Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Some Excellent Essays!

I just discovered a great treasure: an on-going series of little essays by my nephew James Sander-Cederlof. He calls it Tilted Talk.

  • The Walk — When a child asks about the strange way he walks...
  • Commercials — Thoughts about mis-directed and thoughtless TV commercials.
  • Hot Coffee — "There is nothing wrong with knowing your child; that is called being a parent. Since when did it become un-cool to have a game that you do not mind your child seeing you play?"
  • The Price of Education — "It is astonishing how much better home-schooled children behave, act, and think compared to those in the public education system."
  • 9/11 Revisited — His flight was cancelled, just in time.
  • Education, Again — "You became involved with your child nine months or so the child was born. Remain involved throughout their life; the education of the child should not stop at some magical age. Only the subject matter should change. Just keep God at the center, and the other things will fall into place."
  • Spiritual Leaders — "Our leaders should be men of faith."
  • Lawyers in Love — Afterthoughts from a lawyer's TV commercial.

James also writes poems, and you can read some of them here.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Tampering with Physicians?

   “To be always tampering with physicians upon every occasion is the way to lose all natural soundness of health, and to be continually talking and enquiring about the nature of ailments and powers of medicines for the head, the heart, the spirits and nerves is the way to lose all true judgement concerning our own sickness or health.

   “It is much the same with respect to our spiritual health and constitution. We do much hurt to it by running after spiritual advice on every occasion, and wanting the help of some human prescription for every fear, scruple or notion that starts up in our minds. This actually weakens the true strength of our spiritual constitution which, if left to itself, would do all that we need to have done.

   “If it be asked what this soundness of our spiritual constitution is, it may be answered that it is a state or habit of such humble, total resignation of ourselves to God as by faith and hope expects all from Him alone. This is the health and strength of our spiritual constitution, and nothing is health in the soul but this state.”

[ William Law, in a letter to Lady Huntingdon, January 10, 1754 ]