Listener Response

I'm not an advocate of reader response interpretation. I don't appreciate the subjectivity. But I realized that as I listen to the world--and for the purposes of this post, secular music--I listen through my faith and, when possible, construct a meaning for myself. Particularly with music that I find moving, I am compelled to think in terms of my faith because I can't stand to take the lyrics that often accompany great instrumentation at face value. I say "often," because it's not always the case, but I do find it unusual that my values align with those who hold a different worldview. Many times lyrics portray a level of devotion to a significant other or an ideal that I would reserve for God. All this to say, I really like the song "Right Here" by Staind. Their lyrics are typically pocked with profanity, so don't take this as a blanket endorsement, but they are also charged with emotion about the reality of life. Rock has always helped me keep in touch with the existential angst of the world, and Staind does that well, lest I forget that people are generally not content with the way things are. Anyway, I don't really know what "Right Here" is about. I would guess that it is not about God, but the video contains provocatively religious icons. Other songs that I have not heard have titles that indicate an interaction with Christianity. Here is how I hear this song:

Right Here

ME:
I know I’ve been mistaken
But just give me a break
And see the changes that I’ve made
I’ve got some imperfections
But how can you collect them all
And throw them in my face?

But you always find a way
To keep me right here waiting
You always find the words to say
To keep me right here waiting
And if you chose to walk away
I’d still be right here waiting
Searching for the things to say
To keep you right here waiting

GOD:
I hope you’re not intending
To be so condescending
It’s as much as I can take
You’re so independent
You just refuse to bend
So I keep bending ‘till I break

But you always find a way
To keep me right here waiting
You always find the words to say
To keep me right here waiting
And if you chose to walk away
I’d still be right here waiting
Searching for the things to say
To keep you right here waiting

ME:
I’ve made a commitment
I’m willing to bleed for you
I needed fulfillment
I found what I need in you
Why can’t you just forgive me?
I don’t want to relive all the mistakes I’ve made along the way

GOD:
But I always find a way
To keep you right here waiting
I always find the words to say
To keep you right here waiting

ME:
But you always find a way
To keep me right here waiting
You always find the words to say
To keep me right here waiting
And if I chose to walk away
Would you be right here waiting?
Searching for the things to say
To keep me right here waiting?

GOOOOOOOOD

My sister sent me this one for the blog. Thanks, Marci! I guess I'm starting a collection now, if anyone would like to keep an eye out.

Ahab

I got to go fishing last summer. I had professional help catching this, but I did reel it in. This one was just about 20 lbs.

Stoker the Prophet

Bob calls me an idolater of books. He says my library is my shrine to knowledge. I deny the accusation, but it hits closer to home than I like. When I first got married, I learned many things about my new bride. One of these was her tendency to buy lots of something in the grocery store just because it is on sale. For example, it was not long after our happy nuptial that our very small apartment pantry was stocked with ten or so boxes of cake mix. I like cake--especially when Megan is doing the baking--but I felt the need to bemoan our family's susceptibility to Betty Crocker's marketing ploy. I like cake, but we just don't eat that much of it. When it comes to Cokesbury's annual 90% off sale or boosting my order up to $25 so I can get the free shipping, however, I sing a different tune. I read books, one might say, but I don't read that many of them.

There is a part of me that laments the burning of the library at Alexandria as much as any catastrophe in history. Not because I could ever get around to reading all those books, but because I think books should be compiled and preserved regardless of whether I read them. Some of my friends do not buy expensive reference works in preference for books that they will read completely or a least limit reference purchases to ones that will undoubtedly be in continual use. I figure most anything I purchase will get use by virtue of my future in teaching, be it in the mission field where the HUGSR library is not at my disposal or otherwise. Beyond this rational, I feel that I am doing biblical studies a favor every time I buy a reference work. Would we have Vaticanus or Sinaiticus if some blessed scribe had not thought it wise to put one more copy in circulation? Well, my purchases may not be of comparable import, but I am putting one more copy of a worthwhile volume in circulation with every purchase.

I also do this with other literature, thought not nearly as much. For instance, I have a lovely set of Barnes & Noble Classics sitting on a shelf. I bought them (and was gifted them) because they were on sale, and I aspired to read them some day. Despite my rationalizations, C. S. Lewis' sad example in The Great Divorce of the man who so loved literature that he collected all the classics but somewhere along the way stopped reading them haunts me at times. Thus, I made it my goal to read one of the Barnes & Noble beauties over Christmas break. How is Bram Stoker's Dracula for Christmas cheer? It was a pretty fast read, though Van Helsing-speak is curious at times. I enjoyed it greatly but had the unfortunate experience of having seen the movie first. I will quote here a passage that astounded me. Keep in mind that Dracula was published in 1897. The Modern worldview is in full force. Here, Van Helsing is trying to open John Seward's mind to the possibility that Lucy's death was the result of a "supernatural" cause, namely a vampire.

You are a clever man, friend John; you reason well, and your wit is bold; but you are too prejudiced. You do not let your eyes see nor your ears hear, and that which is outside your daily life is not of account to you. Do you not think that there are things which you cannot understand, and yet which are; that some people see things others cannot? But there are things old and new which must not be contemplate by men's eyes, because they know--or think they know--some things which other men have told them. Ah, it is the fault of our science that it wants to explain all; and if it explain not, then it says there is nothing to explain.

New Look for '07

What can I say, I like change. How does everyone feel about green?

Most of the NR discussion will be shifting to neo-restoration.net, but for now energy is invested in creating the site rather than writing new material.