Conquered Words: October/November

I have yet again neglected to tell you what I've read over the month of October because, well, I guess I just didn't want to. I was too busy, maybe. READING (maybe). Anyways, I don't want to miss the books that I read so I'll throw a little combo up for you, just for you.

October and November are great months in politics and I think between my job, school, and spending my free time thinking/reading about the gubernatorial race, I just didn't write much on the ol' bloggy (I am aware of how gross "ol' bloggy" sounds and I just decided to write it down there twice).

The last couple of months have been quite philosophical as I've read some pretty lengthy and heady texts. Seems to have treated me well; I enjoyed these past two months of reading.

I spent a good amount of October tackling God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics by C.S. Lewis (Eerdmans Publishing Company), which is close to 350 pages of philosophy. It certainly was delicious and I read an essay entitled, "Christian Apologetics," that I feel like I've been waiting to read for years. Lewis is an apologist in many respects, but he rarely wrote or spoke about the subject. In many ways, releasing his faith to the world was his entire ministry. It was nearly impossible for him to set it aside as a discipline of his. My approach to Christian Apologetics is very Lewisian: "We are defending Christianity; not 'my religion.' When we mention our personal opinions we must always make quite clear the difference between them and the Faith itself…the great difficulty is to get odern audiences to realize that you are preaching Christianity solely and simply because you happen to think true; they always suppose you are preaching it because you like it or think it good for society or something of that sort." The collection contains many unknown and small pieces of writing like letters to editors and small journal pieces. Also, we're allowed into small gatherings where Lewis taught, seeing sometimes his lack of eloquence or digressing that he is certainly not known for.

During that time I was editing essays of high school students in West Linn. Many of the Juniors were going through Arthur Miller's The Crucible, which is of course heavily critical of the Puritans. I picked up Sarah Vowell's The Wordy Shipmates (Riverhead Trade, 272 pages) to go along with my reading and re-reading of The Crucible and found Vowell's work a little weak. I often times find her writing style too cutesie for me and a tad under-researched. She nailed some aspects of Puritan rhetoric and its connection to modern conservatism, but she failed to recognize some of their achievements as citizens.

As if I didn't get philosophical enough in October, I spent all of November trying to figure out Michael J. Sandel's brilliant Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 368 pages). I tweeted that this could have been the best book I read all year and I might stand by that now that I've slept two nights. Sandel is a genius and one of those good Harvard professors. After teaching for twenty-plus years, he's able to put some pretty profound philosophical concepts into understandable terms. Even so, this is a tough read and is not for the simple minded. He claims that this is "not a history of ideas" type of book, although he manages to cram years of groundbreaking thought through his pages as a way to build up to his suggestions for modern society. Nevertheless, Sandel needs every word he writes and doesn't waste any of your time. He ends up raising the bar on citizenship and calls for better public discourse, asking for morals to be placed in the center of politics. It is one of the most convincing arguments and I was absolutely inspired. He is certainly a philosopher to be remembered.

Outside of that, I read an entire New York Review of Books, which is becoming a favorite publication of mine along with Ali and I's subscription to National Geographic. I'm very excited for December as my school schedule winds down and the work here at the church begins to change. Years ago I head my mentor, Joel Dombrow say, "There's nothing like being a pastor around Christmas." I think there are some things like it, but it's certainly pretty dang fun. Lots going on, tons of busy conversations and meetings, along with tons of time together as a staff. Beyond that, are people just a tad kinder around Christmas? Perhaps not.

We'll see.

Keep reading, my friends.

I Am Slowly Beginning My Obsession With the Life and Words of RFK

He was America's "could have been" presidential candidate and the most mysterious of the brothers; Robert F. Kennedy is completely fascinating. Not only is his life a strange journey, but his growth as an orator is unusual.

He gave some of the worst speeches in American history - ones that left him sleeplessly depressed - and some of the greatest. He never saw himself as a public speaker, but always played behind the limelight of his brother's rhetoric. "I'm no Jack," he said to one of his aides after a speech fell flat. And yet after his brother's death, RFK went on a historical run toward to White House that included some of the greatest remarks in American politics. On the campaign trail, he spoke at the University of Kansas on March 18th, 1968 about the state of an America at war and in racism and poverty. He brought high morals to political discourse and spoke these profound words just three months before he would be assassinated.

"Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product - if we judge the United States of America by that - that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans."

He was a prophet in some ways, and he claimed that Americans had given themselves over to "the mere accumulation of things." He was too right.

Out of All the Thanksgiving Articles, How Did Canzano Put It Best?

Most local papers are flooded with two things over the Thanksgiving break: stories/profiles about being thankful and stories/profiles about buying stuff in excess.

The guy I didn't expect to tug at the heart strings was John Canzano, the Bald Face Truth himself. I listen to his radio program a lot only to find myself disagreeing with much that he has to say. I have, for the most part however, really enjoyed his thoughts on Ducks football. I find that a lot of people love to hate him, so doesn't that make the guy a perfect local celeb? His columns are read and his show is listened to seemingly by people who largely disagree with him. It's pretty awesome. I suppose it makes for some good radio now and again.

But his Thanksgiving obiturary honoring Dr. Herb Marshack, a great and long-lived Duck football fan, was awesome. For some reason, Canzano's dry and pointed style worked really well in honoring this guy I had never heard of until this weekend. It's a short article and I really suggest you read it. Thanks Canzano.

Also, Go Ducks.

Inside the Other Worldly World of George Noory

Last week I came across this January 2010 profile in The Atlantic on George Noory, the host of the AM radio sensation, Coast to Coast AM with George Noory.

Years ago I played guitar for a mentor and good friend of mine, Mike Brandow. We would travel throughout the Northwest playing different churches and conferences. This required a decent amount of driving in whatever van became available to us. The Pickle. The Nugget. The Handy. These were favorites in our arsenol.

Often times we would drive in the middle of the night from one church to another. We would play at a Saturday night service and then a Sunday morning service somewhere else and make it back to our home church to play a Sunday night youth group. Needless to say, there always was the challenge of finding entertainment during these drives.

I can remember one night, early in my time playing with Brandow, when he dialed in to a radio show he had been telling us about amidst his own giggling: Coast to Coast AM with George Noory. He kept telling me how crazy this guy was, reporting on the supernatural and the unknown of our universe.

We tried to stifle our laughter in order to further hear his thoughts on "star children," who were born on the outer regions of our solar system. Noory's voice fit perfectly with his subject matter. And while what he spoke of was, in our minds, entirely absurd, a strange and long silence would fill the van as we listened in.

I never really understood what makes his show so listenable, except for perhaps the idea that we were listening in on something unearthly -- Like tapping into another species' radio waves, we could not afford to turn it off. Or maybe because it was just so dang strange.

This profile brings Noory down to earth, from showing us his past and what he's like out at dinner to his conference speaking schedule and daily routine. I appreciate this quote, about the tone of the conversation at dinner:

"Before long, the impulse to tell funny stories about life within the Coast to Coast universe—which extends past the studio’s orbit and into conferences, TV appearances, and speaking engagements, and is expanding—proved irresistible. And I realized, as I listened, that all the stories were funny in a particular way: it’s never clear, in their world, where the demarcation between fantasy and reality is drawn—or, indeed, if such a line can really be said to exist anymore."

What Oprah Gave Away

I laugh really hard every time I see "Oprah's Favorite Things" giveaway show and then I cry a lot. But then Conan O'Brien makes me smile again.