Nowonder Notes
1: my November guests
2: in my mind's eye, unanswered questions
3: something borrowed, something blue (a quick-read)
4: or, oar, ore
5: every time that it trains
6: December and everything after
7: it all begins with dying
8: the ants are my friends
9: lime julep, strawberry wine
10: test for echo (ne1)
11: recovering the satellites
12: hope chest
13: sometimes we never did
14: sinking of the USS OreoSubject: my November guests
Date: Thu, 31 Oct 1996 23:25:38 -0600 (CST) Amber, Bernie & Rebekah, Brady, Bryan, David, Dean, Dr. Baas, Elise, Frito, Jeremy, JimFred, Kenneth, Kristen, Les, the Dietzes, Luis, Michael, Mr. Andrews, Owen, Rebecca, Sam, Sheldon, Tracey, Willy, This is Kinnith at the other end of the electronic string and tin cans. I know i haven't written or talked with most of you in quite a while, so please pardon (yet another) awkward beginning. I am again Prometheus, the over-reaching man. This may be the inception of a project, the first of several messages i hope to write during the month of November. A sample follows, after a brief disclaimer. -------------------- Brief disclaimer: Some of you are so busy that it was a stretch to read this missive. I don't mean to waste your time. If you don't want to receive more of these (because of the content, or to avoid mailbox clutter), please notify me. If you feel inclined to respond to these November notes, please do. If you want a friend elsewhere in the US (or one in Bolivia), then smuggle an address from this message's header. I claim no responsibility for the content of this (or other) November note, except for the fact that i wrote it. I hope to write about things i've learned this year. This message, perhaps not representative, contains extra variety. -------------------- A thought for the day: "The noblest of all dogs is the hotdog--it feeds the hand that bites it." (from Peter's Quotations) .......... Since fall 1995, i have been a volunteer tutor in a GED-preparatory class at the Madison County Jail. That was where i met Clyde, who likes teaching. (Bernie says that tutoring represents the ideal teaching situation: one-to-one.) We are not supposed to ask students why they are incarcerated. They don't ask us why we're in jail either. (-: So far, i've had little occasion to need the rule. But today's class was disconcerting. I have been helping Orlee, who is from Honduras. I was trying to illustrate sentences and fragments, and then imperative sentences, which look suspiciously like fragments. I gave an example sentence in English. Then i wrote "No culpes a la lluvia", which is from a song, and means "Don't blame it on the rain" in Spanish. I guess that the quote, my willingness to listen, and Orlee's desire for a sympathetic ear, led to him telling me his crime. He said he was reacting to an evil committed against him. He wanted me to agree that he had been wronged. And i would have agreed that far. My mind went to Dr. Batts' ethics class at LeTourneau, to my belief that all of us are fallen, to Larry Crabb saying that the effect of sin on our world is more serious than most of us recognize. I didn't know how to empathize without justifying his actions. I wrote on the sheet of notes he would take back in his folder: "I don't know the answer, but that doesn't mean there is no answer. I cannot control what other people do, but I can choose what I do. God will judge all of us." I felt helpless. Incomplete, like this story. What would faith do? .......... Thought for a different day (wouldn't want to overexert my brain): A little inconsistency is the habit of foolish minds. -Kinnith ============================================================================= Kinnith Wallace Univ. of Al. in Huntsville <kwallace@cs.uah.edu> or <wallacek@email.uah.edu> <http://www.cs.uah.edu/cs/students/kwallace/> "You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough." -Joe E. LewisSubject: in my mind's eye, unanswered questions
Date: Fri, 8 Nov 1996 22:11:49 -0600 (CST) Hi everyone! This, the second of my November notes, is long. If you're reading this at work and need a printed copy instead, let me know. Thanks to Willy, as i type, i'm listening to Dave Mallett sing "The Road Goes On Forever." This message comes pretty close. I guess our friendship is the only reason i can give you to read it. Several of you know me well enough to have seen pieces of this approaching. A few met me this summer, when i was striving not to think life is absurd. The following is taken from a letter i wrote to my brother, slightly edited for brevity and to protect Andrew. I kept a copy partly because i'm a prig, but mostly because i realized--this is important to me. Warning: contains a world-view. Use with caution. -----letter begins----------------------------------------------------------- I'm going to quote what prompted me to write; the lyrics to "Mind's Eye" by DC Talk: "You know what i'm going through I know that it's true /-----------------------\ Cause You've stood in my shoes | lyrics (C) 1995, | Desire's inside of me | Up In The Mix Music. | But it's hard to believe | emphasis added | In what you cannot see \-----------------------/ Can you catch the wind? See a breeze? It's presence is revealed by The leaves on a tree An image of my faith in the unseen In my mind's eye I see Your face You smile As you show me grace In my mind's eye You take my hand We walk through foreign lands The foreign lands of life In my mind I'm where i belong As i rest in Your arms And like a child i hold on to You In my moment of truth We can ride the storm Endure the pain You comfort me in my hurricane And i'll never be alone again Can you catch the wind? Can you see the breeze? In my mind i can see Your face Love pours down in a shower of grace Life is a gift that You choose to give And i believe that we eternally live Faith is the evidence of things unseen People tell me that You're just a dream But they don't know You the way that i do You're the One i live to pursue" Life is a foreign land. We wonder where we came from. Why we exist. Why we die. Why we must feel what seems like pointless pain in between. Like you, i'm angry. Extremely frustrated. With the world around me. With the idiots around me. With the idiot who sleeps in my bed. With God. I want answers to my questions. Why did Mindy's friend kill himself? Why do people get married? Have children? Why are people lonely? Why are we alive? (I think why we are here is a greater mystery than where we came from.) Why did my friend Maureen's dad die of cancer the week before your birthday last year? How could i feel so sleepless, exhausted, and hungry lately, and still have the doctor's tests show no cause? Why do Mama and Daddy have to move back to Georgia now that you want to stay in Virginia? (Wait, i think that's your question. :-) Mine too, though.) Is there rest for the weary? Not very many things about life are clear to me now. What used to be obvious is now obviously flawed. All my statements have become questions? Why. I feel like i've been shaken until i'm so dizzy that i can't see clearly although i want to, desperately. Sometimes i think for a moment that it makes sense. "Sometimes i just want to tell you we'll be all right. At least that's what some part of me believes" (quoting Marc Cohn). But then i tell myself i haven't found an answer, just a temporary warm, fuzzy feeling; it will go away as always. Or that the answer is inadequate. The problem's much too serious, too big for a solution like that. As Sydney Lanier described it, this is my struggle: "My soul is like an oar that momently Dies in a desperate stress beneath the wave, Then glitters out again and sweeps the sea: Each second i'm new-born from some new grave." If you'll think about it, i believe you too have felt like this. Answers don't come easy. In computer science, we find that sometimes there is an answer to a problem, but finding it takes so long that we would die before the computer finished searching. Many times we can find an answer but don't understand it. Then there are those questions that genuinely seem to have no answer possible. We all have some of each kind; and if we take our questions seriously (i think we should), it infuriates us, then drives us to boredom, because we think life is either meaningless or unliveable without answers to these deep questions. Okay, it affects me that way, anyway. But there is something missing. And we know it, but can't quite put our finger on it. We would recognize it by the hole it would fill, although we've never actually seen it. It is more than a "long lost shaker of salt". Something we long for without naming it. I cry for it sometimes, so hard that my fingertips hurt and i feel cold inside. Now we're walking a back street; the street signs seem to be written in another language. We know we want to get somewhere, but we don't recognize the road names. It's still Roanoke and Lynchburg, but we're out of place. It's a foreign land. I believe this unexplained longing is nameable. It is the desire for God which He created within us. Our minds and feelings get twisted because we are wearing mud-covered sunglasses. Sin, our sin, has not only warped us and our world, it has kept us from seeing or even seeking God. Counting Crows sings, "I don't believe in anything...but i want to be someone to believe..." If we believe at least two things, there is hope: First, that God exists. Second, that the God who is there will reward us if we earnestly seek Him (read Hebrews 11:6). For me, some clarity came in these words by Larry Crabb: "...when we look carefully at what we deeply desire, we come to realize that what we want is simply not available, not until Heaven... We were designed to live in a perfect world uncorrupted by the weeds of disharmony and distance. Until we take up residence in that world, however, we will hurt. It is okay to desire. It is also okay to hurt." I think you believe that God has the answers to those questions we ask. Before this summer, that was about as far as my thoughts had gone. I know that God has the answers. He may show us some of them in this life. He may show us some more in Heaven. But have you ever thought that even then we may not be given all knowledge, or the answers to all our questions? Hmm. :} Let's skip from that to this, which is more important: Our questions are not the point. Most of them are concerned only with ourselves, but even those that aren't--still are not the point. Seeking God is the point. We can live without answers to even our deepest questions. Case in point: i'm still alive. But i cannot live without God. He's the One i live to pursue. I'd like answers, more knowledge, to feel more comfortable (or at least less uneasy) with life. But God does not owe me answers. He will not respond to my demands. But i can respond to His gifts. He has given me life, 13 August 1973, nine months before and all those since. He has forgiven my sins. And He has given me a relationship with Him, through Jesus Christ. ("With Christ, the only way to fail is to quit.") I must choose whether to hold on to my anger, or hold on to God. I can choose who or what i will serve, but i cannot choose whether i will serve. I will worship. You too will worship. Worship God. I pray you will live to pursue Him. "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." -Hebrews 11:1 "He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." -Micah 6:8 "'You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,' declares the Lord." -Jeremiah 29:13-14a "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." -Deuteronomy 6:4-5 Don't stop seeking God. -----end of quoted letter---------------------------------------------------- The content of this message is somewhat like the culmination of my response to life since February 1995. I know it's not a culmination, more like a snapshot of my perspective now. Sometimes i would be satisfied--so lazy--to press the pause button on life. Instead, i need to live the truth. -Kinnith ============================================================================= Kinnith Wallace Univ. of Al. in Huntsville <kwallace@cs.uah.edu> or <wallacek@email.uah.edu> <http://www.cs.uah.edu/cs/students/kwallace/> "You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough." -Joe E. LewisSubject: something borrowed, something blue (a quick-read)
Date: Thu, 14 Nov 1996 12:05:41 -0600 (CST) Hola, mis amigos. This is another--shorter--November note, with others' ideas which became mine. Something blue -------------- I think 'm beginning to understand stanza 2 of a poem by Robert Frost: Fragmentary Blue Why make so much of fragmentary blue In here and there a bird, or butterfly, Or flower, or wearing-stone, or open eye, When heaven presents in sheets the solid hue? Since earth is earth, perhaps, not heaven (as yet)-- Though some savants make earth include the sky; And blue so far above us comes so high, It only gives our wish for blue a whet. Something borrowed ------------------ Gratuitous sexist quote from Garrison Keillor: "Women know about life and social life and how to get along with others, and they are sensitive to beauty, and at the the same time they can (: yell louder. They know all about guys, having been exposed to guy life and guy b.s. since forever, and guys know nothing about girls except that they want one desperately. Which gender is better equipped to manipulate the other?" -from The Book of Guys "G. K. Chesterton correctly remarked that the problem with Christianity is not that it has been tried and found wanting, but that it has been found difficult and left untried." -Ravi Zacharias in Can Man Live Without God? For the lovelorn: THEORY, by Dorothy Parker Into love and out again, Thus I went and thus I go. Spare your voice, and hold your pen: Well and bitterly I know All the songs were ever sung, \ / All the words were ever said. |_ Could it be, when I was young, /o Someone dropped me on my head? * From Margaret Becker, 13 Jan 1995 journal: Life is an adventure. I would not want to live the same chapter over and over again, no matter how spellbinding, no matter how eloquent. To do so would be to cease to grow. To cease to grow is to cease to live. Isn't that part of the criteria we use to define what is alive? Any organism that has some inherent cycle of addition and loss. Adding new things and losing pieces of ourselves along the way... -Kinnith ============================================================================= "You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough." -Joe E. LewisSubject: or, oar, ore
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 1996 00:09:53 -0600 (CST) Oops. That's not quite it. I'd better straighten up and fly-write. Here's November note 4, some quotes on the three R's. Serving size: 2 quotes Servings per message: about 7 On arithmetic ------------- Arithmetic, by Carl Sandburg Arithmetic is where numbers fly like pigeons in and out of your head. Arithmetic tells you how many you lose or win if you know how many you had before you lost or won. Arithmetic is seven eleven all good children go to heaven--or five six bundle of sticks. Arithmetic is numbers you squeeze from your head to your hand to your pencil to your paper till you get the answer. Arithmetic is where the answer is right and everything is nice and you can look out of the window and see the blue sky--or the answer is wrong and you have to start all over and try again and see how it comes out this time. If you take a number and double it and double it again and then double it a few more times, the number gets bigger and bigger and goes higher and higher and only arithmetic can tell you what the number is when you decide to quit doubling. Arithmetic is where you have to multiply--and you carry the multiplication table in your head and hope you won't lose it. If you have two animal crackers, one good and one bad, and you eat one and a striped zebra with streaks all over him eats the other, how many animal crackers will you have if somebody offers you five six seven and you say No no no and you say Nay nay nay and you say Nix nix nix? If you ask your mother for one fried egg for breakfast and she gives you two fried eggs and you eat both of them, who is better in arithmetic, you or your mother? It is almost always possible to present an intellectually honest and engaging account of any field, using a minimum of technical appratus. This is seldom done, however, since most priesthoods (mathematicians included) are inclined to hide behind a wall of mystery and to commune only with their fellow priests. -John Allen Paulos, in the book Innumeracy On writing ---------- I am still at a low point intellectually, but spiritually alive. Revised On Socialism again; it is all very trifling, but I started on it. I shall be more restrained in my work, more economical, for there is little time left to me, and I waste it on trifles. Perhaps I may write something useful... -from Tolstoy's last diaries, 13 October 1910 No Romance sold unto Could so enthrall a Man As the perusal of His Individual One-- 'Tis Fiction's--to dilute to Plausibility Our Novel--When 'tis small enough To Credit--'Tisn't true! -Emily Dickinson All writing comes by the grace of God. -Ralph Waldo Emerson (from Rebecca) The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it, useful only accidently, only secondarily, in the way that any compulsion tries to justify itself... Keepers of notebooks are a different breed altogether, lonely and resistant rearrangers of things, anxious malcontents, children afflicted apparently at birth with some presentiment of loss. -Joan Didion (ibid) You can't pick up a phone and call the future and tell them about our time. You have to pick up a piece of paper. -Garrison Keillor, in We Are Still Married On reading ---------- LIBRARIES will get you through times of no MONEY better than MONEY will get you through times of no LIBRARIES. -seen at the Roanoke County Library A library is no better than the person who walks into it. -Ray Bradbury If you cannot read all your books, at any rate handle them, and, as it were, fondle them. Let them fall open where they will... Make a voyage of discovery, taking soundings of uncharted seas. -Winston Churchill "The Book of Wisdom", by Stephen Crane I met a seer. He held in his hands The book of wisdom. "Sir," I addressed him, "Let me read." "Child--" he began. "Sir," I said, "Think not that I am a child, For already I know much Of that which you hold; Aye, much." * * * * * He smiled. Then he opened the book And held it before me. Strange that I should have grown so suddenly blind. "IMPORTANT Book reading is a solitary and sedentary pursuit, and those who do are cautioned that a book should be used as an integral part of a well-rounded life, including a daily regimen of rigorous physical exercise, rewarding personal relationships, and a sensible low-fat diet. A book should not be used as a substitute or an excuse." -Garrison Keillor, from the introduction to The Book of Guys The end of reading is not more books but more life. -Holbrook Jackson Highly recommended reading: Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis Many of you have read this book. I read it this summer. I want to quote from it, especially the last chapter, but i'll let you read it unspoiled. Happy Thanksgiving! -Kinnith ============================================================================= "You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough." -Joe E. LewisSubject: every time that it trains
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996 01:10:19 -0600 (CST) My courses this semester are about 4/9 over. (I have homework to finish during the holiday break. Mr. Andrews and Dr. Baas can say that's typical for me.) As Stephen Dechert said, i find that by doing just a little each day, i can gradually let it completely overwhelm me. I'm still writing November notes in December (so much for nomenclature). This is my fifth, the atonal approach to communicating experience. Cover your ears. ~:-D Surprisingly, some things here are unquoted--no claim about originality. The following paragraphs are discrete, but perhaps not discreet. I'm not trying to cause unnecessary debate. "An ounce of contention is worth a pound of manure," someone wisely observed. :) Voici ces choses: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the subject line, "every time that it trains" (Trains. 'What'd I say?' I'm listening to Ray Charles' greatest hits): i live directly across an interstate from train tracks. By my records from October, at least 40 trains pass weekly. I have grown accustomed to the trains, but i still notice them. I like the trains. The noise. (I live just far enough away that i can enjoy the noise.) Hundreds of roller skates with 4"-wide wheels, 5 feet apart. The colossal weight, of even one engine pulling a single car. The machine breaking mama factory's back as it presses each rail joint. The juggernaut polishing the rail. Rohypnol: a drug which causes profound sedation, a feeling of calmness, and short-term memory loss. -journal, 20 Jun 96 Modern civilization may possibly be the best joke mankind has every played on himself. -8 May 96 Escape from advertising-in-your-face, technology beneath your fingers and in your ears and eyes, from someone else telling you what to think and thinking for you--silence, placid time alone--is becoming a luxury. -7 Sep 95 (topic to be revisited next message) Relieve the '90s. -20 Aug 95 What is a poem? A quicksand hole, Consuming mind, exhuming soul. -7 Jul 95 Paper remembers much better than i do. -23 Jun 95 What i want never to be: a man who feels no pain but his own. -15 Jun 95 "...what i dreaded has happened to me." -Job 3:25, from 13 Aug 96 The world needs antiskeptic. -5 Jul 96 --------------------------------------- The author who claims to have written a comprehensive treatment of a subject has only written an introductory text for some diligent student. "Works which were in themselves poor have often proved a stimulus to the imagination" (W. H. Auden). -13 Oct 95 and 19 Nov 96 Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence. -Robert Frost (my 3 Oct 95) Rohypnol: a drug which causes profound sedation, a feeling of calmness, and short-term memory loss. -20 Jun 96 Jason Holland questions psychology as a true science: there is no control group. -21 Jul 95 Life is like a piano. What you get out of it depends on how you play it. -anonymous, seen at Bryan's apartment, 20 Jul 95 Only that day dawns to which we are aware. -Thoreau, seen (not him; the quote, of course) at the Dietzes', 13 Jul 96 I think God made humans because the monkeys just weren't funny enough. -Ellis Brust (20 Sep 95, from Mark Roedel) Your funny friend -Kinnith Erratum, forgot: Thanks to Clyde for providing Sandburg's poem "Arithmetic". ============================================================================= Kinnith Wallace Univ. of Al. in Huntsville <kwallace@cs.uah.edu> or <wallacek@email.uah.edu> <http://www.cs.uah.edu/cs/students/kwallace/> "You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough." -Joe E. LewisSubject: December and everything after
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 00:11:18 -0600 (CST) In the beginning You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but You remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing You will change them and they will be discarded. But You remain the same, and your years will never end. -Psalm 102:25-27 This is probably the last November note before January, if that makes sense. Another message, two days days in a row [sic, sick, sight pun, someone smack me :]. There is humor here somewhere, at the bottom of this mess-age. Neil Young wrote, "One of these days, I'm going to sit down and write a long letter to all the good friends I've known..." This is not that letter, but it is exceptionally clumsily inconveniently long. Do you have the time? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. -Psalm 90:12 I saw on a T-shirt, "It's not the fast pace of life that bothers me. It's the sudden stop at the end." Well, it is the pace of my life that bothers me. (And i still don't understand how to fold time, Frito. There is so much more wisdom about time than i have.) Somewhere i read, "This is the age of the half-read page, the mad dash..." That's all i read, i stopped to do something else. :( "Living is entirely too time-consuming" (Irene Peter). Running through the woods on Thanksgiving, i felt a branch pick off my left contact--a reminder to slow down. "A tug-of-war is going on inside of me, a callous heart that wants to make a change--while time prevails, fighting tooth and nail, keeping me set in my ways" (Wayne Kirkpatrick). Ponder the following contrast: "Better 1" <-- what the optometrist says when comparing lenses ---------- Time goes, you say? Ah no! / Alas, Time stays, we go. -Austin Dobson "Ants Marching" excerpt, by Dave Matthews Band, (C) 1994 BMG Music He wakes up in the morning Does his teeth bit to eat and he's rolling Never changes a thing The week ends, the week begins She thinks, we look at each other Wondering what the other is thinking But we never say a thing And these crimes between us grow deeper Take these chances Place them in a box until a quieter time Lights down, you up and die Goes to visit his mommy She feeds him well his concerns he forgets them And remembers being small Playing under the table and dreaming Driving along this highway All these cars and upon the sidewalk People in every direction No words exchanged, no time to exchange when All the little ants are marching Red and black antennae waving They all do it the same They all do it the same way Take these chances Place them in a box until a quieter time Lights down, you up and die... "Stones In The Road", by Mary Chapin Carpenter, (C) 1994 Why Walk Music When we were young we pledged allegiance every morning of our lives The classroom rang with children's voices under teacher's watchful eye We learned about the world around us, at our desks and at dinner time Reminded of the starving children, we cleaned our plates with guilty minds And the stones in the road, shone like diamonds in the dust And then a voice called to us to make our way back home When I was ten my father held me on his shoulders above the crowd To see a train draped in mourning pass slowly through our town His widow kneeled with all their children at the sacred burial ground And the TV glowed that long hot summer with all the cities burning down And the stones in the road, flew out beneath our bicycle tires Worlds removed from all those fires as we raced each other home And now we drink our coffee on the run / We climb that ladder rung by rung We are the daughters and the sons and here's the line that's missing The starving children have been replaced by souls out on the street We give a dollar when we pass and hope our eyes don't meet We pencil in, we cancel out, we crave the corner suite We kiss your *, we make you hold, we doctor the receipt And the stones in the road fly out from beneath our wheels Another day, another deal before we get back home And the stones in the road leave a mark whence they came A thousand points of light or shame / Baby, I don't know "Better 2" ---------- "Why Walk When You Can Fly?", by Mary Chapin Carpenter, (C) 1994 ibid In this world there's a whole lot of trouble baby In this world there's a whole lot of pain In this world there's a whole lot of trouble but A whole lot of ground to gain Why take when you could be giving / Why watch as the world goes by It's a hard enough life to be living / Why walk when you can fly In this world there's a whole lot of sorrow In this world there's a whole lot of shame In this world there's a whole lot of sorrow And a whole lot of ground to gain When you spend your whole life wishing / Wanting and wondering why It's a long enough life to be living / Why walk when you can fly And in this world there's a whole lot of golden In this world there's a whole lot of plain In this world you've a soul for a compass / And a heart for a pair of wings There's a star on the far horizon / Rising bright in an azure sky For the rest of the time that you're given / Why walk when you can fly high We never shall have any more time. We have, and we have always had, all the time there is. -anonymous How vital it is that we keep a finger on the pulse of our own lives. How critical are those times of self-examination and evaluation. -from On The Anvil by Max Lucado, p. 69 Time is the currency of life. -Clyde I will be grateful for the twenty-four hours that are before me. Time is a precious commodity. I refuse to allow what little time I have to be contaminated by self-pity, anxiety, or boredom. I will face this day with the joy of a child and the courage of a giant. I will drink each minute as though it is my last. When tomorrow comes, today will be gone forever. While it is here, I will use it for loving and giving. Today I will make a difference. -from On The Anvil To me, the important thing is that we live our lives with the lights on, because that adversary can only work when there's darkness--when we keep the doors closed and the window shades pulled, when we keep secrets and don't communicate. If you turn the lights on and throw open the doors and windows, the enemy can't do anything but run. He can't work when the light is shining there. -Steven Curtis Chapman, in CCM (from Michael) At 11:59, we all raised our glasses for the count down, followed by New Year's resolutions. Mine was to live life more passionately. To enjoy every moment for all its worth...to laugh harder, to cry from my toes up, and to allow my passion for living to have its full reign. I've seen too many people did over the last few years. I am absolutely assured that God gave us our lives to FEEL, not to mute. I want to feel all that is given to me--don't want to miss a drop of it. -Margaret Becker, journal 12-31-1994 May God grant that you so enjoy life--His gift--these holidays, that your Christmas is tranquil and your New Year jubilee! -Kinnith, perhaps with too much free time "You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough." -Joe E. Lewis ============================================================================= P.S. No soap, radio. Hope this doesn't happen at your next hotel: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From cstriefe@cs.uah.edu >From: Jennifer A Curkendall <jcurkend@scrippscol.edu> >>This is SOOOOOOOOOOOO funny! >Mari Masuda >Colby College >Waterville, ME Attached is some correspondence which actually occurred between a London hotel's staff and one of its guests. The London hotel involved submitted this to the Sunday Times. No name was mentioned. ......................................................................... Dear Maid, Please do not leave any more of those little bars of soap in my bathroom since I have brought my own bath-sized Dial. Please remove the six unopened little bars from the shelf under the medicine chest and another three in the shower soap dish. They are in my way. Thank you, S. Berman ----------------------------------------------------------- Dear Room 635, I am not your regular maid. She will be back tomorrow, Thursday, from her day off. I took the 3 hotel soaps out of the shower soap dish as you requested. The 6 bars on your shelf I took out of your way and put on top of your Kleenex dispenser in case you should change your mind. This leaves only the 3 bars I left today which my instructions from the management is to leave 3 soaps daily. I hope this is satisfactory. Kathy, Relief Maid ----------------------------------------------------------- Dear Maid -- I hope you are my regular maid. Apparently Kathy did not tell you about my note to her concerning the little bars of soap. When I got back to my room this evening I found you had added 3 little Camays to the shelf under my medicine cabinet. I am going to be here in the hotel for two weeks and have brought my own bath-size Dial so I won't need those 6 little Camays which are on the shelf. They are in my way when shaving, brushing teeth, etc. Please remove them. S. Berman ----------------------------------------------------------- Dear Mr. Berman, My day off was last Wed. so the relief maid left 3 hotel soaps which we are instructed by the management. I took the 6 soaps which were in your way on the shelf and put them in the soap dish where your Dial was. I put the Dial in the medicine cabinet for your convenience. I didn't remove the 3 complimentary soaps which are always placed inside the medicine cabinet for all new check-ins and which you did not object to when you checked in last Monday. Please let me know if I can of further assistance. Your regular maid, Dotty ----------------------------------------------------------- Dear Mr. Berman, The assistant manager, Mr. Kensedder, informed me this A.M. that you called him last evening and said you were unhappy with your maid service. I have assigned a new girl to your room. I hope you will accept my apologies for any past inconvenience. If you have any future complaints please contact me so I can give it my personal attention. Call extension 1108 between 8AM and 5PM. Thank you. Elaine Carmen Housekeeper ----------------------------------------------------------- Dear Miss Carmen, It is impossible to contact you by phone since I leave the hotel for business at 745 AM and don't get back before 530 or 6PM. That's the reason I called Mr. Kensedder last night. You were already off duty. I only asked Mr. Kensedder if he could do anything about those little bars of soap. The new maid you assigned me must have thought I was a new check-in today, since she left another 3 bars of hotel soap in my medicine cabinet along with her regular delivery of 3 bars on the bath-room shelf. In just 5 days here I have accumulated 24 little bars of soap. Why are you doing this to me? S. Berman ----------------------------------------------------------- Dear Mr. Berman, Your maid, Kathy, has been instructed to stop delivering soap to your room and remove the extra soaps. If I can be of further assistance, please call extension 1108 between 8AM and 5PM. Thank you, Elaine Carmen, Housekeeper ----------------------------------------------------------- Dear Mr. Kensedder, My bath-size Dial is missing. Every bar of soap was taken from my room including my own bath-size Dial. I came in late last night and had to call the bellhop to bring me 4 little Cashmere Bouquets. S. Berman ----------------------------------------------------------- Dear Mr. Berman, I have informed our housekeeper, Elaine Carmen, of your soap problem. I cannot understand why there was no soap in your room since our maids are instructed to leave 3 bars of soap each time they service a room. The situation will be rectified immediately. Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience. Martin L. Kensedder Assistant Manager ----------------------------------------------------------- Dear Mrs. Carmen, Who the * left 54 little bars of Camay in my room? I came in last night and found 54 little bars of soap. I don't want 54 little bars of Camay. I want my one * bar of bath-size Dial. Do you realize I have 54 bars of soap in here. All I want is my bath size Dial. Please give me back my bath-size Dial. S. Berman ----------------------------------------------------------- Dear Mr. Berman, You complained of too much soap in your room so I had them removed. Then you complained to Mr. Kensedder that all your soap was missing so I personally returned them. The 24 Camays which had been taken and the 3 Camays you are supposed to receive daily (sic). I don't know anything about the 4 Cashmere Bouquets. Obviously your maid, Kathy, did not know I had returned your soaps so she also brought 24 Camays plus the 3 daily Camays. I don't know where you got the idea this hotel issues bath-size Dial. I was able to locate some bath-size Ivory which I left in your room. Elaine Carmen, Housekeeper ----------------------------------------------------------- Dear Mrs. Carmen, Just a short note to bring you up-to-date on my latest soap inventory. As of today I possess: - - - -- On shelf under medicine cabinet - 18 Camay in 4 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 2. - - - -- On Kleenex dispenser - 11 Camay in 2 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 3. - - - -- On bedroom dresser - 1 stack of 3 Cashmere Bouquet, 1 stack of 4 hotel-size Ivory, and 8 Camay in 2 stacks of 4. - - - -- Inside medicine cabinet - 14 Camay in 3 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 2. - - - -- In shower soap dish - 6 Camay, very moist. - - - -- On northeast corner of tub - 1 Cashmere Bouquet, slightly used. - - - -- On northwest corner of tub - 6 Camays in 2 stacks of 3. Please ask Kathy when she services my room to make sure the stacks are neatly piled and dusted. Also, please advise her that stacks of more than 4 have a tendency to tip. May I suggest that my bedroom window sill is not in use and will make an excellent spot for future soap deliveries. One more item, I have purchased another bar of bath-sized Dial which I am keeping in the hotel vault in order to avoid further misunderstandings. S. Berman >Bye Bye!Subject: it all begins with dying
Date: Fri, 17 Jan 1997 18:15:20 -0600 (CST) The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. -John 12:25 Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from Him. -Psalm 62:5 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I love new years! Happy New York! (I like New York in April. How about you?) The November Notes are renamed to Nowonder Notes, as in, "I'm in the address- book of a sloth of Koalas; no wonder i'm getting junk mail." This is no. 7. "Since The Last Time" There are now more of you on this list. I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore. Actually, one of you is at Northeastern University; one is north by Northwestern; and yes, now one is in Kansas. And it is probably cold weather in Alabama, Texas, Utah...all but Bolivia. (and a foggy day in London town) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | When I die, I don't want no coffin-- | Thought about it all too often. In Search of | Just throw me in behind the wheel -James Taylor, Esther Greenwood | And bury me in my automobile. "Traffic Jam" In person, i am often silly and scatterbrained. I meander; i mumble. In writing, i appear as a somber pedant. To myself, i alternate, and am typically closer to one or the other, depending on whether the current world population is even or odd. My communication changes with mood and degree of arrogance. I can be honest; or callous. I can care; or i can expend my energy to make you think i'm a great person. "Vanity is so secure in the heart of man that everyone wants to be admired: even i who write this and you who read this" (Pascal). I can try to examine my reasons. But i find i can rationalize almost anything. :{ All a man's ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the LORD. -Proverbs 16:2 "Day after day I ask this question / Am I the cure or the infection?" (Ockham's Razor, music group) I know that answer. I can see only a little-- i have a skewed Johari window, and it fogs up easily--but that's plenty... When I die, I want to go peacefully in my sleep, like my grandfather; not screaming, like the passengers in his car. -anonymous, from Clyde :) I can look at my use of time. I did that last week and this week. I am still behind on finishing my incomplete courses, so now i am actually taking five classes instead of three. "You got yourself into your own mess, [by] letting your worries pass you by. Don't you think it's worth your time to change your mind?" (Wilson Phillips). Minutes turn to memories. Today is 17 Jan 1997. If this new year were one day, it would be past 1 AM. What did i do with the last hour? [* footnote] Right now, i'm trying to apply two of the oldest aids to self-discipline: a regular, daily schedule and a to-do list. "At the heart of godliness is discipline of time" (Murray Wilton). Closely related is my obedience to God, or paucity thereof; sometimes a strenuous effort for, sometimes a faithless contest against. Rebecca M. Pippert said in her book Out Of the Salt Shaker, "Christianity isn't a narcotic that dulls you into obedience. It involves battle--it's excruciating to give up control. But that is why we must not feel despair if we are struggling. To struggle does not mean we are incorrigible. It means we are alive!" ( emphasis added) Blessed Assurance blues Thanks to my roommate Michael, i heard Michael English in concert, 4 Jan 97. I enjoyed his singing. He covered many songs; one was a blues version of "Blessed Assurance". He also talked honestly to the audience about his struggles: "God knows my heart. I have gone to Him many, many times. And I have died to Him over and over." I scribbled to transcribe this part: "We are humans and we mess up every day. There is no one on this earth who is a role model. Only God is a role model... Thank God for His forgiveness and His forgetfulness... I'm going to sing a song that I have missed singing, for two and a half years. I missed it like I missed a friend." Then he sang, "In Christ Alone." In Christ alone. Read Romans 11:36, "For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen." In Christ alone. Amber provided the following quote from C.S. Lewis: "Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, rage, ruin and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with everything else thrown in." -closing to Mere Christianity Mostly -Kinnith [*] Frito said, "...God is breathing His life into us this very moment. And the only point in time that really matters is now." I want to live with that awareness. I am forgiven. God not only gave, but is giving everything we need for life and godliness, now, in Christ. --> "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness." -2 Peter 1:3 --> "But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." -1 Corinthians 15:57 P.S. My Lord, I should be sorry if I only entertain them. I wish to make them better. -Handel, quoted by Wes King ============================================================================= Kinnith Wallace Univ. of Al. in Huntsville <kwallace@cs.uah.edu> or <wallacek@email.uah.edu> <http://www.cs.uah.edu/cs/students/kwallace/> "You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough." -Joe E. LewisSubject: the ants are my friends
Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1997 01:10:05 -0600 (CST) May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. -Psalms 19:14 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This Nowonder Note may help me complete--i'm so close to finishing--what seems to be a New Year's goal: offending all my friends during the first six weeks of '97. This note's for you. Well, it's for me, too. I need to apply the wisdom about communication that is scattered in quotes here. How could one exhaust this topic? There's much more to say (i cannot competently convey what's here), but... ----------consider the source---------- "The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded Beware my than the shouts of a ruler of fools." -Ecclesiastes 9:17 shouting. "The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks." -Luke 6:45 ----------Adler & Rodman---------- (i.e., Understanding Human Communication by Ronald B. Adler & George Rodman) "Speech is civilization itself. The word, even the most contradictory word, preserves contact--it is silence which isolates." -Thomas Mann Communication: * Is human. * Is a face-to-face activity. (read my lips, no new Texas :) * Is a process. * Is symbolic. * Requires the response of a receiver. Clarifying misconceptions about communication: * Communication is not always a good thing. * Communication will not solve all problems. * More communication is not always better. * Meanings rest in people, not words. * Communication is not simple. Accuracy and inacuracy in person perception: * We are influenced by what is most obvious. * We cling to first impressions, even if wrong. * We tend to assume others are similar to us. * We tend to favor negative impressions over positive ones. * We blame innocent victims for their misfortunes. ----------i think you know what i mean---------- "Every time I tried to tell you, the words just came out wrong." -Jim Croce "One of my favorite words is 'miscommunication.' Its meaning has become so broad as to justify everything from the Middle East crisis to why a relative missed the wedding. In the business world, vendors and clients alike use it to explain away huge mistakes and, best of all, without assigning responsibility to anyone. It is the verbal Get-Out- of-Jail card for the '90s." -Joe McDonald, in Feb 97 Reader's Digest One classic example of misunderstanding, passengers on a train: first: "I say, is this Wimbley?" second: "No, I believe it's Thursday." third: "Me too, let's get something to drink." cliche', touche' :) "I'm just a soul whose intentions are good. Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood." -the Animals "the curse of Peace", or, the impossibility of empathy In spring '95, i talked with someone who made the apparently innocent comment, "I don't think one person can every really understand how another feels." (It is enough that we wonder whether we communicate well, and the consequences-- "What would you think if I sang out of tune, / Would you stand up and walk out on me?" -the Beatles) I took this quest (the problem of empathy) seriously. In my mind the dilemma mutated: i asked, "Even if we can communicate, why should we?" I think this was the beginning of navigation which led me to a metaphysical Charybdis last year. "There Was A Man" There was a man with a tongue of wood Who essayed to sing, And in truth it was lamentable. But there was one who heard The clip-clapper of this tongue of wood And knew what the man Wished to sing, And with that the singer was content." -Stephen Crane (1871-1900) A possibly apocryphal story of an early computer program for human language translation: The phrase "out of sight, out of mind", when translated and then retranslated to English, became, "invisible lunatic". :) "'Random' to a physicist is not 'random' to a computer scientist." "'Amazingly' --maybe that's not the sort of word that should appear in a mathematical narrative." -Niall Graham I like this (although i don't understand it), and Bernie likes it: "Grease don't taste good, taste taste good." -Yogi Berra (I'm pandering, even though i'm a Koalas. :O ouch.) "Do not pay attention to every word people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you--for you know in your heart that many times you yourself have cursed others." -Ecclesiastes 7:21-22 One of my words of profanity is "jasmine!", which i say at certain moments of frustration. It is non-malicious. That's what you think. ----------how may i help you---------- This is the section where i would like to tap lightly upon the topic of motivation for communication. I would like to, but i don't have time. ("My first thought was, he lied in every word..." -Robert Browning, from Luis) "There are so many contradictions in all these messages we send; we ask, 'How do I get out of here?', 'Where do I fit in?'" -the Eagles One of our goals--one of many--for communication is to convey ideas. (but "Ideas are like stars." -Mary Chapin Carpenter) "A diplomat is a fellow that lets you do all the talking while he gets what he wants." -Frank McKinney Hubbard Speaking primarily of DNA-encoded data, Dr. Graham said, "It may turn out that the information content of a cabbage is the same as that of a human." Compelled (by what?) to reply, i commented, "But i've never had any good conversations with cabbage." "A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions." -Proverbs 18:2 ----------know when to say when------------ "Why don't th' feller who says, 'I'm not a speechmaker,' let it go at that instead o' givin' a demonstration?" -Frank McKinney Hubbard I should know when to stop talking. You don't have to tell me when to quit. I can sense that inflection point--you don't have to tell me to shut up, i know when to shut up--that moment when it's time to change topics or move my feet. I ought to know when to shut up... My point, and i do have one: i often lose the point (like Stevie Wonder singing "Blowin' In The Wind"). "In New England, silence is as much a part of the conversation as anything you say." -Rebecca Gallagher "Never miss a chance to keep your mouth shut." -Robert Newton Peck "Words that have been spoken can fall dead...but no one can retrieve the words that have already been said." -anonymous, from Jason Holland ----------the dangling conversation---------- "You see me on the street / You always act surprised / You say, 'How are you?', 'Good luck.' But you don't mean it." -Bob Dylan Mail gets lost (even e-mail); people miss messages on voice mail and those machines. Our attention wanders while others are speaking, and also while we are speaking. "...the words that you have spoken lie frozen in the air. And sometimes i look right through them as if they were not there." -Lyle Lovett "We come into this world as babies, and that's the way we go out. I used to be able to pick up the phone and talk to anybody I wanted to. Enjoy the power while you can, because once you retire they don't return your calls anymore." -anonymous, from Jeremiah Feenstra ----------never talk to strangers---------- "The human personality is a reservoir of the most incredible feelings and ideas." -Larry Crabb "People are strange when you're a stranger." -the Beatles It's not a subtle point, but we must know our audience in order to communicate effectively. I can't fully explain how, but i managed to grasp this mostly from classes with three professors at LeTourneau: Miss Arnold, Dr. Baas, and Dr. Feezell. Some mathematical "justification" for this comes from Claude Shannon, who introduced information theory. In information theory (somewhat related to computer science), communication is defined as choice for the sender, and resolution of uncertainty for the receiver. Receiver's uncertainty means that you know i could say any of a zillion things, but you don't know which one i will say. Sender's choice means that i can use what i know about you to narrow your attention from the many things i could say to the one thing i am trying to say. An analogy: NASA personnel conversing between Houston and space. I could speak only vaguely with an astronaut about such things as spacecraft maintenance procedures. But i could communicate clearly and efficiently if i knew that we both held in hand a copy of the same lexicon--in a sense, our secret code book. I could refer to a page in the dictionary, and know that we both saw the same words. For example, "diorama" could help explain what i mean when i say, "It's a small world after all." The real dictionary is inside us. And we have different editions, by different publishers. However, sometimes i can copy pages out of yours and paste into mine (And you can copy pages of mine). In conversation, i can pick words that we use with similar meaning. In my mind and in yours, they are connected to some of the same ideas. I can refer to common experiences, because they give me a connection to something that i know is within you. This is one point of the movie Nell. Jerome and Paula (the researchers) learn to translate Nell's language because they learn to understand her. If i know you [and (as) if i were a good communicator], i can talk right to your heart. Perhaps. "I could say that a thousand times. Only God could communicate that from my heart to you." -Murray Wilton But God can speak directly to your soul. John 2:25 says of Christ, "He did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man." Con muchas palabras -Kinnith P.S. "All's well that ends satisfactorily." -from the movie The Private Eyes ============================================<wallacek@email.uah.edu>========= Kinnith Wallace <kwallace@cs.uah.edu> Univ. of Al. in Huntsville <natural.born.fool @mindless dot com> <http://www.cs.uah.edu/cs/students/kwallace> "You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough." -Joe E. Lewis "You are only one person, but...you can keep adding e-mail addresses." :]Subject: lime julep, strawberry wine
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 1997 20:41:58 -0600 (CST) "Desire to tell the story of a love that loved enough to die burns away all other passions and fed by Calvary's love becomes a fire." -Greg Nelson & Phil McHugh, "Only Jesus / Calvary's Love" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- There's still a lot of things you'll never know, -Stephen Like why each time the sky begins to snow you cry. Bishop? Lately i'm using the Nowonder Notes as a tool: 1. Gaining your ideas. 2. Collating yours and mine. For some topics, i have many quotes and a few ideas floating around in my memory. They have never been together in my thinking workspace, however. Writing them is like a block party where the notions come out of their apartments and get to meet the neighbors. This one has low attendance (there are also many vacancies). 3. Communicating (?). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "It takes more than marble and tile A man in love is incomplete Livin' on love until he has married. Then ... he's finished. -Zsa Zsa Gabor It sounds simple-- [: that's what you're thinkin' But love can walk through Love is a many-splintered fire without blinkin' thing. -the cynic in Kynith It doesn't take much when you get enough Livin' on love." -Alan Jackson "Love is a settled commitment to seek what is best for another person." -Charles Hood "Truth and love are the foundations of good communication... What can love do? Love casts out fear. Love removes selfishness. Love places the attention on the other. This clears up the lines. It removes distortions of fear, selfishness, first impressions, etc. It says, 'What are they trying to say and how can I help?' instead of 'I don't want to hear this.'" -Andrew Yoder, near-verbatim "When I say, 'I love you Lord' / What does it mean? I know it's one thing to say it / And another thing to do How can I show You it's true? / I'm gonna love You with my life... Some people love with money / Some people love with words Some people love because they love the returns Yet with all these complications / The greatest love is always found In the one who lays his life down... I'm gonna love You with my life." -Steven Curtis Chapman there is a moment in time from this place when the knowledge of love every direction is the same and the experience of love backwards...forwards... precariously meet all indelibly marked to from one brilliant point with the peace that comes of rest when it is finally understood for the soul that nothing <-> can shake you from the firm grip Love so amazing, of love's hand So divine, demands my soul, -Margaret Becker My life, my all... -"When I survey the wondrous Cross..." ----------north Richmond street, being blind [*]---------- "Love is a four-letter word, but you don't hear it nearly as often as you hear some other four-letter words. It may be a sign of our times that everyone talks openly about sex, but we seem to be embarrassed to talk about love." -Thomas Sowell, in Jan '97 Reader's Digest According to U2, "Love is clockworks and cold steel, fingers too numb to feel... Love is blindness." I think some others see love more clearly. I did remember, after writing last note, that one day in spring '95, Dr. Baas had given a devotion about love. I think he said that we don't usually relate knowledge to love. Or, that if we think of love growing, we don't consider it growing in knowledge. The text: "And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ--to the glory and praise of God." -Philippians 1:9-11 With love in the Lamb -Kinnith [*] from the short story "Araby" by James Joyce P.S. (love potion # 9) * (February 14) = April 1 :^) ============================================<wallacek@email.uah.edu>========= Kinnith Wallace <kwallace@cs.uah.edu> Univ. of Al. in Huntsville <natural.born.fool @mindless dot com> <http://www.cs.uah.edu/cs/students/kwallace> "You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough." -Joe E. LewisSubject: test for echo (ne1)
Date: Fri, 21 Feb 1997 17:23:00 -0600 (CST) "Texas is bigger than it used to be" It has been a busy+melancholy week in Lake Wobegon. I applied for a passport (my first time seeing that side of the courthouse), filed my taxes by phone, played in the rain. "life by the drop" We had a strong thunderstorm this morning, somewhat like the ones in Longview. "I'll do my smiling in the rain." I went walking with my Texas- sized umbrella about 7:50am. Already warm, the sky was crying--it was great! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The next few Nowonder Notes view some topics through cross-sections. One part is 'the best of what's around,' and sounds better with intermissions. "[Seeing] London in three days is like eating an entire fruitcake in one bite." -Will Strauss I think i should give another disclaimer (my sister worries about me): "I'm back in that euphoria in which i spent much of my senior year at LeTu. I don't know how it will affect me here--i almost want to say i wish it wouldn't--or how long it will stay. But i'll enjoy it as it is. My brain is out on vacation; my emotions have the office to themselves." -journal, 18 Feb 97 ----------the sound of one heart beating---------- "Every child in God's family, souls orphaned at birth, knows a hunger--a thirst to be wanted. And every son, every daughter, whether pauper or king, can celebrate heaven's welcoming arms." -Wayne Watson Lonely Stranger, by Eric Clapton I must be / invisible / No one knows me I have crawled / down dead-end streets / on my hands and knees I was born / with a ragin' thirst / a hunger to be free What I've learned / through the years / don't encourage me (chorus) 'Cause I'm a lonely stranger here / Will be all my days And I don't know what's going on / So I'll be on my way / (Yes I will)... When I walk / stay behind / Don't get close to me 'Cause it's sure / to end in tears / So just let me be Some will say / that I'm no good / Maybe I agree Take a look / then walk way / That's all right with me (repeat chorus) "Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no one else can share its joy." -Proverbs 14:10 ----------every ounce of energy---------- "How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong--because someday you will have been all of these." -George Washington Carver I WONDER (from a shirt worn by Dan Bennett) Sometimes I have more questions than answers... [on front] I believe in the sun, even when it isn't shining. [on back] I believe in love, even when I'm alone. I believe in God, even when He's silent. -Polish W.W.II refugee (Die wondering. Wonder is necessary.) I wish I could exist as if only love matters -Tracy Chapman, from as if redemption was in sight Will Strauss (thanks for as if the search to live honestly my favorite quote of '96) was all that anyone needs. "The things which matter and hold the utmost meaning in life are the ones which require every ounce of energy... Trying to grow and define convictions is an arduous task. There is a constant struggle which I still find in my life--to rely completely on God. My faith has seen times low and dark. Fear has overwhelmed my soul when predicaments have attacked... When I have sat down at the feet of wisdom and listened, the hope which I have received has renewed my dreams." -Tana Rafael Guidos, in 20 Apr 95 LeTu Yellowjacket Aren't you glad Jesus didn't sleep in on Easter morning? -Murray Wilton Until my passport arrives [*], i am [*] and i repay my loans -Kinnith P.S. I wish i could be like Michael, (small thought for the day :) who doesn't compare himself to others. ============================================<kwallace@cs.uah.edu>============ Kinnith Wallace <wallacek@email.uah.edu> Univ. of Al. in Huntsville <natural.born.fool @mindless dot com> <http://www.cs.uah.edu/cs/students/kwallace> "You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough." -Joe E. LewisSubject: recovering the satellites
Date: Thu, 27 Feb 1997 23:22:46 -0600 (CST) > Kinnith, read more Sherlock Holmes Thank you. Much better now. Except for catching cold this week--probably from playing in the rain. :| > Was there any one coherent thought tying everything together...? I'll try to be more understandable. Here's Nowonder Note 11 (binary 1011), compiled quotes on equipment, "technology", computers. Even if i still give staccato information, nothing will be lost. Maybe some day i could pass the Turing test. "Illegal character on line 99." Oh well. ----------equipment operators---------- "We are all just prisoners here, of our own device." -the Eagles "It's me and my machine for the rest of the morning, and the rest of the afternoon, solid gone...for the rest of my life." -James Taylor, "Millworker" Cecil B. De Mille was filming the scene where the Exodus from Egypt begins. The entire town set was to be destroyed. He set up three cameras and set all of his thousands of Hebrews in motion. The scene was played, the town destroyed. Picking up his megaphone, the great director asked: "Camera One--how was it?" The answer: "A real work of art, C.B., but the film broke." De Mille, undaunted, called out: "Camera Two--how'd it go?" "Brilliant, C.B., but I left the lens cap on." Desperate now, De Mille called: "Camera Three-- come in, Camera Three!" And the eager reply: "Ready when you are, C.B.!" -William Safire et alii in You Could Look It Up, near-verbatim ----------lasers in the jungle---------- "From now on my clothes will be perfect, made by machine-- No more handmade clothes." -Mottle in Fiddler On The Roof "In Computers", by Alan P. Lightman In the magnets of computers will be stored Blend of sunset over wheat fields. Low thunder of gazelle. Light, sweet wind on high ground. Vacuum stillness spreading from a thick snowfall. Men will sit in rooms upon the smooth, scrubbed earth or stand in tunnels on the moon and instruct themselves in how it was. Nothing will be lost. Nothing will be lost. "My tiny daughter was playing in the tub and had stretched a wet washcloth over the edge, pulling it toward herself while making a low, motor-type sound. I was about to scold her for dripping water all over the floor when she piped up, 'Look, Mommy! I'm sending a fax.'" (: -Shimmy Wachtel, in December '96 Reader's Digest "Pessimists have already begun to worry about what is going to replace automation." -Laurence J. Peter "Japanese researchers at Tokyo University and Tsukuba University said they will begin in February testing a project to surgically implant micro- processors and electrode sets, and eventually micro-cameras, into American cockroaches for a variety of possible missions, including espionage surveillance and searching for victims in earthquake rubble. The equipment, which can also receive remote-control signals to command the cockroach's movements, weighs a 10th of an ounce, twice a typical roach's weight but still only a 10th of what it potentially can carry." (They should see East -from the junk paper published Wednesdays Texas' cockroaches.) "These are the days of lasers in the jungle Lasers in the jungle somewhere Staccato signals of constant information A loose affiliation of millionaires And billionaires and baby These are the days of miracle and wonder This is the long distance call The way the camera follows us in slo-mo -Paul Simon, from The way we look to us all..." "The Boy In The Bubble" CONtrast "It is question- "Mankind, under the grace of God, hungers for spiritual able if all the peace, esthetic achievements, family security, justice, mechanical and liberty, none directly satisfied by industrial inventions productivity. But productivity allows the sharing of yet made have the plentiful rather than fighting over scarcity; it lightened the provides time for spiritual, esthetic, and family day's toil of matters. It allows society to delegate special skills any human being." to institutions of religion, justice, and the preser- -John Stuart Mill vation of liberty." -Harlan Mills, qtd. by Grady Booch "I think people are nourished and relieved to hear interesting lyrics... Any quality at all...is really appreciated given the fact that it's a world where the quality of life is being eroded. The quality of everything is being eroded, except technology." -Paul Simon, emphasis added "Computers can figure out all kinds of problems, except the things in the world that just don't add up." -James Magary "In short, the antitheist's answer to pain is technology." -Ravi Zacharias -Kinnith, user ID 4935 on pluto.cs.uah.edu ============================================<kwallace@cs.uah.edu>============ Kinnith Wallace <wallacek@email.uah.edu> Univ. of Al. in Huntsville <natural.born.fool @mindless dot com> <http://www.cs.uah.edu/cs/students/kwallace> "You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough." -Joe E. LewisSubject: hope chest
Date: Mon, 3 Mar 1997 02:51:46 -0600 (CST) How to tell if your neighbors are militia members: When you say, "Good morning," they reply, "That's what the government wants you to believe." (: -Scott Craven, in Feb 97 Reader's Digest Good morning. It is 2:53 AM, Monday, 3 Mar. Couldn't sleep--i slept all yesterday, hoping to get better. (I think i'm getting an ear infection; i hope to see a doctor soon.) So i drove along the road to the computer lab, where i sit typing, listening to Along The Road. [:) I feel horrible right now. Partly because i'm sick. Partly because i recognized today that i wasted two friends' time on Saturday. (Sorry.) But i still have the residue of euphoria. It's not lightheadedness. A richer flavor--a desire to live. HOPE. I think that's what you call it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "It is much easier to walk away from a hurtful past than to confront the issues. But we cannot remove the past from our hearts--it is there to stay. And the only HOPE for true peace with the past is to face it at its worst, to seek to forgive, to be forgiven, to make amends and to be reconciled." -Stephen Afterburn, in Feb 97 R.D. "Where there is love / there is a peace and in the cages that bind the bitter heart / it is release hold it close to your chest / let it move, and let it rest for it is here to set your mind at ease / ... Where there is HOPE / there is a dream to rise above, to remit, and to redeem -"Song of Reconciliation" to go back, to go where by Wayne Kirkpatrick, there's no hurt or anger there on Along The Road to find the song / that you once could sing / ... Where there is faith / there is a chance to alter the course / and fights the winds of circumstance not to scar, but to mend / not to break, but to bend and not to know, but to understand" "When I was a baby, I kept a diary. Recently I was rereading it. It said, 'Day One--Still tired from the move. Day Two--Everybody talks to me like I'm an idiot.' And I can remember turning from one year old to two. I was very upset because I figured in one year my age doubled. I thought, 'If this keeps up, by the time I'm seven I'll be 64.'" -Steven Wright, in Feb 97 R.D Recently i was rereading my journal. "Maybe nothing will go as i HOPE. Perhaps i won't finish school... Perhaps i'll forget what clearer mental vision i've had. Maybe i'll forget, become 'unrecognizable to myself' (Springsteen). But i'm tough, like a sun-hardened piece of dung; i can take it. I don't know why i bother to hope anyway. Why do You destroy me with hope? [should be: 'Why do i destroy me with doubt?'] O God, why do i love the pit so much? Why do You still love me anyway?" -31 Jan 97 "Praise the Lord, O my soul; all my inmost being, praise His holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits--who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's." -Psalm 103:1-5 (NIV) Peace cannot coexist with HOPE without also having faith. For example, without faith, my hope to be married (which was given to me by a God who Himself longs for relationship) becomes worry, frustration, exasperation-- anything but peaceful--if i don't trust God to "satisfy my desires with good things." Carman sings, "God sustains the soul." If i don't rest in God's control, my own restlessness destroys me. My impatience leads me to follow whatever cardboard sign seems to lead to the same feeling of life as that desire; but the signs were posted by the enemy, and i even imagined a few myself (my mind is so eager to 'get rich quick'). It would seem better to be dead--dead people are not known for following their desires--than to have this desire but not trust God to fill it. 'Filling it': whether through marriage, or perhaps changing the desire into another good desire for something else, or maybe not until heaven. I don't know what He will do. "The waiting is the hardest part" (Tom Petty). That third possibility, 'not filling it until heaven' makes me furious during those times (often, sadly) when i doubt His goodness. "In His time, in His time, He makes all things beautiful in His time." -? -journal, 1 Feb 97, influenced by Understanding People by Larry Crabb "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy he has given us new birth into a living HOPE through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you" -1 Peter 1:3-4 HEAVEN Love without measure / Space without time Life with no crying / Will one day be mine Hearts never breaking / Hands that don't fight Days that don't end with the darkness of night The lamb and the lion / Will walk side by side In a world where freedom abides Windows of glory swing open wide (CHORUS) To shower down blessings and shine Down a light on my soul / I do believe / Oh can't you see That's what Heaven will be like / That's what Heaven will be Friends that don't leave you / Smiles that don't fade Nobody's hurting / No one's afraid No hungry children / Loved ones don't die No sad farewells / There'll be no more goodbyes (repeat chorus) All the burdens and longings / We bring to this place Disappear in the moment / We look at the love on / His face -Michael English, Dawn Thomas Yarbrough, Bob Farrell, Tommy Sims "i HOPE--to want Him so much" "In my own walk of faith, i have over the years acquired a small list of the things i pray for always: compassion--to see others the way our Master does; wisdom; and the first on the list is passion--to long for and love the Master more than anything in the world and to serve him with all my heart. If we fulfill the greatest commandment, we truly will want Him. Maybe someday I'll be able--i'm getting there, i hope--to want Him so much that I can join with Jack's character in Shadowlands by William Nicholson in saying: 'I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn't change God. It changes me.'" -Sam Holliday Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your HOPE fully on the grace to given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." -1 Peter 1:13-16 Gotta go. A thunderstorm is passing. God's cappucino is almost ready. -Kinnith P.S. "A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience." -Oliver Wendell Holmes ============================================<kwallace@cs.uah.edu>============ "You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough." -Joe E. LewisSubject: sometimes we never did
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 1997 18:09:58 -0600 (CST) I was caulking in Memphis... -Marc Cohn, misheard Saturday i fixed my bathroom sink with GE's vinegar-flavored caulk, and cleaned as i awaited a silicone cure. I found that, besides bicycling, my best physical exercise may be scrubbing grease and shoe marks from the kitchen floor while the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds plays. This is Nowonder Note 13: quotes about living on purpose, without regrets. Wouldn't it be nice. I know perfectly well I'm not where I should be. ...how can I come on and tell them the way that they live could be better? -Brian Wilson ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- My brother and a friend use the title phrase to describe amusing hypothetical experiences. "Remember how we used to...?" "Yeah, sometimes we never did." Loveliest of trees, the cherry now The good old days weren't Is hung with bloom along the bough, always good, and tomorrow ain't And stands about the woodland ride as bad as it seems. -Billy Joel Wearing white for Eastertide. They say youth's a treasure Now, of my threescore years and ten, we waste when we're young. Twenty will not come again, -Marc Cohn And take from seventy springs a score, What I aspired to be, It only leaves me fifty more. And was not, comforts me. And since to look at things in bloom -Robert Browning Fifty springs are little room, I recall my so-called misspent About the woodlands I will go youth. It seems more worthwhile To see the cherry hung with snow. every single day. -Jimmy Webb -A. E. Housman If you do something that turns out wrong, you can almost always put it right, get over it, learn from it, or at least deny it. But once you've missed something, it's gone. There will be the girl you never got to say the right words to, the band you never got to see live, the winning streak you never got to cheer on, the brilliant retiring professor whose class you never took, the relative you never got very close with. It's a long list no matter what. Try to keep it as short as possible. -Gordon Drizschilo, in Dec '96 R.D. I have finally found a place to live, just like I never could before ...a place to live, in the presence of the Lord. -Eric Clapton Grace... the Grace to laugh, Grace, the Grace to cry, to take each step confidently, boldly Grace to drink each breath knowing that Grace granted them with the fullness of experience... each one a privilege, a gift, never Grace to be repeated. to do all these things in the assurance, in the shelter, Live Boldly in Grace. of God's all-encompassing Love. -Margaret Becker Look, I understand "too little too late" I realize there are things you say and do [that] you can never take back But what would you be if you didn't even try / You have to try So after a lot of thought, I'd like to reconsider Please, if it's not too late, make it a cheeseburger. -Lyle Lovett (; How vain it is to sit down A person will be called to account on to write when you have not Judgment Day for every permissible thing stood up to live. -Thoreau he might have enjoyed but did not. -Talmud Purpose is but the slave to memory, There are so many things that Of violent birth, but poor validity... we wish we had done yesterday, What to ourselves in passion we propose, so few that we feel like doing The passion ending, doth the purpose lose. today. -Mignon McLaughlin -from Hamlet, III.ii.194-201 ----------once---------- I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again. -Will. Penn You only live once, but if you work it right, once is enough. -Joe E. Lewis So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. -2 Cor 5:16 A Texas rancher asks to see the largest ranch in Israel, and is shown a spread of only six acres. The Texan describes his own ranch by saying he can start driving at sunup on the longest day of the year and finally, at sundown, he would still be driving on his own property. To which his Israeli host replies, "I once had a car like that." -Edward Bleier, quoted by William Safire, paraphrased You saved me one time, You filled me one time, You save me every day You fill me every day From hands that won't be still With a love that just won't go From the one who wants to kill me With a hunger just to know You From a twisted human will With the precious Holy Ghost You save me every day You fill me every day You forgave me one time, You fill me every day You forgive me every day For a mouth that is profane Come and fill me every day For a heart so full of anger For the sin that will not change -100 Portraits You forgive me every day But now, by dying to what once bound us, He sacrificed for their we have been released from the law so that sins once for all when we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and He offered Himself. not in the old way of the written code. -Romans 7:6 -Hebrews 7:27c ----------Is it strange I should change? -Neil Young---------- I have been keeping a journal since 7 Jun 94, usefully since Jan 95. I often wonder whether i am enthralled with life or solely infatuated with my life, and whether i would understand the difference if God showed me. Many...tombstones should read, "Died at 30. Buried at 60." -Nicholas Butler Aim for the dirt and you'll never know glorious redemption or heavenly hope.. ..In those deceptive days when the dung and the mire look like the high wire, Will there be anyone who loves me enough to say, "...aim a little higher"? -Charlie Peacock I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life... -Thoreau, in Walden (from Sam Holliday) I have always been unsatisfied with life as most people live it. Always I want to live more intensely and richly. -Everett Ruess, quoted in Into The Wild If you get out of the light, you become a sentimental Christian, and live only on your memories, and your testimony will have a hard metallic ring to it. -Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest, Aug 13 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self- control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. -2 Peter 1:3-9 It's so sad These days keep slipping by Where I live so tentatively When I could be Running freely in the light Of the Love that is for me I pray for the wisdom to hold Each day more preciously Oh, for the eyes that can see For the heart that can keep All the love You have for me The memory of Your peace And for the truth to remain And for the truth to remain Close enough to change me Close enough to change -Margaret Becker Tentatively -Kinnith ============================================================================= The world will come to see / This Truth that's changing me. -Wes KingSubject: sinking of the USS Oreo
Date: Sun, 27 Apr 1997 16:36:25 -0500 (CDT) Sign on a door at the Mad. County Courthouse: "Out of order" This is message disorganized. "Amorphous is a closer shape to life than symmetry" (Paul Simon). And it's the last Nowonder Note. "There will be other songs some other day, but that's the story of my life" (Billy Joel). But it's long. "Shake and shake / The catsup bottle. None will come, / And then a lot'll" (Richard Armour). ----------about the anthologist---------- If you write thrillers, people think that you must live a thrilling life and enjoy doing thrilling things. -Ian Fleming My life isn't as eloquent as these notes make it appear [to me]. Lately i'm more unsociable (go ask Alice); and when i'm not, i'm fauxpaseudosocial. "That i have friends is a miracle; that i deserve them, a myth" (15 Mar 97). When people find a man of...abilities as a writer their inferior while he is with them, it must be highly gratifying to them. -Samuel Johnson It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others. -anonymous (from Will Mullin :) My writing's improving, but i ain't Dr. Johnson. It's been nice snowing you. It's hard to rely on my good intentions, why my head's full of things that I can't mention. -Toad the Wet Sprocket (from Andrew Yoder) Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him. -Proverbs 26:2 There have been more than a few glimpses inside my mind--not the best topic. If all I've done in the time we've shared is turn your eyes on me Then I've failed at what I've been called to do There's someone else I want you to see... I pray for nothing less than for you to love Jesus more. -Phillips, Craig & Dean (words by Shawn Craig & John Mandeville) ----------"for no other purpose"---------- "Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one's heart, its pleasures and its pains, to a dear friend. Tell Him your troubles, that He may comfort you; tell Him your joys, that He may sober them; tell Him your longings, that He may purify them; tell Him your dislikes, that He may help you to conquer them; talk to Him of your temptations, that He may shield you from them; show Him the wounds of your heart, that He may heal them; lay bare your indifference to good, your depraved tastes for evil, your instability. Tell Him how self-love makes you unjust to others, how vanity tempts you to be insincere, how pride disguises you to yourself as to others. If you thus pour out all your weaknesses, needs, troubles, there will be no lack of what to say. You will never exhaust the subject. It is continually being renewed. People who have no secrets from each other never want subjects of conversation. They do not weigh their words, for there is nothing to be held back; neither do they seek for something to say. They talk out of the abundance of their heart, without consideration, just what they think. Blessed are they who attain to such familiar, unreserved intercourse with God." -Fenelon (from Tracey Riverman) It is very possible that our I'm calling all defenders of the truth churches are totally irrelevant to live a life that spells out God's ...because we are missing the world view. -Steven Curtis Chapman heart of God. -Murray Wilton "...the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose. It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose. It says in the Bible that the whole universe was made for Christ and that everything is to be gathered together in Him." -C.S. Lewis, in Mere Christianity, book 4, chapter 8 Les Lofquist reminded me that the context of "living sacrifices" is this: Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out! "Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?" "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?" For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen. Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--His good, pleasing and perfect will. -Romans 11:33-12:2 ----------"What's for dinner, Grandpa?"---------- There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything. Both ways save us from thinking. -Alfred Korzybski Most things which batter around inside me get coated with skepticism, then fried in anger. All these questions in my head, these empty spaces in my heart--one day my life will implode (1 Feb, 15 Mar 97). Several things are cooking concomitantly in my soul: some mixed together like stir fry; some in separate saucepans. Percolating truth? (25 Mar 97) You achieve a state of Negative Capability, and are able to be in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable searching after fact and reason. -John Keats, quoted in the Hitchhiker's Guide... game I am not Schrodinger's, but Socrates' cat; i keep coughing up metaphysical hairballs. I cannot swallow the world without questioning, without irritable searching. I sometimes try to do so (hear "A Thousand Miles From Nowhere" by Dwight Yoakam), i often want to--it's more 'practical' to live without thinking--but i can't. Why are you so petrified of silence / Here, can you handle this? [pause] Did you think about your bills, your ex, your deadlines, Or when you think you're gonna die-- Or did you long for the next distraction? -Alanis Morissette I don't think i'm an iconoclast. Instead, i seem to be visiting the ghost towns of philosophy. My contemporaries probably have postcards from tours before mine. "Everything has been thought of before, but the problem is to think of it again" (Goethe). "If you can see in any given situation only what everybody else can see, you can be said to be so much a representative of your culture that you are a victim of it" (S. I. Hayakawa). (24, 26 Apr 97) ----------"at the risk of seeking purpose" (prospective itinerary)---------- "I am convinced that much of what we admire as spiritual maturity is a fragile adjustment to life built squarely on the foundation of denial. Many people get along quite well because they refuse to acknowledge and grapple with whatever part of reality may be upsetting, especially those parts within themselves. (Internal reality is more easily denied than external reality)... Healthy people are not afraid of confusion. They have given up their claim to independence and control and can therefore tolerate, even welcome, uncertainty. Confusion deepens their vulnerability to being led by someone who is not confused. They enter warmly into their inherent dependence as finite beings by defining faith as the courage to move on in the absence of clarity." -from chapters 7-8 of Understanding People by Larry Crabb Bombarded by philosophies that satisfy the surface, I flee to something deeper at the risk of seeking purpose. -DC Talk, from "So Help Me God" I have begun rereading Can Man Live Without God by Ravi Zacharias. Most of us fail to realize that the battle of ideas being waged in modern America--euphemistically known as the culture war--is merely a symptom... What we have to do is attack the deeper cause of the cultural conflict... to dig down to the philosophical roots of the battles we are fighting. ...[I]f Christians are to be heard by the modern mind and make effective inroads into our culture, we must first develop what Francis Schaeffer called a cultural apologetic. We must defend the very concept of truth. -Charles Colson, in the foreword to Can Man Live Without God What about love? What about God? What about holiness? What about mercy, compassion and selflessness? What have we become? -DC Talk The importance of understanding the chasm to which man's thinking has brought him is not of intellectual value alone, but of spiritual value as well... It is our generation of Christians more than any other who need to heed these words which are attributed to Martin Luther: If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battle- field besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point. It would be false to say that there is always a totally uniform culture. This is not so. And yet, as we study the art and literature of the past, and those things which help us to understand a culture, we find that there tends to be a drift towards a monolithic and uniform whole... Those standing in the stream of historic Christianity have been especially slow to understand the relationships between various areas of thought. When the Apostle warned us to 'keep ourselves--unspotted from the world', he was not talking of some abstraction. If the Christian is to apply this injunction to himself he must understand what confronts him antagonistically in his own moment of history. Otherwise he simply becomes a useless museum piece and not a living warrier for Jesus Christ. -from chapter 1 of The God Who Is There by Francis Schaeffer What is the world-spirit in our generation? I am trying to understand. Its essence must be like the oldest lie: "Did God really...?" "[W]hether we think Jesus died for our sins or assume that the federal government created the AIDS virus, most of us harbor beliefs for which hard evidence is lacking." -Geoffrey Cowley, in 14 Apr 97 Newsweek There are...few of us who understand It always amazed me how someone our faith. It is almost as if we have could come to the edge of the world, taken our brains and put them in the drop a stone down the side, and... toilet before we come to church. return to the very same life. -Murray Wilton -Charlie Peacock This is what the LORD says: "Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the LORD. I know, O LORD, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps. Correct me, LORD, but only with justice--not in Your anger, lest You reduce me to nothing. -Jeremiah 9:23-24, 10:23-24 > Where have you come from? (Paul Lanier) From the abyss of self. "Surely i was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me" (Psalm 51:5). > Where are you going? "I cannot see where life will take me; there's still so far to go. But this one thing i've come to realize--You're all i need to know. Against the frailty of my humanness, with everything i am i promise this: There'll be no other God before You." -Donna Douglas and Margaret Becker In Christ -Kinnith P.S. Many can speak well, but few can do well. We are better scholars in the theory than the practice part, but he is a true Christian that is a proficient in both. -Anne Bradstreet ============================================================================= "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." -Jesus Christ
The Nowonder Notes were followed by the Mediocre Notes.
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