Blankets by Craig Thompson

Blankets is a graphic novel by Craig Thompson that is marketed to young adults and is in the Young Adult section of our library, but I decided not to put this review on the Young Adult Book Reviews blog, because I do not think it is really appropriate for teens. It is about a young man who grew up in a fundamental Christian home and how he dealt with worldly influences and personal decisions. It is a well-written story, and I found that I could identify with much of what the protagonist was going through. Unfortunately, he ultimately made the wrong decision, but every individual must decide for himself/herself, so it is a very real story. I would say the reader must use great discretion because the book is perhaps too real in places (i.e., there are some drawings of naked people), but it does address some good things to think about, so I thought it was still a valuable read. I was 29 when I read it, and I don’t think I would have been ready for it when I was any younger, so be warned. However, be careful not to dismiss everything because of certain elements you find inappropriate. In other words, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Young people, let your parents censor what you read, because they are your parents!

Review by David Dunkerton

Heroes 2.1.10 "The Wall"

I've been a fan of Heroes ever since the show began a few years ago. I don't like it as much as Smallville or Chuck, but it's about people with superpowers, so how could I ignore that? I liked how Pastor Trent Kirkland introduced his overview of Revelation on Sunday with comments about why people like superheroes. Whether it's the Greek gods or the Justice League, people like imagining heroes who are kind of like them, but more powerful. Superheroes are flawed individuals, and even though they defeat the supervillains one day, the supervillains always come back to pose another threat. From the beginning people have tried to make God into their own image, but God is Holy, without fault and totally different from us. Jesus is the only Hero who will completely and finally defeat the enemy, and that is what Revelation is about.

Last night's episode of Heroes, "The Wall," stood out to me as having a great message. Peter had gotten a glimpse of a future in which Sylar, a super-powered killer who had murdered Peter's brother Nathan, had a part in saving thousands of people. The story itself is complicated, but Peter and Sylar were trapped in Sylar's mind and couldn't get out. There was a brick wall that they knew they needed to break through, but no matter how many times they hit it with sledgehammers, nothing happened. Through this we see that Sylar had repented and didn't want to be a killer anymore, but Peter felt he could not forgive him for killing his brother. In time Peter admitted that Sylar was no longer a killer, and it was implied that he had forgiven him. The next time Peter hit that wall it started to break apart! That was a clear message that it was his unforgiving spirit that kept him trapped, but after he forgave Sylar the wall was broken.

Superman 2010

Superman = Santa Claus?

I had an interesting thought today. Superman is very similar to Santa Claus! They both live at the North Pole, can travel around the world at tremendous speed, and are seemingly immortal. Superman and Santa Claus are probably equally well known around the world, too. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were Jewish, so they probably didn't celebrate Christmas or think about Santa much, but I thought those were some interesting parallels.

The Horrendous Kablooie!

In The Days Are Just Packed! by Bill Watterson, Calvin is discussing the origin of the universe with Hobbes. His reasoning is that if scientists could imagine all the molecules of the universe coming from something the size of a pinhead, why couldn't they come up with a better name for it than "The Big Bang"? I loved how he put that!

So many people have bought into the concept of the Big Bang Theory (which is also a funny TV show about nerds) because scientists thought of it and everyone assumes they know what they're talking about. Don't get me wrong--I am a very rational thinker and have a high opinion of science that is done right. I love watching Mythbusters because they test everything scientifically, which must involve repeatable results. They cannot test the creation or evolution myths (and "myth" does not necessarily mean it's not true) because it is not repeatable!

There is evidence of some Natural Selection, which fits perfectly with the biblical accounts of Creation and the Flood, but no evidence that convinces me of everything coming from an amoeba. Natural Selection doesn't take millions of years, either--my nephew has blue eyes because his mom and dad both have blue eyes. It doesn't take millions of years for a canyon to form--it took a couple days after the eruption of Mount St. Helens. An approximately 7,000-year-old Earth makes a lot more sense to me than an Earth that is billions of years old. When archaeologists discover bones of dinosaurs and people, how do they know how old they are? Carbon-14 dating is inconsistent in its results, but we don't hear much about that. We don't hear much about the bones of 12-foot giants that have been found, either.

On Fox & Friends this morning they were talking about how there is an app on the iPhone that will translate a baby's cry for you, and that scientists have done research and found that you can tell exactly what a baby wants by the sound of its cry. How consistent are their findings, and are you going to buy that? Don't believe everything you hear, no matter who says it!

Adopted

It's been a busy week and I can't believe it's Thursday already, but I wanted to write some thoughts about Trent's message in church last Sunday. He used the examples of Oliver and Annie to talk about how we were all orphans, but God adopted us and gave us all the rights as His children, and we are part of a new family.

When I think of orphans I immediately think about how most of the superheroes are orphans. Think of the example of Superman: Kal-El was born on Krypton shortly before it was to explode (stories differ on what caused the explosion, but that's not important to the story). His parents, Jor-El and Lara, only had a spaceship large enough for one baby (it was a prototype and they didn't have enough time to build the full-sized one), so they sent him to Earth where they knew he would be taken care of. He was adopted and raised by Jonathan and Martha Kent and named Clark. He was a Kryptonian, not a human, but when he was adopted he not only became part of the Kent family, but of the human race.

For Bruce Wayne (Batman) it was different. As a boy Bruce saw both his parents shot to death right in front of him. He still had the butler, Alfred Pennyworth, to take care of him as he grew up, but he never became part of another family. Instead, he separated himself from any relationships and devoted himself to fighting for justice in Gotham City. It wasn't until he took in Dick Grayson (Robin/Nightwing), another orphan, that he found family again. Bruce didn't become a doctor like his father, but Dick became a crimefighter like his adopted father.

Other superheroes are orphans, too (e.g. Peter Parker/Spiderman), and they all have their own stories about finding their roles, but I'll leave it to you to see the principles for yourself.

Trent also pointed out that as Christians, and the children of God, we are expected to take on the family business, which is searching and sending for God's glory. I've never been big on the whole "family business" deal. For instance, I always thought "What if Richard Smucker doesn't want to make delicious jams and jellies when he grows up?" However as a Christian, part of the Church family, I am glad that I know what I am supposed to do!

There are no coincidences

In Library Science we talk a lot about serendipity. In a broad sense this word means coming upon something that you weren't looking for. In the library sense it is how, often when you are looking for something, there will be something nearby that you didn't even know to look for, and it is even better than what you were looking for. Librarians know this happens because of classification, but it's still neat when we see it happen!

As a Christian I am not afraid to say God is in control of every little thing that happens. Even when we do something wrong that isn't in His plan, He is still able to make it work out for His glory. Knowing this, it's still exciting to see things work out. Let me tell you about what I saw today.

It's getting to be past the halfway point of the semester, when we kind of know what we're doing better than we did at the beginning of the semester, but more stuff is starting to be due at the same time, and I haven't done enough work on it yet because I was still learning about it. This gets a little stressful, but I reminded myself that I need to stop worrying about what I need to do later and just do what I need to do now! I remembered the verse that says "...do not worry about tomorrow..."

Then I decided it was time to do my devotions and get to the other stuff afterwards. Right now at Zion Church we're doing our annual "40-Day Journey," and we have a devotional book written by some members of the church that we can all work through. Today's reading was about the freedom we have in Christ that the world cannot give us and no one can take it away. Last night I watched the first episode of the remake of the series V, and I was reminded of how a totalitarian government can make what they have to offer look really good, but it really takes away everyone's freedom. I don't think that parallel is a coincidence.

Usually in the readings in this devotional there are some lines on the page to take notes on after the Scripture reading, but today there weren't, so I went to my personal journal to write stuff down. My journal has random Scripture verses on every other page, and the next page today had Matthew 6:34 printed on it--the same verse I had been thinking about earlier about not worrying about tomorrow. God is showing me that He knows what I am thinking and feeling about today, and He has always known that today I would turn to that page in the journal and that would be the verse I needed to read.

There are no coincidences--watch the last part of the movie Signs for similar examples, but it means more when it happens in real life!