Category Archives: C.S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis, Christianity

Verses to Start the Day

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Tolkien and Lewis were highly educated, deep thinkers. Those who write about them often seem to focus on this.

In this modern era, as I pick books to read, I try to have both a print book and e-book I’m working through at all times. That lets me read a print book in the sunroom, or to be an example to the grandkids, and to have something to read on my phone in those odd moments of waiting (doctor, DMV, etc.). My current print book read is The Collected Letters of Dylan Thomas. I have about 100 pages to go in this 950 page book.

My current e-book read is The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings. This book focuses on J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Owen Barfield, and Charles Williams. I’m currently on page 185 of 685. I would have loved to have this book in paperback, but I really need to reduce the number of books in this house, not increase them. So to the phone I go when I want to read this book.

It’s a good book but, to some extent, it’s a little over my head. The authors, Philip and Carol Zaleski, talk about the philosophy of these men (so far mainly Tolkien and Lewis, with a little of Barfield), and how they held language so high that they almost worshiped language. Okay, the authors don’t say that, but as I read the book, it seems like that to me.

Some of what the book discusses is philosophical ideas, or “schools”, such as realism vs. idealism. What was Lewis at different time in his early life, a realist or an idealist? What moved him from one to the other?

I want to scream “Shut up!” I don’t really care about their philosophy. Tell me about their friendship, their writings, their collaboration. Tell me about their meetings and how they encouraged one another to write more and better books.

No, I’m not a deep thinker into things like realism and idealism. I just try to live life to the full, to learn as much as I can (including stretching myself), to draw closer to God. Does knowing how the debate of realism vs. idealism in C.S. Lewis’s mind helped to shape his later years do any of those for me? It might stretch me to know more about those, but I doubt they will help me to be a better Christian, to win a lost world for Jesus.

I don’t think I’m a shallow thinker, however. But my own writing and conversation are, apparently, not the stuff of Lewis and Tolkien. I’m just concerned with improving the world, beginning with my little corner and working out. Am I an idealist or a realist? Maybe I’m just a pragmatist. What is practical for helping me achieve my goals? That’s what I want to concentrate on.

And what I will concentrate on. Let others deal with the ins and outs or realism vs. idealism, and any other ism you care to bring up. I won’t be dealing with them.

No, when I think about things, I’m just trying to live in a way where each day I’m a little better than the last. Toward that end, I try to start each day with three Bible verses. I say “try” because, despite good intentions, I sometimes get up and go about my business without quoting the verses. But I say them more often than not. Here are the verses.

“I will awaken the dawn.” Psalm 57:8b

“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory far outweighs them all.” 2 Corinthians 4:17

“So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.” Luke 17:10

In future posts, I’ll discuss each of these verses: when I “discovered” them; why I chose them; what they mean to me. I won’t be doing those posts immediately, but spread out over the next month

book reviews, C.S. Lewis

Book Review: A Grief Observed

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I’ve had trouble enjoying a couple of C.S. Lewis essays, but this is the first of his books I didn’t like.

I have known about C.S. Lewis’ book A Grief Observed for a long time. In fact, it’s the second of his books that I bought. That was back in 1976. I had discovered Lewis the year before and read The Screwtape Letters, finding it very helpful to me in my then new Christian walk. When my grandfather died in 1976, I learned that he had written this book and bought a copy and sent it to my grandmother, even though I didn’t read it first. She and I never had a discussion about it, and I don’t know if she read it.

Somewhere along the line, I bought another copy of it, a used, large print edition. I’ve always had difficulty reading and enjoying large print books, and this one was the same. It sat on a shelf for a few years with my other Lewis books. I finally got around to reading it a couple of months ago.

A Grief Observed came from Lewis’ grief at the death of his wife, Joy (Davidman) Gresham Lewis. The story of Jack (as Lewis was called) and Joy is a long, complicated one, which I won’t go into now.  After marrying Joy at her hospital bed, expecting her to die within days or weeks, she unexpectedly recovered and they had about three years together. When the cancer eventually took her life, Lewis went into a tailspin of sorts. As a means of mourning, he wrote down his thoughts. When his publisher learned of this, he (the publisher) suggested it ought to be published. And so it was in 1961 under the pseudonym N.W. Clerk.

This is the Lewis book I least enjoyed. I understand grief and how it affects a person. It was over forty years before I wrote about the grief I felt at my mother’s death. Each person must grieve in their own way; there is no right or wrong way. But this book is just…strange. It doesn’t seem coherent, unified. It truly is a collection of Lewis’ thoughts as he grieved. He questioned God. He questioned Christianity. He questioned himself. He rambled. The book doesn’t follow a linear path from first grief to later triumph. He wondered how he could go on. Yet, of course, he did go on, for three more years until his own death.

It seems that the purpose of a book is to: entertain, convey information, instruct, work for change, or a few other noble purposes. For me, this book did none of those. Since it’s a short book (72 pages in large print), it was a short read. I think I finished it in just three or four sittings. At the end of the read, I felt unfulfilled in regard to any of those noble purposes. Of course, I’m not in a grieving process right now. Perhaps if I were, I would have found the book helpful. I can’t imagine that my grandmother was helped if she read this.

I’m afraid I give it a mere 2-stars. If you’re grieving, perhaps you will find it helpful. If you want to read everything Lewis wrote, by all means read it. But otherwise, don’t worry about bypassing it.

The book is a keeper mainly to keep my C.S. Lewis collection intact. Otherwise, it would be out to the sale/donation shelves in the garage.

C.S. Lewis, Christianity, critique group, miscellaneous

A Restful (?) Weekend

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When last I posted, we were just past a delightful snow day on Friday. The snow was on Wednesday and Thursday. The final total at our house I figure was about 6-7 inches. Others in the area had up to 9 inches. I didn’t do extensive measurements.

Of course, after the snow is snow shoveling—if you want to go anywhere on the weekend. We had sunny days on Friday and Saturday. Enough sun to melt some snow but temperatures too cold to see that much snow disappear. So Saturday just before noon saw me outside, shoveling. There were maybe 5 inches on the drive by this time. I knew if I could just get it down to mostly bare pavement, radiant energy would dry it. Sure enough, that’s what happened. By the time sundown came I had the driveway shoveled, the van up at the top of the drive, and dry pavement—except for the refreezing that would happen to three or four little streams of snow-melt running down my nice, dry drive.

Saturday and Sunday were productive. Yes, even Sunday. It’s supposed to be a day of rest, right? And it was, sort of. On Saturday I made a list of things I thought I needed to do. Some were normal Saturday activities, such as my stock trading accounting, updating the checkbook and family budget. I didn’t mess with filing, but will have to do that shortly. Kitchen cleaning was one thing. Filling bird feeders was another. Slowly, the tasks got done, mostly on Saturday.

Sunday was typical. Lynda was well enough to go to church with me. We had missionaries in the service. I taught Life Group. We got Arby’s takeout for lunch. Hope and eat, then for me it was to the sunroom with my half-way read volume of Dylan Thomas’s Collected Letters. I’m trying to read ten pages a day, and doing fairly well with it. I tried to nap out there, but didn’t get much sleep time.

So I went to The Dungeon, where I worked on critiquing works for my critique group, the Scribblers & Scribes of Bella Vista. I did five pages in one and ten in another (neither of which was the complete submitted item) and shot them back by e-mail. It was good to get them out. I also sent out the next chapter in There’s No Such Thing As Time Travel.

My other main task was to complete the edits to the church Centennial book. I had a long Zoom conference with the two proofreaders, whose comments were almost entirely edits. They only found six or eight typos, and half of those I had caught in my own proofread. I thought that was pretty good. But they had lots of suggested changes. We went through them, and I’m afraid I wasn’t real accepting of a lot of the changes this late in the game. I needed edits in October.

However, I decided to go through them all, slowly, on Saturday and Sunday, considering each suggestion, and making some more changes. Last night, around 8 p.m. or so, I finished. All suggested edits considered and dealt with, all changes made to my master document, and the master document e-mailed to the two proofreaders. I have one more photo to put in, and I will do that today. No, maybe two photos.

To end the day yesterday, I read about 20 pages aloud to the wife in the book we’re reading, about a Christian convert from Timor. Then I had an hour or so of reading in Dylan Thomas and C.S. Lewis, both in their collected letters. Now, time to see what goes on today’s to-do list—after this blog post, of course.

C.S. Lewis, miscellaneous, reading, Writing

Another Blustery, Rainy, Busy Day

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Rain came in Wednesday late. At least I think it did. I was asleep and didn’t hear it. When I woke up Thursday morning, I heard the plink-plink on the skylights. While waiting for the coffee to brew, I went into the darkness of the sunroom and listened. The wind was easy, the rain light, and the sounds wonderful.

As for my “work” day, after the coffee was done, I went to The Dungeon. Light was just barely visible between the blinds slats, darker than normal due to the rain. I had my devotions and read morning newsletters, then planned my trading day. Thursday is a busy day for my trading system. I did some analysis and laid out some trades. I then made them slowly as the day unfolded.

For writing, I pulled off The Forest Throne to get back on the church Centennial book. As I’ve said before, the writing work is done. I had also begun formatting it for print a week ago. My main task was to add photos. Some of those were on a shared Google drive. Some were in church archives I had at the house, and some were loose or in envelopes. I worked with them all morning. By the time lunch came around I had approximately ten pages of photos added. It’s not done, but it’s now close. Another morning of work and I’ll have added all that are available to me. Today I plan on doing that work.

After lunch, I fell asleep reading C.S. Lewis’s essay “De Futilitate”. So I got up and went out to the sunroom and went back to reading it. I was able to finish the essay, but didn’t really understand it. I think it’s a three or four reading just to get a basic understanding but that wouldn’t be enough to be able to discuss it intelligently.

Pizza and salad for supper, then an evening of…what? I could write, edit, read, chill out watching TV, wash the dishes, declutter. Hmmm. I’m actually writing this Thursday evening, around 7 p.m. Well, I worked on decluttering and disaccumulation last night; I’m not sure I’m up for it tonight. The dishes really need washing, so I’m sure I’ll do that. I may then mess around with e-mail archiving. That’s easy to do in distracted conditions.

The rain is about over, but the winds have risen. I hear the roaring through the closed window. This is blowing-down-trees strength wind. I enjoy listening to it, but won’t appreciate the clean-up afterwards.

This is the last post for October. I’ll be back on Monday with a writing progress report.

C.S. Lewis, Christianity

Christianity and Culture

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‘Twas in this book that I found the essay “Christianity and Culture”. I will need to read it another time or two to fully understand it.

A few posts back I mentioned C.S. Lewis and trying to find the source of a quote attributed to him. I found it in my personal library. That caused me to keep that book in hand and read some in it. ‘Twas not so long ago that I finished a book, had one other one to work on, and wanted a second in my active reading pile. Perfect, I thought. Two thirds of this book is a compilation some of of his essays and lectures. Perfect, I thought. I can read it for a day or two and lay it aside.

The first I read was “The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment”, a Lewis magazine article anthologized in God In The Dock. The second was “Christianity and Culture”, an earlier magazine article anthologized in Christian Reflections. A bookmark showed that I had started reading this back in 2019 and got halfway through it. Perfect, I thought, I’ll finish this essay and go on to the next one.

And finish it I did, reading it slowly and closely, even rereading it, trying to absorb what Lewis was saying. After all, if I am a Christian and want to impact the culture around me, surely Lewis would give me helpful instructions, or at least suggestions and hints.

Alas, that’s not at all what this essay was about. By “culture” Lewis doesn’t mean it in a dictionary sense: “the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group”. Nor does he mean it as a verb in a scientific sense: “maintain (tissue cells, bacteria, etc.) in conditions suitable for growth”. No, by “culture” he means what I would call “cultured”: “characterized by refined taste and manners and good education”.

The gist of the essay was whether a cultured person could be a Christian.

First off, I dislike that term, cultured. It implies a type of refinement, a type of “better-than-others” implication. Maybe Lewis didn’t mean it in that way. Maybe it’s just another way to describe a segment of humanity to differentiate them from that part of humanity that has not had the best of education, and whose manners and tastes are not so refined. You know, to differentiate the hot dog eaters from the caviar eaters.

But my question is: Why is this even up for debate? Why take up a whole essay on this, Mr. Lewis? Surely we can find Christians in all walks of life, in all degrees of refinement.

Upon reflection, however, I think Lewis has a valid reason for asking this. Maybe in England there was a greater class distinction between the life of culture and the life of commonness. When Lewis was a schoolboy, all those charged with educating and guiding him saw he had an exceptional intellect. They steered him into the cultured life—a life of education, where he would then teach others. He ought to work with him mind, not his hands. He was a very willing participant in this, as he saw that he wanted to live this kind of life. He lived and breathed learning, hoping to become an Oxford don, and maybe even a professor.

World War 1 caused a delay in the education, but eventually Lewis was exactly where he wanted to be, at Oxford University, tutoring students and lecturing to attentive audiences. While he wasn’t wealthy (a condition usually associated with cultured people), he was living a life of culture, as he called it.

Then came Christianity, as from 1929 to 1931 Lewis moved from his atheism to belief in Jesus as the only begotten Son of God. His outlook changed along with his beliefs. But what didn’t change was his occupation or expectations of life. He was still living as a cultured person, still lecturing, still tutoring, still enjoying happy times with friends at the pub or on holiday walking tours. While his outlook on sin and holiness had changed, not much else had.

Fast forward to the end of the 1930s. Lewis began to wonder if this was right. If he made a radical change in his life by becoming a Christian, shouldn’t everything change? He asked the question: Can I live a life of culture now that I’m a Christian? If not, he would have to give up a lot: his way of making a living and his cherished activities of leisure.

According to Lewis’s article, he went through extensive studies to make a decision about this. He read major Christian writers from the past, the distant and then recent past, and concluded that nothing about being a Christian would require him to change his profession or give up those things he found enjoyment in. He continued to teach, continued to write books and essays and articles and lectures. Along the way, he added defending the Christian faith. And millions of people through the decades are glad that he did.

I think what Lewis went through is worthwhile for everyone to go through when they make a commitment to Jesus. Does my way of life—my work, my recreation, my habits, my friendships—need to change, either marginally or drastically, to live the life God wants me to live? Perhaps I’ll explore this some more in future posts. For now, I think I’ll re-read “Christianity and Culture” again to make sure I fully understand Lewis’s conundrum.

 

 

book reviews, C.S. Lewis

Book Review: The Joyful Christian

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A posthumous compilation of excerpts from a number of Lewis’s writings, this was a little hard to get maximum value from.

When you get a library book you are under a deadline to read it. Oh, sure, sometimes you can renew it, but you can’t count on that. In early August we went to the Bella Vista Library, mainly to get some novels in a certain series. I browsed (after taking a look through the large, recent expansion that seems to have doubled the library’s size). Nothing struck my fancy, as I have many books at the house I’ve yet to read

But I found this C.S. Lewis book, The joyful Christian: 127 Readings. I’m a sucker for anything by C.S. Lewis, and it’s a shame to go to a library and not bring something home, so I checked this one out. Three weeks to read it and get it back.

C.S. Lewis, however, is best read when you have plenty of time and no distractions. I wouldn’t say I had plenty of time to read this, but I had enough time. The readings were pulled from many of Lewis’s writings. At the place in the book where the writings were, the publisher/editor didn’t provide from which of Lewis’s writings the reading came. You had to go to an index of writings and look under the title given to the reading. I did that for a while, but found it unfruitful and quit before I got 1/3 through the book.

The book was a little weird, what with the readings coming from so many works. I didn’t think they all fit the theme of “joyful Christian”. But it was good. I don’t think I’ll read it again, but it was good.

It’s now back at the library. I wasn’t prepared to spend time there, so I just left it in the outside book drop. Now, back to my own library.

 

C.S. Lewis, rant, Wesley, Writing

It’s Time To Modernize Citations

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This is how I would like to see citations done. Kudos to the author and publisher. Pay no attention to the curving text. That’s a photographer’s error (meaning mine).

A couple of days ago, a Facebook friend I seldom interact with posted a C.S. Lewis quote. I’ve seen this quote before. It seems to be politically conservative, would seem to support certain memes you see on social media. The quote was not attributed except to say it was by C.S. Lewis. Having seen it so posted at least three times, I decided to not let it go this time. I asked the poster what the source was, where Lewis wrote this. She came back with a fuller quote and said it was from “God In The Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics (1948).

Fine, I thought, I have a copy of God In The Dock. I’ll just go there and see if I can find the place. Alas, as I looked through it, I re-discovered (having seen some time ago but forgotten) that GITD is collection of essays. As I looked further, I discovered that not only was GITD the title of a book, it was also the title of an essay. “God In The Dock” was an essay from 1948. God In The Dock was a book, a collection of Lewis’s essays published posthumously in 1970. Which did she mean? Since she said 1948 in the source, I figured it was the essay. So I went to it in the book and…the quote wasn’t in the essay.

A little bit of searching—something I’m getting good at these days—revealed “The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment”, an essay that appeared first in an Australian periodical in 1949 and republished in an Australian legal journal in 1953. So her source as presented was technically incorrect.

All of which got me to thinking about sources, which in turn got me to thinking about footnotes and citations. I do a lot of reading and research in the older writers, those who are long out of copyright. You can find lots of their works on line at no cost, though not the more modern reprints. a book I’m reading right now has a lot of quotes and citations in footnotes. In quotes from the writings of John Wesley, they refer to a specific set of collected works. Here’s an example.

4. John Wesley, The Works of John Wesley, vol. 12 (Kansas City, MO: Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 1978)

If I wanted to find this particular quote, perhaps to read it in context and see if the author had used Wesley’s words correctly, I would have to go somewhere and get that specific set of his collected works and find the specific volume, the specific page—oops, he didn’t give the page. Shame on the author and the publisher. Let’s try a different citation in a footnote.

16. Wesley, Works, vol VI, 512

A footnote immediately prior to this one identifies which of Wesley’s collected works is meant. That’s a little more helpful, but, again, only if I have that specific volume. But, all of Wesley’s works are out of copyright. They are all available in a great on-line library called the Internet, both pictures of them from the 18th and 19th centuries and electronic versions newer than that. Why not just say where it’s found? Why not say, for example:

John Wesley, “Sermon No. 17”

or whatever of Wesley’s writing you need. How easy it would be to find the original document and do the research you want to do.

So I am making the proposal that we start modernizing citations and footnotes to recognize how data is accessed these days.

Back to the C.S, Lewis quote in question. Here are two ways to do that citation, first the old way, then my proposed new way.

  • C.S. Lewis, The Timeless Writings of C.S. Lewis, 2003 (New York, NY, Inspirational Press), 499
  • C.S. Lewis, “The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment”, 1949, paragraph 10

I ask you, which would be easier to find? You can go to whatever Lewis collection you have, find the essay, thumb to the paragraph, and read the quote. You can read the whole essay to get the context, and make up your mind if those posting the quote are using Lewis correctly. Or, if you don’t have it, you know what to look for in a library or a book store. Want a little more information? You could expand it as follows.

  • C.S. Lewis, “The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment”, paragraph 10. Anthologized in God In The Dock,

Since God In The Dock, the book, has been published several times in several formats, you don’t even need to give the year of publication of who the publisher is. The name of the book is sufficient for any reader or researcher of reasonable intelligence to find the work, verify the quote, and go on with whatever project had caused him to look the information up.

I followed this system, at least somewhat, in my two family history/genealogy books. I referenced works without getting into specific printed matter, publishers, and dates of publication. I like the way it turned out.

And, while I’m at it about citations/footnotes, how about we once and for all bury Latin references and abbreviations? Sure, I can look up what op cit and ibid mean and learn them. But with the cost of printing as cheap as it is nowadays, why not just repeat the work, perhaps in a slightly shorter form, and change the page number? Give complete references in a Bibliography at the end. This I also did in my two genealogy books.

Well, that’s my proposal. I don’t expect it to catch on in my lifetime, but I made it and put it out there for public scrutiny. I’d like to hear what everyone things of it.

Oh, to be fair, the book I’m reading for church does include some footnotes as I suggest. For example:

12. Wesley, “Sermon 85, On Working Out Our Own Salvation,” III.2

So maybe my proposal isn’t so far out.

C.S. Lewis, Christianity, family, Genealogy, The Teachings, travel, Writing

Hunkering Down

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[Note to self: Don’t hit the browser back button when typing a post if you haven’t hit “save draft”. Maybe the second time will be a charm.]

This is looking up the street from our house on Thursday 2/11. It is sanded (actually gritted). I believe I could get up it if I tried.

I’m looking out The Dungeon windows to a light snowfall. It’s just condensation due to the cold, 14°F. We were supposed to be in Texas this weekend, watching the grandkids while their parents were at a church event. Wednesday last was our departure day. But we woke up to a winter glaze on the roads, a freakish ice storm overnight. It had been predicted then removed from the forecast. After a quick survey of the situation, I postponed the trip a day.

If not, perhaps I could get down the hill then loop around the circle and go up the next street which, last time I checked, was free of ice.

I spent time chopping and clearing ice, spreading rock salt and sand. I was able to get the already-loaded van up to the end of the driveway. Once the City truck came by spreading grit on the road, I probably could have made it up the hill. But reports on conditions elsewhere indicated the trip would be difficult. Thursday morning was not much different. Radar showed light, frozen precipitation along our route. I delayed the trip from morning to afternoon. By noon it was clear things were no better. Reports of accidents along our route said it all. I cancelled the trip.

So were are unexpectedly home. The forecast now calls for 6-10″ of snow Sunday-Monday, with temperatures like we have now or lower. After a trip to Wal-Mart today (hopefully) for fresh items, we will hunker down. I made a large pot of soup yesterday. We have enough frozen, canned, and boxed food to get by a long time should the W-M run not be possible. I plan to write in the church anniversary book. I plan to begin the editing process in The Teachings. I will read C.S. Lewis and other things. On Sunday I will teach Life Group from home. And I will walk outside a little but get my main exercise on the elliptical. I might even get a little genealogy research done.

I realize that the last paragraph is all about me. “I plan…I will…” Obviously I will do that only by the grace of God and the strength and abilities He has given me and continues to give me.

Oh, in the last half-hour we learned that the church event have been postponed due to…weather.

C.S. Lewis, Church History Novels, home improvements, miscellaneous, Politics, reading, The Teachings, Writing

A Whacky Week to Start 2021

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That sounds too flippant, to call last week a “whacky” week. It was an awful week as far as our nation goes. For me in my personal life, “whacky” is an apt description.

Not that anything went wrong, at least not terribly wrong. The worst that happened to me was a dead battery. I drove to a haircut appointment on Friday, the first haircut I had since May. I took the Green Monster, our old minivan. It’s been a little hard to start and I thought it might be that the battery was old. But it started and I drove it the 3/4 miles to the beauty shop. Got my haircut, came out, and it wouldn’t start. So I walked home and let it sit overnight.

I considered having my neighbor drive me up there and jump start me then drive it to the Dodge dealership 4 miles north, but on Saturday? I decided instead to call AAA. They now have a battery service. I requested that, and they came so fast I barely had time to walk up there to meet them. Fifteen minutes and some money later and I was up and running. That battery was six or seven years old, so I was on borrowed time with it. And, that service didn’t cost a whole lot more than going to Wal-Mart, buying a battery, and putting it in myself.

During the week I actually got back to significant work on my novel, The Teachings. Over Tuesday through Friday I added over 5,000 words to it. I haven’t had that kind of writing production in a long time. I left it on Friday with the next scene clearly in my mind, hoping to add another two to three thousand words over the weekend. But instead I added…nothing. Other tasks consumed my time.

On Saturday, in addition to taking care of the van, I did maintenance around the house. The shower door handle needed attention, and was easily fixed. I tried to glue down some old wallpaper that is coming loose but it wouldn’t stick, even with gorilla glue. A window handle needed put back in place, and I was able to find screws that reasonably matched and got that done. While at it I went around the house and checked the other window handles, tightening a few. I also did some more straightening/arranging of my miscellaneous hardware, and identified some more I can sell.

We continue with decluttering, going through old Christmas cards and letters received over a 28 year period. Few are worth saving. Why we saved them I don’t know. But that is slowly being cleared out. I keep getting some inquiries about items I have listed for sale on FB Marketplace. Sold some books on Thursday, but a freak snowstorm that day kept two other scheduled buyers away or I might have sold more.

My reading was progressing well early in the week. I read ten or more pages a day in C.S. Lewis’s letters, with great enjoyment. But I read less over the weekend, my concentration waning. Our evening reading is in a Philip Yancey book, and we make good progress in that. We lost reading time two days as I had evening Zoom meetings on church-related tasks.

One of those tasks is our church’s 100th anniversary committee. I was asked if I would write a book to be distributed as part of the celebration, which is in October. That may seem like a lot of time, but it’s not. Thursday evening I went up to the church to retrieve the archives. Saturday I went through about 5 to 10% of them. It’s going to be a huge task. I have a timeline already started, though with much more needed. I probably need to spend some time every day on this, and will do some today.

My weight and blood sugars were a little whacky last week. My eating was fairly good and I lost some weight and had good blood sugars, but the blood sugars didn’t track as well to my eating and exercise as I thought they would; not sure why.

I could go on. Prepared on Saturday for and taught adult Life Group yesterday. Did a little genealogy research. And, as you would expect, made a few Facebook posts or comments on Wednesday, now estranged from a family member over it. This too shall pass. I will post about that, maybe in my next post of possibly not until next week. While I’m hoping the madness (yes, I consider it madness) has stopped, I’m hearing things that concern me that it hasn’t. More on that later.

So, here it is another week, the 2nd of 2021. Normal tasks are before me. God is on the throne. I will continue to serve Him, regardless of what of what swirls around me.

ancient letters, C.S. Lewis, family, holidays

Yes, Thanksgiving Was Quiet

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It was just me and the missus this year. Leftovers from the Thanksgiving dinner we had last week with our son, reading, walking, and lots of phone calls.

I’m not a big fan of talking on the phone, so I can’t say that was pleasant for me. Strange, after all the years in the workforce, dealing with clients, contractors, and colleagues, that I should dislike the phone, but I do. Maybe 44 years of engineering work and the required phone time means I used up my lifetime store of phone time.

I can’t say that I feel like I got much done. I was a couple of days behind on my devotional readings, and I caught up. I did my usual morning stock market accounting even though the market was closed. That saved me from having to do it Friday before the market opens for a half-day session. I had a couple of messages of people wanting to buy stuff off my Facebook Marketplace listings. I responded, started to gather those things, they decided it could wait until Friday. I read eight pages in C.S. Lewis’ letters. I had hoped for 10 pages, so was a little short.

I walked a total of 2.67 miles, according to my app. I went out, came back to find Lynda walking toward me, so we went out again. I think it was a little over 1/2 miles together. A beautiful day in the mid-60s couldn’t be passed by. As I said above, supper was leftovers, a turkey casserole I had made a week ago, the last of the butternut squash, cranberry sauce, and then just snacking.

In the evening I read aloud from the current issue of the Nazarene Compassionate Ministries magazine that we get, finishing it. That paves the way for us to start a new book today. I read a couple of Thomas Carlyle’s letters from 1832, finding them enjoyable as always.

The main task I did, I guess, was formatting a document in MS Word. I won’t say what it was. It’s a bunch of copyrighted items that I downloaded concerning an author I study. I will read it some day; actually started on that some years ago. Now the document is set up in printable form, should I decide to do that. For some reason, formatting documents is a task I find enjoyable. So I worked on that off and on beginning around noon, and finished it around 9:30 pm. Over 200 pages. Done, ready for whatever I want to do with it next.

So here it’s Friday morning. I was up at 6:15 a.m. and have already got stuff done. I’ll head upstairs when I finish this to get my second cup of coffee. Then I’ll see all that I must do and want to do today. Work, walk, and read are my main courses, with a side of eating and conversation. Looking forward to the day.