You Can Help!

One of the best parts about reading, in my opinion, is that it gives you the opportunity to view the world through a different lens. I enjoy reading books from perspectives that are vastly different from my own, and I find that I am more thoughtful, more patient, and more empathetic because of it. The ability to read is a gift. It is often squandered, neglected, or unappreciated. Reading opens doors that often hard to open.

Take 30 seconds to think about all the benefits you derive from reading.

Pretty easy to come up with several, wasn’t it? Reading is something that we, in the first world, take for granted. There are a lot of our peers (probably not those of you reading this blog because you are enlightened and understand the beauty of reading) who look at reading as a chore, punishment, or necessary evil. And that is okay… not something I relate to at all, but okay. If, however, you are excluded from quality education, from learning to read well, by race or socioeconomic status, that is a different story.

One of our (Lesley Anne’s and mine) best friends lives in Romania. Her family moved over there when we were seniors in high school (a looong time ago). She came back for college, married, paid off her student loans, and left for Romania permanently. She and her family run an after school program (among other things) for the poor and the Roma in their village, as well as a couple of others. The quality of education available to Romanians is pretty low, even in the cities. The people of Sintelec, our friend’s village, are either too poor to afford the daily bus fare to a better school or are Roma. The Roma are one of the most heavily persecuted people groups in Europe. The first time I visited, I watched as cars would literally speed up as they passed through the village; they did not slow or stop for children in the street.

Belief in Motion, the organization our friend’s family started, works tirelessly in many areas to fight poverty, injustice, and lack of education. Belief in Motion is the feet of Jesus in its small corner of Romania. There are many opportunities to help, but one that is near and dear to my heart is the book drive. You can donate books, written in Romanian, to the after school program. That might not seem like a lot, but the cycle of poverty the children are caught in is the stuff of nightmares. BIM seeks to give these children exactly what the need to help break this cycle- Jesus and education.*

I urge you to check out Belief in Motion here. You can find more information about the book drive here. Look around the website. There are plenty of opportunities to help. Even if you do not have the ability or inclination to help, thank you for looking. Just being aware of the problem is a start.

*BIM in not concerned only with education. They have programs for literally everyone, from grandma down. 

What is Love?

This post is going to be a bunch of randomness. My committee has my thesis to look over one more time for approval, so I am studying without ceasing for my comps. What is that? It is where the three professors on my committee, whom I greatly admire, quiz me for one hour on a reading list we have come up with together. Did I mention I really look up to these people? I am freaking out because I do not speak as well as I write. Give me a pen and paper any day of the week, please. Really, no matter how much I prepare for this I am still going to be freaking out until its over. If you happen to see me between now and then just shove a cup of hot tea in my hand and tell me that I will be okay.

Anyways, the point of this post is I wanted to share a passage from one of the books on my list. It is The Romance of the Rose by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun (the first guy started it and the second guy finished it). This is a 13th century work about a courtly love affair, told through allegory. It is fabulous, but not for the faint of heart. This passage is Reason's definition of Love. It is so striking I had to share it. Also, I really, really want to know y'all's thoughts on it. I think some of it is very insightful.

"Love is hostile peace and loving hatred, disloyal loyalty and loyal disloyalty; it is confident fear
and desperate hope, demented reason and reasonable madness. It is the sweet danger of drowning and a heavy burden that is easy to handle; it is perilous Charybdis, disagreeable and gracious at the same time; it is a most healthful sickness and a most sickly health; a hunger abundantly satisfied and a covetous affluence, a thirst that is always drunk, an intoxication drunk with thirst. It is a false delight, a joyous sorrow and an unhappy joy, a sweet torment and an unkind sweetness, a taste at once pleasant and distasteful; it is a sin touched by pardon and a pardon tainted by sin, a most joyful suffering and a merciful cruelty. It is an ever-shifting game, a state which is very firm but also very changeable, an infirm strength and a strong infirmity that sets everything in motion through its efforts, a foolish sense and a wise folly, a sad and joyful prosperity; it is laughter that sobs and weeps, repose that toils unceasingly, a hell that soothes and a heaven that tortures, a prison that offers no relief to prisoners, a cold and wintry springtime. It is a moth that refuses nothing and consumes purple and homespun alike, for lovemaking is no better in fine clothes than in homespun."

This is why I love the Middle Ages. Do you agree? What are you favorite parts of the quote? This is so much better than any modern romance writer could do. The fullness, the complexity of love is captured so perfectly, in my opinion. If it wasn't so dang long I bet it would be the next tattoo trend.

(This quote comes from the Oxford World's Classics edition, translated by Frances Horgan).