inspired by a german dissident

well, it's been over five years.  

since the last post, i've started working full-time, gotten married, moved overseas, and become a father.  this series of life events might lead some towards greater introspection, but i seem to have gone the other way.

according to goodreads.com, since september 2010 i've read 65 books.  here's a categorization, from most to least read:

22: fantasy
13: science-fiction
12: not so literary fiction
6: literary fiction
4: kurt vonnegut
3: not so thought-provoking non-fiction
3: thought-provoking non-fiction
2: Jesus-related

i really wanted to put a sarcastic caption here.
been reading way too many cracked.com articles...

hm...a bit heavy on empty calories and light on nutritional value.  also, kurt vonnegut gets his own category just cause he's the man.  

i'm currently reading through a biography of dietrich bonhoeffer, the german theologian who was executed for his involvement in the valkyrie plot to assassinate hitler.  the biographer quotes extensively from bonhoeffer's personal letters and diary entries, and it's absolutely fascinating how rich and engaged his inner thought life was.

so, here's my new year's resolution.  actually, let's call it a declaration instead, to be more proactive and less reactive.  take a bit of thoreau (or more accurately, that kid in dead poet's society who quotes thoreau, since i barely remember walden from 10th grade english):

I wanted to live deliberately, I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life,

To put to rout all that was not life and not when I had come to die
Discover that I had not lived

and shift the orientation from humanism to heaven with 1 Corinthians 7:

Let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him,

and to which God has called him

and determine to think more freely, reflect more intentionally, and process the world more deeply, and as daily life both settles and expands, to have it be characterized by this:

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time

(after all, i couldn't really kick-start this blog again without some help from t.s...)