GKC

So I'm rereading Orthodoxy by GK Chesterton. I had forgotten how much I love this book. Not because I think it is dogma or that every line is even true, especially now post-Holocaust. There were two world wars between GKC and myself, but I love him none the less. One thing is his caustic wit. The man's mind had to move faster than the lizards I see darting around building walls here in Bangkok. The thing I love the most about it is that it makes me remember that vital, virile feeling of holding a belief and a set of values that is alive and growing and advancing. It is a reminder of the revolutionary vision of Christianity, that "there never was anything so perilous or so exciting as orthodoxy." Now, old Gilbert was Catholic, and I am not, but there's no room to split hairs here.
This book reminds me of something I have always felt and that most of modern Christendom is in denial of, especially much of the good city of Waco. And that is that love is the most brazen and ferocious of forces. We have this proclivity to box up love with niceness. Do you think Jesus was nice? Do you think that most people even liked Jesus? Or any of the early church fathers? They were hated by many, and that was because they were brimming and oversaturated with love. We live in the nicest culture ever. Everyone except for the occasional jerk is "nice." Nice is like this good will feeling with the permanence of cotton candy after you put it in your mouth. Nice is the often the bastard son of cowardice. Nice means not calling someone out, not stepping on toes. Nice means mincing words and failing to save someone's life because that someone might be a little pissed off at you for a while.
Now don't get me wrong. I'm the worst at this. I am terrified of confrontation. But it is the one thing so much more than anything else that I am trying desperately to change. Nice can be good. Nice can be great. But nice can be despicable if it is a veneer for fear. I know this all to well being over here where it is not normal to be the way I am. At school, I never had to justify myself to anyone. Over here, a random act of love is foreign. I feel like the possessor of antediluvian values, even while walking among the masses who have inherited a belief older than Christianity. I cannot afford to be nice over here, because I will asphyxiate myself. It's either be myself through and true, which may require a little shedding of deep crimson, or it's painting the streets with my own yellow blood by backing down.
Well, that was a little heavier than I intended when I started out. Most of it was a verdict passed on myself. Other than that, I really like Patty Griffin.
I'm also writing a play for my second grade class using Harry Potter as the prince in Snow White. Don't ask. On that note, I'm out like a fat kid in dodge ball. Excuse me, that's not pc, like a big boned kid in dodge ball.

Jordan