The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

I love word play. Creative alliteration, metaphor, rhyme and simile are just some of the things that bring me pleasure when reading a book. Even the occasional pun can be an interesting diversion. And puns are strewn throughout this delightful children’s tale. (Which I expect will be much more appreciated by adults!)

Have you ever wished you could travel to that castle in the air? Our protagonist Milo does—but first he has to make it past the maddening Senses Taker. Anyone who has had to fill out numerous forms will appreciate Juster’s jab at the bureaucracy. How about taking a trip to the Island of Conclusions? It’s easy to get there; simply jump!

Such are the little jokes scattered throughout the story of jaded Milo and his travels through the realm of Knowledge. He meets many curious characters on his journey; some of my favorites include Faintly Macabre, Mathemagician, and the Awful DYNNE. At the end of his quest for Rhyme and Reason, Milo is no longer a sad boy bored with the world, instead, he is eager to study and explore the creation. And it all started with that mysterious package containing the Phantom Tollbooth.

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An interesting interview with the author can be found here.

Family Driven Faith

This past spring, my family and I had the opportunity to attend a conference entitled Family Driven Faith. The main speaker was unknown to me at the time, but I have since come to list pastor Voddie Baucham among the most inspiring and influential preachers I have heard. I greatly admire his strong stand for a return to a Biblical understanding of family life as well as his infectious, enthusiastic style of communication.

Since attending the conference, I have listened to a CD recording of his message, "Multigenerational Promise"(disc 3 of the Family Driven Faith set) , several times. This is one of the most powerful sermons I have heard. I will not look at Jeremiah 29:11 the same way again. Dr. Baucham uses this verse as a springboard for a discussion of the sovereignty of God and His plan for families. After confronting the common, “myopic” Christian view of life as something to consume and enjoy, he states his conclusion: walking with God is not a guarantee of an easy and prosperous life. It is about a long-term view—you walk with God so that generations to come will hear of your godly legacy and stand strong for Christ. “Those who plant trees are not interested in shade for themselves.” I don’t often cry, but I did the first time I heard this message. It is well worth hearing.

I mention this now, because I recently became aware of a new book. If it is anything like the messages I’ve heard, it may very well change your life!

Hat Tips to Lydia and Crystal

God in the Details

Here's an excerpt from a recent Highlands Study Center newsletter. Mr. Sproul gives a reminder that God is truly in control of all. This is something I know intellectually but often fail to live up to...and thus need to be continually reminded!

God in the Details

I’m on hold as I type. I’m waiting to find out if my riding mower is fixed. After eleven years of faithful service, my previous mower finally went the way of all flesh. In February (see how prudent I am, buying in the off-season?) I bought a new mower, and an expensive warranty. During my fifth mow something went wrong, and my mower has been in the shop now for three weeks, awaiting a back-ordered part. Boy howdy is it frustrating.

At the same time we have been going through a dry-spell around these parts. To call it a drought would be to give the wrong impression. There are no tumbleweeds rolling down the street of Mendota. But we haven’t had much rain, and so my grass hasn’t grown much at all. There’s some tall weeds here and there, but the grass is just fine.

Now I bore you with lawn talk not to delay the inevitable, where I give in and go out and try to mow three or four rather vertical acres with a push mower. Instead I have a point. Just as we are willing to “allow” God to reign over certain parts of our lives, that is our own personal “spiritual realm,” so we “allow” Him to reign over certain parts of the universe. Wars, and rumors of wars are appropriate objects of His attention. Rain also, because there’s not much we can do about it, is something we are content to leave in His hands. Mower repair, or parts procurement, however, that’s a human thing.

When Abraham Kuyper first thundered, “There is no square inch in all reality over which Jesus Christ does not declare, ‘MINE’” we all stand up and cheer such grand and eloquent insights. We stand ready to storm Washington , Hollywood , perhaps even Amsterdam , having heard such rousing speech. That’s a good thing. But it also means that the three or four square inches that are the missing pulley on my mowing deck are missing because the King of the Universe has so declared.

Understanding that God reigns over the details not only should give us greater wonder, it ought also to give us greater peace. When you get cancer, when you go through the Internet treatment, when you deal with a sick child, it is actually comparatively easy to remember that God is in control, and to rest in that truth. When you just miss the green light, when your luggage gets lost by the airline, or when your mower quits in the middle of a mow, it’s a little harder. Which challenge then has the greater power?

--R.C. Sproul Jr, Kingdom Notes, Number VII

The Sound of Silence

...simply means that real life has taken precedence over blogging!

Reading has taken a back seat recently to online research, as my sister and myself are taking a class on Regency Film Costume.

Historical costume is fascinating to me, so when I heard that Jennie Chancey was again offering this class, I was thrilled.

Our assignments include watching Jane Austen movies (not hard) and then finding period fashion plate documentation (harder). I never realized how much variation in costume can be found in a mere 30 year time period!

Two weeks more, and then perhaps I'll have time to begin posting more book reviews.

Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis

This book is awful, really. As I read it, I felt at once repulsed and fascinated. No matter how ugly this retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth became, no matter how many times I questioned why Lewis even bothered with it, I felt I must finish the reading.

It wasn’t until I reached the final 50 pages that the light began to dawn. Lewis used this pagan myth and transformed it to show the dramatic contrast between sacred and profane love. Never before have I seen a more powerful illustration of self-deception. And this is why I am recommending this book: it is storytelling at its’ finest.

“Lightly men talk of saying what they mean. … When the time comes to you at which you will be forced at last to utter the speech which has lain at the center of your soul for years, which you have, all that time, idiot-like, been saying over and over, you’ll not talk about joy of words. I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?”

--C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces

Recent Organizational Projects

Sheet Music

Being a music teacher brings many joys. I have the pleasure of helping others experience beauty in new ways, and not only to experience it but also to create new beauties themselves.

Being a music teacher also means having a large library of sheet music. And while this is a great thing, it can also become a problem as storage space becomes scarce. How to organize, store and keep track of all of it is a continual problem I face.

On being prompted by my mother to take charge of the growing piles beside the piano and elsewhere, I finally took some time to add some decency and order to this area of my life.

Here’s how it worked:

I took three file cabinet drawers, and designated one for Piano methods, one for Beginning classical, and one for Advanced music.

My piano methods I organized first by level, then by publisher. So, for example, in the level 2 section I have folders for Alfred, Bastien, Schaum, and Keys for the Kingdom, among others.

The Beginner’s drawer is similarly organized, with the addition of Duets, Christmas and Sacred music by level.

The advanced classical drawer I organized by musical era. (Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern) Within each era, I have separate files for composers. (Such as Bach and Chopin) For this particular drawer, I used Legal size folders instead of Letter, because the books tend to be larger.

I’m finished with the project for now, and am enjoying the extra floor space, as well as the ability to find specific books more easily.

Later on, I may consider cataloguing the music electronically, as I have just done for my reading library.

Books

This was a fun project that I’ve wanted to do for a long time, partly out of curiosity to know how many books I own. (Upwards of 330, as of last week) The other reason I wanted to do this was because it has become increasingly hard for me to remember which books I have by particular authors. Now that the list is made, I can sort the books with the click of a button.

Here’s how I did it:

Using Microsoft Excel, I designed a worksheet with 8 columns:

Title
Author
Publisher
Year (originally) published
Genre
Editor
Illustrator
Series

It took all of two afternoons to finish typing the data in. Very simple!

Has anyone else tried this project? I’m interested to hear how you went about it. Has anyone organized his or her books on the shelf? I have yet to attempt this, and would be glad for any tips.

Tea Box Quotes

Interesting tidbits of literature can be found in many unusual places. These quotes came from some Celestial Seasonings tea packages and went straight into my collection.

"I call architecture frozen music" --Goethe

"The difficult is done at once, the impossible takes a little longer." --Arabian Proverb

"Yesterday is already a dream and tomorrow is only a vision, but today well-lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope." --Sanskrit Proverb

This one is a little longer, but I love the imagery:

"On the train from New Delhi bound for Bombay, a stranger boards, bearing the aroma of spices and exotic teas. His eyes, brown as cinnamon, smile as they slip across my face. He places a worn leather case beside his feet, and I glimpse the aging label that decorates one side. The label bears the image of a majestic elephant--a great, gray, tusky beast adorned in crimson blankets edged with gems. I wonder at this stranger's journey, what tales he might tell if only I dared to ask. The rocking of the train lulls me to a dream-filled sleep, where princes wearing gilded smiles guide elephants across the shifting sands. When I awake, the stranger has departed, leaving me with mystery and the promise of adventures still to come." --Debra Bokur