Thanksgiving 2015

Alone. Cold. He sits in a barren, sparse room, hands losing feeling, trying desperately to be interested an ancient classic text on rhetoric assigned over the break. He’s behind—planned to finish it yesterday. His room at the top of the creaky house is below comfortable even for him—a numbing 30 degrees or so. The window leaks icicle air. On a day associated with friends, family, and food, his friends are absent, his family more so—two thousand six hundred and forty-four miles away, to be exact. And he skipped breakfast. His bank account’s low and college (not to mention living) is everlastingly expensive. Throw in the fact that he’s twenty-five and alone in the universe. What has this poor sap to be thankful for? What good is Thanksgiving Day to him?

Providentially, I can answer that question. See, the pathetic figure above, the one might feel a few pangs of sympathy for? He’s me. And the pangs (provided it’s not really just hunger for your aromatic, juicy turkey in the oven) aren’t necessary. Perspective, as the fellow said, is everything.

The first time in the Bible that I can find with the phrase “give thanks” is in Chronicles, where David has written a worship song on the occasion of God coming to be with His people. The Ark of the Covenant has come to Jerusalem. “Give thanks to Jehovah, for He is good, His steadfast love endures forever!” That phrase resounds again, and again, and again—from temple worship to manifold psalms, from the letters of the apostles to the twenty-four elders who everlastingly fall before the face of God. It is a mark of His people and priests that they give thanks. It is also a mark of His enemies that they do not: “…they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Thus Paul in Romans. Thanksgiving, it seems, is a fundamentally Godly activity. Unlike the pagans or the Pelagians, we bring nothing to God. We can claim no due. It is just a gift, all the way down, and we are to be thankful the same way. All—the way—down.

That perspective? Hogwash and humbug. I’m not really alone. I have God. And even though He should be enough, He’s more generous than that. Santa’s got nothing on my Father. I’ve got an invitation to another family’s celebration this afternoon. Some of my friends will be there too. My own family called and said they love me and think of me, even over two thousand miles away. I’m better off financially than most of Africa, and have a solid roof over my head. The temperature is cool, but unlike ninety percent of the world, I like cool. And it’s even closer to where I like it after I randomly found a space heater in the closet this morning. My Father gives like that. As for the money and the relationships—I can thank God for what I expect Him to do, as well as what He’s already done. Think of Abraham. And honestly, the homework will get done. Eventually. I have faith.

God’s love is not measured by our own. It is better than mine. I can take perverse glee in the discomfort and pain of those I love. Worse, I can ignore them entirely. I focus purely on my wants and pains and lusts and various other short-sighted obstacles. Look up, God whispers. Those look big to you, the same way a walnut looks gigantic to an ant. Look beyond to the oak tree. Psalm 1. Isaiah 61. Remember your God, and give thanks. For computers. Turkeys. Wheat thins. Swords. Books. Family. Lots of family. Slippers. Crosses. Beans. Guns. Empty tombs. Board games. Girls. Elephant shrews. Movies. Oatmeal crème pies. Jobs. Magic rings. Last stands. Pizza. Friends. Unexpected adventures. It’s all from Me. The least you can do is thank your Father.

Amen. Thanks to Jehovah, for He is good, His steadfast love endures forever, even unto anno domini MMXV and beyond. For He said in their land they shall possess a double portion; they shall have everlasting joy. Can’t wait to see what I can thank Him for next year!

Read and Reviewed: The City of God

Author: Augustine of Hippo
Publication: A.D. 426, De Civitate Dei Contra Paganos, trans. Marcus Dods 1880ish
Length: XXII Books, or 867 pages in my edition
Target Audience: Educated 5th Century Christians

     So, my thanks to my college for finally forcing me to read this. I started it in years prior something around three times and always bogged down about Book IV. That said, I recommend you take more than the three weeks I had to read this if you want to do anything else with your brain. It was... rough. However, the sensation of finishing it at 0030 in the morning of September the tenth is one I will long relish.
     Augustine contrasts the City of God with the City of Man, the citizens of this world with those of the next. Lots of excellent stuff, some interesting stuff, and some stuff that makes you wonder why that was important fifteen hundred years ago. Now, if you're only going to read one thing by Augustine, read Confessions, but this is great as well. Just take the good bishop up on his apology to those who think he wrote too much at the end!
    Recommended (for the stout of heart).

Once Upon A Day--September 13th

So, with 109 days left in Anno Domini 2015, let’s take a look at some of the fascinating occurrences of today! Be warned, there are a lot. To help incite you to reach the end, my personal preeminent past point will be produced at the posterior of this post. So read posthaste! ;-)

 

A.D. 81—Titus, the Roman emperor who conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the Temple, dies.

1501—Michelangelo begins work on his famous statue of David in Florence. It will take more than two years to complete. That’s a long time to chip on a rock…

1521—William Cecil, later the Baron Burghley, is born. He would become Elizabeth I’s treasurer, and along with her spymaster Walpole is one of the main reasons her reign was peaceful and solvent.

1541—John Calvin is recalled to Geneva after a three-year banishment by the town authorities. Who were, of course, all under his charismatic cultist thumb. Methodical as always, his sermon when he ascended the pulpit that Sunday was the consecutive passage from where he had left off three years before.

1592—Montaigne, the French philosopher, dies.

1609—Explorer Henry Hudson finds the river that would be named for him, in what would become New York.

1759—At the concluding battle of the Seven Year’s War (known in America as the French and Indian War) the British scale the impassable cliffs surrounding Quebec, the French citadel, and give battle on the Plains of Abraham. Although the British are victorious, their commander, James Wolfe, is mortally wounded.

1813—John Sedgwick, a Union Army corps commander in the War Between the States, is born.

Rockets and bombs glaring and bursting...

1814—During the War of 1812, the British attack Baltimore, which was defended from Ft. McHenry. The British bombarded the fort with shot, shell, and rockets on the night of the 13^th. On the morning of the 14^th, a young American lawyer arranging a prisoner transfer watched as the defiant garrison of McHenry raised their enormous fifteen-stars-and-fifteen-stripes flag. His name—Francis Scott Key. His poem in praise of the “star-spangled banner” would become the American national anthem in 1931.

1847—The Battle of Chapultepec results in Yankee victory during the Mexican-American War, paving the way for the capture of Mexico City. Chapultepec Castle was a strong point in the city’s defenses, but fell to American marines and soldiers with comparative ease; Santa Anna, the Mexican commander, is said to have exclaimed, “I believe if we were to plant our batteries in Hell, the d— Yankees would take them from us!” The battle involved several who would become famous in war twenty years later, including Lee, Jackson, Grant, Beauregard, Longstreet, and Pickett. The phrase in the Marine Hymn “From the Halls of Montezuma” is a reference to this fight.

Yes, I give kisses to blog readers...

1851—Walter Reed is born. He led the team that discovered yellow fever was transmitted by mosquitoes, allowing the completion of the Panama Canal.

1857—Milton Hershey, founder/inventor of Hershey’s Chocolate, is born.

1860—John J. Pershing is born. He served as the commander of America’s troops overseas, the Allied Expeditionary Force, in World War I.

1862—Two soldiers of the Union Army of the Potomac find Robert E. Lee’s Special Order 191 (detailing troop movements) wrapped around three lost cigars in a field, setting in motion the bloodiest single day of the War Between the States, the battle of Antietam/Sharpsburg.

1881—Ambrose Burnside, a Union Civil War general (and the man who gave his name to sideburns) dies.

1942—Marines of LTC M. Edson’s Raider Battalion continue to fight along a ridge protecting Henderson Airfield from Japanese counterattack on Guadalcanal. Eventually called the Battle of Bloody Ridge or Edson’s Ridge, it was the first defeat of a sizable Japanese land force and one of the tipping points of WWII in the Pacific.

Okay, this was difficult. But I think that the Battle for Fort McHenry is my favorite for today, mostly because I got to go visit that place with my family and help raise the flag. Which was this history nut's dream he didn't know he had! So thankful to live in the “Land of the Free and Home of the Brave!”

Once Upon A Day--August 19th

On this august day :-) some of the following occurred among the sons of men:

A.D. 14—Death of Augustus, 1^st Imperator (Emperor) of the Romans.  This month bearing his name, August, was formerly called Sextilis (or the “sixth” month, before the addition of January and February) and renamed in his honor by the Roman Senate in 8 B.C.

1662—Death of Blaise Pascal. He was a pioneer mathematician and scientist, and an amateur philosopher. He is credited with the invention/discovery of the hydraulic press, the syringe, an early form of probability theory, and the fact that vacuums (contra Aristotle) actually exist. The SI unit of pressure is named for him.

1745—“Bonnie Prince Charlie” Charles Edward Stuart raises the standard of the Stuarts in Glenfinnan, beginning the second (and last) Jacobite rebellion against the House of Hanover, known as “the ’45.” His Highlander clans would follow to final defeat at the battle of Culloden eight months later.

1812—The USS Constitution  defeats HMS Guerriere off the coast of Nova Scotia, during which the British are amazed that their cannon fire merely bounces off the Constitution’s two-foot-thick oak sides. “Huzzah! Her sides are made of iron!” the American sailors exclaimed—leading to her nickname, “Old Ironsides”  half a century before the U.S. Navy actually commissioned an iron-constructed vessel. She serves today in Boston harbor, the oldest continually commissioned ship (since 1791) in the Navy. (A movie buff aside: the Constitution served as the model and historical basis for the Acheron, the enemy ship in Master and Commander.)

1843—Cyrus I. Scofield,  a minister and theologian of the Congregationalist denomination, is born. His Bible commentary in the Scofield Reference Bible did much to popularize dispensationalism.

1871—Orville Wright, of the famous Wright Brothers, is born in Dayton, Ohio.

1895—John Wesley Hardin, the former Texas gunfighter and outlaw, is murdered by being shot in the back of the head by John Selman in a saloon in El Paso.

1921—Gene Roddenberry, the original writer and founding force of Star Trek, is born.

1942—During WWII, Canadians amphibiously assault Nazi-occupied Dieppe on the coast of France. Although the operation is a failure, many lessons learned are carried over to the Normandy invasion two years later.

Once Upon A Day--August 18th

A few interesting tidbits concerning the eighteenth day of the eighth month.

A.D. 1227—death of Genghis Khan, one of the great warriors of history. He and his Mongol hordes conquered and ruled most of Asia during his lifetime.

1572—Marriage of Henry (III) of Navarre to Margaret of Valois in Paris, an event that helped lead to the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre. Henry, although only nineteen, was a leading figure among the Protestant movement of France during the Wars of Religion and a close relative of the French king Henry II. The marriage to his cousin Margaret, Henry II’s daughter, was intended to cement an alliance between the Huguenots and Catholics during a period of peace. Many Huguenots came to Paris for the nuptials, creating a powder-keg situation in the vehemently Catholic city. It would erupt a week later on the 24^th in massacre. Henry would survive, fight a few more wars, convert to Catholicism, and eventually succeed to the throne as Henry IV, founder of the House of Bourbon.

1587—Birth of the first known baby of English descent in America, Virginia Dare, in Roanoke Colony.

1774—Birth of Meriwether Lewis, co-leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

1936—Birth of the actor Robert Redford.

And oddly, the date of the death of no less than four different popes, including Alexander VI in 1503, one of the most notably worldly popes of the Renaissance period. He had somewhere around ten (illegitimate, of course) children, most of whom he managed to put in positions of power through his influence, and thus founded the infamous Borgia family. Machiavelli cited him favorably as a model ruler in The Prince--not exactly a compliment for a pope.

Cavalry and Calvary

          

           English is stupid. That is a direct and oft-repeated quote from my best friend, and while I’m not sure I agree with him, I do admit that English is at least frustrating. Homonyms, homophones, sloughs and doughs and roughs: all bewildering to foreigners everywhere. But that’s not really what this is about. We are not here to discuss and lament the vagaries of our mother tongue.  In order to get to the original germ of this idea—the mustard seed of this post—we must hop in the nearest DeLorean and go back a bit. Say somewhere around the fall of A.D. 1997, in Germany.

I was six or so then, and was bouncing around the apartment doing something I always thoroughly enjoyed: singing. At that particular moment, it was the old Baptist hymn, “At Calvary.” So I chirped away with gusto, building volume as I neared the chorus: “…knowing not it was for me He died, at caaavaaaalryyyy!” Really, a natural mistake. To someone who knew his father was with an Army cavalry unit and whose favorite toy was a group of Playmobile Old West Cavalrymen, what other word was there?

But my father happened to be in the vicinity. “Actually, son, it’s cal-vary. Cav-alry is on horses. Cal-vary is the hill outside Jerusalem where Jesus died, also called Golgotha.”

Ah, my young mind thought. Well, I feel sheepish. That’s really close to the same. Funny. Oh well, life is short. Back to singing!

But the odd coincidence stayed with me.

Nearly twenty years later, I still like cavalry. One of my favorite movie phenomena, as a matter of fact, involves cavalry. Everyone knows that in a western, one of the good old ones, that when the wagon train is on its last wheels and the Indians are about to triumph—the bugle blows, the flag flutters, and the cavalry rides up to save the day. I call any moment when someone shows up—unexpectedly and out of the blue—to save the day a Cavalry Moment. Usually it’s not the main character, and if it is, he’s not the main character in that particular scene. Sometimes it’s a character you only see that one instance, here and then gone. But the day would be lost without them.

Why do these situations give us chills? Why does the adrenaline rush when some person or group—often before unseen for the entirety of the story—swoop in and tip the scales?

I believe God—who Authored authors, after all—built it in. After all, He executed the ultimate Cavalry Moment. A penniless carpenter being crucified like a robber on a hill turned out to be the salvation of the entire world. Which hill, because English is stupid, turned out to be named Calvary. Just ‘cause it could. I love God’s quirky plot twists.

Merely for fun, here are my top ten Cavalry Moments in cinema. They all still give me chills even after years of seeing some of them happen every time I watch that film.

10. Movie: Stagecoach. This is the one that almost birthed the cliché, as it were. The cavalry rides up and saves the passengers of our eponymous transport from destruction. Charge!

9. Rio Bravo. At the final gunfight, when Stumpy (Walter Brennan) shows up after being left behind and keeps John Wayne from being surrounded. Heh, heh!

8. The Longest Day. When Capitaine Philippe Kieffer of the Free French Commandos manages to show back up with a Sherman tank, with a big ol’ 75mm gun.

7. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. When the Dwarves show up to rescue Bilbo from being roasted. Not in the book, but I liked it anyway. It made the Company cool all of a sudden.

6. Superman Returns. Okay, fairly lousy movie, but that shot of Superman flying in front of the minigun bullets to save the guard made it all worth it!

5. Star Wars. When Han flies out of the sun and blows a TIE to smithereens, literally saving Luke’s tail. Really, how many people get to startle Darth Vader?

4. The Avengers. Loki is about to kill that old German man in Stuttgart merely to emphasize a point, and we all think he’s going to get away with it. Until somebody with a red, white, and blue shield drops in…

3. Guardians of the Galaxy. Star-lord and the Ravagers are attacking Ronan’s warship. But there’s too much incoming fire. There’s no way that they can make it—but then the Nova Corps shows up. Classic.

2. Facing the Giants. Okay, I know everyone is going, “Huh?” But I count David’s dad standing in the end zone, encouraging his son, as a Cavalry Moment. That’s love, right there. And the win wouldn’t have happened without him, right?

1. Star Trek. You know, the new one, with Chris Pine. Spock is in the small Vulcan ship, charging straight at Nero. He knows fully well that the massive number of torpedoes coming at him spell out his doom, and he is resigned to it. Then the Enterprise comes out of warp and in a beautiful display of firepower takes out all the incoming weaponry. I like that ship. You know, it’s exciting!

 

No, I didn’t forget. In a class all of its own stands my final favorite, the queen of the lot, the one that makes use of this trope so often but never dulls it. Its author, J.R.R. Tolkien, remains the only person who can give me that “chill down the spine” sensation merely from reading the printed word. I salute his genius, and awareness of the way the world is made that let him write so well.

0.       The Return of the King. Whether it be Sam carrying Frodo, Aragorn coming off of the ships, Boromir defending Merry and Sam, or that great charge of six thousand spears riding to Sunlending and death, this remains the one to beat. Forth, Eorlingas!

Thanks for coming along my trip down adrenaline lane. If I missed one of your favorites, sound off in the comments. Maybe I’ll have to add something to my watch list. And remember when you hear them blow the Charge that Calvary, not cavalry, gave us the greatest moment ever.

 

Read and Reviewed: The Boys in the Boat

The Facts

 

Author: Daniel James Brown

Publication: 2013 Penguin Books

Length: 370 medium pages

Genre: Nonfiction

Target Audience: 14 and up

 

Now for the opinions. I had to read The Boys in the Boat for my freshman course beginning next week, so I was a bit proactive. My rating: 8 out of 10. Recommended.

Subtitled Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, this is a bit of a sports story, a bit of a boat story, a bit of a Depression story, and a bit of a Nazi Germany story. The author opens on a “grey day in a grey time” to paint the picture of a poor farm boy whose only hope of staying at Washington State in 1933 is making the crew team—against a good stiff bit of competition. Brown takes us back through his childhood and up to the defining moment of Joe Rantz’s life—rowing in front of Hitler for the USA at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

I enjoyed this book very much. Crew was never a sport I paid much attention to, but after reading this, I will! It made crew interesting and emotionally involving—no small feat for a sport that involves rowing skinny shells over the water. Brown does an excellent job contrasting Depression-era US with Germany and the building attitudes and programs of both countries. Some may be surprised to learn that messed-up family lives aren’t just a modern thing—people sinned then, too. Of course, like any well-written sports story, the conclusion is nail-biting—so don’t skip to the end!

Once Upon A Day--July 21st

It is my intention to occasionally post a few bits and pieces of history. Today seemed like a good day to start, because several disparate but fascinating events have occurred on the twenty-first day of the seventh month.  Here are a few of them:

"Great is Artemis of the Ephesians" really set Herostratus on fire for fame...

356 B.C.—Destruction of the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus

                Touted by Antipater as one of the “Seven Sights of the World” the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus was one of the great and beautiful feats of architecture that Greek culture produced. Herodotus says that Croesus, of “rich as” fame, partially funded its construction. Like most of the Seven Wonders, this one was destroyed. A man named Herostratus deliberately set it afire, so that through his arson his name would endure forever. In English, he gave us the phrase “herostratic fame” which is used for a person who deliberately did something heinous out of a desire for pure notoriety. Plutarch tells in his “Life of Alexander (the Great)”, somewhat wryly, that it burned down because Artemis was absent assisting in the birth of that great ruler. Which would, of course, make the 21^st the birthday of Alexander as well.

It was rebuilt by the Ephesians and would later serve again as one of the great attractions of that city. On account of it, Paul was nearly killed by a mob in Acts XIX, when Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, stirred up a tumult.

 

A.D. 1796—Death of Robert Burns

 

                Robert Burns (1759-1796) has been called one of the greatest of Scotland’s sons. He was a poet, writing in both Scots dialect and English. His works include “The Braes o’ Killiecrankie,” “Scots Wha Hae,” and of course, “Auld Lang Syne.” Talented and handsome, he was also a dissolute rake whose philandering lifestyle likely contributed to his early death at thirty-seven.

 

A.D. 1861—Battle of First Manassas

               

                In the rural countryside of Virginia on a hot day 154 years ago, the United States dissolved and began the bloodiest conflict ever waged on this continent.  Irvin McDowell led about 18,000 Union troops over Bull Run to collide with the combined forces of Confederates Joseph Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard. Here Thomas Jackson and his men gained their famed sobriquet of “Stonewall” from General Bee, who called to his men, “Look at Jackson! There he stands like a stone wall. Rally behind the Virginians!” Here also Jackson exhorted the men of the Fourth Virginia Regiment, “When you charge, yell like furies!” birthing the famed Rebel Yell. Manassas was a Confederate victory, and signaled that the war would be anything but the quick contest the spectator politicians from Washington D.C. had anticipated. It would drag on for another four years until 1865.

 

A.D. 1925—Scopes Trial Concludes

 

                A mere ninety years ago today, substitute teacher John Scopes was found guilty of teaching evolution in the public schools and fined $100, a fair sum in those days. The trial was far more of a media event than a pure trial, however. Scopes was unsure he had ever actually taught evolution, but plead guilty to provide a test case for the ACLU. Both sides brought in big names to plead their case: the Fundamentalists, three-time presidential candidate and former Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan. The ACLU brought in Clarence Darrow, a noted agnostic and the first lawyer to ever successfully use an “insanity plea” to get his clients out of a murder charge (Leopold-Loeb, 1924). Tiny Dayton, Tennessee was overrun with journalists and spectators; it was also the first trial to be broadcast on radio. While the Fundamentalists won that day in 1925, it was later overturned on a technicality and they were largely embarrassed by Darrow’s wit and greater knowledge. In retrospect, it marked the withdrawal in a great part of the religious fundamentalists from public life, until the Culture Wars began in the 70’s.

Destruction of a wonder, the death of a profligate poet, a battle that birthed a legend, and the beginning of the end for the public school system. And God put them all on the same day. Ain’t history grand?

In Principio

Having been lectured for several years of my life, that what I really needed to do was “start a blog,” I have decided to bite that particular bullet, and begin.

Why now? Well, it is not out of hubris. I assume that very little I originate is worth repeating, and I will be content if the view counter on this page never signals anything other than my immediate family. Great. After all, if you know me, you know I do not hunger for an audience often. But like any writer, it is nice to be read.

So the first reason is: now the opportunity exists. The others are that it was far easier than I imagined, and it will be a nice repository of my thoughts from this specific period—sort of a modern electronic journal with library privileges.

Perhaps when you check this journal out I may be able to point you to what is worth dealing with—what I am consuming or pondering at the time. I am a far better regurgitator than originator. James Bar Zebedee, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Goodnight! Moon all have far greater value that James Robert Goode’s musings.

As for the name, Christendom—that period when all of Europe and parts beyond openly paid allegiance to the Creator in word, if not in deed—has always fascinated me. She was a fair and beautiful woman, even with her many warts. We stand on the shoulders of some of her mighty sons—Augustine, Calvin, Chesterton, Lewis, and many others. But she fell under attack and has all but slipped into her grave, laid there by other sons who would not stand up and be counted when it mattered. I hope to recall some of her legend here, and build on her with other survivors, the eponymous “Sons.”

May she rise again in Truth and be a witness to the Dark Lands.