Another random . . . thing.

Creation comes with a price:

Dissolution dogs its trail of glory.

Beauty also has its weight:

The loveliest things are most ephemeral.

Strength requires much of itself:

Constant strain towards perfection

Ends in weakness ere life's course is run.

Why, then, do we create?

Why do we, poor mortals, love beauty,

Revere strength?

For all these pass away

In time's great and unrelenting passage.

Yet we do not believe in endings

If we did, despair would crush us

And turn our deepest hopes to endless dread

So hope we must,

For perfect love

Which can create, and beautify, and strengthen

For all eternity to come.

Just Because

Turn my heart to Thee, O Savior of all,

Let Thy Atonement redeem those who fall,

As my heart softens, Thy Spirit now send

That I may walk in Thy ways to the end.

Thy ways I walk, Lord, with purest intent

And through the dark I know Light hath been sent,

For those who wander in paths broad and strange,

Thou art our Guide and our agent of change.

When I am lost, Lord, Thy presence I'll seek,

That I may learn to be humble and meek.

Thou who art ever the Way, Truth, and Life,

Grant me Thy peace in this world of strife.

Teach me obedience, as Thou hast done,

The Father's will to do, that we be one,

In Thy great purpose that I might take part,

Let me be worthy, O Lord of my heart.

   I do realize that this is not innovative, thank you. It just came to me as I was thinking in church last week (when I ought to have been listening to the lesson), and I thought it wasn't terrible. It fits the tune of 'Be Thou My Vision'. 

Just Hum Your Favorite Hymn

   There is singing, and then there is music - that mysterious sense of supreme beauty that runs a thrill down one's spine; that isn't so much a sound as a feeling of wholeness and grace. It has much to do with the musician's performance, though part of it is in the attention of the audience, the attuning of the performer's emotions to the piece and the listener.
   Of course, not everything that is called music can evoke that sensation. Some opera can do it; many concertos, sonatas and rhapsodies; toccatas, fugues, oratorios and cantatas; hymns as well, if sung in the right spirit. Much of the popular music fails to capture that peculiar sense, particularly the types that are filled with vulgarity, anger and anarchy, for the sense I am speaking of does not come through any of those forms: it comes through pathos, peace, joy or sacred purpose.
   To give a sense of what I mean, here are a few of the songs I've found that evoke the feeling I am attempting to describe:

   - And of course many pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach. 
   There is some power to music that has the potential to ennoble, uplift, and inspire. It is a sad reflection on our society (in any country!) that we cannot create music with the emotional resonance that our ancestors achieved.

A Deeper Thought

   Tolkien wrote, in his essay On Fairy-Stories, of the wonders that words can create.
   "The mind that thought of light, heavy, grey, yellow, still, swift, also conceived of magic that would make heavy things light and able to fly, turn grey lead into yellow gold, and the still rock into a swift water. If it could do the one, it could do the other; it inevitably did both. When we can take green from grass, blue from heaven, and red from blood, we have already an enchanter's power -- upon one plane; and the desire to wield that power in the world external to our minds awakes. It does not follow that we shall use that power well upon any plane. We may put a deadly green upon a man's face and produce a horror; we may make the rare and terrible blue moon to shine; or we may cause woods to spring with silver leaves and rams to wear fleeces of gold, and put hot fire into the belly of the cold worm. But in such 'fantasy', as it is called, new form is made; Faerie begins; Man becomes a subcreator."
   In the Kalevala, the national epic of Finland, Vainamoinen is just such an enchanter -- as are those who created the lays of the Kalevala itself.
   Though the simple expression of words cannot change the shape of our outer reality directly, they influence our inner reality profoundly. Truth brings out truth, or it makes us hide our secrets closer.
   How do we use our words? Carelessly, in anger, with malice? Or cautiously, taking time to consider their effect and weigh their impact? The Apostle James understood the power of words well: he stated, "If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body." (James 3:2)
   Words are things of power and potential beauty; misused, they can bring ruin and sorrow, pain and lingering regret. As with any power that we possess, it is wisdom to weigh the consequences of our words, and to strive to use this gift with restraint and forethought.
  

Dilemma

   I am generally a very private person. I like being semi-invisible; starting a blog is somewhat antithetical to my nature.
   Therefore, most of my posts will not detail my daily life. Instead, I will post thoughts that I have, book reviews, stuff like that. I imagine that over time, this blog will become quite eclectic.
   Now for an explanation of the title of my blog. The Light Ascendant is the name of a story I have been writing for several years now. It is set in a fantasy world of my own invention, and I hope that someday I can publish it. If that doesn't happen, well, it's still a really cool title, right?
   I'm not sure I have any radically new ideas or incredibly cool things to share, but I hope at least that what I write can reach someone, somewhere, and make their lives better. And that, really, is my purpose: to bring light to a quickly darkening world.