If you haven’t read Marilynne Robinson yet, what are you waiting for?!
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i’ve been on the phone for over an hour with the fine people at apple (76.5 minutes to be precise).
my new macbook’s fan is constantly whirring and making noise. and my battery lasts 2 hours max. i’ve had it less than 90 days. this concerns me. we’ve done every possible trick to make the fan stop to no avail, and have verified that there is a hardware issue. despite his efforts, steve jobs is unable to deliver perfection.
some tips to those who may have fan issues.
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What greater gift can a writer give a reader than another book? I don’t know that I’ve ever been so affected by a work of fiction. You know that feeling when you don’t want to turn the last page of a book you love. You can imagine my happiness, then, when I turned the last page of Gilead, Robinson’s exquisite book to discover her latest work involves the same characters in the same town, told from a different perspective.
A. O. Scott wrote a fantastic article about Marilynbe Robinson’s latest novel Home for the New York Times which was included on the publication’s list of the top 100 books of the year. The article discusses both novels’ themes and increases my appetite to read her work.
… to fools!
Have you ever tried to eat soup and read?
Me too.
Reading hands-free is one of literature’s greatest challenges. I discovered the perfect solution today while I chowed.
The possibilities are endless. If you plan right, you can read multiple volumes and journal notes from the appetizers to dessert as long as you have the table space.
Patent pending.
I always imagine divine mercy giving us back to ourselves and letting us laugh at what we became, laugh at the preposterous disguises of crouch and squint and limp and lour we all do put on. I enjoy the hope that when we meet I will not be estranged from you by all the oddnesses life has carved into me.
- John Boughton in Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead
My time in Kona is quickly coming to a close. It’s been a good two weeks with the photogenX track. Nice to talk about writing and creativity and to connect with the class. They are an outstanding group. Tonight they hosted the weekly Ohana meeting, a UofN Kona staple, and did a presentation about human trafficking.
The group showed photographs and read some stories to promote the forthcoming Sex + Money: A Global Search for Human Worth. The final touches are being put onto the publication as we speak. It’s been a privilege to be a part of a book that will see 10,000 informed and compelled to end human trafficking. Tonight the school also connected the dots between the commercial sex trade and the trafficking of human beings. I plan to sell the book through my website. Drop me a note if you want a copy and I’ll be sure to put one aside for you.
I’m gearing up to write a short story about child pornography for the German edition of the 30 Days of Prayer booklet. Did you know that 20% of all pornography (one of the biggest industries in the world) is child porn, and that in the USA alone a million + children have had their sexual abuse recorded? Money drives the abuse of the innocent and it is so clear that people need to be informed about the horrific instances of injustice that play out all over the globe. Trafficking must stop!
And so I look forward to presenting the prayer booklets (30 Days) in Edmonton this Sunday, 2 November, at City Centre Church. If you know anyone in Edmonton who would be interested in learning a little about human trafficking (I’ll speak for about 10 minutes) tell them to hit up the service.
i arrived safely on the big island. got a gift in a first-class upgrade from calgary to sanfransico. a good omen, if you believe in them. airtime is always spiritual time. at least it can be. and i had a few blessed moments of reflection.
much of my time in the air i spent reading anne rice’s latest book called out of darkness: a spiritual confession. a good book to travel with; a book about journey. odd to read about 40 plus years of someone’s life in a single day from start to finish. what a position we are in as readers. i recommend it and was greatly moved in particular by her chapter describing her final return to Christ. the book really sings in this passage as she expresses the point where she was free to abandon all reservations and hesitation and go to Him.
the phrase from the book that haunts me is this:
Beyond the matrix of gilded plaster, stone, and image, there loomed the threat - the ominous and dreadful threat - of the love of Almighty God (157).
- From Anne Rice. Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession. Alfred A Knopf: Toronto. 2008.
Just got word of this:
Can’t wait!
Check out her latest interview with Dr. James Dobson (it starts at about the 5 minute mark).
Read some reviews of the book posted through Rice’s website.
Noam Chomsky is smart. A lot of people know that. Though we differ on a few key worldview perspectives, there’s a lot to learn from him. I’m interested in what he says in Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post 9-11 World.
I was particularily intrigued by David Barsamian’s interview style. It’s cool to be a fly on the wall of intelligent and important discussion.
One Q & A I particularly liked:
At the talks you give to American audiences, you often are asked the question, “What should I do?”
Only by American audiences. I’m never asked this in the thrid world…. These are poor, oppressed people, living under horrendous conditions, and they would never dream of asking you what they should do. It’s only in highly privileged cultures like ours that people ask this question. We have every option open to us…. We can do anything. But people here are trained to believe that there are easy answers, and it doesn’t work that way. If you want to do something, you have to be dedicated and committed to it day after day…. You want a magic key, so you can go back to watching television tomorrow? It doesn’t exist.
From Imperial Ambitions, H.B. Fenn & Company,2005. Page 39.
I just finished reading Dallas Willard’s Hearing God. Once again Willard delivers the goods. I think the book is useful for doubters and believers on the subject of hearing God’s voice. I’m furiously writing down ear-marked pages for my ever-growing quote stash. The last two chapters are especially helpful and important.
Here’s a short sample and tease, one reason the book is worth reading:
“The faith by which Jesus Christ lived, his faith in God and his kingdom, is expressed in the gospel that he preached. That gospel is the good news that the kingdom rule of God is available to humankind here and now. His followers did not have this faith within themselves, and they long regarded it only as his faith, not theirs. Even after they came to have faith in him, the did not share his faith.
Once, in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, the disciples’ boat was almost beaten under the waves while Jesus slept calmly. His disciples woke him crying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” (Mt 8:25). Jesus reproachfully replied, Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Now the disciples obviously had great faith in Jesus. They called upon him, counting on him to save them. They had great faith in him, but they did not have his great faith in God. It was because they did not have his faith that he spoke of how little faith they had…..
Our additional life, though it is still our life, is also God’s life in us: his thoughts, his faith, his love, all literally imparted to us, shared with us, by his word and Spirit (156-57).
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