"We have come to call the unique pestilence of violence and the
punishing impact it has on efforts to lift the global four out of
poverty the locust effect" (Xi). The problem is that the world
knows that the poor suffer from hunger and disease, and people are
working to fix it. People don’t know that "endemic to being poor is a
vulnerability to violence" and because of that, efforts to change this
reality are lacking.
“For reasons that are fairly
obvious, if you are reading this book, I’m pretty sure you were not
among the very poorest in our world – the billions of people who are
trying to live off a few dollars a day. As a result, I also know that
you are probably not chronically hungry, you are not likely to die of a
perfectly treatable disease, you have reasonable access to fresh water,
you are a literate, and you have a reasonable shelter over your head.
But there is something else I know about you. I bet you pass your days
in reasonable safety from violence. You will probably not regularly being
threatened with being enslaved, imprisoned, beaten, raped, or robbed.
But if you were among the world’s poorest billions, you would be. That
is what the world is not understand about the global poor— and that is
what this book is about” (xi).
“It turns out that you
can provide all manner of goods and services to the poor, as good people
have been doing for decades, but if you were not restrain the boys in
the community from violence into that as we have been feeling to do it
for decades – then we are going to find the outcomes of our efforts
quite disappointing.... no one will find in this volume any argument for
reducing our traditional efforts to fight poverty. On the contrary, the
billions still mired in years probably cry out for us to be double our
best efforts. But one will find in these pages and urgent call to make
sure that we are safe guarding citizens from being laid waste by the
locusts of predatory violence” (xiii).
"Once I asked a
bonded slave who was held illegally in a rock quarry why he didn't go to
the local police and get help. His answer clarified things for me. 'We
don't have to go to the police,' he said, 'the owner pays the police to
come to us--to beat us'" (74).
"Facts are hard things--and either we deal with the facts, or the facts will deal with us" (82).
"...efforts
to spur economic development and to alleviate poverty amount the poor
in the developing world without addressing the forces of violence that
destroy and rob them can 'seem like a mocking.' To provide Laura and
Yuri with the promise of schools without addressing the forces of sexual
violence that make it too dangerous to walk to or attend school seems
like a mocking. To give Caleb job training or Bruno a micro-loan for his
belt business without protecting them from being arbitrarily thrown
into prison where Caleb loses his job and Bruno loses his business seem
like a mocking. To provide Susan with tools, seeds, and training to
multiply crop yields on her land without protecting her from being
violently thrown off that land seems like a mocking. To provide Laura
and Mariamma with AIDS education and training on making safe sexual
choices without addressing the violence in the slums and brick factories
where women don't get to make choices seems like a mocking. To
establish a rural medical clinic in the area where Gopinath is held as a
slave without addressing the violent forces that refuse to allow him to
leave the quarry and take his dying kid to a doctor seems like a
mocking" (98).
"In the end, outsiders can seek to
provide all kinds of assistance to the poor in the developing world--to
the tune of more than $3 trillion over the last half century--but if
there is not restraint of the bullies who are prepared to steal every
sprig of prosperity away from those who are weak, then the outcome of
our assistance is going to be disappointing (as in many ways it has
already proven to be)" (100).
...why do the poor suffer such evastating and disproportionately high levels of violence in the developing world--violence htat so relentlessly steals away their chance for a better life? Why does the locust effect destroy their hopes and futures with such brutal routineness?
"The most obvious--and most neglected--answer is that the poor do not get the most basic protections of law enforcement that the rest of us depend upon and unconsciously presume are there every minute of every day. The basic capacities of the law enforcement systems in the developing world are so broken that, as the UN's global study concluded, most poor people live outside the protection of law" (116).
"To be clear, a law enforcement response to violence will never be sufficient on its own. Law enforcement is necessary, but insufficient to adequately address violence. But it is necessary. To be effective, law enforcement must work in tandem with other interventions that address other complex social causes of violence--cultural norms, gender bias, economic desperation and inequality, lack of education, marginalization of vulnerable groups, etc. But these interventions will never be successful in the absence of a reasonably functioning public justice system that restrains, brings to justice, and deters violent predators" (122).
"Broken public justice systems auction impunity to the highest bidder, and when victims are too poor to purchase protection from private substitutes, impunity comes cheap" (195).
"...most law enforcement systems in the developing world are colonial relics that were never set up to protect the poor from violence (but to protect the regime from the poor), and that, tragically, these systems have never been fundamentally re-engineered to serve the common people" (197). "Across much of the developing world, the instruments of law enforcement failed to evolve because the authoritarian regimes and political elites that came to power in the developing world found that the colonial forms of policing very conveniently served their interests. Indigenous political and economic elites found that modern law enforcement models (with their emphasis on accounability to the community and general public) would be threatening" (179). Furthermore, "elites with wealth and power in the developing world have abandoned these dysfunctional public justice systems and have set up systems of private security that protect them from violence. They have financed the growth of massive private security forces that replace the need to rely on public policing, and they have abandoned the clogged and corrupt court systems to dysfunction and decay because they have found private means fro resolving disputes in their favor" (197). Finally, "the massive global movement to address poverty in the developing world over the last half century has not made a meaningful effort to address the problem" (198). "Only about 1 percent of aid from institutions like USAID or the World Bank can even be plausibly described as targeting improvements in justice systems in the developing world so that they better protect the poor from violence" (203). This is somewhat discouraging, but also hopeful in a way, because it indicates that if we try, things could change.
3 agendas that seem worth the risk: security vacuums, international crime ("when [wealthy countries find] the criminal violence threatens to spill over and affect their own societies" 208), and attracting business and commercial investment.
"In every society there are people, interests, and institutions that are intentionally trying to make a justice system fail and to make poor people and marginalized groups weaker and more vulnerable to violence. They are seeking to advance the personal, economic, political, and exploitative interests through violence and fear—and they are threatened by a functioning criminal justice system that would restrain their coercive power. And so they vigorously oppose reform" (230).
We look back at now-reasonably-funcitoning criminal justice systems and see that they all were once corrupt, racist, and ineffective, and this gives hope. We see examples of collaborations and work being done to reform areas of criminal justice in areas of the world. It is possible.
Friday, December 27, 2019
Monday, November 25, 2019
11.25.2019 📘 Vindicating the Vixens: Revisiting the Sexualized, Vilified, and Marginalized Women of the Bible, Ed. Dr. Sandra Glahn
I've had a tough time putting words to why I'm so grateful for this book, but essentially:
1--The observations raised by these writers do bring to light many examples of the women of the Bible being vilified by extratextual sources. Pointing out assumptions applied and proliferated by us moderns, carefully observing cultural context of the time, and relentlessly returning to the text itself are necessary practices, used here and casting these women in a different light. A less shady light, if you will. This is important not only because we want to get their stories right but because the closer we get to seeing their stories right, the better we see the God they related to and who included their stories in his word.
-
2--This call to examine filters and assumptions that I have as a person and inherent in what I've been taught about the Word, the weighty endeavor of reading this book God has given as revelation of himself as it was meant to be read, and the idea that even simple little I am able of learning from the text itself and of testing what I am taught against the text itself have all been feeling more and more immense over the past few months, partly because of this book. I find myself wanting to read more scholarly books about the Bible (something I never, ever, thought I would say,) and to check them against Scripture even more (and against other viewpoints).
-
"We are always reexamining our biblical interpretation, because we understand that every generation has its unique brands of blindness...Additionally, we all come to the text with preconceived ideas, so it stands to reason that our biblical interpretation has some fallibility. Instead of fearing a re-examination, we should pursue a constant reexamination in order to challenge ourselves toward growth. The alternative is to assume we have it all figured out and cling to the status quo (Rouse, 27)."
Also, the profits are donated to IJM!! (insert praise hands emoji)
"Doubtless, sin is an equal opportunity enterprise. And certainly the desire of the team of scholars assembled for this project is not to vindicate women whose actions we should all despise. Nor is it our goal to make men look bad and women look good.
"Our motivation is to handle faithfully the biblical text, which involves bringing to light a number of women labeled as 'bad girls' who deserve a fresh look" (Glahn, 13).
"One of the greatest surprises--and pleasures--for me as I edited this work was to find, as the chapters came in, that as slandered or ignored women in the Bible were vindicated, we recovered more than just a sense of how we should honor them. We could also see more clearly the point that the biblical author was actually trying to make by including these women in their stories. And time and again, God's heart for the silenced, the marginalized, the powerless, the Gentile, the outsider, was what had been missing" (Glahn, 16).
"For the first forty years of my life, my library of Christian authors consisted primarily of white western males. But what happens when the task of biblical interpretation is faithfully applied by an Asian woman and a Latino man? Does an Ethiopian believer see things that a European misses? Does this Aussie bloke see things differently from how an American might? (Consider what we envision when we hear the word 'football.') The truth is that never before has there been such a diversity of eyes on the text in conversation with one another. It is no longer just males who do biblical interpretation, nor is it just people form your demographic grouping. And this is a wonderful development. WE do well to listen to what everyone has to say, especially because the new eyes are just as well educated (sometimes more), trained (sometimes more) and godly( sometimes more) as you and I are" (Rouse, 17).
"In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity"--Rupertus Meldenius (c. 1627, quoted on p. 17).
"Before we go any further, I want to be really frank. This is not some book written by theologically liberal, wannabe scholars attempting to be politically correct or manipulating the text in order to be culturally relevant. The contributors to this book love God's Word. And we don't see our task as reinterpreting the text to make it more relevant or more acceptable than it already is--as if that were possible. Our goal is simply to study it and make sure we are being faithful to it. WE are not questioning the inspiration, inerrancy, or infallibility of the Scriptures. We are, however, questioning the inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility of our human interpretation of them" (Rouse, 22).
"So the Word that we have is the written Word. It's divine in its source, absolutely; but it's also literature. And as a work of literature, we must--and this is critical--discuss and study it as literature without diminishing its divine origin" (Rouse, 22).
"Contrary to the biblical depiction of the marriage relationship where 'a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh (2:24), in patriarchal cultures the wife is absorbed into her husband's family. She becomes their property and comes under the thumb of her husband's family" (James, 38).
"My tradition esteems the Bible and grants it authority. So what does it mean when one person's interpretation points up and another's points down, yet we're all standing alone on the Word of God? Are we reading the same text? How do we disagree with people we love? What happens to our faith when we reject an idea we would have energetically defended ten years ago?" (Bleeker, 50).
"If the word choices and tone in Joshua implicate the two Hebrew spies in both potential sexual dalliance and mild stupidity while elevating Rahab to the role of unlikely heroine, what does that mean?" (Bleeker, 54).
"[In his genealogy], Matthew is setting up his reader,s the Jewish faithful, to accept cultural and racial outsiders--including the dreaded Canaanites--into the community through belief, not blood" (Bleeker, 55).
"While the levirate law obligated the brother-in-law--the levir--to marry the brother's widow, in the case of Ruth no brother-in-law existed. Yahweh's Law, however, had a build-in family care policy, even if no levir lived.
"Naomi names Boaz, not their levir, but by a more accurate name--their go'el. The go'el functioned as one who restored family wholeness. By definition, this relative 'acted as a kinsman or did the part of the next of kin, in taking the kinsman's widow.' Another way to accurately describe the go'el would be to call him a kinsman-redeemer" (68).
"The connection Ruth shares with Tamar is one many of us might miss. But needing someone to fulfill the levirate marriage responsibilities, they both chose to act when the men who should have shown hesed remained passive. These women's esteem of Yahweh's law must be commended, no criticized" (Legaspi, 76).
"To the humans, God grants dominion over the rest of creation, a clear statement of the hierarchy in the creation order, and this dominion surely includes being mediators of blessing to the creatures that God has already blessed. In other words, dominion is not domination and destruction but compassionate care for thos ecreatures and the environments in which they live. God's intention for his imagers is that they be mediators of blessing to blessed creatures. (Kreider, 135).
"We serve a God of justice; to blame one sex for seduction when both the man and the woman are cupable is unjust. It is ironic that the woman is blamed for being easily deceived by the serpent and then also blamed for being as seductive as the serpent in a fallen world. So which is it?" (Kreider, 146).
"Finally, as long as there is conflict between men and women and that conflict is rooted in gender differences, it will be hard for us to live out the command of our Lord Jesus Christ: 'A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:34-35). It is hard to love one that is feared" (Kreider, 146).
"As for the remainder of the Christian canon, Sarah is referred to in Isaiah as 'the mother of Israel the nation' (Isa. 51:2), in Romans as 'the mother of the promise' (Rom. 9:9); in Hebrews as 'the mother of faith' (Heb. 11:11); and in 1 Peter as the model wife who submits to her husband (1 Peter 3:6)" (Merrill, 155).
(In rebuttal of the idea that Deborah was only prophetess because "a good man is hard to find":) "First, the lead person, Deborah--woman of light and fire--is portrayed consistently in a positive way throughout her story and song...
Second, there is indeed a good man in this text: Barak, the som of Abinoam, who agrees to go when he is called. His insistence on Deborah's presence implicitly invokes God's presence and guidance through the divinely inspired prophet and judge. She does not condemn him, though she adds the caveat that he must serve without the customary honor given to military leaders in battle. Barak demonstrates his faith in, and honor of, God by going, despits this challenging condition. As a result, he obtains an even greater honor: being listed in the book of Hebrews among the notable persons of faith, of whom this world is not worthy" (Pierce, 209).
"Writing in the sixteenth century, Calvin pairs Deborah and Huldah stating, 'God doubtless wished to raise them on high to shame the men, and obliquiely to show them their slothfulness. Whatever may be the reason, women have sometimes enjoyed the prophetic gift'" (McKirland, 224). (The author then goes on to say why he doesn't think this fits with other textual evidence. I find it interesting that this great Christian thinker thought this explanation made the most sense.)
1--The observations raised by these writers do bring to light many examples of the women of the Bible being vilified by extratextual sources. Pointing out assumptions applied and proliferated by us moderns, carefully observing cultural context of the time, and relentlessly returning to the text itself are necessary practices, used here and casting these women in a different light. A less shady light, if you will. This is important not only because we want to get their stories right but because the closer we get to seeing their stories right, the better we see the God they related to and who included their stories in his word.
-
2--This call to examine filters and assumptions that I have as a person and inherent in what I've been taught about the Word, the weighty endeavor of reading this book God has given as revelation of himself as it was meant to be read, and the idea that even simple little I am able of learning from the text itself and of testing what I am taught against the text itself have all been feeling more and more immense over the past few months, partly because of this book. I find myself wanting to read more scholarly books about the Bible (something I never, ever, thought I would say,) and to check them against Scripture even more (and against other viewpoints).
-
"We are always reexamining our biblical interpretation, because we understand that every generation has its unique brands of blindness...Additionally, we all come to the text with preconceived ideas, so it stands to reason that our biblical interpretation has some fallibility. Instead of fearing a re-examination, we should pursue a constant reexamination in order to challenge ourselves toward growth. The alternative is to assume we have it all figured out and cling to the status quo (Rouse, 27)."
Also, the profits are donated to IJM!! (insert praise hands emoji)
"Doubtless, sin is an equal opportunity enterprise. And certainly the desire of the team of scholars assembled for this project is not to vindicate women whose actions we should all despise. Nor is it our goal to make men look bad and women look good.
"Our motivation is to handle faithfully the biblical text, which involves bringing to light a number of women labeled as 'bad girls' who deserve a fresh look" (Glahn, 13).
"One of the greatest surprises--and pleasures--for me as I edited this work was to find, as the chapters came in, that as slandered or ignored women in the Bible were vindicated, we recovered more than just a sense of how we should honor them. We could also see more clearly the point that the biblical author was actually trying to make by including these women in their stories. And time and again, God's heart for the silenced, the marginalized, the powerless, the Gentile, the outsider, was what had been missing" (Glahn, 16).
"For the first forty years of my life, my library of Christian authors consisted primarily of white western males. But what happens when the task of biblical interpretation is faithfully applied by an Asian woman and a Latino man? Does an Ethiopian believer see things that a European misses? Does this Aussie bloke see things differently from how an American might? (Consider what we envision when we hear the word 'football.') The truth is that never before has there been such a diversity of eyes on the text in conversation with one another. It is no longer just males who do biblical interpretation, nor is it just people form your demographic grouping. And this is a wonderful development. WE do well to listen to what everyone has to say, especially because the new eyes are just as well educated (sometimes more), trained (sometimes more) and godly( sometimes more) as you and I are" (Rouse, 17).
"In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity"--Rupertus Meldenius (c. 1627, quoted on p. 17).
"Before we go any further, I want to be really frank. This is not some book written by theologically liberal, wannabe scholars attempting to be politically correct or manipulating the text in order to be culturally relevant. The contributors to this book love God's Word. And we don't see our task as reinterpreting the text to make it more relevant or more acceptable than it already is--as if that were possible. Our goal is simply to study it and make sure we are being faithful to it. WE are not questioning the inspiration, inerrancy, or infallibility of the Scriptures. We are, however, questioning the inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility of our human interpretation of them" (Rouse, 22).
"So the Word that we have is the written Word. It's divine in its source, absolutely; but it's also literature. And as a work of literature, we must--and this is critical--discuss and study it as literature without diminishing its divine origin" (Rouse, 22).
"Contrary to the biblical depiction of the marriage relationship where 'a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh (2:24), in patriarchal cultures the wife is absorbed into her husband's family. She becomes their property and comes under the thumb of her husband's family" (James, 38).
"My tradition esteems the Bible and grants it authority. So what does it mean when one person's interpretation points up and another's points down, yet we're all standing alone on the Word of God? Are we reading the same text? How do we disagree with people we love? What happens to our faith when we reject an idea we would have energetically defended ten years ago?" (Bleeker, 50).
"If the word choices and tone in Joshua implicate the two Hebrew spies in both potential sexual dalliance and mild stupidity while elevating Rahab to the role of unlikely heroine, what does that mean?" (Bleeker, 54).
"[In his genealogy], Matthew is setting up his reader,s the Jewish faithful, to accept cultural and racial outsiders--including the dreaded Canaanites--into the community through belief, not blood" (Bleeker, 55).
"While the levirate law obligated the brother-in-law--the levir--to marry the brother's widow, in the case of Ruth no brother-in-law existed. Yahweh's Law, however, had a build-in family care policy, even if no levir lived.
"Naomi names Boaz, not their levir, but by a more accurate name--their go'el. The go'el functioned as one who restored family wholeness. By definition, this relative 'acted as a kinsman or did the part of the next of kin, in taking the kinsman's widow.' Another way to accurately describe the go'el would be to call him a kinsman-redeemer" (68).
"The connection Ruth shares with Tamar is one many of us might miss. But needing someone to fulfill the levirate marriage responsibilities, they both chose to act when the men who should have shown hesed remained passive. These women's esteem of Yahweh's law must be commended, no criticized" (Legaspi, 76).
"To the humans, God grants dominion over the rest of creation, a clear statement of the hierarchy in the creation order, and this dominion surely includes being mediators of blessing to the creatures that God has already blessed. In other words, dominion is not domination and destruction but compassionate care for thos ecreatures and the environments in which they live. God's intention for his imagers is that they be mediators of blessing to blessed creatures. (Kreider, 135).
"We serve a God of justice; to blame one sex for seduction when both the man and the woman are cupable is unjust. It is ironic that the woman is blamed for being easily deceived by the serpent and then also blamed for being as seductive as the serpent in a fallen world. So which is it?" (Kreider, 146).
"Finally, as long as there is conflict between men and women and that conflict is rooted in gender differences, it will be hard for us to live out the command of our Lord Jesus Christ: 'A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:34-35). It is hard to love one that is feared" (Kreider, 146).
"As for the remainder of the Christian canon, Sarah is referred to in Isaiah as 'the mother of Israel the nation' (Isa. 51:2), in Romans as 'the mother of the promise' (Rom. 9:9); in Hebrews as 'the mother of faith' (Heb. 11:11); and in 1 Peter as the model wife who submits to her husband (1 Peter 3:6)" (Merrill, 155).
(In rebuttal of the idea that Deborah was only prophetess because "a good man is hard to find":) "First, the lead person, Deborah--woman of light and fire--is portrayed consistently in a positive way throughout her story and song...
Second, there is indeed a good man in this text: Barak, the som of Abinoam, who agrees to go when he is called. His insistence on Deborah's presence implicitly invokes God's presence and guidance through the divinely inspired prophet and judge. She does not condemn him, though she adds the caveat that he must serve without the customary honor given to military leaders in battle. Barak demonstrates his faith in, and honor of, God by going, despits this challenging condition. As a result, he obtains an even greater honor: being listed in the book of Hebrews among the notable persons of faith, of whom this world is not worthy" (Pierce, 209).
"Writing in the sixteenth century, Calvin pairs Deborah and Huldah stating, 'God doubtless wished to raise them on high to shame the men, and obliquiely to show them their slothfulness. Whatever may be the reason, women have sometimes enjoyed the prophetic gift'" (McKirland, 224). (The author then goes on to say why he doesn't think this fits with other textual evidence. I find it interesting that this great Christian thinker thought this explanation made the most sense.)
Monday, November 18, 2019
October 2019
Teach Us To Want
With the Fire on High
The Next Right Thing
Ayesha at Last
Persuasion
The Death of Ivan Ilych
Finding Lost Words
Teach Us To Want-- I appreciate this book. I think I've been walking a similar path to Michel's recently, and many of her sources (most of those she quoted are influencers of my views too...Lewis, Keller, Augustine, etc). It seemed heavily influenced by ideas I've heard best taught by James KA Smith, and almost felt like her working out these ideas for herself. It was at once honest and vulnerable, and reasonable and Scriptural. I guess I was hoping for more new insights, but the truth is I still need to work out what I've already heard.
"Standing painfully aware of the gap lying between human and holy, his [Isaiah's] own reflection in the mirror undoes him. This is the double vision of prayer: we see God and we see ourselves. This is also the double vision of holy desire. As those redeemed in Christ, we begin wanting holiness, yet recognize that our desires continue in the qualities of being human. Saved though we are, we bring to our desires a limited range of understanding. We want from God, and yet fail to grasp the height, depth, and breadth and width of God's holy purposes for our lives, and for the world. We are growing in foodness and yet are capable of persisting in myopic selfishness."
With the Fire On High-- "Sometimes focusing on what you can control is the only way to lessen the pang in your chest when you think about the things you can't" (28). Very well-done, beautifully written, and primes one for inspiration in the kitchen. Still, my heart broke for Emani and her lack of nurturing at 17. She was still a child, and her burdens, though she handled everything courageously, were keenly felt.
The Next Right Thing--
"Desire often lives next door to grief inside the soul. Access the grief, and you wake up the longing as well" (56).
"Yes, he wants to feel like he's contributing to society. Yes, he needs ot provide for his family--we both do. The provision doesn't only mean money...You know that even with enough money you may still not feel provided for. Because provision also looks like support, like communication, like turning toward the people you love rather than away from them. Provision looks like staying in the room together when it would be easier to walk out" (59).
"Let's agree that knowing what we want is not the same as getting what we want, and certainly not the same as demanding what we want. When I honestly admit what I most long for in the presence of Jesus, I can more quickly accept when it doesn't work out. I can talk to him about it, admit my heartbreak, and receive what he has to give in place of it" (91).
"We are kingdom people and, in a very real way, our time doesn't belong to us; it all belongs to God. The problem is we've misunderstood what that means. Instead of being people who look within and discern where he is leading us, we look around and overcommit ourselves. When the whispers of our calling try to speak to us, we don't have the time or the space to listen" (178).
"You could start by acknowledging the fear. I can't tell you how many times I've swept an emotion aside because it didn't feel valid. Overwhelmed at the garden center? What a luxury! There are people with real problems in the world! Well, that 's true. What is also true is we can't move through what we refuse to acknowledge. And usually, the small things are simply arrows pointing to some bigger things" (201).
I appreciate this book and all of Emily P. Freeman's works. She's taught me so much about life, about how to be human in a sustainable way. She says her job is to help you create room for your soul to breathe, and I admit, she's helped me realize I have a living soul at all, rather than just a brain.
Favorite chapters 8, 19-22.
Ayesha At Last
This was a fun Pride and Prejudice re-telling. Like Unmarriageable, the characters are in a modern-day, Muslim culture, and the parallels between Austen's time are remarkable. Unlike Unmarriageable, Jalaluddin's story is a loose re-telling, maybe more "inspired by" the original. I found the mistaken identity trope a bit annoying, but I think she was doing something with a Shakespeare reference that I didn't initially see. Between that and Ayesha's unhealthy 9 traits, I didn't find her as likeable as I may have wished, but this was a fun read.
Persuasion
Austen is fun, and she is particularly scathing in this work. There were too many characters for me to get to know any of them well enough, though, including the protagonist's love interest, which made the happy ending a bit anticlimactic for me. But you gotta love the Crofts' marriage, what a delight.
The Death of Ivan IlychThis one landed on my TBR when it was mentioned in @atul.gawande's Being Mortal. And wow, it’s amazing how this account of the end of life from 1886 resembles what happens in today’s healthcare system (in my experience as a nurse, at least)! An interesting, if disturbing, read for sure.
Finding Lost Words
Easily one of the most influential books of the year. I'm so glad I read this. As I continue on my journey, I more and more see my need for a theology that can provide a framework able to support the real upheavals and struggles inherent to the human condition. I'll have to write a whole post on this one.
With the Fire on High
The Next Right Thing
Ayesha at Last
Persuasion
The Death of Ivan Ilych
Finding Lost Words
Teach Us To Want-- I appreciate this book. I think I've been walking a similar path to Michel's recently, and many of her sources (most of those she quoted are influencers of my views too...Lewis, Keller, Augustine, etc). It seemed heavily influenced by ideas I've heard best taught by James KA Smith, and almost felt like her working out these ideas for herself. It was at once honest and vulnerable, and reasonable and Scriptural. I guess I was hoping for more new insights, but the truth is I still need to work out what I've already heard.
"Standing painfully aware of the gap lying between human and holy, his [Isaiah's] own reflection in the mirror undoes him. This is the double vision of prayer: we see God and we see ourselves. This is also the double vision of holy desire. As those redeemed in Christ, we begin wanting holiness, yet recognize that our desires continue in the qualities of being human. Saved though we are, we bring to our desires a limited range of understanding. We want from God, and yet fail to grasp the height, depth, and breadth and width of God's holy purposes for our lives, and for the world. We are growing in foodness and yet are capable of persisting in myopic selfishness."
With the Fire On High-- "Sometimes focusing on what you can control is the only way to lessen the pang in your chest when you think about the things you can't" (28). Very well-done, beautifully written, and primes one for inspiration in the kitchen. Still, my heart broke for Emani and her lack of nurturing at 17. She was still a child, and her burdens, though she handled everything courageously, were keenly felt.
The Next Right Thing--
"Desire often lives next door to grief inside the soul. Access the grief, and you wake up the longing as well" (56).
"Yes, he wants to feel like he's contributing to society. Yes, he needs ot provide for his family--we both do. The provision doesn't only mean money...You know that even with enough money you may still not feel provided for. Because provision also looks like support, like communication, like turning toward the people you love rather than away from them. Provision looks like staying in the room together when it would be easier to walk out" (59).
"Let's agree that knowing what we want is not the same as getting what we want, and certainly not the same as demanding what we want. When I honestly admit what I most long for in the presence of Jesus, I can more quickly accept when it doesn't work out. I can talk to him about it, admit my heartbreak, and receive what he has to give in place of it" (91).
"We are kingdom people and, in a very real way, our time doesn't belong to us; it all belongs to God. The problem is we've misunderstood what that means. Instead of being people who look within and discern where he is leading us, we look around and overcommit ourselves. When the whispers of our calling try to speak to us, we don't have the time or the space to listen" (178).
"You could start by acknowledging the fear. I can't tell you how many times I've swept an emotion aside because it didn't feel valid. Overwhelmed at the garden center? What a luxury! There are people with real problems in the world! Well, that 's true. What is also true is we can't move through what we refuse to acknowledge. And usually, the small things are simply arrows pointing to some bigger things" (201).
I appreciate this book and all of Emily P. Freeman's works. She's taught me so much about life, about how to be human in a sustainable way. She says her job is to help you create room for your soul to breathe, and I admit, she's helped me realize I have a living soul at all, rather than just a brain.
Favorite chapters 8, 19-22.
Ayesha At Last
This was a fun Pride and Prejudice re-telling. Like Unmarriageable, the characters are in a modern-day, Muslim culture, and the parallels between Austen's time are remarkable. Unlike Unmarriageable, Jalaluddin's story is a loose re-telling, maybe more "inspired by" the original. I found the mistaken identity trope a bit annoying, but I think she was doing something with a Shakespeare reference that I didn't initially see. Between that and Ayesha's unhealthy 9 traits, I didn't find her as likeable as I may have wished, but this was a fun read.
Persuasion
Austen is fun, and she is particularly scathing in this work. There were too many characters for me to get to know any of them well enough, though, including the protagonist's love interest, which made the happy ending a bit anticlimactic for me. But you gotta love the Crofts' marriage, what a delight.
The Death of Ivan IlychThis one landed on my TBR when it was mentioned in @atul.gawande's Being Mortal. And wow, it’s amazing how this account of the end of life from 1886 resembles what happens in today’s healthcare system (in my experience as a nurse, at least)! An interesting, if disturbing, read for sure.
Finding Lost Words
Easily one of the most influential books of the year. I'm so glad I read this. As I continue on my journey, I more and more see my need for a theology that can provide a framework able to support the real upheavals and struggles inherent to the human condition. I'll have to write a whole post on this one.
Saturday, October 19, 2019
The Wondering Years by Knox McCoy
"[Defining yourself through church] is a cultural affiliation before
it's even a personal one. It's a tricky task to deconstruct what you
believe versus what you've just inherited through participation."
"...I'd had a pretty charmed life, and while that was great, no good thing can come from an existence where you are rarely required to be uncomfortable....Privilege you don't understand is massively dangerous."
"No one was around to help Harry fight his nemesis. No Hermione, no Ron, no Dumbledore, no anyone. No one was there to bail him out, and he alone was responsible for his choices. I know Harry Potter is about so much, but for me, it's about the process of growing up and the realization that all of the layers of protection in your life--your parents, your friends, your mentors, your church-- they all exist to support you, but they do not exist to do your life for you."
"...I'd had a pretty charmed life, and while that was great, no good thing can come from an existence where you are rarely required to be uncomfortable....Privilege you don't understand is massively dangerous."
"No one was around to help Harry fight his nemesis. No Hermione, no Ron, no Dumbledore, no anyone. No one was there to bail him out, and he alone was responsible for his choices. I know Harry Potter is about so much, but for me, it's about the process of growing up and the realization that all of the layers of protection in your life--your parents, your friends, your mentors, your church-- they all exist to support you, but they do not exist to do your life for you."
Monday, October 7, 2019
September 2019.2--Gulp by Mary Roach
Pros: I find intestinal talk fascinating, not gross. There were so many interesting stories here. (The only part where I said, "TMI" was the discussions how the posterior portion of the tract can be used for pleasure. All the tales of gas and poop were met with curiosity.) Her humor had me chuckling at times (and, in all honesty, feeling she was trying too hard at other times.) And then she said, "The extent to which healthcare bureaucracy stands in the way of better patient care is at occasionally outstanding" and I literally raised my hands in praise.
I recognize that all of my cons make me sound like a grumpy, scouling nun, but here they are.
Cons: It was kind of all over the place. It seemed a series of rabbit trails that did all happen to pertain to the gastrointestinal system, but somehow were disconnected. I also disliked Roach's tone which felt a bit haughty, like she had it all figured out and looked down her nose at all those foolish folks of yesteryear. Maybe I'm extra sensitive to that because it seemed she was also looking down at those who belief the crazy stories of the Bible. It seems obvious to Roach that if a person blind from birth describes the first people they see upon regaining their sight as "looking like trees walking around," Jesus obviously doesn't know how to heal people; also that since she's proven Jonah survival in a fish/whale/shark stomach to be scientifically impossible, that settles it. I just don't get it. We know it's crazy. That's why it's called a miracle. There's nothing surprising about the story if it can be replicated in a lab. Here's the thing: when I believe in a God that claims to have an actual virgin for a mother, and then to have risen from the actual dead, your telling me Jonah's story is implausible isn't really going to change my mind. Just saying.
Interesting and I'm glad I read it. Would recommend with my caveats.
I recognize that all of my cons make me sound like a grumpy, scouling nun, but here they are.
Cons: It was kind of all over the place. It seemed a series of rabbit trails that did all happen to pertain to the gastrointestinal system, but somehow were disconnected. I also disliked Roach's tone which felt a bit haughty, like she had it all figured out and looked down her nose at all those foolish folks of yesteryear. Maybe I'm extra sensitive to that because it seemed she was also looking down at those who belief the crazy stories of the Bible. It seems obvious to Roach that if a person blind from birth describes the first people they see upon regaining their sight as "looking like trees walking around," Jesus obviously doesn't know how to heal people; also that since she's proven Jonah survival in a fish/whale/shark stomach to be scientifically impossible, that settles it. I just don't get it. We know it's crazy. That's why it's called a miracle. There's nothing surprising about the story if it can be replicated in a lab. Here's the thing: when I believe in a God that claims to have an actual virgin for a mother, and then to have risen from the actual dead, your telling me Jonah's story is implausible isn't really going to change my mind. Just saying.
Interesting and I'm glad I read it. Would recommend with my caveats.
Monday, September 30, 2019
September 2019.1--Crazy Busy by Kevin DeYoung
I've been trying not to discredit books just because their narrators/authors are imperfect. (See Where'd You Go Bernadette and Peace Like A River, even Biased and Sacred Rhythms.) Every author, by nature of their humanity, has biases and blind spots, brokenness and sin, that often come through in their work. I am trying to cultivate discernment... (as the idea has been illuminated to me by Phylicia Masonheimer)... learn to notice and learn from the good in imperfect works, rather than avoiding all viewpoints and conclusions different from mine. (The list of those agreeing with me is painfully short, anyway.)
That is why I'm pushing through and reading Crazy Busy. Others have said it is good, and I love the premise, but the first BIG hurdle was the the unlikeability of DeYoung's voice. I don't actually know that much about DeYoung, what he has said or failed to say, what he stands for or what controversies might surround him personally. In my mind he is part of the blob that is the Gospel Coalition, which I appreciate for many of its teachings, but also find saddening due to the lack of teaching, and apparent willful ignorance, of other things I find very important. In my mind, he's another smart white guy that others look to for teaching, and really he just keeps teaching because everyone is listening, and they keep listening because they're taught that that's what they should do. (I call it like I see it.) Anyway, this book's dedication only reinforced these ideas. I don't even know all the guys he was referencing by their first names, but I'm imagining I recognize at least Matt Chandler and Mark Dever, and probably definitely CJ Mahaney (cringe). Furthermore, his humble-bragging (that denied being humble bragging, which only made it that much more conspicuous) at the beginning only drove a larger wedge between him as a writer and me as a reader. The fact that he admitted doesn't practice the things he's going to write about (because he's too busy) made me question why in the world I should listen to him. It was clear that the people are just demanding his opinions on things, so he had to write a book on it.
But, onward and forward, because the author can be a flawed and even unlikeable vessel and still have true and helpful insights on a topic.
And good insights I found, indeed.
In seeking to unroot sin issues and bad habits, in addition asking myself what Biblical commands I am disobeying, it is helpful to ask: "What self-imposed commands am I obeying that I should ignore?" (31).
"We get worked up and crazy busy in all the wrong ways because we are more concerned about looking good than with doing good" (41).
He points out that there are many "lazy" people out there who "need to get radical for Jesus" (44), but that many people are already have too much on their plate, and they need to learn that they can't take action on every worthy cause. They need to realize their limits. "Is it possible that God is not asking me to do anything about sex trafficking right now?" (47). I mean, honestly, I get annoyed about this coming from him, because my perception is that DeYoung's whole camp is so busy writing books and reading each other's books, and getting their theology right, and tweeting about gender roles, etc, that nobody seems to have time to make important issues like sex trafficking an actionable issue. But point taken. We can't all do it all. And honestly, perhaps my the pain of my annoyance comes from the plank in my own eye, because my MO is to be busy reading about all the issues and never act on any of them.
Future reading: Beyond Mission: A Passion for Christ, a Heart for Mission about how life is more than issues and tragedies and work, it is about the hope and joy of Christ. Will look into it.
He quotes John Piper: "We should care about all suffering, especially eternal suffering" (49) but points out that caring about and acting against are different. "Not giving a rip about sex slaves is not an option for the Christian. Not doing something directly to combat this evil is an option" (49). Again, my response is that YES that is true, but I still carry a burden of resentment for the section of the church that acts like other things are always actionable (like children's programs, another Bible study, another training program) but things like social justice are optional for those who might, but probably will never, have enough time. Still, "I can forget that my circle of influence will inevitably be smaller than my circle of concern" (51) is quite incisive and challenging to me personally, because I know that it is about time I figure out what my circle of influence is and take it seriously.
More further reading: What is the Mission of the Church? Making Sense of Social Justice, Shalom, and the Great Commission by Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert, mostly because I'm curious what these GC guys have to say about social justice and mission. (Have I heard them say anything about it? Mostly I just assume they think it's a non-issue because it's never mentioned, in my exposure.) Most of what I hear about social justice and mission comes from more liberal and/or contemplative voices because frankly, they're usually the ones talking about it.
"The impression we get from the Gospels is that almost every day for three years, [Jesus is] preaching, healing, and casting out demons. Don't think Jesus is some kind of Zen master who does yoga and ponders the sound of one hand clapping. If Jesus were alive today, he'd get more e-mails than any of us...He was tempted in every way just as we are, yet was without sin (Heb. 4:15)...He was busy, but never in a way that made him frantic, anxious, irritable, proud, envious, or distracted by lesser things...Jesus knew the difference between urgent and important. He understood that all the good things he could do were not necessarily the things he ought to do" (54-55).
"Ultimately, Jesus was driven by the Spirit" (56).
Also, he was "deliberate with his priorities" (57).
Oh, to be both of those things!!! (And thank you, Kevin DeYoung, for acknowledging that the third person of the Trinity is Holy Spirit, not Holy Word!)
As an example of the finiteness of humans, he uses women's inability to do it all--an annoying example, if you ask me. In discussing the "choice" a woman has between being more present at home or at work, he points out two women (a Republican and a Democrat-yay) who chose to quit their jobs to spend more time at home. He calls it "a choice women seem more hardwired to make than men" (58). Can I give him the benefit of the doubt and think, maybe he is lauding the women he's seen lay down pride, while men cling to ambition with a death grip? He did say "seem" rather than "are," and we have to be grateful for that. But that defense is a hard sell for me, because it also esteems the way women are taught to be, particularly by the author's cohort of Christianity, devoted to the needs of others (so that, it would seem, men don't have to be). Obviously this is a trigger for me, because this passing thought would not seem to warrant such an over-sized reaction. But I want to SHOUT that we need to stop the lie that women are "hardwired" for this--more specifically, the lie that we have a firm grasp of what women are "hardwired" for at all. I'm not saying women and men aren't different, but I'm saying that the intricacies and implications of those differences are anything but obvious. I'm saying that what we think is "nature" is often "nurture"--that we don't understand that interplay as much as we think. I think it's far more accurate to say that women are taught, by our culture and especially by the church, that we are supposed to make the choice to spend more time at home, that this is our role (and no one else's). It's very ironic to me that DeYoung uses this example, and then in the next chapter talks about our cultures over-obsession with parenting, and how parents get too busy with parenting because they think everything depends on them when it doesn't. Seems to me that this message is unevenly taught across genders.
Okay, now I'm tempted to go off the rails. The comment about, "Maybe Jane would be the most popular woman in her village in some other country. But, no matter the culture, there is something not quite right about Jane's decision making" (61). Thankfully, the author did acknowledge his USA-centric viewpoint in his writing. But why even include this comment about a village in some other country at all? The point could be made without throwing in that other nameless, but probably more provincial, area of the world, in which it is doubtlessly more difficult to discern the error in one's ways. Is that distracting to anyone but me? Okay, back to discerning what is helpful even if the narrator isn't perfect. (I remind myself that none is, least of all me if I could ever even write anything.)
"Parenting may be the last bastion of legalism. Not just in the church, but in our culture" (67). "It's harder to ruin our kids than we think and harder to stamp them for success than we'd like" (68). "I am responsible for my heart and must be responsible to teach my children the way of the Lord. But there's no sure fire input--say, the right mix of family devotions, Tolkien, and nutrition--that will infallibly produce the output we desire" (73) (ha!).
"If you keep burning the candle at both ends, sooner or later you will indulge in more and more mean cynicism--and the line between cynicism and doubt is a very thin one. Of course, different individuals require different numbers of hours of sleep; moreover, some cope with a bit of tiredness better than others. Nevertheless, f you are among those who become nasty, cynical, or even full of doubt when you are missing your sleep, you are morally obligated to try to get the sleep you need. We are whole complicated beings: our physical existence is tied up to our spiritual well-being, to our mental outlook, or our relationships with others, including our relationship with God. Sometimes the godliest thing you can do in the universe is get a good night's sleep--not pray all night, but sleep. I'm certainly not denying that there may be a place for praying all night; I'm merely insisting that in the normal course of things, spiritual discipline obligates you to get the sleep your body needs"--DA Carson quoted on p. 97 (holding in a tangent about this.....NEVERTHELESS...)
"I don't want you to think that hard work is the problem, or that suffering is necessarily the problem. If you have creativity, ambition, and love, you will be busy. We are supposed to disciple the nations. We are supposed to work with our hands. We are supposed to love God with our minds. We are supposed to have babies and take care of them. It's not a sin to be busy" (102). There is a difference, it seems, between busy and "crazy busy." "The antidote to busyness of soul is not sloth or indifference. The antidote is rest, rhythm, death to pride, acceptance of our finitude, and trust in the providence of God. The busyness that's bad is not the busyness of work, but the busyness that works hard at the wrong things" (like people pleasing, controlling others, etc) (102).
"One of the reasons we struggle so mightily with busyness is because we do not expect to struggle. Many Western Christians--and I'm chief among them--can easily live with the tacit assumption that we should not suffer....[Maybe we expect "big," momentous sufferings like cancer or job loss]...but day in and day out we don't expect to suffer. And the less we expect to suffer, the more devastating suffering becomes" (103).
Quoting Ajith Fernando: "To serve is to suffer....you will suffer if you are committed to people" (104).
"The one thing you must do"--be devoted=having a daily devotion??
"If you are sick and tired of feeling so dreadfully busy and are looking for a one-point plan to help restore order to your life, this is the best advice I know: devote yourself to the Word of God and prayer. This means public worship and private worship" (113).
"The pursuit of personal devotions is one of the strongholds of legalism. Anytime we talk about what we should do every day, we must make clear what Christ has already done for us. We can rest, because he worked" (114). "...the answer here is not simple willpower: 'I must spend more time with Jesus!' That won't last. We have to believe that hearing from God is our good portion. We have to believe that the most significant opportunity before us every day is the opportunity to sit at the feet of Jesus" (115).
Overall, a worthwhile read. I appreciated that DeYoung called out some unhealthy habits and harmful heart patterns about being frantically busy, but didn't turn it into a "just slow down" lecture. He esteemed hard work, and being devoted to service at personal cost. "If you have creativity, ambition, and love, you will be busy"=my favorite quote, I think. I also love the point that we should expect suffering. Seems that whether we do the stoic, stiff-upper-lip thing, or lament and feel all our feelings, we always seem surprised when suffering comes. Especially that daily kind. I love the encouragement that it is a normal part of doing life right in this broken world.
That is why I'm pushing through and reading Crazy Busy. Others have said it is good, and I love the premise, but the first BIG hurdle was the the unlikeability of DeYoung's voice. I don't actually know that much about DeYoung, what he has said or failed to say, what he stands for or what controversies might surround him personally. In my mind he is part of the blob that is the Gospel Coalition, which I appreciate for many of its teachings, but also find saddening due to the lack of teaching, and apparent willful ignorance, of other things I find very important. In my mind, he's another smart white guy that others look to for teaching, and really he just keeps teaching because everyone is listening, and they keep listening because they're taught that that's what they should do. (I call it like I see it.) Anyway, this book's dedication only reinforced these ideas. I don't even know all the guys he was referencing by their first names, but I'm imagining I recognize at least Matt Chandler and Mark Dever, and probably definitely CJ Mahaney (cringe). Furthermore, his humble-bragging (that denied being humble bragging, which only made it that much more conspicuous) at the beginning only drove a larger wedge between him as a writer and me as a reader. The fact that he admitted doesn't practice the things he's going to write about (because he's too busy) made me question why in the world I should listen to him. It was clear that the people are just demanding his opinions on things, so he had to write a book on it.
But, onward and forward, because the author can be a flawed and even unlikeable vessel and still have true and helpful insights on a topic.
And good insights I found, indeed.
In seeking to unroot sin issues and bad habits, in addition asking myself what Biblical commands I am disobeying, it is helpful to ask: "What self-imposed commands am I obeying that I should ignore?" (31).
"We get worked up and crazy busy in all the wrong ways because we are more concerned about looking good than with doing good" (41).
He points out that there are many "lazy" people out there who "need to get radical for Jesus" (44), but that many people are already have too much on their plate, and they need to learn that they can't take action on every worthy cause. They need to realize their limits. "Is it possible that God is not asking me to do anything about sex trafficking right now?" (47). I mean, honestly, I get annoyed about this coming from him, because my perception is that DeYoung's whole camp is so busy writing books and reading each other's books, and getting their theology right, and tweeting about gender roles, etc, that nobody seems to have time to make important issues like sex trafficking an actionable issue. But point taken. We can't all do it all. And honestly, perhaps my the pain of my annoyance comes from the plank in my own eye, because my MO is to be busy reading about all the issues and never act on any of them.
Future reading: Beyond Mission: A Passion for Christ, a Heart for Mission about how life is more than issues and tragedies and work, it is about the hope and joy of Christ. Will look into it.
He quotes John Piper: "We should care about all suffering, especially eternal suffering" (49) but points out that caring about and acting against are different. "Not giving a rip about sex slaves is not an option for the Christian. Not doing something directly to combat this evil is an option" (49). Again, my response is that YES that is true, but I still carry a burden of resentment for the section of the church that acts like other things are always actionable (like children's programs, another Bible study, another training program) but things like social justice are optional for those who might, but probably will never, have enough time. Still, "I can forget that my circle of influence will inevitably be smaller than my circle of concern" (51) is quite incisive and challenging to me personally, because I know that it is about time I figure out what my circle of influence is and take it seriously.
More further reading: What is the Mission of the Church? Making Sense of Social Justice, Shalom, and the Great Commission by Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert, mostly because I'm curious what these GC guys have to say about social justice and mission. (Have I heard them say anything about it? Mostly I just assume they think it's a non-issue because it's never mentioned, in my exposure.) Most of what I hear about social justice and mission comes from more liberal and/or contemplative voices because frankly, they're usually the ones talking about it.
"The impression we get from the Gospels is that almost every day for three years, [Jesus is] preaching, healing, and casting out demons. Don't think Jesus is some kind of Zen master who does yoga and ponders the sound of one hand clapping. If Jesus were alive today, he'd get more e-mails than any of us...He was tempted in every way just as we are, yet was without sin (Heb. 4:15)...He was busy, but never in a way that made him frantic, anxious, irritable, proud, envious, or distracted by lesser things...Jesus knew the difference between urgent and important. He understood that all the good things he could do were not necessarily the things he ought to do" (54-55).
"Ultimately, Jesus was driven by the Spirit" (56).
Also, he was "deliberate with his priorities" (57).
Oh, to be both of those things!!! (And thank you, Kevin DeYoung, for acknowledging that the third person of the Trinity is Holy Spirit, not Holy Word!)
As an example of the finiteness of humans, he uses women's inability to do it all--an annoying example, if you ask me. In discussing the "choice" a woman has between being more present at home or at work, he points out two women (a Republican and a Democrat-yay) who chose to quit their jobs to spend more time at home. He calls it "a choice women seem more hardwired to make than men" (58). Can I give him the benefit of the doubt and think, maybe he is lauding the women he's seen lay down pride, while men cling to ambition with a death grip? He did say "seem" rather than "are," and we have to be grateful for that. But that defense is a hard sell for me, because it also esteems the way women are taught to be, particularly by the author's cohort of Christianity, devoted to the needs of others (so that, it would seem, men don't have to be). Obviously this is a trigger for me, because this passing thought would not seem to warrant such an over-sized reaction. But I want to SHOUT that we need to stop the lie that women are "hardwired" for this--more specifically, the lie that we have a firm grasp of what women are "hardwired" for at all. I'm not saying women and men aren't different, but I'm saying that the intricacies and implications of those differences are anything but obvious. I'm saying that what we think is "nature" is often "nurture"--that we don't understand that interplay as much as we think. I think it's far more accurate to say that women are taught, by our culture and especially by the church, that we are supposed to make the choice to spend more time at home, that this is our role (and no one else's). It's very ironic to me that DeYoung uses this example, and then in the next chapter talks about our cultures over-obsession with parenting, and how parents get too busy with parenting because they think everything depends on them when it doesn't. Seems to me that this message is unevenly taught across genders.
Okay, now I'm tempted to go off the rails. The comment about, "Maybe Jane would be the most popular woman in her village in some other country. But, no matter the culture, there is something not quite right about Jane's decision making" (61). Thankfully, the author did acknowledge his USA-centric viewpoint in his writing. But why even include this comment about a village in some other country at all? The point could be made without throwing in that other nameless, but probably more provincial, area of the world, in which it is doubtlessly more difficult to discern the error in one's ways. Is that distracting to anyone but me? Okay, back to discerning what is helpful even if the narrator isn't perfect. (I remind myself that none is, least of all me if I could ever even write anything.)
"Parenting may be the last bastion of legalism. Not just in the church, but in our culture" (67). "It's harder to ruin our kids than we think and harder to stamp them for success than we'd like" (68). "I am responsible for my heart and must be responsible to teach my children the way of the Lord. But there's no sure fire input--say, the right mix of family devotions, Tolkien, and nutrition--that will infallibly produce the output we desire" (73) (ha!).
"If you keep burning the candle at both ends, sooner or later you will indulge in more and more mean cynicism--and the line between cynicism and doubt is a very thin one. Of course, different individuals require different numbers of hours of sleep; moreover, some cope with a bit of tiredness better than others. Nevertheless, f you are among those who become nasty, cynical, or even full of doubt when you are missing your sleep, you are morally obligated to try to get the sleep you need. We are whole complicated beings: our physical existence is tied up to our spiritual well-being, to our mental outlook, or our relationships with others, including our relationship with God. Sometimes the godliest thing you can do in the universe is get a good night's sleep--not pray all night, but sleep. I'm certainly not denying that there may be a place for praying all night; I'm merely insisting that in the normal course of things, spiritual discipline obligates you to get the sleep your body needs"--DA Carson quoted on p. 97 (holding in a tangent about this.....NEVERTHELESS...)
"I don't want you to think that hard work is the problem, or that suffering is necessarily the problem. If you have creativity, ambition, and love, you will be busy. We are supposed to disciple the nations. We are supposed to work with our hands. We are supposed to love God with our minds. We are supposed to have babies and take care of them. It's not a sin to be busy" (102). There is a difference, it seems, between busy and "crazy busy." "The antidote to busyness of soul is not sloth or indifference. The antidote is rest, rhythm, death to pride, acceptance of our finitude, and trust in the providence of God. The busyness that's bad is not the busyness of work, but the busyness that works hard at the wrong things" (like people pleasing, controlling others, etc) (102).
"One of the reasons we struggle so mightily with busyness is because we do not expect to struggle. Many Western Christians--and I'm chief among them--can easily live with the tacit assumption that we should not suffer....[Maybe we expect "big," momentous sufferings like cancer or job loss]...but day in and day out we don't expect to suffer. And the less we expect to suffer, the more devastating suffering becomes" (103).
Quoting Ajith Fernando: "To serve is to suffer....you will suffer if you are committed to people" (104).
"The one thing you must do"--be devoted=having a daily devotion??
"If you are sick and tired of feeling so dreadfully busy and are looking for a one-point plan to help restore order to your life, this is the best advice I know: devote yourself to the Word of God and prayer. This means public worship and private worship" (113).
"The pursuit of personal devotions is one of the strongholds of legalism. Anytime we talk about what we should do every day, we must make clear what Christ has already done for us. We can rest, because he worked" (114). "...the answer here is not simple willpower: 'I must spend more time with Jesus!' That won't last. We have to believe that hearing from God is our good portion. We have to believe that the most significant opportunity before us every day is the opportunity to sit at the feet of Jesus" (115).
Overall, a worthwhile read. I appreciated that DeYoung called out some unhealthy habits and harmful heart patterns about being frantically busy, but didn't turn it into a "just slow down" lecture. He esteemed hard work, and being devoted to service at personal cost. "If you have creativity, ambition, and love, you will be busy"=my favorite quote, I think. I also love the point that we should expect suffering. Seems that whether we do the stoic, stiff-upper-lip thing, or lament and feel all our feelings, we always seem surprised when suffering comes. Especially that daily kind. I love the encouragement that it is a normal part of doing life right in this broken world.
Saturday, August 31, 2019
August 2019
When Rain Clouds Gather (now I know that time is September—I’m so ready for September!)
Where’d You Go Bernadette (not as perfect as I remember but still fun and a commentary on a subculture, and way better than the movie — of course!)
Good News for Those Trying Harder (the gospel illuminated; when will I remember to read this more often?)
The Gift of Being Yourself (thankful)
Pride (engaging! I’m on a P&P retelling roll)
Biased (so well-done, personal and scientific)
Behind the Beautiful Forevers (all the tears and praise hands)
The Fishermen (hauntingly good)
Dark Matter (excites for Recursion!)
Where’d You Go Bernadette (not as perfect as I remember but still fun and a commentary on a subculture, and way better than the movie — of course!)
Good News for Those Trying Harder (the gospel illuminated; when will I remember to read this more often?)
The Gift of Being Yourself (thankful)
Pride (engaging! I’m on a P&P retelling roll)
Biased (so well-done, personal and scientific)
Behind the Beautiful Forevers (all the tears and praise hands)
The Fishermen (hauntingly good)
Dark Matter (excites for Recursion!)
Monday, August 12, 2019
August 2019.2--The Fishermen
This one will really reel you in. (See what I did there?) Chigozie Obioma's debut novel is tragic, violent, and tender all at once. It portrays the beautiful bonds of brotherhood and heartbreaking changes that befall a once flourishing family, and also raises questions about whether outside influences or personal choices determine our destinies--individually, within families, and for whole cultures and societies. Obioma is a master of metaphors, and through the Agwu family, "a metaphor for the paradox that is Nigeria," (Obioma says in a Huffpost Interview), we learn a lot about "colonial contraptions like Nigeria." Obioma's writing is lyrical and vivid, making his story and its themes accessible to everyone, just as he says he intended in this article where he talks about the "show don't tell" of good writing, and says: "I believe that fiction, with it's untrammeled nature, speaks to no one, and by so doing, speaks to all. It must transcend boundaries, time and space..." He certainly actualizes this goal beautifully.
This is one of those rare books that I gave four stars to initially, but then because I couldn't stop mulling it over, and kept uncovering new layers of meaning, I bumped it up to five stars.
Books this one added to my TBR:
The God of Small Things
Things Fall Apart (re-read)
This is one of those rare books that I gave four stars to initially, but then because I couldn't stop mulling it over, and kept uncovering new layers of meaning, I bumped it up to five stars.
Books this one added to my TBR:
The God of Small Things
Things Fall Apart (re-read)
Sunday, August 4, 2019
August 2019.1--Behind the Beautiful Forevers
"[Asha] was a chit in a national game of make-believe, in which many of India’s old problems–poverty, disease, illiteracy, child labor – were being aggressively addressed. Meanwhile the other old problems, corruption and exploitation of the week by the less week, continued with minimal interference. In the West, and among some in the Indian elite, this word, corruption, had purely negative connotations; it was seen as weakening India’s modern, global ambitions. But for the poor of a country where corruption thieved a great deal of opportunity, corruption was one of the genuine opportunities that remain" (28).
"The Indian criminal justice system was a market like garbage, Abdul now understood. Innocense and guilt could be bought and sole like a kilo of polyurethane bags" (107).
"Water and ice were made of the same thing. He thought most people were made of the same thing, too. He himself was probably little different, constitutionally, from the cynical, corrupt people around him--the police officers and the special executive officer and the morgue doctor who fixed Kalu's death. If he had to sort all humanity by its material essence, he thought he would probably end up with a single gigantic pile. But here was the interesting thing. Ice was distinct from--and in his view, better than--what it was made of.
"He wanted to be better than what he was made of. In Mumbai's dirty water, he wanted to be ice. He wanted to have ideals" (218).
"...the slumdwellers rarely got madf together--not even about the airport authority.
"Instead, powerless individuals blamed other powerless individuals for what they lacked. Sometimes they tried to destroy one another. Sometimes...they destroyed themselves in the process. When they were fortunate...they improved their lots by beggaring the life chances of other poor people" (237).
"In places where government priorities and market imperatives create a world so capricious that to help a neighbor is to risk your ability to feed your family, and sometimes even your own liberty, the idea of the mutually supportive poor community is demolished. The poor blame one another for the choices of governments and markets, and we who are not poor are ready to blame the poor just as harshly" (254).
Boo shows us everyday life for several residents of Annawadi, an makeshift slum of Mumbai. What we see is illuminating and terrible. Usually when I read non-fiction, five stars means "I enjoyed this so much" or "I'm so glad to know more about this topic." This time, it means "This book is so necessary--people need to know about this" and "It will make you feel terrible feelings and that is good.” Seeing the injustice, violence, and desperate efforts for survival is challenging to my sensibilities made so naive from privilege. But we must try to see and understand. For the stranglehold of poverty to be loosened, rule of law must be enforced and violence and corruption must end. The hope in all this is the continued good work of folks like @ijm. Next read: The Locust Effect.
•
Thanks to @definitelyra who brought this book to my attention months ago in her stories.
Honestly, I thought I already knew quite a bit about this topic, having done preparatory readings and then gone on my 6-week mission trip to a shandytown of Lima, Peru. That was the beginning of the learning process, but that experience painted a rosier picture of poverty, lauding the gifts of community experienced in such circumstances. And while there are certainly perils of the self-sufficient closed-off lifestyle of the average American, there is a difference between working together with a sense of fellowship and camaraderie, and simple proximity, lack of privacy, and similar circumstances.
Weaknesses: the stories of the impoverished being told by a privileged white person does serve to reinforce the unintentional bias a lot of us tend to have that these subjects can't speak for themselves, but alas, I'm glad Boo did it. Also, she is a journalist and writes like one and I find that a bit grating at times. But it's still a non-fiction work that grips like a great fiction book.
Strengths: this book shows what life is like for so many people, about which most of us would have no opportunity to learn, especially to learn in an accurate way. Those of us who have the advantage of being completely ignorant of such things cannot even begin to understand the layers of oppression faced by the people in this narrative. Hearing their story is much more illuminating than reading abstract theories about the persistence of poverty, I think.
If you decide to read this, start with the author's note for context. "From where we are, it is easy to overlook that in these conditions it is blisteringly hard to be good. The astonishment is that some people are good, and that many people try to be. If the house is crooked and crumbling, and the land on which it sits uneven, is it possible to make anything lie straight?"
"The Indian criminal justice system was a market like garbage, Abdul now understood. Innocense and guilt could be bought and sole like a kilo of polyurethane bags" (107).
"Water and ice were made of the same thing. He thought most people were made of the same thing, too. He himself was probably little different, constitutionally, from the cynical, corrupt people around him--the police officers and the special executive officer and the morgue doctor who fixed Kalu's death. If he had to sort all humanity by its material essence, he thought he would probably end up with a single gigantic pile. But here was the interesting thing. Ice was distinct from--and in his view, better than--what it was made of.
"He wanted to be better than what he was made of. In Mumbai's dirty water, he wanted to be ice. He wanted to have ideals" (218).
"...the slumdwellers rarely got madf together--not even about the airport authority.
"Instead, powerless individuals blamed other powerless individuals for what they lacked. Sometimes they tried to destroy one another. Sometimes...they destroyed themselves in the process. When they were fortunate...they improved their lots by beggaring the life chances of other poor people" (237).
"In places where government priorities and market imperatives create a world so capricious that to help a neighbor is to risk your ability to feed your family, and sometimes even your own liberty, the idea of the mutually supportive poor community is demolished. The poor blame one another for the choices of governments and markets, and we who are not poor are ready to blame the poor just as harshly" (254).
Boo shows us everyday life for several residents of Annawadi, an makeshift slum of Mumbai. What we see is illuminating and terrible. Usually when I read non-fiction, five stars means "I enjoyed this so much" or "I'm so glad to know more about this topic." This time, it means "This book is so necessary--people need to know about this" and "It will make you feel terrible feelings and that is good.” Seeing the injustice, violence, and desperate efforts for survival is challenging to my sensibilities made so naive from privilege. But we must try to see and understand. For the stranglehold of poverty to be loosened, rule of law must be enforced and violence and corruption must end. The hope in all this is the continued good work of folks like @ijm. Next read: The Locust Effect.
•
Thanks to @definitelyra who brought this book to my attention months ago in her stories.
Honestly, I thought I already knew quite a bit about this topic, having done preparatory readings and then gone on my 6-week mission trip to a shandytown of Lima, Peru. That was the beginning of the learning process, but that experience painted a rosier picture of poverty, lauding the gifts of community experienced in such circumstances. And while there are certainly perils of the self-sufficient closed-off lifestyle of the average American, there is a difference between working together with a sense of fellowship and camaraderie, and simple proximity, lack of privacy, and similar circumstances.
Weaknesses: the stories of the impoverished being told by a privileged white person does serve to reinforce the unintentional bias a lot of us tend to have that these subjects can't speak for themselves, but alas, I'm glad Boo did it. Also, she is a journalist and writes like one and I find that a bit grating at times. But it's still a non-fiction work that grips like a great fiction book.
Strengths: this book shows what life is like for so many people, about which most of us would have no opportunity to learn, especially to learn in an accurate way. Those of us who have the advantage of being completely ignorant of such things cannot even begin to understand the layers of oppression faced by the people in this narrative. Hearing their story is much more illuminating than reading abstract theories about the persistence of poverty, I think.
If you decide to read this, start with the author's note for context. "From where we are, it is easy to overlook that in these conditions it is blisteringly hard to be good. The astonishment is that some people are good, and that many people try to be. If the house is crooked and crumbling, and the land on which it sits uneven, is it possible to make anything lie straight?"
Wednesday, July 31, 2019
July 2019
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Dear Martin by Nic Stone (re-read) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras (re-read) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Dear Martin by Nic Stone (re-read) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras (re-read) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
July 2019
Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Harrison Warren
As someone who tends to either mourn the dailyness of life or just completey disengage, this book was so beneficial. The truth is, the human condition means that, "So much of life, unavoidably, is maintenance." Warren illuminated how this is actually compatible with faith in Jesus. Warren's insights on the body, daily struggles, and nourishment were especially helpful. But I think the most challenging thing I read was, "The call to contentment is a call amidst the concrete circumstances I find myself in today." I will have to re-read this soon.
I wouldn't have been ready for this book if I hadn't read James K.A. Smith's You Are What You Love first. He introduced me to so many ideas and vocabulary of which I had previously been too ignorant even to be interested in this book. For example, in my experience the word liturgy reeked of empty tradition and half-hearted worship gatherings, until I read Smith define liturgy as "rituals that are loaded with ultimate story about who we are and what we're for." I'm so glad this book came to me at this time. I found many chapters quite helpful, but my favorites discussed the body, daily struggles, and nourishment.
Warren's reflections on living in a body were so illuminating to me. Thanks to Smith for first opening the door to a whole new way of existing, by challenging me to consider what it means that Christianity is an embodied faith. Warren discusses what some of the necessary repercussions of this fact, namely, that "So much of life, unavoidably, is maintenance" (37). She also draws attention to Romans 12:1-2 teaching that our bodies are instruments of worship (not just a "dirty source of evil" (38)). I can't wait for Lore Wilbert's book to come out so I can read her reflections on this! I've learned a lot from her via Instagram & her blog on this.
Particularly challenging were Warren's insights that began with a detailed description of what happened in her heart and mind when she lost her keys. Who hasn't been through such a daily occurrence that seems so monumentally derailing? She says, "Small things go wrong...[causing overwhelm, frustration, anxiety, anger, and fear]...and here is where the Savior designs to meet me" (53). "The call to contentment is a call amidst the concrete circumstances I find myself in today" (55). That quote right there might be the number one take-away. So challenging.
The chapter on nourishment offered some wise words about our bodily and spiritual nourishment. So helpful.
I highly recommend this book. Hope to read it again soon.
Books this book added to my TBR:
James KA Smith Desiring the Kingdom and Imagining the Kingdom
Harrison Dear Martin by Nic Stone
A dearly loved fave from July 2018 is now a dearly loved fave of July 2019. Challenging questions, emotionally charged issues. Realistic, yet hopeful. Nuanced with a beam of idealism. I (still) highly recommend it.
"'That idiot "pundit" would rather believe you and Manny were thugs than believe a twenty-year veteran cop made a snap judgment based on skin color. He identifies with the cop. If the cop is capable of murder, it means he's capable of the same. He can't accept that.'
'Well that's his hangup. Shouldn't be my problem.'
'You're right. But it is your problem because you're affected by it. I know it's shitty, excuse my language, and it's definitely not fair. But these people have to justify Garrett's actions. They need to believe you're a bad guy who got what he deserved in order for their world to keep spinning the way it always has.'
....
'You can't change how other people think and act, but you're in full control of you. When it comes down to it, the only question that matters is this: If nothing in the world ever changes, what type of ma are you gonna be?'" (151-152)
Tish Miracle Creek by Angie Kim
This book is engrossing and suspenseful in the best way. (It
is unusual for me to enjoy a courtroom drama mystery-ha!) It gives a
provocative, emotional, and unusually nuanced look at parenting. It
focuses on the lives of immigrants and of families with children with
disabilities. This book reminds me a lot of Celeste Ng's Everything I Never Told You—partly because Miracle's Young family immigrate from Korea, and Everything's
James Lee is the son of Chinese immigrants, and both stories raise
questions about being Asian and Asian-American in the US, but even more
than that, both have narration alternating among many different
characters, each chapter revealing a new tidbit that changes your
perspective of the Big Event that happens at the beginning but you don't
really understand until the end. Unlike character-driven Everything, Miracle Creek was
plot-driven. There definitely was no likeable protagonist to be found
here, but my opinions of the characters changed multiple times, and the
one that was my least favorite at the beginning was my favorite at the
end, and it was a thrilling ride.
I didn't look up Content
Warnings, and wish I'd known there would be descriptions of marital sex
and sexual assault of a minor. Let those who are sensitive to such
content be warned. (And feel free to ask me if you have questions.)
Tish Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Jane Austen is always there for me when I want a story where the biggest problem is how tough it is to be a gentlewoman in 1800. Her smarts and sass always make the carefree story so delicious. This is what drew me to my first reading of Northanger Abbey. Catherine is a likeable character that reminds me of myself in some ways: rather naive (often humorously so); always taking the bits of known information and contriving whole extrapolated imagined narratives, often much to her demise. Austen’s satire of some of society’sfouble standards, her jibes at gothic novels and comments about novels in general were fun...and of course a decent love story! I give the book 3 stars--I liked it.
Tish Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
“We were rich in our stories.” — Ingrid Rojas Contreras, Fruit of the Drunken Tree
I'm re-reading a few or 2018's faves, and yeah, this one is still 5 bright stars.
Our
two narrators are Chula, who is 8, and her family's new 13-year-old
maid, Petrona. Seeing the danger, violence, and corruption that marked
the height of Escobar’s power through their eyes, described along with
other everyday happenings of girlhood, was so powerful. Their
experiences are so contrasted, not just because of the age difference,
but because of their differences in class and situation. Chula has a
stay-at-home mother and lives in a gated community. Petrona is trying to
provide for her mother and siblings after her family’s farm is burned
down and her father and two brothers taken by a paramilitary group. Both
face more than their fair share of despair and trauma. I found the
fates of these two characters, and the striking differences between
them, both heart-wrenching and compelling.
Re-reading this book
during this political moment made me realize that it’s probably
impossible to distinguish between my appreciation for the story and the
way it beautifully demonstrates what I hold to be fact: some people are
in need of asylum, and it is the right thing to make that process more
feasible and not impossible. I think this story is just as powerful and
important for people who disagree. We all need to hear stories from all
kinds of people and perspectives. I'm working on that.
Tish Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal
Pride & Prejudice retellings are popular, but this is my first,
(except part one of Pamela Aldan's account of Darcy's perspective.)
Kamal retells P&P, (originally set in England around 1800,) as set
in Pakistan in 1990. The plot, themes, and social criticism show
remarkable parallels between the two cultures. Even the names are just
slightly-adjusted from Austen's best-loved work. Kamal's humor and
social-criticisms felt a bit more forced than Austen's. She also
attempted to do an awful lot: along with showing hypocrisy, shameful
double standards, and harms of patriarchy, she also touched on
colonization, homosexuality, body image and fat-shaming, and abortion.
At times Alys came across as an embodiment of the wisdom of progressive
thinking, and less like an individual human, but on the whole I found
this read enjoying. My favorite part of the heart of Pride and Prejudice
is the value of holding to one's principles despite opposition
(financial ill-effects, cultural pressure, etc), and the treasure of
finding a partner that shares your values, and with whom you can
cultivate a relationship generating mutual growth. Kamal presents that
beautifully. She also manages to create a novel that, like Austen's, can
read as a rom-com, or as a social commentary on upper middle class
women's issues.
It was distracting to me that Alys
loved and taught P&P but never acknowledged that she was living it. I
mean, how does Alysba Binat, with sisters named Jena, Mari, Quitty, and
Lady, who marries a Mr. Darsee, not acknowledge that? Maybe, (I'm
reaching for a reason here) that points out the questions Kamal is
raising about colonization and literature. Alys loves English
literature. She has lived in many cultures, and is advantaged because
she knows English and has a good accent. She says, "Reading widely can
lead to an appreciation of the universalities across cultures." Darsee
says, "Sure. But it shouldn't just be a one-sided appreciation. We've
been forced to seek ourselves in the literature of others for far too
long." Perhaps Kamal's creation of this work, an original take and also
an imitation of the English literature she loves, and of Alys, who loves
and lives it, but still doesn't see her story as being identical, is a
way to declare the uniqueness of cultures and each person's experience.
Four stars--I really liked it. Here are some of my fave quotes:
Alys:
"If we women decide to marry according to standards, they we are
gold-diggers, but when you weigh us in matters of looks and chasteness,
then you're just being smart. I can't stand these double standards."
Alys: "Easier to commemorate history when you've been the coloniser and not the colonised."
Sunday, June 30, 2019
May & June 2019
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Henry and Fanny by Sherwood Smith (e-book) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Emma by Jane Austen ⭐️⭐️⭐️
12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You by Tony Reinke ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Guernsey and Literary Potato Peel Pie Society ⭐️⭐️
The Gifts of Imperfection ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Soul of Shame ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Henry and Fanny by Sherwood Smith (e-book) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Emma by Jane Austen ⭐️⭐️⭐️
12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You by Tony Reinke ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Guernsey and Literary Potato Peel Pie Society ⭐️⭐️
The Gifts of Imperfection ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Soul of Shame ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Saturday, June 22, 2019
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen and Henry and Fanny by Sherwood Smith
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen and Henry and Fanny by Sherwood Smith
Fanny is taken from her home of meager means at age 10 to live with her wealthy aunt and uncle at Mansfield Park. There she is mistreated by all but her elder cousin Edmund. Fast forward to when the cousins are of marrying age and Sir Thomas is away, and a sophisticated, charismatic brother and sister duo comes to the nearby parsonage: Henry and Mary Crawford. The young people decide to put on a play together, which could be seen as either a delightful occupation or a shameful excuse to be inappropriately flirtatious. Henry shows himself to Fanny to be untrustworthy as he trifles with the affections of two of her cousins, and Mary tries to win the affections of Edmund, whom she is falling for. Shortly after, Henry decides to pursue Fanny, first carelessly, but then finds himself quite in love with her. Fanny not only can't trust him, but is in love with Edmund, her only friend and protector from childhood. In the end, Henry shows himself to be truly unsteady as he has an affair, and Mary proves to be morally reprehensible as she only faults Henry for being caught, so these two are clearly no longer marriage candidates for Edmund or Fanny. Fanny, who has never hesitated in her devotion for Edmund, eventually does get to marry him.
Many say that Mansfield Park is more social commentary and criticism than romance, and seeing it in this light has helped me warm up to it. The first few sentences of MP reveal Austen's main focus in this work, namely the wiles of the class at the time, selfishly seeking wealth and status, often discarding the very morals they claim to
support. The same people that pressure Fanny into being morally upright and meek also fault her for being so. Today's readers see Fanny as proud, prude, and priggish, but I think Austen found her to be an admirable woman steadfastly committed to her principles.
Fanny may be a dull hero compared with, say, Elizabeth Bennett, but when you consider that she is a product of her circumstances, repeatedly told how low she is, living in very real fear of punishment for doing something considered morally questionable by anyone, it becomes rather impressive that she is able to cultivate any of her own opinions, and I'm rather proud of her not meekly accepting Henry's hand under the pressure. She stayed true what she believed was right all throughout the book, and I love the idea of her being proved right at the end, and getting what she always wanted, namely Edmund for a husband.
But I have to admit, Austen's ending did not satisfy. The fact that Edmund calls Fanny "my sister" right up until the very end while still carping about Mary Crawford, does not make me think he could ever be good for her. The abrupt change in the narrative at the end of MP, where Austen goes from showing to telling in summation, did not do enough to convince me that Edmund could ever deserve Fanny, or that Fanny would truly be happy with him.
Enter: Smith's alternate ending. I enjoyed Smith's defense in her prologue of Fanny and the need for a different ending. And while, despite efforts, her voice was very different from Austen's (of course!) she did a good job continuing the personalities of the characters, while showing that people can change. Part of me is still a little anxious that Crawford will be bored with Fanny and be unfaithful, but I still far prefer her being with Henry to being with Edmund.
Still, my strongest, and apparently most culturally unacceptable belief regarding this work is that Fanny is a worthwhile heroine. Also, I think she's an enneagram 9. So maybe I can see her perspective so well because I am too.
Monday, June 10, 2019
12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You by Tony Reinke
12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You by Tony Reinke
"...life in the digital age is an open invitation for clear, biblical thinking about the impact of our phones on ourselves, on our creation, on our neighbors, and on our relationships to God. Thoughtlessly adopting new technologies is worldliness" (37).
"I have discovered that all the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber...Hence it comes than men so much love noise and stir; hence it comes that the prison is so horrible a punishment; hence it comes that the pleasure of solitude is a thing incomprehensible."--quoting Pascal. "Pascal's point is a perennial fact: the human appetite for distraction is high in every age, because distractions give us easy escape from the silence and solitude whereby we become acquainted with our finitude, our inescapable mortality, and the distance of God from all our desires, hopes, and pleasures" (45).
"It is difficult to serve God with our heart, soul, strength and mind when we are diverted and distracted and multi-tasking everything"--quoting Doublas Groothuis, philosophy prof at Denver Seminary (47).
"From the onset of this study, we must die to the idea that a distraction-free life is possible--it is not, and it never has been. the holy life is piously complex, meaning we must learn how to apply distraction management in every situation" (50).
"If anger is the viral emotion of online disembodiment, then joy is the Christian emotion of embodied fellowship" (59).
"All writing that is remote--like the ancient letter, the modern text message, or this book--is more like ghost-to-ghost communication than person-to-person interaction. Yes, there is something of us in written words, but not everything in true fellowship can be typed out on phone screens...This is the reality of communication. Joy is a precious emotion of our integrated existence" (60).
"We easily settle into digital villages of friends who think just like us and escape from people who are unlike us. Our phones buffer us from diversity"..quoting Alistair Roberts--although"generational differences are fundamentally constitutive differences for the human race...new media is one of the may ways are elders are rendered invisible." "And it's not only our elders, but also the impoverished, the cognitively disabled, children, the less educated, the less literate, the less cosmopolitan, and non-Westerners. In effect, our online communities 'render invisible the majority of the human race'" (71).
Again quotes are from Roberts: "In fact, our online communities of like-minded friends are often marked by a 'positive feedback loop,' where 'affirmation and assent merely reinforce existing prejudices. In such contexts, communicties become insular, echo chambers of accepted opinion, closed to opposing voices,' which means they breed a 'homeostatic stifling of difference'" (72).
"The literacy problem we face today is not illiteracy but aliteracy, a digital skimming that is simply an attempt to keep up with a deluge of information coming through our phones rather than slowing down and soaking up what is most important" (85).
"God's word demands our highest levels of literacy concentration because it requires relational reading: not the superficial chitchat of a cocktail party, but the covenantal concentration of marriage vows. God's word is an invitation to orient our affections and desires. Our challenge is to use social media in the service of serious reading" (89).
In a footnote quoting Douglas Wilson: "Creation is a gift meant to bring glory to the Creator. All Christians agree here. But Christians throughout the ages have put their suspicions in different places. Take C.S. Lewis and Augustine. I love them both, but I would rather have a beer with Lewis. Lewis would order us a really good beer, just because it was a really good beer, with his understanding of God suffusing the whole. For him, while the thickness of creation can become an idol, a rival to God, it is intended for us as a sermon by God about God. And you cant't honor the preacher by ignoring the sermon. But Augustine would perhaps think that a thin beer would help us think of Jesus more, not distracting us quite so much, and that when we had really advanced in grace, we might be able to get the same effect with water. I say this in the full recognition that I am not worthy to have been Augustine's boot boy. So then a right approach to a thick creation honors the Creator more fully; we honor his work as he gave it, instead of trying to dilute it in misguided zeal for his glory." Reinke says: "Intended or not, Wilson's illustration of alcohol density coincides with the display of diving glory echoed in the first miracle of Jesus (John 2:1-11). He did not flex his sovereign power by turning party wine into water, but by turning ceremonial washing water into dark, undiluted party wine--the 'good wine' that caught attention. Not only did the water-to-wine thickening of creation not cloud Christ's glory, it manifested it" (95).
"...We must humbly admit that we are targets of digital mega-corporations that can make us into reckless consumers with strategic intermediated content. We cannot be naive here. Our attention spans have been monetized, and getting us hooked on our phones is a commercial commodity measured in billions of dollars, not kiosk change" (99).
"...We must celebrate. We cannot suppress our souls' appetite for what is awe-inspiring. The goal is not to mute all smartphone media but to feed ourselves the right media. We are created to behold, see, taste, and delight in the richness of God's glory--and that glory often comes refracted to us through skilled artists. Our insatiable appetite for viral videos, memes, and tweets is the product of an appetite for glory that God gave us" (100).
"Social media has become the new PR firm of the brand Self" (109).
"In the digital age, we idolize our phones when we lost the ability to ask if they help us (or hurt us) in reaching our spiritual goals. We grow so fascinated with technological glitz that we become captive to the wonderful means of our phones--their speed, organization, and efficiency--and these means themselves become sufficient ends. Our destination remains foggy because we are fixated on the speed of travel. We mistakenly submit human and spiritual goals to our technological possibilities" (115).
"Friction is the path to genuine authenticity, and no amount of online communication can overcome a lack of real integrity. We must be real with the people God puts in our lives....We are authentic believers who are committed to replacing easy relationships with authentic ones" (126).
Sherry Turkle: "The capacity for empathic conversation goes hand in hand with the capacity for solitude. In solitude we find ourselves; we prepare ourselves to come into conversation with something to say that is authentic" (126).
"Every morning we must take time to stop, to be still, to know that God is God and that we are his children. Digital technology must not fill up all the silent gaps of life" (129).
"The great term 'by faith' is a synonym for confidence in the unseen spiritual realities. Yet on what your heart loves, your eyes will linger." In a footnote on page 138, the great insight that "This is a recurring theme in the book of Isaiah, where the verb 'look to' is simultaneously applied to physical sight and spiritual sight (loyalty) in contrasting the categories of idols/God, visual/faith, and the immediate/anticipated" (138).
"...it is of the nature of technology to dislocate us historically. In principle, writes Craig Gay, 'the technological habit of mind is anti-teleological. It is largely uninterested, and indeed incapable, of appreciating the notions of final causality or ultimate purpose'" (180).
Future Reading:
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/10/opinion/david-brooks-building-attention-span.html
Interesting because it's an opposing view to what most seem to have to say about technology turning our brains to mush: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17707600-smarter-than-you-think
https://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/being-a-better-online-reader
http://www.reformation21.org/articles/the-seven-deadly-sins-in-a-digital-age-4-sloth.php
https://dougwils.com/books-and-culture/s22-money-love-desire/creation-is-thick-i-tell-you.html
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22240772-the-things-of-earth?ac=1&from_search=true
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14568717-big-disconnect
I'll just read this instead of reading Turkle's new book: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/04/books/review/jonathan-franzen-reviews-sherry-turkle-reclaiming-conversation.html and https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/27/opinion/sunday/stop-googling-lets-talk.html
https://www.wsj.com/articles/take-the-pledge-no-more-indulging-porn-1472684658
"...life in the digital age is an open invitation for clear, biblical thinking about the impact of our phones on ourselves, on our creation, on our neighbors, and on our relationships to God. Thoughtlessly adopting new technologies is worldliness" (37).
"I have discovered that all the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber...Hence it comes than men so much love noise and stir; hence it comes that the prison is so horrible a punishment; hence it comes that the pleasure of solitude is a thing incomprehensible."--quoting Pascal. "Pascal's point is a perennial fact: the human appetite for distraction is high in every age, because distractions give us easy escape from the silence and solitude whereby we become acquainted with our finitude, our inescapable mortality, and the distance of God from all our desires, hopes, and pleasures" (45).
"It is difficult to serve God with our heart, soul, strength and mind when we are diverted and distracted and multi-tasking everything"--quoting Doublas Groothuis, philosophy prof at Denver Seminary (47).
"From the onset of this study, we must die to the idea that a distraction-free life is possible--it is not, and it never has been. the holy life is piously complex, meaning we must learn how to apply distraction management in every situation" (50).
"If anger is the viral emotion of online disembodiment, then joy is the Christian emotion of embodied fellowship" (59).
"All writing that is remote--like the ancient letter, the modern text message, or this book--is more like ghost-to-ghost communication than person-to-person interaction. Yes, there is something of us in written words, but not everything in true fellowship can be typed out on phone screens...This is the reality of communication. Joy is a precious emotion of our integrated existence" (60).
"We easily settle into digital villages of friends who think just like us and escape from people who are unlike us. Our phones buffer us from diversity"..quoting Alistair Roberts--although"generational differences are fundamentally constitutive differences for the human race...new media is one of the may ways are elders are rendered invisible." "And it's not only our elders, but also the impoverished, the cognitively disabled, children, the less educated, the less literate, the less cosmopolitan, and non-Westerners. In effect, our online communities 'render invisible the majority of the human race'" (71).
Again quotes are from Roberts: "In fact, our online communities of like-minded friends are often marked by a 'positive feedback loop,' where 'affirmation and assent merely reinforce existing prejudices. In such contexts, communicties become insular, echo chambers of accepted opinion, closed to opposing voices,' which means they breed a 'homeostatic stifling of difference'" (72).
"The literacy problem we face today is not illiteracy but aliteracy, a digital skimming that is simply an attempt to keep up with a deluge of information coming through our phones rather than slowing down and soaking up what is most important" (85).
"God's word demands our highest levels of literacy concentration because it requires relational reading: not the superficial chitchat of a cocktail party, but the covenantal concentration of marriage vows. God's word is an invitation to orient our affections and desires. Our challenge is to use social media in the service of serious reading" (89).
In a footnote quoting Douglas Wilson: "Creation is a gift meant to bring glory to the Creator. All Christians agree here. But Christians throughout the ages have put their suspicions in different places. Take C.S. Lewis and Augustine. I love them both, but I would rather have a beer with Lewis. Lewis would order us a really good beer, just because it was a really good beer, with his understanding of God suffusing the whole. For him, while the thickness of creation can become an idol, a rival to God, it is intended for us as a sermon by God about God. And you cant't honor the preacher by ignoring the sermon. But Augustine would perhaps think that a thin beer would help us think of Jesus more, not distracting us quite so much, and that when we had really advanced in grace, we might be able to get the same effect with water. I say this in the full recognition that I am not worthy to have been Augustine's boot boy. So then a right approach to a thick creation honors the Creator more fully; we honor his work as he gave it, instead of trying to dilute it in misguided zeal for his glory." Reinke says: "Intended or not, Wilson's illustration of alcohol density coincides with the display of diving glory echoed in the first miracle of Jesus (John 2:1-11). He did not flex his sovereign power by turning party wine into water, but by turning ceremonial washing water into dark, undiluted party wine--the 'good wine' that caught attention. Not only did the water-to-wine thickening of creation not cloud Christ's glory, it manifested it" (95).
"...We must humbly admit that we are targets of digital mega-corporations that can make us into reckless consumers with strategic intermediated content. We cannot be naive here. Our attention spans have been monetized, and getting us hooked on our phones is a commercial commodity measured in billions of dollars, not kiosk change" (99).
"...We must celebrate. We cannot suppress our souls' appetite for what is awe-inspiring. The goal is not to mute all smartphone media but to feed ourselves the right media. We are created to behold, see, taste, and delight in the richness of God's glory--and that glory often comes refracted to us through skilled artists. Our insatiable appetite for viral videos, memes, and tweets is the product of an appetite for glory that God gave us" (100).
"Social media has become the new PR firm of the brand Self" (109).
"In the digital age, we idolize our phones when we lost the ability to ask if they help us (or hurt us) in reaching our spiritual goals. We grow so fascinated with technological glitz that we become captive to the wonderful means of our phones--their speed, organization, and efficiency--and these means themselves become sufficient ends. Our destination remains foggy because we are fixated on the speed of travel. We mistakenly submit human and spiritual goals to our technological possibilities" (115).
"Friction is the path to genuine authenticity, and no amount of online communication can overcome a lack of real integrity. We must be real with the people God puts in our lives....We are authentic believers who are committed to replacing easy relationships with authentic ones" (126).
Sherry Turkle: "The capacity for empathic conversation goes hand in hand with the capacity for solitude. In solitude we find ourselves; we prepare ourselves to come into conversation with something to say that is authentic" (126).
"Every morning we must take time to stop, to be still, to know that God is God and that we are his children. Digital technology must not fill up all the silent gaps of life" (129).
"The great term 'by faith' is a synonym for confidence in the unseen spiritual realities. Yet on what your heart loves, your eyes will linger." In a footnote on page 138, the great insight that "This is a recurring theme in the book of Isaiah, where the verb 'look to' is simultaneously applied to physical sight and spiritual sight (loyalty) in contrasting the categories of idols/God, visual/faith, and the immediate/anticipated" (138).
"...it is of the nature of technology to dislocate us historically. In principle, writes Craig Gay, 'the technological habit of mind is anti-teleological. It is largely uninterested, and indeed incapable, of appreciating the notions of final causality or ultimate purpose'" (180).
Future Reading:
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/10/opinion/david-brooks-building-attention-span.html
Interesting because it's an opposing view to what most seem to have to say about technology turning our brains to mush: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17707600-smarter-than-you-think
https://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/being-a-better-online-reader
http://www.reformation21.org/articles/the-seven-deadly-sins-in-a-digital-age-4-sloth.php
https://dougwils.com/books-and-culture/s22-money-love-desire/creation-is-thick-i-tell-you.html
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22240772-the-things-of-earth?ac=1&from_search=true
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14568717-big-disconnect
I'll just read this instead of reading Turkle's new book: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/04/books/review/jonathan-franzen-reviews-sherry-turkle-reclaiming-conversation.html and https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/27/opinion/sunday/stop-googling-lets-talk.html
https://www.wsj.com/articles/take-the-pledge-no-more-indulging-porn-1472684658
Saturday, June 1, 2019
The Soul of Shame
"Shame is primarily an emotion that undermines us, not so much via our left-mode rational processing, but by eroding our felt sense of connection and safety, something that supersedes the linguistic, logical, linear, factual mode of mental activity. As such, in brain time, to be less than, to be inadequate, is felt, sensed, and imaged long before we think it."
"Isolation is one of shame's primary methods."
"When I am in the presence of another who elicits discomfort within me, though I easily point to the person outside my skin as the responsible party for my distress, the real problem is far more proximate. For it is ultimately within me.
"My 'problem,' as it turns out, is ultimately what I am sensing, imaging, feeling, thinking and doing. It is not my only problem, just my ultimate one...
"But beyond this, and even more important, my problem is not just what I am sensing but that I do not feel adequate to respond to it. I perceive, beginning at nonconscious levels of awareness, that I do not have what it takes to tolerate what I feel. I am not just angry, sad, or lonely. But ultimately these feelings rest on the bedrock that I am alone with what I feel, and no one is coming to my aid. Shame undergirds other affective states because of its relationship to being left. And to be abandoned ultimately is to be in hell" (109).
"...we must remember, we are dust and breath, and healing shame will necessarily mean we act differently with our bodies. We will move when before we were literally unable to with our bodies. We will speak when before we were silent. We will demonstrate physical agency in the real world, as God did in Jesus..." (148).
"This is the story shame wants to tell. It is the story of fragility. It is the story of showering those who are smart, gifted and charismatic with approbations, and those are less so with, well, less. The story in which we have conflicts but are too afraid to face the emotions we anticipate will be waiting for us. These emotions have their source in the shame whose attendant tellls us that we are not enough and that Jesus is not enough for us to have this conversation. We won't be able to take it. Furthermore, if we ever imagined that Jesus would be present in that conversation, we might think he could take it, but we don't imagine that he's even there" (158).
"...unless leadership of an organization is open to curiosity, open to the idea that unless we are known, what we know doesn't matter, and open to seeking where shame hides, exposing the reality of our naked, vulnerable selves, and disregarding the shame that wants us to hide, we will continue to repeat the interaction that took place in Eden" (159).
"Paul then lists a number of noble things that we might do, but if they are not done lovingly, they mean nothing.
"I mentioned earlier that love and shame are the two fundamental affective states warring for our souls. Of course, this oversimplifies the case. It is not as if shame is the only emotion that gives us trouble, and love houses virtually ever emotion that leads to constructive, integrating behavior. The point here, however, is that in many respects life is not that complicated. In any instant it boils down to microdecisions we make that generally move us in one of two directions: a more integrated, resilient life of connection with God and others, or a more disintegrated, separated, chaotic and rigid life. Every minute of every day we choose between shame and love" (179).
"Isolation is one of shame's primary methods."
"When I am in the presence of another who elicits discomfort within me, though I easily point to the person outside my skin as the responsible party for my distress, the real problem is far more proximate. For it is ultimately within me.
"My 'problem,' as it turns out, is ultimately what I am sensing, imaging, feeling, thinking and doing. It is not my only problem, just my ultimate one...
"But beyond this, and even more important, my problem is not just what I am sensing but that I do not feel adequate to respond to it. I perceive, beginning at nonconscious levels of awareness, that I do not have what it takes to tolerate what I feel. I am not just angry, sad, or lonely. But ultimately these feelings rest on the bedrock that I am alone with what I feel, and no one is coming to my aid. Shame undergirds other affective states because of its relationship to being left. And to be abandoned ultimately is to be in hell" (109).
"...we must remember, we are dust and breath, and healing shame will necessarily mean we act differently with our bodies. We will move when before we were literally unable to with our bodies. We will speak when before we were silent. We will demonstrate physical agency in the real world, as God did in Jesus..." (148).
"This is the story shame wants to tell. It is the story of fragility. It is the story of showering those who are smart, gifted and charismatic with approbations, and those are less so with, well, less. The story in which we have conflicts but are too afraid to face the emotions we anticipate will be waiting for us. These emotions have their source in the shame whose attendant tellls us that we are not enough and that Jesus is not enough for us to have this conversation. We won't be able to take it. Furthermore, if we ever imagined that Jesus would be present in that conversation, we might think he could take it, but we don't imagine that he's even there" (158).
"...unless leadership of an organization is open to curiosity, open to the idea that unless we are known, what we know doesn't matter, and open to seeking where shame hides, exposing the reality of our naked, vulnerable selves, and disregarding the shame that wants us to hide, we will continue to repeat the interaction that took place in Eden" (159).
"Paul then lists a number of noble things that we might do, but if they are not done lovingly, they mean nothing.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poot and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)"In this sense, love is less a noun than an adverb (i.e., lovingly), a word that describes the action of a verb, action taken at wisdom's pace. And shame is all about stopping movement, shuttering conversation, crushing creative discovery, acting to quickly or too slowly for fear of making mistakes, and avoiding the repair of ruptures that re inevitable with the mobility of intersecting lives" (177).
"I mentioned earlier that love and shame are the two fundamental affective states warring for our souls. Of course, this oversimplifies the case. It is not as if shame is the only emotion that gives us trouble, and love houses virtually ever emotion that leads to constructive, integrating behavior. The point here, however, is that in many respects life is not that complicated. In any instant it boils down to microdecisions we make that generally move us in one of two directions: a more integrated, resilient life of connection with God and others, or a more disintegrated, separated, chaotic and rigid life. Every minute of every day we choose between shame and love" (179).
Sunday, May 26, 2019
Atomic Habits by James Clear
"Stress compounds...negative thoughts compound. The more you think of yourself as worthless or stupid or ugly, the more you condition yourself to interpret life that way." --James Clear, Atomic Habits
"Making a choice that is 1% better or 1% worse seems insignificant in the moment, but over the span of moments that make up a lifetime, these choices determine the difference between who you are who you could be. Success is the product of daily habits, not once-in-a-lifetime transformations. That said, it doesn't matter how successful or unsuccessful you are right now. What matters is whether your habits are putting you on the path toward success. You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results." --James Clear, Atomic Habits
Mic drop here, pretty much. I mean wow and yasssss and praise hands.
But I will add my thoughts...Thanks to @tshoxenreider and @thelazygenius and whoever else recommended this book. It met me in my time of need, (which apparently has been all my life because I never learned to develop habits.) I read and loved Charles Duhigg's The Power of Habit and loved it, but just as he claimed, Mr. Clear brilliantly took things to the next level of understanding and application. What I loved most: the foundation he laid for the importance of habits (in a sense, who you are is comprised of the things you regularly do, and the things you regularly do make you who you are); the insight that lack of autonomy diminishes willpower (so you can stay motivated by giving yourself choices, even small ones); and the practical advice for how to build habits--slowly and with such small steps that it's actually easy (I mean, that just might work!)
Will return to this one again and again. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫—I really, really liked it
Wednesday, May 15, 2019
May Reads
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
2.5 stars, rounded down
It started out quite charming. A few chapters in I was thrilled with what a delight this book would be: a likeable protagonist who loves books, a love story on the way, and just enough WWII info to make it feel not quite completely frivolous (but not enough to be a downer in this lighthearted, sweet book.) I was disappointed. I finished the book only because I was hoping that the ending would redeem it. Everyone said this book was so amazing, and usually I agree with the hype. In this instance, however, I think I just didn't have the suspension of disbelief required. I was not convinced of the easy, universal adoration that was gushed toward Juliet, and that her correspondents who hadn't even met her would share personal, traumatic details of the German occupation. (I had similar skepticism toward the idealized Elizabeth, and then waves of guilt for feeling so.) I furthermore was not convinced that the members of the literary society would be such good writers, and would all write in the same style. I found the love interest plot predictable but disappointing. I was not a fan of the manner in which the details of wartime were sprinkled throughout, only to accent the much lighter and inadequate plot, as if having survived such things just made the characters that much more endearing. By the time I finished, I was relieved it was over.
"Goodwill isn't nearly enough, is it, Juliet? Not nearly enough." --Dawsey
Emma
Of course picking this one up in the throes of a Pride & Prejudice hangover was unfair. To always be comparing Emma and her story to Elizabeth Bennet and hers is undoubtedly setting Emma up to disappoint. So let's phrase it this way: reading Emma made me more in love with P&P. Emma's naivete was initially sweet enough, but her slowness to learn grated on me. Emma's self-centeredness to the very end left her an unlikeable protagonist (which is HUGE). Emma contains many characters I also found grating. I'm sure it was set up as satire, but their dialogues would just go on and on, and I found the grating excessive. Austen is smart and witty, as always, but this one just doesn't shine.
The Gifts of Imperfection
More listy, but not as great as Daring Greatly. Probably says I still have a lot to learn about shame that I found the lists more deflating than inspiring. Still, so many good points. Such a needed voice.
2.5 stars, rounded down
It started out quite charming. A few chapters in I was thrilled with what a delight this book would be: a likeable protagonist who loves books, a love story on the way, and just enough WWII info to make it feel not quite completely frivolous (but not enough to be a downer in this lighthearted, sweet book.) I was disappointed. I finished the book only because I was hoping that the ending would redeem it. Everyone said this book was so amazing, and usually I agree with the hype. In this instance, however, I think I just didn't have the suspension of disbelief required. I was not convinced of the easy, universal adoration that was gushed toward Juliet, and that her correspondents who hadn't even met her would share personal, traumatic details of the German occupation. (I had similar skepticism toward the idealized Elizabeth, and then waves of guilt for feeling so.) I furthermore was not convinced that the members of the literary society would be such good writers, and would all write in the same style. I found the love interest plot predictable but disappointing. I was not a fan of the manner in which the details of wartime were sprinkled throughout, only to accent the much lighter and inadequate plot, as if having survived such things just made the characters that much more endearing. By the time I finished, I was relieved it was over.
"Goodwill isn't nearly enough, is it, Juliet? Not nearly enough." --Dawsey
Emma
Of course picking this one up in the throes of a Pride & Prejudice hangover was unfair. To always be comparing Emma and her story to Elizabeth Bennet and hers is undoubtedly setting Emma up to disappoint. So let's phrase it this way: reading Emma made me more in love with P&P. Emma's naivete was initially sweet enough, but her slowness to learn grated on me. Emma's self-centeredness to the very end left her an unlikeable protagonist (which is HUGE). Emma contains many characters I also found grating. I'm sure it was set up as satire, but their dialogues would just go on and on, and I found the grating excessive. Austen is smart and witty, as always, but this one just doesn't shine.
The Gifts of Imperfection
More listy, but not as great as Daring Greatly. Probably says I still have a lot to learn about shame that I found the lists more deflating than inspiring. Still, so many good points. Such a needed voice.
Saturday, May 4, 2019
None Like Him by Jen Wilkin
"So it has been ever since: human beings created to bear the image of God instead aspire to become like God...Rather than rest in the immutability of God, we pointed to our own calcified patterns and declare ourselves unchanging and unchangeable" (23).
"While God is not able to be fully known, he is able to be sufficiently known" (34).
"Because God is infinite, he is incomprehensible, unable to be fully known. Because humans are finite, we are able to be fully known. And the implications of our own knowability should change the way we live...Others...can't know us fully. One reason this is true is because we are masters at concealment, even from those we love and trust. We excel at showing our finer qualities while carefully tucking away our shortcomings. And because other people have a limited interest in plumbing the depths of our character, we can get away with it. "Man looks on the outward appearance," and is content to do so, being so typically intent on his own hidden issues that he has little time to concern himself with the hidden issues of his neighbor. No, our neighbor cannot know us, but far more concerning is that we do not and cannot fully know ourselves. "Who can discern his [own] errors?" (Ps. 19:12)" (35-36).
"God is not only an expert on God. He is also an expert on me" (37).
"While God is not able to be fully known, he is able to be sufficiently known" (34).
"Because God is infinite, he is incomprehensible, unable to be fully known. Because humans are finite, we are able to be fully known. And the implications of our own knowability should change the way we live...Others...can't know us fully. One reason this is true is because we are masters at concealment, even from those we love and trust. We excel at showing our finer qualities while carefully tucking away our shortcomings. And because other people have a limited interest in plumbing the depths of our character, we can get away with it. "Man looks on the outward appearance," and is content to do so, being so typically intent on his own hidden issues that he has little time to concern himself with the hidden issues of his neighbor. No, our neighbor cannot know us, but far more concerning is that we do not and cannot fully know ourselves. "Who can discern his [own] errors?" (Ps. 19:12)" (35-36).
"God is not only an expert on God. He is also an expert on me" (37).
Tuesday, April 30, 2019
April 2019
The Invention of Wings (reread) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Still Waiting (reread) ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Courage, Dear Heart ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Daring Greatly ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I Think You’re Wrong (But I’m Listening) ⭐️⭐️⭐️
White Fragility ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Atomic Habits ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Still Waiting (reread) ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Courage, Dear Heart ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Daring Greatly ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I Think You’re Wrong (But I’m Listening) ⭐️⭐️⭐️
White Fragility ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Atomic Habits ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Courage, Dear Heart by Rebecca C Reynolds
"Then one day it hit me--dissecting the miraculous from the mundane isn't the primary goal of a believer. God is not sitting around waiting for me to give him credit for some divine activity that he's hidden inside obscurity. He's placed me inside a miraculous whole, a macro universe that operates according to his mind-blowing laws of biology, chemistry, and physics. Inside this miraculous whole, micro compressions of God's creative power--miraculous instances--sometimes display God's direct intervention. For example, on the same day that grapes grown by common grace were fermenting slowly in jugs (the miraculous whole), Jesus also turned one batch of water very quickly into wine (the miraculous instance). Both exist on the continuum of the divine creation. Both testify to our Father's involvement in the universe" (91).
"When the Bible speaks about fear--which is often--if speaks to all of this complexity. God knows your defaults. He knows your instincts. He knows your biology, your chemistry, your genetics, your experiences, ad your intellectual capacity. Every connection that occurs in your nervous system, every fluid released by every gland, every physiological reaction--from the lump in your throat to the drop of your stomach--is seen by the God who made you.
"This means that when JEsus comes to the believer saying, 'Do not fear,' he's not like humans who tell you not to worry. He understands what others cannot understand about us because he knows us back and forth, inside and out. He knows that for some of us, this is a command to walk on land, and for others, it's a command to walk on water" (93).
"So when feelings of fear, anxiety, or restlessness do hit, it's important to see them for what they are. They aren't indications that God has abandoned us. They aren't indications that we have messed up or that we are on the wrong track. They are emotions to address. That's all" (101).
"So if you struggle with fear while someone in your religious community brags about his or her boldness, don't let that comparison go too deep. This difference might not result from spiritual maturity so much as chemical capacity. And besides that, you serve a God who isn't limited by your fear. In fact, it's possible that your inborn sensitivity is vital to the specific work God has prepared for you" (102).
"So what if instead of shaming ourselves for our feelings, trying to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and hating ourselves when we fail, we took time to admit the real truth of our situation to God? What if we just said, 'Lord, I am scared. I need some help with this fear'? This is a powerful step to take because the gospel isn't about working harder to prove ourselves--it's about the power of God living in incapable humans" (103).
"When the Bible speaks about fear--which is often--if speaks to all of this complexity. God knows your defaults. He knows your instincts. He knows your biology, your chemistry, your genetics, your experiences, ad your intellectual capacity. Every connection that occurs in your nervous system, every fluid released by every gland, every physiological reaction--from the lump in your throat to the drop of your stomach--is seen by the God who made you.
"This means that when JEsus comes to the believer saying, 'Do not fear,' he's not like humans who tell you not to worry. He understands what others cannot understand about us because he knows us back and forth, inside and out. He knows that for some of us, this is a command to walk on land, and for others, it's a command to walk on water" (93).
"So when feelings of fear, anxiety, or restlessness do hit, it's important to see them for what they are. They aren't indications that God has abandoned us. They aren't indications that we have messed up or that we are on the wrong track. They are emotions to address. That's all" (101).
"So if you struggle with fear while someone in your religious community brags about his or her boldness, don't let that comparison go too deep. This difference might not result from spiritual maturity so much as chemical capacity. And besides that, you serve a God who isn't limited by your fear. In fact, it's possible that your inborn sensitivity is vital to the specific work God has prepared for you" (102).
"So what if instead of shaming ourselves for our feelings, trying to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and hating ourselves when we fail, we took time to admit the real truth of our situation to God? What if we just said, 'Lord, I am scared. I need some help with this fear'? This is a powerful step to take because the gospel isn't about working harder to prove ourselves--it's about the power of God living in incapable humans" (103).
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