Mín Englisc Blog

Tonight I finished Brothers, with its sad yet joyful conclusion. With this, I was reminded by another (much shorter) Russian story that I have read: similarly, sad yet joyful.

What dwells in man, What is not given to man, and What do men live by?
• In man dwells love;
• It is not given to man to know his own needs; and
• It is love alone by which they live.

He who has love, is in God, and God is in him, for God is love.

I saw from a distance a great house fire yesterday evening...all through the night my dreams were filled with fire.

One thing I'll unquestionably enjoy with next year's room that's been a problem this year: next year's room faces west, while this year's faces east. I've been unhappily getting up significantly earlier than planned many times this year (including today), and I'll be happy to have a not-as-bright room in the mornings next year.

So tonight I decided to listen to Mozart's opera Der Schauspieldirektor, and it begins with a nice overture. What's next? Nearly constant nonmusical conversation in German — and the only exception is a character who speaks in French for a little bit!

In today's news, there was a story about an American who has been arrested for spying for Israel. I remember something like this coming up before. Why does Israel need to spy on us? We're definitely not a threat to their existence. It's not like they have friends who are our enemies, and that therefore they can take our ideas and give them to their friends to hurt us.

I think the following pair of lines, from 3.8.3 of Brothers, is a hilarious quote:

"...Oh, believe me, I am an experienced doctor of souls, Dmitri Fyodorovich."
"Madame, if you are an experienced doctor, I am an experienced patient...

Just one problem with the Mozart: I can't keep "Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja" out of my head now...

I had hoped to spend most of my night reading The Brothers Karamazov — due to a paper (on the Battle of the Bulge book) due today, I've not been able to read any of Brothers for a few days. I've not gotten much done, due primarily to computer work. I'm thankful to have made a good deal of progress tonight on learning to use Vista better. All my old emails are now on this computer, and I finally have AIM 6.5 working for the first time in months!
When I was younger, I laughed at Mom when she was unhappy because some program or another had been changed. Now that I have my own computer, and now that I have to reformat everything when a program (or operating system!) is changed, I can see much better why she didn't like it.

One enjoyable part of the day has been music. While working tonight at the Brig, I ended up discussing Veggie Tales with my coworkers. Much more seriously, I listened to Die Zauberflöte (Mozart's final opera) today, enjoying it immensely. One factor that helped was that I was familiar with a few bits of the opera, such as the aria "Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja", without remembering that they were from Zauberflöte. I'm so thankful I can borrow such great music from the library :-)

Time for bed; I'm halfway through another book but really need to get to sleep. This book, Foot Soldier, is by a veteran of the Battle of the Bulge over New Years 1944/1945. I have never before read an account of this battle: it has always been a vague awareness that it was a bitter battle fought in bitter cold. I only have one personal association with the battle: my first Scoutmaster's father, whose finger was mangled by a bullet. Since joining the troop 4½ years ago, I have always seen that finger occasionally, and considering that I am now older than he was then, such a sobering thought. This reinforces what I wrote earlier: although fighting and risking death for one's country is proper and right, and needlessly avoiding doing the same is wrong, how sad it is that such must be done. To be in a situation where you know your enjoyment of the good creation may quickly be ended, and consistently to attempt to end others' similar enjoyment: when our cause it is just, and in God is our trust, it is rightful to engage in it, but how massive the horror of the situation natheless. And even when it is necessary for us to go to war: how enormous the sin of those whose actions make our fighting necessary!

Yes, may our cattle bear; May there be no attacks; No going forth to war; No outcry in our streets. O happy people who are thus! O happy people who can say They have the LORD to be their God!

All my heart this night rejoices. Why do I so love maps and geography? Why do I so love seeing the countryside, seeing new places unfamiliar? I love God's creation, experiencing all that he has made ever new to me. Why do I so love the springtime? Once again, the earth sees new life, awakening from the winter snows that so long imprison it.
For my Masterpieces of World Literature class, I'm reading Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, a wondrous work surely deserving of the title of "masterpiece." Many call its chapter "The Great Inquisitor" the best part, but I urge you to read Book VI (of twelve in the volume), in my translation just forty-four pages, even if you cannot read the rest of the book. I marvel at the story of the elder Zosima on his deathbed, his love for God's creation, such wondrous writing! Where are you, Russia, Mother Russia of past ages? You were damaged by the sceptics in the last decades of the Empire, and you have been ruined beyond repair by seventy-five years under the Communist Party. I wish I could experience you, even to your ruined state in the great city of Nizhni Novgorod, but God has seen fit to prevent it...may I be able to see you one day!

Two interesting and useful conversations I've had this evening:
•At dinner, I ate with a friend of mine, Wilfred Muktale, who is rooming with Luke next year. It's always fun talking with Wilfred, and from what I told him about rooming with Luke, he seems to be more and more encouraged about next year.
•Before dinner, I spoke quickly with Ryan and Laura Cerbus. I'm in the process of making arrangements to be able to attend Brian Fulk's wedding on 10 May, and they've agreed to drive me. I know that Jesus says not to worry, but (sadly) I couldn't stop all afternoon, wondering whether it would work out. Here's one way I know I need to be more sanctified...

Just had a bombshell dropped on me in class this morning: instead of a standard test, we have an 8-10 page final paper! And this is on top of 4 papers, lots of small assignments, and a logic card to fill out that we've not been able to get to yet...

Several people were missing from church today, but we still had 40 people...I'm so thankful that God's bringing more people! Micah preached from the first several verses of Mark 6, in which Jesus is rejected at Nazareth: his point was perseverence in our witness to unbelieving relatives etc., even when they reject the gospel.
Last night, I attended a concert of Geneva's jazz band. Although it's in its thirteenth year, I don't remember hearing of it before, but when your roommate is in the band (just 19 members), you hear about it :-) They played very little music with which I was familiar — two Glenn Miller tunes and Back Home Again in Indiana — but all was enjoyable, and I was really impressed with their quality. And of course live music is better than recorded :-)

Tonight was a rather interesting event just off campus, according to eyewitnesses. To my understanding, a drunk driver was southbound on Fourth Avenue (Route 18) when he hit a parked SUV; his own car flipped on its side, and he was seriously injured with significant blood loss. Moreover, the driver immediately behind this man is a seminarian at RPTS whom I know somewhat! This occurred in front of Patterson House, where most of my floor from last year lives; one of the residents told me that there were many fire engines and police cars present, and that the man was rushed to the Beaver County Christian School property a few blocks away, whence a helicopter lifeflighted him. Meanwhile, apparently there was another (unrelated) accident north of the city limits; between the two, traffic was stopped, backed up as far as the turnpick interchange!
Here in my room, I didn't see anything, of course, but I heard tons of sirens. It's not that it was overwhelming, but my first thought was that there was a huge fire north of the city for which the city firefighters were providing mutual aid. Bear in mind that my window was closed and that it faces the river, and that all this was going on a full block away! I'm just thankful that no Geneva people were hurt, and that (unless the parked SUV belongs to a Geneva person) no property at all related to Geneva was hurt.

Registration for next semester's classes for second-semester juniors begins at 10:00 PM tonight.

Today, I was down at RPTS for most of the morning and early afternoon. Much of my time was occupied with the two reasons I was down there: (1) meeting with Librarian Tom Reid, discussing education for and job prospects of an academic librarian, and (2) learning from David Whitla what I'll be doing over the summer while I work there (scanning old session minutes books). It's amazing to look at these old papers, considering the men who wrote them: did they ever imagine that people would read them 150 or more years after they were written? One little pleasant surprise: while I was in Oklahoma, when we went to Cache Creek, we saw a picture of the mission from the late 1890s (belonging to the people that own the old church property), but it was damaged; however, today I saw hanging on the wall a well-preserved copy :-)
By the way, my housing situation for next year is seeming gradually to fall into place. Now I have to figure out what to do with the housing form, since I likely won't need it.

The dangers of polygamy:"Two Wives Divorce Husband at Same Time"

Someone just took my towel while I was in the shower. I'm glad that I don't live in a coëd dorm.

Talk about an unusual situation: last night, around 7:15, I decided to take a short nap, so I went to bed and put my alarm on for 8:00 PM. I just now woke up! I guess I'm well-rested and all, but nothing I was supposed to do last night has been done. I slept over eight hours (since I slept through the alarm, and no alarm would wake me at this time), so I'm going to stay up for the dawn, but not sure what I'll do; perhaps do some readings for other classes.
I've never heard this floor of this dorm so quiet before.

Just what we need: someone to run for president without a chance of winning to split the vote.

How nice that I didn't have to wear long sleeves to be comfortable outside today! And walking back from church yesterday, it was nice to see buds on some trees...leaves will be coming soon!
Micah preached yesterday from the story of Jesus calming the storm. We had 46 people present, which anymore isn't impressive (how nice that God's brought more people); several people were missing, but we had some out-of-towners, as well as a former adherent whom I'd not previously met.
I'm finished with the parts of my paper that discuss what Calvin taught and what the Council of Trent taught about justification. Now I have to compare them, contrast them, etc. I'm onto page 9 (although some will be being cut), but I don't think there's a requirement that this 10-page-minimum paper be a 10-page-maximum paper.