Of course, it’s a posed shot, but I like Wayne’s style in the first photo he posts from Disney World. The shots of Pooh count as reading material too. Pooh is the man.
A couple reviews
I read a couple books over the holiday, but I don’t think they’re really worth separate reviews. I’ll take a few superficial swipes and move along.
Strangers by Dean Koontz appears to me to be a transitional work for the author. First published in 1986, it shows considerable improvement in character development and dialogue from much of his other early work.
It follows the adventures of a group of people, scattered all over the country, who begin to have similar anxiety symptoms (but not identical symptoms—there are interesting variations and contradictions). Most of them are suffering nightmares. Some of them develop obsessions. The moon, in particular, becomes the focus of more than one. Continue reading A couple reviews
Commuting to Work
Book Recs for Kids
Sherry recommends books for giving to children.
How very odd
The strange things you discover while looking at your Sitemeter statistics. I checked somebody in Denmark who visited our page, and found they’d been referred from this Wiki page in Denmark. We’re reference note number [13], in relation to the Fairy Flag of Dunvegan. It’s lovely to be a citation, but I’m not sure I’ve really earned it.
The Next Great Christian Book
Postmortem on a turkey
Thanksgiving was good, thank you. As usual, the family gathered in my CBBS* house. Everything went according to programme. It goes without saying that, being me, I drove myself nuts anticipating disasters (forget propagation of the species; a man needs a wife mostly in order to have somebody competent on whom to shove these responsibilities), but either everything went fine, or my family kindly overlooked it and kept me in the dark.
The turkey might have profited from ten more minutes in the oven, I think, but I also suspect that’s a matter of taste. And I could have bought a larger one (those leftovers, I now see, are there for a purpose).
Now, on to Christmas. Tree decorating is for me a gradual process, but the thing’s up and lighted. Only the ornaments remain to be hanged, together or separately. I have tea lights to burn (in pine scent). Last night I watched my videotape of Sissel’s Christmas concert with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
And tonight I’ll begin the Christmas Letter. I wonder if I took any pictures this year worth including in it. Probably not.
Come to think of it, the whole letter may be no more than a couple paragraphs.
Not such a bad thing, actually.
*Clean By Bachelor Standards
Why Does Prayer Work?
Naturally, I’m assuming prayer works and that we understand what it is, so stepping over those questions, why does prayer work?
- Does it work because of the words we use or the way we pray? Do select terms or phrases give our prayers a power they wouldn’t have without them?
- Is it the passion we put into it? If we work ourselves up, do our prayers ring louder in heaven?
- If we repeat our prayers often, does that increase their priority in heaven?
- Does prayer work because we mention specifics instead of generalities?
- Does it work when we have removed every trace of doubt that God will answer?
- Or is it when we approach the Lord in personal righteousness, confident he is pleased with us and will hear us?
I don’t believe prayer works for any of those reasons. It works only because our Heavenly Father is sovereign over all heaven and earth. “For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?” (Isaiah 14:27 NIV) Continue reading Why Does Prayer Work?
Good Books of 2008
Mr. Key highlights a few books from the NY Times Book Review list of notable books in 2008.
Teachout on Composer John Adams
Terry Teachout talks about what appears to be the good, though difficult, operas of John Adams:
His operas are intended to function not as conventional stage dramas but as mytho-poetical statements that are illustrative of larger ideas about the condition of man. Doctor Atomic, for instance, attempts to retell the Faust myth in specifically American terms, with J. Robert Oppenheimer, the scientist who directed the research-and-development program that led to the building of the first atomic bomb, cast in the role of the all-too-human genius who sells his soul and lives to regret it.