I originally read the first 10 chapters of this work in my Great books club and loved it as did all the ladies in the group. But then for my other book club recently I finished listening to the entire work from the beginning to the end and now I don't like it and I don't like St. Augustine. I suppose I shouldn't be too harsh, because he may have been doing the best he could with what he had, but he ended up with some very strange ideas.
First-- the parts I liked--
I liked the story of his life and his conversion. I liked how he acknowledged the hand of God in his life even when he didn't realize it up to the point where he was converted. I agree with the idea that God guides and directs our lives and turns bad experiences to our good and that he is merciful and waiting and putting circumstances together that will help us in the long run. I agree that we don't often see the hand of God in our lives until after the fact.
I liked the description of Augustine's education and teaching experience. He was a master of rhetoric and knew Latin and Greek, studied a lot of philosophy and I found that quite interesting and enlightening.
I liked his mother's stalwartness and her approach to dealing with her husband. Back then, wives were very like property of their husbands and it was the man;s right to punish her as he saw fit including hitting. Monica, Augustine's mother, was never hit because she let her husband have his say and blow off steam, so that he wasn't so angry with her and things mostly went her way, because she had patience and self-control.
That's pretty much all I liked. Now to the issue dealing with women since I already started talking about it.
I don't like the ancient attitude towards women. They really thought that women were almost a different species and even mentioned how surprised they were that Monica had such fortitude when they were traveling at one point.
I also didn't like Augustine's personal actions toward women. He had a mistress to whom he was completely faithful for like 14 years and she was too and they even had a son together, but when his mother arranged that he be married for advantage, he sent her away and kept their son. He writes about how he felt like his heart was torn out, but instead of bringing her back and standing up against his mother and the society, he just got a new mistress to last until his betrothed was old enough to marry. It seemed to me that his friends and mother came above everything else even the mother of his only son.
One funny part was when about ten of the guys thought it would be great to live together and take turns providing for the necessities of life so that they could use that time to study, and they thought it would work great until someone asked how their wives would feel about it, and the whole plan was discarded.
His philosophies seemed to me very involved and reminded me of the scripture "ever learning, but never coming to a knowledge of the truth". Some of the things he would say were good and there were a lot of good quotes, but his over all actions and attitudes, I thought, were disturbing.
Like all these great books, I'm really glad I read it. It gives me a better understanding of the ancient world, and where our current ideas get their roots. I am also even more grateful for the Book of Mormon to really clear up a lot of these confusing ideas about God and salvation. I love learning.
Blogging is a great outlet, it seems easier to write to someone even if nobody actually reads this, I will read it again in ten years, and I'm sure laugh at my naivity.
Thanks for reading!!
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Some good recipe and info links
I found these 2 websites, I'm sure there are others, but they have info. I mostly agree with and some good recipes:
http://www.greensmoothiegirl.com
http://simplehealthytasty.blogspot.com/
My recipe blog is at www.greattimetolive.com, it's not that great, I need to update it, but those are some of our standby favorites. Lentil tacos are always a favorite with the salsa and guacamole-- those recipes are on that blog.
http://www.greensmoothiegirl.com
http://simplehealthytasty.blogspot.com/
My recipe blog is at www.greattimetolive.com, it's not that great, I need to update it, but those are some of our standby favorites. Lentil tacos are always a favorite with the salsa and guacamole-- those recipes are on that blog.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Ask and ye shall Receive
Here is a message that I find scattered throughout the sciptures, (I copied it off www.lds.org):
First Matthew 7:7
aAsk, and it shall be bgiven you; cseek, and ye shall find; dknock, and it shall be opened unto you
And 3 Nephi 18:20
And awhatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you.
The Lord wants us to be happy. It almost seems too simple. Just ask, and you will receive. It is true. If it is right, He will give it to you. If it is not right, he will help you along until you realize it is not right and you no longer want it!! My kids have memorized both these scriptures and I am finding this message all over the Doctrine and Covenants. The Lord is good. I am so so grateful!!
First Matthew 7:7
aAsk, and it shall be bgiven you; cseek, and ye shall find; dknock, and it shall be opened unto you
And 3 Nephi 18:20
And awhatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you.
The Lord wants us to be happy. It almost seems too simple. Just ask, and you will receive. It is true. If it is right, He will give it to you. If it is not right, he will help you along until you realize it is not right and you no longer want it!! My kids have memorized both these scriptures and I am finding this message all over the Doctrine and Covenants. The Lord is good. I am so so grateful!!
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Weight Loss -- Long Explanation
I have been looking at blogs a lot recently. I think people are so interesting. I love people. One thing I've noticed is that there are a lot of weight loss blogs. I guess there are a lot of us who need and want to look an feel better, and I want to share what has worked for me.
First of all, let me give you some background. I have always been extremely health conscious. I ran Cross Country in high school and played other team sports. My teammates and I gave up carbonated sodas and I took myself off sugar for 6 months when I was a junior in high school because I could tell that I was eating it just because it was there and not because I even liked it. When my family went out to eat, I mostly chose the healthiest thing on the menu.
When I was in college I ate as healthy as I knew how. I remember one of my roommates and I got sores in our mouths from eating so much healthy sugary fruits we were so health conscious. Even so I gained those 5-10 freshman lbs. I found that if I just ran more, the weight would go away, and being as young as I was, life was good.
Then when I got married I continued to run and I started learning how to cook for real. I often produced sub-par meals trying to substitute out the fat and sugar. Eventually I learned to follow the recipe and instead of adapting recipes, to find recipes that were healthy to begin with. Each year of marriage I seemed to learned a little more about nutrition. I started cutting out the partially hydrogenated oils, the high fructose corn syrup and the preservatives and food colorings. It was frustrating to find that I had to make most of our food in order to avoid these things. It was also frustrating to gain 50 lbs. with each of my pregnancies. I followed the recommended pregnancy diets to the letter and I still gained 50 lbs. each time, which translated to 20-30 lbs. of hard core weight that I needed to lose after each pregnancy!!
But I was determined, and I was able to lose those baby pounds, but it was hard and it took will power. I would lose 1-2 lbs. per week. I would be really careful about portion size and count my calories and I would stay far away from any kind of desserts and I would run. I usually lost the weight in time for the next baby. I did that 3 times, and after the 4th baby, I didn't know if I could do it again.
I was extremely tired and had low energy and I just didn't know if I could muster that kind of will power again. And that's when my husband and I listened to Tony Robbins health program. I was extremely hesistant when I found out that Tony was mostly vegetarian, because I was already going against the grain so much in my political and educational views, I wasn't sure I wanted to be any more different that I already was. But Tony challenged us to just try it for 7-10 days. All we had to do was cut out meat, dairy, refined sugar and drugs, coffee, alcohol and eat more alkaline foods which are --you guessed it-- fruits and vegetables especially those dark leafy green ones. The drugs, coffee and alcohol was already taken care of being Mormon and having the Word of Wisdom, but the meat and dairy was new. Aren't they full of healthy protein and calcium after all?
Well, after one week of trying it out, we could never go back, we felt so much better. And now I was "weirder" than any one else I associated with in every respect. Oh well, I felt better. I started on a journey of finding vegan recipes my family would eat. It was really hard. I would spend hours to make this gourmet meal only to find that everybody despised curry. I would have 3 tiny kids asking me for food and I didn't know what to give them!! It was hard, but it was worth it. Two of my kids' eczema disappeared. One of them we thought was allergic to berries, turns out, it was the milk. I also started drinking a powdered green drink full of dehydrated wheat grass and vegetables and trying to follow the guidelines of the PH Miracle book since that was who Tony was working with for his health guidelines. That made a huge difference for me. I lost my baby weight in 2-3 months instead of 6-8. I didn't have to take a 2 hour nap each day. I was amazed at how much I could accomplish in a day. My breastmilk was so much thicker and satisfying to my new baby. It was great!! My husband did a Ph Miracle cleanse and lost 40 lbs in a month.
I had a another baby after that, but I was a little disappointed to find that I had some worries I hadn't had with my other pregnancies. It all corrected myself, but with all this work, I thought I shouldn't have any worries. Well, I was healthy and happy, but again I couldn't lose those last 10 baby weight pounds. I ate even less than before and exercised more and still no luck. Then I started to slowly gain weight and I knew something must be wrong.
So my husband offered to do another PH Miracle cleanse with me since it is really hard to make dinner and cleanse at the same time. That was really great of him. It worked for the first couple days, but then I could feel the same thing happening as before and I emailed Dr. Young to find out what he thought of it and he told me I was constipated. So I tried an Epsom salt flush and when that didn't help, I turned to Vicki Talmage since I had taken a raw food class from her months before. Refer to my cleansing post.
So this is a rather long explanation to say that for me, lots of raw dark, green leafy salads with kale, collards, chard, spinach, and dark lettuces have contributed to my new found health and weight loss. I weigh about the same as I did my freshman year of college before the freshman weight gain and my clothes are very loose, I really should go buy some new ones. I try to drink a gallon of pure water each day. I am working on growing wheat grass and I drink green smoothies. My colon has been cleared out, but it still needs help with herbs to flush through it. Eventually it will work well on its own. I'm getting better at growing wheat grass and I'm trying to also drink a quart of rejuvelac each day. My 2 year old is only other family member who likes it at this point, but I love it!! Baked beets, the red dye from the beets has helped to clear my colon and so has watermelon. These are from recommendations that Vicki has given me and they seem to have worked. Soaked almonds and flax seeds in the smoothies also help with energy. And the best thing about it, is that it is not hard. It doesn't require the willpower I used to have to exert because I can feel the difference and the old foods don't even tempt me. I have zero desire for any of it, because I know what it will do to my body.
So there you have it, my life long journey to learn to eat healthily. It's rather simple really. Just eat a lot of salad especially before you eat anything else and you will probably be able to tell a difference. I think weight loss needs to be more than just how you look, I think it should be a quest for true health and well-being. I am also happy to report that I now have friends who are as "weird" as me and as more and more people try it out and feel the difference, it will eventually become the new norm.
good luck and good night!!
First of all, let me give you some background. I have always been extremely health conscious. I ran Cross Country in high school and played other team sports. My teammates and I gave up carbonated sodas and I took myself off sugar for 6 months when I was a junior in high school because I could tell that I was eating it just because it was there and not because I even liked it. When my family went out to eat, I mostly chose the healthiest thing on the menu.
When I was in college I ate as healthy as I knew how. I remember one of my roommates and I got sores in our mouths from eating so much healthy sugary fruits we were so health conscious. Even so I gained those 5-10 freshman lbs. I found that if I just ran more, the weight would go away, and being as young as I was, life was good.
Then when I got married I continued to run and I started learning how to cook for real. I often produced sub-par meals trying to substitute out the fat and sugar. Eventually I learned to follow the recipe and instead of adapting recipes, to find recipes that were healthy to begin with. Each year of marriage I seemed to learned a little more about nutrition. I started cutting out the partially hydrogenated oils, the high fructose corn syrup and the preservatives and food colorings. It was frustrating to find that I had to make most of our food in order to avoid these things. It was also frustrating to gain 50 lbs. with each of my pregnancies. I followed the recommended pregnancy diets to the letter and I still gained 50 lbs. each time, which translated to 20-30 lbs. of hard core weight that I needed to lose after each pregnancy!!
But I was determined, and I was able to lose those baby pounds, but it was hard and it took will power. I would lose 1-2 lbs. per week. I would be really careful about portion size and count my calories and I would stay far away from any kind of desserts and I would run. I usually lost the weight in time for the next baby. I did that 3 times, and after the 4th baby, I didn't know if I could do it again.
I was extremely tired and had low energy and I just didn't know if I could muster that kind of will power again. And that's when my husband and I listened to Tony Robbins health program. I was extremely hesistant when I found out that Tony was mostly vegetarian, because I was already going against the grain so much in my political and educational views, I wasn't sure I wanted to be any more different that I already was. But Tony challenged us to just try it for 7-10 days. All we had to do was cut out meat, dairy, refined sugar and drugs, coffee, alcohol and eat more alkaline foods which are --you guessed it-- fruits and vegetables especially those dark leafy green ones. The drugs, coffee and alcohol was already taken care of being Mormon and having the Word of Wisdom, but the meat and dairy was new. Aren't they full of healthy protein and calcium after all?
Well, after one week of trying it out, we could never go back, we felt so much better. And now I was "weirder" than any one else I associated with in every respect. Oh well, I felt better. I started on a journey of finding vegan recipes my family would eat. It was really hard. I would spend hours to make this gourmet meal only to find that everybody despised curry. I would have 3 tiny kids asking me for food and I didn't know what to give them!! It was hard, but it was worth it. Two of my kids' eczema disappeared. One of them we thought was allergic to berries, turns out, it was the milk. I also started drinking a powdered green drink full of dehydrated wheat grass and vegetables and trying to follow the guidelines of the PH Miracle book since that was who Tony was working with for his health guidelines. That made a huge difference for me. I lost my baby weight in 2-3 months instead of 6-8. I didn't have to take a 2 hour nap each day. I was amazed at how much I could accomplish in a day. My breastmilk was so much thicker and satisfying to my new baby. It was great!! My husband did a Ph Miracle cleanse and lost 40 lbs in a month.
I had a another baby after that, but I was a little disappointed to find that I had some worries I hadn't had with my other pregnancies. It all corrected myself, but with all this work, I thought I shouldn't have any worries. Well, I was healthy and happy, but again I couldn't lose those last 10 baby weight pounds. I ate even less than before and exercised more and still no luck. Then I started to slowly gain weight and I knew something must be wrong.
So my husband offered to do another PH Miracle cleanse with me since it is really hard to make dinner and cleanse at the same time. That was really great of him. It worked for the first couple days, but then I could feel the same thing happening as before and I emailed Dr. Young to find out what he thought of it and he told me I was constipated. So I tried an Epsom salt flush and when that didn't help, I turned to Vicki Talmage since I had taken a raw food class from her months before. Refer to my cleansing post.
So this is a rather long explanation to say that for me, lots of raw dark, green leafy salads with kale, collards, chard, spinach, and dark lettuces have contributed to my new found health and weight loss. I weigh about the same as I did my freshman year of college before the freshman weight gain and my clothes are very loose, I really should go buy some new ones. I try to drink a gallon of pure water each day. I am working on growing wheat grass and I drink green smoothies. My colon has been cleared out, but it still needs help with herbs to flush through it. Eventually it will work well on its own. I'm getting better at growing wheat grass and I'm trying to also drink a quart of rejuvelac each day. My 2 year old is only other family member who likes it at this point, but I love it!! Baked beets, the red dye from the beets has helped to clear my colon and so has watermelon. These are from recommendations that Vicki has given me and they seem to have worked. Soaked almonds and flax seeds in the smoothies also help with energy. And the best thing about it, is that it is not hard. It doesn't require the willpower I used to have to exert because I can feel the difference and the old foods don't even tempt me. I have zero desire for any of it, because I know what it will do to my body.
So there you have it, my life long journey to learn to eat healthily. It's rather simple really. Just eat a lot of salad especially before you eat anything else and you will probably be able to tell a difference. I think weight loss needs to be more than just how you look, I think it should be a quest for true health and well-being. I am also happy to report that I now have friends who are as "weird" as me and as more and more people try it out and feel the difference, it will eventually become the new norm.
good luck and good night!!
Friday, February 20, 2009
Help for Pink Eye or Conjunctivitis
I want to share this tidbit of info that I have found to be very useful especially during this yucky cold inverted air weather:
Colloidial silver helps a ton with pink eye or conjunctivitis. Little children will get that goopey eye if they wipe the mucus from their runny nose up to their eyes. It seems like it takes so long to get over it, and the last time I got a prescription for it, one of the listed side effects of the medicine was death. So I am very glad to report that we haven't had to use any prescription medications for this ailment since I learned about using colloidial silver.
At the first sign of any goop, I clean it out and put about 3 drops of colloidial silver in each eye. It usually only takes about a day for it to clear up, and it is no big deal. Very good stuff.
I just had one incident with it though where I didn't catch the goop soon enough. My little boy couldn't open his eyes and they were swollen and goopey. It was very sad. But we cleaned them out and started the silver. Sure enought the next day they were still goopey but looked way better, but then the next day they seemed to worsen again. I decided we needed more help because I really didn't want to go the doctor and get a prescription. So I checked my The How to Herb book and my Prescription for Nutritional Healing book and went to Health store and bought some loose eyebright powder, chamomile powder, goldenseal and bayberry ( I have learned that buying herbs loose and separately is way more economical than in the capsules). I also bought the Herbs for Kids brand of Echinacea/Eyebright tinture.
I made a tea out of the herbs and soaked a washcloth in the tea and used it to clean out his eyes. Then I gave him the drops of silver in each eye and a dropperful of the Echinacea/Eyebright tincture. 2 of my other kids also looked liked their eyes were a bit pink, so I gave everybody a dropperful of tincture and put silver drops in the kids with pink eyes. Everybody got wheatgrass juice, soup, a multivitamin and vitamin C. Then I kept his eyes cleaned out with the tea and continued with the drops and tincture whenever his eyes started to look bad again, sometimes every hour. And I am extremely happy to report that this approach seemed to work for us, because my poor little guy is looking and feeling way better today. His eyes are not nearly as swollen and red, and the goop is almost gone, we've only had to use the drops and tincture twice today so far. And the other 2 who looked like they might get it are all cleared up. Yay!! It worked!!
Note on Colloidial Silver: The friend who told me about it bought a kit to make it, but it turns out that if you make it yourself, you can't control the parts per million, ppm. I think it is safer to just buy it. I used 2 brands, one was 14 ppm and one was 15 ppm. I don't think it really matters, you just probably don't want 150 ppm!! The people who turn blue using colloidial silver look like they were using it everyday, not just when sick and one of them it looked like had been making his own. It works as a anti viral, anti fungal and anti bacterial, and it works best as a preventive measure.
Colloidial silver helps a ton with pink eye or conjunctivitis. Little children will get that goopey eye if they wipe the mucus from their runny nose up to their eyes. It seems like it takes so long to get over it, and the last time I got a prescription for it, one of the listed side effects of the medicine was death. So I am very glad to report that we haven't had to use any prescription medications for this ailment since I learned about using colloidial silver.
At the first sign of any goop, I clean it out and put about 3 drops of colloidial silver in each eye. It usually only takes about a day for it to clear up, and it is no big deal. Very good stuff.
I just had one incident with it though where I didn't catch the goop soon enough. My little boy couldn't open his eyes and they were swollen and goopey. It was very sad. But we cleaned them out and started the silver. Sure enought the next day they were still goopey but looked way better, but then the next day they seemed to worsen again. I decided we needed more help because I really didn't want to go the doctor and get a prescription. So I checked my The How to Herb book and my Prescription for Nutritional Healing book and went to Health store and bought some loose eyebright powder, chamomile powder, goldenseal and bayberry ( I have learned that buying herbs loose and separately is way more economical than in the capsules). I also bought the Herbs for Kids brand of Echinacea/Eyebright tinture.
I made a tea out of the herbs and soaked a washcloth in the tea and used it to clean out his eyes. Then I gave him the drops of silver in each eye and a dropperful of the Echinacea/Eyebright tincture. 2 of my other kids also looked liked their eyes were a bit pink, so I gave everybody a dropperful of tincture and put silver drops in the kids with pink eyes. Everybody got wheatgrass juice, soup, a multivitamin and vitamin C. Then I kept his eyes cleaned out with the tea and continued with the drops and tincture whenever his eyes started to look bad again, sometimes every hour. And I am extremely happy to report that this approach seemed to work for us, because my poor little guy is looking and feeling way better today. His eyes are not nearly as swollen and red, and the goop is almost gone, we've only had to use the drops and tincture twice today so far. And the other 2 who looked like they might get it are all cleared up. Yay!! It worked!!
Note on Colloidial Silver: The friend who told me about it bought a kit to make it, but it turns out that if you make it yourself, you can't control the parts per million, ppm. I think it is safer to just buy it. I used 2 brands, one was 14 ppm and one was 15 ppm. I don't think it really matters, you just probably don't want 150 ppm!! The people who turn blue using colloidial silver look like they were using it everyday, not just when sick and one of them it looked like had been making his own. It works as a anti viral, anti fungal and anti bacterial, and it works best as a preventive measure.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Right for Me -- Musings 1
What is right for me, may not be right for someone else. I think this is why the scriptures are not super specific. Times change, circumstances change, ideas change, paradigms change and specifics change. Overall principles stay constant, but application of these principles vary from individual to individual.
Let's take cleaning the house: the overall principle of keeping a clean house is the same for everybody : you should keep your house clean and orderly. How you actually go about doing that varies greatly from person to person -- some people like to clean in the morning, others at night, some people like to or are able to do a lot of cleaning in one sitting, others have to spread it out throughout the week, some people have a lot to clean a big house etc. Some people are just naturally good at it and enjoy it. Others (like me) have to learn to make it a priority and clean up after themselves as they go along and it may take some time. ( Flylady is a great helper in this regard). The specifics don't really matter so much as long as the overall principle is kept -- clean house. Of course some ways may be better than others, but each individual must decide how far they want to go and how much they can do since we all have so many ways we could spend our time.
Another principle is to educate yourself. We are happy and excited when we can learn and do new things, but what we learn and how we learn it, will vary immensely from individual to individual. One person may love music and spend a lot of time with that. Someone else may love philosophy or art. Someone else may feel an urgent desire to learn how to garden for survival and be driven toward the goal of self-reliance. Another may want to learn how to sew, scrapbook, cook, clean, organize, read, write, science, mathematics etc, etc, etc. Just because our passions may be different doesn't mean that one is right and one is wrong. People can do 2 completely different things and be right, and keep the overall principle of educating oneself.
Another interesting twist to this idea is also that what may be right for one, may not be right for another. An example in my own life is sewing -- I taught myself how to sew when I first married and was pregnant with my first baby. I love to sew, but right now my time is taken caring for my growing children. Although I would love to make them all sorts of things, my time is much better spent cleaning, cooking, and teaching them, so in a way, for me sewing a whole bunch would be wrong, but it was wonderful for me when my time was a little more free and I was learning a new skill.
This is also why it is so important to not judge people or to compare yourself with others. You just don't know what is going inside people or even what is going on in their lives. What you think is awful or wonderful, may be just the opposite for them. So this is a great thing for me to always remember: Just do what is right for me and don't worry about everybody else. They are doing their best. The Lord loves them as much as he loves me and he will guide them just as he guides me. The only person I can control is myself, and the only sure way is to follow the Spirit, or my heart, whatever you want to call it, so that the Lord can guide me and help me along. Then I will be satisfied with where I am and what I've done. That is hard enough without worrying about everybody else!!
Let's take cleaning the house: the overall principle of keeping a clean house is the same for everybody : you should keep your house clean and orderly. How you actually go about doing that varies greatly from person to person -- some people like to clean in the morning, others at night, some people like to or are able to do a lot of cleaning in one sitting, others have to spread it out throughout the week, some people have a lot to clean a big house etc. Some people are just naturally good at it and enjoy it. Others (like me) have to learn to make it a priority and clean up after themselves as they go along and it may take some time. ( Flylady is a great helper in this regard). The specifics don't really matter so much as long as the overall principle is kept -- clean house. Of course some ways may be better than others, but each individual must decide how far they want to go and how much they can do since we all have so many ways we could spend our time.
Another principle is to educate yourself. We are happy and excited when we can learn and do new things, but what we learn and how we learn it, will vary immensely from individual to individual. One person may love music and spend a lot of time with that. Someone else may love philosophy or art. Someone else may feel an urgent desire to learn how to garden for survival and be driven toward the goal of self-reliance. Another may want to learn how to sew, scrapbook, cook, clean, organize, read, write, science, mathematics etc, etc, etc. Just because our passions may be different doesn't mean that one is right and one is wrong. People can do 2 completely different things and be right, and keep the overall principle of educating oneself.
Another interesting twist to this idea is also that what may be right for one, may not be right for another. An example in my own life is sewing -- I taught myself how to sew when I first married and was pregnant with my first baby. I love to sew, but right now my time is taken caring for my growing children. Although I would love to make them all sorts of things, my time is much better spent cleaning, cooking, and teaching them, so in a way, for me sewing a whole bunch would be wrong, but it was wonderful for me when my time was a little more free and I was learning a new skill.
This is also why it is so important to not judge people or to compare yourself with others. You just don't know what is going inside people or even what is going on in their lives. What you think is awful or wonderful, may be just the opposite for them. So this is a great thing for me to always remember: Just do what is right for me and don't worry about everybody else. They are doing their best. The Lord loves them as much as he loves me and he will guide them just as he guides me. The only person I can control is myself, and the only sure way is to follow the Spirit, or my heart, whatever you want to call it, so that the Lord can guide me and help me along. Then I will be satisfied with where I am and what I've done. That is hard enough without worrying about everybody else!!
Monday, February 16, 2009
Great Books of the Western World the Ten Year Plan
Encyclopedia Britannica actually produced in 1952 a set of Books called the Great Books of the Western World. The series was edited and compiled by Robert Maynard Hutchins and Mortimer J. Adler and their board. They included as the first book a volume called The Great Conversation. In this volume they discuss liberal education, the Western tradition and how they chose which works to include in the set. It is an excellent volume that brings out a lot of good points about education. I highly recommend it, I may summarize it in another post. But the piece I want to discuss in this post is the Ten Year Reading Plan. They suggest different ways to study the Great Books series, but I was fortunate enough to be included in a book club where we started with Year One of the Ten Year plan.
It was awesome!! I wasn't sure if I wanted to take the time to attend a book club twice a month, but everytime I went, I was enlightened and uplifted. When I read the works, I could feel my brain grow and when we got together and discussed the works, we all got way more out of it. It was very interesting to see people's views change. I don't think any of us were the same after reading about Alexander the Great by Plutarch and The Prince by Machiavelli. We were learning history and philosophy at the same time, and then we were able to watch things that are going on now and compare and contrast. After that first year, I was finally able to put names and times and places together. Now when I hear great names or works or ideas, I have a place for them to go and a foundation to base my ideas. The works chosen follow a chronological order for each year of the plan. It was awesome.
I loved it so much, I wanted to include the plan here. I will type them in sometime in a different post, here is a link on someone's website with the plan and links to the works themselves. It is past copyright so it is all free!! Note: Try to get the 1952 version especially for Aristophanes. Those Greeks were kinda crazy and the older version has a nicer translation for a lot of it!!
It was awesome!! I wasn't sure if I wanted to take the time to attend a book club twice a month, but everytime I went, I was enlightened and uplifted. When I read the works, I could feel my brain grow and when we got together and discussed the works, we all got way more out of it. It was very interesting to see people's views change. I don't think any of us were the same after reading about Alexander the Great by Plutarch and The Prince by Machiavelli. We were learning history and philosophy at the same time, and then we were able to watch things that are going on now and compare and contrast. After that first year, I was finally able to put names and times and places together. Now when I hear great names or works or ideas, I have a place for them to go and a foundation to base my ideas. The works chosen follow a chronological order for each year of the plan. It was awesome.
I loved it so much, I wanted to include the plan here. I will type them in sometime in a different post, here is a link on someone's website with the plan and links to the works themselves. It is past copyright so it is all free!! Note: Try to get the 1952 version especially for Aristophanes. Those Greeks were kinda crazy and the older version has a nicer translation for a lot of it!!
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