Shawn McDonald

There are very few books, very few movies and very little music I will say I don't like. Each is a piece of art to me, and therefore has taken time, effort and talent to produce (although I have to argue Reggaton takes very little of any of those). I'm new at reviewing these modern paintings, but after hearing Shawn McDonald live last night at First United Methodist Church in downtown Charlotte, I saw something in his artistry that I've never seen before in a singer/guitarist.

I felt many things: I felt the similar amazement that I did two years ago when I saw a live Flamenco performance in the heart of Spain. I felt like I was an intruder watching a painter color a blank canvas. I felt like I wanted to dance, even though no one around me was doing so. The kind of dance you do alone with no one else around, closing your eyes and eventually falling onto a big fluffy mattress. I felt like the words I know so well from the Bible were coming alive to a sound they were meant to reverberate. I felt like art and poetry and wisdom and grace were all meeting in a conference room mixing themselves to create a sweet-smelling aroma, hoping to please the King.

In the hip hop movement of his shoulders as he played the acoustic guitar like a drum and a piano, in the ups and downs, ins and outs of his sweet yet momentarily sour voice ... it all hit me in ways I didn't expect. The audience was packed, but he was singing to his King, and I felt I should hide behind a curtain in the great hall. Each song had a story behind it, every thought-provoking lyric was premeditated, yet free.

I have a lot of favorite artists, Christian and non, and if you ask me I'll send you the long list. But no artist expresses me as a whole person like Shawn McDonald does. His music has an authentic grab and distinct sound that is augmented by words expressing a true relationship with Christ. There is a passion, a child-like simplicity (with lyrics like "Your love is like eating a slice of apple pie, it's like sugar on my tongue so pour out your mercy clear my busy mind") and a very real sense that you are watching/listening to an artist, not a puppet being controlled by green popularity.

If you just check a few songs: look into Shadowlands, a modern version of Psalm 23, and Greed, a look at what society tells us.
You can check him out at www.shawnmcdonaldmusic.com

The Shack

This book may be one of the most talked about in recent Christian circles. It opens the mind of the reader into a realm where the Father, Son and Holy Spirit exist in the easiest way humans can understand them: as humans. The plot is compelling, although if you've already heard from someone else what it is, the first two or three chapters seem unnecessary.

The writer at the beginning lost me in his somewhat showy way of writing, but once the plot picked up the writing solidified and the book was hard to put down.

Get a few other friends to read this at the same time and then get together and talk about all the theology (or claims against status quo theology) that pops up inbetween pages.

Bella

The main character is a former professional soccer player whose daunting past won't let him stay silent when a coworker expresses interest in an abortion. This selfless figure revisits his past to change the future of a child. This is almost a romantic film, but not like one expects. Set in NYC and amidst a Mexican family, culture flows freely in the movie.

Must be one of my top ten favorites.

Finally, the potter and the stone

It will give you one less reason to stare at me.
My brother in law got me the Harry Potter books for Christmas last year. It wasn't until a week or so ago that I could pick up book #1. I've gotten so many dropped jaws having not read these stinking books until now. Correction, they are not stinking at all.
There is a first for everyone, and for me, this is the first time I have EVER read a book after seeing the movie. Someone bake me a cookie, or rather, pop me some popcorn because I really want to watch the movie again, and plan to TONIGHT. Woohooo.

I remember the swarms of people yelping about how Christians shouldn't read this book. I say wingardium leviosa to that. I remember in college writing an article against a freak-a-zoid Christian church out west who had a Harry Potter book burning shindig. The arguments against J.K. Rowling couldn't ever cover only her, when J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis (both Christians) had their magic and wizardry stories coming out in movie form.

Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone, along with Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia, for me, portray the gospel each in their own creatively brilliant ways. With Harry Potter ... it is the story of redemption. He is the chosen one who comes to fight evil. Although Harry finds favor among authorities, he also has to fight authority to battle evil. He realizes there is a bigger plan, bigger than his life with the Dursleys, bigger than his schooling at Hogwarts. He understands his purpose is not merely to die a "muggle" in the shadows of his horribly wretched cousin. He learns to put his life on the line to do the right thing. He matures more through experience than through head knowledge.

My favorite quotes come from wise old Dumbledore.

1."To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure."
2. "The truth." Dumbledore sighed. "It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution."
3. "Call him Voldemort, Harry. Always use the proper name for things. Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself."

It is sad that Christians underestimate the power of Christ. God is all-knowing and all-powerful. Yes there are evil forces in the world, but the total truth is that God is Lord over it all. His truth will come forth from any story, I'm sure of it. We must not fear more than we seek. We must not judge more than we compassionately understand. We are called to stay level-headed and not accept unsound doctrine (2 Timothy 4:3-5) — even when it comes from ourselves.

the Prayer book

Andrew Murray and A.W. Tozer must have come out of the same bean pod. They are strikingly similar to me — the kind of authors that say simply what it means to be Christ-like. I sit and read and shake my head along with all they say, wondering all along why I did not see such simple-but-profound insight before.

I borrowed this copy from a friend/co-worker/pastor. I might just have to get one of my own. I've never been one to get my prayer life in order, and I have to admit I came to this book hoping it would do so.

I was reading a pamphlet sent out by Samaritan's Purse (www.samaritanspurse.org) which quoted some of Murray. I shared it with my pastor-friend and the next day he brought me the book.

This is the quote that caught my eye. Hope it catches your heart:

"... He is waiting patiently while he listens to (God's own elect).
"Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth,
and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter
rain" (James 5:7).
The farmer longs for his harvest, but knows that it must have its full
amount of sunshine and rain, and he has long patience. A child so
often wants to pick the half-ripe fruit; the farmer knows how to wait
until the proper time.
And it is the Father, in whose hand are the times and seasons, who
knows the moment when the soul is ripened to that fullness of faith in
which it can really take and keep the blessing.
The insight into this truth leads the believer to cultivate the
corresponding dispositions: patience and faith, waiting and
anticipating, are the secret of his perseverance. ...
... Christian, give God time. He will perfect that which concerns you."



Andrew Murray (1828-1917) served for 60 years in the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa.

Judith's Pavillion

My newest read was recommended to me by a car salesman. The kind of car salesman that doesn't fit the normal prototype. I really like meeting those kinds of people. I haven't gotten far into it yet, but it is the like the vault room of a bank ... the bank being the mind of a neurosurgeon. Somehow it feels like I'm reading something I shouldn't be.

I certainly don't understand all the medical terms, but his fluid and concise writing allows amateurs in the medical field the ability to understand the story without the medical school training.

more to come

el cielo

This hefty piece of nonfiction is in the works.

It's stretching my mind more than it has been stretched in a long time. Some of it is hard to take in.

The concept of eternity when you really think about it, is difficult to comprehend. Driving to school today, I thought about how hard it is to think that the life we live in eternity will last forever. Time won't affect it like it does here. I wont grow old. I'll remain where I am always. That in itself is tearing the sides of the boxes in my head.

and then ... there's so much more

Cautiva

Imagine finding out you aren't who you've been told you are. You were actually adopted, your mother was blind-folded and beaten up when she had you. Your parents, those people you thought you were born to, have lied your whole life. And your real parents have been missing, and are proposed dead.

This is what Christina is told one day at school.

Her best friend turns against her and her godfather is partly to blame for sending her real parents to a concentration camp that existed in downtown Buenos Aires during the 1978 World Cup era when Argentina won.

This tale, although one of fiction, is based on true events and real stories from those who lived under the leadership of President Jorge Videla.

At the end of the film, viewers are told that nearly 30,000 people are said to have disappeared during the Dirty War of Argetina. Many political dissidents where drugged and then pushed out of airplanes flying over the Rio de Plata which runs into the Atlantic Ocean. Some dissidents were sent to torture camps in the hands of the country's naval mechanic school in B.A.


Anyone who has listened to Mana (their version of the original by Rubén Blades) or U2 might have heard the story of the "desaparecidos" or the disappeared. U2's song is about the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a still-active human rights group of mothers of the victims of the dictatorship.

The after-effects still linger, and the story of Sofia (turned Christina) reminds the viewers the old, scientific equation that every action has an equal and opposite reaction.



*The following is from Wikipedia*

Many women gave birth in captivity; they were then killed and their children given illegally in adoption to families and friends of military or police personnel. The task of locating these children and restoring their lost identity has been going on since the restoration of democracy in 1983. Legal proceedings were taken against those involved in these actions even while amnesties were in place for other crimes by the military since appropriating children from their mothers is a crime that lies outside the scope of military procedures, and thus also outside any kind of amnesty law or pardon that implies orders in a military context.

MLK Jr. Day in St. Pauls

ST. PAULS — Thirty-degree weather wasn't going to stop Annie Pearson from marching the two-mile walk in remembrance of Martin Luther King Jr. – she showed up at St. Pauls Elementary School. But the rest of the St. Pauls Bladen County Chapter of Las Amigas never arrived at school.

"I guess they thought it was too cold," Pearson said with a smile on her face. The Las Amigas president got back in her car. "Just come to the church at six – I'll see you there."

Pearson walked into the church and sat on one of the 56 bright blue-cushioned pews. As more and more people escaped the wind-chilling cold and entered the small brick building. Pearson moved from the left row of pews to the middle. She sat alone. Her black jacket that she draped over the back of the wooden pew coordinated with her shoes, her nylons and the color of her skin.

The choir began singing. The crowd was clapping and tapping; Pearson didn't move. Her right hand grasped her thin gold-framed glasses.

She walked up to the podium after the singing stopped. "You know the reason for us being here … remembering the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.," Pearson said, serving her role as the organizer of the 11th annual event. "We hope you will be blessed, we are blessed to have you here."

She took her seat, put on her glasses and scrutinized the night's agenda like a professor would a textbook.

The singing started again. She stood up. Her voice rose above the other 40 people in the crowd. But that distinct sound was only heard on certain words. The glasses had moved to her left hand and a tissue was scrunched up in her right hand.

The preacher, Rev. Curtis Barginere, stood up to speak. Pearson crossed her arms on her lap and kept her abnormally good posture.

"Like Moses in his day, God used King mightily to pave a better way," Barginere said with his voice maintaining one noise level – loud. "Let us remember the marches. Let us remember the jail time. Let us remember the water. Let us remember the dogs."

When Barginere referred to King with the phrases "by peaceful means" and "full of love for mankind," Pearson strongly nodded her head.

"King stepped out of that fear only on the foundation of Jesus Christ," Barginere said.

The crowd was no longer an audience, but a part of the show with shouts of "Amen" and hands raised – some people stood up.

Barginere spiced up scripture.

"You are my friends if you do, if you do, if you do what I command you," he said raising his voice to a level that made the microphone buzz. His hands remained in the air waving and shaking, as if they automatically did that when his voice reached a certain level.

He continued: "We are about something. We are about peace and love and happiness, not this violence state. Not drugs and crime … not breaking into houses … ."

After the service, Pearson said she thought Barginere did well.

"It was different from what we've heard," she said. "I liked when he tied Martin Luther King into biblical characters."

Pearson was a college student during the 1963 March on Washington. She said King's ideals are still alive.

"He set the floor for civil and economic justice," she said.

My Flesh and Blood

coming soon...
a little splurb about this intriguing documentary

The Glass Castle

Despite having a selfish mother and an alcoholic father, Jeanette Walls and her three siblings stay afloat amidst an almost-homeless lifestyle.

Walls has a knack for writing well as she tells a fascinating memoir of what it was like to live in a condemned house with no plumbing, no food, and no refrigerator.

Her father uses her beauty to get a few bucks, her mother wont wake up to go to work every day. Walls and her brother go "hunting" for food on a daily basis, sometimes sitting in the bathrooms at school to wait for other children to throw away their leftovers at lunch.

To read a real account of the different effects an impoverished lifestyle can have on American people in recent times from a page-turner of a book, pick this one up.

Brothels and cameras

The seed of hope was a 35mm camera. The tree that grew -- an education.

Zana Briski, a professional photographer, started a photography class to children who lived in Calcutta's Red Light district. The class, not only produced talented child photographers, but provoked Briski to find an education for the lowest of India's low.

"I used to want to be a doctor," said one of Briski's students, after his mother was burned to death by her pimp. "Then I wanted to be an artist. There is nothing called hope in my future."

But fortunately for Avijit, 11, Briski found a way to give him an education, amidst the hierarchy of political red tape.

Watch the eight children go to the beach for the first time in their lives ... and more stories on the DVD. Check out the nonprofit Kids with Cameras
http://www.kids-with-cameras.org/home/
and possibly even buy some of their prints at
http://www.kids-with-cameras.org/kidsgallery/

Wal-Mart and crime stats

Between Jan. 1 and Oct. 19 of this year, there were 627
incidents at Wal-Mart reported to police — an average of 2.28 a day —
with the majority being larcenies, but also complaints of shoplifting,
fraud, harassment and vandalism.

City wants Wal-Mart
to get tough on crime

Gena Smith
Staff writer
LUMBERTON — Wal-Mart, the nation's No. 1 retailer, is known for its
low prices and variety of items, which range from HD televisions, to
DVDs, to Budweiser and rib-eye steaks.
But the store in Lumberton is gaining another reputation — one that
could keep shoppers away, or at least make them wary. Since 2002,
there have been about 3,000 calls for help because of incidents at
Wal-Mart.
Bruce Davis, on the brink of leaving the City Council after 20 years
of serving as the Precinct 1 councilman, investigated when a Lumberton
woman who had been assaulted in broad daylight complained. He ended up
with an inch-thick collection of police reports on incidents from both
inside the Wal-Mart and outside, in its parking lot, that were filed
between Jan. 1 and Oct. 19 of this year. There were 627 incidents
reported during that time — an average of 2.28 a day — with the
majority being larcenies, but also complaints of shoplifting, fraud,
harassment and vandalism.
"What prompted this effort on my part is a friend of mine's wife was
mugged at Wal-Mart 3:30 on a Sunday afternoon," Davis said. "She
parked three spaces from the front door in the handicap section, and
that's what got me involved ... I had no idea — and I suspect the
public does not — that there are this many incidents at Wal-Mart."
Davis suggested that incidents are increasing as Christmas approaches,
saying he was told by a police officer that there were seven reported
recently during a single day.
Davis' bundle didn't include Kathy Boudreau's reported incident, which
happened on Nov. 19. The mother of five said her purse, which
contained her wallet, checkbook and cell phone, was taken by force as
she walked in the parking lot.
Boudreau is frustrated by police and Wal-Mart. She said the store's
security camera did not adequately identify the assailant's vehicle.
"I feel like something is just not right there," said Boudreau, who
lives in St. Pauls. "I just don't get it ... I just feel like (the
police) really didn't do their job because they weren't wanting to
deal with it ... people are being deceived."
Boudreau said police did nothing even after her service provider gave
them phone numbers made from her cell phone.
She also complained about inadequate security.
"Never do I ever see security people in the parking lot at Wal-Mart,"
Boudreau said. "I don't even want to go there anymore ... ."

Wal-Mart's plea

In April, John Hendren, the manager at Wal-Mart, acknowledged a
problem publicly when he asked the City Council to allow off-duty
police officers to provide weekend security, from 7 p.m. Friday to 7
a.m. Saturday and 7 p.m. Saturday to 7 a.m. Sunday. Hendren proposed
that Wal-Mart pay the officers, but wanted the city to cover health
insurance, disability compensation and liability insurance.
The City Council said no, citing liability concerns related to putting
a police officer on private property.
Lumberton police do patrol the parking lot, but Chief Police Mike
McNeill could not give specifics on how often an officer drives
through the parking lot.
According to the 911 records, from June 2002 to June 2007, there were
2,935 calls made from Wal-Mart.
"We were concerned with it, but not until a lawsuit came up did we
start generating the report — we didn't realize there were this many,"
Communications Chief Mitchell Pate said.
The number of incidents is expected to increase as Christmas shoppers
seek bargains at the store. They will be carrying cash and gifts.
"We are going to beef up patrol a little bit more during the holiday
season," said McNeill, who seemed reluctant to classify Wal-Mart as a
high-crime area.
"It's just like all over the city — it's not just one place that's a
real high crime area," he said. "You would think that with as many
people are going in and out of Wal-Mart it wouldn't be an easy prey
for targeting people there."
McNeill said he has recommended that Wal-Mart increase the lighting in
the parking lot and hire security officers to patrol the parking lot.
Local Wal-Mart officials referred questions to their corporate office
in Bentonville, Ark. A corporate spokesperson there, Jami Lamontagne,
asked that The Robesonian provide a list of questions and she e-mailed
the responses.
The questions were specific, including the number of security cameras
and security guards, but Lamontagne's response was vague: "We've
recently added additional cameras throughout the store. Also, we're in
the process of installing additional lighting in the parking lot. We
have full-time security associates employed by Wal-Mart. Also, we have
a third party security group that works in the store on a regular
basis."
Davis is adamant that the problem is Wal-Mart's to fix, not the city's.
"We've had a number of businesses approach the city about providing
security for them," Davis said. "The city does not provide security
for private businesses ... because you would be operating on private
property which creates a lot of legal issues for the city and it also
puts us in a situation of immense liability."
City officials worry about the snowball effect of helping one private
business and not others.
"If you look around town, you'll see businesses with security and they
provide that by hiring part-time police officers off duty ..., Davis
said. "I should think that Wal-Mart would provide some parking lot
security as grocery stores do."
Davis believes broadcasting the problem could force Wal-Mart's hand.
"I think that the only action I can take is to bring it to The
Robesonian and let the public know," he said. "If the public
understands, there will be more action taken."

The Zahir

"God knows that we are all artists of life. One day, he gives us a hammer with which to make sculptures, another day he gives us brushes and paints with which to make a picture, or paper and a pencil to write with. But you cannot make a painting with a hammer, or a sculpture with a paintbrush. Therefore, however difficult it may be, I must accept today's small blessings, even if they seem like curses because I am suffering and it's a beautiful day, the sun is shining, and the children are singing in the street. This is the only way I will manage to leave my pain behind and rebuild my life."

I have been a faithful fan of Paulo Coehlo since first being introduced to The Alchemist in Honduras. This book doesn't always turn the page on its own like the Alchemist. Poor Coehlo, every other book he writes will always be compared to it. Regardless, I have to say I admire his honesty. Anytime a writer more than loosely bases a character on himself, he risks showing the bad side of himself that no one wants to admit exists. The pride the main character has as a famous author is fascinating.

"I explain that our human condition makes us tend to share only the best of ourselves, because we are always searching for love and approval," he says to a crowd of listeners while dealing with this exact problem in his personal life.

The storyline follows a man who has everything he wants or needs as a well-known published author. His wife, a foreign correspondent, decides to leave him without telling him where she is going or that she is leaving. After a long journey of finding himself, he finds her.

At first he feels free. But that quickly changes as his desire to find his wife becomes his ZAHIR.

"I had lunch with a friend who just got divorced. 'Now I can enjoy the freedom I've always dreamed of having.' But that's a lie. No one wants that kind of freedom: we all want commitment, we all want someone to be beside us to enjoy the beauties..."

There is a great section near the end of the book where the author talks about what he must do when he goes to a famous-people dinner. The questions he has to ask, the annoyances he must sit through.

The first part moves slowly, but the end turns its own pages.

The War Within

A must see movie for anyone desiring to better understand the truth behind why any extremist does what he does. This movie has great cinematography and a compelling story line written and produced by the main actor.

"The life you live is born by our brothers and sisters throughout the world. Your government takes actions of which its people are unaware. But ignorance is not innocence," says the protagonist to the Pakistani family he temporarily lives with while working out his mission in the United States.

In the midst of a social gathering, the topic of American and Pakistani politics arise. Two men start arguing about whether or not America is a good place to live. The main character silences them, "Back home our blood has not yet turned to water. Poverty is real. Dying is real. Not some discussion to be had at dinner."

The whole movie is based around the struggle this man has to re-enter "normal" life. He never feels peace about his conflicting desires.

He quotes the Koran:

Prescribed for you is fighting though it be hateful for you yet it may happen that you hate the thing which is better for you and it may happen that you will love the thing which is worse for you. Allah knows and you know not.

a repeat of Kite Runner

Two boys, Amir and Hassan. Amir is of the higher class and Hassan is his servant. Both very close in age. Fed from the same breast. Hassan often fights Amir’s battles. He’s the stronger one. He has no fear and a lot of skill both with kites and sling shots. He was incapable of lying, and would do anything Amir said. At one point in the story, Hassan is trapped by the bullies of the neighborhood without Amir around. Amir comes searching for him and sees them surrounding Hassan. However, Amir decides not to make his presence known, even though he knew that Hassan would without hesitation. The main bully takes out his brass knuckles and punches away. Then he does worse….
Redemption is real. And we are all living in the midst of our own stories of redemption. I don’t know if people like Hassan really exist. I have a feeling they do. People who are so pure, so serving, so devout to one person or one cause – it’s possible. His love for the Amir is, to me, a very close to perfect picture of God’s unconditional love for us.
There is a scene in the book after the incident where the two boys go up to the hill behind their house after a long time of not talking to each other. This used to be the place they’d go every afternoon where Amir would read to Hassan. Amir takes a pomegranate and throws it hard at Hassan. Hassan does nothing. Amir does it again. And again. And again. Hassan is dripping in pomegranate juice. His shirt is stained red. Finally, Hassan picks up a pomegranate, walks over to Amir and squashes it on his own head. “Is this what you want?” he says and walks away.
Maybe love like that only exists in books on this earth. Maybe it doesn’t. I look at this kite runner and it only makes me think of how selfish I am. There is a woman who works at my school. She is the janitor. I swear that woman is one of those people. She cleans all day long. She runs to the store when any of the teachers ask her to. I’ve never seen her say “No, you do it.” I’ve never seen her get angry. She just smiles and serves.
I don’t know what thoughts go on inside her mind. I wonder if she ever thinks, “Damn, you have legs too.” Maybe God creates certain people with more quantities of servitude than he did me. Or maybe it was my choice.
But even in his own love, he serves. Jesus living on this earth. Jesus healing and serving and preaching. Jesus being accused. Jesus not yelping about the injustices done to him. Jesus not pleading his innocence. Jesus dying on a cross. Dying for sins he never committed. Pomegranate after pomegranate being thrown at him. And I’m still throwing them, taking my anger out on him (and on others) though he does not deserve it. The anger that I will never be as pure as a Hassan. The knowledge that very often I don’t have the guts to stand up to the bully that comes along. To know I can never deserve redemption. But that despite what I do or do not deserve, I have been given it as a gift. A pure gift. A gift that provokes me to serve, that provokes me to give, that proves to me I am not a lost cause altogether.

A year with clive

This is a dated book with a one page read for each day. Therefore, it is an odd book to review. So I have picked out a few quotes from different writings of his. Of all the Christian writers in fiction and nonfiction, he is by far, my favorite author. Every piece of fiction points to some spiritual truth and every piece of nonfiction portrays just how often this man struggled with seeking God and finding the truth. Anything in italics is his. The rest is me.

Impulses:
It is a mistake to think that some of our impulses—say mother love or patriotism—are good, and others, like sex or the fighting instinct, are bad. All we mean is that the occasions on which the fighting instinct or the sexual desire need to be restrained are rather more frequent than those for restraining mother love or patriotism...The most dangerous thing you can do is to take any one impulse of your own nature and set it up as the thing you ought to follow at all costs. There is not one of them which will not make us into devils if we set it up as an absolute guide. You might think love of humanity in general was safe, but it is not. If you leave out justice you will find yourself breaking agreements and faking evidence in trials, ‘for the sake of humanity’, and become in the end a cruel and treacherous man.

Happiness:
The happiness which God designs for His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily untied to Him and to each other in an ecstasy of love and delight compared with which the most rapturous love between a man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and water. And for that they must be free.

Imperfect world:
We find ourselves in a world of transporting pleasures, ravishing beauties, and tantalizing possibilities, but all constantly being destroyed, all coming to nothing.

On Pride:
When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse he understands his own badness less and less.
Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.
The point is that each person’s pride is in competition with every one else’s pride. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.

Difference in religions:
And that, by the way, is perhaps the most important difference between Christianity and all other religions: that in Christianity God is not a static thing—not even a person—but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance.Maybe this is not just the difference between Christianity and all other religions, but even within the “Christian religion” I think too often churches portray Christ as a list of rules and that is all. I certainly find that all too true at the church I attend here in Honduras. The sad thing is, those who grow up in that type of teaching and never take the opportunity to explore otherwise will always know Christ as someone or something rigid, square and routine-like. To me, the most beautiful thing about Christ is that he is so the opposite. He transforms into many things: deep discussions with all kinds of people, a jump off a waterfall, a daily routine, a dream, a time-consuming project that we lose sleep over, a journey to a foreign place, a smile, and even, to borrow Lewis’ term, a dance. Oh what a dance he is!

The Bean Trees

by Barbara Kingsolver

“Moonlight was pouring in through the bedroom window like a watery version of my mother’s potato soup. Moon soup, I thought, hugging myself under the covers.”
There is, within all of us, a desire for our home. (And by home, I mean the place where you felt the most secure or the people with whom you felt the most loved) Yet, simultaneously, we long for adventure.
This is the story of Taylor. This felt very similar to my story. Taylor takes off on a road trip intending to find work and a new life away from her home state. What she finds along the way is a child dropped off in her hands as if it was a pet lizard that the owner no longer wanted.
Certain things are constant no matter where we are: Moonlight. Sunlight. Problems. Desires. Questions. Taylor becomes good friends with her boss, Mattie, at a car repair shop. When Taylor questions whether or not she can take care of the child, Mattie tells Taylor she’s asking the wrong question...
“You’re asking yourself, Can I give this child the best possible upbringing and keep her out of harm’s way her whole life long? The answer is no, you can’t. But nobody else can either. Not a state home, that’s for sure...Nobody can protect a child from the world. That’s why it’s the wrong thing to ask, if you’re really trying to make a decision.”

“So what’s the right thing to ask?”

“Do I want to try? Do I think it would be interesting, maybe even enjoyable in the long run, to share my life with this kid and give her my best effort and maybe, when all’s said and done, end up with a good friend.”

Taylor also meets two of Mattie’s “housemates,” Estevan and his wife Esperanza, who are running from immigration laws and a rough life in Guatemala. Estevan, who, in another life was an English teacher gives Taylor his own advice:
“Mi’ija, in a world as wrong as this one, all we can do is to make things as right as we can.”

When I wake up from one of my various life-like dreams I have here, I grab the covers and remind myself where I am and what life I’m living. Sometimes it takes a while to realize that my dreams are not my life and that my life is not a dream. Moon soup is a weekly delicacy for me.

The Start

I’m a big nerd and it’s not my fault.
Without a TV, I find myself reading a lot.
So I will write about it.

Things to see soon,
notes about the following books:

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

La Quinta Montana by Paulo Coehlo

El Alquimista by Paulo Coehlo

A year with C.S. Lewis

Left to Tell by Immaculée Ilibagiza

Dispatches from the Edge by Anderson Cooper

100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

100 Love Poems by Pablo Neruda

Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

Che Guevara by David Sandison

and more...