thoughts and quotations from Arrakis

   One of my weaknesses as a reader is my love for old friends and the preference for their company over that of unknown, potential friends. The Dune series has become such a friend during the last decade. Frank Herbert's stunning ability to mix all things social, political, religious, ecological and philosophical with a classic, expanding narrative is deeply engrossing. He's so good that the fact that he writes with an expansive, explicit agenda is often obscured by the depth and richness of the story. Of course, any powerful writer is likely to have an agenda of some sort or other, but Frank Herbert's agenda seems far broader and more educational than most. At the same time, he avoids the commonly used device of allegory to communicate his beliefs, and he escapes becoming preachy. Instead, he weaves something new. Below are some tidbits on various topics: several are on law and governing, one on the use of technology, and others on learning, dreaming, and atrocities. Each is worth thought and not simply acceptance or dismissal.

Heretics of Dune

Law always chooses sides on the basis of enforcement power. Morality and legal niceties have little to do with it when the real question is: Who has the clout?

God Emperor of Dune

In the perception of deeper needs, I must often ignore immediate ones. Not addressing immediate needs is an offense to the young. 

It takes a pretty dull policeman to miss the fact that the position of authority is the most prosperous criminal position available.

The devices themselves condition the users to employ each other the way they employ machines.

The law develops its own power structure, creating more wounds and new injustices. Such trauma can be healed by cooperation, not by confrontation. The summons to cooperate identifies the healer.

If there is a frontier, any kind of frontier, then what lies behind you cannot be more important than what lies ahead.

Children of Dune

Atrocity is recognized as such by victim and perpetrator alike, by all who learn about it at whatever remove. Atrocity has no excuses, no mitigating argument. [...] Atrocity merely arms the future for more atrocity.

Dune Messiah

To come under siege, he decided, was the inevitable fate of power.

Dune

It is shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult.

What do you despise? By this you are truly known.

 

"Your Father, the Devil": Satan as a Father in the Bible

 As a father of growing and changing children, I want to keep growing in both my understanding and practice of fatherhood. Recently, I was thinking of the fact that Satan is discussed as a father in Scripture. So, it seemed worth exploring what characteristics are associated with devilish fatherhood.

 The images and metaphors associated with the devil are almost always violent or oppressive in some way whether emotionally (hatred, wrath, tempt, incite, furious), physically (contend, death, snare, take away, bound, devour), mentally (deceit, lies, schemes, disguise), or social (accuse, harass). 

Meanwhile, the images and metaphors associated with God may also at times be violent (Genesis 6:13; Exodus 15:3), but they are neither exclusively nor predominately so. Indeed, the names of God particularly associated with fatherhood are of a particularly different variety (Father of the fatherless, Holy Father, our Father in heaven, the Father of glory, the Father of mercy, the Father of lights, the living Father, etc.)  Along with their sources in the Bible, these can be seen in the 'Biography of God' that I posted some years ago.  

So...

In Scripture, what traits are associated with the fatherhood of Satan/the devil / the evil one? 

What qualities in a father are not sourced in the fatherhood of God?

-       John 8:34-47 (38, 41, 44) - The devil and his children...

o   lie, "the father of lies"

o   fight against truth

o   murder; seek to kill

o   cannot bear to hear the word of Christ

-       1 John 3:8-15 (8, 10, 12) - The one who is of the evil one...

o   Makes a practice of sinning; Does not practice righteousness

o   Does not love his brother

o   Hates and murders his brother

-       Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 (38-39) - the children of the evil (one)...

o   intermingled with those of the Heavenly Father and may be indistinguishable from those of the Father’s kingdom even to the angels. (cf 2 Cor 11:14)

-       Acts 13:6-12 (10) - This particular example of a 'son of the devil'...

o   opposed God's messengers and sought to turn another person away from the faith 

o   was an enemy of all righteousness

o   was full of all deceit and villainy

o   made crooked the straight paths of the Lord (cf. Luke 3:3-5; the opposite of John the Baptist) 

  Other references that seem vaguely relevant but not really: Matthew 23:15; Ephesians 2:2-3; 5:6;  John 17:12; 2 Thessalonians 2:3; 2 Peter 2:14

  If you have any thoughts or passages or disagreements to contribute, I'd be interested to hear them on here or in person.

final tidbits from Yeaxlee on education & knowing Truth

  While it may not be the common purpose of a blog, I have found that as much as sharing ponderings and readings with others, a primary benefit of this blog is to be a repository for my thoughts and for what has affected my thinking. It allows me to collect my ideas, form them, and - vitally - to review them based on topics or themes that I may return to. In that spirit, I wanted to share some final thoughts from Basil Yeaxlee, especially pertaining to knowledge of truth, education, and a bit more on parenting.

Religion and the Growing Mind - Basil Yeaxlee

Knowledge of Faith & Truth

    "Dr. A. B. Macaulay, in discussing the nature of religious dogma and its relationship to science and philosophy, points out very aptly that if religious faith must be integrated with scientific knowledge, so also must scientific knowledge with religious faith. We must agree if we hold that both are natural functions of reasonable man living in a rational universe." 

(pg 113, citing The Death of Christ, pp. 31ff.)

"What we are emphasizing here is that the very nature of religion, as this is discoverable in the growing mind, is to make demands upon historical reality, and through it upon a Reality beyond space and time, yet personal." (pg 114).  

"...some truth cannot be told except in poetry." (pg 116)

"The Kingdom of God is not simply a gradual transformation of the kingdoms of this world but a mighty creative power which from beyond this world is ever breaking in through men and women who, in their day and degree, are creative and other-regarding as Jesus uniquely was in the days of His flesh." 

(pg 136, citing Rudolf Otto's The Kingdom of God and the Son of Man) 

Education

"...we must save ourselves from the risk of confusing education with instruction..." (pg 179)

About teachers... "In truth it may be doubted whether anybody in whom the parental instinct is not strong will ever make a first-class master or mistress." (pg 201)

"All good teaching is interesting teaching, but it is not thoroughly educative unless it stimulates children to discover fresh interests for themselves." (pg 213)

Parenting

"At the same time it is their [parents'] function to bring children gradually into contact with the larger world, so that the children can accept the good and throw off the evil for themselves." (pg 185)

Parents, God, and Babies

  Several years ago, I came across the name of Basil Yeaxlee as an educator and scholar who had an early interest in the idea of 'lifelong learning' and had, in fact, written a book on the topic. I also found that he had written on the connections between education and faith, focusing on the Christian faith. Now, I'm finally getting around to the book that I picked up by him called, Religion and the Growing Mind (1939). 

 

 A fifth of the way through the book, I have appreciated some of his insights on the nature of religion as well as about understanding others. But, it is a comment from the section on an infant's growth which I want to share here. More accurately, Yeaxlee's thoughts on the role of parents strikes me as crucial.

"... by his experience of such [Godlike] qualities in his parents as real, and as answering his vital needs, the tiny child is prepared for a true understanding of the existence and nature of God when later his mental development enables him to grasp these intellectually, as well as to respond to them emotionally - though even his earliest states are not for him devoid of an element of meaning. Furthermore, it becomes evident that in these most elemental and natural early relationships the parents are not merely making or marring the child's character, as Dr. Emanuel Miller so clearly demonstrates. They are actually interpreting or misinterpreting God to the child in the only medium possible, though often the parents have not the faintest notion that religion enters into the matter at all, whether they account themselves religious or not."

~ Pg 43-44 (1945 ed. Great Britain: Nisbet.) Emphasis added. 

  Think of it, parents are actually interpreting or misinterpreting God to the child in the only way they can to a child. May each of us as parents of young child interpret a true view of the LORD who became human to our children who cannot know him yet in other ways.

Addendum from pages 80 and 87 about older children...

"The truth about God may be obscured or distorted in the experience of a child if his parents are in themselves and in their relationships with him weak, unwise, inconsistent, sentimentally indulgent, harsh, overbearing, selfish, careless or indifferent, whatever beliefs about God, they may profess or try to teach the child. On the other hand, despite all their limitations or failings, if they are in any sense true parents they will inevitably mediate to him (and not simply illustrate) the fact that God is, and the meaning of the power and love of God the Father everlasting."

"It is only when that experience [of 'Father'] is largely contrary to what Jesus taught us to understand by 'Father' that the child may be made to stumble. Even then, as actual instances have proved, the child of an unworthy father clings to those few elements of good that persist in the most brutalised, callous, or indifferent parent, and in his fantasy world he will create a picture of fatherhood which is inspired by those elements of good, even if reinforced by what he sees and envies in the lives of happier children. It will be a picture of a father who commands reverence and evokes love - the kind of Father whom Jesus made known to men, and who is no fantasy." 

(This chapter was about the power and benefit of fantasy in the child's mental growth.) 

Frederick Douglass & a quote on fantasy

This plan never seems to have existed at more than the level of fantasy—

but then the level of fantasy is one of the most important levels at which things can exist.

~ in an article about Frederick Douglass, by Adam Gopnik (source)

  This gem of a quote came up, as I expanded my reading about Frederick Douglass; I have been slowly reading "Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom" since last year. The biography has been well worth the time, but the above quote is worth some thought for completely different reasons. 

Bougainvillea: a joyful family weakness

  Bougainvillea is, apparently, a family weakness. I was talking to my parents the other day, and it came up that they are 'disputing' the respective values of the tangerine and bougainvillea trees that are beside each other in their yard. The (perfect) shaping of the two seems mutually exclusive. Being shown the competing plants from a distance, I had to agree that the bougainvillea did seem to have the better claim to more space. (Of course, my opinion did nothing to sway the tangerine supporter.)

   Last year, my first bougainvillea gave great beauty and joy as it flourished, as depicted below.

As you can see in the next picture, this winter was not particularly kind to it. I have not been able to revive it to its normal vivacity, even though it is not without color or bloom. Even this picture has a certain pleasing symmetry, doesn't it? 

This next bougainvillea is much smaller (same one as the first picture) and was a gift on my last birthday. It is a really lovely, bright red. I don't recall ever seeing one in quite this shade. It is thriving, as the next 3 pictures show.

 

My final bougainvillea spent the winter outside because it is in a large, unmovable pot. Although it was a mild winter, a late cold snap almost doomed this one. It is finally putting out new leaves and promises to shed a different sort of beauty this summer than previously.

You can also see the ivy in the foreground here, as well as vaguely others in the background - wandering jews and a hardy, frequently-blossoming plant whose name I don't know. From a different perspective, you can see the other plants that share this final bougainvillea's pot... a spider plant and a little ground-cover plant that produces blue flowers.

Other plants (ferns, an avocado, aloe plants, long grass, and more) are sprinkled around the terrace, but these are the ones that are thriving at the moment.

exploring new book-worlds

 As we continue through this unusual time of being at home, I have found myself with unusual mental space for new reading material. When my mind is cluttered by what is going on around or within me, I typically resort to re-reading books I have read with value or enjoyment before. This provides something of an escape and a space for considering daily goings-on from a different perspective.
 These days, however, while I do not necessarily have a lot more time for reading, I have found myself with a less cluttered mind. Thus, I can more easily read from new sources. Today I started David deSilva's book Honor, Patronage, Kinship & Purity: Unlocking New Testament Culture. It's been on my wishlist for 2-3 years, but it went on a significant sale, so I decided to sample it (on my Kindle). The sample led me to buy it. There's a lot to consider in it. Some of you may have noted my interest in honor-shame dynamics within both Scripture and culture over the last several years.

   I'm about 10% of the way through the book, and, so far, deSilva has done a good job describing the ancient world and then showing the connections to both the Scriptures and the practical daily contexts of their world and ours. I will include just one quote since most of the other parts that I have appreciated need more context to be meaningful. See if you can hear the resonance with Paul urging the Roman believers to 'outdo one another in showing honor' (see post "The Honor Competition.") 

Hence Isocrates advises his student to “consider it equally disgraceful to be outdone by your enemies in doing injury and to be surpassed by your friends in doing kindness” (Ad Dem. 26), that is, to take pains to win when presented either with negative or positive challenges, so that his honor will remain undiminished.

deSilva, David A.. Honor, Patronage, Kinship & Purity (p. 31). IVP Academic.

 Anyways, that's one example of some of my new reading. Since the beginning of the year, I've also been reading P. G. Wodehouse's books and short stories that are available free on Kindle. A friend has been recommending them for years, and I finally decided to try them. They've been fun and relaxing, and very different from anything else I read. 

 I'm also borrowing Pearl Buck's The Good Earth from the library currently. We'll see whether or not I can read it before it disappears from my Kindle. If not, it'll have to wait a bit longer, especially if my mind becomes cluttered with other things for any reason... 

Trying to use words, and every attempt...

This bit of poetry by T. S. Eliot has stirred my thoughts often recently. It applies to being a husband, a father, a global nomad, a teacher, and being fully human - engaged in this world and yet sensing the incompleteness.

The entirety of "Four Quartets 2: East Coker" is worth reading and pondering - with the parts involving 'the wounded surgeon' and 'in my beginning is my end' also being poignant.

Chutzpah vs. Chutzpah

 My favorite living storyteller is Malcolm Gladwell; his books are the only books that my wife and I have consistently listened to together. I am looking forward to listening to his most recent book soon. Recently I listened to an episode from his podcast, Revisionist History. It was fabulous, just like I hoped; Gladwell is basically peerless in his ability to weave a narrative together.

 Due to changes in the way I commute, I have started to listen to stuff on my way home. This was quite rare until the last 18 months and still sporadic until the last several months. Because I am just trying this out, there's a lot of experimentation involved... I've tried audiobooks (Chesterton's Orthodoxy has been fantastic so far), podcasts, and lectures (English in America: A Linguistic History by Natalie Schilling was very informative, especially as an English teacher).

 Anyways, this episode of Revisionist History "Chutzpah vs. Chutzpah"was fantastic. It included the mafia and The Godfather, which I've never seen, but which my students assure me is the greatest movie ever made. It included Hogan's Heroes which our family secretly enjoys, while hoping it doesn't offend our German friends! It included a wonderfully winding story about the meaning(s) of 'chutzpah' practically (There is some inappropriate language from an interviewee.) It includes discussions of shame and shamelessness, Abraham's intercession for Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18, cross-cultural differences and acculturation, immigration, and more!

 It also includes insight on modern culture, particularly American culture. Online and from a distance, I see increasing acknowledgement that the brokenness in American politics reflects the society, not causes the society's polarization. This episode essentially avoids the specifics in order to deal with the larger picture. The question it suggests  is "Have we confused [America's] chutzpah with [Israel's] chutzpah?"

All in all, this episode touches on a ton of areas that are important to me! I highly recommend it!

PS Even the ads are interesting and informative since even they are interviews done by Gladwell with business executives.

The Gifts of a True Friend, with Gratitude

  For the last 4-5 years, I have received a gift, once or twice a year, from a friend. It is a book. That is, in itself, in no way unusual. In fact, throughout my life, I have probably been given more books than any other single item. And I always have a list of more books that I could learn from or enjoy besides all the ones that I re-read. This friend is unusual though: she doesn't check my wishlist or preferences, and she doesn't simply give her favorite books. Every year, she selects a book or two for me, and selecting a book for a person is much harder than you might think. Furthermore, her selections are almost never in the same categories as previous gifts - modern or classical fiction, biography, biblical study, and devotional books have all been selected. 

 Naturally, I make a point to read the books since she chooses them to share specific wisdom and insight which I can benefit from. Each book has the real potential to expand my horizons in some way based on the conversations we have shared. In other words, these are rare gifts! I do not know how much time or thought or effort it takes for her to decide on each book, but I am thankful for it and for the true friendship it reflects. 

************

 At the moment, I am reading The Chosen by Chaim Potok, a book that I started and put down in high school, but which she re-recommended (and loaned) to me. Again, it has been worthwhile companion. Somewhat more than halfway through it, I see it as an exploration of friendship through both similarities and differences; it is also about fathers and sons. We'll see what the rest of the book holds, but for now I will end with a(n unrelated) quote from it.

But that is the way the world is. If a person has a contribution to make, he must make it in public. If learning is not made public, it is a waste.

~ Chaim Potok, The Chosen