The Cataract of the Cliff of Heaven...

The cataract of the cliff of heaven fell blinding off the brink
As if it would wash the stars away as suds go down a sink,
The seven heavens came roaring down for the throats of hell to drink,
And Noah he cocked his eye and said, “It looks like rain, I think,
The water has drowned the Matterhorn as deep as a Mendip mine,
But I don’t care where the water goes if it doesn’t get into the wine.”

-G. K. Chesterton, "Water and Wine" (full poem posted here)

Hurrican Preparedness

1) Apartment thoroughly cleaned from top to bottom, including window washing and a (surprise) complimentary carpet shampoo. Not sure about the logic of this cleaning frenzy, but I think it has something to do with battening the hatches.
2) Laundry laundered.
3) Bathtub / fridge / freezer filled with water.
4) Electronic gizmos fully charged and unplugged, in case of power surges.
5) Flashlights loaded and operational.
6) Stack of books and DVDs acquired from the library.
7) Chex mix made.
8) Slowly recovering from injuries incurred while washing windows. (See #1, and bear in mind that my windows are pretty tall, and washing them involves standing on a chair...that I may have fallen off of. Ouch.)

Bananas

In the whole story of the world, bananas have never once been a special treat.

-Gary Schmidt, Okay for Now

Broken Things

There aren't too many things around that are whole, you know. You look hard at most anything, and it's probably beat up somewhere or other. Beat up, or dinged up, or missing a piece, or tattoed. Or maybe something starts out whole and then it turns into junk, like Joe Pepitone's cap getting rained on in a gutter somewhere. Probably you can't even tell it's a cap anymore. Probably you wouldn't even want to pick it up if you saw it. But it didn't start that way. It started as Joe Pepitone's cap, and when he was out in the field, the sun was beating down on it from above the stands of Yankee Stadium and he could smell the grass and the dirt and the infield beneath its brim.

When you find something that's whole, you do what you can to keep it that way.

And when you find something that isn't, then maybe it's not a bad idea to try to make it whole again. Maybe.

-Gary Schmidt, Okay for Now

90 Second Newberry Presents: A Wrinkle in Time

- "A Wrinkle In Time" In 90 Seconds from James Kennedy

Heartless

All children are heartless. They have not grown a heart yet, which is why they can climb tall trees and say shocking things and leap so very high that grown-up hearts flutter in terror. Hearts weigh quite a lot. That is why it takes so long to grow one. But, as in their reading and arithmetic and drawing, different children proceed at different speeds. (It is well known that reading quickens the growth of a heart like nothing else.) Some small ones are terrible and fey, Utterly Heartless. Some are dear and sweet and Hardly Heartless at all.

-Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, 4.

Unruly Things

Stories have a way of changing faces. They are unruly things, undisciplined, given to delinquency and the throwing of erasers. That is why we much close them up in thick, solid books so they cannot get out and cause trouble.

-Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making, 36.

Faithfulness

I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful, one hundred percent.

-Dr. Seuss, Horton Hatches the Egg

The Virtues of Pyjamas

It was Oswald who asked Father to let us have pyjamas instead of nightgowns; they are so convenient for dressing up when you wish to act clowns, or West Indian planters, or any loose-clothed characters.

-E. Nesbit, Oswald Bastable and Others, 46

Except Me

We all think a great deal too much of ourselves. We all believe--every man, woman, and child of us--in our very insidest inside heart, that no one else in the world is at all like us, and that things happen to us that happen to no one else. Now, this is a great mistake, because however different we may be in the colour of our hair and eyes, the inside part, the part that we feel and suffer with, is pretty much alike in all of us. But no one seems to know this except me.

-E. Nesbit, Oswald Bastable and Others, 123.

The Real Business of Life

Adventures are the real business of life. The rest is only in-betweenness--what Albert's uncle calls padding. He is an author.

-E. Nesbit, Oswald Bastable and Others, 35.

***

Hmmm...not sure I agree with you, Oswald. I think the padding is kind of under-rated.

The Quality of Mercy

I handed the test in five minutes before the end of the day. Mrs. Baker took it calmly, then reached into her bottom drawer for an enormous red pen with a wide felt tip. "Stand here and we'll see you've done," she said, which is sort of like a dentist handing you a mirror and saying, "Sit here and watch while I drill a hole in your tooth." The first four were wrong, and she slashed through my answers with a broad swathe of bright red ink. It looked like the test was bleeding to death.

"Not such a good beginning," she said.

"The quality of mercy is not strained," I said.

-Gary D. Schmidt, The Wednesday Wars, 60.

Kidlit for Grown-Ups, Part 2

Men of Iron, Howard Pyle Historic Fantasy / Jr High & Highschool /Pub 1919 Recommended by Janice Linnea in Monet's Garden, Cristina Bjork & Lena Anderson (illus) Picture Book / Elementary / Pub 1987 Recommended by Janice A Ring of Endless Light, Madeleine L'Engle Realistic Fantasy / Jr High & Highschool / Pub 1980 Recommended by Leta When You Reach Me, Rebecca Stead Realistic SciFi / Jr High & Highschool / Pub 2009 Recommended by Lissy Emily of New Moon, L. M. Montgomery Historic Fiction / Jr High & Highschool / Pub 1923 Recommended by Liz Stories Jesus Told, Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen (illus) Picture Book / Preschool & Elementary / Pub 2005 Recommended by Sherry Max's New Suit, Rosemary Wells Picture Book / Preschool & Elementary / Pub 1979 Recommended by Sherry Waiting for Normal, Leslie Connor Realistic Fiction / Jr High & Highschool / Pub 2008 Recommended by Beth

Proof

Proving the existence of God is fairly easy. Any idiot can take a stab at that. As one might say in Chicagoese: What, you think all of this made itself up? Yeah. Sure.

-Carlos Eire, Learning to Die in Miami, 302.

Irenaeus, the World to Come, and Bowling

Irenaeus of Lyons, a second-century Christian bishop, once said that in the world to come, the fruits and vegetables will all beg to be picked and eaten, and actually try to outshout one another, all crying in unison, "Pick me, eat me, eat me." The first time I ever read that passage in Irenaeus, years later, I thought of the sound made by bowling pins when they're struck by a fast-rolling ball.

"Knock us down, hit us as hard as possible. Kill us, reduce us to splinters."

And could there be any sight sweeter than those pins scattering in all directions?

-Carlos Eire, Learning to Die in Miami, 86.

Fictional People

If you see someone unable to boil a kettle, open a sash window or understand he has an appalling haircut, it probably means he's fictional. -Jasper Fforde, One of Our Thursdays is Missing

Vocation

As an Odd-Fish, it is not my job to be right, said Sir Oort. "It is my job to be wrong in new and exciting ways."

-James Kennedy, The Order of Odd-Fish, 175.

Kidlit for Grown-Ups

This summer I'm hosting a children's lit club for grown-ups. Here's the list of book recommendations from our first meeting: My Father's Dragon, Ruth Stiles Gannett Elementary / Fantasy / Published 1948 Recommended by Emily Reckless, Cornelia Funke Jr High & Highschool / Fantasy / Published 2010 Recommended by Emily Pictures of Hollis Woods, Patricia Reilly Giff Late Elementary & Jr High / Realistic Fiction / Published 2003 Recommended by Elissa Tuck Everlasting, Natalie Babbitt Late Elementary & Jr High / Realistic Fantasy / Published 1975 Recommended by Leta Otto of the Silver Hand, Howard Pyle Jr High & Highschool / Historic Fantasy / Published 1888 Recommended by Kathryn Operation Bonnet, Kimberly Stuart Highschool & Young Adult / Comedy of Errors / Published 2011 Recommended by Kathryn The Jesus Storybook Bible, Sally Lloyd-Jones and Jago Preschool & Elementary / Picture Book / Published 2007 Recommended by Sherry Phoenix Rising, Karen Hesse Jr High & Highschool / Realistic Fiction / Published 1994 Recommended by Liz Ice, Arthur Geisert Preschool & Elementary / Picture Book (no text) / Published 2011 Recommended by Beth Cosmic, Frank Cottrell Boyce Jr High & Highschool / Realistic Fantasy / Published 2008 Recommended by Beth The Perilous Gard, Elizabeth Marie Pope Jr High & Highschool / Historic Fantasy / Published 1971 Recommended by Lydia (email entry!)

Evening

Here dies another day,
During which I have had eyes, ears, hands
And the great world round me;
And tomorrow begins another.
Why am I allowed two?

-G.K. Chesterton, quoted by Douglas Wilson in "Thanks for the Thanks", May/June 2011 issue of Books and Culture

Easter Day

Beauty now for ashes wear,
Perfumes for the garb of woe.
Chaplets for disheveled hair,
Dances for sad footsteps slow;
Open wide your hearts that they
Let in joy this Easter Day.

-Gerard Manly Hopkins, excerpt from "Easter"