A commonplace is a traditional self-education tool: as you read, grab a notebook. Write down things that embody Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. Write down notable quotes, with or without your own thoughts about them. Write down the questions you have as a result of the text you are reading. You will find the book becomes a record of your own growth, and it becomes a touchstone for memory of things you have studied in the past. This is what Mother Culture is all about: self-directed, conscious self-education.
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One reader is better than another in proportion as he is capable of a greater range of activity in reading and exerts more effort. He is better if he demands more of himself and of the text before him.
-How to Read a Book, Adler, p5
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It is poignantly symbolic that "blood [came] from every pore" as Jesus suffered in Gethsemane, the place of the olive press. To produce olive oil in the Savior's time, olives were first crushed by rolling a large stone over them. The resulting "mash" was placed in soft, loosely woven baskets, which were piled on upon another. Their weight expressed the first and finest oil. Then added stress was applied by placing a large beam or log on top of the stacked baskets, producing more oil. Finally, to draw out the very last drops, the beam was weighted with stones on one end to create the maximum, crushing pressure. And yes, the oil is blood red as it first flows out.
-D. Todd Christopherson, Abide in My Love, Oct 2016
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It All Depends on Whose Hands It’s In
A basketball in my hands is worth about $19.
A basketball in Michael Jordan’s hands is worth about $33 million.
It depends on whose hands it’s in…
A baseball in my hands is worth about $6.
A baseball in Mark McGuire’s hands is worth $19 million.
It depends on whose hands it’s in…
A tennis racket is useless in my hands.
A tennis racket in Pete Sampras’ hands is a Wimbledon Championship.
It depends on whose hands it’s in…
A rod in my hands will keep away a wild animal.
A rod in Moses’ hands will part the mighty sea.
It depends on whose hands it’s in…
A sling shot in my hands is a kid’s toy.
A sling shot in David’s hand is a mighty weapon.
It depends on whose hands it’s in…
Two fish and 5 loaves of bread in my hands is a couple of fish sandwiches.
Two fish and 5 loaves of bread in God’s hands will feed thousands.
It depends on whose hands they’re in…
Nails in my hands might produce a birdhouse.
Nails in Christ Jesus’ hands will produce salvation for the entire world.
It depends on whose hands they’re in…
As you see now it depends whose hands it’s in.
So put your concerns, your worries, your fears, your hopes, your dreams, your families and your relationships in God’s Hands.
Because, it depends on whose hands they’re in.
—Attributed to Paul Ciniraj
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At various times over the previous five centuries, its monarchs had built successive empires that bound it to mainland Europe and episodically embraced other parts of the archipelago as well. Its distinctive language, English, reflected a history of invasions both inward and outwards: English was a complex hybrid of Anglo-Saxon and Norse, with a strong overlay of Norman French, and was difficult for outsiders to learn fluently because of its comsequent lack of linguistic logic.
-Thomas Cromwell, MacCulloch, p10-11
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Uncle Hammer leaned back in his chair, his eyes cold on Stacey. "Seems to me if Stacey's not smart enough to hold on to a good coat, he doesn't deserve it. As far as I'm concerned, TJ can just keep the coat permanently. At least he knows a good thing when he sees it."
"Hammer," Big Ma said, "let the boy go get the coat. That TJ probably done told him all sorts---"
"Well, ain't Stacey got a brain? What the devil should he care what TJ thinks or TJ says? Who is this TJ anyway? Does he put clothes on Stacey's back or food in front of him? Uncle Hammer stood, and walked over to Stacey as Little Man, Christopher-John, and I followed him fearfully with our eyes. "I suppose that if TJ told you it was summertime out there and you should run buck naked down th road because everybody else was doing it, you'd do that too?"
"No, sir," Stacey replied, looking at the floor.
"Now you hear me good on this --look at me when I talk to you, boy!" Immediately Stacey raised his head and looked at Uncle Hammer. "If you ain't got the brains of a flea to see this TJ fellow made a fool of you, then you'll never get anywhere in this world. It's tough out there, boy, and as long as there are people, there's going to be somebody trying to take what you got and trying to drag you down. It's up to you whether you let them or not. Now it seems to me you wanted that coat when I gave it to you, ain't that right?"
Stacey managed a shakey, "Yessir."
"And anybody with any sense would know it's a good thing, ain't that right?"
This time Stacey could only nod.
"Then if you got something and it's a good thing, and you got it in the right way, you better hang onto it and don't let anybody talk you out of it. You care what a lot of useless people say 'bout you you'll never get anywhere, 'cause a lot of folks don't want you to make it. You understand what I'm telling you?"
"Y-yessir, Uncle Hammer," Stacey stammered. Uncle Hammer turned then and went back to his paper without having laid a hand on Stacey, but Stacey shook visibly from the encounter.
-Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, Taylor, p108
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"Papa," I said, standing to join them, "we giving up too?"
Papa looked down at me and brought me closer, then waved his hand toward the drive. "You see that fig tree over yonder, Cassie?" Them other trees all around, the oak and the walnut, they're a lot bigger and they take up more room and give so much shade they almost overshadow that little ole fig. But that fig's got roots that run deep, and it belongs in that yard as much as that oak and walnut. It keeps on blooming, bearing good fruit year after year, knowing all the time it'll never get as big as them other trees. Just keeps growing and doing what it gotta do. It doesn't give up. It give up, it'll die. There's a lesson to be learned from that little tree, Cassie girl, 'cause we're like it. We keep doing what we gotta and we don't give up. We can't.
-Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, Taylor, p 156
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Consideration made the reason of the failure plain: there was a warm glow of goodness at the heart of every one of the children, but they were all incapable of steady effort, because they had no strength of will, no power to make themselves do that which they knew they ought to do. Here, no doubt, came in the functions of parents and teachers; they should be able to make the child do that which he lacks the power to compel himself to. But it were poor training that should keep the child dependent on personal influence. It is the business of education to find some way of supplementing that weakness of will which is the bane of most of us as well as of the children.
-Charlotte Mason, volume 1, p99-100
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Wonder is the beginning of wisdom in learning from books as well as from nature. If you never ask yourself any questions about the meaning of a passage, you cannot expect a book to give you any insight you do not already possess.
-Mortimer Adler, How to Read a Book, p121
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