Month: February 2009

  • Sponge, Sand-Glass, Strain-Bag and Diamond

    Girl Reading   ~ Renoir

    Readers may be divided into four classes:

    1. Sponges, who absorb all that they read
    and return it in nearly the same state,
    only a little dirtied.

    2.  Sand-glasses, who retain nothing
    and are content to get through a book
    for the sake of getting through time.

    3.  Strain-bags, who retain merely the dregs
    of what they read.

    4. Mogul diamonds, equally rare and valuable,
    who profit by what they read,
    and enable others to profit by it also.

    ~  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

    Thank you to all you diamonds who have enriched me.

  • Dr. Seuss Goes to War

    File this one under It Pays to Browse the Stacks.

    Before I checked out my public library's section on WWII, I had no idea that Theodor Seuss Geisel had a short career drawing political cartoons for the New York newspaper PM. 

    On the back cover:

    "this cat is not in the hat."   Studs Terkel

    "...lets us know what happens when Horton hears a heil."  Art Spiegelman

    Dr. Seuss was born into a German-American family which (before prohibition) owned the Springfield brewery  Kalmbach and Geisel, commonly called "come back and guzzle." 

    He was raised Evangelical Lutheran, was against American isolation and neutrality, against Charles Lindbergh, against America First.   He was an interventionist and wanted to show the connections between the isolationists and the Nazis.  He was against racisim and against anti-Semitism, but was stridently racist towards the Japanese.

    I learned from this book that Dr. Seuss wrote Yertle the Turtle  about Adolf Hitler.  Of course, I had to go back to the library and check it out.

    "Turtles! More turtles!" he bellowed and brayed.
    And the turtles way down in the pond were afraid.
    They trembled.  They shook.  But they came. They obeyed.
    From all over the pond, they came swimming by dozens.
    Whole families of turtles, with uncles and cousins.
    And all of them stepped on the head of poor Mack.
    One after another, they climbed up the stack.

    More from Yertle, because it is too rich when you know that it is Hitler.

    "You hush up your mouth!" howled the mighty King Yertle.
    "You've no right to talk to the world's highest turtle.
    I rule from the clouds! Over land! Over sea!
    There's nothing, no, NOTHING, that's higher than me!"

    A Catalog of Political Cartoons by Dr. Seuss has all 400 of the cartoons reproduced, including 200 not included in the book.  Click on the cartoons to enlarge them.  They are engaging on many levels.

    I'm part of the War Through the Generations Reading Challenge.

  • Music, When Soft Voices Die

    Music, when soft voices die,
    Vibrates in the memory;

    ~ first lines from the posthumous poem
    by Percy Bysshe Shelley

    : : :

    Music vibrating in my mind today:
    Band of Brothers Main Theme

    The choir sings without words.
    The beauty of the interior harmony makes me ache.
    I'm adding this music to pieces I play for memorial services.

    Even tender-hearted (read squeamish) souls
    can safely watch this video, below, in order to hear the music.
    If you are a tender-hearted viewer,
    I don't recommend Band of Brothers.

  • Feasting on Stories

    Why does anybody tell a story?
    It does indeed have something to do with faith,
    faith that the universe has meaning,
    that our little human lives are not irrelevant,
    that what we choose or say or do
    matters,
    matters cosmically.

    ~ Madeleine L'Engle

    What is better than
    good food and drink
    on a table,
    chairs crowded round,
    laughter, chatter
    and
    stories?

    Smiling...remembering yesterday.

  • Don't Miss Planet Earth

    I don't know who to thank for the tip to see Planet Earth.  Thank you, unknown friend!
    Here's the deal: whenever a blog or essay mentions a book that I want to read, I go to  PaperBackSwap.com - Our online book club offers free books when you swap, trade, or exchange your used books with other book club members for free. and add the book to my Reminder list.  And when someone mentions a DVD, I go to Netflix and add it to my queue.  We watched the first episode of the first disc last night and were...enthralled.   Our 4 year old grandson was with us taking in the elephants, penguins, caribou, and impalas. 

    After ten minutes of viewing I knew that this was a set that any decent person who goes by the name Papa or Nana needs to own.  Oh.  My.

    The emergence of a polar bear from hibernation, a bird-of-paradise courtship dance, a great white shark suspended above the ocean, aerial views of mass migrations -- wildlife photography like you've never seen before.

    This is what I want you to do.  Go to Planet Earth where there is a 14 minute sampler.  Bet you can't just watch 3 minutes of it!  If you are impressed, look over to the right.  Used copies of the entire set are starting at $15.00.  I ordered one this morning.

    I'm certain the makers of this media didn't intend it to be a devotional tool, but I can't wait a sequence without awe, without thinking, "This is my Father's world."
          

  • The Gathering Storm

     
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    If you condensed The Second World War, Volume 1: The Gathering Storm into one sentence, it would be: "See, I told you so!"  Churchill's Theme of the Volume is

    "How the English-speaking peoples
    through their unwisdom,
    carelessness, and good nature
    allowed the wicked to rearm."   
    I am ambivalent about Sir Winston.  He sounded the warnings, raised a ruckus and was unconcerned about opinion polls and minority viewpoints.  Sadly, what he predicted came to pass.  Reading the section on German rearmament and European appeasement is an exercise in frustration.  Thank God for Winston Churchill.

    And yet...  There is a know-it-all attitude that I find off-putting.  Too many details included for vindication's sake.  Too many speeches reproduced verbatim.  What kept me going through the pages was his command of English: the satisfying sentences, the robust words, the grand oratory.   

    ...amid a ceaseless chatter of well-meant platitudes...

    Death stands at attention, obedient, expectant, ready to serve,
    ready to shear away the peoples en masse...

    British fatuity and fecklessness which,
    though devoid of guile, was not devoid of guilt...

    So they go on in strange paradox,
    decided only to be undecided,
    resolved to be irresolute,
    adamant for drift,
    solid for fluidity,
    all-powerful to be impotent.

    One can hardly find a more perfect specimen of humbug and hypocrisy...

    I always went to bed at least for one hour
    as early as possible in the afternoon
    and exploited to the full my happy gift
    of falling almost immediately into deep sleep.
    By this means I was able to press a day and a half's work into one.

    The_Gathering_Storm_2002_poster  

    Not everyone has time for chunky books: voila the DVD!  Albert Finney excels as Winston Churchill.  There are moments of mild vulgarity: some backside nudity (of an old man getting into a bathtub - ewww!) and some tacky language. But the movie tells the story of the people who made history.  I loved how Churchill composed speeches while he dressed and shaved, the interactions between Clementine and Winston, the long-suffering private secretary, the pontificating in Parliament, the scenes at Chartwell.  If you love England, if you love the BBC, you will like The Gathering Storm.

  • Buying the Farm

    The Christian doctrine
    of the communion of the saints
    is simple, really.
    All it says is
    that once you buy the farm
    you still live on the farm.
    All it says is
    that those who have gone before us
    are still with us.
    All it says is
    that past generations
    still count
    and must be taken into account.
    In other words,
    we're all in this together.
    All of us.

    ~ Mitch Finley
    Whispers of Love

  • Catching Up with Popular Culture

    Chapter 5, Accounting for Taste

    Aesthetic judgment is by nature more elusive than scientific method will allow.  It requires patience, training, and a willingness to submit to our elders.  It is very much like wisdom in that regard. (p.79)

    This quote reminded me of a comment from Alfonso about his friend who didn't like a painting.  His father told him to stand in front of a masterpiece until he appreciated it.  The problem wasn't with the painting.  I wish I could find the comment - it was a great story.

    But sentimentality may be the most corrupting of these qualities.  Kaplan is eager to acknowledge that the object of sentimentality may be quite worthy -- love of country, familial affection, grief at the loss of a friend --"but the feelings called forth spring too quickly and easily to acquire substance and depth.  They are so lightly triggered that there is no chance to build up a significant emotional discharge."

    Isn't it, um, ironic, that the overly sweet (sentimentality) can make things rotten?  Sort of like Mountain Dew and teeth.  We've been conditioned to judge something by how it makes us feel instead of by objective standards.  Take Debbie Boone's song You Light Up My Life which ends with the words, "It can't be wrong, when it feels so right."  Am I the only one who grimaces when hearing those words?
      
    Chapter 6, Better to Receive

    The final footnote about pop music's limited emotional palette struck a chord with me.  Here is the sentence from the text, followed by the footnote:

    I learn something about mourning when I hear Brahms; I know of no similar lessons in popular music. Footnote: A friend recently remarked that so much of the music sung in evangelical churches today (influenced as it is by pop music) has such a triteness about it that "children aren't learning songs they can sing at funerals."

    Well, you know funeral music is my thing.  And when I read this my head bobbed up and down in agreement.  Then I started to think. The most notable exception to this footnote is the modern hymn In Christ Alone.  I can think of a few others that are sure to bring tears, but occupy the suburbs of Sentimental.  Can you recommend some good, modern songs to sing at a funeral?

    Give me the robust, sinewy lyrics of older songs. 

    How oft in grief hath not he brought thee relief,
    spreading  his wings to o'ershade thee!
    ~ Joachim Neander, Praise to the Lord, the Almighty

    Whate'er my God ordains is right: Though now this cup, in drinking,
    May better 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.

    ~ Samuel Rodigast, Whate'er My God Ordains Is Right

    Jesus! what a help in sorrow! While the billows o'er me roll,
    Even when my heart is breaking, He, my comfort, helps my soul.

    ~ J. Wilbur Chapman, Jesus What a Friend for Sinners

    And when from death I'm free, I'll sing on, I'll sing on;
    And when from death I'm free, I'll sing on;
    And when from death I'm free, I'll sing and joyful be,
    And through eternity I'll sing on, I'll sing on,
    And through eternity I'll sing on.

    ~ What Wondrous Love is This, American folk hymn

  • A Scab, A Coin, A Motto

    A scab is a beautiful thing --
    a coin the body has minted,
    with an invisible motto:
    In God we trust.

    John Updike
    Ode to Healing

  • Marketing 101

    A local farmer sells meat to private buyers.  This farmer, trained in the Puddle Glum School of Marketing, calls my friend and says, "I don't suppose you want to buy a ______ (insert animal)."  I understand that farmer.  I lasted three days selling Amway.   

    I prefer to use the word marketing in the sense of active purchasing of goods.  Marketing implies a plan and a purpose; get in, get out, get the job done.  It is the opposite of shopping, which evokes mindless wandering around a mall just for the joy of listening to toddlers scream and -- and -- hanging out. 

    But this post is about the kind of marketing that sells ideas.  Because I want to persuade you to spend your money in a way that helps others. 

    If you buy stuff from Amazon.com you ought to consider each purchase as an opportunity to boost a blogger.  Did you know that you could be a blessing?  All you have to do, regardless of what you are buying, is enter through a certain link on a blog. 

    Can I show you what I mean? 

    Go visit my friend Di.   Over on the right hand column under Current List are images.  Move your mouse over the camera (or the CD cover or the book) and look at the bottom of the page at the web address for that Amazon item.  Do you see at the far right of the address acircleofquiet-20?  That means that Di is an Amazon Associate and she will get a tiny, tiny percentage of your order.  And you pay the same amount you would normally pay to purchase a neato-cool thingamagig at Amazon. 

    "Never underestimate the power of the infinitesimals"
    declared Thomas Chalmers, a mathematician and theologian
    who convinced the poor people of Glasgow to save a pence a week
    and built schools and churches with the money collected. 

    Some bloggers are straight up and ask people to buy through them.  Other shy folk post links and hope something comes of it.  If you know what to look for (you are looking for a tag that contains or ends with a name, usually the name of the blog, followed by -20)  you can be sure that every time you buy something from Amazon, you help out a friend.  Another tidbit - an Associate's own purchases don't count towards the tiny, tiny percentage.   My policy is to help someone else each time I make a purchase.

    Here are bloggers I read who would appreciate a boost from you:

    I am very excited about my most recent purchase at Amazon, ESV Literary Study Bible. I pre-ordered the leather bound edition which is due to be shipped to me March 3.   Salivating, that's what I'm doing.  And, if you have bought things through my links in the past, I do thank you.  Thank you very much.