From Sinking Sand . . .
Monday, July 1, 2024
Surprising Fashion Trend
Saturday, September 23, 2023
Being Elisabeth Elliot
I have the same mixed feelings about Volume II of this set as I did about Volume I.
This is the authorized biography, meaning that Ellen Vaughn was given access to Elliot's journals and private papers, rather than just researching public items as Lucy S.R. Austen, author of Elisabeth Elliot: A Life had to do.
Vaughn stated in Chapter 2 that her goal was to tell the truth, in love. I appreciate that she did not want to write a hagiography, or biography that only points out the good points in a person's life. And aspects of Elliot's life that were not so positive needed to be explored. Overall, I was glad to read much of this story of Elisabeth Elliot, a hero of mine for many years. The negative aspects that are coming out publicly actually enhance my view of her. She made mistakes and was tempted. She was not better or more holy than any of us.
However, truth can be told without getting gratuitous or telling too much. We didn't need to be told details about her physical relationship with Leitch - their passions were already obvious. Several instances of this were totally unnecessary, as were details about women's cycles that were included at several places. Just leave that out.
Certain inclusions should have been modified. Even if Lars Gren's writing abilities were poor, I think it was unnecessary, embarrassing, and hurtful to include specific examples of that. The fellow author in whom Elliot expressed interest after Leitch's death should not have been named - the story could have been written without using his name. And no good reason exists for including the story about the workmen at her home who told stories about working at the nudist camp.
Two more things. The author inserted herself into the story too much. Another issue was the editing. Several errors were obvious and should have been caught by a good editor.
In other words - telling the whole story of someone's life can be accomplished in a more tasteful way than Ellen Vaughn did in this book. Under the cover of telling the whole story, she appears to gravitate toward somewhat salacious information. Elliot was a hugely influential , but also hugely complicated, figure in 20th century American Christianity. Her story can be told, honestly and truthfully, without tarnishing it with indelicate details.
Tuesday, July 25, 2023
Elisabeth Elliot: A Life, by Lucy S.R. Austen
Once in awhile a biography comes along that is well worth the slog through 500+ pages (600+ with bibliography and notes included). This is just such a book.
Elisabeth Elliot has long been an icon to much of the Christian world - the book says she's the best known Christian woman of the 20th and early 21st centuries - and she has been a huge inspiration and example to me for the past 40+ years. I have fond memories of reading Shadow of the Almighty aloud with my dear college roommate and friend as we shared a dorm room during summer work on campus--an experience that started my lifelong reading of Elliot's work. I have an entire bookshelf filled with most of her 25 published titles. So this biography was of great interest to me.
Austen takes an unprejudiced approach to her subject. This is not hagiographic at all; Elliot's weaknesses are portrayed even as her value to Christian thought is explored positively. Austen's research is impeccable. She is dispassionate about her information, which in my opinion makes this volume much more valuable than Ellen Vaughn's Becoming Elisabeth Elliot Vol. 1. Vaughn resorted to weaker writing tactics of using gratuitousnessin some examples, and her insertion of herself in places in my opinion removed some of her objectivity.
Here are some of the things I learned from Austen's Elisabeth Elliot: A Life:
- Elliot had feet of clay. She had areas of weakness in her personality and areas where an objective reader could look at her decisions and raise eyebrows. We so tend to look at our Christian heroes as being saints rather than sinners - but she, like you and I and everyone else, was a sinner. Looking at the worth of Christians in spite of their sin (rather than people who have fallen off the "Christian pedestal") has been a revolutionary process for me in recent years, and seeing Elliot's weak areas just reinforces that to me.
- Elliot faced self-doubt and frustration with schedules and getting everything done. In that regard she was no different than most Christian women.
- Elliot faced difficulties, in marriage and elsewhere, that made her question herself and her choices. I found this to be an extreme comfort, to find that she was not above other Christian women in second-guessing herself and in learning to live with the results of her decisions. She most certainly did not have a perfect life, which most of us would acknowledge in the death of her first husband, but probably thought her later life was more free of difficulty.
- I didn't always follow where her train of theological thought was going, and could tell I would not always agree with her conclusions. But when she came to a firm Biblical conclusion (such as in the roles of men and women) she was not afraid of the fallout.
Thursday, April 27, 2023
George Washington Saved the Tree
During our recent visit to the beautiful Hampton Plantation south of Georgetown (see the previous post), I spent some time sitting on the large portico facing the front yard. The house is situated between a small rice field and a wooded path to the family cemetery. Wambaw Creek is in back, and in front of the portico would have been an expansive view of the front lawn - except that a huge live oak tree stands in the way of the scene. And barring an act of nature, that enormous oak will block the panorama for many more years. It has its own illustrious history and story.
The year was 1791, springtime, and George Washington was traveling on an extended trip through the southern states in an attempt to unify all parts of the infant nation. After spending the night in Georgetown, he stopped the next morning at Hampton Plantation for breakfast. The portico on which I was relaxing was constructed all those years ago especially for this important visit.
The home at the time was owned by the Horry and Pinckney families, ancestors of long-time Hampton owner and state poet laureate Archibald Rutledge. All those names should ring a bell for South Carolinians who know the history of our state. The Declaration of Independence was signed by John Rutledge, and the Constitution by two of the Pinckney men. And Myrtle Beach is in the county that was named for the Horry family.
When Washington arrived at Hampton that long-ago morning, he was greeted by Harriott Pinckney Horry and her mother, Eliza Lucas Pinckney (famous in her own right for her work in indigo production). The two women were naturally very excited to have the first president of the United States visit their home. They told Washington that because the view of the front lawn was obstructed by the large oak tree, they were going to have it cut down. They asked him what he thought. Washington disagreed, told them he liked the tree, and thought they should keep it!
Thus, the ladies reconsidered their decision and allowed the tree to remain. It has steadily grown in that front yard for the past 232 years, and has been fondly called the “Washington Oak” in honor of the great man whose opinion kept it from being removed.
Fast forward back to 2023. After leaving the portico and walking around the grounds with Mike, I later sat for a few minutes longer on the bench directly beneath the Washington Oak. Just sitting there helped me sense a little part of the great history of the place. The Washington Oak still stands, as does the rest of Hampton Plantation, as a treasure of our beautiful state.
Turning Back the Calendar
Thursday, February 9, 2023
James 1:15 and the Murdaugh trial
I'm fascinated with this Alex Murdaugh trial. It's one of the nice things about being retired--I can pay attention to things other than school. It's caused me to sit at my sewing machine and get several projects done - because I can then justify long periods of listening to trial testimony at the same time.
It's a horrible story. The financial crimes alone are breathtaking in their scope. And then the possibility that this man also finished off his wife and son advances the story from horrible to unthinkable. And yet it very possibly could be true.
In my senior English teaching days, we studied Macbeth each year, and I always introduced it by reading:
Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. - James 1:15
That's exactly what happened to Macbeth. His crime started in his mind - "I could be king." That was the conception of lust - the lust for power. Then came the sin of murder to gain that end. After that, he had to murder person after person to cover his own tracks. And in the end, he died as the result of his actions.
The current situation carries parallels (even though I'm not saying that Murdaugh will personally die if convicted). In Murdaugh's mind, something happened to set him on the path of stealing - which soon became action. That resulted in more stealing, and more and more. And his actions, if proved, certainly did result in death - the tragic death of his wife and son.
And it all started with some root cause, not completely ferreted out yet, for which he needed money. The murder has not been proven, but compelling evidence exists that he had motive - that of covering his tracks and gaining him sympathy and time from those who were on his trail. After all, several witnesses have said that after the murders, because of sympathy for the defendant, for quite some time they didn't want to bring up the financial irregularities.
If Alex Murdaugh did commit the murders of his wife and son, I hope and pray that he does not get off of the charges due to the skills of sophisticated lawyers. If he didn't do it, I hope he is found innocent. Most of all I hope justice is served to the perpetrator of the gruesome murders of these two people.
And the older I get, the more I see the truths of the Bible proven in daily life.
Monday, December 12, 2022
Christmas Quotation from the incomparable Janie B. Cheaney
Janie B. Cheaney, WORLD magazine, 12/3/2022 - “A cloth-wrapped baby in a feeding trough and a cloth-wrapped boy in a tomb form the axis of a profound mystery that screen treatments and novels can only suggest. Nations rise and fall, eras come and go, but this ungraspable Person remains, still able and willing to grasp us.”
Friday, August 19, 2022
Mitford Mania
Maybe it's just because I've got time to read, for once. But the Mitford books have pulled me in, and I've not read this much fiction at one time in years. Karon writes with such good characterization that the reader feels like she is right there in Mitford and could say hello to these people on the streets. That's great writing.
Another great quality is that each book, though secular overall, has strong Christian elements, including the plan of salvation, and many Scripture texts.
Good writing + Christian emphasis = worthwhile fiction. Even if it's not my usual fare.
Friday, August 12, 2022
Friday's Fave Five 8-12-22
Friday, June 3, 2022
Friday's Fave Five, 6/3/22
LINK to Friday's Fave Five Host Blog
1. FIRST WEEK of retirement!! Now, I've been busy all week, but the difference is that I'm slowly realizing that my time is no longer limited. It's not "I've got to get all this done on Saturday," or even "I've got to get all this done during my 10 weeks off this summer." Which is the way it's been for the past 42 years!! I may write an entire blog post at some point about what that feels like. It is liberating.
2. I've been enjoying these all week. The flowers at left are from my daughter; the 31 roses and the plaque in the front were given to me at graduation (representing 31 years at the school).3. I am slowly getting 42 years of education accumulation cleaned out of our dining room/"big room." It will take awhile, but I'm getting it done slowly.
4. Spent one morning with Mike at the farm. He was spreading gravel, and I practiced piano on the Kurzweil we have down there, as I'm playing piano for church Sunday morning. The blueberries are coming in!! We won't get the 40 gallons of two years ago, but we should get more than the two that we got last year. I won't soon forget that night back in March when the temps got down to 23 degrees - we tried so hard to cover the bushes but the winds kept whipping everything off. We were resigned to getting very few blueberries again, but it looks like the middle bushes are pretty full.5. My dad is better. He was pretty sick last weekend with 101+ fever for several days, but a trip to the urgent care, with a doctor we know and appreciate, and a good antibiotic prescription have gotten him fixed up again.
And now I can take a nap. Because I am retired. :-)