“It Is The Very Truth of God…”

To my mind, this was Rich Mullins’ greatest song.

Great Minds ……..

You shall not crucify mankind on a cross of gold! ~ William Jennings Bryan, 1896

You shall not crucify your Christian brothers and sisters on the Institution of Marriage ~ Curmudgeonly Librarian, 2014

 

This is a thought that’s come to me in the past couple of days, and I’ve been turning over in my mind. A blog post or two will follow, I’m certain.

Salad Days?

This post is an exercise for WordPress’ Blogging 101, in response to WP’s Daily Prompt, which asks “do you have any Good Old Days?”

In her delightful collection of short stories, The Devil Storybook, Natalie Babbitt tells of a little man being tempted by the devil, who wants to trick him. The devil, seeing this happy, contented old man, says that he will grant the man any wish, anything his heart desires.

An Explanation

Because I am new to blogging, and to WordPress, I am going through WP’s monthly Blogging 101 boot camp. It’s a series of exercises that are designed to help you get your feet wet in the blogospere, and help you become more familiar with the tools that WP offers.

Today’s assignment was to modify the layout/theme that you had chosen, by personalizing the header. The theme I chose has a picture of books, which makes sense, as I am a librarian. But the theme did not display the ‘tagline’, the “Pithy Sayings” line, above. So I took this assignment as an opportunity to learn to use their tools to create my own image.

And VOILA! The Library Cat is born.

“The Library Cat?”, you ask. “Of course, the Library Cat,” I reply. After all, Mark Twain almost wrote “A library without a cat—and a well-fed, well-petted, and properly revered cat—may be a perfect library, perhaps, but how can it prove title?”  (And, yes, the Curmudgeonly Librarian does love cats.)

CSL

A Small Detour….

I am new to WordPress and blogging, and I have discovered that WP has a one-month ‘course’, Blogging 101, for new bloggers. I thought it would be a good idea to go through the ‘course’, and I find that I will be given assignments to compete during the month. I have completed a couple, and now find that I am presented with an assignment that is, quite frankly, quite challenging. It cuts to the heart, making me think about why I am even picking up keyboard and blogging. The assignment?

Who is my “Ideal Reader”?

The reader of my dreams would be a person with the sagacity of C. S. Lewis who acknowledged my insight as helpful to formulating his conclusions, of course.

But I guess that, barring my apotheosis into the Hall of Great Thinkers, I would have to consider whom I am addressing with my writing. And for that, I have to look at why I feel compelled to engage in blogging in the first place.

I find that my concerns, as I view the world around me, are in the areas of marriage and relationships, church and theology, cultural drift and corruption, and my motivation is to be a voice for what is right and healing in those matters. There are other voices addressing these areas, but one more voice is just that: one more voice. Just as thousands and millions of votes elect our officials, thousands and millions of voices express views on cultural and societal norms, and I want to help provide one more voice, with (it is to be hoped) cogent and penetrative arguments for what I believe.

With that in mind, I would say that my “Ideal Reader” would be someone who is seeking for direction on how to live rightly and justly for God, for others, and for themselves.