Earth Day poster

Earth Day poster

The above poster is my Earth Day post for 2011. It is based on a quotation from A Wrinkle in Time, the Newbery Award-winning novel by Madeleine L'Engle. Mrs. Which, one of the characters, said, "There will no longer by so many pleasant things to look at if responsible people do not do something about the unpleasant ones." (Modified into standard English -- Mrs. Which's speech was represented by extra letters, and the like.) The photo was taken near our home.

The photo serves as a link to my Flickr photostream, where larger versions are available.

Thanks for looking.

Madeleine L'Engle's The Other Side of the Sun

The late Madeleine L'Engle was the author of more than one kind of book. I first met her as the author of Newbery winner A Wrinkle in Time. She has also written devotional books, and novels more realistic than Wrinkle.

The Other Side of the Sun (New York: Ballantine, 1971) is set in a fictional area near Charleston, South Carolina, early in the twentieth century. It is told through the eyes of Stella, an English girl who has just married into an aristocratic family from the area. I won't give away the plot, but it's about race, faith, love and hate, and makes a compelling read.

Here's a quotation, on angels, supposedly, but really about us:
"Do you suppose it ever occurs to an angel to worry because he is not an archangel? or to think that if he works a little harder or makes the right angelic friends he'll get elevated in the heavenly hierarchy? That's nonsense. My guardian angel is equal, as far as rank goes, to any archangel. It's we earthlings who've lost sight of the fact that it's a difference in kind, not in degree. And anyhow it doesn't matter, because my guardian angel is fully what he is, performing wholly the function for which God has created him. At the moment, this function is to watch over me. After I die, he might be assigned to sweeping stardust out of a corner of the sky. But because he is doing what he is created to do, radiantly, joyfully, no matter how difficult I make it for him, I can catch some of his joy. Without my angel's joy, where would I be?" p. 65.

And another one, on prayer:
But now for the first time I witnessed the prayer of utter desperation, of abandonment. Honoria was putting herself, and whatever it was that she had seen, entirely into God's hands. p. 259.

Thanks for reading!

Sunspots 140

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Science:
Carl Zimmer writes that large whales gulp their own weight in water twice a minute.

Wired reports that a Japanese lab has bred mice with no fear of cats, thanks (sort of) to genetic engineering.

Politics:
Roy Innis, of the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) has illustrated the importance of energy policy, arguing that what we really need is energy from coal.


Computing:
Congressman Edward Markey, of Massachussets, attended the Bali conference on Global Warming in the form of an avatar -- a computer presence visible to the conference, speaking for Markey, and under his control.

Literature:
A tribute to the late Madeleine L'Engle, in First Things.

Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, was 90 on the 16th . He is still alive.

Christianity:
"So let the pagans have Christmas as their most significant holiday. Easter is the central Christian holiday. And when we are known for our Easter, then we will have our Christmas back." From a re-posted Christianity Todayeditorial.

Bonnie is beginning a series on how scripture on gender roles has been interpreted: "We must recognize that interpretation of these texts is not always straightforward, while conceding that the call to extend grace, mercy, peace, gentleness, self-control, patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness to one another -- male and female -- is clear indeed."

This week's Christian Carnival is here. For information on these Carnivals, go here.

Thanks for reading! Keep clicking away.

Madeleine L'Engle, 1918-2007

Madeleine L'Engle passed away on September 6th. L'Engle wrote for many years, with books published from 1945 through 2005. Her works included a considerable variety of material, autobiographical, devotional, "ordinary" novels, and fantastic literature, the latter mostly aimed at young people.

I first read L'Engle because her A Wrinkle in Time won the Newbery award (It also won other awards). I have tried to read all the Newbery winners. I didn't expect the book to be infused with Christianity, as I chose to read it because it was award-winning children's literature, but it is so infused.

As a Books and Culture article, reprinted to honor her memory, says, some Christians weren't comfortable with L'Engle, because she didn't speak their language. Some non-Christians weren't comfortable, because they felt she was too Christian. She was, simply, a very good writer, and she honored God.

L'Engle was interviewed in 2006 when A Wrinkle in Time was made into a movie. (She said that the movie was bad, as she had anticipated.)

I haven't read everything L'Engle wrote, but I'm glad I read some of it.

Thanks for reading.