Review: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

I don’t often pick up fiction books, although when I do I usually enjoy them. They are much more fast-paced and typically easier to digest than a textbook, and they give creative perspective. I stumbled upon The Road by Cormac McCarthy while reading a blog called The Art of Manliness. The blog by Brett McKay has a ton of helpful tips for men that often are passed from father to son (but not always) like how to tie a Windsor knot or how to make conversation with others. It’s a great blog by the way, but that is content for another post. J Brett had written a post about The Road, and said that he has read it every year as a bit of a tradition. His post inspired me to check out the book.

I probably should have been more aware of the book long before Brett’s post though. The book was made into a movie in 2009, and it also won the Pulitzer Prize in 2006. Reading this book evoked images for me of something like a Mad Max or Book of Eli post-apocalyptic world. The land was cold, and the people left on earth were struggling to survive.

The story is one of a journey of survival for a father and son through a wasteland. A journey filled with people who were bent on evil—robbers, cannibals, and many other unsavory and untrustworthy people. The father had made it his mission to protect his son and keep them both alive for as long as he could.

He used a metaphor with his son to emphasize character, “Carrying the fire.” People who carry the fire, are not cannibals, they are the good guys. The father and son reminded one another regularly that they were the good guys as they struggled to survive, and struggled to do the right thing as they traveled the road.

For me, the book, while a sobering look at love for one’s family, and the hard choices many people have to face for daily living, was more of a book about character and love. How will I raise my child to be a person of good character? What kind of person am I becoming by my own routines? How am I making the most of the limited time I have on this earth to care for others?

I recommend The Road, but I don’t think I’ll make it an annual reading. It is a dark and gripping story of a world that has largely lost its way and lost hope, but through the love of this father and son, a cold and unrelenting post-apocalyptic world seems like cannot hinder the power of virtue to shine forth through the darkness.

Whatever the darkness that may encompass our own lives, may we ever be mindful that faith, hope, and love abide, and even more so, may we, as we are able, seek to push back the darkness and live as ambassadors of hope.

Reflection: Bonfires and Bonding

This year at our Nuru all-staff summit, we started a new tradition, or maybe we continued an older tradition in a new format. We gathered around a fire on the first night of our summit, and shared stories of ways in the past year different members of the team stepped forward and went above and beyond to carry the mission forward. This time of celebrating wins was not entirely new at Nuru, but, the bonfire was.

Sitting around that fire and enjoying some pizza and solid conversations and catch-up times with teammates as the sound of Pacific waves crashed in the darkness beyond us brought back several other memories for me. Back when I was more actively engaged in my tribal community, we would circle up around what we called "Indian-TV" or more specifically "Shawnee-TV" and conduct similar activities. We would enjoy meals, catch-up with one another, share stories, and laugh together as we enjoyed the dance of the fire/"TV" before us. My understanding is that our staff living in Ethiopia and Kenya also have fire pits around which they gather fairly often.

My tribe has a New Year's ceremony (not in January) in which the nation's fire is stamped out to signal the close of the old year and the start of the new year (there's much more to the ceremony, but this is one key element). As the fire is stamped out, individuals are encouraged to make amends, to forgive, and to leave the hurts of the previous year in the past. In this way each year starts with a clean slate.

I can remember heading out to one of my old roommate Lucas Harriman's family home in West Virginia during my undergraduate years too. We would gather about indoors, eat a ton of buckwheat cakes and pizza while simultaneously downing pot after pot of coffee, and then we would make our way outside to a fire pit, and gather around to sing praises to the Creator of the universe, share testimonies of what He was teaching us, and even take time to pray for one another.

I've always thought about a fire as a tool for survival, a place to keep warm, and a place to cook food and share meals, but in reality a fire represents a gathering place, and in some regard, the breath and life of a community. It's no wonder that people talk about relationships ending as "fires going out" or even of death in a similar fashion "their fire burnt out too early."

While I know that there are modern equivalents for gathering spaces, I can't help but think that a fire as a gathering space is unparalleled, especially a fire in the night. The fire calls us away from the darkness, calls us to warmth and laughter, and allows us to see one another more clearly rather than only seeing shadows.

Do you have any fireside memories? May we each make a practice of spending time together with others around a fire, and celebrate community, warmth, and connectedness.

Reflection: Tending The Fire And Tending Our Spirits

Yesterday evening, Jamie and I decided to take some of the brush that had been slowly accumulating around our house over this summer, and burn it. So, we pulled out a small portable fire pit we bought on clearance last summer, and began to build the base of the fire. Memories started flooding my mind as I first gathered small twigs for kindling, and took a few seconds to light this bundle. And as the kindling was consumed, I quickly started adding larger sticks until we had a small, strong blaze going. At the same time, the sun was slowly setting over the hills to our west.

Gathering sticks and adding them to the strong fire, I thought back to many memories and lessons learned from starting and tending fires from some of my tribe's ancient ceremonies. I thought back to the importance of a clean fire, and how the fire itself consumed, refined and purified. I reviewed and relived the process of methodically building the fire and tending the fire so that it didn't go out and so it didn't blaze out of control. I remembered occasions where an old fire would be stamped out, so that a new and fresh fire could be built, as a symbol of a new start, a new year, and of leaving the past.

After the fire was built up, and the brush began to burn down into a peaceful and deep bed of blazing red coals, it brought me back to many memories of tending fires for sweat lodges and other occasions, and the high degree of care and contemplation that always surrounded these activities in the past. Sitting together by the fire, Jamie and I took time to pray. We prayed for ourselves to grow in our love for Creator, our care for His creation, and our capacity to serve our fellow humans. We prayed for growth in capacity and discipline. We prayed for friends who are going through incredible challenges. And at the same time, we soaked in the rhythm of the day. We watched the sun slip silently behind the hills and daylight transition to dusk. There was something amazingly restful as the last moments of "the weekend" disappeared, and we gave ourselves a small space for reflection.

Just as I learned during my younger days that tending the fire demands extreme care, respect, and discipline, tending our spirits also demands the same. After our time by the fire in quiet reflection and savoring the tranquility of the fireside peace that probably all of our ancestors have enjoyed, I found myself refreshed and energized for the week ahead. Now I realize that we probably don't have enough wood around the house to enjoy a quiet moment by the fire every evening, but we could cultivate a habit of tending our spirits into our daily and weekly rhythms. And, this tending is critically important work! Without tending our spirits we run the risk of letting the interior fires grow dim, or we could let our lives run out of control.

It seems like every one I run into feels incredibly busy and tired and that there's very little space in life for reflection. Surely, it wasn't always this way. As each of us lives out our calling faithfully in this world, it is quite easy to erase margins and lock ourselves into both a sense of apathy (that this is just the way it is) and complacency (content to be on cruise-control with our lives), but this will rob us of incredible joy, and in many ways rob the world of each of us bringing our very best selves into our work, family, and community.

May we each carve out space in our schedules for rest, for reflection, and for tending our spirits. And by so doing, may we keep our inner fires steady burning and bring our very best into each day.

Anaheim Hills Fire

The above photo was taken by Mark Boster for the Los Angeles Times.

Another round of fires has hit Southern California, and this one is close to home. Well, it's close to my brother's home. Right now my brother and his family are packed up and waiting for word from Emergency Services as to whether or not they will need to evacuate their home.

I ask you to pray for my brother and his family as well as for the many families who have already lost their homes. Right now the fire is three miles from my brother's house. They are praying that the winds would be minimal and help to contain the fire. They are waiting and watching.

If you want to read more about the fires, here's a recent LA Times article (approximately 4 hours old at the time of this post).

Thanks for your prayers!

Plans, Car Wrecks, God, and Character Development

So yesterday, I left super early to get to a conference. I left with plenty of time to spare so I could relax and maybe enjoy a cup of coffee or a meal in Toledo or Detroit (I've never been to either town, so I thought it might make for a refreshing break from my driving. Well God had something different in store. In fact, instead of a relaxing journey, I was stuck in traffic for between two and three hours a few miles north of the Ohio border in Michigan. Before the traffic jam, I was taken on a detour that added an extra 30 minutes to my trip. And then, when I finally made it to my final destination, it appears that I went to the wrong location, and so I spent an extra 30 minutes trying to contact someone to get directions to the location of the conference. My map directions took me to a location about half a mile away from the event, and so I had to call people and back track. I was tired, hungry, and frustrated by the time I arrived, which was actually the perfectly place for me to be. Why was this perfect? Because it served as a reminder to me of what a selfish, impatient, prideful, easily irritated, and wicked person I am when I choose not to keep Christ as the center of my life. I will gravitate toward selfishness everytime.

The reason why I was in a traffic jam was because of acollision resulting in fatality that happened early Monday morning on I-75. No matter how early or late I would have left, I would have been stuck in traffic with thousands of other people. Somebody lost his life in that accident, and that's a reality we seldom consider when we are stuck in traffic. Usually we are centered on the inconvenience it causes us. Yesterday, for some reason I was very aware of the severity of the accident, and my heart definitely goes out to the families of all those who were involved. I mean, what did I really lose in the accident--a little time. And yet, when I think about it, most of us are so selfish that we aren't even concerned about the severity of things going on around us. One man lost his life, but the rest of us only lost a little time, and even that time could be constructive. Maybe we need to learn to slow down and not be in a rush (but that's another thought for another blog).

By the time I had arrived in this traffic jam, cleanup of the accident was well underway. It involved three semis, so it took about 12 hours total. I gave some time to reflect on what might be going on up the road, but for the most part I was in my own little world.

It's funny how quickly things we enjoy can become idols or distractions. I had been listening to my Brett Cain and Keane CDs earlier on the drive, and thoroughly enjoying them for the good music that they were. When I was stuck in traffic, I got bored. I wanted to pull out my cell phone, but I don't have service in Michigan. I wanted to listen to music, but I found that the music wasn't as satisfying as it had been earlier. I wanted to get out of the car, but I was already getting a little light headed from all of the exhaust fumes I was breathing in on the interstate. I even wanted to start memorizing scripture (that's godly--right?), but I couldn't focus on anything. In the middle of all of that attempted distraction, God met me, and confronted me about my character, and my willingness to run to distractions instead of running to the loving arms of Jesus.

Why are we like this? I don't think I am alone in this struggle against distractions. I couldn't help but thank God in the middle of my frustration because His grace is sufficent for me to stand in the middle of trying circumstances. In the middle of this explosion, and this traffic jam, God was willing to bear with me, and work on my character. As much as I wanted to have some relax time, God wanted me to be confronted with my proneness to wander. What do you run to be distracted? What beautiful thing do you allow to become an idol? How do we recognize these things when they come on our radar?

Just a few thoughts from a long and character developing day on the road.

Burning Down the House

Burning Down the House, originally uploaded by chanchanchepon.

If you lived here, your house would be burnt down.

It's been pretty weird being in Morgantown this summer. All summer, I have been watching houses burn down. The area known as the loop at the bottom of falling run road has been quickly becoming transformed. It is really strange.

You know, we are in such a hurry to build new spaces, we don't really even salvage anything. We just burn it all up. Doesn't this seem a bit wasteful. it's like, if we had the time, or would just take the time, we could be providing for other people with some of the building materials in these old houses. Instead, they are reduced to rubble in a matter of minutes.

And then, just being in Morgantown this summer, it is pretty wild to see how much the area has been transformed in just the last two months.

New restaurants and businesses have emerged, and now homes are disappearing. I guess this is what progress looks like . . .

Fire

Fire, originally uploaded by chanchanchepon.

Well, i don't have a chimineya anymore thanks to somebody driving through my yard and destroying it. So, in order to burn anything I have to wait until 4PM and burn it on the open ground.

So this fire is the reduction of a bunch of prunings. The branches were gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. They were dead. Lifeless. They were not bearing fruit.

My yard looks somewhat transformed. Probably nobody would notice other than me, but the fact that I notice means something. It means that all of that hard work has some tangible result.

When our branches don't bear fruit, they are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. I don't like the thought of anything I do being burned up. I don't like the thought that there are things in my life that need pruning. I don't like the thought that I have decaying, dead, and rotting branches.

But at the same time, it is good to have someone go through and remove them. Are there branches in your life God needs to prepare for fire. Will you submit to the gardener and let Him do the difficult but necessary work?