Not much to say on this one… Only 14 days from daily lit, so it is short. As the Guidebook to ZMM said, “Less is more.” I wanted to read this after brushing up on Taoism in both our small group NRM study and the section of the Guidebook…
Although the knowledge in this book is supposed to be what a kindergartner knows when they are leaving kindergarten, I decided to get it now for Riley even though she is still in preschool. There is a whole series of these books, based on “core knowledge” that all kids of a given grade level are supposed to know.
So far, Riley has enjoyed some of the stories in this book that are not in our other kid books, such as the story of King Midas, Johnny Appleseed, Casey Jones, The Three Little Kittens, etc. And some of the stories are slightly different from versions we have.
Beyond the stories and poems, we have looked a little bit at geography, American History (Riley now knows George Washington cut down a cherry tree and didn’t lie about it), art, etc.
There are also sections on math and reading, but we’ve just done a little bit in those sections so far.
I’ve had a lot of fun with it. Sometimes Riley is not in the mood to learn and then she normally doesn’t want to read this book unless we just stick to the stories, but sometimes she gets quite engaged with it.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (ZMM) is one of my all time favorite books. I’ve had this guidebook for a couple years, but never felt like reading it. I finally decided to, and was surprised and impressed. It was not what I thought at all.
First, after a short introduciton, the book dives into major Easter Thought, such as Hinduism, Taosim, Buddhism, and Confuscionism. Then the bookdives into major Western Thought on knowledge, value, ethics, etc. These are all given as background, as the narrator of ZMM often brings up such items briefly and sometimes without much depth. Having the background that the Guidebook gives is really useful.
Second, the Guide contains some sections deleted from the original manuscript, and third, includes several reviews of ZMM from the time it was 1st published or shortly thereafter. Fourth, one of the most interesting thing s in the book is a letter from Pirsig, the author, to Robert Redford, about ideas for a movie of ZMM. Apparently Redford had expressed a lot fo interest in doing it at one point. Pirsig’s letter is really a fascinating read and gives additional insight into the book.
All in all I was surprised and impressed by this guidebook, and would highly recommend it to anyone that has enjoyed ZMM. I’m actually now reading ZMM again. 🙂
I’m going to skip the normal quotes section, at least for now…
Our last small group study was on New Religious Movements, perhaps the politically correct way to say “cults,” though several of the groups studied in the book would not normally be considered cults, but instead major religions. For instance, Hinduism and Buddhism are included, though Hinduism was pared with Yoga, and Buddhism was just Tibetan/Dali Lama Buddhism.
I was not always that impressed with the book. While the object was to teach Christians about each movement and possible ways to relate to any members of the movement, some of the articles were much more biased than others. Part of that is due to the fact that each chapter is written by a different author, so it is not always cohesive. Some articles glossed over any good actions the group participats in or funds, and some articles explored only the extreme or negative aspects of a given NRM. I found it best to supplement each chapter with other articles found on the Internet, at sites such as wikipedia, beliefnet, lifeway, and even the NRM’s own official site.
The book is not necessarily written for a small group study — there is no list of group discussion questions at the end. However, I suggest reading the 1st and last chapter before all the NRM specific chapters. I created a checklist based on the last chapter that you follow about each NRM to find out when and how it diverges from “orthodox” Christianity, where “orthodox” means following major agreed upon doctrine.
We also supplemented the book with our own study of a few movements not included in the book
for NRM’s such as Scientology, religions such as Islam, and major philosophies such as Taoism.
There are 11 guide books to the AT, and each comes with a couple maps. I carried the map we needed and the guide book on our backpacking trip last weekend. A lot of people say the book is too heavy, and while it is extra weight to carry around, it is well worth it in my opinion. Besides useful information like how far off the main trail each shelter is, or how far water is from a given shelter, there is a lot of historical information as well. And I enjoy reading that kind of stuff while on the trail.
This book just shows the miles between significant features. I did not carry it on the trail, though, since I had the other, more detailed book.
I watched the movie “Brick” the other night, a film of the film-noir genre. I liked the movie, but there was one part where the lead female reads part of a poem while playing the piano. It stuck with me, so I searched around and found it is actually a snippet from an old opera called The Mikado.
Here is the whole poem/aria:
The sun, whose rays are all ablaze
Yum-yum’s aria from The Mikado
The sun, whose rays are all ablaze with ever-living glory,
does not deny his majesty–he scorns to tell a story!
He don’t exclaim, “I blush for shame, so kindly be indulgent”;
but fierce and bold, in fiery gold, he glories all effulgent.
I mean to rule the earth, as he the sky–
We really know our worth, the sun and I!
Observe his flame, that placid dame, the moon’s celestial highness;
There’s not a trace upon her face of diffidence or shyness:
She borrows light, that, through the night, mankind may all acclaim her!
And, truth to tell, she lights up well; So I, for one, don’t blame her.
Ah, pray make no mistake, we are not shy;
We’re very wide awake, the moon and I!
I may just have to buy the music from iTunes here.
There are 3 views for Christians and alcohol: abstention, prohibition, and moderation.
From the book:
I’ve been in the moderation camp for most of my adult (post-college!?) life, but I didn’t really know why. I had never truly studied the issue. Almost every church I’ve been a member of, or sermon I’ve heard while visiting other churches, or pastors and radio shows and/or podcasts, have been much more abstentionist or prohibitionists than moderationists.
The prohibitionist viewpoint that alcohol is forbidden by scripture just rang untrue — there are way too many verses that talk about alcohol, many pointing to moderation as a good thing (especially in the Old Testament/Proverbs), and even Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding celebration. Arguments about wine in the Bible being non-alcoholic seemed vacuous at best.
The abstention line is something that, to me, warranted closer evaluation. Scripture does call us not to cause our brothers to stumble. So, to me, if I am around someone that is an alcoholic or has alcoholic tendencies, or has a strong dislike of seeing anyone consume alcoholic beverages, I would certainly abstain.
Gentry takes the viewpoint of a moderationist, even though he rarely or ever drinks himself. He walks through many verses in the Bible, and shows why they all point to such a view. It is quite easy to follow, and a great study for anyone that wants to dig deeper into this area. The one slight complaint I have is that he often is addressing the view point of one Mr. Reynolds, who is a staunch advocate of prohibition. Sometimes it flows like a strict response to Reynold’s writing. Not that this is a major criticism in anyway, I just felt like it was not always necessary.
I suppose in my quest to read both sides of the story, I should at least find an article (if not a book), on the abstention and prohibition views, though right now, I have no strong desire to do so.
I only have a few quotes from this book:
Each of the three Christians positions on the use of wine condemns alcohol abuse and dependence. In fact, Scripture unsparingly condemns drunkenness, frequently and from a variety of angles.
Francis Bacon in 1623 wrote “Alonso of Aragon was wont to say in condemnation of age, that age appears to best in four things — old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.”
This was another one from DailyLit — in just 75 five-minute emails, I read this. Sometimes this is a good method, and sometimes not. When I’m really busy, it is actually hard to find 5 minutes to read an email. And then they stack up, and at some point I have to catch up. However, most of the time, it is a good motivation. I think I’ll start Dante’s Divine Comedy next.
On to the actual book. In some ways it is a bit odd, and strung together. There are a couple of long breaks where he didn’t write anything — long as in many years. And it doesn’t always flow that well. There are some sections that go into minute details on things that don’t seem that relevant to his life, and sometimes there is barely any mention of things that, to me, seem of great importance to his life. So in some ways, I feel like I need to read an actual biography now, to kind of tie it together in a neutral 3rd party kind of way.
On to some quotes:
I believe I have omitted mentioning that, in my first voyage from Boston, being becalm’d off Block Island, our people set about catching cod, and hauled up a great many. Hitherto I had stuck to my resolution of not eating animal food, and on this occasion consider’d, with my master Tryon, the taking every fish as a kind of unprovoked murder, since none of them had, or ever could do us any injury that might justify the slaughter. All this seemed very reasonable. But I had formerly been a great lover of fish, and, when this came hot out of the frying-pan, it smelt admirably well. I balanc’d some time between principle and inclination, till I recollected that, when the fish were opened, I saw smaller fish taken out of their stomachs; then thought I, “If you eat one another, I don’t see why we mayn’t eat you.” So I din’d upon cod very heartily, and continued to eat with other people, returning only now and then occasionally to a vegetable diet.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.
In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself; you will see it, perhaps, often in this history; for, even if I could conceive that I had compleatly overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.
Thomas was so pleas’d with the construction of this stove, as described in it, that he offered to give me a patent for the sole vending of them for a term of years; but I declin’d it from a principle which has ever weighed with me on such occasions, viz., That, as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously.
Charles Frazier is the author of Cold Mountain, and I first heard his name when we were staying in the NC mountains near where he wrote that book. Someone mentioned he had written much of it near a cabin we had rented. I immediately went out and got that book, and loved it. And the movie was pretty good too. 🙂
Thirteen Moons is his 2nd novel, with a 9 year gap between the two. I assume much of that is for the required research. It is the story of a boy sent out, pretty much by himself, into 19th century america, at the border of the Indian/Cherokee nation. It follows his life story, and more importanly the story of the Cherokee nation, at a time when the American government was pushing them west, on the “Trail of Tears.”
I have to admit that the opening chapter had me hooked — it was the young boy looking back, talking like a wisened old man, which he was. And most of the book was pretty good, though towards the end, the story kind of fizzled for me. I guess I don’t know what I expected, but I expected something different. I still highly recommend it, though I’d probably give it one less star than Cold Mountain. Beautiful language, historical fiction (often my favorite), and it’s local to the NC mountains again.
As usual, here are some quotes:
The gist of the story is that even when all else is lost and gone forever, there is yearning. One of the few welcome lessons age teaches is that only desire trumps time.
Some people wanted to know their future, and some didn’t. I, for one, didn’t. Is wolf or bear aware of impending death? No. Would wolf or bear be better for the knowledge? I tend to think not. Be as you are and then go on your way to the Nightland is my belief.
The way I see it, I can either hire a man to plow my cornfield every spring, or I can buy a plow. I’m looking to buy a plow.
… I believe we should all have to testify against ourselves at some latter point in life. Lay out our flaws with a clerk writing it all down for permanent record. It is a baracing and chastening experience…
If you are going to die tomorrow, do you spend the time praising creation or cursing God?
When everything is immediately availalbe and infinitely reproducible, nothing is valuable.
 
I have to admit that when I first skimmed this book, and looked at the poses, I thought there wasn’t much to them. They were all fairly basic, and things that I use in my practice all the time. However, when I took the time to go through each one, reading exactly what she wrote to do and what to think about, I changed my mind. There is a lot of good information, and what I thought were easy poses were actually sometimes quite challenging.
The list of poses is somewhat short so I’ll go through them all here:
Not much to say on this one, other than that holding a contracted quad without pressing down on the back of the knee for 60 seconds is not as easy as it sounds. I’ve done this a lot for a few seconds at a time, especially right after surgery, or right after the injury got so bad I could barely walk, but never for 60 seconds.
I did both comfortable seated, and half lotus variations. Before surgery I could do full lotus, but not any more. One hip is obviously tighter.
Same comments as above. One side definitely needs to be evened out with the other!
I thought this would be silly since I do full down dog all the time, and really love the stretch it can give on the back of the R knee, especially when bending the left. But this variation, in which the hands are on a wall and you are standing, is really quite good. Just gives different sensations than normal.
This is basically a wall squat — using a wall to support your back. But the number of things to think about with your feet and knees is a lot, and holding it for 60 seconds or more is quite challenging.
Not much to say. Standard Tree Pose. I didn’t feel much different than I normally do.
This is much harder than it sounds. You stand on both feet, hands on hips, close the eyes, and lift one foot slightly. Hold for 10 breaths. She says this is great for overall lower leg support, and I believe it. You can really feel al the little muscles that hold things together firing. 10 breaths is hard!
Standard Triangle.
Standard warrior II. But when you take the time to work on all the little things, I can certainly see why the legs/knees will become much stronger and more stable.
Standard warrior I. Same comments as for Warrior II.
A simple quad stretch, but I really feel like this is a great knee opener for me post surgery. Sometimes after surgery, the patella tendon can “shrink” or pull in, and I feel like that has happened to mine, since most of my soreness is now under the patella tendon area, on the infrapatellar fat pad.
This is pretty hard for me post surgery. Definitely need a pillow/bolster to sit on. But again, it feels like a great opener on the R knee which is where I had surgery.
Just the standard pose, but this is one of my favorites for my knees. It really allows me to see my bio-mechanical deficiensies — the R femur rotating in, the R foot flaying out. I really can work on bringing those back into alignment — at least as much as possible doing soft-tissue work like this.
Just a simple hip opener. I’m definitely tight here, and even though these are the basic poses and I often do the more advanced ones like pigeon and 1/2 pigeon, I can tell these are still working for me. And I can again see how much tighter one side is!
Feels great on the lower back to twist at the end of practice, but in this one, you wrap one leg over/around the other, so you get a slight ITB twist.
A time to rest and relax, but also to mentally probe your body to see what sensations you have and what has changed during the practice. 🙂
For < $10 off Amazon, this is a good book for anyone suffering knee pain that wants to explore yoga, and for even somewhat experience practitioners that want to learn more about how to use and modify these poses for knee issues, and how they can help your knees.
2sparrows 