AMUSING OURSELVES TO DEATH part 2

My reading has been slowed lately because I've been busy with the Wrinkle in Time series. That's another set of books I never read as a child. I'm enjoying them immensely, but am still trying to keep up with Neil Postman. The last couple chapters have started me thinking about my conversational habits. Postman's premise is that our modes of communication have been so influenced by television that we now try to entertain each other when we talk to each other. I have found this to be only too true. While someone else is talking I'm thinking about what I can say that will make them laugh or make them think approvingly of me. How often do I, instead, really listen and try to draw the other person out? Not very often.

"The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out." Proverbs 20:5

TRAINING CONTINUES

This has been a very busy month with concerts and family staying with us. I've kept up with my running though and did another race this weekend. It was a fun 5K which benefitted a local high school band. Always a good cause in my opinion. I met someone at the starting line and it turned out we were both running solo. We were able to run together and push each other to finish with a pretty respectable time. Actually, I beat my previous time by more than 5 minutes! (I think I'm starting to like running.)

WHAT I GOT AT THE BOOK SALE (the above picture is not me; it was taken in 1970 at a book sale at Smith College)

Our county library system holds a used book sale several times a year and the biggest one was this past weekend. This is the fourth year we've gone I think. It's held at a county park where they also have the North Georgia State Fair. One building holds children's books and the other holds adult books. The books are all in boxes on the floor and people start lining up almost an hour before it opens. I brought the kids and we got there at about 8:40AM. My kids are old enough now to help look. My oldest is especially good at this. He knows just what I want - good children's literature and some reference books for homeschool. He's also kind of a book snob - he only wants hardback. Here's a partial list of what I got ~

The Silver Branch by Rosemary Sutcliffe

D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths

These Happy Golden Years and By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

The Secret Garden by Frances Burnett (perfect Hallmark gift book edition)

A Wrinkle in Time and A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle

Webster's Intermediate Dictionary

Young Reader's Dictionary of the Bible

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis

two different Where's Waldo books (my kids love these)

I also went into the adult building and picked up these ~

The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul

Stepping Heavenward by Elizabeth Prentiss

The Passion of Jesus by John Piper

The Prayer of Jesus by Hank Hannegraaf

All of Grace by Charles Spurgeon

There's a lot more I could list but the best part of it is I paid so little. I filled up one rolling cart and half a laundry basket for under $40!! For a bibliophile like myself, this is heaven! Now all I need is more bookcases!

THINK ON THIS

A quote from John Piper's Pierced By the Word ~

"If all other variables are equal, your capacity to know God deeply will probably diminish in direct proportion to how much television you watch. There are several reasons for this. One is that television reflects American culture at its most trivial. And a steady diet of triviality shrinks the soul. You get used to it. It starts to seem normal. Silly becomes funny. And funny becomes pleasing. And pleasing becomes soul-satisfaction. And in the end the soul that is made for God has shrunk to fit snugly around triteness." (p. 77)

Does this hit you between the eyes as it did me? Every time I read it I'm convicted. This is why I'm rereading Postman's book, Amusing Ourselves to Death. His whole point is not content but form. The question isn't, "What should we be watching?" but "Should we turn the thing on at all?"