Tonight in a fast-food restaurant…

Had to Chrissy, referring to the large painting behind him: “Is that an abstract?”

Chrissy: “uhhh”

Me: “No, it’s not.”

Kar: “Well, I know it’s not a still life.”

Grandpa Hayward died one year ago today. I found these pictures in the last few months. Read here what I wrote last year after the funeral.

1982 - Grand Marais or therabouts

1984 - At the Piper wedding

]]> http://tobeapilgrim.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/one-year-later/feed/ 2 Ryan Boomershine Circa 1982 Ryan and Gpa - 1982 http://tobeapilgrim.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/sexual-detox-and-false-messages/ http://tobeapilgrim.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/sexual-detox-and-false-messages/#comments Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:00:10 +0000 Ryan http://tobeapilgrim.wordpress.com/?p=2288 ]]>

Some of you have never heard of Tim Challies. He is a one of a small handful of the Christian uber-bloggers (and of them, he’s the only one I read with any sort of regularity). He does his work here (Challies). He inspires me to read more, to consider more, to encourage more with my gifts as he does his. For a living he designs websites, reviews books, blogs, and more. In 2010, he has challenged himself to read ALL of the NY Times non-fiction, hardcover bestsellers. He is chronicling the feat at 10 Million Words. He has posted daily since October 1, 2003.

Besides the crowds who actually go to his website every day, over 6,000 people are subscribed to receive his feed through Google Reader alone (which is how I see his posts). He posts one article and one very short best-of-the-web type of post per day (called A-La-Carte). I’m glad to introduce you if you haven’t met.

Challies is a gift to the church-at-large. He is cogent, concise and is careful with his readers time. He just finished a gem of a series for men and young men (Sexual Detox). His wife entered the writing realm to craft a follow-up message for wives (False Messages). I strongly recommend that ALL of my readers take time to read ALL these messages (at least the ones directed to your gender) that affect us all deeply.

While it will take a little time to get through all the messages, they are immensely important and well-written summaries of the truths of Scripture related to the topics of pornography and sex. These topics are far too easily shunned in public because of the obvious discomfort that it takes to discuss these things out of private. Praise God for Tim and Aileen’s courage; they are spot-on. Thank God for His wonderful gifts.

Sexual Detox I: Pornifying the Marriage Bed

Sexual Detox II: Breaking Free

Sexual Detox III: A Theology of Sex

Sexual Detox IV: Detoxification

Sexual Detox V: Freedom

________________________
False Messages I: What He Really Wants

False Messages II: The Heart of Rejection

False Messages III: Desiring Him

It’s back. A new version of Discovery’s “I Love the Whole World” commercial is being played:

Here is the original.

How a typo and a cartoon changed the perception of shredded, soaked nasty. This link includes the original Popeye cartoon, and it’s a hoot.

Some Notes on Spinach

Let dogs delight to bark and bite,
For God hath made them so:
Let bears and lions growl and fight,
For ’tis their nature, too.

But, children, you should never let
Such angry passions rise:
Your little hands were never made
To tear each other’s eyes.

Let love through all your actions run,
And all your words be mild:
Live like the blessed Virgin’s Son,
That sweet and lovely child.

His soul was gentle as a lamb;
And as his stature grew,
He grew in favor both with man,
And God his Father too.

Now, Lord of all, he reigns above;
And from his heavenly throne
He sees what children dwell in love,
And marks them for his own.

– Isaac Watts

Thank You, President and Mrs. Bush!

One thing I’ve learned is that a child should not be given this rope to hang himself if he does not have a mentor to guide him through it.

Short sentences should only be used for emphasis, especially in a philosophical text. That is Flesch’s fatal mistake. Because everybody seems to write this way, our minds are being reduced to simplistic thoughts, thoughts that cannot be extended beyond the immediate subject and predicate, thoughts that don’t demand that we recall the main idea for more than eight or nine words. The person who needs those sentences should not be studying philosophy. He should be studying grammar and learning how to read, two vital foundations for philosophy.

Please note that my primary concern here is not with philosophy but with writing. I’m arguing for the long sentence, contending that we have made ourselves stupid by refusing to express a thought that cannot be reduced to a single clause, by putting periods between every clause and sometimes phrase, by eliminating the semi-colon from the realm of comprehension, by compelling students, even in college, to think about matters for which the reading materials they have encountered have disabled them, by developing an attitude of resentment toward any writer that challenges their intellects beyond a single conjunction.

Have you tried to read Paradise Lost? The challenge is not the length of the sentence, though they are frequently immeasurable; the challenge is remembering the subject of the sentence. But if he had not written it that way, he would not have written the same poem, and the reader would have suffered for it.

We can write very well for business and advertising. Sometimes we get by on scientific writing. But to write about things that matter greatly: metaphysics, theology, ethics, politics, the arts, I say, to write about these matters demands that we be able to control more than a single clause at a time. We cannot think beyond the capacity of our syntax.

– Andrew Kern

Too many think they are wonderful with people because they talk well. They don’t realize that being wonderful with people means listening well.

Peter Drucker

Last words from the Texas execution chamber.

HT: Challies