It's Not About Me

Merry Christmas (Eve)! 2011

"With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud.  A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death."  - Romans 8 (The Message)

Miles & Isles

Another not-to-be-missed video. Haven't talked to anyone who wasn't amazed at this confluence of talent and skill in west Scotland. (Also some sweet tunes by "Loch Lomond" and "The Jezabels".)

 

Hitchens

Lots of buzz this weekend over the death of Christopher Hitchens, contrarian gadfly, writer for the Atlantic and one of the most noteable of the New Atheists. He was almost loveable in his pomposity, a caricature of British snobbery. The poor man however was Exhibit A as global/village atheist, you know, "there is no God and I hate Him". Doug Wilson points out that he carried the additional burden of his name, Christopher (ie. Christ-bearer). How unpleasant to carry the name of the one you hate.

Despite Hitchens' long list of unpleasantries, the man could certainly write and apparently did so until almost the bitter end. I love this remembrance by British lawmaker, Denis Macshane, "He would drink a bottle of whisky when I would manage two glasses of wine and then be up in the morning writing 1,000 perfect words. He could throw words up into the sky and they fell down in a marvelous pattern." Or this from Vanity Fair editor, Graydon Carter, "There will never be another like Christopher. A man of ferocious intellect, who was as vibrant on the page as he was at the bar."

Hitchens was not invincible on the page however as evidenced in one of the more interesting debates on theism I've ever read. Don't miss the fascinating exchange. You can start here.  

There have been many eulogies published in the last couple days. It is not surprising that I've enjoyed Doug Wilsons' the most. Despite their coming at each other from across the table, there was plenty of sorrow in Wilson's words. Never the less he points to the real fruit from Mr. Hitchens' life:

"G. K. Chesterton once pointed to the salutary effect that the great agnostics had on him—that effect being that of "arousing doubts deeper than their own." Christopher was an heir of the Enlightenment tradition, and would have felt right at home in the 18th-century salons of Paris. He wanted to carry on the grand tradition of doubting what had been inherited from Christendom, and to take great delight in doubting it. This worked well, or appeared to, for a time. But skepticism is a universal solvent, and once applied, it does not stop just because Christendom is gone. "I think, therefore I am. I think." We pulled out the stopper of faith, and the bathwater of reason appeared undisturbed for a time. But modernism slowly receded and now postmodernism is circling the drain. Our intelligentsia needs to figure out how to do more than sit in an empty tub and reminisce about the days when Voltaire knew how to keep the water hot."

I Wish You Joy! The Birds

This is easily one of the most beautiful things I stumbled across in 2011 - avian choreography by the Creator, caught by a couple of British gals canoeing on the River Shannon in Ireland, brilliantly produced and mixed with the music of Nomad Soul. 

 

OWS

It will be interesting to see if "Occupy Wall Street" survives the cold of winter. I hope not. It would be nice however to see the robber barons have a metanoia moment and stop their strip mining of the American economy. In 1950, top executives earned 24 times the average worker's pay, 122 times in 1990 and 550 times in 2009. CEO's also tend to earn more as they lay worker's off or export jobs. Might be good for that 20K ft2 get-away in Telluride, but not so good for the country. 

Despite my take on OWS as morass of anarchists, fools and hippie-wannabees I did enjoy this week's Colorado Springs bumper sticker: "Why Is It Class Warfare Only When We Fight Back?"