2sparrows

Romans has been thrown at me from every conceivable angle for the past few years, starting with a long conversation with a Catholic priest (in street clothes, on holiday — didn’t come out he was a priest until pretty far into our conversation!) in Gatwick airport, sunday school class, reading it on my own, and seeing various passages from it in much of my other reading.  RC Sproul has become one of my favorite writers.  So when  I saw he had a verse by verse commentary on it, I had to get it!   It is a long read, and I had a hundred or more quotes highlighted on the kindle, but I won’t include them all here.  I will just say that if you want to do a serious study of Romans and have a Reformed bent, this book is for you.

I saw this book while in the Harvad Co-op while in Boston for the marathon (I was spectating, not running!).  Quickly put a sample on the kindle and when I read that later, had to get the whole book.  Kindle samples are killing me!  :-)

The 1st chapter of this book sounded an awful lot like me, even though Mr. Murakami is in his later 50′s…  The 1st chapter was the best, while the rest were not as interesting to me.  Just about running marathons and/or triathlons, though he did have one ultra. But overall a lot of good insite worth reading and sharing here.  So I’ll just throw out a bunch of quotes:

I saw this book mentioned on the google minimalist (running) list saying it was a bit more approachable than some other books on the paleo diet, though after reading this I don’t know how paleo it really is.  Guess I’d have to read a paleo book after all.  Or maybe it mentioned Weston Price and Price is not paleo??  I don’t know.  I have read so few food/nutrition books in the past few years that maybe it has all passed me by.  Guess I have become pretty comfortable with my diet!

This book touts moving back to the way food was before it was industrialized, including farm animals, milk, eggs, and produce.  Getting away from grain fed beef and chicken when that is not their natural diet, not eating farm raised fish, getting back to locally grown produce, etc.  And I’m all for that, though I don’t eat a lot of meat…  She was very into using butter — which I never used a whole lot of margin but only went for the real thing — butter is better!; whole milk — I normally do skim or 2% but am now considering sticking with just 2%; eggs – i love ‘em — but only pastured so they can be omnivorous as they were ment to be.  She was against all industrial oils (which pretty much leaves olive oil as the only oil).  And all in all getting away from as much process and pre-packaged food as possible, which I already try to do.

Just a few quotes:

I am going to attempt a live blog of the Boston Marathon as Dad and Kim race. We’ll see how it goes.

6:50 — saw Dad and Kim off from the hotel. They are taking a taxi to the runner bus station in Boston, where they will take the bus to the start at Hopkinton.    And there they will have an hour or two to wait for their start at 10:30.

8:00 — after a bit of email, loading my pack, getting fed, I am out the door. Taking the red line to South Station where I will pick up the P509 Worcester train @ 8:50 for Framingham. That is the last rail stop where you can get close to the marahon course, and it is at mile 6.

8:30 Waiting at South Station.

if you want text updates from AT&T for when Dad and Kim cross certain points, text “runner” to 31901 and then when you get a reply enter the bib numbers…

Kim — 27665
Dad — 27617

8:51 slight delay in boarding and leaving… mad dash of people ran for the track when it was announced… out bounds in the morning are normally NOT this crowded!

8:57 – the train has left the station!

the science of sport will be doing live splits for the leaders, which should be interesting. Will Ryan Hall have his break out race and win it all?

http://www.sportsscientists.com/2010/04/2010-boston-marathon-live-splits-and.html

9:08 standing room only:

9:26 – a few more stops to Framingham… I’ll have a tough decision to make at some point as there is nearly a two hour gap on inbound trains which could put me in jeopardy of making it back into the city for seeing Dad and Kim finish. . Not sure how much I can trek on foot.

9:55 just got to Framingham…

10:09. lead women just passed where I am in about 38 minutes… I must be further than the 10k which is where I thought I was… going to start heading up the course…

10:28. ran a little over a mile up, now waiting for the lead men. Dad and Kim should be starting in two minutes. I’m just short of the 8 mile mark.

10:38 lead pack of men just passed in a little under 38 minutes — again I am a little short of the 8 mile mark. they are fast!

10:45. that will be the last of my posts on the elites… think I’ll head up the course some more so I have more options on the trains!

11:02 I’m at the mile 9 marker. I’ve gotten no text updates for 3 wave 1 runners shooting for 3 hr runs so it looks like ther may be too much of a delay to be useful to know when to expect dad and Kim

11:04  random picture of runners

11:06 I have yet to see a barefooted or vibram wearer. but I have not been looking that close!

11:23 wave 1 is finally starting to thin out a bit here at the mile 9 marker… it would be just about impossible to spot someone in particular as thick as it was!

11:37 the beginning of wave 2 is now coming through mile 9…

12:09. Kim just passed mile 9. I’m going to have to make a run for the train station or I am going to be stuck.

12:30 ran 1.5 miles for the station and made it, but now the train is late. I had to make the tough decision to not wait for Dad at mile 9 as the next inbound train is at 2:20 pm and I would not have made it back to Boston until too late! Now I need to figure out when to get off next!

12:39 I think I’ll get off in Newton, just past mile 19. I can make it in from there on foot if needed! Bummed I’m missing “kiss me corner” at Wesley College!

12:53 ATT texts do not seem to be working for most spectators around me, but Nadia in GA is getting them! she just sent me this:

They’ve both passed the 15k mark–your dad just a little while ago, and
Kim about 10 minutes before him. By my calculations, Kim will be at 20k
before 1:00. Your dad should be there before 1:15.

I think I’ll jump off the train a little sooner than I said in my last update.

13:27. just arrived at the 30k mark — hope I didn’t miss Kim!

13:37. finally saw some bare footers! the lady was in a full body cheetah leotard.

13:43 definitely missed kim according to the splits on the web… by maybe 10 minutes at most, probably a lot less — she sped up! now need to figure out what to do and how to get back!

13:49. looks like a 2 mile run to the 1st subway station… will hang here at 30k a bit to see if I can catch Dad…

14:05. still no Dad here at 30k and the web shows no 25k time… not sure what is going on… Kim past 35k and should be done soon but I am miles form the finish… time to run to the T I guess…

14:34 just past mile 20 waiting o see if dad shows up. based on updates from Nadia he should be here any minute…

14:49 word from Nadia is Kim finished in 3:49. I’m with dad on heart break hill.

15:21 still close to Dad near mile 23. I was going to take the T in but I’m able to keep up with the train because t is moving so slow due to all the people…

15:27 dad is making phone calls from the course.

15:51 passing mile 25, 1.2 to go! I’m still tailing dad from off course.

16:23 at the end waiting to find everyone… the last mile was impossible as a spectator to keep moving and I had to go a few blocks around

16:40 in taxi heading towards hotel

17:22 cleaned up a few typos from a real computer.  the end.  thanks for watching.

I finished the last ultra running book too far before my own attempt at an Ultra (Uhwarrie 40 miler — tomorrow!), so I searched around to find another and found this book by Dean Karnazes.  Dean ran as a freshman in high school but pretty much gave it up after that until he was 30.  While feeling unfulfilled, though successful in terms of career and salary, he decided to go for a run after getting home from his 30th birthday celebration (which included Tequila!).  And he didn’t stop running all night — in fact he has been running ever since.

At first it was fairly “normal” running of 5 or 6 miles after work, but then he came across two guys training for the Western States 100.  He felt called to attempt that challenge, and eventually moved on to race Badwater (135 miles starting in Death Valley ascending to the top of Mt Whitney), to completing the 1st marathon run to the South Pole, and finally, the book culminates in running a 199 mile relay race solo!

In some ways the stories are like race reports, but they are woven around his metamorphosis into one of the greatest endurance runners ever.  Fascinating read, good writing, and just what I needed with my race tomorrow!

Here are a few quotes… I highlighted much more than this, but many are about training or things I wanted to look into further…

• He who suffers remembers. —Fortune cookie
• The cross-country guys hung out in late-night coffee shops and read books by Kafka and Kerouac.  [ as compared to the track guys...]
• “Don’t run with your legs. Run with your heart.” On some level, even as a high school freshman, I got his meaning: the human body has limitations; the human spirit is boundless.
• At that moment I realized that my life was being wasted. Disillusioned with the trappings of the corporate scene, the things that really mattered—friendship and exploration, personal expansion and a sense of meaning—had gotten all twisted around making a lot of money and buying stuff. I hungered for a place where I could explore nature and my capabilities, away from a corporate office in a corporate building in a big city with crowded supermalls and people judging me by the car I drove (which, of course, was a new Lexus).
• As I limped around my office, trying to appear natural, I reminded myself that pain and suffering are often the catalysts for life’s most profound lessons. A passion I’d ignored for half my existence had been serendipitously reignited in one all-night thirty-mile hullabaloo.
• You’ve got to bundle up self-doubt and fear and stuff them in your shoe, cutting loose your rational mind as your body is pushed to inconceivable levels of endurance.
• As Lily Tomlin said, “Exercise is for people who can’t handle drugs and alcohol.”
• Long-distance running requires a certain discretion and reserve. It’s easy to let your ego get the better of you early on and run beyond your means.
• Most dreams die a slow death. They’re conceived in a moment of passion, with the prospect of endless possibility, but often languish and are not pursued with the same heartfelt intensity as when first born. Slowly, subtly, a dream becomes elusive and ephemeral. People who’ve let their own dreams die become pessimists and cynics.
• Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go. —T. S. Eliot
• Start slow, then taper off. —Walt Stack, Bay Area running legend
• People think I’m crazy to put myself through such torture, though I would argue otherwise. Somewhere along the line we seem to have confused comfort with happiness. I’ve now come to believe that quite the opposite is the case. Dostoyevsky had it right: “Suffering is the sole origin of consciousness.” Never are my senses more engaged than when the pain sets in. There is magic in misery.
• But life didn’t seem as vibrant without coffee, so I went back to my morning ritual (okay, maybe I am totally addicted after all). [ sounds like me, though I haven't even tried to give it up!  :-) ]

Location:

You can park at US 64 and the Haw River “intersection” on the West side of the river, and hike north or south; or park at the Robeson Creek Canoe Access point off Hanks Chapel Road and hike north.

Level: moderate to strenuous depending on water conditions and how far off trail/river you have to go…  South of 64 there are some “cliffs” you may have to climb up and over depending on route selection

Description: unofficial and unmaintained, or at best “semi” maintained by the boaters and fishermen that use this section… (And you will occasionally run in to hikers, but not often in my experience.)  No markers on the trails, and while most sections are obvious, some are not.  Just keep the river on the East and don’t wander too far west and you should not get lost.

North and South (partial) GPS markers:

Here are GPS tracks on both the north and south side.  The south side is only a partial as the water level was too high (10 feet, just under flood level, on the USGS Bynum Gauge) to make it all the way to Gabriel’s Bend.  (Well, at least with the two kids with me!)

(North zoomed in)

A bit more detail on the north end…   There are some sections that may be a bit of a bushwhack depending on conditions.  Just keep the river on the east side of you and you can’t get lost.  I.e. don’t wander too far to the west.  I think I could make it all the way to 15/501 on this path and hope to try it some day.   There is a split just north of 64 that leads you up and over/around a section of the river that will not be passible in high water (perhaps 6-7 feet on the gauge).  I went both ways so both routes would be visible in the GPS track, but again, the lower section is much less defined and at points you are on rocks on the edge of the river.

South (partial) zoomed in…

Again, could not make it all the way to US 64 this day, but I will update this the next time I make the whole route.    Normally when you park at Robeson creek you do not have to head as far away from the river as the image below shows, but the water was very high this day, just under 11 feet or flood level on the Bynum Gauge. (Of course the water level is not shown in this satellite image)… When the water is is high, the section near the parking lot is under water.  Due to the high water there was a lot of off trail hiking as you can tell from the two slightly different routes on the out and back.

Photos (North of 64):

Some of the sites you will see on

If you choose to go the “low” route, or the route closer to the river than up and over, it becomes much less of a trail, and in some places more of a bushwhack and/or scramble.  If the water is high, this section would not be passible.  Check the USGS Bynum Guage.  Anything over 6 ft and your probably will need to swim it.  I.e. don’t do it!

This is what I call a “wash up,” which is where all the trash that comes down river on a big rain ends up.  I’d like to go back and clean this up one day.

This is what I wore out when I took the GPS on the north section..  It was a bit muddy!

Photos (south of 64):

South of 64 is the most popular white water rafting section of the Haw, though you will see some on the section north of the river as well.

After reading “The Chosen” a few weeks ago, I had to follow with another Potok book, and of course went with “The Promise,” which is somewhat of a sequel.  (More just a follow-on book with the same characters later in life than a sequel.)

Two main points stuck me:

1. the portrayal of different father-son relationships. (How one was so close, at least in terms of studying Talmud but additionally in seeking each other out for guidance and discussion in the struggles of life, while others were strained in various ways.)
2. the amazing study of their faith as part of a lifelong journey — but so much more dedicated and in depth than what is typical today, at least in the part of society I see around me

Some quotes that are all mostly self explanatory (And I’ve bolded one I that has resonated with me the most recently):

• “What energies we waste fighting one another…”
• “It’s always easier to learn something than to use what you’ve learned.”
• “You understand what it is to make a choice…?  A choice tells the world what is most important to a human being.  When a man has a choice to make he chooses what is most important to him, and that choice tells the world what kind of man he is.”
• “A person must know who he is.  A person must understand himself, improve himself, learn his weaknesses in order to overcome them.  It is hard for a person to understand hi own weaknesses…”
• “The Master of the Universe has so created the world that everything that can be good can also be evil.  It is mankind that makes a thing good or evil … depending on how we use the wonders we have been given.”
• “…men hesitate to talk to their fathers.  A boy always wishes to be able to talk to his father.  And a father waits for the boy to become a man so they can talk as men.  And then the boy becomes a man and no longer needs the father.  It is a strange thing.”
• “That is the way the world is… Each generation thinks it fights new battles.  But the battles are the same.  Only the people are different.”

I stumbled across the link to The Deep Church on the Inter-webs, and the words on the front page struck a chord…

Feel caught between the traditional church and the emerging church? Discover a third way: deep church. C. S. Lewis used the phrase “deep church” to describe the body of believers committed to mere Christianity. Unfortunately church in our postmodern era has been marked by a certain shallowness.

After reading it, I feel like I have found what I have been looking for, even though I could not pinpoint exactly what it was I was looking before before having read it.  (Does that make sense?)  In several recent posts I have lamented the fact of apparent shallowness in the area in terms of doctrine, so the words above definitely caught my attention.

What is funny is that my pre-conception of “The Emerging Church”was way off.  I had assumed it was the large, mega-church movement with contemporary worship services.  However, that is not it at all… It is a movement that criticizes the traditional church in seven key areas (Captivity to Enlightenment rationalism, a narrow view of salvation, belief before belonging, uncontextualized worship, ineffective preaching, weak ecclesiology, and Tribalism). I will not get into those seven criticisms here — you should read the book for that — other than to say that I found, as I read the details of each, that I shared some aspects of the criticisms myself.

Belcher takes the time to expand on each criticism thoroughly, but then points out where he feels the emerging church (sometimes) goes too far.  I again found myself agreeing with him on many many points — while I share the views of the issues the emerging folks see with the traditional church, I also agree with Belcher’s view on just about every point where he thinks they over do it.

The main purpose of the book is to define a third way, beyond traditional and emerging.  Of course there is no way to summarize the entire book, but one of the basic tenets  is agreeing on the foundations of the faith as outlined in the early creeds, and letting everything else slide a little.  We have tried to follow this principle of primary vs. secondary doctrine with Haw River Christian Academy, and I strongly feel it is always the way to go.

I have started using Evernote to keep my reading notebook (it’s a great service!  keeps my notes synced to the cloud and I can get to them via any computer or my phone, changes sync automagically, etc.)  I have a tremendous amount of notes from this book.  That means a couple of things — there are either great quotes or there are passages that really make me think, and I want to be able to come back to them.

Both fit here…

• “There is a depth in the ancient church that is very up to date.”  [ and therefore it is worth honoring the tradition of the old church...\
• "The Enlightenment quest for certainty based on unassailable reason and science is a dead end... It cannot be pulled off.  It has never been done."  [We (those of us currently alive) are all children of the Enlightenment, and therefore Children of Reason, and that is so difficult to put aside..  But it needs to be in questions of faith.  Not that you can't use logic and reasoning in apologetic argumentation, but that there are sometimes things that go beyond just that...]
• “the next day I contacted the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) … I enquired about church planting.”  [this one stands out because so many CCS schools are backed by PCA churches!  And PCA just keeps coming up in strange places, yet there is no PCA church here...  :-/ ]
• “oh you are describing Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC…”  [This also stood out as I had just read two Tim Keller books, and his church is also PCA...]
• “We train our members to read discerningly, to think for themselves and to be enriched by other traditions even as they dig deep in the soil of their own tradition.”   [ nice to hear! ]
• “Hermeneutical Circle”  truth neither starts with knowledge that leads to faith nor with faith that leads to knowledge.  How do we get into this circle?  The starting point lies beyond us, with the Holy Spirit who places us inside the faith – knowledge circle…

I guess that is good for now.  I highly recommend the book for anyone that has never felt 100% at home at their church, and even if you do feel at home, I think this book could provide growth opportunities none-the-less.

I saw this mentioned on another blog as a good adventure story, and felt like I needed a break from my non-fiction reading.  Not a bad yarn, but what is up with so many stories using prior knowledge of solar eclipses as escape mechanisms or shows of superiority?

Anyway, some quotes (as there’s not much more to say):

…there is no journey upon this earth that a man may not take if he sets his heart to it.  There is nothing … that he cannot do, there are no mountains he may not climb, there are no deserts he cannot cross, save a mountain and a desert of which you are spared the knowledge, if love leads him and he holds his life in his hands counting it as nothing, ready to keep it or lose it as Heaven above may order.”

What is life?  Tell me … [ you ] who are wise, who know the secrets of the world, and of the world of stars, and the world that lies above and around the stars; who flash your words from afar without a voice; tell me … the secret of our life — whither it goes and whence it comes!  You cannot answer me; you know not.  Listen, I will answer.  Out of the dark we came, into the dark we go.  Like a storm-driven bird at night we fly out of the Nowhere; for a moment our wings are see in the light of the fire, and lo!we are gone again into the Nowhere.  Life is nothing.  Life is all.  It is the Hand with which we hold off Death.  It is the glow-worm that shines in the nighttime and is black in the morning; it is the white breath of the oxen in winter, it is the little shadow that runs across the grass and loses itself at sunset.”

Our future was so completely unknown, and I think that the unknown and the awful always bring a man nearer to his Maker.”

Yet man dies not whilst the world, at once his mother and his monument, remains.  His name is lost, indeed, but the breath he breathed still stirs the pine-tops on the mountains, the sound of the words he spoke yet echoes on through space; the thoughts his brain gave birth to we have inherited today; his passions are our cause of life;  the joys and sorrows he knew are our familiar friends — the end from which he fled aghast will surely overtake us also!”

… how little we think of others when our own safety, pride, or reputation is in questions…”

After finishing The Book of Lights, I wanted to read another Potok book, and I chose “The Chosen” as it is the one that was sitting on the coffee table at a friends house that toggled my desire to read him again to begin with.  I read this book in one day as I flew back from CA to NC, and thought it was absolutely great.  In fact, I liked it better than The Book of Lights, which is odd because I had thought I remembered liking that book the most of all the Potok books when I read nearly everything he wrote 10-12 years ago.

I think I’ll just have a bunch of quotes in this entry…

First is the quote that started the book, by Karl Menninger:

When a trout rising to a fly gets hooked on a line and finds himself unable to swim about freely, he begins with a fight which results in struggles and splashes and sometimes an escape.  Often, of course, the situation is too tough for him.

In the same way, the human being struggles with his environment and with the hooks that catch him.  Sometimes he masters his difficulties; sometimes they are too tough for him.  His struggles are all that the world sees and it naturally misunderstands them.  It is hard for a free fish to understand what is happening to a hooked one.

Now on to some quotes from the book:

…when a person comes to talk to you, you should be patient and listen.  Especially if that person has hurt you in any way.  [Note he doesn't say it will be easy!]

He told me once he wishes everyone could speak in silence…  [this is a key concept in the book, but I won't go into it here...]

No one knows he is fortunate until he becomes unfortunate… [I don't fully agree... We can know we are blessed/fortunate, though we may not understand it fully without having something taken away...]

The Talmud says everyone should do two things for himself.  One is to acquire a teacher….  The other is to choose a friend.

… the most mysterious thing in the universe to man is man himself.

Honest difference of opinion should never be permitted to destroy a friendship.

This one needs its own quotes:

Human beings do not live forever… We live less than the time it takes to blink an eye, if we measure against eternity.  So it may be asked what value is there to a human life.  There is so much pain in the world. What does it mean to suffer so much if our lives are nothing more than the blink of an eye?…  I learned a long time ago … that a blink of an eye in itself is nothing.  But the eye that blinks, that is something.  A span of life is nothing.  But the man who lives that span, he is something.  He can fill that tiny span with meaning, so its quality is immeasurable though its quantity may be insignificant.  …  A man must fill his life with meaning, meaning is not automatically given to life.  It is hard work to fill one’s life with meaning.

And one more:

A man is born into this world with only a tiny spark of goodness in him.  The spark is God, it is the soul; the rest is ugliness and evil, a shell.  The spark must be guarded like a treasure, it must be nurtured, it must be fanned into a flame.  It must learn to seek out other sparks, it must dominate the shell.  [ This one is perhaps must deeper theologically than what you think at first read...]