Devious and Diabolical

Devious and diabolical. C.S. Lewis will not let us forget. Definitely read the Screwtape Letters...
-Hannah


My version of a modern "Screwtape Letter":

My Dear Wormwood,

I have a new assignment for you. There is a young man who should be brought to our side. I think that you are just the tempter to do the job. This advice might help you with the challenging task that lies ahead. This young man is a Christian but he is weak and easily befuddled. His interests are particularly noteworthy, school, music, friends, and girls to name a few. You need to pour your attention into these interests and bring along temptation into his life.

Let’s begin with, school, for example, help him to avoid mixing Christian themes into his papers for fear that the Enemy will blend his thoughts with this young man’s. Do this subtly so to not arose suspicion in the patient. For if he is the slightest bit in the know, the Enemy will swoop down and take him from our clutches. We must not let this happen.

As far as music is concerned, there is plenty of music to deter his thoughts from the Enemy. Maybe the band that a friend recommended starts to sound good, or perhaps the song on the radio filled with lines about sex and drugs will start to ring in his head and draw him away from the Enemy. This is considered movement in the right direction.

Some humans find that friends are not easy to come by, as they are shy or whatnot. This young man seems to be shy but I could be mistaken. Possibly he is afraid of rejection and will try to fit in any way he can. Perhaps the people that begin to accept him are the youth on the “wrong side” of the track. Perchance he starts to drift away from his “good” Christian friends and gets involved with more “dishonest” things. Let us hope that day draws near!

The matter of the opposite sex is quite a simple one. Just avoid the vile, sneaking, sniveling, Christian sort of girls that will turn his thoughts in the wrong way. High school is full of the right kind of girls that will help you to easily tempt him into our delicious abyss. Just make him notice them whatever you do.

Please follow my advice and hopefully you will succeed! I cringe to think of what will happen if you don’t.

Your affectionate uncle
Screwtape

Scheming

After reading The Screwtape Letters by C.S Lewis, an interesting English assignment developed. I was to write a letter in which Screwtape advises Wormwood on how to best tempt an imaginary peer. Trying to expand upon common issues, this letter evolved. The Screwtape Letters offered me an intriguing perspective on the constant battle between good and evil and the schemes of those mysterious creatures known as demons.

-Evelyn


Dearest nephew,

Despite the muddled account of your patient’s recent behavior, which I received in your last letter, I do say I’m pleased with your progress. On the other hand, suspicion tells me you’ve become bored with your patient. Although being the inexperienced tempter of a detestable, vile, hormonal, Christian teenage girl, may not be an ideal situation, you must learn to make the most of it. Have a bit of fun. Play with her head. Amuse yourself with the frantic, anxious thoughts spilling from her quivering brain. At this age the teenage mind is in a very fragile and penetrable state. Therefore, you ought to take advantage of her easily aroused emotions, so they can be harnessed for our purposes.

Now I will address the matter at hand: Exposure to lectures in a Christian setting. This is never a desirable occurrence. However, with all the filthy humans raising their children in the church it is often unpreventable. You commented on how your patient is excessively dwelling upon a certain Christian lecture. If I recall correctly, the talk dealt primarily with the effects of gossip and the exclusion of peers. For these repugnant words to have as little impact as possible, your first approach is to introduce to her the mentality of the extremes. Remind her of the people she sees everyday on campus, “the cheerleaders”, “the popular crowd”, and all the drama that goes on in what she considers cliques. This shall yield excellent results. She will then begin to tell herself that they are the extremists and that her own gossiping and segregating acts are insignificant in comparison. With this frame of mind she’ll be able to wave away any trace of the Enemy’s ever whispering voice, which might lure her out of our clutches. If all goes well, the patient will become oblivious to her own sinful actions. Her mentality of the extremes will eventually spread like wildfire throughout her group of friends. The more the merrier! Our ultimate goal is to have them thinking of themselves as the innocent victims of those countless stereotypes.

All of this must be done without the slightest suspicion of our presence on the part of the patient. It is prudent to keep her conscience out of such affairs, for it is a powerful tool of the Enemy. If that little voice becomes louder and is eventually acknowledged by the patient, we have lost half the battle. Disastrous to be sure! Allowing the patient to ask herself, “Am I considering others as higher than myself?” would be catastrophic in this situation. The only way of counteracting such feelings of guilt are with those of the extremist mentality. By the time a patient has given in to her conscience it is usually too late.
Overwhelming the patient’s mind with sinful thoughts is just as dangerous. If your patient becomes alert to the treacherous opinions and feelings bombarding her, your presence will undoubtedly be revealed. When a human is aware that they are being tempted, they posses the power to dismiss our temptations, but only temporarily. It takes merely one of these unfortunate occurrences to make our job that much more difficult.

A certain passage in the bible, the disgraceful book our Enemy has hoodwinked humans into believing, does hold one precarious truth, “Since he himself has gone through suffering and temptation, he is able to help us when we are being tempted.” The Enemy’s son has certainly been tempted, (thanks to our Father Below), but because he was able to withstand our temptations while on earth, he too is capable of snatching back a human soul. We certainly do not wish to contend with this problematic power.

Do not be discouraged my young nephew, for I have explained this to you in the hope of relaying the great importance of our secrecy. It is a vital part of the life we have come to know and love. With all this said, I wish to leave you in good spirits. Pun intended, my lad. Sometimes I chuckle at my own choice of words. Nevertheless, be confident in the continuous battle with the Enemy for the claim of your patient’s soul. Utilizing the tools available, you will be able to master your patient’s spiritual condition in no time. Taking my suggestions into account will certainly aid your cause and perhaps land your patient a place in our Father’s House,

Your devoted uncle
Screwtape

Behold

Behold
By Evelyn Evans
01.09.07


I look unto the heavens
A black abyss of sky
And ask myself, “how and why?”

Swirling sea in color
Drawn into whorls of imagination
How did a dream, those studded burning orbs of yellow,
Come upon such a simple fellow?

Cypress yearning, steeple in distress
Hills and atmosphere roll onto an invisible shore
Why do they reach, and what for?

His eyes saw differently than most
The poor were captivating
Stars had lives of their own
Finding splendor in the ordinary became his mission
Van Gogh’s extraordinary vision

Poe's Table

Sonate #5 in G Major, K283, Mozart

Nel Progresso

After Van Gogh

Starry Night is definitely a work in progress. I’ve been dabbling on its canvas for (I’m embarrassed to say) three years now. I was fortunate to see the genuine Starry Night in person at The Museum of Modern Art in New York and not one of the art books I’ve been copying from does it justice. With renewed vigor I have taken up my paint brush! With a blessing from Van Gogh himself, my completed version of Starry Night will hang on my wall and be posted on the blog soon.

Poems on Whitman

One Grand, Ringing Voice
Evelyn

Zest, like no other,
For books of all kinds
Entranced in museums
Eager for conversation

A printer’s apprentice
Witnessing ideas unfurling into words
On paper with ink and bold writing
Reaching out to people far and wide

Ecstatic emotions erupt
When laying eyes upon
His first published piece
Staring back at him from the page

Matured in his years
He wrote what he felt
Of the life and events
Rapidly spinning about him

Hastily discarding
Rhyme and meter
Free to jot images
Plain and fanciful alike

Heart in hand, out of his pocket
Came “Leaves of Grass”
Jubilation on July fourth, 1855
An everlasting gift to America

Civil war—
Rips and tears a nation
Young souls lay dying in white sheets
No war could harm
This aged man’s steadfast love

Giver of small gifts
Slipping spoons of food into
Helpless mouths here and there
Comforter to weary spirits

On his way to meager pay
A glance up and a bowed head
Giving respect unto his captain Lincoln
Pass in the morning—
A pair of heavy hearted Americans

“Drum Taps” born
From realizations of wartime
“Oh captain! My captain!”—
Whitman mourns
Likewise we mourn

Inspirational
Resounding
Ringing throughout the nation
One of a kind
Influential
In and after his time--—
Dear old
Walt Whitman





Changing
By Hannah


Changing the face
of poetry forever

With words
Free and flowing
Never to return

Grey-Blue war sent him
Searching, Searching, Searching

Helping poor dying souls
Have a bit of sunshine
In an hour of need

“O Captain, My Captain”
his fearful trip now done
horrific yet victorious

Poems pouring out
Thence and evermore

Endlessly,
Walt Whitman.

Poems on Frost

intrepid wanderings
by Hannah

city born
rural life

cloudy days
a lone man walks

snow beneath his shoes
wind rushing in his mind

composing expressions
scenes of his America

words pulling in an
eastern direction

frost wrote poems

that speak of everyone
everytime and everywhere

Frost spoke
brave and true

passing through time
poems continue to speak.





Steady Soul
By Evelyn

Early on at home
Learning began
Standard schooling was
Not young Robert’s cup of tea

Years went by
Education, teaching, marriage
Silent poems flowing fourth
Published all the while
A spring of inspiration

Images of sorrow
Swirl through my head
As I think upon
The poet’s life
Of tragedy, of death,
Of sickness and pain
Springing from unexpected corners

Through it all
Mighty perseverance
Spurred him on
An unceasing aptitude
For capturing simple splendor
And shaping it into words
Has yet to die


Artist of language,
Craftsman of words
Arouses our souls
Will live on forever

Winter frost
Envelopes the landscape
Chill so cruel it stings
Soon sun will shine
Melting all ice away
A single blossom lingers
It has survived the freeze

Inspired By Frost and Whitman's Roads

Brook
By Evelyn

Weaving in and out
Through trees dancing in the wind
A silence broken in the forest
By the babbling of a brook—
A Spluttering
Gurgling
Laughing brook

Berry bushes skim the surface
Swimmers frolic in the depths
Sending waves
Of carefree clear water
Over its carpeted banks

Though cars speed past
On a road not far away
This brook forges its way ahead
Sometimes trickling
Other times rushing
Towards its ultimate goal--
The sea

Sharp stones
Hinder its movement
A man walks beside this brook
Clearing away debris
Spurring timid water onward

Roaring past in winter
Hastening throughout spring
Lazily flowing by
When days are long and hot
Then shaded by glowing red leaves

No matter what the rate
Her water does not cease to flow
On and on it goes
Towards the sea
Journeying for Thee

Keep up your babbling
Go ahead and gurgle
Let your laughing continue forever
Through the forest of whispering trees
I journey on




undisturbed.
by Hannah Bredberg


silence reigns
in the enticing room at the top of the tower
where books are piled to the ceiling
stretching as high as the eye can see

I am swallowed by a deep chair
nurtured by a roaring fire
turning page after page
getting lost in enchanting tales

Regarding Mozart

When I began to learn Sonata 5, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, six months ago I had no idea that it would take this long to master. In the beginning, the notes where choppy, dissonant and disturbing. At the three-month marker the notes began to sing, slowly, in a flat sort of way. Finally, at the six-month marker, the piece has come together in sweet harmony! After working my poor fingers to the bone I can finally hear Mozart’s masterpiece emerging. Give me another month or so…!

Hannah

Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli

Compassionate. Mysterious. Misunderstood. Stargirl explored the ordinary. Stargirl didn’t just scan the surface of things, she went deep. This was a teenager who wasn’t afraid to be real. Stargirl’s ability to accept herself was contagious. It wasn’t so much that Stargirl questioned authority, she more questioned why the world acted the way it did. She was kind of radical. She taught me not to conform to the patterns of this world. Me, I would never think, “I want to be like Stargirl,” she simply left me inspired to be myself, the crazy wacko individual that I am.

Evelyn



Stargirl didn’t care about people’s opinion of her. I applaud that attitude! I was a little disappointed at the end of the story, which maybe is what the author intended, I wish Leo had done more to find Stargirl for the sake of friendship. With Stargirl, Leo was himself because she accepted him and consequently, he totally accepted her for who she was. Actually, Leo loved her when they were alone, but at school he acted ashamed of her and acted as though she was demolishing his social life. Because of his inner conflict Leo encouraged Stargirl to become like “them” to become “normal” which led to the downfall of their friendship. Accepting each other for who we are and not caring about what people think, this is the message of Stargirl.

Hannah

Why Chimneys?

One may have a blazing hearth in one’s soul and yet no one ever came to sit by it. Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on their way.
- Vincent Van Gogh


I beg you
do not make this same mistake

Having glanced upon our title
“Chimneypots and Spires”,
you’ve planed to disembark

By all means
come sit beside our fire
warm body and soul

Rekindle that blaze within your mind,
once chilled and numbed
by the routine of existence

We hope to arouse in you
a strong desire to explore

Hence,
don’t pass by our chimney
watching a column of swirling smoke
rise over your shoulder

Do investigate our site
and all there is to discover

Like a spire reaching
connecting earth and heaven

This is an open invitation
to step out into our world

- Evelyn

Welcome!