The Importance of Being Ernest - a book review

 

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As my wife designs a logo for a community theater staging this soon, I thought I’d give it a quick reread.

Yikes!

Wilde specializes in one-liners and witticisms, and often has characters say absurd and contradictory things, which they mean quite “earnestly.” That’s the surface level silliness of the play.

The next level down, is the Shakespearean plot of mistaken identities and mixups – done quite well.
Here we also find the typical clash between social convention and personal romance.

I think the deepest level message is that one should not pretend to be someone or something other than who you are. It is important to discover and be earnest. This sounds good, but Wilde meant it - and the world has taken it – to very bad places. Sincerity OVER all else: external morality, sacrificial love, the fruit of the Spirit. None of that matters. Being true to yourself is everything. Disregard and hold in contempt anything else that one might seek to impose upon you. To not be and do what you feel is the ultimate blasphemy, for we have made our own feelings and opinions our idols.


View all my reviews

Lessons in Marriage from Ballroom Dancing

So my wife and I have been taking ballroom dancing classes on and off the last few months.

Wow.

First, I didn’t realize how out of shape I was, but we’ll set that aside…

Ballroom dancing is kinetic marriage counseling.

The man has to know the steps of the dance and be willing to lead his wife – literally have her move how she wants him to.  To do this well, he has to signal clearly, ahead of time, so she knows what to do.  If he doesn’t, the dance falls apart.

Both he and she may know the options – what steps are possible to do – but if he doesn’t lead, she’s lost.  They are both lost.

This doesn’t mean she is helpless without him, just that she has a role, and so does he.  The dance instructors literally call this being a “lead” and a “follow.”  A movie I like, “Shall We Dance?” with Richard Gere and Angelina Jolie, puts this well.  Speaking to the man, the instructor says, “You are the frame.  She is the picture.”  His job in leading her is not to dominate and keep her under, but to glorify her.  “Show me, and everyone, your stuff.  You can do so much.  Show us what you can do.”

If you mess up the steps of the dance, of life, you can literally and physically hurt her, stepping on her toes, etc.  Men, you’ve gotta know what to do, and take the action to do it.  Else you fall on the floor together.  Or there’s no dance at all.

From the woman’s perspective:

Women are often the ones who drag their guys to ballroom dancing classes, thinking it’ll be good for him and them.  And it will.  But she doesn’t know what she’s getting into.

Suddenly she has to let him lead.  If she tries to take over, the dance falls apart.  When she lets him lead, it’s beautiful, and she is beautified.  It’s a huge struggle for her in life and on the dance floor, to wait for him to figure it out, and do the correct steps together.

Back to the man.  

I’ve said “let him lead” a lot.  But the steps aren’t wholly determined by the guy, either.  There’s a specific way you’re supposed to lead.  (It’s defined in the Bible quite clearly.)  The man doesn’t create the dance – he’s following a clearly defined tradition.  Each dance – waltz, swing, cha cha, samba, etc. – has its specifically defined steps.  If he’s doing it wrong, she’s not out of bounds to stop the dance and say, “That’s not how we do this.  Get it right.”  She should do this in their relationship, too, if he’s out of bounds.

The minute and subtle details of dance are very telling.  The man has to know two or three steps ahead of time (1-2 seconds), what he wants the next step to be.  And he has to signal clearly to her one or two steps ahead of time what to do.  Then she can be ready and joyfully follow.  Is there a major budget, housing, or job change needed in the family?  Make it clear, and get her on board.  If you just go off and do something and she’s in the dark, or if it’s the wrong step, the dance will fall apart.

Sometimes the man gives a clear signal, but she makes a wrong step – she wanted or expected to do something else.  He says, “That was a good signal I gave you,” and it’s on her for not following.  But sometimes the man isn’t sure what to do next, so they’re in a holding pattern, or she’s confused and she says, “You’ve gotta tell me where we’re going.”  And that’s on him.

Besides all this, the best thing about dance is that you get to hold each other, and look at one another face to face for an extended period of time.  You adore each other.  (Sometimes you’re frustrated with each other.)  There’s a sexual/erotic aspect to it sometimes, but not always.  You talk about the mistakes you just made.  Figure out what went wrong, and how to fix it.  Then you come back together and try again.

Give ballroom dance a try together.

Project Hail Mary - a book review

 

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I saw this Science Fiction movie on opening night in the theater (never saw a movie on opening day before).
I read the book after watching the movie (seldom do that, either).

Weir also wrote The Martian, which is a favorite movie of mine.

His forte/theme is fortitude in difficult situations, scientific problem solving, realizing your mistakes, and receiving help from unlikely sources.

When scientists discover the sun is being eaten and cooled by alien microbes, leading to climate catastrophe in 30 years, the nations of the world launch a coordinated mission to a nearby star that isn’t dying, to figure out why and send a solution back to Earth. The main character, Ryland Grace, is an academically ostracized scientist, now junior high science teacher, who is drafted against his will to work on the mission and be one of the three crew members.

The two coolest things about the story:
1. Grace wakes up at the beginning with coma-induced amnesia after years of interstellar space travel. His two crewmates are dead. He is alone, and has to figure out what he’s supposed to do and who he is. He gradually recovers his memory (including his name, about 100 pages in!), and figures it out.

2. Grace encounters and befriends an alien seeking the same solution Grace is. Their relationship becomes the heart of the story.

Besides being heavily evolution- and old-earth-based, and a handful of swear words, there’s little objectionable in the story, and worth seeing/reading with 12 year olds and up. (Weir actually subs out mild words for swear words more often than he uses vulgarity.)

Going to great lengths to help a new, strange friend becomes the main theme. Earth needs the Eridian alien, and Erid needs the human Grace. If they don’t work together, two planets die.

Great story!

View all my reviews

Apply God's Word - Job 4

We had a fun moment at family devotions tonight.

 

We were up to Job 4, and I kind of groaned, and said, Maybe we’ll just skip to the highlights of Job.  My family pushed back a bit – rightly – and we read it.

 

WOW.

 

Job’s friends get a lot of flak, and rightly so, in some ways.  Right after saying he’s so sad he wishes he’d never been born (chapter 3), they launch into “Who do you think you are?”

 

It’s cruel, but couched in theologically correct language.  (Take a moment to read Job 4.)  We agreed that this is probably Satanic.  Who is this spirit that glides past his face, giving him goosebumps (verses 15-16)?  Is it the Holy Spirit or the accuser?  Both God and the devil can say the same thing, have much the same sensational effect, and yet mean it for opposite ends.  Can a man be right before God (vs 17)?  No.  Does that mean our fate is to be “crushed like a moth” (vs 19)?

 

That’s the devil’s plan.  Use total depravity to crush us.  Use anything, even the most glorious truths, the most beautiful and glorious gifts He's given us in the world, to turn us against our God.

 

He wants us “beaten to pieces” (vs 20), and he’ll use half of “justification by faith alone” to do it.

“You can’t be right with God by what you’ve done.  It’s no use.  So give it up.  Lay down.  Curse God, and die.”

The first two sentences are correct.  The rest is wicked application of the truth, turning us away from God.

 

Here’s a key point:

 

SO much of theology is in the application.  Note how Eliphaz says true things – that Job can’t be pure before God on his own.  But then uses that to crush him.

 

Parents and pastors are called to use God’s truth to edify, encourage, sanctify, and yes, sometimes rebuke.  There’s a whole school of preaching out there that says, don’t apply the text, you’ll probably screw it up.  And they’re half right.  People DO screw up the application, much of the time.

 

But to say, I’m not going to go there, because “I might get it wrong” is burying your talents in the ground, and God doesn’t like that.

 

Parents that only give theology and worldview to their kids, without speaking into their lives.

Pastors that rail against the latest thing on social media or in the national news, without addressing the needs of their own people.

These are the most serious problems.

 

Yes, you might get it wrong.  But trust the Spirit within you, the love you have for your children, your people, and talk to them, ABOUT them.  “Admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all (1 Thessalonians 5:14).

 

Apply God’s truths to God’s people.

Propaganda Girls - a Review

Propaganda Girls: The Secret War of the Women in the OSS by Lisa Rogak
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book tells the tale of four restless women who wanted to help the war effort in World War II. Each brought unique gifts to the table: a Hollywood star and singer, intimate knowledge of Japanese culture and language, a gift for putting German soldiers at ease during questioning, etc.

The basic point is that they engaged in “black propaganda.” Leaflets, radio spots, etc, designed to demoralize the enemy. They would rewrite popular songs with lyrics that hinted that the war wasn’t worth it. Write short blurbs that drove a wedge between Japanese officers and soldiers. Announce to the Germans that Hitler was overthrown and they might as well surrender. Suggest that soldiers’ wives/girls were lonely back home and finding someone else to love them.

These tactics moved thousands of the enemy to surrender, waving the propaganda that these women wrote as they approached Allied forces in surrender. These women worked for the OSS, the precursor to the CIA.

The book has a lot of feminist insertions, constantly reminding the reader that the women worked way harder than the men, and got paid a fraction of what the men did. They were seldom promoted, being expected to go back home when the war was over. I’m sure there is some truth to the injustice of this, but it’s harped on repeatedly.

The immorality of the women and the Allies in general is only hinted at. But when you read between the lines it is quite atrocious. Most of them were divorced multiple times, one was a cabaret singer – the first to kiss another woman on the silver screen. This is all spun as “war is hard on marriage and love,” but they made poor choices along the way.

Still, a worth-while historical read. 3 stars.

View all my reviews