Query

Apart from Bibles and The Complete Jewish New Testament Commentary, I am pretty much out of Christian reading material. I feel like I have memorized The Hiding Place and Tramp for the Lord. I know I asked for recommendations before, but do me a favor. Save me the aggravation of searching my comments and give me some suggestions.

I decided to get the Horatio Hornblower Collector’s Edition DVD set. It has gotten very cheap. If you’re not familiar with Hornblower, you might want to consider buying the set or at least DLing the first episode from Itunes. Adapted from C.S. Forester’s novels, the A&E series tells the story of a British sailor, as he moves through the ranks from midshipman to admiral. I believe the story starts under George III. Somewhere in that general time frame, anyway. A friend of mine recommended the series when I was in law school. He said the series was great, because it was fine entertainment and it also imparted valuable lessons about duty and morals.

Just don’t pry into the morals of Mr. Forester himself. I wouldn’t worry too much about that, anyway. I mean, Moses was a murderer, and look at his legacy.

It’s surprising how hard it is for me to find books and videos that have a positive influence on me. There is always the Bible, but you can only spend so much time reading that. We often tell each other that entertainment and reading have large effects on the character and behavior of kids, but that adults are somehow immune. That’s not true. I think we just say that to rationalize listening to sleazy music and watching dirty movies. No matter how old you are, putting good things into your mind will improve you, and putting bad things into your mind will weaken you.

The Book of Proverbs is a great resource. If you want to realize what a moral failure you are and how little character you have, spend half an hour reading it. Probably the strongest tonic in the Bible.

Unless I’m badly deceived, most American parents let their kids down pretty badly when it comes to passing down wisdom and moral instruction. My mother was a good person, and she did what she could, and my dad had demons of his own, and I no longer blame anyone but myself for my faults. That being said, I still find myself learning lessons I should have known when I was seven. Books and movies and TV programs can do you a lot of good, fairly painlessly. If your parents didn’t teach you well, and you want to avoid the misery of years of trial and error, don’t despair. There are resources out there that can help you fill in the gaps. You just have to be willing to admit the need and have the presence of mind to take action.

I thought about this today when I turned on the tube to have something to occupy my eyes while I tried my blueberry cornbread. A movie called Coach Carter was on. True story. You can probably guess, from the word “coach,” what the story was. Ghetto school. Straitlaced coach shows up and forces his athletes to study and behave like men. It’s an ancient genre, but I thought it was well worth watching.

You can grow in height until you’re about twenty, and after that, you can only grow in width or in depth. Depth is better.

I keep hoping I still have enough time left to polish off the bulk of my rough edges. But I don’t know. In my family, no one has lived past 104.