Against Nothingness

"I could never mix in the common murmur of that rising generation against monogamy, because no restriction on sex seemed as odd and unexpected as sex itself. To be allowed, like Endymion, to make love to the moon and then to complain that Jupiter kept his own moons in a harem seemed to me (bred on fairy tales like Endymion's) a vulgar anti-climax. Keeping to one woman is a small price for so much as seeing one woman. To complain that I could only be married once was like complaining that I had only been born once. It was incommensurate with the terrible excitement of which one was talking. It showed, not an exaggerated sensibility to sex, but a curious insensibility to it. A man is a fool who complains that he cannot enter Eden by five gates at once. Polygamy is a lack of the realization of sex; it is like a man plucking five pears in mere absence of mind. The aesthetes touched the last insane limits of language in their eulogy on lovely things. The thistledown made them weep;

"Humility was largely meant as a restraint upon the arrogance and infinity of the appetites of man. He was always outstripping his mercies with his own newly invented needs. His very power of enjoyment destroyed half his joys. By asking for pleasure, he lost his chief pleasures; for the chief pleasure is surprise. Hence it became evident that if a man would make his world large, he must be always making himself small. Even the haughty visions, the tall cities, and the toppling pinnacles are the creations of humility. Giants that tread down forests like grass are the creations of humility. Towers that vanish upwards above the loneliest start the creations of humility. For towers are not tall unless we look up at them; and giants are not giants unless they are larger than we. All this gigantesque imagination, which is, perhaps, the mightiest of the pleasures of man, is at bottom entirely humble. It is impossible without humility to enjoy anything - even pride.  But what we suff

The Lesson of the Moth I was talking to a moth the other evening he was trying to break into an electric light bulb and fry himself on the wires why do you fellows pull this stunt I asked him because it is the conventional thing for moths or why if that had been an uncovered candle instead of an electric light bulb you would now be a small unsightly cinder have you no sense plenty of it he answered but at times we get tired of using it we get bored with the routine and crave beauty  and excitement fire is beautiful and we know that if we get too close it will kill us  but what does that matter it is better to be happy for a moment and be burned up with beauty than to live a long time and be bored all the while  so we wad all our life up into one little roll and then we shoot the roll that is what life is for it is better to be a part of beauty for one instant and then cease to exist than to exist forever

Alexander Solzhenitsyn. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich . Signet, 1972. 142 pgs.  I don't know how I made it this long without reading Solzhenitsyn. Somehow. Earlier this year a good friend  pointed me to his  Nobel prize speech , which is well worth reading. That same friend  then lent me this book, which I finally got around to reading. In summary this book is one day in the life of a man sentenced to ten years in a Siberian labor camp.  The book opens as Ivan wakes up and, being slower than normal, is called forward by a guard to receive his punishment. Ivan experiences a minor victory in that his punishment is merely to mop the guardroom floor. Barely 10 pages into the book and the (no doubt realistic) picture Solzhenitsyn paints of a Siberian labor camp is bleak. No matter how Ivan felt, I was struck again and again by just how terrible this all was. His victories were small highlights which lit the extent of tragedy to my eyes.. As I neared the end of the

War and Nookd  - funny and scary Of Flying Cars  - a long but very interesting look at where we stand now in terms of technology, economics, bureaucracy, and politics. When are we going to grow up? The Juvenilization of American Christianity  - more than enough to think about here. Please RT   - "soon, if not yet already, it will seem pretentious, elitist, and old-fashioned to write anything, anywhere, with patience and care." Happyism: The Creepy New Economics of Pleasure   - thoughtful and hilarious. Thoughts on Penal Substitution - very good The Trouble with Atheists: A Defence of Faith - So good, I want to read the book :) Impatience as Digital Virtue  - great questions to consider! The New Furby Review: Absolute Horror - Made me laugh out loud and made me think. 

I am a Christian. I am a pastor. I have often experienced the awkward moment in the conversation after someone I have just met asks me what I do for a living... and I answer. Most of the time this is followed by a long pause while the other person visibly tries to sort out what to say next. Have they cursed in our exchange so far? Should this bother them? Do you have a bone to pick with religion, faith, or Christianity? Should they pick it with me? Am I judging them? Should they adjust their behavior accordingly? And on and on.  There are many objections to Christianity and to faith. Once and a while they come out. More often than not the awkward pause is followed by an embarrassing fizzle as the conversation grinds to a halt.  I am keenly aware of the point Francis Spufford makes , that the most painful message about Christianity our society gives us that we are embarrassing. This makes sense. I am caught in the embarrassing predicament described well by Simon Tugwell: &qu

Back at the beginning of August this was me: I'm so excited to be blogging again! Lots to do and good times ahead! Then I woke up today and realized it was September already: September already? I hardly blogged at all! Yeah... a month gone in the twinkling of an eye. And all of 2 blog posts to show for it. What can I say? I've been busy! So, I make no promises about September, but I still live in hope. Maybe you do to, or maybe you've given up on this blog. Don't worry, I understand.  Until next time... :)