Friday, March 27, 2015

A Few Books

Here's a quick post on a couple of books I'm reading:

The Happiness of PursuitCall me cheesy, but I have a special affinity for books with titles that rework a well-known phrase, like  The War of Art. Picked this one up because of the author, Chris Guillebeau, whose book The Art of Nonconformity  I read a few years ago and really enjoyed. This book so far has been especially refreshing and worth the read. It's is a series of short stories weaved throughout highlighting people who have pursued what he calls a "life quest." He also weaves in his own story of traveling to every country in the world by the the age of 35.

Strange Glory: Yet another biography on Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Have about 30 pages left in this one and will try to post some of the  notes from the book , especially given that the notes from the Metaxas bio are still one of the most popular posts I've put up. This book is a good complement to the Metaxas biography and gives greater emphasis to Bonhoeffer's theology and friendships. Though not quite as readable as the Metaxas bio, overall I enjoyed this one more as it seemed to go deeper inside the things that shaped the man Bonhoeffer became.

Daily Rituals: A collection of excerpts and descriptions from famous artists, painters, writers, musicians, describing how they went about their day. Lots to learn, but the big takeaway for me is that three hours of writing a day is about the most one can hope for. But three hours of writing a day can also be extremely fruitful over time (See section on Anthony Trollope). About halfway through this book.

People of God: This book was written by the small groups pastor at Matt Chandler's church. Our church is trying to get our mind around what it means to have an intentional small group strategy that also emphasizes leadership development. Hoping to learn much from this book.

First Hand: Skimming this book because of a product in development at FamilyLife for middle-teens. One of the sessions is all about helping a young person "make your faith your own." And that's really the gist of this book. The authors state inside the front cover, "Only a short time ago, we were so done with the whole Christian thing. What we thought was our faith wasn't ours at all. Not completely. Mostly it belonged to our parents. Some of that belonged to the youth pastor or our friends. Sure, some of it was real for us too. But a lot of it wasn't. If you had given our personal beliefs a close inspection, you might have noticed some flimsy plastic labels hanging on them." They go on to say, "Our goal in writing this book is to help you replace secondhand religion with a faith – and most importantly a relationship – that won't quit on you."

This is also important book because I've observed this happen in a number of churches, and I'm especially interested in helping our church be a place where kids make their faith their own before leaving the home.

The Story of Christianity vol 2: I started reading this with a group of guys at the office and it has
been a great delight. I read volume 1 in seminary and have always wanted to finish volume 2. Discussion groups are a great way to trick yourself into reading something you know you should read but just haven't made the time to do so. Gonzalez is the most readable writer of Christian History that I've run across. Recently both volumes were available for $3.99 via kindle, so keep an eye out.



Wednesday, March 25, 2015

A Few Videos and links to Encourage and Inspire

Here's a couple of videos that I've found inspiring this week:

This first one I showed to a group of leaders at FamilyLife and it sparked some of the best conversations we've had as a group. I also showed it to my wife and son and all three of us came away from it inspired and wanting to listen to more classical music!



This one I'm particularly fond of because my own love of pencils and writing.



Now for the other theology nerds out there, both of you, enjoy this take on St. Patrick and the Trinity



And if that wasn't enough...




Finally, here's a valuable article on the importance of reading (Sent from my lovely wife):
Stop Cleaning the Kitchen and Read a Book

Monday, March 16, 2015

Man Up and Grab a Diaper: 6 Lessons From a New Dad

My good friend and co-worker Dan Sheaffer wrote a great article not too long ago on some of the lessons he learned as a new dad. Great insights. I especially liked this one:
Part of being a family leader is learning to anticipate needs that are coming before being asked to do them.  When I look to serve Emily—just to purely serve and take some burden off of her—it goes a long way. In Ephesians, Paul calls all men to love their wives as Christ loves the church.  Christ lived so sacrificially for the church that he died for it. 
Check it out here:

Six Lessons From My First 8 Months as a Dad

Friday, March 13, 2015

C.S. Lewis on Temptations

Just finished reading Washed and Waiting by Wesley Hill. Great book. So much rich theology relevant to all Christians. Ran across this GREAT quote from C.S. Lewis:

“A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is… A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in… Christ, because he was the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means - the only complete realist.” (From Mere Christianity)

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Tolkien: Notes from his Biography

What follows are my notes from an OUTSTANDING biography of J.R.R. Tolkien by Humphrey Carpenter. I've interspersed some comments along the way that summarize some parts of the bio. The book is definitely worth reading. I borrowed it from a friend who said he had already read it 3 times and I imagine I'll read it again before long. I've already lined up a number of books he references in the bio to read, many of which heavily influenced Tolkien's thinking and writing, shaping what eventually became Lord of the Rings (LOTR hear after). Page numbers are from the bio. Most of my comments are in Italics (book titles are also in italics).

J.R.R. TOLKIEN - A BIOGRAPHY


ON MALE FRIENDSHIP: 53 - he came to associate male company with much that was good in life.. Started a group called the “Tea club.” Later changed title to the “Barrovian Society.” (name of place they met).

One of the major themes of the book, and I've heard one of the major observations of those who've studied Tolkien's life, was his deep need for male friendship. And anyone who's read LOTR or the Hobbit can see this pretty clearly. More quotes to follow on friendship - especially

ON BOOKS OF INFLUENCE 42, 54 - Beowulf, The Pearl, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Tolkien published his own translations of all three of these works). Volusungasaga (from the Norse) - Wagner’s interpretation of these events  lead to the ring series? (see note on p.77 on the translation).
Curdie’ books of George Macdonald
57 – Kalevala - or “Land of heroes” the collection of poems which is the principal repository of Finland's mythology. WH Kirbys everyman translation.
71 – Sweet’s Anglo-Saxon reader
72 – Crist of Cyenwulf - a group of anglo saxon poems. Two lines struck him forcibly from this:
“Eala Earendel engla beorhtastofer middangeard monnum sended.”
         (note: this is where the LOTR name “earendel” came from).

72– Valuska "prophecy of the seer rest"
77 – William Morris' The life and death of Jason (Morris’s translation of the Volungasaga), and a prose-and-verse romance The House of the Wolfings (both he found fascinating).

A note on these books and his love of languages: that was also another major theme of the bio. In fact, LOTR really flowed out of his love of languages and not the other way around. He also was versed in many ancient languages, mostly related to various forms of old English and nordic languages. He headed up various discussion groups, even with fellow faculty, who would meet to discuss works in the original old english and Ancient Nordic.

83 - ON HOW HE CAME TO WRITE LOTR: "G B Smith, after reading some of Tolkien's stories about Earendel, said that he "liked them but asked what they were really about." Tolkien had replied: "I don't know. I'll try to find out." Not try to invent: try to find out. He did not see himself as an inventor of story but as a discoverer of legend. And this was really due to his private languages.  He had been working for sometime at the language that was influenced by Finnish and by 1915 he had developed it to a degree of some complexity. He felt that it was a "mad hobby", and he scarcely expected to find an audience for it. But he sometimes wrote poems in it, and the more he worked at it the more he felt that it needed a "history" to support.

98 - B - William Morris: The earthly paradise (influenced The Silmarillion.)

107 – ON HIS FACINATION WITH INVENTING LANGUAGES: Not only did he invent languages for fun, he also toyed with it in his own diary: “After starting it in an ordinary hand writing he began instead to use a remarkable alphabet that he had just invented, which looked like a mixture of Hebrew, Greek, and Pittman’s shorthand. He soon decided to involve it with his own mythology, and he named it “The Alphabet of Rumill" after and elvish sage in his stories. His diary entries were all in English but they were now written in this alphabet. The only difficulty was that he could not decide on the final form of it; he kept on altering the letters and changing their use, so that a sign that was used for "r" one week might be used for "L" the next. Nor did he always remember to keep a record of these changes, and after a time he found it difficult to read earlier entries in the diary. Resolutions to stop altering the alphabet and leave it alone were of no avail: a restless perfectionism in this as in so much else made him constantly refine and adjust."

Tolkien's friendships were critical to his creative process. He depended on the men in his life to sharpen him and give him creative energy and feedback. His friendship with Lewis became so important that it even created a bit of jealousy with his wife. This started as a young man, having gathered a close knit literary group in college, a group that was decimated by the ravages of WWI.

147 – ON HIS FRIENDSHIP WITH CS Lewis - ‘Anyone who wants to know something of what Tolkien and Lewis contributed to each other’s lives should read Lewis’s esay on friendship in his book The Four Loves. There it all is, the account of how two companions become friends when they discover a shared insight, how their friendship is not jealous but seeks out the company of others, how such friendships are almost of necessity between men, how the greatest pleasure of all is for a group of friends to come to an inn after a hard days walking: ‘Those are the golden sessions,’ writes Lewis, ‘when our slippers are on, our feet spread out towards the blaze and our drinks at our elbows; when the whole world, and something beyond the world, opens itself to our minds as we talk; and no one has any claim or responsibility for another, but all are freeman and equals as if we had first met an hour ago, while at the same time an affection mellowed by the years enfolds us. Life – natural life – has no better gift to give."

159 – ON MARRIAGE AND HONESTY - GREAT QUOTE!!! “Indeed he perceived that his need of male friendship was not entirely compatible with married life. but he believed this was one of the sad facts of a fallen world; and on the whole he thought that a man had a right to male pleasures, and should if necessary insist on them. To a son contemplating marriage he wrote: ‘There are many things that a man feels are legitimate even thought they cause a fuss. Let him not lie about them to his wife or lover! Cut them out - or if worth a fight: just insist. Such matters my arise frequently - the glass of beer, the pipe, the writing of letters, the other friend, etc, etc. If the other side’s claims really are unreasonable (as they are at times between the dearest lovers and most loving married folk) they are much better met by above board refusal and “fuss” than subterfuge.'

Good advice for sure. Every man needs a hobby - needs a productive outlet. Too many guys are bored with their lives. But they also feel the hobby takes time from the family. Make the time! It may actually give you more energy for your family.

165 - Bombadil metaphor: “Tom Bombadil was intended to represent ‘the spirit of the (vanishing) Oxford and Berkshire countryside."

Another theme of the book was his love of trees - and how much his love of trees shaped his writing. The Bombadil metaphor certainly points at this. More on that later.

167ON HIS WRITING FOR HIS CHILDREN: Tolkien would write out an account of recent events at the North Pole in the shaky handwriting of Father Christmas, the rune-like capitals use by the Polar Bear, or the flowing script of Ilbereth. Then he would add drawings, write the address on the envelope… and paint and cut out a highly realistic North Polar postage stamp. and he would deliver the letter in a variety of ways… leave in the fireplaces as if it had been brought down the chimney, and cause strange noises to be heard in the early morning, which together with a snowy footprint on the carpet indicated that Father Christmas himself had called. Later the local postman became an accomplice and used to deliver the letters himself….” HA! Fun idea

same pageChildren’s Lit: G.Macdonald’s Curdie, Andrew Lang’s fairy tale collection, E.A. Wke-Smith’s The Marvellous Land of Snergs. Highly amusing!

168 – Book Sinclair Lewis’ Babbitt (and source of the name hobbit?)
171 - read his Arthur poem - “the Fall of Arthur” - colleague said, ‘shows how the Beowulf metre can be used in modern English.'
173 – C.S. Lewis' "ransom" trilogy reread and get a copy!

175 – ON HOW THE HOBBIT STARTED - How the Hobbit started: “On a summer’s day… he was sitting by the window in the study… marking exam papers. Years later he recalled: ‘One of the candidates had mercifully left one of the pages with no writing on it (which is the best thing that can possibly happen to an examiner) and I wrote on it: “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.” Names always generate a story in my mind. Eventually I thought I’d better find out what hobbits were like. But that’s only the beginning.’"

A good reminder that the mundane can lead to the exceptional. Note the "I'd better find out..." line again.

182 – compost heap - “One learns little by raking though a compost heap to see what dead plants originally went into it. Far better to observe its effect on the new and growing plants that it is enriching."
199-200 – procrastination story = "leaf by Nagel in the "brilliant! Also, "The Whitehorse”

ON PROCRASTINATION AND THE ROLE OF TREES IN HIS LIFE:
“He was fifty-one, tired, and fearful that in the end he would achieve nothing. He had already gained a reputation for almost indefinite procrastination in his philological work (i.e. his university work with languages), and this sometime amused him, though it was often saddening to him; but as to never finishing his mythology, that was a dreadful and numbing thought. 

One day at about this time Lady Agnew, who lived opposite in Northmoor Road, told him that she was nervous about a large poplar tree in the road; she said that it cut off the sun from her garden, and she feared for her house it if fell in a gale. Tolkien thought that this was ridiculous. ‘Any wind that could have uprooted it and hurled it on her houses’, he said, ‘would have demolished her and the house without any assistance form the tree.’ But the poplar had already been lopped and mutilated, and though he managed to save it now, Tolkien began to think about it. He was after all ‘anxious about my own internal Tree’, his mythology; and there seemed to be some analogy.

Eearlier in the book he describes an experience with trees as a boy... which I didn't capture here. The cutting of a tree brought great sorrow. This quote continues...

“One morning he woke up with a short story in his head, and scribbled it down. It was the tale of a painter named Niggle, a man who, like Tolkien, ‘niggled’ over details: ‘He used to spend a long time on a single leaf, trying to catch its shape, and its sheen, and the glistening odd dewdrops on its edges. Yet he wanted to paint a huge tree. There was one picture in particular which bothered him. It had begun with a leaf caught in the wind, and it became a tree; and the tree grew, sending out innumerable branches, and thrusting out the most fantastic roots. Strange birds came and settled on the twigs and had to be attended to. Then all round the tree, and behind it, through the gaps in the leaves and boughs, a country began to open out’

In the story, which he  called Leaf by Niggle, Tolkien expressed his worst fears for his mythological Tree. Like Niggle he sensed that he would be snatched away from his work long before it was finished - if indeed it could ever be finished in this world. For it is in another and brighter place that Niggle finds his Tree finished, and learns that it is indeed a real tree, a true part of creation.

243 – ON LEWIS' DEATH - He felt lonely at the lack of male company. Lewis died…. “so far I have felt the normal feel ins of a man of my age - like an old tree that is losing all its leaves one by one: this feels like an axe-blow near the roots.” He spent many hours pondering over Lewis' last book Letters to Malcolm, Chiefly on Prayer.

246 – Never a TV, washing machine or dishwasher in the house. Hmmm... 

259 – Best known inklings: Lewis, Charles Williams, Tolkien, also Hugo Dyson. author says to visit their graveyards.

260 – read "leaf by niggle” - excerpt LAST LINES OF BOOK: “Before him stood the Tree, his Tree, finished. If you could say that of a Tree that was alive, its leaves opening, its branches growing and bending in the wind that Niggle had so often felt and guessed, and had so often failed to catch. he gazed at the Tree, and slowly he lifted his arms and opened them wide. ‘It’s a gift!’ he said."