Hmmm, I see that I have already posted twice as many times this year as the last.
So, the Holschers went away for the weekend. To be nice to me, they decided to send the dog to the kennel. He is a bit high-maintenence when the family is gone. He feels lonely and neglected. The least I could do was deliver the dog myself. I took him in my two-door, and being a hot day I rolled down the windows. And put the passenger seat forward so he could stick his head out. All was bliss and restraint until Delhi was reached. We slowed to 30 mph and he decided that more than his nose needed to be outside the car- first it was his whole head, then his front paws. Then I came to a stop sign and he was gone- all of him. I really wasn't expecting that. In a panic I pulled around the corner and leapt out of my car in my bare feet. Thankfully 30 seconds was all he needed. He came right back to me.
We proceeded a little farther- with the seat back up and the windows rolled up. Things became quiet in the back seat. Too quiet, but I didn't notice. I reached back to grab the paper with directions, which had slipped to the floor behind my seat. My fingers encountered something sticky. What in the world? Maple SYRUP??? Suddenly I remembered- there had been a lonely pint jug of syrup under my seat. And Reagan had found it. And chewed off the cover. And all that lovely pint was on the floor of my car.
It was with a rather vindicative pleasure that I delivered him to his Doom at the kennel (he really hates that place). We are not best pleased with him.
Saturday night I did the chores. Somehow, since I only do this once every couple of months, I always seem to meet with disaster, or at least Great Trials. I managed to let out 10 chickens while feeding them, and spent a frenzied few minutes darting after them and trying to herd them back into their pen.
Worse yet, I couldn't keep 26 goats under control at all. If there are only two goats that actually need to be milked, be assured that 4 others will crowd at the door desperately trying to shoulder their way out as well. They have beady eyes, and all the inborn stubborness of a greedy and self-absorbed soul. They weigh about as much as I do, and have twice the physical stability. I cannot win in a shoving match. Trying it just makes me so furious that my heart-rate jumps and suddenly I am turned into the wicked witch of the west. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING can push me as far over the edge into sheer carnality as a goat. I found myself hauling them around by their collars and shrieking at them. God chose well when he used goats as examples of how not to behave. And at that moment I wasn't acting any better.
Then there is that nerotic goat who can't stand the milking stantion. She thinks its an instrument of the devil. You have to coax her with grain to get her front hooves up, then lift her back end up. She eats grain peacefully enough while you milk her. When she runs out she startles backwards as if she were suddenly confronted with the devil himself. She is only okay if you give her more grain. Somehow I feel manipulated.
And after it all I ended up sitting on a wet deck chair in the dark, staring at the fireflys over the lawn and asking God for forgiveness. My heart is still pounding, and my nerves are rattled. Is it a sin to scream at goats?
14.6.11
13.6.11
Tell Me the Old, Old, Story
I love to learn, but find myself easily overwhelmed when trying to read deep theological works. For exapmle- I have tried and failed several times to get past the second chapter of C.S. Lewis' Miracles. At some point I find myself reading the same sentence over and over again. Each time I'll get to the end and say, "Nope, still don't understand what he's getting at". A little while of that and I put it down for another couple of years.
Which brings me to an interesting point about language learning (really, the two ARE related). Apparently Americans who try to learn a language tend to go at it like math: give them the foreign word + the English translation and it will = understanding. They get bogged down in the details of the language and never see the big picture. I know this, because I've done it myself. A better approach is to dive right into the language- fully expecting to miss half or more or what you are hearing- aim for the main point and forget all the words you can't translate.
After months of stuggling away at Hebrew, I found that I was slowly loosening my strangling grip on the need for translation and was aiming more for understanding. I remember this great conversation in class one day; the teacher was babbling away in Hebrew and I realized I was leaping through the stream of it- from rock to rock as it were,and blissfully unconcerned about all the words I was missing. Granted, if once I lost my footing I would have been lost for good, but meanwhile I was getting places- in Hebrew!
Okay, so, back to this review of a book I haven't even metioned yet. There is this ancient philosopher dude named Pascal. He wrote in French for one thing. For another, he had all these brilliant thoughts which he wrote down cryptically on scraps of paper. He intended at some time or other to bring them into order and write a book from them but he went to heaven instead (lucky man). So ever since, other people have gathered those scraps up and tried to explain them. Or they published them as they were, which was even worse for people like me. I mean, if I can't get through C.S. Lewis, a master at simplifying deep things, how was I going to 'get' Pacal?
Enter Peter Kreeft and the title of the book (finally). Christianity for Modern Pagans, Pascal's Pensees, Edited, Outlined & Explained by Peter Kreeft. Kinda long and wordy, nu? But the operative words are 'edited', 'outlined', and 'explained'. I like those words. Here be stones by which I can actually get through Pascal.
I really don't remember exactly why I bought the book in the first place, way back in 2007, but buy it I did, and started to read it. I found that despite all the helps along the way, it wasn't a book to be taken lightly or consumed like an Agatha Christie. It took me two full years to finish. But oh the richness!
Kreeft is a college professor who teaches Pacal, so he explainations are clear, conscise, and even I can get them! He arranges the Pensees under headings. Under these headings each Pensee is in bold type with Kreeft's notes on it following.
I think I started the book with a desire to learn more about a topic of which I was ignorant, and ended up feeling like somebody had walked right inside my heart and head and started rearranging the furniture. I don't know how to explain how deeply excited I felt about the book. I think it had a lot to do with the way it was arranged. It was like a retelling of an ancient and well-known story. Well-loved and precious, but suddenly made bright again by viewing it from a fresh angle.
Pascal and Kreeft together begin by talking forEVER about the Human conditon- the problem they are trying to solve. They discuss at nauseating length Wretchedness and Death, Sin, and Selfishness, and the Vanity of Human Justice, Dogamatism, and Philospohers.
It took me several months to get through this section, but I did so with a mounting sense of anticipation. I had understood the problem pretty clearly before I read the book, and felt like the two of them had hammered it home pretty thoroughly. Besides, I had read the Table of Contents and I knew that they were going to present a Solution at the end. :-) Like a mystery novel, I refused to read the ending before I got through the middle.
After that they talk about possible solutions to the Problem- Diversion and Indifference. Nice. Or not so nice. That section was shorter, but pithy and very humbling.
Next came the Way to a Real Solution and they talked all about Faith and Reason and Passionate Truth-seeking.
Then came the Solution. I can actually remember where I was when I read the end of this book- out on a rock in the middle of the woods behind Fairwood. Nice spot, except for the mosquitos.
What to know what the solution was? Too bad. Have to read the book yourself. Or you could just read the Gospel, if you are bored by my review. :-)
But who ever tires of hearing the Gospel story, and how lovely it is to meet it again, in other words, in a new setting, ever the same, and yet ever fresh and new?
I'll post a few short sections in another note for anybody who is still interested.
And no, you may not borrow my copy. Buy your own.
Which brings me to an interesting point about language learning (really, the two ARE related). Apparently Americans who try to learn a language tend to go at it like math: give them the foreign word + the English translation and it will = understanding. They get bogged down in the details of the language and never see the big picture. I know this, because I've done it myself. A better approach is to dive right into the language- fully expecting to miss half or more or what you are hearing- aim for the main point and forget all the words you can't translate.
After months of stuggling away at Hebrew, I found that I was slowly loosening my strangling grip on the need for translation and was aiming more for understanding. I remember this great conversation in class one day; the teacher was babbling away in Hebrew and I realized I was leaping through the stream of it- from rock to rock as it were,and blissfully unconcerned about all the words I was missing. Granted, if once I lost my footing I would have been lost for good, but meanwhile I was getting places- in Hebrew!
Okay, so, back to this review of a book I haven't even metioned yet. There is this ancient philosopher dude named Pascal. He wrote in French for one thing. For another, he had all these brilliant thoughts which he wrote down cryptically on scraps of paper. He intended at some time or other to bring them into order and write a book from them but he went to heaven instead (lucky man). So ever since, other people have gathered those scraps up and tried to explain them. Or they published them as they were, which was even worse for people like me. I mean, if I can't get through C.S. Lewis, a master at simplifying deep things, how was I going to 'get' Pacal?
Enter Peter Kreeft and the title of the book (finally). Christianity for Modern Pagans, Pascal's Pensees, Edited, Outlined & Explained by Peter Kreeft. Kinda long and wordy, nu? But the operative words are 'edited', 'outlined', and 'explained'. I like those words. Here be stones by which I can actually get through Pascal.
I really don't remember exactly why I bought the book in the first place, way back in 2007, but buy it I did, and started to read it. I found that despite all the helps along the way, it wasn't a book to be taken lightly or consumed like an Agatha Christie. It took me two full years to finish. But oh the richness!
Kreeft is a college professor who teaches Pacal, so he explainations are clear, conscise, and even I can get them! He arranges the Pensees under headings. Under these headings each Pensee is in bold type with Kreeft's notes on it following.
I think I started the book with a desire to learn more about a topic of which I was ignorant, and ended up feeling like somebody had walked right inside my heart and head and started rearranging the furniture. I don't know how to explain how deeply excited I felt about the book. I think it had a lot to do with the way it was arranged. It was like a retelling of an ancient and well-known story. Well-loved and precious, but suddenly made bright again by viewing it from a fresh angle.
Pascal and Kreeft together begin by talking forEVER about the Human conditon- the problem they are trying to solve. They discuss at nauseating length Wretchedness and Death, Sin, and Selfishness, and the Vanity of Human Justice, Dogamatism, and Philospohers.
It took me several months to get through this section, but I did so with a mounting sense of anticipation. I had understood the problem pretty clearly before I read the book, and felt like the two of them had hammered it home pretty thoroughly. Besides, I had read the Table of Contents and I knew that they were going to present a Solution at the end. :-) Like a mystery novel, I refused to read the ending before I got through the middle.
After that they talk about possible solutions to the Problem- Diversion and Indifference. Nice. Or not so nice. That section was shorter, but pithy and very humbling.
Next came the Way to a Real Solution and they talked all about Faith and Reason and Passionate Truth-seeking.
Then came the Solution. I can actually remember where I was when I read the end of this book- out on a rock in the middle of the woods behind Fairwood. Nice spot, except for the mosquitos.
What to know what the solution was? Too bad. Have to read the book yourself. Or you could just read the Gospel, if you are bored by my review. :-)
But who ever tires of hearing the Gospel story, and how lovely it is to meet it again, in other words, in a new setting, ever the same, and yet ever fresh and new?
I'll post a few short sections in another note for anybody who is still interested.
And no, you may not borrow my copy. Buy your own.
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