Male torch singer against priest and one who becomes faithful, in high school and a dozen years later, both times at Christmas.
Faded and false piety ('our lost saints')
holy = lonely
commercialization
Stranger
Holiday song
20091210
20090921
The Love of Mother Tongue
I just read an excerpt from a novel forthcoming this October 27th.
It's to be a peculiar book in some ways; twelfth in a sequence of books of an estimated fourteen (three more books!*). The project is interesting in that it generated a substantial following within a certain genre, so much so that a hack's been brought in to finish the series after the untimely death of the author.
And I loathe the hack's use of language as much as I enjoyed the books before. He inverts subject verb order, so that I hear Yoda at inappropriate moments. His metaphors are strained, his characterization daft; the only thing he has going for him is that he can crank things out on schedule.
On a grave personal note, I've nearly run out of new or rereadable fiction in the house. Matters have come to such a sorry pass that I'm tempted to write fiction. The only thing I can see in the way of me losing all sense and decency via the naked page is if someone lends me lots of good books.**
*Something of an in joke. The original author it seems has claimed that he'd need only three more books to finish the series for the last ten books.
**Due to unavoidable delays in the arrival of my stipend, the local libraries are out of the question.
It's to be a peculiar book in some ways; twelfth in a sequence of books of an estimated fourteen (three more books!*). The project is interesting in that it generated a substantial following within a certain genre, so much so that a hack's been brought in to finish the series after the untimely death of the author.
And I loathe the hack's use of language as much as I enjoyed the books before. He inverts subject verb order, so that I hear Yoda at inappropriate moments. His metaphors are strained, his characterization daft; the only thing he has going for him is that he can crank things out on schedule.
On a grave personal note, I've nearly run out of new or rereadable fiction in the house. Matters have come to such a sorry pass that I'm tempted to write fiction. The only thing I can see in the way of me losing all sense and decency via the naked page is if someone lends me lots of good books.**
*Something of an in joke. The original author it seems has claimed that he'd need only three more books to finish the series for the last ten books.
**Due to unavoidable delays in the arrival of my stipend, the local libraries are out of the question.
20090831
Players
Perhaps the most inspiring thing I've seen in the last quarter.
"[M]anipulation of objects is the hand in search of a brain. The brain is in search of a hand, and play is the medium by which those two are linked in the best way."
http://www.ted.com/talks/stuart_brown_says_play_is_more_than_fun_it_s_vital.html
"And something very unusual happens. That fixed behavior--which is rigged and stereotyped and usually ends up with a meal--changes. ... And an incredible ballet begins. ... They are beginning to do something that neither would have done without the play signals.""John mentioned that I've done some work with murderers."
"It doesn't have a particular purpose, and that's what's so great about play. If the purpose is more important than the act of doing it, it's probably not play."
"[M]anipulation of objects is the hand in search of a brain. The brain is in search of a hand, and play is the medium by which those two are linked in the best way."
http://www.ted.com/talks/stuart_brown_says_play_is_more_than_fun_it_s_vital.html
20090828
20090804
20090610
20090531
One Thing
If there is no other thing you take from my words, now or ever, receive this: the great question of your life is your response to what the universe presents to you.
I call the motions in history toward the Best 'acts of God,' and seek to join in them. I want to be part of the work of the best, even if my only work is to stay out of the way as the Best unfolds and fulfills itself. Remember that "they also serve who only stand and wait."
Your response might be a question. 'Why, god?' seems to be a common one.
Your response might be a complaint, or a curse.
Your response might be a deed of mercy, an act of compassion, a thought, a song, or a whisper.
My point is that any of these can be good or ill, depending on what is necessary to the best. If one dedicates oneself to the best as one knows, and the God who knows and wills the Best (the God who loves, the Beloved), then one is usually on to a true, good, and beautiful response.
Above all, I charge you, constant reader: remember that your response may be informed but can not be mediated by the actions of others. I call the response to the world that one embraces the Best, worship. I declare this of worship: that the one thing it cannot be is stereotyped or simply copied. If it were so, one could not exist, because one would be unnecessary to the ultimately efficient Great Work.
I call the motions in history toward the Best 'acts of God,' and seek to join in them. I want to be part of the work of the best, even if my only work is to stay out of the way as the Best unfolds and fulfills itself. Remember that "they also serve who only stand and wait."
Your response might be a question. 'Why, god?' seems to be a common one.
Your response might be a complaint, or a curse.
Your response might be a deed of mercy, an act of compassion, a thought, a song, or a whisper.
My point is that any of these can be good or ill, depending on what is necessary to the best. If one dedicates oneself to the best as one knows, and the God who knows and wills the Best (the God who loves, the Beloved), then one is usually on to a true, good, and beautiful response.
Above all, I charge you, constant reader: remember that your response may be informed but can not be mediated by the actions of others. I call the response to the world that one embraces the Best, worship. I declare this of worship: that the one thing it cannot be is stereotyped or simply copied. If it were so, one could not exist, because one would be unnecessary to the ultimately efficient Great Work.
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