The Brothers Karamazov (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)

I close out July with the strangest thing that's ever happened to me book-wise.  I was 20% into Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov.  This is a tale of a despicable father and his four sons (by two marriages and an affair).  Each son has a very different personality, but the whole family has significant issues (save perhaps the third son Alyosha).  Dostoyevsky uses the flawed but unique characters as a vehicle for discussing theology and other matters.  Like other Dostoyevsky literature, I was enjoying the presentation of man's depravity but bewildered by the nature of character's exchanges in the novel (do people in Russia really talk like this?  If so, you'd think every Russian beset with insanity).  I was slogging through it with mixed feelings when I noticed something odd.

In most books, page 237 comes after page 236.  Here, 236 was proceeded by 589; see below picture if you doubt me.  It incremented correctly from 589 for about 60 pages (until page 652), then went back to page 301 and was correct until the end.  I thought it was just a number error- that the book was complete, just some pages were labeled incorrectly.  But no- it really is the text from page 589.  I know because pages 589-652 are repeated later in the book (in their proper place).  In short, the book's page numbers are as follows: page 1-236, 589-652, 301-897.  Pages 237-300 are omitted entirely, and 589-652 are repeated.

So, with mixed feelings I put down the book, and I mean that in the permanent sense.  'Tis destined for the recycling.  I do want to read the rest some day (I'll have to start from scratch, I'm sure)- it's holds enough promise to warrant a second attempt.  But the library has only a different translation, and I have other books on the docket.  Till next time, Dostoyevsky.  Till next time.

Rating (anticipated): B

Batman v Superman: Ultimate Edition

Back in April, Batman v Superman (reviewed here) was released to mixed reviews (I enjoyed it).  Now, we get the movie's ultimate edition, which adds 30 more minutes to an already long film (this new edition clocks in at over 3 hours).  Is it worth it?

The answer is "sort of."  It helps flesh out some backstory skimmed over in the theatrical release, making the plot more understandable and the character's actions more comprehensible.  But the problems of the original remain, and so I'm wrestling with whether or not all the extra footage was justified.  Perhaps the biggest problem with the film is Batman's remarkably fast change of heart towards Superman- and that remains unchanged.  Other complaints- dragging plot among them- are not addressed and in some cases worsened here.

In the end, if you liked the first cut, you'll probably appreciate this.  If you didn't like the theatrical release, you'll probably find this worse.  Mind that it's rated R (for violence); the original was PG-13.  A good review of this ultimate cut is here.

Rating: A-

Saving the Bible from Ourselves (Glenn Paauw)

If you're a serious Christian, you've read the Bible.  And according to Glenn Paauw, chances are you've been reading it wrong.  In Saving the Bible from Ourselves, Paauw looks at seven practices that tend to distort our approach to and interpretation of Scripture.  These are discussed at a high level below; any quotes are from the book.

Book Overview

Paauw argues that we've messed with the Bible in 7 principle ways:

1. Distorting the Presentation

"Marking divisions in the text is perhaps the key intervention made through the Bible's history."  Originally the books of the Bible were presented without division (they didn't even have punctuation or spaces between the words).  We added spaces and punctuation to aid reading of the text, and then took it a step further.  The modern chapter system was developed around 1200 by Englishman Stephen Langton; numbered verse divisions took common hold in 1551 (thanks to Robert Estienne, a French printer, though the concept had been tried earlier).  The result?  A fragmented Bible where the form has changed.  "If you change the form, you change the content."  Fragmenting is an artificial segmentation that lends itself to misunderstanding key passages by breaking them up in unnatural ways that the authors never intended.  In addition, different literary forms like poetry, letters, and historical narrative all tend to merge together because they're presented identically.

The Bible is a collection, not of verses, but of books. The locus of meaning in the Bible is the individual book.  Each book has a unique purpose and point of view, addresses a unique situation or need, and employs a definite literary type, or genre. These books have long been hidden from view and it’s past time they were revealed in all their rich, diverse and complex-yet-simple glory.

2.  Snacking

Too often, our modern approach to the Bible is by reading only short passages.  In short, we 'snack' on Scripture rather than 'feasting' on entire books.  This approach makes it easy to take verses out of context.  We believe verse-by-verse dissection of supreme importance, but many nuances can be lost here.  The danger?  "It filters the Bible into predetermined categories of things we already know we want to hear."  We look for stand-alone verses to comfort or win arguments without considering the context or bigger picture of Scripture.  We need to read entire books- and we need to read all 66 of them.  "My understanding of any one of the books will be limited without a comprehension of the shape and movement of the whole collection."  We need to read the Bible at length.

Once we begin with whole books, we can work our way both up (to collections of books and on to the entire story) and down (to the parts that make up a book—a single story, parable, oracle, vision, or one of the points in the body of an instructive letter). But both of these secondary steps are dependent on getting this first step right. When we read whole books we will be equipped for looking more broadly at other levels of meaning.

3. Ignoring the Historical

The Bible is "historical in its subject matter- it all revolves are what God has done and is continuing to do in history."  Yes, "the Scriptures are the revelation of a personal, relational, incarnational God to actual human communities of men and women with names in history."  And yet we often underplay or ignore entirely the historical nature of the Bible.  We've "inherited a suspicion that too much history (that is, too much attention to the human side of the Bible) is bad for the Bible and for our faith."

Why do we do this?  Perhaps because "we intuitively want the Bible to speak directly to us.  But it doesn't.  It spoke directly to its original audience (and not as an easily-indexed handbook of religious topics either).  It speaks indirectly to us.  What it says about anything and everything it says in the language, literary forms and patterns of thought common to ancient worldviews and cultures."  We needn't be dismayed about this; instead, we should rejoice when we realize that "God has wed his story to ours, and ours to his. He is intimately involved.  God is a God of history.  Therefore the Bible is a book intertwined with history, and understanding it aright includes the good, hard work of historical investigation."  The Bible is divinely inspired, and "the whole Bible is for us, even if it wasn't written to us.  But appropriating the message for ourselves, now, means first doing the necessary due diligence on what the message was for others, then."  We must recognize that "God worked in and through the regular ways people communicated in antiquity to bring his particular message into the world."

God has chosen to use existing human forms and elements—language, culture, history and literature—as his means to communicate. Thus our good reading will mean accepting, learning and accounting for these human elements. At the same time, since these are God’s inspired, authoritative writings, we are assured the Scriptures will express his intentions for us, reveal our salvation, guide our living and give birth to our hope.

4. De-dramatizing the Story

"We live in stories."  "We relentlessly try to connect the dots of our experiences."  To be sure, the Bible is a story.  "Stories essentially make the claim that one experience, one event, one thing, is related to the next one that follows it.  Stories are series of links that posit meaning."  Our history, therefore, "is not a random series of actions and speeches, signifying nothing.  The story has a plot."  In the Bible, we see "both unpredictability and teleology: we don't know what will happen next, but we believe our lives are headed toward some goal."

When we look at the Bible as just an 'instruction manual,' we lose the story; we miss the point.  "To lose story, to try and read the Bible in some other, lesser manner is to lose the connections between things.  Pieces of teaching and wisdom and law and praise and lament and the telling of individual events were never meant to stand aloof, disconnected from each other."  We need to learn two fundamental things about the Bible: "(1) there really are different acts in the drama, so things change, and (2) it really is a single story, so the acts are related to each other and there are abiding patterns that persist over time."  It's important to discern both elements in the story of Scripture.

'Scripture as story' tells us that the hope and promises of Scripture are not abstract, groundless ideas; they're based in what has happened, what is happening, and what is to come.  At the highest level, "the story of the Bible is the ongoing interplay between a faithful God and his unstable children.  This is what used to be called progressive revelation, but can be even more helpfully identified as the dramatic movement of a story."  "The narrative of the Bible contains all the standard elements of the classic five-act drama, which [N.T.] Wright defines succinctly as Creation, Fall, Israel, Jesus, and Church."  The "whole story turns on how God is in Christ reconciling the world to himself."  What is our role in this story?

"What the Bible does not do, though there are many who wish it did, is script our parts in any kind of detail.  It's not as though we can simply go to the Bible and look up our lines for the day.  So how does the Bible speak to, inform, direct, guide- in short have any authority in- our lives today?"  In short, the Scriptures "are inviting us to take up our own roles within the community of the new creation.  We are being called to enter the story."  "We learn early on in the Bible that the world is ours to run, to shape, to manage, to rule.  And we learn later on in the story that we are to do so as servant-leaders in the pattern of our self-sacrificing King Jesus."  We live in "a world in which the renewal of all things in Christ has already begun," and "we've been given a multitude of gifts to help us keep the redemption story going in our world."  So may we remember that "we are real players in the story," "our actions matter," and "God honestly responds to them."  We are in "a Christ-centered story that is as yet unconcluded."

5. Neglecting this World

We tend to read the Bible "as the story of salvation based on escape from this world."  Some have even called the Bible "Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth."  Yet this perspective is disastrously wrong, as this thinking "redirects us from the crucial message of restoration and renewal that is actually in the Bible."

It's clear from the work of Christ that "escape from creation was never the plan.  Confronting and defeating evil within creation was."  "The story is one of restoration and life and not defeat and retreat to some other realm."  It's about recovery, "not an abandonment of the original purpose."  In the end, this "is a new creation story, not a post-creation story . . . God will come back to his now rebuilt temple and make his home with us, here."  Scripture's contrasts aren't about "down here [earth] and up there [heaven];" they're about "now and then"- "this present evil age and the hope of the age to come."  And "we are outposts of the kingdom of God in the territory he has reclaimed as his own."

If the goal is no longer escape from the world but engagement with it in the interest of God’s reclamation project, then we have reason to listen more carefully to what the text tells us about things like the nature of the created, the false ways of the rebellion and the path to life renewed. We will be more intimate in our Bible reading in order that we might be more attentive in our life in the world.

6. Privatizing the Experience

Let's face it: in western culture (America in particular), there is "a modern emphasis on the free, independent and self-determining individual."   And we tend to approach Scripture this same way.  We want to interpret the Bible completely on our own, and deny interference "by any outside authority, whether ecclesiastical or historical."  We think we can do this alone, and this "is too often reinforced by preaching that also assumes the big takeaway is always the purely individual application."  We've got it backwards, and there's a real danger here.

Nobody approaches the Bible (or anything) from "a neutral position or as a blank slate open to all that it has to offer."  We all have filters (due to sin, culture, and personal experiences).  "When my primary practice is to sit and read the Bible alone, the only filter I get is the one formed by my current circumstances, my personal history and my prior influences.  I will be blinded to certain aspects of the text because I'm bringing only myself to the text.  My own tendencies, my own interests, my own agenda will dominate."  Indeed, "ongoing isolation from others in my Bible engagement simply allows my own idiosyncracies free rein" when we "cut ourselves off from the valuable resources of a wider interpretive community."  It was not always so.

We must remember that "for the vast majority of Christian history people did not even have the option of studying the Scriptures in private."  Widespread illiteracy and scarce availability of the texts (before mass printing) made this the reality for centuries.  "The Bible was written by communities, for communities, about communities . . . most of the addresses to "you" in the New Testament are plural, even though we regularly read them as singular."  "There was an ongoing communal immersion in the Scriptures . . . Jesus, his first Jewish followers, and then Paul all made a point of going to the place where the Scriptures were regularly read in community and where people were used to interacting over them together."  So what if "we think of ourselves as the body of Christ first, and as individual Christians second?"

There are many benefits to the community approach to the Bible.  We will profit from varying perspectives- this is a "gain, not a threat," for "God's spirit has been working through all of his people through all of his ages."  In the end, "hearing from others who are differently situated will aid us in our desire to hear all that the Scriptures have to teach. God’s people have been gathered from every nation, all tribes, the full range of socioeconomic groups, and they’ve lived across a long historical arc . . . we must welcome the participation of others in our Bible conversations."  This doesn't mean the Bible is subjective or relative . . . its truths are absolute.  But we need a community to learn, appreciate, and apply those truths.

I am too small a person to read the Bible only by myself. I don’t see, hear, experience or know enough to read the Bible sola me. Saving the Bible in our day necessitates the rediscovery of truly communal engagement. The Bible assumes that the only way to be properly human is to find one’s identity in a community, and the Bible has one on offer.

7. Downplaying the Presentation

Beauty matters; art and artistic expression is important.  Throughout history, "most lay people gained their knowledge of the Bible through such communal events as open recitations, sermons, publicly available art (especially in churches), and the sharing of stories and songs at festivals and gatherings."  Indeed, the Bible's "overall story-turned-drama is begging for our artistic response, our beautiful participation in the project of setting all things right."  Yet in our modern information age, we often fail to realize this.

Our Bibles are not flat presentations of information; there is beauty, elegance, and variety.  "When we devalue the expression of truth in other than just-the-facts ma'am propositional forms, we close ourselves off to much of the Bible."  "We would do well to pay attention not to just what it says, but how it says it."  "The surprising diversity of kinds of writing in the Bible should help us realize that certain kinds of things can only be said well with certain kinds of writing."

It’s a serious deprivation that we’ve not been taught to look for and appreciate the Bible’s manifold use of literary characteristics, because they’re employed precisely in service to its expression of truth. Art is not the enemy of the Bible’s knowledge. The problem, rather, is our limited view of what constitutes knowledge. The Bible we actually have welcomes a wide variety of ancient literary forms as allies and partners in telling God’s story, revealing God’s instructions, sharing God’s wisdom and singing God’s songs. This kind of fully human Bible is not a problem but a gift to us—it uses our own native art forms to communicate.

Review

Amazing, enlightening, transformational, humbling, encouraging . . . it's hard to find words that do this book justice.  That I highlighted 238 passages in a 214-page book tells you what I thought about this.  But of all things this book did for me, what I appreciated most was the excitement it gave me to approach the Bible anew.

I confess, after years of reading the Bible over and over and over, I grew tired and proud.  I knew the stories, the teachings, and the warnings (or thought I did).  I encountered little that was new to me or blew me away (I say this to my shame).  After reading Saving the Bible from Ourselves, I now eagerly yearn to read the Bible through this new approach.  And, in keeping with the book's recommendations, I plan on reading it without the distorted presentation.  On that note, the Books of the Bible was produced for just this reason.  Pick up a copy at your local bookseller today and get back to the basics of Scripture.

Rating: A+

What's in a Name?

image from here

Four years ago, I started a blog.  I wasn't overly serious about it at first, and so when I had to choose a URL for it, I picked something that was an inside joke.  Over the years, the site has grown in content and popularity (it just passed 30,800 hits) and my fondness for this hobby has reached the point where I hope to continue for decades to come.  Thus, it was time to address the name.

Names have meaning.  From personal names to labeling objects, we take names quite seriously.  It was therefore important that my blog's name reflect something important.  The old name ("overlord musings"), as I said, was a joke.  Some colleagues in my last job needed direction one day, and I told them that I'd be happy to be their "supreme overlord."  I'd refer to myself by that title (always in a joking manner) from time to time, and "overlord" popped into my head when it came time to name the blog.  Hence, overlordmusings.blogspot.com.

As years have passed, I've given my blog link out to many people.  I always had to explain the URL after giving it, and so it was time to change that.  My new site- "notes from the fallen"- means something to me.  "Overlord musings" implies that I am (or think myself) above others . . . "notes from the fallen" more accurately describes my station.  I'm a fallen man, as described in the Bible.  I routinely break the two greatest commands- to love God with all my heart and my neighbor as myself (Matthew 22:36-40).  In truth, I inherently love me more than anyone or anything else.  Hence, I am fallen, and this new URL reminds me of that.  I need the Lord's grace to have any hope.  He has granted that to me through His son, Jesus Christ.  I am therefore redeemed in Him.  So "fallen" is not the end of the story- but it remains a part of my current state this side of glory.  I am fallen but redeemed.  I hope acknowledgement of both are evident in my writings.

The Jesus Storybook Bible (Sally Lloyd-Jones & Jago)

The Bible is most decidedly not safe.  It's transformed the lives of millions- maybe billions- over the past 2000 years, and will continue to do so.  For those who understand it correctly, it is the words of life.  Others twist it to their own purposes, with horrible consequence.  We have to be very careful when approaching the Bible . . . because reading it incorrectly is disastrous.

Children need to know the Bible, too.  The immaturity of the young, though, can make it hard for them to understand the meaty parts.  For that reason, children's bibles have been developed over the years.  These are bibles that present selected portions of the Bible [note the capital B to denote the real thing] in ways kids can understand.  Here, too, is the power to transform (if done well) or the power to destroy (if done poorly).  Since children's bibles are interpretations made by man, we have to be especially careful.  We must choose wisely.

So what is the real Bible?  To paraphrase myself from this post, the Bible is all about Christ.  He shines forth in both Old and New Testaments. It's not, as some Churchgoers say, "an instruction manual," or "guide to life," or history book, or science book. Yes, there are instructions, and there is history- but the Bible is about Christ.

We need a children's bible to align with the Bible's main point: Jesus.  We don't need moralistic bibles: ones that tell us to do good 'or else;'  That puts the focus on man.  We need children's bibles that point to Jesus, all the time.  This is a long-winded way of introducing today's review, The Jesus Storybook Bible.

Right on the cover, you get the impression that The Jesus Storybook Bible is going to get it right.  The subtitle is "every story whispers his name."  Amen.  The stories presented in the book are done well- all pointing to Jesus.  I must admit, even I (who's read the Bible many times) learned a few things reading this.  The art is amazing, too; it's done simply and well.  A sample page follows.

No children's bible is perfect- it is an interpretation of the Bible and cannot replace the real thing.  But The Jesus Storybook Bible is a valuable tool for the young, and I recommend it heartily.

Rating: A

Takeaways from a Journey

"Owned but unread" books

After years of ignoring the problem, I've reached a milestone: I have only two books left in my 'owned but unread' pile, and I've minimized my collection by over 160 volumes.  Several have asked about the journey, so here I provide background, tips, and 'lessons learned' from the experience.

Background
I've posted several times on materialism and my struggles with it (here and here are examples).  One consistent problem area was books.  For years, I've collected books.  I would read them, but I often bought them at a pace faster than I read.  Over time, I ended up accumulating over 100 books I hadn't yet read.  Is this a problem?  Some say no; I say yes.

It's not inherently bad to own anything. But when we own much more than we need, it often is (or can easily become) a problem.  In our consumer-oriented society, it's easy to not see the problem or accept it as okay.  But our purchasing practices reveal a good deal about what we truly believe is important in this world, and therefore becoming aware of this is critical (see my review of this book for more information on that).  Left unchecked, rampant materialism has horrible consequences.  Regrettably, this truth hit home through the faults of another.

Several years ago, my family found out that close relatives were hoarders.  Okay- my family had known that for a while, but the depth of the problem was brought to light.  When it was, due to the severity, extreme consequences had to be taken- because of deterioration, every single item in the house (save some wood furniture) had to be pitched.  In the end, multiple dumpsters of trash had to be removed from the home, to the great psychological trauma of the occupants.  It was hard on everyone, but what moved me the most is what one occupant said: "I just wanted to die surrounded by my things."  She said this to her son; you can imagine how he felt.

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)

The preceding Bible verses speak to this issue.  Her heart had gravitated away from love of God and others to love of things.  How horribly sad . . . but good things can come from it.

People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy - Batman Begins

After this situation- which was hard on all of us- I noticed a trend.  Everyone in my family started minimizing their stuff.  We're not hoarders . . . but the dramatic example we had just experienced awoke in us the realization that we all simply had too much.  And the best time to deal with a problem is today.


Tips
I could have just sold the books right away and been done with it . . . but I did want to at least 'give them a shot' before getting rid of them.  So my goal was to read and then minimize.  I found the following to be helpful in this journey:

- Recognize the problem
As discussed above; need more be said?

- Learn the extent of the problem
For years, I had a vague sense that I owned "about 100" books I hadn't read.  Each year, I'd buy some, read some, and get rid of some . . . but never bothered counting too closely.  You'll note the uptick in the graph around 2014 . . . that was when I counted and recorded every single one.  Gone were vague notions or general senses . . . I wanted to scope the problem exactly and completely.  It made it 'real' and stark.

- Know the end state
It wasn't necessary to get down to zero books, per se, but I wanted to get down to a number I could read in ~6 months.  In hand with reading them was minimizing the number I owned, so I wanted to keep books based on certain specific criteria only.

- Set limits
My goal moving forward is to never own more than 10 'owned but unread' books, and my books should occupy no more than two bookcases in our home.

- Make a plan
This was simple: Don't buy more books until I read (almost) all of them.  As the sharp downward line in the above graph indicates, I was reasonably successful in this area.  The 'blip' at the end was a 'binge' of buying that delayed my goal, momentarily.  But by then I was so close to the end that I knew I could account for it quickly.

- Keep it before you
I kept my list of books on a spreadsheet called 'to read.'  Whenever I read a book, I'd remove it from the spreadsheet.  It was fulfilling seeing the number dwindle.

- Get accountability
It's always helpful to have an external party ask you how things are going in an area you want to improve.

- Avoid temptation
One big thing helped: I stopped going to the bookstore.  Well, almost :-).  But weekly visits turned into once every 2-3 months.  It made a huge difference not knowing what I was 'missing.'

- Keep on keepin' on
This goal took me over two years to achieve.  It was slow but steady.


Lessons Learned

- I got rid of many books without reading much of them, quickly realizing I no longer interested in them; to my shame, some of them I had owned for 15+ years.

- It got easier.  My 'trickle' of books read (and subsequently donated, sold or kept) soon became a flood.  I realized I just didn't need as many as I thought.  The more I got rid of, the more I wanted to get rid of.

- I have almost no regrets.  This was a big fear going in: what if I read a book and got rid of it, but later wanted it?  I shouldn't have worried.  I regret getting rid of one book . . . out of the 163 I sold or donated.  Not bad.

- Changed habits can change the heart.  Re-forming the heart by forming new disciplines is discussed in a recent book I read, You Are What You Love.  I found this to be true: when I minimized, I started desiring healthier things.  Every trip to the bookstore used to be a 'I must buy ___' struggle . . . now, I can enter one without temptation to buy (well, most of the time).

- I'm not there yet.  Please don't take this post as me saying "I'm awesome" or "I've arrived" or "my heart is centered where it ought."  Far from it!  But I'm in the right direction, and this exercise has taught me the value of minimization.  I've moved on to other areas- toys, movies, games- and it will be a life-long quest.

Imhotep

image from here

Today's game review is a 2016 release: Imhotep.

Overview
In Imhotep, your goal is to build the best civilization (which is determined by scoring the most points).  For 2-4 players, it plays quickly (under an hour) and ends after six rounds.  Each player owns a color of stone (brown, white, black, gray) and a sled that can hold five stones.  There are four boats each round (each differ in capacity based on a randomized round card) and you need to load your stones (from your sled) on to boats for transport to sites.  People share use of the boats, so one boat could have many different color stones on it.  When a boat is full, you dock it at a site to either build on it (pyramid, temple, burial chamber, obelisks) or obtain cards (market) that give you points or can be played in lieu of a normal turn.  Once a boat is docked, no other boat can dock at that site for that round, and stones are automatically unloaded and placed on a site in an order prescribed by the rules.  Players gain points based on how their stones are placed.  Depending on the site, stone placement earns a prescribed number of points immediately, each round, or at the end of the game.


Simplified Gameplay
Each round, a player can do one thing on his/her turn:
- Place two stones from the quarry on his/her 'sled' (a sled can hold no more than 5 stones)
OR
- Place one stone from his/her sled on to a boat (loading from back to front)
OR
- Move one at-capacity boat to a dock- it doesn't have to have any of your stones on it- and automatically unload it (from front to back) on the site as prescribed.  If the boat docks at the market, each player with a stone on the boat, from front to back,  chooses a card for use later as prescribed.  (The market holds 4 cards each round.)
OR
- Play a card obtained from the market that indicates it is to be used in lieu of the normal turn.

Play continues in a round until all four boats are docked.  Then, the next round begins as a new round card (prescribing the capacity of boats to be used) is chosen, boats are 'undocked' and changed out if necessary, and the next player (after the one who ended the previous round) proceeds playing.  After six rounds, points are tallied and winner declared.

game in progress (image from here)

Review
This was a pleasantly fun game.  There are a number of variables to keep things interesting, and each site is a mini 'puzzle' in a way, with different strategies required to gain the most points.  Order of stone loading and unloading matters, and this element means players will gain (or lose out on) points based on the actions of others.  Overall, this is a good experience.  I can see why it was a finalist for the Spiel des Jahres award.  A video review can be found here.

Rating: A

End of an Era

image from here

Well, it's official.  Tim Duncan, basketball forward for the San Antonio Spurs, announced his retirement today (article here).  He wracked up impressive all-time numbers over his 19-year career:
- 14th  in scoring (26,496)
- 6th all-time in rebounding (15,901)
- 5th all-time in blocks (3,020)
- 7th in regular season games played (1392)
- 2nd in playoff games played (251)

His teams won 5 championships in 6 NBA finals appearances, winning it all in 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2014.  He was successful as an individual player and as a teammate, but what I liked most was his attitude.

Tim didn't make waves in the newspapers, the way many professional superstars do.  He didn't get into trouble, he didn't make outrageous statements . . . he just played the game.  Nicknamed 'the Big Fundamental,' he played basic basketball well . . . and that's about it.  No drama, no selfishness.  He knew his role- whether it was big or small- and he did his job.  In an age that appears to desire drama almost more than playing the game,* he broke the mold.  He played selflessly and encouraged others to do the same, helping to create an others-centered culture.  The results were phenomenal.

He ended his career in low-key fashion by not announcing his retirement until after the season was over.  Some superstars announce their last season ahead of time; Tim didn't need or want the fanfare that accompanied the others as they rode off into the sunset.  I can learn a thing or two from him.

I got to see him play in person only twice during his career- an exhibition game at Penn State in the late '90s, and during the regular season vs. the Wizards (when Jordan played for them) in the early '00s.  Two photos taken during the exhibition are below.

Take care, Tim, and may you continue to be a shining light to those around you.


*The Spurs weren't preferred Finals participants, as TV ratings consistently went down.  People want drama.

Castles (Alan Lee & David Day)

Alan Lee is an amazing artist (introduced in this post).  He is the reason I acquired Castles.

Castles is an art book covering the structures of myth (Norse mythology, giants, faeries), romance (King Arthur, Charlemagne, the Rhine Castles), and fantasy (from literature, fairy tales, and modern works like Gormenghast and Lord of the Rings).  Interspersed with Lee's masterful pencil drawings and watercolors is text by David Day providing the background of a given picture.  This is a one- or two-sitting 'read,' and I highly recommend it for the evocative, haunting, and beautiful artwork alone.  Examples follow.

Rating: A

You are What you Love (James K. A. Smith)

In You Are What You Love, author James K.A. Smith argues . . . that you are what you love.

Summary
Smith states that "our wants and longings and desires are at the core of our identity, the wellspring from which our actions and behavior flow."  Therefore, "Jesus's command to follow him is a command to align our loves and longings with his . . ."  How do we do this?  Is it through knowledge alone?

Too often, we treat ourselves and others as 'brains on a stick'- and therefore believe that knowledge transfer will change behavior.  We approach discipleship the same way- "as primarily a didactic endeavor- as if becoming a disciple of Jesus is largely an intellectual project, and matter of acquiring knowledge."  Smith's counterargument: "We need to recognize the power of habit."  Specifically,

What if, instead of starting from the assumption that human beings are thinking things, we started from the conviction that human beings are first and foremost lovers?  What if you are defined not by what you know but by what you desire?

"This means that discipleship is more a matter of reformation than of acquiring more information . . .
we need to (regularly) calibrate our hearts, tuning them to be directed to the Creator, our magnetic north."  What does this mean?  Reforming, recalibrating what?  Our orientation.

We all have an orientation . . . "to be human is to be animated and oriented by some vision of the good life, some picture of what we think counts as "flourishing.""  Our daily routines- many of which are done unconsciously- reveal what we truly desire, even if we say we believe otherwise.  Our daily rituals (which Smith calls 'liturgies') "are loaded with an ultimate Story about who we are and what we're for.  They carry within them a kind of ultimate orientation."  This "baseline inclination" or "default orientation" is revealed by the choices we make. . .  and those are "shaped and configured by imitation and practice."  In short, we develop habits that shape and change our baseline inclination- for better or worse.  Any successful dieter knows this.  What's true of food is true of all things- even love.  "We learn to love  . . . through practices that form the habits of how we love."

Habits are everywhere, and ours are more affected by subconscious things than we realize.  We're all immersed in culture; a culture laden with messages and stories about what matter.  It shapes our loves; 'wrong stories' seep in and dominate us.  There are obvious ones- people make gods of money, power, and fame all the time.  But there are far subtler ones, too.  Therefore, Smith calls us to "become aware of the everyday liturgies in your life."  Since so much of what we do is unconscious, we need to be mindful of how it is acquired.  So audit your daily routines . . . look at your habits . . . and learn what you truly desire.

The good news is that the right rituals can re-train us to new, rightly-ordered ways.  We can be restored.  But first, we have to know what we're here for to know what we're to do.  We need to know our purpose- our calling.  Only then can we understand what actions are necessary; what practices to implement.  Then, we ingrain this right mindset in ourselves through practice and repetition- in short, we develop new habits (or 'liturgies') that help us long for what we should.

Review
This is an excellent read.  Similar in spirit to David Dark's recent release (reviewed here), it calls us to be aware of what we're doing and what our actions show about our true beliefs and desires.  It also shows the importance of habit- of dedicating ourselves to right routines and rituals to produce "rightly-ordered" ways.  Smith calls us to return to some traditions of the ancient Church, who realized this importance.

Reading this was enlightening and humbling . . . highly recommended.

Rating: A