Reason for the Season?

December 24, 2010 at 6:13 pm (In So Many Words, The Whim) (, , , , , )

I’m not a big fan of Christmas.  I hate the consumerism, I hate the blow up creepy Santa Clause’s in people’s yards.  Oh, also, I’m a Christian. That being said,

Nothing chaps my hide more than hearing fellow Christians tell me: “Remember the reason for the season!”

The reason for the season, if they looked a bit closer into history was to help aid in the conversion of pagans who already celebrated December 25th, Yule, Mother’s Night, Winter Solstice (whatever you wish to call it) with carnivals, gifts, food, and lots of hooplala.  The theory was to keep the month of partying and give the holiday Christian symbolism  so that they would not feel such a loss of fun when they converted.

For instance, mistletoe was a plant collected by Druids to ward off witch craft and protect the carrier, pretty much an all around healer.  Now, we use it as an excuse to kiss people in doorways.  Either way, it has nothing to do with Christianity and everything to do with “Christmas” or Winter Solstice Celebrations.

Now, with all that being said, I don’t mind that Christians today use it to celebrate the birth of Christ.  I think the birth of Christ should be celebrated.  But don’t tell me to remember the reason for the season when the season existed long before this particular reason.  If you want to celebrate the birth of Christ without the consumerism and drunken partying – don’t overlap it on a holiday that was created thousands of years ago for that exact purpose.  Pick a different day and celebrate it with all your reasons in tact and no distractions.

Permalink 1 Comment

The Best of 2010/ 2011 Resolutions

December 24, 2010 at 2:11 am (In So Many Words, The Whim)

Top 10 Books I Read in 2010:

  1. Her Fearful Symmetry – Audrey Niffenegger (January)
  2. Darwin’s Black Box- Michael J. Behe (February)
  3. The Girl from the Fiction Department: A Portrait of Sonia Orwell – Hilary Spurling (April)
  4. A Walk in the Woods – Bill Bryson (April)
  5. Daniel Deronda – George Eliot (July)
  6. Reading Lolita in Tehran – Azar Nafisi (July)
  7. The Book Thief – Markus Zusak (August)
  8. Well Enough Alone – Jennifer Traig (October)
  9. The Diaries of Adam and Eve – Mark Twain (November)
  10. 84, Charing Cross Road – Helene Hanff (December)

To Read in 2011:

Complete Bauer’s Novels list, I am currently reading Henry James off this list and I am reading the list in order.

Also these of Bauer’s Biography List –

Augustine – The Confessions
Margery Kempe – The Book of Margery Kempe
Michael de Montaigne – Essays
Teresa of Avila – The Life of Saint Teresa of Avila by Herself
Rene Descartes – Meditations
John Bunyan – Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners
Mary Rowlandson – The Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration
Jean-Jacques Rousseau – Confessions
Benjamin Franklin – The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

Goals:

Read one non-fiction book for every completion of a fiction book

Write full reviews for every book I read and post them here

Pay off two credit cards

Set aside enough money to start our business

Read to my daughter at least 30 minutes a day

Take my dogs for more walks!

Prepare Ayla’s Latin lessons, work through them and prepare answer keys

Permalink Leave a Comment

Books I Read in 2010

December 11, 2010 at 11:50 pm (The Whim) (, , )

(in order of completion date)

  1. A Separate Peace – John Knowles (Jan.)
  2. Get a Grip on Evolution – David Burnie (Jan.)
  3. Her Fearful Symmetry – Audrey Niffenegger (Jan.)
  4. The Origin – Irving Stone (Jan.)
  5. Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut (Feb.)
  6. Darwin’s Black Box- Michael J. Behe (Feb.)
  7. The Templars – Piers Paul Read (Feb.)
  8. Forget About It – Caprice Crane (Feb.)
  9. The Girl from the Fiction Department: A Portrait of Sonia Orwell – Hilary Spurling (April)
  10. Crime and Punishment – Dostoevsky (April)
  11. Guinevere, Queen of the Summer Country – Rosalind Miles (April)
  12. A Walk in the Woods – Bill Bryson (April)
  13. The Angel’s Game – Carlos Ruiz Zafon (May)
  14. Ramses: Son of Light – Christian Jacq (May)
  15. Ramses: The Eternal Temple – Christian Jacq (May)
  16. Conspicuous Consumption – Vebler (June)
  17. Three Men in a Boat – Jerome K. Jerome (June)
  18. Anna Karenina – Tolstoy (June)
  19. Ramses: The Battle of Kadesh – Christian Jacq (June)
  20. The Return of the Native – Thomas Hardy (July)
  21. Daniel Deronda – George Eliot (July)
  22. Reading Lolita in Tehran – Azar Nafisi (July)
  23. The Ghost and the Dead Deb – Alice Kimberly (August)
  24. The Ghost and the Dead Man’s Library – Alice Kimberly (August)
  25. The Book Thief – Markus Zusak (August)
  26. Whose Body? – Dorothy Sayers (August)
  27. Espresso Shot – Cleo Coyle (August)
  28. Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie (August)
  29. A Pair of Blue Eyes – Thomas Hardy (September)
  30. The Sweet Far Thing – Libba Bray (October)
  31. Well Enough Alone – Jennifer Traig (October)
  32. The Monk – Matthew Lewis (November)
  33. Family Affair – Caprice Crane (November)
  34. The Pleasures of God – John Piper (November)
  35. The Diaries of Adam and Eve – Mark Twain (November)
  36. Love in the Time of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez (November)
  37. Finding Darwin’s God – Kenneth Miller (December)
  38. Tuesdays With Morrie – Mitch Albom (December)
  39. 84, Charing Cross Road – Helene Hanff (December)
  40. Where I Lived and What I Lived For – Henry David Thoreau (December)
  41. The Brief History of the Dead – Kevin Brockmeier (December)
  42. The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame (December)

For my 2009 list: https://anakalianwhims.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/2009-book-list/

Permalink 1 Comment

84, Charing Cross Road

December 8, 2010 at 1:31 am (JARS, Reviews)

Not since Shakespeare&Co. of Time Was Soft There has a European bookstore touched me so.  This collection of letters between Helen, Frank, and others from Marks&Co. was delightful, beautiful, and oh so sad.  I cannot wait to read its sequel and other work by Helene Hanff.

Permalink 2 Comments

Finding Miller’s Fence

December 4, 2010 at 2:56 pm (JARS, Reviews)

Like Darwin himself, Kenneth Miller stands tall on the fence between having any decided thoughts on science and religion as he eloquently expresses that he believes all of it and yet none of it. His language and style is convincing and comfortable throughout his book Finding Darwin’s God, and seems to be quite capable of appeasing the general public with his beautifully written ramblings. Yet, obviously, I remain unsatisfied.

Miller spends half the book defending evolution, half defending God, veiling his arguments in pretty language refusing to completely side with either side very much the way Darwin did in his own writings (for fear of social upset).

During this well structured persuasive essay, he calls Darwin a fence sitter and then wraps the entire book up with two separate statements:

1. “[…] Darwin in his later years tried and failed to find God, at least a God consistent with his theories.”

2. “What kind of God do I believe in? The answer is in those words. I believe in Darwin’s God.”

I respect his effort, and the book was extremely well written and absolutely fascinating.    I just can’t seem to agree with him.

Permalink Leave a Comment