Thought for the Day 8.0

On fixing things in life when they go wrong:

"When going back makes sense, you are going ahead."

Wendell Berry

"I do not think that all who choose wrong roads perish; but their rescue consists in being put back on the right road. A sum can be put right: but only by going back till you find the error and working it afresh from that point, never by simply going on. Evil can be undone, but it cannot 'develop' into good. Time does not heal it. The spell must be unwound, bit by bit, 'with backward mutters of dissevering power'—or else not."

C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

"The wrong road never turns into the right road. You must go back to the fork, get off the wrong road, and get on the right road."

WK -- a conclusion I have come to over the years, fed by many springs.

Greek metanoia: to change one's mind; to repent.

Thought for the Day 7.0

My prayers, my God, flow from what I am not;

I think thy answers make me what I am.

Like weary waves thought follows upon thought,

But the still depth beneath is all thine own,

And there thou mov'st in paths to us unknown.

Out of strange strife thy peace is strangely wrought;

If the lion in us pray—thou answerest the lamb.

(From May 26, today's daily devotional in George MacDonald's Diary of an Old Soul,

all 365 devotionals composed in perfect seven-line poems.)

Oops!

I referenced the timeless British guitarist/singer/songwriter Richard Thompson in a post (below) a few days ago. I had to include this song which I'll conceal the name of and let you hear it yourself -- it's part of the fun.

In 1999, an American magazine asked a group of artists to submit their list of the most representative songs of the millennium. He took them seriously and with his background in music was well qualified, beginning his list with an eleventh-century piece and working his way up to the year 2000. The magazine didn't publish his list, but he decided to create a tour and DVD/CD album of the songs he had chosen. The range of songs is amazingly wide, and his ability to interpret them is awe inspiring.

Which leads us to this piece. The above background will help you understand his introductory comments. What amazes me most is that so many people in this upscale audience (mostly women, it sounds like) were able to sing the words to this song!

Another great interpretation from the same concert, this one of 1985: