andave's place

I kind of miss blogging. I'm going to try to be more consistent from now on (watch, it'll be forever before I post again :P)

Before I say anything, though, I wanted to say major congratulations to Virgil, Puss, and little baby Matthew. Blessings to all of you! You are constantly in my prayers and I'm so excited for you.

Also, major congratulations to Ruth for getting a job! I'm so happy for you!

So this has got to be the laziest summer I've had in a looong time, and, I think it'll be the last one I can spend lazing around. Next summer, Lord willing, I'll find a job. If tuition at PHC keeps going up, I'm going to reaaaally need it. But God is good.

Basically all I've done is read, play piano, and write (although not too much writing, because my laptop is, ahem, undergoing revolutions :P). Out of the twelve books I have to read for Western Lit II next semester, I've read nine and have no desire to read the other three. Two of them (Gulliver's Travels and Faust) I've already read, and after looking at Conrad's writing style I'm kind of dreading Heart of Darkness, which means I definitely have to read it before I go back.

I have also been reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and have been HOOKED. It's been quite a while since I got so engrossed in a book. Have any of you read Rand? Originally, I was going to make myself read it so I could write an essay to submit to a rather impressive sounding scholarship but to my boundless surprise it turned out to be fascinating, despite being almost violently secular. Rand creates a new morality driven by money and humanity. As a philosophy I think it's impossible but as a story it's riveting. As a story I think it's marvelous.

I'm only halfway through the book, but I think it's my newest favorite book. I'm really intrigued! The characters are surprisingly black and white but there are so many polar ideas/people/principles/factions etc within its 1200 pages. Like I said, money drives the whole story, but Rand is, of course, an ardent free-market capitalist and she imbues her good characters with a deeply capitalistic, humanistic bent. So the major characters are all business tycoons that all of the other people abhor because - in the "age of the heart" as opposed to the "age of reason" - they want to make profit for themselves, not to help the better good.

It's true, Dagny Taggart and Henry Rearden are working for profit but their idea of profit and money isn't just wealth but the big picture - they make money because they are the best at what they do, and they take an almost savage pleasure in efficiency, value, competence, intelligence, worth. They make money as a matter of unyielding, inflexible principle (and what they do is very important because it drives the whole economy. I think Rand's point is that to make money DOES help the economy.)

And I know that pleasure in doing your job well, because it is what you are meant to do. I've begun tutoring an 18 year old friend in remedial English and I'm good at it. She can't spell, she doesn't know what to say or how to organize her thoughts - but...there was engagement in her eyes yesterday. It wasn't there last week and it's like getting drunk on words or music, realizing that God has given you a gift, and you know what it is, and you love it because it's not stagnant - as soon as you use it it starts moving on its own. I'm really excited about teaching!

Anyways, that's enough Rand-flavored ramblings :P. I'm only halfway through the book, but I had to return it to the library and there's some kind of conspiracy going on because the closest three libraries have every single copy checked out and even online, it's jumped several dollars in cost. I ordered it from half.com and I can't wait till it comes .

Piano is coming along nicely. I had to stop lessons last year when I left for college, but I've picked it up again over the summer. I'm learning Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata," Bach's "First Invention," Tchaikovsky's "Soldier's March," and Kern's "Long Ago and Far Away," which is from the 40s.

Writing! I wrote a short story I'm really proud of and I really want to share it with you, but I'm thinking of entering it into the short story contest. I'm not sure if I will, but I will definitely post it eventually. My sister and I had been writing a story together and I got an idea and it just spun off from there .

By the way, my sister is doing crazily well. She's all of fifteen - and getting into speech and debate and community college classes and she is SO SMART. She wants to, too, it's not just my mom pushing her.

((to be continued))