Logocentric (adj).Regarding words and language as a fundamental expression of an external reality (especially applied as a negative term to traditional Western thought by postmodernist critics).
Sometimes I just write whatever I feel like. Other times I respond to prompts, many taken from the following places:
I have always enjoyed the longer distance running and skiing. The Marathon in Summer Olympics and the 50km Mass Start in the Winter. My wife can't understand how I can watch the same race for several hours. But they are fascinating to me. I like the Downhill Slalom, Bobsled and Luge sports. Attending a Winter Olympics remains on my bucket list.
My favorite sporting events in the Winter Olympics are the Luge, Bobsled, Figure Skating and curling. Initially, I thought I would be bored with curling but I'm not. It's fascinating how they determine each glide's angle and potential score.
When my children were younger we built them a luge course, they loved it. We were lucky that winter to have lots of snow to build up the walls and with some help with pallets that we covered with snow, it kept them and the neighborhood kids busy until it warmed up and melted. I was a lot more at ease with the luge course than I was when they decided to try arial jumps off our house roof. Never a dull moment when you live in Maine.
I am reading ESV through the Bible this time. Like you, I've explored a bunch of translations. My church uses NIV but my women's Bible study group (part of the same church) varies based on what Bible study we're doing.
Hope you enjoy the Olympics! I agree that the every four year thing makes them feel more special.
I read the New American Bible, which is a Catholic Bible. (NABRE) They include Tobit, Judith, 1 & 2 Maccabees, which generally aren't included in other versions of the Bible. I would be curious to read an orthodox bible or the Ethiopian Bible as I hear they have differences as well.
As for the Olympics, I love the Winter Olympics. I'm just crossing my fingers I have time to watch!
In terms of the original texts the NASB has the best reputation among conservative scholars. It looks at more translations, has a sensible hierarchy of text selection and the best principles for approaching the translation task. It favors original texts when possible. The ESV and NKJV are on a similar level. The Net Bible gives the best overview of the discussions in its commentary. The NIV renders the original text to make it more readable. It is a more functional text which is why many churches use it but it is also less precise. Greek or Russian orthodox are more Septuagint orientated and there is a considerable amount of ethical or emotional rendering to the text.The disadvantage of the NASB is that it loses much of the Hebrew poetical style in its effort to be precise as this does not translate into the English
I'm very fortunate to have met some practicing and humble Christians. Truly humble people seek to serve, not attain power and influence. The actions of many Christians make me run the opposite way... as fast as I can.
In his book, Sit, Walk, Stand, Watchman Nee states: "Nothing has done greater damage to our Christian testimony than our trying to be right and demanding right of others. We become preoccupied with what is and what is not right. We ask ourselves,' Have we been justly or unjustly treated?' and we think thus to vindicate our actions. But that is not our standard. The whole question for us is one of crossbearing".
Jeff, this is an excellent book. Perhaps one for your reading list?
For my final entry of "The Soundtrack of Your Life" this year, I thought it only fitting to put down the song iTunes tells me is my most listened-to song of all time. Just like my last entry, I'm not entirely sure that I've listened to this song... checks notes452 times! I mean, the song is 199 seconds long... times 452 spins... that's 89,948 seconds total... or 1499.133 minutes... or 24.985 hours... have I really listened to this song for an entire day of my life?
Okay, maybe. I do really love this song and I know I had it on repeat for a good long while, so perhaps there's a small, outside chance that I really have listened to this song 452 times over the years. And you know what? I probably added another 10+ or so times listening to it over the past month as I prepared for this challenge because the song is just that catchy!
Well, that does it for my playlist for the 2020 edition of "The Soundtrack of Your Life" . Thanks for reading along and following me on my musical journey. Next stop? "Musicology Anthology" in a few months! Maybe I'll even finish it this year!
I rediscovered this song looking through my iTunes "most played" songs. It's kind of a wild playlist, to be honest, because there are a lot of songs on it (like this one) that I don't even like all that much. But for various reasons (falling asleep at the computer with the song on repeat), forgetting to stop playing a song on repeat when I step away from the computer, etc., there are a bunch of songs with literally hundreds of plays that I don't recall ever listening to that much... at least not as much as indicated by iTunes. For example, iTunes tells me that I've listened to this song 219 times, and I'm pretty sure that's about 175-200 times more than I would have guessed I listened to it. Still, in the course of looking for tracks for this challenge, I did technically rediscover it, so here it is!
I don't usually double-up on artists during the same Soundtrackers activity, but I feel like it's warranted in this case because I really did rediscover this song that I absolutely love during the past year. My wife and I went to a Sara Bareilles concert last November (I already talked about this briefly in "Eden" earlier this month), and in addition to discovering songs like that one and some of her tracks from the Waitress broadway cast recording, I was also reminded of how much I love this song and "King of Anything." I truly think Sara Bareilles is one of the most talented singer/songwriters of her generation and this kind of song is exactly why I think so... it's melodic and catchy and the lyrics are complicated and still catchy. She has a great way of layering her songs with a lot of things to appreciate and, for a challenge where we're supposed to write about (re)new to you songs, I thought it only fitting to include one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite artists, that I truly hadn't listened to in well over a year until I heard it again a few months ago. And it's been on my current playlist (again) ever since.
P.S. - This is also a really fun "can you name all the other celebrities singing along" type of videos.
Is a Brazilian children's song that roughly translates to "Kangaroo Dance" silly? Well, yes. But that's kind of the point. This is one of the first songs that they played for the kids in the favelas when I went on my first mission trip to Brazil with my wife. The ministry we volunteered with went into the favelas (slums) and put on day camps for the kids there; kids that, in some cases, had never been outside the few square blocks of crumbling, dilapidated urban decay they lived around. This ministry would come and set up camps for the kids where they could play music, sing, dance, do crafts, entertain the kids, play games, etc., and I don't think I've ever seen kids so happy as the ones that came streaming out of the run-down buildings to gather in the middle of an empty lot to dance like kangaroos and be silly and escape from the stresses and pressures of their daily lives for a few hours.
Fun fact, Aline Barros is also a multi-Latin Grammy Award-winning artist and has sold over a million albums around the world. While not all of them are silly kid's songs, clearly she knows how to compose catchy songs!
Okay, last Christian song of this year's Soundtrackers, and this one is probably the most religious of the bunch. It's very similar to "Hills & Valleys" by Tauren Wells, which I used for last year's Soundtrackers, in that it's really about Christians humbling themselves and giving thanks and praise to God no matter what their circumstances. It's a posture that I think a lot of Christians (and human beings in general) aren't great about adopting... and that's understandable, because it's hard. But Christian theology teaches that God is good all the time and even in the hurt, even in the darkness, even in the low valleys of life, there's something beautiful to be found, even if it's the reassurance that God is with you during your low points. I usually have at least one song like this on my playlist at any given time, because I find they're great ways to really reorient myself and remind myself that I need to have gratitude for the things in my life, even when times are tough.
I mean, the song is 199 seconds long... times 452 spins... that's 89,948 seconds total... or 1499.133 minutes... or 24.985 hours... have I really listened to this song for an entire day of my life?
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