Life as We Knew It

Does anyone else remember 90s disaster movies?  In my memory Independence Day was the one that really kicked it all off.  It used the basic formula of establishing several different perspectives, one of them being a person in high authority (The President), another being a lower level soldier or operative on the front line of what is happening (Will Smith), the next a scientific mind that has the insight everyone else is missing (Jeff Goldblum), and finally find an average Joe and give them something heroic to do (Randy Quaid’s family).  I remember seing this repeated over and again throughout the 90s in movies like Armageddon, Deep Impact, Godzilla, Volcano... any others I’m missing?

Anyway, the 90s ended and movies decided to change the formula.  Movies like War of the Worlds and Cloverfield took on the big disasters through the eyes of a single family or group of friends teaching us that a shaky camera is always necessary to pull this off.  Life as We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer does just that in book form.  (I borrowed this book from my local library, which I assume is the reason that the necessary shaky cam was not included.  I found that reading whilst sitting in the back of a pickup traversing a field at 37.8 miles per hour produced the desired effect)

The basic setup of the book is that a freak incident causes the moon’s orbit to change just slightly, and as the book’s tag line goes “the weather finally broke, for good”.  Tidal waves wreak the coast, volcanoes erupt, temperatures plummet, and we see it all through the diary of a teenage girl in Pennsylvania.

First off (yes I’m 4 paragraphs in a using the phrase first off) as far as disasters go, I love the choice Pfeffer makes.  If militant aliens show up or a giant rock his the earth, the dangers are a little more obvious.  Having the rock hit the moon really is equally disastrous, but it takes a little more time for all the dangers to become evident.  As a teacher I love when a novel provides the opportunity to touch on different disciplines, and this provides a great opportunity to investigate the science of the moon and the relationship it shares with our planet and its climate.  This science of this is discussed somewhat it the book but not in any detail, providing plenty of room to elaborate with students.

Ultimately however the book is not about the disaster but the teenage girl named Miranda.  I’m sure that is this world there is a brilliant yet misunderstood scientist running around somewhere, but we never meet him, nor do we get to peek at the government master plan being planned in a secret bunker with lots of unnecessary computers screens.  Instead we follow Miranda, watching her concerns move from those of the average CW television character to basic survival.  

I found the pace of the book to be very rapid at first, but it began to slow significantly as the story progressed.  I think this may have been at least a little intentional, as Pfeffer works hard to paint an honest picture of a post-disaster world.  This is not an action packed story where roving gangs don football pads and terrorize the populace.  It is an increasingly isolated family battling nature and learning to depend on and support one another.

I also give Pfeffer credit for exploring a number of serious issues in a manner that is not too heavy handed.  We clearly see Miranda’s view yet she never claims to have mastered the issues with which she wrestles.  I could see a number of great classroom discussions developing from different scenes of the book.  Miranda has two close friends that we meet early on, and each chooses a different thing in which to place their hope as the world degenerates.  I found myself examining the choices I would make in a similar situation (and sometimes wondered why it should take a disaster to consider such things).

I recommend this story for anyone in middle school or older.  Although it contains what could be considered some elements of science fiction, it really is a very grounded story of human relationships that should appeal to a wide audience.

Game of Thrones

What can I say, I am a sucker for anything on TV where people have swords.  Growing up in the 90s I watched Braveheart more times than I can remember.   I watched all the Hercules and Xena stuff from Sam Raimi.  I watched the classic Erroll Flynn take on Robin Hood and even watched that Prince Valiant movie where everyone apparently thought they were in a Western… with swords, which made it ok.  As you can imagine, when I heard about HBO producing Game of Thrones, I got excited.

Well, I don’t have HBO, and with the amount of time it usually takes them to release a series on DVD it will probably be a while before I get a chance to watch their take on Game of Thrones.  For a geek who is a sucker for anything on TV where people have swords, this wait is incredibly annoying.  However the upside is that having taken the release of this series as an excuse to finally read the books, I can rest assured that I have plenty of time to finish them. 

Now that I have finished Game of Thrones, I find the fact that the HBO show took this book as its title to be a little funny.  Here comes the closest thing to a spoiler I’ll give you – the whole book is a setup to the rest of the series.  Yes, the idea that the first novel in a series would setup the rest of the books seems shocking but it is a crazy enough idea that it just might work!  I find it funny that this first book seems to carry the most recognizable title of any book in the series (or the series itself) when the majority of the action will clearly occur in the other novels.

I found myself really liking this book.  I thought Martin created some great characters and established a complex network of relationships that has the potential to pay off when all the players fully interact (which will probably entail a lot of sex and stabbing). 

My recommendation is that you give this book a read knowing that you are jumping into a full series.  Everything I have heard tells me that the payoff is coming, and will be well worth it.  

The Running Man

Believe it or not, this is actually the first Stephen King novel I have ever read.  However, since he wrote it under the name Richard Bachman, it may not actually count.

My first exposure to The Running Man was the 1987 Ahhnald movie, which featured all the intelligent dialogue and gripping drama one can expect from a 1980s Schwarzenegger film.



Understand, I am not complaining, I love me some cheesy action from the 1980s.  Back then people could not only hit targets at an astonishing 10% accuracy rate, but they could also do it while completely ignoring those weird pieces sticking out of the top of the gun (I've been told these pieces are called "sights" but they are no help when properly holding the weapon at your stomach).

1980s awesomeness aside, the original 1982 story has very little in common with the movie.  It is set in a futuristic world where people volunteer for reality TV shows where they are subjected to highly orchestrated forms of torture and derision in the hope of making a few bucks.  Thankfully our society has proceeded down a much more noble path than the one Mr. Bachman envisioned, and such television programs have never been produced.



In this world the top show is called "The Running Man."  As you can probably guess, there is a man, he is running, and if he gets caught he dies.  However where the movie turns contestants loose into some sort of giant American Gladiators set with roided up hunters driving big dune buggies and wielding chainsaws, in the novel contestants are let loose into the general public and required to check in with daily videos (yes, he predicted the reality TV confession booth).



The story moves forward relentlessly, making only one brief pause for some background where Bachman is obviously working to give us the bare minimum we need so that he can get back to the story.  I won't say that any of the twists really caught me off guard, but they were enough to keep me interested.  The final scene features a prolonged injury that would make for an interesting effect if anyone ever tried to do a faithful screen adaptation.  However I think anyone ever making a faithful adaption of the finale is pretty much impossible in our world, at least for a few more years (I'll let you figure out what that means).

Overall what I found myself enjoying about this book is that it is well written science fiction that makes several observations of the future which are coming dangerously close to being true.  No, we have not yet made a TV show where we intentionally set out to kill someone, but if someone did can we honestly say that there wouldn't be millions tuning in?

The Way of Kings

By Brandon Sanderson

Reading this book reminded me of The Screwtape Letters.  At one point Wormwood’s affectionate uncle Screwtape offered the young demon a particular temptation that has always stuck with me.

“You should always try to make the patient abandon the people or food or books he really likes in favor of the ‘best’ people, the ‘right’ food, the ‘important’ books.”

I don’t know if anyone will ever consider The Way of Kings to be an extremely important book.  It is a 1,000 page beginning to what appears to be at least a 10 book series of fantasy novels.  This usually means that a certain group of people who are fans of the genre will eat them up, while everyone else barely knows of their existence.  The prose is pretty straight forward (more on that later) and while there are elements of politics, racism and religion at play, the book doesn’t seem to be trying hard to make a point in any of these areas.

It’s just a lot of fun to read, and I find that very refreshing. 

Don’t be fooled, this is not just a quaint little story.  Sanderson is creating a new world of his own here, and it looks to be big.  What is revealed in this first book evidences a long history, diverse cultures, and a unique environment which itself looks like it will be playing a major role in the plot as the series develops.  Sanderson gives us enough detail so that we have a feel for this world, but one can easily see that he is holding a lot back, and I don’t fault him for that.

This brings me to his prose.  Usually when I see a book this big, I expect a lot of it to get bogged down in overly long descriptions of characters and places or internal monologues within the mind of a character that more than anything serve as filler.  However Sanderson doesn’t let his writing get in the way of his story.  The plot moves forward quickly, jumping between multiple story lines in a way that effectively held my interest.  He does provide plenty of descriptive details, but these are stretched out throughout the story rather than just dropped in a big lump whenever we meet something new.  I found myself changing the internal images I had created of different characters and settings multiple times throughout the story. 

I wouldn't say the story all that original.  Sanderson does use a number of clichés often found in fantasy or adventure novels, but has given them enough of a twist that I found them interesting.  Like I said earlier, reading this book was just a lot of fun.

I know what you may be thinking, “Yes that’s all well and good but I’ve read this supposed review of yours and I still have no idea what the book is about!”  So sorry, let me get to that.

There is a world full of stuff and people are fighting and stuff and there is a guy who got in trouble over some stuff and now has to carry stuff and this girl who wants to learn stuff so she can steal stuff and an older guy that is in charge of a bunch of stuff and they are all connected in a great big story.  Also it is a fantasy book so there is magic stuff.  To learn more read it yourself and enjoy!

1 Year of Taylor

It's hard to believe my little girl is 1 year old!

Who is Jesus?

Who is Jesus? on Prezi

Hungry as a Baby

I love a good sandwich.

There is just something about inserting a delicious piece of meat (yes, meat is required for any REAL sandwich) between two otherwise tasteless loaves of bread that suddenly makes the bread worthwhile. As I read Luke 18, I couldn't help but notice that there is a big fat sandwich right there in the text.

The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 
The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.'  But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!'  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."

Let the Children Come to Me

Now they were bringing even infants to him that he might touch them. And when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them.  But Jesus called them to him, saying, "Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.  Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it."

The Rich Ruler

And a ruler asked him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"  And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.  You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.'"  And he said, "All these I have kept from my youth."  When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me."  But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.  Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, "How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!  For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God."  Those who heard it said, "Then who can be saved?"  But he said, "What is impossible with men is possible with God."   Luke 18:9-28 ESV

Did you see it? The story of Jesus blessing little children is one of the more well known passages in the Bible. However I think we often look at this story without considering the immediate context in which it is placed. Just prior to the children we have a parable about a proud Pharisee, immediately following the children we have an encounter with a proud young ruler. Is this just a coincidence? Maybe it is, but probably not.

I also do not think it is a coincidence that the two proud ones mentioned would have been the cream of the crop in ancient Jewish society. Today so many of us have grown up with the image of Pharisees as the villains of the Bible that when they are mentioned we get the image of scowling bad guys twisting their mustaches as they plot against Jesus. However these were some of the most respected men of their community. The many additions they made to the Mosaic Law were to help the law become doable and accessible to the people. As other nations descended upon Judea, the Pharisees preserved their identity as God's chosen people. In many ways these were the good guys.

Likewise the rich young man would have held a place of respect in the community. At that time as well as today, Judaism focused primarily on blessing and curses in this life, and placed little emphasis on an afterlife. Those that became rich in this life without falling into obvious instances of corruption such as tax collecting were obviously blessed by God. The way this young man approached Jesus and the shock from the crowd when he is humbled strongly suggests that he was one everyone believed to be a righteous man blessed by God.

Between these two men are the children. In the midst of many accomplished and learned adults, Jesus tells us to receive the Kingdom of God like these children.

Now having a child of my own I am starting to see what it means to receive things like a little child. My daughter knows nothing of the nutritional content of her food. She doesn't know the process that we go through to make it for her. She doesn't see all the work we do every day to provide her with clothes and shelter. Despite her lack of understanding, she gladly accepts the things we give her. She does not eat to become stronger or more able than her peers, she eats simply because she is hungry. She does not put on a fake smile to impress others, but smiles because she sees my wife and I smile at her, and knows she is loved.

Please understand, I am in no way suggesting that we should cease all learning and not study the Bible in detail. God has given us much to learn as we grow. However as we learn we must be careful not to become so proud that we make the ways of God subservient to our ability to understand.

I will never understand exactly how God is able to bring a heart from death to life when His word is proclaimed. I don't know exactly how the gifts won on the cross are delivered in Baptism or the Lord's Supper. However I do know that on the cross Jesus died for my sins, and the sins of the whole world. He died for the very sins of pride and arrogance that occur when we try to squeeze God into our limited understanding. I know that for some reason, far beyond my understanding, He eagerly delivers these gifts to us.

There is a great deal of Pharisee and rich young ruler in all of us. We have all committed the same sins. Jesus is harsh with these men, just as He is often harsh with us, in order to break our trust in our own knowledge and to break our pride in our own accomplishments. He makes into little children that hunger for the bread of life that He gives. He makes us into people that trust and gladly accept his gifts, and know the warmth of His smile upon us.

May God take us all from Pharisees and rich men to trusting children in this time of Lent.