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.

While the Magic Still Lingers in the Air

I walked into my apartment this afternoon with snowflakes clinging to my eyelashes and hair. It felt otherworldly.

Updates and Random Musings

My brain has felt so scattered lately that I can't imagine that it will fail to show up on this blog. Finals are approaching, my professor is becoming an increasing difficult person with whom to deal, and time is moving too slowly for my liking, but too fast to finish everything I need to do.

However, I am going to Amsterdam this summer. We've raised hundreds of dollars in change for the Invisible Children campaign. I come back to an apartment with about 250 books that we plan to send to Schools for Schools. I have found the joy of listening to Mika by myself and with my roommate, dancing for joy in the sound of happiness even through complexity. I find myself laughing with friends even more at this time, when things feel rushed and way too deep to wade through. In other words, I can't decide what I feel. Happy, content, or stressed, upset.

Amsterdam. AMSTERDAM! AAAAAAAAAUGH I'M SO EXCITED! "Baby went to Amsterdam, she put a little money into traveling, now it's SO. SLOW. SO. SLOW." I can't help but picture nights of dancing to my iPod with workers from South Africa, Australia, America, Europe. Riding my bike through the countryside, where perhaps the tulips will be in bloom. Dragging friends to concert after concert, and taping tickets up on my wall.

And the biggest thing of all, but also the biggest challenge. Telling people around me about the ways that GOD has moved through my life, molding me into such a different person through His wise plans. I want to see people turn to God as He has turned me around towards Him. I don't know if I'll be the one to share this with other people this summer, but I desperately want to see those that I meet find some peace in giving their burdens over to the Lord.

One last random thought. I love this poem. It's very famous, since it's by Shakespeare, but Shakespearen or not, it speaks volumes to me about the nature of true love. Not necessarily the love that we humans give to each other, but the pure essence of love that only GOD can truly understand and give.

Sonnet No. 116 by William Shakespeare

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

City on Fire

Snared
Originally uploaded by Michael DaKidd

Every time I take the Metra into Chicago, my breathe starts to catch in my throat as I approach the downtown area. Architecture has not always attracted me as it does now. As a matter of fact, I'm not quite sure when it became such an obsession for me. I don't recall being very absorbed with it in high school, but when I arrived at college it felt as if an appreciation for beautiful buildings was already there. Perhaps the times that my dad would point out residential homes that he loved during long drives through the suburbs, paired with my love for photography jump-started my obsession.

Anyways, back to Chicago. Wow. I normally am a bit old-fashioned in the forms of architecture I prefer, at least in residential forms, but I LOVE the beauty of glass and steel and concrete found on Chicago's streets. My neck aches by the end of a day spent walking through Chicago.

This feeling is especially felt when I see Chicago at night. After spending most of my life in the quiet suburbs, where only a patch of lawn is lit with a lamppost, or perhaps the door is illuminated by one bulb, the way that the buildings themselves stand out against the sky at night never ceases to make my breathe catch.

If you have ever seen Chicago during the Christmas season, it is an especially mesmerizing place, especially on Michigan Avenue. Christmas lights make the trees seem other-worldly as you walk underneath them, and the lights of buildings lining the street across from Millennium Park seem to match the incredible magic of the season.

Heh. I'm even more dramatic than usual. Chicago just makes me really inspired and excited and exhilarated.

(By the way, the first picture on this post is another steal from flickr posted by Michael Dakidd. It should say so directly underneath the picture, but it's not showing up for some reason, at least not on my computer.)

The Simple Life

Gypsy Pony on High Street
Originally uploaded by thecnote

For some reason, I simply want to stop going to college. Instead, I've decided what I really want is become a bohemian vagabond. I will buy a gypsy cart, a little gypsy pony, a guitar, and a big furry Newfoundland. We will then travel around Europe, playing on street corners and making a bit of cash through little jobs that need to be done, or perhaps by giving pony rides to kids. My curly hair already gives me a head start on the bohemian look....add some broom skirts, loose tops, flowers in my hair, and patch-work jackets, and I'll be all set. This image just seems so ridiculously attractive. I realize that this could probably never really happen (for one thing, I need refrigeration for certain items of great necessity to my well-being) but I long for such a lifestyle all the same. Perhaps a small part of this is small portion of my brain that believes myself to be a photographer. Living with a big fluffy dog in a little cart full of books off of the land seems beautiful, both physically and emotionally. Look at the picture I've found on flickr, add a bonfire with a bohemian girl and a big dog in front of it, and there's practically what my imagination is coming up with. Except probably in the isolated Scottish highlands near a small village, not in an actual town. Bonfires probably aren't very much appreciated in that vicinity.

By the way, many thanks for uploading this photo onto flickr, thecnote. It makes me quite happy to see such a pleasant setting occurring somewhere in real life. =)

Today My Heart Will Rest

It's finally the fall. A lot of people around the college have been complaining about how cold it has gotten, but, wow, I love this season. It's hard for me to feel sympathetic when all I can think about are the autumn picnics in open fields with trees all around me, and orchards full of apples and stark trees silhouetted against the moon. The morning skies might be gray right now, but they make the bright leaves on the trees stand out as a glorious horizon, and the flocks of geese flying south only heighten my anticipation for this season. It really is magical. I only wish it would last longer, instead of scattering across the calendar in a mad attempt to escape the dull colourless winter.

This picture is one that I took of my sister during my fall break a couple of years ago. Actually, It might have been last year. My neighborhood has a beautiful path running behind it, and this field sits between the houses and the woods.

Clicker Happy

I love photography. I can't claim to be an amazing photographer, but I love trying to capture the little bits of beauty I find. I usually don't try to create a message through my photos, I just love taking pictures.

I took this picture during the winter a couple of years ago. I'm pretty sure it was my first Christmas break that I had during college. It was unnaturally warm that December, so I went out driving with my younger sister along some of the more scenic roads. This was a beautiful area. There is a covered bridge nearby, with a creek and horses grazing nearby, and there are trees everywhere. That tends to be rather unusual, coming from the suburbs where all of the new neighborhoods are filled with little saplings and the wind blows across the empty grassy lawns to rattle my bedroom window at night.

While I can't say that I'll ever be able to take pictures professionally, I have joined flickr because I enjoy taking photographs so much. Should you care to view more, my flickr account is http://www.flickr.com/photos/fhorngk/. Look at some of the photos my contacts have taken! Their pictures are gorgeous!