Book Review

"The Man Born to be King" by Dorothy Sayers is a great book for the holiday season. It was originally broadcast over the radio as a series of 12 plays covering the life of Christ, but has now been transcribed in book form. Yet it doesn't feel like reading a script, but reads like a great novel. Here is a link giving more details: Wikipedia

The script is an amalgamation of the four gospels, but prefers John's gospel for reasons disclosed in the forward. The narrative is largely middle-of-the-road, unembellished drama straight from scripture. Sayers doesn't try to impress with her own invention or adaptation, but lets her fictionalized dialogues and imagined details provide subtle links between major scenes from the gospels, putting the inherent drama of the gospels at the forefront (which was Sayers intention all along, she explains).

Still, Sayers imagined dialogues and fictionalized details are pitch-perfect. She fleshes out the drama with a skill that reflects a deep understanding of the gospels. The disciples are taken from their traditional characterizations to new places of deeper feeling and relatability. Jesus, who could make any author wilt under the demands of his characterization, is given the best treatment I've been exposed to in books or film. He is humble and gentle, then in turns powerful and enigmatic. Sayers in-depth notes for the actor portraying Jesus offer great insight into how carefully she crafted his character.

One character that was given new life through drama was Judas. Sayers deals with the complexity of the ultimate bad-guy really well. The entire tragic arc of his later life, from his early discipleship (as a brilliant, good-hearted, if at times overly-intellectual follower of John the Baptist) to his gradual mistrusts and misgivings with the highly-politicized Messiah and finally his epic betrayal, achieves some high drama in the vein of Greek tragedy.

In plays 9-12, "The Man Born to be King" builds to its huge crescendo. The trial before the Sanhedrin and the subsequent legal pushing-and-pulling with Rome's Pilate makes for intriguing drama as Sayers exposes the full-range of political, religious and personal forces at play in that monumental trial.

Some great bonuses included in this book are Sayer's notes for the director and actors, including character breakdowns, production tips and narrative explanations. Also included is a forward by Sayers describing her motivation and approach to the writing this work.

Read "The Man Born to be King" this winter and you might be struck by something new from the familiar gospel story.


"For whatever reason God chose to make man as he is - limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death -- he had the honesty and courage to take his own medicine. Whatever game he is playing with his creation, he has kept his own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from man that he has not exacted from himself. He has himself gone through the whole human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. When he was a man, he played the man. He was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it well worthwhile."
-Dorothy Sayers from the foreword of "The Man Born to be King"

Phil Keaggy Concert

Last night I went to a Phil Keaggy concert at a church in Greenfield, IN. It was great! Just Phil and his guitar and several pedals that looped, swelled, reversed, distorted, chorused and subwoofed his guitar sound. He said he was feeling very laid back and didn't have a set list, so he took many requests and played some beautiful classical/folk compositions, including two cuts from his upcoming Christmas album. I loved the song called "Village Bells" and also the new one "Welcome Inn". He also played several upbeat songs like "Salvation Army Band" and "True Believers".

I took three middle schoolers whom I know from youth group and who are part of a youth worship band called "White Sabbath" that I oversee. I think they all had fun, and even were able to appreciate the quality of musician that Phil Keaggy is.

I did get really offended though with one of my middle school guys who wouldn't pay attention to the music. He kept joking and distracting me and the other guys, then started playing a game on his i-touch. I don't get mad easily, but I can tell you I was really mad right then. I told him to put his i-touch away and explained that he is seeing a world-class musician. He scoffed, and then misconstruing something Phil had just said about playing at coffee shops in Nashville, he fixed me with his biggest "geez, youre a idiot" look and said "He's not world-class. He's not even big in Nashville yet."

I was a brilliant 14 year old once too. I know I've done the same thing to my parents. And they refrained from smacking me in the back of the head, thus setting the example I was to follow.

I would probably let middle schoolers insult me for pretty much any other reason, but I was really surprised by this guy. I was under the impression that he was excited about going. But when we got there, he didn't seem impressed or intrigued, or even grateful for this opportunity to be there, but instead, seemed to size-up the entire experience and deem it not worthy of his attention or respect, or worse, something to be lightly ridiculed. Its cute how 14-year-olds don't know anything. Its frustrating when they think they do. *insert best Charlie Brown "Aargh!" here*



Anyways, while I get over that, here's a video of Phi. If you're name is Jael, you don't have to watch it again :) :

Good Book

Here is a quick post to say that I just finished a really good book called "The View From Saturday" from E. L. Konigsburg. This book is from my favorite genre of literature, "Young Adult Fiction". It is about five people: an English teacher and the four members of her 6th grade academic bowl team, and how they make it to the New York state finals. It is beautifully written. E. L. Konigsburg is incredibly skilled in the craft of writing. The quality of the story matches her skill in telling it.

I would recommend "Young Adult Fiction" as a genre to anyone who likes to read fiction but wants to steer away from the nihilism or depression that marks a lot of "Adult Fiction".

PS E. L. Konigsburg is also the author of "From the Mixed-Up Files of Ms. Basil E. Frankenweiler" for any of you who read that in school. That is also a great book!

PPS Thanks to my sister who got me five of E. L. Konigsburg's books for Christmas last year

Update on What's Going On

I haven't blogged since my grandparents funeral so the time is ripe for a general update.
Here are a few things that have happened since my last blog:

*I closed on a studio apartment. I move in October 17. It is very small (the bed pulls out from the wall--yea!) but the rent is cheap and I'm looking to having a place all my own. I will be within walking distance of my church and Brummett's house and lots of restaurants. Life is good!

*"Crosses To Bear" played a small gig in a church basement. It was a local artist showcase. We played an acoustic set and "voila!" I was hearing three-part harmonies that I didn't even know we had planned! Lord knows I never practiced how to sing harmony, but Eric, Karie and Eric know how to do it. It was a fun time.

*Our CD is technically done, but I guess we are going to re-record at an actual studio? We will see how it all works out. I knew that unforeseen delays would occur, so I'm not too bothered. I would just like something to listen to in the meantime.

*Our church is continuing on the road of separation from the PCUSA and the heat is on. Everything is at stake. They say things will get harder and I'm getting the first inkling of worry for my church. But I think we are rising to the occasion. Church is at least more exciting now! If you want more info about the issues in the PCUSA, you can google it and find plenty.

*I will add some more stuff as I think of it.

*I hope you all are doing well!

The End of an Era

My grandmother Barrow passed away on Saturday, just 13 days after the death of her husband.
Her decline was sudden but relatively peaceful. She was 81.

You can read Grandma's obituary here and Grandpa's here.

The things I'll remember most about Donna are her chocolate chip cookies, spending Christmas at her and grandpa's house, and how she battled illness with patience and prayer toward the end of her life.

Grandma was diagnosed with Churg-Strauss Syndrome roughly 10 years ago and eventually lost the use of her hands and feet. The suffering she experienced notably changed her. She became gentler, more patient, more serene and prayed constantly. It was very inspirational to see.

She stayed in a nursing home for nearly 7 years with constant visits from our family. She hung in there for my grandpa, but after he passed, she was apparently ready to go. Several staff members from the nursing home came to the showing or funeral because she was very loved there.

Both her and grandpa's funerals were sad but permeated with joy knowing that they lived as faithfully in the footsteps of Jesus as you could ever hope too.

Gathering for Grandpa

Last week I was in Columbiana, Ohio for the decline and passing away of my grandpa on my dad's side. My parents and I left Thursday (two weeks ago) to be with my grandpa as he couldn't heal from the pneumonia he'd caught. Within hours of our arrival at Salem Hospital, my uncle Patrick and cousins arrived from Waxhaw, North Carolina, as did my sister from Beaver, Pennsylvania.

That night we were able to talk somewhat coherently to my grandpa, though he was in evident pain. We even sang a couple hymns to which he even sang along. Because of the morphine and condition of his heart, that was the last night that he was alert.

For the seven days that our families were together (my dad's and my aunt's) we slept at my grandpa's house and received copious amounts of food from friends and neighbors. Columbiana is a truly wonderful small town. Its about to close as Mayberry or Fred Roger's Neighborhood as you can get.

Over the weekend, we moved grandpa to a beautiful hospice facility. We had a few gatherings there, including a family picnic. We all felt truly blessed to be at such a nice place. One thing that fascinated me was reading about the "transition" process of life to death in the pamphlets provided by the hospice. One truth that the pamphlet expressed is that the dying person may not let go until unresolved conflicts are settled. A nurse mentioned this might be the reason my grandpa lingered longer than expected. She also believed he enjoyed hearing our family and friends sitting around and talking at his bedside (hearing is the last sense to go for the dying). So we had my grandma talk to my grandpa on the phone and give her final goodbye. He died about three hours later.

The showing was held Wednesday night and began a time of learning more about my grandpa. At 86, my grandpa had outlived many of his friends, but many old friends, relatives and others came to show their respects. He was a kind man who loved to hunt and fish, was a deacon and elder at the Presbyterian Church, and tenor in a barbershop quartet. He also acted as engineer and vice-president of the Columbiana Boiler Company, which was started by his grandfather. It was said that at one time, every man in Columbiana had worked at the Boiler Company. It was amazing to see several employees, some who hadn't worked there for years, come to show their appreciation.

The funeral was very nice. At the cemetery, he was given full military honors including a 21 gun salute. The head of the legion post, founded by my great-grandfather, even gave a speech and presented a flag to my dad. After the funeral, we looked at old pictures taken by my grandpa from the military. He was a liason officer in Patton's 11th armored division. It was very cool to see his lanky 6'4'' frame, younger than me, as he hung out with buddies during their more relaxing days before things turned for the worst. There are pictures of him with the jeep that he drove while relaying information. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge during one of the coldest recorded winters in Germany's history. He also liberated Mauthausen concentration camp and took many pictures that resemble the text books I'd seen, depicting piles of corpses and gaunt men peeking out from bunks. He even has pictures in Hitler's Eagle's Nest, the famous last stand mansion/bunker set atop a mountain.

In the end, he lived well and died well. As my dad said, he set the bar very high, and we believe that he has simply transitioned from the brief prelude of this life to the main act of the next.

Recording Miracle

We've gotten three new songs recorded leaving us with one more to go. What will the final song be? Don't know yet. Will we write one or use a pre-existing song?

We are recording the best we know how, meaning that when we record on the machine, we don't know how to move around the finished songs. So we have to record them in the order and time in which they'll be heard on the CD. The dead time between tracks will be heard on the CD exactly as they were recorded on our machine with no way of altering.

Well, we had 5:30ish minutes of dead time between songs that we had to fill because we didn't know how to delete it. So we recorded one of our songs and it fit exactly in the window of time, which is a miracle. If it had gone over, we would've recorded over the beginning of the next song. I thought we couldn't pull it off, but we did and I was completely amazed that it worked.

We are close to pulling this off! I pray that no mistakes happen, i.e. accidentally deleting stuff, losing date, whatever...