…and when you lay your book down on the keyboard you get a title somewhat like the one above.
Reading is for me one of those pleasurable experiences that I never seem to get to the end of. Book after book presents to me a new realm of thought that I must absorb to some degree.
I am feeling a bit guilty for not writing more here on Sunday Salon but I must at least recognize that Sundays really aren’t as much of a possibility for me to do much other than work anymore too. So, even though I know it’s not Sunday, here I am writing away.
Amazon.com: The Journey of Desire: Searching for the Life We Only Dreamed of: Books: John EldredgeI’ve been reading this book from John Eldredge lately and it’s got me thinking a bit about the desires of our hearts and minds and what those really mean.
I am reminded by that scene in Harry Potter in front of the mirror where he sees his parents with him. Dumbledore finds Harry and says that “the happiest man on earth would see himself only exactly as he is”. The subtle part of that is I would hope that the happiest man on earth would desire something for someone else at that point, but I digress.
How should we approach our true desires?
Often, we have given up our true desires for counterfeits to the reality in our hearts. For us it represents the ideal that we gave up on. Years later we may realize that we failed and gave into the counterfeits and wake up to the pitiful realization that we could have had the desires that we daydreamed about.
Eldredge says this more clearly.
“The road to life and joy lies through, not around, the heart-sickness of hope deferred.” and later relates how pursuing desire can be an intrinsically irrational event like climbing Mt. Everest.
Our desires are often irrational. But they will haunt us till they are either fulfilled or subdued. Both will make you cry, but the difference is great. One will be because of joy, the other because of sorrow. Choose the Joy. It’s irrational, but it’s worth it.
This is about as fresh as you can get on reading material. I received this book this morning at church as a late Christmas gift and am really enjoying it so far. I am right around page 26 currently and have already learned these truths about building wealth and yes, while these are common sense principals, George Clason, the author, relates these in story form here in the first part of the book.
- Live on Less than you Earn. (How to acquire money)
- Seek advice only from experienced authorities in their field. (How to keep money)
- Money can work for you, if you invest wisely doing the above two things. (How to use money)
I may have this one finished by the end of the day, so stay tuned….
I have a thing about any series of books. Before I read the sequel, I must always read the preceding book again. Over the last few months I’ve been longing to read the new book, Scarlet. It’s the second in a trilogy of books called the King Raven trilogy only released a few months ago. This of course meant that I needed to reread the first book in the trilogy, Hood. I finished it this evening.
Hunted like an animal by Norman invaders, Bran ap Brychan, heir to the throne Elfael, has abandoned his father’s kingdom and fled to the greenwood. There, in the primeval forest of the Welsh borders, danger surrounds him—for this woodland is a living, breathing entity with mysterious powers and secrets, and Bran must find a way to make it his own if he is to survive.
All in all, reading Hood for the second time, I have been impressed at how this mythic tale has twisted through the ages from the retelling of it. Lawhead takes this tale and dissects it back to it’s roots and gives it flesh.
In reality, Hood was probably a reckless brigand who kept most of what he stole, but it’s nice to have a hero who down through the ages has remained the underdog who continues to steal our hearts.
I usually am too busy on a Sunday to read much since I am also a pastor here locally. But lately, I haven’t had the time to read much at all… but I have read, and I am still on the same book…lol.
Soon, I will be able to pick up a few new things and begin really writing some SS posts, but today I want to leave you with a thought from the book I am still reading (but then again, I am reading the second book in the Omnibus).
Heaven or Hell?
The book is “The Siege of Dome”. An observation is made where the characters had every opportunity to create a veritable heaven on earth with a new planet and a new beginning, instead they chose hell.
This got me thinking about the choices that we make and the way that we choose them.
We have every resource for creating a paradise on earth. We have methods of creating energy that we’ve never had before. We have information available at the push of a button. We have peace available to us at every turn. Yet as humans, we choose hell so much of the time.
Granted, it’s not fiction, but there is plenty of stuff in there to let you imagine to your hearts content.
I chose the section today on Digital Image Manipulation. pgs 262 – 271
Amazon.com: The Artist’s Handbook: Books: Ray Campbell SmithOkay, so I don’t read all fiction.
Lately, I’ve been fascinated by digital image creation… from scratch and also from pre-existing images.
So I decided to check out this little section of one of my art books I had kinda avoided before. The Artists Handbook is a must have for any artists’ library, just for the sheer number of medias represented in there. Everything from print-making to scratchboard, to making your own paints is covered.
Anyway, getting back to the section I read today.
All in all, I found it a very vague introductory to the techniques that could have been mentioned. But I guess entire books have also been written about digital imaging, such as the hundreds of photoshop books available at your local Barnes and Noble.
This was a small section with very vague content, and very few methods discussed, but it fit for today. Why?
My wife has been sick with the Flu all evening and I only had time for a few pages of reading.
So what value did I get out of the book?
Digital Printmaking made the whole section worthwhile.
While I found the section on manipulating images taken from a photographed tv image intriguing, and slightly annoying, printmaking piqued my interest.
Specifically 4 color printmaking.
I had never really delved into this area as my only experience with printmaking was cutting linoleum blocks in my junior year of high school.
Well separating out the colors is about as far as I got and a great example of what can be accomplished by using this method.
This is something I will have to look into more.
I’ve recently been invited to be a part of SundaySalon by Hsien. As part of my usual reading routine, SundaySalon looks to be a great avenue by which I can elaborate and tell you a little about what I am reading at the moment.
But before I get to that, let me say a few words about reading. I am an avid reader. There are whole series of books that I reread up to five times a year. Stuff like Chronicles of Narnia and The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, Song of Albion, Byzantium… and that’s just from two of my favorite authors. Stephen Lawhead and C.S. Lewis.
Granted, I am a fictionally inclined when it comes to reading, but for the would be creative, it doesn’t necessarily have to be fiction. I think it was Michael Crichton who said that "Some of the greatest minds in the world are and have been writers, if you want to be like them, read." That’s my own paraphrase from an interview I once saw of him.
So getting to the point. The book I am reading right now is one of those Once or Twice a year repeat books by Stephen Lawhead, called Empyrion (which is actually two books, The Search for Fierra and The Siege of Dome).
Amazon.com: Empyrion: Books: Stephen LawheadIt’s a science fiction fantasy story about a man who travels to a far flung galaxy to figure out what went wrong there in a corporation colony. Turns out, because of time distortion in space he arrives several thousand years into the future of the colony. Immediately treated as prisoners, eventually he is given the privilege of being escorted through the now thoroughly changed civilization that has developed.
What he finds instead is a fearful, segregated race of people who have lost all touch with who they are or where they have come from.
I see a lot of similarities in our culture today. The divisions between people of different social status are getting ever more pronounced. Our culture is imploding upon itself and even language has been affected by certain words becoming obscured from their original meanings.
In short, we are at a decline. The good news is that it’s still not too late to live in oblivion of it for the next 200 or so years… or make a change for the better. The old saying goes that "Rome didn’t fall in a day" and we can still make a difference in the direction we are heading.
But it will take some creativity to get there. Answers to questions like global warming, hunger, green energy are going to take a lot of thought and well… energy over the course of our lifetime if we want to make any difference at all. We are running out of time.
