Installment Seven...

It is the heart that is not yet sure of its God that is afraid to laugh in His presence.

-George MacDonald

A Treat

I’ve recently had the treat of reading a novel by Frederick Buechner.

You don’t have to be a longtime patron of Foolish Knight to know that I am something of a Buechner (pronounced beek-ner) aficionado and since I don’t often get the opportunity to read his stories I’m grateful for every chance I do get. The particular yarn I’ve just finished, which is possibly Frederick Buechner’s most recommendable, is the delightful fairy tale, On the Road With the Archangel. It is a first-person narrative based upon the Apocryphal Book of Tobit.

At least I call it a fairy tale. The reason being that its elements; a blind man, cunning animals, a journey for treasure, angels, a courageous hero, ill fated bridegrooms and a peculiarly large and hungry fish remind me of the folk tales and brothers Grimm stories I have read. This is certainly woven from the same stuff those craftsmen used.

The man from whom the ancient book derives its title is a Jew who (along with a good many other Jews) has been taken captive by the Assyrians to their capital city of Nineveh (yes that Nineveh). The story follows the many deeds and misdeeds of Tobit and his son Tobias as told by the archangel Raphael.

It's Raphael's charge to bring into the presence of the Almighty the praises and petitions of “all who pray and of those who don’t even know that they’re praying”. Two prayers in particular catch his attention; one of Tobit and another of a young girl both wanting to die to be released from there shame. When the prayers are received Raphael is sent to earth to “set things right”. I won’t say any more than that for fear of spoiling what there is of this little story to spoil.

I will only say that Frederick Buechner continues to show that when it comes to storytellers he is one of the most thoughtful--and entertaining--around.

Installment Six...

“When they brought Jesus to the place where his dead friend lay, Jesus wept. It is very easy to sentimentalize the scene and very tempting because to sentimentalize something is to look only at the emotion in it and at the emotion it stirs in us rather than at at the reality of it, which we are always tempted not to look at because reality, truth, silence are all what we are not much good at and avoid when we can. To sentimentalize something is to savor rather than to suffer the sadness of it, is to sigh over the prettiness of it rather than to tremble at the beauty of it, which may make fearsome demands of us or pose fearsome threats. Not just as preachers but as christians in general we are particularly given to sentimentalizing our faith as much of Christian art and Christian preaching bear witness--the sermon as tearjerker, the Gospel an urn of long-stemmed roses and baby’s breath to brighten up the front of the church, Jesus as Gregory Peck.”

-Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth, the Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale

Ramble

I tend to hold books and movies to different standards from each other. This is understandable for they are, after all, different mediums.

Still... it seems to me that, when boiled down, the elements of story are the same.

Right?

So why should I throw a fit if a film asks me to invest in it? Why should I not tolerate a film that leaves me with more questions than answers? G. K. Chesterton, Frederic Buechner, J. R. R. Tolkien, Flannery O'Connor, C. S. Lewis and Alan Paton--some of my favorite authors--all have written books which do just that. They allow for multiple visits and multiple interpretations of their minor themes while there major themes are simply made clearer with each visit.

What I’m saying is why not view films with this same attitude of exploration?

Interviews

Singer / Songwriters are a fascinating breed, quiet, reflective and insightful. How would you like to spend a little time conversing with some? Here are some interviews with the likes of

Steven Delopoulos

Sam Phillips

and

Steve Taylor (which, thankfully, gives the lie to the bit about always being quiet and reflective)

Effort

In an effort to not be derivative I am posting something that I, myself wrote.

It is a poem

and it is in free verse.

Here it goes:


doc (Hickory and Dickory)

my clock is not working, it is boasting of it’s brokeness
by not ticking at me, I need the tick and I need the tock
I needs the hickory of my clock. no my watch will not
do, it is as silent as you are my dear. it is nice to have
my clock now even though it is still a noiseless tick
and a soundless clock, I know, your point is taken
well, it did me no great good but I did love it for the
small favors; the shining in the light, the tick, tick, ticking
through my night. my boasting clock, my boasting
clock, my rooster of my desk, you are now more than
dead you are useless, see my dear how my hand
moves to stroke then my mind moves to cut my hand?
now see my new hand throw my tick and my tock, my
soundless clock through the glass, watch my dear,
watch the window break and my clock stay solid,
does that not prove it’s worth? watch now my dear
watch how my dear, it falls to the street, to cars
creeping by, to dogs and children and jump-ropes, to
hot dogs, weeds, and hot, hot pavement to hot for my
working clock but not hot enough for my boastful,
useless, tickless, tockless,
clock

A Month Without Film?

You might call me a film enthusiast, though, I am not entirely comfortable with that particular phrase (or word more precisely).

Enthusiasm that is.

It is a fascinating word; as I understand it what it literally means is “the god within you”.

Recently I’ve been asking myself a series of questions; what is the god within me? What is it that drives me? What is it that will catch my ear or my eye faster then anything else?

The only answer I could come up with (beside God Himself) is Film.

So I decided to initiate a sort of test: Call it a dare to myself. I’m going attempt to go a month without watching a single feature-length theatrical release, starting on the Fourth of October, ending on the Fourth of November.

We'll see how it goes.

I now present The Best Thing I've Ever Posted (Vol 1):

Of David. A psalm.

The earth is the LORD’S and
everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;
for he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the waters.

Who may ascend the hill of the
LORD?
Who may stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a
pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to an
idol
or swear by what is false.
He will receive blessing from the
Lord
and vindication from God his
Savior.
Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek your face, O God of
Jacob. Selah

Lift up your heads, O you gates;
be lifted up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come
in.
Who is this King of glory?
The LORD strong and mighty.
the LORD mighty battle.
Lift up your heads, O you gates;
Lift them up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come
in.
Who is he, this King of glory?
The LORD Almighty-
he is the King of glory. Selah

Insallment Five...

“...the essence of a myth being that it should have no taint of allegory to the maker and yet should suggest incipient allegories to the reader."

-C. S. Lewis, from a letter to his friend, J. R. R. Tolkien

Installment Four...

“...I am, as it were, a spy in the service of the highest. The police also use spies. They do not always pick out men whose lives have been the purest and best, quite the contrary: they are cunning, crafty offenders, whose cunning the police use, while they coerce them through the consciousness of their vita ante acta. Alas, thus does God use sinners.”

-Søren Kierkegaard

News & Rumors

Stars Wars fans take note! Superman fans take note!

Views

What we already knew about Fahrenheit 9/11 is being confirmed by some of the people toward which it was directed.