Musings...

I've always been a little weirded out by the idea of a "muse", you know the supposed spiritual-ish source of inspiration for artists.  I tend to associate it with paganism and fake spirituality - a fiction at best, a denial of God's glory and inspiration at worst.

But lately I'm starting to wonder if there's somewhat of a truth to it.  I say this because I know that my own writing (for myself, not the "required for class" kind) sort of comes in fits and starts.  Some of that is related to my schedule, of course, and when I manage to find time for myself, and what I'm thinking and feeling and passionate about.

But it also seems that some of it is related to the people I spend time with.  Just in the last month or so, I've realized that being with certain individuals makes me desire, or even feel compelled, to write.  Not in a crazy "OMG this is insane and I have to write it down right now so the whole world can hear me" kind of way.  No, in a kind of way that says, "I am confident in who I am, and what I believe, and what I've been gifted to do, and I'm going to do it now."  In a way that unwittingly nurtures me and my gifts and call, and that softens my rough edges without suppressing who God made me to be.

If our gifts are to be used for the building up of the body of Christ, could not the body of Christ build up our gifts?  And could not certain specific relationships, grounded in and led by the Holy Spirit, do so to a greater degree than others?

Maybe "muses", for Christians, don't have to be about pagan spirituality from which we run screaming.  Maybe they are people on this earth, given to us for a specific and significant reason, through whom the Lord works powerfully to inspire the nurturing and use of our gifts - not for our glory, or their glory, but for His glory.

Lord Jesus, lead me in the paths of righteousness, for your name's sake.

On the Incarnation

So, I've really been in a writing mood lately.  I could say more about why that is, but for the moment, let's just leave it at the fact that I'm in a writing mood.  I should probably be in a "studying for my Prophets midterm" mood, but I'm not. 

I've really been digging St. Athanasius' On the Incarnation lately.  I read it a couple years ago for a class on early church history, and just read it again recently for my Christology class.  Fortunately, my second time through, I was prescient enough to use a different color highlighter, so I can see how my thinking changed, what was important or appealing to me at different times, etc...

This is a fabulous little book, and so for the edification of all 4 people who read this blog, I'm going to post some of my favorite quotes.  If you haven't read it yet, you should.  If you've read it before, pick it up again.  You can't go wrong with this one.

• ...the renewal of creation has been wrought by the Self-same Word Who made it in the beginning.
• ...it was our sorry case that caused the Word to come down, our transgression that called out His love for us, so that He made haste to help us and to appear among us.  It is we who were the cause of His taking human form, and for our salvation that in His great love He was both born and manifested in a human body.
• For the solidarity of mankind is such that, by virtue of the Word's indwelling in a single human body, the corruption which goes with death has lost its power over all.
• The Word of God came in His own Person, because it was He alone, the Image of the Father, Who could recreate man made after the Image.  
• Men had turned from the contemplation of God above, and were looking for Him in the opposite direction, down among created things and things of sense.  The Saviour of us all, the Word of God, in His great love took to Himself a body and moved as Man among men, meeting their senses, so to speak, halfway.  He became himself an object for the senses, so that those who were seeking God in sensible things might apprehend the Father through the works which He, the Word of God, did in the body.
• For this reason was He born and manifested as Man, for this He died and rose, in order that, eclipsing by His works all other human deeds, He might recall men from all the paths of error to know the Father.
• ...even in death He preserved His body whole and undivided, so that there should be no excuse hereafter for those who would divide the Church. [Why hello there, 2nd use of the Law!]
• If you see with your own eyes men and women and children, even, thus welcoming death for the sake of Christ's religion, how can you be so utterly silly and incredulous and maimed in your mind as not to realise that Christ, to Whom these all bear witness, Himself gives the victory to each, making death completely powerless for those who hold His faith and bear the sign of the cross?

Enjoy!

Conventions

I am becoming increasingly fed up with people who have little to no command of basic spelling or grammar.

If you graduated from high school, you should, at minimum, not be capitalizing random words in the middle of sentences.  German capitalizes all nouns.  English does not.  If you graduated from college, you should be able to spell almost every word you need to write.  That little red line in Microsoft Word means you should check the spelling.  If you're unsure, http://www.dictionary.com/ or an actual, physical dictionary will help you here.  If you have a graduate degree, you should be able to - and desire to - properly use commas and semicolons to avoid run-on sentences and aid clarity. 

Some people attribute poor spelling, grammar, and writing in general to the rise of texting and instant messaging.  Senders don't have time, or find it too difficult; recipients can "mentally fill in" missing apostrophes, commas, and capital letters.  I think there's some merit to this argument, but I propose that the greater cause is the decline of reading. 

Perhaps others had different experiences, but when I began to learn "conventions of grammar" in school, I actively memorized very little.  I was able to navigate lessons, assignments, and exams quite well simply by determining "what looks right."  I knew how words were spelled not because I studied hard for spelling tests, but because I had read them - in edited publications - so much that I had unconsciously absorbed the information.  When my third-grade teacher told me that we couldn't begin sentences with the word "because," I knew she was lying.  I didn't know what a dependent or independent clause was, but I knew that "Because it was such a beautiful day, many children were at the playground," was a perfectly acceptable sentence.  I knew this because I was a voracious reader and I had encountered this sentence structure on many occasions. 

I contend that many thoughtful and sincere individuals misspell or mis-punctuate many a word or phrase simply because they have never seen it in print, in a well-edited publication.  English is a language - especially when spoken quickly or sloppily, as Americans are wont to do - in which mishearing can lead to terrific misspelling and misuse.  How many times, for example, have you read a blog comment or Facebook post about something that is "for all intensive purposes"?  This is a misrendering of "for all intents and purposes", caused, no doubt, by having heard the expression without ever having seen it. 

I'm not perfect, and someone will probably come along and point out four or five mistakes I've made in this post alone.  I readily admit that I have a tendency to overuse commas and parenthetical expressions, an issue I have to edit heavily for with everything I write.  But it is my personal belief that excellent command of spelling and grammar will get one farther in life than nearly any other practical skill.  A person can say virtually anything, no matter how ridiculous, if it is spelled and punctuated properly.  The inverse is also true.  No matter how great one's ideas are, poor spelling and conventions will serve as a distraction that prevents readers from discerning and following the content. 

So, get to reading, people!  Expand your vocabulary, learn grammar and spelling and idiomatic expressions!  Learn to write and speak; let not this vulgar generation eradicate all beauty!

Back Into the Swing of Things

Man, I've been feeling the need to write - I haven't for a while, and I miss it.  I've got a couple posts that are half-done (half-baked?), but I need to get back in the "mood," so I'm going to start with something easy. 

Top Ten Awesome Things In My Life Right Now:

1. Gorgeous weather
2. Iced coffee
3. Hallmark Channel movies
4. The commentary on Genesis I'm reading
5. The fact that I get to sleep in my own bed every night this week
6. God loves me.
7. I rocked the last practice GRE practice analogies section I did
8. Coconut Mocha Frappuccinos
9. That I'm rediscovering how much I love writing
10. Learning to be honest with myself about my gifts, goals, talents, passions, dreams, and desires.

Why Elizabeth of Hungary?

Confession time: My name is not Elizabeth, and I'm not from Hungary. 

So, why am I blogging under this name?  Well, in recent years I've been learning more and more to "get along with" the saints, so to speak.  When I started looking for a name to blog with, it seemed natural to turn toward the saints.  I probably went about this sort of the wrong way, but basically I googled a whole ridiculously long list of saints, and scrolled through the list, picking out names I like the way you pick them out of a baby name book.