Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Reading, Riting and Ramblings

My goal in reading has always been to only read the writing of a person who can write better than me. Luckily that leaves me with a wide field. I can get so irritated by ramblings with no point, or by repeated conversations in fiction. Say what needs to be said and move on.

But I love it when the twist of words suddenly rush up and cause me to gasp with pleasure. And I especially love it when an idea explodes from the pages with such force that I have to close the book or magazine and spend some time getting acquainted with the reality I've just been shown.

Ponder this quote by G.K. Chesterton in Orthodoxy

But all the optimism of the age had been false and disheartening
for this reason, that it had always been trying to prove that we fit
into the world. The Christian optimism is based on the fact that we
do not fit in to the world. I had tried to be happy by telling myself
that man is an animal, like any other which sought its meat from
God. But now I really was happy, for I had learned that man is a
monstrosity. I had been right in feeling all things as odd, for I
myself was at once worse and better than all things. The optimist's
pleasure was prosaic, for it dwelt on the naturalness of everything;
the Christian pleasure was poetic, for it dwelt on the the unnaturalness
of everything in the light of the supernatural. The modern philosopher
had told me again and again that I was in the right place, and I had
still felt depressed even in acquiescence. But I had heard that I was in
the wrong place, and my soul sang for joy, like a bird in spring. The
knowledge found out illuminated forgotten chambers in the dark house
of infancy. I knew now why grass had always seemed to me as queer
as the green beard of a giant, and why I could feel homesick at home.

Philippians 3:20 (NKJV)
For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait
for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,....

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