Politics as usual

Yesterday was another election day.  I find myself trying to avoid most of the coverage to avoid facing the disconnect between our national leadership and the people getting up everyday and getting it done.

But here are some quick quotes to make me feel better (it's nothing new, GK Chesterton, 1910ish):
What I have lost is my old childlike faith in practical politics. I am still as much concerned as ever about the Battle of Armageddon; but I am not so much concerned about the General Election. As a babe I leapt up on my mother's knee at the mere mention of it. No; the vision is always solid and reliable. The vision is always a fact. It is the reality that is often a fraud. As much as I ever did, more than I ever did, I believe in Liberalism. But there was a rosy time of innocence when I believed in Liberals.


And here's the closing of an argument of two political parties proposing to paint something red or green -
Nearly all the great newspapers, both pompous and frivolous, will declare dogmatically day after day, until every one half believes it, that red and green are the only two colours in the paint-box. THE OBSERVER will say: "No one who knows the solid framework of politics or the emphatic first principles of an Imperial people can suppose for a moment that there is any possible compromise to be made in such a matter; we must either fulfil our manifest racial destiny and crown the edifice of ages with the august figure of a Green Premier, or we must abandon our heritage, break our promise to the Empire, fling ourselves into final anarchy, and allow the flaming and demoniac image of a Red Premier to hover over our dissolution and our doom." The DAILY MAIL would say: "There is no halfway house in this matter; it must be green or red. We wish to see every honest Englishman one colour or the other." And then some funny man in the popular Press would star the sentence with a pun, and say that the DAILY MAIL liked its readers to be green and its paper to be read. But no one would even dare to whisper that there is such a thing as yellow.

On the cause of Saint Gill - Patron Saint of Hipsters

I am a fan of GK Chesterton.  The sky is blue.  Dogs love sticks.

Now that the basics are out of the way I wanted to spell out some thoughts on the recent momentum in the push for Chesterton to become a saint.  The momentum?  There was an announcement from a Bishop that a cleric is being sought to begin the investigation to opening a cause for GK Chesterton.

My initial gut feel was "ugh.  Why?"

I hate to work backwards (having an ends before the logic), but I initially didn't like the idea, and then started to figure out - why? OR why not?

Part of me wonders if his being labelled a Catholic saint would raise walls for the general reader.  The title of Saint would bring with it the whole baggage of the Catholic church.  Chesterton was a profound writer of poetry, fiction and non-fiction.  If canonized, does he get labelled as simply a writer of "Catholic stuff".  It's very easy to say I don't want to read "Catholic stuff", I want to read a good story or a good defense of faith with reason, enough for an unreasonable world.  It is an ignorant view that is clinging to a stereotype; but these walls from the outside in were my concern.

I am not Catholic.  I have had a handful of wonderful and thoughtful conversations with some Catholics about faith elements and getting past into some of the basics of the Catholic church.  These conversations were incredibly enlightening and lead me to believe that the Catholic church, along with most other church bodies, has a terrible PR firm.  They and their beliefs are not understood well.  Truly God cares about the heart and not the image.  He wants the ruddy David and while the people seek the strong/tall Saul.  Truth doesn't need a PR firm.

As I was questioning my gut, I did some reading on what it means to be a Catholic saint.  Whatever my preconceived notion was, it was wrong.  From some research I found that a "saint" is confirmed to be in Heaven (the miracles are proof of being in Heaven and the candidates intercession in prayer), while on earth they had a life that exuded some level of favor (holiness) from God.  I fully believe GKC is in Heaven and while on earth he had some grace that set him apart. 

So at the basics it is a non-issue.

I'm in favor of it until I talk to some Catholics.  This is a broad brush I am about to paint with.  I feel the need to point to the target of my concern without pointing to all Catholics.  Bring out the Catho-tons. 

Catho-tons 
Catho-tons are eager to claim Chesterton as Catholic to the point that he was nothing else.  That is the start of the trouble; his writing is wonderful, why not claim it?  They work to label it as Catholic more than let it shine as Truth.  As if every word written by such a prolific writer was because he was Catholic and every word is Catholic teachings.  His sole motivation was the Roman Catholic Church. 

It forces me to ask:  Was he motivated by the RCC or the Truths that God revealed to him?  Are those truths exclusively Catholic?  If he never took the later life plunge into RCC would they be less true?  Is the Catholic cross different from the cross of Christ?

They are busy building the wall that my gut was worried about.  I was worried about a wall built from the outside and Catho-tons have built it from the inside.

I'm not sure any doctrine or church statement would point to a piece like The Ethics of Elfland.  Certainly it would lack the eloquence.  Where as Elfland certainly does shine the light of truth onto the church.  It provides the color to the paint-by-number of church doctrine.  But God speaks the color where as the doctrine can only try to define it by setting its edges.

 So was it God's irrepressible truth that stirred Chesterton to that piece?
-OR-
Was it the Roman Catholic church that inspired him to fill in the gap?

The Catho-ton says his witty speaking of truth is Catholic, I'm saying his witty speaking is of Truth.


There is a prayer card that has been circulated:
  http://www.chesterton.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Prayer-Card.pdf

The line that raises my hackles is "his lifelong devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary".  GKC joined the Roman Catholic church in 1922 and his wife joined him in 1926.  Prior to this he attended an Anglican church with his wife.  From a few accounts there was much tension over this.  To call him a lifelong Catholic is a very Calvinistic view (once Catholic, always Catholic?).  It does not follow that to be with Frances he had to be Anglican; when they met he was not a believer.  The RCC could be claimed as a final destination of his faith, but the Anglican church was not a prison to appease his wife, at the minimum it was a stepping stone.  Since being saved, he certainly always had a regard for Mary (as all Christians should and generally do); but he was not immediately a Catholic as his own words state in his "Autobiography" - "....my reckless course in becoming a Christian, an orthodox Christian, and finally a Catholic in the sense of a Roman Catholic."

He was catholic from his first day of faith and Catholic in his later life.  I'd rather not confuse the two.

I have no issues with GKC being recognized as a saint.  I doubt he would approve, but few saints would (it is neither proof nor dis-proof).  My concern is still there.  His logic is relentless, his writing overflows with seeing joy in the mysterious.  He was a craftsman with words.

 I think the world would be a better place if it would read more GK Chesterton.  I state that with the belief that all conviction and conversion is the work of the Holy Spirit. 

He adeptly makes points of God's beauty, that I fall short, and I need Jesus.  In his published arguments with Blatchford he replied to "What do you mean by the word Christianity?" with - "The belief that a certain human being whom we call Christ stood to a certain superhuman Being whom we call God in a certain unique transcendental relation which we call sonship."

Catho-tons think "the world would be a better place if it were more Catholic."  I was at a Chesterton Society meeting where that was said - not sought Jesus more, or enjoyed the family more, it needs to be more Catholic.

The best example I can find of this are some comments by Dale Ahlquist.  He is president of the American Chesterton Society.  Their official press release contains the following:

G.K. Chesterton’s prophetic writings are being embraced by a new generation who are drawn to his eloquent defense of the Catholic faith, of the traditional family, the sanctity of life, and economic justice. He is known for his great wit, humility, and profound Catholic joy. He was a major influence on such figures on Archbishop Fulton Sheen, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Dorothy Day, and Jorge Luis Borges. “I think he is very much a saint for our time and could draw many people into the Catholic Church,” Ahlquist added.

I'm not bashing Dale, it may have been a passing comment in the midst of an interview, and I'm straining gnats.  Chesterton was a spiritual hipster, he defended faith before it was Catholic.  He draws people to Jesus, not just the Catholic Church.  In my readings of GKC I see much that appeals to the masses and much less that appeals to the Mass.

 I really have no issue with GKC being recognized by the RCC as a Saint.  I think I would gladly send my children to The Chesterton Academy (there is one in Minnesota), I might send them to St. Gilbert's School, and as I sit currently I would never send my child to St. Gilbert's Catholic School.

There is nothing on the face of the action that is unsettling.  It is the Catho-ton defenses that stir me.  I struggle with ears straining to hear them proclaiming how we share common ground and only hear all ground being claimed as Roman Catholic. 

If becoming a Saint makes Chesterton less catholic (universal) and only Catholic - I for one am opposed.  I don't want to say one individual is larger than a long church tradition and should be held with higher regard than the denomination.  Yet certain individuals stand out beyond the Christian tradition to which they are a part - Thomas Aquinas, CS Lewis, John Wesley, George MacDonald, GK Chesterton. 

Now one week out I am in favor of it. Strongly.

I think the Catholic church might become more catholic.  As the average church member hears the rumblings of the news they may have to wrestle with the hailstorm that is Gilbert Keith Chesterton.

If the declaration of Sainthood on Chesterton, with all his wit, can nudge the Catholic church to talk to people how GKC did:  to enjoy communion with his fellow man in the pew, and beer with the cabman in the street; to battle the strongest minds with logic, top to bottom, and still present grace and love.  He didn't need a committee or a drive to reach out to people.  He saw their passion and their sense, their love and their loyalty; and he admired them for it.

Please mark him as a Saint and celebrate a feast.  Study his volumes of writing and dwell in the poetic prose.  Wrestle with the paradox.  But do not take away the cigar smoking, cheese eating, beer drinking, raucous personality that he was. 

"Do not free a camel of the burden of his hump, lest you free him of being a camel."

 

GK Chesterton on Modern Authority

I was searching for a quote and came across this from A Miscellany of Men:

All our commissions, petitions, and letters to the papers are asking whether these authorities can give an account of their stewardship. And at the same moment all our laws are decreeing that they shall not give any account of their stewardship, but shall become yet more irresponsible stewards. Bills like the Feeble-Minded Bill and the Inebriate Bill (very appropriate names for them) actually arm with scorpions the hand that has chastised the Malatestas and Maleckas with whips. The inspector, the doctor, the police sergeant, the well-paid person who writes certificates and "passes" this, that, or the other; this sort of man is being trusted with more authority, apparently because he is being doubted with more reason. In one room we are asking why the Government and the great experts between them cannot sail a ship. In another room we are deciding that the Government and experts shall be allowed, without trial or discussion, to immure any one's body, damn any one's soul, and dispose of unborn generations with the levity of a pagan god. We are putting the official on the throne while he is still in the dock.

Lights and sources

(I was clearing out my "draft" folder of posts.  This was inside and was developed far enough to pass along)

I was reading The Riddle of Joy and was struck by one of the essayists thoughts on CS Lewis.  Lewis had a friend who was driven to insanity by strange inward mental/spiritual focusses.  After this Lewis never dwelt nor dabbled into the realm of focussing inward.

It drove me to an epiphany (and I'm sure there is a pity and clever way to state it) - the inner light is only a reflection of the outer lightsource.

I was digging into the depths of that thought and checked what my buddy may have said regarding these new waters.  It turns out that GK Chesterton had sounded the depths before:

Of all conceivable forms of enlightenment the worst is what these people call the Inner Light. Of all horrible religions the most horrible is the worship of the god within. Any one who knows any body knows how it would work; any one who knows any one from the Higher Thought Centre knows how it does work. That Jones shall worship the god within him turns out ultimately to mean that Jones shall worship Jones.  Let Jones worship the sun or moon, anything rather than the Inner Light; let Jones worship cats or crocodiles, if he can find any in his street, but not the god within. Christianity came into the world firstly in order to assert with violence that a man had not only to look inwards, but to look outwards, to behold with astonishment and enthusiasm a divine company and a divine captain.  The only fun of being a Christian was that a man was not left alone with the Inner Light, but definitely recognized an outer light, fair as the sun, clear as the moon, terrible as an army with banners.

Allegiance from "Gods of Mars" by Edgar Rice Burroughs

I'm about 2/3 done listening to the second book by E.R. Burroughs in his Barsoom series.  I'm finding it to be a space western.  I'm greatly enjoying these books.  The reading is good from the librivox volunteers, which helps.

This passage struck me and made me wonder about how temperamental my allegiance has been-

"Ah, my Prince," he continued, as though no thought had interrupted his greeting, "that you are back is sufficient, and let Hor Vastus' sword have the high honour of being first at thy feet." With these words the noble fellow unbuckled his scabbard and flung his sword upon the ground before me.

Could you know the customs and the character of red Martians you would appreciate the depth of meaning that that simple act conveyed to me and to all about us who witnessed it. The thing was equivalent to saying, "My sword, my body, my life, my soul are yours to do with as you wish. Until death and after death I look to you alone for authority for my every act. Be you right or wrong, your word shall be my only truth. Whoso raises his hand against you must answer to my sword."

It is the oath of fealty that men occasionally pay to a Jeddak whose high character and chivalrous acts have inspired the enthusiastic love of his followers. Never had I known this high tribute paid to a lesser mortal. There was but one response possible. I stooped and lifted the sword from the ground, raised the hilt to my lips, and then, stepping to Hor Vastus, I buckled the weapon upon him with my own hands.

"Hor Vastus," I said, placing my hand upon his shoulder, "you know best the promptings of your own heart. That I shall need your sword I have little doubt, but accept from John Carter upon his sacred honour the assurance that he will never call upon you to draw this sword other than in the cause of truth, justice, and righteousness."

"That I knew, my Prince," he replied, "ere ever I threw my beloved blade at thy feet."


Of course I need to tie in some GKC (Orthodoxy):

Before any cosmic act of reform we must have a cosmic oath of allegiance. A man must be interested in life, then he could be disinterested in his views of it.  "My son give me thy heart"; the heart must be fixed on the right thing: the moment we have a fixed heart we have a free hand.

Beer with Jesus

A friend posted this. I found it worth a listen and I'll openly admit that I have never heard of Brett Lott; google confirms that he is indeed a writer.


Bret Lott On Being a Writer, On Being a Christian from Crossway on Vimeo.

He makes mention of "Beer with Jesus" by Rhett Walker.  So I dug up the song and I greatly enjoy.  It has had much play this week.  And if I get smoother with a Bm chord it'll ring out on my uke.  It might be a little too much as a offertory song though, I'm still pondering that.

I know where Men can still be found,
Anger and clamorous accord,
And virtues growing from the ground,
And fellowship of beer and board,
And song, that is sturdy cord,
And hope, that is a hardy shrub,
And goodness, that is God's last word --
Will someone take me to a pub.
-GK Chesterton

An Epic review

The family went and watched "Epic" yesterday.  So here's my quick review.

All in all - pretty good.  I think it rises to being above average for what it isn't more than what it is.  Good action and threads of danger but not too dark; although my 4 y/o was slightly spooked by the bad guys.

The title is far reaching as it will not stand the test of time as an epic movie; but it does relate an epic event in the fairy world that we get to watch.

Story:
Teen-ish MK (Mary-Kate) is sent to live with her father after the death of her mother.  The mother and father split  due to the dad's obsession with chasing a fairy world.

So it turns out the fairyworld is real and there's an ongoing battle between the fairies who bring life to the forest and some forces that are seeking to bring decay.

Every 100 years the fairies anoint a new queen.  The selection ceremony is important and cannot take a shortcut for safety.  The leafmen guard forces try to be prepared but get overwhelmed by the decaybringers and MK is drawn into delivery the seedpod to complete the ceremony when it blooms under the full moon.


Thoughts:
The story works well enough.  There are some well worn story elements - dead/missing parents, rebellious teen, etc; but they play okay.  There is some humor for various ages (physical and word humor).  I found the voice work to be good and fitting.

I think what lets this movie rise out of the sea of mediocrity is what it isn't.  It isn't a tree-hugger movie - Ferngully, Avatar.  This provided some good discussion on what a "tree hugger" movie is.  The decay of the world isn't the fault of humans.  Humans are not ignorantly wrecking everything or willfully wrecking everything.  It isn't a tale of children needing to teach their parents/elders - How to Train Your Dragon, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  It isn't moralizing. 

Fairyland is nothing but the sunny country of common sense. It is not earth that judges heaven, but heaven that judges earth; so for me at least it was not earth that criticised elfland, but elfland that criticised the earth. I knew the magic beanstalk before I had tasted beans; I was sure of the Man in the Moon before I was certain of the moon. This was at one with all popular tradition. Modern minor poets are naturalists, and talk about the bush or the brook; but the singers of the old epics and fables were supernaturalists, and talked about the gods of brook and bush. That is what the moderns mean when they say that the ancients did not "appreciate Nature," because they said that Nature was divine. Old nurses do not tell children about the grass, but about the fairies that dance on the grass; and the old Greeks could not see the trees for the dryads. - GK Chesterton

Enough time to write well, enough beauty to tell

A post over at Story Warren by James Witmer had me racking my brain for a GKC quote.  The quote was teasing me like a puppy in a pet store window.  Once I found it, I found it wasn't quite related to the post, but still rings true. It's a good dog but not what I was looking for.

The tendency of all that is printed and much that is spoken to-day is to be, in the only true sense, behind the times. It is because it is always in a hurry that it is always too late. Give an ordinary man a day to write an article, and he will remember the things he has really heard latest; and may even, in the last glory of the sunset, begin to think of what he thinks himself. Give him an hour to write it, and he will think of the nearest text-book on the topic, and make the best mosaic he may out of classical quotations and old authorities. Give him ten minutes to write it and he will run screaming for refuge to the old nursery where he learnt his stalest proverbs, or the old school where he learnt his stalest politics. The quicker goes the journalist the slower go his thoughts. The result is the newspaper of our time, which every day can be delivered earlier and earlier, and which, every day, is less worth delivering at all. The poor panting critic falls farther behind the motor-car of modern fact.

--GK Chesterton, Eugenics and Other Evils

Back to the Story Warren.  I enjoy the post for holding to the view that raising children is an art.  Investing in and building a future beauty.

Sometimes I forget my end goal of parenting (by "make" I mean target towards).

Make happy kids - they'll grow expecting the world to make them happy and will be sorely disappointed at not winning American Idol.
Make hardworking kids - they'll be either very industrious (cue Cats in the Cradle), or bitterly slothful.
Survive the challenge of kids - this is escapist and easy to fall into.  Some days it is a better option than other options though.
Make friends - while nice it will neglect discipline and building trust of experience.
Make perfect kids - this is what really hits hardest for me.  Parents end up being examples, and should be examples of how to be broken too.  Admit when I'm wrong; say sorry.  Be willing to let my kid's know if I'm worried, nervous, angry or happy.  Be real, and my children will know it's okay to be real. 

I need to love each one individually, for how special each is.  They are a piece of art and I am able to contribute.

"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy - heavy thoughts

Last night I finished the audiobook of "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy.

This book is a hard read.  It is well told and heavy, ton of bricks heavy.  I don't know how to talk about it without offering spoilers so read on with that warning.  I knew the end and still hated the end that was coming, and was glad the book was over when it came.

The setting is that after some apocalyptic event a man and a boy (a never named father and son) are trekking to survive somewhere.  Wake up, scour for food, hide from bad guys.  I'm not sure "bad guys" is a good description, maybe feral humans.  They won't survive another northern winter and believe there might be something to be found at the ocean. They keep moving.  That is the constant struggle in the story.  It is something you are always aware of - like light in a cave or a snorkel underwater.  Food is needed.

Imagine this, all day and  everyday, without the candybar to bite into.  okay it doesn't really relate but it is a funny commercial.



I was hit pretty hard by "The Road".  I have a soft spot for father/son stories mostly for some struggles in how my own real life has unfolded and continues into the next round.  It wasn't that I was locked into identifying with the particular characters, it was that their battle and their bond was believable.  The whole story is somehow believable - that a culture with such a callous view about life and everything this side of it would be able to turn to cannibalism wasn't a leap for me.

For me, this book was most unsettling as the 7ish y/o boy is a view of innocence and hope.  His questions and his comments were spot on - not too mature, not too immature.  There was a touch of being naive but not unaware.  The father's singular focus on keeping the boy safe is true to form also.  It did make me think about the few things that are really important and how many negligible things hold my attention.

I was truly struck by two things:
1. The father apologizes often.  It's not that he always messes up.  The man apologizes for a world where a boy sees other people being eaten for food.  He apologizes for when the boy is held at knife point and then has to have brains washed out of his hair.  The apologies are for a world that isn't right.

2.  Their role switch.  Through 3/4 or more of the book the father is the guardian of the boy.  It's his job.  At the end it is the boy worrying about the father.  I think this is most profound for not taking the easy route of it being a "coming of age" event.  The boy isn't ready.  No boy that age should be caught in that situation.


One of the other linchpins in the story is the mantra to "carry the fire".  The father tells the boy that we "carry the fire".  At first it seems that it may have been some trite statement to give the boy hope or answer a tough question.  But it really is their mission.  "We don't eat people and never will."  "We are the good guys."  They carry the hope of humanity forward.  Not animals just looking to live and eating anything.  There are many lines they cross to survive, but they stay human rather than animal.  They do indeed carry the fire so far, and then the boy carries it further.

I read the book as it was the theme for an Andrew Peterson song - "Carry the Fire" off of his album Light for the Lost Boy



So would I recommend reading (or watching or listening to) "The Road"?  Maybe.  It is well told but you better be ready for a dark ride.  To a casual reader - no.

All really imaginative literature is only the contrast between
the weird curves of Nature and the straightness of the soul.
Man may behold what ugliness he likes if he is sure that he will
not worship it; but there are some so weak that they will
worship a thing only because it is ugly.  These must be chained
to the beautiful.  It is not always wrong even to go, like Dante,
to the brink of the lowest promontory and look down at hell.
It is when you look up at hell that a serious miscalculation has
probably been made.

* * * *

Therefore I see no wrong in riding with the Nightmare to-night;
she whinnies to me from the rocking tree-tops and the roaring wind;
I will catch her and ride her through the awful air.
Woods and weeds are alike tugging at the roots in the rising tempest,
as if all wished to fly with us over the moon, like that wild,
amorous cow whose child was the Moon-Calf. We will rise to
that mad infinite where there is neither up nor down, the high
topsy-turveydom of the heavens.  I will ride on the Nightmare;
but she shall not ride on me.   
-GK Chesterton "The Nightmare"

Optimism of the age

This was posted on FB and struck me, so I'm just reposted:

"ALL the optimism of the age had been false and disheartening for this reason, that it had always been trying to prove that we fit in to the world. The Christian optimism is based on the fact that we do NOT fit in to the world. I had tried to be happy by telling myself that man is an animal, like any other which sought its meat from God. But now I really was happy, for I had learnt that man is a m...onstrosity. I had been right in feeling all things as odd, for I myself was at once worse and better than all things. The optimist's pleasure was prosaic, for it dwelt on the naturalness of everything; the Christian pleasure was poetic, for it dwelt on the unnaturalness of everything in the light of the supernatural. The modern philosopher had told me again and again that I was in the right place, and I had still felt depressed even in acquiescence. But I had heard that I was in the WRONG place, and my soul sang for joy, like a bird in spring. The knowledge found out and illuminated forgotten chambers in the dark house of infancy. I knew now why grass had always seemed to me as queer as the green beard of a giant, and why I could feel homesick at home."

~G.K. Chesterton ("Orthodoxy")

Concert Review - AP & Caleb

Saturday (10/6/12) Becky & I trekked about 1.5 hrs to enjoy Andrew Peterson and the band Caleb playing in Wadsworth Ohio.  I had my expectations fairly high for this event and was only slightly disappointed.  My disappointment - it had to end.  Also we are old and couldn't hang around to pull AP aside to extort an afterglow out of him.

It was a great concert for a few reasons, Andrew Peterson & Caleb were playing.  Andrew is a seasoned performer and played great music with engaging set-up stories and humor.  Caleb consists of Caleb Chapman on guitar and belting out raw emotion and Will Chapman on drums driving the songs home. 

It was my first time seeing Caleb performing live and I was blown away.  They are excellent musicians and are still cutting their teeth as performers.  They had a 3 song set and certainly won some fans out of it.  The songs were good, really good.  Not necessarily happy or easy songs, but evoked emotion and connected on a deep level.  It feels like that brief description of "good" and "evoking emotion" is like calling E.T. a good movie about an alien.  There is just so much more to these guys.  Awesome stuff.  My rock&roll days are mostly behind me, but I look forward to hearing much more from them.



Andrew played a mostly somber set which falls in line with "Light for the Lost Boy".  (I reviewed the album here.)  The album is about the ache of growing up.  It is painted from a parent's view at a child; a grown-ups view longing for the lost childhood; and a mature view of how that experience can (and should) change us to being thankful. 

It is somber, but it is also hopeful.  The contrast of something being lost against what is found. 

My takeaway line (paraphrase) - "As parents we work to preserve Eden for our children, but the snake is going to get into the garden."


All of this echoes of a few parts from GK Chesterton's Orthodoxy:

Catholic* doctrine and discipline may be walls; but they are the walls of a playground.  Christianity is the only frame which has preserved the pleasure of Paganism.  We might fancy some children playing on the flat grassy top of some tall island in the sea.  So long as there was a wall round the cliff's edge they could fling themselves into every frantic game and make the place the noisiest of nurseries.  But the walls were knocked down, leaving the naked peril of the precipice. They did not fall over; but when their friends returned to them they were all huddled in terror in the centre of the island; and their song had ceased.Catholic = universal

 We setup rules (and to an extent Law itself) to protect and preserve.

This is the prime paradox of our religion; something that we have never in any full sense known, is not only better than ourselves, but even more natural to us than ourselves.

I don't think it's a stretch to say it's something that children are closer to than us; but we can take joy in that it will be regained.

It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening,
"Do it again" to the moon.  It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them.  It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.

"Light for the Lost Boy" by Andrew Peterson - review

Saturday was a great day, we had a small birthday party for our youngest; 4 years flies by and I have the cutest kids in the world (it's true).

Also on Saturday the latest album from Andrew Peterson arrived at my doorstep - "Light for the Lost Boy" (LftLB) available at the Rabbitroom.

Shocker here - I love it.  I'm still unpacking it mentally.  It is more of a thematic album aimed directly at crossroads.  AP has written before about the joy of childhood (Little Boy Heart, Good Confession).  Wrapped in that emotional element is the joy in the life adventure before you (Canaan Bound, Nothing to Say).  LftLB is written at one of the next life stages - crossroads is the only word I can come up with.  Not that AP is in that lifestage or done with them, but it is directed at that lifestage.  Counting Stars (especially 'The Reckoning') touched on this theme that now has an entire album putting words to it.

This album touches on the same crossroad as the "coming of age" story.  I read The Yearling about 8 months ago and it is one of these stories, and so much more.  That point of moving from innocence into maturity.  I enjoy this album since this pain never ceases in life and defining it makes it easier to  process.  Maybe pain isn't the right word. 

I don't think we ever stop hitting those crossroads or feeling the heartbreak of people at them currently.  Recently I sat with my youngest as some dental work was done.  My heart broke for her and yet she did great.  It was the pain at seeing the cruel world where teeth rot and pain happens.  Dogs kill rabbits; winds shake bird nests from trees and the eggs break; infants get cancer.  I hate it and something about it is unfair.

Somehow LftLB walks into the mire of a broken world and exits the otherside without whitewashing the pain, dismissing the brokenness, or being trite.  It stands mud-caked on the far shore ready for the washing that will come.

Come Back Soon
This song wrecks me if I let my emotional guard down.  Two lines get me -
1) The boy grew up and the yearling was dead
2) and wept for the death of his little boy heart

The Cornerstone
There is much about this song I enjoy, but primarily it is touching on the paradox of Christian faith.  You never move, but I cannot seem to catch you.  This stone that can be a stumbling block, a true foundation or you spend effort to move to a better location for you and it remains a rock to build upon not move at my whims.

Rest Easy
This is the "radio song" from the album.  It may get some airplay and hopefully reaches people in a meaningful way over the FM waves.  It is lighter than the other songs on the album which still leaves room for it to be powerful.  There was a contest for user videos and this wonderful video won.  Warning! it may make you cry.  It pulls at the heart strings enough to get you and not so much that it is too sappy.  If a star would've twinkled back at the end I would have hated it, the mom pulls through and I'm a wreck.

The Voice of Jesus
This maybe my favorite song.  A message from a parent who knows the inevitable heartache that every child grows to experience, and where the answer is.

The Ballad of Jody Baxter
I read The Yearling so I knew the reference material for this song.  It is a great story of simple life and getting by.  For me it was especially touching as I related to the boy and the father in the story.  This song brought it all back and more.  It puts words to the real heartache of the story Is there anyway that we can change the ending of this tragedy?

Day by Day
I want to call this the bridge of the album, maybe it's more of the pre-bridge.  It transitions from one movement to the other.

Shine Your Light on Me
Another song of AP crafting his heart.  It captures so much of the mystery of hope, hope when things are hopeless.  They were singing out my song, when the song in me had died.

Carry the Fire
This is from the story The Road, which I have not read.  When I'm ready for another book to punch me in the gut it'll be at the top of the list.

You'll Find Your Way
This is a father's message to kids for the road that lies ahead.  It is a road that they must walk on there own and I hope/pray that I've prepared them.  That they remember lessons.

Don't you Want to Thank Someone
This song is long but it is the icing on the cake.  Maybe it's a better thing...../ To be more than merely innocent / But to be broken then redeemed by love 

So much reminds me of GK Chesterton -

The test of all happiness is gratitude; and I felt grateful, though I hardly knew to whom.
Children are grateful when Santa Claus puts in their stockings gifts of toys or sweets.  Could I not be grateful to Santa Claus when he put in my stockings the gift of two miraculous legs?  We thank people for birthday presents of cigars and slippers.
Can I thank no one for the birthday present of birth?  -Orthodoxy
 

It is a great closing to a very enjoyable album.

"It is the nature of love to bind itself....' GKC

Today is our 14th Anniversary.  I figured I'd throw some GKC at the subject (since he threw himself at it first)

"The revolt against vows has been carried in our day even to the extent of a revolt against the typical vow of marriage. It is most amusing to listen to the opponents of marriage on this subject. They appear to imagine that the ideal of constancy was a yoke mysteriously imposed on mankind by the devil, instead of being, as it is, a yoke consistently imposed by all lovers on themselves. They have invented a phrase, a phrase that is a black and white contradiction in two words—'free-love'—as if a lover ever had been, or ever could be, free. It is the nature of love to bind itself, and the institution of marriage merely paid the average man the compliment of taking him at his word. Modern sages offer to the lover, with an ill-flavoured grin, the largest liberties and the fullest irresponsibility; but they do not respect him as the old Church respected him; they do not write his oath upon the heavens, as the record of his highest moment. They give him every liberty except the liberty to sell his liberty, which is the only one that he wants." -The Defendant

The Defendant is truly a great book presented as a line of defenses of common things that were fading or being attacked in Society in 1901.

Why do good?

I heard the same message 3x now which might amount to more than coincidence.  Why do "good" things?

I was reading some Old Testament and hit this in Zechariah 7:4-10 (bold added):
⁴ Then the word of the Lord Almighty came to me: ⁵ “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? ⁶ And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves? ⁷ Are these not the words the Lord proclaimed through the earlier prophets when Jerusalem and its surrounding towns were at rest and prosperous, and the Negev and the western foothills were settled?’”

⁸ And the word of the Lord came again to Zechariah: ⁹ “This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. ¹⁰ Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.’


Two days prior Troy Polamalu posted this quote on facebook:
"There are many human activities that are good by nature, but cease to be good when done for ulterior motives. Works such as fasting, vigil, prayer, psalmody, almsgiving and hospitality are good by nature; but not good when done out of vainglory." - St. Maximos the Confessor


And then sometime prior to that (but I was re-hit recently) GK Chesterton struck me with this:
Many people have wondered why it is that children's stories are so full of moralizing.  The reason is perfectly simple:  it is that children like moralizing more than anything else, and eat it up as if it were so much jam.  The reason why we, who are grown up, dislike moralizing is equally clear: it is that we have discovered how much perversion and hypocrisy can be mixed with it; we have grown to dislike morality not because morality is moral, but because morality is so often immoral.  But the child has never seen the virtues twisted into vices; the child does not know that men are not only bad from good motives, but also often good from bad motives.  The child does not know that whereas the Jesuit may do evil that good may come, the man of the world often does good that evil may come.  Therefore, the child has a hearty, healthy, unspoiled, and insatiable appetite for mere morality; for the mere difference between a good little girl and a bad little girl.  And it can be proved by innumerable examples that when we are quite young we do like the moralizing story.  Grown-up people like the "Comic Sandford and Merton," but children like the real "Sandford and Merton."  -'Daily News'

Sandford & Merton was a very popular children's book that has Tommy Merton growing from a spoiled six year old into a virtuous man.  (thank you wikipedia).  GKC's last point was regarding adults looking upon the silliness of the children's book, while children enjoyed it straight forward.

$0.02 on "Brave"

We went and saw "Brave" on Saturday.  It was our first attempt as a family of 5 to get through a movie - it was a success all around.  This movie is wonderful.  Some scary parts but a great movie.

There is a big scary bear, immediately. It's a key part of the story so it isn't there for no reason or merely to startle. To me this was similar to "Up" being incredibly sad in the first 10 minutes. It would be unnecessary in a kid's movie, but this isn't a kid's movie - it is telling a story and it is part of the story. A key part that is built upon.

Pixar is masters at story telling.  They have made one movie that I thought was poor (Cars 2), not terrible but they have set the bar so high that it was disappointing when they missed.  That experience left me curious if they could still deliver or had somehow been tainted by Disney.  Did the Disney machine, which is relentless in churning out pointless sequels and cheap Tinkerbell movies, grind up Pixar and make them assimilate?  The answer is NO.


Beyond the previews leading you to believe this is a just a tom-boy struggle to fit into a Scottish clan society this is really a movie about family and pride.  It is a tale of being stuck in your pride.  The men are full out buffoons but it is still a great story of family.

I also thought it is a monumental leap for being a mother-daughter movie that every guy will enjoy and appreciate too.  The father-son movie has been done well ("Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs", "How to Train Your Dragon") in the kid movie realm and outside.  I can't think of any mother-daughter movie that didn't firmly drop in the realm of "chick flick".

Pixar has been nominated before for "Best Picture" which I think was just a gesture of kindness to "Toy Story 3" and the full saga.  I think that "Brave" could be a strong contender and at the very least might make Hollywood reflect on what their main business should be - telling stories.



And elsewhere, and in all ages, in braver fashion, under cleaner skies, the same eternal tale-telling still goes on, and the whole mortal world is a factory of immortals. -GK Chesterton

GKC on birthdays

On this day in 1874, GK Chesterton was born - I nearly let it slip without a quote:
 
The first fact about the celebration of a birthday is that it is a way of affirming defiantly, and even flamboyantly, that it is a good thing to be alive….But there is a second fact about Birthdays, and the birth-song of all creation, a fact which really follows on this; but which, as it seems to me, the other school of thought almost refuses to recognize. The point of that fact is simply that it is a fact. In being glad about my Birthday, I am being glad about something which I did not myself bring about.
 

Behind the Times

Christianity is always out of fashion because it is always sane; and all fashions are mild insanities.  When Italy is mad on art the Church seems too Puritanical; when England is mad on Puritanism the Church seems too artistic.  When you quarrel with us now you class us with kingship and despotism; but when you quarrelled with us first it was because we would not accept the divine despotism of Henry VIII.  The Church always seems to be behind the times, when it is really beyond the times; it is waiting till the last fad shall have seen its last summer.  It keeps the key of a permanent virtue. -GK Chesterton (The Ball and the Cross)

PC-USA, one more step removed

This will show up in the April newsletter for Center Presbyterian Church.  It makes for a quick blog post, and work is draining my today so this is all the effort my blog will receive.

Gracious Separation Update

"The hammer-strokes are coming thick and fast now; and filling the world with infernal thunders; and there is still the iron sound of something unbreakable deeper and louder than all the things that break." GK Chesterton

We are a few steps further into the process of Gracious Separation from the PC-USA.  We are following the process from the Presbytery and here are the upcoming items.

The CPC Session is slated to meet with the Dismissal Team from the Shenango Presbytery on April 10th.  From this meeting Session must meet 2 more times prior to a congregational meeting.

Most likely, sometime in May we will have a congregational meeting to decide "Should Center Presbyterian Church explore dismissal from the PC-USA?"  A quorum needs to be present for the meeting and 80% majority vote is required to pass the measure. 

We are thankful for the many conversations and much prayer that have surrounded this process.  A few more opportunities are being planned to answer any questions and allow for further discussions.

Following the first vote a new denomination can be selected and a second congregational vote will proceed to determine if we want to affiliate with the chosen denomination.  80% majority is once again needed.  Please continue to pray for Center Church as we seek to continue serving Jesus in this new opportunity.

 

Colossians 2:6-8

⁶ So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, ⁷ rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces^[a] of this world rather than on Christ.

Sounds of the times

"The hammer-strokes are coming thick and fast now; and filling the world
with infernal thunders; and there is still the iron sound of something
unbreakable deeper and louder than all the things that break." GK Chesterton

This was a passage I hit on the drive.  I've been back to it many times since because it just sticks in my head.  Well written and revealing such  a great understanding of the existence of Truth beyond (and before) the modern fads and fashions.

Notes: "Superstition of Divorce" by GK Chesterton

This will be more than my normal review because this book has hit me as more than a normal book.  It is a solid declaration for reason.  So it seems reasonable to not just review but also to provide an overview.

I initially avoided this book because it sounded old and dated.  In some ways it is because people don't think like this anymore.  It's hard and I'd rather be lazy.  Also reading about divorce just doesn't seem appealing; and how is it a superstition?

Now a note/warning.  This is about divorce, and much more.  If that is an open wound or a point of suffering you may want to skip this; maybe not.  GKC does hit many aspects of divorce and he does not coddle to people, nor does he abandon them.  If compassion seems lacking in my write up it is probably something that I missed rather than he.  He was a vigorous defender of the "common man" putting eloquent words and powerful arguments to the basic principles that every man and woman knows.

So here goes.  This is lengthy and quote heavy, but lighter than reading the 150ish page book.  Mostly I've collected some of the key passages in hopes of passing along a glimpse of the arguments.