Randy Greenwald

A number of thoughts have merged together recently on the subject of reading, so in several posts I will weave them together. I suspect that I am preaching to the choir, but so be it.

In response to my post about Where Writer’s Write and David McCullough’s wonderful garden writing shed, Staci left a challenging comment in which she made reference to Mr. McCullough’s commencement address to this year’s graduates of “Boston University”. (I searched fruitlessly for the whole address, stumped by my inability to successfully google this. Astute readers will spot the problem immediately. It’s Boston COLLEGE, not University. If that was a test, Staci, I failed.)

She quoted part of that address, a portion of which I reproduce here:

“Make the love of learning central to your life. What a difference it can mean. If your experience is anything like mine, the books that will mean the most to you, books that will change your life, are still to come. And remember, as someone said, even the oldest book is brand new for the reader who opens it for the first time. You have had the great privilege of attending one of the finest colleges in the nation, where dedication to classical learning and to the arts and sciences has long been manifest. If what you have learned here makes you want to learn more, well that’s the point. Read. Read, read! Read the classics of American literature that you’ve never opened. Read your country’s history. How can we profess to love our country and take no interest in its history? Read into the history of Greece and Rome. Read about the great turning points in the history ofscience and medicine and ideas.

”Read for pleasure, to be sure. I adore a good thriller or a first-rate murder mystery. But take seriously –read closely –books that have stood the test of time. Study a masterpiece, take it apart, study its architecture, its vocabulary, its intent. Underline, make notes in the margins, and after a few years, go back and read it again.“

In searching for this, I stumbled across the comments made by the commencement speaker to the 2003 graduating class of Hope Presbyterian School. Here is a curious excerpt:

Delight in all of life. Be curious. Pursue your loves and interests. And whatever you do, never be content with what you know.

This is a great big creation full of interest and God’s glory. Embrace it, come to know it, learn it. Hence, read, read, and read some more. Don’t let your brain turn into cottage cheese. Investigate, study… delight in life and in the world God has given….

The development of your curiosity, your love of learning, your passion for life… these things are more important than the degree you are receiving tonight.

I don’t suppose I could build a case for plagiarism, and to say ‘Great minds think alike’ would be unnecessarily degrading to Mr. McCullough. But it is something of an affirmation to hear someone of stature echo my own thoughts.

But why do such things – challenges to educated people to read – need to be said at all?

Technorati Tags: Books

I pulled up to a stoplight behind a motorcycle riding sheriff’s deputy this afternoon and for some reason looked at his license plate. Around his plate was a frame, and on the frame was written:

“Smile. I could be behind you.”

I smiled.

Technorati Tags: For fun

My buddy Jeff (not to be confused with my colleague Geoff) told me the other day that he was glad to see that I was actively blogging again. ON Sunday I caught myself asking why I did this and trying to answer. Here is a more reflective answer to that question.

1. This is for me, an ‘online notebook’. It is a place to deposit my thoughts, observations, and reflections. There are things that I must get on ‘paper’. This helps. James Fallows says this about his blog for the Atlantic Monthly, “I undertook this long ago mainly as a notebook for myself. That is still my fundamental motivation, though like everyone in the writing business I am of course grateful to anyone who pays attention.” I, too, am grateful to all of you who pay attention.

2. It is as well a ‘discipleship tool’. As a pastor, I want to impress upon others what God has called us to be. My task as pastor is more than deliver a weekly theological address. I long to see people growing in their love for Christ and maturing in their Christian practice. A blog provides one more tool that I can use to encourage others to love and good works.

3. It is a place to write. Some people do everything possible to avoid writing. Writing for me is an outlet, often a refreshment and a delight. Tied in with this is a desire to delight, to entertain, to challenge, or to encourage others with my writing. I was told in college that those who want to write must write daily. To do so with instant readers was something this professor then could never have anticipated.

4. It is the refrigerator in which sermon leftovers are placed. In preparing a class or a message many more thoughts and ideas are suggested than can be used. So, I sometimes put here what I can’t use there. And sometimes I come here and grab out something that has marinated and is ready to be used there!

5. And, at least for now, it’s fun. And my buddy Jeff says, appreciatively, that this shows. I’m glad.

Technorati Tags: Blogging

Recently I’ve been making a batch of artists’ easels. Ten of these will end up in a new studio which is being established here in Bradenton and the rest will be sold (hopefully!) by a local artists’ supply store. As I was working on them last Saturday, I was pondering their future. Some will be used, used hard, and eventually tossed into the garbage when their usefulness is gone. Some will be used initially with great enthusiasm, and then stored in a closet when the owner’s interests move elsewhere. Some may be used for a very long time and be a delight to their owners.

But it is possible that one, perhaps, will be used to hold a canvas on which an artist completely unknown to me may paint a great and celebrated work of art. And if it were to be, which easel would it be?

To imagine such a use for one of the easels is exciting, but that does not change the way I make any one of them. All of them are being made with the same attention and care.

As mentioned in a previous post, David McCullough writes in a shed with no computer, using only the same vintage Remington typewriter that he has used since the early 1960s. (That led Barb to wonder where one buys typewriter ribbon these days, but that is for someone else to figure out.) This means that one day long ago, there was a worker in a Remington factory making typewriters, each carefully assembled with pride (hopefully). Unknown to him, on one day, he assembled a typewriter which has been used to produce two Pulitzer prize winning works of history. Pretty cool. But the man who made the typewriter will never know that.

Pastors preach sermons, mothers nurse wounds, fathers give instruction, teachers motivate to excellence, and those who care do so with passion and heart and energy and concern. They are careful with and concerned for each person, child, or student which crosses their path. But maybe, somehow, unbeknownst to them, in time, on one of these children, students, or congregants, God will impress a work of greatness in which those who invested in that life will have a stake, but possibly no knowledge.

Perhaps it is convoluted logic, but I want to look upon the people we touch with that same wonder and fascination with which I look upon my easels. I may not know ever to what use God may put them, but the potential is always that he will do something great. With my easels, yes. But with my children, too. And with those to whom I preach.

And the fact that I will not see that should not change the love and concern with which my hands seek to mold and shape the tool while it is under my care. Or yours.

Technorati Tags: Ministry, Work

Included on the John Adams DVD is a special feature on the author of the book, David McCullough. (Fans of the old Ken Burns Civil War documentary have met him before as the voice of that feature’s narration.) McCullough has had phenomenal success as a writer of history. He likes to think of himself as a writer who writes about real people in the past. With two Pulitzers under his belt, I suppose we can say that he’s done a pretty good job of it.

A fascinating revelation in this was the description of where McCullough writes. Behind his house, through a gate in a fence, in a wooded garden there is a small building, no larger than a small shed. In that ‘shed’ is no computer, no telephone, no connection with the outside world, no distraction. There is a typewriter, a desk, a couple of file cabinets, and solitude. This is where his books have been written.

On each side of the gate there are posts. McCullough’s rule is that when he is working no one taller than those posts is allowed to pass through the gate to interrupt him. But if one is smaller than the height of those posts, he is free to come and go at will.

I’m reminded of what I have heard about 19th-century Princeton theologian Charles Hodge whose study was in his home on the seminary campus. Adults knew not to interrupt him when he was working. But little ones? He had the latch removed from the door which opened to the house so that the door would swing freely at the touch of little hands.

Those who want to write (whether it is books, theology, or sermons) need to guard their solitude. They need to build fences around their time and their space which are inviolable. But those fences need to have human sized gates which reflect a balance between isolation and humanity.

McCullough sounds like a guy I’d like to meet.

But not when he’s working.

Technorati Tags: Work, Writing

Due to the generous hard work of a member, Hope Presbyterian Church will soon (by Sunday, August 24, hopefully) be debuting a brand new web site! We are excited by this, as the ‘facelift’ will give the site a much cleaner, more modern appearance.

These days, more often than not, before a person visits a church, he will visit that church’s web site. The web site becomes a primary means of communicating to the world a concept of who we are and what we are like. It is important that the site give to those who come an accurate as well as attractive picture of who we are. We are hoping this site does that even better than the last site.

The most popular use of the web site has been as a source for people to download sermons which they either missed or because of distance or absence could not be present to hear. If you are one of those who has been downloading sermons, you will find the new site to be much simpler to use. Plus, we will have far more sermons. The previous site limited us to 12. This site erects virtually no limit.

The site will be accessible via the same www.gohope.net address. However, if you have set up an RSS feed or podcast for your sermon downloads, those links will probably change. You may need to update your reader/subscription.

I hope the transition is as painless as possible for all concerned.

Special thanks to Tim for his great work on the previous site, and to Keith for his investment in the new. You guys are such great assets for the kingdom!

Technorati Tags: Church

Fay took a sharper turn east and came ashore a hundred miles south of us. Right now it is cloudy, blustery, but dry here. That could change, but there is no danger for us now.

So, back to work.

Technorati Tags: Weather

We’ve been here before, in the bulls eye of a hurricane. I joked with Barb that sometimes the safest place to be, given the vagaries of hurricane predicting, is in the bulls eye. However, this is looking more and more serious, and so we covet the prayers of our friends in calmer environs. Here is the latest from the hurricane center:

AT 11 AM EDT…1500 UTC…A HURRICANE WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR THE SOUTHWESTERN COAST OF FLORIDA FROM FLAMINGO TO ANNA MARIA ISLAND. A HURRICANE WARNING MEANS THAT HURRICANE CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED WITHIN THE WARNING AREA WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS. PREPARATIONS TO PROTECT LIFE AND PROPERTY SHOULD BE RUSHED TO COMPLETION.

As I type, I am just inland from Anna Maria Island, clearly under a hurricane warning. What an exciting place to live.

I’ll keep you posted, if I can.

UPDATE: My much better informed farmer’s daughter tells me that actually, the storm is slated to hit somewhat south of us, which would put us on the mild side of the storm.

And, my much more spiritually minded colleague has posted this excellent reflection on hurricanes and the like.

FURTHER UPDATE: This is what makes this so uncertain (from the National Hurricane Center):

IT SHOULD BE NOTED THAT…SIMILAR TO CHARLEY IN 2004…SMALL DEVIATIONS FROM THE FORECAST TRACK COULD MAKE LARGE DIFFERENCES IN WHEN AND WHERE THE CENTER OF FAY MAKES LANDFALL ON THE FLORIDA COAST.

Technorati Tags: Weather

A year or two ago, a friend loaned me David McCullough’s Pulitzer Prize winning biography of John Adams. This 752 page behemoth drew out from me strange behavior. I would be found sitting at the dining room table a time or two past midnight reading because I would be deeply moved and unable to put it down.

Get it and read it. It is better than caffeine to keep one up at night!

But this post is not about a book.

Recently, HBO produced a seven part miniseries based upon that book, starring Paul Giamatti as John and Laura Linney as Abigail, and this is now available on DVD. Seven segments demand a hefty investment of time, but Barb and I took it all in over three successive Friday nights. My overall assessment is this: you must watch the first six segments to get to the seventh, but by all means get to the seventh. In the seventh and last segment, a brilliant and fascinating but flawed man is made human. There is much redemption in this last piece, which makes the first six worthwhile.

The first segments, while good, move at too rapid a pace. Beginning with the Boston Massacre in 1770, the series quickly moves through one major event after another of our nation’s founding. Giamatti’s voice is too high pitched to impress upon me Adams’ power as an orator, and much in these earlier segments focuses upon Adams’ oratory. I was not quite a fan. Yet.

It is the last segment that makes all the others worth watching. As we see an aging Adams deal with the complexities of his life from the perspective of age, we are also treated to a view of a family that had endured a lot, and yet lived in love and respect for one another.

The makeup department should receive some kind of award for making the forty-year old Giamatti a convincing 90 year old Adams. This is not, however, for the weak of stomach. Those who like watching primitive early 18th century anesthesia-free surgery may do fine. Enough said.

The relationship between John and Abigail, whom he addressed as his ‘dearest friend’ and called his greatest advisor and his ballast, is the thing that moved me most about the book. That relationship is preserved throughout the miniseries. One is struck with the price that families such as this was forced to pay because of the demands of the time. Our freedoms were not purchased only by death’s on the battlefield.

The Adams’ daughter Nabby is played by a Canadian actress Sarah Polley, who does a wonderful job. I’m reminded that fame in Hollywood is not just a matter of talent. So many talented actors never reach headline status, and yet can captivate us by their work. Polley accomplishes that. [Coincidentally, Polley was nominated for an Oscar last year, but not for her acting. Rather, she wrote and directed the movie Away from Her, receiving the nomination for her writing.]

Had you asked me part way through what I thought, I would have given a somewhat middling assessment of the series. But this work has to be evaluated as a whole, and as a whole it is memorable. I’m glad it was made; I’m glad we watched it.

Now, I need to read the book again.

Technorati Tags: Movies

Smart people will not waste their time watching Smart People, the movie. It lacks heart, emotion, and originality, on top of being not very entertaining. So, what does that say about Barb and I wasting 95 minutes Friday night watching it?

Far better, grab your kids and watch the Stephen Chow film CJ7, which my son and daughter-in-law brought for us to watch Saturday night. Be prepared for silliness and to not take too much here seriously. And yet, as fun as it is, it is not all mindless. Our 8-year old loved it, and our pizza guest (herself a very ‘smart people’) who may never forgive me for making her watch King of Kong, seemed to have a great time as well.

Technorati Tags: Movies