“authenticity in writing will only arise from authenticity in living. “one of our great problems today is that we have gotten caught up in our culture-wide quest for authenticity. we want our jeans authentic (pre-ripped at the factory), we want our apples authentic (grown locally instead of somewhere else), we want our music authentic (underground…
Read MoreAll articles filed in books
the gigantic secret
“Christianity satisfies suddenly and perfectly man’s ancestral instinct for being the right way up; satisfies it supremely in this; that by its creed joy becomes something gigantic and sadness something special and small. The vault above us is not deaf because the universe is an idiot; the silence is not the heartless silence of an…
Read More
book list, take two
one of my new year’s resolutions last year was to read a book a week (more about that here). after a week i failed — at least, i failed on the rate i’d set for myself. i don’t know for sure how many books i actually did read last year, but i know i read…
Read More
“a wave of unreasonable happiness”
a wind sprang high in the west like a wave of unreasonable happiness and tore eastward across england, trailing with it the frosty scent of forests and the cold intoxication of the sea. in a million holes and corners it refreshed a man like a flagon, and astonished him like a blow. in the inmost…
Read Morenotes in the margins
i love buying old musty first editions at half price books or other serendipitous booksellers and finding notes scribbled in the margins. do you write in your books? i don’t. it seems almost like a desecration to do so. the only book i write in is my Bible. (if you want to chuckle at that odd…
Read More
“the naming of cats”
The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter, It isn’t just one of your holiday games; You may think at first I’m as mad as a hatter When I tell you, a cat must have THREE DIFFERENT NAMES. First of all, there’s the name that the family use daily, Such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or…
Read More
krahe
“your hair wants cutting,” said the Hatter. he had been looking at Alice for some time with great curiosity, and this was his first speech. “you should learn not to make personal remarks,” Alice said with some severity: “it’s very rude.” the Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he said…
Read More
see with your ears and hear with your eyes
i have a friend who has a lot of mind and a lot of heart. once upon a time this friend said something about hearing God’s voice that … well, made my heart hurt a little bit. i’m reading notes from the tilt-a-whirl by n.d. wilson right now, and the following passage from the chapter…
Read More
heart’s home
“… but the things I do are unprecedented things. This round road I am treading is an untrodden path. I do believe in breaking out; I am a revolutionist. But don’t you see that all these real leaps and destructions and escapes are only attempts to get back to Eden — to something we have…
Read More
frail and lovely
“Now Chauntecleer the Ready did a most unready thing: He sat down and stared. “Perhaps if he had seen her while she walked among a flock of Hens, clucking and pouting, this might not have happened to him. But he saw her in her weakness. He saw her lying open, where anyone in the world…
Read More