The thought occured to me tonight that one of my deep underlying motivations is to be a story teller. Not just someone who can weave a good yarn or even sell books and make lots of money, but someone who communicates the realities of life in a way that people can understand. I guess that's part of the reason that I love children's books. And part of the reason I want to do Bible translation.

Mary's Son

If you stop to find out what your wages will be
And how they will clothe and feed you,
Willie, my son, don't you go on the Sea.
For the Sea will never need you.

If you ask for the reason of every command,
And argue with people about you,
Willie, my son, don't you go on the Land,
For the Land will do better without you.

If you stop to consider the work you have done
And to boast what your labour is worth, dear,
Angels may come for you, Willie, my son,
But you'll never be wanted on Earth, dear!

Rudyard Kipling, 1911


In Other News...
I'm in an unusual mood. I really feel like sitting down and watching anime.

So I might have mentioned it to some of you. I'm taking a Greek course at a breakneck pace. Tonight at Bible study, I decided to bring my Greek interlinear Bible and actually try to use it. It was cool because I actually knew most of words in the passage. There's no way that I could read it without already knowing the verse, but at least I could see how it all worked.

I don't normally write about Iraq much, but I noticed an interesting thing in the newspaper toady. Yesterday 160 people were killed and today 73 more. While this is tragic, it shows an interesting change in tactics as the suicide bombers are focusing more on attacking working class people in the Shiite majority. I'm not sure about the full implications of that, since there could be any number of causes, but it is an interesting shift worth watching.

So I was reading the newspaper and two things occurred to me. First, I don't tend to blog nearly so much when I don't have internet access late at night. Second, our society as a whole does not have a very long attention span. I was amazed at how little everyone talked about 9-11. I didn't know anyone affected by it, but I still take it very seriously. Reading the comics, there were three that had memorials to the tragedy and two that referenced it obliquely. Apparently 'never forgetting' is not as important as making jokes about high gas prices and strained familial relations. Its not like they didn't have any prep time or anything. Maybe they'll never forget, but they sure won't care for too long.

In Other News...
I finally added links to a few more blogs. Welcome friends.