"The only freedom that you'll ever really know is written in books from long ago."

If I haven't publicly professed my love of Belle & Sebastian, allow me to do so now. Songs like "If You Find Yourself Caught in Love" (quoted), "Fox in the Snow," and "Judy and the Dream of Horses" are just genius.

I listened to B&S today for a while. I decided to spend a bit of time outside. I ate my lunch from Subway outside in front of the dome, then I wandered down to the lake. I was again struck by how vibrant the grass and flowers are here. When I got to the lake, "Judy and the Dream of Horses" had just come on. I stood there finishing the song - which has an amazing ending - while just gazing across the lake (and I think was standing next to some ducks). I got all nostalgic and realized how much I'm going to miss this place. Sure, there are problems with loneliness and dorm life. But overall, this has been an amazing experience of "finding myself" proportions.

I then walked back to the library and proceeded to read for a few solid hours. It's a very interesting experience rotating between French, Cyprian, a book about plagues in Late Antiquity, Not the Way It's Supposed to Be (a book about the doctrine of sin), and Noam Chomsky. I love reading ancient history while reading modern history and religion. It gives me so much perspective. I had the most bizarre experience of Plantinga (C, not A) writing that militaries never call something an attack, only a defense, then reading Chomsky saying something very similar moments later.

After that, I headed to Starbucks and drank my frapp in the south quad. Beautiful.

Then I went back to the library for The Fog of War. [Destroyer aside: "Tread lightly through the fog," said the apothecary's daughter...] It was very good, and proved to be a valuable experience in the midst of reading Chomsky and other political things. It definitely contributed some valuable perspective regarding Vietnam, the Cold War, etc.

On a related note, I highly recommend checking out an episode of NPR's This I Believe, entitled Human Existence is in Peril.

Also, Matt posted a few interesting links regarding documentaries that I thought I'd share:
• Documentary Resource 2004. (This one has a section on The Fog of War.)
• The Shocking Truth About Documentaries. (About TV documentaries. Not fantastic, but informative.)
• The Gap: Documentary Truth Between Reality and Perception. (Speaks for itself.)

I haven't read them all the way through, so I don't know if I endorse them, but food for thought.

Peace,
Sam