Our Hope and Expectation,
O Jesus, now appear;
Arise, thou Sun so longed for,
O’er this benighted sphere.
With hearts and hands uplifted,
We plead, O Lord to see
The day of earth’s redemption
That brings us unto thee. Continue reading A Song for Earth Day
Green sin
My impression (of course I only move in limited circles, usually three times before I lie down) is that this past Earth Day was a relatively muted celebration. The Greenies were observing in private, while we Spoilers of the Earth were having a big old time whooping it up over tired Al Gore jokes.
So I think I’ll pile on a little more. But in a serious vein.
One of the most common responses I’ve met when talking religion with non-Christians (and liberal Christians) is, “I can’t believe in your angry God. Your doctrine of Original Sin offends me. My God is a God of love. My God would never condemn a baby for something Adam and Eve did.”
And it occurred to me, “Well, what do environmentalists believe about sin and guilt?” Continue reading Green sin
A Poem by Seamus Heaney
He would drink by himself
And raise a weathered thumb
Towards the high shelf,
Calling another rum
And blackcurrant, without
Having to raise his voice,
Or order a quick stout
By a lifting of the eyes
And a discreet dumb-show
Of pulling off the top;
At closing time would go
In waders and peaked cap
Into the showery dark,
A dole-kept breadwinner
But a natural for work.
I loved his whole manner,
Sure-footed but too sly,
His deadpan sidling tact,
His fisherman’s quick eye
And turned observant back.
Incomprehensible
To him, my other life.
Sometimes, on the high stool,
Too busy with his knife
At a tobacco plug
And not meeting my eye,
In the pause after a slug
He mentioned poetry.
We would be on our own
And, always politic
And shy of condescension,
I would manage by some trick
To switch the talk to eels
Or lore of the horse and cart
Or the Provisionals.
Them's the breaks
Here’s another of those insights that many of you probably have already figured out. But I share it on the chance that a few of our visitors may be even more spiritually immature than I am.
As you know, I’m a big fan of Dennis Prager’s radio show. Today he was promoting a charity called CURE International, which provides medical services in the Third World.
He talked with a physician who told a story which intersected (in my mind) with something I was thinking about, and gave me an insight which, frankly, frightens me. Continue reading Them's the breaks
Earth Day for beginners
My usually reliable sources inform me that tomorrow is Earth Day (now known as Earth Week, due to the inflationary effects of global warming). In my capacity as acknowledged arbiter of public morals and taste, I take seriously my responsibility to clarify some public misconceptions about this observance.
I am very old, and I remember the first Earth Day. At least I remember magazine articles and people talking about it. I have no memory of the actual observance. I was in college at the time, and I think they gave us the afternoon off. I think the students were supposed to walk around town picking up trash. But I don’t recall it (and, sadly, I can’t even offer drunkenness as an excuse). If I did pick up trash, I don’t remember. Of course, this college was in Forest City, Iowa, which means there probably wasn’t much around in the first place. I suspect I spent the afternoon hiding in my dorm room, cowering with the lights off, fearful of the dreaded knock at the door.
Which was how I generally spent my afternoons anyway.
So how should we observe Earth Day? How should we honor our dear, abusive Mommy Dearest Earth, who sends us hurricanes and earthquakes, harbors our insect and bacterial enemies, and recently threw a hissy fit in Iceland, just because we forgot to call?
First of all, keep that bicycle in the garage. Bicyclists tend to get hit by automobiles, causing unnecessary fuel expenditures for gas-guzzling ambulances and all those energy-sucking operating room lights. Also the water necessary to wash your blood off the street is a drain on the aquifer.
Also, eat a lot. Preferably fatty, salty, high-sugar foods. This lowers your lifespan, you human parasite, and nothing reduces your carbon footprint like death. Also, Mother Gaia loves burials (why do you think she keeps dropping heavy stuff like mountainsides on people? She’s a carnivore). One caution—do not be cremated. Greenhouse gases, you know. Especially after you’ve eaten a lot of fast food.
Hug a wild animal. Preferably a large one with long teeth. They need love too, and your understanding may be just the thing that gives meaning to their dull lives, living out there in the woods where’s there’s no high speed access. And no fast food delivery. Until now.
Join some religion that will force you to live in a pre-industrial age, like Wicca, Islam, or Texas Hold ‘Em. Then give away all your sinful, environment-molesting high end electronics.
I have an address where you can send it all.
George H. Scithers, 1929-2010
I got word today that the first editor to buy one of my stories professionally, and my agent for many years, George H. Scithers, died yesterday at the age of 80.
He was editor of Amazing Stories Magazine back in 1984 when he bought my story, “One Final Dragon.” Several more stories followed, and he took the trouble to give me some good advice along the way.
After he left Amazing, George started Owlswick Literary Agency along with Darrell Schweitzer. They asked me to come on as a client. I remained in their stable until they dissolved a few years ago.
I never had the chance to meet George (came close once, when I had a flight layover in Philadelphia, but it didn’t work out). We communicated by letter at first, then graduated to e-mail. Talked a few times on the phone. He was always gentlemanly, funny, and reassuring.
Beginning as a fan, he was one of the people responsible for the increasing popularity of heroic fantasy, being especially a champion of Robert E. Howard’s work. I was proud to be associated with him.
We never discussed religion, but from some comments he dropped, I believe he was a Christian of some description.
An obituary by Tor editor David Hartwell is here.
His Wikipedia entry is here.
R.I.P.
Does God hate Icelanders?
So a volcano erupted in Iceland, they tell me. I’m always interested in what goes on in Iceland, because it’s saga country, and I’ve been there and enjoyed it. Not much good has been happening in those parts recently, which has provided the opportunity for many (including Rush Limbaugh, but he was joking) to ponder the question, as old as Job, of “What have I (they) done to deserve this?”
It brings to mind a story from the sagas (I’m embarrassed to admit I can’t tell you which one; thought it was Njal’s, but it’s not) about the debate held at the Icelandic Althing (national assembly) around the year 1000, when they adopted Christianity by legislative decision. Word came that a volcano had erupted, and was threatening the farm of one of the participants. A heathen claimed the disaster was a threat from the old gods. Snorri the Chieftain (who appears in my novel West Oversea—you can read about it there) pointed to the ancient lava floes all around their meeting place and asked, “And what were the gods angry at when this flowed?”
Because back then, it was Christianity that was hard-headed, skeptical world-view. Continue reading Does God hate Icelanders?
What an Honor! I'm Blushing.
Hey, Lars! We’ve been nominated for an award in the 4th Annual Cannonball Catholic Blog Awards. We’re in the category: “Best Blog by a Heretic.” I’m not joking, and I hope we stomp our competition.
In celebration of this nomination, I offer this video of one of my favorite songs–favorite being a loosely defined word that could mean anything.
Out of C0nt3xt
I have been busy this week and will be next week as well, so my blogging (and pre-blogging, prep-blogging, post-blogging, and linking) will continue to be light and even lite. But at the moment, I am putting folding clothes, so here’s a link to a post on amusement over out of context Bible verses on t-shirts.
One of the best out of context verses I’ve heard was a missions conference banner reading, “All this I will give you – Matt. 4:9.” The person telling the story said he couldn’t recall a missions context in Matthew 4, and if you don’t remember that reference either, I’ll tell you it’s a quote from the devil when he said he would give Jesus the world if he would worship him. I can only assume a biblical illiterate used a program to search for a few words and ran with the best ones.
The Redbreast, by Jo Nesbo
‘It’s an historian’s duty to uncover, not to judge.’ He lit his pipe. ‘Many people believe that right and wrong are fixed absolutes. That is incorrect, they change over time. The job of the historian is primarily to find the historical truth, to look at what the sources say and present them, objectively and dispassionately. If historians were to stand in judgment on human folly, our work would seem to posterity like fossils – the remnants of the orthodoxy of their time.’
This snippet of dialogue is delivered by one of the characters in the novel The Redbreast, by Jo Nesbø. I’m having trouble deciding exactly what to think about this book, but that passage seems to me about as close to a statement of the author’s world view as I can find (I may, of course, be entirely mistaken). Nesbø seems to believe that moral choices are extremely important, but who’s to say what the right ones are? Continue reading The Redbreast, by Jo Nesbo