The Bone House

The second book in Stephen Lawhead's "Bright Empire" series is called The Bone House and takes up just where the first book, The Skin Map, left off. Again, the story bounces back and forth between several different narrative threads. We follow Mina as she builds a successful bakery and coffee house in Prague with her good-natured partner Etzel. We travel along with Kit Livingstone as he struggles for survival taking up the cause of his great grandfather Cosimo. We learn a bit more about the man who is map, Douglas Flinders-Petrie, and his pursuit of wisdom and secrets untold, and the paths followed by his son Benedict and his lineage. The common factor criss-crossing each of the protagonist's lives is the ne'er-do'well Lord Burleigh. A man who uses his breeding and rank to ensnare the rich and powerful with his charms and kills those in cold blood who get in his way.

The story develops an interesting turn when Lord Burleigh leaves Kit to die in an old Egyptian tomb. Just when it seems there is no hope for escape, Kit is rescued by Mina. In the long time that they have been separated, Mina has undergone a complete rebirth and Kit is completely unprepared for the strong, clever, and confident woman who rescues him. Yet more than this, it is clear that Mina has been very busy learning how to navigate among different points in the multiverse. When Lord Burleigh closes in, Kit makes a narrow escape by traveling to a prehistoric world where he is taken in by a nomadic tribe. Ultimately he is led to a hut-like dwelling made entirely of animal bones that holds mysteries beyond understanding. Another secret coordinate on the skin map.

Good story-telling that will take you on an interesting and fast-paced adventure. Now onto the third part of the story, The Spirit Well.

"The past and the present are our means; the future alone is our end." Blaise Pascal

What It's Not

I have had parts of this post running through my mind for some time now. I have not put it out before today because I wasn't quite sure what purpose it was supposed to serve. I was also a bit afraid that some might be offended or recognize themselves in my words. Ultimately, I decided that I would just gather together the threads that I had managed to grasp and share them come what may.

The notion that I have been wrestling with is friendship. More specifically, what a friend is not. To me a friend is someone that you spend time with and do things with. A person whose companionship and company you enjoy. It is not someone you only see once in a while at work or out on the street and say a few passing words to. That, in my vernacular, epitomizes an acquaintance. The difference between a friend and acquaintance is how close to your life and your heart someone is allowed to approach. A friend registers significantly higher on the intimacy scale than a mere acquaintance. Friends are there with you not only when you celebrate, but also when you cry.

A few things, from my perspective, of what characterizes someone who is not a friend.

• Someone who often says to you, "hey, we should get together", yet you never do.
  
• Someone who only wants a relationship to get something from you.
  
• Someone whose only presence in your life involves the occasional quickie, lite comments on your blog or Facebook page.
  
• Someone who consistently lets you know by their words and actions that you are not a priority.
  
• Someone who avoids you when you are hurting or down.
  

Of course friendship is a two-way street. You have to give what you expect to receive. By any measure, I must not expect to receive back much.

Ephemeral

My blog has been an important device in my life to give me a place to think. Granted, some of my thoughts are clearly inane, some are just noise, but others are critical to my personal growth. I am certain that without my blog as an outlet, I would not as intentionally dive into important issues that have affected my past or could shape my future. Thoughts would bubble up into my head and just as quickly wink out, supplanted by whatever the next shiny object is that captures my attention. In this way I would never take the time to wrestle with deeper or more complex notions that could serve to give me perspective or options. I also think that I would miss out on a host of moments that I now linger over and appreciate more fully.

I have learned over the last 5 years that I have been blogging that if I don't jot down an idea as soon as it occurs to me, it quickly slips away from me and is gone. Sometimes the ideas that get away can be silly or trivial. Other times it seemed that they were important. A kernal of a notion or a concept that was promising or necessary that I held in my grasp for all too brief a moment and I let escape. Ephemeral, fleeting, fragile. Perhaps a missed opportunity that I would regret if I only remembered.

Storms

I did not deal with you I know
Tho the love has always been
So I search to find an answer there
So I can truly win

Every hour of fear I spend
My body tries to cry
Living through each empty night
A deadly calm inside

So I try to say
Goodbye my friend
I'd like to leave you with something warm
But never have I been a blue calm sea
I have always been a storm
(Storms, Fleetwood Mac)

A little bit of melancholia brought on over the last few days through the rain and wind and gray that shrouded my life during hurricane Sandy.

Founding Fathers

In case you might have missed the subtle inferences on the evening news, we are in the midst of "election season", which is kind of like autumn, only more gubernatorial. In this period, you are quite apt to hear mention of our founding fathers (FFs) and what they would most certainly order on their pizzas. The FFs were the exclusive group of upper class white males who wore comical hair pieces and came up with the constitution. Of course, a common dude or dudette cruising along the colonial boulevards on their way to the candle shoppe, saw what these guys were selling, were a might displeased, and quickly tacked on a bunch of additions. Of this list of "amendments", some stand out more than others, such as:

• First amendment - protects the freedom of speech, religion, and the right to urinate in public after a night out shooting one's musket.
  
• Second amendment - protects a southerners right to bare arms.
  
• Fourth amendment - prohibits unreasonable seizures, unless one is quite ill.
  
• Seventh amendment - provides the right to trial by fire.
  
• Sixteenth amendment - allows the federal government to take whatever it sees fit from your paycheck whether you voted for Mayor McCheese or not.
  

The most recent amendment written into the constitution (using a "Sharpie"-type marker directly on the original parchment) was added in 1992. Because of the great trust of the citizenry toward those in political office, this 27th amendment allowed members of Congress to decide their own salary.

Now that I have lived through another season of Major League Baseball, I think it is high time we unilaterally add another amendment. This one, I think you will agree, should have been in place from the very beginning. My new amendment would prohibit any person who is not on the active roster of a major league team from saying "we" when referring to how a team played. This amendment, of course, would apply for all professional sports leagues.

The Skin Map

The first book in author Stephen Lawhead's "Bright Empire" series,
The Skin Map, is a fantasy novel with a concept ripe for a long and interesting series of adventures. Kit Livingstone is a Londoner, 27 years old, who works a low-level management job. He is bored with his go-nowhere life and is marking time with his girlfriend Mina until someone better comes along. One morning he is working his way through the Metro to meet up with her, when the subway breaks down and he is forced to walk. As he passes a shadow-filled alley, he hears someone call his name. Inexplicably the man addressing him claims to be his great grandfather Cosimo and speaks of parallel universes and alternate realities. This leads to a mind-blowing journey for Kit to another place and time.

When Kit is brought back to his world he ultimately meets up with Mina, arriving many hours late. The upset Mina begins to chew him out, forcing him to defend himself with some of the details of his "trip". Of course, Mina does not believe a word. Kit then takes Mina back to the alley where the portal into the other reality was located, not only to mollify Mina, but to firm up his rattled mind. Upon entering the rift, Kit loses Mina. He ultimately meets up with Cosimo who begins to teach him about the present understanding of the "multi-verse" and about the quest to locate the map that details how to navigate along the connection paths. A map that began as a body tattoo on the explorer Douglas Flinders-Petrie who first unlocked the long-held secrets of these pathways.

Cosimo and a small group of allies have been working to explore and understand the links between the different times and places connected by the pathways. However, there are those who seek to use whatever means necessary to learn the secrets for their own nefarious reasons. These evil men are led by one Lord Burleigh who seems to turn up everywhere our intrepid explorers do, Egypt, Macao, and Prague. Everyone is seeking to locate and claim the various pieces of the skin map before the others. So far, a very interesting and well-written story. Now onto the next book in the series, The Bone House.

"The distinction between past, present, and future is only an illusion - albeit a persistent one." Albert Einstein

Observations 8

My occasional blog series "Observations" was created to be an outlet to share a variety of topics that pop into my field of view as a result of a condition that many bloggers are afflicted with known as "blogger's eyes". In this state we view the world on the constant look-out for topics on which to write about. Thus we see everything from a different perspective and with different purpose than normal folks.

Today's blog came about from random odds 'n ends of things that I have noticed over the past few weeks.

• A couple was crossing a busy intersection pushing a baby carriage. Normally the turning traffic would wait for them to get across the road, but two drivers in their selfish haste pushed right on through. One passed in front of the couple, the other simultaneously passed behind the couple.
  
• A performing arts center that is part of a university in my town has put up a banner advertising upcoming performances. Jackson Browne, Emmy Lou Harris, and Liza Minnelli. The pictures on the banner were each from the 1970s heydays of the different artists instead of current pictures.
  
• As I was walking into the grocery store the other day I saw a gang of street toughs on bicycles hassling a man walking into the store. Each of the ruffians inexplicably was carrying a plastic bag containing aquarium fish.
  
• I have reason to believe that my last church "shared" my personal information with several companies. If true, I think this is definitely sketchy behavior that marks a breach of trust.
  
• When folks move into a new township, that information is often made available in a public forum. Sales folks pounce on these lists and immediately start sending mailings out to you. When I moved into my new place several years back, my name must have been typed into the "system" incorrectly. I still regularly receive mail with my first name listed as Dandyl.