Hardly education

Gabe wrote a Modest Mouse review, way back in the days when WWDBtSES first came out, where he mentioned not being familiar enough with Smiths’ guitarist Johnny Marr’s previous work to pick out his impact on the Mouse. (Hey. lay off Gabe! This man teaches other people to write. Also, he is an internationally renowned [...]

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Hat Tips all around

A moment of joy for those of you who are more behind than I am: Ladies and gentlemen, Miss Teen Bless Her Sweet Heart. [Youtube]
Oh, to have rehearsed and rehearsed, and then it just doesn’t quite come out like you’d hoped. I know just how she feels. Except for the part about having just been [...]

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True believers

Of course, from the perspective of many (and maybe Time), Mother Theresa’s “crisis of faith” puts into great question the legitimacy of her confession of belief. It doesn’t seem to be knocking her out of the running for canonization (at least as far as I know), and that is due to her participation in a [...]

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Too cool for prom

This was a great line in the iTunes review for John Vanderslice’s Emerald City:
His arrangements are artier and difficult, suggesting dance music for people who have no intention of dancing.
That’s pretty much me.

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Lead us not into Palmolive

I was listening to an excerpt from Watchman Nee’s Release of the Spirit, from Christianaudio’s Devotional Classics podcast, and Nee said something like, “God will not deliver us from the dishes. He will only deliver us from our response to the dishes.”
And the disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”
. . [...]

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A generous love

Read the truth in the words of eternal life. Pray, watch, and be detached from yourself. Love God with a generous love; let that which was created only for him belong only to him. Expect all things from him without neglecting yourself, that you may be faithful to his gifts.
Fenelon, Talking with God, trans. Hal [...]

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Arky Arky

PreacherMike quoted Shane Claiborne (no, I haven’t read it yet) recently, “I once heard a pastor say, ‘The church is like Noah’s ark. It stinks, but if you get out of it, you’ll drown.’” It’s a nicer way of expressing one of my favorite ecclesiological maxims, which may or may not be Augustine, “She’s a [...]

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Fine Ideas

We must try to reason little and to do much. If we do not take care, our whole life may be passed in reasoning, and we shall require a second life to practice! We run the risk of believing that we have advanced in proportion to our understanding of perfection. All these fine ideas, far [...]

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More Things I Don’t Have Time to Write About: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid

1) Two quotes of the week (miserably referenced): In an Dr.’s-office-old issue of Time, a pro baseball player says something like, “you can’t fall in love with a team” in response to a fan’s plea that he promise to never become a Yankee. Interesting that we’re never as interested in an actor or musician’s loyalty [...]

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Eat before swimming

Celtic spirituality is not worldly, but is very earthy. One of my favorite Celtic prayers:
I would like to have the men of Heaven
in my own house
with vats of good cheer
laid out for them. . .
I would like a great lake of beer
for the King of Kings,
I would like to be watching Heaven’s family
drinking it through [...]

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