Friday, January 27, 2006

Chestertonian Reflection


"People feel that if the universe was personal it would vary; if the sun were alive it would dance. This is a fallacy even in relation to known fact. For the variation in human affairs is generally brought into them, not by life,but by death; by the dying down or breaking off of their strength or desire. A man varies his movements because of some slight element of failure or fatigue. He gets into an omnibus because he is tired of walking; or he walks because he is tired of sitting still. But if his life and joy were so gigantic that he never tired of going to Islington, he might go to Islington as regularly as the Thames goes to Sheerness. The very speed and ecstasy of his life would have the stillness of death. The sun rises every morning. I do not rise every morning; but the variation is due not to my activity,but to my inaction. Now, to put the matter in a popular phrase,it might be true that the sun rises regularly because he never gets tired of rising. His routine might be due, not to a lifelessness,but to a rush of life. The thing I mean can be seen, for instance,in children, when they find some game or joke that they specially enjoy. A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening,"Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we." - G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

Monday, January 23, 2006

do I always have to think up a title?

No, you can't see me. But yes, I'm in there. You can see obsession #2, although just barely. I'm hidden in front of him, surrounded by tall people, blocking my view.

Can you find the man in the fedora? ;)

The walk was long - rainy at the beginning and sunny by the end. Overall we had a good time of it, and all inconveniences were worth it just to help make up the 15,000 people marching for LIFE in a city like San Francisco. There are just men in Gomorrah yet, Lot. Tell God to delay the incineration a little longer - there is some small amount of hope.

As for the pro-choice protestors: yeah, there are some serious freaks in San Francisco. I largely ignored them during the march; I kept my eyes away and tried my best to ignore the rude ruckus they raised over loudspeakers. They were hardly worth my attention, being blatantly evil, and possessing the intellectual capacities of gnats - I can rest assured that if there were any decent persons along that road who were undecided on the issue of abortion, they are at least now loathe to associate themselves with pro-choice activists. They gave ample cause for horror with their death-obsessed appearances, language, and open, unprovoked, demonic rage. They were a better argument for our cause than anything we could have done ourselves. I thank them heartily for being so unabashedly evil. The world may more easily loathe their murderous agenda. After all, that which is ugly is hard to promote.

So, I'm happy to be back on campus, though. It was an exhausting weekend - we traveled about 800 miles in less than 36 hours. I got very, very little sleep - and what I did get managed to knock my whole spine out of alignment, as we were on a tile floor and I'm not as young as I once was. ;p Actually, I think I just managed to turn myself funny somehow. If I'd managed to stay on my stomach all night I would've been fine - plenty of padding on that side, unfortunately. *shrug* oh well.

For any classmates who are reading this blog - here's some helpful class/seminar advice learnt with much pain and gnashing of teeth a little over a week ago. No, it isn't firsthand, surprisingly enough. Someone else learned it the hard way, but I intend to learn from his mistake. Never again will I willfully committ this offense.

Laugh ye not at thy classmate in ridicule, lest he offer thee an argument which kicketh thy tail, constraining thee to eateth thine own words.

Well, I ought to go now. Gotta get back to studying eubulia, synesis and gnome.

Pax Christi,
Emily

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Random and General Update

During Christmas vacation I took great pride in reminding people on the highway that the signs say "speed limit", not "speed requirement". I oughta get a bumper sticker made. My 1973 Dodge Dart doesn't always get all the way to 60 mph on a long hill, no matter how hard I floor it. But hey, I don't ever end up going below 40.

Here at school I take much less pride in reminding people that there is a fundamental difference betwixt she who is wise versus she who is smart. It is not a quantitative but a qualitative distinction. You see, not matter how hard I try it seems that I can only really grasp the highest things; the sciences that belong to philosophical, or theoretical, wisdom. In the other sciences my capabilities are, well, not exactly pristine. I mean, I guess if you had to choose one the wisdom is unquestionably the best option but it IS a little odd and not a little unpleasant. I fly through my theology with relish and then in physics and math I'm like, "Whhhaaaa . . . ?" and my section looks at me funny. *shrug*

I found a quote this week that summed up my feelings for a certain library comittee with which I have had a two-month-long, completely fruitless ordeal:

"A committee is a group of the unfit, appointed by the unwilling, to do the unnecessary."

Ahh, gotta love this place. :)

This week I found out that Aristotle gives a ringing endorsement to the nutritional value of chicken, calling all poultry "light" and "wholesome", and, therefore, good to eat. One of the many things you can learn in philosophy class. Go KFC!

Much love to you all! Hope everything is going well with you!
-Emily

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

News

Obsession #2 asked me to be his wife on the 21st of December. I ecstatically replied that I would.

He asked me in Kansas City's beautiful Union Station after a night of Christmas shopping and a wonderful dinner at the Union Cafe. Yes, he proposed on his knee, and yes, the ring is marvelously beautiful.

To quote a friend of mine, also recently engaged: "It would be a gross understatement to say that I'm happy . . . "

and as Obsession #3 once said, "Marriage is a duel to the death which no man of honour should decline."

In a year and a half, the summer after I graduate college, we hope to begin the contest.

Happy New Year to everyone, and God bless!
Emily