A Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

WHAT THE HEART OF THE YOUNG MAN SAID TO THE PSALMIST

TELL me not, in mournful numbers,
 Life is but an empty dream !
 — For the soul is dead that slumbers,
 And things are not what they seem.

 Life is real ! Life is earnest!
 And the grave is not its goal ;
 Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
 Was not spoken of the soul.

 Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
 Is our destined end or way ;
 But to act, that each to-morrow
 Find us farther than to-day.

 Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
 And our hearts, though stout and brave,
 Still, like muffled drums, are beating
 Funeral marches to the grave.

 In the world's broad field of battle,
 In the bivouac of Life,
 Be not like dumb, driven cattle !
 Be a hero in the strife !

 Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant !
 Let the dead Past bury its dead !
 Act,— act in the living Present !
Heart within, and God o'erhead !

 Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
 And, departing, leave behind us
 Footprints on the sands of time ;

 Footprints, that perhaps another,
 Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
 A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
 Seeing, shall take heart again.

 Let us, then, be up and doing,
 With a heart for any fate ;
 Still achieving, still pursuing,
 Learn to labor and to wait.

The Wayfarer by Stephen Crane

THE WAYFARER,
 Perceiving the pathway to truth,
 Was struck with astonishment.
 It was thickly grown with weeds.
 “Ha,” he said,
 “I see that none has passed here
 In a long time.”
 Later he saw that each weed
 Was a singular knife.
 “Well,” he mumbled at last,
 “Doubtless there are other roads.”

Book Review: Beauty Will Save the World

Beauty Will Save the World: Recovering the Human in an Ideological Age by Gregory Wolfe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I liked this book.  I especially liked the chapters on authors and political figures. I think my favorites were Wendell Berry and Russell Kirk, because I was fascinated with them to begin with, but didn't know much.  I also liked the section on Flannery O'Connor, because it helped me understand why I can't get comfortable in her stories.

Parts of the book were rough going.  Sometimes I had trouble following his arguments.  Other times I struggled with my own lack of theoretical literary knowledge.  I didn't get some of his terms, but chose to let them fly by rather than looking them up. I did not want to get bogged down with the dictionary.

I liked the autobiographical bits.  They made the book more personal and were just plain interesting.  I like knowing how a person's experiences have colored his ideas.


View all my reviews

Review of the Harry Potter Books

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling


I read the series over Christmas break because Mariel had read it and I wanted to have conversations with her.

The first book is not very good writing. The writing and storyline get better as you read through the series, although it always seems somewhat self-conscious.

First... it's about witchcraft. I have definite philosophical/religious problems with that. Setting that aside, and looking at it as a parallel universe, it turns out to be a great story. I admire Harry Potter. He feels real, he faces difficult decisions, and he gradually comes to nobility.

Rowling is good at character development. I would be reading along thinking, "Ho hum, your basic tween/teen series with all the repetitive 'novelty' of that genre," then a character would take a turn that I didn't expect. This happened over and over. She makes you realize that it is easy to misread a person's actions-- that a bad guy may not be bad at all, you are simply taking his actions at face value.

I am noticing these characters more and more in current literature. I guess you call them anti-villains or anti-heroes, or what-is-this-person-a-good-or-bad-guy. Take Elphaba in the musical, "Wicked". (Also a witch, btw.) She seems to be the dysfunctional bad guy in Oz. Glinda appears to be the good one. Then Glinda seems to be the legalistic status-quo bad guy and Elphaba is the misunderstood, mistreated misanthrope who becomes noble. Then at the end they are both noble. Elphaba saves her world, and nobody ever knows.

Getting back to the Harry Potter series: Rowling is very good at this. What does this do for us as human beings in search of truth? I think it shows us that you NEVER know. You really never know. You have to judge people by their actions because that is what you see, but just remember... you never really know. God knows. We don't. I think it is a good reminder.

So I ended up liking the series. The characters were real and noble. I probably would wait to let students read the series until at least middle school.


View all my reviews

Here I Raise My Ebenezer Part 2: The Still Pool

(Part 1 here.)

I thank God we have the resources to homeschool.  Over the years, we have met families that do not.  A lot of families make large sacrifices in order to homeschool, but sometimes even then it is not possible. Dads leave.  Moms get sick.  Families lose their homes.  

The Lord has always provided for us through the Warrior Poet's employment, help from family and bartering arrangements with friends.  It does not necessarily look like what we call education nowadays, but I have seen the girls grow through activities, reading and responsibility.  Even when our resource-pool is low (especially then?) learning takes place.

We are steadfast to the affinities we take hold of, till death do us part, or longer. And here let me say a word as to the 'advantages' (?) which London offers in the way of masters and special classes. I think it is most often the still pool which the angel comes down to trouble: a steady unruffled course of work without so-called advantages lends itself best to that 'troubling' of the angel––the striking upon us of what Coleridge calls 'the Captain Idea,' which initiates a tie of affinity. (CM Series Vol. 3 pg. 212)

Affinity.  In chemistry, it describes two dissimilar chemicals that are capable of forming compounds.  In literary terms, affinity is a spontaneous or natural attraction of one thing for another.  I want the girls developing beautiful, right affinities.  It cannot be forced.

I strain to gather every thing and every thought I can reach for the growth of my girls.  But often they need me to step aside.  If I stir the soil too much, the seedlings will not grow.  It is difficult as a mother to stand aside and watch, knowing I have the power to act, but that my acting on these things and thoughts will not strengthen the will of my child toward good things.  She has to act on them.

I often think I know what the girls need yet feel powerless to provide it.  And yet they grow.  The Lord is faithful.  He loves us and knows what we need.  The still pool, a steady, unruffled course of work: fewer activities, much reading but not many books, a quiet growing time at home, talk, discussion, rough edges smoothed out by constant contact with loved ones that are so precious and yet so irritating at times.

I am in the middle of raising these girls.  One of them moved out this Christmas.  She is not far away, but she is not here.  We no longer kiss good-night every evening and hug every morning.  It takes so long and goes so fast.  But I am in the middle.  Two more girls await my kisses and hugs each day.  They need much instruction and are so beautiful.  What will the future hold for these three?  I want to know, but oh! only the Lord has that knowledge.

In my vanity, I am sure I could do better if only I saw deep into the future.  No, Katie.  That is not right.

So I am in the middle.  Here I raise my Ebenezer.  I have made it this far by the grace of God.  Lord, grant us wisdom to discern beauty.  Teach our hands to help.  Teach our hearts to love what is good.  Teach our feets to walk with You.  So many ways we can squander time and live low.  Help us choose what's right, even if it's not what we want.

Teeth-Pulling Narration

This is the one where you finish reading and the student is not sure where to start, so you throw out a keyword and the student gives a short sentence answer, you throw out another keyword, she gives a short answer, etc.... at my house, this student is in danger of being handed the book to study alone and then write a narration, having forfeited the privilege of oral narration through lack of attention.

Someone should write a narration field guide. :)

Compassion and Condemnation and the Sinner

There is a chapter in the book, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, in which Francie and Neeley get vaccinated in order to attend school.  In the hours beforehand, Neeley gets nervous, so Francie consoles him with making mud pies.  Of course, they get incredibly dirty.  At the appointed time, a neighbor leans out the window to remind them of their appointment, and, without washing, Francie and Neeley go to the clinic.

At the clinic, the doctor sighs and complains to the nurse of their dirtiness, assuming it is a byproduct of poverty and ignorance.  He is a Harvard man with a socially prominent fiance who thinks of his service at the clinic as time in Purgatory.  The nurse is from Francie's neighborhood and has worked hard to leave it behind.

Little Francie, stunned by the doctor's cruel complaint, expects the nurse to say something loving and kind, like:

"Maybe this little girl's mother works and didn't have time to wash her good this morning."

OR

"You know how it is, Doctor.  Children will play in dirt."

But the nurse fails.  She says, "I know.  Isn't it terrible?  I sympathize with you, Doctor.  There is no excuse for these people living in filth."

These people.

Betty Smith writes:

A person who pulls himself up from a low environment via the bootstrap route has two choices.  Having risen above his environment, he can forget it; or, he can rise above it and never forget it and keep compassion and understanding in his heart for those he has left behind him in the cruel up climb.

I've been thinking about this in relation to sin and being a sinner.  The analogy is not perfect, but sometimes I think we are so scared we might revert back to old ways, or be identified with sinful practices, that, like the nurse, we fail to have compassion for others.  And by we I mean me.