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coffeesnob318Still running, but I have changed my year's goal to a more doable three miles rather than ten. I'm not happy about that, but I'm still enjoying the running.
My car is so close to being paid off, I can smell it. Then, maybe after I pay it off, I'll actually be able to afford to fix it. Someday. She's had a hard life.
The books before:
1. The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning
2. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
3. Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality by Donald Miller
4. Flipped by Wendelin van Draanen
5. Yeah, I said it by Wanda Sykes
6. Found in Translation by Kim Moor
7. My Point...and I do have one by Ellen DeGeneres
8. Why Girls are Weird by Pamela Ribon
9. Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith by Rob Bell
10. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
11. Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella
12. The Velveteen Woman: Becoming Real Through God's Transforming Love by Brenda Waggoner
The new (I've really got to step this up if I'm going to hit 50 this year):
Down to the Dirt by Joel Hynes
The book is well written. I didn't know how haunting some of the imagery was until I dreamed about it. It's sneaky - it gets in you. I like it. I want to write like that.
This main character has some serious issues. Jeez. Whoever said women are moodier than men never read Angry Young Man fiction. I know I whine on occasion, but wow. He’s exhausting. Get a grip, dude.
He's so...well...angry. There was a passage that talks about the need to destroy something before the situation destroys you or you destroy yourself. "Some says that too much anger is a bad thing, that it cripples you and it eats you alive and all that shit. I says it’s the one feeling that makes me feel...whole." Then he's on the plane with the ex, and he's angry at her for no apparent reason. So he’s trying to piss her off, and then he gets mad when she ignores his "trying to be friendly," knowing full well that friendly is the very last thing he’s trying to be. He’s just upset that she sees through him. Then as he gets off the plane, he's suddenly well-adjusted enough to realize that he was getting upset over nothing that has anything to do with him anymore. That kind of thing is my only complaint about the book. The author is telling the story from different characters' points of view, but instead of letting the reader draw the quite obvious conclusions he's going for, he ends up just telling us through the character's sudden moment of clarity. But it's not a huge complaint, as people do have sudden moments of clarity, so it's not completely unbelievable. I'm glad I read it.
The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
I borrowed this one from Maggie (and I swear that I'll return it some day), and I loved it. It stirred my restlessness, which is my very favorite effect a book can have on me.
Oh, and I have to live on a beach. Some time during my lifetime, even if just for a little while - I have to live on a beach.
The book had themes of the spiritual and sensual – not the spiritual vs. the sensual, but the importance of both (the passage about having life more abundantly kept running through my head). I'm more of an intuiter than a senser, so this was a nice reminder to slow down. I love this quote - "Spiritual people had the habit of closing themselves off, numbing themselves down. He felt strongly about it – people needed to swim naked. Some more than others."
"Sometimes I experience God like this Beautiful Nothing. And it seems then as though the whole point of life is just to rest in it. And then other times it’s just the opposite. God feels like a presence that engorges everything. I come out here, and it seems the divine is running rampant. That the marsh, the whole of Creation, is some dance God is doing, and we’re meant to step into it, that’s all."
"What if holiness had more to do with seizing his life out there?"
I love her explanation of the aftermath (aftershocks) of the main character's infidelity. The "I don’t know if I belong here" - "the peculiar vertigo, the peculiar humility, that comes from realizing what you are really capable of" - Hugh’s raw feeling of betrayal – how it humbled him, revealing his humanity.
Her mom and dad – their story – so loving. And that's all I'm going to say about that, or it won't have the impact it's supposed to have when you read it. And you really must read it.
"There’s release in knowing the truth no matter how anguishing it is. You come finally to the irreducible thing, and there’s nothing left to do but pick it up and hold it."
My favorite part, though, was Father Thomas and his doubt. He felt abandoned by God "whom he’d actually believed in. The kind of believing one does before immense suffering." I loved him because, when I have doubt, I tend to run away. It takes incredible courage to run toward the thing that vexes you. "I have come here not to find answers but to find a way to live in a world without any."
It kept reminding me of our family friends, Walter and Nelda, when their daughter Ginger died. I was 15, and she was one of my best friends, so I was pretty shaken up, but she was their world, so I expected them to be destroyed - either completely detached or completely wrecked. But visiting them that day was extraordinary. They were mourning, and they were fully present in it, but they were so peaceful that they actually offered comfort to others. It blew my mind. To this day, that's still one of the most vivid moments of the presence of God in my memory.
Anyway. I liked it, and I want to read more of her stuff.
Preferably from my beach house.
Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller
I had to finally finish this after reading The Mermaid Chair. It had made me thirsty.
Maybe just a few quotes:
"I started thinking about the idea that my friend at the Bible college suggested about how, if God is a perfect and loving Being, the most selfless thing He could do would be to create other beings to enjoy Him. And then I started thinking that if those creatures fell away from Him, the most selfless thing a perfect and loving Being could do would be to go and get them, to try to save them from the death that would take place in His absence."
He quoted Toni Morrison – "I am a great writer because when I was a little girl and walked into a room where my father was sitting, his eyes would light up. That is why I am a great writer. That is why. There isn’t any other reason."
My favorite part (and it's incredibly hard for me to pick a favorite part out of any of his books - half the book is underlined) is when he talked about the five-point conversion plan – if you've seen a religious tract, you've seen it - and how it lists the facts but not the story, the ideas but not the narrative. Reduction of the ideas has caused us to miss something. Knowing God is not a scientific process but a relational dynamic. You can’t chart relationships. That’s why Jesus told stories, because life is a story. This is my main issue with traditional evangelism. Because merely believing the steps misses the whole point. I can no more give someone a step-by-step process for knowing God than I can give her/him a how-to book on falling in love. And that we try to reduce this beautiful love to a formula is maddening.
Taking religious discipline out of the sacraments – fasting – “we fast because we mourn the absence of Christ.” And that may seem like a no-brainer, but it's exciting because more and more, we are seeing the traditional church emerging out of its rut. And it’s exciting. It’s exciting to see people engaging in ritual because it means something, not just out of habit. It’s also exciting to see writers popping up all over the place who echo and join revolutionaries who can’t settle for morality without relationship, resulting in the choice of love over hate and redemption over political agenda.
Now, on a completely different note, I bring you So You Think You Can Dance.
Benji. *loves* Taking Manly Lessons from Dmitry. Yeah. Either one of them can pick me up and carry me around just any time. Any time at all. Cannot. Move. Benji. Too. Adorable. *killed dead* Now THAT was a Viennese Waltz, unlike the other one we saw a week or two ago.
Other than that, this week was a little *meh* for me.
As expected and hoped, they offed Jaymz and Jessica. Good. I was a little nervous for Ryan there. I mean, I don't expect him to win, but I'd like for him to hang around for a little longer. And I'm getting sentimental. Even though I wanted Jaymz and Jessica to go, I cried. Because she cried. I didn't know I cared at all, much less enough to cry.
I'm even warming up to Natalie. I don't care who wins.
As long as it's Benji or Donyelle.
My car is so close to being paid off, I can smell it. Then, maybe after I pay it off, I'll actually be able to afford to fix it. Someday. She's had a hard life.
The books before:
1. The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning
2. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
3. Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality by Donald Miller
4. Flipped by Wendelin van Draanen
5. Yeah, I said it by Wanda Sykes
6. Found in Translation by Kim Moor
7. My Point...and I do have one by Ellen DeGeneres
8. Why Girls are Weird by Pamela Ribon
9. Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith by Rob Bell
10. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
11. Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella
12. The Velveteen Woman: Becoming Real Through God's Transforming Love by Brenda Waggoner
The new (I've really got to step this up if I'm going to hit 50 this year):
Down to the Dirt by Joel Hynes
The book is well written. I didn't know how haunting some of the imagery was until I dreamed about it. It's sneaky - it gets in you. I like it. I want to write like that.
This main character has some serious issues. Jeez. Whoever said women are moodier than men never read Angry Young Man fiction. I know I whine on occasion, but wow. He’s exhausting. Get a grip, dude.
He's so...well...angry. There was a passage that talks about the need to destroy something before the situation destroys you or you destroy yourself. "Some says that too much anger is a bad thing, that it cripples you and it eats you alive and all that shit. I says it’s the one feeling that makes me feel...whole." Then he's on the plane with the ex, and he's angry at her for no apparent reason. So he’s trying to piss her off, and then he gets mad when she ignores his "trying to be friendly," knowing full well that friendly is the very last thing he’s trying to be. He’s just upset that she sees through him. Then as he gets off the plane, he's suddenly well-adjusted enough to realize that he was getting upset over nothing that has anything to do with him anymore. That kind of thing is my only complaint about the book. The author is telling the story from different characters' points of view, but instead of letting the reader draw the quite obvious conclusions he's going for, he ends up just telling us through the character's sudden moment of clarity. But it's not a huge complaint, as people do have sudden moments of clarity, so it's not completely unbelievable. I'm glad I read it.
The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
I borrowed this one from Maggie (and I swear that I'll return it some day), and I loved it. It stirred my restlessness, which is my very favorite effect a book can have on me.
Oh, and I have to live on a beach. Some time during my lifetime, even if just for a little while - I have to live on a beach.
The book had themes of the spiritual and sensual – not the spiritual vs. the sensual, but the importance of both (the passage about having life more abundantly kept running through my head). I'm more of an intuiter than a senser, so this was a nice reminder to slow down. I love this quote - "Spiritual people had the habit of closing themselves off, numbing themselves down. He felt strongly about it – people needed to swim naked. Some more than others."
"Sometimes I experience God like this Beautiful Nothing. And it seems then as though the whole point of life is just to rest in it. And then other times it’s just the opposite. God feels like a presence that engorges everything. I come out here, and it seems the divine is running rampant. That the marsh, the whole of Creation, is some dance God is doing, and we’re meant to step into it, that’s all."
"What if holiness had more to do with seizing his life out there?"
I love her explanation of the aftermath (aftershocks) of the main character's infidelity. The "I don’t know if I belong here" - "the peculiar vertigo, the peculiar humility, that comes from realizing what you are really capable of" - Hugh’s raw feeling of betrayal – how it humbled him, revealing his humanity.
Her mom and dad – their story – so loving. And that's all I'm going to say about that, or it won't have the impact it's supposed to have when you read it. And you really must read it.
"There’s release in knowing the truth no matter how anguishing it is. You come finally to the irreducible thing, and there’s nothing left to do but pick it up and hold it."
My favorite part, though, was Father Thomas and his doubt. He felt abandoned by God "whom he’d actually believed in. The kind of believing one does before immense suffering." I loved him because, when I have doubt, I tend to run away. It takes incredible courage to run toward the thing that vexes you. "I have come here not to find answers but to find a way to live in a world without any."
It kept reminding me of our family friends, Walter and Nelda, when their daughter Ginger died. I was 15, and she was one of my best friends, so I was pretty shaken up, but she was their world, so I expected them to be destroyed - either completely detached or completely wrecked. But visiting them that day was extraordinary. They were mourning, and they were fully present in it, but they were so peaceful that they actually offered comfort to others. It blew my mind. To this day, that's still one of the most vivid moments of the presence of God in my memory.
Anyway. I liked it, and I want to read more of her stuff.
Preferably from my beach house.
Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller
I had to finally finish this after reading The Mermaid Chair. It had made me thirsty.
Maybe just a few quotes:
"I started thinking about the idea that my friend at the Bible college suggested about how, if God is a perfect and loving Being, the most selfless thing He could do would be to create other beings to enjoy Him. And then I started thinking that if those creatures fell away from Him, the most selfless thing a perfect and loving Being could do would be to go and get them, to try to save them from the death that would take place in His absence."
He quoted Toni Morrison – "I am a great writer because when I was a little girl and walked into a room where my father was sitting, his eyes would light up. That is why I am a great writer. That is why. There isn’t any other reason."
My favorite part (and it's incredibly hard for me to pick a favorite part out of any of his books - half the book is underlined) is when he talked about the five-point conversion plan – if you've seen a religious tract, you've seen it - and how it lists the facts but not the story, the ideas but not the narrative. Reduction of the ideas has caused us to miss something. Knowing God is not a scientific process but a relational dynamic. You can’t chart relationships. That’s why Jesus told stories, because life is a story. This is my main issue with traditional evangelism. Because merely believing the steps misses the whole point. I can no more give someone a step-by-step process for knowing God than I can give her/him a how-to book on falling in love. And that we try to reduce this beautiful love to a formula is maddening.
Taking religious discipline out of the sacraments – fasting – “we fast because we mourn the absence of Christ.” And that may seem like a no-brainer, but it's exciting because more and more, we are seeing the traditional church emerging out of its rut. And it’s exciting. It’s exciting to see people engaging in ritual because it means something, not just out of habit. It’s also exciting to see writers popping up all over the place who echo and join revolutionaries who can’t settle for morality without relationship, resulting in the choice of love over hate and redemption over political agenda.
Now, on a completely different note, I bring you So You Think You Can Dance.
Benji. *loves* Taking Manly Lessons from Dmitry. Yeah. Either one of them can pick me up and carry me around just any time. Any time at all. Cannot. Move. Benji. Too. Adorable. *killed dead* Now THAT was a Viennese Waltz, unlike the other one we saw a week or two ago.
Other than that, this week was a little *meh* for me.
As expected and hoped, they offed Jaymz and Jessica. Good. I was a little nervous for Ryan there. I mean, I don't expect him to win, but I'd like for him to hang around for a little longer. And I'm getting sentimental. Even though I wanted Jaymz and Jessica to go, I cried. Because she cried. I didn't know I cared at all, much less enough to cry.
I'm even warming up to Natalie. I don't care who wins.
As long as it's Benji or Donyelle.
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no subject
Date: 2006-07-07 11:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-10 06:33 am (UTC)Anyway, I must admit I cheat. I just scroll back to the last time that I listed them and copy/paste. So...not so much remembering as lots of time to scroll back through.