I was reading in bed last night and stumbled across this line. I must have read it 30 times before I put the book down and turned off my light, right in the middle of the chapter. I fell asleep with "cannot surmount the established conclusions amid which it has been reared" ringing in my head.

"In the problems which the Almighty sets his humble servants things hardly ever happen the same way twice over, or if they seem to do so there is some variant which stultifies undue generalisation. The human mind, excet when guided by extraordinary genius, cannot surmount the established conclusions amid which it has been reared."

-----Winston Churchill, from "The Gathering Storm"

And now for some timeless quotations from When Harry Met Sally.. . . .

Harry Burns: "Had my dream again where I'm making love, and the Olympic judges are watching. I'd nailed the compulsaries, so this is it, the finals. I got a 9.8 from the Canadians, a perfect 10 from the Americans, and my mother, disguised as an East German judge, gave me a 5.6. Must have been the dismount."

Harry: "No man can be friends with a woman he finds attractive. He always wants to have sex with her."
Sally: "So you are saying that a man can be friends with a woman he finds unattractive?"
Harry: "No, you pretty much want to nail them too."


Harry Burns: "I love that you get cold when it's 71 degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle in your nose when you're looking at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night. And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."

I also picked up three albums today.

Jeff Buckley and Gary Lucas: "Songs to No One" = a disappointment on the whole, with a few moments of brilliance, and many moments of academic interest to any Buckley fan. Don't buy it unless you're a fan.

Foo Fighters: "One on One" = blistering opening track, then fades significantly after that and doesn't return. Where have all the hooks gone Mr. Grohl? Did you forget them when you discovered you could scream a chorus? This album is okay. I may change my mind after a few listens, but it didn't make me do the dance of joy that all three of the first albums did. I guess 3 out of 4 ain't bad.

Joshua Redman Quartet: "Moodswing" = Wow! This is a beauty of an album. Mehldau on Piano, Christian McBride on Bass and Brian Blade on drums. . . you can't ask for much more if it's the best of young talent that you are looking for. Redman's sax is evocative of so many great moods, and the backing band is stellar in their own right. Thanks to Wilfred for the tip on this gem. Go out and buy it.

Well, I finally managed to do it. . . I got a flu shot. Hopefully this will help "Ebola Boy" get through the flu season. Funny moment: standing in a line of old people about 30 deep, the man in front of me is mumbling about the high prices of liquor nowadays as he lics his lips rather loudly while looking at a bottle of absolute citron. Then the lady behind me chimes in with, "you look like a healthy young man, what are you doing in this line." "Chronic fatigue syndrome" I whisper as if it's the plague. She responds rather loudly, "I see. I have Lupus. I picked it up from the birth control pill." As I look around to notice that everyone heard that proclamation, I give her my best Ace Ventura "Ahh (as in I see)" with raised eyebrows. Assuming that she's hooked a sympathetic ear, she proceeds to talk to me, or rather at me, for the next 15 minutes we're in line. It was too funny. She was a nice old gal.

I am a 29 year old geriatric.

"In the Trinity Term I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. I did not then see what is now the most shining and obvious thing; the Divine humility which will accept a convert even on such terms. The Prodigal Son at least walked home on his own feet. But who can duly adore that Love which will open the high gates to a prodigal who is brought in kicking, struggling, resentful, and darting his eyes in every direction for a chance of escape?"

-----C.S. Lewis, "Surprised by Joy"

"With all sorts of doubts I am familiar, and the result of them is, has been, and will be, a widening of my heart and soul and mind to greater glories of the truth ... ... ... I cannot say I never doubt, nor until I hold the very heart of good as my very own in Him, can I wish not to doubt.  For doubt is the hammer that breaks the windows clouded with human fancies, and lets in the pure light."

-----George MacDonald, "From Letter to an Unknown lady."

Manifesto:
The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

by Wendell Berry

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won't compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.

Listen to carrion -- put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn't go.

Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

"I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please, not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don't want enough of God to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please."

-----Wilbur Rees

Well Blake posted a nice tribute to the Chicago trip on his site, so I thought I better offer my take as well.

- I too watched Like Mike and actually enjoyed it for what it was.
- Yes, the Fairmont was really as expensive and unhelpful as Blake said.
- The food in Chicago was amazing. I didn't eat at one place that was bad. Bennigan's was great, Pizzaria Duo was amazing, and Bandera had great jazz (Dave Wilson Trio) and a "saucy" little Romanian waitress named Miruna. Not to mention the best pork tenderloin I've ever had!!
- The Art Institute was brilliant once again. Highlights for me, Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Picasso, Seurat, and Chagall's Stained Glass windows.
- Riding the train is always a pleasure. Shame on the oil mongers in LA for not creating a usefull public transit network.
-Realizing that though he's run 14 marathons, my Dad hates to walk, and will take the bus even if it takes him longer to get somewhere than walking does.
- Vincent, Blake's sister's overweight cat, playing with a candy corn pumpkin like it was a dead mouse.
-Shopping in Evanston bookstores
-Seeing "Red Dragon" with my Mom.
-Running the marathon with little to no pain. Watching my brother slug it out in severe pain. Feeling inspired by that performance, and the performance of my old man who, much to my chagrin, can still outrun us all.
-Visiting a Presbyterian church downtown and seeing a photo exhibit from 9/11 taken by associated press photogs.
-Taking the elevator to the top of the Hancock (John, not Herbie) building to get a 360 panorama of the city for free.
-Watching the Angels pummel Minnesota while I rested from the marathon.
-Flying home with Blake and Scott. Watching Blake fall asleep five minutes after boarding only to remain in that same position for 3 hours straight. Laughing when he woke up with mashed face and hair.
-Waiting for John to come pick us up, figuring he'd forgotten us after 30 minutes of waiting, taking a cab to Scott's car, realizing after the cab left that Scott's battery was dead, calling AAA to come jump the car, getting home just as John pulls up saying that he's been at the airport for 2 hours looking for us.
-Priceless.

`` Ozzy Osbourne used to snort ants. Led Zeppelin had sex with hookers on
private planes. And I start a book club. Because one can only snort so
many ants and have so much sex before one starts to long for the comfort
and companionship of a book.''

-----Moby

I'm leaving for a week in Chicago. I've got some training to do with my company, OKI, and then I'm going to take a couple days of vacation around the city and run the marathon on the 13th with my Dad and Brother. Should be a good time. Having said that, I probably won't be posting too much on this site for the next 10 days. But I'll leave you with this:

"If you have never known the power of God's love, then maybe it is because you have never asked to know it---I mean really asked, expecting an answer.
I am saying just this: go to him the way the father of the sick boy did (cf. Mark 9) and ask him. Pray to him, is what I am saying. In whatever words you have. And if the little voice that is in side all of us as the inheritance of generations of unfaith, if this little voice inside says, 'But I don't believe. I don't believe,' don't worry too much. Just keep on anyway. 'Lord, I believe; help my unbelief' is the best any of us can do really, but thank God it is enough.
Seek and you will find---this is the power of God's love to heal, to give peace and, at last, something like real life, so that little by little, like the boy, you can get up. Yes, get up. But we must seek---like a child at first, like playing a kind of game at first because prayer is so foreign to most of us. It is so hard and it is so easy. And everything depends on it. Seek. Ask. And by God's grace we will find. In Christ's name and with his power I can promise you this."

-----Frederick Buechner, "The Power of God, The Power of Man" from the book "The Magnificent Defeat"

"When I get honest, I admit I am a bundle of paradoxes. I believe and doubt, I hope and get discouraged, I love and I hate, I feel bad about feeling good, I feel guilty about not feeling guilty. I am trusting and suspicious. I am honest and I still play games. Aristotle said I am a rational animal; I say I am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer."

----Brennan Manning, "The Ragamuffin Gospel"

Even my Tarot card says I'm an INTJ. I guess being a moralist is just the bane of my existence. That must be why I need to read guys like Brennan Manning to keep me grounded.

"FIRE OF AIR. Serious and intellectual, you live in the world of thoughts and ideas. You grasp things quicker than most and are a master debater. Your verbal skills are unparalleled; your conversations are stimulating. You are concerned with issues of justice. Your standards are high, so there is danger of becoming too moralistic. While truth is generally an honorable thing, chew on this: "Why Yes Herr Strudel, my neighbor IS hiding Jews in his basement!" You're Christopher Walken in Suicide Kings."

Quiz
created by Polly Snodgrass.

FIRE OF AIR. Serious and intellectual, you live in the world of thoughts and ideas. You grasp things quicker than most and are a master debater. Your verbal skills are unparalleled; your conversations are stimulating. You are concerned with issues of justice. Your standards are high, so there is danger of becoming too moralistic. While truth is generally an honorable thing, chew on this: "Why Yes Herr Strudel, my neighbor IS hiding Jews in his basement!" You're Christopher Walken in Suicide Kings.

"The universe would be to me no more than a pasteboard scene, all surface and no deepness, on the stage, if I did not hope in God. I will not say believe, for that is a big word, and it means so much more than my low beginnings of confidence. But a little faith may wake a great big hope, and I look for great things from him whose perfection breathed me out that I might be a perfect thing one day. The more we trust, the more reasonable we find it to trust."

-----George MacDonald
From a letter to Lady Mount-Temple, 1888