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Kenneth Taylor, b. May 8, 1917, d. June 10, 2005

Jun11

Kenneth Taylor, author of The Living Bible, died yesterday.

The Living Bible has been criticized for its inaccuracy as a paraphrase rather than a translation, but my green padded Living Bible was precious to me. I wrote in it, actually read it, and memorized from it. If there are mistakes in translation, as I’m sure there are, the Holy Spirit was nevertheless able to apply the Scriptures to my life as a teenager as I studied Kenneth Taylor’s readable, accessible paraphrase of the Word of God.

Kenneth Taylor had 10 children, 28 grandchildren, and 22 great-grandchildren. What a legacy!

God bless him and his family.

Levi’s Will by W. Dale Cramer

Jun9

There’s something about the Amish culture and about Amish life that is fascinating to those of us who live outside, Englishers they call us. Perhaps we long for a simpler life and a more tightly knit community while at the same time we know that the rule-keeping and legalism required to maintain such simplicity would chafe and limit our freedom to an unacceptable degree.

Levi’s WIll by W. Dale Cramer is partly about that legalism and about what is gained and what is lost when a young man leaves his Amish home and family to live a life unrestricted by any rules at all other than the ones he makes or chooses for himself. As an Amish teenager, WIll Mullet, the protagonist of the novel, sees hypocrisy, unreasonable laws, and a father, Levi, who can never be pleased. He runs away from home because of one particular incident, but the author implies that Will is disillusioned with Amish life long before the crisis that causes him to leave. The problem, of course, is that Will Mullet leaves behind not only Amish rules and regulations but also his family, his own identity, and the God of his fathers.

The rest of the book is about Will’s life in the far country (Germany during WWII and then Georgia) as he tries to recover family, identity, and God. He begins by taking a new name, Will McGruder, and he becomes more and more entangled in the lies he must tell to keep his past a secret. McGruder joins the army and commits a crime by lying about his age and his name. He lies to the Georgia girl with whom he falls in love because he cannot think how to be Will McGruder and WIll Mullet at the same time. He tries over and over again to reconcile with his father and with his Amish community while at the same time he is losing and alienating his own two sons in the same way his father made him an alien and an outcast.

As in his previous book, Bad Ground, author Cramer explores the themes that have emerged in Christian pop-psychology books such as those of John Eldridge and Gary Smalley, themes of reconciliation between father and son, the blessing that a son needs from his father, and the possibility of finding what one needs from the Heavenly Father when earthly fathers are unable or unwilling to give the grace, mercy, or strength that is necessary for a man to grow into full manhood. The book leaves some questions unanswered. Why do two boys with the same father follow such different paths as adults? How does Will’s father finally get past his traditions and the obedience to the Amish rules that have kept his community safe to forgive WIll and welcome him into the family again? Why does Will’s wife, a strong woman in her own right, stay in a marriage that is based on lies and lived in isolation to some extent? Even these questions, though, indicate that the characters in this novel are intriguing and likeable enough to pull me in and make me want to know even more than the author tells about them.

The book also made me think about legalism and the value of the Law. I’m in a Bible study this summer studying Psalm 119, the psalmist’s poetic tribute to the virtues of God’s Law. As I read through the psalm I read over and over about how the psalmist loves God’s Word, how it is more precious than gold and silver, how it gives security and truth and delight. Many of the Amish surely delight in their laws, which are said to be God’s Law, and which give them safety and community and a foundation. Many more leave the Amish way of life seeing it as a man made structure that is in many ways contrary to God’s Word instead of being in accordance with it. Certainly God’s Word is a joy and a safe haven, but the temptation for fallen human beings is to build up a set of rules that can be kept however difficult the obedience may be, and to call those rules God’s Law. Then, we can justify ourselves instead of depending on the grace and mercy found in Jesus Christ.

Christian fiction in general has come a long way in the past several years, and this book in particular demonstrates that fact. Instead of a hackneyed formula plot in which the main character meets a crisis, prays or gets saved, and then lives happily ever after, Dale Cramer gives the reader full characters, an unpredictable and suspenseful story, a picture of a different cultural milieu, and themes that will speak to any father, any son, or anyone who knows a father and son. I’m really impressed by the “maleness” of the setting and the story in both this book and Cramer’s previous book, and yet as the mother of two sons I enjoyed the story and found it to be thought provoking and particularly applicable to my husband’s relationship to our sons. If the father in your life enjoys fiction, Levi’s Will might make a welcome Father’s Day gift.

Vanity, Vanity, All Is Vanity Saith the Prophet

Jun6

Some of the girls and I watched Vanity Fair tonight. I told them as we watched that the movie reminded me of Gone With the Wind. There’s a good girl and a bad girl. The bad girl is willing to do whatever she must to survive and to thrive. Of course, there’s a war to get through, and a fallen hero who’s not really much of a hero at all–just as Melanie’s precious Ashley, although he survives the war, isn’t much of a hero either. The scene where the two pregnant women are fleeing Brussells as the enemy invades was quite reminiscent of the burning of Atlanta. Scarlett and Rhett, Becky and Rawdon, both couples deserve each other. And the men both finally see that reforming their respective spouses is hopeless. I thought about all this as I enjoyed a very well made movie.

Lo and behold, the girls watched some extra material that was on the DVD, and someone said that Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone WIth the Wind, read Thackeray’s Vanity Fair and was inspired to copy many character and plot elements from his book written a century before. Am I good or what?

I wonder if Edith Wharton also read Thackeray before she wrote House of Mirth?

Picture Book Preschool: Folk Tales

Jun6

Picture Book Preschool is a preschool/kindergarten curriculum which consists of a list of picture books to read aloud for each week of the year and a character trait, a memory verse, and activities, all tied to the theme for the week. You can purchase an updated, downloadable version (pdf file) of Picture Book Preschool by Sherry Early at Biblioguides.

WEEK 23 (May/June) FOLK TALES
Character Trait: Discernment
Bible Verse: Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever. Psalm 136:1

1. Galdone, Paul. The Three Billy Goats Gruff. Clarion, 1985.
2. Galdone, Paul. The Three Sillies. Clarion, 1985. OP
3. Zemach, Margot. It Could Always Be Worse. Farrar, 1977.
4. Brown, Marcia. Dick Whittington and his Cat. Scribner, 1950.
5. Galdone, Paul. Puss in Boots. Clarion Books, 1983.
6. Galdone, Paul. The Three Little Pigs. Houghton Mifflin, 1979.
7. Nic Leodhas, Sorche. Always Room for One More. Holt, 1965.

Discuss: Are trolls imaginary or real? Are wolves real or imaginary? How can we use our imagination for good? How can imagination be a problem?
Activities: Act out one of the stories you read.

Cost Benefit, Jr by Stephanie Herman

Jun2

Author Stephanie Herman offered to send me a copy of her economics curriculum for children, Cost Benefit, Jr: Stories in Microeconomics., and my children have been getting an enjoyable and valuable education in economics ever since it came in the mail. Actually, I’ve been learning, too. Not only will you and your students learn from this curriculum about consumers, buyers, entrepeneurs, employees, and customers, you’ll also learn economic terms such as “cost-benefit analysis”, “diminishing marginal utility”, and “opportunity cost”. If those latter terms sound like something from a college economics text, never fear. Cost Benefit Jr. explains these and other terms and ideas using stories about Keira’s allowance, Nicholas’s pet care service, Lori’s lemonade stand and others. The author also applies economic theory to aspects of life you may not have thought were related to economics such as the friendship market, the hidden cost of watching television, and food and nutrition trade-offs. And Mr. Greedy L. McMeanie makes an appearance every lesson or two trying to turn the free enterprise system into a means to his own selfish ends with his nefarious schemes. He’s not successful, however, because market forces “keep Mr. McMeanie from hurting us economically”–if we understand and use the economic lessons in the book.

The curriculm is all together in one book: stories, workbook-type quizzes, longer end-of-chapter wrap-up quizzes and suggested activities, and a glossary of terms and an answer key. There are eight sections in the book with four or five lessons in each section. Ideally, you will need one book for each child who’s using the material since some of it is in workbook format; however, I have two children using the same book. They simply go through the questions together, and the older one does the writing. The material is suitable for children from about fourth grade through eighth or ninth grade although it wouldn’t be bad as an introduction for high school students. Go through the material quickly in about eight to ten weeks or slowly in a semester. I would suggest the slow approach; you’re going to want to discuss and work out the practical implications of some of this material in your own family or classroom. Practically speaking and putting what I’ve already learned to use, I think $39.95 is a “fair price”(price agreed on by sellers and buyers) for this curriculum, and the “expense” (cost) will be an “investment” (cost paid now to gain a future benefit) that yields “returns” (future benefits of investment) in the form of children with a head start in understanding how to work within the economic system we call capitalism.

By the way, Mr. Greedy L. McMeanie doesn’t like free markets, and he probably wouldn’t want you to read this book. But you don’t want to listen to him, do you?

Finally, A Good Book!

May31

First I read The TIme Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, and you can read what I thought about that book if you’re interested. Next, I read Time Lottery by Nancy Moser, and it erred in the opposite direction–much too preachy and full of predictable and not very interesting characters. Then, I decided to read Case Histories by Kate Atkinson since The LitBLog Co-op, a group of literary bloggers who are trying to encourage the reading of new and less noticed books, chose it for their first recommended book a few weeks ago. I respond to peer pressure as much as the next reader, so I really tried to like this book. I failed. The characters are not trite and predictable; they’re just not very likeable. I found maybe two characters in a book that was overfilled with characterization that I could identify with, root for, or even want to read more about. Private Detective Jackson Brodie is a seedy British ex-cop. He spends the book talking to people involved in the three sordid cases he’s working on at the same time, getting attacked (someone is trying to kill him), and having sex with or refusing to have sex with various of his clients. Oh, yes, he also has an eight year old daughter, Marlee, and an ex-wife who hates him. I can see why. I almost feel sorry for Jackson when his house is blown up and when he has dental miseries, but he squanders my sympathy by acting generally like a creep. Most of the other characters in the book are fairly creepy, too. There’s an ax-murderer, three abused and consequently borderline deranged unmarried sisters, and an overweight bereaved father. The last one, Theo, a father who can’t get over the murder of his favorite daughter, is one of the two likeable characters. But he’s not prominent enough in the story to make it worthwhile. The other character I was halfway interested in was a ex-druggie runaway girl with purple hair. Obviously, I was desperate by this time to find something that made this book worth reading. As usual, I finished it, but it really got worse instead of better.

So, a couple of days ago I was ready to head back to the nineteenth century. There are good authors back there whose books have not all been explored. Give me more Dickens, Thackeray, even George Eliot or Thomas Hardy. However, before I did a little time-traveling of my own, I decided to try a book recommended by Carmon at Buried Treasure and by several of her commenters. Peace Like a River by Leif Enger was like a oasis, like water to a drowning woman. (Sorry, that was one of my father-in-law’s favorite jokes.) No, truly, what an excellent story!

Peace Like a River tells the story of the Land family, father Jeremiah, two sons, Davy and Reuben, and a daughter, Swede. The children’s mother walked out on them long before the time of the novel. Reuben, eleven years old, tells the story. Davy is sixteen when the story starts, and Reuben looks up to his older brother even though the two of them are very different. The central salient fact of Reuben’s life is his asthma; Davy is the epitome of the strong older brother.

“Davy wanted life to be something you did on your own; the whole idea of a protective, fatherly God annoyed him. I would understand this better in years to come, but never subscribe to it, for I was weak and knew it. I hadn’t the strength or the instincts of my immigrant forbears. The weak must bank on mercy–without which, after all, I wouldn’t have lasted fifteen minutes.”

Of course, this statement of Reuben’s is reminiscent of Jesus’ saying to the Pharisees: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17) Not that Davy is a Pharisee; he’s more like a lost sheep, an exile, by his own choice, from grace. Reuben, because of his asthma, knows that it is only by the grace of God, by a miracle, that he is able to breathe in and out. When crisis comes to the Land family, it is Reuben who survives and lives a healthy life, and Davy who is lost.

The language in this novel is beautiful. The author, Leif Enger, worked for many years as a reporter and a producer for Minnesota Public Radio, and the poetic, yet sparkling clear, language in this his first novel is obviously the work of a fine craftsman of words. Examples:

“No grudge ever had a better nurse.”
“Since that fearful night, Dad had responded with an almost impossible work of belief. . . . He had laid up prayer as with a trowel. You know this is true, and if you don’t it is I the witness who am to blame.”
“Listening to Dad’s guitar, halting yet lovely in the search for phrasing, I thought: Fair is whatever God wants to do.”

This last quote gives one of the central themes of the book. God is. He has compassion on the weak, on those who know their need of Him. But He doesn’t always work in the way we want, doesn’t make the story turn out the way we want it to end, doesn’t always give us the miracle. Toward the end of Peace Like a River there’s a wonderfully written chapter in which the narrator describes heaven. The chapter seems to owe something to C.S. Lewis, but it’s as good an imaginative description as Lewis ever wrote himself. Finally, at the very end of the novel, Rueben tells the reader:

“I breathe deeply, and certainty enters into me like light, like a piece of science, and curious music seems to hum inside my fingers.
Is there a single person on whom I can press belief?
No sir.
All I can do is say, Here’s how it went. Here’s what I saw.
I’ve been there and am going back.
Make of it what you will.”

Rueben is a witness as all Christians are. May I be as strong a witness in my weakness to God’s grace and mercy.

Picture Book Preschool

May30

Picture Book Preschool is a preschool/kindergarten curriculum which consists of a list of picture books to read aloud for each week of the year and a character trait, a memory verse, and activities, all tied to the theme for the week. You can purchase an updated, downloadable version (pdf file) of Picture Book Preschool by Sherry Early at Biblioguides.

WEEK 22 (May) AFRICA
Character Trait: Respect
Bible Verse: The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Psalm 24:1

1. Haskins, James. Count Your Way Through Africa. Carolrhoda, 1989.
2. Feelings, Muriel. Moja Means One. Dial, 1971.
3. McCauley, Jane R. Africa’s Animal Giants. National Geographic, 1987. OP
4. Lewin, Hugh. Jafta. Carolrhoda, 1983.
5. Feelings, Muriel. Jambo Means Hello. Dutton, 1974.
6. Lewin, Hugh. Jafta and the Wedding. Carolrhoda, 1983.
7. Williams, Karen Lynn. Galimoto. Lothrop Lee, 1990.

Discuss: Where is Africa? How is life different for people who live in Africa and people who live in the U.S.?
Activities: Pretend, like Jafta, to be different African animals. How does an elephant walk? Stretch up tall to be a giraffe.

Born May 29th

May29

An unlikely trio of birthdays today: Patrick Henry (b. 1736), G.K. Chesterton (b. 1874), and John Fitzgerald Kennedy (b. 1917).

Brown Bear Daughter memorized the last part of Patrick Henry’s famous speech before the Virginia House of Burgesses this year for school. I wish you could hear her stirring rendition. However, you can go here to hear Richard Schumann give the speech.
Did you know that Patrick Henry’s first wife, Sarah Shelton, was mentally ill and in danger of harming herself and that he made a room for her in his basement since there were no appropriate facilities in the colonies for the confinement of the mentally ill? Sarah died in the same year, 1775, that her husband gave his Liberty or Death speech. However, she and Patrick had six children, and Patrick Henry later married Dorothy Dandridge who was twenty- one years younger than he. The couple had nine children. (Total: 15 children. Talk about a full quiver!) He served four terms as governor of Virginia, and he turned down appointments as Washington’s Secretary of State, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and Adams’ envoy to France.

“Gentlemen may cry ‘Peace! Peace!’ but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms. Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but, as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!”

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was nothing if not quotable. He wrote detective stories, other short stories, poetry, rather odd novels and 1000’s of essays, apologetics and literary criticism. He was a large man with a large personality. In contrast to Patrick Henry, he and his wife had no children. Chesterton was a Catholic Christian, and he was somewhat prophetic, as you can see from these timely quotations.

“Let all the babies be born. Then let us drown those we do not like.” – Babies and Distributism, GK’s Weekly, 11/12/32

“Religious liberty might be supposed to mean that everybody is free to discuss religion. In practice it means that hardly anybody is allowed to mention it.” – Autobiography, 1937

“The position we have now reached is this: starting from the State, we try to remedy the failures of all the families, all the nurseries, all the schools, all the workshops, all the secondary institutions that once had some authority of their own. Everything is ultimately brought into the Law Courts. We are trying to stop the leak at the other end.” – ILN, 3/24/23

If you are old enough to remember, where were you when you heard about the assassination of JFK? FYI, not only was John F. Kennedy born on the same day of the year as Patrick Henry and G.K. Chesterton, he also died on the very same date, November 22, 1963, as two other famous men, C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley. Peter Kreeft’s book, Between Heaven and Hell, imagines a post-mortem philosophical discussion between these three men as to the realtive merits of humanistic modernism (Kennedy), Eastern mysicism (Huxley) and Christianity (Lewis). I highly recommend the book.

Oh, I was in my second grade classroom, and I remember my teacher, Mrs. Bouska, crying. The only problem with that memory is that, as best I can figure out, I was in the first grade in November 1963. I don’t get it either.

Born May 28th

May28

Frederic WIlliam Maitland, b. 1850. English lawyer, historian, lecturer, and jurist. I always go for the personal: one site noted that Maitland was a great friend of Virginia Woolf’s father.

Ian Fleming, b. 1908. Creator of James Bond, the famous fictional spy, but I prefer Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Walker Percy, b. 1916. American Southern novelist and essayist. He was Catholic, died in 1990. I read one book by Percy because I kept hearing what a great novelist. I can’t remember the title even when I look at a list of his books. I only remember that someone in the book was sitting in a tree for a very long time (maybe trying to break some kind of record?), and someone else was putting stuff (drugs?) into the water supply. Oh, and the setting was southern Louisiana or Mississippi or somewhere similar. Obviously, I didn’t get much out of it. The people in the novel seemed to me to all be crazy. Maybe I was too young when I read it. Or maybe not.

Rudolph Giuliani, b. 1944. Good mayor for NYC, bad presidential candidate for Republicans.

The Time Traveler’s WIfe

May24

I just finished this book by Audrey Niffenegger, and I must say that I have mixed feelings about it. It was a good story, but it was also very confusing. I don’t see how the author herself kept everything straight in a story where the main character, Henry, was constantly jumping from one time to another. He goes back in time and talks to himself as a boy. He goes forward in time and encounters people who are still alive after he’s already died. He meets people in the past who will be part of his adult life, but because he meets them when he is actually, say, 40 years old going back in time, he doesn’t know them when he meets them in chronological time at age 20. Henry time travels involuntarily; it’s like a genetic defect. He never knows when he will suddenly be thrown into a different time and place, and he’s not allowed to take anything with him. So he always shows up in a different time stark naked. This naked-you-came-into-this-world-and-naked-you-shall-return rule creates some serious problems as you can imagine.

The other thing that bothered me about this novel was the sex. Sex is very important to Henry and his girlfriend/wife, Clare. Call me a prude, but I just skimmed all the many, many, many descriptions of Henry’s and Clare’s sex life. The fact that this physical connection was important to both of them was a significant idea in the story. Since Henry is always leaving and coming back unexpectedly, I can understand that physical intimacy might be even more vital to their relationship than it is in a “normal” marriage. Nevertheless, spare me the details next time, O.K.?

There’s also an Odysseus and Penelope theme carried throughout the novel. Henry is Odysseus, always leaving, having adventures, returning to hearth and home frequently, but sometimes much too briefly. Clare is Penelope, waiting for Henry to come to her as a child in the meadow near her home, as a young adult when she and Henry meet for the first time (for him), as a wife when Henry time travels to unknown destinations. Instead of weaving, Clare builds paper sculptures. Henry, like Odysseus, must face and overcome all sorts of obstacles to come home to his patient and loving wife. I don’t know if Henry is a hero or not, but Clare is certainly a Persistent Penelope. When a friend tells Clare that she can’t just sit around waiting for Henry to appear for the rest of her life, Clare replies, “Watch me.”

In the end, the theme of faithfulness to a relationship in the face of suffering and great difficulty is probably the redeeming feature in this novel. And trying to figure out the chronology of the novel in a non-chronological world is kind of fun –when it’s not frustrating. The graphic sex and the decadent lifestyles of some of the characters are the downsides. I’m not sure whether or not it was worth it, but I usually finish whatever I start.