the clown of God

most of my old children's books have been stored at my in-laws for years and today I sorted through them, looking for some that Sparky might be ready for in the next year or so to take home.

One that I took home and read to Sparky tonight is the Clown of God by Tomie dePaola. I almost couldn't finish reading it, as my voice got choked up with tears (of joy) towards the end. It was a book that was very dear to me as a child. The story follows a juggling clown who in the end just before death, juggles for a statue of the Christ child, and in this finds meaning. The clown dies in the story, but the sadness of the death is transformed into joy in the story. Sparky said in wonder that it was sad and then good. It sparked off a discussion on death that got quite involved (Next time I won't read this story JUST before going to bed). I think at 4 Sparky was just old enough for this story - it might be even better for 5-6 year olds, and can be appreciated by 35 year olds too. The illustrations re very beautiful too.

Now I am looking forward to rereading the rest of the books I brought home. I am trying not to get too disappointed if his favourites are different from mine!

and the answers.....

1. The transforming power of prayer by James Houston - this book made me think a lot about how our other relationships affect our relationship with God - and vice versa.
2. Mansfield Park - I used to identify with Fanny as a shy anti-heroine - greater self knowledge has taught me I am quite different from Fanny in many ways - but there is still a little bit of me like Fanny. Well guessed Kris.
3.Raising Great kids: parenting with grace and truth by Cloud and Townsend. I almost chose Grace based parenting, but Nicole had used that already. This book perhaps didn't inspire me as much as the former, which I read first, but is probably a more consistently good, balanced approach.
4. To serve them all my days by RF Delderfield. About a welsh teacher's experience at a private English school at which he eventually becomes Principal. I have welsh ancestry, but I liked this book ever since I saw the BBC series. I love any stories of the impact teachers have, and so stories such as this one helped me to realise that I have the heart of a teacher.
5. Women in the church by Grenz and Kjesbo. This book helped me think through the issue of women in ministry. It takes a decided stand in favour of full participation in all roles, but does so with a respectful and thorough treatment of the different issues and positions.
6. Lord of the Rings: fellowship of the ring, Tolkien. Good guess Kris. This book helped me see the powerful emotional connection our imaginations can make with stories of the battle between good and evil, a connection I believe is hardwired And of course it showed me that even the smallest....
7. Christian Theology: an introduction, McGrath. This is the first theology book I read, and it made me realise that I wasn't alone in all the thoughts continually going round my head. I cried. I started to think that I was going to like studying theology.
8. The Complete English Poems, Donne. I had grown up loving and writing poetry, but Donne was perhaps my first grown up choice. He definitely affected my poetry, and my creative writing lecturer at Uni detected this by musing that at times I was a bit like a contemporary Donne (or word to that effect). Well done Nicole!
9. The Messiah by Handel. My mum passed on her copy of the score to me when I studied singing. Handel takes you to the steps of heaven. And strangely that emotional and spiritual connection to the music meant I sang it well - my singing teacher remarked it was odd that I could sing difficult pieces by Handel better than I sung simpler tunes. Well guessed Nicole again!
10. Barchester Tower by Trollope. Nicole got pretty close. I love this whole series. I think as someone who grew up a minister's daughter, I have no illusions about the church - it is packed with politics. But then also, I have had the privilege of knowing some of the most wonderful people in the church too. The Barsetshire Chronicles show the church warts and all, and yet also show the power of faith in Christ. And although the series is mostly on the side of high church, and as a Baptist I'm low church, it makes it very clear that authentic Christians are found in all the different "parties" in the church.

Well there you have a bit of insight into me. Thanks for asking me Nicole. Since Kris played along, I tag Kris.

People of the Book

I just finished reading the book of this title by Geraldine Brooks, who wrote the excellent March (Little women from the father's view). This book, as you might have guessed, is about Jews, Muslims and Christians. It centers around the story of an illuminated haggadah (Jewish prayer book) - which was saved by muslims. Based on some actual events, although she goes back and constructs a history for the book. I enjoyed it, though not as much as I thought I would - perhaps my expectations were too high! It was competent, but not exciting. She for the most part is fairly balanced in how she presents the adherents of each religion - though I think the Jewish people fare slightly better, though this might be expected as she converted to Judaism ( though I understand for the sake of her son of a Jewish father, so that he might be a Jew). The message is obvious - that different peoples, cultures and religious understandings enrich each other rather than detracting from each other. I might want to have a greater emphasis on truth, but nevertheless, the message that humans are at their best when they are able to care for and even sacrifice for, those different from themselves, is a good one. If you have read it, let me know what YOU think!

I've been reading

Some very quick book reviews.

I've recently read 2 books by Sheri Tepper - sci fi - quite similar to each other - called the companions and the margarets. Both look at an overpopulated Earth interacting with aliens. I enjoyed them because she always does interesting alien cultures. What intrigued me about both these is that in both, humans have been interfered with by malign aliens at an early stage, and this explains why humans have both the capacity for great good (as they were meant to be) and great evil (as a result of the change). As a Christian, this is quite similar in some ways to the biblical view of humans. Except that the Bible says that humans are culpable for moving away from their intended selves, but then tells of forgiveness and a way out. It made me think that this ambiguous and ambivalent nature of humanity is one of the questions that this world sets us. Why are we like this? and is there a solution? I wasn't sure about Tepper's answers, but was very interested in the process of exploring them anyway.

On a different note, I just read the Memory Keeper's daughter (get this! the local library was selling books for a dollar a pop and this was one - I bought 6). A blogging friend recently reviewed this - see here. 2 things that struck me - the destructive nature of secrets, and the importance of every single person. As a twin, this book really got me in - I couldn't even imagine growing up without my twin, as happens to Paul in this book, when his twin sister with down syndrome is sent away. There are all sorts of ethical questions with this book, but in the end it is a book about treasuring people for who they are in their uniqueness. It made me resolve to bring up 2 boys who are radiantly secure in my love, that do not feel that they have to achieve something or be something other than they are. Before I was a parent I thought this was easy to do - but now I know how easy it is as a parent to unwittingly weigh your kids down with your dreams for them.

playing favourites

I just finished reading Jodi Picoult's my sister's keeper. Not my favourite author, but she does write about gripping issues. It is about a girl conceived by her parents and chosen out of several embryos to save the life of her sister who has leukemia, and the consequences for her and the entire family. While about a specific medical ethical conundrum, which was of interest in itself (I end up having problems with throwing away the other embryos, but can understand the motivation of the parents), it raises questions more generally for me about how we balance the needs of the different children in the family. Obviously, if one child is ill or has some other special need, that will affect the others greatly. But in any family, I think, this balancing act occurs. For us at the moment, Sparky our eldest, often has to be aware of the needs of the younger Owl (for instance by being quiet when he sleeps). How much of this is good for a child, as it teaches being other centred, and when does it start to affect the child negatively, for example unwittingly telling a child they are less important than the other?

Bloggy Book club

Dear readers,
A blogger friend, the babies stole my brain, is committed to regaining said brain. In pursuit of which, she has just started a blog book club to help us to read and discuss.

I was on the verge of starting something similar, so i was thrilled to read her post on this - see here.

Who would like to join us? A variety of views and opinions are welcome as long as respect is shown. I haven't consulted her on this, but I assume that it is Ok to go in and out depending on your interest in the book under discussion at the time.

As initiating blogger, tbsmb has chosen our inaugural book - The book is called Women, Ministry and the Gospel: Exploring New Paradigms. It's a collection of essays presented at the 2005 Wheaton College Theology conference. As fas as I understand it, on my brief research on the net, this was a conference which tried to bridge the gap between those on opposing sides of the women in ministry debate. (see here for a view on the upshot of this by one egalitarian) - so this then, I think, is a book by people on both sides of the debate who have a desire for christian unity and reconciliation. We would read a chapter or 2 a week and discuss via our blogs on a set day. In the spirit of the book, I welcome those on both sides of the debate to come read it with us.

I have made a plea for fiction to be on the menu as well, so maybe next time!

If you are interested, please let either me or tbsmb know. See her post for online places to buy the book.

how a child survives

as I said I might, I thought I would write my impressions of the book Borderliners by Peter Hoeg - see previous post. Sadly I got a whole post ready in my head in the shower but by the time I got a chance to write this post a lot of those eloquent musings have vanished.

Beware - if you plan to read the book there are some spoilers ahead. In the book 3 children all damaged by life in some way try to cope with the environment of a very structured (most notably with time and assessment), rigid boarding school. One child has been horribly abused by his parents - and revenged himself on them by murdering them - another (Peter the protagonist - also Peter Hoeg though supposedly not autobiographical) has been orphaned since a baby and been brought up in institutions, another has had both parents die, her mother first and then her father by suicide. The school is a celebrated one - its structured system, a form of darwinism , means that those who cope with it end up highly successful - but those who fail to do so breakdown. A microcosm of the world really.

The school has taken on these borderline cases, because it believes it can save them. Of course the school has overlooked a crucial foundation for resilience - children need to have not only discipline but also love. The children who cope with the demands of this school environment come from stable family backgrounds. So these 3 have little chance of survival. Only one of them does - not Katarina, the girl who had had a loving family - well at least she doesn't seem to have (she is missing in action at the end) - but Peter the institutionalised one. The abused boy has no chance - the love shown him by Peter is too little too late - although it does seem to prevent him murdering again. Katarina perhaps, has a question mark over her survival, because her father did not love her enough to stay around. The difference for Peter is that he has known not only love but known the redemptive power of self sacrificial love. A pivotal scene is based around the love - grace really - shown him by an older child in one of the institutions - the children are washed by being processed through three showers - one warm, 2 cold, one after another. There is no time to stay in the warm shower, as you must move on as the one ahead of you becomes free - and no-one wants to stay for long in the cold ones. The warm shower is one of the few moments of comfort in their bleak existence. This older child, Humlum, stays in the cold shower until his body cannot take it any longer - and this is in Denmark folks - so that Peter coming up behind him can have a warm shower for as long as possible. This for Peter, encapsulated love. HUmlum's ghostlike presence (Humlum dies earlier) keeps him going.

Humlum is thus the quintessential Christ figure. The sad thing though is that in the book Jesus is equated not with the grace of Humlum but with the rigid legalism of the school authorities who profess to be Christians.

Thus this book has something to say not only to child development but more broadly to what is needed for survival in this world. Depressingly, too often Christians do not provide those moments of grace to others that can make all the difference between being lifted up or being crushed. Here's to a God that lifts up.
Isaiah 42:3
a bruised reed he will not break,
and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.