PalmTree Pundit

The Time Has Come

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 13:02:00 +0000

I've decided to officially abandon this blog after having practically abandoned it already. Keeping up two blogs wasn't working, so I'm closing up my When In Rome blog (the iWeb format is a pain to deal with) and leaving this one. I've started a new blog where I'll post about our European adventures and whatever else is on my mind. Please visit me at Europeanne and bookmark it or add it to your feed reader. I'm still tinkering with it and adding to my blogroll, but it's up and running.

Thanks for hanging in there with me.

Books I've Read in 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 17:18:00 +0000

JANUARY

~ Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter - Thomas Cahill
~ The Bacchae - Euripides

~ Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity - David Allen

~ What Is a Healthy Church Member? - Thabiti M. Anyabwile
~ Republic - Plato

FEBRUARY

~ Augustus Caesar's World - Genevieve Foster
~ Art and the Bible - Francis A. Schaeffer
~ The War With Hannibal - Livy (selections)

MARCH

~ The Lost World - Arthur Conan Doyle
~ Get Outta My Face! How To Reach Angry, Unmotivated Teens With Biblical Counsel - Rick Horne
~ Antony and Cleopatra - Shakespeare
~ The Blind Side - Michael Lewis

APRIL

~ Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas - Jules Verne
~ The Annals of Imperial Rome - Tacitus
~ Eclogues and Georgics - Virgil
~ Phantastes - George MacDonald

MAY

~ In the Beginning Was the Word: Language, A God-Centered Approach - Vern Sheridan Poythress

JUNE

~ Punic Wars & Culture Wars: Christian Essays on History and Teaching - Ben House
~ Blonde: A Novel - Joyce Carol Oates

JULY

~ Peace Like a River - Leif Enger
~ The Overton Window - Glenn Beck
~ The Help - Kathryn Stockett
~ Practical Theology for Women: How Knowing God Makes a Difference in Our Daily Lives - Wendy Horger Alsup
~ That Old Cape Magic - Richard Russo

AUGUST

~ Conspirata: A Novel of Ancient Rome - Robert Harris
~ Nine Dragons - Michael Connelly
~ Face of Betrayal - Lis Wiehl

SEPTEMBER

~ The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
~ Anna of Byzantium - Tracy Barrett

~ The Politician: An Insider's Account of John Edwards's Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down - Andrew Young
~ Four Seasons In Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World - Anthony Doerr
~ Seven Daughters and Seven Sons - Barbara Cohen and Bahija Lovejoy
~ Same Kind of Different As Me: A Modern-Day Slave, an International Art Dealer, and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together - Ron Hall, Denver Moore, and Lynn Vincent

OCTOBER

~ The Vikings - Virginia Schomp
~ So Brave, Young, and Handsome - Leif Enger
~ More Than Dates & Dead People: Recovering a Christian View of History - Stephen Mansfield
~ Home - Marilynne Robinson
~ War - Sebastian Junger

NOVEMBER

~ Johannes Gutenberg: Inventor of the Printing Press - Fran Rees
~ New York: The Novel - Edward Rutherfurd

(Full disclosure: If you click on one of the links above and then make a purchase through Amazon, I get a tiny percentage. I then use it to feed my insatiable book habit. PalmPilot would appreciate your frequent clicks!)

Quote of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 10:45:00 +0000

From CDR Salamander:

Vote. Wallow in the glorious imperfections of our Representative Republic and vote. If you don't vote - then shut up. You are a slave; act like one and take what you are given.

Tagged By My Daughter

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 14:56:00 +0000

My daughter tagged me for a meme, and since I've been far too sporadic at posting, here goes:

Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, find line 4. Write down what it says:

"This means that it will likely say something not just about the four literary works themselves, but..."
From Writing Aids (Tapestry of Grace)

Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What do you touch first?

My desk

What is the last thing you watched on TV?

I rarely watch TV here. Probably FoxNews.

WITHOUT LOOKING, guess what time it is:

2:30

Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?

2:50

With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?

My iTunes playlist -- Coldplay's "Yes" at the moment

When did you last step outside? What were you doing?

I went out on the balcony to figure out what the commotion was a couple of hours ago. I heard a man's voice on a loudspeaker, and of course it was all in Italian. No one else seemed concerned, so I guess it wasn't an emergency. We caught the word "cucina", but our kitchen is fine so far. :-)

Before you came to this website, what did you look at?

I looked up an article on Dennis Prager's website because I'm composing a blog post in my head. I hope I can take it further than my head and actually type it up at some point.

What are you wearing?

Tonight is International Night at my husband's school. There are over 30 countries represented, and we're all bringing food from our country and dressing the part. So I'm wearing jeans, a blue & white gingham Gap shirt and a red tank under that. Thanks, PalmGirl, for loaning me your tank. :-)

Did you dream last night?

I honestly don't remember. I took Tylenol PM for a headache and don't remember anything.

When did you last laugh?

We laugh a lot around here, but I really can't remember. I'm sure I'll be laughing a lot tonight at International Tonight.

What is on the walls of the room you are in?

Some small black and white prints of Roman landmarks (I like these), a large print of a Giorgio Morandi painting that I don't like at all, a botanical print that looks out of place here, and two prints of old ships. Also a small painting of a crucifix. Our landlord has eclectic tastes, apparently.

Seen anything weird lately?

Pretty much every day in Italy just because the culture is still so foreign to me. Nothing yet today, but I'm bound to see something weird tonight when I visit the Brits' table where haggis will be served.

What is the last film you saw?

"Life as we Know it" with Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel. We were on the navy base in Naples and really wanted to sit in a dark theater, eat popcorn, and relax American-style. This was the only movie playing at the time we could go. It was predictable but served our purposes.

If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy first?

First? Probably a vacation somewhere in Europe for the PalmFamily over Christmas break.

Tell me something about you that I don't know:

See next question.

Do you like to dance?

Yeah. Back in the day, PalmPilot and I won a dance contest at a Christmas party. But I can't remember the last time I went dancing.

Imagine your first child is a girl, what do you call her? What if it's a boy?

Thankfully my daughter has let me off the hook with this question.

Buon Compleanno, PalmPilot!

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 05:13:00 +0000

Happy Birthday to the man I'm blessed to walk this life with.

Ch-ch-ch-changes...

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 17:11:00 +0000

We've been living in Rome about two and a half months now, and I think I'm only just now catching my breath from all the changes our family has gone through this past summer. It's all shaking out okay, but I think part of my weariness the past week or so has been a bit of a crash from everything catching up with me. Since June, a few things have been different for our family:

First change: We moved from Hawaii where we'd lived for eight years and put down roots. The PalmKids consider Kailua their hometown, and we're all still homesick for it from time to time. We have close friends there and a church that will always be special to our family.

Second change: I left my job at Trinity Christian School. I loved teaching there, and I miss the students, staff, and ministry. Leaving that job meant I left a crazy busy schedule.

Third change: PalmBoy has gone to college. He loves Covenant, and I'm happy he's happy. But we miss him badly. Last night I pulled four napkins out when setting the table, so I guess I haven't come to terms with his move still. And I can't wait until he comes home for Christmas.

Fourth change: We moved to Italy. We love the adventures we're having in Rome, but there is some culture shock and much to learn.

Fifth change: I'm only homeschooling one child now. My work load has lightened a great deal. I don't feel so under the pile in my preparations, and that's a feeling I haven't had in years.

Sixth change: Our apartment lease includes a cleaning lady. Sweet Monika cleans for us three hours a week, and this has changed my life significantly! For the better!

Seventh change: Travel! PalmPilot's school here includes the best field trips ever, and I get to go on them. We've got two more big trips coming up, and I'll be an expert packer by the time they're over.

More changes are on the horizon as we have another move coming up in February. When the orders are in hand, I'll share more about that.

As I contemplate all that's happened in the past few months, I can't help but thank God for going before us, sustaining us, and blessing us far beyond what we could ever deserve. When everything else changes, He never does.

Then & Now

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 18:15:00 +0000

I'm still slowly working through Bruce L. Shelley's Church History in Plain Language, and I enjoyed the chapter on "The Nectar of Learning" which explained Scholasticism, the time during the Middle Ages when "a distinctive method of scholarship arose and...a unique theology of the Middle Ages emerged." I shared a quote from that chapter yesterday.

An article I read earlier today made me think of something I read in that chapter, and how far scholarship has fallen since the Middle Ages in at least one particular area. When we disparagingly call them the Dark Ages, we should think on this (from Church History in Plain Language):

"As a young monk, Gerbert had been so brilliant a student that his abbot had taken the unusual step of sending him to Spain to study mathematics. Although Gerbert's mentor there was a Christian bishop, he was also exposed to the broad and tolerant culture of the ruling Muslims." [Shelley is quoting Anne Fremantle in the two preceding sentences. What follows is Shelley.] This was the first of a number of significant contributions Muslims made to the Christian intellectual awakening.

Gerbert returned to Rheims deeply impressed by the inquisitive, questing spirit of Muslim scholarship.

Contrast "the broad and tolerant culture of the ruling Muslims" to this:

A few months ago, I sat in a magnificent Victorian lecture hall at University College London. It was once one of finest centres of intellectual inquiry in Europe, thanks to the efforts of its founder, the sternly anti-clerical philosopher Jeremy Bentham. It did not take me long to realise that fear of clerical fascism had led Bentham's trembling successors to abandon intellectual inquiry and basic intellectual standards along with it.

I had come along with hundreds of others because, on Christmas Day 2009, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a former UCL student, tried to detonate plastic explosives hidden in his underwear and kill the 278 passengers and crew on Northwest Airlines' flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. After such a narrow escape from mass murder, I thought that no one could deny that the universities needed to confront campus sectarianism. I reckoned without the limitless capacity for self-delusion of British academe.

Read the whole thing if you want to be even more discouraged about the state of academia today. Are we in the Dark Ages now?

Quote of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 13:54:00 +0000

From an eleventh-century scholar as quoted in Church History in Plain Language by Bruce L. Shelley:

Olbert was not able to satiate his thirst for study. When he would hear of someone distinguished in the arts he flew there at once, and the more he thirsted the more he absorbed something delightful from each master...Afterwards just like the bees among flowers, gorged with the nectar of learning, he returned to the hive and lived there studiously in a religious way, and religiously in a studious manner.

"The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen"

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 18:02:00 +0000

PalmPilot and I just returned from a trip to five European cities in ten days as part of his work. (I view my participation as a reward for all those deployments!) We visited Paris, London, Berlin, Copenhagen, and Sarajevo, and I noticed a pattern.

In each city, we spouses enjoyed guided tours. On many of those tours, the guide mentioned, with a sense of pride, really, some law that made sure that __________ happened or didn't happen. For example, our guide in Copenhagen informed us that Denmark wants to protect its small shops, so there is a law that dictates business hours. Now, my dad owned his own retail business for most of my life, and I didn't view that kind of government interference positively. What if a business owner wanted to open at different or longer hours to serve his customers? What about employees who wanted or needed to work more hours? Wouldn't that kind of government interference stifle the economy?

Later that day I was able to chat with a Danish reserve officer. I asked her about this law, and she was very proud of the fact that her government protected small shops. When she noticed that I wasn't oohing and ahhing, she asked about how we did it in the U.S. I told her that business owners decide. I told her that when Walmart came to my little town, my father had to adjust his business model and attract and keep customers with services and a personal touch that Walmart couldn't offer. The government didn't step in and force both Walmart and my father's business to have the same operating hours. She was surprised. It gave me and PalmPilot a chance to share a quote from Dennis Prager: "The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen."

This is just one example of what I heard many times on our trip. While I've found Europe intensely interesting (almost overwhelmingly so) in its history, architecture, art, scenery, customs, languages, and people, I've noticed that there is little sense of freedom here. The citizens have indeed become smaller as their governments have grown bigger, and they seem unaware of it, like frogs in the proverbial pot of slowly boiling water. I suppose that the U.S. is still young enough that many of us are aware of the freedoms that we enjoy and are suspicious of encroaching government. I just hope that enough of us vote accordingly next month.

A Tip

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 16:43:00 +0000

I've mentioned many times here how much I enjoyed Punic Wars & Culture Wars: Christian Essays on History and Teaching by Ben House. I highly recommend it, and you now have the opportunity to get it at a bargain price. Just go here. It would make an excellent gift for a teacher.

Quote of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 16:53:00 +0000

From Milton Friedman, as quoted by Thomas Sowell in A Conflict of Visions:

A society that puts equality -- in the sense of equality of outcome -- ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom. The use of force to achieve equality will destroy freedom, and the force, introduced for good purposes, will end up in the hands of people who use it to promote their own interests.

A Tale of Two Books

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 15:50:00 +0000

It was the worst of subjects; it was the best of subjects. The last two books I've read couldn't be more different. I read The Politician: An Insider's Account of John Edwards's Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down because I was curious about it after I heard the author interviewed on Michael Medved's radio show months ago. I read it so you don't have to. Seriously, it confirmed all I suspected about John Edwards from the first time I noticed him on the political scene, and it made me esteem politicians and the political process even less, if that's possible. It also left me wondering how on earth the author took so long to figure Edwards out. I felt like I needed a shower after reading it.

Fortunately, I was able to turn my thoughts to more beautiful things when a friend here loaned me Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the World by Anthony Doerr. I hadn't read Doerr's work before, but I will be looking for more of his writing. He had a lovely subject, and his descriptions are lovely, as well. Having lived here in Rome for over a month now, I can relate to much of what he writes, and the added detail about his baby boys was charming. I recommend it if you know Rome or want to know Rome.

Quote of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 17:48:00 +0000

From Church History in Plain Language by Bruce L. Shelley (emphases mine):

Alcuin, an Anglo-Saxon scholar in charge of the school, began the arduous task of reviving learning by undertaking the first stop of writing textbooks on grammar, spelling, rhetoric, and logic. Alcuin exhorted his students, "Ye lads whose age is fitted for reading, learn! The years go by like running water. Waste not the teachable days in idleness!"

Roma

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 05:27:00 +0000

A friend here loaned me Four Seasons in Rome: On Twins, Insomnia, and the Biggest Funeral in the History of the World by Anthony Doerr. I started reading last night after a twelve-mile walk around the walls of Rome. That wasn't smart, only because I wanted to keep reading and my exhaustion wouldn't let me. Here's a little taste of the book and of the city I'm falling in love with:

Every time I turn around here, I witness a miracle: wisteria pours up walls; slices of sky show through the high arches of a bell tower; water leaks nonstop from the spouts of a half-sunken marble boat in the Piazza di Spagna. A church floor looks soft as flesh; the skin from a ball of mozzarella cheese tastes rich enough to change my life.

Amen.

We Remember

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 07:22:00 +0000

I post this drawing every year because it still captures for me the awfulness of that day and the way it's changed our country. PalmGirl was a second-grader when she drew this on that terrible day nine years ago, and even at that young age, she understood that this was something serious:

We remember, and we will never forget.

He Continues to Impress Me

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 15:05:00 +0000

"...I believe in Auburn and love it"

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 16:13:00 +0000

First Day of School

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 05:04:00 +0000

Because Labor Day* is only an American holiday, today is business as usual in Italy. PalmPilot has school, and so do PalmGirl and I. It's the first official day of her junior year, and she and I start Italian classes at PalmPilot's school later this morning. I'll let you know how that goes. Right now I'm fully expecting PalmGirl to excel and me to struggle to keep anything in my memory.

*Without Labor Day how will we know when to put away our white shoes & summer clothes? ;-)

Feast

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:54:00 +0000

For as long as I can remember I've loved to read and have always had at least one book nearby. My joy - sheer delight - in reading, however, waxes and wanes. In homeschooling I've had to slog through some books that have been beneficial, but not necessarily enjoyable to read. As I've gotten older I've tended to have several books in progress all at once, some of these more for "work" than for pleasure. This summer, I'm pleased to report, has been a time of feasting on some good books. I heartily recommend to you the following:

Peace Like a River - Leif Enger
The Help - Kathryn Stockett
The Book Thief - Marcus Zusak (still in progress)

These books have kept me up too late at night and were/are on my mind during the day. The authors are able to weave words together in remarkable, poignant, and vivid ways. If you've feasted on these books, too, I'd love to hear your thoughts. And if you've feasted on something I haven't read, please share that with me. I seem to have more time for reading these days, and I'd like to use it well.

Just a Reminder

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:55:00 +0000

Most of my blogging these days is happening at my Rome blog.

Quote of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 13:40:00 +0000

From Marcus Zusak's The Book Thief:

She said it out loud, the words distributed into a room that was full of cold air and books. Books everywhere! Each wall was armed with overcrowded yet immaculate shelving. It was barely possible to see the paintwork. There were all different styles and sizes of lettering on the spines of the black, the red, the gray, the every-colored books. It was one of the most beautiful things Liesel Meminger had ever seen.

With wonder, she smiled.

That such a room existed!

Even when she tried to wipe the smile away with her forearm, she realized instantly that it was a pointless exercise. She could feel the eyes of the woman traveling her body, and when she looked at her, they had rested on her face.

There was more silence than she ever thought possible. It extended like an elastic, dying to break. The girl broke it.

"Can I?"

The two words stood among acres and acres of vacant, wooden-floored land. The books were miles away.

The woman nodded.

Yes, you can.

Sincerity vs. Fidelity

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 10:14:00 +0000

I'm slowly working my way through Thomas Sowell's A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles. Sowell writes to explain and describe the ramifications of the conflict of two visions: constrained and unconstrained. He defines a vision as "our sense of how the world works", and some of us might call that worldview. I will attempt to briefly show the difference between the two visions, but considering the brilliant Thomas Sowell takes at least one book to do it, it will be a poor attempt.

How the two visions view the nature of man is key to understanding them. Someone with what Sowell calls a constrained vision sees the nature of man as a fact of life, something we have to make the best of and work with because it's indeed our nature. You might say we're constrained by that nature. Someone with an unconstrained vision believes man has unlimited potential and can be improved. He is unconstrained by human nature.

You'll need to read Sowell to see how all of that plays out, and I'm still in the process of that. But in this post I want to address an especially fascinating ramification of the conflict of these two visions. Sowell contends that those with an unconstrained vision value sincerity as the highest virtue. Surely you know people who think like this: any idea is valid as long is it's sincerely held. Someone with a constrained vision, however, hold fidelity to one's duty as "morally central". Sowell:

There, within the sphere of his competence, the individual can make the greatest contribution to the social good by serving the great systemic process which decides the actual outcomes.

And here's the passage I marked up in my copy:

In the constrained vision, the businessman's moral duty is fidelity to the stockholders, who have entrusted their savings to him, not sincere pursuit of the public good through charitable donations or investment or hiring decisions which compromise that trust. Similarly, the judge's moral duty is to faithfully carry out the law he was sworn to uphold, not sincerely change that law to produce better results as he sees them. Within this vision, a scholar's moral duty is to faithfully promote the intellectual process among his students and readers, not lead them to specific conclusions he sincerely believes to be best for society. For similar reasons, advocacy journalism or liberation theology are also anathema to those with the constrained vision, since both are seen as misuses of entrusted roles.

In the preface, Sowell writes that the purpose of his book isn't to determine the validity of either vision, and that he does that in other books. I've read enough of his work to know which vision is his, and it didn't take me long to determine which vision is mine. Still, it's interesting to think of how all of this plays out in real life. How often have you seen a businessman distracted by "sincere pursuit of the public good through charitable donations or investment or hiring decisions" so much so that his business, his duty, fails? The news is filled almost daily with examples of judges trying to change laws out of a "sincere" desire to improve society. College campuses are awash in professors who forsake their duty "to promote the intellectual process" in their sincere desire to effect change.

And this is especially apropos of the current political climate:

Sincerity is so central to the unconstrained vision that it is not readily conceded to adversaries, who are often depicted as apologists, if not venal. It is not uncommon in this tradition to find references to their adversaries' "real" reasons, which must be "unmasked". Even where sincerity is conceded to adversaries, it is often accompanied by references to those adversaries' "blindness," "prejudice," or narrow inability to transcend the status quo."

Might that be what Charles Krauthammer is writing about here?

As I said, I'm slowly working through this book. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

"Can we all use a little common sense?"

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:46:00 +0000

I'm liking Governor Christie more and more:

Quote of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 10:28:00 +0000

From Church History in Plain Language:

Man needs salvation not because he is imprisoned in a body but because he willfully chooses his own way rather than God's way. Man's evil is not in his body; it is in his affections. He loves the wrong things.

Quote of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (Anne) — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 06:54:00 +0000

From Bruce L. Shelley's Church History in Plain Language:

Church history shows us that Christian theology is not primarily a philosophical system invented by men in the quiet of an academic study. Doctrines were hammered out by men who were on the work crew of the church. Every plank in the platform of orthodoxy was laid because some heresy had arisen that threatened to change the nature of Christianity and to destroy its central faith.