Has been busy and satisfactory. Since the semester ended, I've finished Lone Survivor and The Perfectibility of Man, and read Flying Colours (a Hornblower novel), and The Swiss Family Robinson (a hardbound copy of which I picked up at a thrift store for 50 cents. I love thrift stores). And now I'm 100 pages into Les Miserables; when I went into Borders to buy that, I discovered a store which presents a gigantic temptation to impulse buying. I only meant to buy Les Miserables and ended up with that, Glenn Gould's recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations on Piano, and Dvorak's New World Symphony. I almost ended up with The Hunchback of Notre Dame and several albums of Liszt, Saint-Saens, and Prokofiev (and some more Bach, of course), but sanity kicked in somewhere along the line....
On that note, I actually have cash in my pocket for once, because I have gone back to work at Carlos O'Kelly's. I was blessed with favor in that--it initially appeared that I'd be picking up only shifts that people had to drop, but I was put on the schedule and picked up a few extra shifts to boot. I think I worked 7 last week (there are the lunch and dinner shifts) and, especially considering it was my first week back at work, made out quite satisfactorily. Most of it is, of course, being saved for school, but some of it is making its way to expanding my literary and musical libraries.
A short digression: waiting tables is a crucible for refining patience and dependence on the providence of our Father. Waiters are paid below minimum wage by their employers, and are dependent on tips--we are, in a way, at the mercy of the customers. And there are some, that, no matter how kind and attentive you are, will be unkind and demanding, and then leave a token pittance. Then there are some that, even when you have fumbled over your introduction and brought them the wrong drinks and brought out their appetizers with their meal, will monetarily bless you far beyond the tipping standard that I, at least, was taught--not to mention the supreme blessing of their kindness and understanding and good humour through it all. And ultimately, I can have confidence that the Lord will provide all I need to work His will--their hearts are in His hands. Just as God moved the heart of Cyrus (and many others who did not know Him) to bless the nation of Israel, so does He move the hearts of men to bless His spiritual Israel and fulfill His plan for us. Amen.
And I received my Army uniform for LTC today.... :-)
I've come across about half a million references to the military life in one way or another in the last month or so, so I think I'm about due to write that series on it that's been on my mind. One should go up tonight (since it will be mostly other people's writings), and I hope to get a few others up before I go to LTC (next Friday!!!!). Some topics I hope to cover:
--The sacrifices of the military wife and mom
--Why I'm joining the military, and some sources that have influenced my thought on the matter (perhaps a two- or three- parter)
--Life as a military child
Showing posts with label literature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label literature. Show all posts
27 May 2008
13 April 2008
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."
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."
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