Posted on 11/11/2022 11:42:56 AM PST by RandFan
As an Episcopalian from early childhood, I got used to the morning/evening readings and prayers. I eventually had to change denominations because the Episcopal Church changed too much for me. I still do the Daily Office that includes morning and evening readings and prayers. (The readings include an OT passage, Psalms, an NT passage, and a Gospel reading — it’s a three-year cycle that takes you through the whole Bible.) The readings today:
Friday:
AM Psalm 88; PM Psalm 91, 92
Joel 2:28-3:8; James 1:16-27; Luke 16:1-9
Spurgeon was right. Besides, I better read in the morning to keep myself on track! Evenings, it would be nice to listen, I think, and look forward to trying that. I do thank you for your suggesting Suchet. I have my little Evensong playlist, too, that is nice. (I guess I’m weird: I somehow discovered Gregorian chant when very young, long before it got cool, and fell in love with it.) I like Sacred Harp/Shape Note singing, too, but maybe you have to be from East Tennessee/Western North Carolina for that:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_Goc5-esHts
It’s not well known, but those outside the area might remember it from the movie Cold Mountain (Charles Wesley’s hymn Idumea):
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XIkPyUecsnI
[he’s alienating the kind of sharp people he’d need to staff a second Administration. Who the hell would want to work for a guy who might turn on you publicly in a heartbeat if you happen to get on his bad side? Public humiliation, disparaging nicknames, etc. Sharp, successful people who have other options are going to take a look at that and decide it just isn’t worth it]
IIRC we read ‘Nausea’ and ‘The Plague’ in high school senior English. What I discovered by reading them was that I had a visceral hatred for Existentialism in all of its forms. But then I hated almost every assigment in that English class. I’d already been booted out of “honors English” for having a bad attitude and refusing to do assigments. I gave them a figurative middle finger in return by getting a near perfect score on the SAT verbal. School and I did not get along.
You were one of those smart kids who refused to be (figuratively) caged, leashed or brought to heel if you could help it. A natural rebel.
One of many advantages of trying out certain books now on my own, is if it’s too boring or doesn’t motivate me to finish it, no problem. I just throw that used book in the trash.
No one needs to know about it.
I read some work from James Jones (From Here To Eternity).
I tried reading another of his books A Touch of Danger, but I realized i did not like the main character, like not at all. He was someone in need of Poetic Justice. So I tossed that book. Not meant for me. Many other books by James, yes.
Ew! What a cruel high school English teacher you had! I don’t blame you one bit for hating that class! Nausea and The Plague, both in one year of high school? That is cruel and unusual!
I loved honors English as a junior, but we allowed to do “mini-courses” we could choose from, which was cool. One was “The Bible as Literature” which was taught by an excellent and deeply Christian elderly lady teacher and it was very interesting even though limited to the various literary forms used in the Bible. One was “Folklore” and, it being near the Bicentennial, was quite popular. We had to make our own folklore collections, meaning we had to “field work” and interview lots of people — elderly people were best — and I amassed a whole book of stories, sayings, expressions, recipes, superstitions, etc., all properly classified and categorized and sonforth like a proper cultural anthropology study. I even learned how to make split white oak shingles from a kindly elderly gentleman who lived in what at the time was still a rather isolated mountain farming community. That class was fascinating to us, and we loved it and learned a lot.
But I rebelled, too, and started college early, so I missed the whole senior year thing — if it was going to include Nausea and The Plague, I really dodged a bullet there! But, as you read, I got my due punishment in that Existentialism class (German class, too!). Looks like we have that in common — torment by way of Existentialism :( You have my full sympathy.
I don’t know why they made us read A Separate Peace in junior high (hated it) or made you read The Plague and Nausea in high school. There is so much fine and wonderful literature in our Western canon. Why that stuff?
That folklore work you were doing sounds a lot like the Foxfire books of that era. Do you know about them?
“I don’t know why they made us read A Separate Peace in junior high (hated it) or made you read The Plague and Nausea in high school.”
We were assigned all three. They really hated us. I think the book that got me booted out of honors English was some Henry James abomination called The Bostonians. It was dreary and boring beyond belief and I’d have chosen bamboo under the fingernails over being forced to read it.
I assume that high school was trying to make students, especially male students, suicidally depressed by forcing that garbage on us. The class was also subjected to watching ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolf’ which was another 2 hours of my life that I bitterly resented them taking from me.
I always marvel at how people look back fondly on their high school years. It would be like reminiscing over jail.
Yes, loved the Foxfire books, and yes, we were doing stuff like that. It was exciting and fun — and a lot of work and tired fingers from typing on an old typewriter (man, I feel old now). We felt like we’d created our own Firefire series, and it was fun to read the other students’ books, too. It was a truly great class that taught us all a lot of important things.
All three? Ew! They really did have it in for you! Henry James is hardly appropriate for high school, especially high school boys. And The Bostonians? Seriously? No wonder you rebelled! Why not let you read something like The Last of the Mohicans? Or Hemingway or Steinbeck or ... just about anything else. And on top of it Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Really? Ugh! Why not watch Ivanhoe or Henry IV?
There were some good points to high school, but it seemed like a horrible jail to me, too. I had fun with all my friends and we had some great times, but other than a few classes like AP History and the English mini-courses, it was stultifying ... and there were some really sorry teachers and more I won’t go into. My Dad wanted to send me to the fancy dancy private high school, but I desperately wanted to be with my friends after living in Switzerland. He was probably right. My Dad was always right. Anyway,I was more than ready to be out of there and into college. Little did I know Existentialism awaited!
I’ll bet you would know.
Ooooooooooooo……….
“I’ll bet you would know” (I know you are but what am I…)
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