11.03.2004

My hope is built on nothing less...

I am amazed at the amount of despair I am reading on several blogs concerning the re-election of George W. Bush. Is our hope really on the government? Do we really need to rant about conservative Christians voting their moral values?

I am becoming more and more turned off to this whole blogging thing. Especially the reading of blogs part. Don't get me wrong. I have learned much and have been greatly challenged. I hope others find my blog and read it.

But I have often been admonished to spend time reading those books that are classics, that have stood the test of time. How many blog posts will stand the test of time? How many will be still read a year from now let alone 100 years from now? Honestly there are very few classics in the making either on the net or hard copy. C.S. Lewis writes,
It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones.
I think I need to apply this to blogs as well for the very reasons Lewis gives in the context of the statement above.
Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. Where they are true they will give us truths which we half knew already. Where they are false they will aggravate the error with which we are already dangerously ill. The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books.
I am feeling the need for some clean sea breezes! Happy ranting to all you ranters out there...I'm going for a nice long walk on the beach.

3 comments:

Ecclesial Dreamer said...

I, too, was very surprised by the passion many "emergent" bloggers put into this election. I'm with you on this one.

Stephen said...

Be sure, though, to read Andrew Jones blog for a refreshingly different note.

Phil Steiger said...

I understand that frustration completely! I came to a point personally around 8 years ago where I radically rearranged my political priorities. I wanted to link my emotional and spiritual stability to something far more stable than the vacuous world of politics.