April 19th

Two hundred and thirty-three years ago today began the conflict that gave rise to one of the greatest nations God has raised up in this world. May we honor the men who have fought and died for her and for the principles for which she stands.


Concord Hymn
By Ralph Waldo Emerson

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard round the world.

The foe long since in silence slept;
Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;
And Time the ruined bridge has swept
Down the dark stream which seaward creeps.

On this green bank, by this soft stream,
We set to-day a votive stone;
That memory may their deed redeem,
When, like our sires, our sons are gone.

Spirit, that made those heroes dare
To die, and leave their children free,
Bid Time and Nature gently spare
The shaft we raise to them and thee.

A few things

I'm going to be nice and post these all as links....

1) I posted a "new" poem on my poetry blog; a walk today brought it back to mind. I'm starting to notice a symbol that I'm using overmuch in my writings (though I do use it in different ways)...

2) I re-filled out the "Mother of All Surveys" (my old copy was lost with my hard drive) which you can read here. Past reviews on it:

"Don't post it! For your own sake! No one will ever visit your blog again!" (That is why I'm posting it now as a link. ;-D)

"This looks alot like it was written by a Literature major with a strong interest in Theology."

"No way am I filling out that whoppin' big thing!"

Fill it out anyway, if you're ever bored beyond all belief. :-)

3) Another discussion from US History, discussing the 1920s. I expound my view of cultural conservatism, which could probably be summed up in this paragraph:

"The problem that I see with innovation without reason is that, fundamentally, it discards traditionalism for individualism. I want to do this, so I jolly well shall, and devil may care. Instead of honoring the wisdom of those who have gone before, or instead of at least giving the benefit of the doubt to our progenitors, it gives the benefit of the doubt to ourselves and our peers. For my own part, it seems inestimably foolish to trust oneself and others no more mature than oneself, in disregard to those who have lived before, have greater experience, and have fought through many of these same questions (cast in different terms, but nonetheless the same questions) for themselves. It shouldn't be necessary for every generation to reinvent the wheel."

4) Last summer, a classmate sent us an alert to the effect that the Senate of his native Hawaii was drafting a resolution encouraging the national government to accept the authority of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. He wanted us to email his senators, so I did, and in so doing gave pretty much a brief exposition of why I believe family education is so important. Further, I am beginning to think that the "free exercise" clause of the 1st Amendment is going to become more and more important to Christian homeschoolers, for the reasons I outlined in the letter. For those who are interested, it is here.

5) I made a few revisions to "The Thread Upon the Loom." I have the full poem here, with the revisions highlighted in orange and red (they're in parts I, IV, and V). I also included my reasoning for the changes and the concerns I had with the new form. If anyone has any suggestions or comments, I'd like to hear them.

6) Christopher Parkening is an amazing guitarist, trained by Maestro Andres Segovia, and a Christian, too.



7) A personal update on some school and military stuff coming soon. :-)

Spring

Ah, spring...at long last the barren waste of a Nebraska winter is coming alive in a verdant rebirth. The birds have returned, and the new grass is slowly overcoming the dead remains of last year's. The hedges and windbreaks are already budding, and soon will burst forth in rapturous welcome of Spring...

Alright, I'll admit that this is just an excuse to post some pictures taken a few days ago from the vantage point of one of our trees.

Though the background is still stubbornly bare, the buds in the foreground, and the streaks of green in the grass are a fair promise of the coming spring.







On Wednesday, it was a sunny 72 degrees, with a strong south wind, and it occurred to me that spring brings summer, and with it heat. Though I prefer the 50s, with clouds and drizzle (as it was on Thursday and today), I'm sure that God's sense of climate control is much better than mine:

"While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, And cold and heat, And summer and winter, And day and night, Shall not cease." Genesis 8:22

Psalm 90

I recently re-discovered that my Geneva Bible came with a CD-ROM containing the Geneva Bible in PDF format, along with the Apocrypha, AND the Metrical Psalms. The Metered Psalms were quite well done, and here is Psalm 90 (which happens to be my favorite), for those who are interested.

Domine refugium. Ps.90.I.H.
Moses seeing the people neither admonished by the
brevity of their life, nor by plagues to be thankful,
prayeth God to turn their hearts, and continue his mercy
toward them and their posterity forever.
Sing this as the 78 Psalm.

Thou Lord hast been our sure defense,
our place of ease and rest:
In all times past, yea, so long since,
as cannot be expressed.

2 Ere there was made mountain or hill,
the earth and all abroad:
From age to age, and always still,
forever thou art God.

3 Thou grindest man through grief and pain,
to dust, or clay, and then,
And then thou saist again, return
again, ye sons of men,

4 The lasting of a thousand year
What is it in thy sight?
As yesterday it doth appear
or as a watch by night.

5 So soon as thou dost scatter them,
then is their life and tread,
All as a sleep, and like the grass,
whose beauty soon doth fade.

6 Which in the morning shines full bright,
but fadeth by and by:
And is cut down ere it be night,
all withered, dead and dry.

7 For through thine anger we consume
our might is much decayed:
And of thy servant wrath and fume
we are full sore afraid.

8 The wicked works that we have wrought
thou setst before thine eye:
Our privy faults, yea, eke our thoughts
thy countenance doth spy.

9 For through thy wrath our days do waste,
thereof doth naught remain:
Our years consumes as words or blasts,
and are not called again.

10 Our time is threescore years and ten,
that we do live on mold:
If one see fourscore, surely then
we count him wondrous old.

11 Yet of this time the strength and chief
the which we count upon:
Is nothing else but painful grief,
and we like blasts are gone.

12 Who once doth know what strength is there
what might thine anger hath?
Or in his heart who doth thee fear
according to thy wrath?

13 Instruct us Lord to know and try,
how long our days remain:
That then we may our hearts apply
true wisdom to attain.

14 Return O Lord, how long wilt thou
forth on in wrath proceed?
Show favor to thy servants now,
and help them at their need.

15 Refresh us with thy mercy soon,
and then our joy shall be:
All times so long as life shall last
in heart rejoice shall we.

16 As thou hast plagued us before:
now also make us glad:
And for the years wherein full sore
affliction we have had.

17 O let thy work and power appear,
and on thy servant’s light:
And show unto thy children dear,
the glory and thy might.

18 Lord let thy grace and mercy stand
on us thy servant thus:
Confirm the works we take in hand,
Lord prosper them to us.

Questions

This is something I've debated before, and I have my own opinion on the matter, but I'd be curious to see what my readers think before I present mine. There are actually three closely related questions:

1) Is it permissible for men to wear earrings?

2) Is it permissible for women to wear earrings?

3) If the answer was no to (1) and yes to (2), on what do you base the distinction?

And, no, I'm not remotely considering get my ears pierced. My brothers already know what I'll do to their ear lobes if they ever come home with earrings.

In other news, I've posted again to my Theology/Philosophy blog. As I look at the previous post, I realize that I should have titled it "Presuppositionalism and "Calvinism": the Biblical Answers to the Problem of Epistemology." Not that anyone reads that blog (is it really that boring?), but it is duly fixed anyway. ;-)

And on my way home tonight I caught a portion of Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini on the radio, so I'm going to listen to Bach's Toccata and Fugue in A minor (the one on my Songspot), and retire in a mood of pure bliss...

Colin

My Car

I love my car. Not in any of the three Greek senses do I love her*, but I do so rather as one may love an inanimate object with which one is well acquainted and comfortable. The more do I love it as I reflect on how much of an unmitigated blessing it was to me. We have spent quite a bit of time together over the last year, and had some adventures, but let me tell you how we met.

Concurrently with seeking a job last year, I began car-shopping. Given my rural location, a mode of transportation faster than my legs or a bike is almost a necessity.

I am not picky in my cars. I’ve never been interested in sports cars; if I ever wanted to be “cool” by means of my conveyance, I effectively killed that possibility by starting off in a 12-passenger van. And, frankly, my dream car is a pre-1990 Ford F-150. Someday when I’m retired and can afford the gas, I’d still like to get one. But in the meantime, I have been perfectly content with the idea of starting off with a sedan or station wagon. Some wags might suggest that the only reason I would want a family car is as a selling point (with the parents, at least) when the time should come for me to a go a-courtin’:

“Oh, Mama, Henry has such a beautiful Ford Mustang; he’d drive safely with me, though, I’m sure.”
“Yes, but honey, don’t you think that a 5-seat sedan is much better for a couple planning to start a family?”
“But Mama, it’s so mundane…I can’t be a soccer mom from the very beginning of the courtship!”
“Well, it could be worse: he could have a mini-van.”

But that advantage aside (and though I didn’t choose it for that purpose, I’m not about to spurn the hand of Providence, either), sedans are cheaper on all counts—initial cost, gas, and insurance. Oh, insurance. What a curse did Cain lay upon all succeeding young men when he rashly beat his brother—one may justly suppose that he was also one for camel-races. Be that what it may, we young men have a reputation for being high liabilities on insurance policies. Young men with sports cars only exacerbate the problem. So, as a part of my Christian duty (and in keeping with my constitutional aversion to spending money on frivolities), I alleviated the problem by desiring a sedan.

Some fellow drivers would say that I don’t alleviate the problem at all; I’ll just say that I’ve not touched another car once, but there were times when it was grace alone that I didn’t. There was the time that I spun it over a ten-foot dirt embankment, but that’s another story for another time….

I preferred American-made cars, but that was not a big sticking point. My dad asked me what color I’d prefer, and I discovered that I did not have much of a preference—except that I detest yellow and all pastel shades. I hinted that I would paint whatever car I bought with military-issue olive drab anyway, but it was hinted in return that such a monstrosity would not reside on the premises, so that idea died in committee and my mental senate returned to maintaining the status quo (yes, I have one of those).

When it got down to it, I was planning (and dreading) to spend rather more than I wanted to on even a used car. Oh, ye of little faith. My dad is pretty good friends with a deacon in our church, who, by God’s providence, was looking for a minivan for his growing family at the same time. He had a 1998 Ford Taurus and was willing to sell it when they bought the minivan.

Now, let me say this about the Ford Taurus: it is a nice-looking car, and common enough that it doesn’t stick out. Actually, common enough that it occurs quite often—eerily so—that I park and find four other Tauruses and a Mercury Sable or two in the same row. If I’m not mistaken, it was the most widely sold car in its class while it was made. Given that I hate flashy things and like to blend in (without fitting in), this was a perfect fit. Oh, and the color was dark green. Score!

The bluebook value was in the $2,500-$3,000 range, but it had been salvaged anyway, and the transmission had some minor trouble—only that it leaked enough that it required a few bottles of fluid a year—so he took off the price of a new transmission in anticipation for my eventually replacing that.

That brought it down to a much more palatable price, which I was prepared to pay; and then my parents decided to bless me even further by paying the good deacon themselves. That made the sticker shock upon taking it to the DMV rather easier to handle...

My car has her* idiosyncrasies, of course, but then again, she puts up with me. On occasion, there will be an electronic beeping for no apparent reason (it did this for the former owners, too, and the car folks had no idea what caused it), but this is in keeping with the weird habits of pretty much all of my electronic equipment. I suppose if my car can handle the lengthy lectures I give her on random subjects, I can handle a little bit of reciprocal conversation. I can probably make more sense of that electronic beeping than anyone can of what I ramble on about, anyway.

But in all seriousness, I was more than blessed with my Ford Taurus, on all counts. Even besides the money-for-a-car-or-for-school issue (the solving of which was immeasurable grace by itself), everything about it, from the type of car to the color, was amazingly orchestrated (and was far more than I deserve). And, of course, we get along well, and there is easily enough room in the back seat and trunk for my guitars and amps, my other loves…but that will have to wait for another post.

Until then,
Colin



*Of course a car takes the female pronoun. She certainly has a personality, and the masculine wouldn’t sound quite right. Her name is Good Queen Bess, but that’s a story in itself.

Announcement and excerpt from USH2 paper

After about half a million edits...

Last Tuesday, I began turning a number of scenes that I've had in my head for a while into a story which I hope could end as a novella, at least. I have only the first chapter written and know what I want to do with the last two chapters; unfortunately, I only know the direction I want to take with the middle section, not the storyline. So I'm not going to bind myself to a set deadline for posting the next chapter, but if you'd like to read the first chapter at least, I've posted it to my Fiction/Poetry blog. I also submitted it, with a few poems, to the PHC Stylus literary publication. Input and criticism (from fellow Lit Snobs and all of my other friends who put up with our delusion that we're the coolest) is appreciated. I'd especially like suggestions for a main title; I currently plan for "Where the Wind Wills" to be a subtitle (and it is, by the way, a reference to John 3, not "Bohemian Rhapsody"...).


Also, our US History 2 paper is a comparison/contrast of Whittaker Chambers's Witness and Booker T. Washington's Up From Slavery. Up From Slavery was written in the late 1800s with Southern Reconstruction and the plight of the former slaves in mind, Witness in 1952 about the attempt to expose American Communism, but "for all their differences, they were both tales which brought the epic struggle between good and evil to a human level and made the principles applicable to the ordinary man by showing how ordinary men had fought and struggled with specific manifestations of that war," as I wrote in my paper.

The chief difference, though, in the authors' respective outlooks is one that struck me deeply as I was writing, and I devoted about a page to exploring that facet of their works. I may post more of the paper later, but here is the relevant excerpt for now:

"Washington was inspirational because he extolled the ability of men to raise themselves up from the ashes, and warned them not to allow their circumstances to dictate their future in such a way that they would never improve themselves. He was optimistic that the problems could be resolved and that the American people could put their dark past behind them in the next few generations. While acknowledging the faults of both parties in the past, he truly believed that they could be overcome by hard work and virtuous living—he believed that his object was attainable and that success lay within the volition of him and his fellow man.

Chambers was inspirational for nearly the opposite reason: he acknowledged that he was weak, and insisted that his role was thrust upon him against his will—but it was precisely the knowledge that this was his mission, arranged for him by destiny, that gave him the strength to fulfill it, because he knew that the same Providence that had assigned this terrible ordeal to him would direct the results, whether or not those results included his destruction. Chambers was willing to abandon all for the sake of the world and for the sake of destiny--and for his witness against Communism and for truth. He was pessimistic that his sacrifice would result in the ultimate salvation of the world—if it was not destroyed by Communism, it would fall prey to something else—but was certain that the guiding hand of God would nevertheless have a purpose even in this.

He thus inspired to play their part even men who are all too conscious of their own weakness. Their part need not be so crucial as his, nor need it be successful in human terms—whatever their part was, no matter how seemingly large or small, it formed a cog in the plan of Providence. He disagreed with the idea that the world would linearly improve; his hope lay in the ultimate end of the world which no human eye could yet see. This fundamental difference between Washington’s and Chambers’s presentations goes as deep as the level of their worldview, and could be described in religious terms as running as deeply as the difference between the theological concepts of merit and grace, for this is precisely the difference between them."

New Stuff

Just wanted to let y'all know that I've made another post to my Theology/Philosophy blog, if you want to check it out.

Also, I've made four new recordings in the last few weeks in several different styles, which are all up on the little music webpage I have. Please let me know what you think.

I still don't have the pictures from maple syruping, so that's going to have to wait....

In the interests of diversity, and as an acknowledgement to the diversity of all my many readers*, in the unlikely event that any atheists should be among them, I hereby wish that, for all those who are so inclined to celebrate, today may be a Happy National Atheists' Day.

That is all.

*Hahaha...