Drawing Parallels

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. 

I looked up this poem and reread it after reading "Matched" by Ally Condie. She mentions the poem in her novel about a dystopian society. I really like this poem. It speaks to the part of me that loves adventure and doing crazy stuff like Tough Mudders and skydiving. The part of me that isn't afraid of dying, just of dying poorly. I only get one chance to experience life on this rock, and I will not live in fear of what might happen.

(So, this was lost in my drafts for a few years. Better late than never!)

What’s Your Reading Profile? | BOOK RIOT

What’s Your Reading Profile? | BOOK RIOT

This is a new-to-me blog that I really like, and this post in particular got me thinking.... what is my reading profile?
Looking back over my list of books it breaks down like this:

23 books from 2004-2006
Christian - 7
Historical Fiction - 3
Action / Suspense - 22
Contemporary Authors - all - 14 total, but 6 of them worked on the same series
Series - 2 (6 each)
Based on a TV show - Alias Series

20 books in 2007
Series - 3 (Alias - 6; Transformers -2; The Bourne Trilogy)
Sci-fi - 6
Action / Suspense - 20
Contemporary Authors - all - 13 total, but 6 of them worked on the same series
Based on a TV show - Alias series

21 books in 2008
Series - 2 (Alias - 13; Women's Murder Club - 7)
Action / Suspense - 21
Contemporary Authors - all - 15 total, but 13 of them worked on the same series
Based on a TV show - Alias Series
Made into a TV show - Women's Murder Club Series
(i think i was a little obsessed w/ Alias this year!)

18 books in 2009
Series - 1 (The Chronicles of Narnia - 7)
Christian - 1 + Narnia
Non-Fiction - 1
Sci-fi - 1
Fantasy - 1 + Narnia
Classics - 3
Contemporary Authors - 8
Heart Wrenching - 2
Action Packed - 3
Painfully slow but worth it - 1
Romance w/ biting wit & sarcasm - 2
Historical Fiction - 4
Dark twist on a Classic Movie - 1
My daughter read it first - 8

20 books in 2010
Series -2 (The Percy Jackson Series - 5; Women's Murder Club - 1)
Young Adult Lit - 5
Action Packed - 14
Sci-fi - 4
Historical Fiction - 2
Classics - 2
I thought the movie was better - 1
Best last line of a book - 1
Dark twist on a Classic - 3
Contemporary Authors - 9
My daughter read it first - 5
My daughter wants to read, but I said "not until you're older" - 2

10.5 in 2011 (so far)
I didn't finish / "saved for later" - 1
Contemporary Authors - all
Series - 2 (The Heroes of Olympus - 2; The Kane Chronicles - 2) both are still "in production"
Sci-fi - 4
Action Packed - 10
Historical Fiction - 1
He better hurry up and write the next book because the last line was just mean! - 1
My daughter read it first - 5

Book Review

Koontz delivers again! 


Nail-biting suspense. 
Laugh-out-loud moments. 
Tears. 
History mingled with "that sounds plausible" science fiction. 
And those moments when you just can't read fast enough to find out what happens. 
Loved.

Love -- it is complex, wonderful, painful, and always worth it.

My man and I were going through all our important papers the other day to figure out what we needed to put in our new fire safe. Aside from the dust bunnies we spooked (and the subsequent sneezing fit that ensued), I found and started looking through our old shoe box of love notes and letters from our five year courtship. The first thing I realized was that I was smitten, completely head-over-heels in love, with the boy who would become the man I married within the first few weeks of our relationship. The second thing I realized was that if the time-space continuum was ever tampered with and I had to relive that 5 years leading up to our wedding day, I would kill myself. They were necessary for personal growth and shaping who we are now, but my memory of that time had been romanticized over the years, and the times of pain and struggle were wiped away. I don't wish they had never happened, but I have no desire to relive them. Ever.

In reading through the journey we traveled, I was reminded of a poem I read and clung to during year four, my freshman year of college (without question the toughest year of them all). I share it here with you and give some new insights that have come with time and age.


A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
by John Donne


As virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say
The breath goes now, and some say, No;


So let us melt, and make no noise,
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;
'Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.


Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears,
Men reckon what it did and meant;
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.


Dull sublunary lovers' love
(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
Those things which elemented it.


But we, by a love so much refined
That our selves know not what it is,
Inter-assured of the mind,
care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss.


Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion.
Like gold to airy thinness beat.


If they be two, they are two so
As stiff twin compasses are two;
Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th' other do.


And though it in the center sit,
Yet when the other far doth roam,
It leans and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.


Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
Like th' other foot, obliquely run;
Thy firmness makes my circle just,
And makes me end where I begun.

valediction: (noun) an act of bidding farewell or taking leave
Whether separated by distance because of travel; or time because of death; or spirit because of doubt or loss of trust, lovers often have to experience a valediction, and in doing so throw themselves in the refiner's fire to be tested, purified and stretched.

But like a compass, they are joined at the very middle, at the soul, and as such can never truly be separated. For while one may wander, the other is a fixed point that doesn't waver and brings its mate back around to where it began, home. And there too lies the heart and truth of any committed long-term relationship. If you can step away and view it from a different perspective, an overview of the thing in its entirety, you will see that each partner at one point or another trades roles playing the fixed foot or the wanderer / explorer / wayfarer.

The journey may be one of self-discovery, or it could be fueled by anger or guilt. But the most important things to cling to during these times of leaning / stretching / hearkening are trust and hope. Trust that your partner is remaining faithful to you and hope that they will indeed return. In the midst of the stretching that will seem like a big thing to ask of the fixed mark, but really it is no different than what we must do every day. Every morning we kiss our love goodbye as they walk out into the world. Every night we anticipate their return. But you can never know for sure when or if they will walk back through that door.

My biggest reward for pushing through the difficult moments, for trusting and clinging to hope is this: the moment, the long anticipated time in each day when I see that my love has found his way home. My heart still skips a beat when I hear his truck coming up the driveway. My heart melts when I see the joy in his eyes when he realizes I am the one who has walked into his office. I still want to run into his arms when I hear his voice call my name. I find myself sneaking moments to stare at him; drink in my favorite parts of him; wonder what he is thinking.

Yes, I am still smitten. Totally. Completely. Passionately.

Relentless

It has been a while since I was really moved by a book. Truly inspired. Made to look inside and contemplate everything I thought I was and believed.

Here are some words to get you thinking:

Murder (dictionary.com)

–noun

Law. The killing of another human being under conditions specifically covered in law. In the U.S., special statutory definitions include murder committed with malice aforethought, characterized by deliberation or premeditation or occurring during the commission of another serious crime, as robbery or arson (first-degree murder), and murder by intent but without deliberation or premeditation (second-degree murder).

–verb

to kill or slaughter inhumanly or barbarously.

Kill –verb (dictionary.com)

to deprive of life in any manner; cause the death of; slay

Anger –noun

a strong feeling of displeasure and belligerence aroused by a wrong; wrath; ire.

Wrath -noun

1. angry, violent, or stern indignation

2. divine vengeance or retribution

Now some quotes to catch you up:

“Anger is the father of violence, as well I knew, but I had not allowed myself to consider that wrath, when it is the product of pure indignation and untainted by ideology, is the father of justice and a necessary answer to evil.” – Dean Koontz, Relentless pg 178

“The true commandment is ‘Thou shalt not murder.’ It doesn’t say ‘kill’ in the original language, because killing’s a whole different thing from murder. Furthermore, Moses didn’t provide categories of murder, some worse than others.” – Dean Koontz, Relentless pg 341

“Evil itself may be relentless, I will grant you that, but love is relentless, too. Friendship is a relentless force. Family is a relentless force. Faith is a relentless force. The human spirit is relentless, and the human heart outlasts – and can defeat – even the most relentless force of all, which is time.” – Dean Koontz, Relentless pg 428

Exodus 20:13 “You shall not murder.” (NIV translation) Commandment #6

So.....

What would you do and how far would you go to protect the people you love the most?

As Christians that can be a tricky question.

We know our commandments; number 6 says "You shall not murder" (Ex 20:13 NIV).

We have been taught to "turn the other cheek" (Matt 5:39 NIV).

"Avenge not yourselves.....Vengeance is mine" says the Lord (Romans 12:19 KJV).

We believe that no matter what our God is in control.

But there are also numerous passages in the Bible where the Lord commands His people to exact His vengeance on His enemies.

So what are we supposed to do when Evil comes knocking at our door with no other intent than to steal our joy, kill those we love, and destroy everything we believe in, hope for and want the most in this world? Are we supposed to remain meek, happy in the knowledge that we are going on to a better place? Or do we pick up our .38 and shoot the bastard in the head?

I would not classify myself as a violent person. I don't really like confrontation and would never pick a fight. I'm pretty laid back about most things, but I'm making it public here: this momma's packin' heat, and you enter at your own risk if you even think about hurting one of mine.

Where do you stand?

Things I didn't learn in kindergarten, or high school, or college for that matter.

We were recently shopping in Macon when I came across a book that got my attention. It's title: "How to Read Literature Like a Professor." I had to have this book. I had to see if I still "have it," you know? Because as much as I hate to admit it, I have been out of school for ten years and my analytical skills are a bit dusty.

But as I was reading this wonderful book that brought back so many memories, something else struck me..... even though I did graduate knowing these things, it was only through my own experience and curiosity.

But why, I wondered, did my professors, who were charged with preparing me to teach literature, not make sure that I knew these things? Why was this not a required class before graduation? And for that matter why was the grammar class optional?! Lucky for me I was good at grammar and had a wonderful teacher in middle school who taught me all I ever needed to know. This enabled me to help the rest of my ill-prepared classmates in my college grammar class and be the one to whom everyone turned for help.

It seems that all the things that are really important for a teacher to know in order to be a competent teacher we were expected to learn by osmosis. They were never directly taught only implied, and yet are some of the basic foundations, must haves, in order to be an effective teacher of literature.

But all this is really irrelevant in light of the fact that I am no longer a teacher and have no plans to return to that profession. Well, c'est la vie!
(ha! I did learn something in French class!)

I think I'll catch the movie.

So, I finished Jane Eyre. I liked that it was clean, with a good focus on hearing the Lord and doing what is right, but..... I have to be honest and say that I would probably like the movie a whole lot better. And that is saying something for me.
I even liked the book of the sci-fi action movie Transformers better than the movie itself because the film's director cut out some really funny scenes that were in the book, but I will give props to the movie for having awesome effects and sound. Plus, I just really like Michael Bay movies, I don't care how "cliche & predictable" the critics say his directing may be. When you watch, you are on the edge of your seat.
But back to the topic at hand -- I have always preferred to watch the movie before reading the book so that I will like the movie and not spend the whole time thinking "How could they cut out that part!!!" But in Bronte's sprawling, rambling, really really really loooooong novel, I would be happy to see some chapters, not just scenes, left on the cutting room floor.
Now I'm reading Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen. I've already seen the movie with Keira Knightley (love it!) and am enjoying the book just as much so far.
And for those of you who may not know me very well..... Yes, my taste in books & movies is quite varied. I love the classics like: Shakespeare and Chaucer, Edgar Allen Poe, small amounts of Wadsworth, Longfellow & Thoreau and the old British "girlie stories" of love and marriage (like Jane Austen).... but also the slightly more modern Michael Crichton and other authors of science fiction, action/adventure/suspense, let's-solve-a-crime stories. But that's all another topic for another day.

How many years does it take to read a book?

When I was in middle school (1988-1991) my cousin in New York gave me a beautifully illustrated copy of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. She knew I loved to read, and since she liked the story, she thought I would too. It was a classic, right?

I was excited to get started on my new book, and jumped in right away. I didn't get much past the second chapter, however, before my enthusiasm came to a screeching halt. I didn't like it and could not get into the story. So, Jane Eyre got shelved, unfinished, in my closet.

Now, twenty years later, I have dug the beautiful book out of my attic and tackled it again. I know why I couldn't get into it before. Bronte is hard to read. Well, then it would have been hard. Now that I have Beowulf in the Middle English text under my belt and numerous Shakespeare plays down, it's a piece of cake. But for a middle schooler who was more interested in Nancy Drew novels (action & adventure), a story about an unloved orphan couldn't have been that appealing.

But Bronte is still hard in that the book is a slow starter. You keep reading it because you don't want to quit again for the first 175 pages, then it starts to get intriguing. Notice I used the word intriguing and not "exciting" or "page-turning." This is no Michael Crichton, edge-of-your-seat, can't-turn-off-the-light-and-go-to-bed, I'll-eat-when-I'm-done-with-this-chapter novel. . . . But I'm not quiting! I may only be on page 324 of 552, after two months of reading, but I'm not quiting! I will get to the end. And when I do, I'll let you know what I think.