Rambling on College

I'm in highschool now, and I actually have to start thinking about what I'm going to be doing when I grow up.
I have to figure out my strengths and weaknesses. This phenomenon is really weird. Anyone my age or older can attest to this, I am sure.
You see, I do not have the slightest clue of "what I'm going to do." I don't have to "figure it out" for awhile yet, but still.

Crinkly Yellow Paper

...I had a little too much time on my hands awhile ago (I don't even remember how long ago), and typed this whole thing up. Found it in a Word document, thought I'd share.

There is something so precious about a good book-- not just the story inside, but the book itself.

Where my mind wanders...

If people from foreign contries have diffuculty pronouncing, and sometimes cannot pronounce, the two "th" sounds, do they ever lisp?

Disclaimer

Any resemblance to sanity or rational thinking on this blog is purely intentional. However, its occurrence is random and the blog author makes no promise that it will be fully comprehensible. Additionally, all content is owned by the author, though any wonderful, random, abstract thoughts are free (and highly encouraged) for public use in thoughtful and/or prayerful settings. Under no circumstances may such wonderful thoughts be used to create destructive nuclear weapons unless said weapons are used to eradicate eeeeeeevil thoughts from the minds of those who have been indoctrinated in said eeeeeevil thoughts. The author of this blog makes no promise that it will be updated regularly and apologizes for this inevitable circumstance. In addition, the blog author may occasionally rant on such great and awful matters as stolen scarves. Please note that such rants do not reflect the perpetually hyper mood of said author.
Any questions and comments may be sent to wonderful_thoughts@yeahright.com. Spam is strictly forbidden under code 394 wherein it is stated that a ringwraith will be sent after said spammers. Replies will not be sent back to you by a helpful blog customer service.
The small print. If you are reading this you may be eligible for a Small Print Disclaimer Reader! award which the author of this blog may or may not make for her fellow blogging friends. Under no circumstances will the author promise to make said reward. However, to apply for said reward, you must be 1,000 years or younger, write a blog, write a Disclaimer, and contact blog author. Said author makes no promise that such an award will actually be made.  

Upside Down and Inside Out

 "A picture is worth a thousand words."

How often have you heard that?

Writing and art are really backwards representations of each other. Bear with me, please. It is not as absurd as it sounds.

Both writing and art are trying to achieve something: an imitation of truth. (at least, it had better!). It could be a tangible truth, like the texture of a flower or the color of the sea, or something un-sense-able but just as real, like the strong emotions of joy or the glory of our Lord.

 Art and writing are both personal expressions of truth. We try to capture some aspect of it that means much to us. Truth is rather hard to capture and turn into something so small as as the largest painting or fattest book. In fact, truth is so exhilarating that it quite refuses to be captured. Anyone who has written a story or drawn a picture has realized, to both their dismay and relief, that their representation is nothing compared to the real thing.

But that is slightly off-topic. While I could ramble on that tangent for milliennia, I am trying to explain why writing and art are the same thing, only backwards.

"A picture is worth a thousand words." Is it?

I have often been astounded at the inability of language to portray what is really meant. How often have you read a book with lengthy descriptions (particularly of landscapes or delicious scents) and come away wondering, "What in the world was that all about?"

In order to read a description, you really have to slow down. (Generally this is done the second time through a book, when you aren't anxiously awaiting the events of the next chapter). You have to take each building block and set it carefully upon the next. Only after all the words have been stacked up and formed into a mental image can you have some idea of what the author meant. When you read, you start with the details and build up to the final product.

Art, however, being primarily visual, throws the whole thing at you at once. You see the big picture and are left to discover the scrumptious details.

Surely a picture such as THIS means more, at first glance, than Alfred Tennyson's poem:
The splendor falls on castle walls/ and snowy summits old in story./ The long light shakes across the lakes...

But both tell the same story. The photograph gives the impression and leaves the details for you. The poem gives you the ingredients and leaves you to mix up the recipe. But both are describing the same sort of beauty. Really, they are the same thing. Just backwards. Writing starts from the ground up and art starts from the sky down. Both cover the same portion of space. You have to stand on your head to see it all at once.

Well, how is that for random? I do so love randomness. :)

What Child is This?

What child is this, who, laid to rest
On Mary's lap, is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet,
While shepherds watch are keeping?


Every child is a miracle. What else would you call such a little bundle of joy? Tiny fingers, innocent eyes, soft skin, sweet smell-- but most importantly-- a person?

But what is so important about this child? How can He be more than a miracle? What makes Him so special? He is just as weak and just as vulnerable as any other little baby. He is sleeping in His mother's arms, shivering slightly in the way that babies have a habit of, and probably drooling all over her sleeve.

This, this is Christ the King,
Whom shepherds guard and angels sing:
Haste, haste to bring him laud,
The Babe, the Son of Mary! 

This is Jesus, the Son of God. He is part of the Trinity. He is God.
He made the world. All of its complexities, all of its brilliancy-- He made it. He made you. It is because of Him that you and I exist at all.

What child is this? So small? So weak? So willing to suffer, for those that He created? So delicate and breakable? So human?


This is probably the single most important question you could be asking yourself right now. What child is this? Is this really God? Do you believe it? It is beyond your imagination, if you really try. Try, right now. Put away your fears of actually seeing this. Shut your eyes, forget lists of things to do, and spend ten seconds really paying attention. This child is more than a picture on Christmas cards.

Raise, raise the song on high,
The Virgin sings her lullaby:
Joy, joy, for Christ is born,
The Babe, the Son of Mary!

On Christmas Carols and Songs of the Holidays

When you think of Christmas, you (often) think of decorated trees, piles of presents, and Christmas songs. You think of carols sung by off-tune children (as in my family), instrumentals issuing from an iPod, concerts held by the next musician in the family...

Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and Frosty the Snowman are all favorites. They haunt your Christmas shopping in November and stay with you until December the Twenty-Sixth.

Songs such as these are great fun. They remind us of the simple, childish imagination. To many, these songs hold as much truth as Silent Night and Hark the Harold Angels Sing. To them, these songs are all things of imagination-- things that are fun to think of, but things that they do not believe in.

To Christians, however, these songs hold so much more meaning than Rudolf or Frosty. They are real. A child, sleeping in the feeding trough of rough animals, is the greatest human ever to walk the earth. This child is God Himself. The peace, the splendor, the humbled omniscience indicated by Silent Night are true. Tell me, does that not send a shiver down your spine? That joyful shiver is something that poor Rudolf never gives me.
This is truth, not a myth. And sometimes it seems too much to believe. Doesn't a baby born to save trillions of people sound as magical as a reindeer who leads a sleigh full of trillions of toys for joyful children? Doesn't the truth sound like a fairytale?

Perhaps that is the point. Take a short breather and look at Christmas as if it were something you had never seen. Take the risk of seeing an ordinary thing for the first time again. The truth is so magical that it is shocking. But it resounds so much clearer, so much deeper, so much sweeter than tales of a talking snowman.


To quote G.K. Chesterton, "Truth must always be stranger than fiction, because fiction is the creation of the human mind and is therefore congenial to it."

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Interesting Personality Test

I took an interesting personality test, called "Personality Patterns" on Facebook, and it was pretty accurate and interesting. Sorry I have suddenly posted a gazillion random things on the blog today. :P

These are the top ten results it gave. It is interesting how 90% of it is pretty spot-on. :) Oh, its pretty long so I am putting the jumpbrake button on. If you want to read it, press "Read More".

Rather Annoying

I hate it when books or articles state quite explicitly that they are going to "present the facts" just as they are, without any bias or hysteria, letting you choose your own viewpoint after seeing the hard facts, and then go on to end with a major climax which culminates in the author stating, very decidedly, what his/her opinion is and how anyone who cannot agree with them is obviously an unreasonable, vindictive creature. If your writing is going to be persuasive, please do not market it as an expository one (and particularly not on the front cover).

What they thought was empty...

God's creation really is something, isn't it?

Take the idea that that tiny bit of "nothing" held so much, and that we can't really comprehend how much it held.
Then take a moment to realize that all of the universe is just a very very small bit (think less than a spot that holds "nothing") of God's great majesty...

No matter what you believe about the physical beginning of the universe (this video takes for granted the big bang theory), it is still impressive...

One line in the video, something along the lines of "we pointed the most powerful telescope into empty space for no other reason than the fact that we were curious", reminded me of something I told Mom years ago. "God made science so that people are never bored, and so that they can keep on finding things out about them and God."
I'm not sure what you think, but I think that science can lead us so much closer to God... The world is His creation. When have you ever tried to learn about the character of an artist, and have not looked at his artwork? When have you ever tried to understand the mind of a musician without listening to his music? How could you learn about God without paying some attention to His creation. Of course, we can never learn all about Him. The very very most we could understand is such a tiny sliver of His greatness, for He is infinite. But all Christians are called to love God more and more... and when have you ever grown to love someone without understanding them, even the littlest bit?

Rambling thoughts pertaining to glasses and truth. :P

This is a somewhat random, rambling, confusing blog post...
My eyes have been sore from my contacts recently, so I haven't wore them except for volleyball. My glasses have found a nice little niche next to some favorite books on my bookshelf/nightstand... hey, if you are around the house all day, why do you need to wear glasses? You can just take the few extra steps up to the clock to see the time. I could practically go around my house blind! (Except for the fact that I would inevitably trip and fall over the myraid random messes cluttering every imaginable bit of the floor...)

To get back to my point.
Everything is slightly blurry when I do not have my glasses on. For years, this had never bothered me. My eyes had become blurry so slowly that I didn't notice they were becoming blurry.
If Mom hadn't asked why I wasn't able to see the clock on the microwave, I might not have realized that I wasn't seeing 20/20. When I got my glasses, I was amazed at how clear things could actually be. I'd either never known or never realized.

The fact that my glasses are not on now brought that back to mind again. A few years ago, I didn't realize that my vision was blurry, because I didn't know (or had forgotten) what "clear" vision was. Would I recognize just how wonderful clear vision is, if I had never had blurry vision?

To bring that same question up a huge notch: If we didn't know what evil is, would we know what good is? In the garden, Adam and Eve knew only good... Would they have eaten the apple if they knew what evil was? Would we, now, be able to love God as perfectly as us flawed humans are capable, if we didn't know about evil?

Sorry to end the post with rambling questions... Thats just me. :P I guess it doesn't have to end in a question- it can end in a statement.

God has a plan for everything. Nothing happens without being a part of that plan somehow, in someway.