tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4183824985375731892024-03-13T19:02:25.894+03:00Beyond The Loneliest Star"Up through an empty house of stars,
Being what heart you are,
Up the inhuman steeps of space,
As on a staircase go in grace,
Carrying the firelight on your face,
Beyond the loneliest star." G.K. ChestertonStrongJoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04669838203838715450noreply@blogger.comBlogger105125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-418382498537573189.post-18156977996820093632011-10-03T16:39:00.003+03:002013-03-26T18:57:32.312+03:00I've Moved -- New Website!Well, folks, my time at<span style="font-style: italic;"> Beyond the Loneliest Star</span> is over!<br />
<br />
<a href="http://bryanajohnson.com/">I've moved to a wordpress site here.</a><br />
<br />
I hope to see you over at the <a href="http://bryanajohnson.com/">Having Decided To Stay</a> where I continue to write about wide world and the sweetness of the way...<br />
<br />
Seize the Day!<br />
<br />
-StrongjoyStrongJoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04669838203838715450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-418382498537573189.post-77804167427323202142011-07-05T03:10:00.002+03:002011-07-05T03:12:51.047+03:00Don't Worry<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-og4Y_gt1bR0/ThJW5otjjYI/AAAAAAAAASQ/Ey5LvE_kdws/s1600/don%2527t%2Bworry.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 230px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-og4Y_gt1bR0/ThJW5otjjYI/AAAAAAAAASQ/Ey5LvE_kdws/s400/don%2527t%2Bworry.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5625654432720194946" border="0" /></a><br />Seize the Day!<br />-StrongJoyStrongJoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04669838203838715450noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-418382498537573189.post-30093032932850882952011-06-25T06:01:00.001+03:002011-06-25T06:02:58.114+03:00O Pioneers! and Wuthering Heights ---<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="TR">What does Willa Cather’s <i style="">O Pioneers – </i>a novel about a struggling Swedish homesteading family in Nebraska – have in common with Emily Bronte’s classic story of a haunting and tragic love affair on the moors of Britain -- the windswept <i style="">Wuthering Heights</i>? Well, both stories deal with unhappy marriages, with impetuous and emotional people, and with the passing of time. Both stories deal with the history of personal tragedies, and both invite the reader to step back and take a good, hard look at his own life. <span style=""> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><span style="" lang="TR">O Pioneers! </span></i><span style="" lang="TR">tells us the story of the sweet, independent and wise Alexandra Bergson who transforms her family’s farm into a profitable business after her father’s death, despite opposition from her less intelligent brothers, Lou and Oscar. Alexandra has a close relationship with a neighbor boy, Carl Lindstrum, who is introduced to us at the outset of the novel as a slightly hardened but kind fifteen-year-old boy. He becomes estranged from Alexandra when his family moves away, and she doesn’t see him again until he is a grown man of thirty-five. He has always felt inferior to her, and so he is unwilling to marry her. Alexandra’s dream is to create a happy life for her youngest brother Emil, a full fifteen years her junior. She hopes to send him to college and see him make a great man of himself. When he returns from college, he is slightly indolent and does not fully appreciate the sacrifices his sister has made on his behalf. He entangles himself in an affair with a vivacious and unhappily married Bohemian girl, Marie Shabata. Marie’s jealous husband catches them together and shoots both of them to death in a blind rage. Alexandra realizes that she should have seen the tragedy coming and is devastated. In her time of weakness, Carl comes rushing home to see her and finally they are married. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><span style="" lang="TR">Wuthering Heights </span></i><span style="" lang="TR">tells us of the capricious and jealous Catherine Earnshaw and her relationship with her foster-brother, a gypsy foundling named Heathcliff. Perhaps the most memorable portions of the book are those detailing the childhood shared by Cathy and Heathcliff. A former family servant tells how the two passionate and unruly childen were unrestrained and left to their own devices. Upon the death of their parents, the children fall into to the care of their older brother Hindley, a selfish man who is envious of Heathcliff. He treats the younger boy badly, depriving him of the privileges he had enjoyed under Cathy’s father and reducing him to a position of servanthood. Heathcliff, always of a passionate nature, becomes bitter and this bitterness is increased to a vengefulness when Cathy chooses to marry his rival Edgar Linton. She doesn’t really love Edgar, but says it would “degrade” her to marry Heathcliff. Heathcliff hears a part of her statement and his pride is severely wounded. He runs away and does not return for three years, during which time he acquires a small fortune. The new Heathcliff re-enters the story only for the purpose of vengeance. He swindles and abuses Cathy’s relatives, including her brother Hindley and her sister-in-law, Isabella Linton. As book wears on, we see the horrific results of his tormented passions, and those of Cathy, who grows increasingly selfish and eventually dies unhappy and frustrated. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="TR">I think it is likely that the authors of these books want us to look at the lives of their characters as a whole. This is why the stories are told from so far back. Probably Bronte and Cather were hoping that we would step back and look from a distance at their word paintings to see the design. Both of these books seek to show the importance of childhood in the shaping of character. The authors are telling us that children become adults regardless, with adult problems and adult temptations, but that they do not ever really grow up unless there is someone there to grow them up. We see how Cathy, Heathcliff, Marie and Emil’s lethal passions could have been mastered by better training and more time with deliberate adults. Both books also strongly emphasize the power of childhood relationships with the opposite sex. Cather and Bronte try to tell us that when a girl and a boy are best friends as children, they have a homegrown love that goes deeper than a fascination with an attractive stranger. Alexandra and Carl do come together in the end. They wait for a long time. But they are married, and we are happy and gratified when the thing finally comes about. Cathy is more selfish and impatient than Alexandra. She does not want to wait, and she is flattered by Edgar Linton’s attentions. She spurns Heathcliff as a lover, even though she acknowledges that he knows her better than anyone else ever will. Cathy and Heathcliff are forever tormented by her decision and their bitterness causes them not only to ruin their own lives, but the lives of others. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="TR">And yet, both Bronte and Cather seem to suggest that a mistake such as Cathy’s should not be considered a fatal one, and that it is crucial for those people involved to choose to get over it. In both novels, we see how the lovers’ unwillingness to move on<i style=""> </i>proved to be destructive, and did not alleviate their regrets. The bleak and unlovely lives that are the results of Cathy and Marie’s refusal to accept their own choices are contrasted starkly with the beautifully normal and simple lives of others around them. Cather adresses the issue of a contented, simple life when Carl returns home to see Alexandra for the first time since he was an adolescent. He has been wandering the country for awhile, trying to make ends meet as an artist, just doing his own thing. He tells her this has not made him happy. “Freedom so often means one isn’t needed anywhere,” he says to her. While <i style="">Wuthering Heights </i>and <i style="">O Pioneers! </i>certainly hold their own as mere stories, their chief merits lie in their ability to warn and caution the reader through the mistakes of their characters. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="TR">Seize The Day!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal">StrongJoy<br /><span style="" lang="TR"></span></p>StrongJoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04669838203838715450noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-418382498537573189.post-19952179236897471842011-05-03T19:20:00.002+03:002011-05-03T19:25:49.541+03:00On Mozart --- (You're Not a Genius Until You're Dead)<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal">(This is a paper I wrote a few months ago.) <b style=""><br /></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="">You're Not a Genius Until You're Dead</b><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">(Reflective Narration from <i style="">The Arts</i> by Hendrik Willem Van Loon) </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Recognized today as one of the greatest Western composers of all time, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart lived his short thirty-six years not only overworked and underfed but unappreciated. Music-lover that he was, perhaps as a young man it wouldn't have bothered Mozart too much to learn that his strenuous composer's lifestyle was to bring him quickly to the grave --- but chances are he would have the resented the fact that it was to be an unmarked pauper's grave. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Mozart's musical career began at the age of three, with his father, a violinist in the service of the Archbishop, as his private teacher. He was performing in public a year later, playing his own compositions. At six he went to Vienna to play for Maria Theresa. "How pretty you are!" he said to her young daughter Marie Antoinette on this occasion. "When I am grown up, I shall marry you." Did she perhaps remember these words as she stepped up to the guillotine thirty-one years later and prepared to breathe her last? Had this childish dream been realized, Marie Antoinette might have lived to see old age. But it would have been an old age without Mozart. By then he had already been dead two years. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">When Mozart returned to Salzburg as an older teenager, the old Prince Archbishop had died and his successor was neither courteous nor an admirer of music. Mozart found his new master's superiority complex so frustrating that he resigned his position as honorary Kapellmeister. This action only further enraged the Archbishop who determined to do everything in his power to make the young man's life miserable. At that time in history, there was a great deal that such a power figure could do to a poor musician. Mozart's family fell into debt and he began traveling Europe in attempts to support himself. He fell in love with a penniless young German girl and this only made life more difficult. In response to his father's pleas not to allow his passion to ruin the girl, he wrote that he was hopelessly in love but too conscious of his duties toward God to do anything wrong. Shortly after this, he had to send news of a different sort. His mother had died in a Paris boarding-house after a long illness. It is apparent that the Mozart family's debts would not allow a doctor visit. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">After his mother's death, Mozart acquired a position and was able to marry Constance Weber, the younger sister of the girl he'd so hopelessly pursued a few years before. Unfortunately, she was as bad a money manager as he was and the bills began to pile up. A poor man has to take what he is given, and while many exalted personages had commissions for Mozart, none of them paid well enough to enable him to live comfortable. When a Count Walsegg commissioned a requiem that he would later palm off as a composition of his own, Mozart, worn and stressed and in a constant fever, imagined that the valet sent to request the goods was a messenger from heaven, announcing his approaching end. The next day he died.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">On the day of Mozart's burial it rained so hard that not even his wife was able to accompany him to the cemetery. The only one of Mozart's friends that was there to see his body dropped into a common grave was his faithful mongrel dog. Constance remarried and she and her new husband spent the rest of their lives organizing Mozart's compositions and preparing a biography for him. Since then dozens of biographies and monuments and memorials have been erected in his honor. Unfortunately no one even knows what exactly killed the composer, because his body, thrown into a grave reserved for the poorest of the poor, cannot be identified. </p>StrongJoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04669838203838715450noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-418382498537573189.post-62835631181440353342011-04-16T16:34:00.001+03:002011-04-16T16:38:34.579+03:00THE LAST SLEEPING MOMENTIt’s good of you to be here, <br />to sit by the window and hold your eyes open. <br />Mine that are cloudy cannot tell who you are – <br />but it was good of you to come sit awhile, watch a man dying. <br />The night has been a long time going by – <br />a long time for a fretful old man to fidget between the blankets. <br />But now that I know I will not see the morning, <br />one night maybe isn’t such a long time after all. <br /><br />Suddenly I want to say some last words, <br />something you could write down and be proud to have heard. <br />You could say, “I was there when the old man died. He said------” <br />- if you weren’t nodding a head too heavy, too long watching, <br />if you weren’t snoring, dreaming on the windowpane -. <br />“Last words are for fools who haven’t said enough already.”<br />Well, Marx, old man, you said more than enough. <br />But me --- have I ever said anything worth saying in my whole life? <br /><br />I feel my eyelids slipping -- <br />not the withered, fleshy ones against the wet lens, <br />but the ones under, up against the Being, cutting off <br />the shapes of this dingy room and the candle flickering on the wall. <br />I also can’t hear the quiet anymore. No soundlessness of the death-watch<br />and the middle of the night. Instead, there is this splashing on rocks, <br />so close I can feel that the mist of the waterfall is cold,<br />but still blurred in with the fading dark. <br /><br />I have been a long time dreaming <br />but this is not like the world blacking out, <br />but like the glass darkly is getting thinner, <br />the veil keeping me in dreams falling off. <br />The stuff of Afterwards doesn’t bubble into the picture <br />through a screen of boiling water so as to make you not-sure it’s real<br />like in the movies. Oh, there is water - only water you can touch <br />and splash fingers in and slurp cold over the dry tongue. <br /><br />I cannot see you anymore -- you by the window -- <br />the realness of this waterfall has closed in over you.<br />But I know you could still hear me if you weren’t so fast asleep, <br />because right in the middle of the plunging white <br />still flutters that pathetic candle that called itself a light. <br />God, if he could see this light dumping over the mountains like a million suns, <br />feel this sharp infusion of aliveness! <br />Man, you would never, never sleep again. <br /><br />Funny, I am not looking for them – <br />for the girl with the finger that wears my band of gold, <br />for the woman with the smile that the cancer took away <br />while a little boy watched it, begged her not to go.<br />The little boy is not looking for his two buried babies. <br />Instead I am wondering what exactly is a man with no last words worth saying <br />supposed to say to a very busy Judge trying him for murder. <br />And I’m guessing nothing. <br /><br />You by the window, <br />giving in to the clock and the still night, <br />when you pass from that dream you’re in to the next one,<br />find my clumsy heart still beneath the sheets, thank you. <br />It was good of you to sit awhile, watch a man waking up, <br />eyelids slipping right wide open. <br /><br />Bryana J.<br />all rights reservedStrongJoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04669838203838715450noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-418382498537573189.post-54560030702655394402011-04-10T02:51:00.001+03:002011-04-10T02:53:29.488+03:00The Hound of HeavenHe put a hound on you - I asked Him to - <br />an animal with gasping, wild breath, <br />and groping teeth and lunging, starving eyes, <br />and he will catch you, it's as sure as death.<br /><br />Two miles from town and by the clock of night <br />1:00 in the morning, we found prints of yours <br />tracking the snow with frightened sneaker-feet <br />and followed them right to the bolted door. <br /><br />By windowlight I saw your silhouette, <br />made out your shape, your blackness, in that room <br />"Snap leashes! Subject bolting for the door!" <br />and all His dogs came raging after you.<br /><br />We watch you jerk through darkness from the steps, <br />and hurtle over winterfallen white <br />after you they come like bullet bursts <br />and howls curdle blood and chill the night.<br /><br />Your sleeping days are over - you will run, <br />your sitting-down time gone - you will pound feet. <br />We love you and the only way to show <br />it, is to free you from your sultry peace.<br /><br />The world rolled out before you - you have room<br />Press hard heels into firm dirt - you can run, <br />You have a lifetime to attempt escape. <br />Go for it - let us know when you are done. <br /><br />You will not tear forever over fields, <br />and up the rocks and crannies of the walls <br />You will not run the circle of the world <br />unending - someday you will trip and fall. <br /><br />You will wear tired and you will miss steps <br />someday toes slide and you will feel the ledge <br />His hounds will find your flesh and meet their teeth <br />through frenzied skin, and drag you from the edge. <br /><br />I told Him softly, “I have one I love,<br />one distant and one orphaned from the day. <br />Maybe you could send a couple dogs <br />To take him down and bring him in someday?” <br /><br /><br />by Bryana Joy<br /><br />(all rights reserved)StrongJoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04669838203838715450noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-418382498537573189.post-21815980773172891132010-08-03T06:58:00.006+03:002010-08-03T16:44:01.090+03:00The GrudgeI came in second for a national poetry contest.</a> I would have come in first but m<a href="http://godinthebush.blogspot.com/2010/07/waiting.html">y younger sister won that</a>. The poem had to be heroic couplets in iambic pentameter on JUSTICE.
<br />
<br />We had a thunder in the night that came
<br />Like evil laughter heralding the rain.
<br />I woke and found my city half-asleep,
<br />And I put on old shoes to walk the street.
<br />We have too many cars here on my block,
<br />Even in blinding rain at three'o'clock.
<br />I know I'm not the first one to complain -
<br />Don't we all hate our cities just the same?
<br />
<br />I turned to take a back-alley and found,
<br />God, sitting in a puddle on the ground.
<br />It'd been awhile since we'd kept in touch,
<br />But I could see He hadn't changed that much.
<br />"Where have you been?" I asked Him kinda slow,
<br />"I'm pretty sure the whole world wants to know
<br />If God has sent us coasting down a hill,
<br />And took off work and left the steering wheel."
<br />
<br />I hoped to see a fire light His face,
<br />To kneel there conquered by a flaming grace.
<br />God didn't look up from The New York Times,
<br />"Go on," He said, "what else is on your mind?"
<br />The sullen anger seething in my head
<br />Exploded into wild wrath instead.
<br />"I have a list, get ready!" I half yelled.
<br />"When I'm done, see if You can do as well!
<br />
<br />I want to know why You hate innocents,
<br />And why You feed the world at their expense.
<br />I want to know why God has set apart,
<br />And holds a grudge against the pure in heart.
<br />If God is sovereign, He cannot be just,
<br />(And I'm prepared to prove it if I must).
<br />If God is just, He has no final say ---
<br />Judge of the Earth, You need a Judgment Day.
<br />
<br />We had a knifing right here yesterday -
<br />A good man going on his quiet way.
<br />I want to hear You say You did not see,
<br />It will make it much easier for me.
<br />We have a lot of babies clean, unborn,
<br />Unstained, and quite unwanted and so torn
<br />With scissors in a sanitary space,
<br />Tell me You have not seen this taking place.
<br />
<br />What of the kids that line our night-time streets,
<br />And sell themselves because they have to eat?
<br />I know You passed a few outside that store,
<br />God, don't You help the children anymore?
<br />When one who loves You lets his whole world go,
<br />Why doesn't God who saved Abednego
<br />Take His scared, trusting lover from the flame,
<br />And bring a matchless glory to His name?
<br />
<br />'Three times beaten with rods and one time stoned,
<br />Thrice shipwrecked, one night in the deep alone,'
<br />Is this the way God sees the blessed meek?
<br />As targets for death and calamity?
<br />The Devil roams the streets and countryside
<br />And takes whom he shall find and rips him wide,
<br />The wretched righteous call You through the years,
<br />Please tell me You have cotton in your ears!
<br />
<br />God set the Evening News down in the mud,
<br />And smiled, like I dared to hope He would.
<br />And in that one igniting of His eyes,
<br />Was life and death and sunset and sunrise.
<br />All shades of stars within the Milky Way,
<br />And all the flaming colors of the day,
<br />The passion of the surf upon the sand,
<br />And laughing of the ship in sight of land,
<br />
<br />The holy joy of altar-kneeling tears,
<br />Through all the multitude of counted years,
<br />The sparkle of a thousand glories dead,
<br />Hung, hovered in his smile when He said,
<br />"You say the 'pure in heart' - I've known one man
<br />And only one since all the world began.
<br />All outrages, all wounds to soul and skin
<br />Pale when compared with what was done to Him.
<br />
<br />Those hands bound, that cheek slapped upon the kiss,
<br />That head crowned thorny, -- yes, I lived through this.
<br />Those shoulders robed in mockery and shame,
<br />And all the hurting spitting out the Name.
<br />That back bared, those arms stretched to take the sting!
<br />A man can look at almost anything,
<br />But this wrong wrongs the one that has to watch
<br />The eye can take a lot, but not that much.
<br />
<br />Go on and tell Me what I should have done,
<br />-- All forces of the universe My own ---
<br />Tell Me I should have held the striking hand,
<br />And sent that legion scouring the land.
<br />You will be right. My child, you will be right.
<br />But tell Me what you would have done that night --
<br />Would you have spared the blood within that heart?
<br />And left the children crying in the dark?"
<br />
<br />I thought that I had other things to say ----
<br />The wind picked up and took my breath away.StrongJoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04669838203838715450noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-418382498537573189.post-76487645741429468202010-03-16T06:44:00.001+03:002010-03-16T06:45:44.473+03:00Be Sill For The Presence of the Lord<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/FWm_aUfL1mI&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/FWm_aUfL1mI&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>StrongJoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04669838203838715450noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-418382498537573189.post-35328642730696888412010-01-29T01:59:00.003+03:002010-01-29T02:23:32.508+03:00EDEN - Perelandra, and The Fall of Man Into Sin as a Real Loss<p align="center"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_KgVIxtwto4Q/S2IcKBlTKTI/AAAAAAAAAQY/HwTlVOJn7bE/s1600-h/peralandra.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 104px; HEIGHT: 139px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431935059111389490" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_KgVIxtwto4Q/S2IcKBlTKTI/AAAAAAAAAQY/HwTlVOJn7bE/s200/peralandra.jpg" /></a><br /></p><div align="left"><br />Yes, I've taken a long break from blogging. In fact, it was such a long break that I should now have more than enough topics on my mind to keep me blogging every week for months. January has been a very busy month here. My family runs fifty goats and we just went through kidding season while my Dad was on a business trip overseas. We now have eighteen baby goats running around the farm and several more on the way. Several have to be bottle fed around the clock. I'm tired. My eleven-year-old sister also broke her arm this week.<br /><br />There's a topic that I've spent so much time thinking on over the past year, I'm going to take at least two posts to write about it: EDEN.<br /><br />To be quite honest, it all began with C.S. Lewis'<em> Perelandra</em>, which I begin to understand is probably the most overlooked and underrated book I've ever read. For months after reading it, I continued to persist in my opinion that <em>The Space Trilogy</em> was dry and difficult to read and that there was really nothing wonderful about it. But when I think back and realize how much<em> Perelandra</em> has influenced my life, and how much it has encouraged and inspired and excited me even during the months in which I was insisting that I didn't really like it, I think I need to go back and read it again.<br /><br />But before I write about <em>Perelandra</em>, I'm going to write about its prequel, <em>Out Of The Silent Planet</em>. In this first book of <em>The Space Trilogy</em>, a man from planet Earth is taken to another planet, a perfect planet without a "fall into sin." At one point the protagonist, Ransom, tries to explain the concept of sin to some of the creatures on the other planet, but they are totally unable to understand him. The only word in their language that can even be used to refer to sin is the term "bent" or "twisted." Ransom tries to talk to them about promiscuity and they are not even able to understand what could possibly induce a creature to want to be unfaithful. Their nature is not evil like ours, and every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts is only good all the time.<br /><br />In <em>Perelandra</em>, Ransom is taken to another "un-fallen" planet to save it from a fall into sin. The book raises all kinds of thrilling and important topics, from the sovereignty of God to the need for Law, to righteous hatred, to demon possession. But the thing that I found the most interesting was the assertion of the superiority of a perfect world.<br /><br />At one point in the book Ransom is wrestling in his mind over whether or not he can risk his entire life for a faint hope of saving the perfect planet. He begins to ask himself if, after all, it is so necessary to save the planet in the first place. If it were to fall, surely God would redeem it eventually, just as He did ours. Not in the same way, maybe, but it would be redeemed. And his mind, agonized and afraid of doing what he knows he should do, begins to wonder if perhaps redemption is better anyway than un-fallen perfection. After all, didn't we get Jesus out of the Fall? Don’t we have the Kingdom of God among us, and the Spirit of God dwelling in us? However, these lines completely void his argument:<br /><br /><em>"Whatever you do, He will make good of it, but not the good He had prepared for you. That is lost forever. The first King and Mother of our world did the forbidden thing; and He brought of it good in the end, but what they did was not good, and what they lost we have not seen, and there were some to whom no good ever came nor ever will come."<br /></em><br />After Ransom makes his decision he goes and finds the "Eve" of the planet sleeping in the woods, and there is this beautiful and heart-breaking passage:<br /><br /><em>"As he stood looking down on her, what was most with him was an intense and orphaned longing that he might, if only for once, have seen the great Mother of his own race thus, in her innocence and splendor. 'Other things, other blessings, other glories,' he murmured. 'But never that. Never in all worlds, that. God can make good use of all that happens. But the loss is real.'"</em><br /><br />The loss is real. We don't know everything that we lost when we fell into sin, but it is a real loss - a loss of things that God wanted us to have. And because of this fall, everything here that was created whole and lovely and majestic is broken.<br /><br />I was instant messaging a good friend of mine a couple nights ago and we were talking about this concept of brokenness as a result of the human fall into sin. I think that very often we don't even come close to realizing how deeply sin has perverted everything in the world. Sin has perverted even the good things. The world is messed-up and even the beautiful things are adulterated. If you just take a minute to think about this, you can trace the effects of sin in every sphere of life. Here are a few I thought of off the top of my head:<br /><br /><strong>Human Love:</strong> As Galadriel says in <em>The Fellowship of The Ring,</em> "In all lands, love is now mingled with grief." Love in our world comes with pain. I'm not necessarily talking about romantic love between the sexes here, but just about love in general. Even the very purest and deepest love that we have for other people is sure to get us hurt in some way, whether by death or betrayal or separation or misunderstanding or something else.<br /><br /><strong>Nature/The Outdoors</strong>: The nature that is still praised by poets and idealists as the way to relax the mind and still sought by city people as a refuge from the horrors of social problems and urban stress, is messed-up. Cruelty is manifest in nature. The fittest survive, and the weak suffer.<br /><br /><strong>Human Nature:</strong> The nature of men has been destroyed. Our "natural" lusts for blood and violence and ready sex are indicators that nature is not absolute, and has definitely failed. Our more subtle desires for power and position and fame and wealth and control at any cost are other examples of this perversion.<br /><br /><strong>Human Beauty</strong>: God made us in His image, and we are beautiful. But how frequently our beauty is corrupted by our lusts! How frequently are beautiful people regarded not as living testimonies to the glory of the Creator but as things to be played with and discarded when we are tired of them! And how frequently we refuse to reflect the beauty of God in our bodies and instead choose to allow ourselves to be ugly?<br /><br />My friend was highlighting the fact that even God, when He is blessing us with the most vital and important things, has to break us to do so. We live in a sinful world, and when we hurt and break ourselves with sin, the only way for Him to heal us is to re-break the bone we’ve broken and set it correctly. It's almost a contradiction that the perfect and Almighty God has to heal us by breaking us again. Jars of Clay has a sweet, sad song about brokenness and the wretched condition of humanity and their first lines go like this:<br /><br /><em>"Oh my God, look around this place<br />Your fingers reach around the bone<br />You set the break and set the tone……"<br /></em><br />After reciting a list of the horrific evils, they end it with the simple cry,<br /><br /><em>"Oh my God,<br />Oh my God,<br />Oh my GOD!" </em><br /><em></em><br /><br />You can listen to this song here: </div><br /><br />http://www.playlist.com/searchbeta/tracks#jars%20of%20clay%20oh%20my%20god<br /><br />That is what I feel like saying sometimes. There are some things so evil that nothing else can carry their weight. Sometimes, when I get hit in the face by the full force and understanding of the depth of our fall, the only thing worth saying is, "Oh my God," because as George MacDonald puts it in <em>Sir Gibbie</em>, "Jesus is the one rock where evil finds no echo. Jesus is the cavern of destroying love into which all evil tumbles and finds no reaction and ends forever."<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />P.S. If that struck you as a slightly depressive post, don't worry: the next one will more than make up for it!StrongJoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04669838203838715450noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-418382498537573189.post-73718205127751140602009-10-19T16:11:00.004+03:002009-10-19T16:27:41.785+03:00HENRY V - Movie ReviewAlthough I've never been a devoted fan of Shakespeare, I really appreciated <i style="">Hamlet</i>. The storyline was interesting and philosophical and the movie with Mel Gibson was tolerably good too. However, it was nothing when compared to Kenneth Branagh's film rendition of <i style="">Henry V</i>. I think this film may possibly be as good as Shakespearean histories can get.<br /><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:georgia;"><span style=""><br /></span><i style="">Henry V</i> details the exploits of the young English king, Henry V, in the early fifteenth century. Carrying on a traditional war over the succession of the French throne, Henry V launches an invasion of France. The play is a story about his hopes, decisions and emotions during this time, but also about the actual historical battles that took place. Shakespeare even managed to insert a little love story as a subplot.<br /><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style=""></span>I've always thought of Harfleur and Agincourt as inexcusable wars of aggression on the part of the English. It is difficult for our culture to even consider this kind of violent attack as acceptable for any civilized monarch. However, in order to enjoy the story at all, we do have to understand the times and the national sentiments going around in an age where no one felt safe, even in days of relative peace. France was the traditional enemy of<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">England and both sides were apprehensive that as soon as the other should find it convenient, they would attack. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">I really liked the balance in the movie. Even though the script for the movie is taken word-for-word from the play, the director shapes the attitude of the audience towards the story with the sets and actors he uses. While giving Henry a very fair chance to appear noble and showing his misgivings and his desire to please God, Branagh also paints the horrors of war vividly. He makes no attempt to glorify the battles, but instead makes them far worse than Shakespeare probably intended. I think that in a way he short-circuits some of Shakespeare's obvious intentions of romanticizing the war, and I do appreciate this. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">I've heard Shakespeare's version of Henry hailed as a Christ-figure, but I must say that this analogy really doesn't bear any examination. Rather, the Henry in Shakespeare's play is a noble and heroic but severely misguided and violent man. (I can't speak for the historical Henry V. I'm only talking about Henry V as depicted in the play.) Although there are good aspects of his character and he is a generous and good-hearted king to his own people, his standards are far too low for me to even come close to considering that he could represent Christ. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">The most famous portion of the movie and the play is the St. Crispin's Day speech. Indeed, the whole thing would lose most of its appeal without this scene that ties off all of the loose ends of both Henry's character and the motivation for the war. I was very impacted by this speech. When the King launches into these immortal lines: </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">He which hath no stomach to this fight,</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">Let him depart. His passport shall be made,</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">And crowns for convoy put into his purse.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">We would not die in that man’s company</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">That fears his fellowship to die with us.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style=""> </span>…………………….</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">And gentlemen in England now abed</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><i style=""><span lang="EN-US">Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">it made me think what a privilege it is to be living <i style="">now</i>, in the time and place that God has set for us. You can watch that scene here:<br /><br /><object width="425" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/A-yZNMWFqvM&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/A-yZNMWFqvM&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="340"></embed></object><br /><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style=""></span>The movie reaches a climax of tragedy when the victorious English army returns to their camp to find all of their boys slaughtered by the angry and desperate French army. Boys too young to fight had been left behind when the army went to battle and it was illegal by the rules of honorable war to strike them. The unutterable rage and horror incited by the sight of the bleeding children provokes the king to cry, "I was not angry since I came to France until this instant!" As the triumphant but miserable and outraged English army sets out to bury the dead boys, this lovely scene wraps up the battle of Agincourt:<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/L38pCPka5LQ&hl=en&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/L38pCPka5LQ&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">Kenneth Branagh's <i style="">Henry V </i>is an excellent way to watch Shakespeare's play. While retaining the original text, it brings the story to life on screen, preserving the Shakespearian regard for the man, but not without raising questions as to the ethical basis for the war.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /><span lang="EN-US">Seize The Day!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">-StrongJoy<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>StrongJoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04669838203838715450noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-418382498537573189.post-23805562343303257492009-09-24T16:50:00.004+03:002009-09-25T06:30:39.322+03:00SONNET III<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">OK. :) I'm back. I've committed to try to post more frequently now that summer is over and the school term has started again. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /><span lang="EN-US"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">Here is a sonnet I wrote last week. (I still think I like <a href="http://beyond-the-loneliest-star.blogspot.com/2008/06/sonnet-ii.html">Sonnet II</a> better- what do you think?) As always, suggestions are more than welcome!<br /></span></p><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:georgia;"></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">SONNET III </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">Considering the present sufferings</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">Not worthy to be thought of or compared </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">To glory that shall burn away these things </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">And leave our souls and hearts and senses bared, </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">Some of the ransomed lovely ones in Christ </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">Refused the dying world's attentions </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">And named the named of Jesus at a price, </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">To obtain the better resurrection. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">These ones held true and loyal to one Love</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">And watched their other loves die all around, </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">The ones for whom the world was not enough, </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US">Of whom the world has been unworthy found, </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size:+0;"></span>O Church, are you to be the Bride of GOD? </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size:+0;"></span>You have not yet resisted unto blood!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family:georgia;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic"> StrongJoy </span></span><br /></span></p>StrongJoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04669838203838715450noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-418382498537573189.post-91669243781109289462009-09-19T19:35:00.003+03:002009-09-19T19:56:39.456+03:00Just a Song I Wrote<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dy2ikJNBv5bRJEO8Y_02lSXqTspJKJFbTHRi1UZSpR-fJbAmWochX3k5IVD-YKrmW4ISk_apAyY1c9eixZM1g' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>StrongJoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04669838203838715450noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-418382498537573189.post-2321020823393783712009-06-28T21:36:00.000+03:002009-06-28T21:37:09.331+03:00Run For Your Life<embed src="http://www.tangle.com/flash/swf/flvplayer.swf" flashvars="viewkey=e038061952d40b62b155" wmode="transparent" quality="high" name="tangle" allowscriptaccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" width="330" align="middle" height="270"></embed>StrongJoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04669838203838715450noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-418382498537573189.post-89758452764861423782009-05-27T06:04:00.015+03:002009-06-02T08:52:10.798+03:00TRANSFORMERS, STANDARDS and THE HIDDEN MESSAGES IN MOVIES<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_KgVIxtwto4Q/ShywSIMLCNI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/IaZqFGh5oYw/s1600-h/bd96101cd0.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340337083637237970" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 228px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_KgVIxtwto4Q/ShywSIMLCNI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/IaZqFGh5oYw/s320/bd96101cd0.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br />I believe that every painting, book, or movie reveals in some measure the worldview of its creator. This may not be intentional, but it's inevitable. This is why it’s so important to be aware when we expose our eyes or minds to these things. Although literature and art are just as full of ideas, I think that our generation needs to be especially careful with movies.<br /><br />The entertainment business has one simple and foolproof tactic for changing the culture. They realize that people watch movies for entertainment and therefore don’t generally tend to think when they are watching movies. Therefore, they know that they can get away with a lot in movies that they might not be able to get away with otherwise. They also know that the ideas they put into movies are going to influence our culture, even if we aren’t aware of what these ideas are. And even if we think that we won’t be affected by these ideas, we can’t help it when we watch so much television. Thus, it’s imperative that we recognize and identify the ideas behind the movies we watch.<br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><?xml:namespace prefix = o /><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">I think that the movie <i>Transformers (2007)</i> is a perfect example of this concept.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>The movie revolves around the life of a highschool kid in a “typical” American home. He’s a dork and doesn’t make good grades in school. He has no character. He does not work hard and his life is obviously full of impurity. One day he sees the school football captain’s girlfriend (a cheerleader) walking down the street in very provocative clothing and is immediately smitten. He spends most of the rest of the movie trying to impress this girl and spite the football captain. In the end he becomes a “hero” through no merit of his own, saves the world, and gets her. The movie ends with the girl lying in his arms on the hood of his car in a very inappropriate position for an unmarried couple.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">I was very disappointed with this movie. It struck me as being a blatant glorification of pre-marital sex and mediocrity. I just kept wondering, “What’s the point?” I feel like this generation’s standards are too low. Why are we accepting films that are gradually chipping away at our values? Why aren’t we saying, “This isn’t good enough. It has to be better.” The trouble with us is that we are far too easily pleased, too easily satisfied. I just LOVE what C.S. Lewis says about this in “The Weight Of Glory”:</p></span><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size:0;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><i>“Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. <b>We are far too easily pleased”. <o:p></o:p></b></i></p></span></div><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><br /></span></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">A lot of people have told me that they like this movie because of the special effects which, I will acknowledge, were awesome. And I certainly don’t think there’s anything wrong with being intrigued by the astonishingly realistic cinematography displayed in so many modern movies. Modern movies thrill me with their special effects and pristine film quality. It’s amazing to me that humans can make such incredible works of art. However, I think we need to start holding our artists to higher standards. If we, as a nation and a culture, continue to just accept whatever Hollywood sees fit to give us, we are going to drop our standards and lose our values. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Seize The Day!</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">-StrongJoy<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in"><o:p></o:p></p></span>StrongJoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04669838203838715450noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-418382498537573189.post-12808993261128811582009-04-10T05:25:00.012+03:002009-04-10T05:48:01.491+03:00Answers to the "Cultural Literacy and Goats" QuizSorry this is a little overdue, folks. I've been sick with the flu and had visitors over this week. But here are the answers to the quiz....and our winner is..........Miss Eyebright! Congratulations! You take up the lead with 20 correct answers out of 28.<br /><br />MarthaH605 came in 2nd place with 17 correct answers.<br /><br />Good job and thank you to everyone who took a guess!<br /><br />1 Carmen - from the opera, "Carmen"<br />2 Princess Leia - from Star Wars<br />3 Kızıl <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Ok</span> - Turkish for "Red Arrow"<br />4 Jason Argonaut - The mythological character Jason who went after the golden fleece<br />5 Rosie Cotton - from "The Lord Of The Rings"<br />6 Catriona - From the book of the same name by Robert Louis Stevenson (it's the sequel to "Kidnapped" and the character Catriona is portrayed in <a href="http://beyond-the-loneliest-star.blogspot.com/2008/03/kidnapped.html">the BBC version of the movie</a>. Awesome version, by the way)<br />7 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Torfrida</span> - from the book "Hereward The Wake" by Charles Kingsley<br />8 Good Queen Bess - nickname of Queen Elizabeth I of England<br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boadicea">9 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Boudicca</span> (Boadicea) - from British history </a><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunhilde">10 Brunhilde - one of the Valkyries (portrayed in Wagner's Ring Opera) </a><br />11 Gazelle - just named after the animal<br />12 Marie Antoinette - Former Queen of France (a person I have great sympathy for)<br />13 Myrtle <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Hardbottle</span> - from "The Lord Of The Rings"<br />14 Wendy Moira Angela Darling - from "Peter Pan" by James Barrie<br />15 Rose <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Salterne</span> - from "Westward Ho!" by Charles Kingsley<br />16 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Jerusha</span> - a name from the Bible. Also an unsavory character from "The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew"<br />17 <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Sassafras</span> - named after the plant<br />18 Thing One - from Dr. Seuss' "The Cat In The Hat"<br />19 Thing Two - from Dr. Seuss' "The Cat In The Hat"<br />20 Bambi - from the book "Bambi"<br />21 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Luthien</span> - from "The Silmarillion"<br />22 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Tinuviel</span> - Luthien's other name<br />23 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Padme</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Amidala</span> - from Star Wars<br />24 <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Freya</span> - Norse goddess<br />25 Odin - Norse god<br />26 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Emrys</span> - Welsh for "immortal," Merlin from the Arthurian legend is referred to as "Merlin Emrys"<br />27 Castor - a constellation, one of two mythological Greek twins<br />28 Pollux - a constellation, the other of the two mythological Greek twinsStrongJoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04669838203838715450noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-418382498537573189.post-4712189889678264102009-04-02T03:50:00.002+03:002009-04-02T03:54:36.311+03:00"Amazing Grace" Like You've Never Heard It BeforeCheck out this <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtrnB4FZ-yc">beautiful video</a>. You've got to watch it all the way through.<br /><br />Imagine what the music is going to be like in Heaven! :)StrongJoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04669838203838715450noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-418382498537573189.post-59826722881337744942009-03-28T20:39:00.010+03:002009-03-28T22:59:19.896+03:00My Favorite Art and WhyI can’t imagine my life without art. I think it is sad that so many people go through life without ever really enjoying any art other than cartoons when there are so many beautiful paintings to enjoy!<br /><br />Currently, I am a sophomore in highschool. Having studied around 45 artists since first grade and having a collection of around 200 prints, today I went through my album and picked out my three favorite artists and three favorite prints and I thought I’d share them with you. Picking out the artists was easy. I knew right away that John William Waterhouse, William Bougereau and Frederick Leighton would be my favorites. (I would have replaced Leighton with Thomas Kinkade in a heartbeat, but I haven’t collected his paintings, or really studied them, so he doesn’t count.) If you quickly scan a few of their paintings, you’ll realize rather quickly that all three of these artists have very similar styles. They are all three realists, and all three paint lots of figures from mythology/poetry/literature, and mostly young girls and children.Most of Waterhouse’s paintings are figures from mythology or poetry. His favorite subjects seem to be Ophelia from Shakespeare’s <i>Hamlet</i>, and The Lady Of Shallot. I was quite pleasantly surprised when I accidentally stumbled upon his painting called, “‘<i>I am half sick of shadows’, said the Lady Of Shallot.” </i>This is a line from Tennyson’s poem <i>The Lady Of Shallot, </i>and one that has always stood out to me. Waterhouse’s other subjects include: <i>Jason and Medea</i>, <i>La Belle Dame Sans Merci</i>, <i>Penelope</i>, <i>Danae</i>, <i>Pandora</i>, <i>Thisbe, Circe</i> and <i>Ulysses. </i><br /><br /><p></p>Bougereau’s paintings make me think of silk. The faces in his paintings are so smooth that they make you want to stroke them. He has a way of making skin look like light. He especially paints beautiful pictures of children. I think he was probably the most skilled of all the painters I have ever studied, with the possible exception of Thomas Cole. Unfortunately most of his paintings seem to have been attempts to glorify the human body rather than the Creator. </span><br /><br /><p></p>Leighton was, perhaps, the most sensuous of the Pre-Raphealite painters. He struggled all his life to find meaning and perhaps to make an absolute out of sensuality. (He failed, by the way) Why would I choose him as a favorite artist? His paintings are beautiful. To me, art is about beauty. Contrast the wretch Leighton with the wretch Gauguin and notice that although both of them were desperately lost and searching for meaning in all the wrong places, one of them made beautiful paintings and the other did not. An ugly painting with a good meaning is nothing to me, because art is not just about meaning. AND a beautiful painting with “no meaning” is still beautiful to me. I don’t believe that there is any such thing as art without a meaning. I think that every artist, whether he likes it or not, is putting down meanings with every stroke of his brush, even if he is only saying, “look how fearfully and wonderfully made I am! I can look at this thing that I see before me and put it down on paper…God is incredible.” </span><br /><br /><p></p>Out of all the many artists I have studied, I like these ones the best because of the skill and beauty in their paintings. It’s amazing to me what they are able to do with paint. I love artists who can capture moods and expressions in people’s faces and I think that the human face is the most intriguing subject for art. I find that I also like surrealistic and/or idealistic landscape paintings but these seem to be a relatively modern interest in art and I have not actually studied any particular artist who painted works of this type, so I cannot list them. </span><br /><br /><p></p>It was quite a bit harder to choose my favorite paintings, but I eventually managed to narrow them down to three.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_KgVIxtwto4Q/Sc5ilZIod9I/AAAAAAAAAPg/rRFzggG5IoM/s1600-h/511px-Napoleon4.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318296604512909266" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 273px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_KgVIxtwto4Q/Sc5ilZIod9I/AAAAAAAAAPg/rRFzggG5IoM/s320/511px-Napoleon4.jpg" border="0" /></a> <p></p>The first is Jacques Louis David’s <i>Napoleon.</i> I cannot think of any other painting that evokes such feelings in me as <i>Napoleon</i>. I like it because I think it is a beautiful illustration of mankind. Although this may sound odd, it makes me feel a greater capacity to love. I think how hated the historical Napoleon is (and perhaps rightly so) and then see this “romanticized” version and think that it shows him looking rather like a frightened child, pointing vaguely up the mountain towards the “great things” he wants to do. To me he looks like he is giving one of those parting glances we leave with people we love dearly and may never see again. “Think well of me. I did my best.” This is no defense of or excuse for the historical Napoleon, obviously – it’s just the way the painting makes me feel. </span><p></p><?xml:namespace prefix = v /><v:imagedata title="Arthur-Hughes-Forget-Me-Not-" src="file:///C:/Users/Arwen/AppData/Local/Temp/msoclip1/01/clip_image003.jpg"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_KgVIxtwto4Q/Sc5iw507TqI/AAAAAAAAAPo/mA17CObobqY/s1600-h/Arthur-Hughes-Forget-Me-Not-.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318296802267188898" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 186px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_KgVIxtwto4Q/Sc5iw507TqI/AAAAAAAAAPo/mA17CObobqY/s320/Arthur-Hughes-Forget-Me-Not-.jpg" border="0" /></a> <p></p></v:imagedata>Another of my favorite paintings, <i>Forget Me Not</i> is by Arthur Hughes, I think the most admirable of the Pre-Raphaelite painters. Rather than only dreaming about the heroism and perfection that most of the other Pre-Raphaelites failed to live out, Hughes was more devoted to his principles in real every-day life. <p></p><p class="MsoNormal" face="georgia"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_KgVIxtwto4Q/Sc5i8-3W3xI/AAAAAAAAAPw/UzWDWfaNpe0/s1600-h/John_William_Waterhouse_-_The_Annunciation.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318297009777991442" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 237px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_KgVIxtwto4Q/Sc5i8-3W3xI/AAAAAAAAAPw/UzWDWfaNpe0/s320/John_William_Waterhouse_-_The_Annunciation.JPG" border="0" /></a></p><p></p>Although I greatly appreciate Waterhouse’s paintings of mythological and literary characters that I recognize and enjoy, I cannot imagine choosing any of them to be my favorites paintings. They lack the significance that I look for in anything that I choose to be my “favorite.” Although it is not as skillfully done, perhaps, as many of his other works, I chose <i>The Annunciation</i> as my favorite of Waterhouse’s paintings. It has incredible significance. I love the purplish-blue combination and the way the colors compliment each other so well. I also love the humble way in which he portrays Mary here. Unlike most of his female subjects, she looks completely pure. <p></p><p class="MsoNormal" face="georgia">So, anyway, those are a few of my favorites when it comes to art. What about you?<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="FONT-FAMILY: georgia"><br />Seize The Day!<br />-StrongJoy<br /></p><br /><v:imagedata title="Arthur-Hughes-Forget-Me-Not-" src="file:///C:/Users/Arwen/AppData/Local/Temp/msoclip1/01/clip_image003.jpg"></v:imagedata>StrongJoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04669838203838715450noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-418382498537573189.post-10099642822276678922009-03-26T23:49:00.005+03:002009-03-27T00:36:00.325+03:00Cultural Literacy Contest and Goats<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_KgVIxtwto4Q/Scv0gUh3yeI/AAAAAAAAAPQ/m2hWiJjJoGg/s1600-h/DSCF0019.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5317612621144771042" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_KgVIxtwto4Q/Scv0gUh3yeI/AAAAAAAAAPQ/m2hWiJjJoGg/s320/DSCF0019.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_KgVIxtwto4Q/Scv0fxKbP1I/AAAAAAAAAPI/Qb17ySjOCQQ/s1600-h/DSCF0079.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5317612611651190610" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_KgVIxtwto4Q/Scv0fxKbP1I/AAAAAAAAAPI/Qb17ySjOCQQ/s320/DSCF0079.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div>We have a herd of Boer goats, 35 in all. Each time a kid is born, we spend a good deal of time discussing, disagreeing, debating and deciding what to name it. I thought it would be fun if I listed some of their names and see if you can figure out who they are named after. All names are well known in history, art, movies or literature. One is in the foreign language I speak (You will know which one if you read my blog regularly) but it should be easy to find out its meaning. That one is extra credit. : ) Most of the names are females, since most are nannies. But we have some males as well. Leave you answers in the comments section and in a week we will announce the winner (the one who named the most original sources correctly) and we will also post the answers. Here are their names:<br /><br />1 Carmen<br />2 Princess Leia<br />3 Kızıl <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Ok</span><br />4 Jason Argonaut<br />5 Rosie Cotton<br />6 Catriona<br />7 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Torfrida</span><br />8 Good Queen Bess<br />9 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Boudicca</span> (Boadicea)<br />10 Brunhilde<br />11 Gazelle<br />12 Marie Antoinette<br />13 Myrtle <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Hardbottle</span><br />14 Wendy Moira Angela Darling<br />15 Rose <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Salterne</span><br />16 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Jerusha</span><br />17 <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Sassafras</span><br />18 Thing One<br />19 Thing Two<br />20 Bambi<br />21 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Luthien</span><br />22 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Tinuviel</span><br />23 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Padme</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Amidala</span><br />24 <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Freya</span><br />25 Odin<br />26 <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Emrys</span><br />27 Castor<br />28 Pollux </div><br /><br /><div>Ready, set, GO.</div><br /><br /><br /><div></div><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><strong></strong></div>StrongJoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04669838203838715450noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-418382498537573189.post-70395486335512715382009-03-19T17:13:00.001+03:002009-03-19T17:13:34.212+03:00How is Your Hearing?<a href="http://trainhorns.net/sound/"><img src="http://trainhorns.net/sound/img/passed.png" alt="Train Horns" /></a><p>Created by <a href="http://trainhorns.net">Train Horns</a></p>StrongJoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04669838203838715450noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-418382498537573189.post-12661475213206767032009-03-16T04:04:00.000+03:002009-03-17T03:36:51.766+03:00Viva La Republique!<style></style><div style="font-family:georgia;"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;font-family:georgia;">I wrote this poem a couple weeks ago. It deals with the young men who fought in the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">emeute</span> (rebellion) in Les Miserables. They called themselves the Friends of the ABC ("<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">abaisse</span>" - French for abased, poor) Hugo apparently put a lot of effort into making these men express certain views. The Friends of The ABC were an utterly miserable set of young men whose utmost goal was death. They truly did care about the poor class of France but they had nothing to give to them. Even giving up their lives did absolutely no good to help their cause. They succeeded only in killing themselves and others with them. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">However</span>, Hugo feels infinitely sorry for them and tries to show their wretched condition. In fact, when the book was published, many people were offended by the sympathy with which he portrayed these rebels.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;font-family:georgia;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;font-family:georgia;">The poem is meant to discuss both the bitter <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">facade of apathy and the </span>hopeless desperation that characterizes these men.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" face="georgia" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" face="georgia" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">(I finally finished the book by the way!)<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" face="georgia" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" face="georgia" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">VIVA LA <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">REPUBLIQUE</span>!<span style=""> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;">Somebody said suicide</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;">And then could we refuse?</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;">There are many ways to die </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;">And nothing left to lose.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;">So the fray is making noise, </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;">It rains sometimes, what then? </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;">And all of us are little boys </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;">Pretending to be men.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;">We don’t think of surrendering</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;">We die for liberty</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;">The fact is, we are wandering</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;">And so seem to be free.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;"><br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;"> <o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;">To wander and to seem free</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;">That is to be lost</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;">And lost is bad enough in life</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;">But worse when you’re a ghost.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;">Live in Hell, die in Hell<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;">Tell me someone cared</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;">We're so used to Hell by now<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;">But GOD, we are so scared!<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size:85%;">-B.J.J. aka StrongJoy<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;">Seize The Day!</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;">-StrongJoy<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; font-family: georgia;"></p></div>StrongJoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04669838203838715450noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-418382498537573189.post-47509320565687977692009-02-02T23:04:00.001+03:002009-02-26T20:27:32.334+03:00"Les Miserables" - Why Gavroche Is My Favorite Character and What Grantaire Believes In (Warning: Spoiler)<div>I have not actually finished reading Les Miserables, but after my favorite character died I took a long break. I have read 822 pages of the 981 pages in the book and so I guess you could say I <em>am</em> making progress :) (If you haven't read Les Miserables, let me just warn you: I am not going to summarize the storyline for you in this post, or explain anything, because the story is way too long and too complicated) </div><br /><div>I actually surprised myself when I decided that <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Gavroche</span> was my favorite character. For one, I have no idea how to pronounce his name, and then, of course, in the long run, he barely even enters into the story:) There are a lot of reasons why I like him. To be honest, the first reason is probably just because I like street-kids. Gavroche seems to be Victor Hugo's "average" street-kid. Even though Les Miserables is a rough book, Hugo is a gentle author and he wants very badly to redeem certain undesirable people-groups. Of course, the average street-kid isn't like Gavroche, but it makes a good story.<br /><br />Gavroche is a rough little boy with a good heart. He hangs out with the worst and most despicable criminals but doesn't lose his "character" if you could even call it that. (The author apparently holds to the belief that humans are born with good hearts and that children are innocent. And, of course, that is not true- but it makes a good story.) Despite having a good heart, Gavroche is wild, rebellious, and disrespectful. But perhaps Hugo wanted us to wonder, "Does he owe the world anything? What has anyone ever done for him?" And if that is so, it is something to think about.<br /><br />The thing that made me love Gavroche the most, though, was the scene in volume two, when he takes charge of two lost little boys he finds abandoned in the street. He never finds out that they are his little brothers. He did it just because.<span style="font-style: italic;"> Just because. </span>This is a boy who has probably never in his life heard anything but threats and hard words and never felt anything but the cold and hard hands. But he <span style="font-style: italic;">knew</span>. In this pathetic situation, he knew right from wrong like light from dark. You can't take that away from people. You can't delete the knowledge of good and evil.<br /></div><div></div><br /><div></div><div>Another thing about the book that really caught my attention was Grantaire's relationship with Enjolras. Grantaire and Enjolras are both members of the group, "Friends of The ABC." Enjolras is the leader, a visionary, an absolute champion, the perfect symbol of chastity, purity, honesty and perfection. But he is cold. He abhors impurity and apparently has no concept of love. Grantaire is a decided agnostic (if that's possible:). His only interests are alcohol and girls. Enjolras greatly dislikes Grantaire, and this, again, is such beautiful writing, I think. The author has created a "perfect" character (Enjolras) but he "has not love," and so he is nothing.<br /><br />At one point in the story, Enjolras is appointing different people to act as spokesmen for the group - to rouse the young men of Paris and invite them to join in the rebellion against tyranny. He runs out of volunteers and is looking around for someone else when,<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">' "I," said Grantaire, "am here."</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />"You?" </span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />"I."</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />"You to indoctrinate republicans! You, to warm up, in the name of principles, hearts that have gone cold!"</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />"</span><span style="font-style: italic;">Why not?"</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />"Is it possible that you can be good for anything?" </span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />"Yes. I have a vague ambition for it," said Grantaire. </span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />"You don't believe in anything."</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />"I believe in you." </span>'<br /><br />That line blew me away. "I believe in you." Because he <span><span style="font-style: italic;">knew</span>. He knew right from wrong like light from dark.</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span>Of course he knew! From the middle of his empty, dark, destructive lifestyle, he caught a glimpse of light, and knew it was good. If Enjolras perhaps had known the least thing about love, he might have saved Grantaire, but there is such a thing as empty morality. I don't know how far it goes and, naturally, these are fictional characters so it's pretty irrelevant to them, but the way Victor Hugo delves into these things and creates these fantastic, thought-provoking situations just gets me excited :) The way Enjolras and Grantaire die together was just an extension of an already fascinating and intricate relationship.<br /><br />To conclude, Victor Hugo seems to have caught a glimpse of part of the big picture. I'm afraid he missed most of it, and that's what makes Les Miserables such a sad book. However, one of the things Hugo captured VERY well is the concept of radical love. It's all throughout the book, from the bishop at the very beginning of the story to the street-kid Gavroche, to the convict JeanValjean. In a nutshell, this book is well worth the time it takes to read it. It's thought-provoking, educational, well-written and full of surprises.<br /><br />Seize The Day!<br />-StrongJoy<br /></div>StrongJoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04669838203838715450noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-418382498537573189.post-58748267353710679972008-12-28T01:34:00.011+03:002009-01-07T04:13:44.721+03:00Doe The Next Thynge - Fear not tomorrows, Child of the KingA friend of mine shared this with me a couple weeks ago and it moved me so much that I thought I would share it with you:<br /><br />"From an old English parsonage down by the sea<br />There came in the twilight a message to me;<br />It’s quaint Saxon legend, deeply engraven,<br />Hath, it seems to me, teaching from Heaven.<br />And on through the hours the quiet words ring<br />Like a low inspiration: “DOE THE NEXT THYNGE.”<br />Many a questioning, many a fear,<br />Many a doubt, hath its quieting here.<br />Moment by moment, let down from Heaven,<br />Time, opportunity, guidance, are given.<br />Fear not tomorrows, child of the King."<br /> -Elizabeth Eliot<br /><br />I'm not going to try to elaborate on that. I think the poetry says it all.<br /><br />I wrote this one myself, a couple days later, trying to capture the power in the phrase, "Doe The Next Thynge" (it's best in Old English:) ).<br /><br />But there is another thing too. There is "much expected of those to whom much is given," and there is the horrible thought that one day we might look back on our lives and say, "I wasted it." That scares me more than anything else and I wanted to express that in the poem.<br /><br />Goethe says, "Nothing is worth more than this day" and although that may not be strictly true, I think there is a lot more in that line than we realize. After all, in my own life it will always be "now." It will never be "tomorrow" - that would be absurd. So ultimately, the way I live my life RIGHT NOW is the way I live my future...<br /><br />THE WAITING<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">It’s the waiting that takes so long,</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">It’s the waiting that wastes your life.</span><br />And you don’t know till you’re old and bitter,<br />And look back on your life of lonely winters<br />And see your dreams in a million splinters<br />Buried beneath the snow.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">It’s the waiting that takes so long,</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">It’s the waiting that wastes your life.</span><br />And you don’t know till you break the rhythm,<br />And death swings by and takes you with him<br />Then at last you’ll finally listen<br />But then it will be too late.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">It’s the waiting that takes so long,</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">It’s the waiting that wastes your life.</span><br />And you don’t know till your heart’s been stripped<br />Of zeal for the for One who rescued it,<br />And you realize that somewhere along you slipped<br />And didn’t get up and deal with it<br />And you lost your life in an iron grip<br />And finally you say, “I wasted it.”<br />But you can’t have it back.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">It’s the waiting that takes so long,</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">It’s the waiting that wastes your life.</span><br />Don’t wait until the glass is full,<br />Pour out what you have of love and skill,<br />If you don’t do it now, you never will.<br />This is your life, so LIVE!<br /><br />Seize The Day!<br />-StrongJoyStrongJoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04669838203838715450noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-418382498537573189.post-7525256118081276142008-12-02T04:53:00.047+03:002008-12-06T18:55:56.676+03:00So This Is Christmas<span style="font-style: italic;font-size:180%;" ><span style="font-family:georgia;">Some things I'm loving about this Christmas</span> in Texas:</span><br /><br />Our 9 foot tree- big, like everything else in Texas!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_KgVIxtwto4Q/STqLev6mH_I/AAAAAAAAAKU/u3kN5f4hOi0/s1600-h/n1158953549_30237750_4520.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_KgVIxtwto4Q/STqLev6mH_I/AAAAAAAAAKU/u3kN5f4hOi0/s320/n1158953549_30237750_4520.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5276683273792528370" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Christmas music on the radio - (one of the greatest thing about being back America!)<br /><br />My Celine Dion Christmas CD:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_KgVIxtwto4Q/STqLNCtoJyI/AAAAAAAAAKM/OJQn3__-LRw/s1600-h/41U4fqm9kjL._SS400_.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 217px; height: 217px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_KgVIxtwto4Q/STqLNCtoJyI/AAAAAAAAAKM/OJQn3__-LRw/s320/41U4fqm9kjL._SS400_.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5276682969600763682" border="0" /></a><br />(Especially the songs, "War Is Over," "God Bless Us Everyone", "O Come All Ye Faithful" and "O Holy Night" and...- well, all the other ones :) )<br /><br />The Christmas Carol:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_KgVIxtwto4Q/STqNReC4J5I/AAAAAAAAAKk/zt3lOCrYEgU/s1600-h/51FYA00KE6L._SL500_AA280_.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 169px; height: 280px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_KgVIxtwto4Q/STqNReC4J5I/AAAAAAAAAKk/zt3lOCrYEgU/s320/51FYA00KE6L._SL500_AA280_.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5276685244680382354" border="0" /></a><br />My favorite Christmas Movie<br /><br />Our fireplace that actually works!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_KgVIxtwto4Q/STqO-O-lQuI/AAAAAAAAAKs/1yu1umdTiWE/s1600-h/028.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 280px; height: 210px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_KgVIxtwto4Q/STqO-O-lQuI/AAAAAAAAAKs/1yu1umdTiWE/s320/028.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5276687113241576162" border="0" /></a><br />(Almost every one of the many houses I lived in overseas had a fireplace- that didn't work.)<br /><br />The chocolate popcorn my aunt sent:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_KgVIxtwto4Q/STqPuc6bokI/AAAAAAAAAK0/kHywn6-YeFI/s1600-h/3_way_Tin_800_x_6001.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 232px; height: 174px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_KgVIxtwto4Q/STqPuc6bokI/AAAAAAAAAK0/kHywn6-YeFI/s320/3_way_Tin_800_x_6001.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5276687941615985218" border="0" /></a><br /><br />ENYA HAS A NEW ALBUM OUT!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_KgVIxtwto4Q/STqP7CcEJZI/AAAAAAAAAK8/W-m73NXvK38/s1600-h/316u9J5MYZL._SL160_AA160_.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 160px; height: 160px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_KgVIxtwto4Q/STqP7CcEJZI/AAAAAAAAAK8/W-m73NXvK38/s320/316u9J5MYZL._SL160_AA160_.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5276688157847594386" border="0" /></a><br />(I don't actually have the album but I heard "Trains and Winter Rains" on the website and as soon as the CD hits the stores here - and my wallet recovers from Christmas - I will have it. )<br /><br />Being able to play Christmas songs on the guitar at last! (Especially "O Come All Ye Faithful")<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_KgVIxtwto4Q/STqRQtvU0gI/AAAAAAAAALE/g_q9D5l-he0/s1600-h/DSCF0012.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 186px; height: 139px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_KgVIxtwto4Q/STqRQtvU0gI/AAAAAAAAALE/g_q9D5l-he0/s320/DSCF0012.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5276689629759984130" border="0" /></a><br />(Let me tell you: Christmas songs on the guitar is no joke. Every syllable is a different chord.)<br /><br />We have goats this year! These are three of the one-month old kids. The music is from Loreena McKennit's "Good King Wenceslas" and I'm the one filming...<br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxNoOlsVClfY8i04Yhe7Ro3T-IbQ-Tnz_UoyMVAYy3j3zlxGfzO5ZUGhUnhq58CfKAsmtxTsQ_1XOlyYvnQeA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br /><br />Just being here with my whole family, everyone safe and healthy...I hope you have a wonderful Christmas too - and God Bless Us Everyone!<br /><br />Seize The Day!<br />-StrongJoyStrongJoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04669838203838715450noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-418382498537573189.post-4309141033075089262008-11-23T05:50:00.008+03:002008-11-23T06:19:01.135+03:00The People With The Roses - Whom You LoveI thought this was a beautiful story. (It's originally an excerpt from the book <span style="font-style: italic;">"And The Angels Were Silent"</span> by Max Lucado.)<br /><br />"John Blanchard stood up from the bench, straightened his Army uniform, and studied the crowd of people making their way through Grand Central Station. He looked for the girl whose heart he knew, but whose face he didn't, the girl with the rose. His interest in her had begun thirteen months before in a Florida library. Taking a book off the shelf he found himself intrigued, not with the words of the book, but with the notes penciled in the margin. The soft handwriting reflected a thoughtful soul and insightful mind.<br /><br />In the front of the book, he discovered the previous owner's name, Miss Hollis Maynell. With time and effort he located her address. She lived in New York City. He wrote her a letter introducing himself and inviting her to correspond. The next day he was shipped overseas for service in World War II.<br /><br />During the next year and one-month the two grew to know each other through the mail. Each letter was a seed falling on a fertile heart. A Romance was budding. Blanchard requested a photograph, but she refused. She felt that if he really cared, it wouldn't matter what she looked like.<br /><br />When the day finally came for him to return from Europe, they scheduled their first meeting - 7:00 PM at the Grand Central Station in New York. "You'll recognize me," she wrote, "by the red rose I'll be wearing on my lapel." So at 7:00 he was in the station looking for a girl whose heart he loved, but whose face he'd never seen.<br /><br />I'll let Mr. Blanchard tell you what happened:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: left; font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:85%;">'A young woman was coming toward me, her figure long and slim. Her blonde hair lay back in curls from her delicate ears; her eyes were blue as flowers. Her lips and chin had a gentle firmness, and in her pale green suit she was like springtime come alive. I started toward her, entirely forgetting to notice that she was not wearing a rose.<br /><br />As I moved, a small, provocative smile curved her lips. "Going my way, sailor?" she murmured. Almost uncontrollably I made one step closer to her, and then I saw Hollis Maynell. She was standing almost directly behind the girl.<br /><br />A woman well past 40, she had graying hair tucked under a worn hat. She was more than plump, her thick-ankled feet thrust into low-heeled shoes. The girl in the green suit was walking quickly away. I felt as though I was split in two, so keen was my desire to follow her, and yet so deep was my longing for the woman whose spirit had truly companioned me and upheld my own. And there she stood. Her pale, plump face was gentle and sensible, her gray eyes had a warm and kindly twinkle. I did not hesitate. My fingers gripped the small worn blue leather copy of the book that was to identify me to her.<br /><br />This would not be love, but it would be something precious, something perhaps even better than love, a friendship for which I had been and must ever be grateful.<br /><br />I squared my shoulders and saluted and held out the book to the woman, even though while I spoke I felt choked by the bitterness of my disappointment. "I'm Lieutenant John Blanchard, and you must be Miss Maynell. I am so glad you could meet me; may I take you to dinner?"<br /><br />The woman's face broadened into a tolerant smile. "I don't know what this is about, son," she answered, "but the young lady in the green suit who just went by, she begged me to wear this rose on my coat. And she said if you were to ask me out to dinner, I should go and tell you that she is waiting for you in the big restaurant across the street. She said it was some kind of test!" '<br /></span></div><br />It's not difficult to understand and admire Miss Maynell's wisdom. The true nature of a heart is seen in its response to the unattractive."<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Houssaye wrote:<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"Tell me whom you love and I will tell you who you are."</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Seize The Day!<br />-StrongJoy<br /></div></div>StrongJoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04669838203838715450noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-418382498537573189.post-45370352827272888882008-11-15T21:28:00.004+03:002008-11-17T01:23:55.423+03:00The Big Problem With “The Essay On Man”: MisinterpretationA couple of weeks ago I got so upset at Alexander Pope’s Essay On Man that we ended up having a big fight. I filled up the margins of the book with lines from Perelandra to console myself and really got a rant out. He didn’t get to respond to me – and so that made it easier :).<br /><br />Actually, that is an exaggeration - I want to be fair to this great poet, who does, I think, have great talent and probably wrote the Essay on Man out of the best intentions. However, I do think it is important that we question the “greats,” – NOT because they are great but because they are human. The authors of the “classics” are often regarded as incredibly wise and thinking people but this is not always the case, and – as long as we do it humbly – I think it’s crucial that we remember to question them. They are not any less “human” than the rest of us and just as prone to mistakes. Although, of course, this isn’t to say that I don’t think we should admire authors for the wisdom that they display in their writings, I do believe that we shouldn’t idolize them or assume that they will always be right. That said, the lines that I particularly had troubles with were these:<br /><br /><em>“All Nature is but Art unknown to thee;<br />All chance direction, which thou canst not see;<br />All discord, harmony not understood;<br />All partial evil universal good;<br />And spite of Pride, in erring Reason’s spite<br />One truth is clear – whatever is, is right.”</em><br /><br />Now, of course, one cannot take Pope seriously here. He surely cannot mean, “Whatever is, is right.” It would be unjust to accuse him of that kind of simple-mindedness – as though he didn’t know about evil =<em><span style="font-size:78%;"> slavery, suicide, addictions, sadism, cruelty, prostitution, oppression, castes, murder, love-of-money, etc…..</span></em> He knew. So what was he trying to say? This is where the heart of the problem lies, and in reading the poem, one might almost say that he actually believed it was all “destined” to be in order to fulfill a greater good.<br /><br />Dorothy Sayers (in The Mind Of The Maker*<span style="font-size:78%;">see end note</span>) says, “The fact, however, that<em> ‘all activity is of God’ means that no creative Idea can be wholly destructive: some creation will be produced together with the destruction; and it is the work of the creative mind to see that the destruction is redeemed by it’s creative elements.”</em> Perhaps this thought is what Pope was attempting to express up there, but I guess the root question, the part that Pope didn’t explain very well, is this, “Because the evil was turned to good, was it then, ‘prepared’ that way?” Here is what C.S. Lewis says about that, <em>“Whatever you do, He will make good out of it. But not the good He had prepared for you if you had obeyed Him. That is lost forever. The first King and the first Mother of our world did the forbidden thing; and He brought good of it in the end. But what they did was not good; and what they lost we have not seen. And there were some to whom no good came nor ever will.”</em><br /><br />So I guess the answer is no. It was “prepared” to be beautiful, if we had obeyed Him. There was supposed to be no brokenness. And there is. But he made good out of it, and good was “Redemption.” Obviously He knew that we were going to disobey and there was going to be a Fall. But He had something else for us, and, as Aslan says, <em>“No one is ever told what would have happened.”</em> Perhaps the best line I know of on this subject is from "The Last Samurai." Those of you who have seen this movie will remember the part where Captain Algren is talking with Katsumoto and attempting to persuade him not to give up and to keep fighting against the odds, even though it will almost certainly mean defeat. Katsumoto says to him, <em>“Do you believe a man can change his destiny?”</em> and Algren answers, <em>“I believe a man does what he can until his destiny is revealed to him.”<br /></em><br />Well, that’s all I have to say on this subject, although I suppose you can see that everything smart in my post was not my own idea but quoted from one of the “greats” :) Oh, and if you disagree, do offer me your alternate opinion – I realize that this is a hard subject and I am totally open to other ideas.<br /><br />Seize The Day!<br />-StrongJoy<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">*By the way, this book is pretty tough for me and requires my full attention. It is also full of metaphorical language and I would suggest being really careful in quoting from it, as certain passages could easily be misunderstood without the full context. I hope I have quoted her fairly and clearly, without muddling her intended message.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"></span><br />Edit: When I titled the post "The Big Problem With 'The Essay On Man': Misinterpretation," I didn't nessecarily mean that Pope had misinterpreted anything. I just meant that I thought his work was easy to misinterpret.StrongJoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04669838203838715450noreply@blogger.com8