What I Learned From Books 2: Men Or Monsters

Well, I've written about dystopias and zombies, so I thought it's time I wrote about vampires, which I'm sure you've all been waiting for.

I've read a lot of books involving them in some way from the oldest novels, like 'Dracula' to some of the newest ones; which are most often now in some form of fantasy rather than horror. Which is why, some years back, there was something of an outcry about the new way they were/are depicted.

About the time 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' was at its height, there were Christians (mainly in the States, I think) who were complaining of the dangers of vampires no longer being depicted as evil, but rather sexy. I think there is something to be wary of; but that this idea pretty much completely misses the point. The problem, as I see it, isn't so much that they are depicted as being sexy (in some ways, they were always alluring); but rather, that instead of being depicted as monsters, they are shown to be people - though a bit different.

For hundreds of years, there have been legends of various kinds of  'walking dead' that are close to what we think of as vampires; though the word itself is relatively modern, probably originating in central Europe somewhere. And for most of that time, they have been regarded as 'evil' or 'demonic' in some way. Even in non-Christian countries like China and Japan, they were regarded as having something to do with evil spirits of some kind. Pretty much culminating in 'Dracula', published in 1897.

The reason I think this is that, although the book is fairly clearly about good v evil, God v the Devil (at least it's clear if you read an abridged version); it wasn't long before that started to change. At first, it was in the films; though Dracula was still clearly shown as evil, the link between him and the Devil was toned down, and then ignored completely. Which is probably also why and how the 'rules' of what strengths and weaknesses they have started to get a bit hazy. After all, if you don't have a clear source for where vampires come from, why should they have any limitations - they don't make sense anyway. And then, about 30 years or so ago, things started to get even stranger.

First, they had changed from 'spiritual' beings of some kind to just beings - immensely powerful ones with less and less limitations; but still more or less 'evil', and then that changed. They still preyed on humans, that couldn't really change; but, they weren't necessarily evil. After all, everything has to eat, right? And, because of that, it was now possible to have vampires as heroes: to have 'good' vampires, who sometimes protected humans, and sometimes even fell in love-something which would have been unthinkable in earlier decades.

And if they can fall in love, then they can have sex. Which holds true just as much for the ones that aren't heroes. And all of this led inevitably to a confusion of morality. Because, obviously, although vampires look a bit like us, they're not us - but how like us are they?

And in certain stories/series, the 'bad guys' are the slayers i.e. humans. The vampires are just, you know, going about their business, trying to live and love as best they can; and intolerant humans just won't let them alone. How different this is from 'Dracula', or earlier stories.

And I haven't even talked about the role that magic plays in these stories...

What I Learned From Books :0.5
                                              1: Dystopias, Then And Now

Back To Work

And on the Sunday (1st Sunday after Easter?), I got ill again. Not so good. I didn't feel too bad, but I seriously considered not going to church. However, I got there, and, you know, generally enjoyed it - though the topic of the talk wasn't really one that you enjoy as such. And then after, I chatted to a few people (Fiona was there, Luke wasn't), and went to the pub with some people from my new life group. Not that the group is new, but just the name.
We chatted about various random things, including the rules of dreams, and the faithfulness of God. Which is probably important to talk about more often, if only to remind ourselves that He is faithful. Because we forget.

And then on Monday, I was still ill; just when I had to go back to work. So I managed to get in a bit late (about two hours, sort of). And everything went smoothly. We weren't too busy - or quiet - and I managed to get through the day without any problems. Plus I could relax in the knowledge that today was a day off, so I would have time to recover. Which I have done just fine.

And about the only other thing I've done is sort out an Unlimited card for the cinema. I shall try to print off my temporary ticket today, and I'll get the proper one sometime over the next week. And I look forward to being more social once I've got used to using it.

Easter Week In

I had Easter week off work, which was nice. It's always nice to have a bit of a rest. So, what did I do?

Well, I also had Good Friday off (which is actually Holy Week, I know), and that was an interesting day with two main things that happened. The first was a meditative service, in which I had the opportunity to display a poem I wrote about Easter. I actually submitted two, but the other wasn't about Easter, so it was turned down - but if you want to read both, they can be found here. Anyway, the service itself was interesting, though different than it has been in the past few years. At least it felt different; it felt more like a 'normal' Sunday service, though that may just be my impression of it.
It was based around the seven last words from the cross, with various prayer stations around the church with different actions that could be done, and you could could go to as many or as few as you wished. I went to two: one which was about forgiveness, and one which was about giving God painful circumstances - the two were connected. Then we all came back together for a dance piece, and a short talk (yes, short) based around the last two words. What I got from it was that Jesus' surrender led to God's victory; so, if we surrender to Him, we can share in that victory. After that, they asked people to come up to the front if they wanted more of God's grace, so I went. Someone came and prayed with me, and I gave him the bare bones of the situation; at the end, he said it was important to remember that I am one of the good guys.

And then Saturday was pretty much a normal day, in that the shop was open as normal. And an abnormal day, in that we were really busy. We have been particularly quiet recently, so I can only put it down to the fact that we were closed on the Friday. Anyway, the day was pretty good, and I got a proper break. Which was nice. And then afterwards, I had to go look for Easter eggs; which was more difficult than you'd think because I was looking for fairly traded ones. Normally I would have done it before, but I was particularly busy this week, with the little matter of a wedding. And then I went to my mum's. I got there just in time to meet them on the way to church, and rescue Phoebe, who didn't really want to go to that service (well, she had been to every other one that week). And a nice evening was had by us playing games on our phones and tablet. Honestly, it was a nice evening.
And the next day was Easter!! To celebrate I went to church in the morning with them. Well, not with them exactly, as they got there early and I got there late; but I was there. It was a really nice service, and it had a happy feel; which was definitely appropriate. And I saw quite a few people who recognised me who hadn't seen me for a few years. We had a bit of a rushed lunch, as Phoebe had to go, and then I had a quick nap - apparently a genius idea. I got dropped back home shortly before church, and put up a post containing the poems I had offered, and then went to church for the second time that day. And again I arrived late.

And then began my week off - and mainly in. To start off with, on Monday I got ill, and was feeling pretty rough. I did go out that evening, as it was a friend's birthday, and I hadn't seen her for a while. I almost didn't make it out, as I didn't think I could do it; but God forced me, and it was definitely worth it. However, the next day and a half weren't at all good. I didn't sleep Monday night until about 6ish, so most of Tuesday was basically written off too.
Which meant I got up pretty late Wednesday, as well. So I didn't do that much, just a lot of reading. Until the evening, when I went out to a friend's to help her move house. And then we all went to a pub to join the rest of cluster in a social time. Which was nice.
Thursday was the first day I really spent a fair amount of time out of the house. I went to the library - what with all the reading, there was a fair few books to go back - and then to Starbucks, which I haven't been to for ages. Last year sometime, I think. I saw another friend I hadn't seen for ages there, so that was good. And then in the evening, I went to Hungry. I prayed for peace, as I definitely needed it. And I saw the friend whose birthday it was, and we had a good chat afterwards. Which was nice.
I didn't really do much Friday, but on asking if anyone was free at the weekend, I discovered a vegan fair at Gloucester Guildhall that a friend was going to be at. I hadn't seen her for pretty much a year, so that was a good chance to meet up with her - and meet her daughter. I figured that even a short time seeing her would be worth it, and in the end, we spent a good few hours chatting and just generally relaxing. Which was very nice.

So, all in all, the week off started off pretty badly, but there were some definite highlights in it. And I was feeling a lot more positive about things in general, even though I do have to go back to work in a couple of days.

Blood And Chocolate

    

                                                      Blood And Chocolate

Arrested at night, illegally

Surrounded by soldiers,

Blood, sweat and tears matting his hair and beard;

Violence erupts, swords slice-

'Enough' he says, and it is enough.

Grabbed, pushed, he is beaten:

Who hit you? Sneers and scorn.

Spat on, bruised and bloody;

Then he is punished;

For being the King of the Jews, the punishment is harsh,

What the Jews have always been given:

Betrayal, abandonment,

Torture, humiliation, death;

Death on a cross.

Flayed alive, nearly to death,

Crown of thorns, blood blinding him,

Staggering up the hill, the Place of Skulls;

And then, the crux of the matter,

Nine inch nails through his wrists,

Shoulders dislocated, hanging there,

He is crucified.

Looking out with love, he forgives us all,

And so he dies.

He dies, for us,

And, about two thousand years later,

We celebrate with chocolate.

                                                               Bloodshod Gospel

Bloodshod, the men struggled on

In the war to end all wars;

Tired of fear of death at any moment, no sustenance in sight,

They continued because they had no choice

If they were to defeat the evil oppressor.

Yet we are in a far greater war,

That's been going on almost since time began;

And we don't fight as hard.

We have no choice either, given the alternative,

Yet we give up all too easily.

They fought (and died) for years

In hellish conditions,

Can we not do likewise?

They fought for their countries, for freedom,

That many they would never know could live in hope;

They gave their lives, should we not do so too?

No-one warned them what war would be like,

And how many of the flowers of youth would meet their end;

The four horsemen sowed and reaped their harvest there.

Nothing we could go through could be as bad,

Though it may go on longer;

And we have a constant companion,

The Helper, to save us when things overwhelm.

Lord, bring us to life, bring us to love:

May we have hard feet instead of hard hearts,

And may those feet be bloodshod.

 

I got the title for the first one from an Elvis Costello album; apart from that it is pretty self explanatory, but the second may need a bit of explanation. The title comes from two places, a line in the poem 'Dulce Et Decorum Est', "...Many had lost their boots/But limped on, bloodshod"; and the phrase 'Roughshod Gospel' talking about preachers moving from town to town. The wars referred to are WWI, and the fact that we are actually in a spiritual war. One that we can't win on our own; but we're not on our own. And the end comes from something that Jackie Pullinger once said, along the lines of 'the gospel needs people with hard feet and soft hearts; the problem is too many have soft feet and hard hearts'.

A Weekday Wedding!

A few days ago, I went to a wedding. Which was lovely - particularly so as I didn't know the couple that well. Which may sound strange, so let me explain. The lovely couple, Bryn and Rhiannon, joined my cluster about the same time I did, back in September, so most of us don't know them that well yet. When they invited the whole cluster to the wedding, I felt honoured - I felt that they were saying that they feel like this cluster is where they want to be, they do want us to be part of their lives, to celebrate with them; and I looked forward to the wedding.

So, anyway, the big day came and I got to the church early. Pretty much the only time I've got there that early; before most people I know; though the church was still pretty full. I saw Bryn on the way in, and he was clearly pleased to see me, which was nice. I chatted at the back for a few minutes, and then we all sat down before the service started. It was a lovely service, with some really nice hymns. 'How Great Thou Art', 'Love Divine, All Loves Excelling' and 'Be Thou My Vision' are just really great songs, as well as powerful pieces of worship - I think we should use hymns more often. And the talk was done by a friend of theirs, who said some good things about love and relationship, while talking specifically about and to them. We learned a few interesting things about them; for instance, the fact that Rhiannon is good at organising social things. We'll remember that.

Then we went outside, to greet the new Mr and Mrs Naylor, and throw confetti. And a few people took photos, though most of them were taken at the reception venue. Then we went our separate ways, as those of us who knew them well went to the reception; and some others of us went into town to grab something to eat. Which was also nice. It was good to continue the celebration as it were; and to get to know Sarah and Anna a bit better in a relaxed way. In a while, Ian and then Al joined us, and we went to a pub for a drink, before finally drifting along to the reception venue. It's amazing how quickly time can pass when you're enjoying yourselves - it was a really great day all the way through.

We got along to the venue in the evening, and congratulated the (very) happy couple, and then joined them in celebrating. Drinking, dancing, chatting and conjuring - which was a bit unexpected. All in all, a great day was had by all; certainly a day to remember. And I'll say that we hope this day marks the start of a great life ahead, and we look forward to getting to know them both better and celebrating other things in the future. To Bryn and Rhiannon...

Thinking About Noah (And Other Films I Haven't Seen)

I almost saw 'Noah' on Wednesday. I fully intended to go with some people from my small group, and got as far as the box office, only to discover it was full. Some may say that was a good thing, as the reviews I've seen haven't exactly been positive, even describing it as 'blasphemous' or 'heretical' - like this one (which is actually one of the better ones I've seen). However, what really makes me unlikely to see it is that people I know haven't given it good ratings - the best description I've heard was 'it was alright, but at times it was a bit like a sci-fi movie'. And that's the best. So, I'm unlikely to see it.

But, you know, I thought I'd write a bit about it anyway. An idea which was inspired by two things - this blog post and an article saying there is talk about a remake of the 'Left Behind' films with Nicolas Cage starring in it. For those who have never heard of the 'Left Behind' series, it was originally a 12 book series about the end of the world - and what happens afterwards.
The reason for the title is that, according to a particular interpretation of parts of the New Testament, at some point there will be an event referred to as 'the Rapture'; where all Christians will be taken up to Heaven, while things on Earth go through a time called the Tribulation (the capital letters are important) before Jesus returns. I have always had a problem with this, because it just doesn't seem to make sense, in that the early Christians wouldn't have read the books in that way; and I really have a problem with the idea that 'the Rapture' happens before the Tribulation. Because it simply doesn't seem to be the way in which God usually operates, in that it isn't anything like His usual pattern to remove Christians from difficult circumstances. He usually works through us in them, as well as in us.

So, I'm far from convinced that 'Left Behind' represents an accurate idea of what the future might hold. Which, knowing at least one of the authors takes it seriously, makes it difficult for me just to enjoy it as fiction. And, as there are 12 books, I almost certainly would give up before the end. So, I don't think I'll read or watch any of them. But, and this is important, God has definitely used them powerfully. They have been bestsellers, and the films made by a small company have been successful enough to be considered by a major company. And, on top of that, many people have become Christians and/or got serious about the faith they had, and serious about the Bible. Not something that many people would have guessed would happen, or at least not to the degree it did.

And that's not the only 'Christian' film in recent years. As well as ones like 'The Passion Of The Christ'* (apparently the most controversial film of all time because of the graphic depiction of violence) and 'Amazing Grace' (about William Wilberforce and the abolition of the slave trade); there are also a fair few lower budget ones, like Courageous and Fireproof. The latest of these being God's Not Dead, which has just been released. Only in Odeon cinemas in the U.K. though, so I'm unlikely to get to see it, which is a shame - I actually want to see that one.
And all of them have two things in common. There is a fair bit of attack and mis-information (with the possible exception of Amazing Grace), and all of them have been surprisingly popular. It seems as though God may well be doing something in the world of cinema. Which, in a sense, shouldn't surprise anyone - He's definitely a God of surprises; one who likes turning up where He wasn't expected.

So, what can we learn from this? One is to never try to fit God into a box; it never works, and we run the risk of missing what He is really up to. But a second is to respect and encourage creativity. If we disagreee with what has been produced or think it's not good enough, that could be a challenge to us to do it ourselves, and do it better. Any ideas..?

*Note 'The Passion Of The Christ I have actually seen - and liked.

Grumpy Whiskers And Ink

And so, after I'd left work to rest, what did I do? Or, rather, where did I go? Well, a bit earlier, a couple of new cafes had opened up; Boston Tea Party, which loads of people had been going on about, and Grumpy Whiskers, which a couple of friends had recommended to me.

I'd gone to the first the day before, so it was the turn of Grumpy Whiskers, which to be honest was the one I was really looking forward to. Put it this way: I haven't been back to the other one since, and have no real desire to. Grumpy Whiskers is different in two ways: it is a licensed bar as well as a cafe, and they put a lot of events on.

So I go along there after work and have a drink - a hot chocolate, that is - and just chat to the staff a bit. And discover they are having a poetry slam that evening. I haven't been to anything like that for ages, so I thought about going along. If you don't know what they are, think of rap battles (like in 8 Mile) with less aggression-though not necessarily less swearing.

I get home and contact a couple of friends to see if they're up for it. It seems one of them is, so I wander along with the aim of meeting him there; but things didn't quite work out like that. I get there and it's already started, someone's up on stage. It doesn't take long to figure out the (very loose) format-basically someone gets up and performs a poem, and then someone else does. No order, no MC, but a lot of friendly cheering. Apparently, it's going to be better organised next time, but from the point of view of entertainment, it worked well enough, I thought. I enjoyed it, anyway.

And a couple of other things happened during the evening. The friend who I was going to meet couldn't make it in the end, but he texted another mutual friend, who just happened to be in town then, so he came along. I hadn't seen him for months, so it was good to have a bit of a catch up. And the other thing was that, while we were chatting and listening, I started to write something. I just thought of someone challenging me to get up, and my response; and started rhyming with it. It started off quite well; but then I got stuck. I still haven't got much further.

I go in the next day, the first of my days off (I had to go into town anyway), as I'd been chatting to one of the staff about the tattoo parlour upstairs. I'd asked about getting a celtic cross design, and he'd told me the guy to talk to would be in the next day-so before I could come up with a reason to put it off, I went in and chatted to him. We looked at a few designs, and the upshot of that was that I booked and paid for it to be done the following Tuesday (i.e. the one just gone). Which I could hardly believe I'd just done.

So, the week came and went quicker than weeks sometimes do, and I found myself back in there. He'd prepared a stencil of the design to work from, so he put that on, and then went to work filling in the ink. I was slightly concerned about what the needle would feel like, but not really worried; and there wasn't anything to worry about. It felt slightly ticklish more than anything; which was a little irritating when my arm twitched a couple of times, but it didn't bother him. To be honest, at one point I almost dozed off (well, it was quite warm). So, to anyone wanting to get one done but feeling afraid, I would say there is definitely nothing to worry about.

And then it was all done, and I had my arm wrapped in clingfilm, with instructions to leave it on for a couple of hours and then wash it, and put cream on it a few times a day-fixed with sellotape, so taking that off was actually the most painful part. And to come back in a couple of weeks for him to check it, and reink it if it needed it. The human body is the most awkward canvas in the world, apparently. And that was it. I left there with a fantastic design of a celtic cross, which I will probably put up photos of when the healing process is done; or at some point, anyway.

And about the only other thing I would like to say about the place is that they do fantastic waffles - definitely worth a visit for. And I will be visiting again. And again.

Annnnd... Rest

So, after getting tired because of working some hours more than usual, that comes to an end again, and I can think about things again.

It's interesting what being too tired does to you, though it doesn't feel too good at the time. My guess is that everyone has experienced it, so I don't need to go into detail here.

The most obvious thing is that you find it more difficult to think. Which not only means it's more difficult to process things, but that you are more liable to make mistakes. And not necessarily pick them up; which means you then have more to deal with, as you have to sort out problems as well as deal with new situations happening.

I also found myself thinking some quite random thoughts; though maybe that's just me, and I noticed them more. But the main problem is that I felt worse. I don't just mean that I found it difficult to concentrate at times, obviously that happened; but that things seemed to be more difficult to deal with. Especially people - not that I'm great at dealing with people in general, anyway.

But it seemed almost as if people were going out of their way to be difficult sometimes. I'm guessing this wasn't actually the case, though how I'd ever find out is beyond me. But, it's great how quick it is to get back to normal (whatever that is)  after a bit of rest. I had a couple of days off, which I really enjoyed (and which were mildly productive); and I feel quite different.

But what it really brings home to me is that I am not necessarily a nice person. I'm not saying I'm awful; just that it didn't take that long for me to more or less stop bothering so much with the other person's point of view. You know, why couldn't they just do what I wanted them to do - clearly that would be best for everyone.

Which is an excellent visual of what sin is. Call it 'brokenness' or 'imperfection' if you like; but it's exactly why we need God.

The prayer 'give me strength' is both a cry for help in the most stressful times, and a hope that we can be made better than we are - strong enough, good enough to change things for the better; permanently.

Annnd... rest.