What Happened?

this is a long time coming, i know. i don't know exactly what happened; but somewhere down the line i lost my ambition for blogging, and now it's been over two months since my last post. crickey! i would like to thank adrian martinez, however, for faithfully checking for updates, despite my unproductiveness, and for gently harassing me to return to the world of blogging on many occasions. this one's for you. 

i don't really have much to say. i thought i would at least take the first step in the right direction by putting something down. i sound like a recovering alcoholic. and to be honest, i'm craving a guinness.  anyway, to ease my way back into this, i thought it'd be good to mention my reading list.  currently, i am reading a phenomenal book by g.k. chesterton entitled, the everlasting man. in short, the book combats the idea that "christ stands side by side with other myths, and his religion side by side with other religions." it is the first book i have endeavored to read of his. so far, it has been a fascinating and faith-strengthening read. mr. chesterton is a superb and sensitive writer. he reminds me somewhat of c.s. lewis. here are a couple of my favorite excerpts of what i've read so far:

"it is the simple truth that man does differ from the brutes in kind and not in degree; and the proof of it is here; that it sounds like a truism to say that the most primitive man drew a picture of a monkey and that it sounds like a joke to say that the most intelligent monkey drew a picture of a man. something of division and disproportion has appeared; and it is unique. Art is the signature of man."

"who does not find dreams mysterious, and feel that they lie on the dark borderland of being? who does not feel the death and resurrection of the growing things of the earth as something near to the secret of the universe?"

"indeed it is only too easy to forget that there is a thrill in [mono]theism. a novel in which a number of separate characters all turned out to be the same character would certainly be a sensational novel. it is so with the idea that sun and tree and river are all the disguises of one god and not of many."

"nobody understands it who has not had what can only be called the ache of the artist to find some sense and some story in the beautiful things he sees; his hunger for secrets and his anger at any tower or tree escaping with its tale untold. he feels that nothing is perfect unless it is personal...the point is that the personality perfects the water with significance. father christmas is not an allegory of snow and holly; he is not merely the stuff called snow afterwards artificially given a human form, like a snow man. he is something that gives a new meaning to the white world and the evergreens; so that snow itself seems to be warm rather than cold...every true artist does feel, consciously or unconsciously, that he is touching transcendental truths; that his images are shadows of things seen through the veil. in other words, the natural mystic does know that there is something there; something behind the clouds or within the trees; but he believes that the pursuit of beauty is the way to find it; that imagination is a sort of incantation that can call it up...but we do not know what these things mean, simply because we do not know what we ourselves mean when we are moved by them."