tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59859868750345371282011-12-16T14:03:42.461-08:00The personal explorations of ideas and meaning by one Mormon. I will explore the intersection of my faith and my life with my interests in history, religion, language, philosophy, history, cultures, Asperger's Syndrome, Autism, and whatever else comes into my head.Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.comBlogger451100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-35965084038643824982010-01-25T09:40:00.000-08:002010-01-25T09:44:49.068-08:00

The following is the text of a talk I gave in church on Hope. I stole a little bit of the introduction and the conclusion from a previous talk (hey, why re-write good material). I hope to write essays on all the virtues. --------------------------------A week ago, the Bishop asked me to speak on a topic of my choosing, one appropriate to the new year, - a dangerous thing to do with someone who

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-84725997815094532982010-01-21T18:13:00.000-08:002010-01-22T05:45:44.558-08:00

I have been told many times that I have a certain eloquence, the reward of a lifetime of reading and observation of language and its uses. But words can get away and assume a life of their own. It is difficult to control words, once they are away from us; they can betray us and betray more and sometimes less than we intend them to. Sometimes they can say the opposite of what we mean, or, which is

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-64002290588214128442010-01-19T17:20:00.001-08:002010-01-19T17:20:48.676-08:00

I can see America. It is a ceaseless striving for something else. From points east in little colonies they came, some for freedom, many for profit; some to start over and some to escape. Their impulses are as diverse as their stories and their names. They spread out following rivers and deer trails in trickles and drips until the tide became a flood sweeping over mountains and plains driving ever

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-74461905057967637022010-01-19T16:16:00.000-08:002010-01-19T17:15:09.037-08:00

I have been vindicated ... or at least affirmed/supported, etc. This week in the New York Times there appeared an article entitled "The Americanization of Mental Illness," by Ethan Watters. Watters argues that American (and, indeed, Post-Freudian, Western concepts of mental illness) are taking over the world reshaping the way others see mental health. Indeed, my very vocabulary here betrays my

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-26403544366335007972009-03-10T11:10:00.000-07:002009-03-10T16:54:13.761-07:00

Different jobs attract different kinds of flawed specimens of humanity. We are all flawed, of course, beset with our own neuroses, but we flock together according to certain interests. For example, I used to work in the non-profit sector which attracts people with more passion than sense.  The result is waste and constantly conflicting arguments about values and justice.  There is conflict,

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-7655315120851945102009-03-03T19:05:00.000-08:002009-03-03T19:24:35.143-08:00

The following is the first chapter of a novel I am writing.  I'm offering it as a serial while I write both to stoke my ego and to get feedback.  I would like to hear from everyone who reads it would you keep reading, is it dragging (hopefully not in chapter one), is it boring, etc. etc.  Happy reading.~The AuthorChapter One: The Singer and Prophetess The tiny craft was no more than a drop amid

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-52066411365621870352009-02-19T18:30:00.000-08:002009-02-19T19:10:14.696-08:00

I have lately found it very difficult to write.  Every word has been a chore and my once verbose fluidity has run dry.  There was a time when I wrote constantly.  I wrote poetry, essays, short stories, treatments for future novels, etc.  However, for the last couple of years I have been beset by both an intense need to write and a dread fear.  For me, it is only in writing that I can feel myself

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-50734594204864759172009-01-23T12:36:00.000-08:002009-02-08T20:06:53.637-08:00

I have been pondering two different world views lately and wondering whether, in fact, they are as divergent as is generally supposed. I have a tendency to view the world as interconnected, a series of Venn diagrams that overlap to infinity. I watched yesterday as thousands marched on the US Supreme Court building to protest on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion in the US

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-2370741113968915492009-01-17T16:34:00.000-08:002009-01-27T18:03:24.137-08:00

The following is the full text of a Talk I am giving in Church January 18th, 2009.  I likely will not get through it all, so I am publishing it all here in case anyone wants the full text:“Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof, if we pursue the path that leads to it; and this path is virtue, uprightness, faithfulness, holiness, and keeping all the

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-28736535595989571942009-01-10T11:51:00.000-08:002009-01-10T13:48:17.506-08:00

It is of interest to me that so many seem to think that other people's problems are so easily solved, wheareas theirs require time and patience.  I am, of course, among the many who so believe, at least unconsciously, and in many specific instances I will defend why your problem is solubable, but mine is intractable.  There is a certain human tendency toward solipsism, for a lack of empathy.  We

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-76801614074524529762009-01-03T20:49:00.000-08:002009-01-10T11:51:27.735-08:00

Of my fears and of the self-avoidant overcautiousness of my heart, I have often crafted virtues from what are, in reality, vices.  I believe that many of us do this from time to time.  We self justify our secret fears and private vices until they become, in our eyes, virtues.  We couch our failings in lauditory tones until they seem to be the very dew drops of heaven and we defend them

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-3490627137078511072008-12-31T11:43:00.000-08:002008-12-31T11:59:50.769-08:00

Being sick is a very consuming phenomenon. I am suddenly confronted and overwhelmed with every aspect of my now very present physical presence. Every joint and bulge of flesh suddenly becomes accutely present in my conscious thought. I can feel the pads of my glasses resting precariously on the bridge of my nose. The weight of my shirt presses uncomfortably on my aching shoulders and the fuzzy

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-76309372062242018462008-12-30T21:16:00.000-08:002008-12-30T22:14:11.649-08:00

I am finally doing it.  I am suing all of them: Molly Ringwald, Walt Disney, Cameron Crowe, Hugh Grant, Julia Roberts, Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan (together, of course), John Cusack, the writers of Mad About You, the descendants of Jane Austen, and anyone else I can think of.  I, and many of my ilk, have been victimized too long by the wanton disregard for reality in their films.  Because of them, I

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-28555573976864687012008-10-09T05:48:00.000-07:002008-10-09T06:07:50.903-07:00

IWhat roses speak I do not knowWhen in the dark they breathe and grow,But when I wake, this nighttime workIn imperceptibilityHas brought new growth I cannot see'Til time has shown it unto me.III'd like to think that flowers tooKnow how it feels to fight the darkThat dwells within each living breast;For ev'ry step toward heav'n we takeThe darkness takes away,

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-19940463661980596792008-08-30T19:43:00.000-07:002008-09-05T14:48:19.338-07:00

Dropped into this middle state, as Pope calls it, we are, so far as we are aware, the only creatures on this planet with the capacity to wonder about our own existence and to question it. We stare into the infinite void that surrounds us and try to make order of it. It is the horror of a Lovecraft of Maupassant which scares us, if only momentarily, into believing that beyond the veil we cannot

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-7531073232541729052008-08-22T11:04:00.000-07:002008-09-02T11:28:18.167-07:00

I like to think I am an a non-judgmental, fair-minded person. Whether I truly am is, I suppose, a matter for others and for God to determine more definitely. However, one trait that I can say positively that I possess is that I rarely make assumptions about people and things and when I do, I am open to changing them. My reasons for bringing this up today is that several recent encounters have

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-31386232996722582662008-08-07T06:08:00.001-07:002008-09-02T15:40:31.584-07:00

The company I work for, the Mosaic Foundation - a non-profit that seeks to help women and children while promoting greater understanding of the Arab World, is working on a major grant for this coming year that will address water access and sanitation and how it affects society's most vulnerable: women and children. Anyone who knows my family knows that my father is obsessed about water. Growing

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-44115667414555956902008-08-06T11:12:00.000-07:002008-08-08T19:12:28.320-07:00

As I reread what I wrote last time, I noticed, in addition to a few typos, that it still seemed a shallow treatment of this issue. I thought that today I would address two issues that are of utmost importance to myself: Asperger's and religious belief and socially constructed Asperger's. I shall begin with the second first, apropos given that the first shall be last, et cetera.What do I mean

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-24117311765027593862008-08-05T05:34:00.000-07:002008-08-05T16:52:03.497-07:00

As some of you may know, I was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome some time ago. I have pondered this a great deal and even now do not know what to think of it. Some days I reject the diagnosis entirely as an artifact of poor human understanding into the differences of the human mind. Yet there are still days when that diagnosis hangs its pallor over my consciousness and disturbs my thoughts.

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-1161096457962332472008-07-29T12:51:00.000-07:002008-07-29T14:47:06.097-07:00

History, the old adage tells us, is written by the victors. But that is not the entire truth; nor is it one hundred percent accurate. Athens lost the Peloponnesian War in the fifth century B.C., but most of our accounts of that conflict come from Athenian sources. What matters is good Press skills and the Athenians had that. Over the course of centuries, it doesn't matter that Athens was

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-18083382521798372582008-07-24T12:19:00.000-07:002008-07-28T12:09:46.536-07:00

Darkness has a logic all of its own that is shaped to the contours of the boundary between the seen and the unseen. Here, at the liminal extreme of our knowledge, reasons breaks down as if in a moral singularity. Maybe there is some truth after all in my mother's adage that the Holy Ghost goes to bed after midnight. It seems that as one goes away from the Light, the Logic of Darkness takes

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-64559653716149463912008-07-22T19:48:00.000-07:002008-07-22T20:39:06.671-07:00

As far as I am aware, man is the only animal with a conscience. This is not that animals do not feel bad from time to time. Anyone who has every been around a dog knows that they can evince something that resembles shame when you get mad at them. However, like Robert Burns said of that ill-fated mouse whose cozy winter home the Poet's plow so rudely overturned: Still thou are blest,

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-55105828028402660552008-07-18T05:50:00.001-07:002008-07-18T07:27:31.769-07:00

Six years of studying the profession of History must have some benefit. In an end-of-the-year party held by my undergraduate history department for departing seniors, the Head of the Department, Dr. Norman Jones, remarked that the study of history is primarily learning how to interpret and weigh evidence. It is not, strictly speaking, scientific, though it can and should be supported where

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-60191758372626872122008-06-26T14:55:00.000-07:002008-06-26T15:03:45.541-07:00

Just a note to let you know that I have not ceased being the Roving Royal Researcher I said was going to be, there has just been some bureaucratic delays. I am essentially waiting for the paper work and the contracts to be processed and as any one who has worked in the Middle East can testify, this may take some time. The difficulty, I believe, lies in different attitudes towards time.

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-14510210042644588842008-06-24T09:51:00.000-07:002008-06-26T15:54:28.703-07:00

I can still do basic Algebra! Hurray!I discovered this recently as I attempted to solve a problem that had plagued me for literally minutes. That was this: The Islamic Calendar and the Gregorian (i.e. Christian Calendar) have different lengths. The Islamic Calendar is Lunar and has twelve months. It begins in what is 622 AD in the Western Calendar (on Thursday July 15, to be precise,

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-25696936286512222992008-06-02T08:33:00.000-07:002008-06-02T08:44:22.157-07:00

Just a short entry today. I have been trying to find some traditional Saudi children's clothes for my sister's kids, but to no avail. I have asked several people and I always end up being directed to stores that sell blue jeans and "the Gap" t-shirts. This leads to the inevitable conclusion that the tradition clothing of Saudi Arabia consists of blue jeans and baby Gap. That, however, is only the

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-73036554234813584502008-06-01T12:12:00.000-07:002008-06-01T13:19:04.347-07:00

One of my new bosses, and there appear to be several, all of whom are princesses -- a sign, perhaps, of future problems, assigned her assistant, Ra'id to show me around a little. The national pasttime of Saudi Arabia appears to be shopping. I visited both the old Thumairy Market by Al-Masmak fortress, which I keep mistakenly referring to as a palace, and some modern malls and shopping districts

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-11934853720651846212008-05-29T10:47:00.000-07:002008-06-01T12:12:00.362-07:00

This weekend I visited Ad-Dir'iyah, the original capital of the Saudi State which was razed by Ottoman forces commanded by Ibrahim Pasha, son of the famous Egyptian (Albanian by birth) ruler Muhammad Ali in 1818. As you can see, they are rebuilding parts of the city on the old foundations. It was here that Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab took refuge with a regional tribal ruler named Muhammad ibn

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-7139792155857029632008-05-29T09:09:00.000-07:002008-05-29T10:46:57.359-07:00

In the year 1642, a lot of things happened. King Charles I of England attempted to arrest members of parliment precipitating the English Civil War. Later that year, the war itself began as Parliment and the King ravaged the country side. Ultimately the King was beheaded in 1649 and Oliver Cromwell created his Protestant Commonwealth and all its horrors. Also that year, Rembrandt van Rijn painted

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-40937846038479043622008-05-28T23:08:00.001-07:002008-05-29T10:46:08.888-07:00

Today I ordered breakfast in bed. Yes, go ahead. Hate me. However, to "improve my Arabic" I turned on the TV, which has nearly 100 channels mostly in Arabic and English, but also in Urdu, French, Spanish, German, Japanese, and a few others. As I was flipping for something good, I suddenly saw Bryce Canyon and lo and behold a documentary was on the national parks of Utah in Arabic! More proof

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-55504460686293813462008-05-28T08:02:00.000-07:002008-05-28T22:19:18.752-07:00

Though the Arabian Peninsula has a long and storied history, first being mentioned in the Babylonian chronicles which complained of the bands of camel and horse riding warrior "Arabs" allied with their enemies, Riyadh is quite young and one of the oldest buildings dates only to 1856 or so. It is a fortress: Al-Masmak (picture at right). It is a giant, mudbrink structure built by the former rulers

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-84773555340846012812008-05-28T06:38:00.000-07:002008-05-28T22:13:54.515-07:00

Ahlan wa Sahlan, I just came from meeting with Princess Haifa and my new boss at the King Faisal Foundation in Riyadh, Mashail bint Turki bin Faisal. She is the granddaughter of the King whose life I will be researching. It is not that his life is unknown, it is rather that there is not complete record of his life and career in one place and what better place for the premiere archive of the life

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-15271065043449060172008-05-19T07:52:00.000-07:002008-05-19T08:02:27.548-07:00

A more personal than philosophic entry today. I am leaving for Saudi Arabia on Sunday the 25th, 2008, to start my new job. Though I will periodically visit Saudia (as it is called colloquially in Arabic), I will not be working there primarily. My job will take me to many different countries including, but not limited to, America, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Egypt, Morocco, Russia,

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-61594347654320776522008-04-29T15:08:00.000-07:002008-04-29T15:28:14.404-07:00

The Last of my Recycled Essays:Perhaps no other American is as controversial as Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the Mormon Church and a self-proclaimed prophet. Such claims as he made, to have been visited by God, the Father, and Jesus Christ; to have been called to be a prophet to preach the Gospel to a world in apostasy are at least shocking and incredible and at most outrageous. Joseph Smith

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-67638886623178656502008-04-23T07:08:00.000-07:002008-04-23T07:18:55.974-07:00

The GospelThe fourth Article of Faith of the Mormon Church says: We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. This represents the basic foundation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as taught by

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-85030751778267045272008-04-22T13:42:00.000-07:002008-04-23T07:19:39.755-07:00

I wrote this in college:Sometimes during my studies in college and graduate school I felt as though I were some sort of mythological beast like the fabled Yeti or -- to take something from part of the country -- a Jackalope. I am a faithful, believing, run of the mill Mormon. I am also a student at a major university studying history. In a sea of doubt, pessimism, and agnosticism my colleagues

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-53336552263141037462008-04-22T13:26:00.000-07:002008-04-23T07:20:17.676-07:00

I recently found a few old essays I wrote on the Gospel that I thought I should share. Not that I think my thoughts are all that valuable, but they might be of interest to someone other than myself:The TempleThe ancient Israelites called their temple, the House, the Sanctuary, or the Edifice (Bayith, Miqdash, and Heykal, respectively). When and how the word temple was chosen to

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-55736272802532311762008-04-10T11:45:00.000-07:002008-04-14T10:18:13.329-07:00

Mormons are often the subject of conspiracy theories. Usually, however, those theories are confined to the United States and maybe to a lesser extant the UK, Canada and perhaps Mexico. Other places simply do not know enough of Mormons to extrapolate detailed conspiracy theories about them. Typically, in my own experience, we are confused with the Amish or the Jehovah's Witnesses or some such

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-7672052285744280782008-04-08T15:10:00.000-07:002008-04-14T13:35:21.759-07:00

While speaking to a mouse whose house his plow had just overturned late in the autumn of 1785, Scottish poet Robert Burns wrote his most famous misquotation:The best-laid schemes o'Mice an' Men Gang aft agleyAn' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain, For promis'd joy.Some thing in his brogue makes it difficult for folks to remember this quote accurately, though strangely no one ever struggles with

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-25279593230162315142008-04-08T14:39:00.000-07:002008-04-08T15:02:27.706-07:00

The following story is true; though I have tried to eliminate some details and facts to protect individuals.Needing to return early for some additional work, I arrived at my apartment a full week before school would start. I expected to have the apartment to myself for a full week during which I could sate myself on Law and Order reruns, History channel documentaries, and the Romantic Comedies I

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-27043948785923380232008-03-26T05:48:00.000-07:002008-03-27T05:55:12.638-07:00

For one who is by nature a sullen and solitary soul, who frets and fusses about every social engagement however so trivial, I have strangely been preoccupied with the concept of community in the past few months. Difficult thought I find socializing and human interaction (see my prior essay, "On Human Insufferability"), I have come to believe it is essential to health, happiness, and even to

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-46286820082715294662008-02-29T13:40:00.000-08:002008-03-19T09:55:57.898-07:00

Words, a central theme in my life, are sadly insufficient. Like paint on a canvas, they cannot ever fully capture the world they seek to represent. They are symbols that point our mind on to the Truth that stands behind them. Because of this, words are messy and sloppy. Meanings spill over from one word to another tainting this idea or that thing. They are loaded with emotions that obscure

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-5173020273595692992008-02-29T08:30:00.000-08:002008-02-29T11:31:46.982-08:00

Some time ago I was reading "Twice Told Tales," by Nathaniel Hawthorne, which ranks as one of the greatest works of fiction in American history. I feel a kinship with Hawthorne, who, like me, often felt as though he were merely an observer of human society and never a participant. He recognized, however, that participation in human affairs is a necessary defense against losing one's tenable

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-89456805849721795402008-02-28T12:22:00.000-08:002008-03-26T07:21:46.105-07:00

من حين الي اخر سوف اكتب بالعربية التي درست وانا طالب في الجامعة. إنها في رايَ من اجمل اللغات في العالم. وسوف احاول ان اكتب علي شكل صحيح وإني ليست بفصيح الآن بما انا ما زلت ان ادرسها. تتناول كتاباتي العربية و مقاماتي تتناولاَ عميقاَ نفس المواضع التياخوض فيها بالإنكليزية إلا وسوف اتجهها إتجاهاَ اكثر مناسبة لكتّاب العرب والمسلمينواذاَ سوف اتناول الدين والتريخ و النحو والاخبار العاجلة والفلسفة

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985986875034537128.post-45985185521166446252008-02-28T11:33:00.001-08:002008-04-11T12:18:23.655-07:00

The purpose of these missals will be entirely personal and whether I have an audience or not is frankly unimportant. Words are the central and consuming pursuit of my life. The Word, the Logos, in all its shades of meaning semantic, christological, philosophical, and so on. These are the private musings of one who finds it easier to write than to speak. Words come bubbling up inside of me and

Jonathan Barneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06263710616498355867noreply@blogger.com0