The King Raven Trilogy: Review

I am two thirds of the way through the King Raven Trilogy. This is a series by one of my favorite modern authors, Stephen R. Lawhead. In this trilogy, Lawhead tells the story of Robin Hood, but he doesn't tell this story the way one would expect.

Though there are many familiar names in this series, such as Friar Tuck, Will Scarlet, Little John, and Merrian, there are other names that are slightly different, such as the lead character, who is named, Rhi Bran y Hud. The location has also been moved to Wales instead of the familiar Sherwood Forest and Nottingham.

In the epilogue of the first book, titled Hood, Lawhead does an excellent job of explaining his reasons for these changes. It seems to me that his goal, as with the Pendragon Cycle, is to tell the story with such historical accuracy that the reader walks away believing that IF the story were true... this is the way it surely would have happened. This also means that I walk away with a better understanding of history. Especially in books like Patrick, Son of Ireland and Byzantium.

One of the main reasons that I enjoy Lawhead's books is that he writes with a Biblical Worldview. Though I don't think that I would entirely agree with his theology... in his stories there is a God. Jesus is the Christ. God is active in this world and in the affairs of men. Sin has consequences, even in the lives of the heroes. And the heroes are not self-reliant, they call upon Christ in times of trouble, and they learn to wait on Him. These are good things to include in a story.

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The Seed and The Soil of Education (New Learning Project Part 1)

(This is my entry for the first part of my project for my New Learning course that I am taking.) Introduction Corn Fields in Illinois I have lived the majority of my life in the Midwest: mid-state Illinois to be specific. Where I live, farming is everywhere. My grandparents and great-grandparents on both sides of my family were farmers. My dad grew up on a farm and owned farmland, well into my own adulthood. But, even if it wasn’t in the family, I still would have been surrounded by farming. You can’t go more than a mile outside of my city’s limits without encountering miles and miles of fields. Most of our highways, and even interstates, are located between acres of farmland.

This too shall pass...

Gam zeh ya'avor (Hebrew) "This Too Shall Pass" Welcome! According to Google Analytics, this is by far the most visited post that I have ever written. If someone comes here from a search engine, most of the time they are looking for " this too shall pass quote " or simply " this too shall pass " on Google or one of the other search engines. I am sure that most of the time visitors are looking for the originations of this quote, but I have to wonder, why is this quote on people's minds? Why are they pondering the passing of events? Here is my thought: It is probably because most of us have realized that the adult life is much harder than we ever imagined it to be. There is more pain and more sorrow than we had ever imagined as children, but we have learned that time keeps ticking. And as time continues to flow things pass. In fact, even the really big things and the really hard things will still pass. If you are here because you are thinking ...

The Minnesota Crime Commission wrote:

Every baby starts life as a little savage. He is completely selfish and self-centered. He wants what he wants when he wants it: his bottle, his mother's attention, his playmate's toys, his uncle's watch, or whatever. Deny him these and he seethes with rage and aggressiveness which would be murderous were he not so helpless. He's dirty, he has no morals, no knowledge, no developed skills. This means that all children, not just certain children but all children, are born delinquent. If permitted to continue in their self-centered world of infancy, given free reign to their impulsive actions to satisfy each want, every child would grow up a criminal, a thief, a killer, a rapist.

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