A. The Fall semester has started (Can we seriously call it that when it’s 100 degrees outside?)

B. I’m not a fan.

C. This song makes me feel better about school starting.

Bonus: The White Stripes play this song in Napoleon Dynamite, and Jack Johnson plays it in Curious George. Does it get any cooler than that?

Carving my mask

All that I ask

Is to look like the others

Better wouldn’t be bad

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Absense of questions

Amounts to deceptions

I bury my burden with no S.O.S.

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Do I seem strong?

Put together?

I find that it’s better

To be be weathered

Than untried.

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But in asking

I admit I do not know

Owning weakness

Takes more strength

Than it will show

In my quarry of lies

By the light of truth’s glow

I memorize

My reflection

Really, can a cockroach be beautiful?

Genesis 1:31, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.”

[Good- in Greek, Tobe: 1. Good, pleasant, agreeable

1. Pleasant, agreeable (to the senses)
2. Pleasant (to the higher nature)

Beauty- Merriam-Webster Online: the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit : loveliness]

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So, Can a cockroach be beautiful?

Everything God makes is beautiful.

God made a cockroach.

Therefore, yes, a cockroach is beautiful.

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Personally though, I am repulsed by cockroaches. Nonetheless, becoming more Christ-like, means seeing creation like he sees it: beautiful. So, I have embarked on a quest to see cockroaches as beautiful.

I sketched a roach to study their aesthetic beauty, and frankly, I was surprised to find, that they are quite marvelous (although, I’m still having trouble seeing them as beautiful). The way their wings are ridged, and fold into each other, making complicated patterns on their backs is remarkable.

In the meantime, while I researched them, I found that roaches are among the most vital decomposers. They eat decomposing material, and return the nutrients to the soil.

So, for now, while I’m still working on seeing them as aesthetically beautiful, I concur with my friend who said, “It’s [a roach] like the guy who works in the sewer. He’s dirty and maybe a little creepy, but he cleans everything up.”

Cockroaches are beautiful.

Honestly, this is really a continuation of my last post. The more I think about it the more I think that to pursue the appearance of anything is the opposite of pursuing the actual thing. To attain, you first must admit that you do not have.

To increase:

*Knowledge you must first admit ignorance.

*Truthfulness you must first admit lies.

*Order you must first admit chaos.

*Strength you must first admit weakness.

*Love you must first admit hate or apathy.

*Righteousness you must first admit filth. imperfection. sin.

What is the antithesis of the pursuit of knowledge?

This summer, I’ve finally had time to read–not just school books, but books that I want to read. Over the last week or two I’ve finished Uncle Tom’s Cabin and The Scarlet Letter, and now I’m working on Moby Dick.

As much as I am enjoying them, sometimes, I find myself excited that the book I’m reading is coming to a close so that I can pick the next book. While I’m picking books, I’m not necessarily looking for the most intellectually stimulating book; instead, I’m looking for the book that seems to be one that well-read people read.

This summer I’m taking an SAT prep course. I already took prep courses last summer and last school year. I learn in these courses to some degree, but mostly they just help me bring up my test scores.

Which leads me to wonder…does the pursuit of knowledge have two opposites? The pursuit of ignorance is its obvious antithesis, but maybe the pursuit of knowledge has a second, more insidious converse:  the pursuit of the appearance of knowledge.

In trying to appear smart, I fail to ask questions when I don’t understand, because it might look stupid, and I rush from one thought and book to next trying to compile an intellectual resume of sorts without always trying to understand what I’m reading and thinking. In trying to appear like I’m pursuing knowledge, sometimes, I don’t actually pursue knowledge.

So. My goals:  (1) While I’m reading a book or thinking a thought, really read and think– rather than just pushing through to finish my book or thought, chewing on it. Questioning it. Discussing it. (2) In SAT prep, find real, applicable ways to use the knowledge more the trying to seem smart for the purpose of college admissions.

I picked up a copy of “Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry” from Half Price Books (I have to confess though, I didn’t finish it…). I noticed that, a few pages into the book, it’s last owner had made a flip book out of the bottom right hand corner depicting a stick figure shooting a cannon. It amused me.

Honestly though, my favorite part about reading used books is finding other people’s notes and doodles in the margins. It adds character, and their scribbled thoughts springboard new thoughts of my own as I read.

So, I had a idea.

I think it would be really cool to start a book-lending group, in which people must write in the books they borrow.

Is anyone interested?

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I lost four teeth

I never knew

Their roots grew down

Before their heads grew

Up
~~~

Now I must “eat”

Out of a cup

The only reminders of them

That remain

~~~

Are four holes

Some odd swelling

And minimal pain

~R.I.P.~

I remember sitting in the car at around age two or three and hearing my older brother, Landon, tell Mom, “I have a question: …” I promptly ask, “What’s a question?” “What you just ask,” someone replied. I don’t remember the rest of the explanation; it didn’t make much sense to me, but wanting to be as intelligent as Landon, I said, “I have a question.” I followed this assertion with another statement, which I was informed was not a question.

Even before we know what questions are, we begin to ask them. Sometimes I wonder, though. What is the point of thinking? I don’t mean “simple” thinking such as basic cognitive function, thinking about activities and people, or planning the day’s events. I mean deep thinking. Asking about the nature of existence, knowledge, and morality, and reason. The yawning chasm of an utter lack of understanding sometimes seems more frightening than inspiring.

Today, I read Philippians 4:8:

“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”

The verse puzzles me to some extent. Words like “lovely” or “of good repute” have so many different meanings that it seems hard to apply. I went through the verse with a Strong’s Concordance, looking at the Greek words and cross referencing them, which did clear up a lot of the ambiguity. The most surprising discovery, for me though, came when I looked up, “dwell.”

Logizomai: “To consider, take into account, weigh, meditate on…This word deals with reality. If I “logizomai” or reckon that my bank book has $25 in it, it has $25 in it. Otherwise I am deceiving myself. This word refers to facts not suppositions.”

We aren’t instructed to “dwell” esoterically on ideas that we cannot relate back to the real world. Instead, the answer to, “why think?” comes in verse 9,

“The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”

We think so that we will act as God wants us to act. We think to seek the truth about the nature of existence, knowledge, and morality, and reason, not so that we can give ourselves philosophical high-fives, but so that we can determine a real course of action.

What is a question? An opportunity to pursue truth and act on it.

The nose is often overlooked, but I think that ought to change. The nose is a most charming feature that adds character to the face. No one’s nose (or scent, interestingly enough) is just like anyone else’s. Upon some research, I found that:

The average human being is able to recognize approximately 10,000 different odors.

Your sense of smell is stronger in the evening than in the morning.

People recall smells with a 65% accuracy after a year, while the visual recall of photos sinks to about 50% after only three months.

Slugs have four noses.

The nose is such a wonderful organ that many countries have dedicated proverbs to the nose. The English advise,

“Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face.”

I was confused when the Thai instructed, “Don’t borrow another’s nose to breathe with,”

until the Vietnamese clarified, “You cannot breathe through another man’s nose.”

The Russian generously says, “Let everyone pick his own nose.” (These quotes have nothing to do with the persons picture they are under…just fyi)

One of my favorites, however comes from Tibet:

“Don’t notice the tiny flea in the other person’s hair and overlook the lumbering yak on your own nose.”

Several countries cite ways of testing your luck with your nose.

In Israel:  “An unlucky man falls on straw, but splits his nose from a hidden stone.”

In Germany: “He who is born to misfortune stumbles as he goes, and though he falls on his back will fracture his nose.”

In Poland:  The real unlucky one will sprain his thumb when he blows his nose.

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“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” ~Psalm 139:14