Quote of the Day

I have a little book in which I have been collecting quotes that I love, it has been so wonderful to have all of these collected in one place.  Every so often I would love to share one with you, here is the first:

I have sometimes dreamt  that when the Day of Judgment dawns and the great conquerors and lawyers and statesmen come to receive their rewards - their crowns, and their laurels, their names carved indelibly upon imperishable marble - the Almighty will turn to Peter and will say, not without a certain envy when He sees us coming with our books under our arms, "Look these need no rewards.  We have noting to give them here. They have loved reading."

-Virginia Wolf, from an essay in The Second Common Reader

Finishing a Book

       I just recently finished reading the 3rd installment of "A Song of Fire and Ice" by George R.R. Martin, and I was so exhausted!!  This book was called "A Storm of Swords,"  and it really was that fighting and crazy-ness all over the world.
 William Styron once said "A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end.  You have lived several lives while reading it."

        I could not agree with him more on this point, I was slightly relieved when I came to the end of this book.  This series is very well written, and for those of us who enjoy the descriptions in such works as "The Hobbit," this book gives all that we could hope for and more. I am amazed at how Martin is able to portray the characters, I don't feel that I really know what is going to happen at the end of the 7 book series (which is good because it is not even published) and I have no clue who are the real bad guys and good guys.  He kills off one of the major characters in the first book, as if to tell the reader that No One is safe!!  My favorite character is Tyrion Lanister, a dwarf and the younger brother of two of the most hated characters so far.  I like him because he is the underdog, and I never know what he will do, how he will act or how his story will turn out!  I am getting stressed just thinking about these again!!  I go to sleep at night thinking about how these fictitious characters should have acted or not acted and what they will do next!

        As for starting the next book, I have chosen to hold of even purchasing it, to give my self a chance to relax!! If you are looking for a good book to loose yourself in I highly highly recommend this series!!

P.S. I can not speak to the TV adaptation because we don't have cable and I have not watched them!

Big God, Little God

I grew up Episcopalian, basically Catholics without the Pope. My church was a stone building with all the glory and music and tradition that goes along with such places. The alter was gold and the stained glass had been there for years and years.  I grew up in the church, it was huge, but every one new at least my parents.  In that church God was BIG he was the God of the universe created of all things, he deserved reverence and respect.  The traditions helped you remember this all year long, my life seems odd now with it the yearly events that had been going on at that church for decades.  Politics has taken away all that was, the building still stands but it is not the same, in my head I can still recall everything.  Every Easter and Christmas my heart yearns for those traditions.  I can still feel the somber sadness as we stripped the alter and hung black on the crosses during the maunday Thursday service, the crash on the organ to remember the ripping of the temple curtain, and then the one candle coming back in to the church, in silence to represent our hope that Christ will rise again.  And then Easter morning came and the church was light, flowers, brass trumpets and timpani praising and 3 choirs singing "Jesus Christ is Risin Today" all together.  All this after 40 days of fasting and pondering what the world would be like with out Jesus.
I don't think the Evangelical Churches can demonstrate how big God is.  Growing up that way I didn't know how little God was, I do now.  God can speak just to me and answer my small prayers, and that knowledge is wonderful.  But knowing what it is like to live with the Awe of God, I think people are missinng something when Easter and Christmas sound the same as every other serrvice.  I get so mad and refuse to sing during the Christmas service at our churches now.  Christmas is a time for celebrating that God was fully man and that he LIVED! These evangelical churches insist of talking about Christs death at Christmas, they take songs about life and add verses about death and I really think they do a disservice to the life that Jesus lived.
I don't look forward to the holidays at church anymore because they aren't the same with out the tradition.  Maybe I am just an old sole.