Saint Peter: Flawed, Forgiven, and Faithful by Stephen J. Binz

One of this book's subtitles is "Walking with Peter from Galilee to Rome."

It's the perfect description of this book. When I've read about Peter in scripture I usually tend to relate it to myself. Am I acting like Peter or not? What lessons could I learn from his life? I've never stopped to ask myself what Peter himself experienced every step of the way with Jesus. Or to wonder what he learned as he went on "alone" after the Ascension.

Stephen J. Binz turns the spotlight on Peter so that we remember he was a real person, in unimaginable circumstances, traveling and learning from the Son of God, and then carrying on the ministry after Jesus's ascension. I'll certainly never think of Peter the same way now that Stephan Binz's book made him and his journey come alive.

Like Capernaum, Bethsaida was a fishing village, and possibly a center for drying and salting fish to export. But unlike Capernaum, Bethsaida was a town in which Jews lived together with Gentiles.

This interesting detail of Peter's background means that he would have associated freely with Greek-speaking Gentiles throughout his early life. It should also be noted that fishing was a profitable business in first-century Galilee, especially for those who owned boats and could hire help. These details indicate that Peter was not necessarily the poor, illiterate Jewish fisherman he is often made out to be. It is more likely that Peter was a middle-class entrepreneur. He certainly spoke Aramaic, probably read Hebrew, and quite possiblty also spoke and read Greek, the language of trade and commerce at the time.

Binz has us step back from the familiar interpretations of the scripture we often know so well that we have forgotten to think about it. He gives us new ways to understand what it meant to the people who wrote it, read it, and, most importantly, lived it. For example, speaking of Peter witnessing Jesus' transfiguration, Binz points out:

Peter, who was unable to conceive of Jesus' suffering and being put to death, is enlightened and uplifted through this vision of Jesus' transfigured glory. Yet Peter has to learn that the moment of glory was not given to him for its own sake; it is to help him seek the presence and the will of God in all things. The vision on the mountain will helps him realize that his own walking the way of the cross can be filled with radiance. ...

Weaving together pilgrimage experiences, spiritual reflections, and indepth knowledge of the Bible, Binz made me feel that I really have a personal knowledge, a connection, with Peter the man. He skillfully links this material with what Peter means for Catholics as the first pope and first leader of the Church.

I also especially enjoyed the way Binz would feature actual Holy Land descriptions in his explanations. It made me "feel" the place where these events took place and sometimes that too was important in understanding Peter and his journey.

I've been a long time fan of Stephen Binz's books about lectio divina and bible study, but this one is different. It is far and away my favorite.  "Take up and read," as a mysterious voice told St. Augustine. This is a book that will enrich your life.

Well Said: Humility and the Devil

The most powerful weapon to conquer the devil is humility. For, as he does not know at all how to employ it, neither does he know how to defend himself from it.

St. Vincent de Paul

Worth a Thousand Words: The Fortune Teller

Caravaggio (1571–1610), The Fortune Teller, between 1596 and 1597

At first glance she seems sweet but after a second look at those calculating eyes, I don't trust her at all.

Worst Feeling Ever

Being included in a tweet about The Lord of the Rings, idly reading it.

Realizing that tweet is because that I'm supposed to be discussing the first part of The Return of the King on Sunday. 

SUNDAY..

And it's Tuesday. Noon on Tuesday. 

I haven't even begun.

Oh the horror!

What have I been doing wasting my time laughing in a leisurely fashion at The Pickwick Papers?

Well Said: A cup of cold water

Nothing seems tiresome or painful when you are working for a Master who pays well; who rewards even a cup of cold water given for love of Him.

St. Dominic Savio

You know, I always thought about what those verses (Matthew 25:31-46) meant in terms of what I needed to do, to keep in mind in dealing with others. I never thought about what it said about our Master.

Worth a Thousand Words: Taking a Nap

Taking a Nap
taken by the incomparable Remo Savisaar

What We've Been Watching: The Invisible Man, Red Army, John Adams

Red Army (2014)

Riveting account of the Soviet hockey team before the collapse of the Soviet Union. As someone who watched their Olympic defeat at the hands of the U.S. with relish, I was fascinated to see the other side of the story. This documentary begins far before that and ends in modern times.

What we really are seeing is an interesting insight into life in the Soviet regime as part of their propaganda machine. That didn't make their accomplishments any less and seeing what happened to the players later in life was an interesting look at how people get buffeted around after their foundation has been knocked out from under them ... and at how they get back up again.

The Invisible Man (1933)

This 1933 film was a blockbuster for the special effects, humor, and thrills. I'd been really interested to see how it held up and have to say I was really impressed with the special effects. No wonder it wowed 'em!

Claude Rains, hired for his first Hollywood movie because of his expressive voice, was masterful in acting without his face showing since it was swathed in bandages to give it visual form. I wish I could say the same for the acting of his supporting cast. Gloria Stuart, William Harrigan, and Henry Travers were either placeholders or wooden at best. I did like James Whales' trademark humor which was strewn throughout, especially the contributions made by police officers.

Overall recommended for an entertaining evening at the movies and a view of Hollywood film history.

John Adams (HBO miniseries) 2008

This had been recommended by so many people and won so many Emmys that we weren't surprised to find ourselves really liking it.

However, my husband read the book some years before and after a while he began saying, "I don't remember so much emphasis on this thing." Or "They make the Jefferson-Adams hostilities look like a minor tiff."

Once I began looking there were a lot of places where the series diverged from the book, we assumed for dramatic purposes. We understand things have to be dumbed down for translation from an indepth book to television, but still the points began adding up.

Then one wonders if the need to dramatize led to a whole lot of adding-on for modern sensibilities. For example, there is, of course, an inherent irony now because slave labor worked on the White House. However, in actuality there were also free African-Americans, migrant laborers, and regular tradesmen. I understand the need to make a point. Slavery was a touchy topic from the word go. And, as I said, the irony. But to be shown only a slave workforce and then get hit over the head with it every time the Adams popped their heads out of doors got a bit old, considering the actual fact of the matter.

This was just one of a variety of areas where we felt modern interpretations were too much with us (Adams weeping in the alley after casting off his scoundrel son was another such moment, though I haven't read the book and perhaps he dutifully recorded deep sorrow in his diary entry that day).

Watching a historical movie is one thing when inaccuracies are used for presentation purposes or to make a point more clearly. However, seven episodes of someone's life story, even one as full as that of John Adams, one would hope the details could be correct. I'm not here for the acting or set designs after all, splendid though they were.

In which it's the White Moll's turn to rescue The Adventurer and we learn something shocking!

Chapters 9-10 of The White Moll are ready for your listening pleasure at Forgotten Classics!

Worth a Thousand Words: The Boats are Still Sleeping

The Boats are Still Sleeping
painted by Edward B. Gordon

The boats are still sleeping. Early morning by the river. The morning light finds its way through the clouded skies, the temperature still pleasant, refreshed by the coolness of the night, time to go for a swim…

Genesis Bible Study - Index

GENESIS

• Studying Genesis - Resources
• Introduction - In the Beginning
• 1:1-31 - A Hymn of Creation
• 1:1-31 - The God Who Creates Out of Nothing
• 1:1-31 - God Revealed Through Creation
• 1:1-31 - Revelation About the Universe and Man
• 2:1-7 - Covenant and Being Human
• 2:8-17 - Creation of the Garden
• 3:1-3 - Intimidation
• 3:4-5 - Temptation and Response
• 3:7-15 - Consequences
• 3:16-19 - Pride and Suffering
• Adam's Resume
• Eve's Resume
• Masculine Genius and Feminine Genius
• What the Bible Says About Marriage
• The Woman: Full of Grace
• The Woman: Both Blessed and Suffering
• The Woman: From Jesus' Lips
• The Woman: Seeing Mary
• Her Seed: Jesus
• Her Seed: Birth of the Church
• Her Seed: Resurrection and the Tree of Life
• 4:1-26 - Life Outside Eden
• 4:1-26 - A Lesson in Contrasts
• Cain's Resume
• 5 - Adam's Descendents
• 6-8 - Left Behind
• 6-8 - Noah and the Flood
• 6-8 - Symbolism in Noah's Story
• Abel's Resume
• 6-9 - The Noachide Covenant
• 9-10 - Covenant Renewed
• 11-12 - The Call to Abram
• 13 - Abram's Practicality
• 14 - Melchizedek
• Melchizedek's Resume
• 15 - God's Covenant with Abram
• 16 & 17 - Faith and Obedience
• 18 & 19 - A Man of the Covenant
• Lot's Resume
• 20 & 21 - A Stumble and a Son
• Ishmael's Resume
• Hagar's Resume
• 22 - The Test
• 23 - Burial and Bargaining
• Jews, Christians, Muslims ... and Abraham
• 22 & 23 - What Abraham's Life Means to Us
• Abraham's Resume
• Sarah's Resume
• 24 & 25 - Isaac - the Bridge Between Generations
• Isaac's Resume
• Rebekah's Resume
• 27 & 28 - Jacob, Chosen by God
• Soft Spot for Esau
• Esau's Resume
• 29 & 30 - Growth and Testing
• 31-33 - Wrestling with Faith and a New Name
• Rachel's Resume
• Laban's Resume
• The Importance of Isaac and Jacob
• 34 - A Violent Attack and the Wrong Reaction
• 35 & 36 - God's Covenant Confirmed
• Jacob's Resume
• 37 - Joseph Sold by His Brothers
• 38 - Judah's Story
• 38 - More About Judah's Story
• 39 - Dealing With Temptation
• 39 - A Few Facts About Egypt
• 41 - Pharaoh's Dreams and Levels of Meaning
• 42 - Jacob Meets His Brothers Again
• 42 - Responding to the Test
• 46 - The Significance of Numbers
• The New Covenant is Fulfillment of the Old

I finally felt an earthquake.

We've been having little tremors for months but I've never felt one until this morning. It was reported as 2.7 (about 6:15am) in the usual location across town in Irving but, as my husband said who was in another room at the time, it shook the house like a tree fell on it.

It was crazy. I was sitting on the couch reading the paper and suddenly the front door shook as if a gigantic gust of wind had hit it. Our big Boxer woofed and went to look out the front window. No one was there. He looked over his shoulder at me inquiringly. We decided it must have been an earthquake.

It was our Doan and Carstairs moment. (Because, yes, everything always seems to come back to books.)

There's a Lot More to Podcasting Than "Serial"

(Links for all the podcasts mentioned below can be found in the sidebar at Forgotten Classics.)

Serial — we're told it is the "break through" podcast in the "sleepy world of podcasts."

Decoder Ring Theatre

Hmmm.

Podcasts are popular again. They went through a period of popularity when they began and then faded into obscurity as far as the media was concerned. But like bees or ants, podcasters just kept busily producing their audio shows, ignoring the "podcasts are dead" media talk, buoyed by their enthusiasm for their creations. Their audiences kept listening and sometimes growing large, as in the case of shows like 99% Invisible or The Tobolowsky Files or Welcome to Nightvale.

Not that you'll hear about those shows in the regular media. Every journalist is looking for the thing that podcasting's not: the mass audience, mass interest, "must hear" shows for everyone. "Serial," that phenomenally popular podcast, was just close enough to that criteria that the media woke up and "discovered" podcasts. Again.

Those of us who've been there all along would thank them, except for the fact that every time I've read a piece on podcasts it has clearly been written by someone who doesn't have a clue. Certainly they haven't taken the time to do more than interview a few sources who aren't really helpful to those of us who'd like to see some sort of breadth represented.

Stories compare podcasts to radio shows, they focus on the "pro-casts" (professional radio shows broadcast through podcast feeds), and they tell you how hard it is to find them. Then they introduce their definitive listening guide. Which is generally anything but definitive.

In so doing, they miss the delightful, quirky world of passionate amateurs who have taken this broadcast medium to heart and produced a wild variety of shows. These podcasts may serve a mind-boggingly specific or small audience. And yet, they are some of the best entertainment available today.

What surprises me is that I'm not the only one who finds this annoying. I can be excused for being opinionated. I have two podcasts and regularly am a guest on a third. I am a voracious podcast listener and know there's a big world out there. But when my mild-mannered husband tosses the paper aside in disgust after reading one of these pieces, then we know there's a huge problem. He listens to fewer podcasts than I do. But he's a passionately loyal listener. Because when you listen to a podcaster regularly, you become part of their community.

Reporters also miss the true beauty of the podcast. They rarely mention that they are completely mobile.  Download or stream one whenever and wherever you want. If you've got wireless, you've got access.

I myself am an old-school, download-through-iTunes gal. But if you want streaming and apps just Google (or Bing or DuckDuckGo) it.

You'll also hear that podcasts are hard to find. I'm not sure what world these journalists live in. Have they never browsed in a bookstore (granted, those are increasingly rare these days) or cruised TV channels? All you've got to do is push the iTunes "Podcast" tab which reveals a marvelous world of possibilities waiting for you. Organized just like their music, the front page features hot picks, collections, "favorites," and interesting oddballs.

Each category (just click the drop down "All Categories" menu) has its own front page and will lead you down fascinating rabbit holes of listening. I check iTunes every couple of weeks and always seem to find at least one undiscovered show to try. And I've been listening since ... forever.

My personal favorites tend to be what I call "true" podcasts — done for the love of the thing. CraftLit, SFFaudio, the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast, Spilled Milk, King Falls AM, and Music From 100 Years Ago are just a few of them. (Drop by my Forgotten Classics sidebar and you'll find the links for these and many more.)

Popularity can produce greater success and push podcasts into becoming "pro-casts." Freakonomics and The Dinner Party Download are just a couple that I listened to before they were discovered and put in the big show on regular broadcast radio.

My favorite success story is 99% Invisible which is about the design elements we see all around us but which ideally should be almost invisible if they work the way they should.

Roman Mars always sounds like the happiest guy on the planet and it might be because he can now make a living form his deservedly popular show, while forming a podcast network to provide support for other "hey, that's interesting" podcasts.

Podcast networks. Yes, they exist. They're also not that hard to find.

And plenty of other fascinating podcast "extension" stories exist. The Tobolowsky Files, featuring character actor Stephen Tobolowsky, tells hilarious or astounding stories of his life with a subtext that taps a deeper, sensitive side. His success almost led to being picked up by a broadcast network but when that didn't come to fruition they made a movie. A story telling movie. I love it.

Welcome to Nightvale began as a way to promote a book publisher. When the podcast took off, they began doing live shows. They now do international tours which quickly sell out.

This isn't to say that I have anything against "pro-casts" but let's be clear about what they are. They're often simply convenient ways to hear your favorite radio shows on your own schedule. (I'd languish without my daily dose of Bird Note.) They also open a world that you can't get to otherwise, such as with foreign radio broadcasts. I get to hear shows from the BBC, Australia, Canada, and beyond that I love.

Sometimes, though, they are time capsules. Such is the case with my husband's favorite, Desert Island Discs. This hugely popular BBC radio show has been on air since the 1940s and they've made all their past episodes available via iTunes.

Each is an interview with a celebrity who has chosen the eight songs they'd take with them if they were stranded on a desert island. These songs often tell the story of their lives and the interviews are fascinating. They'll interview just about anyone. Many are the sort you'd expect like actors, singers, and well-known British celebrities like various Beatles and the Monty Pythons. But you'll also find prime ministers, scientists, bankers, and more who are a lot more interesting than you'd have thought.

I know this is long and passionate. But I'm not the only one who's steamed about the way the media misunderstands podcasting. Heather Ordover at CraftLit (another favorite of mine) did a special episode on this topic. The episode and transcript are here.

She's not only got clarifications about podcasting but a lot of the history and context that I left out. (Because I knew Heather had my back.)

As for Serial, I've got nothing against it. I'm not a fan of true crime stories but I do really like Trial Lawyer Confidential which is excellent real world advice and The Black Tapes podcast which riffs on the Serial format in an otherworldly way.

Yes, there is a lot more out there waiting for you. All you have to do is take a look.

============

Speaking of Desert Island Discs, here are my top 8 desert island podcasts. I have tons of favorites, but these are the ones I'd have to have on a desert island to keep me sane. In no particular order:

1. The Tobolowsky Files
2. Bird Note
3. The H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast
4. Food News
5. The Classic Tales Podcast
6. Spilled Milk
7. 99% Invisible
8. A Good Story is Hard to Find (Yes, this is the one I do with Scott Danielson. What can I say? I like listening to old episodes. It's good to be proud of your work, right?)

Do you have a Desert Island podcast list? Let me know.

Well Said: The opposite of addiction is connection

Human beings have a natural and innate need to bond, and when we're happy and healthy, we'll bond and connect with each other, but if you can't do that, because you're traumatized or isolated or beaten down by life, you will bond with something that will give you some sense of relief. Now, that might be gambling, that might be pornography, that might be cocaine, that might be cannabis, but you will bond and connect with something because that's our nature. That's what we want as human beings.

[...]

And what I've tried to do now, and I can't tell you I do it consistently and I can't tell you it's easy, is to say to the addicts in my life that I want to deepen the connection with them, to say to them, I love you whether you're using or you're not. I love you, whatever state you're in, and if you need me, I'll come and sit with you because I love you and I don't want you to be alone or to feel alone.

And I think the core of that message -- you're not alone, we love you -- has to be at every level of how we respond to addicts... The opposite of addiction is connection.

Johann Hari, TED Talk,
Everything You Think You Know About Addiction is Wrong

Do go listen to this talk or read the transcript. This just reinforces the core message I learned from Brené Brown in The Power of Vulnerability talk. Which I also recommend.

Worth a Thousand Words: Horizons

Horizons
photographed by Will Duquette

I've enjoyed Will Duquette's writing for a long time but now he's gotten back into photography and is graciously allowing me to share some favorites. (His Flickr stream is here.)

This one somehow captures those huge, fluffy clouds that we all love to watch majestically soaring through the sky. It is somehow so rare to see a good photo of them that this one took my fancy at once.

Well Said: The Search of Reason and The Sense of the Ineffable

The search of reason ends at the shore of the known; on the immense expanse beyond it only the sense of the ineffable can glide. It alone knows the route to that which is remote from experience and understanding. Neither of them is amphibious: reason cannot go beyond the shore, and the sense of the ineffable is out of place where we measure, where we weigh.

We do not leave the shore of the known in search of adventure or suspense or because of the failure of reason to answer our questions. We sail because our mind is like a fantastic sea shell, and when applying our ears to its lips we hear a perpetual murmur from the waves beyond the shore.

Abraham Heschel, Man Is Not Alone

I was talking to my spiritual advisor about the first paragraph. He pointed out that we can't live purely on reason or the ineffable. We live at their intersection.

This raised a lovely image for me of walking in the damp sand by the sea, with occasional wavelets lapping around my ankles. We can walk more in the land of reason, struggling through the dry, hot sand. We can wade in the sea of the ineffable, with the waves pulling and pushing our legs, impeding progress. It is on that damp sand that the walk is the easiest, the most satisfying, and lets us sample both land and sea.

I like it.

Blogging Around

Tom Cruise is the Best

I'm going to call him Tom Cruise during the rest of this review of "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation" because even though his character has a name, Ethan Hunt, it is really Tom Cruise who makes his entrance clambering over a hill and exhorting his lovable tech guy Benji (Simon Pegg) to use his hacking skill to open the door of a cargo transport plane that's about to take off with a belly full of nukes stolen by Chechen separatists or something, I don't know who they are, it doesn't matter, Tom Cruise is running, arms and legs pumping, hair flying, and holy mother of moley he's climbing onto the top of the plane and hanging to its underbelly as it takes off, with his bare hands!

Matt Zoller Seitz's review of the new Mission Impossible movie is just about as fun as the movie (probably - I mean, I haven't seen it). It typifies the way Tom Cruise can make you feel when he's been properly cast. It's the way I felt watching him in Edge of Tomorrow, which I did not love. But I loved Cruise in it. Just go read the review.

Rhetorical Context

An excellent piece from The Curt Jester about the revelations from the Planned Parenthood videos. What I especially like is his reminder that we must not fall into the same error of dehumanizing those doing the evil. Read it all, but here's a bit to get you started.

I once wondered how the evil of Nazi Germany could have come about? Unfortunately I now understand this much better. The first step is historically always dehumanization. Using language that moves from a defined reality to a more abstract concept. Once that is done you can intellectualize your reaction. To develop a purposeful blindspot as a callus hardening against conscience.

The conversations in these videos shows the “banality of evil”. No maniacal laughs like movie villains. Calmly discussing the parsing of unborn children for parts as if it is the most mundane task. Like they were playing the battery-operated game “Operation” with a comic likeness of an unborn child.

Hunting Is Normal. Enjoy Your Tasty Animals.

Time for another cultural update from the backwards southerners, and to get us started let’s hear from the guy so southern and backward nobody can stand him:

129. In order to continue providing employment, it is imperative to promote an economy which favours productive diversity and business creativity. For example, there is a great variety of small-scale food production systems which feed the greater part of the world’s peoples, using a modest amount of land and producing less waste, be it in small agricultural parcels, in orchards and gardens, hunting and wild harvesting or local fishing.

Laudato Si’ 129.

Jennifer Fitz cracks me up. Oh, she's very serious on this topic and I urge you to go read it all. But she's got a way with a hook and a way with words ... and a way with logic. All of which I enjoy greatly.

Well Said: God never wrote that book with ink.

Some people, in order to discover God, read books. But there is a great book: the very appearance of created things. Look above you! Look below you! Read it. God, whom you want to discover, never wrote that book with ink. Instead, He set before your eyes the things that He had made. Can you ask for a louder voice than that?

Augustine of Hippo

In which the White Moll sinks deeper into underworld New York to save a man's life by pulling off a diamond heist.

Chapters 7-8 of The White Moll by Frank L. Packard are ready at Forgotten Classics podcast.

Well Said: The most thoroughly converted man I ever met

[C.S.] Lewis struck me as the most thoroughly converted man I ever met. Christianity was never for him a separate department of life. Not what he did with his solitude; not even, as he says in one essay, what God does with his solitude. His whole vision of life was such that the natural and the supernatural seemed inseparably combined.

Walter Hooper,
Introduction to God in the Dock
by C.S. Lewis

I get it.

Worth a Thousand Words: Setting Sun

Setting Sun
taken by Remo Savisaar

Once again, Remo has so many wonderful photos on display that I had a hard time choosing. You owe it to yourself to go look at all of them. This one speaks to me of summer and vacation and what could be better for the beginning of August?

If, like me, you can't get to the seashore, just enlarge this photo and let your imagination fill in the sound of seagulls, the sight of brown pelicans coasting just above the water, the continual splash of waves, the salty spray on your lips, the humid breeze waving your hair in your eyes, and the scrunch of sand beneath your bare feet.