Video Meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor

More Reads...

From Alterman's biography of Bruce Springsteen:

[In Tunnel of Love]...the themes of rebellion and escape are not merely absent, but repudiated...in an explicit rejection of the romantic view taken in Born to Run, the road now turns out not to contain the possibility of escape and refuge, but rather offers only false promises and misplaced hopes...The road, Bruce sings, is 'nothing but road'; it is at home that one finally finds God's grace. The album is conspicuous in its use of Catholic imagery.
__

Walker Percy, who was undergoing radiation treatments at the time, was moved to write Springsteen in 1989: "I've always been an admirer of yours, for your musicianship, and for being one of the few sane guys in your field. The two of us are rarities in our professions," he continued, speaking of their shared faith, "you as a postmodern musician and I as a writer, novelist, and philosopher."... Years later, after Percy's death, Springsteen read his novel The Moviegoer and admired its lasting "toughness and beauty." He wrote Percy's widow: "The loss and search for faith and meaning have been at the core of my own work for most of my adult life. I'd like to think that perhaps that is what Dr. Percy heard and was what moved him to write me."

* * *
I'd picked up the Springsteen book at one of those $3-a-bag booksales at the local library. Another I'd picked up was a book about one person's journey through faith and how books affected that. She seems to go from one extreme to the other - from basing her faith wholly on facts received from others to making herself the sole "judge and jury". She was initially thrilled by Josh McDowell's Evidence that Demands a Verdict because it gave her faith an intellectual backing to what had been only an emotional experience. Marcia Ford writes,

"Like a true modernist, in the 1970s I was addicted to proving, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the Bible was true! That Jesus rose from the dead! That every single doctrine was based on verifiable fact!"

But later she read the egregious Holy Blood, Holy Grail, the book that Dan Brown borrowed heavily from for The Da Vinci Code. Her faith was greatly shaken. She renounced the intellect & things historical (but what about "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind?"), shrugging:

"I knew, I knew that no research, no theory, no archeological finding, no indisputable evidence would ever shake my belief and faith in Christ. Because my faith and trust was not based on provable fact...my personal experience with God carried more weight than all the facts and documentation and arguments for or against the existence of God combined. I had made the leap from Evidence that Demands a Verdict to a judge and jury of one. Me."

I found her back and forth interesting in light of Tom of Disputations' recent post about how too many people want faith in science rather than "faith in faith". But on the other hand, her leap suggests no need for anybody but herself. Just "me and Jesus" as Tom T. Hall once sang. There seems to be nothing to keep her from becoming a Mormon, given the right circumstances, or a Jehovah Witness. There's no longer Truth, just "my truth".

* * *
On a lighter note, I see that the local Other Paper has jumped on the parody bandwagon concerning our local news weather "storm team" (which is too close to 'Storm Troopers' and with similar tactics - breaking in and bullying television shows minding their own business).

Immediately after writing my parody, I sent it to the editor over there hoping they'd have a little fun too.

I'd written:

NBC-4's Storm Team 4 is on the scene for you, covering rogue gusts of wind that are traveling at speeds up to 12mph.

They wrote:

Jym: “We interrupt The Office for this Storm Team 4 bulletin. There is a stiff-breeze warning—that’s a warning, not a watch—in Franklin County. You’re advised to…”

Dave: “Jym? Jym? I’m sorry to butt in, but we just had a gust of 12 miles per hour in Obetz. And remember, people: Don’t try to photograph the breeze—just seek shelter.”

Coincidence? I report, you decide...

* * *
Other books picked up "almost free" but to go through a lengthy process to determine their savability (since shelf space is always at a premium): The 9/11 Commission Report, The Seventh Winter by Hal Borland, Toplin's Ken Burns's The Civil War: Historians Respond, Dean Koontz's Mr. Murder, Henry Thomas's Living Biographies of the Great Poets, Davis's Don't Know Much About the Civil War, Bentley's The Brontes and Their World. Reader comments always welcome, such as this comment from a fellow Ohioan concerning the German spike helmets:

There are stories told about how the Luxembourgers delighted in tormenting their German neighbors by calling the Germans "pickles." The term referred to the Pickel or spike on the top of the German Army helmet that was known as the Pickelhaube.

UPDATE: So far: 9/11 Commission = KEEP, The Seventh Winter = KEEP, Toplin's "Ken Burns's..." REJECT, Mr. Murder = KEEP, Thomas's "Living Biographies..." - consign to basement, Davis's "Don't Know Much.." = KEEP, Bentley's "The Brontes..." - consign to basement.