Lie for a season

As Christmas approaches millions of parents will lie to their children. Mothers and Fathers will encourage their children to make lists of gifts they want from a false god called Santa. The ninth commandment is "Though shalt not lie" However many will overlook this commandment during the festive season. Jesus understood this well when he said "You reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your own tradition" Mark 7:9. To the visible disgust of many we never told this lie to our daughter but told her plainly the presents come from us. She has in no way 'missed' out and I feel God has blessed us in that. To encourage worship of Santa is to incite covetness, materialism and greed. Interestingly Santa is an anagram of Satan. The second commandment forbids us to bow down to anything other than God and the first commandment to always put God first. In millions of homes the God of the Bible will be the last thing on many peoples minds. The false god Santa will be exalted amongst the unregenerate and the real God will receive no thanks for life, family, food and all the other common blessings he has made available to all.

Happy Quorn Day!

Some of you may be having turkey, but those of us in the know will be having Quorn. Like Tofurkey, only better! I will also get to enjoy stuffing this year, thanks to my sister, who is making a meat free version. (And hopefully it will also be free of turkey broth, unlike the in-law version.)

What am I preparing, you might ask. Flying in just in time for dinner, thus avoiding all cooking duties! I am contributing a certain something from a special Square here in San Francisco. Yay for tasty treats!

I hope everyone has a fabulous day, turkey-filled or not! I am thankful for having each of you as my friends.

Missing My Front Porch

We found an apartment with a fairly spacious balcony, where Matt will be able to create a container garden. We have a nice view of Twin Peaks - a glimpse of nature in the city. We can eat outside and enjoy the weather (although it's a little cold at dinner time these days).

But we can't meet our neighbors.

Our last New Mexico house featured a tiny little front porch, in a neighborhood of front porches. Or, where a porch was lacking, people sat in chairs in the driveway. We could talk to our next door neighbors, say hi to the people walking their dogs, know what the police were up to, and yell at our friend down the street. I can't say we were active participants in the neighborhood, but I did not feel isolated.

Now all I see are the damn tourists on Twin Peaks yelling because it echoes off our building. Isn't it interesting how a 57-unit apartment building can be less friendly than a free-standing house?

I believe in the power of the front porch.

Kiss of the Fur Queen - Tomson Highway

I can't believe that I missed this book when it was first published in 1998 - I know that by that point I was already very much in to CanLit and haunted bookstores on a regular basis.  Mind you, at that time I was still a student, so didn't have much spare cash to spend on books and had to purchase discriminatingly!

I ended up picking up this book recently, at an event put on locally by Tomson Highway to raise money for literacy - a cabaret show with Mr. Highway playing the piano (and singing a bit) and telling stories.  He is quite a performer, and had us all laughing until we cried!

A brief summary of the book.  It is the story of two Cree brothers from northern Manitoba who end up at a residential school in the late 1950's and 1960's where they are abused by the priest who runs the school.  After their experiences in the school, they no longer fit in with their family (who are struggling to adapt from their nomadic lifestyle to living on a reservation), and both end up living in Winnipeg then Toronto.  One brother becomes a musician and the other, a dancer.  The two brothers follow opposite trajectories.  The musician works hard at first, rises to a small amount of fame, then falls to alcohol abuse, and at the end experiences a form of redemption, assisted by his brother.  The dancer on the other hand struggles to understand his place in the world at first, as well as struggling with his homosexuality, before rising to fame as a dancer, and then succumbing to AIDS.

What makes this book even more poignant is that it is quite closely based on the real story of the Highway brothers - Tomson (the musician and writer) and Rene (a dancer who died of AIDS in 1990).

At the cabaret last month, Tomson Highway said that one theme that runs through all of his plays and books is the loss of the feminine side of the divine when traditional native spirituality is replaced by Christianity, and that is evident in this book.  The trickster ("Nanabush" in Ojibway, "Weesageechak" in Cree) takes on a distinctly female form (The Fur Queen) in the book; and strong female characters are influential on the lives of the protagonists, especially in the revival of their cultural awareness.

Also, living in this part of the world, the residential school experience is very relevant today.  I have many clients at work who attended these schools where many children were abused, and traditional culture was lost; and reading this book has given me a glimpse of some of what they have lived through.

I'm glad that I bought this book at the cabaret, and look forward to re-reading many times!

On Chesil Beach - Ian McEwan

This is a book that I have been planning to read since I heard Mr. McEwan interviewed last year on CBC radio about this book.  I really must go back and re-listen to that interview now that I have finally read it!

Mixed thoughts on this book.  In my last post, I mentioned that I like good character development, and that a plot that grabs me doesn't help.  This book has very well drawn characters, but really no plot.  In fact, I could probably sum up the plot in a single sentence.  "In July 1962, a newly married couple, Edward and Florence, spend their wedding night in a hotel near Chesil Beach and are so bound by societal constraints that they are unable to consummate their marriage."

What makes the book interesting though is how it tells the story leading up to this devastating night, going back and forth between Edward's and Florence's perspectives, and the inevitability of the conclusion.

Just a short little novella, but a very interesting read.

The Cleft - Doris Lessing

A boring book - I had to flog myself to finish it before it is due back at the library tomorrow.  No plot, no characters of interest - basically nothing to hold my attention.

It seemed to be a conceptual novel - what would it have been like if the first people were all female, and males came along later? - and all of the blurbs on the back had to do with sexual politics etc.  This sort of novel may appeal to other readers, but not to me.

Which makes me ask myself, "What makes a book appeal to me?"  I think that the biggest thing is characters that are interesting; that grow or learn; and that I like, or can at least relate to.  A good plot that grips me also helps.

In this book, the characters are almost archetypal, and have no personality, and so I can't relate to them.  (The one exception being the Roman Historian who is narrating this tale that for him is ancient history, and occasionally interjects with comparisons with his life.)

Interesting that this book was published in 2007, and Doris Lessing won the 2007 Nobel Prize for Literature.  The last book by a Nobel Literature Laureate that I tried to read (a collection of short stories by Nadine Gordimer - Beethoven was One-Sixteenth Black), I stopped reading half way through.  I guess my taste and the taste of the Nobel Prize committee don't overlap!  I do usually enjoy the Giller Prize winners though, and look forward to reading this year's winner, Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden.

California Supreme Court Considers Gay Marriage Ban

The California Supreme Court has agreed to take up 3 lawsuits filed in response to the passing of Proposition 8. The lawsuits claim that the constitutional amendment banning gay marriage takes away civil rights, is really a revision and not an amendment, and that it should have required Congressional action, not a majority public vote.

The Court, however, refused to allow gay marriages to begin again, pending their decision. Oral arguments won't take place until March, at the earliest, so that's at least 5 more months of inequality!

Our Apartment

I realized I have been remiss in actually uploading pictures of our house and Twin Peaks, however exciting they may be or not be. So here goes. (And then I'm retiring from blogging for another two weeks.)

Kitchen and Dining Room:



Living Room:



View from the Balcony (of Twin Peaks):



View from Twin Peaks (and some of my hair):

Urban Hiking

This past weekend, San Francisco had record highs - about 80 degrees. There was actually a weather advisory, telling us to wear lightweight clothes and drink water. These people need to get out more!

Matt and I took the opportunity, after a tasty lunch provided by my dad at Burgermeister, to hike the Coastal Trail and Bay Trail from Ocean Beach to Ghirardelli Square. Absolutely gorgeous! Of course, now it's all foggy and cold again, but it was fun while it lasted.

Hetch Hetchy

Yosemite Valley once had a twin, filled with flowers and flanked by rock fortresses. Hetch Hetchy now provides drinking water to San Francisco, leaving behind a fairly unsightly reservoir off-limits to tourists. A valley loved by John Muir in a beloved National Park, destroyed for the consumption of a city. One of the tragedies of the National Park System, and, I think, of human enterprise in general.

But let me tell you, that water sure is tasty, straight from my tap!

Shooting Star

I discovered that if I lie on the living room floor in front of the sliding glass door, I can see the stars over the top of Twin Peaks. If I try really hard, I can forget about the radio towers and the light from the public bathroom that I can also see.

But my biggest discovery was the shooting star that fell through my small sliver of sky. I don't recall seeing one of those from my houses in New Mexico, and they were certainly more rural than this giant city. Such a quick delight, I didn't even have time for a wish.

Just Read: Native State

www.betterworld.com

I read this book by happenstance. After finishing Breaking Blue, I perused the books I had with me at my house in Marin and realized again that they were all books I'd tried to get through before and never succeeded: The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey (I know, what is wrong with me!), The Milagro Beanfield War by John Nichols (classic water book set in New Mexico), The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan, Collapse by Jared Diamond, The Exploration of the Colorado River and its Canyons by John Wesley Powell.

So instead, I checked out the books that had been left by previous residents. The Prophecies of Nostradamus didn't sound like good bedtime reading, so I figured, how can you go wrong reading a memoir by a guy who likes to live in Mexico. Apparently the author, Tony Cohan, is somewhat famous, although I've never heard of him. Although come to think of it, maybe I only think he's famous because he beat me over the head with that fact about 100 times in the book. Oh, look at me, I played the drums with the Beatles. Oh, look at me, I'm a famous author. Oh, look at me, I've had a lot of fantastic sex with gorgeous women (and maybe some men). Okay, I know talking about yourself is the point of a memoir, but good grief. I'm not that into it. He kind of reminds me of Paul Thoreaux in his most recent books where he became full of himself as well, such a shame after his great earlier books.

Just Read: Breaking Blue

www.betterworld.com

I'm generally not one for mysteries, but since I've been expanding my reading realm based on authors I like, I checked out this book by Timothy Egan. I'd previously enjoyed Lasso the Wind and The Good Rain, so as part of my free gift certificate to Better World Books, I picked up this one. It's supposedly a true story, about a 1935 crime that became hot again in 1989, as a sheriff/graduate student researched his thesis. Of course the work destroyed the guy's marriage, and the lives of the ancient criminals and their families. Not one of my favorite books ever, but the internal police force corruption put on display is rather sickening, if not surprising.

Recommended: San Francisco Toyota

So, I guess along the lines of "Only in San Francisco," I also have "Not in New Mexico." I have not received good service anywhere in a long time, so I wanted to give props to the good guys at San Francisco Toyota Service Center on Geary. (Not that anyone who lives in San Francisco reads my blog. Maybe one day.)

Shortly after Matt first got here, we were driving into town from my house in Marin, and as Matt braked for a stop light, his seatbelt abruptly detached from the side of the car. As much as I like to make fun of Matt for braking way too hard way too early and giving me whiplash, only to glide slowly into the light, I'm pretty sure that seatbelts are supposed to be designed to hold up, especially during such sudden braking. Alas. We happened to be about two blocks from Toyota, so we pulled right in.

The service advisor took our car into the garage very quickly. We had no idea they were going to fix the problem right away, so when a mechanic suggested we go inside and get a hot drink, we complied. And what a fantastic coffee and hot chocolate machine! So tasty! By the time we got our drinks, the car was ready! No charge! (And they swear the seatbelt won't fall off again...)

A week or two later, after several hours at the DMV, I ended up with an extra license plate with nowhere to go. And I was told that I could receive a $100 fine for driving without a front license plate, even though my car didn't even have screw holes on the front bumper! Wanting to avoid paying more money (after the DMV, the smog test place, and a street sweeping fine sucked up a bunch), I figured I would stop by Toyota on my way home and ask them to put on my license plate. I pulled up, a mechanic grabbed a drill and some screws, and I was out of there. No charge.

I wonder what kind of service you get when you actually pay money?

Defender Of Faith

Charles has once again expressed his desire to drop the 'The' from 'Defender of the faith' when and if he becomes King. I suppose he would also wish to drop the the 'The' from "I am the way" and replace it with 'a.' I do not believe we need another defender of faiths in this country, we are allready awash with them. However pseudo religious groups across the country will see it as welcome news and embrace him I'm sure. And there is the problem. Charles is a people pleaser not a God pleaser and more importantly a pleaser of self, as his past life testifies to. Hundreds of thousands of men and women have laid down there lives to uphold the truth of God's word and more particulary to proclaim 'Jesus is the only way to find peace with God.' It would seem that Charles will not soil his clothes with such a matter. God help us.

To pray or not to pray?

What follows is an excellent point made recently by a viewer of The Way Of The Master television programme.

"I've noticed that sometimes after you witness to people you encourage them to pray a prayer of repentance and faith later. Is this because you discern that they aren't ready to truly give their life to Jesus right then? I see the wisdom in not rushing a person to make a decision (we don't want to make a false convert), but wouldn't it be good to have them pray right then (if they have acknowledged their sin and understand the gospel) as long as we don't follow that prayer by saying, 'Congratulations, you're saved'? Shouldn't we have them pray before the conviction wears off? What if the actual verbalizing of a prayer makes something 'click' in their heart? Isn't waiting potentially as dangerous as rushing the person?"

Our methodology reveals our theology. If the conviction is there, it's only because the Holy Spirit is doing the convicting. That means that God's hand is on him, and he will come to Christ in God's timing. I don't ever want to interfere with a work of God. Another reason I ask if they would like to pray later (on TV) is that there is something a little awkward about surrendering to Christ on-camera. This is because I don't pray a "sinner's prayer" with him, but instead ask if he wants to pray a prayer of repentance, then I pray for him. Confessing and forsaking your sins is very personal, and I don't want to push someone into something they don't want to do. Remember, people aren't saved by verbalizing a prayer, but by their heartfelt repentance and surrender to Christ. God knows their heart.

Real or not so real?

Imagine your holding a twenty pound note. What percentage of changes must be on it to make it counterfeit? 5%? 3%? 1%. I believe the smallest ammount will cause that twenty pound note to be a fake. That is why counter-fitters work with microscopes because they know 'Its in the detail.' The majority of us wouldn't know if we had handled a counterfeit note because we've never studied it enough. However as Christians we are called to study God's word with great care and precision. When we do this we will be able to spot the odd addition or odd subtraction as a counterfeit work and reject it. "Study to show yourself approved to God, a workman that need not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" 2Timothy 2:15. Let us encourage one another to spend more time in the word of God so that our faith in it and our obedience to it may wax exeedingly.

Male Rape

Last year over a thousand men went to the police after being raped. It’s believed than many more don’t report their attack because of shame and the fear they won’t be believed. Police believe they are only seeing about 8-10% of rape victims. All agency's report a substantial increase in those coming forward for help. Survivors UK a charity which works with victims say they are getting thousands of calls asking for help. A family friend told me last year how his step-son had been homosexually date raped by a gang of men. He woke up in a field. The last thing he remembered was drinking in a club. The pain then kicked in and the awful reality of what happened came flooding back. Eight months after the event he is still unable to leave his home.

We know from the Bible accounts of Lot and Noah that God acts quickly when these kind of violent acts are prevalent. Jesus warned that homosexual perversion and violence would increase prior to judgement coming upon the earth. Let the preachers of righteousness go forth and sound the trumpet for the wrath of God is at hand.

Unbelievable!

What on earth is the church coming to? A friend of mine was waiting for a bus at 1.45 pm besides St Andrews Church Plymouth when having 10 minutes to spare decided to have a look at their bookshop. Imagine his amazement to find the Church full to the rafters and playing the song (from the film Life of Brian) 'always look on the bright side of life.' A song which mocks the crucifixion! Apparently it was a funeral and that was the chosen 'hymn!' Jesus was correct when he doubted upon his return whether there would be any faith left! I can bet my bottom dollar the person in the coffin is not singing 'look on the bright side of life.' He isn't singing period. If we believe the words of Jesus the lost are languishing in Hell with great torment. May the real bride of Christ stand up and reveal the usurper for who she really is!

Only in San Francisco

Where else could there be an actual ballot measure to rename a waste water treatment plant to be the George W. Bush Sewage Plant? Alas, it did not pass, even here.

The Morning After

Some wins, some losses. Thumbs up for Obama; disappointment for gay rights. That is all for now; blogs are dead.

Update: Same sex marriage not dead yet. Thank you San Francisco!

Till We Have Faces - C. S. Lewis

I've just finished re-reading one of my favourite books by one of my favourite writers.  I don't own a copy of this book, but I've lost track of how many times I have checked it out of the local library.  (In fact, this was the book that I had gone to borrow when I picked up the horrible book on Josephine as well.)

So how to summarize this book in a paragraph?  It is a re-telling of the story of Cupid and Psyche, told through the eyes of Psyche's sister, Orual.  But underneath the surface story, it is the story of Orual's search for faith.

Orual has 2 mentors - a Greek tutor who advises her in the way of over-educated disbelief, and a soldier who has blind faith in the local deity, Ungit (aka Aphrodite or Venus).  Torn between these two opposite world-views, Orual doesn't know what to make of what her eyes see when her sister is taken as a bride of a god (Ungit's son, aka Cupid).

There are some heart-wrenching passages in this book - after Orual sees the palace of Cupid and chooses to deny it; when Orual uses emotional blackmail to convince Psyche to trick Cupid; when Orual decides to stop being herself and become The Queen.

Some of my favourite passages:

"When the time comes to you at which you will be forced at last to utter the speech which has lain at the centre of your soul for years, which you have, all that time, idiot-like, been saying over and over, you'll not talk about joy of words.  I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer.  Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean?  How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?" 

(ie We can't meet God face to face until we strip away all of the masks and approach with total honesty)

"The air was growing brighter and brighter about us; as if something had set it on fire.  Each breath I drew let into me new terror, joy, overpowering sweetness.  I was pierced through and through with the arrows of it.  I was being unmade."

(What a beautiful description of what happens when you first encounter God!)

There are strong Christian themes running through this book, despite being set amongst the Greek gods.  But as Lewis says in Mere Christianity (another of my favourites!), "When I was an atheist I had to persuade myself that most of the human race have always been wrong aobut the question that mattered to them most; when I became a Christian I was able to take a more liberal view.  But of course, being a Christian does mean thinking that where Christianity differs from other religions, Christianity is right and they are wrong.  As in arithmetic, there is only one right answer to a sum, and all other answers are wrong; but some of the wrong answers are much nearer being right than others."

As in all of his books, Lewis' writing is straight-forward yet beautiful at the same time.  One of these days, I ought to acquire a copy of the book - I've been able to track the deterioration of the library copy in the 10 or so years since I first read it.  It's now taped together, and missing half of the front cover!

The Secret Life of Josephine - Carolly Erickson

This book was an impulse pick-up from the local library, and it was a waste of the time that it took to read it.

It is, in the author's words "a historical entertainment".  Historical fluff is more like it.  Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy fluff on occasion, but it has to be well-written fluff.  This is the story of Josephine Bonaparte, first wife of Napoleon, told from her point of view.  But the author tries to cover too much time over too short of a book, so you don't get to know the characters, and many events are skimmed over; and time tends to skip around erratically.

If anyone is interested in historical fiction about Josephine, I would highly, highly recommend the trilogy of books by Sandra Gulland - The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B.; Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe; and The Last Great Dance on Earth.  Those books, the fictionalized diaries of Josephine Bonaparte, draw you into her story and are so well written that while you are reading them, the reality of the story is more real than the reality around you.

Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

This is a book that I have been meaning to read for several years, and had been sitting on my bookcase for about 6 months before I got around to reading it.  And I loved it.

It is the story of Greg Mortenson:  born in America; grew up in Tanzania; became a mountain climber; got lost on his way down K2; and went on to form the Central Asia Institute, a charity that builds schools in rural Pakistan.

I loved this book, and it's subject, for so many reasons.  It shows his compassion and commitment to his cause; how his best teachers were the people in Pakistan that he was helping.  The book is also realistic.  Mr. Mortenson provided his co-writer with a list of his enemies and insisted that they be contacted as well to provide their side of the story.  So that the picture that comes across isn't that of a saint, but rather that of a man driven to improve the lives of people in less fortunate circumstances than us.

Why a blog?

I've been thinking about this blog for a while, and I have created it for 2 reasongs.

1)  I love to read.

2)  I enjoy writing.

So I have created this blog to write about the books that I read - whether I liked them or not; fiction or non-fiction; my books, library books, borrowed books.

I welcome any feedback.  Please comment on any of my books that you have read, or suggest books for me to read.

I think that now, I will write up some of the books that I have read recently.