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A Walk to Caesarea
Joel mentioned to me that this is one of his favorite Hebrew songs/poems. The first time I heard it it became one of my favorites too. The woman who wrote it is pretty interesting too.
A Walk to Caesarea
by Hannah Szenes
Eli, Eli, (my God, my God) I pray that these things never end:
The sand and the sea,
The rustle of the waters,
Lightning of the Heavens ( Read more... ) -
Gone With the Wind
I finished reading Gone With the Wind last night. It was really much more engaging than I expected it to be, and in the end I am really glad I read it. There is so much packed into the novel, and I don't mean just in terms of its being almost 1500 pages long. There are about a thousand themes that could be intelligently discussed, and the book ( Read more... ) -
A laundry list of things I've been meaning to write about
I really love this article by Patrick Aleph over on Punk Torah, mostly because it illustrates something I've thought for a long time and have been meaning to write about for a while. In my worldview there is absolutely no conflict between science and God. And I don't mean that in the "woo Intelligent design way," either--the ordered chaos of ( Read more... ) -
Maybe the Christian Scientists had it Right All Along
Someone told me the other day that women shouldn't be provided contraception for medical problems because it only treats the symptoms and not the disease. According to that logic insurance companies should also stop covering prescription cold and flu medications. I mean, maybe God's plan for you is that you die of complications from influenza. Then ( Read more... ) -
Observations on language after a few glasses of wine
I have to say the last time I went to my Japanese discussion group I was really kind of amazed by how well a lot of the non-native speakers there speak and understand Japanese, and yet have horrible, awful thick accents that immediately put you off because they sound ugly and are hard to understand. I don't know what it is that makes one person ( Read more... ) -
New Voices
Last night I assigned myself a little creative writing assignment where I took a bunch of 3x5 index cards and wrote down a paragraph on each one from the point of view of a different minor supporting character in my first novel. It was actually a surprisingly productive exercise just because I don't think I had ever sat down and worked out exactly ( Read more... ) -
Strong feelings
Virginia's house passed a "personhood" bill today, defining life as beginning at conception. This grants a couple of cells merged inside of a woman's womb the status of full personhood and grants them all the rights and privileges of a person. The purpose of this bill of course is to prevent abortion--all abortions, regardless of health or anything ( Read more... ) -
Writing Again
I've started working on my books again on a semi-regular basis. For the last year or two I have been in a really awful place mentally to focus on it--just feeling really overwhelmed with everything that I am wanting and trying to do. It made it very difficult to do anything, really. But now I am a little more stable mind-wise--much more content and ( Read more... ) -
Speculative Historical Fiction
The laundry room at our apartment is more than just a laundry room--it's also a sort of flea market for any small things people in the complex don't want or need anymore. Usually it's books lying around on the counters but sometimes people leave microwaves and dishes and things. Anyway, whenever there are free books to be had, we rifle through to ( Read more... ) -
Anthony Trollope Has Officially Won My Heart
From Barchester Towers:
There is, perhaps, no greater hardship at present inflicted on mankind in civilised and free countries, than the necessity of listening to sermons. No one but a preaching clergyman has, in these realms, the power of compelling an audience to sit silent, and be tormented. No one but a preaching clergyman can revel in ( Read more... )