The Bible
I have been studying the Bible off and on for two years because I want an unvarnished perspective of God's word. In order to obtain personal meaning from the Good Book, my interpretation must be messy and matte; only then can I apply its' lessons to my own life. There can be no priest, rabbi, Iman, or lama to help me; I must wrestle with the scripture all by myself. Only when I have a basic self-obtained understanding of the Bible can I open myself up to the interpretations of the scholars. Until then, their learning, and their place of worship, will have to wait.
Christians today seem to have forgotten that we have an Old Testament because it is so hard to read and understand. I have worked my way through the beginning of the Bible and have finished Ecclesiastes, so I know how difficult the Bible is to read. It seems to me that preachers take a simplistic view and I wanted some depth to my faith. The parables that Jesus taught are easy to understand, but the Old Testament, like the Koran, is almost incomprehensible. Reading the Bible from cover to cover is exhausting but I am up to the challenge and I feel like the time that I have spent studying scripture has been time well spent.
When I read the book of Job, I was distraught by his story. Job had everything a successful farmer could want but his wealth, animals, and even his children were taken away from him. Eventually he also lost his health and Job was left to try to figure out what he had done to deserve his fate. Unhelpfully, his three friends offered their ideas on why bad things happen to good people; one friend suggested that Job must have done some evil in his past to deserve his fate. God speaks and says, "You don't understand!" Simply put, this means that we can never understand God’s mind. Eventually, Job is given back his health and his wealth, and he fathered many more children. God also blessed Job with a long life and Job did not "sleep with his fathers" until he was 140 years old.
The story of Job means that we cannot know why God does things, but we can know God. Job has an ongoing conversation with God and finds that even God can be irritated and frustrated. We learn that there can be no human judge of God. Job is made to suffer. The depth of his faith is probed. And yet nowhere in the book of Job do we discover what Job did to be made to suffer as he did but certainly his cruel fate is disproportionate to his acts. The whole story of Job is unsatisfying because it asks so many more questions than it answers.
Proverbs 9.10 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." I will use my studies of the Bible to strengthen my faith and, in return, I hope to become a stronger Christian. The process is similar to the opera or the ballet in that appreciating religion is a struggle and in order to truly make God a part of my life, I have to make studying the Bible a habit. And just like the opera or ballet, I may not like all of it, but to truly make it a part of my soul I will have to put my shoulders into it and find a way to muddle through. Finally, the words and lessons of the Bible can be turned around so that anyone can manipulate it to get his own meaning. The Bible is full of contradictions and a clever reader can bend it to his own advantage, so I must read it all by myself to avoid the nefarious translations of others.
Game of Thrones
A soldier has to decide whom his sword will follow. Should he go with the king and his crown, the priest and his cross, or the rich man with his bag of gold? On the other hand, should the soldier bypass all of the authorities and follow his own sword? This dilemma is the premise behind "The Game of Thrones" television series and the books that the show is based upon. It may sound silly to those who are not fans of the series, but for me, as a long-time history teacher, I see many parallels between Westeros, the location of “The Game of Thrones,” and the Thirty Years War. Both are, in effect, a civil that wages tribe against tribe, family against family, and internecine conflict. Then George R.R. Martin, the author of the books that the television series is based upon, throws in religion and foreign influence. Westeros and Western Europe share a deep kinship.
To make “The Game of Thrones” relevant the reader must set aside the sub-plots that include dragons and witches. To continue the parallel, the Thirty Years War went on for such a long time because no single group became strong enough to defeat all of its enemies. In “The Game of Thrones,” the families of Stark, Lannister, Tully, and Targaryen relentlessly for no good effect. Then Martin throws in a few unexpected twists, based on world history, to make the series more interesting. For example, the Dothraki are like the Mongols who came out of the steppes of Siberia to conquer all of the territory between China, Baghdad, and Vienna. The Mongols, like the Dothraki, are nomadic savages who are only interested in dominating, and not ruling, and they melt away once their charismatic leader dies.
“Winter is coming,” is another subplot that has been with the series from the very beginning. The White Walkers are hoovering somewhere to the north and only a wall protects the people of Westeros from the undead. Their presence is known but unstoppable and they may be a metaphor for climate change or the atomic bomb. The game would be over for everyone if the White Walkers were unleashed from beyond the wall, much in the way that WWII ended with an atomic explosion.
There is an adage in literary circles that “plots are meant for the graveyard” and if Martin on just the plot development while writing his series then “The Game of Thrones” would be just another science fiction literary series. Instead, the dialogue crackles, the characters are alive and vibrant, and there is intrigue at every turn. For example, Jon Snow helps guard the wall and wears the black after taking monastic vows, just like the cloistered monks of the Dark Ages. Melisandre is the Red Priestess who practices black magic from the R’hilor religion and dark spirits emanate from her body after she conjures them up using spells. Gregor Clegane, or “The Mountain,” is all muscle and no brains who barely utters a word. His counterpart is Tyrion Lannister, a royal dwarf known for his acerbic wit. He is awarded with all of the best lines in the series of books. Varys and Petyr Baelish are cut from the same cloth; they advise the rulers while seeking power and riches through intrigue. What makes the series unpredictable is that Martin kills off some of the main characters. The only way to make death seem real is if the reader feels it in a personal way. When Ned Stark and Joffrey Baratheon die then there is a sense of personal loss because we have come to know the sainted Ned and hate the evil Joffrey.
When we study world history we read about the reasons why kings and emperors fought the Thirty Years War, but the textbooks seem to forget that it is the lowborn who get the worst of it during times of strife. Arya Stark manages to escape the clutches of the evil Joffrey and survives by hiding among the common folk. It is through her character that we come to understand that the suffering of the peasants include hunger, poverty, and political upheaval. Moreover, the lowborn have no idea why the kings and princes are fighting and use rumor and intimation to try to figure it out. The peasants know their future depends on how the war plays out so palace intrigue becomes a spectator sport for the common folk; the difference is that the peasants have the most to lose if their lord plays the game poorly.
What is the answer to the riddle of who should the follow? The unsatisfactory answer is that he should whomever he thinks has the most power. A leader must be perceived as being powerful, even if he is not; otherwise, he invites scorn and rebellion. Without even realizing it, the reader roots for the more traditional rulers, like Stannis Baratheon and Tywin Lannister, to win the “Game of Thrones” because we are more comfortable with a strong, male figure who are kingly in their disposition. The unlikely forerunners are Daenerys Targaryen with her dragons, or the White Walkers who are the undead. If they conquer Westeros then their rule would lead to chaos. Yet, even winning the Iron Throne holds no promise of permanency. Aerys Targaryen, the Mad King, was bloodily overthrown by the Kingslayer. Joffrey Baratheon died an unspeakable death after being poisoned. With their deaths, the game is reset with new competitors for the crown. Obtaining power and holding on to power require a different set of skills, as the many fallen kings can attest to.
“The Game of Thrones,” just like the Thirty Years War, has so many plots and subplots that it is difficult to understand and absorb. The reader is left to get whatever he can out of the books. The series is so complicated that sometimes the best that I could do was relax and enjoy the ride. The brilliant writing of George R.R. Martin, in terms of dialogue and character study, were enough for me to recommend the series.
World War II
Most Americans today do not know their past. William Manchester, the famous author who fought at Guadalcanal, wrote; “We thought that we would be remembered forever, that schoolchildren would be told of our sacrifices and taught the names of our greatest battles.” It is ironic, then, that so few people today could tell the tale of Papua and its role in WWII, or find Guadalcanal on a map.
Manchester writes that on Guadalcanal, “Our soldiers were fighting on spirit alone. Sores all over their bodies while their uniforms rotted on their backs. The flesh on their feet, swollen by endless slogging, peeled away when the soldier removed his socks. In the suffocating heat they fell prey to jungle rot, dysentery, and malaria.”
In Manchester’s book “Goodbye Darkness,” he mentions one Australian officer wrote that, “On Papua, the Japanese were reduced to starvation, cannibalizing their dead comrades. Worn out by strenuous fighting and exhausting movement, and weakened by lack of food and shelter and sleep, many of them literally came to a standstill.’ Once they had dies by exposure, “they had their bones picked clean by jungle ants.”
At the exact same time that the Japanese and Americans were fighting on Guadalcanal, the Germans were fighting in the dugouts at Stalingrad. There were no jungle ants on the Eastern Front, but the lice were driving the soldiers wild with itching. Since there was no fuel to warm up the water for washing, both German and Russian soldiers had lice crawling all over their bodies. Anthony Beevor is his book, “Stalingrad,” writes about how the rodent population swelled on a diet of dead humans; one soldier wrote that mice had eaten two of his frozen toes while he was asleep. The combination of cold and starvation meant that the soldiers just lay in their dugouts and tried not to move to conserve energy. Officers gave up playing chess because any effort at concentration was beyond them. Beevor wrote that at Stalingrad, the German soldier suffered through “frostbite, jaundice, dysentery, which was accentuated by under-nourishment, and dehydration.”
The true crime of Stalingrad, Papua, and Guadalcanal is that no one knows their story any more. This has some resonance with me because my grandfather was in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in WWI and my father was at the Pusan Pocket in Korea. If their sacrifice is so easily forgotten, doesn’t that take away from its importance? My grandfather suffered through symptoms of PTSD for the next forty years and my father received monthly disability checks because his already bad skin condition was aggravated in Korea. I never served but I became a history teacher so that I could tell the story of the sacrifices that my father and grandfather endured to defend our nation throughout the years.
Shelby Foote
Shelby Foote’s “Civil War Trilogy” has about 1,000 pages per volume and is worth the effort. The knowledge of most people about the war is limited to what happened in Virginia, but Foote writes extensively about the West and gives a lot of detail about the Red River campaign and the siege of Vicksburg. The trilogy isn’t just about battles; Foote writes about politics and the plethora of personalities of the war as well. It is a linear narrative, so it is easy to follow, but the reader has to be determined to muddle through over 3,000 pages about one topic.
Foote was asked to write a single volume work for the centennial of the Civil War; he counter-proposed a trilogy. He started to write his masterpiece in 1957, which is the same year that Central High School in Little Rock was integrated, and it took him twenty years to complete the work. The first book took ten years and the second and third volume took five years each. The reason why the books took so long was that the author thought that it was imperative that he visit the battlefields during the season in which they were fought. It is important to visit Shiloh during the fall, for example, because the leaves falling from the trees and the rolling of the hills added to the confusion during the battle and the fog of war. The Hornet’s Nest, for example, was one of the highlights of the battle where both sides were met with murderous fire, and the reader cannot understand the mayhem of Shiloh without knowing the ground in which it was fought and the weather that affected it.
Shelby Foote wrote his books in his study at his house in Memphis. There, above his desk, was a bulletin board filled, in chronological order, with the major events of the war. Foote recommended that all writers of history do this as it helps to keep all theaters of the war clearly outlined during the writing process. He wrote slowly, using a fountain pen filled with Indian ink, and wrote on special paper using a Gothic print. Because he wrote so slowly and deliberately, he expected that his editor make very few changes in his manuscripts. Also, Foote was so meticulous that he drew his own maps for his trilogy but, since Foote’s calligraphy was so difficult to read, the editor could not use the maps.
The Bible
I have been studying the Bible off and on for two years because I want an unvarnished perspective of God's word. In order to obtain personal meaning from the Good Book, my interpretation must be messy and matte; only then can I apply its' lessons to my own life. There can be no priest, rabbi, Iman, or lama to help me; I must wrestle with the scripture all by myself. Only when I have a basic self-obtained understanding of the Bible can I open myself up to the interpretations of the scholars. Until then, their learning, and their place of worship, will have to wait.
Christians today seem to have forgotten that we have an Old Testament because it is so hard to read and understand. I have worked my way through the beginning of the Bible and have finished Ecclesiastes, so I know how difficult the Bible is to read. It seems to me that preachers take a simplistic view and I wanted some depth to my faith. The parables that Jesus taught are easy to understand, but the Old Testament, like the Koran, is almost incomprehensible. Reading the Bible from cover to cover is exhausting but I am up to the challenge and I feel like the time that I have spent studying scripture has been time well spent.
When I read the book of Job, I was distraught by his story. Job had everything a successful farmer could want but his wealth, animals, and even his children were taken away from him. Eventually he also lost his health and Job was left to try to figure out what he had done to deserve his fate. Unhelpfully, his three friends offered their ideas on why bad things happen to good people; one friend suggested that Job must have done some evil in his past to deserve his fate. God speaks and says, "You don't understand!" Simply put, this means that we can never understand God’s mind. Eventually, Job is given back his health and his wealth, and he fathered many more children. God also blessed Job with a long life and Job did not "sleep with his fathers" until he was 140 years old.
The story of Job means that we cannot know why God does things, but we can know God. Job has an ongoing conversation with God and finds that even God can be irritated and frustrated. We learn that there can be no human judge of God. Job is made to suffer. The depth of his faith is probed. And yet nowhere in the book of Job do we discover what Job did to be made to suffer as he did but certainly his cruel fate is disproportionate to his acts. The whole story of Job is unsatisfying because it asks so many more questions than it answers.
Proverbs 9.10 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." I will use my studies of the Bible to strengthen my faith and, in return, I hope to become a stronger Christian. The process is similar to the opera or the ballet in that appreciating religion is a struggle and in order to truly make God a part of my life, I have to make studying the Bible a habit. And just like the opera or ballet, I may not like all of it, but to truly make it a part of my soul I will have to put my shoulders into it and find a way to muddle through. Finally, the words and lessons of the Bible can be turned around so that anyone can manipulate it to get his own meaning. The Bible is full of contradictions and a clever reader can bend it to his own advantage, so I must read it all by myself to avoid the nefarious translations of others.
Game of Thrones
A soldier has to decide whom his sword will follow. Should he go with the king and his crown, the priest and his cross, or the rich man with his bag of gold? On the other hand, should the soldier bypass all of the authorities and follow his own sword? This dilemma is the premise behind "The Game of Thrones" television series and the books that the show is based upon. It may sound silly to those who are not fans of the series, but for me, as a long-time history teacher, I see many parallels between Westeros, the location of “The Game of Thrones,” and the Thirty Years War. Both are, in effect, a civil that wages tribe against tribe, family against family, and internecine conflict. Then George R.R. Martin, the author of the books that the television series is based upon, throws in religion and foreign influence. Westeros and Western Europe share a deep kinship.
To make “The Game of Thrones” relevant the reader must set aside the sub-plots that include dragons and witches. To continue the parallel, the Thirty Years War went on for such a long time because no single group became strong enough to defeat all of its enemies. In “The Game of Thrones,” the families of Stark, Lannister, Tully, and Targaryen relentlessly for no good effect. Then Martin throws in a few unexpected twists, based on world history, to make the series more interesting. For example, the Dothraki are like the Mongols who came out of the steppes of Siberia to conquer all of the territory between China, Baghdad, and Vienna. The Mongols, like the Dothraki, are nomadic savages who are only interested in dominating, and not ruling, and they melt away once their charismatic leader dies.
“Winter is coming,” is another subplot that has been with the series from the very beginning. The White Walkers are hoovering somewhere to the north and only a wall protects the people of Westeros from the undead. Their presence is known but unstoppable and they may be a metaphor for climate change or the atomic bomb. The game would be over for everyone if the White Walkers were unleashed from beyond the wall, much in the way that WWII ended with an atomic explosion.
There is an adage in literary circles that “plots are meant for the graveyard” and if Martin on just the plot development while writing his series then “The Game of Thrones” would be just another science fiction literary series. Instead, the dialogue crackles, the characters are alive and vibrant, and there is intrigue at every turn. For example, Jon Snow helps guard the wall and wears the black after taking monastic vows, just like the cloistered monks of the Dark Ages. Melisandre is the Red Priestess who practices black magic from the R’hilor religion and dark spirits emanate from her body after she conjures them up using spells. Gregor Clegane, or “The Mountain,” is all muscle and no brains who barely utters a word. His counterpart is Tyrion Lannister, a royal dwarf known for his acerbic wit. He is awarded with all of the best lines in the series of books. Varys and Petyr Baelish are cut from the same cloth; they advise the rulers while seeking power and riches through intrigue. What makes the series unpredictable is that Martin kills off some of the main characters. The only way to make death seem real is if the reader feels it in a personal way. When Ned Stark and Joffrey Baratheon die then there is a sense of personal loss because we have come to know the sainted Ned and hate the evil Joffrey.
When we study world history we read about the reasons why kings and emperors fought the Thirty Years War, but the textbooks seem to forget that it is the lowborn who get the worst of it during times of strife. Arya Stark manages to escape the clutches of the evil Joffrey and survives by hiding among the common folk. It is through her character that we come to understand that the suffering of the peasants include hunger, poverty, and political upheaval. Moreover, the lowborn have no idea why the kings and princes are fighting and use rumor and intimation to try to figure it out. The peasants know their future depends on how the war plays out so palace intrigue becomes a spectator sport for the common folk; the difference is that the peasants have the most to lose if their lord plays the game poorly.
What is the answer to the riddle of who should the follow? The unsatisfactory answer is that he should whomever he thinks has the most power. A leader must be perceived as being powerful, even if he is not; otherwise, he invites scorn and rebellion. Without even realizing it, the reader roots for the more traditional rulers, like Stannis Baratheon and Tywin Lannister, to win the “Game of Thrones” because we are more comfortable with a strong, male figure who are kingly in their disposition. The unlikely forerunners are Daenerys Targaryen with her dragons, or the White Walkers who are the undead. If they conquer Westeros then their rule would lead to chaos. Yet, even winning the Iron Throne holds no promise of permanency. Aerys Targaryen, the Mad King, was bloodily overthrown by the Kingslayer. Joffrey Baratheon died an unspeakable death after being poisoned. With their deaths, the game is reset with new competitors for the crown. Obtaining power and holding on to power require a different set of skills, as the many fallen kings can attest to.
“The Game of Thrones,” just like the Thirty Years War, has so many plots and subplots that it is difficult to understand and absorb. The reader is left to get whatever he can out of the books. The series is so complicated that sometimes the best that I could do was relax and enjoy the ride. The brilliant writing of George R.R. Martin, in terms of dialogue and character study, were enough for me to recommend the series.
