tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67559047952093342952024-03-04T21:11:08.095-07:00One Man Trying...To love one woman faithfully, to be intentional with my children, to live with integrity in an upside-down world, and do the right thing no matter how much it hurts.John C. Majorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384758909258952917noreply@blogger.comBlogger249125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755904795209334295.post-80114189112643149922017-12-21T13:01:00.001-07:002017-12-21T13:01:38.185-07:00New Blog: TOP BOOKS OF 2017<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I've officially switched to a <a href="http://www.themajors.blog/" target="_blank">new blog</a>. The first post there is my <a href="https://themajors.blog/2017/12/21/top-books-of-2017/" target="_blank">top books of 2017</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">My wife and I will be blogging together on the new blog. I more than likely will not be posting to this blog again. Check out the new blog (<b><span style="color: blue;">TheMajors.blog</span></b>) and be sure to sign up for emails or follow me on twitter to see when new posts are published.</span><br />
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<br />John C. Majorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384758909258952917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755904795209334295.post-85493615817707781612017-11-09T09:20:00.000-07:002017-11-09T09:20:00.951-07:00Rock your Mornings with Your Inner Nerd and Rule Your Day<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You feeling like A Greek Olympian after Rocking the Morning</td></tr>
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Every year it becomes more apparent that life is less about the big moments (though those are great), but mostly comprised of the accumulation of small daily moments. The more you can take control of those small moments - and harness wasted minutes - the more of a big difference you can make with the overall direction of your life. But the hard part is convincing yourself of this in the moment. It's much easier to believe that those five minutes you just blew watching cat videos really didn't matter. But it does. You can never get that back. Ever. So how do you make the most of every moment of the day?<br />
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For me it always starts with the morning. And be warned - this post is about to get <i>really</i> nerdy. I fully confess this. But don't get caught up in how nerdy I am - because I know you can be too. Instead, think about how this applies to you and your inner nerdiness to become a more productive and focused person that wins the day right from the start. I write out a ton here because I've been thinking on this for a while now - in fact I wrote the first draft of this post almost two years ago.<br />
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Here's the premise that I'm operating from: As the morning goes, so goes the day. If I can get a jump on it and start the day right - my day almost always goes better. Early morning discipline feeds the fire and makes me hungry to make the most of the day. Now - here's how this SPECIFICALLY looks for me. Here's what works for me the way I'm wired. And it is super nerdy - so hang on.<br />
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Mornings and Greek Study</h3>
One of my goals after seminary was to keep up with the biblical languages, especially since languages were one of the main reasons I attended seminary (One well known theologian encouraged me in this direction when he said, "Those that know the languages are making the decisions.") Too many Seminary graduates lament that their language skills have slid to the wayside, dead as the language itself.<br />
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Initially I did pretty well at this, alternating between reading Greek one morning and Hebrew the next. But then some major projects hit and all the <i>seemingly</i> marginal things like language study began to get squeezed out of life. But now over the last few years I've tried to be more intentional to bring this habit back. Why this particular habit? This incredibly NERDY habit? Seemingly-disconnected-from-any-practical-realities-of-most-of-the-modern-world kind of habit?<br />
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Because this is a "Trigger" habit for me. James clear, when he teaches on <a href="http://jamesclear.com/three-steps-habit-change">how to develop new habits</a>, talks about the importance of a "trigger" that gets you going. The habit that really gets my whole day going is studying Greek in the morning. And one thing I know to be true of myself - as the morning goes, so the day goes. So much of my life flows out of the study and reading time I build into the day. It's always easy to let this slide because the immediate impact is not always noticeable. I can't always draw a straight line from studying Greek in the morning and the work I do the rest of the day. But it's the daily habit and discipline that makes the man. Plus I just love it. It's extremely interesting to me.<br />
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I've come to realize that this really is THE creative spark in my life. When I do this one thing - other ideas just start spinning off from my mind unlike anything else I do. So it's not just the study of Greek - I honestly hardly ever repurpose a <i>specific </i>insight from that study session to the rest of the day (though the best insights almost always show up somewhere later). But it's what spins off from that time, the resulting creativity, energy, and self-confidence that comes from that time that makes it so valuable. It's really like my daily mental workout - and I'm trying to build up stamina over time.<br />
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It's also a domino activity. If I don't read greek, more than likely I won't read theology or philosophy in the morning. Starting out by skipping this one activity means I'll likely let discipline fall in many other areas as well. Sometimes I can recover and reset the day later on, but it's rare.<br />
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So once I realized how important the study of Greek was to me and how central it was to so many other things in my life, I wanted a plan to get back into it again. <b>The following two critical insights</b> helped me get this going again. <i>Disclaimer: a number of ideas in this article come from a variety of articles I've read over the years from Tim Ferriss and James Clear. I do reference some of the articles - but not enough. Dig into their stuff for more background info.</i><br />
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<b>1. The importance of removing barriers to new habits:</b> If you want to build a new habit, or restore an old one, start it by making the barrier to entry so small that you can't not do it. (See step two in <a href="http://jamesclear.com/three-steps-habit-change">this article</a>). So for instance, if you want to do pushups, start your goal with just doing one pushup per day. Just one. You can't <i>not</i> do that. It's too easy to not do it.<br />
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For me, once I got honest with myself and acknowledged that I had let the habit of studying ancient languages die, I had to do some analysis and come up with a plan to get going again. I already knew I liked to read Greek, and I already knew I liked the habit, but I had to decide between Greek and Hebrew for now to lower the barrier of entry. I'd like to keep them both up, but one is better than none. I was trying to do both and doing neither, so for now I'm focusing on Greek.<br />
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The other piece was the entry level. What amount of time should I shoot for that would ensure I did it? Was it something really short like 1 minute? No - I had been studying for 45 minutes to an hour. I could do more than 1 minute. After some thought it seemed that 20 minutes was a good starting point. My bigger <i>goal</i> for the mornings is 1 hour of total study (including reading in theology and philosophy), but if I get going with 20 minutes of Greek study, I'll likely keep rolling for the full hour. But if I don't go a full hour - as long as I get that 20 minutes of Greek study, I get probably 80% of the benefits of what a full hour would bring.<br />
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2. <b>The other was understanding the costs of decisions</b>. The theory goes that every decision you make over the course of a day has a cost. It takes something from your ability to make decisions. So the less decisions you make earlier in the day, and the more you can automate your morning, the more likely you are to dive right into a routine and not let other things distract you. Some disagree with this theory - saying the more better decisions you make the more energy you get. I can see both sides to this. Especially if you are making good decisions that have a positive payoff. That will definitely give you energy! But it seems to me the more decisions you have to <i>struggle</i> through, the more energy it costs you. Those are the kind of decisions you want to avoid in the mornings.<br />
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Here are <b>two ways</b> I try to avoid having to make any decisions in the morning that might inhibit getting started:<br />
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In a best case scenario I lay out all of my study material on my desk in the fashion that I need the night before. There are quite a few materials I use: notebook <i>for writing out translations and study notes</i>, NASB Bible or Synopsis of Four Gospels <i>when studying gospels</i>, Greek Bible, Sake Kubo Lexicon, 3 sharpened pencils, flashcards. Setting them out the night before seems to set my mind on the importance of completing the task the following morning. The last step is always sharpening the pencils and this seems to have become a bit of a ritual - the last thing to do before turning out the lights. The rest of my desk has to be clean and orderly as well so as to avoid any distractions.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsIv-q9UpwLOu9Oz0hTnTQzZH6FM6pZxxQSeMicdIeqakGEqJ4AFEKZkJRttm_u4RNpKTvP9qssXm4DEiiu2GQqtHPwdpqpdV83rx4UfGrs8JPo3rT0scEzC-k4qHQyJYuiQrj2dvExhU/s1600/IMG_20171109_094222.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1444" data-original-width="1600" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsIv-q9UpwLOu9Oz0hTnTQzZH6FM6pZxxQSeMicdIeqakGEqJ4AFEKZkJRttm_u4RNpKTvP9qssXm4DEiiu2GQqtHPwdpqpdV83rx4UfGrs8JPo3rT0scEzC-k4qHQyJYuiQrj2dvExhU/s320/IMG_20171109_094222.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thanks Mom for the "Here We Stand" mug.</td></tr>
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The important part of this nightly routine is that it builds anticipation for the morning. When everything is laid out, it feels like it's waiting on me to show up, anticipating my arrival. And I go to bed thinking about it - excited to get up in the morning.<br />
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The other way is with a "morning ritual" notebook I keep where I've outlined exactly how I'll study in the morning. It lists out each book I'll read and for how long and in what order, thus taking away the element of needing to make that decision each morning. It sounds like a little thing, and maybe a little nerdy? (of course it is - that's the point of this post) but I've found that if I sit down at my desk in the morning first thing without a plan, I'm more likely to waste time trying to figure that out. By this practice I've made this decision in advance and don't have to think about "now what book do I want to read next?" - which - at my house can be an overwhelming decision!<br />
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<b>What's Your Thing?</b></h3>
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So this post isn't about the importance of studying Greek. But it's about doing that one thing you need to do to get your day going. What is it for you? What is that thing that gets you so pumped up to get up in the morning and get going? The thing that when you do it it makes ALL the difference in your day - and no matter what other people say or do, you know this about yourself that you are wired this way? Is it running? Lifting weights? Reading? Painting or drawing? Prayer? Coffee? You likely know what it is already - but you've probably found that it can easily be squeezed out of your morning by much less important things. You likely already know yourself. Peter Drucker says this about effective adults and their strengths:<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">By the time one has reached adulthood, one has a pretty good idea as to whether one works better in the morning or at night. One usually knows whether one writes best by making a great many drafts fast, or by working meticulously on every sentence until it is right. One knows whether one speaks well in public from a prepared text, from notes, without any prop, or not at all. One knows whether one works well as a member of the committee or better alone – or whether one is all together unproductive as a committee member. Some people work best if they have a detailed outline in front of them; that is, if they have thought through the job before they started. Others work best with nothing more than a few rough notes. Some work best under pressure. Others were better if they have a good deal of time and can finish the job long before the deadline. Some are "readers," others "listeners." All this one knows, about oneself – just as one knows whether one is right-handed or left-handed.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">He does not pretend to be someone else. He looks at his own performance and his own results and tries to discern a pattern. "What are the things," he asks, "that I seem to be able to do with relative ease, while they come rather hard to other people?" One man, for instance finds it easy to write up the final report while many others find it a frightening chore. At the same time, However, he finds it rather difficult and unrewarding to think through the report and face up to the hard decisions. He is, in other words, more effective as a staff thinker who organizes and lays out the problems that has the decision-maker who takes command responsibility.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">These are not the things most people have in mind when they talk about the strengths or weaknesses of a man. They usually mean knowledge of a discipline or talent in an art. <b>But temperament is also a factor in accomplishment and a big one. An adult usually knows quite a bit about his own temperament. To be effective he builds on what he knows he can do and does it the way he has found out he works best. </b>(</span><i style="font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Effective Executive, </i><span style="font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">p. 96-99)</span></blockquote>
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Night Nite</h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Want to have a great morning? Back it up a step further and think about the night before. If you want to get up early - you have to go to bed early. But there are so many distractions that keep one awake artificially. Our family does a couple of things to help end the evening well and set us up to win in the morning.<br /> <br />We've started turning off wifi and internet at night, which helps everyone go to sleep faster and reduces the temptation to hop on youtube in the morning. Sure we could use data to watch videos, but we're both too cheap to eat up cell phone data that way - so it's enough of a barrier to keep us off of phones. Have a set time to do this and try to stick to it. Also make your bedroom as dark as possible. So avoid screens once you get in your bedroom. Take the TV out of your bedroom! Get a really good sleep mask too. Quality sleep is as important as quantity. Don't have caffeine of any kind after 2 or 3pm. Even if you think "it doesn't affect me" - it does. You've just become so hyper juiced on caffeine that you're not aware of how it affects you anymore. Try to go a couple of days without caffeine and see how you feel. You will think an elephant is stomping on your head. Every bit of caffeine in your system affects your sleep. Even if you can go to sleep quickly, you won't sleep as well or as deeply.<br /> <br />Speaking of coffee...</span><br />
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A Cup of Coffee Made Many Novels</h3>
Anthony Trollope produced 47 novels and 16 other books over the course of his 33 years as a civil servant at the general post office. He said he was able to accomplish all of this by writing for three hours in the morning in a very disciplined fashion. But he said the key component to him being able to write in the morning was this one very simple thing.<br />
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It was my practice to be at my table every morning at 5:30 AM; and it was also my practice to allow myself no mercy. An old groom, whose business it was to call me, and to whom I paid 5 pounds a year extra for the duty, allowed himself no mercy. During all those years… He never was once late with the coffee which it was his duty to bring me. I do not know that I ought not to feel that I owe more to him then to anyone else for the success I have had. By beginning at that hour I could complete my literary work before I dressed for breakfast. (from <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Daily-Rituals-How-Artists-Work/dp/0307273601/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1425597638&sr=1-1&keywords=daily+rituals">Daily Rituals</a></i>, p24).</blockquote>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A.T. looking like he's not yet had said cup of morning coffee</td></tr>
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Trollope's one simple trick, the seemingly little thing that kept him motivated to write at a feverish pace (forcing himself to produce 250 words every 15 minutes), was paying a guy to deliver him coffee at the exact same time every day.<br />
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I heard another lady, a New York Magazine Exec, say the key to her working out everyday was to pay a cab driver to show up at the same time everyday and wait on her. The way she was wired - she knew the guilt of keeping someone waiting was just enough to force her to get out of bed and get going.<br />
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<h3>
<b>What's Your Trick? </b></h3>
What's that one thing that makes all the difference in your day? What's the thing that gets you doing the one thing you need to do? Or, what's the reason why you don't always do the thing you want to do? Is there something that inhibits you? Write it down and figure out how to eliminate that obstacle. I'm surprised by how small the thing can be at times that sets the whole day behind. And conversely, how sometimes one little thing can get the whole day moving the right direction. For me the trigger habit behind the morning habit is organizing my desk the night before. It's that one step. I know if I do that - everything else will follow.<br />
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<b>Why is all of this important? </b>I rarely hear someone say, "Hey - there's nothing that gets my day going like email and social media. That just really jazzes me up and sets me up to win." No in fact it's almost always quite the opposite. Yet how many people default to this right out of the gate?<br />
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You can't merely have your morning desire in mind. You also have to have a plan. Take charge of your day and start it right and no longer allow yourself to be a slave to your bad habits.<br />
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<br />John C. Majorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384758909258952917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755904795209334295.post-14518526307895602602017-10-30T05:46:00.000-07:002017-10-30T05:46:07.542-07:00BOOK LAUNCH!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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My first book, <i><a href="http://a.co/c4QOjSp" target="_blank">True Identity</a></i> was launched earlier this month, but I've held off on making noise about it till this week because it will be featured for three days on FamilyLife Today (<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://familylifetoday.com/series/true-identity/&source=gmail&ust=1509452533296000&usg=AFQjCNHe6MszIGNN0FUugh4LylGMnsJk-A" href="http://familylifetoday.com/series/true-identity/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">listen here</a>).</div>
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This book is written for teens to help them process the important issues they are facing in this stage of life - and to help them find their true identity in Christ above all else. It's based on concepts rom <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://shop.familylife.com/p-4545-passport2identity-for-young-men.aspx&source=gmail&ust=1509452533296000&usg=AFQjCNEp84rch_jg6-v4FCEQmod1HfP_lA" href="https://shop.familylife.com/p-4545-passport2identity-for-young-men.aspx" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Passport2Identity</a> with more stories from my life and experiences to help drive home the ideas. It's a great book to give a teen you know to help open doors for important conversations.</div>
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Can you do one or more of the following to help get the word out?</div>
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<b>1.</b> <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://a.co/gOAG8ga&source=gmail&ust=1509452533296000&usg=AFQjCNEkfBi9Hd_ZAuwQW0SDbcRlmMUH5w" href="http://a.co/gOAG8ga" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Buy a copy</a> of the book and give it to a teen you know.</div>
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<b>2.</b> Write a review of the book on <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://a.co/gOAG8ga&source=gmail&ust=1509452533296000&usg=AFQjCNEkfBi9Hd_ZAuwQW0SDbcRlmMUH5w" href="http://a.co/gOAG8ga" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">Amazon</a> (more reviews help raise the profile of the book so it will be recommended to others).</div>
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<b>3.</b> Share the <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://familylifetoday.com/series/true-identity/&source=gmail&ust=1509452533296000&usg=AFQjCNHe6MszIGNN0FUugh4LylGMnsJk-A" href="http://familylifetoday.com/series/true-identity/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">FamilyLife Today programs</a> on Facebook or other social media.</div>
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<b>4.</b> If you use <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://www.goodreads.com/&source=gmail&ust=1509452533296000&usg=AFQjCNEjHVFGILsGBwUaaeonlik3Sf84wA" href="http://www.goodreads.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">goodreads</a>, add it to one of your shelves, even if you don't plan to read it. That also raises the profile of the book.</div>
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I've heard a number of people who have already read the book say, "I wish I would have had something like this when I was a teen." <b>The point of making noise about the book is to help teens center their identity in Christ and focus their lives on Him. </b>Colossians 3:2-3 is the theme verse for the book: "Set you minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God." The hope of this book is summed up in that verse. The more one knows the truth of being "hidden with Christ," the more they are able to then "set your minds on things that are above." </div>
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John C. Majorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384758909258952917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755904795209334295.post-68017985504664900162017-10-17T13:27:00.001-07:002017-10-17T13:27:19.384-07:0014 Types of Biblical AfflictionMark Driscoll, in his book <i>Who Do You Think You Are?, (</i>which is an edited collection of his sermons on Ephesians), gives a very helpful list of the main types of affliction one finds in Scripture. Whether you like Driscoll or not, if you're struggling with affliction, meaning, you feel like you are suffering from a circumstance outside of your control. Or maybe you're not sure why you are suffering - I think you'll find these categories useful for gaining understanding of your situation.<br />
<br />
Here they are in summary form:<br />
<ol>
<li><b>Adamic Affliction</b>: We were all born into a fallen world with a sin nature, inherited from Adam.</li>
<li><b>Punishment Affliction</b>: God judges unbelievers and punishes them for sin. (example: Sodom and Gomorrah, Pharaoh, Egypt).</li>
<li><b>Consequential Affliction</b>: Sometimes we suffer because of foolish decision (see Proverbs).</li>
<li><b>Demonic Affliction</b>: Satan is alive and at work in the world, though sometimes demonic suffering can be difficult to discern.</li>
<li><b>Victim Affliction</b>: The result of being sinned against.</li>
<li><b>Collective Affliction</b>: Sometimes we suffer as a result of being part of a people who are suffering (OT prophets).</li>
<li><b>Disciplinary Affliction</b>: God chastens believers in order to mature them (Heb. 12:7).</li>
<li><b>Vicarious Affliction</b>: Sometimes those in Christ suffer because the ungodly oppose them.</li>
<li><b>Empathetic Affliction</b>: Suffering that comes when someone we love is hurting.</li>
<li><b>Testimonial Affliction</b>: Some suffering is a demonstration of the gospel so that others will have a deeper appreciation and understanding of Jesus.</li>
<li><b>Providential Affliction</b>: Some suffer to teach a lesson about God so that worship of Him increases (Joseph's imprisonment in Egypt).</li>
<li><b>Preventative Affliction</b>: Suffering that warns us of greater suffering that will happen if we don't heed God's warnings.</li>
<li><b>Mysterious Affliction</b>: Sometimes God, in His providence, has chosen not to reveal why we suffer (i.e. Job).</li>
<li><b>Apocalyptic Affliction</b>: Increased suffering that will signal the end of this age.</li>
</ol>
<div>
Helpful categories that protect against tendencies to assign one reason or motive to whatever affliction of the moment one faces.</div>
John C. Majorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384758909258952917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755904795209334295.post-83103538162471009562017-08-24T07:30:00.000-07:002017-08-24T07:30:19.278-07:00The Collapse of Parenting<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This summer I read the book <i>The Collapse of Parenting </i>by Leonard Sax. I was familiar with his writings having read <i>Why Gender Matters </i>a few years ago (a fantastic read) and more recently, <i>Girls on the Edge.</i><br />
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He bases his parenting insights on, as he says, "more than 90,000 office visits... in my role as a practicing physician between 1989 and today."<br />
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The book doesn't address everything you need to know as a parent, and for those who are Christian, you'll notice the lack of biblical insights. Yet I also had the sense that he was at least partly basing his perspective on a biblical worldview. If one feels parenting has "collapsed," then it must have fallen from some standard.<br />
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Here's a collection of notes I captured from the book. Reading through these won't take long (7 minutes?) and you really should also read the book. I'm only skimming the surface here. His stories from actual parents sprinkled all throughout the book are incredible.<br />
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Some of his main themes are:<br />
<ul>
<li>Parents need to be the authority in the home, yet they've given that up. </li>
<li>We've given kids too much freedom and not enough direction and it's hurting them. </li>
<li>You can make some hard choices to regain your authority even if your child doesn't like it. </li>
<li>You are their parent first before you are their friend. </li>
<li>Do the hard thing and it will be better for them.</li>
</ul>
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I've bolded a few things here and there for the skimmers our there.<br />
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Enjoy.<br />
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<b>THE COLLAPSE OF PARENTING BOOK NOTES</b><br />
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<b>Introduction: Parents Adrift</b></div>
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<i>The main problems he plans to address in the book...</i><br />
<b style="font-size: 16px;">7</b><span style="font-size: 16px;"> - American kids are now much more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD or bipolar disorder or other psychiatric disorders than they were 25 years ago... and they are heavier and less fit than 25 years ago. Long term outcome studies suggest that American kids are less resilient and more fragile than they used to be.... What's going on? <b>Over the past three decades, there has been a massive transfer of authority from parents to kids... "Let the kids decide" has become a mantra of good parenting. As I will show, these well-intentioned changes have ben profoundly harmful to kids.</b></span></div>
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<b>CH1: The Culture of Disrespect</b></div>
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<b style="font-size: 16px;">14</b><span style="font-size: 16px;"> - Scholars generally agree that the purpose of our specie's prolonged childhood and adolescence is </span><i style="font-size: 16px;">enculturation: </i><span style="font-size: 16px;">the process of acquiring all the skills and knowledge and mastering all the customs and behaviors required for competency in the culture in which you live. It takes years to master the details of Japanese language, culture, and behavior; the same is true of Swiss language, culture, and behavior. (to adapt to their local culture)... it means learning how people get along with one another in that culture.</span></div>
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<b>17</b> -<b> no child is born knowing the rules.</b></div>
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<b>18 - Parents today suffer from role confusion. </b>Role Confusion is a plausible translation of Statusunsicherheit, a term used by German sociologist Norbert Elias to describe the transfer of authority from parents to children.</div>
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<b>19</b> - 50 years ago, teenagers would have asked parents before joining a club at school... Not so today. I posed an updated question to teens across the US, 'if all your friends joined a particular social media site, and they all wanted you to join, but one of your parents did not approve, would you still join the site?' The most common response to the question was neither Yes or No, but laughter. The notion that kids would bother to consult their parents about joining a Social media site was so implausible that it was funny. <i>My parents don't even know what ask.fm is. They would probably think it was some kind of radion station! So why would I ask them if I should join? If all my friends are joining the site, then <b>of course </b>I am going to join. </i>In american culture today, same-age peers matter more than parents.</div>
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<b>20</b>-in our time, the schools have retreated from normative instruction about right and wrong in order to focus on academics.</div>
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<b>20</b>-I have learned that when I speak to parents, many confuse "parental authority "with "parental discipline." They think that parental authority is all about enforcing discipline. In fact, parental authority is primarily about a <i>scale of value</i>. <b>Strong parental authority means that parents matter more than same age peers. In contemporary American culture, peers matter more than parents.</b></div>
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<b>21</b>-When I speak about the <b>culture of disrespect</b>, I am referring not only to the "ingratitude seasoned with contempt "already noted, which is now the characteristic attitude of many American kids toward their <i>parents</i>; I mean also that American kids now commonly show disrespect <i>toward one another</i> and that they live in a culture in which such disrespect is considered the norm. Five decades ago, the Beatles single "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was a worldwide hit. In 2006, Akon released a single titled "I Want to F*** You." (The clean version, titled "I Wanna Love You, "was broadcast on the radio, but the original version with the foul language was the one which reached #1 in the United States.)</div>
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<b>22</b>-Slogans on T-shirts epitomize disrespect for <i>one another</i>. <i>(JCM: vs. disrespect for parents. That reality is assumed, but he was shocked to see the great deal of disrespect for one another.)</i></div>
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<b>22-23</b> - Looking through the list of the 150 most popular TV shows on American television right now, <b>I did not find one</b> that picks a parent as consistently reliable and trustworthy.</div>
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<i>JCM: (It's not just dads that are being beat up on TV - it's ALL parents).</i></div>
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<b>24</b> - Throughout the 20th century, the legitimacy of almost every kind of authority became suspect throughout Western Europe and North America. Politically, we might summarize the second half of the 20th century as the empowerment of the previously disenfranchised: people of color were empowered. Women were empowered. Employees (at least in theory and lip service) were empowered. And children were empowered. Nobody stopped to say, "Yes, it is right that adults should have equal rights in their relations with one another. It is right that women and people of color should have equal rights relative to white males. But what is true for adults in their relations with other adults may not be true for parents in their relations with children." Empower everybody! Why not? My answer is: because the first job of the parent is to teach culture to the child. <b>And authoritative teaching requires authority.</b></div>
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<b>Ch2: Why Are So Many Kids Overweight?</b></div>
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<b>40</b>-New evidence suggests that allowing kids to have on-demand access to food may be one factor promoting obesity, independent of the total number of calories consumed. <i>Ad lib</i> feeding throughout the day appears to disrupt circadian rhythms, interfering with normal metabolism and disturbing the balance of hormones that regulate appetite. Recent studies of laboratory animals have found that animals with <i>ad lib</i> access to food became fatter than animals with only scheduled access to food, <b>even when the total calories consumed are kept the same in the two groups</b>. Restricting the amount of time when food is available to 9 or 12 hours out of 24 – without restricting calories – improves health and brings weight back to normal. "Time restricted eating didn't just prevent but also reversed obesity, "said Dr. Satchidananda Panda, author of one of the studies cited here.</div>
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<b>41</b>-In 1965, according to one study, the typical American spent 92 minutes a day watching TV, which works out to about 10 1/2 hours a week.</div>
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<b>42</b>- According to the latest nationwide survey, the average 9 year old American child now spends more than 50 hours per week in front of an electronic screen, which includes TV, computer screens, and cell phones. The average American teenager now spends more than 70 hours per week in front of the screen.</div>
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<b>42-3</b> - in 1969, 41% of American kids either walked or rode their bikes to school. By 2001, that proportion had dropped to 13%.</div>
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<b>45</b>-One question I have asked regularly since 2001 is, "what's your favorite thing to do in your spare time, when you're by yourself with no one watching?" From 2001 through about 2010, I heard lots of different answers. But since about 2011, one answer has become predominate among American kids, especially affluent kids. That answer is: sleep. <i>(JCM: i.e. kids are extremely sleep deprived).</i></div>
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<b>Ch3: Why Are So Many Kids on Medication?</b></div>
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<b>50</b>- In many American kindergartens today, as I said in chapter 1, the first priority is more likely to be teaching diphthongs rather than teaching respect, courtesy, and manners.</div>
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<b>50-1</b> - <b>The job of the parent is to teach self control. To explain what is and is not acceptable. To establish boundaries and enforce consequences. Two decades ago, that was common sense. Not anymore. At least not in the United States.</b></div>
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<b>52</b>- <i>He tells the story of a kid, Trent, whose parents were complaining of his consistent mood swings and wanted to attribute it to a medical condition. he responded, "</i>His behavior was pretty much what you would expect of a kid who has never known consistent discipline."</div>
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<b>53</b>-<i>when he tried to tell Trent's mom that they needed consistent discipline, rather than medication, she stormed out in a huff... and then this came out... </i>"Less than [a few] weeks after that Mom stormed out of my office, Dr. Biederman and his two colleagues at Harvard admitted to receiving more than $4 million from Johnson & Johnson (the manufacture of Risperdal), AstraZeneca (the manufacture of Seroquel), and other drug companies. The payments were discovered in the course of an investigation launch by US Senator Charles Grassley and conducted by the staff of the Senate Judiciary committee. To be clear <span style="font-family: "gotham" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Biederman</span> and his colleagues broke no law. There's no law prohibiting doctors from accepting millions of dollars from drug companies. But Dr. <span style="font-family: "gotham" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Biederman's</span> action was unethical, in my judgment. I think Dr. <span style="font-family: "gotham" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Biederman</span> should have told <i>Newsweek</i> and everybody else that he was, in essence, acting as a paid spokesperson for the drug companies. But he kept the money a secret, or at least it seems as though he tried to.</div>
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<b>53-The temper tantrums of belligerent children are increasingly being characterized as psychiatric illnesses.</b></div>
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<b>54</b>-This phenomenon is peculiar to North America. German researchers found that during roughly the same period in which diagnosis of bipolar disorder was exploding for children in the United States, the proportion of children diagnosed with bipolar disorder in Germany actually <i>decreased</i>.</div>
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<b>57</b>- <b>Sleep deprivation mimics ADHD almost perfectly. </b><i>(tells story of kid previously diagnosed as ADHD who was simply sleep deprived. When he got the sleep he needed, the symptoms went away).</i></div>
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<b>57</b>-The basic duties of a parent is to ensure that the child gets a good nights sleep rather than staying up late playing games. (JCM: i.e. <i>self control he mentioned earlier</i>). That's not a new idea. But 30 years ago, we didn't have Internet enabled devices that make it easy for kids to play online with other kids at 2 AM. Now we do. <b>That means that parents have to be more assertive of their authority than in previous decades. But many American parents have abdicated their authority instead.</b></div>
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<b>59</b>-<i>On how medicating children seems to be primarily an American phenomenon driven by drug companies: </i>103 out of every 1000 American teenagers are now taking or have taken medications for ADHD. In the United Kingdom, 7.4 out of 1000 are now taking, or have taken medications for ADHD.... in other words, the likelihood of being treated with medication for ADHD is nearly 14 times higher for teenagers in the United States compared with teens in the United Kingdom... <b>Bottom line: on this parameter, if you are a kid, living in the United States is a major risk factor for being put on medication.</b></div>
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<b>61-2</b> - Why such increase? Why is ADHD so much more common in the United States today than it was 30 or 40 years ago? And why is it so much more common today in the United States than elsewhere? My answer is "the medicalization of misbehavior." Instead of correcting our kids' misbehavior, we American parents today or more likely to medicate our kids in hopes of fixing the behavior problem with the pill.... In most European countries, the proportion of individuals 18 and under who are on any kind of psychotropic medication is typically 2% or lower, and most of these individuals are 16-, 17-, and 18-year-olds taking medications for depression or anxiety. In the United States, the proportion of children and adolescents on psychotropic medications is now above 10%, with some surveys reporting rates above 20%. Many of those children are age 12 and under, taking prescription stimulants, "mood stabilizers." Between 1993 and 2009, the prescribing of antipsychotic medications… For American children 12 and under increased more than 700%.</div>
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<b>64</b>- <b>30 years ago, perhaps even 20 years ago, the school counselor or principal might've said to the parent, "your son is disrespectful. He is rude. He exhibits no self-control. You need to teach him some basic rules about civilized behavior if he is going to stay at the school." Today it is much less common for an American school counselor or administrator to speak so bluntly to a parent. Instead, the counselor or administrator will suggest a consultation with a physician or a psychologist. And the physician or psychologist will look at the reports from the school and talk about oppositional defiant disorder or or attention deficit hyper active disorder or or pediatric bipolar disorder... What's the difference? The big difference is, when I say, "your son is disrespectful," the burden of responsibility is on you the parent and your child. With that responsibility comes the authority to do something about the problem. But when I say, "your son may meet criteria for a psychiatric disorder," then the burden of responsibility shifts away from the parent and the child to the prescribing physician and, indeed, to the whole burgeoning medical psychiatric counseling complex.</b></div>
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<i>Now he gives some recommendations:</i></div>
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<b>69- </b><u>Recommendation #1</u><b>: When appropriate, command. Don't ask. Avoid the question mark. Instead of "Do you think maybe it's time to leave the playground?" Say "it's time to go home." The question mark undermines your authority. I'm amazed by the difficulty with some parents have in speaking to their children without question marks.</b></div>
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<i>(JCM: amen and amen. This is a huge issue that most parents don't even realizing they are doing.)</i></div>
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<b>70-71</b>-<u>Recommendation #2</u>: Eat dinner with your kids. An no cell phones allowed, not TV in the background during dinner.</div>
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<i>(JCM: This is fascinating that this one simple thing can have such a huge influence.)</i></div>
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Kids who had more meals with parents were less likely to have "internalizing problems "such as feeling sad, anxious, or lonely. They were less likely to have "externalizing problems "such as fighting, skipping school, stealing, etc. The difference wasn't just between kids who had seven evening meals a week with a parent compared with kids who had none. At almost every step from zero up to seven evening meals a week, each extra dinner a child had with a parent decreased the risk of both internalizing problems and externalizing problems and increased both prosocial behavior and the child's general satisfaction with life. <b>The change was statistically significant at almost every step. </b>For example, when you compare kids we have six dinners per week with a parent to kids who have five dinners per week with a parent, you find that kids who have six dinners a week enjoy significantly better well-being, demonstrate significantly more prosocial behavior, and have significantly fewer internalizing problems and significantly fewer externalizing problems compared with kids who have five dinners a week with a parent. <b>That one extra meal with a parent, the difference between five evening meals a week together and six Evening meals a week together makes a difference.</b></div>
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The bottom line on family meals:</div>
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<li>A family in which kids often have meals with parents is likely to be a family in which parents still have authority; a family in which parents and family interaction still matter.</li>
<li>But just insisting that everybody eat together, while the TV is blaring in the kids are texting at the dinner table, probably won't accomplish much by itself.</li>
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<b>Ch4: Why Are American Students Falling Behind?</b></div>
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<i>(JCM: America continues to drop in education stats versus other countries. Here are a variety of comments he makes on this.)</i></div>
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<b>78</b>-[perhaps] bad behavior of American kids is the price we pay for the greater creativity of young Americans. That's assuming that young Americans are more creative than young people in other countries. But is that assumption correct? (<i>hint: he says no...)</i></div>
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<b>84</b> - <i>in 2012, America dropped to 17th in education in the world, below countries like Spain, portugal, and poland. </i></div>
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You can't invoke the economy to explain these results. Between 2000 and 2012, Spain experienced a major economic meltdown worse than that of the United States. Poland, which trail far behind United States in 2000, moved far above the u.s. by 2012. Despite the fact that our per capita spending on education is more than twice what it is in Poland.</div>
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<b>85-Americans waste an extraordinary amount of tax money on high tech toys for teachers and students, most of which have no proven learning value whatsoever.</b></div>
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<i>The three main factors see sites are in over-investment in technology, over emphasis on sports, and a low selectivity in teacher training.</i></div>
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<b>87</b>-among adults 25 to 34 years of age, Americans have dropped to 15th place internationally in the proportion of young people that earn college degrees. We dropped from number one to number 15 in just 30 years.</div>
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<b>88</b>-American college students now spend less time studying than students in any European country with the sole exception of Slovakia.</div>
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<b>Ch5: Why Are So Many Kids So Fragile?</b></div>
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<b>100</b> - <i>He noticed the following trend and gave examples</i>:</div>
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<b>In kids today, something inside seems to be missing: some inner strength that we took for granted in young people a few decades back but that just didn't develop in kids today.</b></div>
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The phenomenon of young, able-bodied adults not working and not looking for work is becoming much more common in the United States.</div>
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<b>103</b>-This phenomenon – young Americans who are fragile, give up easily, no longer have the drive to start new businesses – may have huge economic consequences, but the causes do not live in economics. The causes live in American parenting, which now creates fragile kids.</div>
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<b>104</b>-[many kids] love their parents. But they are not seriously concerned with what their parents think.</div>
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If parents don't come first, then kids become fragile. Here's why. <b>A good parent child relationship is robust and unconditional.</b> My daughter might shout at me, "I hate you!" But she would know that her outburst is not going to change our relationship. My wife and I might choose to suspend some of her privilege privileges for a week if she were to have such an outburst, but she would know that we both still love her. That won't change and she knows it. Peer relationships, by contrast, Are fragile by nature. Emily and Melissa may be best friends, but both of them know that one wrong word might fracture the relationship beyond repair. <b>In peer relations, everything is conditional and contingent</b>.</div>
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<b>105</b>-The appropriate remedy for Julia [<i>who is depressed]</i>... is nto Risperdal, but rather the contruction of a different self concept - one rooted no in estraordinary academic achievement, but in the <i>unconditional </i>love and acceptance that her parents are ready to offer her.</div>
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Children and teenagers need <i>unconditional</i> love and acceptance today no less than they did 30 or 50 years ago. But they cannot get <i>unconditional</i> love and acceptance from their peers or from a report card</div>
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<b>109-part of your job as a parent is to <i>educate desire</i>. To teach your child to go beyond "whatever floats your boat." To enjoy, and to want to enjoy, pleasures higher and deeper than video games and social media can provide. Those pleasures may be found perhaps in conversation with wise adults; or in meditation, prayer, or reflection; or in music, dance, or the arts.</b></div>
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<b>111</b>-some countries have traditions that help to maintain parent child bonds. In Holland, schools close at noon every Wednesday so that kids can enjoy some quality midweek time with their parents. In Geneva, Switzerland, the public elementary schools close for two hours at lunch, every day, so the kids can go home and eat lunch with a parent. Many Swiss employers accommodate that tradition by giving their employees 2 1/2 hours off for lunch, so that a parent can be at home with the child for that meal.</div>
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(<i>JCM: can this really be true? I can't imagine this every happening in America, but LOVE the idea).</i></div>
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<u><b>PART TWO: SOLUTIONS</b></u></div>
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<b>CH6: WHAT MATTERS?</b></div>
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<b>117</b>-<i>best predictor of happiness and overall life satisfaction for an 11-year old 20 years later: SELF-CONTROL.</i></div>
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<b>118</b>-Five dimensions of personality: Conscientiousness, Openness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Emotional Stability.</div>
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<b>119</b>-Intelligence does not predict happiness or unhappiness. </div>
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<b>119-you might reasonably wonder whether any of the big five traits (<i>listed from p.118 above)</i> could predict happiness and wealth and life satisfaction. Only one does: Conscientiousness</b>. Individuals who are more Conscientious earn and save more money, even after researchers adjust for intelligence, race, ethnicity, and education. Individuals who are more conscientious are also significantly happier than individuals who are less conscientious, and they are substantially more satisfied with their lives. Other studies of shown that conscientiousness predicts better health and longer life. People who are more conscientious are less likely to become obese. They're less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease. They're more likely to live longer and happier lives, and as noted above, more likely to be satisfied with their lives.</div>
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<b>121</b>-In short, many parents have come to assume the good grades and test scores are the best measure of achievement and the most reliable key to future happiness. But they are mistaken. If you want your child to be healthy <i>and</i> wealthy <i>and</i> wise, then your first priority should not be measures of cognitive achievement, such as high grades or test scores, but measures of conscientiousness, such as honesty, integrity, and self-control.</div>
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<b>124</b>-In my own medical practice, I have personally witnessed a child change from impulsive and out of control to self controlled within a matter of weeks – without medication. All it takes is for the parents seriously to implement a simple program that build self control.</div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "sans"; font-size: small;">(JCM: This next concept provides a good nuance to a commonly held approach to child </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "sans";">character development.)</span></i></div>
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<b>126-7: Never tell your child that he or she is smart (identity); instead, praise him or her for working hard (behavior); <i>Sax notes that this works well for developing cognitive skills.... </i>But teaching virtues of Conscientiousness may be different.... When it comes to teaching virtue, identity seems to work better than behavior.... Saying, "Don't be a cheater" (identity), is a more effective instruction than saying, "don't cheat" (behavior). Apparently kids are more comfortable Cheating if they don't see themselves as cheaters.</b></div>
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<b>128</b>-In reality, behavior influences identity and eventually becomes identity. If you cheat, over and over, you are – or will soon become – a cheater. your actions will, over time, change your character. Parents used to teach these moral fundamentals, but many no longer do.</div>
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<b>132</b>-If you compel children to act more virtuously, they actually become more virtuous. <i>(Proverbs... 'train up a child')</i></div>
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133-The Western tradition in parenting is to inculcate virtuous habits into children. Again, this goes way back. In the <i>Nicomachean Ethics, </i>Aristotle wrote that a person become virtuous by doing virtuous acts. Behavior becomes identity.... "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act but a habit." "Teach them diligently..." - the Hebrew... "to inscribe them on your children." - i.e. "to cut with a knife."... You teach virtue by requiring children to behave virtuously. In other words, you ask them to pretend that they are virtuous before they really are. (<i>Julie noted that so much of childhood is pretending already.)</i></div>
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135-the 21st-century assumption implicit in many aspects of our society, such as the national school lunch program (<i>see previous pages for a fascinating story on this)</i>– is that if you give kids <i>(JCM: or adults for that matter)</i> the choice between right and wrong and show them why they should make the right choice, then that is the choice that will make. This assumption is not based on evidence. It's based on a 21st century guess about human nature.</div>
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<b>CH7: MISCONCEPTIONS</b></div>
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<b>140</b>-study show that, in general, well behaved kids are more likely to grow up to be well behaved adults.</div>
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<b>142</b>-parents need to be both strict and loving</div>
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<b>143</b>-<b>virtue begets virtue. vice begets vice.</b></div>
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<b>144</b>-meg Meeker told her son Walter, "no video games. No video game devices. You're not wasting your time on that." Walter complained. "All the other boys are playing call of duty. I'm the only one who is an allowed to play. " Mom said, "too bad." When Walter turned 18 he said "I'm an adult now. I have Money that I have earned from my job. I'm going to go and buy a PS3 and some video games like call of duty." Mom said, "fine." One year later, near the end of his freshman year at the University of Dayton, Walter called his mom. "I just made $400!" He told his mom. "Guess how I did it?" Mom said, "no idea." "I sold my PS3 and all my video games. They were just gathering dust anyhow," Walter said. He explained that he saw so many other guys at college who had started playing these games many hours a week at 10 or 12 or 14 years of age. These boys defined themselves as gamers. Their sense of self was tied up with their proficiency at playing video games. They expected Walter to be impressed by their video game skills. But Walter was not impressed. He had a different perspective. <b>During this crucial adolescent years when he was not allowed to play video games, he had developed a wide array of hobbies and interest, as well as people skills, which the gamers were less likely to have. He observed that the gamers were often clumsy in real life Social Situations.</b></div>
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<b>145</b>-age matters. If a boy starts playing video games when he was nine or 12 or 14 years old, those games may "imprint" on his brain in a way that they won't if he starts playing at 18. Before puberty is complete, the brain is a enormously plastic, as discussed in chapter 1. That's both good and bad. The plasticity of the brain before and during puberty allows it to change in fundamental ways as circumstances require. But the areas of the brain responsible for judgment and perspective arent mature. once the process of puberty is fully complete – once the boy becomes a man or the girl becomes a woman – the areas of the brain responsible for anticipating consequences and thinking ahead are stronger.</div>
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<b>145</b>- Research suggests the kids have spent many hours a week playing violent video games such as <i>Grand theft auto</i> and call of duty become more hostile, less honest, and last kind. Not right away, not after a week or month, but after years of playing these violent games.</div>
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<b>151</b>-Pleasure is not the same thing as happiness. Don't confuse the two.</div>
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<b>152</b>-Part of the task of the parent is, and always has been, <i>educating desire: </i>teaching your child to desire and enjoy things that are higher and better than cotton candy.</div>
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<b>153</b>-The solution is mindfully to create an alternative culture. To build a subversive household in which the dinner table conversation is actually conversation, with the screens switched off. The value family time together above the time the kids spend with same age peers. To create a space for silence, for meditation, for reflection, so that your child can discover a true inner self that is more than the mere gratification of impulse.</div>
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<b>158-If you are doing your job as a parent, then sometimes you will have to do things that will upset your child. If you are concerned that your child won't love you anymore, that concern me keep you from doing your job. Do your job.</b></div>
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<b>CH8: THE FIRST THING: <i>TEACH HUMILITY</i></b></div>
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<b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, sans; font-size: 16px;">159</b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "sans"; font-size: small;">-Teach humility.... "humility simply means being as interested in other people as you are in yourself." (</span><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "sans"; font-size: small;">JCM: I've heard it as, '</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "sans";">interesting</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "sans"; font-size: small;"> people are interested people.')</span></i></div>
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<b>164</b>-As you mature into adulthood... you realize that the world is, and should be, bigger than you. It's not about you. and once you realize and accept that, gratefully, you can breathe a sigh of relief. </div>
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<b>165</b>-require your kids to do chores.</div>
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<i>what does this teach them?... that...</i></div>
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<b>169</b>-"The world doesn't revolve around you. You are a member of this family with obligations to this family, and those obligations are paramount."</div>
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<b>CH9: THE SECOND THING: <i>ENJOY</i></b></div>
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<b>182</b>-The unintended message is that relaxed time together as a family is the lowest priority of all.</div>
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<b>183</b>-Outside North America, it's unusual to find adults who boast about how busy they are and how little sleep they get. </div>
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<b>184</b>-by cramming a child' life full of activities,.. mom is sending an unintended message: <i>what you <b>do </b>is more important than who you <b>are...</b>[we need to] </i>do less and become more.</div>
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<b>CH10: THE THIRD THING: <i>THE MEANING OF LIFE</i></b></div>
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<b>189</b>- The primary purpose of education should be to prepare for life, not for more school.</div>
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<b>190</b>-If you are working 80 hours a week at a job with shrivels your soul, then you are a slave. I don't care whether you are earning $600,000 a year or more. Life is precious. Each minute is a priceless gift. No amount of money can reclaim lost time.</div>
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<b>191</b>-Empower your daughter or your son to take risks and congratulate them not only when they succeed but also when they fail, because failure builds humility... Steve Jobs said something similar in his 2005 commencement speech at Stanford: "I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could've ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life."</div>
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<b>198-The most serious consequence of the shift from a parent oriented culture to a peer oriented culture is that parents no longer are able to provide that big picture to their children. A peer oriented society has turned K-12 education into a "race to nowhere,"... but they have no idea why.</b></div>
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<b>204</b>-We are experimenting on children in a way that has no precedent, with medications whose long-term risks are largely unknown.</div>
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John C. Majorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384758909258952917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755904795209334295.post-75377471043717173302017-08-16T09:37:00.001-07:002017-08-17T06:24:21.262-07:00The Disappearance of Childhood Reading<div dir="ltr">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvNXsrOBIQmmh83JbW1JQpFGGhlki_ObY_gOyx3iGlFLQhUtT5q-r-eDq30xfTulvLq5jV9cNcV3BIO2z_qnkMQafehYix5JRZXDa22Tes8F3M4L1aJFX-l0ZdiNoFlLl_dTOTZLqbtMs/s1600/retro+reading.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="894" data-original-width="570" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvNXsrOBIQmmh83JbW1JQpFGGhlki_ObY_gOyx3iGlFLQhUtT5q-r-eDq30xfTulvLq5jV9cNcV3BIO2z_qnkMQafehYix5JRZXDa22Tes8F3M4L1aJFX-l0ZdiNoFlLl_dTOTZLqbtMs/s400/retro+reading.jpg" width="256"></a></div>
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I was in Barnes & Noble a few weeks ago with all three of my kids. We usually begin by getting a drink or treat, then heading back to the books/trains area and lounging and reading and playing for an hour or so. We shuffled around the edges of the coffee counter after ordering, each child anticipating the delivery of their chosen delicacy. As I poured cream into a steaming cup of joe, the man in line behind me said, "You sure are lucky your kids will come here with you." I half-heartedly mumbled, "Yeah, they love to read." With that he said in a state of semi-shock, "Boy you are lucky they love to read." I'd had enough of the 'luck' talk at this point. I felt like shouting but decide to just say louder and flatter than normal, "It's not luck." And what does he do? He says it again! "You sure are lucky." Oh no he didn't. You want to throw down the gauntlet with me? A primordial response took over: "IT'S NOT LUCK! I'VE WORKED HARD AT TEACHING THEM TO LOVE READING!"</div>
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I think it's the first time I've pseudo-shouted inside of Barnes and Noble, other than when Morris's final volume on Teddy Roosevelt came out, and who can blame me for that? ALL CAPS felt good to type - but it overstates my reaction. I know the guy at B&N didn't feel it. Nor did he understand to what I was really reacting.<br>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Kids rarely "luck" into productive behavior. It has to be fostered. They need to be led to things that will make their life better. Leonard Sax, in his book <i>The Collapse of Parenting</i>, says it this way: "<span style="color: blue; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Part of the task of the parent is, and always has been, </span><i style="color: blue; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">educating desire: </i><span style="color: blue; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">teaching your child to desire and enjoy things that are higher and better than cotton candy."</span></span><br>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Man we've worked hard to make reading something they have come to not just tolerate, but to desire, to <i>love</i>. And I've had three simple strategies toward this end:</span></div>
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1. Eliminate distractions.<br>2. Put good books in front of them.<br>3. Bribe them.</blockquote>
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Yes, I used the word "bribe." And I'm still a Christian. Of these three, bribing is by far the easiest. I "bribe" them to go to a bookstore with me by buying drinks or a cookie. I bribe sometimes by paying to read a specific book. This summer I paid my oldest to read a book (I'll get into that later). Call it bribe, call it 'incentivize', 'motivate', or whatever makes you feel better. But the point is to use the means you have to make reading appealing. I don't pay often (I'd go broke!) but when I do, it works.</div>
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The hardest is definitely #1, Eliminating distractions. But here's how we do it. We don't allow video games in the house except on rare occasions. We don't own a video game system. There are no computers, TVs, iPads, or phones in anyone's room without permission. I don't play games. Not in front of the kids, and not by myself. I don't sit around fiddling with my phone when I should be hanging out with them. I turn it off and/or hide it till they are in bed. And honestly, even then, I wish I looked at it a whole lot less on my own. </div>
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Why avoid video games with such rabid ferocity? I'll quote Sax's book again (emphasis mine):<br>
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<span style="font-family: "gotham" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">If a boy starts playing video games when he was nine or 12 or 14 years old, those games may "imprint" on his brain in a way that they won't if he starts playing at 18. Before puberty is complete, the brain is a enormously plastic... That's both good and bad. The plasticity of the brain before and during puberty allows it to change in fundamental ways as circumstances require. <b>But the areas of the brain responsible for judgment and perspective aren't mature.</b> Once the process of puberty is fully complete – once the boy becomes a man or the girl becomes a woman – the areas of the brain responsible for anticipating consequences and thinking ahead are stronger.</span></blockquote>
It's a long way of saying what he said before - train their appetites while they are in your home, and when they are old they might hang on to them. You don't serve a Cruller with Cauliflower. Because only one of those is getting eaten. You keep bad things away from them and put good things in front of them.<br>
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Some will say this is over the top. But I just feel like it's one of the wisest things we can do. It's hard work, not luck, but it is so worth it. All of this creates an environment where the kids must turn to other things to entertain themselves. And books are a great source of entertainment.</div>
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Which leads to #2 on our list of three strategies for helping our kids learn to love reading. What's one of the best ways to get good books in front of them and around the house? Read them yourself. Read good books and leave them lying around. What was your favorite book when you were a kid? Buy those and read them to your kids. The nostalgia will help you read <i><a href="http://a.co/30xRZNq" target="_blank">Drummer Hoff Fired it Off</a></i> for the 437th time this month. Your kids will inevitably pick them up if they are not distracted by other things and if they have some measure of leisure time.</div>
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Most summers I've done a "reading challenge" with my oldest son. This summer we didn't set it up, since we were traveling about a total of 8 weeks. Our schedule was fairly relaxed, but less conducive to a reading program. But I kept putting books in front of him to see if he'd read them or not. And here's what he ended up reading:</div>
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<i><a href="http://a.co/gR9TJjn" target="_blank">The Reason for God</a></i> by Timothy Keller<br>
<a href="http://a.co/hVxH9Yi" target="_blank"><i>Tribe</i></a> by Sebastian Junger - A War corespondent's perspective on what draws people together into groups.<br>
<i><a href="http://a.co/fkWeovn" target="_blank">The Collapse of Parenting</a></i> by Leonard Sax - parenting book addressing the issue of the transfer of authority from parents to children. Very compelling.<br>
<i><a href="http://a.co/30lPYat" target="_blank">Hero of the Empire</a></i> by Candice Millard - Story of a young Churchill's escape from a war prison in South Africa.<br>
<i><a href="http://a.co/0Cd7TbQ" target="_blank">The Giver</a></i> by Louis Lowry<br>
<i><a href="http://a.co/9aoZYTv" target="_blank">Lillian Trasher</a></i> - Biography of a woman missionary who established orphanages in Egypt in the 1920s.</blockquote>
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This doesn't include a number of fiction books he read on his own like, the Blood of Olympus and a couple of Harry Potter books.</div>
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Upon reflection I realize this is a more challenging list than most adults will read this year, let alone <u>this</u> <u>summer</u>.<br>
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A couple of comments on this list: I did pay him to read <i>The Reason for God</i> - and he had been nibbling on it since before the summer. Also, we read about half of <i>Lillian Trasher </i>aloud in the car during our summer road trips - but he finished it off on his own with zero encouragement from us. <i>The Giver </i>was for school, though he had read it a few times prior to this summer. All the others he read because he was bored and came to me and asked, "Do you have anything good to read?" <i>The Collapse of Parenting </i>was the most surprising - as both he and Julie fought me for it once they read the first chapter. And it is definitely worth reading.<br>
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The fight is worth it. It's not easy, but it's worth it to be different. This summer I read the book <i>The Disappearance of Childhood </i>by Neal Postman. What a book. His final two paragraphs of the book are worth repeating here as an apologetic for why one should push kids to read and think and avoid excessive mind numbing media devices. Postman begins with the question, <span style="font-family: inherit;">"<span style="font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Is the individual powerless to resist what is happening?" The bold sentence in the second paragraph (emphasis mine) is what really stood out to me.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The answer to this, in my opinion, is "no." But, as with all resistance, there is a price to pay. Specifically, resistance entails conceiving of parenting as an act of rebellion against American culture. For example, for parents merely to remain married is itself an act of disobedience and an insult to the spirit of a throw-away culture in which continuity has little value... Similarly, to insist that one's children learn the discipline of delayed gratification, or modesty in their sexuality, or self-restraint and manners, language, and style is to place oneself in opposition to almost every social trend. Even further, to ensure that one's children work hard at becoming literate is extraordinarily time-consuming and even expensive. But most rebellious of all is the attempt to control the media's access to one's children. There are, in fact, two ways to do this. The <b>first</b> is to limit the amount of exposure children have to media. The <b>second</b> is to monitor carefully what they are exposed to, and to provide them with a continuously running critique of the themes and values of the media content. Both are very difficult to do and require a level of attention that most parents are not prepared to give to child rearing.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Nonetheless, there are parents who are committed to doing all of these things, who are in effect defying the directives of their culture. <b>Such parents are not only helping their children to have a childhood but are, at the same time, creating a sort of intellectual elite. Certainly in the short run the children who grow up in such homes will, as adults, be much favored by business, the professions, and the media themselves.</b> What can we say in the long run? Only this: Those parents who resist the spirit of the age will contribute to what might be called the Monastery Effect, for they will help to keep alive a humane tradition. It is not conceivable that our culture will forget that it needs children. But it is halfway toward forgetting that children need childhood. Those who insist on remembering shall perform a noble service.</span></blockquote>
Keep in mind this was written in 1982.<br>
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Pushing your child toward more virtuous affections will not be popular. Not with your child, not with your friends, maybe not even with their teachers at school, but it is worth it. I'll end with this thought from <i>The Collapse of Parenting:</i><br>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px;">If you are doing your job as a parent, then sometimes you will have to do things that will upset your child. If you are concerned that your child won't love you anymore, that concern may keep you from doing your job. </span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: inherit; font-size: 14px;">Do your job.</span></blockquote>
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John C. Majorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384758909258952917noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755904795209334295.post-54858036699923538282017-02-14T10:24:00.001-07:002017-02-14T10:24:32.412-07:00Two things that are guaranteed to radically change your marriage<div dir="ltr">
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There are two things you can start doing right now that are guaranteed to radically change your marriage. Sound too good to be true? They really do work. Doesn't mean they're easy, but you will see immediate results.</div>
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<h3>
Step One</h3>
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First, <b>think of marriage from an eternal perspective</b>. I've know this to be true for a long time. But the hard part is putting it into practical terms. How do you imagine marriage in light of something that is infinite and eternal? It's like trying to comprehend the size of a galaxy. Our minds are not big enough to gain that kind of perspective. </div>
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But there is a practical step you can take to get there. In the book <i>You and Me Forever, </i>Francis Chan shares how he approaches this. He tries to imagine himself standing before God for the first time. What would it feel like? How would he respond?</div>
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Oddly, I meet very few people who think about that moment. Is it because we don't really believe it's going to happen? We think about upcoming vacations and imagine how much fun we will have. We think about upcoming trials and worry about how difficult they will be. Why don't we think about seeing God for the first time? I'll try to think about it often because it keeps me centered. This is also why I imagine Lisa [<i>his wife</i>] seeing God for the first time. I love her, so I want her to be ready for it. (p.24)</blockquote>
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What are the benefits of doing this? </div>
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Eternal-mindendness keeps us from silly arguments. There's no time to fight. We have better things to pursue than our interest. Too much is at stake! God created us for a purpose. We can't afford to waste our lives. We can't afford to waste our marriage by merely pursuing our own happiness. (p.11)</blockquote>
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A strange thing happened when [we] started living with an eternal lens: it caused us to enjoy the here and now! Many people will tell you to focus on your marriage, to focus on each other; but we discovered that focusing on God's mission made our marriage amazing. This caused us to experience Jesus deeply—what could be better?</blockquote>
Not easy at all - but I think you'll find if you begin to employ the intentional practice of considering your marriage in light of eternity, it will have a profound affect on the way you live and love each other now.<br />
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<h3>
Step Two</h3>
The second is one I've heard Dennis Rainey talk about time and again: <b>Praying Together</b>. Again, the Chans offer these thoughts on why this is so critical to the health of your marriage:<br />
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Remember that there is an enemy who is seeking to destroy your marriage. Our battle is not against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12), so we can't safeguard our marriages through more date nights, more vacations, or more counseling. Those things are not bad, but we have to see that there is more going on. <b>Sincere and concentrated prayer will do infinitely more than any human strategy for a happy marriage. "</b>The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working" (James 5:16). (p.29)</blockquote>
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It's hard to believe that these two things can make such a difference in marriage, but they really can. </div>
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Try a one week experiment with a morning and evening approach:</div>
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<b>In the mornings</b>, do step one. Here's how you can approach it: Take 3 minutes and imagine yourself standing before God. Imagine how it feels, what you would hear, what you would see. Then take 3 minutes and imagine your spouse standing before God. Also imagine what he or she would feel, see, hear. Also imagine what they would look like to you in that moment. Then take 3 minutes and pray about how this vision affects your marriage today.</div>
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Next, <b>in the evening</b>, take 3 minutes to pray with your spouse. Simply pray for the things that came to mind in the morning. Or pray for your kids together and the biggest challenges facing your family. Make sure to begin by giving thanks for all the things that are going well in your marriage and family.</div>
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Try it for a week and see what happens.</div>
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John C. Majorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384758909258952917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755904795209334295.post-18663792039009846962017-02-13T14:56:00.000-07:002017-02-13T14:56:19.928-07:00Imitation of Christ - on humility<div dir="ltr">
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Of grace concealed by humility:</div>
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"It is seldom the case that they who are self-wise endure humbly to be governed by others. Better it is to have a small portion of good sense with humility, and a slender understanding, then great treasures of many sciences with vain self- pleasing. Better it is for thee to have little, then much of that which may make thee proud."</div>
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From <i>The Imitation of Christ </i>by Thomas a Kempis</div>
John C. Majorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384758909258952917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755904795209334295.post-14510352927372460712017-02-10T09:15:00.000-07:002017-02-10T20:09:46.465-07:00Disciplines of a Godly Man: How one book made me read more better books<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Further up and further in - a Narnian like experience</td></tr>
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In college I read the book <i>Disciplines of a Godly Man </i>with two friends. One of the other guys happened upon it and thought we should check it out. Yet since I hadn't heard of it, I was skeptical (how arrogant... which was pretty par for the course at the time). The book had a tremendous influence on my life and cemented a life-long friendship with both of those guys.<br />
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There were two parts of the book that have stuck with me the longest: the Bible reading plan and the reading survey.<br />
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<b>The Bible reading plan</b> was the first chronological version I had seen. It's not really all that special, but for some reason it stuck with me and lead to many years of reading through the entire Bible over the course of the year.<br />
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But the <b>reading survey</b> was what really blew my mind. Here's a brief explanation: The author (R. Kent Hughes) surveyed a number of influential Christian teachers, pastors, and authors, and asked the following questions:<br />
<ol>
<li>What are five books, secular or sacred, which have influenced you the most?</li>
<li>Of those books, which is your favorite?</li>
<li>What is your favorite novel?</li>
<li>What is your favorite biography?</li>
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Some of whom he interviewed were James M. Boice, Bryan Chappell, Chuck Colson, Jim Dobson, Elisabeth Elliot, Howard Hendricks, Carl F. Henry, Jerry Jenkins, Harold Lindsell, Robertson McQuilkin, J.I. Packer, Pagie Patterson, Eugene Peterson, Haddon Robinson, R.C. Sproul, Chuck Swindoll, and Warren Wiersbe.<br />
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Some heavy hitters!<br />
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Other than the Bible, here's a list of the books that were mentioned more than once:<br />
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<i>Mere Christianity</i> (10)<br />
<i>Calvin's Institutes</i> (8)<br />
<i>The Pursuit of God </i>by Tozer (6)<br />
<i>My Utmost for His Highest</i> (5)<br />
<i>Brothers Karamazov</i> (5)<br />
<i>Anna Karenina</i> (5)<br />
<i>Pilgrim's Progress</i> (5)<br />
<i>Shadow of the Almighty</i> (4)<br />
<i>Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret</i> (3)<br />
<i>The Imitation of Christ</i> by Thomas a Kempis (3)<br />
<i>The Great Divorce</i> by C.S. Lewis (2)<br />
<i>American Caesar</i> by William Manchester (bio) (2)<br />
<i>The Last Lion</i> by Manchester (Churchill bio) (2)<br />
<i>Moby Dick</i> (2)<br />
<i>War and Peace</i> (2)<br />
<i>Confessions</i> by Augustine (2)<br />
<i>Loving God</i> by Colson (2)<br />
<i>Knowing God</i> by Packer (2)<br />
<i>Through the Gates of Splendor </i>by Elisabeth Elliot (2)</blockquote>
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<i>NOTE: I think the list in the updated version of the book is different from the original. So I kept some on this list that do not appear in the most recent version.</i></blockquote>
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The list was a revelation to me - like a wardrobe door into a strange and wonderful world I never knew existed. What were these books that so many adored? I must get to know them!<br />
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I have since read most all the books on this list (minus an unabridged version of Moby Dick, American Caesar, and I'm currently working on <i>Through the Gates of Splendor</i>). And I've been amazed by how much these works have shaped my life. In a future post I'll write my own answers to these questions. And I'd love to hear your answers as well.<br />
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But for now I'll offer some thought on a few of the books from the above list.<br />
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<i><b>Mere Christianity</b></i><br />
Other than the Bible, there's been no book that's had as much influence on shaping my life as this one. Reading it in college started a life long love of Lewis' works. Every Christian should read this multiple times. When I read Tim Keller I often think he seems like a modern C.S. Lewis, tackling the questions to Christianity the culture raises.<br />
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<b><i>Calvin's Institutes</i></b><br />
Didn't read this till after seminary, but I was utterly shocked by how accessible and relevant to everyday life Calvin's writing was. I've heard amazing things about <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Institutes-Christian-Religion-John-Calvin/dp/1848714637/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486742704&sr=1-2&keywords=institutes+of+the+christian+religion" target="_blank">this volume</a> in particular. It's shorter than many of the versions offered today, but not because it's a modern abridgment. It is one of the earlier versions Calvin published, before some of the expanded material was added (I think something like 5 different editions were published in Calvin's lifetime). I'd encourage every Christian to eventually read through it. Maybe break it up into segments and tackle it over a few years.<br />
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<i><b>My Utmost for His Highest</b></i><br />
Growing up it seemed that many people in my church kept this volume next to their Bible and their copy of <i>Experiencing God</i>. It was a standard daily devotional, a notch above <i>My Daily Bread. </i>I first started working through it as a Sophomore in college, but found it over my head. I took a step back, worked through a Swindoll devo, and when I returned to it, my heart was ready to absorb the depths it offered. Definitely worth picking up, and its beauty is in its brevity, at one small page and one verse per day.<br />
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<b><i>Anna Karenina</i> by Tolstoy</b><br />
Teddy Roosevelt read this while floating down a half-frozen river in South Dakota, in hot pursuit of a boat thief. I read it sitting in a comfortable chair at home. But the story was riveting. Especially the character development contrasts between the Anna and Levin. Some say Tolstoy infused himself in the character of Levin. Definitely worth reading, especially as a warning against the deception of following your heart.<br />
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<i><b>Shadow of the Almighty by Elisabeth Elliot</b></i><br />
Incredible story of how God worked through Jim Elliot and other young missionaries to reach a remote people group in Ecuador. Their martyrdom by those very people they tried to reach was a great tragedy, yet also launched a powerful missions movement. It definitely stirred me to consider what God had in store for my future.<br />
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<b><i>Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret</i></b>Amazing story, but what stood out was how Taylor, as a young man in America, totally focused his life, every aspect of it, around preparing for the hardships of the mission field in remote China. He created difficult living conditions for himself (like sleeping on the floor) and began learning Chinese by comparing an English Bible to a Chinese Bible. It's rare to run across someone that has such focus and clarity of purpose at such a young age.<br />
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<b><i>The Imitation of Christ</i> by Thomas a Kempis </b><br />
Still working through this but find it a rich well of spiritual encouragement. I nibble on a short section at a time. Works great as a follow up to <i>My Utmost for His Highest. </i>It's amazing how often this work is mentioned by other spiritual giants, like C.S. Lewis. No coincidence since it is the most widely read Christian work ever written, besides the Bible.<br />
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<b><i>The Great Divorce</i> by C.S. Lewis</b>This book blew my mind. Especially his depiction of those that are in hell and why they are there. The imagery of the lizard locked onto the shoulder of one of the characters reminded me of Eustace (i.e. Narnia) and his own lizard skin predicament. I left the book praying that I would be able to get my eyes off myself and avoid endless empty-prattle and self-delusionment modeled by many on the bus.<br />
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<b><i>The Last Lion</i> by Manchester</b><br />
Those who have read much on Churchill often label the Manchester volumes as masterful. Yet they are not easy reads and can be intimidating to some. Friends who know I'm a Churchill fan often ask about a starter book on Churchill. There really is no starter book on Churchill, but two that will do are his own biography about his early life, called (wait for it...), <i>My Early Life</i>. And I just finished an audio book that was an outstanding overview of his life, called <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Churchill-Prophetic-Statesman-James-Humes/dp/1596987758/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486740259&sr=1-1&keywords=churchill+the+prophetic+statesman" target="_blank">Churchill the Prophetic Statesman</a></i>. Both are good starters. I've also heard great things about the <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Churchill-Factor-How-Made-History/dp/1594633983/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1486739915&sr=8-11&keywords=churchill+biography" target="_blank">bio by the former Mayor of London</a>. Also have on my reading list for this year a new book by Candice Millard. She wrote one of my favorite books on Teddy Roosevelt, about his journeys up the Amazon, and now she's turned out <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Hero-Empire-Daring-Winston-Churchill/dp/0385535732/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1486740174&sr=1-1&keywords=candice+millard" target="_blank">a volume chronicling Churchill's POW escape</a> in South Africa. I've read Churchill's version of the story in his own bio, but I'm suspecting Millard can bring the tale to life in a new way. So I'll be moving these two works up my list for this year.<br />
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<b><i>War and Peace</i></b><br />
Probably my favorite novel of all time. When I closed the cover, it felt like I lost friends. Need to re-read. It's worth carving out the time.<br />
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<b><i>Confessions</i> by Augustine</b>I couldn't believe that such an iconic figure of church history could be so candid about his own struggles. So many will relate to his battle with sin, and it's especially encouraging for those that come to know Christ later in life. It's also noteworthy that he had a mistress and a child out of wedlock before Christ, and yet still was used nightly by God to shape the church.<br />
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<br />John C. Majorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384758909258952917noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755904795209334295.post-43136251863337661202017-02-01T06:00:00.000-07:002017-02-01T06:55:14.688-07:00Surprising Links Between Lincoln and his Killer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXT0lFkrpsV6njFMBSPZoOCWJw-f2iCbdGb3smsJ6QA8ndEkD1qsd2Q8gYk1tzyNqm5-fK9cjt16L2y5eOycEPWlkiulIrWazp4-lSUYG9JS7HKzAFuRKfIpe-puvCw0rJoEy7XrUK_Ww/s1600/Lincoln+and+booth.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXT0lFkrpsV6njFMBSPZoOCWJw-f2iCbdGb3smsJ6QA8ndEkD1qsd2Q8gYk1tzyNqm5-fK9cjt16L2y5eOycEPWlkiulIrWazp4-lSUYG9JS7HKzAFuRKfIpe-puvCw0rJoEy7XrUK_Ww/s1600/Lincoln+and+booth.png"></a></div>
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<a href="" name="_GoBack"></a><span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">Last year I listened through the book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Killing-Lincoln-Shocking-Assassination-Changed/dp/0805093079/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1438289643&sr=1-2&keywords=killing+lincoln"><i><span style="color: #0000e9;">Killing Lincoln</span></i></a> by Bill O'Reilly. I was
hesitant to listen at first because of my love for <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Manhunt-12-Day-Chase-Lincolns-Killer/dp/0060518502/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1485885107&sr=1-1&keywords=manhunt"><span style="color: #0000e9;">Manhunt</span></a> by James Swanson. Since O'Reilly's
book came out after Swanson's book, it appeared O'Reilly was trying to ride the
wave of Swanson's work, which felt a bit opportunistic to me. But since
there are something like 50 biographies published on Lincoln ever year, let's
chalk it up as a timing issue and move on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">O'Reilly's
book covers the topic of Lincoln's death more broadly than Swanson, also
addressing the events leading up to the end of the war and some of the conspiracy issues surrounding Lincoln's death. So it was enough of a different
take to make it interesting and compelling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">But
what was especially intriguing was the connection between Lincoln's oldest son, Robert Todd
Lincoln, and John Wilkes Booth. The connection was
mainly through two avenues. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">The
first is that they both were sweet on the same girl, Lucy Hale. And though
Booth was secretly engaged to Hale, yet Robert Lincoln still kept in touch with
Hale, even spending the afternoon before his father's assassination with
her. And he was not her only suitor. O'Reilly explains: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">Like
Booth, she is used to having her way with the opposite sex, attracting beaus
with a methodical mix of flattery and teasing.... among those enraptured with
Miss Hale is a future Supreme Court justice, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., now a
twenty-four-year-ld Union officer. Also John Hay, one of Lincoln's personal
secretaries. And, finally, none other than Robert Todd Lincoln, the president’s
twenty-one-year-old son, also a Union officer. Despite her engagement to Booth,
Lucy still keeps in touch with both Hay and Lincoln, among many others.....</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">But
[by March of 1865]..., their relationship has become strained. They have begun
to quarrel. It doesn't help that Booth flies into a jealous rage whenever Lucy
so much as looks at another man. One night, in particular, he went mad at the
side of her dancing with Robert Lincoln. Whether or not this has anything to do
with his pathological hatred for the president will never be determined. (p.28)</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">The
second connection was with John Wilkes Booth's brother Edwin. Like his brother,
Edwin was a well-known actor whom Lincoln had seen perform on a number of
occasions. But Edwin's value to the President was so much greater than his
entertainment value. Again, O'Reilly explains:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">During
one two-month span in the winter of 1864, [Lincoln] saw <i>Richard III</i>, <i>The
Merchant of Venice</i>, <i>Hamlet</i>, and, of course, <i>Julius
Caesar</i>. The actor playing all the lead roles was Edwin booth, John's
older brother. In addition to his acting, he did the Lincolns an inadvertent
favor by <b>saving the life of their eldest son</b>. When twenty-year-old Union
officer Robert Todd Lincoln was shoved from a crowded railway platform into the
path of an oncoming train, it was Edwin Booth who snatched him by the collar
and pulled him back to safety.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">Robert
never mentioned the incident to his father, but his commanding officer, Ulysses
S. Grant, personally wrote a letter of thanks to the actor. Edwin's brother's
reaction to this incident has never been determined – if he knew at all.
(p.123)</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">One
Booth saved a Lincoln and another Booth killed a Lincoln. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">Lastly,
there's one other fascinating story I've heard a number of times but wanted to
capture here, as it almost seems unbelievable. The story goes that when it was
time for Grant to accept Lee's final surrender, they needed a place to meet
near the final battlefield:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">Lee
sends his aid Colonel Charles Marshall up the road to find a meeting place.
Marshall settles on a simple home. By a great twist of fate, the house belongs
to a grocery named Wilmer McLean, who moved to Appomattox Court House to escape
the war. A cannonball had landed in his fireplace during the first battle of
Bull Run, at the very start of the conflict. Fleeing to a quieter corner of
Virginia was his way of protecting his family from harm.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">But
the Civil War once again finds Wilmer McLean. He and his family are asked to
leave the house. Soon, Lee marches up the front steps and takes a seat in the
parlor. Again, he waits. (p.78)</span></blockquote>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times; mso-bidi-font-family: Times;">McLean's
timing was uncanny. And yet even more surprising, was the timing of Lincoln's
son once again, who also appeared at the surrender. Nor was this the end of his
coincidental appearances, being an eye witness to the assassination
of another president: James Garfield, and being nearby when William
McKinley was shot. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
John C. Majorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384758909258952917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755904795209334295.post-19320608227645643802017-01-26T06:52:00.000-07:002017-01-26T08:35:23.568-07:00How a 19th Century Opera House can Change Your Life<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm731NNysu7dhP3OxZjlYDfVui5ML7rGje3736LC30KtQwqOqvNCak3WvrBc_Igy0dCn5g_WxC-92wmlCKiYjbr-PehNw78hlfixmMfkZ_q6uxjbdJasovdaVBq1QDOHuitEaD4ntnaxY/s1600/opera+house+bozeman.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm731NNysu7dhP3OxZjlYDfVui5ML7rGje3736LC30KtQwqOqvNCak3WvrBc_Igy0dCn5g_WxC-92wmlCKiYjbr-PehNw78hlfixmMfkZ_q6uxjbdJasovdaVBq1QDOHuitEaD4ntnaxY/s1600/opera+house+bozeman.gif" /></a></div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
I've been rereading <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Motorcycle-Maintenance-Inquiry/dp/0060589469/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485362182&sr=8-1&keywords=zen+and+the+art+of" target="_blank">Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance</a></i> with a group of guys. It was recommended to me by a Southern Baptist pastor 20 years ago. The book is not for everyone, but it has some fascinating moments. There's one story that will open doors for anyone who has tried to write. In it he describes an interaction with a college student who was struggling just to complete a 500-word essay about the United States.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
The task was too overwhelming. The topic was too big. So the author (also her teacher at Montana state) tried to narrow the subject for her. What follows is his account of the exchange:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Narrow it down to the <i>main street</i> of Bozeman." It was a stroke of insight.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
She nodded dutifully and went out. But just before her next class she came back in <i>real</i> distress, tears this time, distressed that had obviously been there for a long time. She still couldn't think of anything to say and couldn't understand why, if she couldn't think of anything about <i>all</i> of Bozeman, she should be able to think of something about just one street.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
He was furious. "You're not <i>looking</i>!" He said. A memory came back of his own dismissal from the University for having <i>too much</i> to say. For every fact there is an <i>infinity</i> of hypotheses. The more you <i>look</i> the more you <i>see</i>. She really wasn't looking and yet somehow didn't understand this.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
He told her angrily, "Narrow it down to the <i>front</i> of <i>one</i> building on the Main Street of Bozeman. The Opera House. Start with the upper left-hand brick."</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Her eyes, behind the thick lens glasses, opened wide.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
She came in the next class with a puzzled look and handed him a five-thousand-word essay on the front of the Opera House on the Main Street of Bozeman, Montana. "I sat in the hamburger stand across the street," she said, "and started writing about the first brick, and the second brick and then by the third brick it all started to come and I couldn't stop. They thought I was crazy and they kept kidding me, but here it all is. I don't understand it."</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Neither did he, but on long walks through the streets of town he thought about it and concluded she was evidently stopped with the same kind of blockage that had paralyzed him on his first day of teaching. She was blocked because she was trying to repeat, in her writing, things she had already heard, just as on the first day he had tried to repeat things he had already decided to say. She couldn't think of anything to write about Bozeman because she couldn't recall anything she heard worth repeating. She was strangely unaware that she could look and see freshly for herself, as she wrote, without primary regard for what had been said before. The narrowing down to one brick destroyed the blockage because it was so obvious she <i>had</i> to do some original and direct seeing. (191-2)</blockquote>
<div dir="ltr">
He gave similar advice to his son who wanted to write a letter to his mother about their motorcycle trip across the west. When he sat down to write, he blocked. He didn't know how to get started or what to say.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Usually, your mind gets stuck when you're trying to do too many things at once. What you have to do is try not to force words to come. That just gets you more stuck. What you have to do now is separate out the things and do them one at a time. You're trying to think of what to <i>say</i> and what to say <i>first</i> at the same time and that's too hard. So separate them out. Just make a list of all the things you want to say in any old order. Then later we'll figure out the right order. (283-4)</blockquote>
Any time I've been stuck this has worked beautifully. What is <i>one</i> thing I can say <i>something</i> about? Even if it's not the first thing? It will get used later, and even if not, it will get me going. So write to specifics and see how your writing will get rolling. And this works for everyone, not just those who are trying to write a book or article, or get published. When it comes to your personal journal - write to specifics! Because writing is thinking on paper, and capturing your thoughts will help strengthen them.John C. Majorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384758909258952917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755904795209334295.post-4910920132737728532017-01-23T15:23:00.001-07:002017-01-23T15:23:12.027-07:00Bonhoeffer On the Ministry of Proclaiming<div dir="ltr">
Continuing on with another quote from Bonhoeffer's book <i>Life Together:</i></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The more we learn to allow others to speak the word to us, to accept humbly and gratefully even severe reproaches and admonitions, the more free and objective we will be in speaking ourselves. The person who's touchiness and vanity make him sperm a Brothers Earnest since you cannot speak the truth and humility to others, he's afraid of being rebuffed and of feeling that he has been aggrieved. The touchy person will always become a flatterer and very soon he will come to despise and slander his brother. But the humble person will stick both to truth and to love. He will stick to the word of God and let it lead him to his brother. Because he seeks nothing for himself and has no fears for himself, he can help his brother through the word.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Reproof is unavoidable. God's word demands it when a brother falls into open send. The practice of discipline in the congregation begins in the smallest circles. Where did affection from God's word and Doctrine or life and perils the family fellowship and with it the whole congregation, the word of admonition and rebuke must be ventured. Nothing can be more cruel than the tenderness that consigns another to his sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe rebuke that cause a brother back from the path of sin. It is a Ministry of mercy, and ultimate offer a genuine Fellowship, when we allowed nothing but God's word to stand between us, judging and succoring.</blockquote>
<div dir="ltr">
I LOVE how the qualities expressed in these quotes have overlapped: The integrated power of listening, confessing, and proclaiming. To proclaim in a way that others will listen requires humility. To feel that it is safe to confess to another, you need to know that the person will listen. To receive a proclamation, one has to be in tune to the Holy Spirit speaking through it, which requires listening and humility. Christlikeness is required in Christian community to experience it at its fullest. </div>
John C. Majorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384758909258952917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755904795209334295.post-13117665222163711932017-01-21T06:28:00.000-07:002017-01-21T06:28:14.258-07:00Bonhoeffer on the Ministry of Confession<div dir="ltr">
This quote comes from Bonhoeffer's book <i>Life Together, </i>which is a short work summarizing what he put into practice to foster Christian community in an illegal seminary he led in the early years of World War II.</div>
<div dir="ltr">
<br /></div>
<div dir="ltr">
One important part of community is confession. Yet confession will only occur when one feels there is trust and safety. And that requires listening. Which is why <a href="http://onemantrying.blogspot.com/2017/01/bonhoeffer-on-ministry-of-listening.html" target="_blank">this quote</a> is so important as well. Listening to confession is a supreme act of love toward a fellow Christian. But I have to ask myself the hard question - do others feel that I am trustworthy enough to share their sins with me? Am I approachable? </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Confess your sins to one another" (James 5:16). He who is alone with his sin is utterly alone... The pious Fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everybody must conceal his sin from himself and from the fellowship. We dare not be sinners. Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous. So we remain alone with our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy. The fact is that we <i>are</i> sinners!</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In confession the breakthrough to community takes place. Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is his isolation. Sin wants to remain unknown. It shuns the light. In the darkness of the unexpressed it poisons the whole being of a person. This can happen even in the midst of a pious community. In confession the light of the Gospel breaks into the darkness and seclusion of the heart. The sin must be brought into the light. The unexpressed must be openly spoken and acknowledged. All that is secret and hidden is made manifest. It is a hard struggle until the sun is openly admitted. But God breaks Gates of brass and bars of iron (Psalm 107:16).</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Since the confession of sin is made in the presence of a Christian brother, the last stronghold of self-justification is abandoned. The sinner surrenders; he gives up all his evil. He gives his heart to God, and he finds the forgiveness of all his sin in The Fellowship of Jesus Christ and his brother.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
What happened to us in baptism is bestowed upon us anew in confession. We are delivered out of the darkness into the kingdom of Jesus Christ. That is joyful news. Confession is the renewal of the joy of baptism. "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning" (Psalm 30:5).</blockquote>
<br />
From <i>Life Together</i>, p.112-115.John C. Majorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384758909258952917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755904795209334295.post-21387068788982483052017-01-20T07:00:00.000-07:002017-01-20T07:40:51.841-07:00Favorite books of 2016<div class="normal" style="line-height: normal;">
This was a pretty fun year of
reading. I finished some enormous books and read some fun ones, but also some
that improved my life and helped me see the world in new ways.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: normal;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKej-Vo9NobBoHN5tdNsN1PDH77pBIopM0muuCFgQbXO5itjCuCOIROS5FuJ-xrZT3f-IM6yB_JBkz2HBh6ScFAtEdJjb9MUGbJbMnIARyWeOIeqPg7e1UMf7HGmEOccpPWL4jF3KH_VM/s1600/just+mercy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKej-Vo9NobBoHN5tdNsN1PDH77pBIopM0muuCFgQbXO5itjCuCOIROS5FuJ-xrZT3f-IM6yB_JBkz2HBh6ScFAtEdJjb9MUGbJbMnIARyWeOIeqPg7e1UMf7HGmEOccpPWL4jF3KH_VM/s200/just+mercy.jpg" width="129" /></a>I’ll dive right in here on a light
topic. Three books that I didn’t expect to read at the beginning of the year, nor did I expect them to be grouped together on a reading list, but they all challenged my thinking about race. <a href="http://a.co/iQ7AlV9"><b><span style="color: #1155cc;"><i>Just Mercy</i></span></b></a>
opened my eyes to the tragedies of the justice system. <i><a href="http://a.co/07TEgeq"><b><span style="color: #1155cc;">Blood Meridian</span></b></a> </i>was probably the most
disturbing book I read this year - yet so incredibly well written. The atrocities
committed against Native Americans by truly evil people were astounding and
horribly gut wrenching. Don’t read this if you are queasy. I can’t imagine how
Cormac McCarthy was able to find this voice without slipping into depression.
Amazing, disturbing, and yet important. <a href="http://a.co/aq6l56o"><b><span style="color: #1155cc;"><i>Native Son</i></span></b></a>
was the second most disturbing read of the year. Not only because of the
graphic violence, but the tragic nature of the downward spiral of the main
character. Some parts were tedious, but collectively, the weight of the
system he exposed for me was overwhelming. The section on ping-pong tables left
me spinning. I’m too quick to offer solutions that make me feel good but might totally misses the root
problem. </div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: normal;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7IsFaB1YfIrVQsmo8NyqDwAk-aX7vPUFCn2ay0lbBIWc-yXkpCi8CbcElZYKVW0f1Yoi7Ehkp0l56w7P0hbW9FnFDwxE-4wezQJPjg2_ahKW20G_OIAWXtgXq-MoNiCWhlPZWJekljbc/s1600/tribe.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7IsFaB1YfIrVQsmo8NyqDwAk-aX7vPUFCn2ay0lbBIWc-yXkpCi8CbcElZYKVW0f1Yoi7Ehkp0l56w7P0hbW9FnFDwxE-4wezQJPjg2_ahKW20G_OIAWXtgXq-MoNiCWhlPZWJekljbc/s200/tribe.png" width="133" /></a><o:p> </o:p></div>
<h3>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Power
of Community</b></h3>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: normal;">
Two books this year that surprised me were both by the same author and both hit the theme of
community: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/WAR-Sebastian-Junger-ebook/dp/B0035II95C/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484866484&sr=1-1&keywords=war">War</a></i>
and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Tribe-Homecoming-Belonging-Sebastian-Junger-ebook/dp/B01BCJDSNI/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484866509&sr=1-1&keywords=tribe">Tribe</a></i>
by Sebastian Junger. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">War</i> wasn’t the
typical war reporter book. But it was a snapshot into the inner workings of the
relationships of young men on the battle front in Afghanistan. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tribe</i> absolutely blew me away. You can
ask anyone who spent time with me the month I was nibbling on it. I must have
quoted from it daily. So much great content and stories on the power of
community. I’m not saying that he’s right on everything – but it sure was
insightful. Every pastor should read it for sure. Short read too.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1F1AsK5RmG8VXheFIlnOGCbQsejnea4rPkhtZDItvFDaKSegaWLSLzpX2G4svNuuy1VmSEp9iVRIYCYbZBRsZN8gegJxdkg3MIYp8NlBXwjLVcZONciXob46ggOVxYt5LMnNfjc0e0aw/s1600/Lewis+letter+vol+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1F1AsK5RmG8VXheFIlnOGCbQsejnea4rPkhtZDItvFDaKSegaWLSLzpX2G4svNuuy1VmSEp9iVRIYCYbZBRsZN8gegJxdkg3MIYp8NlBXwjLVcZONciXob46ggOVxYt5LMnNfjc0e0aw/s200/Lewis+letter+vol+2.jpg" width="125" /></a></div>
<h3>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">CS
Lewis: a mild obsession</b></h3>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: normal;">
This year was consumed by C.S.Lewis.
I’d even call it an obsession. I re-read my favorite of his, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Surprised by Joy, </i>and then read a combined
3000 pages of his letters. <a href="http://a.co/hWPObEy"><i>Volume 2</i></a> covered
the war years (1931-1949). <a href="http://a.co/998AKb7"><i>Volume 3</i></a> was
everything after that (1950-1963). If you want a huge treat, you should pick up
Volume 2. Especially the letters he wrote to his brother during World War II.
Epic. Of course, Volume three was amazing because of so many major milestones
that occurred in his life (most of his popular works written, death of
‘mother’, marriage, death of wife, his own death). Such an amazing journey.
Can’t wait to plow through volume one this year, which, at a paltry 800 pages,
should be a breeze in comparison! These two volumes, when combined, were some
of the best books I’ve read in my life.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<h3>
<b>Productivity</b></h3>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: normal;">
Read a whole host of books on Productivity. Read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/War-Art-Steven-Pressfield-ebook/dp/B007A4SDCG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484866402&sr=1-1&keywords=war+of+art">The War
of Art</a> </i>for probably the fifth time, and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Linchpin-Are-Indispensable-Seth-Godin-ebook/dp/B00354Y9ZU/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484866434&sr=1-1&keywords=linchpin+seth+godin">Linchpin</a></i>
the second (both as audio books). Both need to become at least annual reads.
Maybe even more often. If you haven’t read either, put them at the top of your
list. New ones were <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Grit, Better than
before, Do More Better, and Checklist Manifesto</i>. Each were important for
different reasons. I probably liked <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Better-Than-Before-Habits-Procrastinate-ebook/dp/B00NRQOR8K/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484866467&sr=1-1&keywords=better+than+before">Better
Than Before</a> </i>(how to build habits) best, as it was the most practical
and engaging.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: normal;">
</div>
<h3>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWghgTDUyU2yPsnm8SIAnOQKza1J60N4zRofd50urbbqDk08Y-S4z42Ll2Gmjf18NZAXLEbA2GLCXxVRwN2ema6rM7dxBXOnfAiIhR6q2sCvHiVuvFuByNUb4SkqSpwFmiMyws5qU0C4A/s1600/rebel-yell-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWghgTDUyU2yPsnm8SIAnOQKza1J60N4zRofd50urbbqDk08Y-S4z42Ll2Gmjf18NZAXLEbA2GLCXxVRwN2ema6rM7dxBXOnfAiIhR6q2sCvHiVuvFuByNUb4SkqSpwFmiMyws5qU0C4A/s200/rebel-yell-cover.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="133" /></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Biography</b></h3>
<br />
<div class="normal" style="line-height: normal;">
Though I didn’t read a ton of
biographies<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> <a href="http://a.co/1aKUrs4">Rebel
Yell</a></i> (on Stonewall Jackson) was hands down the best. It was well written, and made an already fascinating, enigmatic personality even more intriguing. I’ll certainly be re-reading this one in the near future. On another note, the author of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rebel Yell </i>wrote
a book I found equally fascinating and have recommended many, many times: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Summer-Moon-Comanches-Powerful-ebook/dp/B003KN3MDG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484867003&sr=1-1&keywords=empire+of+the+summer+moon">The
Empire of the Summer Moon</a>. </i>Amazing. After being blown away by these two
books, I’ll read anything he writes. Except for a book about a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Pass-American-Reinvention-Football-ebook/dp/B017I25CVY/ref=la_B001K8A9U2_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484865209&sr=1-2">former
University of Kentucky football coach</a>. Probably won’t go there…. But
everything else.</div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: normal;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKQg-v38iMPDI5eh0XVp2nK0d1Kdq42vvBRYM27H3mqriEV3wvrwcGlwHHkTkKSXRBBb35dwPk9pJ6eXEassP_8_Wb5mMn2iZYbWvGs3zx1ERBMMAYXZJ8wT9gxujVnsabVxqwxUrPiHA/s1600/london-sea-wolf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKQg-v38iMPDI5eh0XVp2nK0d1Kdq42vvBRYM27H3mqriEV3wvrwcGlwHHkTkKSXRBBb35dwPk9pJ6eXEassP_8_Wb5mMn2iZYbWvGs3zx1ERBMMAYXZJ8wT9gxujVnsabVxqwxUrPiHA/s200/london-sea-wolf.jpg" width="170" /></a></div>
<h3>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Fiction
and Historical fiction</b></h3>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: normal;">
Went on a Jack London kick this
year. As a kid I loved, loved, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">loved</b>,
reading <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Call of the Wild</i>. But
this year I was introduced to his other long stories and ate up <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Jack-London-Stories-Sea-Wolf-Klondike/dp/0940450054/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1484866173&sr=8-1&keywords=sea+wolf+jack+london+library+of+america">Sea
Wolf</a> </i>and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/People-Abyss-Road-Martin-Barleycorn/dp/0940450062/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0940450062&pd_rd_r=SP7A1JN9WYYXEGDAWG86&pd_rd_w=A8Kwd&pd_rd_wg=3BArE&psc=1&refRID=SP7A1JN9WYYXEGDAWG86">Martin
of Eden</a></i>. The first was a contrast in character development. One man blossoms
while the other devolves into despair. Yet both learn so much from the other.
The second book seemed semi-auto-biographical and though clearly a novel with
an engaging plot, folded in a commentary on finding true
happiness. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGAMb4ZQHQOjEYqiAUUNQVmKNv1xeWS55bnKLsxjYDo6Iu0a4Jky7e7_0thUDLW6rmcIAa98JuPbX6jqKlyrjKTj-9p8kxaUJpEGS2uCqhpO2S6ovxgN9GzNL_uxP7zWKiwzL1u2srRT4/s1600/musashi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGAMb4ZQHQOjEYqiAUUNQVmKNv1xeWS55bnKLsxjYDo6Iu0a4Jky7e7_0thUDLW6rmcIAa98JuPbX6jqKlyrjKTj-9p8kxaUJpEGS2uCqhpO2S6ovxgN9GzNL_uxP7zWKiwzL1u2srRT4/s320/musashi.jpg" width="258" /></a></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: normal;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Musashi-Epic-Novel-Samurai-Era-ebook/dp/B00CD428BU/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484865772&sr=1-1&keywords=musashi">Musashi</a></i>
was a surprising delight of a book. A long form historical fiction work (900-ish
pages) on the life of Japan’s most successful Samurai, winning over 60
individual bouts and never losing. There's also a graphic novel version by the title <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vagabond. </i>The
graphic novels are mostly fine, though I wouldn’t recommend them to the young
because of a couple of images in volume one and two. (By the way, I think the
two volumes of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Vagabond </i>I read are a
compilation of some of the over 30 issues of a Japanese comic book series… so
I’m not sure how to best direct anyone to track these down. I thought they were
compiled into three volumes, but I couldn’t confirm that when I searched on
Amazon. Maybe you can find them at your library like I did. If someone who
reads this loves Manga and knows the answer – drop it in the comments please)<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">.</i> I’m also working through a short
biography on Musashi, called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Lone-Samurai-Life-Miyamoto-Musashi-ebook/dp/B00C28DO24/ref=pd_cp_351_4?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00C28DO24&pd_rd_r=MEEGWRPJB2XYZCBQTAJ8&pd_rd_w=S98Ll&pd_rd_wg=JV7Jk&psc=1&refRID=MEEGWRPJB2XYZCBQTAJ8">The
Lone Samurai</a></i> that has been a good complement to the novel. His burden
to simplify life was probably his main driving force, shunning anything that
would take him from “The way of the sword.”</div>
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="normal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: normal;">
</div>
<h3>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Two Others Books </b></h3>
<br />
<div class="normal" style="line-height: normal;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgUUWO3fCf7fyRnxUhXbkcEfoNqWkGZpXu9pijqGtu-SGRJYLI0cVAaoVeq05yhfusCT88szta8g7mtA_gtYJ14D5K_uXR_GwvzAEQCr-kiihJ2G1koGxJDpvR6bZ9paCr33DRIcPkCL0/s1600/extreme+ownership.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgUUWO3fCf7fyRnxUhXbkcEfoNqWkGZpXu9pijqGtu-SGRJYLI0cVAaoVeq05yhfusCT88szta8g7mtA_gtYJ14D5K_uXR_GwvzAEQCr-kiihJ2G1koGxJDpvR6bZ9paCr33DRIcPkCL0/s320/extreme+ownership.jpg" width="213" /></a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Ownership-U-S-Navy-SEALs-ebook/dp/B00VE4Y0Z2/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484866258&sr=1-1&keywords=extreme+ownership">Extreme
Ownership</a> </i>– Not a book on buying lots of things, rather, it's a treatise on taking responsibility for whatever is swirling in your life. I share a story from this book during the men’s session at the Weekends to Remember and each time I’m amazed by how many men mention how
powerful the story is to them. It’s probably been the stickiest book I’ve read
this year – with the main idea coming to mind over and over again – “OWN IT!”
Every man should read this.</div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: normal;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/End-Sexual-Identity-Important-Define-ebook/dp/B004NBXGP8/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1484866350&sr=1-1&keywords=end+of+sexual+identity">End
of Sexual Identity</a> </i>I read a ton of books on gender and sexual identity
this year to prepare for writing my own book on the topic. One stood out above
the rest. I didn’t agree with everything in the book, as the author seemed to
underplay the power of the creation account in establishing two distinct sexes,
but much of what she had to say about our cultural identities and they way they
are formed around our gender was very thoughtful. She really helped drive home
the idea that so much of what we believe to be true of gender and sexual
identity is heavily influenced by our culture. Again, I don’t agree with
everything she writes, but it’s worth reading. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<h3>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/">GOODREADS</a></b></h3>
<div class="normal" style="line-height: normal;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
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I’ve been using goodreads to track
my books this year. If you want to see what I’m reading, or track your own
books – check it out and get signed up. If you sign up with your amazon
account, it will give you the option to import any books you’ve purchased from
Amazon. You can also find a link on the right side of this blog.<o:p></o:p></div>
John C. Majorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384758909258952917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755904795209334295.post-16277372154934243832017-01-10T10:51:00.001-07:002017-01-11T10:58:26.364-07:00Bonhoeffer on the Ministry of Listening<p dir="ltr"><u>What</u> follows are some challenging words, of which I readily admit I have failed often to keep them. Well... I've certainly kept the wrong ones. The bolded passages are especially hard to read. May we all be better listeners.</p>
<p dir="ltr">"The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists in listening to them. Just as love to God begins with listening to His Word, so the beginning of love for the Brethren is learning to listen to them. It is God's love for us that He not only gives us his Word but also lends us His ear. So it is His work that we do for our brother when we learn to listen to him. Christians, especially ministers, so often think they must always contribute something when they are in the company of others, that this is the one service they have to render. They forget that listening can be a greater service than speaking.<br>
<b>Many people are looking for an ear that will listen. They do not find it among Christians, because these Christians are talking where they should be listening</b>. <b>But he who can no longer listen to his brother will soon be no longer listening to God either; he will be doing nothing but prattle in the presence of God too. This is the beginning of the death of the spiritual life, and in the end there is nothing left but spiritual chatter and clerical condescension arrayed in pious words.</b> One who cannot listen long and patiently will presently be talking beside the point and be never really speaking to others, albeit he be not conscious of it. Anyone who thinks that his time is too valuable to spend keeping quiet will eventually have no time for God and his brother, but only for himself and for his own follies.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><b>There is a kind of listening with half an ear that presumes already to know what the other person has to say. It is an impatient, inattentive listening, that despises the brother and is only waiting for a chance to speak and thus get rid of the other person.</b> <i>(Ouch)</i>This is no fulfillment of our obligation, and it is certain that here too our attitude toward our brother only reflects our relationship to God. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Secular education today is aware that often a person can be helped merely by having someone who will listen to him seriously, and upon this insight it has constructed its own soul therapy, which has attracted great numbers of people, including Christians. But Christians have forgotten that the ministry of listening has been committed to them by him who is himself the great listener and whose work they should share. We should listen with the ears of God that we may speak the <u>W</u>ord of God."</p>
<p dir="ltr">I think probably the most eye-opening part of this was his connection to listening to others and listening to God. Challenging words and a good reminder that we are called to put others before ourselves and consider their needs as more important than our own.  Listening well is just one example of how that plays out in our lives.</p>
John C. Majorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384758909258952917noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755904795209334295.post-86710659869360024322017-01-09T11:08:00.001-07:002017-01-09T11:08:24.132-07:00Life Together<p dir="ltr">I've been reading through Dietrich Bonhoeffer's powerful work on community called <i>Life Together</i> and ran across this fantastic quote this morning:</p>
<p dir="ltr">"The individual must realize but his hours of aloneness react upon the community. In his Solitude he can Thunder and besmirch the fellowship, or he can strengthen and how low it. Every Act of self-control of the Christian is also a service to the fellowship."</p>
<p dir="ltr">A good reminder that what we do in private does matter. It does affect others, even if in a seemingly subtle way. In <u>fact</u>, for Christians, our private lives are what gives us the right to minister publicly. But even more important than Ministry is the nature of love and community. It's pretty empowering to think that even how we use our private time can be an act of love toward other Christians.</p>
John C. Majorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384758909258952917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755904795209334295.post-69896033609072683592016-08-24T07:00:00.000-07:002016-08-24T07:00:28.785-07:00War by Sebastian Junger (Book Notes)<div style="color: black; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I recently finished the book <i>War </i>by Sebastian Junger. I became interested in his writing after hearing an interview with him on the Tim Ferriss podcast. Pretty interesting guy. The book is a collection of his experiences working as a war reporter in Afghanistan.
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I read this book a while back but delayed posting about it because at first reflection it didn’t seem to warrant much comment. But after working back through my notes and reviewing some of the quotes and insights, I realized there's some significant depth here.
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As a book, for pure entertainment value, it wasn't the strongest. There's lots of seemingly random conversation, brutal violence, and a prodigious amount of the f-word (it is a book about war). I wouldn't recommend it to everyone. But along the literary journey there are some powerful quotes, anecdotes, and social observations. There are reflections on the importance of relationships and how community strength is so important to our health and growth as individuals. <span style="display: inline !important; float: none;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">There are also some powerful quotes on courage, love, and the connection between the two. </span>Junger apparently gets flack for his gender stereotypes. You’ll see some of his observations that have been criticized below. Read and decide for yourself if the criticism is fair or not.</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On fear and cowardice</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"By cowardice I do not mean fear. Cowardice... is a label we reserve for something a man does. What passes through his mind is his own affair." - Lord Moran, <i>The Anatomy of Courage</i>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i style="font-style: normal;">On how you still need courage to tell your muscles what to do</i>.
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"There are different kinds of strength, and containing fear may be the most profound, the one without which Armies couldn't function and wars couldn't be fought (God forbid). There are big tough guys in the army who are cowards, and small feral looking dudes like Monroe who will methodically take apart a SAW <i>(machine gun)</i> while rounds are slapping the rocks all around them. The more literal forms of strength like carrying 160 lbs up a mountain depend more obviously on the size of your muscles. But muscles only do what you tell them, so it still keeps coming back to the human spirit. Wars are fought with very heavy machinery”
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On Why Nothing is Easy in Life</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">"'Everything in war is simple but the simplest thing is difficult,' The military theorist Carl Von Clausewitz wrote in the 1820s. The difficulties accumulate and end by producing a kind of friction. That friction is the entire goal of the enemy in the valley. In some ways it works even better than killing." <i>(He's referring to t</i></span><i><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-style: normal;">he friction of wearing down the army, drip by drip, and it's amazing </span>effectiveness<span style="font-style: normal;"> to clog up the american war machine.)</span></span></i></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the Dangerous Effictiveness of Young Men</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Society can give it's young men almost any job, and they'll figure out how to do it. They'll suffer for it, and die for it, and watch their friends die for it, but in the end it will get done. That only means that society should be careful what it asks for. In a very crude sense the job of young men is to undertake the world their fathers are too old for."
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"And the current generation of american fathers had decided that a certain six-mile-long valley in the Konar provence needs to be brought under military control. Nearly 50 American soldiers have died carrying out those orders. I'm not saying that's a lot or a little, but the cost does need to be acknowledged. Soldiers themselves are reluctant to evaluate the costs of war. For some reason the closer you are to combat, the less inclined you are to question it. but someone must. That evaluation... may be the one thing the country absolutely owes the soldiers that defend it's borders."
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On Love</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"The coward's fear of death stems in large part from his incapacity to love anything but his own body. The inability to participate in other's lives stands in the way of his developing any inner resources sufficient to overcome the terror of death."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-J. Glenn Gray, <i style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Warriors-Reflections-Men-Battle/dp/0803270763/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1469824118&sr=1-7&keywords=the+warriors+in+books">The Warriors</a></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b style="font-style: normal;">On </b><b>Young men being 5x more likely to die than young women</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Some of those behavioral determinants, like a willingness to take risks, seem to figure disproportionately in the characters of young men. They are killed in accidents and homicides at a rate of 106 per 100,000 per year, roughly five times the rate of young women. Statistically, it's six times as dangerous to spend a year as a young man in America than as a cop or a fireman, and vastly more dangerous than a one year deployment at a big military base in Afghanistan. You'd have to go to a remote fire base like the KOP or Camp Blessing to find a level of risk that surpasses that of simply being an adolescent male back home."
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Combat isn't simply a matter of risk though, it's also a matter of mastery. The basic neurological mechanism that induces animals to do things is called the dopamine rewards system. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that mimics the affect of cocaine in the brain. And it gets released when a person wins a game or solves a problem or succeeds at a difficult task. The dopamine rewards system exists in both sexes but is stronger in men. And as a result, men are more likely to become obsessively involved in such things as hunting, gambling, computer games, and war. When the men of 2nd platoon were moping around the outpost, hoping for a firefight, it was because, among other things, they weren't getting their accustomed dose of endorphins and dopamine. They played video games instead. Women can master those skills without having pleasure centers in their brains - primarily the mesocorticolimbic center - light up as if they've just done a line of coke." </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On Courage as love</span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Combat fog obscures your fate, obscures when and where you might die, and from that unknown is born a desperate bond between the men. That bond is the core experience of combat and the only thing you can absolutely count on. The army might screw you and your girlfriend might dump you and the enemy might kill you, but the shared commitment to safeguard one another's lives is un-negotiable and only deepens with time. The willingness to die for another person is a form of love that even religions fail to inspire, and the experience of it changes a person profoundly. <b>What the army sociologists.... slowly came to understand was that <span style="font-weight: normal;">courage was love.</span></b><b style="font-weight: normal;"> </b>In war neither could exist without the other and that in a sense they were just different ways of saying the same thing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">According to their questionnaires, the primary motivation in combat, other than ending the task, which meant they could all go home, was solidarity with the group. That far outweighed self-preservation or idealism as a motivator. The Army research branch cites cases of wounded man going AWOL after their hospitalization, in order to get back to their unit faster than the military could get them there. A civilian might consider this an act of courage, but soldiers knew better. To them it was just an act of brotherhood and their probably wasn't much to say about it except, 'welcome back.' Loyalty to the group drove men back into combat and occasionally to their deaths, but the group also provided the only psychological refuge from the horror of what was going on. It was conceivably more reassuring to be under fire with men you trusted than to languish at some rear base with soldiers who had no real understanding of war. It's as if there were an intoxicating affect to group inclusion that more than compensated for the dangers the group had to face. A study conducted in the mid-1950s found that jumping out of a plane generated extreme anxiety in loosely bonded groups of paratroopers. But tightly bonded men mainly worried about living up to the standards of the group. Men were also found to be able to withstand more pain, in this case electric shocks, when they were part of a close group, than when they were alone."</span><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On Group size and community strength (FASCINATING)</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"In the early 1990s, an English anthropologist named Robin Dunbar theorized that the maximum size for any group of primates was determined by brain size, specifically the size of the neocortex. The larger the <span style="font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">neocortex</span>, he reasoned, the more individuals with whom you could maintain personal relationships. Dunbar then compared primate brains to human brains, and used the differential to predict the ideal size for a group of humans. The number he came up with was 147.8 people. Rounded up to 150, it became known as the Dunbar number and it happened to pop up everywhere. A survey of ethnographic data found that pre-contact hunter gatherers around the world lived in shifting communities that ranged from 90 to 221 people, with an average of 148. Neolithic villages in Mesopotamia were thought to have had around 150 people. The Roman army of the classical period used a formation of 130 men, called a maniple, or a double century, in combat. Hutterite communities in South Dakota split after reaching 150 people because, in their opinion, anything larger cannot be controlled by peer pressure alone. Dunbar also found that the size of human hunter-gatherer communities was not spread evenly along a spectrum, but tended to clump around certain numbers. The first group size that kept coming up in ethnographic data was 30-50 people. Essentially a platoon. Unlike hunter-gatherer communities, platoons are obviously single sex, but the group identification might function the same way. Those communities were highly mobile and kept in close contact with three or four other communities for social and defensive purposes. The larger these groups were, the better they could defend themselves. Up until the point that they got so big they started to fracture and divide. Many such groups formed a tribe, and tribes either fought each other or formed confederacies against other tribes. The basic dichotomy of "us vs. them" happened at the tribal level and was reinforced by differences in language and culture. The parallels with military structure are almost exact. Battle company had around 150 men, and every man knew every other man by face and by name. The molten core of the group bond was the platoon however. A platoon - with a headquarters element, a radio operator, a medic, and forward observer for calling in air strikes - is the smallest self-contained unit in the regular army. Inserted into enemy territory and resupplied by air, a platoon could function more or less indefinitely. When I asked the men about their allegiance to one another, they said they would unhesitatingly risk their lives for anyone in the platoon or company, but the sentiment dropped off pretty quickly after that. By the time you got to brigade level, 3,000 to 4,000 men, any sense of common goals or identity was pretty much theoretical."</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On Self Sacrifice</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"Self sacrifice in defense of one's community is virtually universal among humans, extolled in myths and legends all over the world, and undoubtedly ancient. No community can protect itself unless a certain portion of its youth decide they are willing to risk their lives in its defense. That impulse can be horribly manipulated by leaders and politicians of course, but the underlying sentiment remains the same. Cheyenne dog soldiers wore long sashes that they staked to the ground in battle so that they couldn't leave the spot unless released by someone else. American militia men at the Alamo were outnumbered ten to one and yet fought to the last man rather than surrender to Mexican forces trying to reclaim the territory of Texas. And soldiers in WWI ran head long into heavy machine gun fire, not because many of them cared about the larger politics of the war, but because that's what the man to the left and to the right of them was doing. The cause doesn't have to righteous, and the battle doesn't have to be winnable, but over and over again throughout history, men have chosen to die in battle with their friends, rather than to flee on their own and survive. While Stouffer (<i>a</i> <i>sociologist</i>) was trying to figure this out among american troops, the psychological warfare division was trying to do the same thing with the Germans. One of the most astounding things about the last phase of the war wasn't that the German Army collapsed by the end, that was a matter of simple math, but that it lasted as long as it did. Many German units that were completely cut off from the rest of their army continued resisting the prospect of certain defeat."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>On the Power of the Group</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"After the war, a pair of former American Intelligence Officers named Edward Shils and Morris Janowitz set about interviewing thousands of German prisoners to find out what had motivated them in the face of such odds. Their paper, "Cohesion and Disintegration in the Wehrmacht in World War II," became a classic inquiry into why men fight.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Considering the extreme nationalism of the Nazi era, one might expect the territorial ambition and a sense of racial superiority motivated most of the men on the German line. In fact, those concepts only helped the men who were already part of a cohesive unit. For everyone else, such grand principles provided no motivation at all. A soldier needs to have his basic physical needs met and needs to feel valued and loved by others. If those things are provided by the group, a soldier requires virtually no rationale other than the defense of that group to continue fighting. Allied propaganda about the moral wrongfulness of the Nazi government had very little effect on these men because they weren't really fighting for that government anyway. As the German lines collapsed and the German Army, the Wehrmacht, began to break up, the concerns of fighting began to give way to those of pure physical survival. At that point, Allied propaganda campaigns that guaranteed food, shelter, and safety to German deserters began to take a toll. But even then, Shils and Janowitz found, the men who deserted tended to be disgruntled loners who had never really fit into their unit. They were men who typically had trouble giving or receiving affection and had a history of difficult relations with friends and family back home. A significant number had criminal records. The majority of everyone else either fought and died as a unit or surrendered as a unit. Almost no one acted on their own to avoid the fate that was coming to the whole group. When I asked Hijar (<i>one of the American soldiers the author was following</i>) what it would mean to get overrun he said, 'By a brave man's definition it would mean to fight until you died.' That is essentially what the entire German Army tried to do as the Western Front collapsed in the spring of 1945."
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">MORE ON COURAGE AS LOVE
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Interviewer</i>: "Talk about the connection between courage and love"
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Junger</i>: "What I saw out in the Korengal was many acts of bravery all committed in the service of the group or the service of another man. What I realized is that as I became more and more affiliated with this platoon the more I felt like I was more a part of the group. My own fear started to sort of dissolve a bit and I realized that what civilians call courage, in other words, someone risking their life for someone else, the soldiers just consider their sort of minimum duty as soldiers to each other. And that the acts of courage that I saw performed in front of me were actually acts of commitment, ultimately, acts of love towards other men in the unit. And it really came down to the fact that the guys in that unit would rather risk their lives and probably rather get killed than fail their brothers and put others at risk or even get them killed. The shame of causing the death of someone else far eclipsed the fear of death and it really determined everyone's actions in combat."
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John C. Majorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384758909258952917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755904795209334295.post-45284571549994261542016-08-08T06:52:00.000-07:002016-08-08T06:52:01.008-07:00How to be the most interesting person you can be<div style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">Years ago I heard an interview with a young actor who had been in a movie with Harry Connick Jr. He was surprised by how nice, engaging, and kind to others Harry was. He was also mesmerized by how interesting of a person Mr. Connick was to be around. So he sought him out and asked him, "How do I become a more interesting person?" Harry said, "It's simple. When you meet someone new, ask them 5 questions before you ever say anything about yourself." Amazing advice, but hard to believe it came from a movie star, all of which I often (wrongly) assume are completely self absorbed. I love this story because it shatters that assumption.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So did this quote from the book </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i><a href="http://onemantrying.blogspot.com/2016/01/how-proust-can-change-your-life-book.html" target="_blank">How Proust Can Change Your Life</a></i>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">(p.120)- it is often assumed, usually by people who don't have many friends, that friendship is a hollow sphere in which what we wish to talk about effortlessly coincides with others' interests. Proust, less optimistic than this, recognized the likelihood of discrepancy, and concluded that he should always be the one to ask questions and address himself to what was on your mind rather than risking boring you with what was on his.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">To do anything else would have been bad conversation and manners: [quotes from Proust] "There is a lack of tact in people who in their conversation look not to please others, but to elucidate, egotistically, points that they are interested in." Conversation required an application of oneself in the name of pleasing companions. "When we chat, it is no longer we who speak... we are fashioning ourselves then in the likeness of other people, and not of a self that differs from them."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Though the quotes are from and about Proust, it also s</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">ounds like something Jesus would say and do.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This quote brought a friend and his wife to mind, both of whom I know try to practice this Proustian approach to conversation whenever there are at a gathering. I emailed him the quote as a point of encouragement - a sign of solidarity amongst us high-minded-others-centered-conversationalists. His response was not expected, but unsurprising. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Good stuff. Thanks for thinking of us.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Hard to practice this "other's interests" because we are all so self centered. Recently during the Christmas break my wife and I were commenting on how worn out we were by everyone's self talk. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">She came home one evening from a dinner with a girls group and walked through the door and fell into my arms in tears. When she finally collected herself she said that she feels like she is known by nobody. She went on to say that her closest girlfriends do nothing but self talk and there was no need to ask probing questions about them because its all about them. At a time when </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">her mom is fighting cancer she wanted just one woman to ask about her but it never happened. </span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We are committed to keep asking probing questions so as to not risk boring people with our agenda. I think it all starts with a denial of self and a genuine concern for others. But in a world of self talk this becomes more challenging indeed.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">Hard paragraphs to read. Mostly because of the painful reminder of the many times I've played the role of the self absorbed friend that only talks about themselves. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">Proust had an agenda in asking questions - to learn more that would help shape characters in his books. Harry might have had an agenda to merely appear interesting to others (I've been guilty of that as well). But a Christ centered agenda seeks to be others centered for Christ's sake. And when you are others centered in your conversation, it opens a door for pointing others to Him.</span></div>
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John C. Majorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384758909258952917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755904795209334295.post-39082900498035006882016-08-05T07:20:00.003-07:002016-08-05T07:20:40.048-07:00New Wayne Grudem Book: "'Free Grace' Theology: 5 Ways It Diminishes the Gospel."<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://amzn.com/1433551144" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSKIxFY_vGQleP4Y33AEr7dhtoDY5eeZgti9-gNAnQSHCODDouCvRsQd30a0a0fID60xoiE9j9FTK23LC81MV4XPmLkY_EAm1a5vfSj_yXIrcpU1FrJV_HWsCTcb0Kbu-jASULrOfR_po/s400/free_grace_theology_205_316_90.jpg" width="259" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Wayne Grudem has a new book out: <i><a href="https://amzn.com/1433551144" target="_blank">"Free Grace" Theology: Five Ways It Diminishes the Gospel</a>. </i>I</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">'m grateful he wrote this book for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, in Seminary, one of my professors was a big proponent of Free Grace theology. But the way he promoted that view in the classroom was unhelpful. And since he had a sharp wit and a persuasive personality, some students gave this idea more credence than I felt it deserved. </span><br />
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The<span style="font-family: inherit;"> second reason surprised me. Of course I would have loved to see someone directly respond to the arguments, but I didn't think a book would garner much interest beyond the seminary classroom. A few years ago Dr. Grudem gave a message on the topic and that eventually led to this book. I wouldn't even be mentioning it here if it weren't for something he wrote in the letter he sent along with the book. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Although its focus is on the" Free Grace" movement, the book has broader application for how we understand the gospel message today. I'm concerned that evangelicals too often water-down any call for genuine repentance from sin, minimize the need for heartfelt trust in Christ as a living person, and seldom warn people that if their lives have not changed, they're probably not really Christians at all. This book addresses those concerns and calls us back to the kind of gospel presented in the New Testament itself.</i></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">So the second reason I'm grateful for this book is that it is such a rich dive into some of the fundamental aspects of the gospel, which makes it an edifying read for all followers of Jesus.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The marks of Grudem's writing that have always impressed me are his extensive use of Scripture and his very careful analysis of sources. I </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">once </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">heard him say that when people make claims that seem </span>tenuous<span style="font-family: inherit;"> based on obscure references, go back and examine the footnotes, and you almost always find errors, or that some of the context of a passage quoted was ignored. And you see that play out of this book. I think he writes carefully and he seems as to be as gracious as he can be towards the Free Grace position. Of course if you hold to the Free Grace position, I'd love for you to read the book and give me your thoughts as I am clearly biased both for the author and his position.</span>John C. Majorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384758909258952917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755904795209334295.post-1432549858704462282016-07-31T06:04:00.000-07:002016-07-31T06:04:10.086-07:00George MacDonald on Prayer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This year I've been completely obsessed with reading C.S. Lewis. It started when I finally wrapped up reading volume 2 of a collection of his letters my brother gave me 10 years ago. But that launched me into volume 3, which at 1800 pages, is no small undertaking.<br />
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One of the themes in Lewis' letters that keeps showing up is that of Prayer. And that theme keeps showing up in my life as well. This week at a FamilyLife meeting Crawford Loritts spoke - and he always delivers some zingers. He's like a Gatling Gun for heart penetrating quotes. One that I've heard many repeat since is, "If you're not praying, you're a practical atheist, because you're living life like you don't need God." Ouch. Guilty.<br />
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Lewis thought much about prayer and especially the relationship between free will and the sovereignty of God. He wrestled openly with the question, "Why, if God knows everything, if He is sovereign, and knows our needs perfectly, even better than we do, why then do we need to pray? What's the role of prayer?"<br />
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One of the things I love to seek out about people I admire are the books and people that shaped their lives. George MacDonald had a HUGE influence on Lewis. So much so that he compiled and published an <a href="https://amzn.com/0060653191" target="_blank">anthology of 365 readings of MacDonald</a> so that more people could experience his work. I've been reading through that collection and ran across the following quote which is quite possibly the most powerful quote on prayer I've ever experienced. And the quote opens with MacDonald anticipating the skeptics question:<br />
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<b>Why Should It Be Necessary?</b><br />
"But if God is so good as you represent Him, and if He knows all that we need, and better far than we do ourselves,why should it be necessary to ask Him for anything?" I answer, What if He knows Prayer to be the thing we need first and most? What if the main object in God's idea of prayer be the supplying of our great, our endless need - the need of Himself?... Hunger may drive the runaway child home, and he may or may not be fed at once, but he needs his mother more than his dinner. Communion with God is the one need of the soul beyond all other need: prayer is the beginning of that communion, and some need is the motive of that prayer... So begins a communion, and taking [<i>sic</i>] with God, a coming-to-one with Him, which is the sole end of prayer, yea, of existence itself in its infinite phases. We must ask that we may receive: but that we should receive what we ask in respect of our lower needs, is not God's end in making us pray, for He could give us everything without that: to bring His child to His knee, God withholds that man may ask."John C. Majorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384758909258952917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755904795209334295.post-88993867764107123432016-02-03T06:00:00.000-07:002016-02-03T06:00:17.071-07:00Surprised by Re-ReadingI rarely re-read books. In general I try to power through whatever is in hand (except for the Bible, of course) and move on to something new. But I noticed this year that I had re-read a number of books, and many of them have had a significant influence on my life over the years.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgURkFlKEpaM1rHXQ0O9uRAjhtelEXFAx-j6oBFB5knVGhzCkQG8T-reoaIMPqTl8rH2MOuinsahIa9peVQfGzu9R0zwaNzWoXM2xMvFKfWRUHfRbUX-hZisKDmEAIqAdYicRW44j8-Mf0/s1600/surprised-by-joy-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgURkFlKEpaM1rHXQ0O9uRAjhtelEXFAx-j6oBFB5knVGhzCkQG8T-reoaIMPqTl8rH2MOuinsahIa9peVQfGzu9R0zwaNzWoXM2xMvFKfWRUHfRbUX-hZisKDmEAIqAdYicRW44j8-Mf0/s320/surprised-by-joy-cover.jpg" width="207" /></a><i><b>Surprised by Joy</b></i> by C. S. Lewis - I remember the spot where I was sitting in the hotel lobby when I closed the cover on this book, New Year's even of 1999, (y2k anyone?) and just sat in wonder at God's unique work in Lewis' life. It brought great comfort to realize God had wired him for a specific purpose, and to know God had done the same for me. Picked it up again this year for a piece I was writing for the forth-coming Passport2Identity. Tried skimming through it to find a specific passage, but ended up not being able to put it down. Yes it slowed down the writing, but the re-reading was a great delight.<br />
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<i><b>Jayber Crow</b></i> by Wendell Berry - I want to be like Jayber in so many ways when I grow up. You should read this to learn about selfless love, connections to a place and a people, and a vision of community. I tossed the audio book in the car this summer. Often lingered in the parking lot before entering the office as a result.<br />
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<b><i>What are People for?</i></b> Re-read this last year for at least the 4th time. Can't get enough Wendell Berry. A good reminder that people are more important than institutions.<br />
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<b><i>Fahrenheit 451</i></b> - For many years it was hard for me to consider reading this book again. It made me rather uncomfortable. but this book also caused me to fall more in love with books and ideas and the preservation of thought. I will likely re-read it annually (though when I've said this before I've not followed through...)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHYIlGVt0Jsp6d2rQc3uliyVJEYLCDrxfPBnEcGutdgw9NS41sqh_CLuUhv82DauTGDKJDN2cJQRrysaaZaKW1lQDLlXxlcTDp0iLFDI_rrFItTX53hSIAVIuz-gro6Y2BgLnBH2SduXA/s1600/0e406963_book-cover-luc-ferry.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHYIlGVt0Jsp6d2rQc3uliyVJEYLCDrxfPBnEcGutdgw9NS41sqh_CLuUhv82DauTGDKJDN2cJQRrysaaZaKW1lQDLlXxlcTDp0iLFDI_rrFItTX53hSIAVIuz-gro6Y2BgLnBH2SduXA/s200/0e406963_book-cover-luc-ferry.png" width="138" /></a><i><b>A Brief History of Thought</b></i> by Luc Ferry- Read this at the recommendation of a friend who quoted Keller saying this was the most important book on culture one could read. Re-read it and discussed it with a group of bros on my back porch a few nights this fall.<br />
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<b><i>The Story of Christianity </i></b>Church History volumes - read both of these in seminary. Re-read them this year with a group of guys at the office. Most stuck with it. All agreed that the books are tremendous. A recent quote by Churchill reminded me of the importance of reading church history: "The farther one looks into the past, the more distant one can see into the future."<br />
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<b><i>How Should We Then Live</i></b> by Francis Schaeffer - I've read this once on my own and discussed at least two times with others. Now gearing up to work through it this spring with a group of guys at the office. A great overview of the history of western thought and the influences that have shaped the way we think today.<br />
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<b><i>My Reading Life</i></b> by Pat Conroy- Wow. What a book. Read through it a couple of years ago, and listened through it this year, some parts twice. Inspired me to read <i>Gone With the Wind, </i>which was better than I imagined, but not nearly as epic to me as it was to Pat Conroy's mother. His chapter on the bookstore in Atlanta made me long for an experience like that. His chapter on the influence of his english teacher made me want to quit everything and teach english. I've got a work by Thomas Wolfe on my nightstand because of him. His chapter on writing in Paris made me want to write a lot more, though not in Paris. Great writing and story telling.<br />
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<br />John C. Majorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384758909258952917noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755904795209334295.post-54807960413595361802016-01-25T06:00:00.000-07:002016-01-25T06:00:08.765-07:00C.S. Lewis Recommends Books to a Seeker<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I've been reading through a collection of C.S. Lewis' letters and recently ran across a section where he recommends a number of books to a woman, a former student of his, who was exploring Christianity. Lewis wrote the following to his brother about the exchange:<br />
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This week I received a letter from my former pupil Mrs. Neylan... who is trembling on the verge of Christianity — admits that the issue 'can no longer be avoided' — and asks what to read and (more difficult still) who to see. I felt almost overwhelmed by the responsibility of my reply, and naturally the more because the two other people whose conversion had something to do with me became Papists!.... The letter's gone now. I suppose if God intends to have Mrs Neylan it won't make much difference what I've written! — yet that is a dangerous argument which would lead to its not mattering what you did in any circumstances. </blockquote>
Here's what he recommended for her to read:<br />
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On this whole aspect of the subject I should go on (since you've read his <i>Orthodoxy</i>) to Chesterton's <i>The Everlasting Man</i>. You might also find Mauriac's <i>Life of Jesus</i> useful... By the way, if childish associations are too intrusive in reading the New Testament, it's a good idea to try it in some other language, or in Moffatt's modern translation. </blockquote>
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As for theology proper: a good many misunderstandings are cleared away by Edwyn Bevan's <i>Symbolism and Belief</i>. A book of composite authorship and of varying merits, but on the whole good is <i>Essays Catholic and Critical</i> ed. E.G. Selwyn S.P.C.K. Gore's <i>The Philosophy of the Good Life</i> is rather wordy but taught me a lot. If you can stand serious faults of style (and if you can get them, they are long out of print) George Macdonald's 3 vols. of <i>Unspoken Sermons </i>go to the very heart of the matter. I think you would also find it most illuminating to re-read now many things you once read in 'English Lit' without knowing their real importance — Herbert, Traherne, <i>Religio Medici.</i></blockquote>
Mary Neylan wrote an article about her friendship with Lewis, published in <i>The Chesterton Review </i>in 1991 (available to purchase <a href="https://www.pdcnet.org/pdc/bvdb.nsf/purchase?openform&fp=chesterton&id=chesterton_1991_0017_40606_0405_0411">here</a>). Of the books he recommended, one still widely read today is Chesterton's <i>Orthodoxy</i>. My son is now reading the Space Trilogy for the first time, which reminds me that I need to re-read it, having not read it since college.<br />
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In the letter he also recommend two of his own works (at her request), <i>The Pilgrims Regress </i>and <i>Out of the Silent Planet. </i>In an interview Eric Metaxas, <a href="https://soundcloud.com/the-eric-metaxas-show/walter-hooper-1#t=19:18">Walter Hooper said Lewis told him</a> <i>That Hideous Strength </i>was his favorite book of all he had written (or, as he made the distinction, the "one he liked best"). One would think he would have recommended <i>Mere Christianity</i> to her, but the letter was written in 1940, a few years before he gave the lectures upon which the book would be based. Who knows, maybe this conversation helped him see the importance of writing such a book?<br />
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John C. Majorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384758909258952917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755904795209334295.post-43050372593884657252016-01-14T08:58:00.000-07:002016-01-14T08:58:18.608-07:00How Proust Can Change Your Life - [Book Notes]<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not my high school photo</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; widows: 1;">I've heard the name Marcel Proust many times, have heard his work </span><span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; widows: 1;">spoken well of</span><span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; widows: 1;">, and have often thought I should be reading him. Alas, I have never picked up one of his works. But after listening to an interview with Alain de Botton, I read </span><span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; widows: 1;">his</span><span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; widows: 1;"> book called </span><em style="border: 0px; color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; widows: 1;">How Proust Can Change Your Life</em><span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; widows: 1;">. Of course the title is probably a bit of an overstatement, yet the book is worth reading, if only for the </span><span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; widows: 1;">chapter on</span><span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; widows: 1;"> learning how Proust dealt with </span><span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; widows: 1;">a</span><span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; widows: 1;"> life of sickness, how he even saw it an <i>advantage</i> to help him focus on writing.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; widows: 1;">I would not have understood how this could even be possible until recently going through a season of sickness myself. And </span><span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; widows: 1;">though there</span><span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; widows: 1;"> was much about that I did not like, I can now see how it focuses the mind and the body on the essentials and crowds out distractions. Proust seemed to take greater delight in the very </span><span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; widows: 1;">mundane</span><span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; widows: 1;"> things of life as a result. The whole book is worth the chapter on how to suffer well, but his insights on friendship, and thoughts on reading books make it a valuable read. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; widows: 1;">What follows below are my notes from Alain's book. And who knows, I might even read some </span><span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; widows: 1;">Proust </span><span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; widows: 1;">now.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #383838; font-family: gotham, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px; widows: 1;">See all caps for major themes.</span><br />
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<strong style="line-height: 1.57143em;">36</strong> - The more an account is compressed, the more it seems that it deserves no more space than it has been allocated. How easy to imagine that nothing at all has happened today, to forget the 50,000 war dead, sigh, toss the paper to one side, and experience a mild wave of melancholy at the tedium of daily routine.<br />
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ON HOW THE MUNDANE GENERATES THE CREATIVE</div>
<strong style="line-height: 1.57143em;">44</strong>- a similar spirit appears to have guided Proust in his reading matter. His friend Maurice Duplay tells us that what Marcel most liked reading when he couldn't get to sleep was a train timetable. The document was not consulted for practical advice; the departure time of the Saint Lazare train was of no immediate importance to a man who found no reason to leave Paris. Rather, this timetable was read and enjoyed as though it were a gripping novel about country life, because the mere names of provincial train stations provided Proust's imagination with enough material to elaborate entire worlds, to picture domestic dramas in rural villages, shenanigans in local governments, and life out in the fields.</div>
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Proust argued that enjoyment of such wayward reading matter was typical of a writer, someone who could be counted on to develop enthusiasms for things that were apparently out of line with great art, a person for whom "a terrible musical production in a provincial theater, or a ball which people of taste find ridiculous, will either evoke memories or else be linked to an order of reveries and preoccupations, far more then some admirable performance at the Opera or an ultra smart soiree in the Faubourg Saint Germain. The names of Northern Railway stations in a timetable, where he would like to imagine himself stepping from the train on an autumn evening, when the trees are already bare and smelling strongly in the Keen Air, an insipid publication for people of taste, full of names he has not heard since childhood, may have far greater value for him then fine volumes of philosophy, and the people of taste to say that for a man of talent, he has very stupid tastes." Or at least, unconventional tastes. This often became apparent to people who met Proust for the first time and were quizzed on aspects of their life which they had previously considered with all the meager spiritual attention usually paid to ads for household goods and timetables from Paris to Le Have.<br />
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ON COMPARISON TO HIS BROTHER</div>
<strong style="line-height: 1.57143em;">64-</strong> Robert Proust, two years younger than he, the surgeon like his father ( the author of an acclaimed study of <em style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.57143em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">the surgery of the female </em><em style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.57143em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">genitalia</em>), and built like an ox. Whereas Marcel could be killed by a draft, Robert was indestructible. When he was 19, he was riding a tandem bicycle in Henryville, a village on the Seine few miles north of Paris. At a busy junction, he fell from his tandem and slipped under the wheels of an approaching five-ton pull wagon. The wagon rolled over him, he was rushed to the hospital, his mother hurried from Paris in a panic, but her son made a rapid and remarkable recovery, suffering none of the permanent damage the doctors had feared. When the First World War broke out, the Ox, now a grown-up surgeon, was posted to a field hospital... where he lived in a tent and worked in exhausting and unsanitary conditions. One day, a shell landed on the hospital, and shrapnel scattered around the table where Robert was operating on a German soldier. Though hurt himself, Dr. Proust single handedly moved his patient to a nearby dormitory and continued the operation on a stretcher. A few years later, he suffered a grave car accident when his driver fell asleep and the vehicle collided with an ambulance. Robert was thrown against a wooden partition and fractured his skull, but almost before his family had had time to be informed and grow alarmed, he was back on the road to recovery and active life.</div>
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So who would one wish to be, Robert or Marcel? The advantages of being the former can be briefly summed up: immense physical energy, aptitude for tennis and canoeing, surgical skills (Robert was celebrated for his prostatectomies, an operation henceforth known in French medical circles as <em style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.57143em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">proust</em>atectomies), financial success, father of a beautiful daughter, Suzy (who uncle Marcell adored and spoilt, nearly buying her a flamingo when she expressed a passing desire for one as a child). And Marcel? No physical energy, couldn't play tennis or canoe, made no money, had no children, enjoyed no respect until late in life, then felt too sick to derive any pleasure from it (a lover of analogies drawn from illness, he compared himself to a man afflicted with too high a fever to enjoy a perfect souffle).</div>
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However, an area in which Robert appeared to trail his brother was in the ability to notice things. Robert did not show much reaction when there there was a window open on a pollen rich day or 5 tons of coal had run over him; he could have traveled from Everest to Jericho and taken little note of an altitude change, or slept on 5 tins of peas without suspecting that there was anything unusual under the mattress.<br />
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Though such sensory bindness is often rather welcome, particularly when one is performing an operation during a shell barrage in the First World War, it is worth pointing out that feeling things (which usually means feeling them <em style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.57143em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">painfully</em>) is at some level linked to the acquisition of knowledge. A sprained ankle quickly teaches us about the bodies weight distribution; hiccups force us to notice and adjust to hitherto unknown aspects of the respiratory system; being jilted by a lover is a perfect introduction to the mechanisms of emotional dependency.<br />
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ON PAIN AS A TEACHER</div>
<strong style="line-height: 1.57143em;">In fact, </strong><strong style="line-height: 1.57143em;">in</strong> <strong style="line-height: 1.57143em;">Prousts's</strong><strong style="line-height: 1.57143em;"> view, we </strong><strong style="line-height: 1.57143em;">don't</strong><strong style="line-height: 1.57143em;"> really learn anything properly </strong><strong style="line-height: 1.57143em;">until</strong><strong style="line-height: 1.57143em;"> there is a problem, until we are in pain, until something fails to go as we had hoped.</strong><br />
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"Infirmity alone makes us take notice and learn, and enables us to analyze processes which we would otherwise know nothing about. A man who falls straight into bed every night, and ceases to live until the moment when he wakes and rises, will surely never dream of making, not necessarily great discoveries, but even minor observations about sleep. He scarcely knows that he is asleep. A little insomnia is not without its value in making us appreciate sleep, and throwing a ray of light upon that darkness. An unfailing memory is not a very powerful incentive to study the phenomena of memory."<br />
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ON GRIEF AS A TEACHER</div>
<strong style="line-height: 1.57143em;">68</strong>- "happiness is good for the body" Proust tells us, "but it is grief which develops the strengths of the mind."<br />
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These griefs put us through a form of mental gymnastics which we would have avoided in happier times. Indeed, if a genuine priority is the development of our mental capacities, the implication is that we would be better off being unhappy than content, better off pursuing tormented love affairs than reading Plato or Spinoza.<br />
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It is perhaps only normal if we remain ignorant when things are blissful. When a car is working well, what incentive is there to learn of its complex internal functioning? When a beloved pledges loyalty, why should we dwell on the dynamics of human treachery? What could encourage us to investigate the humiliation of social life when all we encounter is respect? Only when plunged into grief do we have the Proustian incentive to confront a difficult truth, as we will under the bedclothes, like branches in the autumn wind.<br />
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ON HOW TO GAIN KNOWLEDGE AND MAKE THE MOST OF SUFFERING</div>
<strong style="line-height: 1.57143em;">76</strong>- psychoanalytic literature tales of a woman who felt faint whenever she sat in a library. Surrounded by books, she would develop nausea and could gain release only by leaving their vicinity. It was not, as might be supposed, that she was averse to books, but rather that she wanted them and the knowledge they contained far too badly, that she felt her lack of knowledge far too strongly and wanted to have read everything on the shelves at once - and because she could not, needed to flee her unbearable ignorance by surrounding herself with a less knowledge laden environment.<br />
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A Precondition of becoming knowledgeable maybe a resignation and accommodation to the extent of one's ignorance, an accommodation which requires a sense that this ignorance need not be permanent, or indeed need not be taken personally, as a reflection of one's inherent capacities.<br />
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<strong style="line-height: 1.57143em;">83</strong>- The lesson? To respond to the unexpected and hurtful behavior of others with something more than a wipe of the glasses, to see it as a chance to expand our understanding, even if, as Proust warns us, "when we discover the true lives of other people, the real world beneath the world of appearance, we get as many surprises as on visiting a house of plain exterior which inside is full of hidden treasures, torture chambers or skeletons."<br />
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Compared to these unfortunate sufferers, Proust's approach to his own grief now seems rather admirable. Though asthma made it life threatening for him to spend time in the countryside, though he turned purple at the sight of a lilac and bloom, he did not peevishly claim that flowers were boring or trumpet the advantages of spending the year in a shuttered room.<br />
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The moral? To recognize that our best chance of contentment lies in taking up the wisdom offered to us in coded form through our coughs, allergies, social gaffes, and emotional betrayals, and to avoid the ingratitude of those who blame the peas, the boards, the time, and the weather.<br />
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<i>(JCM: note that Proust knew how to make the most of his sickness and do what he could and to take advantage of his constraints.)</i><br />
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<strong style="line-height: 1.57143em;">85</strong>- There may be significant things to learn about people by looking at what annoys them most.<br />
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<strong style="line-height: 1.57143em;">88</strong>- The problem with clichés is not that they contain false ideas, but rather that they are superficial articulations of a very good ones<br />
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ON FRIENDSHIP AND BEING OTHERS CENTERED</div>
<strong style="line-height: 1.57143em;">120</strong>- Given the effort and strategic intelligence he devoted to friendship, it shouldn't surprise us. For instance it is often assumed, usually by people who don't have many friends, that friendship is a hollow sphere in which what we wish to talk about effortlessly coincides with others' interests. Proust, less optimistic than this, recognized the likelihood of discrepancy, and concluded that he should always be the one to ask questions and address himself to what was on your mind rather than risking boring you with what was on his.<br />
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To do anything else would have been bad conversation on manners: "There is a lack of tact in people who in their conversation look not to please others, but to elucidate, egotistically, points that they are interested in." Conversation required an application of oneself in the name of pleasing companions. "When we chat, it is no longer we who speak... we are fashioning ourselves then in the likeness of other people, and not of a self that differs from them."<br />
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ON UNSENT LETTERS AND NOVELS</div>
<strong style="line-height: 1.57143em;">129</strong>- More interesting than the letters we send our friends may be the ones we finish, then decide not to mail after all. Found among his papers after his death was a note Proust had written to Gregh a little before the one he actually sent. It contained a far nastier, far less acceptable, but far truer message. It thanked Gregh for <em style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.57143em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">the house of childhood</em>, [a Book Greg had written and asked Proust for feedback on after criticizing one of Proust's works], but then limited itself to praising the quantity, rather than the quality, of this poetic output, and went on to make wounding reference to Gregh's pride, distrustfulness, and childlike soul.<br />
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Why didn't he send it? Thought the dominant view of grievances is that they should invariably be discussed with their progenitors, the typically unsatisfactory results of doing so should perhaps urg us to reconsider. Proust might have invited Gregh to a restaurant, offered him the finest grapes on a vine plant, pressed a 500 Frank tip into the waiters hand for good measure, and begin to tell his friend in the gentlest voice that he seemed a little too proud, had some problems with trust, and that his soul was a touch childlike, only to find Gregh turning red in the face, pushing aside the grapes, and walking angrily out of the restaurant, to the surprise of the richly remunerated waiter. What would this have achieved, aside from unnecessarily alienating proud Gregh? And anyway, had Proust really become friends with this character in order to share his palm readers insights with him?<br />
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Instead, these awkward thoughts were better entertained elsewhere, in a private space designed for analysis too wounding to be shared with those who had inspired them. A letter that never gets sent is such a place. A novel is another.<br />
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<strong style="line-height: 1.57143em;">130</strong>- One way of considering <em style="border: 0px; line-height: 1.57143em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">In Search of Lost Time</em> is as an unusually long unsent letter, the antidote to a lifetime of Proustification, the flip side of the Athenas, lavish gifts, and long stemmed chrysanthemums, the place where the unsayable was finally granted expression..<br />
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HOW POSSESSION NUMBS APPRECIATION</div>
<b>168</b>- the Duchess fails to appreciate her dresses not because they are less beautiful than other dresses, but because physical possession is so easy, which fools her into thinking that she has acquired everything she wanted, and distracts her from pursuing the only real form of possession that is effective in Proust eyes - namely, imaginative possession (dwelling on the details of the dress, the folds of the material, the delicacy of the thread), an imaginative possession that Albertine already pursues through no conscious choice because it is a natural response to being denied physical contact.<br />
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ON READING</div>
<b>179</b>- it is one of the great and wonderful characteristics of good books (which allows us to see the role at once essential yet limited that reading may play in our spiritual lives) and for the other they may be called "conclusions" but for the reader "incitements." We feel very strongly that our own wisdom begins where that of the author leaves off, and we would like him to provide us with answers when all he is able to do is provide us with desires.... That is the value of reading, and also its inadequacy. To make it into a discipline is to give too larger role to what is only an excitement. Reading is on the threshold of the spiritual life; it can introduce us to it: it does not constitute it.</div>
John C. Majorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384758909258952917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755904795209334295.post-76591415879446861182016-01-11T07:00:00.000-07:002016-01-11T07:00:11.661-07:00Amazing Interview with Walter Hooper<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcEVw1G7WjpXO6ZQpkk7Jl8L3fsoITB6Gxbt1jGTJQCMUg8sFHp79VnS9gzj9lwa-wthaVrYyA-jPNfBi8VovUCYoYWOnzn1gJehv9JkLE1R7UcEWd-244_6QW5Dx79npeHXgxPoocBBE/s1600/eric-metaxas-620x441.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="456" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcEVw1G7WjpXO6ZQpkk7Jl8L3fsoITB6Gxbt1jGTJQCMUg8sFHp79VnS9gzj9lwa-wthaVrYyA-jPNfBi8VovUCYoYWOnzn1gJehv9JkLE1R7UcEWd-244_6QW5Dx79npeHXgxPoocBBE/s640/eric-metaxas-620x441.jpg" width="640" /></a><br />
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Just listened through an epic six part interview with Walter Hooper, who played a key role in keeping C.S. Lewis' writings popular after his death. Eric Metaxas does the interview on his radio show. Click links below:<br />
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<a href="https://soundcloud.com/the-eric-metaxas-show/walter-hooper-1">Part One</a>, <a href="https://soundcloud.com/the-eric-metaxas-show/walter-hooper-part-3">Part Two</a>, <a href="https://soundcloud.com/the-eric-metaxas-show/walter-hooper-part-4">Part Three</a>, <a href="https://soundcloud.com/the-eric-metaxas-show/walter-hooper-part-5">Part Four</a>, <a href="https://soundcloud.com/the-eric-metaxas-show/walter-hooper-part-6">Part Five</a>, and <a href="https://soundcloud.com/the-eric-metaxas-show/walter-hooper-part-7">Part Six</a>.<br />
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Listening re-invigorated my interest in the volume of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Letters-C-S-Lewis-ebook/dp/B002FK3U6O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452382514&sr=8-1&keywords=cs+lewis+letters+volume+2">C.S. Lewis letters</a> (vol. 2 of 3) I've been nibbling on for a few years now. It also inspired me to pray for Wayne Grudem, who<a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/i-have-parkinson-s-and-i-am-at-peace"> was recently diagnosed with Parkinson's</a>, that God would bring someone alongside him, much like Walter Hooper came alongside C.S. Lewis, to assist him with writing. I attended seminary in Phoenix to get time around Dr. Grudem, and it was taking his course on Ethics that inspired me to do so. Since taking the course, I've wished he would put the material in book form, but he has always had other writing projects stacked in front of it. Now he is planning to finish writing an Ethics text in the coming years, so please join me in praying that the Lord gives him energy, help, favor and health!<br />
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<br />John C. Majorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384758909258952917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6755904795209334295.post-39888960882538464142016-01-08T21:18:00.000-07:002016-02-02T21:00:25.517-07:00Top Books of 2015Some years reading is so-so, just plugging along or not going very deep. This year it seemed there was a greater than average variety of reading and some surprises along the way. Below are my top 9 books of 2015 in no particular order, except the last one was my favorite.<br />
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<i><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Jack-London-Stories-Sea-Wolf-Klondike/dp/0940450054/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452310902&sr=1-3&keywords=jack+london">Sea Wolf</a></b> </i>by Jack London - One of my all time favorite books is <i>Call of Wild, </i>which I probably read the illustrated classic version over 100 times as kid. But I've not read much else by London and hardly any as an adult. Recently <a href="http://ryanholiday.net/reading-newsletter/">Ryan Holiday</a> recommended <i>Sea Wolf</i>, so I picked it up, and I'm glad I did. Not only is it a fun read, but it's surprisingly thoughtful. The development of the two main characters and the criss-crossing arc of their character is both mesmerizing and maddening. It felt like a bit of a mash-up of Hemingway (in its bleakness) and Steinbeck (in its action). Definitely worth reading. And I'll for sure be reading more London this year. My daughter began asking me to read it aloud to her at night by the fire. I was so shocked because the language is not kid friendly. She even became very interested in the fate of Mr. Wolf. Go figure.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO-NQeAOMrYqPfNsnJgaAxz1uzQobU1zkwEeIlJ7ArgZzLdNF73WaTad1JJ-Pa6bvjYqCuqgQteCi0w7NqH49qcstUhVPXCinsBE8w18mbEYCWWNJ45zHK-M7sByMdRAj7zSh08AMZH7A/s1600/Story+of+Christianity+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO-NQeAOMrYqPfNsnJgaAxz1uzQobU1zkwEeIlJ7ArgZzLdNF73WaTad1JJ-Pa6bvjYqCuqgQteCi0w7NqH49qcstUhVPXCinsBE8w18mbEYCWWNJ45zHK-M7sByMdRAj7zSh08AMZH7A/s320/Story+of+Christianity+cover.jpg" width="215" /></a><br />
<i><b>The Story of Christianity</b></i> (<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Story-Christianity-Vol-Church-Reformation/dp/006185588X/ref=sr_1_1_twi_pap_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452310987&sr=1-1&keywords=the+story+of+christianity+volume+1">Vol. 1</a> & <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Story-Christianity-Vol-Reformation-Present/dp/0061855898/ref=sr_1_1_twi_pap_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452311038&sr=1-1&keywords=the+story+of+christianity+volume+2">Vol. 2</a>) - These 2 volumes of church history are the best church history books I've read. Discussed them with a group of guys at the office this year and we had a rollicking good time (yes we did). Worth reading. Note that the Kindle version does not have page numbers. (Why oh why amazon can't you figure this out?)<br />
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<i><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Preaching-Communicating-Faith-Age-Skepticism/dp/0525953035/ref=sr_1_1_twi_har_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452311058&sr=1-1&keywords=preaching">Preaching</a></b></i> by Keller - The beauty of this book is that it's not about how to preach, but how to think about communicating with an audience and connecting to their deeper heart issues. Important for every Christian to read if you want to know more about how the world thinks and how to bridge that gap to the message of Christ.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-0e2FAw-4c_uSZVddPzYVo3tPAjwVHHuUWaqBXpzgpqsPo-BLDoq81Fxo0KTfusdLnp9YapgCICTLYcjfRWPlVPlmvy8wLqXYTl5dnhsClqYC4QDcmW-MvdyYcvipsjcDkB4KH1eXmso/s1600/Junius+and+albert+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-0e2FAw-4c_uSZVddPzYVo3tPAjwVHHuUWaqBXpzgpqsPo-BLDoq81Fxo0KTfusdLnp9YapgCICTLYcjfRWPlVPlmvy8wLqXYTl5dnhsClqYC4QDcmW-MvdyYcvipsjcDkB4KH1eXmso/s320/Junius+and+albert+cover.jpg" width="208" /></a><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Junius-Alberts-Adventures-Confederacy-Odyssey/dp/1610393791/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1452263688&sr=1-1"><b>Junius and Albert's Adventure in the Confederacy</b></a></i> - Two Union reporters are captured by the Confederacy after a battle on the Mississippi river. The book is the story of their prison stay, escape, and journey back to Union safety. The byline sums it up well, calling it a "Civil War Odyssey." A fascinating story in and of itself, but I also learned much about the war, especially the complexity of the warring allegiances in the southern states, which grew especially complicated in the mountains of Tennessee, where few slaves were owned due to the lack of plantations. So pro Union factions were fighting pro Confederacy groups, both of which were at odds with the "home guard" seeking to protect Tennessee's interests, and throw in fractured groups that just wanted to protect their isolated mountain freedom. Reminded me a bit of the complex political situation that developed in Italy during WWII, which I learned more about through the amazing novel, <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Red-Horse-Dr-Eugenio-Corti-ebook/dp/B0049P223K/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452312330&sr=1-1&keywords=the+red+horse+corti">The Red Horse</a></i>. If you like Civil War history, Junius and Albert is a great read. If you like WWII history and good literature, <i>The Red Horse</i> is a must read.<br />
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<i><b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Seeking-Allah-Finding-Jesus-Christianity/dp/0310515025/ref=sr_1_1_twi_pap_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452311086&sr=1-1&keywords=seeking+allah+finding+jesus+nabeel">Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus</a></b></i> - A former Muslims describes his journey from the faith of his family to following Christ. It's a powerful illustration of the enduring influence of friendship. It also calls all persons of faith to examine carefully their long held dogma, giving credence to fact over emotion. A great read to learn more about Islam and more about Christianity and the differences between the two.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Life-Changing-Magic-Tidying-Decluttering-Organizing-ebook/dp/B00KK0PICK/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452292150&sr=1-1&keywords=the+life+changing+magic+of+tidying+up"><i><b>The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up</b></i></a> - I've always loved to keep things organized. This book gave more of the why behind the importance of keeping your home tidy. Primarily because of the joy it brings. She gives one very helpful pointer to determine if something is worth keeping or not: ask yourself, "Does this bring me joy?" Great read. Revolutionized my sock and T-shirt drawer. If that doesn't excite you, I don't know what will.<br />
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<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Happiness-Pursuit-Finding-Quest-Purpose/dp/0385348843/ref=sr_1_1_twi_har_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452310849&sr=1-1&keywords=the+happiness+of+pursuit+by+chris+guillebeau"><i>The Happiness of Pursuit</i></a></b> - Loved the title. Picked it up because of how much I enjoyed the author's previous book, <i>The Art of Non-Conformity. </i>This book talks about having big goals in life (he traveled to every country in the world over a 10 year span) and how to get there. Also chocked full of stories of people who went after big goals. Conclusion: it's the pursuit of the goal that brings about the most joy and meaning in your life - even more than accomplishing it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBbTToVrxKf8FayPVpzRQlfjFft127yAXUowfvOem_kEmOK_XWsRUc-Lr6E5xWmOHxj7szgxWtHbvQDQOq_zsvx2oPH0MBGw_iz0aGbSIbmVeUPasD-Rg-UjkoXpiMygvcMKOdiea0iPM/s1600/451+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBbTToVrxKf8FayPVpzRQlfjFft127yAXUowfvOem_kEmOK_XWsRUc-Lr6E5xWmOHxj7szgxWtHbvQDQOq_zsvx2oPH0MBGw_iz0aGbSIbmVeUPasD-Rg-UjkoXpiMygvcMKOdiea0iPM/s320/451+cover.jpg" width="208" /></a><span style="color: #0000ee;"><b><i><u>Fahrenheit</u></i></b></span><b><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Fahrenheit-451-Novel-Ray-Bradbury/dp/1451673310/ref=sr_1_1_twi_pap_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452311375&sr=1-1&keywords=farenheit+451+by+ray+bradbury"> 451</a></i></b> - One of the more haunting books I read in high school. For years I wouldn't even look at the cover in the bookstore. A book about burning books? Horror. But for some reason I overcame my fear and re-read it this year and I'm so glad I did. So much more depth here than I remembered, as we watch Montag question his occupation and moved by the sacrifices of those that would rather be burned with their books than live life without them. I used to think the book was condemning a society that would ban books. But I now see it was condemning a culture that grows so shallow in its thinking that they demand books be censured. Bradbury was more prophetic on this theme than I ever could have imagine. <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/">Here is evidence</a>. (PS - I love the cover on this edition). I had my son read it, and I think I will re-read it every year.<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/J-R-R-Tolkien-Biography-Humphrey-Carpenter/dp/0618057021/ref=sr_1_1_twi_pap_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452311666&sr=1-1&keywords=jrr+tolkien+biography"><i><b>JRR Tolkien bio</b></i></a> - Of all the books read this year, this was hands down my favorite. I'll definitely be re-reading this in future years. His story was so incredibly inspiring. Made me want to quit my job and become a professor of middle-earth, I mean middle English. Fascinating person of great depth. My favorite part of the book was when he explained that he had to write LOTR/Hobbit so he could discover the back-story to the languages he had invented. Of course. Who wouldn't. I previously posted my notes from the book <a href="http://onemantrying.blogspot.com/2015/03/tolkien-notes-from-his-biography.html">here</a>. I picked up a collection of his letters by the same author and hope to read through those this year.<br />
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I'll soon publish a list of books I re-read this year. I rarely re-read books, so I was surprised when I looked back over this year's books to discover I had re-read quite a few from previous years. I also noticed that all of these books had significant importance for me. So keep an eye out for that list.John C. Majorshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384758909258952917noreply@blogger.com0