Sermon for Christ the King Sunday (abridged)

On Friday, we marked the 50th anniversary of the death of a man who has had a lasting impact on our world. That man, of course, was C.S. Lewis. Although he wrote a great many works about Christian faith and life, he is probably best well-known for the Chronicles of Narnia, seven children's books that center on the magical world of Narnia, guarded and guided by Aslan, the Great Lion, son of the Emperor-Over-the-Sea.

Aslan is the Christ-figure for Narnia, as Lewis himself explained in a letter he wrote in 1961:

The whole Narnian story is about Christ...Supposing there really was a world like Narnia...and supposing Christ wanted to go into that world to save it (as he did ours), what might have happened? The stories are my answer. Since Narnia is a world of talking beasts, I thought he would become a talking beast there as he became a man here. I pictured him becoming a lion there because a) the lion is supposed to be the king of beasts; b) Christ is called 'the Lion of Judah' in the Bible.

I thought I would be able to do a lot to draw parallels between today's gospel reading of the crucifixion and the parallel plot point of Aslan's death on the Stone Table in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, but I encountered an unexpected problem: It's very easy looking at Aslan to assume he is a king. He's majestic and powerful and gorgeous. When the White Witch binds him to the Stone Table, they make a point of mutilating and shearing Aslan to make him look less kingly. But one of the remarkable things about the kingly nature of Jesus is that he always looked ordinary. There was nothing in his appearance (so far as I know) to set him apart from anyone else. The only thing that sets Jesus apart from the two other men being crucified around him, the only thing that makes it easy to pick him out, is that there's a sign over his head, saying "This is the King of the Jews."

I started wondering, what if C.S. Lewis had chosen instead to make Aslan a very ordinary animal. A dog, say -- not pure-bred. Just a mutt. A lab-pitbull mix, is what I was thinking. How would that have changed things?

Aslan is a wonderful character, but you have to admit, he looks kingly and noble from the get-go, all the more so when you're voiced by Liam Neeson. I wonder if one of the reasons -- one of the many reasons -- Jesus stirred up such violent passions against him is that he didn't look the part. He didn't look like a Lion of Judah; he looked like your average, skinny street dog of Nazareth.

But even though he didn't look the part, he still sounded the part. If you look at the two things Jesus says while on the cross, they sound mighty kingly, almost noblesse oblige: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing," and "Today you will be with me in paradise." There's even some arrogance in that. Here he is, powerless and nailed down, and he still speaks as though it is in his power to dispense forgiveness and welcome.

Both in Narnia and in our world, people felt the need to cut the Christ down to size. In Narnia, is was because they did see his kingship; in our world, because they didn't see it at all.

Various & Sundry: People to avoid, theologians to watch, magicians to mislead

Oh, I give up. I'm not getting anything else done today, so I might as well move on to the snips and snails of the blogging week that I wanted to share with you.

The White House has gotten some push back on its recent proposal...not to build a death star. The Mischiefs of Faction debate the estimated cost of building the Death Star, the intergalactic politics of blowing up planets, and the technical work-arounds for the thermal exhaust port problem. And Galactic Empire Public Relations also posted a response: Planet Earth Abandons Death Star Project In Face Of Superior Galactic Imperial Power. Our planet is such a wuss.

In school shooting news, I'm surprised we haven't heard more about the fact that it wasn't an armed guard that stopped a shooting in Bakersfield, but an unarmed teacher who talked a student into putting down his weapon. Of course it may have helped that this was a shotgun and not a semi-automatic.

I doubt I would be able to stand up to someone holding a shotgun. On the other hand, I would do well to remember these 5 types of people to run like heck from: Distract-o-matics, Grillers, Status Claimers, Narcissists, and Non-Learners.

I just finished a huge and hard project in 2012, and I realize the people that made that project successful were exactly the opposite of this list of five-to-avoid: They were collaborators who were open and willing to explore ideas together, inherently curious people, and ones who didn’t grade our relationship on some hierarchical scale but based on our shared interests.

Good to remember.

Impressive news from the world of theology: 10 theologians under the age of 10, inspired by works as varied as Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see? to Toy Story. Here's Derrick, age 10:

Author of Why I want to be an Archeologist
What was the first piece that had an impact on your theology?
The Missing Piece. I’m not sure you can say anything definitive about salvation and self-understanding if you’ve not read that book. This idea we have that we are somehow deficient, and need to spend our lives searching for that one piece that will make us whole is so destructive. Shel Silverstein did the world a great service.
Tell us a bit about the piece included for this list.
“Searching” is a theme in my life. Clarifying what our gifts and skills are is the first step to understanding who God has called and created us to be.
What makes good theology “good theology”?
I need it to do something new. Listen, we’ve all read Barth and Moltmann. Those guys are old hat. I want you to push a few boundaries. Make me see something I hadn’t before.
What is your current project?
I’m working on a lost treasure story. I’m thinking of calling it Seek and Ye Shall Find. Do you think that’s too on the nose?
Name one of your favorite theologians over 10.
I gotta go with Tony Jones. A Better Atonement is the best thing I read last year.

Suzannah Paul wrote a really great post on Privilege and the Emerging Church. Whitney Johnson and Tara Mohr remind women that work isn't school. And illusionist Derren Brown explains why you are deceived.

Review: The Hunger Games trilogy

Book 1: The Hunger Games

I've been meaning to read The Hunger Games books by Suzanne Collins for forever, but only just got to them last month. They were a very satisfying and interesting read.

Satisfying because they were well-written and plot driven and I love a good, dense, and well-constructed plot.

Interesting because the books allowed things to be complicated. "Good" and "bad" were not as clear-cut as they first appear. Finding the right person for you and falling in love is not a straightforward proposition. And heroic deeds are not all done by heroes, or even by nice people.

Book 2: Catching Fire

Nor is the result of heroic behavior restful sleep and pleasant dreams. Those called upon to kill one another, whether for justice or for entertainment, are severely damaged by the experience. And you don't often see that in hero's quest books of this nature.

For that reason, I liked the third book, Mockingjay, best of the three (though I though all were terrific). I appreciated how Collins both resolved the action in a truly satisfying way while writing the experience in a way that seemed emotionally believable.

Book 3: Mockingjay

One of the thought-provoking things about it was how it explored the notion that, one way or another, violence would be done and people would be hurt. So given that you have no perfect option, what is the best option you have? What if you know that no matter what you choose, other people will get hurt? What will you do? It reminded me, of all things, of the movie Lincoln, in which the awful choice is to allow the bloody Civil War to continue so that the violent system of slavery can be abolished. Either way, people suffer and die. So what do you choose? Whose lives do you spare? No matter which way you go, your hands are going to have blood on them. So how do you play the game?

Be warned: these books are very violent. Brutal, even. There's no way you'll get me to see the movie versions. But I doubt I'd want to anyway. The books are told in first person, and part of the pleasure and complexity of these books is thinking along with our protagonist Katniss Everdeen about what is happening and how to deal with it. I'm not sure I'd simply want to see what happens without also knowing the mental struggle that's going on inside.

Review: Feed - and vague thoughts on YA dystopias

The other night I finished Feed by MT Anderson, which was a tremendous novel, if highly disturbing. I can't remember how I first heard about it, but it was already on my pile from the library when NPR published its list of top 100 YA novels (where it ranks as number 88).

It was a quick read, but I wouldn't say it was an easy one. It's an Aldous Huxley dystopia, a la Brave New World, in which control is acquired through pleasure rather than repression.

In the highly believable world Feed creates, at every moment the feed implanted in your brain from childhood is selling you things, gathering data on what you purchase to further discern your demographic, and selling you more based on that information. Each chapter ends with some of the ads coming through on the feed, disrupting your own thought processes as you watch clips of pitches of products pass by. It isn't our world, but it is way too easy to imagine a world like that. It was like looking at current society in a distorted and magnifying mirror and realizing the essential parts of you were still being reflected in it.

I looked up MT Anderson as I was reading the book and can't say I was super surprised to learn that his mother is an Episcopal priest. You know he was steeped in something when you get a sentence like this:

The sun was rising over foreign countries, and underwear was cheap, and there were new techniques to reconfigure pecs, abs, and nipples, and the President of the United States was certain of the future, and at Weatherbee & Crotch there was a sale banner and nice rugby shirts and there were pictures of freckled prep-school boys and girls in chinos playing on the beach and dry humping in the eel grass, and as I fell asleep, the feed murmured to me again and again: All shall be well...and all shall be well...and all manner of things shall be well.

In Feed, people young and old are lulled, mollified, and plied with treats. Contrast this with (or compare it to) The Hunger Games, another YA dystopian novel, only in The Hunger Games it is want and scarcity that drives the plot, and rather than being entertained, the young protagonists are to be the entertainment.

All of which has got me thinking about how many dystopian novels seem to be geared toward teens. I don't remember this being the case when I was young. Aside from The Lord of the Flies, the dystopias all involved adults--and Lord of the Flies (though we read it in school) wasn't considered a YA novel.

So why is it that there is so much dystopian literature for youth nowadays? Is it because the youth are the ones listening? Or the ones the authors think need to hear it? Or is it because that's the way to sneak this message out there to old and young alike? Because one thing's for darn sure in both Feed and The Hunger Games: the dystopia ain't the young folks' fault.

Various & Sundry, mostly in England, ending in China

Well, let's see what we've got here as I shuffle through the ol' V&S pile today.  Hmmm...

Let's start with some hats. It was Royal Ascot this week and the fabulous hats were on full display. So hard to pick a favorite, but I'm going to have to go with this one.

Then again, in keeping with Toepfer family tradition, perhaps I should go with this one:

Oh, FIE on tradition, I say! I'm going with the classy summery number, if I can get my hands on it.

While we're in England, "An organization and methods engineer submitted this report after visiting the Royal Festival Hall:

There seems to be too much repetition of some musical passages. Scores should be drastically pruned. No useful purpose is served by repeating on the horns a passage which has already been handled by the strings. It is estimated that if all redundant passages were eliminated, the whole concert time of two hours could be reduced to twenty minutes, and there would be no need for an interval.

More practical suggestions here.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Olympic Committee, preparing itself for the London games, is still trying to dig itself out of the hole it found itself in after picking on some social media-savvy knitters.  Here's the story:

Ravelry, a social network of knitting enthusiasts, planned to hold its “Ravelympics” this summer—with competitions such as an “afghan marathon”—to coincide with the London games.

The USOC noticed and sent the group a cease and desist letter, because the term “Olympics” and anything resembling are protected by a copyright...

The knitters didn’t appreciate the tone of the letter, so these savvy social networkers took to Twitter, Facebook, and their blogs in protest....

[One] asked: “You tell all recipients of your standard cease and desist letter that what they're doing is denigrating and disrespectful to Olympic athletes?”

And another said: “First we're denigrating, now we're stupid. We are supposed to believe a C&D form letter includes that kind of language?”

Lesson 1: don't annoy people who carry pointed sticks with them wherever they go.

Lesson 2: Consider throwing an apology party. You can do this now with this official Apology Party Kit. It includes an "I'm so so sorry" mini banner, wine bottle label, two coasters and apology card with envelope. To be honest, the apology card needs some serious work, but it's a nice idea.

Come to think of it, maybe the USOC did use the apology kit!

In more serious news, I thought this article from Relevant Magazine offers an important challenge to many of us who want to do good. As the author says, "People who are genuinely nice people can cause really bad things to happen if they get lost in a pursuit of greatness." She shows us how and why that is.

In obituary news, the one that touched me the most was the obituary for Otis Clark, who "survived Tulsa’s race riots to become butler to Joan Crawford; in later life became the world’s oldest travelling evangelist." I didn't know anything about the Tulsa race riots of 1921 until reading Rev. Clark's obituaries. Bad, bad stuff. My goodness, Rev. Clark saw a lot in his life.

The picture here is of him at the age of 103, the year when he went on a mission trip to Africa. "He liked to boast that he needed no medications and had kept all his teeth bar one ('the dentist tricked me out of it'). His longevity he attributed to 'holding on to the Big Boss upstairs'." Well, all right for you.

Let's end with a classic, the Wizard of Oz...in China. Isn't it beautiful? (h/t Anibundel)

There's also a Cowardly Tiger!

Various & Sundry, May 18

Would it surprise you to find out your mother was a spy? I loved this article about the woman who left the CIA to become a children's book author.  Must have come as a shock to her daughter, though.

“When Hana turned 8, I took her to the International Spy Museum for a fun program they hold, called Operation Secret Slumber. I gave the keynote talk, telling the assembled kids about the real work of spies. Hana was in the back of the room, but I saw her hand shoot up into the air. Wonderment spread across her face, she blurted out ‘So you’re here because you’re the spy?’"

Surprise!

James Lipton offers advice to Mitt Romney on How to Act Human. It's quite specific: how to laugh, how to hold your arms, problems of casting. I thought it was a fascinating insight into how actors observe someone playing the role of a public figure.

If you want some inspiration, read this story about the Columbia University janitor who just graduated with a degree in Classics.  With Honors.  After 12 years. That's after the six years he spent learning English. Truly impressive.

As a classics major, I wonder if he would approve of Dante's Inferno in Lego form.  Or would he think it was a heresy.

Internet Monk offers a lost parable of Jesus: the Sugar of the Earth.

And Jesus spoke to them and said, “You are the powdered sugar of the earth. As sugar is sprinkled on cakes and cookies to make them attractive and exceedingly sweet, so you shall make my church the most delightful confection the world has known. For the children of this world have an insatiable sweet tooth, and you shall satisfy those who hunger and thirst for empty calories."

Yes, it's slightly bitter.  But oh so good.

Also deliciously bitter, this letter W.H. Auden sent to his priest at St. Mark's in the Bowery.  Liturgy geeks, enjoy. Everyone else, you may go about your day in a practical manner.

Various & Sundry: Wild Things of various types

Hey, anybody graduating out there?  I forgot to post this last week, but you really ought to read 10 Things Your Commencement Speaker Won't Tell You--though you may have seen it already.  It's been making the rounds.  My personal favorite is number 3: Don't Make the World Worse.  Although of course I have a soft spot for #6: "Read obituaries. They are just like biographies, only shorter. They remind us that interesting, successful people rarely lead orderly, linear lives." Well, duh.

Even if you don't read the obituaries, you probably heard that Maurice Sendak died this week.  I loved this anecdote about his response to a fan letter from a little boy--and how the boy responded in turn.  There's a sermon in there, if you're a sermonating type.

Also in obituaries: Vidal Sassoon!  I had no idea what a revolutionary he was, and how he changed hairstyling. Thank you, Vidal Sasson, for saving us from so much teasing.  And talk about an unorderly, unlinear life.

How about a fashion spread to go along with the Vidal Sassoon 5-point cut?  Tom & Lorenzo featured this spread from Ponystep Magazine (I'd never heard of it), featuring the models Ratka Mayor, Vivien Bridson, and Edna Mathieson, who are totally fabulous. How could you not adore them?  Also: I want that coat.  And the handbag.  Shoes...not so much.  But I want to look that good wearing cats-eye glasses like that.

And now, for something completely different.  I loved this story about the Kenyan boy named Richard Turere who, at the age of 11, figured out how to keep the lions away from the family cattle. Check this out!

He observed that the lions never struck the homesteads when someone was awake and walking around with a flashlight. Lions are naturally afraid of people. He concluded that lions equate torches with people so he took the led bulbs from broken flashlights and rigged up an automated lighting system of four or five torch bulbs around the cattle stockade. The bulbs are wired to a box with switches, and to an old car battery charged with a solar panel that operates the family Television set. The lights don’t point towards the cattle, or on any property, but outwards into the darkness. They flash in sequence giving the impression that someone is walking around the stockade.

Voila! No losses by lion.  And the neighbors have come calling for his help.  AfriGadget is looking for a way to scale up his idea.  I hope young Richard, there, is amply rewarded.

Have a great weekend.

Obit du jour: Mark Hall, a creator of "Danger Mouse"

I loved Danger Mouse as a kid, so I was affected when I saw that one of its creators, Mark Hall, has died.

And if you don't know Danger Mouse, well, you just need to that he's the dashing eye-patched rodent superagent who lives in a pillar box with his hamster assistant Penfold.

Oh, heck, here's the theme song:

Various & Sundry, July 15

Too many interesting obituaries to list here, so that will be a separate entry and probably a new feature. Something like "This week in death," perhaps. I'll post it tomorrow.

In the meantime, here are some other interesting things I saw this week.

I wish I'd seen the recipe for this cake before the 4th of July. I'll just have to remember to do it next year. Actually, I'll probably have to do some sample cakes because the technique looks a little tricky, but heck. I like cake.

Under the heading of "Things that irk me," I read this article about a woman who will potentially be sentenced to 93 days in jail because she is growing vegetables in her front yard. Yep. As opposed to “suitable, live, plant material.” Are you thinking to yourselves that vegetables are live plant material? Ah, but they are not "suitable." And what is suitable? Not vegetables, apparently. I'm glad I don't live in Michigan or I would have been thrown in the hoosegow long ago.

I cannot wait to see the new Harry Potter movie. Actually, I guess I can wait or I would have seen it already. In the meantime, I loved this profane and straight-talking piece that contends the books should be named after Hermione Granger and makes the case why.

When the time comes around to fight, the boys are like, “Oh wow, look at this thing that happened. Isn’t that crazy?” while Hermione is like, “Idiots, I figured that out like 5 books ago. CAN YOU PLEASE FOCUS.”

Awesome.  (I said something similar last year, but hers is much funnier.)

The thing about the Harry Potter movies is that they make the passage of time so clear. It seems appropriate to share with you 40 things that will make you feel old. Including this picture of Daniel Radcliffe at the time of the first movie. He's so young! I feel old all of a sudden.

Continuing our theme of the passage of time, I absolutely loved this photo of a father and son at the first and last space shuttle launch. The son posted the pair on Flickr,saying it was "The picture we waited 30 years to complete." Details here. Isn't it lovely?

Tuesday Book Blogging

It's Children's Book Week this week! I feel I ought to get a new children's book to celebrate. What do you recommend?

In the meantime, I finished the decidedly un-children's book Judgment of Paris. I'm not sure I would recommend this if you are not interested in the technical aspects of wine, winemaking, or terroir, but I thought it was fascinating, if somewhat dense in detail. I'm sad to report after reading the book that the movie gets it almost entirely wrong. Really shockingly wrong. (California wines place first in the blind taste test in both cases, but that's about it.) Still love Alan Rickman, though.

I'm currently reading, not a children's book, but the book When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead by Jerry Weintraub. Apparently, the Judi Dench book whetted my appetite for name-dropping celebrity memoirs full of chatty anecdotes. Loving it. Here's a teaser:

I told Betty Grable about this years later, that my career was made possible by her belch--I don't think it thrilled her. She smiled and said, "Well, Jerry, I'm glad I could help."

In the "I probably shouldn't..." file, new parents might appreciate this book. (h/t Design Fetish) A sample verse:

The cats nestle close to their kittens now.
The lambs have laid down with the sheep.
You're cozy and warm in your bed, my dear
Please go the fuck to sleep.

Have a great day!

Various and Sundry, April 15

I actually didn't flag a lot to share this week. I did love this obituary for Thomas Eisner, an entomologist who studied insect chemical warfare, among other things. The obit quote: “Insects won’t inherit the Earth,” Eisner once said. “They own it now.”

I had to laugh this week when that blog entry about The Giving Tree that got me all hot and bothered a couple of weeks ago showed up on Andrew Sullivan's blog. I'm not the only one to get hot and bothered. Best of all, though, was this video from Sassy Gay Friend, staging an intervention.



And of course you MUST check out this year's winners of the Washington Post Peep Diorama contest. Congratulations to the winner!

Tuesday Book Blogging: review of Blackout and All Clear; The Controversial Giving Tree

The Anonymous Historian and I have been playing phone tag since she returned from Paris so I haven't been able to get the "Can you believe when..." and "I knew that she..." stuff out of my system, so I hope the review below won't contain any spoilers.

The two-part book Blackout and All Clear concerns a group of time traveling historians, part of the same group of Oxford historians Connie Willis has introduced before. This time, they are in London during the Blitz--not the safest place to be. The anxiety level of the protagonists is high throughout the latter half of the first book and the first half of the second book, almost to the point where it was annoying. But then again, they were getting bombed every night, which would set anyone on edge, time-traveling woes or no.

The thing that was most powerful about this book was the feeling that you got of what it might be like to live through the Blitz. The constant uncertainty, the constant lack of sleep, the people you know getting hurt or killed. You also got a much better understanding of how many people were part of the war effort in one way or another. One of the historians is unhappy to be assigned to a theatrical group as part of her national service, but comes to see how this, too, was part of getting through the war. Another historian has come to study heroism, thinking it would be at Dunkirk. Instead he finds it...everywhere, and in the smallest things. A third historian, originally placed with child evacuees, comes to see even her incorrigible charges, the horrible Hodbins, have a role to play.

Despite their length, the books are incredibly well plotted. It's a very lean 1,100 page novel and a total page turner. I lost a lot of sleep reading way too late at night.

It was also simply fun to see familiar names, places, and events seen through different eyes. Alan Turing almost hits one of the historians while biking recklessly to Bletchley Park. The Queen of England, General Patton--and his dog--all make an appearance.

But mostly this is about all the people who won the war through their day to day efforts, and all the small events upon which history turned. In her acknowledgments, Willis thanks "the marvelous group of ladies who were at the Imperial War Museum the day I was there doing research on the Blitz--women who, it turned out, had all been rescue workers and ambulance drivers and air-raid wardens during the Blitz, and who told me story after story that proved invaluable to the book and to my understanding of the bravery, determination, and humor of the British people as they faced down Hitler." These books are dedicated to them, and are a worthy paean.

***

In other book news, Chaplain Mike over at Internet Monk posted a sweet entry about his favorite book The Giving Tree. Little did he know how many of us hate-- HATE with a white hot passion -- The Giving Tree, so much so that he ultimately had to close the comments.

What fascinates me is how wide the commentary on The Giving Tree runs. I thought this collection of brief responses to The Giving Tree captured the complexity of thought very well.

So what's your take on The Giving Tree? Tale of grace and generosity? Of environmental degredation? Of the subjugation of women? Love it? Hate it? I am now supremely curious to hear how other people hear this.

"The Higher Power of Lucky"

I just finished reading the 2006 Newberry Award book The Higher Power of Lucky after hearing of the kerfuffle it caused amongst teachers and school librarians everywhere for its use of the word "scrotum." Since it was a dog's scrotum, I'm not sure it was as scandalous as folks made it out to be, but when our hero, Lucky, asks her guardian at the end of the book what a scrotum is, you can hear in the character's answer the threat that this question implies.

After answering, Brigitte, the guardian, asks Lucky why she wants to know.

"'It was just something I heard someone say,' said Lucky.

"For some reason, Brigitte said, 'You know if anyone ever hurt you I would rip their heart out.'"

And for this reader at least, the reason Brigitte said that is clear. Is she asking because a man's scrotum has appeared in Lucky's life? And throughout the book Lucky seems on the cusp of discovering something about her sexuality. It's lurking just behind the text, but is never stated outright. I suspect that also had something to do with the disapproval this book received.

That and the emphasis on evolution. This whole book works on the assumption that evolution is a scientific fact. There's much mention of adaptation as well as evolving. A schoolteacher (imagine!) teaches about how polar bears adapted to their environment. And there's more mention of Charles Darwin in this book than in any other I've seen, much less a children's book. Lucky's dog is HMS Beagle and Charles Darwin is her favorite scientist. I didn't hear any mention of this in the press, but I wonder how much this affected the attitudes of some teachers and parents.

Personally, I liked the book. I liked the tone and the language. But can I just say, no more orphans! Lemony Snicket can do it because he is being ironic, but why the endless appeal of the parentless child in children's literature? I have grown tired of the convention, but then, I'm not a child any more.