Worth a Thousand Words: Fern Forest

Fern Forest
taken by http://blog.moment.ee/2015/07/sonajalamets-fern-forest.html

There are so many wonderful photos at Remo Savisaar's blog right now that I had a hard time choosing. This just looks so peaceful and cool, doesn't it? And it is not at all what I'd expect to find in Estonia which I somehow imagine to be too chilly for ferns.

Well Said: Wasted Hours

Remember this, if you can--there is nothing, nothing more precious than time. You probably feel you have a measureless supply of it, but you haven't. Wasted hours destroy your life just as surely at the beginning as at the end--only in the end it becomes more obvious.

Herman Wouk, The Caine Mutiny

Scott and I recorded our upcoming episode about The Caine Mutiny last night. Our conversation brought me an even greater appreciation for the book.

Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus by Nabeel Qureshi

Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity by Nabeel Qureshi


This is the book I'd recommend to any Christian who wants to understand how Muslims view Christianity (and Christians) and how they embrace and love their own faith. At least you'll better understand Westernized Muslims, which is the author's background.

Growing up between Great Britain and America, Nabeel Qureshi never fit in with Western culture because of his Islamic heritage. When Qureshi meets David, a devout Christian, he finally has a friend who is more like him than anyone else because their faith is such a core element of their lives.

Qureshi soon begins trying to convert David to Islam because he is sharing the greatest gift he knows, true knowledge of God. However, he gets a surprise when the arguments that previously planted doubt in Christians all fall apart when raised with a Christian who knows his faith well. In the process Qureshi carefully explains "what every Muslim knows" about Islam so that we understand his reasoning. This provided insights into the Muslim understanding of faith and God. What became really interesting was watching when Christian friends began asking about Muhammad and the Quran.

We know from the title where this book will end so as it progressed I became increasingly apprehensive, just as Qureshi was, for what a decision to become Christian would do to his loving parents. I really loved the window this book provided into a loving Muslim family and this was one of the most gripping parts of the book.

There is an emphasis in this book on history, source materials, and reliability of testimony which I am used to seeing applied to Christianity but which becomes riveting when seeing it applied to Islam. I also appreciated the way that Qureshi was careful to explain the differences between what Westernized Muslims teach versus Eastern Muslims. That in itself was an education and helped me see why some explanations of Islamic behavior (peaceful versus ISIS, for example) are so contradictory.

Eye opening, inspirational, and definitely recommended.

In which the White Moll carries out her promise to Gypsy Nan and encounters The Adventurer.

Chapters 3-4 of The White Moll are ready for your listening enjoyment at Forgotten Classics podcast.

Worth a Thousand Words: Dama en la Exposición Universal de Paris

Luis Jiménez Aranda, Dama en la Exposición Universal de Paris (1889)

This is another of the fine paintings we enjoyed last week on our date at the Meadows Museum. I found myself continually admiring Luis Aranda's paintings, as it turned out when I kept checking the plates next to various paintings.

Well Said: Giving and Following Advice

She generally gave herself very good advice (though she very seldom followed it).

Lewis Carroll

Isn't that the way?

I myself have the same problem. It's the source of many moments that lead me to the confessional.

Well Said: There are traps everywhere

In reading Chesterton, as in reading MacDonald, I did not know what I was letting myself in for. A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. There are traps everywhere — "Bibles laid open, millions of surprises," as Herbert says, "fine nets and stratagems." God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous.”

C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy

I see that attitude a lot, beginning with St. Augustine. It's one of the reasons why I'm surprised that God snared me without any reading at all.

Of course, it didn't take long before he was peppering me with reading that carried me further and further under his influence. It began before my confirmation with a gift from my sweet godmother, Aunt C.B. who sent me Rome, Sweet Home by Scott Hahn. Thank you, Aunt C.B.!

Well Said: The acceptance of grace

The acceptance of grace is not a passive thing; it demands a surrender of something, even if it is only our pride.

Fulton Sheen, Peace of Soul

Ain't that the truth!

"Only our pride." That's the hardest surrender of all usually, at least for me.

Worth a Thousand Words: Saints Justa and Rufina

Saint Justa, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
The Meadows Museum

Once again, I'm going to remind anyone living in Dallas that The Meadows Museum at SMU is the city's best kept secret.

Thursday nights are free and so last night Tom and I had a date night perusing The Abelló Collection. It is one of top of private Spanish art collections, including works by some of the greatest artists from the 1500s through modern times. Some of the paintings were truly stunning and I was reminded that the computer is a flat way to see art.

We also went into the other half of the upstairs exhibit space where we encountered some paintings from the regular collection that we either didn't remember or were part of the concurrent exhibit: The Meadows Collects: 50 Years of Spanish Art in Texas.

At any rate, these two beauties by Batrolome Murillo (a favorite of mine) entranced me. I was drawn to them again and again.

I'll be sharing other favorites next week.

Saint Rufina, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo
The Meadows Museum

Worth a Thousand Words: Common Blue Dameslfly

Common Blue Damselfly
taken by that master nature photographer Remo Savisaar

Reading Slump Solution: Hard-Boiled Detectives

It took Sherry at Semicolon to put a name to my recent reading problem. She talked about nothing appealing to her and said she was in a reading slump.

Yes! It's funny how having a label often brings focus to life.

I'd been drifting lately, with plenty of good books to read for upcoming podcasts but with nothing that really grabbed me, nothing that made it hard to turn out the light because I had to read just one more paragraph. I must have had this happen before but well into the third week I felt life had lost its savor. I never realized just how much I depend on books to invigorate me.

It was so bad that I went through several days without really reading for more than a few minutes at a time.

I know, right? I can't express how startled I was when I realized this.

The Long Goodbye - Raymond Chandler

The solution came from an unlikely combination. It went down like this:

They laid it out right up front. "Two days to do the layout for a 400 page book. Over 4th of July weekend," they said.

I drained the coffee cup. There were grounds in the bottom. The staff was getting sloppy. Maybe there was too much overtime all around. Or maybe they were just sloppy.

I crushed my cigarette in the ashtray.

"I can handle it."

"And revisions," they said, eyes glinting in the car light reflected from the big front window. "That'll be another couple of tough days."

"I said I can handle it!"

When basically tied to the computer for two to four days, what do you do? Load up an audiobook that packs maximum enjoyment and lets your brain glide over the action without having to pay too much attention. Luckily Audible recently put The Long Goodbye on sale and I'd bitten.

Ray Porter is a bit too straight-forward and forceful as Philip Marlowe. I always felt there was more of a laid-back sophistication underlying the dialogue. And I'm used to Porter laying it on thick when he reads Jonathan Maberry's Joe Ledger novels. But you can't beat him for doing the secondary characters. And, who knows? Maybe Marlowe was more of a straight-forward simple guy than I'm giving him credit for.

I'm about a third of the way into it and surprised at how modern the action, attitudes, and dialogue seem. This must have been like dynamite back in the days when it was brand-spanking new.

This began to wake me up but it wasn't something for the eyes, something to pick up and dive into when you couldn't devote time to listening. I needed more.

It was when looking over the Philip Marlowe books that I remembered Raymond Chandler's unfinished novel Poodle Springs was completed by Robert B. Parker. (Did you know there were seven? I had no idea.)

And I remembered it had been a heckuva long time since I'd read a Spenser novel. Even better, the library had the ebook available to download directly to my Kindle. (Sometimes I love living in the future with instant books.) I began instantly and found myself reading every spare moment right up to the time I was falling asleep with the book in my hand.

The Godwulf Manuscript - Robert B. Parker

"A pig is a pig," she said. "Whether he's public or private, he works for the same people."

"Next time you're in trouble," I said, "call a hippie."

Oh yeah, that's the stuff.

I encountered the Spenser novels in the early 1980s and became enamored. I'd never read anything like them.

Of course, I'd never read Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler. I knew of them from movies but hard-boiled didn't appeal as reading material or even, at the time, as viewing material. It took a smart mouth like Robert B. Parker's detective, Spenser, to delight me and pull me into that world.

Now, decades later, I realize the legacy Parker was carrying on. Rereading this book while listening to The Long Goodbye, I really appreciate just how well Parker pulled it off.

For this particular book, the first of the series, it's interesting to me that I recall the solution to the big problem but I have absolutely no memory at all of most of the book. Terry Orchard and her string of problems are completely new to me.

So I am in the unique position of reconnecting with a well-loved literary friend and of reading a "new" book by him. What slump wouldn't that cure?

Next Rediscovery - Lieutenant Luis Mendoza mysteries by Dell Shannon

All these trips down memory lane made me remember a series that my parents loved. It was long running string of police procedurals set in Los Angeles featuring Lieutenant Luis Mendoza.

It has to have been unusual for a Hispanic homicide lieutenant to be the main character of these books but it never struck me at the time. I also never realized that Dell Shannon as a nom de plum.

Amazon says:

Debonair LAPD Lieutenant Luis Mendoza, broke new ground in being one of the first Latino police officers in the procedural genre, and Linington herself was a pioneer in a male-dominated industry, earning the moniker "Queen of the Procedurals."

The Kindle sample made me go right to the library to request the first in the series. No one really remembers them any more but they were really good.

Soooo Much Work ...

... which is a good thing.

I was happy to get the opportunity for an emergency book layout job. Yes, such things exist, believe it or not. These jobs don't come along often. So spending most of my 4th of July weekend and yesterday glued to the computer was not as distressing as it might have been.

As the final stages of proofing wear on, I myself am wearing down to the point where blogging is going to have to wait.

I hope to be back tomorrow, refreshed, and with something interesting to look at or read. Until then ...

A Movie You Should See ASAP — Inside Out

Growing up can be a bumpy road, and it's no exception for Riley, who is uprooted from her Midwest life when her father starts a new job in San Francisco. Like all of us, Riley is guided by her emotions - Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness. The emotions live in Headquarters, the control center inside Riley's mind, where they help advise her through everyday life.

There are not enough stars to say how much I loved this movie.

The movie description, while accurate, cannot possibly do this film justice. Ignore it and go anyway because this is one of Pixar's masterpieces.

It works because we all recognize everything going on in this girl's life and in her head. If Pixar had taken a false step we would have felt it, because we all know the source material so well. They hit every note perfectly to tell a nuanced, complex story that made me laugh and cry (just a little), touched my heart and made me appreciate my emotions just a little more.

I didn't read more than the beginnings of all the positive reviews because I didn't want the plot revealed. And I am going to follow that guideline here.

This movie ranks with The Incredibles and Wall-E, which is to say it is Pixar gold standard. This is already a top movie of my year and it may just push its way onto my all-time favorites list.

Get out there and see it in a crowded theater where you can enjoy it best.

In which we meet The White Moll and Gypsy Nan.

Who could resist a crime novel with someone named Gypsy Nan? I can't!

We're beginning it at A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast.

Well Said: Show me your hands...

Show me your hands. Do they have scars from giving? Show me your feet. Are they wounded in service? Show me your heart. Have you left a place for divine love?

Fulton Sheen

Words worth considering as part of my self examination.

The 10 Books That Have Influenced Me Most

The Christian Century magazine asked a lot of famous people "What books did most to shape your vocational attitude and your philosophy of life?"

Here is C.S. Lewis's list, which he didn't explain.

Of course, being a list-loving gal, I wrote down my own, which I will explain. (In order of how they occurred to me.)

1. The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien)
   The story of Bilbo trying to pick the troll's pocket directly influenced me going to read aloud to my mother-in-law. (It's a long story, but that example made me realize that bravery is learned and you have to begin with small efforts.)
   
2. The Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien)
   The fact that it is a rattling good yarn is, of course, the first attraction. I've never read such a work on the power of mercy, love, and justice. Ever. I never used to be able to pick a favorite book. Now I can and this is it.
   
3. Uncle Tom's Cabin (Harriet Beecher Stowe)
   A fantastic soap opera, full of cliff hangers, and with a wonderful Christ figure. I reluctantly read this at my daughter Rose's urging. I'd thought of classics as being boring (with the notable exception of Jane Eyre). Afterward, I thought that if this classic was so good perhaps I should try another. So I picked A Tale of Two Cities up and found ... a love of Charles Dickens and the classics awaiting me. I haven't looked back. All thanks to Uncle Tom's Cabin.
   
4. A Father Who Keeps His Promises (Scott Hahn)
   The first serious theology book I read after my conversion. It taught me how to see below the surface of Scripture to the different levels of meaning. This changed not only how I read Scripture but how I watched movies and read books. It opened my mind to greater possibilities in each story.
   
5. Catholic Christianity (Peter Kreeft)
   When I'd joined the Church I had serious reservations about Catholic teachings on many social issues, among them abortion, gay marriage, and the death penalty. When I figured I'd better learn why the Church taught what she did, this book was just being published. Divine Providence? Possibly. Kreeft's inescapable logic is what reconciled me to those teachings, which I eventually was able to embrace.
   
6. The Hiding Place (Corrie Ten Boom)
   This may be the most inspirational book I've ever read. Every time I read it I come away resolving to be a better Christian, a better person.
   
7. The Great Divorce (C.S. Lewis)
   The newest addition to my list. I just read this a few weeks ago. I've never read anything that so vividly made me understand how necessary it is to make daily sacrifices to toughen myself up in order to make it to Heaven. Also, it gives a wonderful interpretation of Purgatory which has greatly inspired me.
   
8. Jurassic Park (Michael Crichton)
   The book that taught me to look critically at the "truths" business and science tell us. And a rattling good yarn. If you've only seen the movie, you're missing the whole story. The book is much better. I reread this often just for the fun of it.
   
9. The Stand (Stephen King)
   Good and evil are real and here is how they manifest themselves in the world. As with so many others, a rattling good yarn that I've reread many times for the sheer pleasure of it.
   
10. In Conversation with God (Francis Fernandez)
    This is more properly a series of seven devotionals, with entries for every day of the liturgical year as well as two volumes devoted to special feast days. I discovered these soon after I converted and reading them daily for at least four years was deeply formational. I cannot recommend these books too highly. The one most people have tried is the Lent/Easter book but the one I began with was for this time of year. I soon bought all the others.

Note that this is different than top 10 favorite books. That list will be coming soon!

I don't need an excuse to make a list, but that's a good 'un!

Worth a Thousand Words: The Klostersee

The Klostersee
by Edward B. Gordon

It's been too long since we've feasted our eyes on Edward B. Gordon's art at this blog. This is a lovely, pastoral scene.

And it's in Pomerania! I couldn't resist. Though I don't see a single Pomeranian (human or canine) in this painting.

Well Said: The Church's Execution

The notice of [the Church's] execution has been posted, but the execution has never taken place. Science killed her, and still she was there; History interred her, but still she was alive. Modernism slew her, but still she lived.

Fulton Sheen, The Divine Romance

Well Said: How Easily You're Offended

How easily you're offended is directly proportional to how dumb you are.

Bill Murray

Supreme Court Decisions and Living the Christian Life

I was surprised at how hard  the decision hit me. I was really hoping they'd go for truth and wouldn't let popular opinion sway them. I was surprised at how fervently I began praying for my country, which I was surprised to realize I love so much, in the midst of its folly.

So — I was surprised by a lot of things. And left feeling adrift, shaken, devastated.

What helped me was two things.

I share them with you in case you're also struggling.

First, I continued my reading of The Everlasting Man, G. K. Chesterton's look at the spiritual journey of humanity through history. After an hour, I switched over to a history of Catholicism from The Teaching Company. I didn't intentionally select these to help my mood. I was just casting around for listening material.

History was the perfect corrective to remind me that this isn't the first time a country has gone off the rails. And the faith persists, because the believers continue to testify to the Truth wherever they are.

Secondly, we had dinner with a young couple that night. When our talk finally lighted on the topic, both said they were dreading having to turn down invitations for gay friends' weddings. The man said that he'd been wrestling all day with how hard this all was.

I'm condensing our conversation here, but in essence he said, "I realized it should be hard. Christianity began as a humble, downtrodden religion. If we fit in too well then something is wrong. We shouldn't be too comfortable."

Those words have come back to me again and again in the days since.

"It should be hard."

That works on a lot of levels.

What hits me in terms of regular life is how hard it is when things become personal rather than an ideal to argue about.

I imagine gay people whose invitations are turned down may think it is because of harsh judgment or bigotry. I'd bet that much more frequently these are reluctant decisions made because the dictates of conscience and faith must be followed no matter how much we love those friends and family.

I always thought of Jesus' words in Matthew 10:34-38 as those for new converts with disapproving relatives. I see that these timeless words apply right now to our society in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision.

Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man "against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s enemies will be those of his household."

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.

Do we love them less?

No. But we love Jesus Christ, the ultimate truth, more. So eventually we are driven to choose.

In other words, "It should be hard."

That's how much we should love and pray for those who put us in the position of choosing.

Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul
Chattanooga, TN

Finally, John C. Wright wrote a fine piece about what helped him begin to be able to pray for the conversion and salvation of those who have so wounded us.

It begins in a church. It ends with some of his thoughts. No one can be more inspiring when he gets going. Here's a bit.

In one hundred years, when this ruling is only an historical curio, like the Dred Scott Decision ... the One, True, Apostolic and Catholic Church will still be in business, still preaching and teaching the same truths that she has always taught.

And the Church will still speaking the language of sacrifice and self-denying love to a race of fallen beings ... who are so selfish and self-centered that this language is folly and a stumbling block to them.

Selfishness cannot understand selflessness. The darkness cannot comprehend the light, cannot surround and cannot besiege it, cannot defeat it, even in their hour of victory.

Because when we pray for the souls of our deadly enemy, our prayers are answered.

I'd forgotten the Dred Scott decision.

The outrage we feel now must be the same way people felt back then. Not all of them, of course. But over time we have all come to realize the obvious injustice. Which has been corrected.

That's the third thing.

Let us pray.