Archives

Top 100 Hymns Survey

May19

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE SEND YOUR TOP TEN LISTS TODAY! I really wanted to have at least one hundred responses, and so far I have heard from thirty SIXTY of you. Thanks to the Early Thirty! The rest of of you send in your lists! Deadline: May 31, 2009.

So, this past Sunday in church while listening attentively to the sermon, and even taking some notes in my Bible, I thought up a new project. I get some of my best thinking done during church. My excuse is that I can listen faster than my pastor can preach, so I have time left over to think. And I like projects. At least, I like thinking them up. Sometimes I’m a little bit lacking in the follow-through.

At any rate, inspired by Fuse #8’s Top 100 Picture Book Poll, which I enjoyed immensely and would recommend as a beginning reading list of picture books to accompany my Picture Book Preschool, I thought a Top 100 Hymns Poll would be a great summer project. I might learn something and be encouraged in my own worship. You might learn some new hymns or be reminded of some oldies. We all might enjoy visiting and re-visiting the hymns of the faith together.

Here’s how I think this poll/journey is going to work (I stole some of the rules from Fuse #8):

1. Make a list of your top ten hymns of all time.
Hymn (according to Webster): a song of praise to God
a metrical composition adapted for singing in a religious service.
For the purposes of this poll, I’m limiting the choices to Christian hymns, but the form of the song doesn’t matter. In other words, the songs on your list should be suitable for congregational singing and should be Christian. Handel’s Messiah is Christian but probably not suitable for congregational hymn singing. Anything you sing in worship service, even what are normally called choruses or gospel songs or spirituals or CCM, is fine. (Oh, English, please, or at least translated into English. Sorry, but it’s all I really speak.)

2. List these hymns in your order of preference. So your #1 hymn would be the one you feel is the best, and so on. I will be giving your first choice 10 points, your second choice 9 points, and so on.

3. Submit your list to me at sherryDOTearlyATgmailDOTcom. Write “Hymn Survey” in the subject line. I’d rather you didn’t leave your votes in my comments here because it’ll be easier to tabulate all the votes if they’re all in my email (plus I want everyone’s votes to be a surprise). Deadline for votes to be sent to me is May 31, 2009.

4. If you like, you can submit a justification for each hymn. Or you can send me a link to an audio or video version online. Include the name of the hymn’s author or lyricist and the composer of the melody you prefer if at all possible, especially if you think I might be unfamiliar with your particular hymn. At the beginning of June I will tally up the totals, and I will pull from the submitted pieces why one reader or another liked a particular hymn (naming the reader, of course). That way we’ll be able to hear from a whole bunch of people why they love one hymn or another. I will then count down from 100 to 1 over the course of the summer the top choices of what folks feel the best hymns of all time are.

I’m also going to talk to someone at my church to see if we can sing a lot of these favorites this summer in our worship services. As many of you know, churches get caught in ruts where they sing the same hymns over and over. I think singing some of the favorite hymns of the faith, even some that we may not have sung in many years, would do us good. By the way, I’m not any kind of expert on music or hymns, but I’ll bet I’ll be a lot more knowledgeable about both by the end of the summer.

Thanks in advance for your votes/nominations. I’m going to enjoy this little exercise, and I hope you will, too.

Oh, and if you don’t mind, I would appreciate your publicizing this poll on your blog. I’d like to get at least 100 nominations or lists for this survey; more would be even better. If you want to post your top ten list on your blog, that’s fine. Just be sure you send me a copy.

Seven Ten Fifteen Nineteen Twenty-five Thirty SIxty responses so far!

John Adams’ Advice to His Children

May19

When I read David McCullough’s biography of John Adams back in February and watched the PBS miniseries based on the book, I copied several passages into my commonplace book for future reference. These are some quotations from Adams’ letters or other writings that reflect his advice to his children.

John adn Abigail had four children who lived to adulthood: one, John Quincy, became president of the United States. The other three lived to experience varying degrees of tragedy in their lives. Abigail, the eldest, nicknamed Nabby, married Colonel William Smith who turned out to be a profligate husband who practically deserted her and their children for long periods of time throughout their marriage. Nabby died of breast cancer at age forty-nine.

Charles Adams was by all accounts a charming and talented young man, but he drank excessively and eventually died an alcoholic. He was married to Col. Smith’s sister, Sally, and the couple had two daughters. He also deserted his family and died at the age of thirty, alone, in New York City.

Thomas Adams, the youngest of the Adams children, became a lawyer, but not a very successful one. Thomas married and had seven children, but he, too, was prone to alcohol abuse. He and his family lived with his father John Adams in John’s old age, and Thomas outlived his father in spite of his alcoholism.

Perhaps John Adams’ children, in light of their sometimes poor decisions in adult life, should have taken his advice more to heart. At any rate, here is some of what Mr. Adams wrote to his children, in case you want to take advantage.

“Daughter! Get you an honest man for a husband, and keep him honest. No matter whether he is rich, provided he be independent. Regard the honor and moral character more than all other circumstances. Think of no other greatness but that of the soul, no other riches but those of the heart. An honest, sensible humane man, above all the littleness of vanity and extravagances of imagination, laboring to do good rather than be rich, to be useful rather than make a show, living in modest simplicity clearly within his means and free from debts and obligations, is really the most respectable man in society, makes himself and all about him most happy.” (John Adams, p. 289)

“Public business, my son, must always be done by somebody. It will be done by somebody or other. If wise men decline it, others will not; if honest men refuse it, others will not. A young man should weigh well his plans. Integrity should be preserved in all events, as essential to his happiness, through every stage of his existence. His first maxim then should be to place his honor out of reach of all men.” (John Adams, p. 415)

To Charles on exercise: “Move or die is the language of our Maker in the constitution of our bodies. When you cannot walk abroad, walk in your room . . . Rise up and then open your windows and walk about your room a few times, then sit down to your books or your pen.” (John Adams, p. 452)

“More depends on little things than is commonly imagined. An Erect figure, a steady countenance, a neat dress, a genteel air, an oratorical period, a resolute, determined spirit, often do more than deep erudition or indefatigable application.” (John Adams, p. 453)

To John Quincy: “Rejoice always in all events, be thankful always for all things is a hard precept for human nature, though in my philosophy and in my religion a perfect duty.”

Sunday Salon: Ramblings and a Hymn Project

May17

I haven’t had time to go through the Saturday Review this week and find all the books I’m interested in adding to my TBR list. My list is already so long that I may very well have to finish it in heaven because the Lord doesn’t give anyone that much time here on earth.

Anyway, I ‘m reading Bret Lott’s latest novel, published in 2008, Ancient Highway. I loved Jewel by this same author, and I liked A Song I Knew By Heart, also by Mr. Lott. But I’m over halfway through Ancient Highway, and so far it hasn’t captured me. I’m distracted and not sure where the book is going or why it’s going there.

So, this morning in church while listening attentively to the sermon, and even taking some notes in my Bible, I thought up a new project. I get some of my best thinking done during church. My excuse is that I can listen faster than my pastor can preach, so I have time left over to think. And I like projects. At least, I like thinking them up. Sometimes I’m a little bit lacking in the follow-through.

At any rate, inspired by Fuse #8’s Top 100 Picture Book Poll, which I enjoyed immensely and would recommend as a beginning reading list of picture books to accompany my Picture Book Preschool, I thought a Top 100 Hymns Poll would be a great summer project. I might learn something and be encouraged in my own worship. You might learn some new hymns or be reminded of some oldies. We all might enjoy visiting and re-visiting the hymns of the faith together.

Here’s how I think this poll/journey is going to work (I stole some of the rules from Fuse #8):

1. Make a list of your top ten hymns of all time.
Hymn (according to Webster): a song of praise to God
a metrical composition adapted for singing in a religious service.
For the purposes of this poll, I’m limiting the choices to Christian hymns, but the form of the song doesn’t matter. In other words, the songs on your list should be suitable for congregational singing and should be Christian. Handel’s Messiah is Christian but probably not suitable for congregational hymn singing. Anything you sing in worship service, even what are normally called choruses or gospel songs or spirituals or CCM, is fine. (Oh, English, please, or at least translated into English. Sorry, but it’s all I really speak.)

2. List these hymns in your order of preference. So your #1 hymn would be the one you feel is the best, and so on. I will be giving your first choice 10 points, your second choice 9 points, and so on.

3. Submit your list to me at sherryDOTearlyATgmailDOTcom. Write “Hymn Survey” in the subject line. I’d rather you didn’t leave your votes in my comments here because it’ll be easier to tabulate all the votes if they’re all in my email (plus I want everyone’s votes to be a surprise). Deadline for votes to be sent to me is May 31, 2009.

4. If you like, you can submit a justification for each hymn. Or you can send me a link to an audio or video version online. Include the name of the hymn’s author or lyricist and the composer of the melody you prefer if at all possible, especially if you think I might be unfamiliar with your particular hymn. At the beginning of June I will tally up the totals, and I will pull from the submitted pieces why one reader or another liked a particular hymn (naming the reader, of course). That way we’ll be able to hear from a whole bunch of people why they love one hymn or another. I will then count down from 100 to 1 over the course of the summer the top choices of what folks feel the best hymns of all time are.

I’m also going to talk to someone at my church to see if we can sing a lot of these favorites this summer in our worship services. As many of you know, churches get caught in ruts where they sing the same hymns over and over. I think singing some of the favorite hymns of the faith, even some that we may not have sung in many years, would do us good. By the way, I’m not any kind of expert on music or hymns, but I’ll bet I’ll be a lot more knowledgeable about both by the end of the summer.

Thanks in advance for your votes/nominations. I’m going to enjoy this little exercise, and I hope you will, too.

Oh, and if you don’t mind, I would appreciate your publicizing this poll on your blog. I’d like to get at least 100 nominations or lists for this survey; more would be even better. If you want to post your top ten list on your blog, that’s fine. Just be sure you send me a copy.

Poetry Friday: More John Donne

May15

I so enjoyed thinking about death (enjoyed paradoxically speaking, like the metaphysical poets) this week with Wit and Mr. Richardson’s little book, and John Donne and of course, LOST, that I thought I’d share another poem by Mr. Donne written on his sick-bed:

HYMN TO GOD, MY GOD, IN MY SICKNESS.

SINCE I am coming to that Holy room,
Where, with Thy choir of saints for evermore,
I shall be made Thy music ; as I come
I tune the instrument here at the door,
And what I must do then, think here before ;

Whilst my physicians by their love are grown
Cosmographers, and I their map, who lie
Flat on this bed, that by them may be shown
That this is my south-west discovery,
Per fretum febris, by these straits to die ;

I joy, that in these straits I see my west ;
For, though those currents yield return to none,
What shall my west hurt me ? As west and east
In all flat maps—and I am one—are one,
So death doth touch the resurrection.

Is the Pacific sea my home ? Or are
The eastern riches ? Is Jerusalem ?
Anyan, and Magellan, and Gibraltar ?
All straits, and none but straits, are ways to them
Whether where Japhet dwelt, or Cham, or Shem.

We think that Paradise and Calvary,
Christ’s cross and Adam’s tree, stood in one place ;
Look, Lord, and find both Adams met in me ;
As the first Adam’s sweat surrounds my face,
May the last Adam’s blood my soul embrace.

So, in His purple wrapp’d, receive me, Lord ;
By these His thorns, give me His other crown ;
And as to others’ souls I preach’d Thy word,
Be this my text, my sermon to mine own,
“Therefore that He may raise, the Lord throws down.”

“As west and east are one, so death doth touch the resurrection.” I do like that simile. And then there are the other similes and comparisons: Paradise and Calvary, Christ’s Cross and Adam’s tree, the first Adam meets the Last Adam, a crown of thorns translated to a crown of glory.

I do like Mr. Donne’s poetry. It reminds me of the incongruities and the paradoxes of LOST, and of life in general.

Poetry Friday round-up is at the blog of Kelly Polark today.

LOST Rehash: The Incident

May14

Scattered thoughts and observations which may or may not become more coherent during the eight months that we must wait for our next LOST fix:

The conversation at the beginning of the episode:
Antagonist: “They come, fight, they destroy, they corrupt. It always ends the same.”
Jacob: “It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.”
Is this summation the same as Sawyer’s statement something to the effect: “Whatever happened, happened.”?
Discuss. ‘Cause I’m clueless.

Jacob was reading from a book of short stories by Flannery O’Connor, Everything That Rises Must Converge, as John Locke fell from the umpteenth story of that building. I must read some Flannery O’Connor, even though I don’t like short stories.

Locke is/was the “loophole” that allowed the Smoke Monster/Partner of Jacob to do whatever it is he’s doing inside Locke’s (second?) body or with Locke’s appearance. Those two, Jacob and his antagonist, reminded me of the two brothers in the computer game Myst. In that game two brothers, Sirrus and Achenar (Cain and Abel?), are engaged in a struggle for power in which they both try to engage the person playing the game to help them.Of course, the problem for the game player is figuring out which brother is the “good guy” and which is not. The emphasis in LOST on books and puzzles and an unexplored island is also very Myst-like.

I loved the Star Wars moment when Sawyer shot the communication console in the sub. Sawyer is definitely the Han Solo type. And when Juliet gave Sawyer fits by changing sides with the simple declaration, “I changed my mind”?Classic woman’s prerogative. And Sawyer had the best lines last night:
“I don’t speak destiny.”
“This don’t look like LAX.”

However, I’m mad at Juliet. She gives up Sawyer, who obviously adores her, who tamed himself for her, who has her back, because she saw the way he looked at Kate? Stupid. Wrong-headed. Kate goes with Jack; they deserve each other. Sawyer goes with Juliet; they complement each other. Happily ever after.

So Jacob shows up at crisis points in each of the Losties lives and does what? Except for the conversation he had with Hurley, I can’t see that Jacob did much to influence the course of events or make them do anything in particular. Oh, I guess Jacob did cause Nadia’s death. Was he just mostly watching them, waiting to see what they would do, knowing that their destinies intersected? I don’t get it.

Ben was playing Aaron to Locke Impersonator’s Moses. Ben was going on and on about how Jacob never revealed himself to Ben in all the years he was on the island, and how he was passed over, and how, when Locke requests a meeting, Jacob immediately shows himself. But Ben didn’t know that Locke wasn’t really Locke.

Miles: “Has it occurred to any of you that your buddy is actually going to cause the thing he is trying to prevent. Perhaps the nuke is the incident.”
Good call, Miles.

I loved the Rose and Bernard retirement scene. They’re retired. “It’s always something with you people.” And now Rose and Bernard have opted out. I think they’re out of the show now, and although I will miss them, they made the right decision. Little Cabin in the Woods/Jungle.

LOST Rehash: Follow the Leader

May7

I’m a little late with this week’s rehash because I can’t figure out whom to follow. In fact, as far as LOST is concerned, I’m officially lost.

As I asked last week, which leader?

Jack is trying to lead the Losties (1977) in carrying out Faraday’s vision of blowing up the entire island with a hydrogen bomb. I’m with Kate on this idea: since when did detonating bombs and shooting kids become anyone’s “destiny”? Sayid is the only one following Jack, and Eloise seems to have her own agenda.

Oh, yeah, and who’s the leader of the Others (1977)? Whidmore or Eloise? Or RIchard Alpert?

John Locke thinks he’s the leader of the Others (200?), and Richard is just an “advisor.” But it’s Richard who is leading the Band of Others to Jacob, who may be a leader or may be a fraud? John’s such a great leader that he gets to tell Richard to tell John Locke (time-travelling version) what to do so that John basically tells himself to die before returning to the island.

Alpert and Ben (200?) are letting Locke have his head, so to speak, but at the same time they’re muttering to each other about how Locke is starting to be a problem. So Ben thinks he’s still in charge, manipulating things from behind the curtain, as he’s always done.

Sawyer (1977) led Juliet right onto that sub and had plans to make a fortune investing in Microsoft. But he gained an unwanted (by Juliet, at least) follower at the last minute as Kate made the investment partnership into a triangle —again. Kate, get lost; go sober up your first boyfriend, Jack.

In Dharmaville (1977), the leadership question is even murkier, if that’s possible. Horace is supposed to be the Dharma mayor or Grand Poobah, or something. But Crazy Radzinsky, along with his nerdy henchman Phil, has staged a coup and taken over. However, they all let Dr. Chang tell them to send the women and children to safety, and it’s Hurley who’s the behind-the-scenes instigator of that decision.

So, “follow the leader” might be good advice if anyone knew who the leader was.

By the way, Star Wars isn’t the only 70’s/80’s movie to which I’m seeing flashbacks:

The scene where Jack and his crew swam under the pond to get to the caves where the hydrogen bomb was stored reminded me of The Poseidon Adventure (1972). And those Poseidon survivors had leadership issues, too. If only LOST could have Shelley Winters as one of the Losties!

Then, all the torches in underground tombs or whatever they are with hieroglyphics on the walls: shades of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)! I was waiting for the snakes to come crawling out of the walls.

Of course, the whole time travel thing and can we fix the past to make the future turn out differently? Or are we messing up things in the past in a way that will mess up the future in a catastrophic way? Back to the Future (1985).

I know that scene with the submarine leaving the island reminded me of some movie, too. Anyone?

Sunday Salon: Gleaned from the Saturday Review and Other Places

May3

The Sunday Salon.com

These books are the ones I’m adding to my own unmanageable reading list. I can hardly wait to read them all plus the 100+ others on my list. Thanks to everyone for all of the great suggestions.

The Household Guide to Dying by Debra Adelaide. Recommended by Dawn at 5 Minutes for Books. I’d like to read this one and compare it with a couple of other books about death and dying that I’ve read lately: Tender Graces by Jackina Stark and Passage by Connie Willis.

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway. Recommended by Carrie at Books and Movies.

Every Eye by Isobel English. Recommended by Fleurfisher. This “quiet story” from Persephone Books sounds delightful.

The King’s Daughter by Sandra Worth. Recommended by Deanna at Mom Musings.

The English Patient by Michael Odaatje. Recommended by S. Krishna.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. Recommended at Civil Thoughts. This one sounds, well, elegant.

The Great Emergence by Phyllis TIckle. Recommended by Raima at Complexity Simplified.

Also Laura reviews Tea TIme for the Traditionally Built, Alexander McCall Smith’s latest No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency saga, and I’m looking forward to it. And I also want to get my hands on a copy of Tuck, the third in the King Raven trilogy by Stephen Lawhead.

The Semicolon Book Club selection for May is a children’s book that I thought should have won the Newbery Award. Instead, it was a Newbery Honor book: The Underneath by Kathi Appelt. Here are my thoughts on the book after I read for the first time last October. I’ll be interested to see what others who read it this month think about it. It provoked pretty strong opinions, both pro and con, among the kidlit bloggers who read it last year. Leave me a comment or email me and I’ll be happy to link to your review of The Underneath anytime in May.

Favorite Poets: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Apr18

Today is the anniversary of Paul Revere’s famous ride through the Massachusetts countryside warning “every MIddlesex village and farm” that the British regulars were marching out of Boston to look for and capture the arms that the colonials had stashed in Lexington and Concord.

Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.

I rather enjoy that old chestnut of a poem, and here’s a cartoon version in which The Flame recites Longfellow’s famous poem:

There’s an Adventures in Odyssey episode that points out the historical flaws in Longfellow’s version of the story, but it’s still a good poem.

More Longfellow:
As I’ve said before, Longfellow isn’t always as well-respected as I believe he ought to be. However, I think he’s a fine poet, especially for those of us who enjoy poems that tell stories.

Longfellow, Hurricanes and The Wreck of the Hesperus.

A Celebration of Longfellow

Longfellow’s Birthday

This is the forest primeval . . .

Favorite Poets: Walter de la Mare

Apr16

“A poet dares to be just so clear and no clearer; he approaches lucid ground warily, like a mariner who is determined not to scrape bottom on anything solid. A poet’s pleasure is to withhold a little of his meaning, to intensify it by mystification. He unzips the veil from beauty, but does not remove it.”
~E.B. White


The Listeners (1912)

“Is there anybody there?” said the Traveller,
Knocking on the moonlit door;
And his horse in the silence champed the grass
Of the forest’s ferny floor;
And a bird flew up out of the turret,
Above the Traveller’s head:
And he smote upon the door again a second time;
“Is there anybody there?” he said.
But no one descended to the Traveller;
No head from the leaf-fringed sill
Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,
Where he stood perplexed and still.
But only a host of phantom listeners
That dwelt in the lone house then
Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight
To that voice from the world of men:
Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,
That goes down to the empty hall,
Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken
By the lonely Traveller’s call.
And he felt in his heart their strangeness,
Their stillness answering his cry,
While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,
‘Neath the starred and leafy sky;
For he suddenly smote on the door, even
Louder, and lifted his head:—
“Tell them I came, and no one answered,
That I kept my word,” he said.
Never the least stir made the listeners,
Though every word he spake
Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house
From the one man left awake:
Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,
And the sound of iron on stone,
And how the silence surged softly backward,
When the plunging hoofs were gone.

So, tell me, who is The Traveller? And who are the listeners? And whom are they to tell that the traveller kept his word? Why won’t the listeners answer? A very mysterious poem indeed.

The Poetry Friday round-up for today is at Becky’s Book Reviews.

Favorite Poets: Robert Burns

Apr16

On this date in 1746, the English armies defeated the forces still loyal to Bonnie Prince Charlie at Culloden near Iverness. The prince escaped, but many, many Highlanders did not. As the English swept across Scotland, they burned, pillaged and banned Scots culture, including a ban on the Gaelic tongue, bagpipes, kilts, tartans, and other Scots heritage and cultural artifacts. Prince Charles Stuart spent the rest of his life in exile. The Georges and eventually their descendant VIctoria ruled England and Scotland for the next century and a half.

Lament for Culloden
By Robert Burns
1759-1796

THE lovely lass o’ Inverness,
Nae joy nor pleasure can she see;
For e’en and morn she cries, ‘Alas!’
And aye the saut tear blin’s her e’e:
‘Drumossie moor, Drumossie day,
A waefu’ day it was to me!
For there I lost my father dear,
My father dear and brethren three.

‘Their winding-sheet the bluidy clay,
Their graves are growing green to see;
And by them lies the dearest lad
That ever blest a woman’s e’e!
Now wae to thee, thou cruel lord,
A bluidy man I trow thou be;
For monie a heart thou hast made sair,
That ne’er did wrang to thine or thee.’

With Scott and Burns and Celtic Thunder links, this blog seems to have taken on a rather Scots air this week. I and my family are a basic Heinz 57 varieties mix of cultural heritage, so I’m sure I have some Scots blood in me. I just don’t know exactly how much or where.