more Lewis

Progress can be made only with a resisting material.

Good day here - 2 inch snow but sunshine later

Reading "Voyage for Madmen" a report of the 1960 sail boat race around the world by eight contestants sailing along. Scary!!!!!!!!!

Finished Leviticus yesterday so now I can go back to church.

Don

Faith

FAith is the are of holding on to what your reason has once accepted in spite of your changing moods.
csl

hi

good book club meeting tonight - China Road - see previous blog

One of the book club members drove the van with 6 of us to a Restaurant on the Ocean for a great dinner -I think a great dinner is a good burger and a baked Potato.

Feeling quite good lately. Made arrangements to get controls on our Van in about two weeks - has taken for ever.

Heard a guy speak at a bookstore yesterday who was a fighter pilot (p38) in
ww II who got shot down and was in
Buchenwald for a time and saw the smoke from the burning Jews and others. Fascination evening.

Our grand daughter Kara age 26 just got a job in downtown Manhatton recruiting teachers for a charter school in New York and New jersey. She starts in Sept.

Don

from Barb

Note from Barb -

Greetings from 'nurse Jane fuzzy ears' (character from Uncle Wiggley). Since I am not a computer buff I shall have Don type in a note from me.

I want to rave about several books that brightened my gray February days: a book of poems - Diary of an Old Soul (George MacDonald) (of The Princess and the Curdy fame), Valley of Vision - puritan prayers, Mudhouse Sabbath by Laren Winte. You can't go wrong on any of them. Find them eBay, Amazon, Bookfinder, etc. Tell me what you think.


It's startling bring and beautiful today with about 8 inches of fresh sparking snow below us and our surround garden and trees. I think I'm in Narnia without the white witch.

Barbara

thinking

cs lewis -

"Logic is the king that all events in all possible worlds must obey"

In other words,if it is logical it must be true.

If you have the right information
and you process is accurately then you come to Truth every time.

But we must be humble because there is no way we can be positive that we have the right information or that we have processed accurately.
Don

one foot of snow tonight in the area

go buy this book

CHINA ROAD - Great story of a journalist traveling 3000 miles across China. Sometimes he gets the Impression that China will one day rule the world and the next day he is convinced that the whole thing is going to fall apart because of the corruption of the communist officials that run the show. Barb and I think it is a great book - it is our book club book for next month.
Been mostly staying home and enjoying the indoor winter. Get the grand kids overnight this Saturday - fun.
Pray for me if you wish that I would get serious about writing a book "Fire the Clergy and Burn down the churches" subtitled 'A modest proposal for Church renewal". Take a guess at how much money we spend on the staff and church up keep and how little we actually spend on the poor. The Bible says little about paying church workers and staff but a lot about the poor.
What is anyone reading that you recommend?
Don

update

Jan 12 Happy Birthday to me 74
Great Series on pbs tv from now to summer on Sunday nights= Classics
Last Sunday and yesterday a four movie - Tess by Thomas Hardy = Excellent - much better than the 2 hours movie.

Heading Christys tonight for bb dinnes.
Will post my SS notes from Yesterday on Leviticus later in the week.

Life is good.

Don

Hi

I have so many people telling me that they check my blog that I must say something more often. We have had a flood in the N.W. More water, snow and freezing than we have seen since we moved here. Basements getting water for us and both our daughters. Nothing major

Am studying for my Sunday School class that I am beginning this week and leading on the book of Leviticus. There is a lot to learn from this book. I may try to keep my notes posted on the blog site.

Barb and I are doing well. Things are going so well for us that we don't see how they could get much better but each week seems better than the last.

Expect to get the parts that go on my Van this week so maybe is a month I will be driving. Barb is not excited about this. If I can't run a chain saw, what makes me thing I can manage a van? We will see. Watch the obit pages.

I bet that Senator McCain may be the most relieved man in America. Who would want the job that Obama now faces.

Best Wishes.
Don

movie reccomend

Great movie that maybe you have already seen - Tender Mercies - much Gospel content.
Don

dec 2008

Our whole crowd was here for Christmas. Three kids, two son-in-laws 5 Grandkids plus Barb and I. Fun to see the Russians-- ages 7 and 9 -- and their excitement for Christmas.
On Dec 24 we had another gang at a community hall - most of our family and all of my
brother's family - about 25 in all. We do this every year.

Nothing newsy to report.

Watched a video last night that we highly recommend - John Q - it is a well made film with Denzell Washington and Robert Duvall and is well-done propaganda for National Health Care. (A great idea but how do we do it?)

Most snow and cold weather we have seen since we moved to Bellingham. Will try to update the blog more in the coming year.

They have strict laws in Maine about hitting animals on the hiway. I recently heard of a man who hit and wounded a pig. The driver thought no one saw him as he drove off. The next day a policeman came to his door with a ticket for $500.

When the man asked how he knew he had hit the pig, The officer replied that the pig had squealed.

Silly jokes cheer me up once and while. I am not seriously depressed - but I do get bored. Can only read so much and the stuff on the TV is awful. Teaching sunday school next year on Leviticus may prove to be a good thing.

The weather has kept us from getting out much but it is warming up today and the forecast is for warmer weather.

May Christ's presence be real to all my friends -

Don

HI bloggers

Big News - Planet Narnia (book title) was published about a year ago. It solves a mystery. For 50 years scholars have wondered about two thing related to the Chronicles of Narnia. 1) Why would as scholar write a book for children? Scholars don't do this. 2) What ties the books together. Aslan is not important in all the books and different kids appear in different books. The author Michael Ward (Website: Michaelward) has solve the mystery. Each book is based on the mythology of one of the seven planets as view my 16th century cosmology. Read the comments on his blog site.
Scores of scholars have read book and they all agree with his interpretation. They says that this work will even more contribute to Lewis's reputation as a scholar.
Apparently Lewis never told anyone about this. The book Planet Narnia is in my opinion unreadable. It is a phd thesis. I have emailed the author and he says a rewrite for lay people is due out next summer.


Free insight about Lewis:
When Douglas Gresham (Lewis's stepson) was asked if he thought Lewis was a genius he replied:
"Oh, absolutely, there's no doubt about that. He was a complete genius. He also was a very fast reader, but he had honed the talent and perfected the strange memory that resulted in never forgetting anything he had read. Now he could, he could ask you to pick any book off of his shelves, and you would pick a page and read him a line and he would quote the rest of the page; in fact, quote the rest of the book until you told him to stop. He had this enormous capacity to remember everything he'd ever read."

This book Planet Narnia is causing quite a stir. The Chronicles of Narnia will be taken a lot more seriously and many may now be reading more of Lewis's other works. The next Narnia movie will be out next summer with more to follow. Hope I live long enough to see the all.

Other news - My sister (Carol) and her husband (Denny) are coming up to visit us from
Nebraska this week end (Dec 6). We don't like them and tried to discourage them from coming but they are coming anyway. They have been here before and we told them not to come back but I think they are deaf and like free food. Denny likes jokes:
A man's wife had just completed writing her first book so he went to get her some flowers and candy to celebrate. The clerk asked if he was celebrating some thing and her told her "Yes, my wife has just completed her first book."
After a pause, the clerk replied "Slow reader?"

We are doing quite well as we approach our two year anniversary of my accident (Dec 16) Life is good again after it not being so good for a long, long time. Still not driving as I can't seem to get any co operation from local mechanics to install hand controls on my Van. We think that life will get better and better as time goes by, at least hit has recently. Care taker here every day until noon. I usually am up the rest of the day and to bed about 10:00. Watch lots of football on the tube. Read, to email and putter at my desk. Football - our washington huskies have the longest loosing streak in the nation.

Interesting note: Plato points out that our conscience speaks out loudly when we are about to do something we know we shouldn't do but is much more quiet about neglecting things we ought to do.

Our grand daughter going to Westmont College in Santa Barbara survived the fire but there was much damage to the college classrooms, dorms and faculty housing - 13 faculty housed burned to the ground. They had a very long Thanksgiving vacation but back to school this week.

Christ is King.

Don
Had a great thanks giving at Suzanne and Jamie's house 24 people.

need visitors

Suzanne here, popping in to say that Dad's van is in the shop and has been for quite awhile, so he can't go out and is getting a bit restless. If you can fit a visit or a phone call into your schedule, you would be a blessing.

end of sept

Another month has flown by. Getting out more and more and feeling much better from week to week.
Movie tonight - "Grace is Gone" a very touching true movie about a Father and two daughters whose wife and mother is killed in Iraq. Getting out this week to a lecture and a men's group. WE get the grand kids twice a week while Suzanne teaches two nights a week at the local community college.

A group of men continue to get together in my home on Saturday a.m. We read books
together. We have been meeting for many years.

Am reading two good books - Fly Boys about the part played by the Navy pilots working off of air craft carriers in WWII. George Bush senior was one of them. The other book Reason for God is by a Presbyterian Pastor - Timothy Keller. He is head of a 5000 member church in New York City and has been involved in starting 100 churches with in New York City. The book is called "Reason For God" and is an intellectual defense of Christianity. It is very good.

You can all send my sister a Birthday card in October (17)
Margaret Holmes
Oakland, Nebraska
(It is a small town)

summer almost over

Hi to all you who occasionally look up my blog.
We seem to be doing better every day. Controls on my Van should be done in f couple of weeks. I am up in my chair now all day with an occasional nap.

I supervised the installation of a Basket ball hoop in our drive way for our grandson Andy today. Now I need to find a basketball.

Just started a new book call Flyboys recommended by an onld college friend.

Barb has made peace with our new life. She and Suzanne and the two grandkids just got back from a week on Vancouver Island.

We have had absolutely beautiful weather for a few weeks so I have been outside a lot.

This gal from Alaska has made quite a stir - who would have ever predicted it?

We are ok and appreciate your thoughts and prayers.

Life is good again because God has made it that way. I wish it was good for everybody.

Don

bad day

Scroll down for blast about the Shack.

Today is great but yesterday was a bummer. I take about 10 pills every morning. Barbara takes them out of bottles and puts them in a cup. We have been doing this for a year and a half. Yesterday we had a pill that came carded and Barb tore it off and put it in my cup reasonably assuming that I would take the pill out of its container. I never look in the cup so I put the pills in my mouth and swallowed the whole thing.

The card was about 3/4 of an inch square with very sharp edges. The pill was inside a little plastic container with tin foil on the back. Of course it got stuck in my throat. I thought it was just a stuck pill so I drank a ton of water but could not get the 'pill' to go down. I called Barb for more water and she brought it and wondered why I was having so much trouble and then asked it I had taken the pill out of the plastic container. I asked "what container" and then we both knew what had happened.

It was starting to hurt especially when I swallowed. We called the doctor and said to head for the emergency room at the hospital. I got there at 10:30 am and got home at 6:00 p.m. with the pill gone. They knocked me clear out for about 25 minutes and shoved a little camera down my throat and them pulled it out with some sort of grabber.

IT WAS AN AWFUL EXPERIENCE.

But I was pleased with the doctor even though it took forever waiting for different doctors and nurses and paper work. All's well that ends well. I am now a little hoarse but otherwise back to 'normal' with no pain.

Getting out a lot lately for different activities.

Best Wishes to All,

Don Holmes

update

We are having absolutely beautiful summer weather in Bellingham. I am now up in my power wheel chair all day some days without getting tired out. Life is truly getting better again. Hope to get my car equipped soon so I can drive and release Barb from chauffeur duty. The grand kids were over last evening and I had hoped to play chess with Andy but I got upstaged by "Marry Poppins". They never get tired of watching Mary and Bert.

Finished "Post American World'. It is our book club book that meets this Friday. I can tell from the book if I should be discouraged or encouraged about the place of America in the future.

Tim is in the midst of negotiations to buy a power boat that sleeps 4. He would moor it near where he works so he could get some solitary time. He works two weeks on and two weeks off, 24 hour days with three others in tight quarters but has lots of free time in between boats and putting our oil booms to absorb oil if there a spill -- kind like a fireman's job. He says that it would be great for the family for he and my two son-in-laws to go fishing and for the new grand-kids to go boating overnight to some of the islands in the San Juan Islands.

Still fuming about the "Shack". The more I think about it the worse it is in my mind. The feminization of the Trinity is just awful. The profound differences between the feminine and the masculine should be respected. We are all feminine before God. We are his bride and He must therefor be best represented by masculine imagery. It stands Christian theology on its head to promote female imagery as approproate imagery for the Trininty.

God is ever-present and we have no complaints.

Don

doing well

Hi - We are doing quite well. Getting out more and more to Church, meetings, kids' homes - they all have ramps except for Tim.

Just finished a book on tape - The Long Walk, a book published in 2006 about 7 men who escaped from a Russian Prison in Siberia and walked 4000 miles in about a year across the Gobi desert and Himalayan mountains to India. It is number 4 on Amazon.

Video - Broken Brides: Great drama on reconciliation.

Very hot here - nearly 90 degrees which in hot for Washington.

There is a reunion this week in Nebraska for my family. I have two sisters in Nebraska. Counting all the kids there will be quite a crowd. My brother and most of his family is going.

Life is beginning to get good again. For a long time I thought is would never happen. I have a caregiver from 9-12 a.m.every day. Neither Barb or I could get along with out them. We see Suzanne's kids quite a bit. I help Andy to read and we play chess.

Will keep you posted about books and videos. I still dislike The Shack even though it is very popular.

I passed my eye test and driver written test so I will be able to drive when I get hand controls put on our Van.

Don

life is good and getting better

Hi -
Friday evening and I am off to watch Jake Locker and the Bellingham Bells play baseball. Greg, My son in law is taking me. Barbara just called for supper so I will add more soon.
Don

The Shack

My summary criticism of the Shack is that the author apparently thinks that Christ came to take away our pain rather than to deal with our sin to make us presentable to God. "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away (not our pain) but our sin".
Scroll down two blogs for more criticism of the Shack. I heard the author speak recently - very sentimental.

UPDATE

For the Shack review - scroll down to next blog

We are doing well. It has taken me a long, long time to get adjusted to this new life.

Getting out 3 or 4 times a week. Going out for dinner tonight. Routines are working and my spirits have been very good. Wonderful to see summer come. Our book club meets next week. Going to Vancouver next week to Regent college where the author of The Shack is having a discussion with the Regent faculty. I am taking tomatoes. I will report the outcome.

Thanks Ira for the long letter and to Dan for the several emails.

Our two new grandkids are a continual joy. They were here all day Friday doing yard work.

Will share our discussion at Book club after we meet Friday.

Don and Barbara