emmalyn (by window view)...a love song to seattle

dear emmalyn, how you do?

i'm hoping this song finds you

and everything is alright now.

is everything alright?

how do you get along on your own

when i'm miles away from home

staying up all night long

writing you a love song?

girl i miss your emerald eyes,

and the way you touch the sky at night

you're such a sight.

i think i just might pack my bags tonight.

i've been gone it seems like years.

but i'll be back to catch your tears

when you're dressed in gray.

yeah, i'll be home dear emmalyn.

someday...

dear emmalyn, i confess

that everything here's a mess.

nothing is aright now

cause everything's upside down.

but emmalyn, hold on tight,

cause when the time is right

everything will be brand new,

just like it used to.

girl i miss your emerald eyes

and the way you touch the sky at night

you're such a sight.

i think i just might pack my bags tonight.

i've been facing all my fears

but i'll be back to catch your tears

when you're dressed in gray

yeah, i'll be home dear emmalyn.

someday...

and emmy, what's the matter?

you know that i would rather

be home inside your arms.

tell me what's the matter

all these chutes and ladders

that i've been running through

just to get to you

bah bah bah puh da

girl i miss your emerald eyes

and the way you touch the sky at night.

you're such a sight

i think i just might pack my bags tonight.

i've been gone it seems like years.

but i'll be back to catch your tears

when you're dressed in gray.

i'll be home dear emmalyn,

someday...

dear emmalyn, someday...

i'll be home, i'll be home

someday...

i love ben franklin.

the craft store, not the man. but the man too i guess.

but really. the craft store. i've wanted to go there at least three times since i moved here. i've only lived in boston for 1.5 months.

okay, but...

I love this song lyric, "Mama said home is where the heart is..."

But it leaves me wondering...where's my heart? It's not in Redmond, it's not in Boston. So where is it?

the great Geometrizer or Vivisector?

“Someone said, I believe, ‘God always geometrizes.’ Supposing the truth were ‘God always vivisects’?”

Ever since I finished C.S. Lewis’ book, A Grief Observed, I’ve thought about this quotation a lot…and I’m still left with the question: is God a geometrizer or a vivisector?

First, it’s important to realize what those key words mean in order to understand why I am still thinking about this quotation. For “geometrize”, think of geometry, the math of order. Geometry is all about order, relations, properties…it seeks to explain why things work the way they do. Think about all those pain-in-the-neck proofs you had to do…the answer seemed so incredibly obvious, yet for some reason, my math teacher still required me to write, time after time, “Based on the shape/angles equaling 180 degress/equilateral lines, these two are similar because they are both triangles”. “Um, duh” I would think. But still, the pain of doing proofs continued. But remember, it’s about order. Geometry shows that everything has an explainable and purposeful reason for why it is the way it is.

And then there’s vivisection…I read that word and tremble. Vivisection, as defined by my Mac dictionary, is “the practice of performing operations on live animals for the purpose of experimentation or scientific observation”. Ewww. Owww. Vivisection is the idea that though something may have a purpose, it’s painful. Ruthless. Cruel even. Sometimes pointless.

And so Lewis leaves his reader with this thought: “Someone said, I believe, God always geometrizes.’ Supposing the truth were ‘God always vivisects’?” Lewis wrote this book immediately following his wife’s excruciatingly painful death. Some of his entries are hard to read—you can feel his raw emotion as he struggles to understand why a loving God would take away someone he so deeply cared about. And, let me tell you, it hurts to read his entries. Because it forces you to face some of your lingering doubts about God. For me, it is that question, is God a geometrizer or a vivisector? Is there a reason, a purpose, behind life’s pain, or is it just because he enjoys seeing us writhe in pain?

Ultimately, I side with Lewis. God is a geometrizer. But, just like Lewis, it’s been a frustratingly painful journey to that discovery.

and i also LOVE viktor frankl.

"Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

:: Viktor Frankl, author of "Man's Search for Meaning" (based on his time in Auschwitz)

i also love russian lit.

"They wanted to speak, but could not; tears stood in their eyes. They were both pale and thin; but those sick pale faces were bright with the dawn of a new future, of a full resurrection into a new life. They were renewed by love; the heart of each held infinite sources of life for the heart of the other."

Epilogue of Crime & Punishment by the great Fyodor Dostoevsky

i truly heart mr. dick in david copperfield

"How does the world go? I'll tell you what," he added, in a lower tone, "I shouldn't wish it to be mentioned, but it's a..." here he beckoned to me, and put his lips close to my ear, "...it's a mad world. Mad as Bedlam, boy!"

i also love david copperfield himself, but my praise and favorite quotation of his will come at a later date...after my a&p exam tomorrow!

my favorite selection from the screwtape letters (chapter 8)

"Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do [God's] will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys."

...and still obeys...hm.