Choice Chesterton

One of the many books I'm working my way through right now is Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton. He's worming his way into my affections, and I suspect by the time I'm done with this book, he'll be one of my favorite authors. I expected this to happen as soon as I picked up a book by him, but I didn't fall in love with his writing right away. The book that I'm currently reading was one which Lewis said influenced him to become a Christian, and because of that, I thought I would love it instantly. There wasn't instant chemistry however, to stretch the analogy further, but as I slowly spend more time with GKC, I'm becoming a big fan.

He's definitely a great thinker, but at times I feel he allows pithy comments to overwhelm the defensibility of his point. For example, one paragraph will show what I mean:

It is quite easy to see why a legend is treated, and ought to be treated more respectfully than a book of history. The legend is generally made by the majority of people in the village who are sane. The book is generally written by the one man in the village who is mad.

He's speaking about the value of legend and myth, as opposed to what is supposedly "true," the teachings of scientists. He makes a good point, but the line that "the book is generally written by the one man in the village who is mad," makes me think of partisan lines used in political speeches to arouse applause from the proverbial choir: he's hearing cheers from those who already hold his view, applauding the pithiness of the line. It's not defensible to say that books are written by madmen, and he didn't need to write that to defend his point. I think he was very satisfied with the line, so kept it in. I have seen several similar moments where I have to scratch my head and say, "it ain't necessarily so."

Unfortunately, in my mind, one of the central foundations of the book is based on something that "ain't necessarily so." He makes the case in the first chapter of the book that one should really put their faith in the artist, or the storyteller, more than he should place his trust in someone who is a slave to logical thinking. He argues that creativity rarely leads to madness, but that rigid, logical thinking is the path to insanity:

Imagination does not breed insanity. Exactly what does breed insanity is reason. Poets do not go mad; but chess players do. Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers; but creative artists, very seldom. I am not, as will be seen, in any sense attacking logic: I only say that this danger does lie in logic, not in imagination.

What bugs me about this is that Chesterton's case for Christianity is very strong, but his premise is based largely on a thesis that stems from the statement above, a thesis that isn't really defensible. History is fraught with artists who've gone mad. He uses the argument above to lead into a defense of fairy tales as telling more truths than science does, and urges a view of the world that is formed more by creativity and imagination than it is by rational thinking. I happen to agree with this view of Chesterton's, and as I read more of the book, I'm beginning to understand why his writing resonated with Lewis so profoundly. The current chapter is fantastic, entitled "The Ethics of Elfland." That fits Lewis well, but unfortunately, I feel that the book wouldn't help a modern reader find Christianity, if they were reading with a highly critical and rationalistic mind, which of course is something GKC would have railed against.

Regardless, here's one of the best passages in the book:

Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.

And another passage that got several stars by it in my reading:

The sense of the miracle of humanity itself always should be more vivid to us than any marvels of power, intellect, art or civilization. The mere man on two legs, as such, should be felt as something more heartbreaking than any music and more startling as any caricature.

I'll probably add more thoughts on GKC as I keep reading. If you haven't read him, give it a whirl. He's making me think about things I've never thought about, in ways I've never imagined. That's a good writer, if you ask me.

Quotes from The Cocktail Party

The Cocktail Party, a play by T. S. Eliot

EDWARD

I once experienced the extreme of physical pain,
And now I know there is suffering worse than that.
It is surprising, if one had time to be surprised:
I am not afraid of the death of the body,
But this death is terrifying. The death of the spirit--
Can you understand what I suffer?

REILLY

I understand what you mean.

EDWARD

I can no longer act for myself.
Coming to see you--that's the last decision
I was capable of making. I am in your hands.
I cannot take any further responsibility.

REILLY

Many patients come in that belief.

Later in the same scene:

EDWARD

I am at least free to leave. And I propose to do so.
My mind is made up. I shall go to a hotel.

REILLY

It is just because you are not free, Mr. Chamberlayne,
That you have come to me. It is for me to give you that--
Your freedom. That is my affair.

----------

Another scene:

CELIA

You see, I think I really had a vision of something
Though I don't know what it is. I don't want to forget it,
I want to live with it. I could do without everything,
Put up with anything, if I might cherish it.
IN fact, I think it would really be dishonest
For me, now, to try to make a life with anybody!
I couldn't give anyone the kind of love--
I wish I could--which belongs to the life.
Oh, I'm afraid this sounds like raving!
Or just cantankerousness...still,
If there's no other way...the I feel just hopeless.

REILLY

There is another way, if you have the courage.
The first I could describe in familiar terms
Because you have seen it, as we all have seen it,
Illustrated, more or less, in lives of those about us.
The second is unknown, and so requires faith--
The kind of faith that issues from despair.
The destination cannot be described;
You will know very little until you get there;
You will journey blind. But the way leads towards possession
Of what you have sought for in the wrong place.

CELIA

That sounds like what I want.

REILLY

It is a terrifying journey.

----------

JULIA, (speaking of Celia)

Oh yes, she will go far. And we know where she is going.
But what do we know of the terrors of the journey?
You and I don't know the process by which the human is
Transhumanised: what do we know
Of the kind of suffering they must undergo
On the way of illumination?

----------

REILLY, speaking of when he first met Celia

It was obvious that here was a woman under sentence of death.
That was her destiny. The only question
Then was, what sort of death? I could not know;
Because it was for her to choose the way of life
To lead to death, and, without knowing the end
Yet choose the form of death. We know the death she chose.
I did not know that she would die in this way,
She did not know. So all that I could do
Was to direct her in the way of preparation.
That way, which she accepted, led to this death.
And if that is not a happy death, what death is happy?

EDWARD

Do you mean that having chosen this form of death
She did not suffer as ordinary people suffer?

REILLY

Not at all what I mean. Rather the contrary.
I'd say that she suffered all that we should suffer
In fear and pain and loathing--all these together--
And reluctance of the body to become a thing.
I'd say she suffered more, because more conscious
Than the rest of us. She paid the highest price
In suffering. That is part of the design.

Quotes from The End of the Affair

Sometimes I see myself reflected too closely in other men for comfort, and then I have an enormous wish to believe in the saints, in heroic virtue.

'Oh, it's not done,' I said, 'but neither is adultery or theft or running away from the enemy's fire. The not done things are done every day, Henry. It's part of modern life. I've done most of them myself.'

I wanted to pray: to offer up some inordinate sacrifice if only he could be healed, but now there was no sacrifice left for me to offer.

And then I came into that dark church in Park Road and saw the bodies standing around me on all the altars--the hideous plaster statues with their complacent faces, and I remembered that they believed in the resurrection of the body, the body I wanted to be destroyed for ever. I had done so much injury with this body. How could I want to preserve any of it for eternity, and suddenly I remembered a phrase of Richard's--about human being inventing doctrines to satisfy their desires, and I thought how wrong he is.

Let me think of those awful spots on Richard's cheek. Let me see Henry's face with the tears falling. Let me forget me. Dear God, I've tried to love and I've made such a hash of it. If I could love you, I'd know how to love them. I believe the legend. I believe you were born. I believe you died for us. I believe you are God. Teach me to love. I don't mind my pain. It's their pain I can't stand. Let My pain go on and on, but stop theirs. Dear God, if only you could come down from your Cross for a while and let me get up there instead. If I could suffer like you, I could heal like you.

I'm tired and I don't want any more pain. I want Maurice. I want ordinary corrupt human love. Dear God, you know I want to want Your pain, but I don't want it now. Take it away for a while and give it me another time.

...God has more mercy, and then I came out of the church and saw the crucifix they have there, and I thought, of course, he's got mercy, only it's such an odd sort of mercy, it sometimes looks like punishment.

I've caught belief like a disease. I've fallen into belief like I fell in love.

'And you can't teach me about penitence, Mr Bendrix. I've had twenty-five years in the Confessional. There's nothing we can do some of the saints haven't done before us.'

My New Favorite Book

Do you ever feel like you came across a book at exactly the right time in your life? I feel that way about the new chocolate book from the Culinary Institute of America. I think it has to be the most comprehensive book on chocolate making ever conceived. It has everything one needs to know about chocolate making, which includes incredible detail about the science behind chocolate making. I enjoy learning everything I can about a topic I’m interested in, and this book provides that in spades. Tonight, for example, I read about the latent heat of crystallization of chocolate and how this needs to be moderated through refrigeration, but only after about 15 minutes of sitting at room temperature, because this allows the all important V125 crystals to begin to form, the crystals that produce shine and sheen, as well as clean breaks, in finished chocolate.

I think I have a little bit of a science geek in me.

But more than anything, this book is chock full of ideas and formulas for all kinds of tasty chocolates and confections—and it tells you exactly how to make nearly any kind of candy anyone has ever eaten anywhere. And I’m finding I want to try my hand at all of them.

This book is going to provide me with hours of enjoyment, reams of knowledge and perhaps be the genesis for a new business.

Now that’s a good book.

An Excerpt

From the introduction of Chocolates & Confections, by Peter Greweling:

Artisan confections will never replace mass-produced candies in the marketplace, nor should they; instead, they will remain a niche market for those who are passionate about freshness, quality, and flavor. It is my hope that this book will fuel the artisan confectionery revolution by helping people who share this passion to understand and create confections that truly provide a feast for all the senses: the sight of perfectly tempered chocolate or beautifully striped handmade hard candies; the scent of chocolate, freshly roasted nuts, and caramel; the feel of chocolate melting in the mouth; the sound of crisp toffee cracking; and, of course, the taste of freshly made confections made with the best-quality natural ingredients.

Sounds great to me! Where do I sign up?

Two New Books

Amazon delivered a couple of gems, and I'm sitting down right now to begin poring through one of them. They'll both help me with making CHOCOLATES!

The first is a publication from the Culinary Institute of America called Chocolates & Confections. With the CIA, you know you're in good hands. And this book is chock full with information and formulas for every kind of imaginable candy or chocolate. That's a recipe for fun, if you ask me.

The second book is a translation of a Belgium text written by the leading authority at the Barry-Callebaut chocolate company, Jeanne-Pierre Wybauw. I wasn't familiar with this guy until I did a little googling at Amazon, but he sounds like he's the undisputed King of Chocolate. His book is overwhelming, actually. When I began flipping through the pages I was a bit daunted. His is a highly technical text. In the introduction he states the following: "Processing chocolate looks quite simple at first sight; however there are several factors that must be respected to achieve successful products with a respectable shelf life." I never could have imagined that one of those factors would be the study of rheology. (And I'm going to let you go look that up. It might just come in handy over at Freerice.com). I think his book is going on the shelf for awhile--it's the kind of tome where it would cause anyone with any kind of aspiration for success to give up before they began for fear of doing something wrong. That's no way to pursue a passion. It's going into the picture book category for awhile.

Elisabeth Elliot

I've been reading a book I bought years ago by Elisabeth Elliot called A Path Through Suffering. I began reading it when I bought it but never finished it. As I scanned my bookshelf recently looking for books that could feed my soul I decided it was high time to dust it off and give it another try.

It's a beautiful book and I'm learning a lot from her insights as well as taking comfort in what she has written. There are a few excerpts that I feel are particularly meaningful to me, and so I'll share a few of them over the next few days.

So you can understand the book, she uses analogies from nature: the seasonal flow of winter into spring, or pruning of the vines by the master gardener, or the transformation of something called a gorse thorn into a beautiful flower. Life from death as shown to us in nature.

So here it is--in the gorse blossoming from thorns, in the harvest of wheat from the solitary grain--the gospel, the Good News of life out of death, a gospel for every individual, every need, every hopeless and helpless situation.

"It'll never work for mine," someone is tempted to say. Are you sure your problems baffle the One who since the world began has been bringing flowers from thorns? Your thorns are a different story, are they? You have been brought to a place of self-despair, nothingness. It is hard even to think of any good reason to go on. You live in most unfavorable conditions...you are up against impossible odds. Is this something new? The people of Israel were up against impossible odds when they found themselves between the chariots of Egypt and the Red Sea. Their God is our God. The God of Israel and the God of the gorse thorns looks down on us with love and says, "Nothing has happened to you which is not common to all. I can manage it. Trust Me."

He wants to transform every form of human suffering into something glorious. He can redeem it. He can bring life out of death. Every event of our lives provides opportunity to learn the deepest lesson anyone can learn on earth, "My present life is not that of the old 'I,' but the living Christ within me" (Gal 2:20, JBP). When our souls lie barren in a winter which seems hopeless and endless, God has not abandoned us. His work goes on. He asks our acceptance of the painful process and our trust that He will indeed give resurrection life.

This is exactly what I need to hear. A great part of the loss of Meg for me is a hard to shake belief that there isn't anyone out there who could possibly be more well suited to me than she. They are impossible odds in my mind. In my hubris, I seem to say to God sometimes, "good luck finding someone better for me than Meg!" Sometimes some straight talking like what Elisabeth Elliot wrote above is exactly what the doctor ordered. Do I actually believe that God can't handle it? I have to continually cling to the words I heard him say to me: "I can't wait to show you the ending--you're going to love it."

There is a story from Steve's and my trip to the U.P. that I keep meaning to relay but just haven't gotten around to it until now. It's germane to this post, so no time like the present.

We were in the U.P. on the heels of me professing my love to Meg. As we were discussing how she might respond to me, talk turned towards all kinds of things having to do with trusting God and putting your faith in him. I mentioned how Jeremiah 29:11 has at different times in my life been either solace or a stumbling block. The thought of "plans and a future" seemed to ring hollow for me sometimes, and I was struggling with thinking about it that day.

The following morning I started out driving so Steve could do his daily readings in the Liturgy of the Hours. After we traded seats, he handed me the Liturgy and asked me to read the Scriptures for that day. You can see where this is going, right? What do you think was included in that day's readings? How about Jeremiah 29:11?

That's no coincidence and a sign that God cares about me and my life, enough to do something so clearly directly related to my life. There's a hint of God's sense of humor there too, don't you think? Regardless, the message was clear: God really does want me to trust Him, and he means what He says. I just wish I could let go completely and trust Him fully. When I think of Meg right now though, it's just so hard.

I'm trying.

God help me, I'm trying.

Will Write For Food

I have a book out from the library about what it takes to become a food writer. I've been enjoying it quite a bit.

There's a chapter on what traits the professional food writer needs. I'm going to post them, and see what y'all think.

1. Passionate. (Check.)

2. Enthusiastic Researcher. (Can we say cooking geek?)

3. Energetic. (Debatable...though when food is involved, that's another story.)

4. Focused. (Zoom, macro and wide angle, baby.)

5. Skeptical. (I do share genes with the rest of my family, so that's a big affirmative.)

6. Fearless. (In the search of a good meal, I'd dive into an alleyway if there were some great smells heading my way.)

7. Inquisitive. (Just take a gander at my book shelf.)

8. Persistent. (30 cakes and counting...)

9. Knowledgeable about the subject. (Getting there.)

10. Professional. (I'd like to think so.)

11. Nostalgia for the past. (Those 30 cakes? Made using my grandmother's Kitchen Aid mixer, thank you very much.)

12. Ethical. (See #10.)

13. Careful. (I'm going with a yes on that one too.)

Maybe I could have a career in this after all.

The Children of Hurin

There's a new Tolkein novel on the streets, believe it or not. I'll be buying it tomorrow.

Check it out.

This is apparently different than the slew of books Christopher Tolkein has compiled of various fragments of his father's writings, and actually is a complete novel. I'm hoping for the best.