Selected Poems

Ondra Lysohorsky's Selected Poems is listed on Phillip Ward's A Lifetime's Reading: The World's 500 Greatest Books. Unfortunately, English translations of this delightful collection seem widely unavailable. It is out of print. I picked up a copy on e-Bay. Even after paying shipping, the book cost less than $10. Ondra Lysohorsky is the nom de plume assumed by Ervín Goj, a Czech poet who lived from 1905 - 1989.

Reading his poetry was like walking through history and hearing, through the words of a poet, a first-hand account of the reaction of the people who were living at the time. He lived in a time when the world was only 2-million years old, when science rather than saving humanity had shown how truly dangerous technology could be, when our world was consumed with wars.

Hands at work.
Hands at love.
Hands at death.

Hands playing a violin.
Hands on the trigger in the aircraft of Hiroshima.
Hands in prayer. (Hands)

He grew up in the Czech Republic where a statue of Jan Hus stands as a reminder to the failings of the Western church and a religious system. And he writes:

The dead philosophy student
testifies louder

than debates in the vortex of human pillar of fire
which will sweep through Prague

till the end of the history of this city steeped in fire
and blood
where John Huss has preached in vain

for over five centuries:
'He that will not serve truth, conscience and humanity

shall lose his power.' (Ballad of Jan Palach, Student and Heretic)

And my personal favorite:

When my hair was black,
all here below seemed ill-arranged.

When it became grey,
slowly my eyes opened.

Now when my hair is white,
I see eternity in every moment. (Ballad of Hair)

Simply delightful! I am glad the person who listed this on e-Bay didn't know that it was a rare, hard to find book that usually sells for more.

Does Your House Have Lions

I am trying to diversify my reading. Does Your House Have Lions was featured in a blog entry I read. I can't remember whose blog I was reading or I would link to it. I didn't care for this book. To me the most intriguing part of the book was the cover.

One day in the late sixties, I was on the phone with Rahsaan and mentioned to him that just that day I had bought a house. He responded by asking, "Does your house have lions?" I said, "What?" He said, "Lions. You know, like in the front of a museum or the post office. You know, concrete lions. My house has lions. Get a house with lions." ~ Joel Dorn, May 1993 from the Rahsaan Roland Kirk Anthology.

The lions strength and courage make him a symbol of strength. The title asks you to consider the strengths in your home. Sonia Sanchez's brother died of complications related to HIV/AIDS. This poem tells his story. More specifically it tells the story of how painful it sometimes is to be a part of a family. In families we share each others pain. The choices another person makes often result in burdens that we must carry. Being connected in a family can be indescribably painful, but it is a source of strength too.

The reason I didn't care for this book is that it is written in E.E. Cumming's style. The author chose to use creative punctuation and grammar. There are periods breaking up a thought, but the sentence structure doesn't follow normal grammar rules. I found this style of writing distracting. It deprived me of visual cues and made the writing difficult to follow. Capital letters aren't used except occasionally. By their rarity, they catch the eye of the reader and demand that the reader answer, "Why is that there? What is being emphasized?" Sometimes I couldn't figure it out.

came the summer of nineteen sixty
harlem luxuriating in Malcolm's voice
became Big Red beautiful became a city
of magnificent Black Birds steel eyes moist

I found the author's name on the front cover artwork intriguing. It is written sonia saNchez. E.E. Cummings used a lowercase I when writing. I have read that he wanted to make himself lowercase, equal to, the other pronouns. He was communicating that he wasn't anymore important than other people. Frankly, I think the calling attention to yourself by writing i is fairly prideful. But, his example has been followed by others, including k.d. lang. And, I found myself wondering, "Why the upper case N?"

Ancestors have an important role in the poem. I have actually spent a great deal of time thinking about this. Since my kids are from Haiti, their ancestors likely came from West Africa. I have been reading quite a bit about Haitian vodou. When we were in Haiti getting the children, we were kept awake all night by the drumming and chanting of a nearby vodou ceremony. And, at least in Haiti, while the spirit of a person's ancestor is honored and served, they aren't worshiped. Like Christianity, Haitian vodou is a monotheistic religion.

The poem ends with a stanza in which the ancestor's ask:

where are the gods when we need them?

Perhaps this question is a universal response when the death of a young person creates a spiritual crisis and the world suddenly is seen as extremely unfair.

Sophie's World

Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy by Jostein Gaarder is a mysterious book. The first mystery is how I came to possess a copy of this book in the first place. My oldest daughter has a fine at the library. She just bought a new car and has learned that gas and car repairs really eat into your spendable income. She can't afford her fine. She reads a lot. In desperation, she browsed our bookshelves for something to read. She found this book. Neither my husband nor I had read it before. Neither of us remember adding it to our home's library. But, my daughter was thrilled to find that we had something to read!

Her review, "Mom. This book is weird. The philosophy is good, but the story is weird."

My sentiments exactly! The story is weird, but the bird's eye view of philosophical thought is very well done. We home school. For the past three years, my oldest daughter's curriculum has included a combined philosophy and history course. I suspect the book contains everything my daughter remembers from her studies. This book is worth reading for that reason alone; it is quite enjoyable and thought provoking. Highly recommended.

"Nobody asked you to like it. But philosophy is not a harmless party game. It's about who we are and where we come from. Do you think we learn enough about that in school?" (page 186)

What we think matters. It affects how we behave, how we prioritize and what we believe to be true. My thoughts on Sophie's World are colored by my personal worldview. I suspect that most of the people that read here followed me from my regular blog and are aware of my worldview. For those who find this entry another way, I believe man can begin to understand truth through both reason and revelation. As long as I can remember I have had an understanding of the existence of God. I no longer try to answer the question of whether this understanding is innate or a result of my life experiences. As a young adult, I tried life without a theistic worldview and the consequences of my lifestyle choices were unpleasant. The scripture I accept as the oracles of God are the Jewish Tanakh and the first person accounts of life of Christ as preserved by the early church.

"These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled." ~ Luke 24:44

Although this book is not anti-Christian, it doesn't present Christianity from a Christian worldview. Christ is presented as a great man and a great philosopher. But, he is presented as a man and not God in the flesh.

"I shall leave a more thorough study of Jesus and his teachings to your religion teacher. He will have quite a task. I hope he will succeed in showing what an exceptional man Jesus was." (page 156).

What I found striking as I thought through this book is how philosophy has led both Christians and humanists to a similar conclusion about society. Compare these two thoughts. First:

"The Enlightenment philosophers thought that once reason and knowledge became widespread, humanity would make great progress. It could only be a question of time before irrationalism and ignorance would give way to an 'enlightened' humanity." (page 312)

And:

"But Kant went further than simply to establish that these weighty questions should be left to the faith of the individual. He believed that it is essential for morality to presuppose that man has an immortal soul, that God exists, and that man has a free will." (page 328)

The first quote reminds me that we are still trying to create Eden through purely human efforts. In my opinion, the second clearly describes what is wrong with the Christian right today. The Westminster Shorter Confession answers the question, "What is the chief end of man," by affirming that we are to to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever. While living a moral life might be a means to that end, it is not the end. Yet, ever since I have been old enough to vote, elections and campaign promises have been about legislating another person's life. In the process, America is less free than it was 20 years ago. The Christian right has supported anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, pro-family values candidates without questioning their big federal government, more regulations visions. No one seems to care that our country is broke. We can't create a perfectly moral world by human effort. The church needs to go back to her first commission. We should be making disciples and allowing the Holy Spirit to work out other people's salvation.

"After Marx, the socialist movement split into two main streams. Social Democracy and Leninism. Social Democracy, which has stood for a gradual and peaceful path in the direction of socialism, was Western Europe's way. We might call this the slow revolution." (page 397)

America continues its descent into socialism. As the government takes substantial control over the day to day operations of the country, I will have less choice about how I want to spend my time, talents and treasures. I believe a socialist government is inherently oppressive. But, I will always be free, God created me with a free will. I can choose to act and think in a way that is contrary to my nature.

I was glad that the author of Sophie's World seemed to recognize that socialism doesn't necessarily equate to Utopia.

"There will probably never be a 'promised land.' Mankind will always create new problems to fight about." (page 397)

The Disabled God

The Disabled God: Toward A Liberating Theology of Disability has been on my bookshelf and on my reading wish list for quite some time. Recently, while blog reading and following links to possibly related posts, I came across a tribute to the author, Nancy Eiesland Is Dead at 44; Wrote of a Disabled God. In discussing why she hoped she would be disabled in heaven, she is recorded as saying that without her disability she would be, "absolutely unknown to myself and perhaps to God." Her answer intrigued me. I moved this book, once buried under a stack of books I wanted to read some day, closer to the top of the stack.

Before I begin discussing the book itself, since this is a book blog, here is what the author believed about books:

Beginning during many long hospital stays in my childhood, I long cherished the mistaken notion that books were for escape. Through the years, educators have changed my mind. Books should inspire action; good books may even help us live better lives, individually and collectively.

I think there is a place for books that are brain candy. There are times I cannot read and focus on books that require too much thinking. But, there is also a place for books that inspire action and change the way we think. The Disabled God is not brain candy! The book starts with a review of literature related to disability and disability rights in society in general. Then, as if we needed to be told, relates how the church has mirrored society. The universal church's response to the person with a disability has often been less than adequate. Ms. Eiesland then discusses the theological obstacles to full inclusion and describes a new Christology in which the resurrected Christ is understood as disabled. Finally, using the Eucharist, Ms. Eiesland discusses how church practices must change if the church is to include, in a meaningful way, people with disabilities in the faith community.

People with disabilities, particularly children born with disabilities, do not fit neatly into the church's theology. It is hard to embrace a omnipotent, loving God who would allow human suffering. Our habit of twisting individual passages or even a single verse and forcing a theology of disability has resulted in three distorted theological views. The first one is that disability is a sign of sin. This understanding blames the individual (or his or her parents) for their disability. The second is that disability is almost a gift to those who are the most virtuous, most faithful and can be counted on to suffer well. Finally, that the disabled are an opportunity for segregationist almsgiving. The author describes these theological positions as dangerous in terms of inclusion.

Throughout the Old Testament, people with disabilities are spoken of as unclean. They were not allowed to serve as priests or enter the temple. In the New Testament, Jesus spoke in parables teaching his disciples spiritual truths by using examples from the physical world. In the New Testament the blind, deaf and lame portray the common experience of spiritual hardness of heart, moral failings and wickedness; we are all unclean. Ms. Eiesland points out that we must not use Scripture as an invitation to deny the real differences and challenges the person with a disability encounters as they live their life.

While all people do experience sin, not all people face architectural segregation and discrimination on the basis of disability."(page 85)

Truthfully, my mind mentally kicked and shied away from much of the book's theology. I couldn't embrace the author's thesis that God is disabled. While humans are embodied spirits, I do not think that the Bible supports that God is a corporeal being. The physical world is created, finite and limited. The God of the Bible is eternal, infinite and limitless. Christ taught that God is Spirit. (John 4:24) But, the author never talks about God in these terms. When she speaks of a disabled God, she is speaking of Christ.

"At the resurrection, the disciples understood the person of Jesus for who he really was. Only through the lens of resurrection could they understand the meaning and significance of the life of Jesus on earth. In the resurrected Jesus Christ, they saw not the suffering servant for whom the last and most important word was tragedy and sin, but the disabled God who embodied both impaired hands and feet and pierced side and the imago Dei." (page 99)

I don't want to sound like I am accusing the author of heresy. Her thoughts on God were what helped her make sense of a difficult earthly life. But, I didn't feel the concept of God described in this book incorporates the fullness of God. I understand Christ to be my Messiah, Emmanuel, God with us. However, an orthodox view of God must certainly embrace God as Father and Spirit too. Additionally, I do not believe the author supported her assumption that the resurrected Christ was disabled. Earlier in the book, in a section called "Coming To Terms," Ms. Eiesland conceptually defined the words "impairment" and "disability." There are subtle but important distinctions in how these terms are used. An impairment is a abnormality in the body's physiologic form or function. Disability occur when the impairment results in an inability to perform a task or activity considered necessary. While I can agree that nail prints in the hands and feet and a pierced side could be described as physical impairments, nothing in the gospels indicate that these physical impairments disabled Christ. Christ didn't crawl out of the grave needing assistance with his activities of daily living.

Still, there were two things that the author said that I tend to agree with. First, "Resurrection is not about the negation or erasure of our disabled bodies in hopes of perfect images, untouched by physical disability; rather Christ's resurrection offers hope that our nonconventional, and sometimes, difficult, bodies participate fully in the imago Dei." (page 107) The Bible records that Jesus was raised in the same body he died in. This is a relatively new understanding for me. I used to think my daughter, born with fetal alcohol syndrome, would be healed in the resurrection. I no longer believe that is true. In Don't Mourn for Us by Jim Sinclair, an autistic man, argues:

Autism isn't something a person has, or a "shell" that a person is trapped inside. There's no normal child hidden behind the autism. Autism is a way of being. It is pervasive; it colors every experience, every sensation, perception, thought, emotion, and encounter, every aspect of existence. It is not possible to separate the autism from the person--and if it were possible, the person you'd have left would not be the same person you started with.

FASD is pervasive. God cannot separate FASD from my daughter and still have the same person she is today. She would think and relate to God differently.

Also, I significantly agree with the author's assertion that the church is disabled.

Christ's body, the church, is broken, marked by sin, divided by disputes, and exceptional in its exclusivity.

Last, her discussion on the Eucharist was eye opening. My husband's family is Lutheran. I have attended several Lutheran services where I watched the entire congregation walk to the front of the sanctuary. Those people in attendance who couldn't walk didn't have to go forward. After the rest of the congregation had been served the sacraments, the person serving the Eucharist would bring the sacraments to those who hadn't been able to participate "normally."

"Hence the Eucharist was transformed for me from a corporate to a solitary experience; from a sacralization of Christ's broken body to a stigmatization of my disable body."

And, I never gave it a second thought, until now.

The Histories

After the mad tyrant Nero committed suicide to avoid being beaten to death, I suspect many Romans breathed a collective sigh of relief. How could they know that what would follow was civil war? Nero was succeeded by Galba. If I have read the story correctly, Galba refused to pay cash rewards to soldiers who had supported him. "I select my troops, I don't buy them." This apparently offended some of the troops who then refused to pledge their allegiance to him. They began searching for a replacement emperor, one who would owe his power and position to the soldiers. Well, you can't have a new emperor if the old one is still alive. So, the first order of business was to assassinate Galba. They also assassinated his adopted heir, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Licinianus. In a speech prior to his death, Piso said:

"If 'constitution,' 'senate' and 'people' are merely empty phrases, it is up to you men, to see that the emperor is not created by the dregs of the army."

Galba and Piso's death on January 15, 69 AD heralded the beginning of the Year of Four Emperors -- the year Romans learned that emperors could be made by Armies rather than bloodline or senate pronouncement. The Histories by Tacitus is the story of the wars that were fought during that year. It is a tales of forced fealties, treason, bloodshed, and personal vendettas being settled at the state level. The tide of history turned on single battles. Whole companies and squadrons were surrendered to the winning side. The commanding officer hoped to gain favor with the soon to be emperor and keep his head. It is a tale as old as time.

"From time immemorial, man has had an instinctive love of power. With the growth of our empire, this instinct has become a dominant and controlling force. It was easy to maintain equality when Rome was weak. World-wide conquest and the destruction of all rival communities or petentates opened the way to the secure enjoyment of wealth and an overriding appetite for it." (Book 2, Chapter 38)

There were parts of this book I really enjoyed. I didn't much care for the protracted descriptions of the battles. Tacitus would not be accused of just presenting the facts. His bias is evident throughout the book. I am not suggesting that he made up history. But, if he thought a leader was spineless, unworthy, undisciplined and greedy, he was quick to say so.

And, he was quick to make moral judgments.

"Soon after, the boy came of age, and having been called up by Galba for services in the Seventh, chanced to encounter his father in the battle and wounded him seriously. As he was searching the prostrate and semi-conscious figure, father and son recognized each other. Embracing the dying man, the son prayed in words choked by sobs that his father's spirit would be appeased and not bear him ill-will as a parricide: the act was not a personal one, and one single soldier was merely an infinitesimal fraction of the forces engaged in the civil war. With these words, he took up the body, dug a grave, and discharged the last duty to his father. Some nearby troops noticed this, then more and more; and so throughout the lines ran a current to wonder and complaint, and men cursed this cruelest of wars. However, this did not stop them killing and robbing relatives, kinsmen and brothers: they said to each other that a crime had been done -- and in the same breath did it themselves." (Book 3, Chapter 25)

Book Five of The Histories contains Tacitus' history of the Jewish nation. It is unlike anything you will read in the Bible. Well, except he does mention Moses and finding water for the nation. But, what I am sure irritated the Roman emperors the most was:

"They hold it to be impious to make idols of perishable materials in the likeness of man: for them the Most High and Eternal cannot be portrayed by human hands and will never pass away. For this reason they erect no images in their cities, still less in their temple. Their kings are not so flattered, the Roman emperors not so honored."

Accidental Blogging

I was in the cities this week with my youngest daughter. While there, we stayed with my sister. I checked my blogs on my sister's computer. The layout of this blog looked horrible on her large, wide flat screen monitor! So, I have been playing. Apparently, I can not tell the computer to stretch a photo to cover the whole surface of a screen. So, I made some compromises so that the layout looked okay on all the monitors I have access to. While I was at it, I updated my layout with a ribbon book mark and a bookdart.

May Summary

Can you believe it is June already?

I completed two books this month. Yes, two. I have struggled with finding time to read this month. But that isn't the only problem. I have also had trouble focusing on the books I have chosen to read. First, I was trying to finish my Lenten reading. I know, it is past Pentecost and I should be done with that sort of thing by now. But, I am having trouble reading All the Messianic Prophecies of the Bible by Dr. Herbert Lockyer. I am not enjoying the book and not because the content is bad. In my opinion the book is formatted poorly. Similar to a dictionary, it is formatted in two columns. There are only slim margins along the page edge and between the columns. I find it visually unattractive and, even with my old-lady reading glasses, I am having trouble zeroing in on a line of text. The words seem to all blur. It slows me down tremendously. I am more aware of the fact that I am annoyed than what I happen to be reading.

I have found that this book challenges the "grading system" I have for books. Here is how I evaluate books:

1 star ~ Printing this book wasted perfectly good trees. Purchasing the book wasted my hard earned money. And, reading this book wasted precious time with my family and friends. Why would anyone publish such drivel? Someone else might be able to find something redeeming about this book, but it was not my cup of tea.

2 stars ~ After shifting through the chafe, I found nuggets of gold, real wisdom. However, the book is unnecessarily wordy or presents ideas which are poorly argued. A book that could have been great but, in my opinion is poorly written.

3 stars ~ A book I would recommend you bring to read while you lie in the sun, wait for your car to be repaired, recover from surgery or escape from the stressors of your real life. It is entirely delightful but not life changing, brain candy really.

4 stars ~ The epitome of excellence. Far from brain candy, there is something about the story that is scholarly, revolutionary or captivating that draws the reader into the pages and makes the book difficult to put down.

5 stars ~ I am glad I didn’t die without reading this book

This book is scholarly (4 stars). There are some real nuggets of wisdom and I hate it (1 star). Anyway, I can only read a couple of pages at a time and then I put it down.

Then I tried to read The Histories by Tacitus. This wasn't a good choice for me this month either. It started strong:

After the conflict at Actium, and when it became essential to peace, that all power should be centered in one man, these great intellects passed away. Then too the truthfulness of history was impaired in many ways; at first, through men's ignorance of public affairs, which were now wholly strange to them, then, through their passion for flattery, or, on the other hand, their hatred of their masters. And so between the enmity of the one and the servility of the other, neither had any regard for posterity.

I thought, this could be talking about America today. By in large we have centralized power, twisted histories, a citizenry ignorant of the political process and history. And, no one seems to care. But then, as the title implies, Tacitus began to tell the history of Ancient Rome. I usually like that kind of thing, but I found myself unable to focus.

Well, so much for the books I didn't finish reading. The two books I did finish were The Whitest Wall – Book One Bootleg Brother’s Trilogy by Jodee Kulp. I had hoped to write a review of this book on my personal blog and for Shelfari, but I haven't done that yet. I also read The Gift of Black Folk: The Negroes in the Making of America by W.E.B. DuBois. There is an African proverb that says, "Only when lions have historians will hunters cease being heroes." Dubois is an excellent historian! I really enjoyed reading this history book from the perspective of a black American. History in high school didn't tell the story from the same perspective.

I must have had my own personal Black History month. I had asked for several movies from Netflix for our home school for February. But, I apparently wasn't the only one who thought to do this. The movies were on back order and they finally trickled to my home this month. We watched, We Shall Not Be Moved and When We Were Kings. I am embarrassed to admit that I really like When We Were Kings. Last, Marissa was studying World War 1 in home school. To introduce the topic we watched World War 1: American Legacy which talked about the Harlem Hellfighters.

Finally, for those reading The Chronicle of the Imaginarium Geographica by James A. Owen, I would like to draw your attention to a comment the author made on this blog. An exerpt:

Believe me, I haven't ignored or disregarded these very important matters - I just can't do it all in one or two books!

Related: My thoughts on The Whitest Wall