Ben Eastman > Recent Status Updates

The famous timshel section. I have a deep memory of being profoundly influenced by this section - my first experience of Biblical Criticism, regardless of how accurate it is.

"For to be white and to be receptive of white will be different"


Aristotle out of context.

Finished Part I, wow what a book. I was completely enthralled. Amazing how Frankl is able to convey these horrific scenes in a way that does not overwhelm with misery. Everything is for a purpose, an idea that he is putting forth and his own experiences are the evidence. Powerful and profound.

"The rejection of suffering results, not in joy, but in depression. Depression, I have come to see these past few months, is the reaction of my inner self to a lie, to a false concept of the self, to self-delusion. It breeds a profound discouragement."


That first line especially is so good! Joy is not mere happiness, it is a deeper more eternal state. And suffering does not detract from it, quite the opposite.

"The healing begins when you abandon your demands for love and choose instead to give love, no matter what the cost."

Learning a lot about Athanasius, although it reads more as a collection of stories than a true Life of the Saint.

There hasn't been a lot going on so far, but I am so enthralled. Anne's swirling of ideas, trying to learn who and what God is, has been mesmerizing.

And then, another artist named Peter appears out of nowhere. What poetry!

"I loathe examinations. They prove simply nothing, only that it is possible, after all, to mould another into the shape of one's whims."

I think every student has felt this sentiment many times.

"Seems like to me there's something not finished. Seems like when you half finished a job and can't think what it was. Something didn't get done. I shouldn't be here. I ought to be wandering around the world instead of sitting here on a good farm looking for a wife."
- Charles to Adam in a letter

Very interesting. Charles almost killed Adam, but didn't. Now he feels like he's missing what comes next - the wandering.

"When a child first catches adults out- when it first walks into his grave little head that adults do not have divine intelligence, that their judgements are not always wise, their thinking true, their sentences just- his world falls into panic desolation. The gods are fallen and all safety gone."

"You can boast about anything if it's all you have."

I liked the analogies that Simmias and Cebes gave as counterarguments to Socrates.

Simmias gives the example that a body is to a harp as the soul is to a harmony. Just as if you destroy the harp strings, the melody would end, so too would the soul die when the body dies.

Cebes compares the soul to a cloak, suggesting that the soul is not immortal, but merely outlasts us and dies after it belongs to several people.

What always throws me with Plato is how I often disagree with Socrates' premise, but agree with his conclusion.

I disagree that the soul necessarily exists before birth. However, I do agree with the conclusion he draws from it, namely that souls, once created, are immortal.

"Only the body and its desires cause war, civil discord and battles, for all wars are due to the desire to acquire wealth, and it is the body and the care of it, to which we are enslaved, which compel us to acquire wealth, and all this makes us too busy to practice philosophy."

Who shall measure the range of a child's thoughts? His continual questions about God, his speculations about 'Jesus,' are they no more than idle curiosity or are they symptoms of a God-hunger with which we are all born, and is a child able to comprehend as much of the infinite and the unseen as are his self-complacent elders?

Just finished reading the chapter with Father Christmas to my daughter and she is so excited. She's very upset that Mr. Tumnus didn't get a Christmas present because he's a statue, but hopefully he will get one next year.

What if I told you that the author who gave us Mary Poppins wrote her own version of Sleeping Beauty.
It's so interesting. The Father of the Princess (A Sultan in this tale) is very much to blame for all that befalls, his materialism and sinfulness directly lead to the fairy cursing his daughter.

It's a very good take on the story. Highly recommend.

"Reason is present in the infant as truly as imagination. As soon as he can speak he lets us know that he has pondered the 'cause why' of things and perplexes us with a thousand questions. His 'why?' is ceaseless."


Can confirm, living through a ceaseless why of my own right now.

"The arts were wont to draw from philosophy, as from a wise mistress, sound judgement and right method ... When philosophy stood stainless in honor and wise in judgement, then, as facts and constant experience showed, the liberal arts flourished as never before or since; but, neglected and almost blotted out, they lay prone, since philosophy began to lean to error and join hands with folly."

"But the chief and special glory of Thomas, one which he has shared with none of the Catholic Doctors, is that the Fathers of Trent made it part of the order of the conclave to lay upon the altar, together with sacred Scripture and the decrees of the supreme Pontiffs, the Summa of Thomas Aquinas, whence to seek counsel, reason, and inspiration."


That's a fun fact.

"As the enemies of the Catholic name, when about to attack religion, are in the habit of borrowing their weapons from the arguments of philosophers, so the defenders of sacred science draw many arguments from the store of philosophy which may serve to uphold revealed dogmas."

"False conclusions concerning divine and human things, which originated in the schools of philosophy, have now crept into all the orders of the State, and have been accepted by the common consent of the masses."

"I do not dare to use the word, love. It is a word that disguises our selfish pursuit of relief from loneliness. I do not trust my own heart."

I love it when books reference other books. Fr. Elijah takes a load off and reads Manzoni's I Promessi Sposi - The Betrothed. Plus, a very meta joke as an added treat.
"At the end of the tale, the disastrous events were restored to divine order, and there was even the added bonus of a spectacular conversion. It seemed a little contrived."

Chapters 11 and 12 are phenomenal. A story within a story, with many dimensions. It was a powerful defense of God, a refutation of the problem of evil, a powerful conversion, and oh man what a twist.
O'Brien has a wonderful gift of describing Spiritual Warfare in a way that doesn't feel fake or forced. It's beautiful. Wow.

St Teresa's description of the relationship between Vocal, Mental, and Contemplative prayer has been so helpful as I strive to grow in my prayer life. She stresses that Vocal Prayer, done properly, should lead to some level of Mental prayer as we meditate on the words and allow the Holy Spirit to inspire our imagination.
Many very helpful pieces, I have found this book much easier to relate to than Interior Castle.

Eeyore's birthday is probably my favorite story so far. Absolutely Adorable, and a good story for children to learn to be grateful for any gift they are given.

Also key lore unlocked: Eeyore's favorite color is red.

"You just let the machines get on with the adding up and we'll take care of the eternal verities, thank you very much... The Quest for Ultimate Truth is quite clearly the inalienable prerogative of your working thinkers. Any bloody machine goes and actually finds it and we're straight out of a job, aren't we?"

Spooky how applicable this is 50 years later.