Baseball Meets Homer: A Review of The Natural

Here is an addition to the very delayed movie reviews. I suspected a sentimental sports movie when my wife and I started watching The Natural but I didn’t expect an attempt at the depiction of an ancient myth in the garb of the 20th century American Pastime. 

From the beginning of the movie Roy Hobbs, played masterfully by Robert Redford, is not just a good baseball player but depicted more like the demi-gods of Greek literature. He doesn’t just throw a perfect strike as a 10 year old, he blows through the barn wall with his fast ball.

He defeats the Whammer (a thinly veiled Babe Ruth) with 3 perfect pitches like Odysseus tricks the Cyclops. His first big hit literally knocks the leather off of the ball. A super human feat!

When he starts hitting home runs in the majors he doesn’t just knock them out of the park but each seems to rain down destruction on the infrastructure of the stadium. The clock is smashed, the lights explode, and the windows are no match for his precision. Even his bat seems to be delivered by the gods, through a lightning strike on a tree on his hometown farm. And with the making of the bat I am reminded of the shield being described in the Iliad or the Aeneid.

Within the first 10 minutes of the movie, the deadly dame (literally it turns out), is quoting Homer and I thought it was just a way to differentiate her from the blue collar baseball player. But now I see it as a small cue that this movie was doing something different, putting a mythos to a favorite pasttime of America. 

Even in the end of the movie, when Hobbs (the Hero), must sacrifice himself for the virtuous end, striving to win the baseball game despite the machinations of the owners, he does it with stoicism (a Greek virtue). He rounds the bases not with elation but with an understanding that he has done the honorable thing. His face does not betray an excitement or relief, just a satisfaction unmoved by the fireworks, those brought on by his wielding the baseball bat.

And that is the culmination of the hero’s journey in The Natural. Hobbs is tempted by vice but in the end he takes the route of the ancient heroes and uses his skills for the pursuit of virtue and honor.

I expected a fun sports movie but I was given something a little more magical. A valiant attempt at telling a different type of story. I would recommend.

The Bad Plus: 00s Most Important Albums

 Album: The Bad Plus: These Are the Vistas

Composition: An enjoyable and proficient modern jazz album. It doesn’t have the smoothness and welcome familiarity of classic jazz but does not misstep into overly eccentric avant-garde jazz that tries too hard to be different.

Performance: Well executed.

Lyrics: None; the spatially perplexing title not withstanding.

Impact on the music world: I would think that this propelled jazz into a “relevant” space for an audience they was not ready to engage older jazz. A helpful addition.

Timeless or rooted in the decade: I lean toward timelessness for this album. I’m not sure how the landscape of jazz will change in the coming decades but this sounds like a chapter in the book of jazz history.

Arcade Fire, 00s most important recordings

 Arcade Fire: Funeral

Composition: A thoroughly enjoyable progressive rock feel with little hesitation for experimentation and digital effects.

Performance: The vocal performance is offered with a slight affectedness which becomes a trademark for the band. If you lost that voice you would lose the essence of the band. The vocals are slightly reminiscent of Modest Mouse.

Lyrics: Fairly typical rock lyrics with a bit of angst. Nothing to complain about and nothing to sit in awe about.

Impact on the music world: This is a classic sound of 00s rock. I’m not sure if it was the first but it carries the trend.

Timeless or rooted in the decade: I think this will always be an album to which you could listen and think, “this is a good 00s album.”

00s Most Important Albums: Animal Collective

 Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion

Composition: This sounds like a recapitulation of the more psychedelic Beach Boys albums.

Performance: This was well executed.

Lyrics: othing stuck out to me as notable in my listening. This sat in the category of background music for me.

Impact on the music world: It reintroduced vintage sounds to a contemporary audience.

Timeless or rooted in the decade: I would say rooted in the decade especially as it harkens back to time past. The places to which it harkens are timeless perhaps but not this album.

00s Most Important Albums

Last year I listened through the Rolling Stone 100 best albums of the 90s. Going a different tack this year, I am listening to the 50 most important albums of the 00s as listed by NPR. I will post my thoughts as I listen in alphabetical order. 

Here is the first album:

John Adams: On The Transmigration Of Souls

Adams was commissioned to write a piece commemorating the 1 year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.  

Composition: A haunting and affecting arrangement. a mix of ambient influenced sounds, choral voices, and classical instrumentation.

Performance: Well executed and effectively portrayed the haunting arrangement. 

Lyrics: Names of the dead or messages and memories of the surviors are used throughout the piece to powerfully evoke the feelings around 9/11.

Impact on the world: A fitting musical dedication to the victims of the 9/11 tragedy  

Timeless or rooted in the decade: As a commissioned memorial this is timeless. It is designed to point to an event of the decade but I think it will be known for a long time. 

What To Do With a Cherry Orchard

This was my first interaction with Chekhov, and with Russian literature, and it was a pleasing one albeit with a less than perfect English translation.

I can only speak to the tone of the play and of its characters. My Russian history is lacking so I cannot, in this essay, respond to Chekhov's interaction with his day. However, I plan to read more and gain more understanding of his context in 1903.

The Cherry Orchard is a story of the changing from one era to another, one class to another, one way of thinking about the world to another.

With the quickest of summaries, the play centers on Madame Lyubov as an aristocrat stuck between keeping her past in her possession, the cherry orchard, but walking straight into bankruptcy or selling it in auction but losing her connection to the past.

I was most interested in the contrast of the responses to the change of an era. That of the younger and the older.

The younger generation, and the one gaining prominence in the new system, is all too willing to overthrow the older and they seem to have progress and education on their side but they do not know how to respond and empathize as they ought.

The older generation seems to be the only one that recognizes the sadness and the pain of the change. They, perhaps, see the virtue of the progression but they seem to observe things as they are. Change? Yes. Reasonable? Possibly. But painful and uprooting? Certainly.

Every change is a response to something in the past. Usually an unjust something or a broken something. Sometimes the disadvantaged become the advantaged and take excesses just as the previous advantaged, whom they just overthrew, did originally. 

It seems that Chekhov only gave us two major responses to change: yearning for the past or uncritically welcoming the future. (There was the butler who was the epitome of complacent indifference or ignorance)

Every period of history has actions and systems with the flashes of brilliance and blemishes of evil. When we move from one to the next we carelessly throw out a thing in its entirety, demonizing all of it, rather than reforming the bad and making even better what exists.

Perhaps that is the curse of history: to abandon a flawed system or state for a differently flawed system or state, shouting against past injustices while being blind to the present maladies propped up by our current favored system.

For my part, I want to know the entirety of something. I don't want to follow along just because it is popular. I want to see a thing in its context and evaluate it fairly. It is too easy to take a position because it is the majority's position. Often that is also less painful. But I would rather take the longview knowing truth may not fit into the popular idea at any given time.

For my reading I felt stuck in the middle of the characters, wondering what good they were throwing away as they welcomed the new and also desiring proper remedies for the problems they experienced. 

Instead of losing the cherry orchard in vain nostalgia, I would have had the protagonist use the cherry orchard for good.

A Properly Focused Autobiographer

Augustine is a profound writer.

As I was reading Confessions, I felt as though I was finally old enough, or smart enough, to begin scanning this great and classic work. This was not the first time I had picked it up but it was the first time I finished it.

As I read, it became clear there was a reason this book sits on the list of must reads of not only Christian literature but also world history. At the very least, Augustine started a new form of literature: autobiography. But where so often a first run of something is only a husk of the future form, Augustine gives us the completed excellence while future attempts, by later autobiographers, seem to pale in comparison.

The Original Biographer

The original autobiography, by Augustine, was not a typical walkthrough of the life of the author but instead a prayer to the God he so completely wants to glorify. Unlike many autobiographies, Augustine puts his focus on God. There is much talk of himself but it is thoroughly within a conversation with God.

What is astounding is that Augustine just sits in that understanding. In fact, toward the end of the book he does not wax eloquent about himself after the turning point in his life (like the typical form of most autobiographies after) but instead focuses his attention on God and what he is doing in time and space.

This is the proper relationship each of us should have. Our autobiographies would be incomplete, lacking, if only an isolated look at ourselves apart from a proper relationship with God. 

A Desire to Worship God

Augustine is listed as one of the church fathers for a reason and it is enriching to read his story and start to focus on what he focuses on. He is very good at drawing our gaze to God even when he is talking about himself.

Augustine cannot help himself from worshiping God in the text. He will talk about his past and then he will worship, the presence and nature of sin and then worship, the quality of plays and oration and then worship. Science. Worship. The stars. Worship. His mother. Worship. The very nature of time. Worship. 

While reading I was invited to consider the glory of God for myself and, ultimately, to worship him for his goodness.

Read Augustine

Augustine is brilliant. Many in the church, on many sides, quote him, or attack him, but I wonder how many have read him. He is worth conversing with. Listen to his thoughts and try to follow along as he plumbs the depth of any number of topics. You will be the better for it.

Oh, Margery!

The Book of Margery Kempe is the first autobiography written in English and the first by a woman. More than a look into the life of a single woman it is a survey of the confusion and brokenness of the world in the 14th and 15th century.  

Within the church, from which Margery would eventually be labeled a saint, there was concern and lack of knowledge about what was true. People did not know how to differentiate truth from confusion or distortation and the priests and friars, hardly less confused, could not shepherd the people effectively. 

Amidst this context, Margery roamed on many adventurers all the while inconsolably weeping or getting into fights with priests. Much of my response to her behavior was a constant refrain of, “oh Margery!” However, a friend pointed out that much of her delusion and bizarre antics could be a result of pyshcological illness. She was a broken person and the basic confusion of the time had no proper response to help her or serve her and thus her story only confused others. 

While we live in a distant age and a modern time, we do not live in an age without brokenness and confusion. The stories may be different now but they are symptoms of the same type of hurt and malady.

This book had me heartbroken for the church as a whole. Most of all, this book is a reminder that we need an understanding of what is whole and true. We need a way to indentify it, counsel those who do not understand, and comfort those who need healing. Much of the book was a confusion on the lovileness of Christ and his good news. Clarifying that story and properly applying it can make much progress in helping people like Margery.

A Dolls' House

Ibsen gives us a look into the framework of the Victorian era and invites the viewers into a more equal world. 

On a writing level, with the absence of stage direction, it seems the play leaves a lot to the actors’ interpretation to portray the desired end. As a reader, the play did not seem to contain the subtlety necessary to tell the proper story. Hopefully, I will be able to see a production to give the play a proper chance at telling its story. 

With A Doll’s House Isben creates an anthem for human equality. A clear look into the brokenness of his society provides the backdrop from which the protagonist flees to learn as an individual. Isben sought to elucidate the equality of all people. And he seems to point to education as a remedy in the effort. 

In the final act I was struck by some of the final words spoken by Nora, the play’s heroine, 

“I believe that before all else I am a reasonable human being, just as you are--or, at all events, that I must try and become one. I know quite well, Torvald, that most people would think you right, and that views of that kind are to be found in books; but I can no longer content myself with what most people say, or with what is found in books. I must think over things for myself and get to understand them.”

She calls for the ability for all to think on their own. I agree with the beginning of her sentiment and extend it to the idea that we must all be taught how to think. She seems to be saying that we can, solely internal introspection, see how things are. My extension would be that we should each be given the tools to think and understand because they are not innately within us without cultivation.

Considering the method by which one “becomes a rational being,” I land on some version of classical teaching by which people are given the tools of learning. It is not enough to be told, “this is good and this is beautiful, this is true and this is broken.” We must be taught how to investigate them, prod them, dive into them. When that has been given to us we can feel and know, by our earnest investigation, the nature of things.

It is wrong to relegate anyone to an ignorant station. It is also wrong to “educate” someone but only teach them how to do things and not how to truly learn and understand things. We have perpetuated a problem of equality when we churn out workers but tell them we have given them education. All should be given the chance to truly engage with the history-long conversation and understand their relationship to this great thing we call life. 

Education is not the sole answer. We remain in a broken world with broken people who will supplant the weaker or malign the different. But education is a gift that should be handed to everyone. And by that gift they can see what is inequitable and where righteousness and justice can be wrought. Whether they accept the gift is their decision. 

With Ibsen I can take up the call for human equality. Each person is innately valuable. Give everyone the tools to investigate this world, the relationships to truth, and the values that stand timelessly. Using those tools they can gain understanding and each can make their way because they have plumped the depths on their own and learned what is good.

The Great Crash: 1929

The Great Crash of 1929 is the most known financial event in the American psyche. John Kenneth Galbraith gives an engaging look at its prehistory, causes, and consequences with not a little bit of commentary and an entertaining brush of opinion on the characters of the story.

While The Great Crash is an in-depth look at the factors involved in the financial collapse, and by one well-versed in the knowledge and jargon of the subject, it never read as a text book or technical overture unapproachable by the casual reader. In fact, Galbraith did an excellent job in providing a narrative that was approachable and educational. 

Being a reader form 2017, it was striking to notice the similarities of 1929 to the The Great Recession we experienced in 2007 and 2008. I could not help but think, "how can we avoid a future calamity?". Part of the answer was in my hands: a history of the past. 

We humans continuing to repeat ourselves while thinking we have come up with something novel.  If we are not read in our own history we will, no doubt, find ourselves in the midst of our own past calamities. The Great Crash is a book designed to keep the story of 1929 lodged in our brains so that we do not forget. It was originally published in the 50s, and revised in subsequent decades, but it is obvious that it's story was not read and remembered by those who engaged in the speculation and risks of the early 2000s. We would do well to give ourselves continual history lessons and keep fresh the memories of the past even though we were not actors in the stories.

Galbraith echoes this idea, "With time, the number who are restrained by the memory must decline. The historian, in a volume such as this, can hope that he provides a substitute for memory that slightly stays that decline."

His confidence in our ability to remember is lacking. And because financial difficulty is not the only memory we must foster let us be students of history so we can be agents in the present.

Moby Dick

Herman Melville gave us a narrative warning about obsession that was itself an obsession. While he gives us a story about a particular whale, Melville is clearly enamored with all details of the whales from every species. Before we even meet the main whale of the narrative, we are given details on the tails, the skulls, the bones, and oil of whales. Melville uses his obsessive details as a package to deliver the stories of two other obsessions.

Moby Dick, the whale antagonist of the novel by the same name, is the vindictive obsession of Captain Ahab. Once unburdened of a leg by the seemingly immortal behemoth, he risks the lives of his entire crew (and the well beings of their families) for the chance to end the life of the whale.

One of his crew, Ishmael, is a sea-loving, whale-admiring employee. He jumped on board to revel in the majesties of the whales. His obsession, if it can be classified as such, is a wholesome one that marvels at nature and its grandness. From the beginning he is itching to push out to sea and finds himself daydreaming in the crow's nest. In Ishmael, we have modeled a proper focus.

The rest of the crew is a fun-loving and hilarious bunch. For a while, I was certain I was reading the wrong book. Moby Dick has always been portrayed as a brooding narrative but for more then three quarters of the telling I was enjoying a comedic account of a whaling crew complete with a pipe-smoking mate that doesn't know he is being insulted and a cook who dabbles in preaching to sharks.

This crew, that shows us the enjoyment of life, is finally brought into ultimate danger by their captain who has placed all focus and meaning of his own life unto one end: the slaying of his foe.

It is in the final fifty pages that I realized I was reading a dark warning against vengeance (or any other unhealthy obsession or addiction)

There is a small flicker of hope when Ahab remembers his life and his family and all the goodness at home. He realizes what he could be sacrificing but throws it all away, for him and his crew, when he sees the fabled white whale cross the horizon.

Starbuck, the first mate, has the sternest warning, "Thou has outraged me, not insulted me, Sir; but for that I ask thee not to beware of Starbuck; thou wouldst but laugh; but let Ahab beware of Ahab; beware of thyself, old man."

Ahab does not heed the warning and the parable of unhealthy obsession is finished with an end at the bottom of the ocean. Life and laughter is extinguished.

Melville gives us an effective warning we should all heed: We all hold the potential of our own destruction and often, tragically the lives of those around us.

History through Bottles

I have been working through the book The Complete Beer Course with a couple neighborhood buddies. We have tried 11 different bottles and are currently studying the Lager chapter. 

In just 10 pages we have tasted 5 different styles and learned several pieces of history that explain the existence of the various styles. We have learned about the German Purity Law of 1516 bringing to production the first Dunkel. We read about the changes in malts and the storing in caves that brought about Bocks. Also, the increased alcohol content of the Dopplebocks that sustained the monks that brewed them through their fasting during Lent.

It is possible that I am trying the types of German brews that Martin Luther himself enjoyed after nailing his 95 theses to the wall in 1517, just one year after the purity law took effect. His wife was also a brewer so she may have been making her own Dunkel or Bock. There is many a letter where Luther is writing back to his wife, Katharina Von Bora, letting her know the local pub's beer was lacking in comparison to hers.

The headline of this blog says, “They will show you the world if you jump in deep enough.” This small dip into beer has shown me German history in political, economic, theological forms. 

I now have vignettes that can be told while enjoying a number of bottles and my understanding of the history of the world continues to be filled in on its way to the present. 

Aside from the tastiness, I enjoy researching and diving into the fermented side of the beverage world, over the sugar-water side, mainly because it is filled with such a depth of history that touches many facets of the countries of origin. (And often times the stories cross over into different countries)

A Sample Anecdote

Did you know that Negra Modelo, the favorite taco companion, is a Mexican product that is actually a Vienna Lager modeled after the Austrian attempt to stand with German beers from the 1800s? The interconnectedness of the story of the world plays out on the table next to your chips and salsa. It is a fascinating study. Germany to Austria to Mexico to the United States.

It is a delight to grab a bottle of Weihenstephaner Dunkel or Paulaner Salvator and enjoy it while thinking about the church fathers that may have enjoyed the same bottle but in a setting 500 years ago, making history that affects us still today. I recommend grabbing a bottle. Discuss and enjoy it with a friend.

Prayer Over A Brief History of Time

I can't remember ever being moved to pray after watching a movie. But last night I prayed. 

On Tuesday, I had finished reading A Brief History of Time: the best selling popular level physics book by Stephen Hawking. It is a clearly communicated and brilliant look into cosmology, explaining, as the subtitle says, "the big bang to black holes."

In chapters 1-7 I was given a layman's look at the history of the theories of the universe and the ever more precise proposed answers we have discovered about space and time. I felt as though I was sitting, again, in my mathematics undergrad realizing I may be touching the language with which God sustains the workings of the universe. It was stirring. 

From chapter 8 to the conclusion, Hawking puts forward his theory of the boundary-less universe and time and seems as though his goal is to toss away the need for a creator. I felt the book lost its solid foundation toward the end and realized that, boundary or not, singularity or not, a creator is not rendered unnecessary. Both of the current theories of the beginning of the universe can have God as the first agent. Read a smart explanation of that here. 

After finishing a great read, I watched The Theory of Everything, the 2014 film with an award winning performance by Eddie Redmayne as Hawking. It tells the story of his life, looking for the equation that explains everything. He comes to the theory that the universe and time are boundary-less and thus thinks they have no creator. 

At the end of the movie he is asked the pressing question, “You have said that you do not believe in God. Do you have a philosophy of life that helps you?” His response, in the movie, is a wordplay that is suppose to have our ambitions soaring.

"It is clear that we are just an advanced breed of primates on a minor planet, orbiting around a very average star, in the outer suburb of one among a hundred billion galaxies. But, ever since the dawn of civilization, people have craved for an understanding of the underlying order of the world. There ought to be something very special about the boundary conditions of the universe. But what can be more special than that there is no boundary? And there should be no boundary to human endeavor. We are all different. However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. While there is life, there is hope."

He then receives a standing ovation. 

The crowd stood and I sat in sadness. This brilliant man had plumbed the depths of what it means to understand the creation of the universe and then chooses a platitude to explain the point of our existence in the universe. "We have always searched for underlying order but let us remember that there are no boundaries." Even in the midst of his quote I felt, if it were true, a complete meaninglessness of life and existence. We are here for no reason. If there is life there is hope, apparently, but his own worldview says it will all disappear and we are just evolved lifeforms. 

We are all an accident. What is the point? Is his brilliant mind really satisfied with that answer?

It felt like watching a toddler walking around his father, measuring his height, watching his movements, observing the way he puts together projects and then striving for a theory in hopes to describe that he does not exist. 

He is the thinker that is getting closer to understanding the tools (equations) with which God created the universe. He has nearly touched the face of God and turned around and is trying to prove that the sustainer of the equations is unnecessary. It smacks of intellectual dishonesty. 

The movie was over and I was heart-broken. I prayed for his soul and his mind and his heart. I prayed that the Creator he continues to walk around would softly put his hand on his shoulder revealing himself as the brilliant one who designed all these formulas and relationships that his brilliant creation is discovering.

The Road

The Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Cormac McCarthy put me in a state of fear and uncertainty. As I followed the characters on their journey through a post-apocalyptic world, punctuated by lack of provision and potentially dangerous people, I sympathized with the father's fear as he tried to sustain his son's life despite the lack of any "long term goals".

On my reading, the backdrop of the ravaged world serves only to bring to narrow focus the relationship between father and son. There is danger and uncertainty but it is there to allow the protagonists to work through it. The reason for the danger and uncertainty is irrelevant. We do not know if there was war, natural disaster or aliens, but the characters are left in a diminished place and their relationship will be examined within it. 

Preserving life because it is valuable, because "we carry the flame", seems to be the theme of this narrative. (I must note that a fellow reader did not agree with this assessment. A lively conversation ensued.) The father almost seems to trudge through this duty in a perfunctory fashion while his son serves as an exemplary agent in perpetuating life and grace to others. This is a curious and welcome change as the usual generational progression is from belief to assumption to rejection.

There seemed to be little redeeming quality to the narrative as their journey seemed, at times, pointless and only prolonging the inevitable but I, albeit against my fellow debator, feel the end of The Road points to the reason for traveling in the first place. Because of this I would recommend reading the narrative  

As a recent father, it was easy for me to slip into the fear and uncertainty of the protagonist. It was worthwhile feeling those feelings in that dismal setting and walk through questions that only that backdrop would require. It is all the better because I can pull out of the book and be at home and happily realize I have no Road to walk down with my boy. 

The Craft

During a recent visit to Denver, I was able to take a tour of a local distillery. It was better then a typical walkabout with a concluding tasting. They sat us down in a small classroom and explained the ingredients, the terminology, the process, and the care that goes into every bottle of the beverages.

I was fascinated. God created a world where grain, water, yeast and heat can be combined in a way that creates an amazingly complex and varied experience in a small glass.

Humans have been tinkering with the proportions of the above ingredients and time for thousands of years to get to where we currently are in present expression of beverages. Every time I taste something amazing I think about that process and feel as though I am participating in the co-creation of image bearing humans with their God.

God has created the ingredients, the chemical relationships, and the laws of earth. Humans, reflecting bits of God's creativity, experiment and craft until they discover something great. A desirable glass of anything is evidence of that co-creation.

Our Town

What first seems to be a capsule of reminder of quintessential small town charm (Mayberry before there was Mayberry), evolves into inditement to the general human who does not take time to watch the little moments of life take place before them.

Wilder gives the weight of a scene not to the background and the material but to the people and the interactions between them. The preparing and sharing of breakfast, the walking and talking on the way home from school, the conversations that occur solely before a wedding, and the gossip between fellow choir members. This is the stuff of life, for Wilder, and the pieces we often miss when we are too focused on the eating of breakfast, the studying, and the getting married before we carry on with life.

The reminder from Wilder is helpful and needed but the direction to which he points seems to be only close to the mark while hitting the ideal target.

His view of the afterlife leaves the dead emotionless and looking back at the small happenings of life with a dead pan regret. The eternality of the soul does not rest in a state glorying in the reason for its eternality but instead is relegated to the position of a sentry only able to see what has been missed.

This play gives no hope even though it calls for a change in perspective. Even if we heed the warning of Wilder we are left, in the end, with the satisfaction that we paid attention while we shared eggs and coffee with the ones we love.

I need more reason for embracing life than an assurance that the little things were embraced appropriately. Life is a big thing with big reasons and by that truth I can be shaken alert during my routines and schedule and realize life has an end that can be glorious. I can live that truth even in our town.

Coleridge: The Glory in the Everyday

Coleridge: a lord of the 19th century spending a fair amount of his time writing poetic masterpieces like Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner. Much enjoyment can be found in his stories like The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Cristabel but I was enamored by his various descriptions and observations of the world around him.

He describes the comfortable place of his convalescence as a hindering force in This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison. He waxes eloquent to the steeper of tea after its failing in Monody on a Tea Kettle. The beauty of rest and sleep under the trees is described in a enveloping way in Reflections on Having Left a Place of Retirement.

Often times, or the presupposition was held, that poets push their words toward the transcendent and the surreal or the reach for the greater things in our existence: love and beauty. But often Coleridge seemed to find something wonderful and glorious while walking along the road or enduring a typical day. It was as though he found the colors more fitting colors to paint the scene. Where one would typically expect to see greys he glossed with vibrant arrays.

Poetry is not a genre I am well versed in, unless one were to count the lyrics of music, but I willingly gave Coleridge a book's worth of reading and engagement. I was at first uncertain and not a little lost but I finished thrilled at his use of words and descriptions of the everyday, but nonetheless, beautiful scenes.

Dinosaurs and Belief

Walter Alvarez wrote T. Rex and the Crater of Doom to tell the story of his and his team's search for geological evidence of the event that wiped out the dinosaurs.  

Written at a popular level, it gave basic explanations of geological terms and ideas (much of which would have been over my head if written technically) so it could focus more on the story of what was framed as a search for truth. 

While reading a secular science book, I anticipated a certain disdain for Christianity or perhaps a pervasive, mild dishonesty in the representation of evidence. All of these presuppositions were residual from years of hearing a caricature of the science community from the worldview-defending church. 

Instead, I found three laudable things 

1) A desire to find truth that was worth emulating 

I was enamored by the intense desire to find the answers and recognized it as a shared quality I have with the author. Walter, and crew, spent decades searching, digging, hypothesizing, testing, retesting, failing, and finding in order to arrive at truth. That intense drive for answers inspires me as I invest in my own searching and study.

2) A willingness to point out assumptions  

There were multiple times in the book where something was asserted and I thought, "I don't know if that is true" or more simply "I think that is taken on faith." Alvarez diligently flagged these portions by saying, "we assume." That is respectable and laudable. When we are talking about things we have not seen it is important to say that we are basing our progression of thought on things that we assume or believe have happened.

3) The humility to say, "we don't know"

At the end of the book, and the end of the search, Alvarez says, "No one yet understands how a deeply buried crater can control the pattern of springs far above it..." He also notes that, "Evolution had not provided impact resistance for the mammals either, but somehow they did survive. No one knows why..." But of these are key parts of the narrative he lays out and he risked dismantling his premise by including them.

While I may disagree with some of the premises Alvarez holds I can applaud his willingness to say that he is uncertain how key pieces of his story actually happen. It is a humility I ought to practice.

While geology is not the most interesting topic, I found the book interesting and I was pleased to dig up the previous nuggets. Have you read any science books lately? What did you find?

Alvarez, Walter (2013-06-25). "T. rex" and the Crater of Doom (Princeton Science Library). Princeton University Press. Kindle Edition. 

The News

Leslie and I just finished watching The Newsroom. We had recently completed The West Wing so jumping to another Sorkin show was appealing. For the uninitiated, it is the story of a cable news show that decides to revamp their production away from sensational news and toward pertinent information for the electorate disseminated in a court room style with expert witnesses. 

Of course it was good writing and the dialogue was often fantastic. (It was particularly interesting to watch an attempt of a solid liberal to write a convincing Republican). But the most compelling part of the show was the characters' desire to produce honest news.

There were numerous examples of different producers not wanting to push a story until they had it solidly confirmed despite having ratings pressure. There was on-screen concern for the language or time given to a particular point or part of the story that could be interpreted in the wrong way. The final episode had a scene in the "digital department" with a rant against titles that are deceiving but make you click or content that is entertaining but useless. 

I am such a proponent of that desire to clearly and decisively illuminate truth in a way that helps people. Because of my view of truth, being an ambassador of the ultimate good news, I hold heralds of truth to a very high standard. When one is given the responsibility to consistently give me the news I expect a reverence for that responsibility and a high level of integrity. It is that person's job to tell me what is happening, aside from their commentary, in a clear, honest, and judicious way. 

I understand that no one can remain entirely unbiased but it is laudable when someone makes a consistent effort to not lean into their bias or lean away from undesirable truth when working to clearly report. I find myself having to be aware of this when I preach. I have to lean into the truth of the text and not use words, tone or hand gestures that would give improper emphasis to a particular part of Scripture. Often I realize I can use a soft tone with a hard truth and it will be taken more easily but blunt the sharpness of the text. I can use a dismissive gesture when talking about a controversial truth. This can position myself for approval but will not shepherd the people that have been put in my care. 

I look out for the way headlines are written and notice unneeded and qualifying adjectives, all bending the reader or listener toward a desired conclusion. It is especially disheartening to see this happen with friends that read on "their side" and fall prey to headlines and stories that 1) are more opinion than reality 2)align with preconceived opinions 3) bolster previous opinions to the point that they are unwilling to listen to reason or opposing arguments. 

The respect I have for honest and judicious reporting has reached the point where I actively avoid those that are doing a poor job (even if I tend to agree with the headline) and have begun to pay, via subscription, for those that are doing a good job. It costs money to do that kind of reporting and I see it as a worthwhile investment. 

Those who faithfully investigate, observe and report truth ought to be praised and supported far and above those who entice you into your preferred opinion.

In other words, I prefer my editorial in the back of the paper not on the front page.

The Categories (Reading System)

I enjoy reading. I am always endeavoring to read more-deeply and broadly. Because of this constant desire, I have been working on a system to keep myself focused in many books.

When I am trying to read more I find that I usually get stuck on a book that is not that interesting. I have 7 books after that I am excited about but this one is in my way and there are still 150 pages left and I don't really care to finish. So I have recently put together, what I call, my Categories. I usually have between 10-12 categories and they can be added or dropped as needed. 

Here are my current categories:

Church Ministry, Reading Society, History/Israel book, Theology book, Parenting/Baby book, Cooking/Drink book, Culture Study, Fiction, Comic book, Leslie and I travel book, Audio book

The rules I use for scheduling reading are as follows.

1) Always have a book in each category: Once I finish a book in, say, the Culture Study category I immediately add a new one to my reading list.

2) Different books at different speeds: Naturally, like I mentioned above, I enjoy some books more than others. Because of this there may be categories that are refreshed quicker than others. Also, some books are massive tomes that just take a while to get through. If I am reading Les Miserables in my Fiction category that is going to take a while and I may go through three Culture Study books before I finish my Fiction category book. 

3) Different books in different places: I have specific books for different areas of life. For instance, my History category is by my bed so I usually read a bit of that as my evening routine before I go to sleep. The Church Ministry book is for the Church office. The Parenting book is generally on my Kindle app so it is read during breaks in the typical work day. 

4) If I'm playing a game or mindlessly checking Twitter, I could be reading: Kindle has been a huge factor in my recent reading. I usually have 3-5 books on my Kindle app that I am currently reading so if I ever revert to a mindless task, or want to, I can instead read a couple pages of a book. 

5) If you want read a new book and it doesn't fit a category, make a new category: If you have the bandwidth, why not? Just don't pile so many on that you just have a stack of books that overwhelms you.

I hope this is helpful. If you want to try it out just think of 2-3 categories and start reading. And if this sounds like the ravings of a crazy wannabe scholar...it probably is. 

Here are my currently filled categories. 4 of them are physical copies, 5 are digital, and 2 are audio. Let me know if you have categories or what you are reading!

Church Ministry book: Center Church

Reading Society book: The Hero with a Thousand Faces

History/Israel book: A History of the Jewish People

Theology book: Apostolic Fathers

Baby book: Baby Wise

Cooking/drink book: Complete Beer Course 

Culture Study book: Fractured Republic

Fiction book: Les Miserables

Comic book: Batman or Marvel 60s

Leslie and I travel book: Redwall

Audio book: Hamilton