Bible Belt by Dry The River

Just had a nice bit of serendipity. Came upon this new band 'Dry The River' on YouTube performing a song 'Bible Belt' live in a London park - just the four of them, acoustic. Click here to view.





It's quite a gem: airy folk vocals and strings, and meandering poetic words, deeply evocative. Am still working on figuring out what it's all about !



Clearly influenced by the Fleet Foxes, and not too far removed from Noah and the Whale. Very impressive musicianship, so expressive. And they look so folky too ! More info here:


And all because I was Googling 'prayers in the Bible' ....


PS Message to the guitarist: hope your arm gets better soon !

The Apostle Paul and childhood

Paul the Apostle - icon by Rublev

There's a line in the writings of Paul the Apostle which has always struck me as a bit curious. In his famous discourse on the nature of love - 1 Corinthians 13 - which is often read out at weddings and major events, he speaks about the transition from childhood to adulthood:

'When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I become a man, I put childish ways behind me.' (NIV translation) (Actually, the possibly more familar Authorised Version says: 'I put away childish things')

The expression 'put childish ways behind me'/ 'I put away childish things' always struck me as a bit laboured and elaborate.

Then, recently, I discovered something which may help explain it: ancient Greek children became young adults at age 12 and 'were expected to throw away their toys, dedicating them to Apollo (for boys) or Artemis (for girls).'

Perhaps that's why Paul draws out the point: since there was a strong demarcation between child and adult status in Greek society, even marked with a ceremony of giving away your toys.


ancient Greek toys: did the young Paul have a toy horse like the one on the right ?

Paul would have had a mixed cultural background: raised in a Jewish family in Tarsus, but surrounded by Greek culture, and under Roman rule (though, as pious Jews, Paul's parents would not have had Paul dedicate his toys to pagan gods.)

I'd never have connected Paul with Toy Story 3, but both of course address the issue of what you do with your toys when you grow out of childhood ....

Reading:
1 Corinthians 13, The Bible
Ancient Greece - Collins Gem (p 131) by David Pickering

What makes a film poignant ? Why do we cry ?

Toy Story 3 opened in the UK on 16 July, and the big advance word from the US was that it is making grown men cry. So far, it's having the same effect over here ....

The toys tumble out of the box into a new adventure in Toy Story 3

Now, this is a very interesting phenomenon - that a light-hearted animated film about toys should provoke usually reserved adult males to tears.

This article from the BBC explores the issue well, essentially saying that poignancy is actually quite complex.

In fact, Toy Story 3 has kicked off wide discussion about which films make men cry:

We tend to think only very sad or tragic films will make us cry, but in fact a wide range of scenarios can provoke a welling-up of feelings among audiences: the bitter-sweetness of saying goodbye, memories of childhood, fondness for a friend.

Most of us have been affected by scenes which, while not sad or tragic, were moving. I remember being touched by the words in the film 'A River Runs Through It' when an old man think of people and events from decades earlier and reflects 'I am haunted by the waters'. Of course it is not the waters he is haunted by, but the memories of friends and times long gone.

Why do we weep in this way ? Well, we are reacting to the scenes placed before us in the film, which may be triggering feelings stored deeply within us. And this is probably a helpful role of art: to help bring out some unexpressed emotions. A colleague was saying this often happens by 'disassociation': one situation unlocks feelings which relate to another situation, which we haven't been able to access or express.

Similarly, in the Church, some talk of 'the ministry of tears': where people gain release from pent-up emotion through crying. It is seen as a gift from God, that we are able to deal with feelings in this way.

And Paul Simon recognises the unique role of weeping in his song 'The Cool Cool River' (1990) with its closing words 'Sometimes even music cannot substitute for tears'.

Do fish sleep ?

Have you ever wondered whether fish sleep ? Fish are so different from us, in form and environment, that perhaps at some point it has occurred to you that sleeping might be a bit tricky for them. They float in deep water, moving almost continuously, and cannot go and lie down like a land creature. They’re very vulnerable so can hardly float around unconscious in the sea. And their eyes seem to be open all the time …. It’s just difficult to envisage them sleeping (especially tucked up in bed in pyjamas).

A friend posed this question recently (Thanks to C for asking !), and a few searches on the internet provided the answer, which is: ‘yes and no and sort of’.






Fish do need deep rest, like mammals, and for this they swim to a quiet sheltered place such as underneath a rock and lie very still. And yes, brain activity decreases, but we don‘t really know if it is the same as sleep among mammals. An alternative approach adopted by some fish is to keep swimming, with one half of the brain ‘sleeping’, and then the other half. A further twist is that fish cannot close their eyes, since they have no eyelids, so their eyes are always open.





Altogether, then, fish do have some deep rest, but whether it is sleep as we know it is unclear.
All this leads to another question: do fish dream ? Now that really is something we may never know ….