In Word

We’re getting ready to head to Arkansas tomorrow, for one of the final tournaments of the year.  That makes me excited, and sad, and nervous, and…well, frenzied.  Who’d of thought it would come up so fast?  Whatever happened to all those empty weeks I had for memorization and such?  Thankfully, I’ve got a long car trip ahead of me to make sure everything gets done.

As if my life wasn’t enough of a frenzy, I decided to make it official by signing up for Script Frenzy this April.  Maybe some of you have heard of NaNoWriMo; well, Script Frenzy is for those of us who had so much fun slaving over our 50,000 words that we wanted to do it all over again, this time with a 100-page screenplay.  Sounds awesome, doesn’t it?

After much last-minute brainstorming, plotting, and pulling of hair, I discovered a kindred spirit in Cherise, who had been experiencing the same adverse side effects that go along with a lack of preparation.  There was only one course of action available to us: pool our collective unpreparedness, and write a screenplay in company.  The basic plot we’re running with is an interesting mesh of both our personalities—call it a fantasy/modern/futuristic story, if you will.  It’ll be incredibly fun!

Expect some sort of update over the rest of the week—and if you’re interested, check out ARC Blogs for the latest on our adventures in Arkansas.

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Words are so much fun.  They can be put together in ways that make you think, give you goosebumps, or leave you feeling sad or happy.  The words you’re reading now are probably making you wonder why the writer took time to put them here in the first place.

I’ve been looking up lots of words lately, mostly for use as chapter titles.  There’s something really cool about having each chapter titled with a single word—it’s a nice effect.  So far, I’ve found titles for each of the twenty-four chapters I’ve outlined.  The only problem is, I’ll need at least fifteen more, and my imagination is beginning to fail me.

So I have come to present you with a question:  Do you have a favorite word?  Perhaps one that wouldn’t be too out-of-place in a fantasy novel?  Maybe?

Beth’s List Of Cool Words:

• Dichotomy
• Dissidence
• Animus
• Consequence
• Inferno
• Contingency
• Superiority
• Legality
• Divergence
• Reality
• Enigma
• Inadequacy
• Leverage
• Alliance
• Stratagem
• Imperative
• Inquisition
• Arcane
• Fulcrum
• Portent

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March 25, yesterday, is the day when America recognizes the 3,446 men (and woman) who have been given the Medal of Honor.  Why March 25?  Well, on that day in the year 1863, the first medals were pinned to the jackets of six Union soldiers.  More on that later.

Interesting Facts:

• Mary Walker remains the only woman to have received the medal.
• There have been nineteen double recipients.
• Surprisingly, it is not necessary to be a U.S. citizen to be awarded a Medal of Honor.  You must, however, serve in the U.S. military.
• William Carney was the first African-American recipient of the medal.  It was awarded for his actions at Fort Wagner, South Carolina, in 1863.
• It is illegal to sell a Medal of Honor.
• The last recognized recipient was Private Ross A. McGinnis, who was awarded on December 4, 2006.
• Arthur MacArthur was awarded a Medal of Honor for his actions in the Civil War at age sixteen.  Many years later, his son, General Douglas MacArthur, would also receive a medal.
• The youngest recipient was probably William Johnston, who earned the medal at age eleven.

Interestingly enough, the date which commemorates the events leading to the first Medal of Honor is fast approaching, so I’ll refrain from boring you with the story until then.  I find it incredibly fascinating, myself!

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Monday evening found us at the lake with friends, taking pictures and eating s’mores and telling lame jokes around the campfire—all the good stuff associated with camping.  Fun people, fun times.

Silhouettes by the water–otherwise known as Jonathan and Michael

Katy and Katie

Behold, the epic camera war

Brian: “I…have made…fire!”

S’mores

The ever-popular jumping picture

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When I unwrapped this month’s Crossway book for review on this blog, I was very interested and excited to begin the read.  Treasuring God In Our Traditions, by Noel Piper, is a short and simple look at the traditions in our lives—what they are, and why they’re important.

In each of the ten chapters of this book, Mrs. Piper explores common questions about tradition.  What is a tradition?  What makes them important?  How do they teach?  The chapters are supplemented with stories, poems (written by John Piper), an occasional recipe, and scripture verses.

I’ve never spent too much time thinking about tradition, but reading this book sparked a new interest and a desire for something more.  Mrs. Piper approaches tradition in a new way.  It isn’t mindless habit or rote repition; rather, tradition is “laying up God’s words in our own hearts, and passing his words to the next generation.”

In this sense, Mrs. Piper writes mainly to parents, so much of the book wasn’t directly applicable to my life as a young adult—at least, not yet.  But maybe someday.  And it’s probably because of the ‘someday’ that I enjoyed the read.

One of my favorite parts of Treasuring God In Our Traditions was actually rather shallow: the design, inside and out, is fabulous!  It’s simple, beautiful, and unique.  Each page left me eager to see the next.

In the end, Treasuring God In Our Traditions is an easy read that may very well be worth your time.  Parents, you’re bound to come away with a broader understanding of tradition and more of a desire to implement it.   For young people like me…well, don’t be afraid to be inspired for the future!

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Truth—that which is.

Truth cannot be bent to your advantage, altered to suit your purposes, or hidden to protect your reputation.  It is simply Truth.  It is. Denying the existence of that which is does not detract from its reality.

Truth is not created.  Truth is not defined by what a person believes it to be.  Truth is not subject to what appears true.  Truth exists, even when masked by a lie.

Truth does not change, though its image may be distorted.  Truth does not change.

Truth will not adjust itself to human perception.  Hiding the truth does not undo that which is, but creates that which is not.

Truth—that which is.

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Or, in plain English, “Ireland forever!”  Two of our friends, Josh and Abby, are over for a couple nights, and with so many musicians in one place it was simply impossible to let an occasion like St. Patrick’s Day pass without a musical tribute.  So I present our very own Irish session music—probably “traditional” only in the fact that we had no idea where we’d end up when we started.

Excuse the annoying information bar across the top.  Someday I’ll figure out our video camera.

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After an enormously tiring weekend, things are looking to be fairly normal around here, at least for a couple weeks.  This tournament was by far the hardest yet.  Maybe things get more difficult as the year goes on?  In any case, the speech and debate season is slowly winding down.  Only two more tournaments left.

ARC had a great tournament.  We broke four Team Policy teams to double octafinals; two to octafinals, and one to semifinals.  Christina, our wonderful Lincoln Douglas debater, made it to octafinals as well.  I won’t even attempt to recap speech breaks…there’s too much to say.  Check out arcblogs.com for the full scoop.

A group of us were able to head over to the Alamo after the tournament ended, and I hear the event was a great success.  Unfortunately, I had to abandon ship and head over to Fredicksburg to play in a wedding.  Somewhere along the way, my body went into that completely unexplainable energy drive that comes about when you haven’t slept at all recently.  (I think the Starbucks contributed.)

Next time, I’m going to sleep more.

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On Sunday, my friends the Ingrams learned that one of their friends in Minnesota had been in an accident while snowboarding.  Caleb Szajner, 22, hit his head and was in the hospital in a drug-induced coma for the past two days; today, the doctors are slowly removing him from life support in preparation for organ donation.

Please pray for the Szajner family during this time, as well as their friends.  Caleb was a Christian.

“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” –2 Corinthians 4:17-18

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Taken Back: Click To Listen

Towards the middle of last week (Wednesday?  Thursday?), my friend Josh asked if I’d be willing to help perform some music for him.  As it turns out, he was making a last-minute composition as background music for a skit that will be performed in Honduras by a small group from our church—and he had all of about two days to write the music, notate it, get our group together for a practice session, and record.  Talk about cramming.  I’d be hard-pressed to come up with a simple melody line in that time, but somehow Josh pulled together a piece for piano, two violins, viola, and cello. (What’s that, a piano quintet?  I’m not sure.)

Saturday found us at the church building, recording the song.  It’s amazingly impressive!  You can hear the entire piece in the media player above.  I wish I’d had a bit more time to practice those shifts…ah, well.  Try to excuse our less-than-perfect performance; the music itself is awesome.   Most of the melody you’ll hear is my sister Toni on first violin, accompanied by Josh on piano, my sister Katy on second violin, and our friend Lydia on cello.  I’d rather not point out my few lines of melody…

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