Category: quote

• [random thoughts] Where Do You Hide Your Heart?

  

  Where do you hide your heart? The question always reminds me of Amy Grant’s 1984 track on her hit album Straight Ahead. Her song encouraged us to turn to God during times of distress. It got me thinking about why people do what they do, particularly during times of conflict or stress. Passion and drive,…

  dappled-things

  April 15, 2020

  culture, nonfiction, personal, quote, random writing, thought piece

  charism of virginity, desiring the kingdom, dubay, heart, james ka smith, jung, love, man and his symbols, passion, romantic theology, song of songs, spiritual love, unconscious

• “One word, Ma’am,” he said, coming back from the fire; limping, because of the pain. “One word. All you’ve been saying is quite right, I shouldn’t wonder. I’m a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it. So I won’t deny any of what you said. But there’s one more thing to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things-trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play world. I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia. So, thanking you kindly for our supper, if these two gentlemen and the young lady are ready, we’re leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for Overland. Not that our lives will be very long, I should think; but that’s a small loss if the world’s as dull a place as you say.”

  -Puddleglum in The Silver Chair (Lewis), 144-145.

  dappled-things

  July 31, 2018

  literature, quote

  c s lewis, Christianity, chronicles of narnia, inspiration, materialism, narnia, puddleglum, religion

• I expect you may not be aware of it, but the anti-bullying psychology, created by left-thinking university psychology professors, is the ultimate in political correctness, turning every one of us into a potential bully or victim, or, to use your preferred language, oppressor or oppressed. Thanks to the successful political activism of the anti-bullying field, schools are now required to function as totalitarian police establishments responsible for children’s interpersonal relationships 24/7. School staff need to do double duty as security guards, detectives and judges, treating any complaint of subjective harm as a serious crime needing thorough investigation, interrogation, adjudication, reporting and punishing. Rather than eliminating bullying, these laws have led to a growing epidemic of bullying and intensified hostilities among students, parents, teachers and administrators. Today is the most stressful time in history to be a school administrator, as they can face lawsuits for failing to accomplish the impossible (research has shown that the most highly regarded anti-bullying programs barely cause a dent in the problem, yet schools are supposed to know how to get stop all children from being bullied.) Just today, the news reported that a Pennsylvania court awarded a student $500,000 dollars (link is external) because the school district could not stop fellow students from ridiculing her “gender-nonconformist presentation” – in all three schools she attended! Half a million dollars! American dollars, not Canadian! For a mere $500, I could have taught the girl how to stop being bullied, but now we, the taxpayers, have to fork out half-a-million bucks because schools can’t force all children to respect nonconformist gender presentation. In actuality, the schools’ attempts to stop the bullying made the bullying escalate.

  -Kalman, The Two “Fatal Flaws Lurking in American Leftist Politics”

  dappled-things

  July 29, 2018

  culture, interesting stuff, quote

  advice, bullying, life, media, opinion, relationships

• 

  Interesting considerations in this article. As I have stated before, forgiveness will cease to exist in this regime. Link

  dappled-things

  July 22, 2018

  culture, interesting stuff, quote

  callout culture, censorship, critique, cultural customs, culture, forgiveness, hollywood, informers, james gunn, marvel, matriarchy, mistakes

• I have criticised the appalling misogyny and homophobia of Islam, I have criticised the murdering of apostates for no crime other than their disbelief. Far from attacking Muslims, I understand – as perhaps you do not – that Muslims themselves are the prime victims of the oppressive cruelties of Islamism, especially Muslim women. I am known as a frequent critic of Christianity and have never been de-platformed for that. Why do you give Islam a free pass? Why is it fine to criticise Christianity but not Islam?

  -Dawkins, Richard Dawkins event cancelled over his ‘abusive speech against Islam’.

  dappled-things

  June 21, 2018

  quote

  Christianity, dawkins, islam, richard dawkins

• “If scientific beliefs are just a particular culture’s mythology, how come we can cure smallpox and get to the moon, and traditional cultures can’t? And if truth is just socially constructed, would you say that climate change is a myth? It’s the same with moral values. If moral values are nothing but cultural customs, would you agree that our disapproval of slavery or racial discrimination or the oppression of women is just a western fancy?”

  -Pinker, Steven Pinker: ‘The way to deal with pollution is not to rail against consumption’ (Anthony).

  dappled-things

  June 10, 2018

  quote

  constructs, cultural customs, postmodernity, quote, science, steven pinker

• “All of us are engaged daily with works of art, even if we are neither professionals nor amateur artists. We read books, we listen to music, we look at posters, we admire flower arrangements. Art, as I am using the word, does not include just “high art”, that is, painting, sculpture, poetry, classical music, but also the more popular expressions – the novel, the theatre, the cinema, popular music and rock. In fact, there is a very real sense in which the Christian life itself should be our greatest work of art. Even for the great artist, the most crucial work of art is his life.”

  –Art and the Bible, Francis Schaeffer, 49.

  dappled-things

  June 6, 2018

  literature, nonfiction, quote

  art, Christianity, cinema, classical music, culture, film, francis schaeffer, high art, inspiration, life, life as art, literature, music, poetry, sculpture, society, writing

• What ‘no’ means, in the final analysis, is always “If you continue to do that, something you do not like will happen to you.” Otherwise it means nothing. Or worse, it means “another nonsensical nothing muttered by ignorable adults.” Or worse still, it means, “all adults are ineffectual and weak.” This is a particularly bad lesson, when every child’s destiny is to become an adult, and when most things are learned without undue personal pain are modelled or explicitly taught by adults). What does a child who ignores adults and holds them in contempt have to look forward to? Why grow up at all? And that’s the story of Peter Pan, who thinks all adults are variants of Captain Hook, tyrannical and terrified of his own mortality (think hungry crocodile with clock in his stomach).

  -Dr. Jordan Peterson, Twelve Rules for Life, 140. An interesting consideration on the origin of the Peter Pan complex, perhaps?

  dappled-things

  May 23, 2018

  quote

  adulthood, child raising, children, discipline, jordan peterson, no, peter pan complex, quote, saying no, twelve rules for life

• And yet, for Seneca, in so far as we can ever attain wisdom, it is by learning not to aggravate the world’s obstinacy through our own responses, through spasms of rage, self-pity, anxiety, bitterness, self-righteousness and paranoia. A single idea recurs throughout his work: that we best endure those frustrations which we have prepared ourselves for and understand and are hurt most by those we least expected and cannot fathom. Philosophy must reconcile us to the true dimensions of reality, and so spare us, if not frustration itself, then at least its panoply of pernicious accompanying emotions.

  -Botton, The Consolations of Philosophy, 81.

  dappled-things

  May 20, 2018

  quote

  frustration, overcoming, philosophy, quote, reality, seneca

• “All that hooey! The trance and the white cocks and the brazier and the pentagrams and the voodoo and the reversed crucifix – all that was for the crudely superstitious. And the famous “box” was a bit of hooey for the contemporary-minded. We don’t believe in spirits and witches and spells nowadays, but we’re a gullible lot when it comes to “rays” and “waves” and psychological phenomena. That box, I bet, is nothing but a nice little assembly of electrical show-off, coloured bulbs and humming valves. Because we live in daily fear of radio fall out and strontium 90 and all the rest of it, we’re amenable to suggestion along the line of scientific talk. The whole set-up at the Pale Horse was bogus!”

  -Christie, The Pale Horse, 210-211.

  dappled-things

  May 9, 2018

  quote, Uncategorized

  agathe christie, spirituality