A thousand farewells

I am now reading Nahlah Ayed's A Thousand Farewells. It's more than just no-nonsense coverage of a difficult part of the world as this review notes. It is intensely personal. The autobiographical component is gripping and is an essential part of her coverage. It is curious that I began reading it in Winnipeg, the place where she grew up - apart from 7 years in a refugee camp in Jordan from age 6 to 13, an experience her parents thought essential - and though painful, it has produced a reporter who has integrity and can understand the need for escape from the primal bonds of millennia of interlocking rules.  These are bonds that should be destroyed. (Compare Psalm 2.)

More complete review here

Reminder from deep in the prairies

Psalms course coming up in Victoria beginning Nov 12 - details here. Outline here.

MacLennan - The Two Solitudes

Hugh MacLennan portrays character as well as anyone I have read. Such writing gives one hope for language - indeed for the world. Towards the end of The Two Solitudes, his old seafarer, Yardley, ponders on why it is that 'they know not what they do',

Jesus must have considered that message mighty important or he wouldn't have saved it to the end. It was funny he'd never thought of that before. ... he had always supposed that if people had been intended to know what they were doing, they would have been created with the faculties to make the knowledge possible. 

 

The Borg has spoken

This is a nice summary of alternative views of atonement. I think it has traction.

Psalm 119 again

Selected recurring words - Psalm 119 words recurring between 11 and 20 times Word  1 2 3 4 5 Vs Root דרך the way ░ 1 דרך בדרכיו in his ways ░ 3 דרך דרכי my ways ░ 5 דרך בלמדי when I learn ░ 7 למד למדני teach me ░ 12 למד בדרך by the way of ░ 14 דרך עבדך your servant ░ 17 עבד אחיה I will live ░ 17 חיה עבדך your servant ░ 23 עבד חיני give me life ░ 25 חיה דרכי my ways ░ 26 דרך למדני teach me ░ 26 למד דרך direct in the way of ░ 27 דרך דרך way ░ 29 דרך דרך a way of ░ 30 דרך דרך directed by ░ 32 דרך דרך the way of ░ 33 דרך הדריכני have me go ░ 35 דרך בדרכך in your way ░ 37 דרך חיני give me life ░ 37 חיה לעבדך to your servant ░ 38 עבד חיני give me life ░ 40 חיה אהבתי I have loved ░ 47 אהב אהבתי I have loved ░ 48 אהב לעבדך to your servant ░ 49 עבד חיתני gives me life ░ 50 חיה דרכי my ways ░ 59 דרך למדני you will teach me ░ 64 למד עבדך your servant ░ 65 עבד למדני teach me ░ 66 למד למדני teach me ░ 68 למד אלמד I will learn ░ 71 למד ואלמדה and I will teach ░ 73 למד לעבדך to your servant ░ 76 עבד ואחיה and I will live ░ 77 חיה עבדך your servant ░ 84 עבד חיני give me life ░ 88 חיה עבדיך your servants ░ 91 עבד חייתני you have made me live ░ 93 חיה אהבתי I love ░ 97 אהב מלמדי my teachers ░ 99 למד חיני give me life ░ 107 חיה למדני teach me ░ 108 למד אהבתי I have loved ░ 113 אהב ואחיה so I will live ░ 116 חיה אהבתי I have loved ░ 119 אהב עבדך your servant ░ 122 עבד עבדך your servant ░ 124 עבד למדני teach me ░ 124 למד עבדך your servant ░ 125 עבד אהבתי I have loved ░ 127 אהב לאהבי to those who love ░ 132 אהב בעבדך on your servant ░ 135 עבד ולמדני and teach me ░ 135 למד ועבדך and your servant ░ 140 עבד אהבה loves it ░ 140 אהב ואחיה and I will live ░ 144 חיה חיני give me life ░ 149 חיה חיני give me life ░ 154 חיה חיני give me life ░ 156 חיה אהבתי I love ░ 159 אהב חיני give me life ░ 159 חיה אהבתי I love ░ 163 אהב לאהבי to those who love ░ 165 אהב ואהבם and I love them ░ 167 אהב דרכי my ways ░ 168 דרך תלמדני you have taught me ░ 171 למד תחי to live let ░ 175 חיה עבדך your servant ░ 176 עבד

Time it was for me to reread Psalm 119. I recall thinking when I was young that this Psalm is long and boring. If we fail to see the game it will be boring. But it is adoration and even that might be sufficient without the game. And it is also game - a 22 x 8 alphabetic acrostic. It reads well. As I read I was somewhat unaware of each of the major recurring words - the eight synonyms in this adoration of the Torah of HaShem: Psalm 119 - the eight synonyms instruction תורה testimony עדה command צוה precept פקד statute חק judgment שׁפט word דבר promise אמר All these have appeared by verse 11 and they continue with regular density till verse 176. There are also words that recur for the first time in the Psalter in this psalm from take note נבט in the first 3 parts to oppress עשׁק in parts 16 and 17, but this time as I read through I thought I noted another pattern. The pattern appears in selected words used between 11 and 20 times in this long poem. I have excluded heart and righteousness in this list. The remaining 5 words are in the table - do they reveal some organization in the mind of the poet? I note first that way recurs heavily at the beginning, in the first 40 verses.  The plea for life begins in verse 17 in Parts 3, 4, and 5 (twice). Parts 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 18, and 19 have it once each. Then there is an increase in usage in part 20 (three times) with a final mention in part 22. Learning / teaching is the third word and the last of these five words is love. One could imagine then that the poem, more than adoration, is also a plea for learning for the servant, that the servant might live and love.

Victoria to Winnipeg in the late fall

Roger's pass

Madness to drive - but I got here in three days with a stop at Sorrento where I left two copies of my book in the hopes that a course or two in the interior might be the result. Then to Calgary for a visit with my brother and his wife. Then in one fell swoop to Winnipeg, 12 hours driving, 15 hours elapsed. Altogether just under 2500 km.

Saskatchewan migration 

The country is beautiful. You see the images of the mountains at Roger's pass and on the prairies, the lake full of migratory birds. These places deserve more time. So many more images I could have taken like mount Baker in full sun after the fog and very slow traffic in the Fraser valley, and two days later, the browns and blue of the prairie with the 360 degree bowl of the sky overhead.

I drove from dark to dark, from sunrise to sunset, through the foggy mornings and the hazy dusk.

Ferry fog at Schwartz Bay

Those are the times where it is hardest for old eyes to see. I got comically lost in Calgary both in the evening at rush hour and in the morning. Usually it was because of construction.  I gradually learned to use the mapping software and the hands free instructions from the Blackberry Z10 but it is a learning process and I had no idea how much battery it would take when I was also listening to psalms read in Hebrew, a recording of the St John Passion and lectures from John Searle on speech acts - and all these in random order. (Random order is necessary for Searle - more challenging. He is alternatively boring and hilarious.)

Grandmother Diana with Oliver

And all this driving - for what - to prove we could get here in two days with two drivers when the weather is OK. Here is where the grandchild is - such a babe - so many moving parts - the little hands and miniature knuckles, the skin that is just a little to big for him, the eyes wide open, or shut in sleep, or opening and closing as if to make up his mind, the feet that move almost too flexibly, the strength of limb, the hand almost grasping, the fists closed, the palm open, the five-furrowed brow and delicate hair, the eyes of indeterminate colour - but which will be brown.

Two copies of my book have been delivered here too to local congregations. There are many churches, but not full or even open during the week. Much to ponder in this time when I am not writing - but there is so much that could be writ... Perhaps we will do a study here too in the spring...

Saturday next, all things being OK with new mother and child, we will drive back to Victoria for Dixit Dominus and a course on the psalms beginning November 12. There's plenty about children in the psalms - but here's a couple of verses that occur to me...

... he himself knows our fashioning (Ps 103)
your eyes saw my embryo and in your book all of them were written
days were fashioned and its one was in them (Ps 139)

so it is now for Oliver Michael Robert MacDonald, aged a fortnight. Simon, Dad, and Jennifer, Mum, are doing well - and are well supported by all the medical and employment systems we have in Canada. Bravo for the whole team from Doctor to the team of the Winnipeg Symphony, not to mention visiting retired ballet dancers.

Contrasting works

I read my Psalter. The first Hallelujah in Psalm 104 fills my cup. I read my spam folder and I realize just how much other junk there is reflecting a desire for deception and self-interest. Maybe the spammers are empty.