Sure, I can sit online all day and read people’s blogs as they recount the meaningful experiences they’ve had in cyberspace, but my musings mean nothing if I don’t write about them – at least that’s what I think.  So, in the spirit of having not blogged for the length of this semester I’d like to quote some very quotable, or not, passages that have caught my attention these past few months.

God hath a voice that will make you hear. Though he intreat you to hear the voice of his gospel, he will make you hear the voice of his condemning sentence, without intreaty. We cannot make you believe against your will; but God will make you feel against your will.

Richard Baxter, from Call to the Unconverted to Turn and Live

The next one was presented to us yesterday in theory class.  We were subsequently asked to respond to a list of questions as if we were critical theorists.  This exercise taught me that even I can be critical of Stephen Colbert.

Well, suddenly an option is looming on the horizon. And I don’t mean Al Gore (though he’s a world-class loomer). First of all, I don’t think Nobel Prizes should go to people I was seated next to at the Emmys. Second, winning the Nobel Prize does not automatically qualify you to be commander in chief. I think George Bush has proved definitively that to be president, you don’t need to care about science, literature or peace.

Stephen Colbert, “I Am an Op-Ed Columnist (And So Can You!)“, The New York Times.

I usually enjoy reading while I walk to campus.  I’m not sure if this activity is caused by my uncomfortability with looking people in the eye or just the result of my need for media sedation.  Whatever the cause, Monday’s pleasure was from Smithsonian magazine.

I was reminded that first day and every day after that we are a restless nation, rattling from road to road; a nation that had largely abandoned long-distance trains because they did not go to enough places.   It is in our nature as Americans to want to drive everywhere, even into the wilderness.

Paul Theroux, “The Long Way Home”, Smithsonian.

Now, Theroux’s writing is much more spectacular than that small strip.  It’s always revealing of your own concerns and thought processes when you reflect upon the sentences and words you actually stop and reread over and over again.  They may not be the most well written or stunningly descriptive prose penned to date, but they will tell you something about who you are.

Maybe I’m wrong about my musings not meaning anything if I’m not writing.  Maybe the value of our thoughts is simply enhanced by how they cause use to act.