A movie and dinner > dinner and a movie. More to talk about and less trouble falling asleep that night.
The degree to which you don’t buy the fundamental idea I put forward in this essay that amends are necessary for a just forgiveness is the degree to which you can stand even more amazed at the love of Jesus in subjecting Himself to crucifixion to provide that (proxy) amends. You may not believe amends are necessary for forgiveness (and if you don’t, that itself may be an indication of Jesus’ ideological success), but Jesus’ contemporaries and forbears did think so. If the idea is mere cultural contingency rather than ethical fact, that only makes Jesus’ sacrifice all the more amazing in its condescension—and thus more apt as reason to sit at His feet and align yourself with His overall ethical program.
Some introspection while walking home from a nighttime walk with Matt after an evening when I failed miserably to bring together a cohesive Spring Break plan for the family:
Too often at home and at church and, historically at least, at work, I stand opposed to and suspicious of what’s being brought by others. Blame eighteen years as an academic. (I’m using that term very loosely to include K-12 and undergraduate.) Blame a natural bent of my mind.
But that’s not what’s gonna get it done. When I say “it,” I mean togetherness, I mean unity of vision and will. I mean a sense of belonging and cherishing. I mean laughter.
No, what I need if I want those things at my kitchen table, in church, and at work is the “Yes! And…” spirit of improv. Bring myself and what I have to offer in a positive sense, sure—and honor that which others bring of themselves. “Yes, that’s right! And we can do this…” That’s so good. That’s the way.
I will hazard an unsubstantiated guess that two-parent families in which only one parent participates in the full-time workforce are, on average, healthier, happier families as families than ones in which both parents do.
“Having different gracious gifts, according to the grace given us: if prophecy, according to the proportion of faithfulness…” (Romans 12:6, DBH). If Hart’s translation is correct, then one should prophesy in proportion to one’s demonstrated faithfulness, not according to one’s faith, the latter word being the majority translation in this context vacant of meaning.
In other words, only prophesy if your deeds warrant you time with the microphone.
The Year of the Snake. How appropriate.
Man, do I feel done with movie and TV watching. Just a phase, I’m sure. But still: No appeal whatsoever.
Alas, I’ll be in Vegas
For the tenth or eleventh time ✏️ 🎤 🎵
But Lord, I had noble pretexts! ✏️ 🎤 🎵
Jane Doe?
I never knew her ✏️ 🎤 🎵
What shall we do with the decaf tea?
What shall we do with the decaf coffee?
Nobody drinks it except me
And if I drink it, I can’t sleep ✏️ 🎤 🎵
“Should” is a word with real, live uses
Granted, it’s seen its share of abuses ✏️ 🎤 🎵
I wanna do everything
Without doing anything ✏️ 🎤 🎵
Part of 1 Corinthians 16 is as a good a motto as one can find: “Do everything in love.” Since so much of my life comprises words, and since the biblical proverbialists, Jesus, and James all emphasize the power and importance of our words, I’m going to provisionally subset the motto to concentrate its effect: “Say everything in love.”
Cheerful, curious, grateful, harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, humble. That’s what I want to be.
“What does that third switch control?”
“I thought you knew!”
“I don’t know!” ✏️ 🎤 🎵
You know what I need?
A MacArthur grant
I’ve got the genius
I just need the cash ✏️ 🎤 🎵
Just listened to: A Sea Symphony, premiered by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1910 and recorded in 2014 by Hallé—their orchestra and their two choirs—plus two other choirs—because how else do you evoke the vastness of the ocean and remind everyone this is how the 20th-century renaissance of English classical music began—than with four choirs? Subtle this is not. A bombastically English response to when the Frenchy-Japonesque La mer is not enough.
Not that this piece lacks quiet moments: You may have come for the giant “Behold, the sea itself!” that opens the first movement, but you’ll stay for the evocations of solitude on the beach in the second movement.
The word of the year this year is “get to”: Everything I do, I get to do. (Hat tip: Ethan.)
This is what self-exhortation (in this case, to be a better listener) sometimes sounds like in my house.
May you enjoy it
Even though I know you don’t enjoy it ✏️ 🎤 🎵
“The secret to faith is to have two loves: one for God and the other for whoever happens to be standing in front of you at any given time” (Eloy Cruz to Jimmy Carter, as quoted by Randall Balmer in The Christian Century).
I’m pleased that this year’s listening added the following albums to my previous list of Christmas albums playable front to back both in the background or attentively:
- A Festival of Carols in Brass by The Philadelphia Brass Ensemble
- Wintersong by Sarah McLachlan
- Folkjul: A Swedish Folk Christmas by St. Jacob’s Chamber Choir, Gary Graden, Gunnar Idenstam, et al
Just re-listened to Merriweather Post Pavilion by Animal Collective (2009). I hesitate to recommend this wacked-out indietronica because like all the other Animaniac albums I’ve listened to, it’s easily heard as mere maelstrom of sophisticated-yet-juvenile, repetitive, acid-plus-coke freneticism. But on this one there’s just enough charm for me in the (still sophisticated-yet-juvenile, still repetitive) melodies, harmonies, syncopations, vocal timbres, and lyrics (often about family, which helps the charm) to overcome the hesitation.
Listen, Merriam-Webster: You descriptivists do good work. It’s important we have maps of the lay of our linguistic land as it lies. But don’t purport to explain to the world that prescriptivists are only interested in “‘correctness’ set forth in ‘rules’ that [we] imagine.” Just like poorly developed roads, a poorly designed language (as I concede every language is to some degree) sometimes leads to confusion, frustration, and hazards. To suggest prescriptivists are always wrong to do what they do is the equivalent of saying city planners are always wrong to do what they do.
Misdevelopment of the land has consequences. So it is with lexicons—especially when the words in question are of moral value. Consider “forgive.” If “forgive” is “actually used,” as you write, “by writers and speakers of the English language,” to include by definition reconciliation, forgetting, and anger abatement, which in some circles, although thankfully not quite in your dictionary, resentment being different...
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