and everybody’s blaming themselves for that man’s torment, but I said to myself, ‘Forget it. I had no hand in that evil. I have no original sin. There’s no blood of any sacred martyr in my hands. I pass on all of this’. . . I believe that all important matters have to be settled here, not in the clouds somewhere after we kick off. -Billy Joel

Carol Kendall and Else Holmelund Minarik

Sep13

The Gammage Cup was published in 1959. The story of five non-conformist Minnipins who become unlikely heroes probably hit a nerve in the non-conformist sixties, but it’s still a great story. The Periods, stodgy old conservatives with names such as Etc. and Geo., are wonderful parodies of those who are still caught up in the forms and have forgotten the meanings. And Muggles, Mingy, Gummy, Walter the Earl, and Curley Green, the Minnipins who don’t quite fit in and who paint their doors colors other than green, are wonderful examples of those pesky artistic/scientific types who live just outside the rules of polite society. One of them, Muggles I think, isn’t consciously a nonconformist nor an artist; she just gets caught up in the adventures of the others and finds out that she, too, has her own desires and dreams and talents. I loved The Gammage Cup by Carol Kendall (b. September 13, 1917) when I was a child, and I still remember images and ideas from it. For instance, I’ve always had a desire to paint my front door red or orange or yellow. And I sort of like being different–sometimes just for the sake of difference.
Today is also the birthday of Else Holmelund Minarik, author of the Little Bear stories for beginning readers. What is your favorite Little Bear story? I really like A Kiss for Little Bear in which Little Bear’s grandmother gets some friends to deliver a kiss to Little Bear. The kiss unfortunately gets “all mixed-up” when a pair of lovestruck skunks keeps exchanging the kiss instead of delivering it, but everything turns out all right in the end. I also like the quote from Little Bear’s grandfather when Little Bear suggests that Grandfather might be tired and need a rest. “Me–tired? How can you make me tired? I’m never tired,” says Grandfather, just before he falls asleep in his lawn chair. Then, there’s the story of how Little Bear visits the moon and comes back in time for supper. Oh, yes, and I love Little Bear’s Friend about Little Bear’s friendship with Emily. Little Bear is about as fun and as profound as Frog and Toad. Who ever said that children’s books were boring or unchallenging? They have to be better than adult books so that we can enjoy reading them over and over again until they’re memorized.

Join Me in Glad Adoration #3

Sep12

We sang this hymn in church this morning, and I liked it very much. The tune we used is apparently modern, but the words, as you can see, are very old. It fit in well with the reading I’ve been doing for American Literature: William Bradford, Jonathan Edwards, Anne Bradstreet. Also, the sermon from Malachi, chapter 2 referenced Jonathan Edwards and his godly seed and our responsibility to be teachers of truth.

What’er My God Ordains Is Right
text: Samuel Rodigast (1675)
music: David Braud

1. Whate’er my God ordains is right,
Holy His will abideth
I will be still whate’er He does,
And follow where He guideth
He is my God, Though dark my road
He holds me that I shall not fall
Wherefore to Him I leave it all

2. Whate’er my God ordains is right,
He never will deceive me
He leads me by the proper path,
I know He will not leave me
I take, content, what He hath sent
His hand can turn my griefs away
And patiently I wait His day

3. Whate’er my God ordains is right,
Though now this cup in drinking
May bitter seem to my faint heart,
I take it all unshrinking
My God is true, each morn anew
Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart
And pain and sorrow shall depart

4. Whate’er my God ordains is right,
Here shall my stand be taken
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
Yet I am not forsaken
My Father’s care is round me there
He holds me that I shall not fall
And so to Him I leave it all

September 11, 2004

Sep11

Three years later, and I think it’s more real to me, more tragic, more sad, than it was when it first happened. Then, I couldn’t believe it, couldn’t really take it in. Now I know that over 3000 people died on September 11, 2001 so that Islamic terrorists could make some sort of statement about how much they hate the West and all it stands for. Now I know that the evil people who did this thing aren’t through, that they are still killing people in Iraq, in Spain, in Bali, in the Philippines, in Russia. Now I know that they are willing to kill children, even babies, just to instill terror in anyone who opposes them. May the Lord of all things deliver us from evil now and forever. Amen.