Share Four Somethings – August Edition

Something Loved

When you read this, my hubby Bill and I will have just celebrated 40 years of wedded bliss. OK, maybe not every moment of those 40 years was entirely blissful (I can remember one knock-down-drag-out argument we had about a Christmas tree in 1982), but there have been many, many wonderful moments and the good far outweighs the bad.

I love this man’s sense of humor. No one can make me laugh like he can. I also love his thoughtfulness. This picture was taken at the starting line of a marathon where I really struggled. You can read about it here and here. The first words out of Bill’s mouth at the finish line (he didn’t run the race) were “I’m so sorry I didn’t run the race so I could have been there for you the whole way.” What a great guy. I’m looking forward to the next 40 years!

Something Said

In keeping with the “love” theme, here is a poignant quote from John Lennon, who had a lot to say about love.

“There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.”

The wisdom of learning to first love yourself so that we can better love others illustrates Lennon’s insight and compassion. The quote is a wonderful reminder to open your heart and let love in, and isn’t that what the 60s were ultimately all about?

Something Learned

This month I learned about the incredible artist Dale Chihuly. The Chihuly Garden and Glass museum is located in Seattle, Washington right next to the Space Needle. We visited there on our Pacific Northwest marathon trip. Chihuly works mainly in blown glass, creating huge, intricate sculptures and beautiful, fanciful gardens highlighting pieces of his blown glass.

The museum features many exhibits of the artist’s work. During a short film, we watched Chihuly creating breathtaking paintings in a matter of minutes simply by squirting or dripping paint from its tube onto canvas then manipulating it to get the effect he wanted. He is most well-known, however, for his glass sculptures. He was instrumental in moving glass blowing from the”craft” to the”fine art” category.

Something Read

My reading selections have been decidedly disappointing lately. Our book club read the new Celeste Ng novel, and my reaction was an emphatic “Meh!” (Imagine me shrugging one shoulder as I say that.) I love Ann Lamott’s non-fiction, so I thought I would give her fiction a try. This resulted in the same reaction from me as the Ng novel. There were a few other less-than-exciting book choices on my part this month, both fiction and non-fiction, but one book did stand out.

The book “The Jefferson Bible” was given to me by my oldest son. For this book, Thomas Jefferson manually cut and pasted together the sections of the Gospels that he felt reflected “true religion“. Jefferson was a Deist, who believed that God exists but does not interfere in day to day events in the world he created. A Deist believes that reason and science are tools with which to understand God and the infinite.

As a Deist, Jefferson omitted the stories of Jesus’ birth and death from his Bible and focused on His life and morals. He originally titled the book “The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth“, and wrote of Christ as a teacher and philosopher who created “the most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to man.”

Amazingly, Jefferson completed his edition of the Bible in only two or three nights, after working at his day job as president of the United States. He believed he could ascertain, in that short amount of time, what was relevant and genuine in the Gospels, and what was not, discarding the”chaff” and keeping the “wheat“. Many theologians and biblical scholars have spent lifetimes trying to accomplish what Jefferson posited he accomplished in a few hours.

Although the book was an interesting read, there was an introduction by F. Forrester Church that closely reflects my views on Jefferson’s topic and gives the historical account of just how the book came to be, I have to take exception with Jefferson’s methods and conclusions.  I do not, however, want to read only books where the author and I agree. I enjoyed very much having imaginary arguments with the third president of the United States concerning the selections he included in his Bible. I recommend this book as an intellectual exercise. It gives you insight into the mind of one of our founding fathers.

I am linking up with Heather Gerwing for her “Four Somethings”. Thanks, Heather, for giving the opportunity to think and write about four such compelling topics. I am also linking up with Debbie at Dare 2 Hear, Random-osity for Little Things Thursdays, Jessica and Amy at Live Life Well, Anna Nuttall for her Bloggers Link Up, My Little Tablespoon and Laughing My Abs Off for their Fab Finds Friday, Crystal Twaddell for Fresh Market Friday, Spiritual Sundays for Welcome, Susan B Mead for Dancing With Jesus, A Glimpse of our Life for Scripture and a Snapshot, Peabea Photography for Sunday Scripture Blessings, A Jar Full of Marigolds for Selah, Holly from HoHo Runs and Wendy from Taking the Long Way Home for their Weekly Wrap, and It’s a Small Town Life for Thankful Thursday.