Have we ridden forth to victory, only to stand at last amazed by an old liar with honey on his forked tongue?
—Éomer, The Lord of the Rings
I am not going to tell you my name, not yet at any rate. For one thing it would take a long while: my name is growing all the time, and I’ve lived a very long, long time; so my name is like a story. Real names tell you the story of things they belong to in my language, in the Old Entish as you might say. It is a lovely language, but it takes a very long time saying anything in it, because we do not say anything in it, unless it is worth taking a long time to say, and to listen to.
—Treebeard, The Two Towers
The Star Wars Saga: Suggested Viewing Order » Absolutely No Machete Juggling
A suggested viewing order for the Star Wars Saga, what to do about old versions, and excellent advice on how to avoid that kraken of character horrors, Jar-Jar.
Just saw this posted on Facebook - quality crossover.
The last frame is missing. The Man in Black stares into the camera and says,
Not so highness. Your reproductive choices are your own affair, ahem, just as your employer’s religion is his own. You are free to work for him and to have sex as you see fit. He, however, cannot be required, in violation of his religious conviction, to fund your sexual practices just as you cannot be required to fund his religion. If you do not find his compensation adequate, seek other employment.
The duty of the poet, as poet, is only indirectly to his people: his direct duty is to his language, first to preserve, and second to extend and improve.
Giving it Away: How Free Music Makes More Than Sense
Music matters. It’s so integral and pervasive in our culture that it almost feels invisible. It’s even hard to imagine walking into almost any store without hearing music overhead. Culture provides a constant soundtrack to our lives. So it’s no wonder there’s so much discussion and debate…
The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.
1
The walls hear
The windows see
Inside I burn
No one comes
To rescue me
It is my turn
2
Like a gutted house
I am burned out
By love
—Auto da Fe by Samuel Menashe
While we must be careful how we speak to our infertile neighbors, we also should be cognizant of the larger implications that our language has in framing the acceptability of these technologies. In his book, “Toward a More Natural Science”, Leon Kass asks us to,Consider the views of life and the world reflected in the following different expressions to describe the process of generating new life. Ancient Israel, impressed with the phenomenon of transmission of life from father to son, used a word we translate as ‘begetting’ or ‘siring.’ The Greeks, impressed with the springing forth of new life in the cyclical processes of generation and decay, called it genesis, from a root meaning ‘to come into being.’ … The premodern Christian English-speaking world, impressed with the world as a given by a Creator, used the term ‘pro-creation.” We, impressed with the machine … employ a metaphor of the factory, ‘re-production.’
Denominations as seen by other denominations.
Man before the Fall loved himself or his own happiness, I suppose, as much as after his fall. But then a superior principle of divine love had the throne, it being in such strength that it wholly regulated and directed self-love. But since the Fall this principle of divine love has lost its strength, or rather is dead. So that self-love continuing in its former strength, and having no superior principle to regulate it, becomes inordinate in its influence, and governs where it should be only a servant.
In some respects wicked men do not love themselves enough. They do not love themselves so much as the godly do. They do not love that which is indeed their true happiness. Therefore it is said of wicked men that they hate their own souls.
—Jonathan Edwards, Charity and its Fruits
What does it feel like to fly over planet Earth?
The whole evil in the daily press consists in its being calculated to make the passing moment a thousand or ten thousand times more inflated than it really is. But all moral elevation consists first and foremost in being weaned from the momentary. There has never been a power so diametrically opposed to Christianity as the daily press.
—Søren Kierkegaard
We have much call for thankfulness, and much for humiliation. Some have been removed, some are evidently ripening for glory, and now and then we have a new inquirer. But the progress of wickedness amongst the unconverted here is awful. Convictions repeatedly stifled in many, have issued in a hardiness and boldness in sinning which, I believe, is seldom found but in those places where the light of the Gospel has been long resisted and abused. If my eyes suitably affected my heart, I should weep day and night upon this account; but alas! I am too indifferent. I feel a woeful defect in my zeal for God and compassion for souls. When Satan and conscience charge me with cowardice treachery, and stupidity, I know not what to reply. I am generally carried through my public work with some liberty; and because I am not put to shame before the people, I seem content and satisfied. I wish to be more thankful for what the Lord is pleased to do amongst us, but, at the same time, to be more earnest with Him for a further outpouring of His Spirit. Assist me therein with your prayers.
—John Newton, Letters of John Newton