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Postmortem on a turkey

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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

Religion

Why Does Prayer Work?

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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? →

Music, Non-fiction

Teachout on Composer John Adams

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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.

Poetry, Religion

For Advent

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Charlie Lowell of Jars of Clay plans to post poems for the Advent season, starting tomorrow. He hopes it will help him and readers slow down this year.

Isn’t slowing down one of those ironic prayer requests we sometimes offer up? Lord, please give me more time with my family. Lord, please help us make it through this busy time in our lives and find peace. Have you prayed like this? How do you expect Him to answer? The most natural answer would be to decide against doing something, understanding that you will worship the Lord by avoiding a task or party or whatever busyness is wearing us down.

Do you want to slow down?

Fiction, Religion, Writing

The Day the Silent Planet Stood Still

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Back in college, I took an interterm course that appeared to be an easy grade. It simply required the students to read a certain number of books chosen from a list of famous novels, and to participate in one discussion on each of them.

I found it more difficult than I expected, mainly because it required me to read rather faster than I generally do (though I’m a fairly fast reader), and because some of the books I chose (like The Brothers Karamazov) were pretty long.

But I recall in particular one book I read that summer. It was Sinclair Lewis’ Main Street. I remember it in part because I found it unusually repellent. It’s a book (in case you haven’t read it, which a lot of people haven’t nowadays, and I’m OK with that) by an intellectual who had the misfortune to grow up in a small Minnesota town (Sauk Centre), and who just had to write this book in order to tell the world how soul-destroying life in such a town was (though why we should be interested in the opinion of an author whose soul has been destroyed is not explained). The book itself centers on a young woman from Minneapolis who marries a man from the town of “Gopher Prairie,” and how she struggles to maintain her intellectual and artistic life in its barren environment. I learned after I’d read the book that it’s supposed to be humorous, and I’m glad someone told me, because I’d have never guessed it.

The one thing I recall most clearly about Main Street was a realization I came to while reading it. I couldn’t understand why this book was supposed to be so important, until I realized that it was a pioneering work. Up until then, American literature had generally celebrated the small town as the source of American strength, goodness and wisdom. Lewis was the first writer to convince Americans that small towns were places where they actually didn’t want to live, spiritual swamps inhabited almost exclusively by rubes, yokels and bigots. It’s hard to get the original impact of Main Street today, because Lewis’ revolutionary manifesto has become our popular prejudice. Continue reading The Day the Silent Planet Stood Still →

Uncategorized

Thanksgiving

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Ross Mackenzie calls us back to simple living:

Thanksgiving . . . is, perhaps fundamentally, the season of hope. In this season, maybe the current condition of the global economy will focus Americans on essentials: family, nature, eternal verities, a new frugality, a simpler life. With its focus on money and “things,” materialism diminishes our appreciation for what we have. It fosters frustration, exasperation, even anger at what we don’t, and a redefining of wants into necessities and have-to-haves.

He quotes historian Paul Johnson, who says the financial crisis is result of a moral one. “We are traveling along the high road to incompetence and poverty,” Johnson states, “led by a farcical coalition of fashionably liberal academics on the make, assorted eco-crackpots, and media wiseacres.”

And here’s a story of self-reliance.

In other news, a Wal-Mart stock clerk was trampled in New York by a crowd of early shoppers. A pregnant woman was also knocked down. The crowd took down the front doors too. I think the store should have been closed and all of the shoppers thrown out of their ears.

By the way, I’m thankful for you. I don’t think I’d still be here, if I were the only one in this room.

Uncategorized

Will Retailers Survive Black Friday?

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Today is the day many retailers anticipate going into the accounting black, meaning all of the red ink of deficit spending will be removed by the black ink of profit. But in the middle of “the worst economy in 50 years” or whatever the propagandist said last time around, will we spend much today or this weekend? I’ve wondered if consumer debt has raised retail expectations unrealistically so much that responsible spending will be labeled a disappointing cut back. We’ll have to see.

Reports say most people will spend just as much as last year. And if that’s so, Blue Crab Boulevard wants to snap a few photos. “. . . take a picture of your local mall’s parking lot. Send them here,” he says, “. . . with info on when and where you took the picture and I’ll post them. Take some pictures of your local restaurant parking lots as well.” With these photos, BCB plans to counter the dark news from major media outlets.

But fear not, news reader, because reporters will always be able to say expectations were not met and though today may have been pretty good for retailers, it was not enough. Dark days ahead for sure.

Uncategorized

The Friday Fight

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No brief season of gratitude can avert the need to confront our enemies on a battlefield. Lars, is that you in the second lineup with the red shield?

Since I’m not embedding the video in this post, let me give you a bit of combative dialogue, taken from Lars’ “favorite” author, Henrik Ibsen.

ORNULF. Give place, Viking!

SIGURD (turns, lays his hand on his sword, and answers:) ‘Twere the

first time if I did!

ORNULF. Thou shalt and must! I have need of the shelter for my

stiff-frozen men.

SIGURD. Then must outlaws be highly prized in Helgeland!

ORNULF. Dearly shalt thou aby that word!

SIGURD. Now will it go ill with thee, old man!

Fight! Fight!

Fiction

Laugh and the World Laughes With You

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But you will snort and spew your milk alone.

Frank Wilson points out an article on funny books with a couple recommendations. Note also that some jokes never die. Take this example from Spike Milligan:

With hand signals

Or polite cough

He bid twenty-five million

For a Vincent Van Gogh

For that sort of money

I’d chop my ear off

Book Reviews, Creative Culture