More Fair Pictures

The ferris wheel we rode. It's called the "Seattle Wheel" and was commissioned along with the Space Needle for the 1962 World Fair.

The view from the ferris wheel.

An aquaintance we made.

Art and Fantasy

A few days ago I was at a site which had articles attacking numerous games, movies, and pieces of literature. The one which struck me most was an article attacking The Lord of the Rings. The sad part was, it was a Christian site. The article accused The Lord of the Rings of paganism, the glorification of black magic, and (horror of horrors!) the lack of allegory. It attacked Tolkien's use of myth, claiming that myth is by nature an untruth and has nothing to do with Christianity. And by this it seems to say that man's creations, his "myths", have no relation to reality or Christianity and are therefore evil. Since man is evil, only something specifically Biblical can contain anything good.

How foolish! Do they think that, because man has fallen, everything he does is evil? It is not so. Man was created in God's image, and therefore reflects God's glory. Although we are under the dominion of sin and everything we do may be tainted by it, we still retain the image of God. We are basically evil; we cannot be completely evil*.

All good things come from God; the truth of mathematics and the beauty of nature are His and reflect His truth and beauty. It is the same for the truths of philosophy and the beauty of art. A beautiful painting reflects Him just by being beautiful. But a bad painting does not become a good one because it is dedicated to God, nor does a good painting become a bad one because it is not. A good painting cannot help reflecting God; and as far as the bad one, what is there to dedicate? Or to look at it another way, art is an expression of Truth: what does not express truth is not art.

Man has a desire to create. God loves creation, and man, made in the image of God, has the same love. Thus man, in the act of creation, follows in the footsteps of his Creator. Of course, man's "sub-creation" is not a new truth or an original thing: it is only a new expression of the eternal Truth. Tolkien said it this way:

Man, Sub-creator, the refracted Light
through whom is splintered from a single White
to many hues, and endlessly combined
in living shapes that move from mind to mind...
'twas our right
(used or misused). That right has not decayed:
we make still by the law in which we're made.

Therefore art, our creation, is in itself a good thing. This goes for any art: good painting, or music, or story. But there are two levels at which a piece of art may be addressed: I'll call them the technical level and the philosophic level. The first says, "Are the proportions of the painting correct? Is the form of the poem kept well? Is the music harmonious?" The second says, "What does it say? And does it say something that conforms to the truth?" And the two levels are distinct from one another. A well-made poem or painting is good at the technical level insofar as it is well-made, even though what it is saying at the philosophic level may not be good.

(I have noticed that everything Christians bring against the Lord of the Rings is on the philosophic level; none I have heard question it at the technical level. And this is not a good thing: it says to me that Christians in general have forgotten the importance of excellence at the first level. Excellence at the second level in art is good, but without excellence at the first level it cannot be called art. And what is so necessary about art? Why, without art there is no beauty; and were we not given our gifts by God and commanded to use them?)


*You might say that nothing can be completely evil. Evil is not complete in itself, and the polar opposite of God would be non-existence.

First Haircut

I finally cut Miss M's bangs. I didn't want to, but she won't keep anything in her hair. It finally got so long that it was getting in the way of her eating--I couldn't put a spoonful of food in her mouth without getting food on the tips of her bangs where they fell in front of her mouth. And she was sometimes getting irritated and having little fits because her hair would be in her eyes.

So I cut off a little less than an inch from the bangs, so it's not hanging in front of her mouth anymore, but still long enough to motivate her to let me put it up to keep it out of her eyes. I tried to get a couple of snapshots, but she wouldn't stay still. I may try for some better ones later.

We Went To The Fair!

Miss M with her best buddy at the tractor exhibit.


Enjoying some lemonade.


The Merry-Go-Round.


Looking at ducklings.


L on a ride.


Waving from the ferris wheel.



Of all the fun rides at the fair, which was Miss M's favorite?

Big Brother tossing her in the air!

Wheeeee!!

We Picked Pears Today

Off the ground. Our pear tree drops its fruit before it ripens--and has done so for the last six or seven years. We don't digest unripe, rock-hard pears very well, so we can't really do anything with them. We'd leave them there, but our lawnmower doesn't digest them very well either (though of course the bees love them). So there we were, in the cool of the day (85 degrees) and the soft evening air (80-something percent humidity), picking up fruit that had left its proper place and settled on a different element. What was it Pope said?

And who but wishes to invert the laws
Of order, sings against th' Eternal Cause.

That goes for pears too. But of course, they won't listen. Oh, no.


For those interested, it has been decided that the pear tree will be cut down this winter.

"Palace of Fine Arts"

Matte painting with motion (video). I believe this is called a 2.5D(imension) matte: there are several layers (sky, background building, foreground building) placed at varying distances from a virtual camera, which gives a sense of parallax when the camera moves.

Also check out the original image here.

Happiness is Making Your Own Dinner

At the last minute, after you've found out there is no baking powder for muffins. Yes, I've made my own dinners before--large end-of-the-day snacks, rather. But tonight I had salad, bread with dip, and pasta (admittedly leftover). I am happy, and so is my stomach. It was lucky we had the things on hand. (Oh--except--there's no such thing as luck.) Never underestimate the power of leftovers.

Avid Reader

Charlotte Mason proves to be riveting reading for all ages. ;)

Of Men and Makeup

or, An Idea for a Poem Stolen from C.S. Lewis

Makeup is a made-up face,
A base attempt of man to trace
God's loveliest immortal lace
Which it, succeeding, does efface.

Lady, if my conscience reigned,
Although your so-called beauty waned
I'd ask from such things you refrained:
Your face is better left unstained.


Alas, even my poetry frames an argument. This is rhetoric gone too far: the work of the poet hampered by the mind of the logician. But ah well, it is what it is. Consider the argument framed.


I also like this verse, with a different rhyme scheme:

Makeup is a made-up face,
a mask of vanity composed;
hiding God's immortal lace
behind a curtain mortal closed.

And here is C.S. Lewis's original poem:

Lady, a better sculptor far
Chiselled those curves you smudge and mar,
And God did more than lipstick can
To justify your mouth to man.

Edit: (Disclamer) The opinions expressed above do not mean that I think those who use makeup will be found guilty at the Judgement, nor indeed that I think all makeup an evil...

Goodbye, Scottie

Last summer and the summer before, I went to Atlanta to meet some e-friends and go to a Jackson Browne concert together. We all stayed at Annie and Scott's and had a wonderful time. They found out that Scottie had cancer about two months ago. Annie started a website for him a week ago to keep everyone updated. This morning, he died. He will be missed.