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1,2,3,4....I Declare A Book War!

I sometimes find it nice to create lists, and see how far I get along the list before I give it up. My list this time? SUMMER READING!!! I know, I'm really excited about it. So here's what I'm planning on reading. Perhaps I'll check off stuff as I read it. Who knows? I would also like suggestions, so if you have any good books you think I'd like, PLEASE let me know. I know I'm focusing on Christian religious material, but I generally have a vast array of interests when it comes to reading.

1. The End of Memory by Miroslav Volf
2. Body Politics by John Howard Yoder
3. The Politics of Jesus by John Howard Yoder
4. Being Consumed by William Cavanough
5. Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
   
6. Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning
   
7. A Community of Character by Stanley Hauerwas
8. Watership Down by Richard Adams
   
9. Heresies and How to Avoid Them by Ben Quash and Michael Word
10. The Dangerous Act of Worship by Mark Labberton
    
11. The Great Giveaway by David Fitch
12. The Kindness of Strangers by Katrina Kittle
    
13. Justification by Andy Wright
14. That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis
15. Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer (but only so I can make fun of all of the books)
    
16. Ethics by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
17. A Secular Age by Charles Taylor
18. Perelandria by C.S. Lewis
    

Murphy's Law

Down the Barrel of a Gun
Originally uploaded by Extra Medium

Last week my life was in order. My future was set in place, and I knew exactly where I was going. Life is always changing.

Thanks to Extra Medium from flickr.com for this photo.

My Birthday

My friends are living proof that you don't need to get plastered in order to have a good time. My twenty-first birthday was quiet, but so memorable and enjoyable because people that I love came to wish me well and spend time with me. It meant so much to me, much more than gifts or temporary rushes ever could.

The Presence and Absence of Animals

I desperately miss my animals. They bring certain qualities of life back to me that I sorely lack while I'm away from them at college. This picture shows one of many traits that draw me almost magnetically towards animals; their ability to exude comfort in a home. I also miss the way in which animals love. I know it to be less than perfect. Some would say that all you have to do is feed a dog and it will love you, which means that they will love anyone from a bratty kid to an evil serial killer. In some ways that seems very negative, but when you are surrounded by relationships that are so draining to keep up (social taboos, the uncertainty of acceptance, etc.), it can be SO lovely to come home to a dog that simply loves the fact that you are home. Scoop out some food, cuddle a bit, and you have just GUARANTEED the love of a dog. It is not complex, with strings attached and bells and whistles. Instead, it is a companionship that will not hold any grudges or remember each time that you stepped on a paw...even if it was 10 minutes ago.

I miss my poochies. :(

I don't have a whole lot to say, but I feel a strange urge to say something. Because this post is being created at almost 3 in the morning, it is very likely that thought processes will be rather incoherent, but I'll do my best to keep my ideas to a basic understandable level.

I started volunteering for a cat rescue at a PetCo nearby, and I am SO excited to come back tomorrow and work with the cats again. I already miss them so much, and am thinking of little else besides being able to hold them again tomorrow. An adorable chow puppy was wandering around the store with the owner while I was cleaning out cages, and I wanted to squeeze it so much, it looked so puffy. I long ago resolved to one day own a Newfoundland, as the presence of an incredibly poofy puppy reminded me.

Thoughts on G.K. Chesterton and the Like

Part of the reason I wanted to start a blog is to share lyrics and poetry and photos and art that I find especially inspiring or noteworthy. One of my classes just finished discussing the work of G.K. Chesterton, an author I had never looked into before. The only thing I can say now is that I am so sad that I never read his stuff sooner. He has a brilliant sense of humor, the kind of humor that I have always admired in the British (hence my dedication to Terry Pratchett, John Cleese, P.G. Wodehouse and others of a similar fashion). The following is an incredibly entertaining poem that he wrote. I have fallen completely in love with it.

"The Rolling English Road" by G.K. Chesterton

Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode,

The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road.

A reeling road, a rolling road, that rambles round the shire,

And after him the parson ran, the sexton and the squire;

A merry road, a mazy road, and such as we did tread

The night we went to Birmingham by way of Beachy Head.

I knew no harm of Bonaparte and plenty of the Squire,

And for to fight the Frenchman I did not much desire;

But I did bash their baggonets because they came arrayed

To straighten out the crooked road an English drunkard made,

Where you and I went down the lane with ale-mugs in our hands,

The night we went to Glastonbury by way of Goodwin Sands.

His sins they were forgiven him; or why do flowers run

Behind him; and the hedges all strengthening in the sun?

The wild thing went from left to right and knew not which was which,

But the wild rose was above him when they found him in the ditch.

God pardon us, nor harden us; we did not see so clear

The night we went to Bannockburn by way of Brighton Pier.

My friends, we will not go again or ape an ancient rage,

Or stretch the folly of our youth to be the shame of age,

But walk with clearer eyes and ears this path that wandereth,

And see undrugged in evening light the decent inn of death;

For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen,

Before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green.