Tech- No

Tech- no or Tech-yes?
We are riding a wave of continuous technology advances and integration for communication. Does this cause us to keep in touch better with people, or lose touch in a meaningful way?

I would say that both could be true. With the ease of taking digital pictures and uploading them, the quickest way to share those with others is online in some way (blog, email, posting), which can be beneficial to those who want to see the travel pictures or someone's wedding pictures. But it is also impersonal. The hilarious story behind the picture is lost. Even when there are captions, a person telling the story face to face cannot be replaced by digital postings.

I feel "connected" in so many ways, I can't even keep track and then I feel disconnected when I cannot keep up. Do you feel the same? Does it feel like we are being tracked by what we do online? We are. Companies try to get as much information about us as possible. That kind of sounds futuristic 1984- ish doesn't it? To think that all the computer/internet technology has gone from zero to what it is now in my lifetime is astounding. That's a pretty short period. Think about what the next 20 years will bring.

How do you feel about all the technology connections affecting your life? Are you attached to your technology? Do you think it is helping or hindering different relationships?

Coffee Break with C.S. Lewis

A quiet, cool day
has drawn me away
from worries of the world
thrown at me.

I settle at a table
and suddenly am able
to think clearly and write while
sipping on coffee.

It's a coffee break now
I take a step back somehow
with background chatter of the shop
reading C.S. Lewis.

Coldplay is playing from a radio behind the counter as I step into Mitchell's for coffee. It's quiet, because I came after the lunch rush. I buy coffee and some coffee beans to brew at home and sit near the back to read.

While sitting here at the table, I finished reading C.S. Lewis' An Experiment in Criticism, and it provided some interesting literary thoughts to expand my mind. As a true lover of reading, I nodded along with Lewis at many things. One thing he helped me realize was how the non-readers out there do not think like me. I get my daily adventures and stories from books, because I cannot travel all the time and to all these places. Non-readers have to get their adventure from somewhere else, and they don't want it to come from books. In addition, they might think me a little crazy that I love to read so much. We are all different and our differences help bring out interesting life discussions with one another.

These couple quotes were from the end of the book. Perhaps you will agree with Lewis' take on the matter, perhaps not. Either way, we learn something here about why readers love to read so much.

My own eyes are not enough for me, I will see through those of others (page 140)

But in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. (page 141)

Yard Sale

What could be more simple then throwing all your clutter and unwanted "stuff" out into the yard and making a few dollars? Clearing out space and getting rid of things we accumulate so easily feels great. This weekend, the family was all back at the house to help out with such an event.

If you have not done a yard sale because you think it will be too much work, you are mistaken. The hardest part is sorting all the clutter and getting all the items you want for the sale. Then, bring it out to the front yard early in the morning (and by early, I mean by 7 am). Place items on tables, or the ground, and drag out furniture. Don't price anything, but have figures in your mind for any big ticket items.

When people come, they will ask you for a price, and then you can start off with a figure, and barter from there.

Really, the whole point of a yard sale is to get rid of all those things you don't want or need anymore. So, if a customer is trying to knock down your prices several dollars less than what you were hoping, remember that it is better to have a few bucks and that item gone (because you don't want it anyway) than to be stuck with it or to give it away for nothing.

Our yard sale was successful. The weather was chilly and stayed that way all day until we cleaned up at 1:30. While I sat monitoring the sale I had a crocheted shawl covering my legs because it was chilly. We took a bunch of stuff to Goodwill and counted our earnings. We did well for the smaller items we had this time.

I was glad to help, and we had fun. The people you meet and talk to is really entertaining. You never know what interesting people and conversations you will have. 

Keeping warm by stealing a crochet shawl from the clothes table. I decided that it was too pretty to sell.

We sold LOTS of this stuff, including the annoying parrot (oh there's a story behind that one)! P.S. The white BMW is for sale.

Oxford Student

I am most excited to say that I am a University of Oxford student! I enrolled in an online literature class that starts in January, on the Brontës. The class will focus on the Brontë sisters, Emily, Anne, and Charlotte, and a little bit on their brother Branwell and their father, who all had published writings. They were a talented family. Living in Northern England, though, the sisters lived lives close to home and did not travel much (Belgium was the only country they traveled to). So, how did they come to write some of the most beautiful, interesting, and well-known stories? That is a little bit of what we will talk about in this class. Who hasn't heard of Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights? Even if you haven't read the books, you have surely heard the titles.

Did I mention how thoroughly excited I am?
If I cannot be at Oxford for the time being, then I will have a piece of Oxford in my apartment, and I can see this photo, and walk the streets by the Bodleian Library again in my mind, just keeping it fresh until I go over there again.
To study literature, especially English Literature, is one of my greatest joys. (I know I am a nerd, trust me.) To better myself as a reader, a writer, and analyzer of text is something I seek because of the passion I have for literature. To challenge myself and stretch my skills is the best way to grow, and I intend to grow much further.

I cannot wait for class to begin!

This Day

My legs wrapped in a blanket
Coffee right by my side
On a chilly day with the sun
Having no place to hide

I hear birds chirp as they fly
I smell coffee with cream
The air is still, the world is silent
As if I'd stumbled into a dream

Flannel shirt and jeans today
Making soup at noon
This is the day the Lord has made
Each moment the fairest bloom

I finished my crochet project of this lap blanket! It was a test to see if I was able to handle the chevron pattern, and I am glad to say it turned out very nice. I love how the chevron zig-zag looks in the blanket. So, it is now the perfect accompaniment to a chilly day (or night) as I read on the sofa. I have been drinking coffee and tea and making lots of soup as I am glad to say the chilly air has reached Florida again. Okay, by chilly, I mean it's not 80 degrees. I will gladly take 70 degrees as a high temperature!
This week, I am focusing on cherishing each moment of the day. Taking a conscious look at the good, and living in that moment. Once it passes, it's history. This day is a gift. Cherish it.

That Hideous Strength

"And this," said Ransom, ignoring the question, "is why we have no way left at all save the one I told you. The Hideous Strength holds all this Earth in its fist to squeeze as it wishes. But for their one mistake, there would be no hope left."
-That Hideous Strength, C.S. Lewis

I am engrossed in this book. As I read on it gets more and more intriguing and eerie. This is the third and last in the series by C.S. Lewis. It is called the space trilogy, but I find it to be more about the spiritual forces of evil that are present everywhere than about space. I think part of the reason I had never read these books before now was because I thought it was going to be "sci-fi" but to me, it is not.

It is very intelligent and complex, that is for sure. Sometimes I feel like it is over my head, since C.S. Lewis had one of the greatest minds in the 20th century, it is no shock that I may not understand everything.

The story is about how evil can easily start out appearing as something good, and as it grows there is little to stop it from crossing all lines of what we know as civilized society. It takes place post- World War II in a small England town. A group of intelligent professors/scientists begin this organization called N.I.C.E., the National Institute of Co-ordinated Experiments. They begin in the community as a sort of experimental facility, but the evil that is being conducted there is largely unknown by outsiders until it is too late. By then they have spread their influences through the whole community, forming their own "police" and conducting grotesque experiments with humans and animals. But what the power of evil draws into themselves to conquer the good is actually used against them in ways they did not foresee.

I am getting close to finishing it, and I must say I have enjoyed this series much more than I thought I would. I was afraid it would be to sci-fi, but my fears were mistaken. The way that C.S. Lewis stabs the issue in the heart literally makes me sit back and muse over some passages I will read. This is how he writes his essays and other books, which is why I will read and re-read his writings. How well he understood the good and bad of man's heart and how even in the most dark of circumstances there is reason to hope and there is good to fight for.

Politics

I am not much of a political debater nor do I pay attention to the ads and hype about the election because they are full of skewed views. But voting is an important part of our country. The way each campaign brings out all the past decisions and events of the candidates is fruitless. They easily lose focus on what matters and only want to make the other person look bad. The power struggle is played like a game, and the media and ads get everyone so swept up in the moot points from the past that are only remotely important, at best.

I read the following quote last week and it just spoke of something so forgotten, even by Christians. So, I wanted to share it, in light of election day. I voted via absentee ballot, so my vote is in. Be sure to vote today!

Politics offers powerful temptations to twist the truth and to distort the views of opponents and smear their character. Whenever that happens, it belittles and undermines political life. But when Christian activists do it, the name of Christ and the reputation of the Christian faith suffer great damage. Christians must be ready to lose politically rather than engage in dishonesty or corruption. Christians in politics should have the universal reputation of being the people whose word and action can always be trusted.

-Ronald J. Sider, Just Politics

Dreame

When thou knew'st what I dreamt, when thou knew'st when
Excesse of joy would wake me, and cam'st then,
I must confesse, it could not chuse but bee
Prophane, to thinke thee anything but thee.

-"The Dreame", John Donne

I have been waking up from some strange dreams lately. Every once in a while that happens. I will have such a vivid dream, one that I wake up from so it feels real, and it takes all morning to shake it. I tend to have dreams in categories like genres of movies. They are usually action/adventure, but in my dreams I am brave and do not fear whatever danger is lurking. I run a lot in my dreams, and I never seem to get tired. Are these dreams perhaps an exaggerated version of how I feel sometimes in my life?

I don't feel as brave in real life as I am in my dreams. I have dreams where I am chasing (or being chased by) bad guys who want to do me harm. I have dreams that are like puzzles, where I am lost in a tall building and every turn I take brings me to more turns and similar looking halls, but no way out. And the worst dream of all, where I was at the airport about to fly to London, and I got to the counter realizing that I forgot my passport at home. That is what I call a nightmare.

I just don't know what to make of dreams. Sometimes I will have a good, happy dream and I will wish that to happen in real life. But usually they are about bad guys trying to get me. Perhaps this is part of the spiritual forces of evil that can creep in anywhere to feed fear into me by whatever means. We are all exposed to the evil forces all the time, so why would we be perfectly safe in our dreams?

Paul writes to the Ephesians about wearing an armor of God at all times, so that we can stand up against those schemes of the devil because we are in a spiritual battle. He writes:

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, stand firm. (Ephesians 6. 12-13)

Fill Me Up

Lord, I need You to fill me so there is less of me and more of You inside me.
I am guilty. Guilty of not loving others as Jesus does.
On my own, I lack wisdom, courage, and I am afraid of many things.
But in You, I am in want of nothing. I lack nothing and anything is possible. I trust You and Your ways. 

Fill me up with Your love so that it can overflow onto others. Open my eyes, mind, and heart to them. Use me, with the talents you chose to give me.

Help me show Your love to others in the smallest ways, like a root waking to form a bud that will grow into beauty, as John Donne wrote in the late 1500s:

Gentle love deeds, as blossomes on a bough,
From love awakened root do bud out now.

Roads: Let the Poet Speak

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

"The Road Not Taken", Robert Frost

Remember this poem by Robert Frost? Surely you read it in high school and had to analyse it, and determine if there was a positive or negative result from his choice of which road to take. I remember my high school English teacher discussing this poem with my class, and each student took this to be a positive poem, indicating that he took the road less traveled by and the difference it made was good. I remember the teacher crushing my assumption that I was correct when she suggested quite plainly that perhaps the poet did not intend it to have a positive connotation. Perhaps there was regret by the road he took. It is called, "the road not taken."

This completely changed my way of reading poems, which is probably what my teacher was hoping for. It taught me to open myself up to what the poet was saying, without bringing my own perspective and desires of what I wanted it to be. It taught me how to let the words of the poet speak.

This is how it is with God. He is the poet. We are always trying to make what we want out of His work. The truth is, I have a choice everyday. If I choose to give God glory in everything I do, whether it's encouraging someone, writing, or processing paperwork in the office, I am giving God the opportunity to use me how He chooses. When I open myself up to that, God's plan will unfold, not mine. That may not satisfy my own wishes, but I am moody, emotional, and easily swayed by the day's events. I can't always see what is best. But the Master Poet does.