29 julio 2005

Thought One: (courtesy garytebbe.blogspot.com)

"The assumption of childhood innocence is naive; although children are unknowledgeable about much of the world's evil, they are far from innocent when it comes to the root of inborn sin, self-centeredness. [...] The process of unlearning self-centeredness is a difficult, life-long one, elsewhere known as "dying to self." When a child's natural tendency to pamper self goes unchallenged, there's trouble down the road. "

Carambas! i wish i had this in good ol' Cog/Soc/Emo Dev of the YC! holistic Christian education my spleen! it drives me crazy; i'll know something "sounds" wrong but have no idea exactly WHAT. eg: constructivism ("children 'create' their own knowledge"), tabula rasa (blank slate of a child's mind), OSAS (but i did my best on that... still, would have liked another chance,) ...

Thought Two:
"In indulgent child-rearing, parents pay attention to children. In the earlier, Scriptural approach, children pay attention to parents. Childhood is not a resting-place isolated from the world, but brisk walk of growing self-discipline and responsibility; at the end, the child has earned the right to be counted as an adult. Childhood is just one phase of a continuum, a path of life-long growth and accountability before God."

EXACTLY! this kids ARE growing up into a sick, sick, unfeeling world. shall we pretend it doesn't exist and let kids "learn as they go?" CARAMBAS! now i'm getting emotional. hard work, discipline, THINKING must be trained into a child. age ten, eleven, twelve is incredibly too old, LET ALONE seventeen, eighteen! say to a child: "so, up until this moment, it's been all about you. now, welcome to the real world, nobody could care less about your dreams, and, just so you know, 'you are not a beautiful and unique snowflake.' " and expect them NOT to have problems...?

Thought Three:

i love words:

euphony~a smooth pleasant-sounding arrangement of words
anaphora~repitition of a word or expression at the beginning of successive phrases, sentences, or verses
zeugma~the merging or overlap of two normally distinctive constructions (e.g: he took my advice and my wallet)
antonomasia~ use of a proper name in place of an ordinary word (Xerox for copy machine, Coke for soda, Kleenex for tissue)
litotes~ ironical understatement (he is not the bad sort; it was halfway decent)

28 julio 2005

to be magnetic but not "nice"

intense. in a good way. (then again, intense is usually good.)

thought one:
re: IND AFF (inordinate affection):
I use colons too much. That is not at all what i meant to write. what i meant to write was this: having feelings which are disproportional to reality or to worthier affections, namely toward God. paraphrased: it is not that we can love a person too much, but God too little.

thought two:
re: praying aloud:
this one is kinda weird, and i do not usually think on these matters, but every now and then... here goes:
the forces of darkness are not omniscient, right... so "they" cannot read one's mind and are limited to the position of a very intelligent, very un-handicapped human. (more or less?) so if one prays out loud, does that not give them additional insight into your psyche that they otherwise wouldn't know? would a monk taking a vow of silence and not expressing himself in any way be less vulnerable than, say, a overenthusiastic blogger?

thought three:
"talkin' 'bout my generation":
what is redeemable of the culture? need to think more on this. for today:
~the appreciation for "realness" and "genuine" folk. the appreciation for those who have the guts to "get on the mike and spit it"... a generation that WANTS honesty. maybe not truth in those words... but honesty, yes.
~so also, sincerity and passion. a cause. see all the shirts with che guevara? por que seria? even though most wearers prolly wouldn't know trotsky from stalin (hehehe... cause you know I do...) they support good ol' ernesto cause he had ZEAL and all that good stuff. and while we (err... rather, this generation) projects apathy and cynicism, it's not because their FULFILLED in that... it's self-preservation. don't hope, don't be disappointed.

i should do some hard-core "study" the post-modern movement so as to not interpret everything so subjectively.

interesting:
"Maximum Luxury"


27 julio 2005

do i dare/ disturb the universe?/ in a minute there is time/ for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse

thought I:
been reading k.p. yohannan's "revolution in world missions" (so as to forget the fact that i am in not missioning and decisively non revolutionary) and he had an interesting premise:

social work (hospitals, orphanages, schools, etc.) should not be the focus of missions; evangelism and discipleship should be our aim (of funds, personnel, attention, etc.)

"With all [humanitaritian workers'] social efforts, such mission representatives are simply making a doomed man feel a little better before he goes out into an eternity of suffering."

Food for thought II:
"Many times i have given my clothes, food and money to poor people. But i never gave any of those things away with the hope this was going to make them come to Jesus Christ or give them the desire to repent. And neither did Jesus. He helped the poor because He loved them, but He spent most of His ministry teaching and making disciples."

thought III: meditation on my distaste for reality

Working definition of reality: what one sees, hears, feels, smells, tastes, and/or thinks at any given moment. nothing else.

as opposed to true reality: what God sees, hears, feels, smells, tastes, and/or thinks at any given moment, which would be the same as He has known for all eternity.

editorial note: realized that was kinda anthropomorphic (is that the right term?)... God (supposedly) does not see/hear/feel/smell/taste because He is Spirit. but i wonder... i dunno.

25 julio 2005

i give in.

i originally began this blog for my english class a semester or two ago. which i dropped, but that is beside the point. the point is that i must surrender to the gravitational pull of great blogging minds and reopen it, this time, with meaningful content. whether anyone reads it or not is immaterial; i simply cannot stand to continue typing in my name everytime i comment on gary's blog when, with an active blog, i can just click on the button that inserts my title. so there. and here. it is.

uh-oh. i might have to get poetic one of these days. make like e.e. cummings. beware!