All posts by David Todd

book reviews, History

Book Review: Francis Bacon: The Temper of a Man

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Once again, in the spirit of dis-accumulation, I picked a book to read that I wanted to read, but didn’t think I would keep. So I picked “Francis Bacon: The Temper of a Man”, by Katherine Drinker Bowen. Published in 1963, the

The book is 50 years old and in good condition. It’s also a good, informative read. Alas, it’s not a keeper.

book I have may be a first edition. I’m not sure where I got this book. It may be one my dad picked up at a flea market, though there’s no sales sticker on it.

I must first say that, before reading this book, I knew almost nothing about Francis Bacon. I would have called him Sir Francis Bacon, noting either knighthood or respect, for that’s how I’ve heard him described over the years. But why was he famous? What did he do in England to acquire such fame?

I remember he was discussed in a book I read, a book about escape from POW camps during WW2. The POWs argued about something Bacon allegedly said or wrote. From this, I got the impression that Bacon was a writer and philosopher of sorts. But I knew nothing that he wrote, nothing that he said, nothing about his life and work.

This book, described by the author as an introduction to the man, was an easy, relatively short read at 236 pages. It showed Bacon as a loyal monarchist during the days of Queen Elizabeth 1st and King James 1st. He slowly rose in government service, through the law and fawning over the monarchs, but not as quickly as he wanted. He was constantly thwarted by one particular rival, Sir Edward Coke. The two vied for the same positions, the favor of the same monarchs and nobles, and Coke almost always won the day. Bacon, in consequence, would retreat to his abodes and write: sometimes on the law, sometimes on science, sometimes on politics or national policy.

His family was well placed, his father having been Lord Chancellor for Queen Elizabeth. I don’t really understand what that position is, but it was pretty high up in the government. Bacon got the short end of his father’s bequests upon the elder’s death, as most of the estate went to children by the elder Bacon’s first wife, Sir Francis having been born to the second wife. As a result, and due to his inability to adjust his lifestyle to his financial circumstances, was constantly in debt.

Due to losing so often to Coke, Bacon had lots of time to write. I won’t list his publications here. They include essays and legal treatises. None of them have I read, but after reading this book want to.

And that’s the measure of a biography, isn’t it? Does it spur you on to want to know more about the subject, to read his works? This biography has done that. I don’t think I have any of Bacon’s works in the house, but given that they are all out of copyright, I should be able to find them available on the internet. I bet I can also find a more complete biography from before 1925.

Now, the question is, how do I rate this book, and do I keep it? I rate it 5-stars, which is a rarity for me. I base that ranking on its brevity and ease to read, along with how it has caused me to want to know more. But it is not a keeper. I simply have too many books, and need to reduce my possessions. So onto the donate/sales shelf it goes. But I am very glad that I had it and

read it.

Racism

An Old Article on Racism

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The prosecutor took a simple crime by three bad men perpetrated on a peaceful, innocent man, rather than on the race of those involved. It worked, and the murderers were convicted. [NY Times photo]
At some point, I don’t remember when or how, I got on the subscription list for the NY Times Morning newsletter. Based on several problems the NYT has had with inaccurate reporting, biased reporting, and their general acceptance by the media as the nation’s “newspaper of record” (I generally distrust almost all media), I’m not very favorable to the Times.

It comes daily by e-mail, and I generally read the main stories every weekday. I find them to be mostly biased, but not as badly as I expected. In several, I found fodder for blog posts. These emails I saved, while all other of these newsletters I discard. Recently, I was trying to reduce the number of emails in my inbox. I started with the oldest, one of which was Morning for Nov 30, 2021.

The lead story was the trial, just concluded, of the murderers of Ahmaud Arbery. Remember that? He’s a black man who was jogging in a mostly white neighborhood, stopped to look in a house under construction, and was murdered by three white men. They were convicted in the trial.

Here’s how the Times began the story.

The most effective way to achieve racial justice can sometimes be to downplay race.

That may seem like a counterintuitive idea. And it can certainly feel unsatisfying to people who are committed to reducing the toll of racism in the United States. But it is one of the lessons of the murder convictions last week of three white men in Georgia, in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man.

In previous posts about racism and how to end it, I brought up the idea that it takes many approaches to end racism. I differentiated between racism, the ending of which requires changes in the hearts of people, and racist acts, against which legislation, policies, and an honest justice system can make a big dent in.

The Times story indicated that the prosecutor’s strategy was considered controversial because she mostly ignored race and made it a simple murder trial. Three men killed an innocent man, thinking they would take the law in their own hands. Critics thought she should make the trial about the racism of the three killers, their racism spilling over into a horrible racist act. Had she lost the case, she would have been soundly excoriated.

This prosecutor decided, rightly so, that a non-racism approach was the right approach. Sometimes it’s right to be color blind. That’s how I want to live my life. That’s how Mom and Dad taught us kids. Of course, they never told us we were mixed race, but that’s a story for another post.

Later in the newsletter article, the NYT further endorsed this multiple strategies needed approach.

The Arbery trial offers a reminder that calling out racism is not the only way to battle it. Sometimes, a more effective approach involves appealing to universal notions of fairness and justice. [Emphasis added]

If different approaches are what’s needed, then I suppose I should not criticize those who make race a defining characteristic in almost every human interaction. To me that seems wrong, but I won’t say those that take a different approach than me are wrong. May both approaches work together toward the goal of ending racist acts and eradicating racism from the hearts of men.

self-publishing, The Forest Throne

New Book Published: The Key To Time Travel

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The e-book cover.

So here I was on a Monday morning, minding my own business, proofreading one of the volumes of a Bible study I’ve written, watching the stock market out of the corner of my eye, when I realize I forgot to write my blog post for today.

So I guess what I’ll do is a simple notice about my newest book, The Key To Time Travel. This is Book 2 in The Forest Throne series. It’s the story of Eddie Wagner, second child of four in the family. His older brother had an adventure in time travel in Book 1. Now Eddie wants to have a bigger adventure.

He finds the forest throne and knows how to use it. Alas, the adventure doesn’t turn out quite the way he had in mind.

Yesterday, I received the covers from the cover designer. The e-book cover worked just fine, so I went ahead and published it. The print book cover, per Amazon, needs one minor tweak. Otherwise, the print book is ready to go. I tried making that tweak myself and couldn’t do it. I just don’t have the graphics skills needed. I’m hoping the print book can be available in a couple or a few days.

Bible study, miscellaneous, Writing

A Small View Between Obstacles

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Hard to see in this photo, but the gaps in the forest are there. I took this photo this morning, and the cloud cover is about the same as Wednesday.

On Wednesday, I came to The Dungeon as per my routine, mug of coffee in hand. I opened my current Bible reading book, which is the harmony of the gospels that I wrote, did my reading, had my prayer time, and got to my work—or maybe my busywork, can’t quite remember exactly two days ago. At some point I went upstairs for breakfast, then returned to The Dungeon and got to my real working time.

The day had dawned cloudy and remained so. At some point I looked up and out the window. Now, the window is covered with vertical slat blinds from the top to the floor. And my computer desk with the upper shelf unit is between me and the window. So two items are blocking my view of the outer world.

But I did have some view, enough to know the clouds were still thick. All I could see was tree leaves and branches. Once the oaks leaf out, which happens in the latter part of April, the holler behind our house is fully obscured. I see leaves close, a little light behind them, and then a mass of leaves that covers all else.

I took note that the leaves were perfectly still—not a bit of movement. But then I focused on the small amount of leaves deeper in the woods that I could see through the small gaps between the near leaves and branches. There, behind the front foliage, were places where gaps in the forest canopy allowed more light to penetrate. And in those gaps, I could see leaves and branches stirring. Eventually, that stirring worked its way toward the nearer leaves and branches, and they began to stir as well.

That got me to thinking of the limited view we have of the world. Our view is obscured by the things around us: the work at home, the work at a job, the need to keep in contact with people. So many things crowd our lives that, to use the old and trite adage, we can’t see the forest because of the trees.

It’s good to be looking for those gaps in what crowds us in to see beyond, to see what the rest of the world is up to. That’s what makes our little piece of the world a better place to live in.

When I took note of that movement in the forest, working from deeper in it to the edge of it made up of our back yard, I knew I had to blog about it, but how do I find meaning in it? Meaning, that is, beyond the gaps that allows us to see a little more of the world? And I thought of what I wrote not so long ago about friendship.

Friendships are the little gaps in the forest, with light penetrating the canopy and shining deep within. Friendships are elusive in this busy world, but well worth cultivating.

I’ve been working hard on my current work-in-progress, A Walk Through Holy Week, Part 5. I’m down to less than 1,500 words to go on the main text, plus some kind of introduction. My hope is to finish it today, though a doctor appointment may be too much interruption for that to happen. No matter if it does; I’ll finish it tomorrow. Then, I’m going to take time to cultivate some friendships I’ve kind of dropped while working so hard between writing and parent/grandparent duties.

Here’s to friendships, and to little gaps in the desk top-unit, the blinds, and the forest, that occasionally align and allow a view of the woder world.

Bible study, Writing

Miscellaneous Musings

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Every now and then, I come to a blog day with nothing much to say. I’m sure my few regular readers notice those posts. They are days when, for whatever reason, I’m knocked out of my regular routine, or I didn’t sleep well after not planning ahead.

Today is a little different. Rather than being knocked off my routine, I’m trying to reestablish it. After over two weeks or helping our daughter’s family in West Texas, we are back home and trying to get back to normal. It will be a short normal, as the helping times will come back fairly quickly.

Today I was up at 6:30 a.m. as always and in The Dungeon before 7:00. I caught up on a number of things, but blogging wasn’t on my mind. Getting back to writing was. Except I had some correspondence tasks to do first. Once those were done, it was time for the stock market to open and I had three trades I wanted to make. I lingered over those trades more than I had to. Next thing I knew, it was 9:00 and time for breakfast.

Consequently, it was 9:45 before I was back in The Dungeon and ready to write. My goal for the day was to get back into A Walk Through Holy Week, Part 5 after 12 days and make some progress on it. I didn’t have a specific word goal. Well, I got into it and made progress as I hoped. By 11:20 I had close to 1,300 words added and the next to last chapter completed. Only one chapter to go, and a little of that is done. Based on the word target I established for each chapter, I have maybe 4,000 words to write, plus the Introduction.

So I came here to An Arrow Through The Air and got to my other writing for the day. It’s a blah post, about writing progress. No earth-shattering ideas. No political rants. Nothing about things learned, ministries participation, or people helped. But it’s where I’m at.

And now, the sunroom and my noon reading break beckon.

family, holidays, memories, miscellaneous

An Odd Delivery

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Grandfather Todd’s trunk. Came from Yorkshire to NYC in 1910, to Providence in 1912, to East Providence around 1914, back to Providence around 1945, to Cranston in 1950, to NW Arkansas in 1997, and to Myrtle Beach in 2023.

One of the consequences of being in West Texas on a long-ish (more than two weeks) grandparent duty is that I wasn’t home to handle one very important item, scheduled since January. This relates to decluttering and dis-accumulation in advance of a downsizing some day, specifically to the Stars and Stripes that I’ve written about before.

For decades it held wartime copies of the “Stars and Stripes”, but they are now gone.

Not really about the newspapers, but the trunk they were stored in. This is an old steamer trunk that was one of three trunks that sat in the basement of my parents’ house for decades. As a kid growing up, I never knew the origin of those trunks nor what they were storing.

Someone who knows trunks could probably figure out more about it, such as year of manufacture and value.

On one trip back to Rhode Island, in 1990, Dad and I talked about his war service setting type for the S&S. We went to the basement and Dad showed me all those newspapers he’d sent home from Europe, which his parents kept and put in the trunk.

When Dad died in 1997, I took the trunk back to Arkansas and there it sat, either in my garage or basement, until a few days ago. Last year I removed the contents and shipped them to the University of Rhode Island Library as a donation, keeping a handful of copies as keepsakes.

That left the empty trunk. It was a steamer trunk, nothing fancy. On one end “OT” was painted. I assume, therefore, that this belonged to my grandfather, my dad’s dad, Oscar Todd. He emigrated from Yorkshire, England, to the USA in 1910 at the age of 20. He was in New York City for a couple of years, then made his way to Rhode Island. There he worked, married, and raised a family.

The “OT” painted on the outside is the only real clue I have about the origin, and the reason I believe it belonged to my grandfather, Oscar Todd, and was probably the trunk he brought with him from England to the USA.

I assume that this trunk was the one he brought from England in 1910. I’m sure there’s a way to research it and determine its age and origin. But I’m convinced that’s what it is: my grandfather’s trunk. He kept it, and when those newspapers came in wartime mail, it became a good place to store them.

From 1910 to around 1950, the trunk was wherever Oscar was, in NYC, the Riverside district of East Providence, and Providence. From 1950 to 1997, it was in the basement of Dad’s house in Cranston. From 1997 to 2023, it was with me in two different houses. While not overly large, it just doesn’t fit in with the concept of dis-accumulation. So when I decided to donate the S&S, I decided to get rid of the trunk.

Neither of my children wanted it. I don’t fault them for that. The trunk would take a fair amount of restoration to be a display item. The heirloom value would only be to someone who knew Oscar, and he died before they were born. I thought of others in the family who might want it, and decided on a cousin’s son, Frank Reed. He and his wife have six children, Frank knew Oscar, his great-grandfather, briefly and remembers him, so that seemed the next logical place for it to go.

The problem is, Frank recently removed from New Jersey to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. How to get the trunk to him? Shipping was a possibility, though expensive. So in January I put out a call on Facebook for anyone making a road trip there who would be willing to take the trunk. Amazingly, a woman responded saying she would be going to the North Carolina Outer Banks and could drive the trunk as far as Raliegh-Durham Airport. Could my cousin meet her there? He said yes, and arrangements were made for the trunk transfer at a certain time on May 9.

But then, grandparent duties took me away from home at the time we would have to get the trunk to the woman who was driving it east. She contacted me; I was in Texas, not planning to be home before May 7, when the trunk needed to go to her.

Our neighbors had a key to our house to water the plants. I contacted them and they were happy to help out. The first transfer, from our house to our neighbors, happened on the 6th. The second transfer, from our neighbor’s to Kimberly’s van, happened on the 7th. The third transfer, from Kimberly to Frank’s son’s car (he went to pick it up), happened in the cell phone lot at Raleigh-Durham Airport on the 9th, and the drive to Myrtle Beach the day.

So much work to get a simple trunk halfway across country. But it happened. Now Frank and his family can decide how best to display and enjoy this family heirloom, either as-is or with restoration.

Dis-accumulation continues. Next, Uncle Dave’s 1900 Encyclopedia Brittanica.

 

family, miscellaneous

Too Busy To Write

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Not going to review this one. I read it, a thin volume, over five or six busy days.

That’s the problem right now, I have too much to do to do any writing. I think it was Tuesday that I put the finishing touches on the first draft of A Walk Through Holy Week, Part 7. Since then, I’ve done no writing. Well, I spent a little time in The Key To Time Travel, taking care of a few loose ends, especially in the dates that Eddie travels to. But I did nothing to get ready for this blog, wrote no letters, nothing.

I did finish a writing book, titled The Writer’s Notebook. I won’t review it here. It was marginally beneficial. I gave it to my granddaughter Elise, who has also read it and said she got a lot out of it. Maybe she’ll be a writer someday.

The busyness comes from our daughter’s family’s upcoming move, currently scheduled for late this month. I’ve been pushing everyone to sort and pack the small stuff. Sort into keep, donate, discard. And the keeping stuff has to be marked for storage or temporary house.

They had done a lot before we got here twelve days ago, but there is much to do. Everyone has pitched in. Saturday was a major effort. Lots of books gone through, Legos boxed, messy piles gone through in bedrooms. Even yesterday saw some work done. Saturday #2 grandson, Ezra, and I took a modest load of stuff to a thrift store. Hopefully today I’ll be able to take a load of books to a Christian school.

Of course, everything is a mess at the moment. Boxes everywhere, some sealed, some not; some assembled, some waiting for assembly. Many more in the garage, though not even close to what will be needed.

Many Wal-Mart runs later, with many meals cooked and eaten, rides to and from school, and errands run, and we are down to the last few days of this trip. We’ll head home for some appointments, then be back here to help with the final move. That will be about a ten-day trip, shorter than this 16-day one. That will include helping them into the new place.

Writing tasks will begin again later this week, probably on Friday. I’ll report in then.

interviews

Author Interview: Scott Jimenez

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Available from Amazon in hardcover, paperback, audiobook, and ebook.

Scott Jimenez is a relatively new friend. He attends the church where our son-in-law was pastor until recently. While we haven’t had many conversations, we’ve been together in Sunday school classes and church services during our visits there, and sometimes at Wednesday night men’s group. Scott , has recently published a book, and I asked if I could interview him for the blog. So here it is.

Q. Your first book is PTSD: A Theological Approach. Tell me something about your life experiences that led you to write this book.

Scott has the experience, knowledge, and drive to have written this book. His approach is different than other books dealing with PTSD.

A. I was an officer of Marines; went to war; then became a Navy chaplain, often to Marines; then became a VA chaplain, working with Vets who had PTSD. I worked within the psychological and medical models we had. But, 22 Vets a day still commit suicide. Something was not being addressed.

Q. What differentiates your book from other books available dealing with PTSD?

A. I wanted to find something holistic. I went back to the Bible, and found, in the conquest of Canaan, my answer. There are currently no theological approaches to PTSD. Because it is Biblical, it has been tested for over 4000 years, so it is the premier evidence-based solution there is. And, because it is Biblical, it works for other types of PTSD, on trauma, and on stress.

In Exodus 15:26, God gives us a name for Himself, Yahwe Rapha. Rapha is generally translated as to heal. But there is another meaning, to restore. My book focuses not just on healing, but on restoration. Not restoration to what we were in the past, but restoration to the Image of God we were originally made in.

Q. What do you want someone suffering from PTSD, or loved ones of a sufferer, to take away from your book? How do you hope they will be helped?

A. That they are not alone, that there are safe places where they can be listened to, that there is a community built in faith that can become their new friends and adoptive family, that there is healing, and that normality is searching for a new normal.

Q. Do you have a follow-up book planned? If so, what’s it about, and what is a target time for its release?

A. The next book I am writing and hope to have out by Christmas is tentatively titled Too Blessed to Be Stressed: How the Church Speaks to Stress. It focuses on the subjects we often don’t discuss in church, but need to. Topics such as: Unplanned Pregnancy, Abortion Recovery, Suicide, Dying and Death, Immigration, and Biblical Identity are just some of the topics that seem taboo to discuss. Why? They happen, and if they happen, we need to talk about them.

Q. And, any long-term plans for other books or writings?

A. I have one on articles and blogs I’ve written called Articles of Faith. I am compiling a 365-day devotional with a daily Bible verse and short thoughts. Perhaps a title might be Pensados. I also want to do a children’s book on the story of my mother’s journey from the mountains of Colombia to Colombia’s Caribbean coast. This journey happened when she was about 12. It is a story of peril, of grit, of resourcefulness, and about what life was like 70 years ago in a foreign land far away. I want to call it Maruja: Crossing Colombia. My last book would be about, and called, Collected Sermons.

Scott’s book is available at Amazon in several formats: hardcover, paperback, audiobook, and e-book. It is also available at Barnes & Noble (online and some retail stores) and Christian Book Distributors.

miscellaneous

Thinking About Friendship

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The concept of friendship has been on my mind recently. One of the books I brought with me to read on our current trip is a C.S. Lewis book titled The Four Loves. One of the loves Lewis talks about is friendship. So far I’ve only skimmed this book.

Another reason I’m thinking about that is because of my currently reading the letters of Thomas and Jane Carlyle, along with an older bio of him. My current reading is in the time less than three years after he moved from Scotland to London and was still forming friendships. Reading about how that was going is an interesting read.

Friendship has been on my mind because I wonder if people really experience it these days. We are more connected than ever thanks to the internet, yet we are, perhaps, more isolated. Posts and reactions take the place of real interactions.

Building friendships takes time. Both parties to a friendship must want the friendship and show the want by investing the time needed to, first, get to know the other person, and second, to know them well, well enough to say, “We are friends,” and to consider it a loss if you didn’t hear from or engage with the other for some time. Of course, to get to know someone well probably means you share interests.

We don’t have much friendship today. I’m convinced of that. I’m thinking at the adult level. Children at all ages, linked by school classes, do a better job of making friends.

I’m not sure where I’m going with this topic and whether I’ll have more posts on it as I get into the Lewis book. If I do have more, they won’t be consecutive.

Bible study, reading, stock market

Working Hard

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It’s 6:26 a.m. on my blog posting day. I normally try to have this written long before this on the day before, but circumstances worked against my getting that done.

The circumstances are, we are in West Texas again, the third of four trips here this year. The first was to babysit the grandkids while our daughter and son-in-law were on a mission trip to Thailand. The second trip and this one are to help out as they begin transitioning to a new location, south of Houston. Richard is down there two weeks and back here two. While he’s gone, we’ll come here to help out.

Yesterday I got the three older grandkids working on pre-move projects. They couldn’t get on screens until they had achieved a certain degree of completeness. They did it without complaining. In the evening, I worked on Bible quizzing with the two middle ones, as they will have a competition in June.

During the day, I have so far been working on yardwork tasks. Yesterday I completed the main task I had, though in reality there is much more to do. I’m going to take today off from outdoor stuff, I think, as I was quite worn out yesterday. I also slightly injured my chest swinging an ax to cut out some old, dead roots from a long-gone hedge. But that’s done, the debris discarded, and I need a day for the old bones—or perhaps it was muscles, ligaments, or tendons—to heal.

We’ve eaten leftovers so far. Today I’ll have to cook something. I can’t say I’m looking forward to that.

I’ve had plenty of indoor time to work on my other “jobs”. Over two days I added over 3,300 words to A Walk Through Holy Week, Part 7. I’m down to only one chapter left now, most likely three days of writing. Then I’ll have the Introduction to do and, of course, editing to turn it from a first draft to a publishable book. On to the little bit of work left to Part 5 of AWTHW, which I hope to finish in May. I’ve had time the last two days to do my stock trading. Fortunately, the type of trading I’m doing right now doesn’t take a lot of time. It’s relatively low risk, yet I’m ahead of the market for the year. That’s nice to see for a change.

I’ve been able to get a little reading in, but not a lot. It’s been good reading, however. To be a good example to the grandkids, I’m reading in a print book when they are around rather then one of three books I have going on my phone.

So, it’s been a good trip. Still more than a week to go before we head home. Lots of work to do. Today I’ll have to take a little time to work on The Key To Time Travel, as the cover designer has reached the point where she needs book dimensions and back cover copy. Since she’s there, it’s time for me to get a few last-minute edits done. I should have that published in May.